"Peter Berg"

Hello, friends. Jason here.

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the California wildfires, go to smartlist.com slash wildfires. Hey, guys.
I just want to say welcome to all our fans overseas. I don't think there are any.
Well, hang on a second. I don't think we've ever done a welcome to our overseas fans.
Wherever you are, I know we get a lot of listeners. This is not a bit.

We get a lot of listeners in Iran.

Yeah.

And I will say we do have a huge listenership there.

We have some listeners in Germany.

We have some French listeners.

Bonjour, ça va?

UK.

UK for sure.

Well, Canada's not over NEC, but look at them now.

Okay, sorry.

A couple of lakes.

Certainly the people, our friends down in Australia, down under.

We have a lot of fans down there.

How are you?

Thank you. But look at him now.
Okay, sorry. A couple of lakes.
Certainly the people, our friends down in Australia, Down Under.

We have a lot of fans down there. How are you?

A lot of fans in Brazil, the home of the Brazilian.

And so just to all of our fans, welcome to Smartless.

Smart.

Smart.

Smart.

Smart. smart less smart less yeah god that was yeah he's barely with us stupid sean didn't know we had to record today what did we interrupt sean were you in the middle of uh toasting-Tart? No, I wish.
I still have my things and my trays in. Take, oh, yeah.
It's not your trays. Is that Invisalign? Yeah.
Or is it just a bite? Is it like a bite stick? No, I have one more tray to go. And then what? What are you working towards? Perfect teeth for when they lay you in the coffin? Is that what it is? Why'd you choose to do it in the last third of your life? They were pretty jacked.
They were getting real jacked. No, they really weren't.
You're just running out of shit to fuck with. Well, this is true.
This is true. Don't you think? No, I panicked.
I had a 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- It's like you were sleeping through your alarm clock. Absolutely.
Or getting a text that says, where are you at? You're on your way? Yeah. I was like, oh my God.
What do you guys do? What do you guys do? How do you guys not miss appointments on a day? I usually don't. Do you, but do you, but why? Why do you not miss them? Is it because you look at your calendar app the night before or morning of? Night before.
Night before, yeah. Night before.
Night before, and 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.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're getting an email from people you work with that they send, so this is from your executive assistants.
From Sweet Liz.

And they say,

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.

It's disgusting.

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 next week.

And sometimes even if it's a busy month, she'll be like, this is what's coming up. Yeah, but you can't do that yourself.
I kind of do that too. Hashtag relatable.
I could do it myself. By the way, you're the call my assistant guy.
I never say that. Who says that? You do.
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 the assistants. You say that.
I've heard you say it a million times. Listen, I love you.
There are very few people who love you more than I do. I love you a lot.
But you're made up of, you're nothing but blind spots. Sean, do you have an assistant? Sean laughed at it too.
You know what I guess?

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, JB.

No, I don't.

How do you not?

Why do I not?

Because I know Liz and I know Bloom.

Yeah, I know Bloom.

What's his or her name?

Nick.

Nick.

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

Because you're not, this is what I'm saying,

because you're living in a blind spot, bro.

Hey, 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.

I had a buddy named Wade,

Wade Wilson.

Hi, Wade.

Wait, what's been,

Sean, how you been doing?

Are you okay?

I've been great.

I just, I'm still frazzled

about being late. You're frazzled, but how are you in general? Oh, thanks for asking.
I'm really good. Are you? Yeah.
Why? Something I should know? No, I couldn't tell the other night. I feel like it's a very, nothing to do with what's going on in the, I don't mean like sort of, I just mean that like in general, it's a weird time.
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 don't know. I couldn't explain it.
Low grade? Yeah, kind of low grade, and I couldn't shake it, and I don't know, and I'm not really made that way in the sense that like I feel really lucky that, I think I've mentioned this before, Downey once said, nobody wakes up in the morning happier to be themselves than you. And it's sort of true.
That's kind of true, yeah. But I do.
But you're not bright enough to be concerned about things. I think so.
I think that's probably true. It takes a lot of intelligence to really see all the problems that could come your way.
I think that's true. Or it's just that everything's worked out.
But it's one of the two. But we had a wonderful conversation on Saturday around the table.
I love that. We had a really great conversation with our friend Danny Dees, whom we all love and adore.
But, you know, sometimes... So I think that the contrast when I'm not feeling great is so—I really feel it because— Usually you're 72 and breezy.
Yeah, yeah. And 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 looking to redirect all day.
I was like, what am I going to do? And how about today? Did you wake up back to it today?

Yeah, a little bit better today.

A little bit better.

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.

Oh, that's interesting.

It's fucking, we had that big fat fucking carrot cake.

Yeah.

And God, was it good?

It was sugar.

And I was a disaster yesterday.

Really?

But it was Will's cheat day, and everybody had a little piece of cake. Yes, it was my cheat day.
Cheap meal, not day. Cheap meal, cheat meal, sorry.
And everybody got served a little piece of cake, and Will got served two pieces of cake and five things of ice cream. And I said, how many people are you cheating for? Exactly.
How many people are you cheating on? You did, but did you notice this week that I ate mine?

I only had one piece of cake,

and then I had a few scoops of ice cream,

which I brought with me like a psycho.

You brought fucking chocolate sauce with you, too.

No, that was Jen's.

That was at her house.

This isn't a cheat day.

You're impregnating people as well, I guess.

It's not just, you know, heavy petting.

But do you remember two weeks ago when our friend, when I went to have a second piece and she looked at me and she was like, honey, do you really want to do that? She shamed me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This week. You guys just need to get married and get it over with.
I know. This week she saw me look at her, like she'd had like three bites, tiny bites of her cake, and she pushed it towards towards me and I thought it was a really kind of I saw that and then I kind of kind of got sad I was like why didn't you push it towards me because you don't look as much like a trash can a little bit I think that I think that Shawnee this is my vision of you is that you're like I'm only having one piece and then you kept going into the kitchen and you would stuff that is correct correct.
Stuff. And silence and shame.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, so we're feeling good today though, right? We're all back to it. That's interesting about the sugar thing though, Jay.
I want to talk about that. I swear to God.
The sugar thing is good. And you know what the other thing is? My new hack, and maybe I've talked about this, 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 good. Yeah.
That really, really helped. And get out of your own head a little bit.
Do you not have my right number? You might not have my right number. I knew how you were doing, okay? Which I'd just seen you nine hours before.
We all know how you were doing, okay? I'm cold this morning. It's chilly in LA.
We love you. I see you 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. 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, Pete.

Wow.

Wowie, wowie.

Did I get that right?

Is that the order?

Is your love for football, Emmett and Ari,

is that the right order?

It's my son.

Flex weights.

It's my son, Ari Football, I would have to say.

But 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 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's not helping, so.

No.

And you're very smart about that stuff, right?

Pete, you should know I've been off the sugar for a few months,

but I have one cheat meal every seven days as per my.

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

Yeah, probably.

Because your body's so cleaned out.

But does sugar have to be part of the cheat meal? Can't you just eat pizza or something? Bacon. Yeah, have bacon.
I think it's that and everything else. I probably should.
I think that it's just... Well, but like any of us sort of folks in recovery, we miss the sweet.
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, yeah, then the Coke, because it looks like sugar. Stevia helps me out.
Stevia helps me out. Oh, that's good.
Pete, you're good with, you're good with, you're good with, look at you. You look trim, man.
You look great, Pete. You always look so good.
If you took that tarp off right now, you'd see someone that could beat your ass, Arnett. I know.
Pretty handily. I know he could.
I would 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've said hi to you many times, and I wish it was more than just a hi. It's always 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 um uh this is it's it's it's been a steady escalation of commitment from you um not just in training, but then like now you're co-owning a gym.
Yeah. 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 to me, that just seemed like a horrible idea for many reasons. Just like when, talk about like all blind spot.
I had enough of, because I'm like you, I have a lot of blind spots. But I sensed that that would be a bad move for me to open a bar, be part of that.
And at the time, I was boxing at a club that Bob Dylan owns in Santa Monica. No way.
And the trainer of the gym got into a beef with Bob, which is a whole great story in itself. Getting into beefs with Bob Dylan.
There's a whole side of Bob Dylan around a boxing gym. He'll hit you with a guitar.
You know, you're really annoying me today. If you don't do something, I'm going to 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, but you couldn't hit him back. 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 Shanandling, who I love so much,

and left me alone with a boxing gym.

And it has been one of the stupidest things

that I have ever done in my life,

bar fucking none.

Wait, why?

Do not open up.

That sounds like such an easy thing to run.

Low overhead, there's no maintenance. Hey, clean these towels and lock the door.
You know what? Two things, actually, technically three things. One thing is people say that I got a lot of blind spots, but I don't see them.
The other thing is this, Pete, 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 going to name, but he's going twice.

And now he just said to me last night,

Dad, can I start going three times a week?

And he boxes with this guy, which is really cool.

And I was thinking, like, I'd love to get him out to your gym,

maybe, and get him in there and get another one.

There you go.

Churchill Boxing Club in Santa Monica, come on down.

It's a great gym.

Great.

We're going to get a nice boon.

But here's what I wanted to say is a little sideline,

because I do want to 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 Shanley. Because he was one of, talk about a heavyweight to use the analogy.
This guy was an unbelievable, he's the reason I got HBO. Because Pete, you knew him.
I didn't know the guy. But what an influence he had on what we consider to be comedy now in a lot of ways.
Gary Shandling. Actors, writers, format.
What was he like? What was he like? So, I mean, I got to see both sides of Gary. I saw him as a comic titan and 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 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 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 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 famous. They had no idea that he had this other life.
They just thought he was a really sweet guy who cared about them. And he really did.
And so 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.
That's such a funny image. Gary tried to do a talk show where he would fight you three rounds in the ring.
And as soon as those three rounds were over, you would collapse and he'd do do an interview he would do the interview after you'd been punching the shit out of each other and he only did one with alec with alec baldwin and i was there for it and they both i think had heart attacks literally many heart attacks and and at the end of the third round, Baldwin was laying on his side and Gary was laying on his stomach and they were wheezing. There was like...
And Gary was trying to ask him questions. How'd you get started, Alec? Yeah, and Baldwin was just like, I think I really need some water.
And I'm like, guys, you're both. Do we see this? You're both.
It never aired. Did you shoot it? We did.
I've seen it. And it got kind of real, too, when they were fighting, too, right? No, they were beating the shit out of each other.
Baldwin was tough. And Gary was deceptively 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 going to be kind of fun.
And Shanley just started face punching him over and over and over. Yeah, it got weirdly real, and it was uncomfortable.
Pete, you've got to show us this. You shot it? Gary shot it, so we could maybe dig it up.
But 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 one of those, it was a deep level of exhaustion.
It just

wasn't going away. It's just like an icebreaker before an interview?

Yeah, just to put everybody at ease. And we will be right back.
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Pete, I do want to go back there. I want to get back into how you became who you are, which is, as Jason said in the intro, I mean, you're an incredible filmmaker and actor, and you haven't acted as much in the last few years as you used to, but you started as an actor.
And Jason, you probably feel a lot of connection to what Pete does because he was able to kind of go from an actor who was in a lot of stuff and people wanted to become a director yourself, which I know is a trajectory 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 – talk about what it was that inspired you to become a director, et cetera.
So I think one of the light bulb moments for me that got me really starting to think about directing, which was 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 going to 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 million 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, Dr.
Billy Cronk on Chicago Hope. And thank you.
And 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 Dr. Billy Cronk, 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, 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 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.
I got to stop. And I started, you know, writing, and I wrote a movie, Very Bad Things,

which was my first film. And that was something that once I got a taste of that and figured out that I could do it, I never really looked back.
And I do love acting, but I was not going to be Billy Cronk for the rest of my career but what was that thing that made were you scared to be like i can't believe i can i'm going to try to do this like how did you get over the fear because you had a real career as an actor like you got to make a leap a little bit and go like all right i'm going to do this so i was flying to new york uh to act when that when the rash 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 Copland.
I was going to act in it. Oh, yes.
And that was Stallone and De Niro. And Stallone had put weight on and was going to try and win an Oscar.
And this was Harvey Weinstein producing it in the height of his power. And Ray Liot and Harvey Keitan, all these big stars were in the film.
And I had a small part in it. Stallone directed that too, right? You wrote and directed it? No, James Mangold directed it, wrote and directed it.
And I was one of the cops, and most of my scenes were in this bar, and I would just sit around waiting for my one line. So Stallone would talk, and De Niro would talk, and then finally it would be my line, and I'd be like, yeah, for sure.
And then I waited. Sounds like me and Kingdom.
No, you had a great, you were phenomenal. No, Jason.
Turn left. No, no, no.
Turn right. Jason, by the way, sidebar, sidebar, Jason had one 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? Remember that? You guys are cruising along the desert? Fuck, I love that.
And Abbie Dabbie. Scared out of my mind.
But I was on the set 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 De Niro and Ray Leo.
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? He said, yeah, what's up? He said, I said, how do I get your job? Yeah.
Yeah. How do I get your job? You want to work 60 minutes an hour, not just 10.
And he said, you got to 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, kind of. He said, well, what I do is I use note cards.
And I outline my, and so then when I get all my cards, then I've got the idea, then I start writing the scenes. And so I went back to my hotel, and I was staying in the Essex house in New York.
You know that hotel? Sure. It has a big- Sounds of Park South.
It 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 I had the note cards kind of all over the room. And I'd go to work and come back and more note cards.
And I had this whole crazy system. And one 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.
I'm Manuela, you can't do this. I'm writing a movie.
And she's like, what? And I told her it was 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 Manuela helped me write the script because I would bounce it all off of her.
That's so good. And I had the script up all throughout the room.

It was on all the walls.

So I was like living in it.

One 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, Mr. Berg, we have a problem.

We had to move your room.

And 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 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. Come on.
Finish your script. That's amazing.
And that moment really changed everything for me. That's incredible.
I never knew that. Dude.
Pete, Jesus. That's fucking great.
That's so fucking incredible. What a great story about humanity and people and belief and all that kind of...
Also, I 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, you're very... You've got a very...
Your taste, your sensibility, your personality is very, you know, seasoned And there's no real artifice to you, which I just fucking love. And yet, and you've somehow managed to take that and mold it into an actual visual aesthetic 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 actors you hire, the things you ask them to do and not to do. Like, how is that shaped? I mean, 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 Patriot's Day, 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 my writing. And I try to have this deep of almost anthropological or almost journalistic understanding of my world.
So I went to Saudi Arabia a long time ago before we did the kingdom and lived there for three weeks and got as much of an understanding as I could 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 and that you know helps me in theory communicate with you know someone you know like when we were we were doing the scene in the kingdom where they were going to cut your head off. 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 what these 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.
And that really comes from the research. So then you're looking for a level of authenticity that then just naturally lends itself to, let's say, a handheld camera, desaturated color, blah, blah, blah.
So all of these things, you're engineering it from a very organic place. You're not kind of going backwards into an aesthetic.
Correct. You're just going, yeah.
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 shots and doing all this stuff. And we as actors would sit around waiting for all this equipment.
And I'm like, what are we doing here like i want to act i want to i want to be feel free to to to you know not be beholden to the you know and you guys have all seen it the machinery of filmmaking where cranes and dollies and lighting and hair and makeup and every it seems like it it impacts everything other than the actual acting.

All right.

And so Pete Stylist,

yeah, multiple cameras,

handheld cameras going at the same time.

And when they run out,

we were shooting on film,

when they'd run out of film,

the AC would just put the camera on the ground,

reload,

put another magazine of film on top of the camera

while the other two are still rolling.

And while we're resetting back to the top of the scene,

like multiple takes over and over and over again without ever cutting, just reloading the cameras quietly. I remember when we were rehearsing Hancock, remember we would have all those crazy rehearsals with Will and Charlize.
On the soundstage with Akiva? Yeah. Will Smith, yeah.
And when I first met Charlize, 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 Charlize said, you know, Pete, I understand.
I've talked to Jason. I know how you like to do this kind of wild thing and move around lots of cameras.
She said, you know, I don't work that way. I need a certain amount 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 first 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 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 truly I was doing this thing I was working with like with Taylor Sheridan he was a great guy and so I was at this hotel, and, you know, it was the fall, and I hear, I'm in my hotel room, and I'm trying to go over my shit that I'm working, and I keep hearing this, like, like, what the fuck? It's like, is my phone on? And I keep looking around the room.
The TV's not on. I go out in the thing and I look out and I can 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's packed and I can hear the fans and I can hear the announcement. I was like, holy shit.
Massive. It was Friday fucking night lights, man.
Like, it was incredible. Yeah.
Yeah, how did that, how did, so 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 pilot, probably the first couple, and EP'd the whole thing, right? Yeah. You're the writer, your second cousin to the writer, perhaps? Yes, Buzz Bissinger is my second cousin.
Was that helpful in it finding its way to you, or did it happen without that? It was. I had followed the book and read the book, and Buzz used 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 grazier 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 you know some pretty top tier directors and and brian was always nice and he was pretty honest, saying, you know, maybe we'll get

to you.

And two directors, one fell

out and one Brian got annoyed with and fired. And he called me and he said, okay, dude, it's yours.
And that was an incredible experience. And, you know, 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 Austin Westlake,

an 18-year-old, who's probably either 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 that's why it feels so real and authentic. And just the way in which you just shot the sport as well.
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 going to be a quarterback and I was horrible.
So for three years, I tried to play quarterback very unsuccessfully. And my senior year in high school, my coach moved me to a defensive end.
And I really realized I should have done that all along because I liked hitting people and I didn't have the pressure. I would get too anxious and couldn't remember the plays and just had some horrible disasters as quarterback.
But when I finally moved to defense, I developed a real love for the game. But 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're a huge sports fan, Jason. I know how much baseball means to you, right? I remember when I was a kid, 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 and so i did and he gave me the mouth guard to fit my mouth and the only good thing from the whole experience was that it tasted like mint it was like anti-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 mean well i just i don, I don't know where to start.
Honestly. That's so funny.
I mean, so much. It's true.
I was like, oh, maybe there's a silver lining here because it tastes... Well, part of it's funny, part of it's funny and then part of it's just a nothing story.
It is a nothing story. And disturbing and, you know.
Hey, Pete, I'm sure that all your films have, and you mentioned a few of them, like have a place in your heart or in your life where you look back and they represent a thing. And I'm sure you learned a lot from them.
Was there one of your films that really, for you, transported you and kind of, 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 that was like a turning point film for you. I mean, there was, there was a moment when I was, you know, I sometimes I answer that question and I mean it by saying I, you never set out to make a shitty movie.
No filmmaker does. And we all understand how hard it is to make a good film.
And sometimes they're good and sometimes they absolutely suck. It's so hard to just make a movie that doesn't suck.
Not a good one. Just one that doesn't suck.
It's so hard. Exactly.
I don't think people appreciate that, actually, to be honest. It's a magic trick.
It's not their responsibility to appreciate it. It's on us.
I've had people just say, God, your movies, that movie sucked. I'm like, okay, fair enough.
I mean, really, people will tell you that. Appreciate that.
Didn't, that wasn't my goal, I assure you. It's usually in the Boston area, by the way, that you get that.
Fuck you, dude, that fucking sucked, huh? For real. For real.
But't but yeah boston's very direct but 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 going to film a scene. There's a coin toss scene.
That's a big dramatic scene where all these schools have to decide who's going to be in the playoffs. And we'd been scheduled for three nights to film this scene.
It was a big scene, you know, a hundred extras, Billy Bob Thornton, all the principals were there. And it was a complicated scene.

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 it.

So we had three nights scheduled to shoot it.

And we got up there and rehearsed it for a couple of hours.

And I had the cameras going and we shot it in about two hours.

And we cut.

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, do we have this scene? And he's like, I think we do.
And this was two hours. We had three nights to shoot this scene.
And we're standing there and the DP comes over. He's like, 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. He's like, you can't do this.
I'm going to get in so much trouble. 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 your guys' podcast is another example of that. You know, like, really? That's what happened when you just go forward.
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 I think that those are the kinds of signals or signs that I look for as I kind of 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 know, those camera operators and, and, and focus pullers there, you can't get to them in between action and cut, And they've got to be making decisions in the moment, watching and listening to the scene, making composition work, et cetera, et cetera, tagging certain things that they didn't get in the last take. And it's all that sort of teamwork that maybe is an exciting comparison for you to sports and to 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 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 those.
Well, I think also everybody's probably really present, right? Yeah. Like everybody's in it.
For sure. Everybody's listening.
Everybody's in it. There's no chance to fuck off and get on your phone or whatever.
You got to be. It becomes kind of like 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, Sean won a Tony last year.

I know you did, Sean. Congratulations.

Did you ever...

Goodbye, Oscar. Goodbye, Oscar.

Did you ever find that? It's actually good night.

You must have gotten into that flow

state on stage where

you're just in it and

you don't necessarily remember it.

That's so true. From the second you start

pacing backstage waiting for your entrance, right?

You're somewhere else a little bit.

And then the second you step on, you're like,

oh, there's just a couple of shows here and there

where you have your markers,

where as you're talking in like a monologue or something,

you go, from this point on, I have about 25 more minutes.

Then I get to go home and eat pizza.

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

But most of the time you're in it. Yeah, most of the time you don't have a choice but to be in it, right? Yeah.
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Hilton for the stay. And back to the show.
Now, Pete, I want to talk to you about potentially one of the most challenging periods in your career, going through the work experience with Justin Theroux on Leftovers. How did you manage to just keep your head up, go forward and say, they're not all going to 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 fucking Thoreau stole your sleeveless look. You know, Pete's got a great war cry, basically.
Physical war cry. He'll take, 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 Pete's actually got a move there that creates the sleeveless look and it gets everyone fired up. You know, when we were getting ready to cast Leftovers, Damon Lindelof, who is a genius, you know, was telling me, you know, I was directing the 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 couldn't figure him out.
I'd never seen anything like it. You thought it was a bit.
You thought Damon was having a laugh. He can't figure himself out, so I mean, keep going.
And, you know, the tattoos, and I've never seen someone with less body fat. There's just no one.
He's so ripped and so intense. And I was like, I didn't get it.
And then I met, and Dan's like, he wants to meet you again. And we met again.
And I still didn't totally get it, but he covered his sleeves. He wore a shirt, so I didn't have the tattoos.
Then we met a third time. I guess he wore me down a little bit, and he was so determined to play this role.
I have to say, once he showed up on set, that guy is legit. 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. I was having trouble seeing that.
And he really transformed himself. That show is so fucking good.
He looks like a West Village. 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, you can't even see him above 23rd Street. He's a downtown guy for sure, but he's a real actor and, you know...
He is. He really is.
And that show... Such a good writer.
Pete, that show is so good. You and Damon and then what Mimi Leder did afterwards.
Mimi did a great job. Keeping that thing going.
It's just fucking beautiful. Max Richter's music.
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, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so thank you for that, among all the other things you set up.
I just love your taste. No, I appreciate it.
I was thinking about what you were saying, and I'm kind of going back a little bit, but I've had this same frustration about, and I love hearing about your style, Pete, because there is nothing, I think the hardest thing to do is to make a funny film because there's generally no flow on set, you're turning around and you're 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 because the system is set up, it's set against you and that's why often really funny films that break out are films that are small films that 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 getting it. Two or three, you know, two cameras, handheld, blah, blah, blah.
And that immediacy is what you need in comedy. And it just doesn't exist in a bigger format.
Would you agree with that? I saw Sean Baker's film, his new film, Anora. Have you guys seen it? Yeah, Anora is incredible.
No, I haven't seen it. That's the hardest I've laughed in a movie in quite a while.
That's great. And Will, did you see it, Sean? Yeah, I saw it, yeah.
What's the film? Anora. Oh, yeah, we were just talking about it.
I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You gotta check that out. It's fantastic.
When that dude is in the courtroom and he's the film? Onora. Oh, we were just talking about it.
I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got to check that out. It's fantastic.
When that dude is in the courtroom and the judge throws him out and he starts objecting like he's part of the legal defense team, I just haven't laughed that hard. And to your point, Will, it's just, you know, I'm a big fan of Sean Baker and it's just loose, wild.
You don't know who these people are that are in the cast. I remember seeing Rushmore in the theater when it first came out and feeling like, fuck, this is fucking great.
Right. Because there wasn't any— There's no winking.
Well, there's no—yeah, and there was no pretense. It was just 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 going to try shit and they weren't part of the system yet.
Now, Pete, you being an actor, how does your, do you have more patience or less patience with actors as a director? You know, I recognize, 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 who are 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.
Which, by the way, Amanda saw my wife over the past couple of weeks. I don't know.
She sneaks off and she watches shit while I'm busy doing dumb shit. She says, it's so incredible, Pete.
You guys, what's it called again? American Primeval. It's called American Primeval, and it's a very violent show.
She says, 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. This is fantastic, she says.

But to your question, I recognize if I've made a mistake in casting, and sometimes you do, and usually it's smaller roles, but sometimes it's not. Who? I'm not going to say.
I won't mention names. I know.
But you, 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 want to get angry with actors and just say, you know, give line readings or just yell at them.
Be better. Yeah, just do it do it fucking better do something but that unfortunately is not an effective strategy at all so i you know i've learned enough to know that um you know generally in editing you can fix things and oftentimes i've i've worked with 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 getting, as I've gotten older, when I did my first movie, Very Bad Things, I was so insecure and confused. 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. What the fuck does that mean? So much stress.
What does that mean? Have you seen it lately? I just saw the first thing I've directed and it did not hold up. I used to think it was so great.
Have you seen yours? It was called Bad Words. Bad Words.
And there were parts of it, I was like watching it with my kid the other day I was like what the fuck was I thinking there anyway there was a lot that I liked but still have you seen Very Bad Things lately? does it hold up? not lately but I watch it and you know it's like I said earlier I am not happy about how unhappy I was making that film I was just a seething ball of confusion and rage every day. And thank Cameron Diaz for being so sweet.
She would pull me into her trailer, and 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, one of the great line readings of all time in Uncle Buck is John Candy when he's talking to the principal and she's got the wart on her nose. And he interrupts himself like eight times because he keeps saying, warty nose, warty nose.
No, wart on the nose. It's one of the great line readings of all time.
Pete, before we let you go, tell us what drew you to American Primeval. This is a show.
I can't wait to see it. This is a show that is coming out January 9th I want to say does that sound right January 9th on Netflix January 9th on Netflix what about it drew you to it what part of it now that you're done with it do you like the most 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 where 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 formative movie for me as a kid. My parents took me, and I always wanted to do something like that.
And Mark L. 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 my goal was I wanted to go out into the elements.
I didn't want to shoot in sound stages. I wanted to challenge.
So we ended up with this six-part series that's about a very violent period in American history in 1857 where the Mormons were just starting to have an army, and Brigham Young was very violent, and they were trying to hold out. 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 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 rough times, you know? And this is something we wanted to explore.
And I think one 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 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 one will ever come for us here. And he started growing the religion, and the U.S.
military started coming for him. And the Mormons were a very cunning and at times violent organization.
And one of the things I'm very happy with is actor Kim Coates, 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, who I love with all my heart.

Collaborator, yeah.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, that's what Amanda said. And Taylor Kitsch, your...
And Taylor, who I love with all my heart.

Collaborator, yeah.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, he's a great actor.

Well, I'm fucking thrilled for you.

I'm just excited we get more Pete Berg stuff.

Hopefully, you're there in Tel Aviv

researching something that's going to be awesome to see one day.

Yeah, no kidding.

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, I know.
But I miss you, buddy. Hurry back.
Let's all hang out. Let's go watch Will's kid go box over at your gym.
Bring him in anytime, or Sean, if you feel like hitting something, come on in. I've got some people at these guys.
Oh, are you kidding me after this? He's going to hit the fridge. Listen.
He's got to finish off that footlong. Cheat day.
Cheat day. Every day is cheat day.
Thanks, Pete. Nice to meet you, Pete.
Love you. Great to see you, man.
I hope, pal. Thanks for doing this.
All right, 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. I'm excited.
That was great, Jay. I'm excited for his show, American Privateer.
It's wild when he came out. I never met him.
I think he's like one of the best. He's just the guy, such a great filmmaker.
Yeah, no doubt. He's a really, really good filmmaker.
And, you know, he doesn't throw that in the public's face or the industry's face. No.
He keeps a low profile. You're right.
Yeah, low profile. And he's not like.
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 fantastic. Nothing ever sucks about what he does.
And Jason, you were fantastic in The Kingdom. Nah.
So good. Jason, you were so good.
You were so good. I remember loving that movie.
I loved that movie. I thought that movie was fucking great.
Yeah, it was scary. It was like one of those rare ones that was like all work.
It was so great. I'm telling you, that line reading, I saw it in the theater with Kraz, with Krasinski.
And you, yeah, we did. We saw it in New York and you delivered that line.
We were fucking. Are you late? Are you late? No doubt.
It's so fucking good. I can't wait that.
It's called American Primeval, right? American Primeval, correct. Sometimes in January, go on the Netflix.
Yeah. You know? Or the reflux.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sean, I don't see you looking off to your... I know, Sean.
This is a fun day. I wasn't prepared.
I wasn't prepared. You're not prepared.
Oh, that's why. I'm nervous.
So we're going to stall a little bit while you pull. Now I see him looking around all the different windows.
Oh, I know. Where's the folded? Where did I have them? Possible buys.
Why did I have them? Possible buys. Possible buys.
Yeah, go ahead. let's see uh-huh uh so um you know uh you know what scotty where's the where's the thing that whole thing with gary shandling yeah the whole boxing thing with that was really funny that was a story that I was really blown away.
By?

By.

By.

Huh.

Okay.

The problem with that is that it's so close.

It's so on the nose that, to be honest, for me, I just don't buy it.

That will work.

That will work.

You know what I mean?

Two half ones make a full.

Yeah.

Smart. Less.
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