‘Spider-Man’ director Destin Daniel Cretton

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This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley. At the end of the last Spider-Man movie, No Way Home, back in 2021, Peter Parker makes a choice. To save the people he loves, he had everyone on Earth forget he ever existed. My guest today, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretan picks up the story years later in the latest Spider-Man brand new day. Peter played by Tom Holland is still Spider-Man, but years after everyone he loves

his forgotten about him. And he's living alone. When strange things began happening to his powers, there's no one in his life who knows him well enough to even know something is wrong. I am totally out of control. I got to fix whatever this is right now. That's Tom Holland as Peter Parker and Spider-Man brand new day, and it opened with a biggest debut in box office history. Director Destin Daniel Cretan came to Marvel from a very different kind of

filmmaking. His first job out of college was at a group home for at-risk teenagers. He turned that experience into the 2013 film "Short Term 12," which featured young actors, Brie Larsen, Romney Mallick, and Le Kieth Sandfield. Cretan went on to direct the glass castle and just mercy about attorney Brian Stevenson's work defending men on death row. His Marvel debut was Sean Chi and the legend of the 10 Rings, the studio's first film with an Asian lead and an Asian

director. He also created the Marvel series Wonder Man. Destin Daniel Cretan welcome to fresh air.

Thank you. Okay, 23 million people went to see this movie the first weekend. And a movie like this

I mean it has enormous expectations. There of course the studio expectations because this is a franchise. It's a brand and in many ways these stories have to carry each other from film to film.

“But there's something in particular that you have to bring to the film as well. Your sensibilities”

as a director knowing that you're stepping into an established story. Was there a moment or any time during the beginning of the process where you said this is the film and this is my stamp, my place in it? There were, there were a few moments in the development process where I felt like I now understand the heart of this story. One was in the writing process. We were trying to really understand what the internal story was of Peter Parker and I was reflecting a lot

on my 20s when I left university and when I didn't really have a real direction in life when a lot of my friends are going off to other things and it felt like a lot of people were moving on without me. It was easy at that time to feel completely alone. That was around the time

“that I was working at that group home for at routine ages. When I think about that particular”

time in my life, I just felt like that was Peter. That was the stage where you're looking back at the things and the places that you've been and you don't know how to define them to move forward. To be able to look at Peter and watch him redefine kind of the pain and the things that he's been through and actually use them as part of the things that make him strong was a very therapeutic experience. I actually want to play a clip. It's seen where Peter Parker, as we said,

he's been erased from the memory of everyone who loved him and he crashes a house party thrown by MJ. The girl he loved who was played by Zindaya and Ned, his best friend, played by Jacob Battlean.

Neither of them knows who he is. It's the first time we kind of see them all together and

it's a real trippy experience because of course he knows and we know the whole backstory but they don't know who he is and Peter is at that moment unbelievably lonely and he loves these two people so much you know he's been following their lives on social media and he's at this party and he sees MJ and she speaks first. Let's listen. Oh there's like 50 people on our apartment.

Nice flowers. Oh they're a housewarming gift. Really? Yeah. Oh okay. Most people just brought

“beer and chips. It's very nice. I'm MJ. I'm a manard. A manard. Oh. Do you two don't know?”

I'm a neighbor. Friendly neighbor. That cough that's a scene from Spider-Man brand new day directed by my guest today, destined to annual credit and of course the friendly neighbor is a play off of the whole Spider-Man franchise but this is kind of what you're talking about about that those growing pains of getting to the next stage of life because of course this is the device where they don't know him and that's a big

part of the storyline but it's also something that is very ordinary too where you grow out of your

friends at a certain age in life. Maybe the people that you have kind of been on the journey with you're now kind of you know separating. There's a certain grief that lives in that. And it also just feels so to me so relatable at that stage in life. I remember being in those parties. I remember feeling being surrounded by people who all seem like they have it together and seem like they are having the time of their lives and I remember certain times feeling very alone in the middle of it

but it was it was really it was actually really fun to explore that and I mean Tom playing

awkward there's just nothing better than watching Tom play an awkward scene. Yeah why how yeah

“he's just his comedic timing with his awkwardness. I think it's one of the most brilliant”

things about him it's so relatable it's not just comedy it's just like a feeling in situation that I just feel like I've been at. I'm going to ask a few specific questions about the film so people who don't want spoilers I'm going to pause maybe skip the next few minutes of this conversation. This movie also introduces Jean Gray into Peter Parker's world and for people who don't know her, Jean is a mutant who can enter people's minds she can hear their thoughts live inside their

memories and she is one of the X-Men and you know so everyone is talking about this is like okay this is setting this up for me for the next movie here but I've read that it was actually the other way around it wasn't the studio who was pushing you for this. This was something you actually wanted for yourself. You wanted her to be a part of this storyline. Talk to me about why she was important to introduce to kind of reinforce all of these themes that you were so interested and

exploring. When we were writing this movie we wanted an antagonist that would be a real reflection of Peter Parker and where he is and his emotional journey and we went through a lot of potential villains and I cannot think of a better reflection than where we landed. I was really interested in having our antagonist be somebody who is younger than Peter who really represents in many ways what young people are going through right now what young people are feeling in what ways.

Well this is a character who can literally jump into other people's minds and experience the lives of other people but she's also a person who is completely alone in the city and nobody really

“knows the real her you know and that I think that feeling to me just felt like a young person's”

experience and initially we didn't know who that would be. We were talking about fictional just creating a fictional character but then we started brainstorming like who could that be? So we started talking to Kevin like who on the roster can we pull from and Jean Gray was like you know it became the top of the list and but it did you know Kevin's not necessarily ever pushing things on us. Once we know what we want we have to go to him and ask like is

I gonna work can we use this character in our movie? I mean the same with Hulk too we didn't it made sense to our movie to have the Hulk it wasn't a mandate to put him in we had to we had to request and Kevin let us do it. Request and then sell it sell the idea. Are there folks that you had thought about that just like know that wouldn't work initially? I mean if you see our

the challenge is to just kind of let the story evolve and then what character should be in the

story usually make their way into the story as opposed to starting with a mandate and working backwards. Let's talk about this time that you were working in this group home there's a story that you tell about how cocky you felt as a young man when you got this job you thought like these kids are gonna love me I'm going to be in some ways a savior and you got a rude awakening. I sure did. What happened instead? It was a job that really threw a lot of things back into my face it was

by far the the most difficult experience that I had up until that point and also the most rewarding.

“I grew up on Maui I think I didn't realize how sheltered I was until I was working at that group home”

I just was not exposed to the the type of experiences that these young people had had gone through I also wasn't ready for the people that they had become because of their experiences these young teenagers were in many ways much more mature than I was but then they were also very you know they

had very real real pain from their past just right under the surface that they were always dealing with

so it was very quickly a very humbling experience for me. I want to actually play a clip from the film and it was your second film and a short term 12 is a name of the facility in the film and the kids stay there until they find somewhere else to live or until they turn 18 and age out and in this clip the scene is Rami Malik he plays Nate a new staffer on his first day is he a proxy for you yeah she is he definitely is okay yeah and he is talking with breed larcen's

character Grace who has been working there for a while and shows him the ropes let's listen

“these are the files on our kids if you want to see what kind of crap they've been there”

how long do they stay here it's probably less than a year but we have a few that have been here a little over three we just keep them until the county here's out where they're going to be the next Tom go brush your teeth remember you're not their parent you're not their therapist you are here to create a safe environment that's it got it it's not your name they're going to try and test you so they can get away with so just say no for a while no okay kind of got to be an

afraid me they're friends you're going to be fine that was Rami Malik in Brie Larson in the film short term 12 directed by my guest today destined annual curtain when you took

“that job what were your aspirations yeah I graduated with a communication degree and I was”

making short films I would do a short film once a year and I would just save my money so I worked at a group home for two or three years I taught high school video production I worked at a hotel putting up their media their projectors and things I had a lot of odd jobs to pay the bills a shot wedding videos but it was all really a way to just pay the bills while I made movies as a hobby okay because you were very clear at that time that you wanted to make movies

I was very clear that I wanted to keep making movies as a hobby I wasn't really chasing it as a career I feel very surprised and lucky to be where I am I tried moving up to L.A. early on but I found it to be a little too overwhelming and so when I moved back to San Diego where I went to school it was also an admission to myself that I was not going to make it in the industry I was going to go back and just try to find a way to do what I loved and continue to do it without getting

paid for it so I didn't see that as a failure I saw it as a way to survive psychologically as an

artist hmm I want to switch gears to talk about another film of yours first off I just want to say thank

think it's surprising for me that they still reference that sometimes and for people who don't know

“it it's based on Brian Stevenson's memoir about his work defending men on death row in Alabama”

I want to actually play a clip from the film and this scene features Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillan and Walter is a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama and Michael B. Jordan plays Brian Stevenson and at the time he's a young lawyer just out of

Harvard who has taken on this case and the two are meeting for the first time in the visiting area

of the prison and Walter basically tells Brian Stevenson I don't really trust that you can help me and get me off death row let's listen. Rich boy from Harvard you don't know what it is down here when you get from the moment you're born and you can buddy up with these white folks and make them laugh and try to make them like you whatever that is and you say yes well no man but when it's your turn and you got to have no fingerprints no evidence and all the witness it got made

to a whole thing up and none of that matter when all your think is is I look like a man

“who could kill somebody that's not what I think”

you know how many people don't free from Alabama death row none well make you think you're going to change that they're you doing the thought we'd do it we'd do it mister McMillan we'd do it Mr McMillan please

I'm here to help that was Jamie Foxx's Walter McMillan and Michael B. Jordan who played Brian Stevenson what is it about filmmaking that's your language that is your way to express because you're touching on something with these people especially Brian Stevenson who just recently he had this he was talking about how this moment that we're in is a moment where we are

taking the record it's narrative change it's through storytelling that we're able to make change in this generation in this moment and I'm just wondering for you what what is it particularly about filmmaking that is your language I grew up on Maui and small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and I found connection to the outside world in movie theaters as a kid I would watch many movies with

my dad with their family and that that is how I traveled that is how I was exposed to other

“cultures that's how I understand how kids grew up in high school on the mainland and one of my”

biggest takeaways was not how different we are but how similar we are emotionally the things the things that you know when I watch D.T. and the things that I see this young man going through

and his family and his school were things that I went through and I have always found

movies to be a way of peering into other other lives that I would never otherwise experience to peering to other worlds and find those things that still connect us and I feel lucky that I went from being a spectator to them just kind of getting obsessed with doing this as a young kid and I think over time I have just become I don't become very addicted to the process of exploring a subject of jumping into it and understanding it and finding a way to write it

in a narrative through the eyes of a character that I identify with and watching that character struggle with something that I have struggled with and allowing that character to get through that

struggle on some level and come out the other side that whole process for me has always been

very personally fulfilling and life-changing every time and that's true for these dramas that

If you're just joining us my guest today is movie director Destin Daniel Kretten.

“We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tanya Mosley and this is fresh air.”

Friends, friends, Tater tots, Colombian ahyako, potatoes are beloved everywhere and yet

they're always kind of denigrated. There's a long history of racializing potatoes.

Have a potato became an insult around the world. Listen to NPR's code switch podcasts in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week on sources and methods is Iran trying to hack U.S. water systems. What is it that you can do to potentially quote unquote scare the American people? Well water is one of those things that's in the necessity of light. We unpack the week's biggest national security news on sources and methods. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts.

“Attention, a PSA from Surewave and PR Science Podcast. You need to be paying more attention to your”

poop. I really do think that this deep stigma we have about talking about pooping is tied to these early onset chloractyl cancer cases. What to watch out for and how to decode the secret messages hidden in your poop on Surewave? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is fresh air. I'm Tanya Mosley and my guest today is filmmaker Destin Daniel Kretten, director of the new movie Spider-Man brand new day, which just had one of the biggest opening

weekends in box office history. He also directed Just Mercy and Shanchi and the legend of the Ten Rings and created the Marvel series Wonder Man. His breakout film was short-term 12 about the staff and the teenagers inside a short-term group home drawn from the two years he spent working in one after college. Do you find that their themes you keep coming back to, that their these films are all different, but that there might be a thematic through line of something that

Destin is kind of always trying to work through and come out on the other side. Yeah, not consciously,

but it is weird how when when I step back and analyze everything that I've worked on, in many ways I feel like I'm exploring the idea of family and in different ways,

“and that idea of family, I think, extends to whether you have a regular family with a”

mom and dad and kids or whether in short-term 12, there is a family that is created out of circumstance. I think in even in Spider-Man brand new day, the idea of family and community is really at the core of this movie and I'm always interested in what happens to a person when they are outside of that family and community and the importance of that connection with with people who truly know

who you are that you can fully be yourself around. To me that that has just always remained the most

powerful aspect of my life as staying connected to the people who really know me. Do you think that I think that probably there's something all lots of people can relate to, but is there something specific about being an island boy and then stepping off the island and you being kind of separated from your family and experience this big life outside of them that is your story, your origin story. Yeah, when I first left the islands and went to college in San Diego, it was really hard. It was

really hard. The first year I was, you know, took everything in me not to just leave and get on a plane and go back home. I didn't realize a lot of things when I got to California. I didn't realize I had an accent. I didn't realize at that time because everybody was like, "What? What?" So, even the way that I'm talking now is sort of like, I kind of learned by default to change the way that I speak just so people could understand what I was saying. But there were a lot of

things that I was naive to growing up in the islands. I didn't really ever feel like an outsider due to my ethnicity ever. I felt like I had feelings of being an outsider just because I was a bit of a nerd and I was homeschooled at some, for three years of high school, for other reasons, but

first time I was like at a bar and some dude just thought it was funny to call me Bruce Lee. And I was like, "Oh, that's a, that's the first for me." You know, and I, um, so, and I, I also, not only growing up in the islands, I have five siblings and we're all very close and family has

always been very important. But for me, that time away from family really helped solidify how important

my brothers and sisters are to me and they have always been my biggest strength in life. Hmm. You mentioned how you go see movies with your dad and your mom was, you called her,

“you know, a little hippie mom. I think you referenced that she was sort of a hippie mom, but she also”

was a mom who was very particular about the media and other things like that that you consumed. How, how did that work in your household? My, my mom was very kind of anti-TV, um, she would allow us to watch certain things and like we could watch TGIF on Friday night or but most of the time.

What's TGIF, you're talking about the home video? No, it's like that run on Friday nights and family

matters. Oh, okay, yeah. Like a bunch of different family themes. It comes. Yeah. Watch like foreign or something. Yeah. Um, but it, it was, it was actually looking back really wonderful. She, we lived in Hiku, a small town right next to a pineapple field and lots of open spaces. We grew up in the same property that my mom grew up on and she would just force us out of the house. And because of that, we had to find our own ways of of playing, make believe or making a

place or making up dancer teens or fight choreography and then we'd perform it for my mom and we used to do that when I was really young and then around 11 or 12, my, my grandma loaned me her VHS camera and I got that's when I got addicted to making movies. Um, and so my mom wouldn't let us watch TV, but she allowed us to make as much stuff as we wanted. So that's when I started

“making movies with my siblings. And honestly, the process has not changed. We would spend all”

day making making a short film or a commercial or whatever. And then I put it together and then we'd have a little premiere, but the premiere was just like my mom or my mom and dad. But that feeling remains the same. I'm still like kind of buzzing and have those butterflies in my stomach before I'd show it and then my mom collapsed and it's like that's the full process. And that's still the same creative process that I go through. Your grandma sounds like a pretty special person.

I saw you post a series of photographs with her holding that big VHS camera from back in the day. Grandma, there's love. I mean, it's such a special thing. It also sometimes they can

“see things in you because it's so pure that they can see things in you that that others can't see.”

And did your grandmother ever tell you things about yourself? My grandma was incredibly supportive of all of us. She was a nurse her whole life and her husband was my grandpa was a cement mason. And even though in one breath, they would say things like get a secure job, make sure you're like just try to just get a county job. It was the whole get a county job because it's, you know,

you'll get good health insurance and you have job security. But my grandma also had always wanted

to be a fashion designer and she would make my mom's dresses when she was, when my mom was going to go to junior prom, like my grandma would sew her dresses. She would also do these beautiful dresses for all of my mom's dolls. So when, when when she took me and my siblings on kind of our first big trip off island, I was in the fourth grade and we went to California and we flew into, it was, it was my grandma and my grandpa and then at that time, my youngest sister didn't come

so it's five kids and I don't know how they juggled all of us. They would get those adjoining rooms. They, and we'd all sleep together and, and in the morning, they would, they would force us to go to the bathroom so that we don't pee her pants when we're out. And then we would just get on a bus

was able to see the, the behind the scenes on how movies were made. I, I saw Jaws, E.T. I saw that

“stunt show for, for, for water world, the one-year-old stunt show. Yes, yep. And, and the whole time”

that that I was experiencing that, she, she had that VHS camera that she allowed me to use for the

first time was on this trip. And so I, I became the person who was documenting the trip and my

grandma kind of encouraged me to do that. That, that trip really defined me after universal studios. We went to, you took us to Disneyland and the same thing. It was my first time kind of seeing, oh my gosh, there are thousands of people who make this stuff that I love, who, and, and then when I got home, it was just, all of that inspiration came back with me to Maui. And that's when we started making movies nonstop. If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker, Destin Daniel

Cretten. And he directed the new movie Spider-Man brand new day, which is in theaters now. We'll

continue our conversation after a short break. This is fresh air. How will a historically unpopular

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This is fresh air, and today I am talking with filmmaker Dustin Daniel Kretten, director of the new movie, Spider-Man, brand new day. He also directed Just Mercy and Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings and created the Marvel series Wonder Man. His breakout film was short term 12 about the staff and the teenagers inside a short term group home. Drawing from the two years he spent working in one after college. He grew up on the island of Maui,

one of six kids, home schooled by his mother, who didn't allow comics in the house. She didn't allow comics in the house. Nope. The lore is you have one little beat up Spider-Man comic. Yeah, that was more from my grandpa had some comics. And of course, my friends right around the time I was 10 was like, that was like the Todd McFarland days. And I remember, I remember those Spider-Man comics. And sneaking, I have a memory of sneaking one that was

potentially at my grandpa's house or it was from one of my friends. But it was like those spawn and Spider-Man were kind of the big thing when I was like 10 or 11 years old. Do you know why

“your mom didn't want you to read those or you end your siblings? I think there's, I mean,”

I think she was, she was any time she would see something that was violent. She wasn't into it. So fighting wasn't cool. Sexiness probably was she wasn't into that when I was a kid. So, and it goes hand in hand with her being pretty protective of the things that we would consume in any type of media, TV movies. But, you know, as you when you're a kid, you find ways to sneak.

Your Marvel debut happened in 2021 directing Shanchi, the first Asian superhero. And

this was, you've said this was the first time in your professional career that you walked into

for you at that particular moment in your career.

“Yeah, I was one of those things I didn't really know I was missing until it happened. And when I”

stepped on to set once, you know, once all of our stunt performers were there and all of our actors were on set and it was kind of that first day on set. It was around as cool and it was just like this, there was something about set that just felt homey that felt so comfortable to be able to have conversations with people that fully understand what my grandma is like and what growing up in an Asian culture is like. So, I didn't know that that aspect of myself

could be a part of my filmmaking. You know, I always sort of compartmentalized my upbringing

and my culture and growing up in Hawaii as sort of a separate thing than my experience as a

“filmmaker until I was on set for Shanchi, it was very special. Maui has been through so much,”

especially over the last few years with the fires and everything and there is a film program, though, helping filmmakers tell us about this. When I was growing up on Maui and I had this passion for filmmaking, I didn't know anybody who did it. I didn't have very many resources on how to develop the skills to do this thing that I loved and so it was always a dream to create a safe space for young people to explore this world of filmmaking and to take young people through

the process that I've grown to love so much. In honor of my grandma, we created the Hisako film lab, which is a nonprofit on Maui that is specifically for young filmmakers growing up on the islands. And throughout that process, the students are exposed to professionals who are all my friends who want to give back in some ways. So we, at the pitch process, they're pitching to professional screenwriters, screenwriters help them learn the process of writing a screenplay. We have professional

editors talk to them at that point and then professionals are helping judge their movies in the end and it really is one of the joys of my life to watch these kids start in a place that often,

when they come in, they've never done anything like this before. Many of them don't have a real

community or a friend group that they connect with and many of them have never spoken in public and front of people and maybe never wanted to. I never dreamed that they would. But over the course of this process, by the end of it, I've seen so many of these young people grow as people grow in their confidence and hold the microphone on stage in front of a community at the end after their, their movie is played and answer questions to everybody and you just, you just feel the

pride. Oh, I know. I can imagine. It's wonderful. If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretan and he directed the new movie Spider-Man brand new day, which isn't theaters now. We'll continue our conversation after short break. This is fresh air. The midterms are coming and if you think the new cycle feels intense now, just wait until the fall. That's why summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated.

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“inside somebody's chest cavity and you have to kill him to get them out? Are we doomed?”

Solving humanity's biggest threats. Part of the NPR network. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is fresh air. And today I am talking with filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretan, director of the new movie Spider-Man brand new day. He also directed just mercy and Shang-Chi and the legend of the 10 Rings and created the Marvel series Wonder Man. His breakout film was short-term 12 about the staff and the teenagers inside a short-term group home.

You know, in addition to this theme of family and your films, there's also something about

“young people who feel alone and have had to deal with the loss of loved ones.”

And that theme is in short-term 12 and Spider-Man, Peter and the young villain in the movie. Also in Shang-Chi, he went through the same loss and violence. That also seems like that's a pretty strong through line. Yes, I agree. There were times in this Spider-Man that my director photography Brett Pollock who also shot short-term 12. There were times where we were in the middle of shooting a scene and we looked at each other and just felt like we

could be on the set of short-term 12. And that to me is really the amazing part of

doing a movie like this that can get so big on many levels. But really it's, it's the scenes, it's the scenes between two characters sitting on a bed, sharing, sharing in their pain and in their grief. It's, it's those scenes that to me are the most powerful and I felt, you know, I felt very lucky that this particular story was able to hold

“both of those things. Is there a reason that you you keep coming back to making films about that?”

I mean, maybe maybe this is true for many artists. The experience, I think, of my, my childhood was made up of so much joy and also quite a lot of pain and hardship. The experience that I had having a very complicated relationship with my, with my dad who passed away a few years ago was, was an experience that many times left me feeling very isolated and alone. But really the thing that carried me through was my relationship with my siblings.

And they have always been there when I was my darkest moments in life.

And so I don't know somehow that's probably just ingrained in me somewhere and it just, and it comes out subconsciously when I'm writing or it is a story that I personally don't feel, well, I will ever get old examining in different ways. But yeah.

“Can you share more about what you mean about the complicated relationship with your dad?”

I hear you talk about your mom a lot, but not so much your dad. I think in many ways, most of my movies have something to do with my dad. My dad was a very passionate man. I don't like to diagnose people, but I think we all suspect that he was undiagnosed by polar on some level. He was very passionate, very wonderful to be around very loving and moments and could also be very dark and very angry and it just depends which

dad you were going to get on the day. I grew up along with my siblings, learning to navigate those emotions, those real intense peaks and valleys. And when my dad would come home, I learned to become very sensitive to what state he was in. I have found over the course of my career that I have so much to thank for my experience with my dad. I am aid so grateful that he really was the person who instilled in me, my love of movies. I mean,

while my mom wouldn't really let us watch TV late at night, my dad, who was a big action fan. And he loved Clint Eastwood. He loved Schwarzenegger. He loved Stallone. I would hear the sounds of

movie or whatever. And I would sneak downstairs and pretend I was going to the bathroom and then

“I'd go and hide behind the couch and watch him, you know, as he's watching the running man or”

total recall or I have some of my fondest memories with him. I'd go and we watched the fugitive

together in a theater and that was my first like PG-13 movie and it was so exhilarating when we

when we came out of the theater. I mean, this was so my dad. We came out of the theater. My dad just raised both fists in the air and screamed the fugitive. But that's the type of passion he had, you know. And so I have those memories. But then I also have a dad who was often depressed. I didn't understand. It was depression at the time, but who'd often come home and just want to sleep or

“not talk or and then there was also the the angry side who could be very intense and very scary”

so aside from my love of movies, my experience with my dad did other things for me. It really allowed me to not be afraid of any person no matter how intense they are no matter how

quote unquote powerful they believed themselves to be. I feel like nobody compares to the experience

that I had with my dad. But it also allowed me to subconsciously create the skill of feeling other people's emotions which I find I use all the time as a director. The moment an actor steps on set, I feel like I just know what state they're in and I know what they need. You know, I've learned how to bring down a very intense situation. I do feel like he was a very wonderful and troubled man, but I am so grateful to have had him as my dad. Dustin, thank you so much for this conversation.

It's been great to meet you and in great to talk about all of this. Thank you for having me such a lovely conversation. Dustin Daniel Kretten, his new movie Spider-Man, brand new day is in The Itters now. Tomorrow on Fresh Share, when it comes to the production of drones, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells, China is ahead of the U.S. China may also be benefiting from the war in Iran and President Trump's tariffs. Is America's global dominance over? We talk with

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