Reflecting on Career and Future Goals

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This is an administration that is trying to pull us toward something we've never seen in this country. They've decided let's pull Colbert off the air because he angered our leader. That's all it is. So how do we do it? Oh, well blame it on the finances. You know, Dave would routinely take the network to task , both at NBC and CBS. You could say whatever you wanted. I mean, it was vicious. No one was pushing us off the air. That's just not how it worked. It was, oh, these are the comedians. They get to kind of say whatever they want and we don't like it sometimes, but harumph. That's all you want. Just harumph. That's it. That's your job. You put on a suit, you got into an office, you make a good living, you get to harumph. That's all you get to do. You don't get to do this. Hello and welcome to Obsessed The Podcast. I'm Matt Wilsteen from The Daily Beast, and today on the show we have a five time Emmy winner who spent nearly three decades as a writer and producer for David Letterman. His new movie In Memorium, which he wrote and directed, stars former podcast host, Mark Marin. Rob Burnett, welcome to Obsessed The Podcast. You know, the five Emmys, that sounds great. The film at Triccabe, that sounds great . It has all been pushed to the back of the bus now that I am appearing on the obsessed podcast with you. So this is it. Oh, I'm so honored, Rob. Thank you. I really appreciate that. No, I actually am happy to be here . I want to get to your new movie, and I feel like there's so much I want to talk to you about, but I feel like we do have to start with your storied late night TV career because I am a late night TV obsessive. It's something that I think about all the time. And I have you here in a very odd moment for late night TV, I would say, we just saw the tragic demise of the late show on CBS, and you were there at the very beginning of that show. So I wanted to start there and get your reaction to everything that's happened with this show that you helped launch over the past year. Well, you have the right word in tragic . This was just This was just this is just unconscionable to me . You have the number one show in late night television. You have Stephen Colbert . Does it get better than Stephen Colbert? I don't think so . And you know, and now you have an administration who has decided to take someone off of the air because they didn't like what he was saying. I mean, what country are we living in now? I mean, this is unbelievable. And the goal of CBS and Paramount to say, oh there were financial reasons. That's all. What do they think? We're idiots. We're not id iots. So it's horrible . There's no other way to say it. And watching Steven's last show , I felt very emotional about it. I wasn't expecting to feel so much emotion, but some of it was there's the space that I inhabited myself for so long and watching that show go away for all of these reasons on top of it. It would have been sad anyway. It would have been sad if Steven left on his own terms, but this way , this is not how things should be. Yeah, I mean, I think it must have been shocking for you to hear not only that they were firing Colbert, which is horrible, but that they were ending the franchise altogether. I mean, this show has been around for quite some time now , the late show, and it was started with Letterman, and you were there. And then he handed it to Colbert, and it seemed like one of these shows that was going to just keep going , you know, the way that tonight show has gone on for decades . So what about that? You know, were you were you surprised that they not only got rid of this guy that they didn't like, but said we're scrapping the idea altogether? Yeah, I think this is all part of the cover , you know , you know, look, undeniably the economics of late night television, you know, have changed. There's no question. That's no fault of the hosts and these shows that are as good as they've ever been and better in some ways . You know, I have to tell you from my standpoint when you leave a stage , you kind of don't think the person that's going to come after you is going to be able to do what you did if you're honest about it. You know, you just that's just the ego maniacs that we all are in show business . And oddly, I found myself being really proud retroactively of the association with Colbert . That's what I felt a lot of when he was leaving there was, you know, we're all part of this late show. And if he had been something less , I wouldn't have felt good about it, but I actually feel happy that our show and his show will forever be linked at the late show. That said , he should be on television . And I think this idea of of getting rid the franchise altogether , you know, I think this was just part of look, in the scope of a corporate merger of the size that they're dealing with, that they need government approval for Colbert's show is a rounding error as our show would have been a rounding error . So it's easy for them to let's just sell the time to Byron Allen so we'll really look like, yeah, see guys, we couldn't do it. It's we're not idiot s. Yeah, I mean this deal that they made with Byron Allen is so strange and they basically are saying we have this guaranteed money, but there's no upside at all for the network if it does well. So they have no interest in it in the show the, timeslot performing anymore. It just sort of is what it is. You alluded to the, you know, quote, purely financial decision, which is what they told Stephen Colbert about why they got rid of the show . Dave, who you know, Dave Letterman, who you know probably better than most people said that called CBS Lying Weasels for saying that. And so I was wondering if you if you agree with his assessment , and what do you think they're getting so wrong and why did they mislead us in this way? Well , yes, I agree entirely. And also it warms my heart to hear Dave say call someone lying weasels. We miss that. We miss it. Yes, a hundred percent I agree with it. This is made up this is fiction . Jimmy Kimmel made a great point the other day in some outlet where he said that and I don't have the exact parameters here, but the point he was making was that they had signed Colbert to some kind of long term four year deal maybe it was. Yeah, they wanted to they tried to get him for a longer deal at first. And then they kind of backed off so that and Kimo was saying, why would they do that if they know if it's such a money losing operation? Yeah, that's a that's an insightful point and that shows it. But yes, I mean, look , it's we know what this is. This is an administration that trying to pull us toward something we've never seen in this country. They've done it all over the place. I mean, look at sixty minutes. I was just listening to Scott a Scott Pelley interview that he did. And it's incredible. I mean, this is the Tiffany network. What happened here ? And so, yeah, they've decided let's let's pull Colbert off the air because he angered our leader and our leader is going to block our big merger. That's all it is. So how do we do it? Oh, we'll blame it on the finances. And we'll sell the show to Byron Allen just to show everybody how the finances don't work now . Yeah, it did make me think about Letterman's various clashes with CBS over the years, which I'm sure you had to deal with behind the scenes as a writer and producer. But it does seem like it was nothing like this. I mean, the types of conflicts that he was having with the network were very different, right? Well, think about it. You know, yeah, exactly. I mean, back then , you know, Dave would routinely take the network to task , both at NBC and CBS. You could say whatever you wanted. I mean, at the end of NBC, when we were on the way at the door, Dave was putting up giant pictures of the execut ives. I mean, it was vicious . And no one was pushing us off the air. That's just not how it worked. It was, oh, these are the comedians. They get to kind of say whatever they want. And we don't like it sometimes but harum, that's all you want. Just harumph. That's it. That's your job. You put on a suit, you got into an office, you make a good living , you get to harum . That's all you get to do. You don't get to do this. I mean, there are many ways that late night TV has changed from when you were doing it to now . Part of it is that it has gotten so much more political, and I think we all know, you know, why that is and it's Donald Trump is a huge part of that and sort of the host reacting to that. Letterman got out probably right before that really ramped up. I was actually just had Craig Ferguson on the show. We were talking about it, and he was saying that he was basically glad that he didn't have to decide how much to go after Trump and what to do and how political to get . Did you feel that already happening towards the end of Dave's run? And would you think about that at all sort of as Col bert took over and then made this really sharp turn into politics? Well, I think as you kind of chart the evolutionary branches of late night television, to me , it's this and is no offense to any of the many, many talented people doing it, but to me, it's Johnny Carson , or I suppose maybe it goes before him, but you know, I'm not that old. But for me, it's Johnny Carson who had this, you know, beautiful , glossy entertainment, you know, show business ertainment cool thing happening that was kind of perfect. And then you had Dave , which, you know, made fun of that and showed all the scenes of it and was a whole different kind of beautiful thing . And then I think you had John Stewart who before Trump began doing comedy that was about something. You know, he had a point of view and it was often political and it was trenchant and it was kind of like, you know , Andy Rooney , but you know, a cool modern version of Andy Rooney. Yeah. Maybe he's becoming more like Andy Rooney now, I don't know in his old age. Jon Stewart. Yeah. I mean, mean, I'm a huge a huge admirer of his . And I think that kind of took it in that direction. And then you have, you know, Kimmel, Colbert , you have people that didn't do that. Conan is not overly political, Jimmy Fallon, not overly political , great hosts, both Seph Myers, yes, political . So you have people that are doing comedy about something. We never did. You know, we were always , you know, I remember writing jokes. Literally, it was like, Oh, Clinton eats too many french fries. I mean, that's literally was as much as it went . And to answer your question , yes , I am glad that we got off the air before Trump came in because I don't know how you do anything else but that and I don't know how you just keep doing that over and over again . I admire the hosts because they do it and they do a great job . And I think they're really funny about it . I don't think it would be a personal strength of mine. And I'm just happy that I would not have to be making that decision day in and day out. How much Trump? How much Trump? Oh is it enough Trump? The other thing that's very hard about Trump from a comedy standpoint, to me , is that he is a punchline. He's his own punchline. Like literally , he does actual things that you would write as jokes. Like honest to God, if I were tasked with writing a top ten list and when the old top ten lists that we used to do, and let's say the top ten list that we were doing was, you know, what are the top ten things a twelve year old would do if they were became president , you might put on that list, I'm going to invade Greenland. Like literally, that's what it is. So I don't know how you add anything to this. It's just sort of like, hey , guys, look what he did today, you know? So I don't know. It's not an easy comedy task. Yeah, and I think, you know, I think Dave would have been up to it always and he has clearly has political opinions of his own as well . You know, Colbert made this very gracious exit, I would say. People kept wondering, is he gonna go scorched Earth? Is he gonna really burn it down kind of the way Conan did in some ways in his final shows not in a different way . He was going after the network and Jay Leno and all that . How do you think if Dave was in the same situation as Colbert getting fired, getting having the show canceled, how do you think he would have handled that similar situation? I don't know the answer to that question. It's a great question and I don't know the answer. My instinct is that Dave would probably go in the direction of Colbert in this case . I think he would say his peace. I mean no one's ever accused Dave of not speaking his mind of being shy. Yes. And Dave is very good at it and very eloquent about it. And I think he would have made that point over time very well, but my sense is that he would go he's also very classy. So you put those two things together and you have a little bit of a battle on your hands. The interesting thing about today's world is that I think they picked the wrong fight. You know, we're not done hearing from Stephen Colbert. There's too many ways for us to hear from Stephen Colbert. That guy is just too good to fail. You know, he's too good to be sil enced. So they can silence him . This I will predict right now will be the biggest blessing to ever happen to Stephen Colbert because it will unleash him from a somewhat antiquated form and God knows what this will emerge as so I'm eager to see what he does. So now let's switch gears and talk about this whole other career that you've had since leaving Letterman even before. And I just got to see your new film in Memorium, which premiered at the Tribecca Film Festival. I was kind of in the tank for this movie already. I have to tell you because I'm a big Mark Marin fan, and I'd been hearing about it so much over the years as I'm sure you know he talked about his experience as he was being cast in it and filming it and everything on his podcast . One I'm wondering if you tried to convince him to keep the podcast going so he could keep promoting this film as much as he was before it was out. I didn't. I was an idiot. I should have. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't. The movie has such a great premise, but I thought maybe I'd have you describe it to people because not many people have been able to see it yet because it just has been at the festival and I know not sure where it's going to end up yet, but can you describe the idea behind this movie and maybe where that idea came from? Yeah, the premise of the movie is Mark plays very narcissistic and vain and shallow actor who has lived a very shallow, vain, narcissistic life. He's had, you know, a bunch of w ives, he has a daughter, he's never met. We kind of know this. He's dating the yoga instructor, the thirty five year old yoga. We know this guy in show business . And his backstory is that he had a huge career when he was in his twenties who kind of was on his way to becoming a big movie star and then kind of sold out and took a sitcom and it all kind of took a right turn . And out of the blue at the beginning of the movie is not a spoiler because it happens right away . He finds out that out of the blue that he has six months to live. He has cancer, he has six months to live. And this maniac all he cares about is whether or not he's gonna make it into the Academy Awards in Memorial Montage . And his career is kind of on the line. Like he did some great film work, but it was a long time ago . And so he goes off to try to pursue this very false idol. Yeah, there is this sort of fascination with the immemorium montage that I feel like has developed over the years. People are just more interested in it. And the snubs are a big thing. I know you referenced that in the film . When you were doing that, was there is there a sort of most egregious snub that you came across? You can't believe the person was left out . Well, there's a whole scene in the movie where someone makes a presentation and I actually deliberately poured over all of the snubs and put them all up there so people could see them. I think there's a Paul Sorvino comes to mind. I don't understand how that guy doesn't get in. There's there's a lot on that on that flashing names on that in that scene all of them feel like they should get in to meet, but I guess you never, you never know. Here's a here 's an interesting fact that I have told no one and I'll tell you is that there is a reference in the movie to an in memorium montage that we actually used two real people that should have been in the in memorium and didn't get in. So they got, you know what I mean? So they're referred to in R in an A Mremmorial Bonte. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know , in terms of why you decided to write this movie, was there was there something that happened in your life that inspired it or, you know, I hope you're not you're not dying of cancer or anything, but was it something that you were thinking about of your own legacy and all that? If I were dying of cancer, this would be a fantastic way to find out. This is like you spray it on me like you talk to my doctors. You're like, Hey, by the way , you know, it's funny. This had a bit of a long gestation period. At one point, so as you mentioned the intro, yes, we managed to scrape together five mmys from my letterman d ays. And all of my Emmys, the minute you get them, they're ridiculous. You don't know where to put them. So they all go down to Florida, go right to my parents' house, and it's perfect because they display them in some kind of weird display case that like you walked and you just see all the Emmys. And for some reason, one of them ended up in my son's bedroom . I don't know why. Maybe he asked for it. And so it was literally up on his shelves by, you know, his hockey trophies , you know, like it was kind of funny. And one day it was a Sunday morning. I still remember it. I was making pancakes for my family. I have two daughters , my wife, Charlie, my son , and it's a Sunday morning. It's a very familial day. And all of a sudden my son comes down, his face is white as a ghost. He's eight years old at the time. And he's holding the Emmy. It is shattered into like a hundred pieces. He's dropped it. He can barely hold onto all the pieces. And he's got this face of just absolute fear that the worst thing in the world has happened. I guess for him in his world, maybe he saw me on TV, you know, accepting this award. I just felt I just felt very important to him. And I just remember this moment where I looked at him, this cutest little face, and I smelled the pancakes and I see my girls and I see my wife. And I just think, this trophy is the least thing. I will never remember this trophy. I'll remember that face and everything else going on in this room forever . And for me , I'm such a boring person in that sometimes when I write, I have to kind of imagine the opposite of me. So I started thinking, well, what if I didn't have that reaction? And what if I all I wanted was an Emmy and I didn't have one ? And actually a little piece of this that I haven't been telling people because it starts to get long, but I'll tell it quickly what happened actually was as we were leaving the late show , I was packing up my office . It was the last day or maybe the day before . And you can imagine the show business detritus that ends up in your office after , you know all, of these years . And I had the Emmy shattered in there. I guess we had brought it in and my assistant was going to get it fixed or whatever. We never got around to it. And in this process of this legacy, of just feeling , you know, we're walking out of here. Will anyone ever see this show? Will everyone ever remember this show? And then I see the Emmy. And then I think of my son's face for some reason. And I can't swear that it was at that exact moment, but the concept of legacy was really within me and then it sort of at some point morphed into, well, what is the biggest symbol of legacy in show business? And I think it might be the immemorial montage and then I just had this flash of a funny idea that he would do that . And then it really became a movie for me from a kind of a clever sketch when I figured out a way to kind of layer in a relationship with his daughter played by the ridiculously talented Talia Rider . She's she's she's something like I've I've never really quite seene as an actress. She's just I'm you're just watching her and you're like, oh yeah, there's well there's a there's a movie star in waiting people I'm not sure I'd seen her before but yeah she really stood out to me in the movie with lot of a incred ible actors that you have in it, she really delivers an incredible performance and her chemistry with Mark as the father figure is really great too. Yeah, she is terrific. I had seen her. She was my first and only choice for that rope because once I got Mark , I knew that that character was going to be extraordinarily important to the piece. And I had seen Talia in sometimes rarely , always never rarely, sometimes oh, it's so hard . She was a kid in that. I mean, she's still a kid, but she was really young, but I was like, who is this actress? She's just unbelievable. And then I went and watched all of her work and I thought, Oh, I'm not going to be able to get her. She's too good for me . And I kind of begged and pleaded with her agent, but she responded to the script and did it. I was just beside myself with joy. And in terms of their chemistry, it's really funny. We had a little table read, a very informal table read at my producer, Nicki Weinstock's house. It was the first time I got to hear the script and they were just reading. They weren't even really acting she was so good in this table read that we almost were all starting to cry. And we went out to dinner and it was a small dinner. The cast hadn't been said yet, but Michael McKean was there. I'm talking to Michael McCain. I looked down at the other end of the table and I see Mark and Talia I sat them together because I wanted them to start to get to know each other and I saw Mark and Talia talking and I couldn't hear what they were saying, but the body language was so telling because I just looked at they're so different. You know, Mark is this middle aged Jewish neurotic comedian. I'm not speaking behind his back. He says that himself all the time. And she is the sweetest most, emotive, just I don't know, they're just different humans . And when I was watching them speak, I realized, oh , Mark can't be fully himself around this girl.' Hes's he got to kind of navigate this girl and that's kind of the movie, you know, so when I saw that, I thought, I think we got a chance at something . In terms of landing on Mark Marin for the lead role, I think this is his first lead ing role in a movie. I mean, he's done a lot of acting at this point, but what was it about him? Did you have a relationship? Because I mean, a lot of people have a parasocial relationship with him, including me from listening to his podcast for so long. Was he someone that you had that connection with? Did you know him? How did you know that he would be perfect for this? Well, one tidbit that love saying is that when I became executive producer of the Late Show in nineteen ninety six , Mark Mark Marin was the first comedian that I booked on the show. Yeah. It's a little bit overstated because it was really Zoe Friedman, who is our great comedy booker. And when I got there, I said, Zoe , which comics have you been trying to get on the show and you can't get on the show ? She brought me a big stack of tapes and Mark was in there. I go, that guy, let's book that guy and he came out and he crushed . So that was great. And then we decided thirty years later we would do a movie together and he's a man of his word. No, forget ting it. No, he's so good in this. He so embodies this character. This character is so perfect for him that I made a mistake early on in this in the press process by not just lying and say that I wrote it for him because I could have completely gotten away with that. I did not write it for him . But when his name came up, when my producer Nicki Weinstock came to me and said, Hey, I had a meeting with somebody and they thought maybe this would be good for her. What do you think about Mark Marin? I literally said yes before the run of Marin. The minute he said it, I'm like, Oh my God, yes. Why did I not think of Mark? I yes, I listen to his podcast. I love his stand up . He's perfect for this. And by the way, I'd seen him act . I'd see him in glow. Yeah, great, but but I I really loved him in two leslie that he had a that small party had there. I thought, oh, this guy this guy's got it and he's, you know , it's interesting as an actor , you know, he's done , I don't know, sixteen hundred or so hours of the podcast. That's a guy listening, right for sixteen hundred hours. You know, that podcast is driven by him listening and you can see how you can he feel how he's list ening and that allows him to make those interviews so incredibly trenchant, you know . So you have that. And then you have a comedian who has a clear understanding of behavior al nuance of everything in, you know , just a beautiful dissection of humanity. So you put those two things together and then there's only one step left, which is can that guy who has all those tools access his emotions and access his emotions honestly in order to perform this. And boy, oh boy , did he ever, you know? I mean, it was just it was fantastic . It was it was it was beautiful to watch. It was he was easy to direct . I did not have to overdirect him. He and I saw it the same way . He was he was terrific and a lot of it I, think was playing off the other people. You know, Talia is so strong . It enables them to have that chemistry. But Lily Gladstone, my goodness, how good is she? Sharon Stone, Juni Greer. I mean, it's like it's like a murderer's row of actresses around him. Michael McKean, I mean, forget about it. So and he stood right with every single one of them. I was really proud of him. Yeah, you know, without spoiling too much, the movie kind of builds to this major scene with Sharon Stone , who does one great scene in the movie. And I had of course heard Mark talk about how he was nervous about this scene , you know, on his podcast so long ago and then getting to see it. And now Sharon Stone has talked a little bit about what it took to be in that scene with Mark and how she kind of she kind of described it as becoming the director of that moment and directing him. I wanted to know you as the director what that was like to kind of have Sharon Stone there, you know, take the reins a little bit. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's accurate. I could not say enough good things about Sharon She's an amazing actress, number one , to watch her work is incredible. And what you get from her is she reminds me of an Olympic skier going down a sl alom course where the gates have been set in some desperately position. It's not an easy scene that she's in, by the way, from an acting standpoint . There's a lot going on there . And she just is here, and you're like, oh, how's she gonna get all the way over there? And oh my god, she did it. And she's making decisions, she's just very smart. She's just making decisions every single moment. And yeah, this scene was a little bit terrifying, honestly, on the day we rehearsed it . It was not going well . The two of them weren't they were finding it, but they definitely not found it. And it was a long morning before lunch. I was in my head already thinking is there for me to cut this seam can I cut this way down to make it something different? I was almost starting to give up on it . I knew Mark was struggling a little bit. I think being with Sharon . And I did say a couple of things to Mark , but Sharon really I think got him where he needed to be. She absolutely deserves the credit for that. I was very pleased . I saw them kind of talking. I heard what they were saying, I kind of stayed back and let that happen . And it really worked. And not only that, and I've said this to Sharon, I think that was the fourth day of shooting . And I actually think that the fact that they got that and got it so well helped mark the rest of the way. I think actually Sharon had a positive impact on the whole rest of the movie because we had some very important scenes to do on the next day, which is really kind of what I was thinking about almost more . And that was just the residual , you know, it's the residual glow of having Sharon Stone in your movie. It was unexpected and she yeah, all respect and kudos. She's she's phenomenal. Yeah . Well, you mentioned the movie to Leslie, which had this kind of long shot Oscar campaign for Andrea Riseborough. And now I'm wondering if there might be something similar that could happen for Mark Marin that would kind of echo the themes of the film too, you know, this campaigning to get in the in memorium could be could translate to campaigning to get him an Oscar nomination. What do you think? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. This is the first Oscar buzz I've heard. Fantastic. Trying to get it going. I love it . be cle Taro just to, own this certainty , I wrote a movie about how professional legacy isn't important in order to try to secure my own professional legacy. I have a complete fraud , right? So no, I look, I think anything that's out there for actors , everybody in this cast deserves. I can tell you from my standpoint as a director , I think Otto Preminger, I may have it wrong. I think Autremo Cinger said that directing is ninety five percent casting. There's nothing more true than that. You get these people in your movie , especially on the schedule that we had to shoot this on. I'm just sitting back kind of calling balls and strikes and they're mostly strikes . Really, a monkey could have directed this movie. Well, now what I want to do is before we go is a little run through some questions that are sort of like career reflection. So going all the way back , you started as an intern for David Letterman in nineteen eighty five, I believe. Yes. What are your memories from the very first time you met Letterman? is This this is actually great. The first time that I met him , his assistant, Lori Diamond at the time called me in . I wasn't an intern anymore, I don't think. I may have been. I may have been an intern, I might I got hired very quickly there. I was sort of the right place there. It doesn't really matter. Very early days. My first meeting with Dave, I'm a kid. I'm twenty two, twenty three years old . I get called into his office , you know, I'm trying to hold it together because it's freaking David Letterman. And Lori Diamond has asked me to go and go to a store to pick up some cigars for him. I mean, how classic? How beautiful is this? So great. So they give me a big wad of money and I go to do it and I go pick up these cigars. And it turns out that the cigars cost like four dollars more than the money that I had been given . So I pulled out four dollars and bought the cigars and I come back and the whole way back I'm like, what am I going? What am I gonna do here? I can't, am I gonna ask this guy for four dollars? I don't know. And you know, your twenty three year old mind does not know how to process this moment in your life. And I'm sure yeah, four dollars was a lot then too. Yeah. Four dollars is a lot of money. But at the same time, am I gonna ask this guy for four dollars? So I come back and I return the cigars and then I realize if I don't ask for anything , it looks like I kept the change . So then I pull out three more dollars and say, here's your change. So I added three dollars to the mix. So my first meeting with David Letterman cost me seven dollars , but it worked out. Yeah, you think it yeah, paid off. It all paid off. It was the best seven dollars I ever invent ever invested. Yeah, you didn't ask him for the seven dollars on the last day of the late show . I shit with interest. What was I thinking? Yeah . Is there anything that's still on your career bucket list, something that you really have always wanted to do that you haven't been able to do yet? I think I'm doing it now. You know, I love writing and directing movies . The hard thing about it is that it just took me so long to get from my last film to this film. I was working steadily during this time . You know, writing I had a couple of big projects. They don't go. It's just what the show business is. It's kind of like planting crops. It's fine . But I would like to find a way to kind of not now have to wait another seven, eight, nine years to do another movie because I don't know if you've noticed, I'm not twenty two anymore . But these things just they take a while. You know, they take they're hard to write, at least for me. I wish they were easier. They're not . And then you've got to get financing and casting and all kinds of stuff. But I would like to get you a place where I could here's the thing I would like to do. The shorter answer is I would like to get to a place where I direct someone else's material that I don't have to generate everything else that I write . But I, you I know, love there is nothing that makes me happier than than being on a movie set directing. It's the it's the moment , you know, that I feel kind of the most connected to life, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Not to put that above my family, which is sort of what the movie's about . I mean, my family moments are amazing . And I have a super close relationship with all of my family, but this movie was the best of all worlds because my daughter, Lucy was my associate producer and also plays Sharon's assistant in the movie. My son, Charlie was a PA and also I wrote him this gorgeous little thing in the movie where he's a clapboard operator. And if you notice it, you know, he walks by and Talia checks him out, kind of like looks at him like he's hot. So I'm just like, You got that for the rest of your life, my friend. And my daughter, Sidney, who works for the great Jimmy Fallon , she came out and she couldn't work on the movie because she was working for Jimmy, but she came out for a couple of weeks of vacation . She was there as well and my wife was there. So it was the best of everything for me. Yeah . There's a saying that you should never meet your heroes. And I'm wondering if you have a story that either proves that right or wrong ? Well, I'll tell you the one that's relevant to today and it's not you never should meet your heroes . Hold on, I'm going to pull this up. You can head it out the distance here,or sryorry, s,or sry , Shanette. Okay . So all right , this is the perfect question. Never meet your heroes. So they had a director's lunch. They have this at Tribecca and it's it' as beautiful event because it's just directors . You have to have a director to film in the festival. There are no reps, no press, no nothing. It's just the people . And it's really nice. And I've made some friends here this, Australian woman named Yale who has a movie here. We've become friends. And this other woman Maria Sophia is here that has a short and it's really great. You know, it's just like minded people from all different points of view and Jane Rosenthal speaks and Robert De Niro speaks and it's really crazy. And at one point I'm standing and I look and Robert Deiro is really close to me. And now my brain is just exploding. So I'm just like, oh my goodness, I'm like, Actually, I could actually go over. I'm like, it's set up. I'm here , but I don't want to bother the guy. And then to your point, I go , what if he's horrible? I don't want that. I don't want him to be horrible because this guy, you know, for every person in that room , you know, taxi, no, I shouldn't say for every person in the world, for someone my age in that room, taxi driver , the deer hunter, these were formative films. I mean, it's partly why we're in that room is because of that guy doing that stuff. And then he invents this festival and now I have a film in that festival and now he's standing five feet away. The whole thing is just like, oh my god, so I'm not a very aggressive kind of person this way. So I just like I can,'t do it. So I take a step away. And then another part of my brain goes, you just have to do this. You're at Tribecca, this is the full experience. You got to do it. And I'm just like, please don't be horrible, Robert De Niro, please don't be horrible. And I walked up and I just I began just thanking the man like a maniac and mister Niro, thank you so much and blah blah blah blah film and the movie did it in the festal. And he could not have been lovelier. He was so nice. He got it. I think he just got it. He and it's a hard thing to get, but he understands not in a modest way , he gets what he is. He understands what this what he means to me and everyone in that room and not to mention millions beyond . And then I don't know if I'm allowed to do this, but I'm just doing it. I got this . So I feel like no matter what happens for the rest of the way, I won Tribecac. This is it. I did it. I got it I landed the whale. I mean, this is it. It's over. Done. Okay, I said no one buys the movie. I don't care. I got this. Come on . That's great. Well, this is usually the part of the interview where I plug where people can see the movie. I don't think people can see the movie quite yet, but I hope that they will be able to soon because it's a really great film and congratulations on it. Thank you so much. It's been a great week. The premier played so nicely on Sunday night. It was scary because we had never shown the movie to an audience before. It was the first time. I was nauseous all day, but the movie played great, and then we showed it again yesterday at another big screening and the movie's just playing so nicely. People have been so kind to me coming up to me after sobbing say you know, it's it's it's been it's just been it's just been a dream so far. So yes , hopefully someone will write a check or the dream, I guess, will become a little bit nightmarish. Although I still got this, I'll sell this to my investors. Guys, I know you lost all your money, but I got a picture with my Robert Niro . Well, we started the Oscar Buzz too, so that'll help. Thank you. Appreciate that. Tell your friends. Robert , thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Alright, that was so much fun. Thank you so much to Rob Burnett again for talking with me today. It was so great to hear all of those great letterman stories. And yeah, I really can't wait for everyone else to see this great movie in Memorium, wherever it ends up. Please, if you're enjoying this show , follow us on YouTube, subscribe to our YouTube channel at the Obsessed Channel. You can also follow us on Instagram at Beast Obsessed and check out this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast. Leave us a comment, a review, a rating. Let us know what you think of the show. We really do want to hear from you. Thanks to our producer, Rachel Passer, and we'll be back with an all new episode of Obsessed Pod to thecast very soon . This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. 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