You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
Episode number three sixty four. The struggle you're in today is developing the
strength that you need for tomorrow. Don't give up Robert Toay broadcasting from a
dark, windowless room in Hollywood when we really should be working on that next
draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of
screenwriting while teaching you how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host,
Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored
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screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot
com. Now today on the show, we have renaissance filmmaker, producer,
director, and actor Tanner Beard. Now. I had the pleasure of meeting
Tanner at the Mammoth Film Festival this year, where he is one of the
co founders of that festival, and he is just a wealth of information.
He's produced a ton of movies as well as directed and also acted in some
big things as well. And I truly loved learning how he was able to
become a producer on a few Terrence Malick films and what was like to be
on a Terrence Malick film and talk to the man. And he has a
great Terrence Malick story. If you guys don't know who Terrence Malick is,
please google him. But I was really excited to talk to him about that
his vision for the Mammoth Film Festival as well, and what it takes to
be a producer, director, actor, renaissance filmmaker in Hollywood today. He
dropped some great, great knowledge bombs in this interview. So without any further
ado, please enjoy my conversation with tannered Beard. I'd like to welcome to
the show, tannered Beard brother, thank you so much for taking out the
time. Man absolutely, man, thanks for having me. I appreciate it
for everyone watching this and not listening to it only you have like the coolest
backdrop ever on the show, because it's like you're literally in a beautiful dollars
backdrop we did. It's all blue screen. I'm actually hanging. I'm actually
suspended on some wires right now, right and that's not even your face.
It's all like James Camber doubt right now. This is I'm in Wisconsin.
This is a body double here, I think a studio of Pasadena exactly.
So we had the pleasure of meeting for the first time at the Mammoth Film
Festival, where you are one of the co founders of and right I cannot
We're going to talk more about second one, by the way, So yes,
I had somebody like any film hustle out there, So thank you and
I appreciate it, brother, And it was you know, it's We're going
to talk a bunch more about the Mammo Film Festival later in the interview,
but I just want to tell you how much I loved, love, love
the festival, even though I was trapped for two days by the mountain of
Kubrick style snow. From the shining. We figured we could sell more merchandise
if we had everybody snowed in. It's very true because we sell a lot
of gloves and scarves and things of this nature. So it was really just
deployed by the film festival to make more money and it and it works or
I don't know how you got all that a hell of a blizzard, man,
Yeah, I will say, like for us on the on the mechanical
side of it, obviously, it's like, man, just please let it
stop snowing for two more seconds so we can try to get more people to
the theater, or get the people from the theater back over to like an
interactive panel discussion, or get him to Mammoth Con or something. But for
everybody it's like we're internally, we're like thinking like, oh man, they're
not gonna have a good time. You're not gonna have a good ton.
Uh. For for us, it was like everybody was like smiling and being
like, dude, this blizzard's crazy, right, I'm like, you're happy.
This is I've never crazy. Yeah. And a few a few episodes
ago, we had Darius brit On from US Deeper Darius and I met him
at the Mammoth Film Festival and both of us have never experienced actually being trapped
in a location. We've We've you know, like the flight has been canceled
because of weather and you are in the town where the weather's happening. I've
had it canceled from flying two sure, but never been locked landlocked. That
was not a home. They closed the roads and everything too, So what's
air travel? It was like physical travel of any kind. But I will
say it and kind of hats off to the town of Mammoth Lakes. You
know they did they moved heaven and earth. They knew there was a festival
in town, so the bulldozers and stuff like, you know, they did
it. They worked as fast as they could, So hats off to the
town of Mammoth Lakes. Were like making it possible for us to not have
to We didn't have to cancel one thing. No, no, no,
no, that's true. Those those, those and those bulldozers were no joke,
man, And the tires on them are like, I'm like looking up
at the tire. So it's pretty awesome. It was a pretty insane,
all right. So let's get so, let's get into it. So first,
how did you get into the business in the first place. I started
off as an actor. I moved out to Los Angeles in two thousand and
three. I used to be a if I was if I didn't get into
the motion picture business, it's going to be a pro golfer. It's what
I was really into growing up in Snyder, Texas. Shout out to Snyder
Texas, Patrick Malone, Very tub Powers, Booth, Kevin Olejandro. So
I moved, Uh, I got a I did this film contest when I
was in high school, and I was really into like Guy Ritchie films at
the time, sure as everybody was. When that's when the high track from
like lock Stock and Snack and I shot, I think about what I did
when I was in high school. I shot this town like we're running around
with guns and like the town square, but it's Snyder, Texas, so
like nobody nobody really cared. But there's also like, I mean a given
Sunday you'll see like two turkey walking down the street in like our town square.
That's how I kind of West Texas. This place is. So it's
like it's just kids with guns in the town square. Not a big deal.
They're kids, you know what I mean. So but I'm thinking and
we're dressed up like mafia guys. Anyway, I think about it now and
it's just so crazy what we used to do. And maybe that's why I
won this film contest because they were like, well, these kids must have
gotten permits and they're they're really taking care of they're really on top of it.
We were just like crazy enough to do it. But I made this
little guy Ritchie esque type of movie, and uh, you know, for
that reason, just getting to use the town as my asset. Got a
scholarship to Auburn University back towards Auburn, but I just didn't want to go
study film in Alabama. Right, But but I think at that time I
kind of got like my parents were like, oh, well, maybe these
crazy videos he's been making maybe they actually maybe we'll get somewhere one day.
So with that said, I went to the New York Film Academy at Universal
Studios there in Los Angeles, right there in Universal Studios, no like I
get it. Like I remember as a kid, like Spielberg's Alban offices right
there, and I remember one day, of course we used to smoke cigarettes
back in the day, it was so much cooler, but I remember that
everybody, everybody in the film business had to take their cigarette break and they
were all like there was this one grouping area. But what was cool is
you could see into Spielberg's office there and I remember seeing him and Tom Hanks
and they're going over some storyboards for I believe it was terminal at the time,
and I just remember thinking, like, I feel like I'm in the
right place, you know what I mean. It's like it was such a
reward to be like, if I'm here learning film and Steven Spielberg's over there
doing film, it felt like a really good place. So I've always kind
of had a love for New York Film Academy just for that. And then
you get to film on the back line of Universal Studios and this is like
such a commercial for them right now. It's a big deal in my life
as an eighteen year old kid coming from you know, Tumbleweeds and pump jacks
out to seeing Tom Hanks and Steven Spilberg do a storyboard together. So that
got me out to Los Angeles and I really was just trying to do the
acting thing for a long time. I still do. I mean, I
still love to act. As long as I can do like one or two
projects that I don't make a year, I still feel like I'm in the
acting game, you know. So I've gotten to do some pretty great projects,
but my real I think passion is just filmmaking in general. You know.
I like to I like to be a part of great teams, great
people, great projects. And luckily, over the span of fifteen years,
I've been able to work with some amazing people. And it's funny. I've
gotten to do some really big movies, but like the smaller movies that you
have far more you know, you're hand dipped in, are the ones I'm
like more proud of. Like I got to do a movie with like Christian
Bale, But anybody, somebody were talking to us, like tell us what
it was worth you know, what was it like to be a part of
Night of Cups? And I'm like, yeah, it was great. So
we did this movie in Spain for like eighty thousand dollars called six Bullets to
Hell, and I just sold it. They're like, yeah, that's great.
So you know, it's just like a for it of like who cares?
Yeah, yeah, they just wanted to see the big star stuff,
all the big stars and stuff. Yeah, cause you actually kind of made
your bones coming up doing kind of do U I Y kind of filmmaking.
We'll be right back after a word from our spawn, sir, and now
back to the show. Yeah. Man, I have a production company called
silver Sell Entertainment, which I just found this old at this house. I
just found this old like coffee thing and I'm like fantastic. I've been looking
for these, But silver Sell Entertainment We've gotten to do some really great films.
We did Hellyin with Aaron Paul that went to sun Dance that was actually
speaking of being snowed in at places. So my first Sundance experience, I
was also snowed in, but up in a house. A bunch of us
had rented a house what ye what year? That would have been two thousand
and ten, Okay, and it was a horrible snow year, but like
we all thought it would be great butt this. There was like fifteen people
staying at this thing, a bunch of just different organizations, a Metris like
where I met Shane West who became a good friend of mine. But if
you were up in that house at the time you were there, you missed
three days of the festival because there was no way they could like get you
out of this house. So it was like this really weird scenario. Speaking
of the Shining Man. You know, it's like this giant somebody's like giant
mansion and we were just there. But it's where I got to meet you
know, uh, Stephen Garcia, who I do business with today, Jeff
Caligary, producer of Waterstone Entertainment. Meet these people today, a couple of
the producers I stay in touch with. And I was like, how fatuitous.
You know that kind of relationship where you said you got snowed in with
with Darius, you guys got to connect. It was cool that when I
got snowed in at Sundance. I still talk to these people to this day
and business with them. So it's kind of weird how the Snowy Mountain film
festivals can sometimes really bring people together. Oh absolutely, man, there it's
a new slogan for Mammoth that's going to be snowed in. That's the best.
That's the best networking you could do. That's networking to do. But
you can't go anywhere. No, it's absolutely true. Like you've got no
internets down, you can't do anything all this kind of stuff. You're like,
what are you going to? Well, I guess I'll talk to these
guys. Yeah, exactly. Well it's great. Hey, you know what,
it's old fashioned. You just talk to another human these things I know,
right exactly. So you so you kind of tipped a little bit about
kind of the project you worked on. I mean, you've done a lot
of indie work as well as a producer. You also direct as well,
uh and do some directing as well. But you also produced with this this
young upstart what's his name, Malick, Terry Terry Malick. Yeah, this
kid, he's gonna be something. Uh. Speaking in New York Film Academy,
there was a class. Uh. I used to study Terrence Malick in
film school. Sure, because he is after getting the luxury of medium.
And I haven't had that many conversations with him directly, and when I have
minimum all ears, that's for sure sure. And he's such I mean,
he's you can ask anybody in the business. He is the kind of he's
he doesn't even make movies, he makes something beyond them, you know.
That's I've always kind of felt. When I got to know him a little
bit better, I always thought of him as life. I was like,
man, you're like the Albert Einstein of filmmaking, because you're just you just
see them in a different light, in a different and a different He's on
a different wavelength in the rest of us. There's no question about it.
Is artistic nature is probably the most true to form because he doesn't care who
you are. If it doesn't work, you're just if you're just not a
part of the story, like you're just you're gone, you know what I
mean. He's like Edward Scissorhands and editing. Yeah, and he doesn't care
who it is. No, no, he doesn't. But but not in
an attacky way, in just like like visionary way, you know what I
mean. He doesn't play into like if you know and on the day when
you got to shoot them, it's it's it's like it's I feel like it's
more for him. I can't speak for him, but I feel like it's
more for him where it's like you gets to see the whole story himself.
So he'll show you the story that he wants to put together. And if
you're a part of that. I think a lot of people are like,
I made the cut. It's like being you know, it's like an audition.
While because I remember, I mean, and for everyone, for whoever's
listening, who doesn't know who Terrence Malick is, please google Terrence Malick.
He is a legend up there with Kubrick in many ways. When Kubrick is
the eyes wide shut. Terrence had come out that same year, and I
think I forgot them. I think it was bost War or The New World.
He was doing that that same year. If I'm not mistake, I
might be mistaken. But and there were like two recluses have been released.
Because he hadn't made a movie in like twenty five years or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, now he's I don't think he had made a movie
since The Thin Red Line, right, which was one of my favorites.
It is one of the most beautiful pieces of art. It's incredible, it's
amazing, it's amazing. So that's that's who Terrence Malick is. And you've
been able. You were able to produce four three or four of us projects.
It turned out to be four because one of them was extended. So
I met Sarah Green, like, I can't mention mister Malick without mentioning Sarah
Green, because I wouldn't know, you know, have had the luxury of
being a part of those films had it not been for her. But when
silver Sell Entertainment did Hellion, Sarah Green took that through the Sundance Institute the
Sundance Lab and had been working with them. So we got partnered up with
her and Jeff Nichols, who's also just the best. And I was like,
wow, man, these are just two incredible people in their fields.
And I was so, you know, I've been working with Susanna Winert for
so long. It's nice to get to meet Sarah Green through her. So
when that happened, it just allowed me to you know, it's kind of
like putting yourself out there right place, right time. You just never know
more opportunity is going to open up for you. But if you're never out
there, you're never going to be able to be in that situation, you
know. So I can't really describe how it happened. It was just a
lovely time in my life. I guess, you know what I mean.
Butt in the back of my mind, I'm like, well, I've been
grinding for eleven and a half years with not getting to that place where I
feel like I'm getting to do something substantial. You know, it's a lot
of indie films. Hell, I'd done twenty five movies up until that point,
and nobody, you know, people ask you like, so you've been
in anything that I've seen. I'm like, I don't know, have you
seen like an indie film that came out like two years ago? And nap?
You know what I mean. It's just like no. But then you
say these names like, oh, have you seen Christian Bales Night of Cups?
Exactly my names on that one somewhere, even though I had zero to
do with it creatively. But but but in turn, you know where I
got to come in is in helping the team get that movie to the finish
line. Uh. You know those films like literally had practically already been shot.
There was just you know, so many, so much going on with
all of them. Mister Malick had shot so much and was trying to get
them out individually that you know, they still needed to kind of bring on
team members to come and help assemble, and so that was like a big
deal. But it was The Night of Cups with Christian Beale, Natalie Portman,
Kate Blanchett. Just the list goes on, and then uh, there
was another film called Song to Song that was Ryan Gosling, Michael Fastbender,
Ate a lot of the same teammates and that, and then again the list
goes on and on with that. But one that I was that's really special.
I got to I mean, Brad Pitt was a producer on it and
he also did the narration. But it was a film called Voyage of Time,
which was a forty five minute documentary that mister Malick had been making for
and I kid you not forty plus years. He has been working on this
documentary for forty plus years. And there's a much larger version of it too
that Kate Blanchett narrates. And that's the one that we premiered at Venice Film
Festival, and like I've never been you know, my redneck Texas West,
you know West Texas ass had never been part of something like that. Like
I'm at the Venice Film Festival standing next to Sophocles who did a little a
little thing called Planet Earth Sure, and you know, like a couple other
gentlemen, like one of the gentlemen that produced Titanic. I'm just like sitting
there like this is like so surreal. And then after it's over, you
have to you have to sit through like a ten minute standing of which is
very stomary. And you know the in the Venice Film Festival and even Berlin
and stuff. So that for me was just like it wasn't like a rite
of passage. It was kind of like I felt like a uh, like
a like a final Wish foundation or something make a Way, make a wish
wish or something, Yeah, make a waye foundation. Yeah. But I
will say, you know, sometimes you do have to take a step back
and and really be grateful and also feel gratified for for the work that you
do put in. You know what I mean, if you don't have if
you don't take those minutes and say like you know, if you don't kind
of reward yourself with saying like, well, you know what, man,
maybe I do deserve to be here a little bit because of the work that
I have put in for all the years, and hell, just being honest
and doing business in an honest form. I feel like got me here faster
than trying to you know, snake my way through uh this industry where it's
just like you know what, man, just keep putting in the time and
the work honestly and it will reward you, you know. So and boy,
and it did heavy from twenty fourteen to sixteen. Really those were some
big years, big years of my life. So I think I went to
like twelve fifteen festivals during that year because not only did they have my own
projects, but we had all these you know, Malick films and stuff coming
out. And then one thing that was really cool. I went to the
Toronto International Film Festival and Brad pitt version of Voyage of Time was the first
Imax movie that Tiff had ever done. So I was like, oh,
man, like now when they're doing Imax movies like sixteen Years down the Road
or whatever, I'll be like, I got to do the you know,
I got to be part of the first one there, which was kind of
cool. But yeah, it was just absolutely educational and you know, breathtaking
to even get to have conversations with with mister Malick. And these films are
you know, they were well received, more so in Europe, I think
than America, just the storytelling and what people are used to. But we'll
be right back after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the
show. The I mean, there's some of the most beautiful, you know,
some of the most Oh my god, I'm forgetting a huge piece of
it. Chibo, I was I was about to say Chievo Chibo did the
cinematography for these pictures. By the way, for everyone listening, Chievo is
arguably one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, and he won three Oscars
in a row. Yeah, I don't think anyone's ever done that before.
And honestly, man, like if he shot these movies before he went and
made those, that's how long these were in post, you know what I
mean. So like this was his you know, this was like his like
starter. But he sees incredible. Man. So to have my name anywhere
close to Sarah Green mister Malik Chivo and all of those amazing actors. He
still feels like, I'm not doing anything in the world that's that's insane.
So all right, so you you haven't earned my my, my recognition there.
So now you've done a couple you had a couple of conversations with mister
Malick. What is the best Uh, First of all, what is the
best story you've heard or like the best experience that you can share the interaction
with him? And then also what is the wisest thing or the biggest lesson
you took away from working with them? These are both great questions and they're
just really cool stories if you're a fan of his at all. So one
thing I kind of heard was on set that like, you know, he'll
kind of do some takes in the act there's no scripts, you know,
really like he's had conversations with the actors. They kind of find their way
as they're making these films, which I think is why a lot of these
actors get excited about the challenge of coming on and doing something so completely and
utterly different and then knowing that they have, you know, the safe hands
of mister Malick holding them as they as they perform, and he would never
let them fail. But I did hear that. You know, he would
occasionally just write something down and just slip it to them, you know,
like, for instance, I think it was Kim, or if it was
Ryan or Michael or excuse me, mister or mister Fassbender, who might call
them by their first names. But I remember there was a scene where they
were shooting and then I think he had wrote something like jump on his back
or something just out of nowhere, just to see how they would react to
it. And also that actor has to go and make that circumstance of real
of why he would go jump on his back. He in his mind had
to go figure that out too. So that's the lovely challenge from the actor's
perspective of like, okay, well why would this character jump on his back?
Let's figure this out. So I think that is such a lovely thing.
But you know, a couple takes went by and he slip them the
note. The next thing you know, that actor is having to pull it
off and this actor's having to react to it. And I think that's what
Chibo is there to. Can't capture so well and for you know, them
to all kind of you know, it's like mister Malick's the left hand and
she was the right hand, and for them to capture that and work in
tandem is just I think, what makes his movie so special. So that
was one instance where I thought, like, what an interesting way to go
about directing your picture. And then then another one is when we were at
the Berlin Film Festival. Excuse me now I'm just talking so much, but
I said. We were at the Berlin Film Festival, and this was even
my first time meeting like Christian Bale, which was obviously like really exciting to
me. Just trying to like maintain composure, I was really excited to chat
with mister Malick there because I was I was kind of surprised he came all
the way to Berlin. He's not he's not known for typically showing up at
you know, film festivals. He didn't go to the actual film festival.
But I got to talk to him at the after party and stuff afterwards,
and we were sitting there and we kind of had this great conversation which I
wish I could say I really remembered, but it was just so like I
was just hanging on every word he said, and really we were talking about
everything but the film. We were talking about sushi spots in Austin, and
you know, this is like I got to have like a like a buddy
buddy conversation with you know, mister Malick, which was so much cooler.
We were talking about like why this Whole Foods is better to go to than
that, like more cool because I'd spent so much time in Austin at this
time, so i'd come back a little a little while later and maybe the
you know, the single cocktail that I had gave me a little bit more
courage. But I was like, you know what, man, I would
just I'd be, I'd be. I'm gonna regret it if I don't go
up and say, like, you know, I would love to have this
picture with mister Malick, Like that would be like a real special wallhanger.
And since we've been able to work together, maybe it wouldn't be that big
a deal. So I walked up to him and he was like speaking with
Ken cal and Christian Bale, and I just my big dumb six or four
ass just walked over to him, was just like, hey, mister Malkin,
you got a second and He's like, oh, wait, Tenner,
are you And I was like, came like, I'm on my way out,
but before I went and just want to say thank you for everything,
and it's going to see do you care if I get a photo with you?
He's no, it was It wasn't like a bad movie. I was
gonna say he never takes mixers. Oh no, he doesn't, but that's
what he said. And like me, you know, I'm twenty eight,
twenty nine years old at this time. I don't care. I'm gonna go
ask anybody for anything. I saw Jordan, I'd be like, hey man,
I'm on my way out, but do you care if I get a
photo? And he'd be like, yeah, hurry up, you know what
I mean. So it's just it's just what I did. But what was
so cool about it is he was like, oh, Tinor I actually have
this horrible phobia of cameras and pictures. He's like, but I would love
to take a picture of you. And I'm like, that's the thing I've
ever heard. So he grabs my phone and like he like direct directs the
picture. Let's me up against this doorway, and I'm just like, this
is the coolest moment in my life. Meanwhile, my audience is Christian Bale
and Ken Cow who's kin Cow is one of the biggest producers in the world.
And Christian Bell's like sitting there like, fuck is this kid doing?
You know? In my mind anyway, I'm sure he was like not caring,
but mister Mallett kind of put me aside and he just kind of like
got down and he took a picture and they handed it to me, and
I was like, this is a thousand times cooler than me being I'm like,
you know, with him in a picture. And so I have the
picture here. I don't know if the camera could see it or not,
but this is the picture that mister Malick took of me. Wow. And
I was just like, I'm keeping that forever and you know, in a
frame, but it would just be like, why is this picture of you
in your bathroom? I like took that picture of me? That is,
you know, as a as a as a young filmmaker, as a person
who never wants to stop learning, and somebody who doesn't take for granted who
they get to work with sometimes. That was a really special moment because it
was so endearing from him and he took the time with me and and just
it was just a really cool thing that makes you want to kind of pay
it forward if you ever get to that point. You know, that's a
great Except my very long winded ence, Now, what is what is the
biggest lesson you learned from him? Well, I mean, he just has
this overwhelming fan base of people that work for him. There's not one person
that I've ever heard of working with mister Malick that is like this asshole shoots
forever or you know, It's like everybody's kind of like they're like being a
part of his picture. You know. It's like he's he's got the canvas
and you're either the easel, you know, the brush or the paint,
you know what I mean, if you're working on his set, and I
think everybody really appreciates even being the easel, you know, or or what
have you. So, I don't know, I would say the way he
treats people is a long way. You treat everybody nice, and then all
and then people want to work with you next time, even if even if
the situation is great, even if a blizzard comes in and wrecks your film
festival. I've found it very endearing from my team that they were like,
you know what, man, we're gonna We're gonna take Savogy this next year,
you know. So. I think the way you treat people's is probably
the biggest thing I picked up working for Chance Mallett for sure. And one
last question in regards to mister Malick, there isn't anybody alive that I can
think of that has his kind of clout or power to make the kind of
films he wants to on his in the way, in the fashion he wants
to do it with the kind of cast. I mean, you're talking about
the biggest movie stars in the world coming in I'm assuming not working for twenty
million dollars? Is that's not these budgets of these films. They're they're basically
like, I just want to work with you. What do we need to
do to make this happen. The only person I can think that did that
prior to me too was Woody Allen, right, and then also Kubrick,
and other than those three, there was really never like a car blotch like
Spielberg of course has that, and Scorsese has that, but they play in
different sandboxes. Sandboxes are much more expensive yeah. Yeah, yeah, so
like just to come out for like the mere fact of working part of it.
Yeah. Yeah, there's not that many guys alive doing it. A
lot of people show up for Rodriguez. But you're right, that's a different
sandbox. That's also another different sandbox as well. You know, So what
do you think it is about Terrence? Is it just the myth I mean
the mythos of him because he's to make its Uh it is because obviously he
didn't know him and you like, there's people that don't know him that you
know, I have actor friends and they were like, dude, you got
to give me on the next Maleck picture. I'm like, I don't have
that capability you're talking about. You're barking at the wrong tree, pal,
Yes, you know, but it's I think it's the people that he surrounds
himself with, his production team, you know, Nicholas Ganda, can Cal
Sarah Green. I think a lot of those people have a big thing to
do with it because they're all Jeff Nichols, I mean, you know,
her and Sarah Green, Him and Sarah Green. Excuse me, uh,
you know they make incredible films too, with incredible cast we'll be right back
after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. But
I think it is just the fact that he offers such a different kind of
theme park that it's these actors want to come and ride those rides because they've
never ridden any they've never seen a theme park like this before. And I
think the freedom and also the challenge. I think he's the only person who
has the mental finish line in his head that that allows them, again,
such a safety net to come and fail, be courageous, make mistakes,
and be brilliant. And I think mister Malix provides such a platform for that
that that's the allure of anybody. I mean, to show up on set
and have a little inkling of your character but still not knowing what you're doing,
but knowing that you're working with Natalie Portman across from you. Like,
that's that's fun, man, That's that's about it. It's terrifying, but
yet fun. And Teren's fine. It's terrance that joke one six are coming
out, so stay tuned. I appreciate that. So when you're producing,
man, how do you pick your projects? I mean, I'm assuming you
get bombarded, especially after your track record that you get bombarded with people going,
hey, can I make a movie? I want you to produce my
movie. What's in a story or in a project that makes you go that's
it? Yeah, man, I'm the worst producer on the planet for the
simple reason that I have my own projects, Like we have our own slate
of films. I'm still trying to like I'm trying to get this Christmas movie
off the ground that I intend to direct, and I've been trying to do
it for so long, but all these other things keep coming in where it's
like, when it's your project, You're like, I can get to that
anytime. Let me go run off and do this or whatever. I've been
very fortunate and just you know, I don't have any representation. I don't
have people working for me or you know, I get a lot of emails
of people wanting stuff for me because they assume I can do something for them.
But I'm so out just trying to make my way in the world today
that I don't fund movies, you know. The little bit of funny.
I just did a bone, Thugs and Harmony documentary with my director Tim Newfing,
but that was the only in house project we've really done since Hellyan,
which was the twenty thirteen So it's hard to say, man, But I'd
love to talk about producing and help producing. But I think these movies just
kind of fell into my lap due to the circumstances of what I was working
for. So it assumes like I'm out there just producing a lot of stuff.
I'm really out there, man, I'm writing, I'm grinding, I'm
acting, I'm trying to get my own stuff off the ground. We have
a great slate of coming out, and really I was so busy making these
films up until about the end of twenty sixteen, and I'd always had this
dream to do a festival in Mammoth, and funny enough, there used to
be the Mammoth Film Festival in two thousand and eight, and that was the
first film festival I ever went to. And you know, cut to ten
years later. I've competed in everything from Sundance to Berlin to Venice to tiff
I've competed in probably the top eight of the ten film festivals in the world,
but my very first one ever was Mammoth Film Festival, which they stopped
doing about twenty ten, and then I think it kind of was going on
during eleven and twelve, but they weren't really having a film festival, so
I'd always just kept my eye on and I tried to take it over in
twenty ten. But at that time I was like did you couldn't even there
wasn't even airport and Mammoth you could be like fly into commercial. So much
has changed, Mammoth has grown to where I'm glad I got to go off
and build my career up a little bit where I could come in and have
a little bit more knowledge and like we bring in great panel discussion people because
I've met them in film festivals from all over the world. So the festival
world's been my life, you know. Even I remember the one of the
coolest film festivals ever had was south By Southwest, I believe in twenty seventeen,
where we had the opening night movie with Gosling's Song to Song. And
then I had a movie that I produced in Baltimore called Silvio, and then
I had acted in a film that we shot there in Austin, and I
was just like, dude, I've got a movie that produced, got a
movie that I've produced and acted in, And then I got a movie that
I just acted in All here at South by All premiering. This is probably
like the highlight of my life. So I took that standpoint and said,
you know what, this is pretty cool. Things are going well, I
think it's time to go and try to build Mammoth Film Festival because I just
acquired the name in twenty sixteen. So I grabbed Theo Dumont, who's a
friend of ours. Yes, by the way, THEO also is Spike Lee's
publicist. Yes, goodnight a couple of years ago or a couple of years
ago, jeez, a couple of days ago. There's recording. Did you
see the picture of him holding the oscar? Yeah, it's awesome, awesome.
So, Holly Schwortz is, you know, probably arguably the largest short
film festival in the nation. They do like ten days of shorts. Incredible,
But that's all Theo Dumont, who's a co found of Mammoth Film Festival.
So I grabbed Theo and I was like, hey, man, I
really want to make this festival in Mammoth. I kind of have the name
Mammoth Film Festival, nobody else can use it. Let's take a trip down
there in January twenty seventeen and go check it out, see if we could
do something down there. And we grabbed Tomic Minsuri, who is oh I
was also doing a film with called Riptide. They got pushed and I think
that was another thing. We were doing this movie with Beal Kilmer called Riptide,
and he had some medical issues that held the movie up, and so
we decided, well, let's not let's stay proactive, let's go do this
film festival thing. This is a sheer sign of like it's time to take
a step back before you could take a leap forward. So we went out
to Mammoth and literally by the time we got out here in January twenty seventeen,
we left a couple days later. You know, can we do a
film festival out here to We need to pick a date. That's kind of
how excited some of the people that we were talking to were about it.
And with you know, THEO having his experience, you know, me being
kind of a film festival rat, and then Tomic with his you know work
at events and coordination and overall design, it was kind of a dream team.
And then we brought on other people like Alexandra Chando, who's a great
actress who's you know, has had her own television shows and everything else.
Excuse me. Dylan Efron, who's one of my best friends, Zach's brother,
came on board. Nicole Castro so kind of started to develop this dream
team. But it really was like filmmaker, like a filmmaker festival by filmmakers.
Everybody has like ties into the industry, which was really exciting. So
it's kind of stopped producing, stopped making movies, and really started to concentrate
on Mammoth, which was hard for me because twenty seventeen was the first year
I never acted in a film. I had acted up into in something every
single year from the year I moved out to lay seventeen, so I was
like, damn man, like this is the first year I can't call myself
an actor, which is like what my overall passion led me to do.
Like I hate the acting industry, not not being able to have control of
your career. So I think that's why I started, you know, making
films and doing other stuff, but then those became far more lucrative where it
just kind of like left my love and the dust, you know. But
for me mentally, I don't have to say I'm an actor. I don't
need to go out and tell people that. I just know that that's what
drives me, you know what I mean. Sure, that was the first
year i'd never acted anything, because we were building, you know, this
festival. We're kind of building like a six lane street and like a town
of shacks at the moment, you know what I mean. It's kind of
how I feel with this festival. But if we don't build this six lane
street in ten years, you know, won't be able to facilitate. So
we started off big and ambitious and everything else. But with a name like
Mammoth, you're not gonna do anything small, right, So I hope to
get back into some movies. Like I said, we have a Christmas movie
we're trying to do. But I think if I take even like another year
off and just really concentrate on building this solid foundation, there's no telling how
high this building could be, you know, No, Oh, without question,
I think the again my experience with Mammoth, I mean, this is
the second year, and I remember I remember THEO and them telling me about
the first year, and it was an insane launch, like it was the
biggest first year ever for a film festival. You showed up, You showed
up. Who Yeah, you showed up big. I mean you guys came
with the guns of blaring. And then this year too, when I was
there, I was like, this is a second year. I mean I've
been to hundreds of festivals in my life, and I'm like, this is
a second year festival. Like this is insane, Like you know, yeah,
I know, You've got amazing talent, you had amazing stars around,
you had great films, you know, and the only thing you could equate
it to is like a mini Sundance, Like it's the only thing you could
equate it to. If anyone who's been to Sundance and been to Park City,
you're like, oh, I can smell that same thing happening here,
and I can see ten years down the line or even faster, this turning
into a really serious, you know, one of those big, top tier
festivals, without question. It's got the potential to do it without without question.
Also, I think during the timing that it's in, it's you know,
it's right after Sundance. So some people are like, I just went
to the cold. I don't need to go back to the cold. But
also you know, Sundance is getting up there in age, and I would
never disrespect Sundance in any form or fashion. But I think a lot of
people have been to Sundance, you know what I mean. I think a
lot of people have been, like, ohyah, I've been like three or
four times. Yeah, but not a lot of people. You know.
It's kind of like we're just offering kind of another alternative. And right now,
there's so many fantastic movies that don't make it into Sundance and sometimes won't
make it into south By because everybody kind of banks on that Sundance check,
you know what I mean. We'll be right back after a word from our
sponsor and now back to the show. So what's been kind of great?
And I think the reason we've had so many world premieres is it's very difficult
to pull off a festival in February because you have to start planning damn near
in September, because you got to go through Halloween break, you got to
go through Thanksgiving break. You like, it's all through the holidays. You
got to like it's like your gears are turning. Then just the machine shuts
off and it takes like several minutes for that machine to get cranking again and
then move it shuts off because it's Thanksgiving. So you know, it's it's
taxing to do the festival in February, but at the same time, when
February rolls around, it's a great timing for people to like have a little
bit of time to go and stuff like that. I know, there's a
little bit of pilot season and award season and stuff like that. This year
was kind of interesting because Sunday It's went a week late, Lynn went a
week early, and then the Grammys magically showed up during our festival. Were
last year. The only thing that impeded our festival was the Olympics, which
we had Olympic parties and we watched them here in Mammoth. Hell have town,
you know, practice here. The Olympic team practice here in Mammoth.
So it was kind of like we embraced it, you know, as part
of our festival last year. But there was no you know, Sundance was
still back in January where it's supposed to be. They weren't coming into February.
But we do, you know, we are We do like this time
of the year. We do like this event, and I think, like
I said, it's hopefully going to be if you didn't get into Sundance,
maybe you got into too Mammoth because we are offering like a marketplace here with
so many great companies, which I'm sure you got to you know, meet
a lot of but you know, Scott, so many people. Paper Chased
Films was here looking at movies. Spotlight Pictures was here looking at movies.
Lionsgate was here looking at films. So the fact that you can now hopefully
by year twenty twenty, come here to know if your movie got accepted as
a world premiere, or even not a world premiere, just a movie without
distribution you can get bought and sold at Mammoth Film Festival. That's going to
be the game changer for us because as me as a filmmaker, I know
that would make a huge difference. If I can go and you know dunk
Au, Indiana, that's fantastic. But if nobody's going to play my or
buy my film, it's just just some people watching it, and that's cool,
it's great, and so what this industry needs to continue to have.
But like also it's a business. You know, I want to get my
stuff bought and sol. I want everybody to see it, not just you
know, eighty people in a film festival. Are you are you going to
start doing? Are you going to try to do kind of a like Tiff
does with like a little mini market. We started it this year. It
was more of like kind of the they had the outside looking in. There's
not like a physical room that we're we're establishing yet, but I think already
going into next year, a lot of the people that speak on our panels
will also be there, you know, having meetings, you know, like
trying to work, you know, kind of like Cans does, where everybody
just goes and sits on the beach and talks movies and you know, next
team. So that's why I want to create here. But also can goes
on for several days and there's so many things going on. There's so many
people there, you don't feel like you're missing out. Mammoth is so tight
knit and small that like, if we schedule something at two o'clock, I
don't want people to go miss the world premiere of a film that we're having
to show at two o'clock that maybe should be shown at seven, so everybody
could see it. So I don't want to south by southwestest and just spread
us out and just other chaos. But I do want to have it like
controlled areas where like everybody films like they can go and catch at least ninety
percent of everything at our festival. So keep me old and condensed. I
don't want to get too big for our bridges too fast. But I wish
i'd have said that year one, because we kind of heard it. We
started off way too big, you know, like never change it, you
know, that's that's awesome. Man. Now, I wanted to ask you,
just from your point of view, what do you think the future is
for independent media moving forward, independent films and dependent series and dependent things,
because the landscape is changing so much, and i'd love to hear your perspective
on it. It's going to struggle, you know, But I don't mean
that in like a way that it's like we should be fearful of it.
Let me see, let me take that back. It's going to have to
pivot a little bit and be it's kind of I think it'll tear off where
it's like you have indie film and it'll have its own world, and that
world will eventually have its own walls around it because right now, so many
people don't really go to the movie theater, which means everything you're watching is
on your television or on your devices. And I'm very guilty of that too.
I have such a fast paced life. I try to catch stuff when
I can, But when I do go to the theater, I'm like,
oh yeah, I love going to the movie theater six times a year for
me, you know what I mean. Here, I wish it was twelve.
I wish it was thirty, you know, but just at the end
of the day, the older you get, that's harder to get to the
theater. But I think that's why film festivals, why there's so many of
them, but why they're also so important, is because it is that,
uh you know, it's to say it's a it's a rock concert. Man.
It's like I can listen to Led Zeppelin all the time, but when
I hear they're having a real life performance, I'm gonna do whatever I can
to go, you know. So kind of the same thing with film festivals.
It's like, oh, yeah, I can watch this on my TV,
but I can go watch it in the theater with the people that made
it, and the actors that are gonna be there, you know what I
mean, I could talk to them afterwards. I can't talk to, you
know, Josh Damal after watching his you know movie Buddy Games on Netflix or
whatever. It's not like I can call him up and be like, hey
man, that third scene, like where'd you shoot that? Exactly? There's
there's there's definitely something very unique about the film festival experience. And that was
the other thing real quick, that the access that you get to all of
these celebrities and producers is unprecedented. Like it's Sundance, these people are ushered
in and ushered out and the riff raff will never be able to contact them.
But at mammoth Man, you just you have hang out at the same
party, the same everything, and there's no at least at this point in
the game, it's still very open to access to them. I'm sitting there
talking to producers and talking to actors and things that would never happen at Sundance,
like you would have to sneak into a specific kind of party. Sure,
well, we want to grow obviously, but we also I appreciate you
seeing that because that's something that we're definitely striving to do is if you're at
this festival, if you're at the Mammoth Film Festival, we want you to
know that you're standing shoulder to shoulder with everybody else as equals when you're there,
you know what I mean, Like that's that's a really cool philosophy,
you know. And if you do come to just see the stars or just
see you know, a certain movie, or just try to come and get
an autograph, that's okay too. It doesn't mean like you know, you're
not you can't be a part of this person. But that's why we think
we try to do a little bit of both. We have these kind of
they're not networking events, they're just simple festival parties, like we did the
Tipsy Elves eighty Ski Lodge party. Yes, that's something due to the nature
of our location, would be very fun but also like a good time to
be Like, man, I went to a party with you know, Logan
Paul, or I went to a party with you know so, and so
it doesn't matter because the next day you'll probably see you know, Jessica Alba
like on your ski lift, you know, going up there, and then
you'll see her at the world premiere of whatever, showing at seven o'clock that
night. So, but that was kind of my experience my first time going
to sun Dance is is I got to you know, I got to like
literally see Jessica Alba like snowboard pass me my first time. I'm trying to
like learn how to snowboard and stuff and like that was several years ago now,
but ten years ago, I was like, that was a really cool
moment. I'm like, I want to bring that to Mammoth, you know,
I want to bring this kind of accessibility. But at the same time,
you're right, we do have to kind of be a little somewhat cautious
and try to get people in and out. And also they're they're here to
to see their movies and do specific press and you got to get them there
and you can't can't be an autograph session or something like that. But but
I will see it. By the way, I didn't see any of that
was I mean, it was all very respectful and nobody like, you know,
for you to like have to fly up set up shop in Mammoth for
an autograph, You've got a lot, you got you need some more things
in your life. Did you right. I mean if I'm like flying up
like that, I mean I saw the way that the mall got maulled and
Jennifer Morrison. People love Lamar and Morris, who was out here. A
lot of people were like, should I go take a picture, And I'm
like, I'm not the picture police. If you want, he's right there,
we'll talk to them. I don't know what to do exactly. It
was pretty we I don't know if you get to go to The Mammoth Media
Institute is kind of like our our five oh one C three. It's what
kind of houses the film festival and our Film Summit, which is our film
education program, our interactive panel discussion. But as a five oh one C
three, we try to like do fundraisers and whatnot so we can do things
like the Mammoth Film Festival. But we have a really cool bowling tournament.
I don't know if you get tell oh I came to it. It's the
Celebrity Charity Bowling Tournament. And last year was our first one and it was
a blast. But what we did learn is like we just allowed too many
cameras everywhere because we wanted everybody to capture it was our first one. This
year, we really tried to structure it more so like more of a contest,
you know, like last year it was more kind of a freefra all
like who won, I don't know, it doesn't matter, We'll having fun.
This year was like no Team one versus Team too, you know.
It was like kind of a big deal. But it got really heated inside
of the octagon, if you will. Yeah, and we had you know,
stadium seating on the seats and just found got a lot more involved in
that. But that's another thing. If you did happen to go to a
panel and you might have missed seeing somebody that you wanted to see on the
red carpet or seeing their film or something like that. At least with the
with the bowling opportunity, if you come to that, you know, you
get a chance to kind of see everybody condensed, you know, where you're
not bowling with them. It's a it's a tournament for the you know,
for the charity. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and
now back to the show. But it's really cool to say, oh man,
I miss getting to see so and so on the red carpet. But
it's really cool. I get to see him. I'm three feet away from
them now and they're bowling. How much more fun is this? So that's
something that isn't film related, but it is film related with the people.
We try to cherry pick the players from people who have movies, you know,
in the festival and stuff like that. So it's it's become a lot
of fun. But I think even next year the bowling tournament is going to
be really intense and with some heavy hitters. I think we're doing a golf
tournament fund raiser this year. So I don't know how you're going to golf
in Mammoth this time of year at least, no, not this time of
year. This will be in June. But Mammoth Lakes does have a beautiful,
god too beautiful golf courses here, and so we're gonna have some fun
nice doing that and stuff. So let me ask you a question, and
in regards to your what you wish it would have happened when you were younger,
what do you wish someone would have told you at the beginning of your
career. I think people did tell me that. I think people told me
to be patient, you know, like it's I'm not a race. It
sounds so stupid, but I'm actually I don't know what would have been any
better than what I'm getting to do right now. I mean, I'm so
fortunate too. I mean, I don't forget where I came from. I'm
a small town kid from West Texas, man, you know, I mean
idolizing people like Powers Booth and Barry Tubb and Patrick Malone, Kevin Alejandra that
left Snyder and became like kind of you know, bigger name actors and stuff.
And I was like, that's cool. They showed me just simply getting
out of something that isn't How do I put this gracefully? Something that doesn't
you know, that isn't necessarily like your dream or your ambition of your location
like going and do that. I feel like I'm really getting to do that
and what's tough. But something I wouldn't change is I kind of get to
do it on my own terms. Not to say that I don't wish I
had like a badass agent at CAAA that was like getting me Marvel auditions or
something like that. Like, of course, like I'm not that stupid,
But at the same time, there's a there's a huge gratitude that comes from
doing it yourself, which I think you're one to speak on that. I
think Darius Is want to speak on that. And when you do it yourself
long enough, like eventually people just assume that you didn't do it yourself and
they want to come. They want you to come play on you know,
on their playground too. And I think I've had a lot of that.
So just man, just all the next thing. You know, like ten
years went by, but you feel like you haven't accomplished much. And then
you look at some of your accolades and you're like, damn, Actually,
if you'd have told me at twelve, I'd have gotten to do this.
Or like I have an office inside of a movie theater right now with some
great guys like Brian Hammer's and Oak Boundary and Flashboxic. We're all in there
together and we all do the film festival together. And I'm like, guys,
do you realize that we have a in office a top of movie theater.
Like if you'd told me this when I was like fifteen, I would
have been like life is going to be just dandy. But also, man,
you know, I've been out in LA for fifteen years. I would
hope that I have a smile on my face at this point, you know,
because some people don't. And so I'm just really grateful. But I'm
damn sure not done. And we were damn sure ain't plugging away and trying
to you know, take over the world. Right But it's cool right now?
Now? What is next up? What's up next up? For you?
Well, we are we have a movie called Just Be Clause, and
I think we were gonna there's so much snow on the ground that we're kind
of teetering of like do we actually try to go ahead and take this into
pre production, Like can we shoot this somewhere in May to look like early
early December, or do we just wait until next Oh? Yeah, because
there's so much there's so much stuff going on otherwise. I mean there's I
have like eleven projects and the works and stuff. Awesome, dude, all
of them are just like waiting for the like the green light to go.
You know. We have a comic book that we just did, a graphic
novel called in the Name of the Gun that we're trying to turn into a
series, but we just wanted to own both ips and it's really fun,
man. We want to go out and shoot it in Spain. I'd love
for like the l Ray Network to pick it up or something like that.
So we'd love to you know, I'm going to talk to ASA about talking
to Robert about that. You have the Chris movie. We have a video
game that we're pitching. There's I mean of stuff. There's all sorts of
stuff, man, But it's the things that are doing right now. Actually,
I mean, if I could plug anything, there's a great film.
I don't know if you got to meet Kyle Tequila who was yes, yes
I did uh and Jared Einsten. Both those guys are now board members of
the Mammoth Film Festival. But they did a movie this year together with their
I think it's the first collaboration with their company, Common Enemy, that starred
Alexander Dario, Johnny Knoxville and some just some great actors. Kean Johnson.
That was just it's in Alita right now. And your old pal Tanner Beard
got to finally like like not play a bad guy in something. But but
again, you know, great connections of Mammoth Film Festival going off and spurring
other things. This movie called We Summon the Darkness I think was a big
contribution, you know, to some some collaborations that happened at Mammoth Film Festival.
But that should be out either later this year or early twenty twenty.
But really awesome film and I'm very excited about that. We shout it up
in Canada. Cool was a really cool deal. But Kyle and those guys
are just the best and they're killing it so well. I want to ask
you a few questions to ask all my guests. Yeah, what advice would
you give a filmmaker wanting to break into the business today, Find a good
core group of people that are like minded and just start working with them.
Some may get weeded out as you go along, but if you have five,
you know, men or women that you want to work with, just
go off and start shooting little shorts, little things. Hell, you can
do so much on your iPhone these days. That's you have an outlet on
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, even if you can get one of these,
that's what that's what it's all about. But find that core group of people
because you will probably wind up working with them for the rest of your life.
Can you tell me what book had the biggest impact on your life or
career, the Bible. Yeah, I knew, you know, I knew
you were going to be trouble. Knew you were going to be you know.
I will say, as a product of being a stubborn cowboy in West
Texas, I didn't read a lot of books. What I will say,
the biggest impact of my life was another stubborn cowboy who didn't read a lot
of books played Wolfman in Top Gun. A gentleman named Barry Tubb. He
did a movie when in my hometown in Snyder, Texas, when I was
sixteen years old, and allowed me to come and be on that film set,
which housed Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Natalie Mains from the Dixie Chicks,
Joey, Lauren Adams, Emma Roberts. What movie was this? It
was called Grand Champion. Oh yeah, I remember that movie. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, it's Grand Champion. Essentially was like Free Willie, but
a boy and his cow in West Texas. But for me it was my
film school and I got to have it at sixteen. And the fact that
this gentleman very tub allowed me to come and be, you know, not
only on his set as a kind of a you know, a gopher.
But eventually, like he would, you know, I was just there for
access and I just got my driver's license. So he's like, Tanner,
take Julia over to the coliseum. You know. It was like okay,
so you're driving around Julia Roberts like Miss Daisy style and you're like, soh
howse things? And I'm like sixteen. But to get that engagement, like
you just that's when he caught the bug. And to get to sit and
watch thirty five you know, thirty five millimeter being and like my job became
a cable ranglinger, like when they're doing the Dolly. I had the cord,
you know, to the monitors, so like I learned how to wrangle
chord, and like I took it so serious, man, because like I
didn't want to get fired, you know. Fied that was to say that
was in like a little like five thousand dollars independent movie. You were on
the se some big players three five million dollar movie or something like that.
And then just the people that would come by. I remember, like they'd
be like ten or you need to go escort George straight from you know,
this room to that room because there was just nobody there and I'm like the
stuff that I got to do so young and like trusted in made you kind
of grow up in the business. And also Danny Motor who's Julia Roberts husband
now, he really kind of took me under his wing and showed me a
lot of stuff about cameras and learned a lot. Yeah, he was the
assistant camera cameraman. He was he was the DPH. He had just come
off of the Mexican with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. I think that's where
they met, and then he was recommended to be the DP on this movie.
I think it was his first DP job actually, But like just getting
to learn about panavision and seeing film even though we don't use it today,
it was like I feel very grateful for getting to see that. Where if
I was ten years younger right now, nobody would have the luxury of getting
to hear the checking just money, just money, money going a dollar dollar
a flash or But for me, that was kind of my film school,
you know, I saw people just doing it and like just it's kind of
like when you go to an NBA game for the first time you see them
on TV. Then you're like, this is just people playing basketball, like
it's just at a very high level. You know, yeah, it's yeah.
But at the end they were like, these are just huge dudes playing
basketball. Well, like wow, this is you know, it's like just
the realization of you can do it too. You know, I think,
is what what that? What that kind of man was? So now,
what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn, whether in the
film business or in life. Patience, man, because you know you want
it now right now. You know, back when I was just doing acting,
it's like if you didn't get an audition, you know, it was
like the end of the world. When you're twenty two and you walk DSi,
New York and you're like, god, man, that guy only said
four fing lines and I didn't get it. I'm not good enough for the
four lines. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
now back to the show. Like who you got to Hard Weinstein in this
business? Wow, he's become an adjective. Jeezus, all right, rise,
he's becoming adjutive. Man. It was like it just was everything was
like so life or death, especially like when you're out there, you know,
you know you're trying to find a job. Hell, man, I
had a new job every week just because I didn't want to have a job,
because I wanted my job to be acting full time. But it was
awesome. I'm like, Okay, well now I'm a taste tester for Burger
King for twenty bucks so I can put gas in my car to go to
the next thing, you know what I mean. And then luckily, as
time went by, you were able to start garnering more money. And I
feel very grateful and stuff for everything I have now. But you know,
it's just the grind at the time. Like I guess, just if you
can just know that, like you're in this business for a long long time,
and I see friends of mine that have been like been in huge franchises
and then like you know, four or five years years later go by,
like they're back to auditioning and stuff like that. So you know, it's
it's we all. We have this great team of people. Again. The
best of the place I could give is grab yourself a great group of people
and allow them to be like minded, you know, friends of yours,
and because you're gonna help each other throughout the years. I mean absolutely,
man, my friends Uh, you know, they support me and everything I
do. I try to support them and everything they do. We we exchange
stories, we exchange triumphs, you know, we exchange victories and sadness.
And it's a it's a family that you have to build because it's such an
independent and very lonely industry if you allow it to be. But it can
also be the opposite, if you find a family. You know. Very
cool. Now, the toughest question of all three of your favorite films of
all time? Tombstone great movie. God, it is my favorite movie of
all time. I love Tombstone. Man, Val Kilmer, Why didn't he
get into an oscar for that? It's just bad time. It came out
in like December. Yeah, it's just bad timing. Yeah, but absolutely
the one of the best performances ever put on film, and everybody says that
to this day. Oh no, Jack was at the film festival, his
son. I always want to go up and say something to him about Tombstone,
but I got to keep it cool. But that one was definitely my
favorite movie. Brave Heart is another one of my favorite films. And you
know, man, it used to be Gladiators number three. But when I
really break it down. No Country for Old Men, wallless film. It's
perfection, such a you know, there's not a there's there's no music in
that entire movie except there's a little bit of a little bit of ominous tone
when we first see Javier Bordim's character get like get out of the car.
There's a little bit of ominous tone and not one stitch of music for the
rest of that movie. Can you believe that it's so well flawless film?
It is? It is the is the Cohen's at there at the height,
I mean, I mean they're just and Josh Brolin was all of them,
I mean just And they shot it in kind of my old stomping grounds in
West Texas out there. I'm about four hours from Marfa, but that's where
they kind of shot that stuff. Awesome. Now, where can people find
you and and the work you're doing? Yes, I'm at brad Pitt So
yeah, well, you know, I got I would rather plug. I'm
terrible on social media, but I do have Instagram. It's at Tanner Beard.
Everybody gets mad because I don't follow them, because I only followed Mammoth
Film Festival and Silver Sell Entertainment and everybody's look, dude, kid follow me?
Do I follow you? I'm like, I look, did stuff?
I got things to do, man, I don't got time to follow.
It's not even that. I'm I'm more on Twitter if anything. So at
Tanner Beard on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the whole nine. But really
it's it's at Mammoth Film Festival on Instagram, at MAMMOTHFF on Twitter, and
I believe it's at Mammoth theftf on Facebook. So and then Silver Silver Sell
Entertainment's another plug. So man, Tanner, it has been a pleasure talking
to you, brother, It really has been congratulation all your success and I
look forward to h to hanging out it Mammoth many many years to come.
Absolutely well, Alex, thanks for letting me talk your ear off because I
get really excited and I just ram belong from story to story. So I
appreciate you listening to me. Thank you, brother, I appreciate it all
right, man, have a good one. I like to thank Tanner again
for coming on the show and sharing his knowledge bombs with the tribe today.
Thank you so so much, Tanner, And if you guys want to check
out anything we talked about, in this episode, Please head over to Bulletproof
Screenwriting dot TV forward slash three to sixty four. Thank you so much for
listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter what. I'll
talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at bulletproof
Screenwriting dot tv.