This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what
You here Weekday Afternoon's On the Drive. Jerry Cone, a filmmaker behind one
of Bruce Willis's final films, Vendetta, and the upcoming action movie The Get
Back with Dermott mulroney, has a new book out about filmmaking fifty movies made.
What the subtitle Lessons Learned in a Filmmaker's Journey, and he talks about
working with all of these great stars and he's joining us now to talk about
that. Jared Cone, good to have you along. Yes, it's so
great to have me on. Yeah, thank you so much. And it's
great to be able to talk about the you know, the book. I've
been making movies for over twenty years, made over fifty and yeah, this
book is sort of, you know, about my story and about the lessons
and really about the crazy business that is the Hollywood machine. And so I
know, you know, people are interested, and I too try to address
their interests. They love that behind the scenes stuff. And when kids come
up to me and say, hey, I want to get into radio,
usually my advice is, really, I'm trying to get out, is it
the same with filmmaking. That's a group. I really like that you can
use that line, use that line really, I'm trying. Yeah, yeah,
uh, you know, I think it's not it's not what people expect
it is. And a lot of people have told me that the book sort
of reads like a cautionary tale at times. Uh, because I when I
came out the La eighteen bright eye, you know, stars in my eye,
I thought it was gonna be easy and I was gonna be on major
you know sets and lots doing with movie stars, and it just cut to
like, you know, ten fifteen years later, me grinding and broke in
my crappy apartment, you know, like just struggling to get you know,
any kind of work I can. And so for those people, I'll tell
you ninety nine percent of people come to Hollywood and they go back home to
where they are. Yes, So it's it's a brutal industry and not for
the faint of heart. So a lot, yeah, a lot of what
you said is true. You know him from many films like Vendetta fifty movies
Made, Lessons learned in filmmaking, and my filmmaker's Junry. This is Jared
cohis with us. Dude, I understand you're going to be doing some production
here in Oklahoma. Well, yeah, I did you know. I did
a movie called Cheer for Your Life. It was like all movies, a
lifetime thriller about cheerleaders, and that was it was amazing. You know,
we shot and this is probably a couple of years ago, and Oklahoma has
this amazing tax incentive. So all these I live in LA and all these
movies are going to you know, Oklahoma or you know, Georgia. It's
about alcohol, is is you guys are doing it right with the taxing CENTERCE
like California sucks. We need to do exactly what you guys are doing.
Everyone's leaving and they're going and they're going there, which is great for Oklahoma.
I hope it's you know, doing great things through your economy. But
well, as long as you leave the left leaning sensibilities on the coast,
I think we're fine. Yeah, yeah, we're we're We're I'm from Yeah,
I'm from the East Coast. I'm yeah. I'm there to you know,
shoot, take shoot the landscapes and the buildings and the and and interact
with the kind people. Yeah. No, I'm not bringing the that that
stuff. I don't do that well. And the thing is is we have
so much different scenery. We also have a lot of Victorian and Edwardian buildings
that are still standing. So if you want to shoot a period piece,
it's it's you know, it's probably not very expensive. You don't have to
set up a lot of stuff. No, it's it's great. And when
I when I worked there, people are kind and they're like, you want
to ask you, is it possible to shoot here that your people are happy
to have you around. You know, for the most part in la if
you you know, someone sees you carrying a camera that they will yell at
you and demand money, you know because part of their part of their house
was in the shot or something stupid like it's it's a people, it's crazy.
People actually will drive up to a movie production with their stereo crank super
loud and it's a little scam. They just production will up, Hey can
you can you turn that down? Can you turn that down? And then
it's like you gotta get off. Give the guy a hundred bucks. Yeah,
here you go, and you'll drive off like it's a scam. Yeah,
you blast their stereo one of the lessons learned and fifty movies made,
lessons learned from a filmmaker's journey. And this is Jared Cohne, who's with
us. Uh, you don't have to name names, but you've worked with
some pretty big power how houses have any of them been? Shall't we say
less than professional? I have? And there's some stories in the book about
Uh, some actors that I have worked with that man have just driven me
up a wall. And and and it's tough because when you're when you're making
a movie, it's not like you're at a restaurant. You know, one
of the waiters or is terrible, you can just fire them and tend them
home that night. If you're a week into a movie and you're and your
main one of your main actors is just driving you up a wall. Like
as a director, that's a tough spot to be in because you can't you
cannot say, okay, actor, you're fired and we're just gonna put a
different person in for your role, like you have to kind they have a
lot of power. The actors have a lot of a lot of power because
after after a few days of filming, you're okay. It's not like you're
not gonna be like, all right, let's just throw those you know,
thirty thousand dollars days out and start over again. Actors have a lot of
power, and the actor's mood can completely dictate the tone of the set.
Like if if an actor is in a good mood, great, everyone's probably
you know, if you're right, if the actor is in a bad mood
that day and everyone's walking on egg shows, and man, what a tough
spot to be. And I do not h envy any and even on the
biggest budget level, like I'd rather do smaller budgets and work with cool actors
and big budgets and you know, driving me crazy. People who want to
be there, who want to be there, not necessarily trying to exactly you
said it best. If you want to be there and you're having a good
time, that's the that's the right attitude. If if if you're grumpy or
you're just gonna bring other people down and and that that that's obviously goes for
any industry, but yeah, it's really goes for the you know, on
be the on set, it's gonna everyone's on top of each other and you're
coloratively collaborating and they're ego and artistic decisions. It could get really ugly and
you have to you have to manage them in the book. Yeah yeah,
yeah, okay, And thank you for joining us. We look forward to
reading the book. It is called Fifty Movies Made Lessons that I've learned with
the Lessons Learned on a Filmmaker's Journey. And Jared Cohne is with us.
Jared, thanks for joining us, Thank you so much for having Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. And I Heearts Media Presentation