Transcript of "Peter Berg"

For resources and to support those affected by the California wildfires, go to smartlist.com/wildfires. Hey, guys. I just wanna say welcome, to all our fans overseas.

I don't think they're all I

don't think, well, hang on a second, I don't think we've ever done a a welcome to our overseas fans, wherever you are, I know we get a lot of listeners, and this is not a bet, we get a lot of listeners in Iran. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say Yes. We do have a huge listenership there.

We have, some listeners in, in Germany. We have some French listeners Yeah. From Joseph A.

UK. UK for sure. Yeah. Australia.

Well, Canada's not over NEC, but, look look at it, Matt.

Right. Okay. Sorry.

And, so but

From the lakes.

Certainly the people that are friends down in Australia, down under. We have a lot of fans down there. Yeah.

You're going there.

Where are you? Yeah. A

lot of fans in Brazil, the home of the Brazilian. And, so just to all of our fans, welcome to Smartless.

Yeah. God. That was Yeah.

He's barely with us. Stupid Sean didn't know we had a record today. What what did we interrupt, Sean? Were you in the middle of No. Toasting, Pop Tart?

No. I went. I still have my things and my trays in.

Oh. Take

oh, you think It's not your trays. It's is

that Invisalign?

Or is

it just a bite is it like a bite stick?

No. There I have 1 more tray to go.

And and then what? What are you working towards? Perfect teeth when they lay you in the coffin? Is that what it is? Why did you choose to do it in the in the last third of your life?

They were like, they were pretty they were pretty jacked. They were getting real jacked.

No. They really weren't. You're just running out of shit to fuck with.

That well, this is true. This is true.

But you think

I panicked. I had a whole whole other thing, and then I just got the text. I was like, oh my there's no words. It's like getting a text, saying words.

Sleeping through your alarm clock.

Absolutely. Or or getting a text that says, where are you at? You're on your way? Yeah.

I'm on

my way. My way. My way. What do you guys do? What what do you guys do?

What do you guys how do you guys not miss appointments, on a day? Do

you I usually don't.

Do you but do you but why why do you not miss them? Is it because you look at your your calendar app the night before or morning of? Night before.

Night before. Yeah.

Night before. Night before. And I do a I get an email the night before as well from, people I work with that say, here's what you got coming up tomorrow.

I

do a week Woah. Woah. Woah. You're getting an email from people you work with

Yeah.

Yeah. That they send so this is from your executive assistants?

From sweet from sweet Liz. And they send She sends me

Hey, boss boss man. Here's what's coming up for you tomorrow.

Doesn't doesn't I don't make her talk to me like that. I'm not like you. She sends me an email Sunday Sunday night. I get week at a glance.

Oh, nice. And she does

like it's a TV show.

Yeah. I get week at a glance, and she sort of says, this is what's coming up in the week. And sometimes even if it's a busy month, she'll be like, this is what's coming up. Do that yourself.

I kinda do that too.

Hashtag relatable.

I I could do it myself. By the way, you're the call my assistant guy. I never say that.

I'm You Wait. Who says that?

You do?

I make I look at my own calendar. She'll put stuff on my calendar, but I will give myself a week at a glance.

You'll say

talk to a

day at a glance.

Talk to the assistants. You say that. I've heard you say it a 1000000 times. Listen. I love you.

There are no there are very few people who love you more than I do. I love you a lot. And But you're you're made up of you're nothing but blind spots.

Sean, do you have Sean, do you have any

Sean laughed at it too. You know what? Because he loves you too.

Do you have an assistant, Sean?

I do. Yes. It helps my life.

Do you not know his assistant? Hang on. JV. No. I don't.

How do you not?

Why do I not?

Because I know this, and I know Bloom.

Yeah. Wait. What's what's his her name? Nick.

Nick.

Why have I never met Nick or ever heard of Nick?

Well, by the time

Because you're not this is what I'm saying. Because you're living in a blind spot, bro.

Hey. You're like Wayne, keep your voice down. I'd love it if your name was Wayne.

I know. Wade. Only thing better would be Wade. If my name was Wade

buddy named Wade. Wade Wilson. By Wade.

Wait. What's been Sean, how you've been doing? Are you okay?

I'm great. I just I'm I'm still frazzled after being late.

You're frazzled. But how are you in general?

Oh, thanks for asking. I'm really good. Are you? Yeah. Why would something

No. I couldn't tell the other night. Like, I just I I feel like, it it's a very, nothing to do with what's going on in the I don't mean, like, sort

of No.

I just

mean that, like, in general, it's a weird time. I for me, it's kind of a weird time. I woke up yesterday with, and I don't get this a lot, I had, like, general anxiety. About? I I don't know.

I couldn't explain it.

Low grade?

Yeah. Kinda low grade, and I couldn't I couldn't shake it. And I don't know. And I'm and I'm not really made that way in the sense that, like, I'm I feel really lucky that I think I've mentioned this before. Downey once said, nobody wakes up in the morning morning happier to be themselves than you.

And and and it's sort of true.

That's kinda true. Yeah.

But but I do show

But you're not bright enough to be concerned about things.

I think so.

I think that's totally true.

It takes a lot of intelligence to really see all the problems that could come your way.

I I think that's

I think that's true. Or or or it's just that everything's worked out. Mhmm. But it's 1 of the it's 1 of the 2 Well, but

we had a we had a wonderful conversation on Saturday around the table. I love that. We had a really good conversation so many things.

With Danny our friend, Danny Dees, whom whom we all love and adore. But I I but, you know, sometimes so I think that the the the contrast when I'm not feeling great is so is I I really feel it because

Usually, you're 72 and breezy.

Yeah. Yeah. And I it was weird, man. And I kind of took all day, and I was, like, and I was just trying to, I don't know, I was I was looking to redirect all day. I was like, what am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do?

And how about today? Did you wake up back to it today?

Yeah. A little bit better today. A little bit better.

Okay. Can I tell you what it was? Because I had the same thing yesterday. Yeah. It was the sugar.

You

think so?

It's sugar. I swear to

God. Interesting.

It's fucking we had that big fat fucking Yeah. Carrot cake.

Yeah.

And, God, was it good? And and sugar. I was a disaster yesterday. Really?

But it was Will's cheat day, and everybody had a little piece of cake.

And and

Cheat meal. Not that.

Cheat meal. Cheat meal. Sorry. And and everybody had served a little piece of cake, and Will got served 2, like, 2 pieces of cake and 5 things of ice cream. And I said I said I said how many people are you cheating for?

Exactly.

I said How many people are you cheating on?

You did. But did you notice this week that that, I ate mine? I only had 1 piece of cake, and then I had a few few scoops of ice cream, which I brought with me like a like a psycho.

You brought fucking chocolate sauce with

you, Jen. That was Jen's. She was I was at her house.

This isn't a cheat day. You're impregnating people as well, I guess. You're, like it's it's not just, you know

But do you remember 2 weeks ago do you remember 2 weeks ago when Jen when when our friend when I went to have a second piece, and she looked at me and she was, like, do honey, do you really wanna do that? She she shaved me.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

This week You

guys you guys just need to get married and get it over with.

I know. This week, she she, she saw me look at her, like, she'd had like 3 bites, tiny bites of her cake, and she pushed it towards me.

And I

thought it was a really kind I saw

that. And then I kinda kinda got sad. I was, like, why didn't you push it toward me? I know.

Because you don't look as much like a trash can

a little bit. Well, I think that I I think that, Seanie, this is my vision of you is that you're, like, I'm only having 1 piece and then you kept going into the kitchen and you went stuff.

That is correct. Stuff. And silence and shame. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Anyway Right. So yeah. So we're we're feeling good today though. Right?

We're all back to it. That's interesting

about the sugar thing though, Jay. I wanna talk about this.

I think the sugar

thing is true good.

And you

know what the other thing is? My new hack, and maybe I've talked about this. I just I tried to call a few people and talk to a few people and ask them how they were doing, and that was really helpful.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah. That really, really helped. And get out of your own head a little bit.

If you

not have my right number, you might not have my right number.

I knew how you were doing. Okay? Which I just seen you 9 hours before. We all know how you were doing. Okay?

I'm cold this morning. We love you.

We love you.

She's got the hoodie on.

I love you, and I love our next guest. Guys, today, we have a fella who's been a part of our lives for a long time. He's been delivering films and TV shows as a director and as an actor for about 35 years.

Oh, no.

He's a huge part of the entertainment business, but keeps well out of the spotlight. As a director, he can deliver some of the most hilarious moments on screen or the most brutal and disturbing. As an actor, he can do the same. He loves football, his son, and Ari Emanuel. Not necessarily in that order.

I love him, his movies, and his ability to send hilarious gifts in that order. Folks, it's America's Pete Berg. Come on out there.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Did I get that right? Is that the order? Is your love for football, Emmett and Ari, is that the right order?

It's it's my son switch weights. It's my son, Ari, football, I would have to say. Yeah. But they're all they're all up there, dude. They're all up there.

That's cool. It's so nice to meet you.

It's a pleasure to meet you, Will. Sorry to hear about the anxiety. I agree, with Bateman. It's definitely the sugar is not helping.

So No. And you're very smart about that stuff. Right?

Pete Pete, you should know I've been off the sugar for a few months, but I have 1 cheat meal every 7 days as per my

That's why it's affecting you a lot.

Yeah. Probably. Because your

body's so cleaned out.

But does does sugar have to be part of the cheat meal? Can't you just eat, you know, pizza or something like Bacon. Yeah. Have bacon.

I think it's I think it's that and everything else.

I prob I probably should. I I I think that it's just

Well, but like like any of us, sort of, folks in recovery, we miss the sweet. We miss we miss the sugar of alcohol, and I think it's you know, for a long time, for some reason, cigarettes curved that curved it for me for a while. And then when that went away, like, now and then, yeah, then the Coke, because it looks like sugar. Yeah. No.

Stevia helps me out. Stevia helps me out.

Oh, that's good.

Stevia's

Pete, you're good with you're good with you're good with look at you.

God. You look trim, man.

You look crazy. So good. If you took that tarp off right now, you'd see someone that could beat your ass, Arnett. Oh, I

know. I know he could. Never.

Runs a boxing gym? I do.

I've known I've known Pete. Pete, you and I have known each other very loosely for years.

I I've said hi to you many times, and I wish it was more than just a hi. It's always been in passing. And, Sean, I don't believe we've met, but it's a pleasure to meet you also.

This is correct. We have not met, and it is a pleasure to meet you too, Peter. I'm a big fan.

Pete, tell me about tell me about tell me about the boxing while we're here. Yeah. The this is it's it's it's been a steady escalation of commitment from you, not just in training, but then, like, now you're now you're co owning a gym? How

Yeah, so, about 15 years ago, I was thinking about maybe a side hobby, and people were asking me if I wanted to go in on a restaurant or maybe a bar, And and to me, that just seemed like a horrible idea for many reasons. Just like 1 talk about like all blind spot. I had I had enough of because I'm like you, I have a lot of blind spots, but there was I sensed that that would be a bad move for me to open a bar, be part of

that. Yeah.

And at the time, I was boxing at a club that Bob Dylan owns in Santa Monica. And What? The trainer of the gym got into a beef with Bob, which is a whole great story in itself. Getting in getting into beefs with Bob Dylan, which like, there's a whole side of Bob Dylan around the boxing gym. Hey.

Yeah. Hey.

I'm gonna hit you with a guitar.

You know, you're really annoying me today. And, thank you. And, and then if you don't do something, I'm gonna get physical on you. But we used to spar Bob, but you could never hit. You weren't really allowed to hit him back, and he would pop you.

Bob Dylan had a sharp jab, and it was supposed to be like, you couldn't hit him back. And so so I took a few shots from Bob, but Dylan got in a fight with the, then head trainer and fired him, and Gary Shandling, who's a good friend of mine, was also training at that gym, and Gary came to me and said, Pete, why don't we take this trainer and start our own gym? And I said, okay, it seemed like a better, more interesting experience than opening a bar. And so Gary and I backed this gentleman, started our own gym, and the gentleman who we hired ended up leaving. We had some problems with him.

And then Gary died, RIP Gary Shandling, who I love so much, and left me, alone with a boxing gym, and it has been 1 of the stupidest things that I've ever done in my life, bar the fucking none. Wait. Why? What's the Do not open up

That sounds like such an easy thing to run. Low overhead. There's no maintenance. There's no

Clean these towels.

You know what? Lock the door. 2 things 2 things actually. Technically, 3 things. 1 thing is people, people say that I got a lot of blind spots, but I don't see him.

The other thing is this.

He is wonderful.

Is, my son who's 16 the last year and a half, he's gotten into boxing, and he's boxing at another gym that I'm not gonna name, but he's going twice. And now he just said to me last night, dad, can I start going 3 times a week? And he boxes with this guy, which is really cool. And I was thinking, like, love to get him out to your gym maybe and and get him in there and get another 1.

Churchill Boxing Club in Santa Monica. Come on down. It's it's a great gym. Great.

Well, we're gonna get a nice boom. But here's what I wanna say is a little sideline because I do wanna finish the boxing theme is, we haven't spent enough time. I feel like we've been delinquent on this podcast. We haven't spent enough time talking about and giving credence to Gary Shandling. Because he was 1 of talk about a heavyweight to use the analogy.

This guy was an unbelievable he's the reason I got HBO. Mhmm. Because Pete, you knew him. I I didn't know the guy, but what an influence he had on on what we consider to be comedy now in a lot of ways. Gary Shandling?

Actor's writers format. For sure.

What was he like? What was he like?

So I mean, I I got to to see both sides of Gary, you know, I saw him as, you know, a comic titan, and a, you know, a very entrenched member of our industry, and that's how most people knew Gary. The boxing gym is actually a fascinating culture. Our gym is meant to be a pretty traditional boxing gym with pro fighters, so we would have a lot of Russians, South Americans, we had folks from Japan, we had Chinese fighters, and these were, you know, young men who would come to LA, rarely spoke much English, were not at all connected, and Gary took a deep interest in their lives. And I would come into the gym and Gary would be sitting with, you know, a couple of kids from Argentina talking about boxing and talking about life and had this incredible connection. And when Gary passed away, there was a huge memorial, I don't know if any of you guys went to it, you know, a couple of thousand people, you know, everyone in Hollywood went to Gary's memorial service, and then the next day we had a service for him at the gym.

And there were, you know, a couple of hundred people who knew Gary only as g from the gym and they had no idea that he was, you know, famous. They had no idea that he had this other life. Wow. They just thought he was a really sweet guy who cared about them, and he really did. And so that that was, a side of Gary.

He absolutely loved boxing. He loved Bob Dylan and loved fighting with Bob Dylan. I'd love to see that pay per view.

Such a funny image.

Gary tried to do a talk show where he Yes. He would he would Yes. He would fight you 3 rounds in the ring, and as soon as those 3 rounds were over, you would collapse, and and, and he'd do an interview. He would do the interview after you'd been punching the shit out of each other. And he only did 1

That's insane.

With Alec Baldwin.

Oh, my gosh.

And I was there for it. And they both, I think had heart attacks literally mini heart attacks and and and at the end of the 3rd round Baldwin was laying on his side and Gary was laying on his stomach and they were wheezing it was like and and and Gary was trying to ask him questions. How'd you get started, Alec? Yeah. And Baldwin was just like, I I think I really need some water or or this and I'm like I'm like, guys, you you both Can we see this?

You're both I I it never aired.

Did you

shoot it?

We did.

I've seen it, Pete, and it it got kinda real too in the in the when they were fighting too. Right?

They were getting the shit out of each other. Yeah. That was tough, and Gary Gary was deceptively, you know, effective as a boxer, and I think Alec didn't quite know what he was in for. So it started, and Alec thought it was gonna be kind of fun, and Shanley just started face punching him over and over and over.

Yeah. It got weirdly real and, like, it was uncomfortable.

Pete, you got to show us this.

You shot it? I Gary shot it, so I we could maybe dig it up, but it was it was priceless, but I was literally concerned that they were both having heart attacks, and I got them to stop and drink water, and then, you know, it was 1 of those it was a deep level of exhaustion. It just wasn't going away.

It's just like an icebreaker before an interview, like

Yeah. Just to put everybody at ease.

And we will be right back.

And now, back to the show.

Pete, I do wanna go back there. I wanna get back into, how you became who you are, which is, as Jason said in the intro. I mean, you're incredible filmmaker and and actor, and you haven't acted as much in the last few years as as you used to. But you started, as an actor. And and Jason, you probably feel a lot of connection to what Pete does because he was able to kinda go from an actor who was in a lot of stuff and people wanted and become a director yourself, which I know is a trajectory that you're that you're sort of on.

Pete, talk a little bit about that, like, about being an actor who's auditioning for jobs, then an actor who's in demand, and then turning that into or having the vision or having what talk about what it was that inspired you to become a director, etcetera.

So so I think, 1 of the the, like, light bulb moments for me that got me really starting to think about directing, which is something I'd always thought about, and I think Jason always had to, and it was something we used to talk about, when we were working together, I remember on the set of Hancock in particular, you talking about filmmaking and me kind of sensing that you were gonna move in this direction. But for me, I was an actor on Chicago Hope, which was a pretty successful medical drama and we went up against ER every Thursday night at 10 o'clock and they beat us every Thursday night, but we were still getting, you know, 23,000,000 people watching us, which we thought was just horrible, because we were coming in second, and that was horrible, but in looking back on it, obviously it wasn't. But I was getting kind of famous as this doctor, Doctor. Billy Cronk on Chicago Hope. And, you know, thank you.

And, you know, when you back then in particular got TV famous, you were pretty famous. So wherever I went, people were like, hey, Billy. How you doing, Billy? How's Diane, my wife on the show? And hey, Billy, how's the And I'm like, okay, I'm not fucking Billy.

My name's Pete. And at a certain point, I started sensing that if I wasn't careful, my legacy was going to be Doctor. Billy Crunk, the TV doctor. And I was on a plane flying from LA to JFK and I was sitting in my seat and people were walking by me and a man stopped and he said, Hey, Billy. And I said, hey, my name's not Billy.

He goes, hey, Billy. My wife has this rash. What do you think? Show him the rash. And she pulled up her shirt and stuck her elbow, which had a really bad rash on it, in my face.

And I'm just sitting there staring at this rash and they're smiling at me and all other people on the plane are all kind of like hey Billy what do you think the rash is and I'm like that's it I'm not doing this anymore. And I started, you know, writing and I wrote a movie, Very Bad Things, which is my first film. And, and and that, you know, was something that once I got a taste of that and figured out that I could do it, I I never really looked back. And and I do love acting, but I was not gonna be Billy Crock for the rest of my career.

But what was that thing that made you were you scared to be, like, I can't believe I can I'm gonna try to do this? Like, how did you get over the fear

of Because

you had a real career as an actor. Like, you so you gotta make a leap a little bit and go, like, alright. I'm gonna do this.

So I was flying to New York, to act when the when the The

same guy was on the plane and said, I have a different rash.

And the reason I was on that plane where I was presented with the rash was I was flying to New York to be in a movie called Copeland, I was going to act in it, and that was Stallone and De Niro, and Stallone had put weight on and was gonna, you know, try and win an Oscar, and this was Harvey Weinstein producing it in the height of his power, and Ray Liotta and Harvey Keitel, and all these big stars were in the film. Oh, fucking cast. And I, I had a small part in it, and and I

Stallone directed that too, right? You wrote

it down to it? James Mangold directed it. Okay. Wrote and directed it. And my I was 1 of the cops, and most of my scenes were in this, like, bar, and I would just sit around waiting for my 1 line.

So Stallone would talk, and De Niro would talk, and then finally it'd be my line, and I'd be like, yeah, for sure. And then and then Sounds

like me and Kingdom. No. You had a great you were phenomenal. No, Jason. Turn left.

No. No. No. Jason, by the way, sidebar sidebar. Jason had 1 of my favorite lines ever delivered in the film, and you know what it is.

He was like, hey, driver. Are you late for something?

Yeah. He just Remember that?

You guys are cruising on the desert? Fuck.

I love that. I love Dobby.

Scared out of my mind.

But but I was on the set of of, Copland just watching everything happen, and there was this young director, James Mangold, and I was watching him, and he was arguing with Stallone and getting into all this creative stuff with with, with De Niro and Ray Li, and it was just like he was alive, he had this energy coming out of him, and I was sitting there waiting for my line, and I'm like, and I finally at lunch, I walked up to him, I didn't really know him, I said, hey man, can I ask you a question? I said, yo, what's up? He said, I said, how do I get your job?

Yeah.

Yeah. How do I get your job?

You wanna work 60 minutes an hour, not just 10.

And he said, you gotta write. And I, said, okay. Well, how do you how do you do that? He goes, well, do you know how to write? I go, yeah.

He goes, well, do you have an idea? I said, kinda. He said, well, what I do is I use note cards, and I outline and and then so then I when I get all my cards, then I've got the ID, then I start writing the scenes. And then so I went back to my hotel, and I was staying in the Essex House in New York, you know that hotel?

Sure.

Has a big Sunset Park South. Has the big beautiful park views. Right?

Yeah.

I had the shittiest room in the hotel. I had the back tiny little room in the back of the hotel that looked out over an alley, and I went home and I I went to a drugstore. I got note cards, I got pen, and I started note I started writing the note cards and outlining the script, but I had a really small room, and and, I had the note cards kinda all over the room, and I'd go to work, I'd come back, and more note cards, and I had this whole crazy system. And 1 day I came back and the note cards had all been moved and cleaned up. And I'm like, who did this?

And they told me it was Manuela, the housekeeper, so I found Manuela. Manuela, you can't do this. I'm writing a movie. And she's like, what? And I told her about these guys who go to Vegas and accidentally kill a hooker and then have to chop her up.

And she's like, oh, my God, then what happens? And when and Manuela helped me write the script because I would bounce it all off of her. That's so good. And I had I had the script up all throughout the room. It was on all the walls, so I was like living in it.

1 day I came back and I went to go in the room and the key didn't work. And I went down, and they said, mister Berg, we have a problem. We had to move your room. And I had I'm like, holy shit. They took me up to the top floor.

I went to turn to where the shitty rooms were. They go, no. You're this way to where the good rooms were, walked me down into the park suite. And I walk in this beautiful suite, and the staff at the Essex house had cleared out the walls and put my script up on the walls.

No way.

And they said, Manuela told us what you're doing. We wish you the best of luck. Finish your script.

That's amazing.

That that moment really changed everything for me.

That's incredible. Never knew that. Key. Jesus.

That's fucking great. That's so fucking incredible. What a what a great story about humanity Yeah. People and belief and all that kind of also, I think like to think that Manuela, before she knew it was a screenplay, she was nervous because she had all these cards about going to Vegas and killing a hooker. She's like, I got a serial killer here.

This guy is

well, Pete, how did you

That's awesome.

How did you take your, you know, your very you've got a very your your taste, your sensibility, your personality is very, you know, seasoned, and no bullshit. And, you know, there's no real artifice to you, which I just fucking love. And yet and you've somehow managed to take that and and and mold it into an actual visual esthetic too. Where did that come from? Like, the style of your films, the way in which they're shot, the way in which they're cut, the the actors you hire, the things you ask them to do and not to do.

Like, where do how is that shaped?

I mean, the the the things that I think that I do that tend to work the best, like, if it's Friday Night Lights or the Kingdom or Deepwater Horizon or the Patriots Day, these are these are films that I do a tremendous amount of research on, you know, I'm kind of a psycho about that. I'm in Tel Aviv right now, and, last night we had a missile attack that was pretty amazing, and somewhat terrifying, and I've always been someone who likes to see things for myself, and that generally translates to to my writing, and I try to try to have have as deep of a almost anthropological or almost journalistic understanding of my world. So, you know, I went to Saudi Arabia a long time ago before we did the kingdom and, you know, lived there for 3 weeks and got as much of an understanding as I could about of that culture. And once I I kind of feel like I've done that work and I understand the world, when I did lone survivor, I went to Iraq and embedded with the Navy Seal Platoon for a month on the border of Syria, and and that helped me make a better film.

Jesus Christ. And that, you know, helps me, in theory, communicate with, you know, someone, you know, like when we were doing the, the scene in the kingdom where they, you know, we're gonna cut your head off. You know, I've had a I've tried to have a proximity, certainly never to that kind of level of violence, but to at least understand as best as I can, you know, what these, you know, executions were looking like and how they might have gone down and that I think could help me help you reach an appropriate level of terror and a willingness to fight, which you did so well in that, which I found fascinating. And I've had so many people talk about that scene and how Jason Bateman, this sweet funny guy, went fucking psycho to save himself. I love that.

And and that really comes from the research and

So then you're looking for a level of authenticity that then just naturally lends itself to, let's say, a handheld camera, a saturated color, blah blah blah. Like so all of these things, you're you're you're engineering it from a very, organic place. You're not kinda going backwards into an esthetic.

Correct.

You're just going yeah.

And and, you know, when I was acting on Chicago Hope back in those days, I learned so much because, you know, we were doing 28 episodes a season, and we would have 28 different directors coming in. And I learned so much, and a lot of these directors were, you know, they tried to have feature careers and they were a bit older and they were angry, and they were trying to prove that they were Tarantino or Scorsese, and they would just spend so much time setting up shops and doing all this stuff, and we, as actors, would sit around waiting for all this equipment, and I'm like, what the fuck are we doing here? Like, I wanna act. I wanna I wanna feel free to, you know, not be beholden to the, you know, and you guys have all seen it, the machinery of filmmaking, where trains and dollies and lighting and hair and makeup and every it seems like it it impacts everything other than the actual acting.

Alright. Yeah.

And so Pete's stylists have a yeah. Multiple cameras, handheld cameras going at the same time. And when they run out shooting on film, when they'd run out of film, the AC would just put the camera on the ground, reload it, put another magazine of film on top of the camera while the other 2 are still rolling and while we're resetting back to the top of the scene,

like, multiple way. Yeah.

Takes over and over and over again without ever cutting, just reloading the cameras quietly.

I remember when, when we were rehearsing, Hancock, remember we would have all those crazy rehearsals with Will and Charlize. On the

sound stage with Akiva? Yeah.

Will Smith.

Yeah. And and when I first met Charlize, she she came up to me because Jason and I had worked together, and I knew Will, and I think Will had heard a little bit about my style of work. And and Charlize said, you know, Pete, I I understand. I've talked to Jason. I know how you'd like to do this kind of wild thing and move around lots of cameras just so you know I don't work that way I I need a certain amount of you know of organization and there has to be a system where I can and I'm like Charlize no problem I got you we'll do it we'll cut and we'll reset and do it And then like the 1st day I was working with Jason and we were just going off and Will was into it, and I would cut for Charlize, and in about an hour she came up to me and she said, You know that thing you're doing with Jason, do that to me, and I want that too.

Pete, I was thinking about you the other day. I was down in Fort Worth, Texas, not a bit, and I was it's truly I was doing this thing. I was working with, like with Taylor Sheridan. He was a great guy. And so I I was staying at this hotel and, you know, it's it was the fall and, and I hear I'm in my hotel room and I'm trying to go over my shit that I'm working and I I keep hearing this like, Like, what the fuck is, like, is my phone on?

And I keep looking around the room. The TV is not on. I go out in the thing. And I look out, and I could just see over the treetops in the distance, this stadium. And I fucking look it up on my phone, and it's a fucking Texas high school football game.

Yeah. Oh, wow.

And the stadium is packed, and I could hear the fans, and I can hear the announcements. I was like, holy shit. It was Friday fucking Night Lights, man. Like, it was incredible. Yeah.

Yeah. How'd that how did that how did, so for for for the listener, yeah. Pete brought us Friday Night Lights, the film, and then, shepherded the television series to us as well by doing, what the the the pilot part of the first couple and and EP'd the whole thing. Right?

Yes.

You're you're, the writer, your second cousin to the writer, perhaps?

Yes. Buzz Bissinger is my second cousin.

Was that helpful in in it finding its way to you, or or do would it did it happen,

without that? It was.

You know, I've I had, I followed the the book and read the book, and Buzz used to, you know, push me to try and make it. At the time, I actually didn't really have the juice, there were a lot of filmmakers that wanted it, and Brian Grazer controlled it. And I would call Brian and just sort of check-in with him, and I knew they were going through a list of some pretty top tier directors, and and Brian was always nice and he was pretty honest, saying, you know, maybe we'll get get to you. And and 2 directors, 1 fell out, and 1 Brian got annoyed with and fired. And he called me and he said, okay, dude, it's yours.

And

that that was an incredible experience. And, you know, when I when I was doing Friday Night Lights, I went and I was, I think I was 41 at the time, flew down to Texas and moved into a high school, this school Austin Westlake, and I stayed with a football player's family, let me live in his house, and I lived on a futon in Koyani, who was a wide receiver for us, almost like an 18 year old, probably 17 or 18 at the time, and I went to high school with him every day. And I went to football practice and lived with this team, and it was really an amazing experience.

That's really cool.

And And

that's why it feels so real and authentic, and just just the way in which you just shot the the the the the sport as well. What what was your did you play a lot of football, growing up?

I played high school football, but I tried to I wanted to be a quarterback. My ego was like, yeah, I'm gonna be a quarterback, and I was horrible. So for 3 years, I tried to to play quarterback, very unsuccessfully. And my senior year in high school, my coach moved me to a defensive end, and and I really realized I should have done that all along because I liked hitting people and I didn't have the pressure. I I I would get too anxious and couldn't remember the plays and just had some horrible disasters as quarterback.

Yeah. But when I finally moved to defense, you know, I I developed a real love for the game. But, you know, the the book is about so much more than football, and I think that's why the show, has worked so well. It's really just, you know, you're you're a huge sports fan, Jason. I I know how much baseball means to you.

Right? Mhmm. Yeah.

I remember when I was a kid, I, I played football when I was really young, and I remember my mom telling me to go to this guy's house to get fitted for the equipment. Uh-oh. And so I did, and he gave me the mouth guard to fit my mouth.

Oh, boy.

Yeah. And the only good thing from the whole experience was that it tasted like mint. It was, like, minty flavored. And it's like, oh, maybe I could do this because it tastes so good. That was just the extent of my happiness.

Go ahead,

Will. I'm well, I just I don't know where to start. Honestly That's so funny.

I

mean, so much. Shoot.

I was, like, oh, maybe there's a silver lining here because

of it's funny, and then part of it's just a nothing story.

Yeah. It's a nothing story.

And disturbing, and and, you know Yeah. Hey, Pete, I'm sure that all your films have and you mentioned a few of them, like, have, you know, have a place in your heart or in your in your life where you look back and they represent a thing or and I'm sure you learned a lot from them. Was there was there 1 of your films that that really, for you, transported you and kind of not not like, hey, I figured it out, but more like and again, not even necessarily your favorite, but something you just, like, you learned a lot from

Right.

That that was like a turning point film for you.

I I mean, there was there was a moment when I was, you know, if I sometimes I answer that question, and and I I mean it by saying, I you you never set out to make a shitty movie, no filmmaker does. And we all understand how hard it is to make a a good film, and sometimes they're good and sometimes they absolutely suck, but it's so hard.

To just make a movie that doesn't suck. Not a good 1. Just 1 that doesn't suck.

It's so hard.

Exactly. I don't think people appreciate that

No. Actually, to be honest.

You know, and people It's a magic trick.

It's it's not their responsibility to appreciate it. Yeah. That's on us.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I've had people just say, god, your movies, that movie sucked. And I'm like, okay, fair enough. Thanks, man.

I appreciate

that. Didn't didn't that wasn't my goal. I assure you so much.

It's usually in the Boston area, by the way, that you get that. Fuck you, dude. That fuck, it sucks. For real. For real.

Yeah. And and, and they don't but, yeah, Boston's very direct. But, you you know, you do I do love everything I've done, and I find, you know, that these are things that I try as hard as I can, and hopefully, the result is good. So I do I do have connections to every film I've done. There was a moment when I was making Friday Night Lights, the movie, where we were gonna film a scene.

There's a coin toss scene. That's a big dramatic scene where all these schools have to decide who's gonna be in the playoffs. And we've been but we're scheduled for 3 nights to film this scene. It was a big scene, you know, 100 extras, Billy Bob Thornton, all the principals were there, and it was a complicated scene. And and this was when I was starting to find a style with multiple cameras and what Jason was talking about.

Just keep moving and don't cut and shoot and do a so we had 3 nights scheduled to shoot it. And then we got up there and rehearsed it for a couple hours, And I had the cameras going, and we shot it in about 2 hours. And we cut and and I'm like, looking at Eric Heffron, who was my first AD, and you've worked with him, Jason. And he's looking at me and I'm like, what what do we have this scene? And he's like, I think we do.

And we we this was 2 hours. We had 3 nights to shoot this scene. And we're standing there and the DP comes over and says, what just happened? I go, I'm not sure. And the script supervisor was all confused because he couldn't make sense of any of it.

And I go, I think we've got it. And then the producer came over and he's like, you can't do this. I'm gonna get in so much trouble because we and and and I realized then that I was able to work in a way that I didn't realize was possible, and the actors loved it, and it came out great, and I loved it, and the studio saved a shitload of money, And that became for me, kind of a personal sort of realization that there are not as many rules as we think there should be.

Interesting.

I think the success of Euro Guys podcast is another example of that, you know, like, really? Like this

What happened? Happened? Go forward. Yeah.

You just did it, and you followed no rules, and you followed your hearts, and you have this incredible relationship with each other, and people responded to it. And and I think that those are the kinds of, signals or signs that I look for as I kinda chug through my life.

Yeah. You know what else is great about about that that that particular specific style too is that it's super reliant on the team. You You know, those camera operators and and and focus pullers, they're you can't get to them in between action and cut. And they've gotta be making decisions in the moment, watching and listening to the scene, making composition work, etcetera etcetera, tagging certain things that they that they didn't get in the last take. And and it's all that sort of teamwork that maybe is an exciting, comparison for you to sports and and to what what you appreciate with, you know, your fellow linemen as opposed to perhaps the quarterback route you could have taken where it's just like, oh, I'm the star, and who cares who's blocking for me?

I just need to you know, you you got more in the trenches, and you potentially became more of a crew guy than a cast guy, that you may have stayed had you gone the quarterback route or maybe just stayed, you know, as an actor. I don't know. I'm just I'm such a big I just love Well, I

think also everybody's probably really present. Right? Yeah. Like, everybody's in it

as you

say, Jason. Everybody's listening. Everybody's in it. There's no chance to fuck off and get on your phone or whatever. You gotta be

It it becomes kind of like a a bit like theater or a live experience. I've had a lot of actors say, like they've gone into some sort of creative blackout while we're doing it, and they don't remember exactly what happened, and they were able And I've experienced that. I used to do theater and I loved it, and I'm sure you guys have felt that before where you know it's Sean won a Tony

last year

I know you did Sean congratulations did

did you ever goodbye Oscar

goodbye Oscar did you ever find that

that

you must have gotten into that flow state on stage where you're just in it, and and you don't necessarily remember it. You're not thinking.

So true. From the second you start pacing backstage waiting for your entrance

Yeah.

Right? You're you're somewhere else a little bit. And then the second you step on, you're like, oh, there's just a couple shows here and there where you where you have your mark markers, where as you're talking in, like, a monolog or something, you go, from this point on, I have about 25 more minutes. Then I get to go home and eat pizza. Yeah.

And so, you know, you start having those those markers.

Yeah. But most of the time you're in it.

Yeah. Most of the time you you don't have a choice but to be in it. Right? Yeah.

We'll be right back.

And back to the show.

Now, Pete, I wanna talk to you about, potentially, 1 of the most challenging, periods in your career, going through the work experience with Justin Theroux on Leftovers. Oh, man. How did you manage to

Yeah.

To just keep your head up, go forward, and say, they're not all gonna be like this?

I did see that he managed to work in a shirt. Like, he went tarps off in a running scene in the pilot, which probably was his call.

Well and I and fucking Thoreau stole your sleeveless look. You know? Yeah. Pete's got a great, war cry, basically. Physical work war cry.

He'll take he'll grab he'll grab his short sleeves. He'll pull them up over the top of his shoulder cap and turn his t shirts into, you know, shirtless.

Every day.

I like that.

You know, Justin just cuts off the sleeves. But but Pete's actually got a move there that creates the sleeveless look, and it gets gets everyone fired up.

You know, when when we were getting ready to cast leftovers, Damon Lindelof, who is a genius, you know, was telling me, you know, I was directing a pilot and he wanted, you know, me to do kind of what I wanted to do, and he certainly wasn't giving me mandates, but he really was encouraging me to meet with Justin Theroux, and I met with him and I I couldn't figure him out. I'd never seen anything like that. You thought

it was a bit. You thought Damon was having a a a laugh.

He can't figure himself out, so,

I mean, they can't keep going. And, you know, the tattoos, and I've never seen someone with less body fat. There's just no 1. He's so ripped and so intense. And I was like, I I I didn't get it.

And then I met and and and Dan's like, he wants to meet you again. And we met again, and I I still didn't totally get it. But he covered his sleeves. He wore a shirt, so I didn't have the tattoos. And then we met a third time.

And I guess I I I he wore me down a little bit, and he was so determined to play this role. And I have to say, once he showed up on set, that guy is legit. He he he did such a great job. He covered the tattoos. He got his haircut looking, because I didn't buy him as a Midwestern cop, you know.

I I was having trouble seeing that, and he really transformed himself. And, that show is so

fucking hilarious. Like a West Village, like, he's just kind of like a downtown New York dandy, that guy. So he doesn't you know what I mean? Like, you can't even Dandy. No.

He doesn't you can't you can't even see him above 23rd Street.

So Yeah. Forget it. He's a downtown guy for sure, but he's a he's a real actor and, you know He is.

He's really is. And that show

Such a good writer.

Pete Pete, that show is so good.

You and Damon and then and then what what Mimi Leiter did afterwards.

You did a great job.

Going like, it's just fucking beautiful. You know, Max Richter's music. I mean, it's just Max, and you make you but you made all those decisions setting that show up with the way it looked, the way it sounded, who's in it, where we're shooting it, what the crew is, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And and so thank you for that, among all the other things you set up. It just I just love your taste.

No. I appreciate it. Thinking about what you were saying. I'm kinda going back a little bit. But, you know, I I've had this same frustration about and I love hearing about your style, Pete, because there is nothing I think it's even the the hardest thing to do is to make a funny film, because there's generally no flow on on set.

And you're you're turning around, and you're doing, you know, doing this kind of shit. And there's nothing less fun than trying to make a comedy film. They're really fucking tough to do. And because the system is set up, it's set against you. Yeah.

And that's why often really funny films that break out are films that are small films. They come out of nowhere because they don't have the budget to fuck around and to have a big company move and all this shit. It's just young people who are like just grabbing cameras, throwing cameras on their shoulders and and getting it. 2 or 3, you know, 2 cameras handheld blah blah blah. And that immediacy is what you need in comedy.

And it just doesn't exist in a in a bigger format. Would you agree

with that? I saw Sean Baker's film, his new film, Anora. Have you guys seen it?

Is incredible.

No. That's that's the hardest I've laughed in a movie in in quite a while.

That's great.

And will did you see it, Sean?

Yeah. I saw it. Yeah.

Oh, what's the film? Onora.

Oh, yeah. We were just talking about it. I haven't seen it yet.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Gotta check that out.

It's fantastic. When that dude is in the courtroom and and he's the judge throws him out and he's tries starts objecting, like he's part of the legal defense team. I just haven't laughed that hard in and to your point, well, it's just, you know, I'm a big fan of Sean Baker and and it's just loose, wild, You you don't know what who who these people are that are in the cast.

Yeah. And

I remember seeing I remember seeing, Rushmore in the theater when it first came out and feeling like, fuck. Yeah. This is fucking great. Mhmm.

Right. Because there wasn't There's no leaking.

There's no well, there's no yeah. There was no pre there's no pretense. It was just that they came out. Obviously, they had Bill Murray, but you got the sense that these guys were young, and they didn't know what they were doing. And they were gonna try shit, and and they weren't part of the system yet.

Mhmm.

Now, Pete, where you you being an actor, how does your, do you have more patience or less patience with actors, as a director?

You know, I I I recognize I I think I have less patience at times, and I value, I have so much more respect for actors who really come to bring it, who are really there to work and who are smart and worth thinking. I just worked with Betty Gilpin, I don't know if you guys have met Betty Gilpin, She's in, something I just did, American Primeval, and she's just a wonderful, wonderful actress.

By the way, Amanda saw, my wife over the the over the past couple of weeks. I don't know. She sneaks off and she watches shit while while I'm busy, you know, doing dumb shit. She says, it's so incredible, Pete. You guys, this this tell what what's it called again?

Amer American Primeval?

It's called American Primeval, and it's, very violent, very violent show.

She says and, you know, you and you guys both know Amanda very well. And, Pete, you know her a bit. Yes. I do. She does not give it up.

She will not shut up about this.

Appreciate that, Amanda.

Fantastic, she says.

But so so but to to your question, I I I recognize if I've made a mistake in casting, and sometimes you do, and usually it's it's smaller roles, but sometimes it's not. Who? I'm not gonna say I'm not, I won't answer you. I know.

I know.

But you you I I can't get I get frustrated with myself for allowing myself to put someone in a situation that they're just not right for, And I've had moments where I wanna get angry, with actors and just say, you know, give line readings or just yell at them or

Be better.

Yeah. Just just do it fucking better. Do something. But that that unfortunately is not an effective strategy at all. Alright.

So so I, you know, I've learned enough to know that, you know, generally in editing, you can fix things. And oftentimes I've worked with that, I've directed actors who I thought were really kind of shitting the bed, and later in editing, I found that they weren't, but, in general, I find that, you know, getting, as I've gotten older, like when I did my first movie, Very Bad Things, I was so insecure and confused, and I had Cameron Diaz and Christian Slater at the height of his career, and I was making a movie, if you walked up to me and said, good morning, I would respond with go fuck yourself. Yeah. What the fuck does that mean? So much stress.

What does that mean?

Have you seen have you seen it lately? I just saw the first thing I've directed, and it did not hold up.

I mean

Now, I used to think it was so great.

What was it?

Seen yours. It was called Bad Words.

Bad Words.

And there were parts of it. I was like, I'm watching it with my kid the other day. I'm like, what the fuck was I thinking there? Anyway Yeah. There was a lot that I liked, but still, have you seen Very Bad Things lately?

Does it hold up?

Not lately, but I've watched it. And, you know, it's like I said earlier. I I that's who I I I I am not happy about how unhappy I was making that film. I was just

a

seething ball of confusion and rage every day. Right. And thank Cameron Diaz for being so sweet. She would pull me into her trailer, and she would she would watch Uncle Buck in between takes, and just I'd walk by her trailer, I'd hear this laughter, and it would be Cameron Diaz watching Uncle Buck. And she'd be like, Pete, just come and watch Uncle Buck for a little bit and calm down.

And I would just sit there trembling watching uncle Buck and Cameron's laughter calm me down. She was such an angel to me.

That's so fucking by the way, 1 of the great line readings of all time, uncle Buck is John Candy when he's talking to the principal and and she's got the wart on her nose. And he interrupts himself, like, 8 times because he keeps saying, no. Warty nose. Warty nose. No.

Wart on the no. What? And it's 1 of the great line readings of all time.

Pete, before we let you go, tell us tell us what what what drew you to to American Primeval? This this is, this is a show wait

to see it.

Yeah. I know.

This is a show that is coming out, January 9th, I wanna say.

Yes.

Does that sound right?

Yes, sir. Yes? January 9th on Netflix. Yes.

January 9th on Netflix. What, what about it drew you to it? What part what part of it now that you're done with it do you like the most?

Yeah. So I wanted I I'd always wanted to explore the western world, and I say the western world because it's not a traditional western. There's a movie called Jeremiah Johnson that Robert Redford did a long time ago. He played a mountain man, or he played a city man who came to the mountains to try and find gold, and he became a mountain man. And he developed a relationship with the native Americans out there, and it was just a really, a formative movie for me as a kid.

My parents took me, and I always wanted to do something like that. And Markel Smith, who's a friend of mine who wrote The Revenant, and I were talking, and I'm like, what if we did something in this world? And we started and and my goal was I wanted to go out into the elements. I didn't wanna shoot in sound stages, I wanted a challenge. So we ended up with this 6 part series that's about a very violent period in American history in 1857, where the Mormons were just starting to Brigham Young was very violent and they were trying to hold out in in Utah.

The army was coming after them. Multiple Native American tribes were fighting, and I thought this would be a really interesting environment to set a story. It was a very, very violent time in a in a in a very violent history, which is American history, in a very violent global history, which is planet Earth, and we wanted to explore man's innate desire and inability to not kill each other. And we thought that that was, you know, just something that in living in this world today, where obviously violence is on the rise, and will it might not all be sugar that got you anxious, like these are these are rough times, you know, and this is something we wanted to explore. And I think 1 of the biggest takeaways for me, and this isn't necessarily the sexiest takeaway, but learning about Brigham Young and the history of the Mormon church and how persecuted they were, and they were run out of New York, and then they were run out of, Georgia, and they Joseph Smith, the leader, took them up to Illinois to try and create this Nauvoo, this place where they could live, and Joseph Smith was killed and Brigham Young fled across the country on foot with 2,000 of his followers and ended up in what was a godforsaken land, Salt Lake City at the time, and he said, well, we'll stay here.

This is the place. No 1 will ever come for us here. And he started growing the religion, and the US military started coming for him, and the Mormons were were a very cunning and at times violent organization. And 1 of the things I'm very happy with is actor Kim Coats, who plays Brigham Young, he was in Sons of Anarchy and thought I was joking when I cast him as Brigham Young, just a great actor, and learning about that aspect of it was something that, for me, was just really personally quite interesting, and getting to know the great Betty Gilpin, who does such a good job in our show. Yeah.

That's what Amanda said. And Taylor Kitsch, your

And Taylor, what? Love with all my heart.

Collaborator. Yeah.

Yeah, man.

Yeah. He's a great actor.

Yeah.

Well, I'm fucking thrilled for you. I'm just excited we get more Pete Berg stuff. Hopefully, you're there in Tel Aviv re researching something that's gonna be, awesome to see 1 day. I won't I won't even ask you about it.

I know. I've been thinking the whole time. I'm like, what is he doing? I

know. Exactly. I know. But I miss you, buddy. Hurry back.

Let's all hang out. I let's let's let's, let's go watch Will's kid go box over at your gym.

Bring him in any time. Or, Sean, if you feel like hitting something, come on in. I've got some people these days.

Oh, you kidding right after this? He's but he's gonna hit the fridge.

Yeah. Listen. He's gotta finish off that football. Cheat day. Cheat day.

Everyday is cheat day. Yeah.

Thanks, Pete.

Nice to meet you, Pete.

Love you. Great to

see you, man. Hope, pal.

Thanks for your time.

Congratulations on everything, fellas. Keep up the good work. You're making people really happy, and we need that.

No. Thank

you. Thank you, pal.

Thank you.

Bye. Thanks.

Bye bye. Bye.

I'm excited. That was great, Jay. I'm I'm excited for his show, American

Prime Minister.

When he came out. I never met him. I I think he's, like,

1 of the

best. Guy. Such a great filmmaker.

Yeah.

No. He's

a really, really good filmmaker. And And and, you know, he and he's and he doesn't throw that in the public's face or or or the industry's face. Like,

he's No. He's low profile. You're right.

Yeah. Low profile. And he's he's he's not he's not He's just making stuff. Yeah. Exactly.

And every once in a while, stuff will show up, and you'll go, oh, fuck, man. Is this fan nothing ever sucks about what he does.

And, Jason, you were fantastic in the kingdom. No.

So good. Jason, you were so

good. You

were so good.

Loving that movie. I loved that movie. Was fucking great. Yeah. It was Gary.

It was, like, 1 of those rare ones that was, like, all work.

It was so great. I'm telling you, that line we need I went I saw it in the theater with with Kras, with Krasinski. And you it yeah. We did. We saw it in New York.

And we and you delivered that line with fucking

you late?

Why are you late?

No, dad. This is so

fucking good.

I can't wait that. It's called American Primeval. American Primeval. Correct. Sometime

in January, go on the the Netflix.

Yeah. You know?

And I don't or the reflux. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sean, I don't see you looking off to your

I'm not sure. This is a

fun day.

Dude, I wasn't prepared. I wasn't prepared. You're not prepared.

Oh, that's 1.

I'm nervous.

So we're gonna stall a little bit while you pull like, look at now I see I'm looking around all the different windows trying

to Oh, no.

Oh, no. Where's the folding knife? Possible buys.

Why didn't I have?

Possible buys.

Possible buys. Yeah. Go ahead.

Let's see. Uh-huh. So, you know You know?

Trying to

You know what? There's where's the where's

the that that

that whole thing with Gary Shandling

Yeah.

The whole

boxing thing with

Oh, yes. Sure.

Uh-huh. That was really funny. That was a story that I was really blown away.

Bye. Bye.

Bye. God. Okay.

The problem with that is is that it's so it's so on the nose that, to be honest, for me, I just I just don't buy

it. Yeah.

That will work. That will work.

You know what I mean?

So like 2 half ones make a full. Yeah. Yeah. Smart. Smart.

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