Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZY, Boston's news
Speaker 1: radio Dance.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Buddy, Welcome Nightside WBZ. No heavy lifting
Speaker 2: here tonight. I'm gonna tell you right now, if you
Speaker 2: want to think too much, watch Fox are singing and
Speaker 2: we're not doing that stuff here. We're having fun. Emily
Speaker 2: Kennedy is joining us. She is an entertainment powerhouse ladies
Speaker 2: and gentlemen. She's with the WSM Agency. And we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about the state of entertainment. But before we
Speaker 2: get going, because my previous guest, greenwriter and personal friend
Speaker 2: of one Gary Tangway Dreuiano said that Diehard is not
Speaker 2: a Christmas movie.
Speaker 3: Now, Rob Brooks, our producer, says, it is.
Speaker 2: What say you, I don't.
Speaker 4: Know if I can provide much insight on that.
Speaker 2: Sure, I mean, there's a Christmas party.
Speaker 3: It's an office Christmas party that Bruce willis. There you go.
Speaker 3: It's an office Christmas party.
Speaker 4: That's enough. That's enough for me.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 2: So anyways, Emily is because I want to there is
Speaker 2: a serious tone to this conversation about the state of
Speaker 2: entertainment now, and you know, and it's very important to
Speaker 2: our society how we consume it. And I sit there
Speaker 2: and I wonder, you know, is Instagram going to be
Speaker 2: the new thing? Because my wife will sit there on
Speaker 2: Instagram and just go for a half hour and just
Speaker 2: laugh at stuff, and I go, you gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 2: There's no three acts in Instagram. There's no rising action. Okay,
Speaker 2: there's no hero there's no comedy. There's like one punchline
Speaker 2: and you move on. So do you think that the
Speaker 2: entertainment arena will be back like it was before COVID.
Speaker 4: I think it definitely will. I think it's definitely influenced
Speaker 4: by social media, which I don't necessarily think is a
Speaker 4: bad thing. I think people are consuming you know, media
Speaker 4: in a different way. But I think people will always
Speaker 4: respond to authentic storytelling. And I think with streamers right now,
Speaker 4: it really opens up the doors for a lot more
Speaker 4: storytelling to be had, and people want authenticity and they
Speaker 4: want you know, they see you know, Real Housewives and
Speaker 4: they see all of these stories being told and they
Speaker 4: don't really know the difference between reality and you know,
Speaker 4: scripted television. But I think that there's really an opportunity
Speaker 4: for a lot of stories to be told in not
Speaker 4: what you know, in the nineties, who would say like
Speaker 4: happy ending and like all of these things that needed,
Speaker 4: you know, like likable characters. I think that that's gone,
Speaker 4: and I think that's a good thing. And I'm excited
Speaker 4: to see what stories come out and what has come
Speaker 4: out like it's I think it's a good thing. I
Speaker 4: think people want to see people being real and honest,
Speaker 4: and they want to see themselves reflected in that.
Speaker 2: That's a great point. That is a really good point
Speaker 2: because you look at what's going on with the Menendez
Speaker 2: brothers now, and they did kill their parents. I mean
Speaker 2: they did. They did, and I'm not going to get
Speaker 2: into that topic, but they're there right now because of
Speaker 2: the documentary and because of the series.
Speaker 4: They're here right Did you see it?
Speaker 3: I did not. I couldn't. I just can't. I can't.
Speaker 2: Like they did Dahmer, I forgot, what's the name of
Speaker 2: the series. It's uh uh, they did Dahmer, and then
Speaker 2: they did the Menendez Brothers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Ryan Murphy, who who's very skewed to like the
Speaker 4: kind of like twisted and dark darkness of society, which.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, but but I can't. Did you
Speaker 3: did you watch it?
Speaker 4: I did watch it. I found it fascinating. I think
Speaker 4: the Menenda's brothers did not agree with the way that
Speaker 4: they were portrayed. But I think people have a deep
Speaker 4: interest in the darkness, and because the darkness is there,
Speaker 4: it's it's real. People want to see authentic and realness,
Speaker 4: whether it's true or not, but like they want to
Speaker 4: understand themselves in that kind of aspect, and I think
Speaker 4: it's a good interesting way to go down. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm tired of like the happy endings and like the easy,
Speaker 4: easy ways out like for it.
Speaker 3: But oh no, you're breaking my heart. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: a sap.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: watch planes, trains and automobiles, you know, tomorrow night. I
Speaker 2: want I want the happy ending. I want the payoff.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm so depressed with everything that's been going on.
Speaker 2: I need a little I need a little uh happy
Speaker 2: ending here this Christmas. But no, I understand what you're saying,
Speaker 2: because there's no doubt with shows like Succession, right, and
Speaker 2: with the fact that people love reality TV or scripted
Speaker 2: television now is based on true stories.
Speaker 3: I mean that's the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Is you take a look at the process that first
Speaker 2: there's a book, then there's a documentary, and then there's
Speaker 2: the scripted series right which is based loosely on the documentary.
Speaker 3: So there's no doubt that there is a fascination with
Speaker 3: the darkness.
Speaker 2: And it's so interesting because I'm working on a play
Speaker 2: right now where I'm playing Norman Mailer. Yes, that is
Speaker 2: self promotion by tango here, and he says it in
Speaker 2: the monologue. He says it in the monologue. He goes,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm fascinated with the darkness. And my wife
Speaker 2: is right there with you. When we're driving. She listens
Speaker 2: to murder podcasts and I'm like, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: And I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: The female audience I'm gonna I guess I'm stereotyping. I
Speaker 2: don't know how you and your friends think, but the
Speaker 2: female audience from murder podcasts, I think are through the roof.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is, it is. I think there's I think honestly,
Speaker 4: it's if you can involve yourself in the drama of
Speaker 4: something else that is worse than what you're going through.
Speaker 4: There's like a sort of convalescence in that, or sort
Speaker 4: of like a comfort and you feel a little bit better,
Speaker 4: which I don't necessarily agree with, but I understand that
Speaker 4: dynamic of seeing something horrific happen and then you can
Speaker 4: like take your I mean, the whole thing about entertainment
Speaker 4: is put your brain on the shelf. Right, whatever you're
Speaker 4: going through and whatever is bad in your life, you
Speaker 4: can like put your brain on the shelf and just
Speaker 4: live through something else. And I think there is a
Speaker 4: fascination with living through something horrific watching it on screen
Speaker 4: and it almost makes you feel better about whatever you're
Speaker 4: going through.
Speaker 2: Which, yeah, that certainly makes sense, because I mean, I
Speaker 2: have a friend, Sam Maler, was with us last night
Speaker 2: and he just signed a deal. He's doing a podcast.
Speaker 2: He's doing forty eight episodes. Forty eight episodes. And Sam
Speaker 2: went out to LA to be a stand up comic. Okay,
Speaker 2: he ended up pitching and producing Oh my god, I
Speaker 2: just got I just faced the Intervention Intervention show right,
Speaker 2: which is still going twenty five years later, which is
Speaker 2: about intervention when people like have addictions, whether it's drugs
Speaker 2: or co you know, hard drugs, or cutting, or shopaholics.
Speaker 3: Or people who can't throw stuff away?
Speaker 2: What do they call it? When you've this's a word
Speaker 2: for yes. You know, he did one on hoarders, you know,
Speaker 2: where they have to have an intervention. I said, I
Speaker 2: thought you went out to la be a stand up comic.
Speaker 2: He goes, hey, man, it's paying the bills. It's been
Speaker 2: on for twenty five years.
Speaker 3: Now five years.
Speaker 2: And now the podcast he's got coming out which people
Speaker 2: have to look out for. It's all about families where
Speaker 2: relatives have murdered each other. You sound like you were
Speaker 2: into that. I mean, you just sounded like, Okay, I
Speaker 2: can't wait. I can't wait to hear that. I said, Meloe,
Speaker 2: you've got to be kidding me. And he goes, and that,
Speaker 2: and that's be on the lookout for that, folks. It's
Speaker 2: going to be on all the podcasting. You know, apple
Speaker 2: whatever iHeart, I'm gonna promote iHeart here they're the boss.
Speaker 2: But what it is is like he's he he as
Speaker 2: a co host and in her family, I can't remember
Speaker 2: what her daughter, her sister killed her father or kissed him.
Speaker 2: And that's what the whole thing is about, is about
Speaker 2: siblings killing parents, or brothers killing sisters or parents killing
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 3: It's insane, and I know it's going to be successful.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, I also think there's something about us that
Speaker 4: has a rage inside us. I was just listening to
Speaker 4: a podcast that's Happier Verdam who played Pablo Escobar, and
Speaker 4: he was talking about how he got into the role
Speaker 4: and he was saying, there is rage and violence inside
Speaker 4: of you, and he's like, it's so freeing to inhabit
Speaker 4: a role where you actually get to expand that and
Speaker 4: see that without consequence. And I think that's the same
Speaker 4: thing with the media, Like there is I mean, we're divided,
Speaker 4: there's a lot going on in the country right now.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of rage inside of people, and to
Speaker 4: see it portrayed in that way, it kind of like
Speaker 4: therapeutically allows you to feel those feelings. Like I you know,
Speaker 4: people you know might want to hurt someone, but they
Speaker 4: they're not going to because they're a human being. But
Speaker 4: like to see that portrayed it kind of like, I
Speaker 4: don't know, it's cathartic to them in a way, which
Speaker 4: I don't know what that says about where we are
Speaker 4: right now, but I think there is definitely something that
Speaker 4: people gravitate to towards you know, true crime and all
Speaker 4: these stories, and I think, you know, it the dark
Speaker 4: look at our country.
Speaker 2: But no, I think what you're saying is on the money,
Speaker 2: it gives you permission to go to.
Speaker 3: The dark side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, I'm watching a TV show. I'm not evil,
Speaker 2: they are right, right, but I'm watching the TV show
Speaker 2: you know where family members are killing each other. It's
Speaker 2: it's insane, it's it's but it's huge. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. Okay, we got more to cover
Speaker 2: here on what's going on in how what's going on
Speaker 2: with content And obviously NBC made a big move. Uh,
Speaker 2: they're going to be putting more money into Peacock. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about that with Emily Kennedy. Uh, she's a manager
Speaker 2: with w SM Talent. More after this on WBZ.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: The State of Entertainment, it's that topic right now, Emily
Speaker 2: Kennedy joining us from WSM Talent.
Speaker 3: Okay, Emily Peacock.
Speaker 2: NBC just made this announcement that they're taking MSNBC and
Speaker 2: the Sci Fi Channel and E and all these other
Speaker 2: channels and they're putting them under another title. Disney did
Speaker 2: this with ESPN, right so Disney spot off ESPN, feeling
Speaker 2: that ESPN was eventually going to be sold.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's going to happen or not.
Speaker 3: That was talked that Apple may buy them.
Speaker 2: And then now obviously what NBC is doing or Comcast
Speaker 2: is they're spinning off these these stations that aren't successful anymore.
Speaker 2: Perhaps somebody will buy them, we don't know, but they're
Speaker 2: putting more money into Peacock. So streaming, I mean, we
Speaker 2: we know, and this has been happening, but now it
Speaker 2: seems like it's what are we going to have? We're
Speaker 2: going to have just like we had NBC, ABC, UH, CBS.
Speaker 2: Are we going to have Peacock, Netflix and Disney, except
Speaker 2: it's going to be streaming instead of watching it on
Speaker 2: your TV or flipping.
Speaker 4: Channels, right, I mean, the biggest problem I just read
Speaker 4: Peter Biskins's book about like the clash of like what's
Speaker 4: happening with the streamers and like you know, Netflix and
Speaker 4: all this stuff. The big their biggest problem is they're
Speaker 4: hiring tech people inside and they're kicking out all the
Speaker 4: executive suites of creative people. So now they have executives
Speaker 4: that are holding these offices and they're seeing the approach
Speaker 4: to storytelling in a way that's very much algorithm drawn,
Speaker 4: and you know, they're they're not really making a creative
Speaker 4: home or directors and cinematographers and people who actually care
Speaker 4: about the creative process. And it's creating a lot of problems.
Speaker 4: I mean, Bob Ager just came back for Disney and
Speaker 4: he kind of like cleaned it up and made it
Speaker 4: a little bit better. But it's it's a problem, like,
Speaker 4: we don't want algorithms. We want creative people. We want
Speaker 4: to keep the creativeness in our storytelling, and we don't
Speaker 4: want it to be an algorithm that's on our phone.
Speaker 4: We want it to be you know, but it used
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 2: But well, I mean you could certainly, you know, if
Speaker 2: you want however you want to measure it, right, if
Speaker 2: you want to however you want to measure it, that
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that it can't be creative. Because Sarrandos, who
Speaker 2: runs Netflix, whenever I hear him speak, he seems to
Speaker 2: be a pretty intelligent guy. Noweh, Obviously, you know when
Speaker 2: Netflix had the meeting with the agencies, and if people
Speaker 2: don't know, Netflix had a big meeting with all the
Speaker 2: big agencies in Hollywood, William Morris and Cia and so forth,
Speaker 2: uta and it didn't go according to plan where they
Speaker 2: didn't exactly come together on this, but he was trying
Speaker 2: to explain to them that there's a new business model
Speaker 2: out there, which we all understand to a degree. But
Speaker 2: he seems to be a smart guy that would that
Speaker 2: would get this. But maybe that's just not the case,
Speaker 2: because I agree with you. You know, when you sit
Speaker 2: there and you look at films, right and we even
Speaker 2: talk about the previous segment, we talked about holiday movies
Speaker 2: right now, you like, for example, you were talking about
Speaker 2: you like the drama and the darkness and maybe the
Speaker 2: comedies of the nineties aren't there anymore. But there really
Speaker 2: hasn't been a decent holiday movie in a long time
Speaker 2: where planes, trains and automobiles and home alone or things.
Speaker 4: Of that native actually and holiday holiday holiday Cameron Diez
Speaker 4: and love actually yes, and all of those.
Speaker 2: I mean, Kurt Russell did one on Netflix that The
Speaker 2: Christmas Chronicles, that I actually thought was pretty good. But
Speaker 2: other than that, they've tried to do it on Netflix,
Speaker 2: and they've tried to do it with Disney, but it
Speaker 2: just hasn't worked out. So whenever a Disney plush or
Speaker 2: the Netflix or whenever they try to do a movie
Speaker 2: like a film, they screw it up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean and again, like holiday movies are not
Speaker 4: meant to be horrifying you or you know what we
Speaker 4: talked about before, They're meant to be heartfelt happy. Hallmark,
Speaker 4: you know, Hallmark has like so many movies out that
Speaker 4: are coming out.
Speaker 3: Are you surprised the success of Hallmark?
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 4: I am not, because like I wanted to say this
Speaker 4: point earlier, like with the advent of like we're opening
Speaker 4: up the door for so many you know, ways of
Speaker 4: storytelling and people consuming it. Once you've watched too many
Speaker 4: dark things, you kind of want to swing back the
Speaker 4: pendulum and say I want something feel good. I want
Speaker 4: something that makes me happy. And I think Christmas movies
Speaker 4: are those things that make you happy. It's all always
Speaker 4: a happy ending. You're getting together with your family and
Speaker 4: there's like little fights and you like kind of like
Speaker 4: see yourself in that and then everything works out and
Speaker 4: kind of you want a warm blanket to be like
Speaker 4: everything's going to be okay, because that's what the holidays are.
Speaker 4: They're meant to be feel good, even it's meant to
Speaker 4: be a break from your chaotic life. You know.
Speaker 2: Well, even even when I watched the Hallmark channel, the
Speaker 2: only problem I have with that is everybody's too damn
Speaker 2: good looking to go back to the small town.
Speaker 3: Look. I grew up in a small town there. I
Speaker 3: don't know, but we didn't have that many supermodels and
Speaker 3: run from there.
Speaker 4: It's always like the small town girl from the big
Speaker 4: city that comes back and finds her like high school
Speaker 4: boyfriend and like it all works out.
Speaker 3: Family.
Speaker 2: She's got to go back and she has to do
Speaker 2: a big presentation in New York City, and she's got
Speaker 2: a promotion on the life and my wife, I swear
Speaker 2: to God, and she she also loves I also want
Speaker 2: to talk about the Law and Order franchise. She has
Speaker 2: watched every Lawn Order episode at least three times, and
Speaker 2: she's brilliant. She's much smarter than me. And she said,
Speaker 2: you know what, I go, why do you want? She goes,
Speaker 2: just shut up.
Speaker 3: Just shut up.
Speaker 2: I just want to watch something mindless.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 3: They just want to.
Speaker 2: Watch something mindless, because like the Hallmark thing is like
Speaker 2: you're gonna want like you know what's going to happen,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And they don't even suspend belief.
Speaker 2: It's you know, basically hot chocolate, a little fight over
Speaker 2: the marshmallows. Then they kiss under the missile till fate
Speaker 2: the black. But they're killing it. They are absolutely killing it,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, they're in production.
Speaker 3: All the time. Now here's a here's a question I
Speaker 3: have for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you think streamers are more concerned with younger
Speaker 2: audiences versus or older audiences?
Speaker 3: And is that the right way to go?
Speaker 4: Streamers are definitely concerned with younger audiences because the older audiences,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, the unfair biases that they can't
Speaker 4: figure out how to you know, stream and they can't
Speaker 4: figure out you know, they're used to the old system.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's wrong. I think it's it's evolution.
Speaker 4: Like everything has to change, you know, the Hollywood studio
Speaker 4: system had to change. It's just the way that things go.
Speaker 4: And I think I think it's the reason why I
Speaker 4: love it is because it's open doors for so much
Speaker 4: more storytelling and so much more interesting storytelling. With it,
Speaker 4: you get, like, you know, some bad stuff, but I
Speaker 4: think it's a positive way to go. I enjoy seeing more,
Speaker 4: you know, ethnically stories that are sort of like specific
Speaker 4: and niche, and those stories are told and then we
Speaker 4: can all consume them and we can all like understand
Speaker 4: different parts of the society. I think it's great, but
Speaker 4: it's definitely changed a lot.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: I think that they need to be a little more
Speaker 2: concerned with the older audience, because I mean, you have
Speaker 2: somebody like me, I love streamers.
Speaker 3: I mean I want and I think a lot of
Speaker 3: people do.
Speaker 2: So I think there is you know, that's why Brian
Speaker 2: Cranston still works, or that's why you know, I think
Speaker 2: there I think there is still a market for people
Speaker 2: that are fifty sixty. I think I think it's not
Speaker 2: unusual enough for somebody in their sixties to to you know,
Speaker 2: watch something on Disney Plus or to watch something on
Speaker 2: Amazon or like Mazel, like marvel Smissus Mazel. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's phenomenal writing. And what I mean tremended Tony Shaloub
Speaker 2: and Rachel unbelievable.
Speaker 4: And well Grace and Frankie with James Samba. I watched
Speaker 4: that with my parents. They love that show. They adore
Speaker 4: that show, and it's telling the story from a different
Speaker 4: perspective and older perspective, and it's it's told, well, it's great,
Speaker 4: she's amazing. They're both amazing. And there's definitely like a
Speaker 4: market for people of an older age to find, you know,
Speaker 4: in the streamers as well for sure.
Speaker 3: Now then and then my in my house, Outer Banks
Speaker 3: is the thing.
Speaker 4: I haven't watched it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you're not missing anything, but you know, but
Speaker 3: I tried.
Speaker 4: I tried.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know what it is. And I remember
Speaker 2: because I people know. I mean, I auditioned and stuff,
Speaker 2: and I had an agent tell me this in La Goes.
Speaker 2: Listen kid, It's like, this is what you need. You
Speaker 2: get a couple of good looking kid. You got a
Speaker 2: couple of good looking people in their twenties. They make
Speaker 2: out a little bit, they have a fight. That's all
Speaker 2: you need. Right, So if you look at like Out
Speaker 2: of Banks, I mean, it's just it's a bunch of
Speaker 2: good looking people running around, you know, and and having
Speaker 2: these relationships. But the thing that's so crazy about it
Speaker 2: is I'm watching my daughters and even my wife cry
Speaker 2: at the ending because one of the characters dies. Right,
Speaker 2: It's so over the top. It's just so over the top.
Speaker 2: But I think there's something about like every generation has that.
Speaker 2: They had their nine O two one, Oh, they had.
Speaker 3: My son. I go to my my son who's home
Speaker 3: from college. Ago, what do you do?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: He says, I'm catching up on the oc like what
Speaker 2: the O c But like every generation has that. I
Speaker 2: think it started with Dawson's Creek.
Speaker 3: To the Ocean.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's what I love about The Office. The
Speaker 4: Office was a phenomenal perfect tens across the board show
Speaker 4: and it, you know, went on the air, went off
Speaker 4: the air, and people like young kids are obsessed with
Speaker 4: it who were not around to see it, and they
Speaker 4: love it. It's a comfort blanket. They think it's hysterical,
Speaker 4: they think it's funny that. I mean, that's what I
Speaker 4: really do love about streamers is that these things exist
Speaker 4: in real time, whereas before it would be something old
Speaker 4: where you'd have to really search for it or find it.
Speaker 4: But I mean the Office is a great, great case
Speaker 4: study in like how it's had such a big resurgence
Speaker 4: with young kids that run around for that.
Speaker 2: You're right, because you take a look at Friends, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean how many generations have watched Friends?
Speaker 3: Probably three?
Speaker 2: I would see three generations like you could say, you know,
Speaker 2: my generation and my wife's generation, then my daughter in
Speaker 2: her twenties, and you know my other daughter who's a teenager.
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, so they've seen friends.
Speaker 2: But what that does do is that does give streamers
Speaker 2: the opportunity to not have to enter into production because
Speaker 2: they have friends, they have the off they just pay
Speaker 2: for it. They don't have to make anything new. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they could just I mean, and they could just
Speaker 2: run that.
Speaker 4: But it's enormously extensive. Like how much was it for
Speaker 4: Netflix to buy Seinfeld? Was like I don't know, like
Speaker 4: a couple of billion dollars to buy Seinfeld?
Speaker 3: Was that much or I didn't know it was that much.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was insane. It was insane. But well
Speaker 4: that should.
Speaker 2: Tell people though, This is my argument, like if people
Speaker 2: like to watch that, you would think they should still
Speaker 2: make more abbed elementaries or you know, you make more
Speaker 2: comedies because I do, like, you know, the situation comedy
Speaker 2: is dead, which I loved growing up, whether it be cheers,
Speaker 2: but you know, I mean, I guess you got the
Speaker 2: good place, but there's only a handful of them.
Speaker 3: Before there used to be all over the place.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's true, I know.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So that's that's something I definitely miss. Okay, is the
Speaker 2: movie star dead? We're going to talk about that with
Speaker 2: our guest Emily Kennedy from WSM Talent right after this on.
Speaker 1: WBZNI with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: Grey Tagway filling it for Dayer tonight.
Speaker 2: It is the holiday week. Happy Thanksgiving week. Everybody no here,
Speaker 2: we lifting no politics, nothing. We really have to think
Speaker 2: about this evening, you know, I really do. I have
Speaker 2: Fox News on here in the studio and I'm like, uh,
Speaker 2: and CNN two.
Speaker 3: I gotta shut him off.
Speaker 2: I gotta put LF on one channel and planes, trains
Speaker 2: and automobiles on the other channel. Emily Kennedy is laughing
Speaker 2: and joining us. Uh, usually talent manager WSM Agency of
Speaker 2: New York City. But talking about the state of entertainment
Speaker 2: right now. So is Tom Cruise the last movie star?
Speaker 4: Possibly? But however, the Marvel Universe and I feel like
Speaker 4: these big, huge franchise movies create movie stars. But it
Speaker 4: predicates on a star opening a movie, which the box
Speaker 4: office determines that. And right now we don't have a
Speaker 4: huge box office. We don't. We're sort of in this
Speaker 4: different landscape of stars not opening movies. You know, it
Speaker 4: used to be like they opened a movie, it did
Speaker 4: this much in box office. Now it's totally different and
Speaker 4: the landscape is totally different. So I think it's an
Speaker 4: entirely different thing to have box office stars. It's different.
Speaker 4: It's opened it up in an entirely different way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's the star doesn't bring you to
Speaker 2: the theater, it's the franchise. For example, Sunday night, the
Speaker 2: Tangue five went out to see Wicked.
Speaker 4: How was it?
Speaker 3: I loved it? It was great.
Speaker 2: First twenty minutes. Probably didn't have to be there. They
Speaker 2: dragged their feet a little bit, you know, they could
Speaker 2: have just got to the popular a little quicker, you know.
Speaker 2: But because that when when when that kicked in, we
Speaker 2: got going. It was phenomenal and you have to see it.
Speaker 4: Jeff Goldbloom. I'm a huge Jeff Goldbloom fan.
Speaker 2: The only problem I had with gold Bloom, oh no, okay,
Speaker 2: but just okay, relaxed.
Speaker 3: My god.
Speaker 2: Is he would start to do a spiel like well,
Speaker 2: like he would you know, a speech, He would you know,
Speaker 2: you start to talk and I would go, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I just keep hearing apartments dot Com in the in
Speaker 2: my back of my head because I see those commercials
Speaker 2: all the time, Apartments dot Com. He's perfect, he's perfectly role.
Speaker 2: The movie is perfectly cast. And you even have you
Speaker 2: know Chinnawith and Menzel and they they're in it and
Speaker 2: they make an appearance, which is terrific. The movie's perfectly cast.
Speaker 2: I mean Bowen Wang from SNL. He's in it.
Speaker 3: He's great.
Speaker 2: The movie is perfectly cast. It's it's a home run.
Speaker 2: My family loved it, my two daughters, my son who
Speaker 2: loves movies, who loves film, he loved it too. You know,
Speaker 2: it's part two, so you gotta wait a year for
Speaker 2: the like and if you've seen it on Broadway, like
Speaker 2: I saw it here in Boston, and so you know,
Speaker 2: the first act is this movie and you have to
Speaker 2: wait for the second act for like a year from now.
Speaker 3: So you know, I loved it.
Speaker 2: I thought it was great and hopefully they'll make more
Speaker 2: now from I don't know if you heard this, but
Speaker 2: I heard a man of Sipher also wanted the area
Speaker 2: Ina grande role.
Speaker 4: I love her. She would have been amazing.
Speaker 3: She would have been amazing.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing, and I loved her and Mamma Mia,
Speaker 2: and I think she's good in any Oh it's clueless too.
Speaker 2: I think she can do anything le miserab, thank you,
Speaker 2: but I think she can do drama.
Speaker 3: She can do anything. I think she was in a
Speaker 3: detective series, wasn't she?
Speaker 2: Or that? I think that was just filmed in needless
Speaker 2: to say, you know, but Grande was the perfect choice
Speaker 2: because she can she can Okay, Okay, I don't know,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you why. Yeah, Glinda, Linda the good Witch.
Speaker 3: She's kind of a pop star, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean if you look at the character
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, this is so sad that
Speaker 2: I know this because my kids watched all this stuff Victorious.
Speaker 3: I sound like a like a like a week when.
Speaker 2: I talk about Victorious, But like you know, Ariana Grande
Speaker 2: played Cat of Victorious, right right, and all my kids
Speaker 2: watch that all the time. And she plays kind of
Speaker 2: a dizzy person, like kind of a thick, you know,
Speaker 2: not very smart.
Speaker 3: And Glenda is that type.
Speaker 2: So if you take what she did in Victoria and
Speaker 2: you put her musical talent together, she's perfect for the role.
Speaker 2: I will say this, I think she's perfect for the
Speaker 2: role because her. She plays dumb very well, right, and
Speaker 2: she could sing.
Speaker 3: I mean, my god, that.
Speaker 4: Which means she probably can't act though probably.
Speaker 2: I mean i'd be interested once you see it, I
Speaker 2: would be interested to see.
Speaker 3: Yeah what you think?
Speaker 2: I thought it was phenomenal. I mean I just thought
Speaker 2: it was off the charge. Sifried's great too. I mean
Speaker 2: I would see her in anything. She's probably a better actor.
Speaker 2: You're probably right, yeah, you know, she'd.
Speaker 4: Probably a better But do you think this was casting,
Speaker 4: like stunt casting? The fact that in the Grande is
Speaker 4: probably like bigger with like the you know, younger kids,
Speaker 4: and like has a better presence on the social media.
Speaker 3: Oh question, no question.
Speaker 2: But when it comes to singing, I don't know if
Speaker 2: she's if Cifried's better than her, yeah, I mean, and
Speaker 2: it's a musical. I mean there's some acting, you know,
Speaker 2: but she's very funny. I mean, she definitely pulls it off.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if she could actually cipher you.
Speaker 2: She definitely pulls it off, you know, And they did
Speaker 2: a great But gold Bloom's great, he is he's and
Speaker 2: the thing about Goldbloom in this is he can play.
Speaker 4: You're coming back on your gold Bloom yeah, said gold Bloom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to come back. But he you know,
Speaker 2: the apartments dot com thing. I was able to get
Speaker 2: rid of that quickly. Okay, what's the slogan for apartments
Speaker 2: dot com? Apartments dot com rule the world?
Speaker 3: I can't remember.
Speaker 2: But anyways, because he does one thing. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: not a character actor. He plays the same thing every time.
Speaker 4: He's a he's gold Bloomish. It's a gold bloom thing.
Speaker 4: It's a whole universe, right, it's what he does.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's the same guy every time. Whether it's
Speaker 2: The Fly or whether it's Jurassic Park.
Speaker 3: Or whether it's Chaos, right or Chaos or.
Speaker 2: The Big Chill, whether it's the Big he's the same guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, good him, you know, but he he walks
Speaker 2: in this. What he does very well is he watch
Speaker 2: the fine line of gray, which is the best character
Speaker 2: you can have, good and bad. Like he starts out that,
Speaker 2: you know, he wants his daughter there, right, he wants
Speaker 2: that's the whole thing he wants. He wants to he
Speaker 2: wants to bring in the wicked Witch of the West.
Speaker 2: He wants to, you know, come in, be part of
Speaker 2: the family. Then as soon as she says, well, you know,
Speaker 2: you gotta free the animals. Boom, she's out the door.
Speaker 2: So he's able to walk that line of good and
Speaker 2: bad simultaneously.
Speaker 3: Which is really hard to do and not go over
Speaker 3: the top. So I liked him.
Speaker 4: Innute a spice of gold bloom in any movie. You
Speaker 4: don't want to see him on the screen all the
Speaker 4: time because it's too much gold bloom. But you want
Speaker 4: him an ingredient in your film, just a little spice,
Speaker 4: little little something. He's he brings something interesting into any
Speaker 4: family event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does. Absolutely. Yeah, you got to see it.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's terrific. I think, I think, I think,
Speaker 2: I think they did a great job with it. But
Speaker 2: when it comes to going to the movie theater, and
Speaker 2: I love to go to the movies, especially when they
Speaker 2: get the big comfy seats right now you can put
Speaker 2: your feet up and stuff.
Speaker 3: And now they bring the.
Speaker 4: Little cocktail, you get a little sliders.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's crazy, it's unbelievable. So and then
Speaker 2: you leave and you spent two hundred and fifty bucks,
Speaker 2: but you know, what the hell, it's only money, you know,
Speaker 2: it's only money.
Speaker 4: I could have seen it for twenty bucks at home.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I could have seen it for nineteen to
Speaker 2: ninety nine at home and put some poppers in the microwave.
Speaker 2: But you're either it's got to be one or two things.
Speaker 2: You're either going to have a big musical like this
Speaker 2: or you're gonna have a superhero movie.
Speaker 3: It has to be conduced to the screen.
Speaker 2: Because Conclave is getting great reviews, right, which which one conclave?
Speaker 2: You know, the Vatican great fines my buddys, and it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2: But it was a week in the theater. That's that's
Speaker 2: not a theater movie.
Speaker 4: It's sadly, it's not sadly, it's not it's used to be.
Speaker 3: It used to be.
Speaker 2: But see, I'm this is where I'm okay with it, okay,
Speaker 2: And I know the residuals aren't pouring in like they
Speaker 2: used to when you were in the theater. But this
Speaker 2: is where people have to adjust. Excuse me for me,
Speaker 2: is that Conclave? As a consumer, I want to sit
Speaker 2: and I want to watch.
Speaker 3: It on my TV.
Speaker 2: I do I do when I see Wicked. I want
Speaker 2: to see it on a huge screen in.
Speaker 3: A movie theater.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just the way it is, and that's
Speaker 2: what we're gonna have to We're gonna have to adjust
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 4: I think the dps would be sad to hear that.
Speaker 2: But yes, well, but I understand your director of photography.
Speaker 2: But I still think with the size of our TV's
Speaker 2: Emily White, I mean, you still need.
Speaker 3: A great DP.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, true, I mean to me, I.
Speaker 2: Think, I mean, I I you know, I don't want
Speaker 2: them to be offended because if I ever get in
Speaker 2: a movie again, I want to make a movie it
Speaker 2: make me look good.
Speaker 3: I mean, the worst thing you want to do is
Speaker 3: piss off the camera person. I mean.
Speaker 4: But there's also the communal experience of like when you
Speaker 4: see something on screen and you communally are terrified or
Speaker 4: you communally are upset, and when you have that experience
Speaker 4: and that emotion, it feels so much more cathartic and
Speaker 4: different when you're sharing it with a group of people,
Speaker 4: whether you even have talked to them, you don't know them,
Speaker 4: but you're in a theater with human beings that are
Speaker 4: experiencing it with you. And I'm sad that I feel
Speaker 4: like that's getting lost.
Speaker 3: Well it is, it's gone.
Speaker 2: I think it's gone unless you have a big movie
Speaker 2: like this, whether screen really makes the difference, or you
Speaker 2: have something targeted at young people who want to go out. Now,
Speaker 2: the one exception is, excuse me, my mother in law
Speaker 2: who's like eighty years old and still like walks ten
Speaker 2: miles a day. She loves to go to the movies.
Speaker 2: It's like senior citizens and young people. You know, people
Speaker 2: our age generally don't go because you're working all day
Speaker 2: and you want to just tuo about when you get home.
Speaker 3: You know, that's the issue.
Speaker 2: And that's and I don't know, maybe as a manager
Speaker 2: you have I don't know if you have an answer
Speaker 2: to this, but that's and I'm putting you on the
Speaker 2: spot because I don't think there is an answer when
Speaker 2: it comes to when it comes to dealing with the
Speaker 2: actors and sag versus the studios. You know, when William
Speaker 2: Morris goes in there and fights with Netflix, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know how they're going to figure that out, because.
Speaker 4: I mean, Scarlotte Charleson Hampton had that famous fight with
Speaker 4: the studio about they were opening one of her Marvel
Speaker 4: movies and it didn't release in theaters worldwide, and so
Speaker 4: she lost all these back end points and she sued
Speaker 4: them because she expected to make all this money, and
Speaker 4: it was a huge thing. And it's it's a difficult
Speaker 4: thing for from the business point of a manager, you know,
Speaker 4: representing an actor and having a movie come out and
Speaker 4: then then not releasing it in to theaters. It's your
Speaker 4: your client is losing a lot of money. I know,
Speaker 4: that's difficult thing.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I don't but I don't. I don't see it changing.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I mean anything. Here's the thing. You
Speaker 2: got to have the leverage, Like Scarlet Johnson has.
Speaker 4: Leverage, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Gary Tangley does not yet. Yeah, but we're getting there.
Speaker 2: But like so Charlott Johnson has said no going in
Speaker 2: that that has to be a situation like you got
Speaker 2: to make a deal, like you got to get all
Speaker 2: your money up front. Like if Netflix wants to put
Speaker 2: me in a film, you're gotta pay me.
Speaker 3: The ten million dollars up front. Yeah, I mean, that's
Speaker 3: that's that's what you're going to have to do.
Speaker 2: The tough part right now is that for the And
Speaker 2: this is what people don't understand is the working actor
Speaker 2: that you don't know, the one who makes one hundred
Speaker 2: to two hundred grand a year by playing all these
Speaker 2: various guest roles and you know their face, but you
Speaker 2: don't know their name. Those are the ones that are
Speaker 2: getting killed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're not participating on any of the profits. They're not.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the Writer's Strike was trying to
Speaker 4: help with a lot of that. I think I don't
Speaker 4: know how much headway they made with that, but like
Speaker 4: that was a lot of plight. Also was you know,
Speaker 4: the back end deals and all that stuff. But it's
Speaker 4: it's it's hard to adjust to a new regime. It's
Speaker 4: hard to adjust a new situation.
Speaker 2: Because I mean, after Reagan negotiated in nineteen sixty for
Speaker 2: the actors, which people don't realize that that guy was
Speaker 2: pro labor when he was leading the Actors Union.
Speaker 3: They got a great deal. I mean I still get checks.
Speaker 2: I got to check the other day for Chap Aquatic
Speaker 2: that I did in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3: You know how much?
Speaker 4: How much was it? We don't have to say it
Speaker 4: on there, but was it? Is it enough to pay
Speaker 4: for dinner?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I McDonald's. We think of it is when you.
Speaker 2: Get a residual check like that, you first you look
Speaker 2: at you go, oh my god, it's thirty four twenty
Speaker 2: seven cents and you go, oh, wait a minute, after taxes,
Speaker 2: it's only nineteen all right, We're gonna ring things up
Speaker 2: with them. And we want to talk about AI in
Speaker 2: the Law and Order franchise next on WBZ.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Sight Studios on WBZ.
Speaker 2: Welcome back Gary Tangwavetonight on WBZ. Annilie Kennedy, WSM talent
Speaker 2: our manager, is joining us.
Speaker 3: Talking about the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2: We've covered a lot of territory and Rob Brooks, our producer,
Speaker 2: just wanted to say the problem with the Hallmark movies.
Speaker 3: Is the trees are too perfect, the perfect. Now, I
Speaker 3: do want to ask you.
Speaker 2: About AI in Law and Order, but I do want
Speaker 2: to get this in first, because we are a ton
Speaker 2: of time. You've been on a lot of TV sets
Speaker 2: or movie sets. Who is that one star or somebody
Speaker 2: that you met that did not disappoint.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. Sullivan Stapleton, Nobody knows him. He's a
Speaker 4: three hundred rids of the Empire, he did live spot
Speaker 4: here in New York. He's so many, so many, but
Speaker 4: he he's an Ozzy And I feel like there's something
Speaker 4: intrinsic about either Australian or Ozzy actors where they just
Speaker 4: have like an innate ability to tell the truth very
Speaker 4: easily and honestly. And he was amazing always like watching him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a confidence with that, there's a confidence.
Speaker 4: There is, you know, it's just an innate confidence and honestly,
Speaker 4: that is what you need in actors is just tell
Speaker 4: the truth in front of the camera and if you're
Speaker 4: confident you're telling the truth, whether it's a lie or not,
Speaker 4: you're telling the truth, and it's it comes across. I
Speaker 4: don't I don't quite understand why sometimes American actors have
Speaker 4: a hard time with say especially from La but he
Speaker 4: was brilliant always.
Speaker 3: That's because American actors we need a hug, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I need a hug and say you're doing good.
Speaker 2: Job and go well to hell with you pal, and
Speaker 2: they go out and you know, they skin a crocodile. So, oh,
Speaker 2: do you think the deal with AI how big of
Speaker 2: a problem?
Speaker 4: I mean, that's kind of the biggest thing. We went
Speaker 4: to war with our with our strike. I think it's
Speaker 4: a problem. But I think you know, SAG did the
Speaker 4: best they could to reach that deal and make sure
Speaker 4: that the actors were working. It's a problem, but I
Speaker 4: don't think it's that big a problem because I honestly
Speaker 4: think AI cannot replace human beings. Maybe I'm naive in
Speaker 4: saying this, but like human beings, if you go to
Speaker 4: the theater and you see a human being acting in
Speaker 4: front of you, you have a visceral reactions. It's honest,
Speaker 4: it's true, you see it, you feel it. I don't
Speaker 4: think AI can ever compete with that honesty. I know
Speaker 4: they definitely try, but I mean, that's that human intrinsic
Speaker 4: thing you feel when you watch someone who's telling you
Speaker 4: the truth in a film, it makes you cry. I
Speaker 4: don't think AI can ever replicate that feeling. I don't
Speaker 4: think so.
Speaker 3: Have you seen the movie Good Fellows?
Speaker 4: Yeah, of course, yes.
Speaker 3: Just making sure when Joe Pashi, when Joe Peshi.
Speaker 2: And uh Leoda are in the bar and he goes,
Speaker 2: do you think I'm funny?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Do you think?
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 2: It's iconic? Yeah, it's ad libbed, it was not written.
Speaker 2: That was not written. Scorsese's like, hey, we gotta do
Speaker 2: something here, blah blah bah.
Speaker 3: They go through it. They do it a couple of times.
Speaker 2: The whole things had lived it's one of the greatest
Speaker 2: moments in cinema history. People people, people would like, you know,
Speaker 2: do you think I'm funny? What do you think about
Speaker 2: you know what you think of funny? I mean funny?
Speaker 2: Look and people repeating that stuff.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: There's so much that AD lived and there's so much
Speaker 2: about that magic in the bottle that AI can't do that.
Speaker 2: I agree with you, what can AI do? Obviously it
Speaker 2: hurts background actors. Obviously it's gonna hurt some of the
Speaker 2: crew because you know, it's gonna replace certain jobs. You know,
Speaker 2: we've seen it in television, we've seen it in radio.
Speaker 2: But you're not gonna watch computer generated movies. I mean,
Speaker 2: even if you look, I mean, even when you play
Speaker 2: video games, they're voice by real people. But video games
Speaker 2: is a different situation because video games, you can say
Speaker 2: it's creative. Obviously it's computer generated, but you're making the
Speaker 2: decisions for the computer in the video game. But I
Speaker 2: agree with you, it's the spontaneity. It's that magic in
Speaker 2: the bottle, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and I feel like AI is. You know,
Speaker 4: they're taking they're so advanced, they're taking all these algorithms
Speaker 4: that they're tailoring it, and they're so good at it.
Speaker 4: They're so good at it, right. But there is something
Speaker 4: about the human being and your feeling and your nature
Speaker 4: of who you are that you can feel when something
Speaker 4: is truly authentic and real. And that's what really resonates
Speaker 4: with people. And that's why actors are really important, because
Speaker 4: they are telling an experience that is not generated by
Speaker 4: an algorithm, is generated by human emotion that is messy
Speaker 4: and not understandable and not explainable. But they are giving
Speaker 4: you a human emotion that you are empathizing with, and
Speaker 4: people respond to that. I don't think AI can compete
Speaker 4: with that, because there's no way a computer can understand
Speaker 4: an algorithm of who you are. They can understand where
Speaker 4: you like to eat, what colors you like, what you know,
Speaker 4: what you know, news source you prefer, and all these
Speaker 4: things that like. You can never replace a human being
Speaker 4: with a computer ever. I don't think.
Speaker 2: Put it in a botti. She is a starmaker. Emily
Speaker 2: Kennedy WSM talent. Thanks for joining, Emily, has been a
Speaker 2: blast talking to you. Have a raco, have a great
Speaker 2: Turkey day.
Speaker 4: Okay, you too, Happy Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3: Okay, take care all right? Time for News coming up
Speaker 3: on WBC. We got to do some Celtics coming
Speaker 2: Up, and speaking of a guy, We're going to do
Speaker 2: the Dark Side of AI at ten thirty right here
Speaker 2: on WBZ.