Fearless with Timothy Simons

Introduction

0:00Some podcasts are afraid of nothing. So the tagline for this movie is, some people are afraid of nothing.

0:30I pulled that off of a low-res, barely-loading image on the Wikipedia page for Fearless, because IMDb is down! IMDb is down, but Box Office Mojo is working. Really? Yeah.

Apocalypse Day

0:43We're recording this on the day of, seemingly, the apocalypse. Uh-huh. It is stormy and dark as hell outside. It looks like the planet Kamino. Wait, wait, it was barely, it was like drizzling. Griffin's, okay, okay. It's looking overcast. There have got to be, I mean, like... Griffin, you can't live in New York and be like, it's going to rain. I think the world, this is it. It's over. Rain, I go, okay, I can put up with this. Talk, you're like... IMDb is down? My apps are down? That's tough for you, IMDb being down, too. Right, right. I did, yes.

Amazon Web Services Down

1:13Amazon Web Services, a terrible company, a terrible service as part of a terrible company, has collapsed today. And, like, 60% of the internet has gone down with it. How did I not hear about this until now? Because you've got your head in the clouds and your ivory tower. I am. I'm up in my ivory tower. Yeah. But usually they give me the broad strokes of what the police are doing. They can't reach you because they're on the web service. Your team is on AWS. Well, I would have assumed that one of my handlers would have mentioned...

1:46I think that your handlers are AI and they're also backed up on AWS. Oh, wow. Yeah, well, no. It's actually, no. They're humans, but he won't let them look at him or see his face. So they have to communicate with him via the internet. Even if they're in the same room. Yeah. Right, exactly. And if they look at your face, what do you do? Well, it starts with, like, just, like, a hard or stern, like, warning. Like, just, like, a look of, like, you know that you shouldn't have done this. Right. And then it proceeds from there to be more physical.

Eye Contact

2:17Right.

Eye Contact

2:17It's also, here's the thing. You're so tall that making eye contact with you requires a lot of effort. You can't do it by accident. Sure. You gotta crane that neck. You gotta crane a neck. There's no plausible deniability. Nope. No. Unless you're on top of a ladder. Or if I'm sitting down. Even then. And then, even then. Even then. You should have, you should have tried harder. How tall is... You sitting down might be me standing. What? How tall is Chicken Shop date, girl? Have you done the date? You gotta do that. Because I feel like that'd be a... She feels short. You could do, like, a fun height differential. Oh, okay. You know, Chicken Shop date.

2:48I've only ever seen her sitting down. Dimmon Bowl? Amelia something. Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't want to mangle her name. She might be sneaky taller than you think. Well, let me see if Amazon Web Services can answer my question. Uh, it says she's 5'3". So that's, you know. I hope that. Okay. Not that tall. Yeah, we would have a stark difference in our appearance. Amelia Demoldenberg. Demoldenberg. One could argue that that could be used for comedic effect. Well, this is what she does. She has never... She... Oh, my goodness. It's astounding. She went to Marlebone. It's astounding what she's done.

3:19She went where? I'm just... I'm doing the English thing that is not acceptable that I shouldn't do or I judge someone based on where they went to secondary school. She went to a posh school. In my experience, in my life, all dates have gone well. All of her Chicken Shop dates? No, all my dates. Oh, all your dates. Oh, yeah. And then I watch her and I go, wait a second. What if a date was awkward? I'll actually say... I think she's very funny. I find her incredibly charming. I think she's very funny. She's good at what she does. I do, too. I was just mocking the premise, but she's really good. I have never watched, like, a full episode. I see clips. Is it supposed to be intentionally awkward or is that...

3:51It's got the sort of YouTube comedy kind of, you know, right, the pauses and the harsh cuts and stuff, but it's really... It's like between two ferns with less of a character. Okay. Right. It's between two ferns, but you like the little moments right where they are really being humans. She's a person. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

Chicken Shop Date

4:08Right. Chicken Shop date. Yeah. Sometimes you're like... It's the same with hot ones. You're like the cream roast to the top here, baby. Like, I know there's like a thousand pounds of crap on the internet, and I'm hearing about this one because she's pretty good at it. She's pretty good. Right. Yeah. You know what else is pretty good? You ever done hot ones? Okay. Here we go. I haven't done hot ones, but I would not be... Why are you in this garbage? Because I can... I feel like... And we'll see how this goes. I feel like I could succeed here in hot ones. Like, I... You think... I do not have the constitution? I do not have the constitution. Oh, you don't like a spicy...

4:38I cannot handle it. I... Yeah. I... Yeah, no, I... I mean, that might be funny. I truly don't know if I would be able to physically continue. And I know that, like, people struggle. Yeah. There, and that's part of it. Yeah. But I worry about even, like, the very basic one. So you're thinking... Save it. I gotta correct you there. He's never taken an L.

5:00Oh, me? You think he's struggling. DJ Khaled. But he just doesn't play like that. Oh, no. He's never taken an L. He's never taken an L. He tapped out about wing four or five, I think, right? He's never taken an L. He's never eaten a pea. Is there... And you don't mean the peas from a pod. No, he's eaten those. Is there... Is there any... Is there, like, a downside to not continuing? Uh, I mean, you're kind of... Publicly shamed. Kind of being a poopy pants, I guess. Right? You're not... I mean, I don't think... Brought to the town square. A little commander poopy pants. I feel like...

5:31You're being a little bit of a commander poopy pants. I mean, I think that, like, the way through, if you're struggling, it's just, like, take a little bite of each one or whatever. Yeah. That's what people do. No one's leaning on you to finish your wings. Okay. Right? It's very few people really, like, actually leap bones. Have I shared my conspiracy theory? Go ahead. That... Because, like, DJ Khaled really, like, fucking ate shit and looked like a fool. And do you think they pulled it back a little bit because of that? I was talking to someone who was, like, do you think they've nerfed the sauces? Do you think the sauces are watered down now?

6:02Because no one has... No one really has much trouble until the bomb, which everybody reacts to, because that exists to make people react. And the guests keep on getting better, right? Yeah. And I equate it to, uh, I think our buddy Lin-Manuel, drop a name. Uh-huh. Told us this. Well, Lin-Manuel who? Miranda. Oh. Oh. That when big stars are doing, like, Chicago for, like, 10 days... He said this on mic, didn't he? I can't remember. Yeah. Uh, oh, this person doesn't have musical theater experience. How the fuck are they going to do this show?

6:33And the company has been doing the show for 25 years, that they basically have A, B, and C tracks, where they bring them in for their first rehearsal and see what their natural ability as a singer and dancer is, and go, like, okay, they're a C. Right. They won't do much. We're doing a simpler version of the show. We move around them more. And the A, you're like, oh, they actually have the skills. I think they have, like, different intensities of the sauces. They try the first wing, and they're like... Interesting. Uh-huh. You're a liar. I mean, you think they're lying. I think they don't know that they're getting an easier go of it, but I think the production

7:06is adjusting in real time. Oh, here's this season's sauces, and Ben did the Hot Ones Challenge. For my birthday. It was tough. Yeah. It was really, really fucked up. Did you finish every wing? Like, did you try to, like... Yeah. I made it to the end. Yeah. No, but I more mean, like, were you taking a bite of each wing or, like, finishing the wing? I let the show inform my approach where I wasn't taking that whole fucker down. Right. I would take, like... And then I feel like it's... I would take, like, a reasonable bite. Right. Is the entire wing coated in that sauce, or are they just putting a drop on it?

7:38No. No, it's totally coated. Of course, the 10th wing, you get the dab. Yes. The wing is already coated, but... Put an extra dab on it. Then you get a little extra dab. The last dab. And if you're Jennifer Lawrence, you say, what do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? The thing I always think about, though, and I like Hot Ones, having done it myself, the next day, the shit that I took was so radioactive. That it was bad. It ruins multiple days. Yes. For you. Like, as far as your digestive tract. Okay. Right. Because you're not supposed to do that. I think about these celebrities having to then take a shit for the next few days.

8:11It's brutal. Now, in Fearless, do you think he would do the Hot Wings Challenge no problem? While he's in Fearless mode?

8:19Strawberries kind of is his Hot Wings Challenge. That's what I'm saying. Like, I mean, honestly, his life in Fearless Mode, which is what I'm referring to, his, like, sort of cognitive dissonance or whatever, is, like, you know, Hot Wing. The final strawberry is like da bomb. Yeah. Beyond insanity. It almost becomes his last dab. If not for the power of love. Very good. That was good. Thank you. Did you see how he turned it around back to the... I really liked that. I tried to do that, like, five minutes ago, and it was ignored. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David.

8:49It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers, and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce. Baby? Our guest is mouthing along. Oh, what a cutie pie. I really like the baby part. Our guest is such a cutie pie. I'll just say it. He's a cutie pie. This is a miniseries on the films of Peter Weir. It is called... Also a cutie pie. Podnick at Hanging Cast. Right. Although I want the opinion of our guest. Oh, my God.

9:19What were the other options? Here he fucking goes. Podster and Castmander, the pod side of the cast. Now, I like... Every time he says it, he pivots out of the title because he knows it's bad. Being able to get pod and cast in there two times each. I mean, I think maybe in theory rather than practice.

Peter Weir Movie

9:38Today, we're talking about... Oh, he pivots right away! Our guest today, of course, from the hit movie Goosebumps, previously known as Tim Simons, today introduced exclusively as Hitmaker. Oh, my God. Hitmaker! He's here! Hitmaker. Hitmaker. Blonde edition. You are here in New York. Hitmaker Frost. You're here in New York. Tim has blonde hair. Press gauntlet. You're doing all the morning shows. That's why we're talking about all these other fucking things. Because you're doing like every morning show here in New York. To promote the new season of the Netflix show, Nobody Wants This, which at the time

10:13this episode comes out will have premiered six months ago. Right. It is reheated oatmeal at this point. If you want to watch that on Netflix now, it's still there, I assume. Maybe. Unless it got canceled. Everyone will have watched it 30 seconds at a time on TikTok by this point. Oh, hell yeah. Exactly. And start me at like part 62, right? You know, like TikTok likes to just dump you in the middle there. Now, Tim, the show's called Nobody Wants This, but judging by the viewer data, it seems like a lot of people want this. Have I told you this story before? Has that just sucked? Interesting.

10:44You just got a job offer. I got a job offer. NBC. How many of those do you have to deal with now? A fair amount. Yeah. A fair amount, but I don't know if I've ever told you this or if you saw this at the time, but there was a lot of conversation around what the show was going to be called. It had a working title and then it had a few other, like a few other working titles, one of which I thought worked. I think at one point it was going to be called, uh, it was initially titled Shiksa and then it was called for a little bit, it was called Heartburn.

11:16You can't do that. Well, no, that's the thing is that ultimately I think if it existed in a vacuum is a good name for the show. Sure. Sure. But it's, but it is sort of owned already. It should have been called like the Jewish guy and the white girl or I don't know. That's just like the most obvious. Wow. I'm getting a text from Netflix that they want to hire you. Hire me for title brainstorming. You guys got to stop being so good at this. You're getting all these jobs. I just think that almost every time something is titled like that, it bombs and then the

11:47headlines write themselves and everyone's like, we should have seen this coming. Yes. It's a rare case where a title has that much of a self-own in it and it fucking defies the haters. I don't know if you remember this, but when they announced the title and they gave, you know, they gave us like, here's your first look pictures if you want to post them. I posted on Instagram, hey, here is the show. It comes out on whatever day. This was for the first season. And here's a picture of Adam and Kristen and they look amazing. And I said, I really hope that reviewers like this show.

12:18Otherwise they were going, they are going to dog fuck us into the ground with our title. Dog fuck us is, is a great hit maker. It's a hit maker for sure. Yeah. That's you. That's you through and through. Yeah. I can't think of another case where it's worked out. Yeah. Like, what's the worst that could happen? It's a big one. I remember the, the Dane DeVito, Martin Lawrence movie where that came out, buying a ticket to this piece of shit. Right. The reviews were just like a full page photo of the critic pointing at the poster.

12:51Zero stars. Like there was, uh, this is a little bit more like it's not as direct, but I remember like, how do you know, ended up being like, how do you know this is a shitty movie? I watched it or whatever. You just don't want like a vague question, any kind of negative statement, obviously. Yeah. Can I, I'm just, so you're in Nobody Wants This, so that's on Netflix. Well, anything else we should mention that you're, you're in Percy Jackson. I forget when that's coming out. Oh yeah. Wait, when, when does this come?

13:21So this is of course posting on May 10th, 2026. Wow. Jesus. Really? Yeah. So we hope Trump at this point has solved six to eight more wars. Yeah. And by the time you're listening in this, you're in month six of the AWS outage. Yeah. Right. If you're even. The only thing that's still down though. Everything else is fine. I think at this point I will have been in Scream 7. Oh, fuck yeah. There you go. Do you, wait, do you make it? Well, I can tell you that I am in the film Scream 7.

13:52Okay, fine. Yeah. Fantasy was asking like, are you Ghostface? You have to tell me now. And Tim was like, I can't say anything. And I was like, if the movie starts and Ghostface is seven foot three. Yes. That is. It is tough to, yeah. Just kind of hide you. They're not going to hide you. That's the, this is the problem. I'm not asking you to reveal any spoilers, but I think I'm going to know pretty quickly whether you are or are not. He's like hunched down. Yeah. Like he has to, he bumps his head on every door frame. It's actually you and chicken shop date. And it keeps like, it's very obvious.

14:23It's switched on. She's the other one. Yeah. No, those are, those were, I'd say by and large, the things that are going on. Well, I'm seeing, it's your commander bell on the handmaid's tail. Now I'm seeing here that June stabbed you in the eye. Who's June? June is Lizzie Moss. And she, she fucking stabs you. She stabs me in the eye. Dang. And there was a point. And were you like in charge of all that, all the bad stuff happening? You played one of the good guys? Were you one of the good guys? I played one of the very, I think if Elizabeth Moss is stabbing you in the eye, you might not be one of the guys. Not all men? I was like the leader of like the resistance.

14:55And she was just like, she thought I was like going at him too hard. And she was like, well, you know, we should. Moderation. Yeah. We need to be moderate. We need to be moderate about this. This is the problem. Yeah. No, I did. I played a bad person. I think I was kind of thrown in there. As like, you know, the son of an unseen, very powerful voice. Oh, you're like a Nepo. I'm like a Nepo. And there is like a, there is like a. A generational. A generational. Yeah. And, and I, I did take this. I don't, we don't need to talk about this. Did you work with Max?

15:25No, probably not. I did. Oh, you did? One thing that was very fun was that I kind of at some point crossed over with everybody in the show. That looks like you were in like five episodes. Yes. But I somehow managed to have at least a small scene. Whitford? Whitford. Yeah. Had some scenes of Whit, Whitford fucking rules. Are you kind of doing a Whitford thing with the blonde hair? He's got the white hair, but you know, just kind of the, the shock of hair, you know? I, there's nothing intentional behind it, but if, if there is any way that I can be compared to him, I will take it.

15:57He, he's someone you want to, it's, it's a great career. Yeah. It is an incredible career. And there is just something about his cadence. Yeah. That makes me happy. It's so specific. And yes, it is in a, it is in a lot of characters that he plays, but it never feels like a crutch. And also. No, he can, he can kind of, he can moderate, you know, modulate it. It doesn't feel like a gimmick. And one thing that I find amazing about watching Bradley Whitford is that there is a real subtlety

16:27about, like, he's not the most still, like, facial actor. No, he's not. But there is such a subtlety in his, like, facial movements that I think is so admirable. So I agree with that. In another Netflix show, The Diplomat, which is a hit show on Netflix. Oh, yes. Kind of a hit. Episode on Fearless, the Peter Weir movie from 1993. Go on. Mm-hmm. I'm watching season three. Season three just dropped, right? And so in season two of The Diplomat, it's about what if Kerry Russell was a diplomat? Of course. And what if Rufus Sewell was her randy husband who just loves to almost have affairs?

17:00Like, kind of a plot point in The Diplomat is Rufus Sewell keeps being like, can I fuck you? And the lady's like, yeah, you should fuck me. And he's like, actually, I can only fuck my wife, but I'll flirt with you. Like, he, like, can't actually have affairs, but he gets, like, he loves to get close. Uh-huh. And then he's just like, sorry, actually, I'm so in love with Kerry Russell. Season two introduces who's the vice president, Allison Janney. Okay. Yes. We love Allison Janney. Another example, yeah. And then not to spoil The Diplomat, but some things happen kind of Veep style, and she becomes the president. Whoa. And then, in season three, we meet her husband, Bradley Whitford.

17:32Okay. And it's like, that's the most gimmicky version of using Bradley Whitford, right? For sure. West Wing reunion, we're marrying two West Wing actors who were, you know, not married, right? And even still, I was like, I'm happy to see you. Of course. I have to see Bradley walking. Of course. He's got a big beard or something. He's like, it's great. Yeah. I just, he fucking rules. He rules. I had to do a, there's a picture of us doing dance rehearsals on a Sunday. Now, I hear you do a dance and nobody, but he told me he keeps getting this question.

18:03I do do a dance. He does a dance. I do do a dance. And, but we had to do, we also had to do dance rehearsals for The Handmaid's Tale. And there is a picture of Bradley Whitford and I. For like ballroom dancing or something? We were doing the Foxtrot. There's a Macarena at the end of the season. I'm sorry. Who do you do the Foxtrot with? I'll admit I never watched The Handmaid's Tale. Are you only on the last season? I'm only on the last season. There's a big wedding. You were the big bad. There's a big wedding. Okay. Okay. And so people are like doing a sort of fancy dance during the wedding. Yeah. And we were at these Foxtrot rehearsals and it's on a Sunday.

18:35And we are sitting at the studio that we're rehearsing in is called, the studio is called The Joy of Dance. Okay. And we are sitting underneath like a TV that has the logo that says The Joy of Dance. And I'm like so happy to be there. And Bradley Whitford is sitting next to me looking like the most miserable man. Most cantankerous Whitford. Who has ever lived. And I have the biggest shit eating grin on my face underneath the sign that says The Joy of Dance. It is just two people in very different circumstances in their head.

19:07And I love that picture. That's nice. David, I have terrible news. What's up? Bradley Whitford is a graduate of Juilliard. David! Guys. Do you not like Juilliard? No. This is a thing. I do not like people's lionization of Juilliard. I do not mind if people went to Juilliard. Griffin thinks I have a beef with Juilliard. Now, I have a beef with the way that elite schools in this country and other countries get their dick sucked all day and night. That's all. That's all. But there's nothing wrong with a little bit of top. You don't like too much top.

19:41Oh, God. Let's work the tip a little. Don't go down to the shaft. The thing is, David loves to do this defense now, right? I love to do this defense now. Superman movies on Patreon. Christopher Reeve, famous graduate of Juilliard. David Cornswit, current Superman, famous graduate of Juilliard. Can you believe a guy named Juilliard would be Superman? Is he a famous graduate of Juilliard? Which one? He's a Superman now. I guess he's currently very famous. He's currently becoming famous. He's holding the office of Superman. I don't know that you can say famously a graduate of Juilliard because I did not know that until

20:15just now. This is why the podcast exists to educate people. Did Dean Cain get, like, is he in the office for a minute there? Like, if it's like, you're imagining, like, presidential terms, it's like Christopher Reeve until Superman 4, and then is it, like, succeeded by Dean Cain? I think he's almost more, like, U.S. ambassador. Or is it, like, in Wikipedia, it'll be, like, Superman, but it says, like, acting beneath. Like, it's sort of like, you know, there's a qualifier. Right, right. And then we actually have Brandon Routh or whatever. He's maybe Speaker of the House or some shit. He graduated from the Juilliard of, like, going through those tubes pretending to be an

20:47ICE agent. Oh, dude. That was the Juilliard of fucking Proud Boy training centers. That was just like, he's like, watch me own the libs. And I'm like, you're doing an assault. You are owning yourself, my friend. So David now frames it as, I just have a problem with the lionization of upper institutions. I do as well. I fucking hate higher education. Okay? Yeah. When I bring it up. I don't hate higher education. Wait a second. When I, I'm saying what I do. Okay. When I bring it up in the episode, David goes from zero to 8,000 and goes, if you bring

21:17up Juilliard again, I'm going to fucking murder you. That is the direct quote. You deserve it. With no explanation of why he was spinning out of control. And then he goes, I don't understand why people think I hate Juilliard. You deserve it. You deserve it then and now. I'll murder you now. He only explains things eight to nine months later. It's because we're doing a commentary and I'm watching it. And you keep being like, and he went to Juilliard and I'm like, stop fucking bringing up to, who gives a shit? I don't care where someone went to school. If he gets that angry about it that quickly, people are like, did Juilliard murder his parents

21:48in a back alley? What's going on here? No, my dad was a working class guy who probably drilled this shit into me a little too hard, if anything. Did he drive? My dad didn't go to college. Did he drive a lorry? No, my, I mean, maybe in his younger days. Did he drive a lorry? Just, just, just, just going for the lowest common denominator joke there. That's, hit maker. I will say. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, as, despite your feelings about Juilliard, going back to Bradley Whitford for one moment, the man is an amazing storyteller. He has a lot of great stories about being.

22:19He's been on so many sets. So many sets. Worked with so many cool people. He once told me a 20 minute breakup story that included a doctor's visit where he found out that the challenger had exploded. Holy shit. That was, that was the smallest detail of the story. The man's an incredible storyteller. So this is pre-Caximaric. Yes. How do you say, Cax, how do you say your last name? I always thought it was Caximaric. Yeah. You're probably not Caximaric. Yeah. Because he was married to her.

22:50Yes. Pre-Jane Caximaric. So it would have been like, you know, I think college girlfriend. Okay. All right. Yeah. It would have been back then. All right. Co-ed Bradley. Yeah. Man about town Bradley. Wait, you were about to say something, Griffin. Hit maker. Hit maker. Oh, yes. The previous two appearances you've made on this podcast are. And this is our guest is Timothy Simons. We've said that. Hit maker. Yeah. Hit maker. The shining and Joss. Wait, I, and also, only to digress. It is tough. To digress. And I definitely want to, we have to talk about that.

23:21I am, am very, the nickname hit maker. Mm-hmm. Coined by Tracy Lutz. Coined by Tracy Lutz. Who has a Pulitzer Prize. Yeah. Who has a pure. You got zero of those. I have zero of those. Okay. I found out from Tracy Lutz that apparently you find out that you were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize at the same moment that you either win or lose it. Yeah. That's why. Yeah. You basically get notified like, right, you made the three. Yes. But they also give you a call. Right. Right. If they're like, hey, by the way, you didn't get it.

23:51Right. And like, you would just be enjoying your morning. It's an honor to be, you know, shortlisted. Yeah, to be shortlisted. Right. Right. But you're just like walking around and somebody calls you, oh, hey, by the way, you didn't win one today. Yeah. I didn't even know it was an option. If you're Tracy Lutz, you're walking around probably a closet of discs somewhere. Yes. Yeah. You get the call. So he coins that. And it feels like a nickname that I just don't know based on my own personal constitution that I can lean into it too hard. Uh-huh. The reason that I am even.

24:23He's making the joke because you were on a show that was a hit. But what I am known for nickname wise previous there, the little part of me that leans into it is that every other nickname I am publicly known by has something to do with jizz. And it's just kind of nice. Because I was assuming like your height might be, you know, like because of Veep, because of like the JNAD files, because of all those nicknames. That show has a running gag of people coming up with the worst things to call you.

24:54Because you're an objectionable little. Because you're an objectionable little. I mean, not little, tall. The tall little freak. Weasel. Weasel. And so it is nice, I think, just for there to be like one nickname out there that is like complimentary in a way. And I do like that, although I don't lean into it too hard. I would never refer to myself as such. It would be funny if you went on like CBS this morning and like handed a postcard. And you shall refer to me. And you shall refer to me. I'm picturing you Joker style leaning back in the chair. And one last thing. And one last thing. When you bring me out. So Jaws and The Shining are the two previous.

25:26We have an active group text with friends. You will text us once or twice a year and go, guys, I got to come back on blank check. Oh, now we're going to roast him? I think this is good. I think this is good. Please. Yeah. And then we're like. Get some foglers. We're making a roast. Tim, we'll have you on any time. Tim, we're doing this director. Well, first we'll say we're booked up right now. The second we have new stuff on the schedule, we'll let you know. And then we go, Tim, here you go. It's the Glengarry leads, right? Yes. Here's the first six months of a schedule. Take your pick. You have first crack.

25:57And you always go, none of these really get my dick hard. But it's like David Lynch and the Coen brothers were the two where you were like flipping through. Blue Velvet, is that a movie? Yeah. Oh. Well, I'm sorry. Or we show you Spielberg and you go, I guess I would do E.T., Raiders, or Jaws. I like Jaws. You either only pick the three things everyone would want to do or you go, none of these get my dick hard. All right. Let him defend him. This guy's famous. He comes on our show. We're mean to him. He's a hit maker. Let me defend myself momentarily.

26:30When it came to Lynch and the Coen brothers, I was very vocal about the Coen brothers. And Grant, I know you like doing these things in person. So some of it is schedule-wise. It is. I want to honor your commitment to doing it in person. I appreciate that. When it came to the Coen brothers, I believe I threw out a list of all of them. I still haven't ever seen Lady Killers, which I am sort of embarrassed by, even though I know it's not a favorite or whatever. You're fine. Thank you.

27:00I feel like maybe that was embellished a little bit when it came to the Coens because I am such a huge fan of the Coens. Sure. Sure. But I also want to, in a way, part of that is I don't want to take away something from the Lynch filmography that somebody feels passionately about. When I'm a little bit more, you know, oh, I'm going to take that away from the- I understand that. Totally, totally, totally. I think it's a good call. And the director is right. People are going to be passionate. I get that. And then sometimes shit just doesn't get my dick hard. You know what I mean? You do drop that phrase. I bring this up not to roast you as much as to say this episode came about-

27:34I bring Anthony over, I'm not here to roast him. I'm not here to roast him. This episode came about a different way. We throw you the schedule. You go, honestly, I'm up for anything. You guys tell me where I could best be used. Right. Yeah. And I say, have you ever seen Fearless? And you say, no. And I go, I feel like that might be a hitmaker movie. Right. Why don't you watch it? Throw it on. Tell me what you think. If you sparked it in the way I think you will, it's yours. But you were mensch about this. I was. And I think even on this list, there were things where I was like, I had just very recently

28:08seen Picnic at Hanging Rock for the first time, but there was a part of me that was like, I can't tackle it. That's kind of a big, yeah. That's a big one. I think you're the one to speak to the sort of teenage girl experience in like turn of the century in Australia. Women going missing. But I think it- He has a lot of experience. Weird. Yeah. To your credit, you recognize that, yes, I may have been the perfect person for that episode. Yeah. But then we're like, you know, maybe we should, maybe we should give another voice a chance on that. Also, look, heavy weighs the crown. And we loved having Hillary Clinton on that episode.

28:41I mean, we haven't booked that episode yet. Yeah, it's going to be Hillary.

28:45You know, you do a thing like Jaws or Shining. You're like, this has to be a three-hour episode. We're going to have to talk about fucking every element of this movie, and we'll wedge in some tangents. But like Fearless is the kind of movie I love covering on this podcast where I'm like, I think this is an excellent movie. Yes, but it is not, it does not require, right, like an oil level drilling. Yes. No. Yes. And it offers many different tendrils of conversation. And I was excited to do something because I am passionate about The Shining and Jaws,

29:15and those are like totemic films in and of themselves. I am sort of excited to talk about one that I didn't have like much of an emotional, I had never seen it, so I didn't really have an emotional connection to it. You've seen it twice now. And didn't really look up, and I would say even broadly, I have seen a lot of Peter Weir's movies, but I wasn't, I'm not like familiar with his style throughout his entire career. Sure. And so, and I haven't looked up anything about this one, so I'm actually really excited to find out more about Fearless today, just as somebody who, as a listener.

29:51We're here to learn. I mean, I think Peter Weir is an ultimate, his style matches the material kind of guy, right? Yeah. Not that he's a chameleon. I don't know if I agree with that. I think there are through lines. Sure. I think of him a little similar to Sidney Lumet's. A little bit. I mean, but I see, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm interested as we do the, because like the thing with Ang Lee when we did him, we picked Ang Lee because he was a blank check candidate. Obviously he made movies like Hulk that we were like perfect for the show, but we were also like, oh, he's kind of a chameleon, right?

30:22He's done a bunch of genres. Then you watch the movies and you're like, there are very obvious themes and through lines. Every single movie is about emotional repression and when it bubbles over. Yes. Like, you know, made and found all this shit, you know, like, and you're like, right. And I'm excited to see this with Peter Weir too. I do feel like he was a little bit more of a, I want to do something different. Like, you know, consciously, like as he was approaching projects, as he's accruing fame, it's also an era in Hollywood when there were interesting scripts that you could pivot to. Yeah. You could tell your team, like, I want, find me something that's more dramatic.

30:54Find me something that's more going to cost this much money, right? Like, versus like, whatever, I'm Peter Weir, so I do this sort of move. Like, the story of this movie is he had made green card and he was like, well, I don't want to do something as light next time. Like, it's a broad, you know, sort of direction for him to go in, but he's thinking of directions to go in. The book comes out the same year as the movie, so this is a thing that gets optioned as a manuscript. It's not adapting a hit book, right? And it's not even like you read the galleys of this thing and you go like, holy shit, this

31:25is the Da Vinci code. People are going to lose their minds. I imagine you go, this is a good piece of writing, you know, and this is a good vehicle for a good actor. And Jeff Bridges is certainly a star at this period of time, but he's not Harrison Ford. He's not Mel Gibson. He's not Robin Williams. Well, indeed, talk about it. The studio was unhappy. A-list box office. Right. He's like one of the best actors working in the studio system in the 90s, the studio system in Hollywood in the 90s. But he's a guy who kind of has a little bit of a box office ceiling while having like ultimate

31:57credibility. And you look at the poster for this movie, this isn't a blank check movie, but the top thing of the poster is from the director of Witness and Dead Poets Society. He's got these two big grown up Hollywood hits that he can now like, you know, advertise off of. Even if he's not a household name, this is an era where you could put that at the top of a poster and people would walk by it and go like, I liked the way those movies made me feel. And also, it seems like, and this is a broad statement, I guess, and I don't want it to

32:27be detrimental to audiences right now. This also very much seems like a movie that could be made in 1993, where you see those two movies above the title. And this is not like necessarily a fun, exciting night out at the movies. It's a movie I really, really enjoyed. Yes. But it also is not like, hey, let's go to the cinema play. An audience was willing to engage with a movie like this. To some extent, yeah. It was a modest hit, I would say, right? Like it made... Yeah, it did okay. Was the studio not happy with Jeff Bridges being cast?

32:59Well, you'll just, I can go into the dossier, but like, Weir's first call was to Mel Gibson, who's someone he'd worked with before, who's obviously a giant star. And Gibson was busy making his first film, The Man Without a Face, and probably doing all the normal stuff. And, you know, like, he's your best friend. You can probably speak to it better than me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was in the car when he got pulled over that one time. Say more stuff. Say more stuff. You pitched him sugar tits. I did. I was like, it's going to be like a little harsh, but they'll find it funny.

33:29They're not recording this. They're not recording this. You passed him a list of alts. Dog fucker?

33:36I know that's not how you use it. When he, you know, Gibson passed, Peter Weir then went to the studio and was like, I'm thinking Jeff Bridges. And they were like, oh, we were thinking another Mel Gibson type famous person. We like Jeff Bridges just fine, but that's not that tier of fame. So they were disappointed when, you know, they learned he was like, no, no, no, Jeff Bridges. We're talking about this a lot in this series, but because Weir was so much a guy who worked with the top A-list stars and was a guy that these stars trusted, either brought on to develop

34:07their projects or would sign up to the project because he was directing it, this is still a time where if you have one of the 10 guys above the title, you can basically sell the audience on whatever they're doing. You can take something that seems a little challenging or a little uncommercial and a studio will give it tens of millions of dollars and full promotional support and the audience will like go along for the ride. And you're like, across the 90s, he works with, in the 80s, he works with Gibson, Williams, Ford, and Carey.

34:39Yeah. Right? And he works with two of those guys two times. And let's not forget the other A-lister he worked with. J'aurais de Baudouc.

34:47And that's a normal man. A normal man who definitely did not like pee in the aisle. I need to go. I need to go. No, it is time. The bathroom is occupied. The line is too long. I feel like that was also a very short flight. It's just the guy from Little Mermaid.

35:04It was a very short flight. Yeah. Are we? It was LA to San Francisco. It was LA to San Diego. And he's like, I gotta go. Just open the door. I'm gonna go outside. We just bored it. The Fearless sequel is everyone taking off the plane like so shaken except for one guy who's like, I feel fine. And everyone's like, J'aurais de Baudouc just pissed all over our plane. They opened the doors and the piss fell. The one thing that I read was that initially it wasn't a plane crash. It was just they all witnessed a man pee in the aisle.

35:35They just saw it. And then they were like, I saw death in that moment. Have we planted a flag that witness is the blank check? What is the blank check? Witness is the guarantee. I would say the guarantor is year of living dangerously personally, but we'll get there. I think that's the guarantor that gets them into Hollywood. I think witness is the guarantor for the next. For the rest. For the Hollywood career. Because like witness is kind of a, that movie, obviously it's got Harrison Ford. So, you know, he helps. But the wild success of that film certainly means it's like he is now the kind of director

36:05pretty much anyone would want to work with. It's a big hit. He gets a best director nomination. Best director, best actor. But also it is that thing where like, oh. And then dead poets and you know. He made Harrison Ford respected as an actor. Yeah. And the same with dead poets and Robin Williams, I guess. Yeah. But there was a certain degree. The last guy who kind of had this for better or worse and mostly for worse was David O. Russell. Yeah. Where it was just like people know it's automatic. If you're in his movie, you have a really good shot at getting an Oscar. You've got an awards campaign.

36:36Right. You won't get yelled at on set. Right. No. And I think a lot of these A-list guys really were just like, I trust this guy. Right. He's unlocking new corridors of movie stars, you know? I have two questions for was Picnic at Hanging Rock a reclamation or was that something that