Reach for Greatness with Steven Spielberg

Well, well, we were going there.

We were going there. We're going there. We're going there. We're going there. We're going to do that right now.

“And I don't have my security bag at which is my wallet.”

You're right. My wallet is camera. This episode is brought to you by Chase Home Lending. Well, hello. Hi, there's a buzz in the room.

I know. It's a full house here. It's a thrum. Yeah, it is a full house. It's a full house.

It's a full house. The house is a full house. Everybody is like, I'm sitting in this one. I wonder why. Oh, man.

Really truly special guests. We have today Steven Spielberg. The one and only Steven Spielberg. And we're going to talk about his films and his movies.

“But the truth is, is that I've had the pleasure to get to know him as Steven, my friend.”

You know, I know his work, but I have fallen in love with him and his family. Because of the man that he is, the person that he is. And, you know, he is really only doing this because he loves me dearly. I know that. He does not like talking about anything but his work.

He's told me that this is only his third podcast that he's ever done.

Yeah. And I'm just thrilled to have him on because I love him. He is one of the best human beings that I know and you've gotten to know him through you. And I can't, I have a couple of things to share with him when he comes out. So I'm really excited that he's here too.

And when we were talking a little bit before, we came on. I was really touched that he was excited to be here and that he doesn't do this. And he seemed like he was enjoyed, at least enjoyed the, the pre-part of himself. Well, let's introduce him and get him out here. I will.

And I almost, I almost feel, I, I, I shouldn't be the one introducing him. He's so revered and such a such an icon. But you must introduce him. So please read the introduction. Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful and influential filmmakers in history.

He has directed major feature films since the mid 1970s. And is considered the father of the modern blockbuster. Spielberg, which I realized from reading the research when he was younger. He did, people called him Spielberg and he, he did want to be called by his last name. You know, so I, I feel honored that I can call him Steven is one of the few to achieve.

He got status. Just got that. Just got it. Having won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards across film television, music, and theater. In 2015, President Barack Obama, who we know, presented him with a nation's highest civilian honor,

the presidential medal of freedom. And in 2024, President Joe Biden awarded him with the prestigious National Medal of the Arts. So without further ado, please welcome Steven Spielberg. Hi, Steven Spielberg. Hi, Steven Spielberg.

Hi, Steven Spielberg. Thanks for being here. We'll rather touch my pleasure. We want you to feel at home because you're at home. I, you said you're not used to seeing me without, you know, palm trees.

Palm trees are like cattle clothes. Exactly, exactly. You know, in a swim cover up for something. Because it's interesting because I don't think I've ever,

“this is only my third, I believe, only my third podcast.”

And this is my first podcast with a dear friend.

I've never done one with a dear friend before.

Well, well, we, we, we have fun here as I said. We let the conversation flow. And I want to start by giving you a compliment of how completely cute you look today. Oh, well, well, thank you. Thank you, Kate Capra, my wife.

See, this is why I bring this up because, you know, I asked you who, who dressed to you today. Well, when you allowed to, yeah, who dressed me today because I'm here with you in L.A. And Kate back in our home in New York City. And of course, she's not here. But of course, when I came home last night, the entire outfit for today was already hanging up in the closet with everything laid out.

She's, she's very clear. You direct many things.

“But your look, you, you do not, you're not allowed to touch your own look.”

No, no, no, no, no.

I produced my career but Kate produces my life.

Well, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good. Yeah. I'm feeling excited. I'm, I'm feeling nervous.

I'm feeling all those things that a person feels before they have a film come out. Yeah. Yeah. But talk about this, how nervous you still get when you've got a project coming out. The great Steven Spielberg, you still feel those jitters that you're piece out there in the world.

Yeah. One would think that I would buy this time in my life in career. I'd be standing on a sellout cement floor, but it's still pretty liquid. Yeah. It doesn't matter how many movies, you know, I've directed or produced.

Each one in a way, especially the director films, each one in a way feels like an earlier work, not something with a lot of experience to back it up. So every film is a new experience for me. And are you nervous for the reception? Are you nervous for what your friends would think?

What do you nervous about? Oh, no, I'm excited for the reception. I cannot wait to unleash this film on the world. What I'm nervous about is I now have to talk about it for the next eight weeks before he comes out. What's the talking fight?

You do like to be out in front. Well, I'll tell you why because it's really, really hard to make a movie.

“And when I finish the film, I think the film was over.”

But today, with the way information is collated and disseminated about stories films, it's almost like going back to work again and starting the movie from scratch. Even though the movie already is there, about to speak for itself. My job now is to sort of speak up for the film without giving too much of the film away. And that's the delicate tight rub.

We all have to walk, especially if you've made a movie that's all about mystery. And you don't want to give too much of that mystery up. And you've been pretty good about this movie keeping it under wraps. I will tell you that my husband is a bully to you when it comes to your movies.

You know, I always recommend him, but what did he, what did he, because you haven't let him see this one.

And he's very mad about that. Yeah, he said if he wasn't among the first to see it, he was going to watch it only in an iPhone. Which one? And he said he was only one. He shows what irritates.

And he said he wouldn't watch it horizontally, he didn't watch it vertically. Oh, that's not nice. But he got to come on set for this one. This is the first set. Barack Ever visited, even though your daughter's a filmmaker, Malia.

Yeah, right. So I feel bad. Malia. She doesn't mind. She will never invite us to anything that she does.

You know, she doesn't want us around her stuff. But he had a ball. Yeah, it was great. It was great. It was, of course, for my cast, it was a bit of a religious experience.

Because in walks, this iconic president who comes on to a sense. Like to me, he's a director. To me, he's a good friend. Of course, all of us. He's, you know, we do each other so well.

But on the set, the kids didn't know Barack except from, you know, what he's done for the world and who he represents. And they were just absolutely. And I have a very extra ready cast. Mm-hmm.

You could hear a pin drop when he walked in. Mm-hmm. They didn't know what to say. Did they know he was coming ahead of time? I didn't tell all of them.

I told some of them, but not all of them. [laughs] And I know what we're talking about, your latest project, which is Disclosure. Disclosure day. Disclosure day.

“And why don't you give us the premise of the movie, what we can expect?”

Well, the movie, you know, I've been sort of on this dance floor before. When I was much, much younger, I made a movie in 1976, which came out.

In 1977, called "Closing Countess of the Third Kind."

Oh, that one. Oh, that one. I think I remember it. [laughs] And that was a movie certainly about the first time, you know, human kind meets an advanced civilization

from off our world, from out there. So, and I haven't really visited that particular subject matter for close to 50 years. Next year, it'll be 50 years. Yeah. When "Closing Countess" was released.

Wow. But I felt starting back in, I think, 2023, when the New York Times came out with a story. It was a story influenced by a whistleblower that released some footage to the New York Times. And it was a story written by, I believe, Helene Cooper and Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie King. And it was a story about what Navy pilots had photographed on their flare systems.

Now, called a UAP, which stands for "Unidentified anomalous Phenomenon."

I kind of like, an identified flag of-- I know. I like it. You do it. Yeah.

I won't remember that. It brought it more of a serious, more of an acceptable, sort of lexicon of terms to a world that even now, 50 years after "Closing Countess" is more likely to believe that something has been happening for decade upon, decade upon, decade, about our world being visited. And our movie is about what would happen if all this information was disclosed.

All that's the same time. But how would that affect everything? And the story really is about the attempt to stop any disclosure from ever taking place.

“And that's why a lot of this film is a wild, wild, relentless chase.”

Yeah. What is your-- I won't say obsession, but your deep interest in what's happening beyond our planet. But I guess it's just because of my curiosity, even more than my imagination. Because there's a lot of closing counters that I made up.

But there's a lot in disclosure day that I don't really feel I needed to make up.

Because it's out there, as I said, with the ex files, the truth is out there.

And I think the truth is now here. And who was brave enough to really come forward and tell all of us that we shouldn't be afraid of living with this truth. And that curiosity, more than imagination, is what drove me to tackle this subject. Yeah. And you have told me how much you love this cast.

I love this cast. Everybody at Emily Blunt and Joshua Conner, Coleman Domingo. It's just like the hits keep hidden. It's all in earth and if you can, why at Russell, I would blush for the great cast. [Music] This episode of IMO is brought to you by Chase Home Lending.

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Start your free trial at Shopify.com/IMO. And you like working with people again and again. Yes, right. Is that intentional?

“I mean, you know, I think Tom proves and you think of Tom Hanks, all the Tom's.”

Right. You know, I love working with with with, you know, the same actors again. But the main, my main family really is the is the crew. Yeah. I've had the same composer.

John Williams. John Williams. I was with yesterday finishing up our film. Wow. And how many films have you done?

This is our John and I. This is our 30th film together as director composer. And, you know, my, my, so many people in my life. I've had in my life. Tony Kushner.

Tony Kushner has written five, four, four, five. David Kappu wrote Disclosure Day is written five by the films for me. Yeah. It's, it's, no, it does. Michelle creates a shorthand.

“And also, when you have people that really service the story,”

a Shakespeare said, the play is the thing. Yeah.

And that's the most important thing.

And we get people that know how to service, not my needs, but the actual needs of the story. And they all do their jobs. And they do their, and they do their jobs so brilliantly. There's no reason on earth that you shouldn't want to hire those people over and over and over again. So I brought with me, Christy McCasco has been with you for 29 years.

Christy McCasco already has five Oscar nominations for best picture. You know, we have a great family. Yeah. But that, you know, that comes from the, the head, you know, there are a lot of people doing great movies. They don't want to work with the same director again and again, you know.

And that says a lot about you, Stephen. You know, I have good rap gifts. They're all good. I don't want to work with me again. You think that's it.

I don't think that's it.

“I think it's a little bit more than the rap.”

Yeah. You know, I think it's the, I think it's the way that you are with people and your passion for what you're doing. And you're also a loyal person. Yeah. You know.

Well, I, I, I, I, loyalty is, is important. But it's something loyalty is something that, um, is sort of a natural thing for me. I mean, it's a natural thing for me based on who my mom and dad were. Yeah. And the four kids they raised and the values that they imparted on all of us.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you said something about your mom and dad because the last time we were together was at Misha's place in Martha's venue. Right. And I want our audience to know that Steven's wife Kate did a painting of one of the pictures of Misha and mom.

Yeah. Yeah. The three of us. Right. And the picture was so moving.

Mm. The painting was so moving that it, it brought us all the tears. Mm. And I, and in the last time I was with you was with mom. Mm.

And she was such a huge fan of yours.

And you were always so kind to her.

And she felt like she had a relationship with you just over the few times that you guys had met. Oh, yeah. And I want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you for telling me that.

Well, we, we had more than a few times together. And she, she was, as we used to say, I'm a baby woman. So I'm able to say this. She's a card. Yeah.

And she was endlessly delightful and completely forthcoming and brutally honest in the most warm loving way. Mm. And just a door to her. And thank you for mentioning Kate that way because no one knows until now. Oh, my gosh.

That Kate painted the picture of you and Michelle and, uh, and your mom. Yeah, she is a really gifted, gifted woman. And, you know, you know, the ultimate true partner. Um, I know. And I know you know that you couldn't do what you do without somebody is sturdy and talented.

And, you know, she's your creative partner in so many ways. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. But I was watching you with my mom and I was wondering about your relationship with your mom.

It must've been wonderful because it's given the way you treated our mom. When I grew up, when I grew up with my mom and dad, and this was just to find who they are. And I love them both so tenderly and equally, and I miss them equally as well. But, you know, my dad was a real dad and my mom was a playmate.

And, uh, and that's the way she was with Anne Sue and Nancy, all of us. She really, it wasn't that she had to drop down to our level to relate to us. She kind of pulled us up to hers and, um, and we just got a hell of a kick out of each other. And to be able to be raised by a mom who you so thoroughly enjoy hanging out with.

“Yeah. That's, that's, that's where I think I had a very privileged and lovely childhood.”

What would be some of the best play moments that you had with your mom? Oh, my mom, you know, when we were living in Phoenix, I was the oldest of, uh, of, I'm the oldest in family of four. And, um, we, we got to Phoenix Arizona and first thing my mom did was I was 12 years old. 11, no, I was 10, 10 and a half years old. We got to Phoenix and my mom went out and got a Willis army Jeep from the Korean War. What?

And when running around town was all of us in the back of the Jeep, and those days, by the way, there were no seatbelts or airbags. I was just bouncing around to that. So we're in an open Jeep with those seatbelts with my mom, who was, uh, who was a, basically, she was a pretty fast driver. And we being, she's got no suspension. So we're just trying to not talk out of the car going down, you know, black Canyon highway going 55 miles an hour. And, and with my mom wearing, uh, I'm sort of a kind of a cowboy hat and a Serapi.

Wow. So my mom, my mom had a personality that stood out. And did that, you know, sometimes that can make a kid feel uncomfortable that you have a mom that's kind of out there cookie. Um, how did you feel growing up? That was great because all my friends just loved hanging out with her, because once again, she was part of my peer group.

Yeah. And what for now was 10 years old. She was part of our peer group when I was 16 and driving. She was part of that peer group. When I was, you know, going to college, 18, 19 years old, she was part of that peer group.

“And my mom just really, but I think we dressed her as opposed to her dressing down to us.”

I think we somehow, uh, we have always, uh, we're, and we admired my mom style, but I could never myself be that kind of outrageous.

Yeah, out there. Yeah, yeah. She, she cornered that market. Yeah. What, what role do you think she played in?

You, you starting picking up a camera. Um, I mean, was that part of that imagination, her free spirit nature did that impact your decision to make movies. Because you were, you were making movies so young, you know. I think it, I certainly did, um, it was, it was sort of my dad's camera that I borrow the 8 millimeter code I camera I borrow to start making movies. And my, my movies were just movies of our camping trips.

Um, 'cause I could hold the camera steadier of my dad that he didn't have so much patience with the camera and I did. And, uh, and it kind of started that way. So in a way, even though in the fablemins, there's a scene where, the, uh, midsie, my mom, her name was Leah Lee. She gives the character Sammy a camera.

In fact, it was my dad and real life that gave me the camera for the first time. So my dad was pretty instrumental getting me equipped with something that I could sort of, vent everything I was feeling and seeing and, and being scared of when something scared me. I went off and made a little 8 millimeter movie so I could frighten other people. It was kind of like, well, that's something scared me.

I'm going to make a movie about what scared me so I can scare others. And, uh, and it was a, it was a real,

I've never, I've never really been in psychoanalysis at all.

“My entire life, because I think the camera, we were going to do that here.”

Well, well, we were going there. We gotta, we're going there. We gotta, we're going there. We're going there. We're going to do that right now.

And I don't have my security bag at which is my, uh, like, you're, we write my Rolex camera. But you still do that. I mean, this is a beautiful thing. You're gift to us when we're all together in a group.

You mean, you're, you're not shy. You know, you're, talkative, but when there's a moment, you're filming it. You know, you pull out your phone and you're sort of like the elephant, the shelf. Just, just kind of, and then you get that gift back to us, you know, at the end of our time together.

It's like, well, Stephen was back there, and he was watching that. He captured that and, you know, what is that, what's that about in your personality, where that, that's your comfort spot? I think, from my earliest memories of having a camera in my hand, that the great thing about seeing, let's say, the home movies of,

I was always aware of time passing, even though I was like 10, 11 years old,

and I was making a movie of my dad, you know, catching a trout, and clean the fish, and then having eggs and fish for breakfast,

I would look at that, even as a kid, to say, I'm marking time. I'm marking this moment, and I'm because someday I'm going to look back on it. If I don't have this, if I don't have this antiquity, I'm not, I may not remember it. And I want, I want to be able to remember all the good times and all the bad times. And so I just started being a kind of videographer of our family.

Took all the home movies, and then when I was on my own in college, I was taking eight millimeter movies in my friends in school, and then when I got into the movie business, I continued to take videos when film is turned out, and videos became popular by switched my equipment.

And I've always sort of been a little philosophical, I'm very, very nostalgic.

You've always been very much nostalgic. So you talk about getting a camera and then trying to make films that affected you. So something scared you, so you made something scary. What kind of movies were you watching as a kid?

“That sort of peaked your interest in the whole vocation?”

Well, when I was a kid growing up, there were two ways to see movies. One, your parents had to drive you to a movie theater. So all the movies I saw were not by choice. The films, my mom and dad thought was appropriate for them to take me and maybe and when Sue got old enough in the later Nancy to accompany them to the movies.

So all the movies we saw were pretty sophisticated films. I love musicals because my parents love musicals, and so we went to the movie theater to watch a big kind of Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, kind of a muse. So that was the other access I had to stories being told to me.

It was on television because we had movies that were shown on television in the 50s called the Late Show. And so these were movies that were came out in the 1940s and some of them in the 50s. And we didn't have color television. So even the color movie you saw on Black and White. But it didn't matter because those movies had more access to than theatrical films.

And it's the only one I started making money on a paper route or whitewashing citrus trees. I used to do the raise money to make my 8mm movies and to buy film and processing. I would be able to go out and on my own to see movies on my own. And that's when I became pretty independent and could make my own choices. And so the movies were eclectic, all the films I was interested in.

I loved westerns. I saw the searchers in the movie theater in New Jersey in 1957.

“I think it was, I was like nine, ten years old.”

You know, I love science fiction. I was crazy about science fiction. I remember seeing the movie by the George Palmaid called Destination Moon. I saw it in a revival house because it already played out theaters. It was being, it was being shown years after it's initial release.

And I went to a theater and saw it for the first time. And it was about, you know, humanities first trip to the moon. To the moon. And it was crazy. Good.

And I'll never forget that film.

And I'd love the music. The music sounded like the kind of classical music. My dad and mom would play like rainfall Williams or Bart Talk or Shostakovich. And suddenly the score of this movie sounded like classical music. It was a composer named Laith Stevens.

And it was the very first soundtrack album I ever purchased. And played it until I wore the record out. Wow.

“So that is where it all started with, I think, the western and the science fiction film.”

Yeah, yeah. And music for you has always been the soundtrack. Yeah.

Has always been something.

We've talked about this. You were very savant like when it comes to compositions. It's like name that composition in one note. And Stephen can get it. Did that come from your mom or live of music?

It did. It did because I was raised. I was raised with, you know, basically my mom was a keyboard artist. And she pretty much performed Schumann Schubert in a Bach Brahms.

And that was the music of my childhood. That's what I grew up with. But my private life, I grew up with the music of, of, of, of, you know, Eric Wolfgang, Corn Gold, Max Steiner, Franz Wachman, you know, so many of the, you know, to meet with Tiamkin and Nicholas Rocha.

These are the great, most of them immigrants that came to America to write music. And they would have preferred to write concert pieces. Some funny pieces, or even opera, but they, they couldn't get jobs doing that. So they started to write music for movies.

the Western I love so much called the searchers.

“And, and so what my mom was doing for hand with a friend in the living room.”

I'd be in my bedroom with my record player playing motion picture soundtracks. And every time I heard a movie score, it would make me want to tell a story and write it down on paper. Oh, wow. And storytelling, you know, what, can you talk a bit about your, your process for how you,

how you choose a story and, and when? I mean, your stories range from extra terrestrial to, the Holocaust to world wars. You cover it all. What makes you decide to, to be interested in a story.

And when, are you ready to tell it? Because even the fablements, me, you didn't touch your life, you know, you sort of stayed away from your biography, your entire career.

And then all of a sudden, the fablements come out, which, by the way, is one of my favorite films of you.

I've told you this before. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Well, the fablements, you know, the fablements was kind of my reaction to the passing of my parents. Yeah. I would have told the story while they were alive.

But I was a little too nervous to let out too much of that part of my personal life. There wasn't just a metaphor. I was okay about taking my personal life and creating metaphor. But to directly recount things that happened and occurred in our lives and the trauma of the divorce that we all had to experience and live through and recover from, by the way.

That was something I wasn't really willing to do, but when I lost my mom and dad, I kind of made the movie in memory of them, but also in a way you're trying to get them back a little bit and back into my life. So I could run the movie and actually, because Michelle Williams became my mom. Like I couldn't imagine anybody becoming.

I couldn't, I didn't think it was possible. But Michelle, based on some home videos that I showed her and some eight millimeter sound movies of my mom, Michelle had some kind of a, I guess, I guess you call it a transcendental, you know, "Trafferns."

“Whereas she, either my mom came to her and I think my mom did come to her on the movie,”

but she was her. And that was remarkable. As was Paul Dana, was my dad. Yeah, you shared that moment. You were trying to keep it together to make sure, because you said the casting crew,

they were worried about you through the process. They would want it to make sure that you were okay. And you were trying to settle them down, and then what happened when you came on set? Well, what happened was I told them early on. I said, "Look, I've gotten all my tears out of the way with Tony Kushner.

Tony wrote this as my writing partner. We wrote this very quickly. And Tony sort of got a lot of this out of me. Because he said he himself has some therapeutic skills that open me up to allow me to be brave enough to put some of this down on paper with him. But I told everybody I got all my tears out, writing the script, that was going to be fine.

And we got to the set of the very first day.

And I had seen some of the wardrobe tests with the actors at the studio months before.

“But suddenly there's the set and the set happens to be the house I grew up in.”

The Rick Carter, the production designer, recreated based on all the home movies and home videos. I had taken of that house. And he went on eBay and he found things in my bedroom that I forgot we're in my bedroom. And he put them in the set of my bedroom, my childhood bedroom. Wow.

And I walked onto that set and suddenly I'm home. I'm back in the Phoenix. And I'm home. You can't go home again if you make a movie. If you only make a movie.

And then Christie said the cast is coming out for the first rehearsal. And Paul came around the corner. And Michelle Williams came around the corner. And what I really saw was my mom and dad back to life. And back together.

And back together again coming toward me. And I completely went back on my word and I lost. And they were great Michelle hug me. In the front and Paul came around the back and he hugged me around back. And we were in a bit of a of a Steven sandwich.

And and they kept me they supported me through the whole process. And I needed to support. Yeah. That's amazing. It's just amazing.

And you taught you. I heard you talk about in other interviews or I read it somewhere. Did doing the research that the thing that you were most worried about was how your sisters felt. Yes.

Can you talk about the pressure of that? Because I can't even imagine doing something and worrying about her. I mean, I can imagine it. You know, well, you're telling everybody story. Yes.

But everybody, but I'm not everybody who's story was told.

Right. And I could only tell my story.

“And as soon as I was getting their stories right.”

So the first thing I did was send them all the screenplay.

And I wanted them to give me notes. Tell me where I made it up. Tell me what was not accurate. Tell me. And they were great.

And they had some adjustments and some notes to give me about their characters. About things that I didn't even know they were doing at the time. The events were taking place which helped the movie. And then they came under the set from time to time. Not all the time.

But maybe it means once a week they come under the set to visit and to watch and to cry. And to commune with me.

And the biggest nervous thing was when I showed them the film for the first time.

And I showed it to Nancy and Sue in New York City and Ann and Los Angeles.

“And the first screening was for my two sisters who were closer to where I was in New York.”

And that was hard. That was hard because it was less about the film and more about what it felt like for them to be taken back in time. Not reminded of something. But being given an experience that was very experienced like for them. And brought everything up.

All the anti-Semitism we experience growing up. The tumult between my mom and my dad, the affair my mom had with my dad's best friend of business partner. That eventually caused their marriage to dissolve. And it was really traumatizing to be in a room with them and experience them experiencing

our lives together. Did it feel healing at all? It did eventually. Not at first because at first all the old swords started to hemorrhage a little bit. And then after while it's completely healing.

Yeah. So what made it right to do that? You said to, so it just felt like you were ready for that with favourments. Yeah. I was ready to bring mom and dad back.

Yeah. Yeah. That's beautiful. And other stories that you decide to tell and win, what's your, you know. It depends because I'm a history buff. I love history.

You know, I didn't do good in high school.

“The only thing I got a good grade in was history.”

And I love reading biographies. And so a lot of my films are historically anchored. The Holocaust World War II. Certainly the homestad and the homestad Africans. You know, the story about Lincoln.

You know, and the past years are the 13th Amendment. These are films that are very close to my heart because the history is close to me. And so it, so I just love telling stories that actually happened and trying to get it as, as right as possible. My dad fought in the Second World War. He was with the 490th bomb squadron called the Burma Bridge Busters stationed in Karachi and places in Burma.

And my dad was eventually in charge of all the ground to air communication. When all these B-25s and and cargo planes were flying the hump. Which was a very dangerous, you know, sortie to fly. And my dad was coordinating all of these flights. And so I heard stories as a child about two subjects.

The Shoah, which they call the Great murders, the Holocaust, and stories about World War II.

And so I had always been looking for a warrant movie to make.

And I had seen a lot of warrant movies on television growing up. You know, but they're all sort of warrant movies that are pretty much filled with tropes. You know, and yet you think those tropes are accurate. Until you actually meet the people, the fought in that war. And what Stephen Ambrose wrote his book, "D-Day" and the other books hit us in soldier.

And introduced me to some of the veterans that landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. I suddenly realized that oh my god, we need to tell the story of what really happened with no tropes. Or a few tropes that we could possibly include. I've lived in quite a few major cities over the years. And I've always loved how much each one change whenever a big event came to town.

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And you hadn't been back to Martha's Vineyard since filming Jaws, because you said that you just couldn't face going back to that island because of the experience. Can you talk a bit about that? You were like, when I saw you all in the vineyard, that was maybe my fourth trip back. But I didn't go back for years and years after making Jaws,

because that was the toughest location of my career. I mean, we were in the 12 miles out to see past the Cape Poe, Lighthouse, and it was tough making a movie on the water. I won't go through all that. Just around the documentary, Jaws at 50, it'll save me.

I have an hour of telling you on a podcast. Just go watch Jaws at 60. You'll see how hard it was. And thanks for the plug. Beatles to say, it was very, it was almost an impossible mission, a mission impossible.

And if I probably knew how hard it was going to be, I might not have done the movie. If somebody had come out and told me by looking at a crystal ball.

“And instead of seeing any M in the ball thing, Dorothy, where are you?”

Instead of seeing that, you're seeing everybody throwing up over the side of the boat and the ship at six foot waves, not getting our shots and the shark falling apart and coming out of the water tail first when it's attacking. You know, things like that. You probably, I probably might have had second thoughts about it.

But it's a movie that also, because of the, what follow, because the film was so successful, it gave me freedom to make close encounters.

So I never had to go really go to a studio again and say,

"We, you let me direct this movie because the studios after Jaws were coming to me as they do to any successful filmmaker to say, "Where do you want to make the phone book? We'll find out the phone book." And so it gave me a lot of freedom after that. I mean, she just watched "Saving Private Ryan." I just recently rewatched "Sugarland Express."

Oh, that was one of my, oh my God. That's experiences.

“I know, can you talk about that whole process?”

Because, yeah, I had, and so I saw it a long time ago, and then I'm watching it again, I have it. And then I want to talk to you about movies that get people to rewatch all the over and over again. But that's another question. But I was watching "Sugarland Express."

And the way you make the antagonists feel like a protagonist is my favorite thing in that movie. I was rooting for them the whole way and like everybody was. But can you talk about making that? And you talk about extras.

How many police cars in that movie? Oh, my God, there were like 50 or something. There were a lot of police cars in the movie. More, yeah. I don't remember.

I just, I just know that I was, I was making TV. Uh-huh.

I had made dual, which sort of was considered my first feature,

because it was released in theaters internationally. Not domestically. It was on ABC movie of the week here in this country. But overseas, it was released theatrically. So most people do the, do the filmography.

Sort of this set is my first film. But sugar and I was my first real theatrical American film. And I got the idea from reading a newspaper that came to my house. And I was living in an apartment in an off-licership avenue. And right across from Universal Studios.

And it was a newspaper called The Citizen News. And there was a story about a Texas couple. They were trying to get their baby back from foster care. And they were in, and the guy was in pre-release in a pre-release form. And they basically kidnapped a highway patrol officer.

He got into, or they stole a car. And they led this riotous chase. A caravan of police cars into a very tragic ending occurred. And I went to my friends, how barwood, Matthew Robbins, who were friends who were the guys that introduced me to George Lucas in the 60s.

And they wrote a brilliant script based in the story that I sketched out. And I went and tried to sell it in the studio like the script. And they said, if you can get a movie star, we'll make this movie and let you direct it.

who being said no to by many movies stars. Many, many people turned me down. But the one person who didn't say no was Goli Han. And Goli Han loved the script. Love the character of Lou Jean Poplan.

And she said yes. And it had she said yes that would not have been made that movie. She got that movie made. You know, we were talking the other day about casting. Right. And you said something like, you know,

the right cast member always kind of shows up.

Because there's always, there's the timing issue. You know, you, you have an idea. You have somebody that you write for. You think it's that that actor. And then they're not available.

Right.

“So you, what did, do you remember we talked about this?”

I do. And I, and I think one of the things I was saying is the actor you thought you wondered was the only actor you could imagine playing that role was not the actor. You eventually found out you were wrong about the first place. Because the first you wound up was the only person.

That's the play that character. Right. And I really, truly believe that. Because I've had many experiences with actors saying no to me. But the person that eventually said yes.

I cannot imagine anybody else playing that role. And, and I just think that's a little bit of determinism versus free will. We can get into those conversations. I'm not sure we should, but that's the whole thing where I sometimes believe that there are strings connecting everything.

And the strings have already been laid out before we get to that juncture. Right. In the real, what we think we're making a decision. When, in fact, the decision has already been made for us. What's been the biggest casting.

“Carma, that, that happened that you can remember.”

Oh, my, there's been, there's been a number of them. Harrison Ford was, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So was Harrison. He wasn't the first. What happened was George and I had had. Interviewed a lot of people play in the end of Jones. And we tested them.

And they came to George's, he had a small office in Los Angeles across the Universal, and we tested a lot of actresses for Marion Raven. Wouldn't a lot of actors, especially for Indiana Jones. And that was going to be whether we made the movie or not. And we both discovered and decided that Tom Selleck should play Indiana Jones.

Oh. And he had he read for the part. No, no, just Tom Selleck. Oh, he was good. His test was good.

What do you have had a mustache? You know, he wouldn't have. I wouldn't have. Maybe if the films were as successful. He could have demanded the mustache later.

And then George and I would have given it a time. But there's where the strings of destiny didn't. Didn't cross with Tom. We wanted Tom. We gave Tom the part.

And then he had, which we didn't realize. Now it's Danny Contract with CBS Network to do magnum pay. Yeah. And Bob Daley, a very close friend of mine. But I didn't know Bob at the time.

But when they heard we wanted Tom, they immediately put magnum PI into production, preempting Tom from being in Indiana Jones. And now Tom is mad at everyone. Tom's a great guy. I adore him.

And so what happened was George at at the same time asked me to come.

Look at a rough cut of the second Star Wars movie Empire Strikes Back.

So it went up to Northern California, went to the screening room, satin room, saw Empire Strikes Back, which I adored. Yeah. And when the screening was over, we were talking about the movie with about 30 or 40 people. And I pulled George aside.

“And I said, George, what about that guy who plays Han Solo to play Indiana Jones?”

And George looked at me funny and said, well, he's, but he's Han Solo. Yeah, I said, I know, but, but, but you know, John Wayne might might have been in the same Western forever. But he played different characters. I said, you know, he could do more than one role and George said,

Okay, but I got my mind out of the thing. He was he was making, he was working with Irving Kershner to make this movie. So about a week later, he called me up and said, I've set the script at Harrison. So on his own, he had a few days to think about it without telling me. He sends the script to Harrison.

And Harrison reads the script and he wants to do it. That was how it all began. Man, yes. Man, oh man. I wanted to ask you about working with kids.

I mean, you know, probably because of your childhood, you know,

there's always, you know, a child, an innocent in the midst of it all who's trying to

But that means that, you know, you have worked with a long list of child actors throughout your career.

“And, you know, I watched or the world, a couple of weeks ago.”

And Dakota Fanning in that movie. I mean, she was, she was she helped to make that movie. Yeah. And I, I just keep wondering what's like a Drew Barrymore.

They're so little, you know, how do you get these amazing performances

consistently out of these little people? Well, a child actor is like an adult actor without all the bad habits. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

She treated us like peers not my mom is more appear than a parent and I want to be appear to a young person Not a parent slash director to that young person you treat him like a little adult and you and you and you let them Tell you what they'd like to do in a real-life situation because because young people are able to imagine better than older veteran actors They're able to really teleport themselves into a real situation even though it's all made up by writers and the lighting and the special effects

To them, it's reality and sometimes they've got the best ideas of where to take their their their little personalities

And so I've just been really open with young actors and I rely on them to help form their own characters without me giving a lot of direction

Would you bear more I took some of her improvisations because she would just talk to ET all time She's and around is a sick girl Talking to the ET when he wasn't being operated by the puppeteers and they would you just be talking to them and Telling ET about her punk band that she had and and the rock the rock rock and roll tours

She wanted to be on when the movie was over and her other aspirations and she'd make up stuff that I would use in the movie You know There was a scene around a dinner table where Elliott Michael are kind of not getting along and and and Michael's teasing Elliott about because Ellie says I really saw this creature was he was really in the wood shed up behind that

Allison and and and Michael says what my baby was alligators in the source and I saw that every time he said it in the rehearsal Drew was mowthing Alligators in this verse So after was the true everything he says just repeat what he says because you want you know You want to do that all of you you're doing it right now

Every time for beating what Michael was saying that's true

“Then that's what I kept I kept all that's okay”

She walked over to ET one day at a scene and she said I don't like his feet And she meant it so I left that with the movies So with young people sometimes and also with with actors with with the adult actors Yeah, you let them help you find their characters and we can't do it all. I'm not an actor And I know what I I know what I think I want

But when an actor lands on something it convinces me that oh I went that instead you got to collaborate to say it's it's a this business This it's a collaborative medium Well, that gets us to the industry And we we've talked about this a lot. I mean you're you know We said earlier Brock threatened to watch your movie on his iPhone

I know you have deep beliefs about what movies mean what they should be Believe in theaters you believe in the entire experience yet the industry feels like it's moving slowly away from That that that view of of movies. What are your thoughts and feelings on this whoa

“What do you think it what what do you think the industry is going well?”

I think certainly the industry I was born in the age of of TV

So when I was born television television sets for being sold for the first time

Yeah, I was born at the end of 46 and be a lot of listeners going well. Oh, yeah Long time ago long time ago But they were a lot a lot of you know, so Vania and GE black and white sets were being made then and so I was I was the first My the greatest and not too great. I mean that was a greatest generation Where the baby boomers and we were born in front of a black and white television screen

Yet we went out to the movies because they were in color and the screens were super duper big And we got it and it was exciting and it's kind of dangerous you go you go to a room and you sit in the dark and you're watching a movie

I fell in love with the movies by being at the movies

“The old term movie going that was something that we just took for granted and then and then”

But there's always been this competition this kind of I guess you called a a sport between those the produce television series and those that make motion pictures

And then along came something back in the 60s called Saturday night of the movies Oh, yeah, and they would take recent movies that had only been out of circulation Maybe five to seven years and they put them on TV and The networks are trying to lure people away from weekend going to the movies on weekends, which are big Yeah, you know Friday Saturday and Friday and Saturday or the biggest movie movie days were movie nice

So they were already starting to chip away at movie goers by putting on Saturday night at the movies Which was successful got a lot of ratings points men people were not watching movies

They were watching some old film on television because it was unique to be sold a

semi semi current film to to be viewed in your homes and All of a sudden there was a comment that there was there was competition for filling seats The seats that I was interested in watching movies at were were Seats in the mezzanine or the orchestra or even the balcony That's where I wanted to watch my movies not sitting on the divand or in the bean bag

“Or in bed, but I wanted to go out and ventures and movie going and that was something that was very important”

And my generation grew up that way in my generation loves it

But my kids have at the opposite view my kids want the convenience of being able to see a story being told in any

On any platform that's available including and I found they don't care But when a certain movie does come out where the iPhone experience or the streaming experience is denied to them Because the studios believe this film should be seen in movie theaters and When the studios are brave enough to say we're not gonna go back to the three-week or 17-day window Like Donald Langley at Universal just did all Universal films now have a 45-day window before they go on

You know the page levels and eventually to the there's streaming platform And this is very very important that studios give an audience an opportunity to find these films

“Not by saying it's only gonna be an a theater for two weeks”

Because then we get to qualify for rewards later in the year But it's gonna be an a theater as long as people attend that movie and that's the battle we're fighting and COVID really hurt us Really hurt movie going because people who couldn't go out to the movies got very accustomed to watching movies at home And the studios started taking movies away from their release dates and putting them directly on HBO or directly on You know, um, paper view

How does that that affect the viewer to see you think do you think we're missing out on something The the the experience watching something as a community When you watch a movie at home, there's nothing wrong with I watch a lot of movies at home But it's not an event to stay home and watch a movie in your living room or in your family room and your bedroom It's an event to make a night of it or a day of it and after noon of it even a morning of it and go out to the movies

That's an event and it makes it more exciting and When you see a movie in the theater you're also being surrounded by people who are strangers and there are people in that theater That you know do not believe what you believe You know, there are people in that theater who actually believe in the opposite of you are core beliefs About democracy about this country about the world about our needs about what we need

But in a movie theater everybody Is tuned in to the story being told to them from the screen and for one moment We are in communion and we are in agreement and we are a community. We're a community of strangers Watch you something that makes us laugh and cry and sing out and want and want to share those feelings and Often you go into a lobby and you're still buzzing about the movie and you talk to strangers

You're not talking about the stuff that divides you. You're talking about what just United you And that is the great thing that movies build community. Yeah, and we need community now more than ever And movies can do that if studios will continue to allow movies to play for longer periods of time before they go on on television You know what I miss you. I was thinking about when you're talking about community and go into the movies because we didn't go to the movies like you did We went to the drive in because it was more economical

I was hoping that with COVID drive-ins would make a comeback

But like ventriloquism Life in full quism. This is a big joke because I think the show was underutilized And now I haven't seen Steven Spielberg laugh This heart in all of the times that we have been to you have the ventriloquist dummy That the team gave them they gave us your name is a widow name is Woodrow. And I'm gonna be practicing with him

Because I'm gonna learn how to be a ventriloquist

“So how do you balance you know all that you have to be”

to make these films and the you know the level of your self that you have to pour into

each project and not just the project as a whole but the cast and the kids in the

With your real life Because you've got a big real life Y'all got a bunch of kids 7 kids the grandkids It's a lot it's a lot it requires a big boat

Well, they keep me relevant. They keep me current in the times my kids do yeah How how what have been some of the challenges for you as a dad? Being you and home for dinner. Yeah, you know one of the biggest challenges is Just running out of excuses why I can't get home for dinner because it because it it's my loss

“It's their loss, but it's also my loss when we farm dream works Kate said the only way”

I'm really gonna say this is okay with me Is if you get home every night by six five forty five is better and have dinner with the family And don't go to work as six or seven. Let's you're shooting you can get up at five thirty, which we usually do what you're not when you're running a studio You got to have like a nine to five job and I made that a condition of my involvement with date jit David and Jeffrey And I said I'm not doing this company unless this for me is going to be a nine to five job because I

Is it going to be a real time drain for me, and I need to be with my family They understand a kid understand from making a movie that goes out the window I don't have control over that over that schedule anymore So what Kate did was take all the kids whenever I want a broad to make a film and we would live a broad We lived in Hungary for four months making music. We live five months in crack out crack

I'll Poland making shunders list We lived in London making saving private Ryan and Ireland. I mean, and with all the kids went to school there They were they were they were home school there and then at the end of the movie They all get back to their schools in Los Angeles, and so so if Kate hadn't been had an agreed to

A mobile home life while I was in the physical we allow the whole family and it wasn't you the yours weren't spread out I mean, they sort of were and then they weren't yes because she had a bunch of little kids in diapers doing this stuff I mean, look McAlendus, you only ate months apart. You know, I mean, it's it's crazy And it wasn't diapers and it was really hard for her And it was not easy for her and I'm off doing what I love and she's home doing what she loves to

But kind of which is I was there doing it with her. Yeah, that's the thing that that's the compromise We make you you look I read your book and brox book so I know all about what it was like for eight years is first lady in that white house What it's it's it's it's hard Is there a An idea or a movie that you'd still like to make that you haven't

Yeah, I really and I've said this add nauseam

I want to make a Western. I've never really made a Western

I was not I made it 8 millimeter and there's a little Western I shot in uh, but I want to make a Western and and I love him I've seen him all and um and I'm working on one right now

“I don't know when it's gonna go, but I am I do I have something going right now nice. Yeah, is it John Wayne like is it giant?”

Which you introduce me to you? I showed we watched the first time I was the rise you got here to watch something that old That's good You know at first I thought okay, we're watching giant and now, but it was great. It was really because it's it stands to test the time It's sure that's all towards even so much But the Western the the premise it hasn't been decided yet, so so it is just not gonna be filled with Western tropes and stereotypes

It's not gonna be that at all It's got to be something new. I've seen so many Westerns and and you know the great thing about the Western genre It was supplanted by science fiction So when Santa could work made 2,000 and want to space out of see that was really the death of the Western really

But it when it left movie theaters has started becoming out on television

“Yeah, right raw high that's what I that's what I was you know, yeah, and the rifleman”

You know, and I mean high shop a rail. Yeah, the Virginia and one after the other and that when science fiction supplanted the Western So every time I see a Marvel movie or I see a fantasy film I say and there's there's there's there's a death of that. I mean, there's a plethora of that right now everywhere when I see those A series those brands those big IPs

I say well, that's where the Western went it it basically

Dinosaurs turned into birds and Western's turned into us Fantasy films and and that's where we're we're at right now so I kind of want to make a Western that isn't A bird but is something a little different a bird of a different feather not quite sure what that is yet But I'm working with a really good partner on this right now try to Concoct one well

Oh, the listener question. We better oh, yeah, but we've got to leave it a little time for the the listener question One of the things on I am oh we like to do Stephen is help out people and give some some good advice So we take questions from our listener viewer and this one's from Anna who's in Colorado Dear Michelle and correct. I'm 24 years old and I am a struggling aspiring writer in the entertainment industry

I have a low paying job that pays my rent but not much else

I worked hard to go to film school and try to get a foot in I'm from a small town and have no connections So I try to make all of the right choices, but I haven't gone anywhere It feels like every door slam shut before I can even knock There's nothing I've worn more than to be a famous writer, but I don't have the means to take the financial risk to support those dreams I'm also incredibly worried that AI will take over the entry-level positions that could help me get my foot in the door

Or will mean that fewer shows and films will get made period And feels like the latter was pulled up before my generation could make it to the party. At what point do I stop dreaming and pivot career paths or even career dreams? Thanks

“Well, Anna you here's the thing the big test for you”

Is will you persevere? Hmm That's the key word as perseverance Not ever giving up Continuing to do what has not worked for you so far

Continuing to write Keep writing and the other thing you can do which is great is you can post some of your ideas You can go on Instagram you can go on you two can post some of your things if you have a if if you're you're a writer You're not talking about being a director But you may take something you've written in short form

Find somebody you want to school with who wants to be a director and put a little love film together and use your use your device Use your camera or your advantage of the technology take advantage of the technology and and to get your voice because Where this is it's a terrible cliche to say that but where there is a will there's a way and where there is a passion There is an even better way If you have that passion through perseverance

You'll get to where you need to be Yeah, yeah, what about the economic piece too? I mean the starving writer the starving artists. It's You know expensive to be in this town L.A. or to be in New York or to be where where the industry is

“We have to you have to hold a job that's going to”

You know meet your immediate needs and especially you have a family you have a responsibility To doing the work that's going to provide for your family but at the same time

Your passion can still be on that second track. We talked about the different compartments compartmentalized

You can you can have you can have it all, but you have to be able to have one to be able just a success And then you you can while you're working on the other the impossible dream. Yeah, I've had this conversation with my eldest daughter Steven as you know is an aspiring Director filmmaker and in these times she has wondered aloud You know when there's so much going on in the world so many problems that we face whether it's the environment or

Saving our democracy you know sometimes she feels like you know should I be Writing stories and you know thinking about making movies. I mean should I be out on Protests line should I be doing more is this the same thing is this the right Feel the thing I tell her is oh my god these are the times that we need stories you know we need story tellers And we need story tellers of all backgrounds so what I would say to Anna is definitely don't give up

Because we need all these perspectives, you know, I mean I tell my daughter we need to hear from young black writers And so it's like you know the voices have to be diverse or else we lose the full story We don't get the full truth if we're only hearing one person's perspective and as a woman as a young woman In this art in this art form it's like I desperately want Anna to To stay the course the one thing I like when you talk to young people about careers

First of all you went to film school

Oh, it did you know you did not try to go to school, but you as he wouldn't let me in Oh, that's right. That's I'm sorry. I'm sorry to bring my grade for so bad for making for making my little eight Bill of Rear 16-minute movies that they I got accepted at Long Beach. I like Long Beach I wouldn't only say I was only there for two years, but I wanted to go to SC Yeah, but you tell young people or what you've shown in your career is that

You just love making stuff and it was like you weren't precious or particular about what you made Can you talk a bit about that? You know, I started by writing as well

Writing is one of the best ways to break into the business

One of the hardest things to do is get somebody to read what you've written because there's all kinds of You know, there's all kinds of lawsuits called copyright infringement Producer say well, it's not registered. It doesn't come from an agent that I know I can't read it. It's unsolicited material And that's the struggle that young writers have and getting their stuff red, but the best the thing that I did

“I remember watching TV and watching an episode of combat and writing my own combat episode and sending it”

to Norman Felton who was the producer of combat and he was so impressed by the script. He actually read it He probably shouldn't have but he read the script and he had me come into his office and I got a chance to meet this big producer of a television series and he told me that he took one look at me. I looked like I was 13 when I was maybe 18 19 he said well We're not gonna buy this, but it's really really well written and keep writing. He just gave me about a five minute

Really good pep talk, which was wonderful of him, but most of the scripts that I wrote on spec were television shows I wrote I wrote two mission impossible The episodes because I love mission impossible and the man for I'm not mission possible. I'm sorry the man for I wrote one who ever saved my whole life. I love legends. I love that story. I love that story. Yeah, David McCallamick. Oh my god one is a bee in uncle.

When I was younger I wanted to be in that group. And I wanted to be Robert Vaughan But I also wrote that so sometimes it may seem fuel to write something you're not going to sell

but but that's the greatest way to understand how to structure a story. First of all if you

“want to structure a story, it's got to be about something. So your first stop is what do I want to say?”

What in this world do I want to say that somebody might listen to? Do I have anything to say? And if I have something to say it's important to me, maybe I can say it on paper first. You can't write anything until you have something to say. It doesn't have to be the word according to blank blank blank blank. It simply has to be important to you. And then you then you become somebody that comes from a place of passion, a place of

because you want to communicate something that's important to you. How are you thinking about AI in this? I mean you've you've done every. I mean a movie called AI. I don't know. I want that last month. That was I hadn't seen AI before. I mean it's like how what crystal ball do you have

“Stephen? What scary crystal ball are you living in? I mean how do you how do you foresee this stuff?”

Well I I'm kind of withholding judgment on AI until I see really how it is being used. I think it's even being used more frequently and better currently. I'm reading in China. The China is ahead of where where we are right now in its use of AI. But how it's being used? I'm not I'm not certain about that. What I do know about AI is that I'm sure it's a tool that can create and find solutions to medical issues. Yeah. You know in finding solutions to

how to put together a curriculum and how to get young people really more stimulated and interested

What where I where I don't love AI is where it takes a position or there's an empty chair at a

writer's table and there's six writers and there's an empty chair and there's a there's a there's a computer in front of the empty chair and it is the seventh writer at the I'm not willing to to substitute you know because I don't really believe incense incense incense incense I don't believe that there's any substitute there's any substitute for the soul. Yeah. I don't think that is

“a that is an algorithm that is inventable that's there is such a word and I think that the”

difference between a computer that's smarter than people but a computer that thinks it's it feels more than we feel is an athlete who way I was raised and and and how I'll practice my own trade of producing and directing in the future. I don't want AI involved in that way. If AI wants to help me find locations. Mm-hm. That's great. See what's all that'll make work. Mm-hm. But don't tell me that I don't have the right antagonists in this movie.

Don't tell me how to write my dialogue for this character. Don't tell me where the camera is gotta go and also don't tell me what the set should look like unless AI is simply a tool in a large tool chest of the production designer and just one of many tools the production designer uses. So their own impulses are what is going to determine how good my set's look. Use AI as a tool but do not use AI as the final word on anything creative. That's where I draw

the line. Mm-hm. I know that you have a house full of creatives. I do. I have filmmakers and athletes and actresses and what do you tell your kids? I tell my kids to follow their hearts because their hearts are going to tell them their hearts are going to pave the roads for them more than anything else. He's just following your hearts. If I have kids to do more than one thing which is great they just I have kids that act and paint and they write and they perform and they sing

and and they have imaginations. They've all got greater imaginations and and I just say you know

“hey you know if you if you if you have the urge you have to follow that urge you have to let it”

lead you and who knows where it's going to take you. Well your kids are amazing and I've had the

privilege in the honor to spend time with them. They are creative and interesting and you humble. Yes. Charismatic. All of that and that's a tribute to both you and Kate. My kids are making their own names. I'm proud of them for that. They are making their own names. They are. It's great. They are. Well Anna. Ocrag, did you have anything to add to you? No I don't I did. I think we've covered enough for Anna but this has been really neat Steve and thank you. Anna

get some advice from Steven Spielberg. How about that? Yeah. Steven I love you to death. I love you to death too. Yeah. Yeah and I'm not trying to suck up so I can see disclosure day before. I'm going to show a gift to the student later. That would really start something if you saw it before

you. Yeah. Not that I'm trying to suck up. That would really start something. Yeah. I mean he may never

let me back in the eyes around again. Well I know it's going to be an amazing movie. The buzz has been good. You've got an amazing cast and it is so timely. Everybody's asking and the questions already been answered but Barack Obama he what it you know is like what's the answer? Is there is there a life out there? Well Barack was right when he said that he believes there is a

“life out there. I think it's mathematically and scientifically impossible that there isn't life out”

there where there are advanced civilizations out there. The big question remains have they ever come here or the other question is are they here now and that's the question that my movie tries to answer. Yes. Stay tuned. Can't wait. This one I may go to the theater for. Oh yeah you better. This is this is for a big audience. This is for big audience. This is for big audience. This is for big audience. This is for big audience. This is for big audience. So why don't watch it on your eyes? No this one's for big audience.

Barack Obama just being petty. Go to the theaters right away. Stephen thank you again for being here. No thank you. This was a pleasure. This is almost like

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