Jay Chandrasekhar: Movie Stars Don't Wear Hats
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Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Jay, how are you, man? I'm doing well, Rob. I'm doing so well. I'm so happy to see you. I'm always taken aback when you don't have your facial hair. ♪

Hey, everybody. It's me, Robbie Lowe.

This is literally. And today is Jay Chandasekar, the creator of Broken Lizard, the amazing improv comedy movie making troupe. Super Troopers is their probably their biggest, funniest one. And I'm in the second Super Troopers ever made. He's also a great director, just has a movie coming out with Steven Spielberg that he made, directed me a bunch in The Grinder, R.I.P. The Grinder.

Gone Before It's Time. And, you know, he's directed New Girl, Arrested Development, Goldberg. Just a really funny comedy mind and a great dude. So let's get started. Did you ever just think when you do the Super Trooper stuff that just wear a fake mustache? You can take it off after work. Well, the problem is that, you know, fake mustaches are very difficult to crack jokes in.

And, you know, when you see like, you know, an aging comedic female and male, I suppose, actress who's got like, who's frozen this part of their face, the jokes don't land quite as well. And so with a mustache, you need to have this sort of lateral move up and down in order to really, and you can't smile very much because the glue pops. It's so true. It's like whenever I've played,

a character wearing any, you know, facial hair that was like added on all of a sudden my mouth looks different, which I kind of for drama. I like, it makes me speak differently. But if you're, you know, if you've got a smile or laugh, it's like definitely crack, crack, crackly crack. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. That's why, you know, that's why there's no jokes in civil war movies. Did you know that? That's, that's why there's a lot of fake, the hall of fame of, of fake, uh,

Did you ever see the beard Martin Sheen is wearing in Gettysburg? Yeah. He literally has like a marmoset attached to his lower, to his mandible. Mandible, whatever they were jawbone. Yeah. I mean, look, there's some incredible, like they put beards on in pieces to try to preserve the ability to move your face. But you're right. There are no jokes in those Civil War movies.

I will also tell you this, that the entire fake hair, mustache, and beard trade is run by the Russian mob. No. That you can't get a really good mustache or beard without going through the people who furnish those beards, which is the Russian mob in show business. So before – and I'm assuming the way that goes down is –

First, you have to buy a ton of drugs to gain their trust. And then when you've worked your way through the easy shit, then you get a fake mustache. Let us fit you for mustache now. Yeah, I've also worn wigs where they're like, this is real human hair. I'm like, ew.

I'm supposed to feel good about that? Yeah. You know, the hair in a lot of wigs comes from, they always said it comes from Indian hair because it has a certain thickness and quality to it. And look, you know, Indians have, we invented yoga, we invented tantric sex, chess, but, you know, we take our pride where we get it. When I heard about the Indian hair, I was like, how about that?

You've just named some of the Mount Rushmores of what I've based my life on. Tantric sex, yoga, chess not so much. Yeah, well. But circling back, tantric sex. Okay, is there an equivalent of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Is there one? There probably is, but I just don't really know it. Like the Indians in Bollywood, I mean, they make more movies than Hollywood does. I mean, that's like the center of movie making around the world is Bollywood. Yeah.

And so they're pretty cocky about it. Like they, you know, they, I have two things to say about that question. Well, the first one I'll say is this.

I consider myself, even though no one else says it yet, that I'm the Indian Jackie Robinson of comedy in America. Because when I was starting, there were no Indian comics. If you wanted an Indian guy in your movie, you put Fisher Stevens into brownface and put him in the movie in short circuit. Or Peter Sellers, who, by the way, I think did a great job in that movie, The Party.

You know, my dad, when he saw, he told me, he goes, Jay, you have to see Short Circuit. And I'm like, I'm like, why? And he goes, there's an Indian in it. I'm like, dad, that's not an Indian. He goes, well, it's as close as we'll get. And I'm like, you watch me, pal. But, you know, like the Indian Hall of Fame, you know, I had...

lunch with a with the an Indian famous Indian actor who was called the the Arnold Schwarzenegger meets Dustin Hoffman of India right and he came over uh because he wanted to according to him he wanted to make a Bollywood movie Hollywood style and I was like yeah man yeah I'm your guy and so we were talking about movies and I'm like you know

What American stars do you love over here? You know, like who's who's, you know, and he goes, well, I said, well, do you love Brad Pitt? He goes, no. And I said, I said, what about Gwyneth Paltrow? He goes, no, no, no. We love Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. And I was like, is it because their skin is sort of brown? He goes, of course.

And I was like, oh, that's it. People like seeing themselves. You know, that's just he didn't couldn't care for any of the blonde ones we had here. By the way, you're coming to direct my new show on Netflix. I'm so excited. We'll talk about that. But can you please direct me in your father's voice? Because I find it very inspiring. And action. I will happily do that. It's both wise and.

And funny, right? Like, you know, like I, if the acting thing didn't work out, you know, I could have easily gone into the whole, uh, sex cult in Oregon thing. I feel, um, because, you know, for some reason, Americans love it when Indians tell them the way it is. Uh,

And the accent, the accent is. Tell me the way it is, please. My mother once, you know, it was, it was, we were in Chicago and I was at my apartment in Chicago. My mom came to visit me and it was raining. We were going out to lunch and I had a couple umbrellas and I, and I offer her an umbrella and she goes, we don't use umbrellas because the rain is as good as the sun. And I'm like, wow.

So wait, we're going outside without the umbrellas? And she goes, our family doesn't use them. And I was like, I can't believe, first of all, that I've missed this. And second of all, let's go. And we just would get rained on from then on.

But it's so beautiful. It's true. You can't argue with it. It's irrefutable. It is beautiful. I would argue that the rain is more beautiful than the sun. Yeah. I prefer it, too. That's amazing. What's happening with the Broken Lizard Gang? How's everybody? What's going on? Everyone's good. I mean, you know, that movie we made together, Super Troopers 2, really...

You know, put an extra dose of adrenaline into Broken Lizard. We were still chugging along with that movie. You know, it really did well for us. It did. It did well. We haven't done a real post-mortem since that, really, because we've both been so busy. But, I mean, as you know, I had a blast in Super Troopers 2. I tell everybody, when everybody says, you know, what's Jay like as a director or whatever, or what was that like? I always tell them the story about...

the time I came to the set and you were, you came up very solemnly to me. You greeted me at the car before I even could get out of the car. And I was like, Oh, something is up. Are we not shooting today? Is somebody sick or something? And you said, Hey, um, so, so the guys and I were wondering, and listen, if you're at all uncomfortable, you, you don't, you know, this is not a thing, but I, but I do want to run it by you. Um,

So we thought somebody would take out a fake penis and maybe you would box it like a speed bag. And I was like, fuck yeah. Yes, I'll be doing that. Do you remember that? I do. And I, you said yes before I even could explain the context. And I was like, you know, that's a great thing about you, Rob. And then I was saying to my wife yesterday that I'm going to be on literally. And, um,

She's like, well, literally is the word that turned Rob Lowe into a comedian. And I said, well, what about Wayne's World? And she goes, yeah, that's true, too. And I said, you know, my favorite thing about this is that I always describe Rob as a comedian trapped in a leading man's body. And he's willing, you are willing to go where the joke was. At that moment, when you agreed to speedbag that fake dick, I was like, exactly, exactly. Exactly.

By the way, I take... If my wife... She won't do this, I don't think. But I wish... If she put that on my tombstone, he was a comedian trapped in a leading man body, I would be so happy. I take it as the highest compliment. And then we also had a blast with the Halifax explosion bit. Now, am I...

misremembering, is Blinded by the Light in the end credits of the movie? Blinded by the Light is in the end credits of the film. And you reached out to Bruce Springsteen and got us the rights for that song. Can I tell you something? I've been reaching out to Bruce to be on the show. I know Bruce. I've seen him all over the world. I know his family. He's a very tough get. I had not really done the math that that is exactly what...

He must be a huge fan of yours. Clearly not mine, but of yours and Super Troopers. I mean, that's in the canon of Springsteen, Blinded by the Light. Particularly when I butcher the lyrics the way I do in that. Yeah, you butcher the lyrics, but before you butchered the lyrics, Manfred Mann butchered the lyrics and really had quite a hit with the remake of it. So the legend goes that Bruce is upset about the way Manfred Mann pronounced certain lines like...

wrapped up like a douche, another roaner in the night. And he's like, I'm not saying douche. And that's supposedly the thing. So I'm like, we're never going to get it, but maybe Rob can get, maybe, you know, and somehow we got the word, we got it. I'm like, incredible. That's incredible. It's so important to the film too. How did we come up with the fact that my character thought that blinded by the light was written about the Halifax explosion? Well, it's, it's a classic case of, of,

comedians working together. It was a kerfuffle and the prime minister of Nova Scotia was like furious that we were making fun of it, which we weren't.

Comedy plus tragedy equals time, right? So this thing happened in the early 1900s. I think we've got to be able to make— It happened before the—I'll put it this way. It happened before the Titanic sank. Exactly. And though I don't have any Titanic jokes, you know, I've heard a couple. We'd tell them if we did. Yeah, so the Halifax explosion. There's a shipment of, like—

Fireworks coming in to the... Oh, it's even more gnarly than that. Tell me, tell me. It is heavy artillery and ammunition and bullets and dynamite for the front of the war in Europe. And it's been in the papers. Ammunition ship to arrive. We prepare for the ammunition ship. More explosives than have ever been transported.

And Halifax Bay is the biggest base, first or second biggest bay in the world, in the world. Massive. And they found out a way to have a head on collision with the ammunition ship in the world's biggest bay.

But you can describe the way I think it went down. Well, this ship was coming in and another ship was going out to meet it to, I guess, take some of the people off and bring them in. Not sure. So the two boats were coming together. And as you told me,

captain of the boat that's coming out to pick up the passengers and the captain of the boat with the ammunition, they couldn't decide which way to go. And the boat with the passengers is like, well, maybe I'll go right. And then he saw the ammunition boat going left. He goes, oh, geez, maybe I should go left. And then the

The ammunition boat was like, oh, he's going left, I should go right. And eventually they ended up crashing into each other and creating friction, which caused sparks, which lit the ammunition boat on fire. At this point, all the people of the town come over to the shore to go, hey, there's a boat fire, let's watch that. Little do they know that when that thing blows up, it is the biggest explosion on earth ever.

prior to Hiroshima. Yes. And it wipes out everybody on the shore. Of course, everybody on the boat too, but... That's right. And in the movie, you say, they were blinded by the light, like the song says. Well, there's a little bit of truth to it. Halifax had...

The very first ocular, I'm not a doctor, but eye technology, eye clinic in the world because of so many eye injuries from the Halifax explosion. Brutal.

So it's obviously stipulated tragedy, but it did make it into our movie. Yeah, and you told me that story when I asked you to be in the film, and you said, this is the funny thing about Canadians, da-da-da. No relation to the movie, just the story. And I was like, that's a great story. So Broken Legend and I, we wrote this into your intro in the movie, and then...

You know, we showed it to you and, you know, you had that line blinded by the light. And so we put that in the movie. We're like, well, now we should maybe try to get the song and pretend he thinks that the song is about the Halifax explosion. And then we kind of work together. The absurdity. It's my favorite type of comedy. It's like it's a it's a little bit rough. It's a little bit. Oh, my God, I can't believe they went there with.

an amazing amount of stupidity. Yeah. Like, I love playing a stupid dolt. It's the greatest. It's the greatest thing ever, don't you think? I think so, too. I mean, I think so, too. And, but you have to be a stupid dolt who's somewhat competent. ♪

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I really love that character. And you had those fake teeth and, you know, like there's no vanity for you at all. You pull out these fake teeth and all these mangled suckers from a hockey fight and everything.

It's a really, you know, Guy Lafranc is a really, really great character. Guy Lafranc, it's such a good name. It's such a, well, guys, if you're out there, guys and gals, if you haven't seen Super Troopers 2, you truly must. And a great thing about that movie as well is a lot of it was financed by the fans, correct? 50,000 people on Indiegogo pitched in and financed, I'd say, about over half of the movie.

I think Top Gun was made that way. They were like, have you seen Top Gun yet?

I am dying to see it. Haven't seen it. I'm so psyched. I'm so happy for Tom that people are going crazy. And I'm, I just love it. Cause if I see one more movie where somebody in like spandex drops down from the frame and hits the ground in that pose and then throws their arm out and somebody gets ejected on a ratchet, I'm going to puke. I will. I mean, I have so done.

with these, with these great actors in, in tights flying around. I'm done. I've been done for a while, but I'm just really done. I haven't, I haven't seen any movie that falls under that umbrella. Um, since guardians and guardians isn't one of those movies, guardians of the galaxy guardians. Isn't my, my, my friend Pratt and, uh, and James Gunn, um, who are both friends and so, so great. Um,

Yeah, I don't get it. I really, I love Downey in Iron Man. Sure, love him. Love him. I loved Captain Jack Sparrow. You know, Captain Jack Sparrow, I tell everybody, I believe, and I'm not kidding, and I don't believe this is hyperbole, and this is a hill I will die on, is the single greatest acting choice an actor has ever made in the history of performance, ever.

Because what you have to imagine is you're Johnny Depp. You love doing indie weirdo movies. Some of them work. Most of them don't. And at a certain point, that kind of well is going to run dry. You've got to do something for the people. And Disney comes around and offers him...

It's hard to remember now because Pirates of the Caribbean has become such a thing in our lexicon, but it was a movie based on an amusement park ride. That's right. And there had been the Haunted Mansion before that. And people were like, I don't know. And the first one was disaster. So they give him Pirates of the Caribbean. He says he'll do it.

It's high pressure. He's never done a big studio movie. It's all of the like big wig, powerful Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer, the gatekeepers of, you know, mass success. And it's written like, you know, Prince of Persia, like what Jake Gyllenhaal did in that good looking, sure. Bare chested, you know, handsome swinging from vines or whatever the fuck. And Johnny's like, hold my beer and comes up with Captain Jack Sparrow.

And they must have, why no, they flipped their lid. They're like, is he drunk? What is he doing? We got to fire this guy. They wanted gorgeous, chiseled, bare chested, leading man, you know, bravado, Johnny Depp. And they got that. I'm telling you right now, it's the greatest choice in the history of acting. It's such a great way to frame it.

Because I remember when he agreed to do that, I was like, I hope that fails. And it's not like they were doing Space Mountain, which you're like, at least that's thrilling. I mean, the Pirates of the Caribbean, you're like, it's for second graders and it's spooky for them, but this is not going to work. And I remember seeing it and I'm like, this is...

And the only reason it's not as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark is because that it's based on a kid's ride. If it were not, if it were original, you'd go, sort of as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark. I know that's high praise, but I'll die on that hill. Oh, it's unbelievable. Because I know you so well, I didn't do any prep for this interview. I'm just saying that. Well, first of all, we need to talk about...

Broken Lizard and the movie you made with our dear old friend Bill Paxton, who's passed away and who we love so much, Club Dread. First of all, Club Dread, where did you film it again?

We were looking for a resort, like an island-looking resort, and we ended up scouting the west coast of Mexico, south of Puerto Vallarta. There's a place called El Tamarindo, which at the time was the only six-star resort in Mexico. It was built supposedly by Vicente Fox for only his family. And the security was very difficult to get to the resort because you drive –

down a road and then you'd enter a gate and then it was 30 minutes through the jungle. And then there was the resort where there were 30 cabanas all in the ocean. We took over the whole thing. It was during hurricane season. Uh,

uh, and then hurricane never came that year. Uh, and so we had all 30 cabanas and each one had its own plunge pool. Bill, who's two cabanas down, we're on the ocean. We were there for four months and four months. Yeah. It was, yeah. Cause we were prepping it. I mean, it was the greatest film shoot and I've been on a lot of great film shoots, the greatest film shoot I've ever been on. And if you ask everybody in the cast, they go, yeah, club trip, club trips. The

I know that area a little bit. It's one of the most beautiful areas on the planet. Yeah, we had 36 holes of championship golf. And whenever I played, I was the only person playing in barefoot. Like it was, it was on the ocean. It was magical. And Bill...

You know, Bill was playing Jimmy Buffett in that movie. And it's amazing. You know, he was a big star. And suddenly this big stars in a broken lizard movie. And we're like, what's he going to be like? And he was the coolest, greatest guy. And he was, you know, some of it, I think in his mind, he was trying to be in character. So he was like,

you know, he was just partaking and just, you know, just enjoying life. And, you know, every day when we finished shooting and we were shooting on film. So when the sun got to a certain level, you couldn't really shoot anymore. We'd be on the beach and we're like, all right, we're wrapped. And the whole crew and cast would strip down to their bathing suits and go into the water for an hour. And Bill would be out there, you know, on a little raft going,

And we just had a ball. I mean, we just had a ball. Let's make that part two. Let's do... I want to strip and run into the water at wrap. I mean, you just prepped lunch. At lunch, you put a bathing suit on under your things, and then everybody was ready. All the girls had bikinis on. They're like, let's go! And, you know, the problem with Club Dread 2 is that...

90% of Broken Lizard was killed brutally in that movie. And so it would have to be like Ghosts or possibly a prequel to Club Dread where we're all somehow older and nothing, no, there's no conflict. But you know, maybe. Listen, they made a movie about a theme park ride. We can make a movie about this. That's such a good point. And you know, I was thinking about today,

And, uh, and, and your Bill Paxton, uh, imitation. And I was actually telling a friend of mine that you had called me when Bill had died. And, uh, I was able to talk to Bill through you a little bit, which cause your, your imitation is so fun. And, and I, I, I do, you were the one who told me the bit about Billy Bob and the poster, right? Do you remember this? Oh, it's the greatest. It's the greatest. This is, um,

Yes, we're, we're, um, because Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, old, old friends work together, uh, on a, one of the great, I don't want to say it's a forgotten movie, but, um, uh,

The Carl Franklin movie. Okay. It's that one false move. It's one false move. One false move. If you haven't seen one false move, it's one of the great movies ever made. It's Billy Bob Thornton, uh, pre weight loss, uh, pre Oscar and Bill Paxton spectacular movie. Um, but then they, so they've known each other forever and then they do one false move together. Um,

And, you know, what I love about Bill and what I love about all actors is healthy competition. I'm a big believer in it. I'm super, super down with healthy competition. I mean, on The Outsiders, you can only imagine what that was like with Cruise and Matt Dillon and me and this one and that one. So that's where I come from. And Bill's the same way. And he was a little competitive with Billy.

So anyway, they do the movie. It's the two of them. It's a two-hander. And the movie's about to come out. And Bill and I are driving down Sunset Boulevard. And we look up and there's the billboard for it. And it's their two faces. And Bill looks like, you know, leading man. And then next to Bill is Billy Bob Thornton, who's wearing these gigantic glasses.

with a Band-Aid, like, attached to one of them. And he's kind of given a slightly weird look. And Bill says, ah, God, he's overacting even on the poster. I love it. I love it so much I can't stand it. Right? I mean, it's so...

It's beyond belief. It's so good. Now, have you ever met Jimmy Buffett, who his character was based on? Well, Bill and I, you know, Bill knew Jimmy Buffett's sister, Lucy Buffett. And so when the film came out, he wanted, and we wanted to get Jimmy to watch it and sort of bless it.

And so Bill and I flew down to West Palm Beach and where Jimmy, where Fox had rented a theater. And so Bill and I fly down and we get out of the, we're walking through the airport and people kept coming up to him. They're like, hey, man, I love you in Twister. He goes, oh, thanks, man. Thanks. He'd take a $20 bill and he'd hand it to them.

What? And then we go to another thing. He's all love you in simple planning. Oh, I appreciate that. He'd had him for 20. And I'm like, what are you doing? And he goes, always carry a roll of 20. So those people are going to be your audience next time when they have a movie. They're going to buy your tickets and then you're going to make more money. And I was like, I love it. I love you. I love it. So then we go.

to this theater and there's Jimmy. And I'm like, hey, man, I just want you to know, you know, we made some jokes. You know, we were a big fan. Big fan of Cheeseburger Paradise and Margaritaville. And I am a big fan of Jimmy Buffett, right? Yeah, me too. I love Jimmy Buffett. Yes. And so the three of us sat there and it was Bill and Jimmy Buffett, me on the other side, and Jimmy just rolling. And Bill's like, ah. And we just had a, I mean, it's just the three of us in this big theater.

300 person theater and it was incredible. He goes, I love that movie. I'm like, yes, yes. I had no idea. That makes me so happy. The thought of the three of you watching that movie. It was cool. I believe Jimmy Buffett, if I had to pick one person in all of entertainment,

and go, they're living their best life, without a doubt, it's Jimmy Buffett. No questions at all. That man lives his best life. 100% true. And he famously will fly his own plane, which I guess is a water plane, and he'll fly around the islands. Supposedly, he'll see a party and just settle down and get out and be like, hey, I'm Jimmy Buffett. And they're like, come on in.

If this is what, this is how, you know, I may have too much time on my hands that I contemplate stuff like this, like single greatest acting choice, Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean. If you could only write one song, if you, if you could only write one in terms of legacy and more specifically monetization, let me just be crass, write one song that made a lot of money without it again, without a doubt.

Margaritaville. Yeah. Is there anything close? Go ahead. Go ahead. I dare you. What's another song? Margaritaville books, Margaritaville restaurants, Margaritaville, on and on and on and on. It's true. There's no cats in the cradle beer. I mean, right? Yeah, it's true. I mean, it's true. He's got everything. I mean, did the Beatles didn't write anything they ever made a drink out of? No. No.

That's very true. Rolling Stones? Nope. By the way, there's no blinded by the light sunglasses. There should be, though. There should be. You see if Bruce will want to do that. Someone is not paying attention in the Bruce Springsteen merchandising arena. That's for... Tell me about... Okay, I'm fascinated. Tell me about this Rotten Tomatoes thing. Okay. So I created an app called VouchVault.

And when I say created, I worked with two guys who are very savvy computer people and we created together.

It's called Vouch Vault. So it all comes back to this. About 20 years ago, I made the film Super Troopers. And we went to Sundance and the screenings were incredible. Midnight screenings. Everyone loved it. Everybody loved us. Fox Searchlight. We made the movie for a million two. Fox bought it for about three and a half. We were the toast of Sundance. I remember. And then we, you know, we recut it a little bit and we released it a year later. And the film comes out.

And the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 100 of them, give it a 35% fresh rating, including the New York Times, which is the paper I read every day. And it was crushing, right? And I remember, and then later, not too long after that, they opened it up to the audience and the audience gave it a 90% fresh rating. And the audience was made of up of 200,000 people.

So it's 200,000 people, audience, 90%, Rotten Tomatoes, the hundred critics, 30, 35%. And I'm like, who are these critics with their outsized power? I said, are these critics, did they go to school? Do they drink? Are they, you know, we had a, we had a review. They're strangers, right? They're, they're literally strangers. And I said, when's the last time you walked up to a stranger and said, Hey, Hey, what movie should I see?

It's not how you see it. You talk to your friends. We saw a review for Beer Fest, which was an ode to binge drinking. That's the movie we're trying to make. And there was a movie review out of Arizona from a woman named Grandma's Reviews. Oh, boy. By the way, you're already in trouble with that. Well, there you go. And she goes, I don't like this movie. There's too much drinking. And you're like, Grandma, come on. Right. I mean, but that goes into your aggregate score, right? And so...

20 years ago, I said, you know what? I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to get revenge on this Rotten Tomatoes thing. It...

I don't have a problem with reviewers individually. I don't. But Rotten Tomatoes is... Because all that happens now is nobody reads reviews. They just... What's the tomato meter score? 35%, I'm not going. Right? And then it depresses the box office. And I've talked to reviewers about this and they're like, what do you care? You guys are comedy. You just make money anyway. It doesn't matter. We don't... And really what it is is that reviewers...

get juice from trashing horror movies and comedies. Their readers, whatever they are, go, aha, that's funny, trash it, aha. Meanwhile, as you know, making a comedy is dramatically harder than making a drama, okay? So...

Because of the timing, the rhythm, the tone, everything. It's hard. You know, if an actor forgets a line in a drama, you can just fire a violin in there and then he picks it back up. You're like, that's an Oscar. Listen, Marlon Brando looks at cue cards in the middle of a scene in Apocalypse Now and he's revered for, you know, millenniums. Burt Reynolds in his first day on Dukes of Hazzard says,

He had like five pages of lines that he didn't know a single line. And so he taped his lines to Sean William Scott's chest and Johnny Knoxville's chest. And he'd look down there and he'd go, I came to get you boys out of jail. And you're like, well, just look up at the eyes a little bit. Anyway. That's amazing. So I...

built an app with these guys. And the premise is that, you know, not only it's for books, movies, television, podcasts, music. That's what I wanted to do. And then my partners said, why don't we make it for everything?

hotels, hammers, screwdrivers, bikes, everything. So it's, it's called Vouchfault. It's sort of the Instagram of recommendations, right? So if you follow my, me at Jay Chandrasekhar, you'll see that I like Love Life, your book, both your books, right? Goodfellas, Y Tu Mama Tambien, City of God. Oh,

this detective fiction book, this restaurant. And you'll be able to message me and go, Oh, you think I'll like it? Like if we're friends, obviously, but if you get a group of friends on there and you're all like, Hey, this new sushi restaurant in blank in Denver, you're like, Oh, and you know, it's like, it's a way when you're ready to go to a movie, you go, Oh, let's see what my friends think of the movie. And also to support things that might not otherwise, like I love nothing more than seeing a little movie that,

and going, oh my God, I hope this thing pops somehow. And how can I help? That's right. That's right. It'll create a community of people who've seen that little movie. And then suddenly, hopefully it'll spin out more. I mean, it's also a memory machine, right? Like if you think about the way we used to have DVDs and record players and records, like your kids used to come in and go, hey, what's this record? Sergeant Peppers, right? Now...

They have to, you have to go, Hey, you should listen to this series of digital sounds that is Sergeant Peppers. And here's the look and cover of it. And you're like, like, instead this thing goes, you know, on my thing, you'll go, well, he, he likes Sergeant, my kid will be like, Oh, you like Sergeant Peppers. Okay. And you can look it up and it's there forever. Instead of, you know, now that the DVDs are gone, there's just no way to, you know, there's no way. By the way, there's no Sergeant Pepper Pepper.

There's no Sergeant Pepper Pepper. I mean, that's such... I mean, you want to talk... That might be the biggest missed opportunity. Oh, my God. I mean, think about it. I hate to compliment you in the middle of this, but that was a great callback. It's what we do. It's what we do. We're always paying attention here. It's what we do. It's what we do.

At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Have you watched something navigate through the process that's different now that you've created this amazing app? Yeah.

It's just starting to get some critical mass. But what's really, okay, I'll tell you this. You go to a dinner party, you're sitting there, someone's like, hey, you should watch this really funny show on the BBC Three. And you're like, oh, okay. And you type it into your phone and then it just disappears or you forget it or whatever. And then you're at home, you're like, what should I watch? Like, oh, I had a note about the BBC Three. This thing has a tri-vault, right? So if you see something that I recommend you haven't seen, you

click a ribbon and it goes into your tri-vault. And then when you're at home on Friday night thinking, what should we watch? You just look through your tri-vault and you're like, oh yeah, that thing.

that thing. What a great idea. I've seen all sorts of cool, like you're like, oh, that sounds like a really cool book. I'll put it in my tribal. And yeah, I've, I've watched, you know, you know, it's, it's like this melding of like minds almost, right? You start to see, well, this person agrees with you on these 10 movies and they've also watched these other four. Maybe, maybe we'll, you know, maybe I'll like this. I, I am, when I'm bored on a set, I'll,

peruse my list of favorite movies, which is getting pretty lengthy. Yeah. And it's kind of the same thing. It's like if you're into that kind of stuff and then, you know, and I noticed that the very first movie you mentioned in terms of what you like was Goodfellas, which is my number one favorite movie of all time as well. Yeah. I mean, you know, Goodfellas is that incredible combination of funny and dangerous and real and violent and funny.

Super funny. You know, the other movie that I feel like fits in that world is 48 Hours. Oh, yes. There's never been... I mean, I can't, you know... Is that my favorite movie? Maybe. Is Goodfellas? Maybe. You know, Reservoir Dogs is another one. You're like, that movie. Wow. Funny and violent. 48 Hours. Boy, I forgot about that. I remember...

I watched the hell out of that movie. That movie was early VHS. Very, very early VHS. I remember being in the theater opening night, 48 hours in Westwood. You know, that opening sequence in 48 hours in the theater played like you were going to have a heart attack. Oh boy. It was super intense. So the cop staggers down the stairs and he's been shot in the chest. The,

That's right. It's a comedy. By the way, it sounds hilarious, doesn't it? Cops like, you know, drop the weapon. And the guy's shaking. And Nolte's like, you know, don't drop it. I mean, it's just incredible. How great is Nick Nolte? I love Nick Nolte. I love him. I love him mostly. I mean, I love him in Cape Fear. I love him in the remake Cape Fear. I love him in that movie. I always loved Nick Nolte. I was, you know...

Yes, that one headshot mugshot is also part of his thing, but I don't really care. By the way, I lived in Malibu for years. That's what he looked like. Yeah. I was at the market probably getting beer with Charlie Sheen.

And we ran into Nick Nolte and Nolte's like, hey, man, how's your dad doing? And he's carrying more beer than I ever thought about carrying. And Charlie goes, hey, he's not here. He's down. He's out of town. He goes, oh, yeah, is he shooting a picture? He goes, no, no, he's protesting with the Sandinistas down in Nicaragua. Yeah.

And Nolte goes, Nicaragua, Nicaragua, and stumbles back into a display of canned beans and falls over. So I always, whenever I hear Nicaragua, Nicaragua. That's a man living his true life.

that you would really fall into a canopy. It's incredible. It's my favorite. It's such a good... That's what growing up in Malibu was like in the late 70s and into the end of the 80s. I mean, I read that first book of yours, which shocks about all that. It feels like such a wild, free, unrestrained childhood, I mean, after you moved from Ohio. It's my...

life's dream to figure out how I can more fully and more in depth properly tell that story. Is it a, is it another book? Is it a podcast? Is it a mini series? Is it a movie? I don't know. I haven't cracked it yet. And I, there's been a lot of starts and stops and abortive attempts to do it, but I'm

I'm going to do it. If you, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you have any interest in my talents on this, I would love to do this. Like a miniseries would be so, I mean, didn't they ride a lot of horses riding around there back then? Oh, well, it's funny you say that because that's the, I know one thing. I know the first image.

is all of the cars, vintage cars, parking at the Nicaragua shopping center. And then you pan, and there's this beautiful surfer girl riding a horse in a bikini bareback and tying it up to the hitching post that was there. That's what it was. And you go, oh, I know what this place is. This might be heaven.

And that was probably around the era of Dogtown and Z-Boys. It was. Then I knew all those guys. There was...

There was, oh yeah, in the darkness of the story, one of the guys, the first guy I ever knew who had a poster of himself was a skateboarder named Paul Hackett. And he also took every girlfriend that I ever attempted. And I had no game. I was a theater geek in a time when it wasn't cool. There was no CW. There were no young people acting. I was like-

They questioned my virility very strongly. So if you were a skateboarder or a surfer or, God forbid, a beach volleyball player, none of which I did in Ohio, you scored all the time. So I was floundering. But Paul Hackett, man, he was the man. And he invented what they call the aerial, at least in those days, where you would –

you know, skate in a pool and get air. And then there was that skateboarder magazine picture where you'd be holding the board in the air. And you'd, that was him with the hair and the blue eyes and, and ended up in a, in a institution for the criminally insane. That's the kind of stuff, but those are the throwaways. I've got 10 of them from growing up in Malibu that are like that.

love that story. Oh, and there's a whole big prequel to it that I will not tell publicly, but I would put in the movie that is just even as disturbing. It's good. It's good fellas. It's dark, weirdly funny, tragic, and

All that stuff. If a movie like Fast Times at Ridgemont High can work in terms of how the narrative structure of that movie was, then this can work. I mean, I think the key is just trying to figure out how to... We're having a meeting now. I know. Find the stories, stitch them together, find the lead, and kind of work it all. It could be like...

Dazed and Confused, right? Yes. Oh, yeah, very much so. And the other thing you and I have always talked about doing together is to do like hard, hard joke airplane-esque comedy where it's just hard jokes. Why shouldn't we be the ones there to reap the rewards? But I mean, it's also a fact that we're fans of that era of movies where you make any joke you want to.

and stand behind the joke and go, yeah, we made it. I mean, like, it doesn't have to be cruel. It doesn't have to be mean to any individual person, but you can make some really hard jokes that, you know, I talk to a lot of people about comedy and they're like, I don't know if you can make that joke. And I'm like, you can make that joke if you stand behind the mic and go, yeah, I made the joke. Yeah. And it's funny and let's move on. And I do, I really do believe someone,

And you know what it'll be? It'll be the new Broken Lizard. Sure. It'll be some guys with nothing... Here's the key, with nothing to lose. That's right. That's really what it's going to be. It'll be a bunch of men and women who have nothing to lose, who come together and say, to hell with all this. And they make an audacious, breathtaking, I can't believe they went there, balls out comedy. And it will be a sensation. And that will break the dam. If you're trying to talk me into it, you just have. Can I...

Talk about two things quickly. Yeah. You asked me what Broken Lizard was up to. We made a movie called Quasi, which is for Quasimodo. And it's set in 13th century France. And it's our friend Steve Lemme plays a hunchback. And he gets caught in a political assassination thriller between me, who plays the king of France, and Paul Soder, who plays the pope.

It's a full-on Monty Python movie. And I'm like, I'm in a wig and tights and sword. And I'm like, I'm in a Python movie. And when people see it, they'll go, hey, they're not as good as Python. And I'll go, I agree. But it's a good, it's really, it really turned out well. And I'm really proud of it. That's going to come out on Hulu at some point. Oh.

Oh, my God. Amazing. Where did you where did you shoot this? We always have interesting locations. Well, this one we ended up shooting in Santa Clarita, California. Of course. And we did a day in in Ireland. But, you know, like I always say good, great comedies happen out of town. But this one actually happened in town. And the other thing that I have, which is I made a movie with Joe Coy.

Oh, yes. I love Joe. Yeah, I know that. So Joe, for those of you who don't know him, is the biggest ticket-selling comic in show business. He sells out 56,000 seats in LA, 38,000 in Seattle. He's got three specials on Netflix. And one of them, during the pandemic, Steven Spielberg saw and said,

That guy, let's make a movie with that guy. And so they called me, Amblin called me and they said, hey, we have a window in May, June. This is during the pandemic. That's when Joe can shoot a movie. Can you go up to Vancouver and figure it out?

And so I went up there and I, you know, I hired a new writer and with the old writer, we kind of hatched up a new script that was about Joe, Joe Coy's first movie, which is sort of wrapped around his stand up and his mom and all the imitations he does. And we made this, you know, like, you know, what I think is a really funny, great movie with Joe Coy and Universal is going to put it out.

on August 5th coming up. And we are the only wide-release theatrical comedy this summer. Can you believe that? That's really amazing. And Joe's, I mean, listen, he's so funny. He was a great guest. Yeah. And you've got to give me a Steven Spielberg. I can't let you off the hook without a Spielberg story because I have one. Well, give me yours and then I can...

You know, the interesting thing about the pandemic and the sad thing about the pandemic is he and I have never been in the same room. And so we were supposed to be editing the movie with him editing upstairs and me editing downstairs. And supposedly we'd come in and go, oh, let me run this reel for me. And that didn't happen. But while I was shooting the first day, Joe wanted to wear an L.A. Dodgers hat.

Uh, and I'm like, all right. I mean, you know, like I, I got word that it made him feel comfortable and safe. And I was like, you know, this is first day on a movie set ever. Fine. You can wear the Dodger hat. And, uh, and he's great. His first day, I had to coach him a little bit, try this, try that. And, you know, like, you know, the big thing is he's a standup. So he's constantly used to being entertaining all the time. And I said, he was in a, in a,

Scene with Jimmy O. Yang, who was he played the guy in Silicon Valley. He was like the Chinese roommate. I don't know if you remember that guy. Yeah, I love that show. Right. So so when Jimmy was telling jokes, Joe was like, you know, acting and performing. I said, hey, hey, let me just tell you something in the stand up stage. You're 100 percent. Everyone's looking at you.

In this, we're looking at Jimmy, then we're looking at you. We're looking at Jimmy, we're looking at you. Don't be big acting while he's delivering the jokes. He goes, ah, okay. And then he, from then on, he was, he got it. He's a very smart guy. So he wears this Dodger hat. And the next day I get a message from Steven Spielberg and it says, movie stars don't wear hats. And I was like, got it. And I said, Joe, you coming out of this scene? We're shooting the next scene. Take the hat off.

Movie stars don't wear hats. And, you know, like that was one. The other one was like, you know, I know it's so great. Movie stars don't wear hats. Steven Spielberg. And by the way. By the way, there's the title for this. I know that's the title of this podcast right there. There you go. And then, you know, the other thing was I, you know, I was going to cast an actor, an actress to play a certain role.

And I had a deal at Warner Brothers. And at Warner Brothers, they were always like, just cast the most famous person. And then you're like the acting coach. Teach them how to act. And I'm like, yeah, okay. I get it. I get how the studio game works. So I was getting ready to cast this most famous person for this role. And I get a message from Mr. Spielberg who's like...

what about the third woman on the tape? And I'm like, yeah, I mean, she's obviously the best actress, but she's not as famous as the woman. And he goes, so cast the best actress. And I was like,

Right, exactly. Yeah, well, but meanwhile, Steven Spielberg gets to do whatever he wants. Yeah, and in casting that actress made the movie into the movie that it is. Like his instinct for it was just so dead on. And I was like, oh yeah, I'm making a movie for a filmmaker run company. Oh yes, I got to remember that. I was on the lot, on the Fox lot.

And, you know, I don't know if we've worked together long enough where you've seen me get cranky, but I can get cranky. And at the end of a season of 9-1-1 Lone Star, I'm super cranky. It's a really tough show to do. It's a great show, but it is hard. Yeah.

and the lot is packed. There's trucks everywhere. There's cars. People aren't paying attention. I've got to get to another stage. I'm being in a golf cart. We can't get around the traffic. It's like, it's one thing to have traffic in the world, but on a lot, it should be about making movies. Yeah. That's what it's there for. And there's a car in front of me, like a civilian car, just parked, just sitting there. I can't get around. I can't, I'm like, what is this?

fucking guy doing? And I lose it. And I get up and I run to the window. I go, hey, what are you doing here, Mr. Steven Spielberg? And it's Steven. And he's like trying to figure out where he is on the lot. And we had this wonderful talk. He was going to look at the first cut of Indiana, the new Indiana Jones. And he's the nicest, I will tell you, in my experience, Paul McCartney

and Steven Spielberg are the two most humble, nicest, most accessible. You'd never know who they are to talk to them. The best, the absolute best. Do you think, I mean, he's such a, such a, like a student of human emotion. Do you think he saw how angry you were as you approached? No, thank God he was looking down at his phone. Yeah.

And the window was closed. Thank God. I can think of nothing more mortifying than being irritated at Steven Spielberg on a movie lot. You know, I should I should kill myself. It's I always I always the reason I'm able to I mean, I believe that the reason I'm able to continue to make movies and do all these things is because I constantly I'm under the belief that I'm on the verge of being kicked out of show business.

And what you almost did might even get you kicked out of show business. Yes. Even after however many decades. He's the guy. He's the made man. He's it. He's the guy. He's the mayor of show business. Yeah. And justifiably so. Unbelievable. What an exciting time. Oh, I love that, man. Such a lovely man. Movie stars don't wear hats. From Steven Spielberg. Wait a minute.

Indiana Jones hat movie star. Do you think he must have meant movie stars don't wear baseball caps? That has to be it because cowboy hats. I mean, listen, John Wayne, you know, all good. Interesting. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to spend a little more time thinking about this. If you all don't mind. And while I do that, let's check the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line.

where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep.

Hey, Rob. This is Tiffany from Iowa. I was just watching Parks and Rec, and I was just thinking that I think that that is the best ending of a show that I've ever seen. I was wondering if you agreed because I enjoyed all the happy endings, and I think that all the characters really progressed with their storyline, and I was wondering how you felt about that. And

Anyways, this is just a millennial loving Rob Lowe. Keep up the good work. Thanks. Bye. Oh, you millennial Tiffany Yu. Thank you for that. I appreciate your support and all of that. I really, truly do. And by the way, I hope you're listening to Parks and Recollection, my podcast with Alan Yang, who wrote on the series the entire time where we break down every episode.

Um, it's super fun. Um, yeah, you know what? Such a satisfying ending to that show. I agree with you. It's, um, I think season finales really only go one or two ways. They're either disastrous or they're great. Um, and then they're the ones that people feel like are torn about. I love the Sopranos season finale. A lot of people hated it. I loved it, but that was great. Loved everything about it.

But Parks and Rec, you know, it fulfilled on the promise of the show, which is feel good. As you say, happy endings to the characters, storylines. What's interesting about it is it was done right at the beginning of the reboot phenomenon. Like, let's bring back Will and Grace after a billion years or whatever.

And I think that I know Mike Schur did it in a way that prevented any reboot. So that's why it fast forwards to so many years after the life of the show was to kind of make it tough that if anybody came in with a check so big that we all held our nose and decided to go back and do it again, that we couldn't do it. So that's a little inside baseball on that.

But yeah, thank you. Thanks for the watch, the listen, and keep it up. Thank you so much. Don't forget to subscribe to the rest of our season here. And five-star review on Apple would be a wonderful thing if you wouldn't mind throwing your hat, see what I did there, into the ring. And I will see you next week on Letterly.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Rob Schulte, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. Our research is done by Alyssa Graw. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Joanna Salatara for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. All of the music you hear is by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week on Literally with Rob Lowe.

This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

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