Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 226. Rosanna Arquette
Episode Date: September 24, 2018Gilbert and Frank are joined by actress and director Rosanna Arquette for an entertaining discussion about the vindictiveness of critics, the pros and cons of autograph shows, the vanishing haunts and... hot spots of New York City and Rosanna's personal encounters with everyone from Bette Davis to Paul McCartney to Martin Luther King. Also, Bob Dylan goes electric, Martin Scorsese stifles a laugh, Johnny Carson rocks a tennis outfit and Rosanna shares the screen with the late, great David Bowie. PLUS: Charley Weaver! "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home"! The brilliance of Burt Bacharach! The edginess of "After Hours"! And Gilbert praises the work of his sister, Arlene Gottfried! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi there, I'm Jackie the Joke Man Marling
and I've had the exquisite pleasure
of once again being on Gilbert Gottfried's amazing Colossal Podcast with the wonderful Gilbert Gottfried,
and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast
with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.
And we're, for the time being, believe it or not.
I think maybe the last time.
It could be the last time, or maybe we'll be in a section of the street where it used to be,
but nutmeg, with our engineer Frank Bertarosa, if he hasn't hung himself yet.
if he hasn't hung himself yet.
Our guest this week is a producer, director,
and one of the most versatile and admired film and television actresses of the last five decades,
and one of Frank and my favorite actresses to boot.
You've seen her in popular TV shows such as Will and Grace, Malcolm in the Middle, Grey's
Anatomy, The L Word, Private Practice, Girls, and Ray Donovan, and the TV movie The Executioner
Song, for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited
Series. You also know her for her work from dozens of notable feature films, including
Desperately Seeking Susan, Baby It's You, 8 Million Ways to Die, Silverado, After Hours, New York Stories, The Big Blue, Crash, The Whole Nine Yards, and Pulp Fiction.
She's also directed two well-received documentaries, Searching for Deborah Winger, and the music documentary All We Are
Saying, which features a who's who of her musical heroes, including Elton John, Joni Mitchell,
Stevie Nicks, Elvis Costello, and Annie Lennox. In a long and very successful career that started when she
was still a teenager, she worked with icons like Betty Davis, Jane Fonda, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Martin Scorsese, and David Bowie, as well as former podcast guests like Steve Buscemi,
Buck Henry, Ileana Douglas, and demonstrated with Martin Luther King,
and saw Bob Dylan go electric.
An artist of many talents and a self-described hippie and flower child,
the fabulous Rosanna Arquette.
Wow, that was really nice.
Hi.
Hi, thank you so much.
Hi, hi, hi.
Thank you so much.
I feel very honored to be here
and just found myself getting very emotional
when you're reading my resume.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's very nice of you to do that
it could also be used as an
obituary
by the way I was sitting here and thinking
like yeah is this
is this it could be
I'm not dead
yet the last time I looked
I'm still here you know
we're all still here is the way
it's going right now let's just
try to be grateful for
breathing and being here right yeah it's nutty even though nutmeg is on life support yeah the
first question and most important one for me and then i might leave afterwards are you jewish yes
my mother was a jew which would make me a Jew, but my father was Christian, and then they both became Muslims for a while.
And so we grew up with all religions.
I find myself, I feel very connected to God in all forms, whatever, male, female.
The energy of love to me is God.
in all forms, whatever, male, female, the energy of love to me is God. And, but I'm married to right now to a Jewish man and he really, you know, loves, loves
Judaism.
And so it's kind of brought me into it a lot more, but I don't really consider myself really
religious.
lot more but i don't really consider myself really religious i i just do believe in a higher energy and uh he'd probably be mad at me but that's just no because gilbert's highly religious
are you gilbert yeah he is no i do you celebrate the holidays rabbi schmooly
do you celebrate do you celebrate the high holidays and all that? I eat ham.
You're a bad Jew.
I'm a horrible Jew.
Yes.
I don't know when the holidays are.
I don't fast.
But, you know, just I know I'm a Jew.
Yeah.
I mean, according to the Jewish religion, you know, you are if your mother is.
My mother was, and she was raised Orthodox.
But you were born right here in the city?
I was born in Mount Sinai Hospital.
Mount Sinai.
Yeah.
Far from here.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I was born. You're a New Yorker like us.
I'm a New Yorker.
I am.
You know, it was interesting, this trip.
It's really, it has changed a lot.
Sure.
And it's.
Oh, my God.
And it really feels.
I just said, oh, my God.
I'm alarmed.
I say, oh, my God, a lot.
I have to.
I do.
But when I say it, people take a puff on their crack.
No, our listeners have started a drinking game based on things we say over and over again.
Really?
And Gilbert says, oh, my God, a lot.
I say, oh, my God, a lot.
So start drinking, guys.
Oh, there's going to be overdoses happening now.
I think they do that.
They also do that on Andy Cohen.
Yeah.
He said the secret word.
They had it.
Oh, what?
Oh, David Caruso went on that show where he's the detective.
Oh, yes.
Whenever he'd play with his sunglasses, take them off or put them back on, people would take a slug.
Where's our drink?
Very strange.
Everything's been stripped from here.
No, exactly.
No booze.
No booze, that's okay.
Yeah.
But your dad, before your dad converted,
we should also point out your dad,
obviously people know about your famous family,
and your dad was Louis Arquette.
My dad was Louis.
Did you know him?
I knew him from the Waltons.
You know, it was so funny because, yes,
but he also was Christopher, you know, gas. Yes, he was a Second City guy.
He was a Second City guy, the committee in San Francisco, and then he's also was one of Chris Guest's guys.
Yeah, he's in Guffman.
He's in Guffman, and he's also, I just was.
Oh, he's in Best in Show.
I just watched Best in Show on the plane coming because I just needed a laugh.
That's great.
And I love Parker Posey, and I love everybody in that movie.
It makes me laugh in that movie.
And I forgot my dad was just in the beginning of it.
He wasn't feeling well then.
He was sick.
But it was great.
He was like, oh, yeah, he was there.
He's in a million things.
He's one of those faces.
He was on Lou Grant.
He was on Barney Miller.
He's one of those faces you recognize from 60s and 70s TV.
And he had that voice.
He had a great voice.
Yes, yes.
And as a kid, I grew up watching Hollywood Squares.
So that was my grandfather.
Yeah.
Yes.
Did you watch that show?
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, sure.
Cliff Arquette.
Cliff Arquette.
Charlie Weaver.
He was known as Charlie Weaver.
I got the letter today from Mama.
He was also a fantastic painter.
And David now is taking up painting.
But he's an incredible artist.
All the kids are really the best painters.
Alexis Arquette, who we lost September 11th two years ago, was an incredible painter.
So I'm not.
I'm the finger painter.
I'm not a painter at all.
But the rest of the kids got that great.
Talented family through and through.
And Cliff Arquette's parents were in vaudeville?
Yeah.
Yes.
Gus Arquette.
And Gus was his father.
And they did vaudeville.
And, yeah, I think Gus died of syphilis.
Ouch.
Which is kind of a bummer.
And now David has named his little baby named Gus, Gus Arquette.
But the family, the showbiz roots go back generations.
It's in our blood.
Yeah.
I assume you didn't know your great-grandfather.
I did not.
But you knew Cliff.
You knew Charlie Weaver.
I did.
I did.
I loved him.
He was wonderful.
But he died when I was 15.
Okay.
So he died quite a while ago.
And we spent a lot of time with him.
He was funny.
That dark sense of humor that my father has, and I think all the
Arquettes have, is part of our
blood.
He was a Civil War buff. I read somewhere,
I was doing some reading on him, he believed
he was reincarnated.
A Confederate soldier, which I
was a little bummed out about.
Especially now, I was like,
what?
You know how Patton had that?
You know, Patton?
Yeah.
General Patton, yeah.
General Patton had deja vu and felt like he was.
Right.
Had been in this battlefield in other lifetimes.
He had that also.
So he had a museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which also apparently my sister Patricia was conceived on the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which also, apparently, my sister Patricia was conceived on
the battlefield
of Gettysburg.
Interesting.
Too much
information. But, you know, that's
their category. No, it's not.
She came into that. She even talks
about it. She does? Yeah, I think she said
the fact that the
ghosts of all these, you know, the fact that the ghosts of all these you
know the battlefield is where they were that my parents uh conceived her and one one thing i have
to get out of the way is i remember years ago watching the executioner song on tv and and of
course there's a nude scene in it.
And I remember the first thing I thought is,
if I ever meet her, I have to say thank you.
Oh my gosh, Gilbert.
Yeah, you know, I did definitely.
It's interesting now.
I wonder, you know, it was part of the movie,
and there was quite a lot of it.
And then it was the feature version of that
because it was a four-hour miniseries at one point,
and then we did a feature version,
and so that part was the European version had nudity.
But you never felt comfortable with that, I heard.
I felt, you know, it's a very weird thing to do, you know,
and you have to show your body.
And I think I just felt self-conscious.
When I'm working, I don't, but I know that before I felt really uptight.
Yeah, it's a weird thing to do.
And I think you said in an interview that one thing going through your mind is do you have cellulite?
It's always going through my mind.
Right before I came here.
Gilbert's a little envious because he's done about 50 films and he's never been asked to do a nude scene.
Yes.
Well,
I've got a strong
nudity.
You have a nudity.
You can always get
a body double, Gilbert.
And that's what
we request now.
That is a challenging
film to watch,
The Executioner's Song.
I watch it again.
I've seen it many times.
I watch it again
this weekend.
And why was it challenging?
Because it's intense.
It is.
It's very dark. It's very dark.
It's very intense.
And obviously your character,
is that the only time
you played a real person, Nicole?
No.
I did another,
I did a television movie years ago
about the Christian family
with Judge Reinhold.
Okay.
And we played Christian,
a family that believed that christ um had cured their son
of diabetes so they withhold insulin and he dies and they believe that he's going to rise like
lazarus and it was definitely um not true it didn't happen and and do you feel an extra pressure if it's a real person you're playing?
I had the honor of meeting and hanging out with the real Nicole.
So I went up to Oregon where she lived at the time, and she was pregnant.
She remarried, became very religious and Christian, and we hung out for a week.
So I got to pick her brain and ask her everything about Gary.
And she gave me a journal that nobody had,
a journal that Gary had kept,
and it was his journal that she gave me while we were making the movie so I could just go and see his writings.
I don't even think Larry Schiller saw it or Norman Mailer had seen it because when I had on the set they were what is this and this is Gary's journal that she
trusted me you know I gave it back to her but one of the things that said I
know they're gonna be making a movie about us like he'd sold the rights before he died to Larry interesting and
he said I wonder who will play us you know I will lift the veil he said
something like I'm going to lift the veil and see who's will play us and I
remembered you know reading it and just feeling like this okay I hope I'm doing
a good job but at one point which was really creepy when
we were shooting and the the courtroom scene and the jury said that he was guilty gary gill
the lights actually fell on top of the the people who were playing the jury while we were
wow making this like something yeah like a thing a mishap. Yeah, like a mishap happened and things collapsed.
I don't know if people got injured, but it was scary.
Strange.
This scene where he pulls the knife on you is, I mean, there are many scenes in there
that are hard to watch.
And you're a young actress, so it had to be a fairly intense situation to be thrown in.
Although you'd done, you know.
Well, I think that was my real... The first really significant
sink your teeth into.
I was 21.
Mm-hmm.
And you auditioned
when you were very young
for a part of someone
who has asthma.
So that was a movie...
Oh, gosh.
...that's called
The Dark Secret of Harvest Home
with Betty Davis
and it was Sean Penn's father
Leo Penn who directed that film
so when I went in there
you know I always looked
a lot younger than I was so when I was
18 I went in there I think I was 18 years old
I looked 13, 14
I looked really young and so they asked me
if I could do
do you know about asthma and I just like did this asthma attack on the floor, and I got the role.
That movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.
It was creepy, right?
It's an intense movie.
It was.
What was Betty Davis like to work with?
She was fantastic to me.
A lot of people had a hard time.
A lot of people, you know, she was tough.
She knew her stuff, but she, I have told this before.
I don't know where it is, but anyway, probably not for a really long time,
but there was a party for her to welcome Ms. Davis, and I got a phone call.
Ms. Davis will be downstairs at 630 for cocktails and would like to meet everybody.
So I was invited.
So I got it very late, the message.
And it was really strange because it came from like this really mean wardrobe guy who nobody told me about it.
And so I jumped in the shower.
It was hot in Ohio.
And I jumped in the shower and threw on a pair of jeans and T-shirt.
And I went down.
I just was barefoot in the hotel.
And I went down.
And I walked in.
And people were like, you know, like it was so disrespectful to her and she just embraced me and that was it
for that moment and then we were pals and I saw her I saw her in later years you know after we
were done we were I would go visit her in her apartment you know she gave you life advice or
career big life advice which was don't get married don't think you life advice or career? Big life advice, which was don't get married.
Don't think you can have a career and be married.
You can't have a relationship and a career.
She kind of instilled that in me, and so did the movie The Red Shoes,
which is my favorite film, which is, you know, can you have –
and I explore those themes in the documentary Searching for Deborah Winger,
which is can you have both?
Why can't you have both?
themes in the documentary searching for deborah winger which is can you have both why can't you have both and and um but she in her life didn't think it was possible and did did anyone since
you're from such a long showbiz background did anyone ever try to uh dissuade you from going into show business?
Not really.
I mean, my father was an actor.
We grew up around it.
We were around musicians and actors,
and it was part of our life.
But, you know, my mom said, you know, it's a hard... My father said, you know, this is a tough business, tough business.
But I, for some reason, on my 18th birthday,
I did a movie called Having Babies Part II,
which got me in the SAG, into the Screen Actors Guild.
And it was shot in Malibu.
And I got my card.
And it was my 18th birthday.
And I really didn't stop working for many, many, many years.
Two of our favorite actors, by the way, I'll go back, just for a second, to go back to Harvest House.
Rene Aubergineois
oh yes
he's a wonderful actor
we love him
and Norman Lloyd
who is still with us
101 or 2
I think he's 103
is he really
102
at this point
yes
he was scary in that movie
he was great
yes
yes yes yes
and then
whatever happened to the actor
who played my dad
Aykroyd
yeah
David Aykroyd
David Aykroyd I don't know Aykroyd. I don't know.
Was Joanna Miles? Joanna Miles.
She was in there. Yeah. And I remember
Laurie Prang, an actress named
Laurie Prang. And a young Michael O'Keefe.
And Michael O'Keefe. Yeah.
I think it was his first job. It's spooky.
Back when they used to make those
kind of TV movies.
It was a four hour miniseries and so was
Executioner's Song.
Really well done.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Intense parts for you
as a young actress.
I remember though
this one time
where I had to cry.
Oh,
it was so funny.
Actually,
there was this,
that weird scene
where she's kind of
doing a dance
and I remember,
you know,
it was like with a corn cob. course like i'm 18 years old and not really getting that what it was supposed to what was
really supposed to be was a sexual masturbating dance and i'm like taking the corn like it's like
a little baby finally like the you know that i think the director went over
and told one of the women to come over
to me which was kind of a cool nice thing to do
and say you know it's more sensual
it's more
and I didn't
because it wasn't actually written in the script like that
it was supposed to be a sexual dance
but I didn't really know what
the corn
I didn't have it in my head at that point where, oh yeah, the corn
cob is a phallic symbol and that's what that's supposed to be.
So I don't know.
I haven't seen that movie in years.
Did Betty Davis sit you in her lap at one point?
She sat me on her lap and she, when something went wrong with the camera and it was hot
and she goes, this is hell.
And, uh, but I loved her she was great and she let me hang out she let me hang out all the time in her trailer because she had the big winnebago and i you know
my first little dressing room which i was so excited about which was the teeniest little
cubbyhole you know but i just thought it was so cool to have my own little dressing room. Now, did your parents or grandparents or anyone like or even older people you worked with ever give you like important advice on showbiz or on acting?
You know, it's funny because I think my dad, as much as he was, he was pretty cynical about it and I think there was a little bitterness too um sometimes that I felt like
it's interesting I felt like I didn't I didn't really I didn't feel like that supported in it
um and when I started getting successful it it almost felt like are you competitive with me I
had to go to a lot of therapy about it I I have to tell you. Did you almost feel guilty about it?
I don't know.
I mean that I...
Yeah, because there was...
There was like a little weird jealousy thing that was happening.
And I don't understand that because I always am really supportive.
I don't have that in me.
Like I don't feel jealous of other actresses or other people.
I always feel supportive of them. Oh, yeah, they're really like... I don't have that in me. I don't feel jealous of other actresses or other people. I always feel supportive of them.
Oh, yeah, they're really like, I love other actresses.
I love when they do great work.
It always inspires me.
But they didn't, my dad in particular didn't.
Then my mother wrote me, I did a movie with Jim,
not Jim, I wish Jim Sheridan.
I did a movie, oh, my God, with John Lithgow and Kevin McCarthy.
What is it called?
Oh, gosh.
And it's really good.
I know the one you mean.
You know who I'm talking about.
Is it The Wrong Man?
Yes.
Yeah.
It was The Wrong Man.
And my mother really loved that performance.
Kevin Anderson.
Kevin Anderson.
Right.
Kevin Anderson. From Or. Right. Kevin Anderson.
From Orphans.
Yes, yes, yes.
And we shot it in Mexico
and it was really,
it's actually a really good movie
and really well written
and kind of like Tennessee Williams.
My mother wrote me
this very beautiful fan letter.
Oh, nice.
She goes, this is a fan letter.
And then I would run into people who were friends with my dads,
and he would always tell me how proud he was of me,
but he kind of didn't say that to me.
Interesting.
It's not the first time we've heard of performers who had some envy of their children.
Jack Cassidy and David Cassidy had a very strained relationship.
I remember, gosh, because I, because I did the Shirley show.
That's right.
You were Shirley Jones' daughter.
One of my first jobs at NBC,
and in fact, I got a deal at NBC.
I paid quite a lot of money for a kid in those days.
Was that called Shirley?
It was called Shirley,
and I played her daughter.
Right.
But I think,
let's look up when he died,
but I think he actually may have died in that time.
Early 70s.
Yeah, he died in that fire in West Hollywood.
He did.
He died in a fire in West Hollywood drunk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a sad tale.
And then David died.
David Cassidy died.
Yeah, I know.
What happened?
Sad.
Sad life.
I know.
Too much drink.
That's out.
Well.
For one thing. It's hereditary.
Yeah.
It's a disease.
I was talked into doing one of those.
I don't know.
It's not fun.
Someone said, oh, you should go and do those autograph signing conventions.
Oh, Gilbert's done them.
Oh, yeah.
You mean like the nostalgia shows?
They can be scary and suicidal.
Well, that was what it was for me.
And I really, I think it was like somewhere in a hotel in the valley.
And there I was.
And there was David Cassidy next to me.
So we were in the booth next to each other and some of the Brady Bunch.
And then Fonzie was there.
You know, he was there, which was good have you seen his
new show that new show that he's on um oh there where he's an acting yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
I like that show yeah he's a good guy we had him on this yeah he's he's a sweetheart he's a mensch
so we we were and he kind of saw my face and he walked me through it. But there was David Cassidy, and I just remember feeling so mortified.
I mean, you want to say hi to your fans, and that's very nice,
but it made me want to shoot a documentary of this.
I don't know if a documentary has been made on that subject.
That might be.
It's very scary.
It is.
Because the people who attend, some of them look like they're homeless.
And then.
They're real fans.
They're fans that sit and have everything you've ever done.
In this case, a lot of people were bringing a lot of VHSs and signing those.
I think this was about 10 years ago that I did this, and I swore I would never do it.
People have approached me recently, like, will you do that?
I was like, I never want to do that again.
But then I have girlfriends who do it, and they have a blast, and they really do well.
I think it depends on the attitude you take and the approach you take.
I just went to one, the Chiller Fest in New Jersey.
Yeah.
And Tim Matheson was there and Peter Riegert, and they were having a blast.
So that was, yeah.
Karen Allen.
Oh, Karen.
Wow.
I just worked with Tim.
We were in a movie together called The Etruscan Smile that Brian Cox and I are in.
Ralph Macchio does great at autograph signing.
Well, I tell you, Richard Dreyfuss had a line out the door that lasted all day at the one that I attended at the Chiller Fest in New Jersey.
Because of the close encounters.
And Jaws.
Oh, Jaws.
And just, you you know and the goodbye
girl and everything of course of course i think it just depends i think some people are happy to
meet their fans yeah i think this this these fans were remembered maybe you know it's really that
happy to me i'm sorry i had a bad experience doing it some of these people like i said they look like
they're homeless they're all disheveled. You're talking about some of our podcast fans.
Yes, yes, I know.
But the funny thing is, is they'll go up to a table and like whoever's at the table might tell them,
okay, that photo and picture, that's $200 and they'll take out a wad of bills.
That they've been saving up for years
or like the whole year
to come and do this.
And then, no, I actually, you know,
I did sign a lot.
And I said, it wasn't around the block,
but I did sign.
And people were, you know,
you definitely are grateful
for the movie going audience
that is willing to still like you. I think that's cool. I hope they'll tune into this TV show I'm grateful for the movie-going audience that is willing to still like you.
I think that's cool.
I hope they'll tune into this TV show I'm just doing.
Tell us about it.
We'll do it again, and we'll plug it again at the end.
But tell us about the show since you brought it up.
It's called Sideswiped, and it's created by Carly Craig,
and it's really about the dating app world, and it's very funny.
She's funny, Carly Craig.
She worked with the Farrelly brothers.
Yes, exactly.
Yes, I know her work.
She was in Hall Pass. I'm playing her mom. Right. Okay, she's funny, Carly Craig. She worked with the Farrelly brothers. Yes, I know her work. Yes. She was in Hall Pass.
I'm playing her mom.
Right.
Okay, she's funny.
Yeah, she is.
And she created this whole show.
And she wakes up 35 and what am I doing with my life?
And she doesn't have a child.
I am her mom who had her at 18 and never got to experience life and dating or anything
and just raised my kids and my husband dies and I move in with her.
And it's very well done and it's funny and it was really fun to do comedy
because I love doing comedy.
It's in your blood.
Yeah, and I haven't done it in a while.
I've been playing a lot of wild characters recently.
I just did a movie with them, Hopper Penn called Puppy Love.
He's amazing.
And that's Sean and Robin's gorgeous, talented son.
And we started to talk about,
and it's funny because I remember New York back then
and my sister was a photographer
and she loved, you know,
documentary.
We'll have to share Gilbert's sister,
Arlene's work with you.
I think you'd appreciate it.
I would love to see it.
Yeah, she shot the East Village
and a lot of New York characters,
New York faces.
Old stuff in the village,
like bombed out buildings.
How old is she?
What?
How old is she?
Well, she died recently. She was
66.
But yeah, that was what
she was
fascinated by old
New York. She loved
She captured it.
This is really wonderful that you have this
you put together a beautiful book
or something.
And her name's Arlene Gottfried.
Arlene Gottfried.
But because that doesn't exist anymore and she's captured it.
So it might be really wonderful.
I know I'd buy that book.
We'll show you.
A lot of people would.
After we finish recording, we'll show you some of the photographs.
They're very impressive.
Yeah.
It was that kind of thing she was fascinated by but never looked down on.
She was very poor, very kind of scary, but never looked down on.
She loved New York characters and New York faces.
Yes.
So it sounds like she had a little Deanna Arbus about her.
A little bit.
Yeah, absolutely.
Very much so.
Yeah, very much so.
That's a good comparison.
So one of those records of old New York, besides her pictures, was Desperately Seeking Susan.
Well, that's your old neighborhood too, isn't it?
Did she shoot some?
Was she on the set of that?
No, no.
I'm just saying that's another record.
Oh, yes.
It is. It's a New York that? No, no. I'm just saying that's another record. Oh, yes. It is.
It's a New York
that doesn't exist anymore.
We were talking about
Danceteria before you came in here.
Danceteria, Lower East Side,
even what goes around,
comes around,
the store,
I mean, all those.
Is that what it was called?
No, no.
What was it called?
I forget.
Maybe I'm wrong about it.
It's like in movies
we have a record.
I forgot the name
of the store that's terrible.
It's so long ago, guys.
Like any, well, Scorsese is a big New York director and also, of course, Sidney Lumet.
Yes.
But so, that was.
And I did two films with Marty Scorsese.
I did After Hours.
Yes.
And then.
Life Lessons.
And Life Lessons, New York Stories, which both captured New York.
And those places and some of those places are gone.
New York Stories really, I mean, After Hours really at night.
Yeah.
It's super old school New York.
Well, we love films about New York, especially where there are time capsules, where those places are gone.
If you watch a movie like The Take of a Pelham 1-2-3 or
Serpico, and you can really
see any of those Lumet pictures too.
Really see old New York. I grew up
in Brooklyn, so
like whenever
Bye Bye Braverman comes on,
that was a Sidney Lumet movie with
George Segal.
George Segal,
Joseph Wiseman
Jack Warden
Sorrel Book
Yeah you worked with Jack Warden
Oh tell us about working with Jack
I got a chance to work with him
Isn't he wonderful
He was such a wonderful sweet man
But we were in Yugoslavia
Making this film
That was supposed to take place
I think in the Rocky Mountains
With Christopher Reeve
oh the aviator
yeah the aviator
that was
that was the
the movie that
Siskel and Ebert
brought the skunk out for
and you know
it's so funny
I think I was just
Andy Cohen
just showed
showed a clip of it
the other night
it's like
oh my
there I was
with you know
red lipstick on
it was just so
ridiculous and I you know you didn't there I was with red lipstick on. It was just so ridiculous.
And you didn't, in those days,
I mean, the makeup artists,
how they wanted me to look,
and it was 20s, but silly.
Well, you've never been a fan of critics.
I found that in my research.
Oh, oh.
You don't...
I don't read them anymore.
You don't read them anymore.
Well, after Rosanna Arquette is...
What was it? This is a good one,
a capital A actress,
runs the gamut of emotion
from A to A,
and never was a trip so long.
Who wrote that? David Denby.
Oh, David Denby, the New Yorker?
Yeah, he was pretty mean.
And I
don't even know what that was for, but it wasn't a nice one.
Oh, it was for Nobody's Fool with Eric Roberts.
Oh, you're good in that picture.
The hell with him.
Anyway, it's so funny because years later, I think he, I don't know if he still does,
but he runs the Los Angeles Film Festival.
I think it was downtown LA, and and I met him and I told him,
I said,
you got me off reading
even good reviews.
I don't like to read them.
I like to know,
okay,
what's the temperature on it,
but it's too,
it's so.
Well,
don't they say
if you believe,
it's also subjective
that if you believe
the good ones,
you have to believe
the bad ones too.
but I never,
I would never believe
either one,
so.
I,
a critic once said, reviewing something that I was in, he said,
Gilbert Gottfried is the most unpleasant thing to happen to show business since the snuff film.
That's the meanest.
That's the meanest.
Who wrote that?
Who wrote that?
Do you know who wrote that?
I can't.
And he still reads them.
That's terrible.
That's so mean.
I love it.
Success is the best revenge.
Did that make you laugh like that when you read it,
or did you really get your feelings hurt?
Because it's hard not to get your feelings hurt.
How could you not?
It's painful.
It's painful because, you know, this is our work.
This is our art.
We're putting ourselves out there,
and you really are, you know, telling the truth.
That's what we're supposed to be doing up there.
And so when someone basically is telling you what you've done is awful, it's hurtful.
We'll jump to After Hours and New York Stories and a bunch of other things, too.
But just before we get off your childhood, I just want to, since we put it in the intro,
you did meet Martin Luther King, and that's noteworthy did meet martin luther king i was so
you know my mother my parents were both incredible activists but my mother at the time when we were
living in chicago and i think patricia was born there so she was a bay she was just being born or just had been born because he died in 68.
68, yeah, April.
But before then, it must have been 67.
It was anti-Vietnam War love and peace march.
And my mother was one of the organizers in Chicago, and he came.
And so it was funny. she was kind of panicked
because it wasn't really security for him and we were in the back of a truck with him so I was in
the back of a truck and I've told this story before but my mother had painted stop the war
kill no more on my bare chest and Martin looked over at my mom and put a shirt on that girl. Great story.
So, you know, so I'm trying to keep my shirt on ever since.
It's a great story.
Dr. King.
But then my mom, I think I was watching The Flying Nun or something like that,
and I remembered it was a huge story in my life.
It came on the news that he had been assassinated
and she just fell to the floor and was pounding like those mother fuckers,
just like just pounding the floor, sobbing.
They killed him.
They killed him.
It was terrible.
And it impacted me in a huge way just remembering that.
and it impacted me in a huge way.
I'm just remembering that.
But so, you know, where is he?
Are we really going this far backwards where it's happening in the world right now?
I've never, we have not,
the racism every day
that we're hearing these horrible stories.
What is going on?
No.
Tough times.
At least your mother, you know,
instilled that activism in you.
In all of us, in all of us.
In all of the children.
Yeah.
I should say.
I couldn't.
I wake up every day like everybody.
I think we're in a collective depression.
And hopefully that's, hopefully.
You know what's inspiring to me and it was like the movement in the 60s
with the Vietnam
anti-Vietnam
war movement
are these students
the Parkland students
and the young kids
and they're
they give me hope
every day
and I realize
you know
you just have to keep
I retweet them
what they're saying
so powerful
and so important
people should follow you on Twitter.
I love them so much.
Speaking of the 60s, you were at Woodstock too, although you don't remember much of it.
My parents were there.
I went with people, friends of my parents, but played in the mud and Country Joe and the Fish.
Wish I could say I remember Jimmy, but it would be a lie.
Well, you got to wear the Jimi Hendrix jacket.
Yes, I did.
And desperately seeking Susan.
And your whole childhood was like a hippie and living on a commune.
It was really artists, you know, an artist commune of people in the Blue Ridge Mountains over the Shenandoah River,
and it was a summer camp turned into a bunch of artists coming together
to have this land together and try to form utopia,
which was really hard to do in the South.
I think Ileana lived on a commune too.
I didn't know that.
I think she lived in a similar situation.
It's in her book. Ask her about it when you see her. I haven't read on a commune too. I didn't know that. I think she lived in a similar situation. It's in her book.
I didn't read her book yet.
Yeah.
That's cool.
I'd like to read that.
I didn't even know she had a book.
Did it come out?
When did it come out?
It was called, I blame Dennis Hopper.
Oh, oh, oh.
Yeah.
I believe she lived in a similar circumstance.
Well, we were in the South though.
Right.
And it was not where, you know,
there was a three-room schoolhouse
in the town that I went to school,
in the middle school,
where they taught
that the South had won the Civil War.
And it was very racist.
African-American kids
in the back of the bus,
which I immediately went to and sat and then was, you know, beat up for that.
You said, I'm going to get the hell out of here.
And what, you hitchhiked to California.
I went to New Jersey for a while and lived with a family
and went to South Orange Junior High School for a while
and lived with friends of my parents.
And then my parents went to Chicago and I went there for a little while.
And then from Chicago, I hitchhiked across the United States at 15 years old, which is insane.
It's so insane.
Oh, gosh.
It was like a little, and I was wearing my little tube top.
I mean, not by myself, by the way.
I had my 16-year-old boyfriend and my godbrother.
So it was like four of us.
We're lucky to be alive, especially nowadays.
You went to San Francisco first?
Went to San Francisco.
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Live from Nutmeg Post, we now return to Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
We were having a little talk before we went on the air,
and I'll just give you the two words, and you fill in the rest.
Okay.
Breast milk.
Breast milk?
Oh, yes.
Oh, the crash story.
Breast.
This is having to do with the movie. See, we do jump all over the place.
Yes, we do.
We're going up.
Well, it's great for me because I'm so ADD.
So is the show. You guys are kidding. Well, it's great for me because I'm so ADD. So is this show.
You guys are –
Well, it's the perfect location for you.
Right, exactly.
And I have pretty bad – like, is it bad?
But ADHD.
But most artists, creative people that I know have it.
But I really do.
So I'll jump all over and you guys are keeping up and I'm keeping up with you.
Are we all ADD here?
Yes.
Is that what's going on?
Fair to say.
Okay, great.
I did this film, Crash, with David Cronenberg, and I was also shooting at the same time a movie called...
Oh, Gone Fishing.
Yes.
Yes, with Pesci.
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you for filling in the blanks, because I can't remember anything anymore.
But yes, down in Florida, So I came up, flew up.
Two very different movie days.
My baby was about to be one, a year old baby.
And I had very large milk-filled breasts that were, I was breastfeeding her.
And so I just met, I had come on the set in makeup,
and I met in the trailer James Spader in the makeup trailer that's how I
met him and so we go right into the scene where we're having sex in the back of the car with my
you know crazy open weird vagina looking wound in the back of my leg it's a very very it was a very
for our listeners that don't know crash it's a movie about people who are turned on by car crashes.
Yeah.
So it's Holly Hunter and Alice Gatteas.
Good cast.
Great cast.
Cool cast.
And Deborah Unger.
Yeah.
Not an easy movie to watch.
Yeah.
To the point where it – tell it to Coppola at the Cannes Film Festival,
who hated it.
He hated it. Oh, that's good gossip.
He hated that movie.
And I think he was on the jury.
He was the president.
I think he was the president,
but Bertolucci loved it.
So they had this.
That makes sense.
That was very funny.
But what happened was I was in the back of the car,
and I could see Cronenberg and James whispering to each other and having this intense,
and I was going, what is going on?
And David comes over and he goes, we're wondering if you're going to lactate.
And I was like, and I don't know what came over me,
but I kind of just
grabbed my boob
and milk just
and it was like on film
and um
which was nutty
it was pretty nutty
I know this is crazy
this story isn't it
and um
and then
uh
David sent me that footage
and then I said to him I said David you cut the most significant thing I've ever done on film.
That is funny.
He cut it because it was too weird.
Yeah.
It was definitely too weird.
Even too weird for that film.
David Cronenberg.
Yeah.
And you said, I think, with that film that there were parts that were making you laugh just because it was such a disturbing.
It was so strange to do.
But it was also freezing.
And I loved Holly Hunter, who's also in my documentary.
Yes.
We got to know each other.
And then she was so kind and said, you know, come in and do it.
Do the interview for me.
Because I like doing this too, interviewing people.
It's more interesting, isn't it?
I love an interview.
Oh, yeah.
Like, you have to tell me all about you.
You should get a podcast.
I was watching some of
your Coachella interviews.
You're very good at it. Oh, thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, I have...
And the docs too,
which we'll plug. How did you get the Coachella interviews?
How did you get those Coachella interviews?
I just saw a clip online. Really?
Yeah. That's pretty cool.
But the documentaries, which, I mean, there are clips of the documentaries. There's pretty cool. But the documentaries,
which, I mean,
there are clips
of the documentaries.
There's Diane Lane
and Jane Fonda,
but they're hard to find.
I don't understand.
Searching for Deborah Winger
is hard to find?
Well, you can get it on,
you can get a DVD of it.
That's such a,
you know,
I wish Showtime
would at least,
because Showtime
did both,
both of my documentaries. The other one I haven't seen, the music one. It's called All You're Saying. I have to, give me, because Showtime did both of my documentaries.
The other one I haven't seen, the music one I'm dying to see.
It's called All You're Saying.
Give me your address and I'll send you a copy, a DVD.
I have a DVD of it.
But that also played at the Canfield Festival, and people really liked it.
And what got you to do Searching for Deborah Winger? I think it was just turning 40 and seeing, you know, who knows.
I mean, getting a lot of information nowadays
that maybe something else took place,
but I thought, like, I wasn't working as much.
I didn't know what was happening.
I didn't know if it was really age, but it just got very strange.
And so I just thought I would explore talking to other women about
balancing life and work and relationship motherhood it was a and that's what i did i
talked to some of the greatest actresses ever diane lane who was still a friend of mine and
probably one of my favorite actresses i think she's just amazing in anything she does.
She, her and I were up against each other.
I met her for the first time in Executioner's Song
in the waiting room.
Oh, she auditioned for the part.
She auditioned the part,
and I had seen so many times a little romance.
I love that one with Olivier.
She's so incredible in that movie.
She was 14.
Yeah.
She is so incredible in that movie.
If you sit and watch her right now, it's like, who is this?
And when I saw her, I said, I loved that movie so much.
George Roy Hill.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a sweet little film.
It really is.
But everybody's in the documentary.
So, I mean, Laura Dern's in it.
Your friend Whoop everybody's in the documentary. So, I mean, Laura Dern's in it, your friend Whoopi's
in it.
Alfre Woodard.
Meg Ryan,
Alfre Woodard,
Diane Lane,
you mentioned.
Sharon Stone.
Yeah, people need
to see it.
We need to work
with you to get
some distribution
on that,
the different
distribution on
that thing.
Because Showtime
put it out.
I wish they would
redo it or at least
would they let
Netflix have it
or somebody put it
out there.
Yeah, because I
searched Netflix
and I searched
Apple TV. My wife and I went on a wild quest's terrible. I don't know why. I searched Apple TV.
My wife and I went on a wild quest for it.
I wonder why they just.
I even wrote to Danny and I said, where is this movie?
Very interesting.
Well, maybe it was just shut down from somebody.
There's a lot of.
Well, no, I mean, it's more relevant than ever.
I know.
It really is.
And also with all the talk about equal pay, with the talk about women, actresses getting...
We're talking sexual harassment.
Right.
And it's 2002, so it's ahead of its time.
Patricia talked about it, and we talked about that a lot in Searching for Deborah.
Yeah.
I wonder if...
I mean, Showtime owns it.
I wonder if they could just do something.
I hope I'm not misspeaking, but we had a terrible time trying to track it down.
That's terrible.
So hopefully someone who listens to the show who's within the sound of our voice will.
Well, you know who financed it, believe it or not?
Mark Cuban.
Oh, interesting.
It was the first thing he ever did, and he gave me the money to make it.
Interesting.
And tell us about the second one.
Obviously Elton John and Flea and Sheryl Crow and Chrissy Hine and Stevie Nicks.
And Tom York. And Tom Petty. Will.i.am. Bert Bach and Chrissy Hine and Stevie Nicks. And Tom York.
And Tom Petty.
Will.i.am.
Burt Bacharach, who Gilbert and I obsess about.
I know.
And so all the rockers.
And then I thought, I love Burt Bacharach.
He was a great songwriter.
I have to interview him, too, and put him in here.
Because he inspired a lot of people.
How could you not?
I'm dying to get my hands on this.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, it's a good one. Okay. Yeah. Will you make more docs? of people. How could you not? I'm dying to get my hands on this.
It's a good one.
Will you make more docs?
I would like to. I have a
movie I'd like to direct.
It's about basically
growing up in
the commune a little bit
in that time and then goes
to my mother's death.
Dying of cancer.
I like to do that.
I have a really good script that I just sent
to someone who loves it.
Well, who knows?
It would be nice to be able to direct that.
And I have such wonderful, wonderful actors, friends,
that I think I could put together a really great cast
and definitely a good soundtrack.
Yes, I would think so.
And getting back to a movie we've discussed a few times on this podcast,
and that's After Hours.
I love that movie and still love that movie.
I saw it recently.
Where did I see it?
Oh, I had to go to Poland for this Polish film festival,
and they showed it.
And I hadn't seen it in years.
It was so great on the big screen.
But, you know, Michael Bauhaus shot that.
He also shot
Baby, It's You.
Yes. I think that was his first American film.
Another favorite. Yeah.
Which is a John Sayles film that I did.
And
it was such a fun experience.
He was a Jewish princess in that one, Gilbert.
You would appreciate that.
Yes. I was. Jewish princess in that one, Gilbert. You would appreciate that. Yes.
I was.
I love that movie.
Yeah, I did too.
I did love that.
And Griffin Dunn produced that.
Oh, with Amy Robinson.
And they also produced Baby 2.
Yes, yeah.
But to talk about After Hours for a second and your knack for comedy, which is in the genes.
And I don't know about your great-grandfather.
We know he was a vaudevillian.
Yeah, he was a comedian, yes.
He was a comedian.
The Surrender Dorothy scene.
Yeah.
And I know you have a Wizard of Oz thing.
I do.
I love the Wizard of Oz.
I love that movie so much.
That scene and just you're so alluring in that scene,
but hilarious at the same time.
It's a crazy movie.
He, I could see, well, the thing about Martin Scorsese,
and I'm sure, you know, you've heard this many times
when people have worked with him.
I mean, I think he casts his movie the way he wants,
and then really gives you the freedom.
I mean, he rehearses.
You rehearse it like a play,
but then you have the freedom to do your thing and whatever that is.
And then it comes through.
Like that laughter that you are talking about in After Hours.
I just remember he planted that little seed.
He said, do you think she'd laugh here?
And I was just like.
And I didn't think she'd laugh.
But then the laughter really came like this weird laughter.
I watched it.
His parents are in the scene.
Yeah.
His parents are sitting,
Catherine and Charles are sitting in the corner at a table.
Dick Miller's in there because he's the proprietor.
And Charles is also in,
he's also in,
that's what he's taking Susan in the magic club. That's right. That's right. He is. Seeking Susan in the Magic Club.
That's right.
That's right, he is.
I know his mother was always popular.
Well, she's doing the off-camera voice in The King of Comics.
She's there.
Rupert, lower it.
And she was cooked and had yummy Italian food sometimes.
Oh, yeah.
And of course, Goodfellas, she stole the...
But was he behind the camera laughing when you were doing the Wizard of Oz stuff?
We don't want to give it away for people who haven't seen it.
Yeah, no, but he would...
I could see him, you know, shaking and laughing.
We did a whole episode about After Hours on this show.
Did you talk to Griffin?
No, it was just Gilbert and I, just riffing.
We'll get Griffin.
We'll see if he wants to come and talk to us.
He is the best stories of anybody,
and he will make you laugh for days.
We should have had him on already.
Oh, I wish we, that would have been so fun.
Because we met each other, actually, how we met was in Poland,
in a movie, a four-hour miniseries I did in Poland called The Wall.
The Wall, yeah.
With Eli Wallach.
With Eli Wallach.
Right.
Lisa Eichhorn.
Yes.
Do you remember her?
Sure.
Tom Conti.
Great actor.
Rachel Roberts.
All these people you've worked with.
And we were in Poland doing this movie in Katowice.
And that's where I met Griffin Dunn.
He played my brother.
And we became fast friends, lifelong friends.
And every time I see him, I just... He'd be perfect for this show Gilbert Griffin oh he's just about
American where was he has stories for days because of the way he was raised
he was grew up in Hollywood really grew up in here so he has like you know
character grant stories I mean he has great story yeah definitely get him see
there I just said wow yeah I say wow and oh my god all the time drink so thank
you and since we're talking about saying oh I say wow and oh my God all the time. Take a drink. So thank you.
And since we're talking about Scorsese.
Have I been saying oh my God a lot?
Scorsese.
I say it all the time.
I do.
Now, also, what was Eli Wallach like to work with?
So he was really great to me also.
But I, at that point, you know, was not classically trained.
I mean, I had taken an acting list, but, you know, he was
method actor, so I just remember
I think there was something where
I was like freaking out
or grabbed him and, you know,
I didn't, I really
was hurting him.
And he wanted,
so he talked to me, he wanted me to study.
He said, I want you to study.
And I did.
I worked with Sandra Seacat, who was Jessica Lange's and Mickey Rourke's teacher,
and his Laura Dern's teacher.
And she was my teacher for a long time.
And when I have something really significant, big to do, I definitely go back to her.
She was fantastic.
We hear stories from people that have come in here that Joe Pantoliano, I don't know if you ever worked with Joey Pants,
that Eli Wallach and Ann Jackson were very good to him early in his career.
They took him in.
Did they?
Yeah.
And I understand they were very nurturing of young actors, both of them.
He's in the Executioner's Song too, but you didn't have any scenes with him.
Yes, he is.
He's in the Executioner's Song too, and that was great.
He's great.
Christine Lottie is also great.
She has a book
out that's really
good.
I just read.
I went to her
book signing
and got her
book and it's
lovely.
She was a big
Broadway actress
at the time
and that was a
big deal for her.
She's actually
the second lead
in that movie.
You've worked
with everybody.
I've worked
with some really
great people.
Can I have a copy of that?
Of course.
It was very sweet.
I'll just have to print it out for my obituary.
We'll give it to you.
It's just my resume.
Since we're talking about Scorsese,
let's talk a little bit about New York Stories,
which, again, I watched.
And that's heartbreaking,
the scene where you ask him,
where you ask Nick Nolte's character
if you have any talent.
I know.
You know?
And she, you know,
you know that he doesn't think she does.
Yeah.
What is that?
And she knows he doesn't.
Paulette.
Paulette.
And you know that she most likely
will never recover from that.
And when she calls her mother on the phone.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a movie I've seen many times.
I improvised that.
You did?
Yeah.
That was one of the things that Marty was great about.
I was supposed to call her, and then I just kept going,
and I just let me do my thing.
It's the most successful.
I'd love to work with him again at this point in my life.
Scorsese?
Yeah.
I really would love to work with him again at this point in my life. Scorsese? Yeah. I really would love to work with him again.
Who knows?
We'll see.
You remember the trilogy, New York Stories?
Yeah.
And I remember-
The most successful, I think.
Talk about someone I would have loved to have had on the podcast.
Had she lived?
Mae Questel.
Oh, Mae Questel is in the Woody segment.
The woman who was the voice of Betty Boop.
That's right.
Yeah, she played the mother.
Oedipus Rex.
But I remember seeing that in the theater and not liking the Coppola segment at all,
but really being taken by life lessons.
Written by Richard Price.
Richard Price.
Who's also in the movie.
And our friend Steve Buscemi shows up in that one.
Yes, plays my boyfriend.
Right.
The boyfriend that she loved.
And more defunct New York locations.
Oh.
What's the performance art space that was on the subway tracks?
Yeah, I forgot the name of that place, but it was very famous.
Yeah.
I forget.
Not Arena.
No, no.
What was it?
I'll think of it.
I can't remember.
Yeah.
I think it was called The Tunnel.
It was The Tunnel.
The Tunnel.
You're right.
Hello.
Yeah.
And what's the cafe where he gets into the fight with Nick Nolte?
Oh, it's down in...
Is it the Odeon?
Yes.
Yeah.
Is that gone, too?
They're all gone.
Is the Odeon gone?
I don't know.
You know what amazes me?
Watch those things and see those.
It seems like I dreamed it, that New York used to be one of those places in Manhattan.
If you had no money, you could live in Manhattan.
And now you can't live in Manhattan without money.
Yeah, you couldn't sleep in a doorway for less than a few million.
It's so crazy now what's happened.
Yeah, it's not the same,
and it's really sad.
If you want to see,
I'll say to our listeners,
if you want to see old New York,
and just New York from the 80s,
desperately seeking Susan.
After hours.
After hours,
and New York stories.
Yeah.
And you get three glimpses of New York that's gone, mostly gone.
Yeah, right.
There was the loft that we shot on used to be where Tower Records was,
right across the street from Tower Records.
Oh, yeah.
Which is now, when I was there yesterday, and it was at one time Tower Records.
What was I doing there?
I don't know.
Do you remember? I don't know. I don't remember what it was at one time Tower Records. What was I doing there? I don't know. Do you remember?
I don't know.
I don't remember what it was.
We did all this press yesterday,
but I ended up being in the old Tower Record building.
Oh, it was Andy Cohen.
Oh, Bravo's studio.
Is that right?
I'm trying to figure.
I'm trying to think if that's the old Tower Records.
I don't know.
So many. Bleaker Bob's is still there, if that fills the Old Tower Records. I don't know. So many.
Bleeker Bob's is still there, if that fills you with any hope.
I know.
Well, I like a good bookstore and hit the Strand.
Colony Records is gone.
That's a heartbreaker.
The Strand is hanging on.
It's hanging on.
If the Strand ever leaves, I have to hang myself.
Me too.
Where the Strand is, that area used to be packed
with little bookstores,
like these junk bookstores.
Sure, sure.
Used bookstores.
All over the place.
It's so depressing.
We've also lost the book chains.
We lost the Brantanos.
Barnes & Noble.
Barnes & Noble and Borders.
Because people just order online.
I can't stand doing it like that.
I'm with you, Rosanna.
I don't like it.
I want to go in.
I want to pick.
So there's one great bookstore in West L.A. called Diesel, and it's still, you know.
What about the one that's near, that was across from the Scientology Center,
that old, that little strip of stores by the Spotted Pig or whatever the name of that place was.
Do you know the place I'm talking about?
Oh, here in New York?
No, in L.A.
Oh, in L.A.
They have a Spotted Pig in L.A.?
I don't even know.
But there was not the Spotted Pig.
I know.
Bourgeois Pig.
Pig.
Bourgeois Pig.
Bourgeois Pig.
And there was a bookstore.
They're still there.
It is there.
Okay.
And they have great books and records.
Oh, thank God.
I forgot what it's called, but they do have that.
And Book Soup's still there.
Book Soup is still there.
Okay.
Yeah. I remember I used to love Killing Time in bookstores.
Yes.
Of course.
And also Manhattan was packed with just plain junk stores.
You know, you didn't know what they were selling in particular, but it was all a mess of stuff.
And you could always find a little treasure.
Yeah.
I think it happened to L.A. too.
Oh, gosh.
Yes.
Awful.
What was the spiritual bookstore in West Hollywood?
Oh, Bodhi Tree.
Bodhi Tree gone?
Yes, but now they have a little version of it.
They have an online thing, and they do have a pop-up thing, I think, on La Brea apparently,
and I haven't hit it.
I wrote them.
I said, where are you?
I would love to see.
I used to live on Kings Road.
Oh, okay.
And I know you love the Amoeba.
I go to Amoeba all the time.
But Amoeba's still there.
It's still there.
Okay, good.
Yeah.
What happened to the Rhino store?
Is that gone?
The one that used to be on?
That's gone.
Okay.
Is that on Robertson?
Virgin Records.
Remember Virgin Records?
Of course, the mega store.
But when Tower Records went, it was horrible.
They still have it looking like it's Tower Records, but it's very sad.
There's a good documentary about it.
About Tower Records?
Yeah, about that I think some famous actor's son made.
I think it might have been Tom Hanks' son.
Really?
Somebody made a good documentary.
I may be misspeaking, but somebody made a good documentary about the demise of Tower Records.
Yeah.
I saw a video of you in Amoeba online where you were just loading up your bag, a Watson Rosanna's bag.
I just was in there, and they said, would you mind doing this?
I was like, yeah.
I happened to really be record shopping.
It wasn't a setup.
Since we're talking about music, this is a question that we got from a listener, Jason Grissom.
We do this thing called Grill the Guest, and he wants to know, what was David Bowie like to work with?
Rosanna, tell us.
I loved working with David Bowie.
He was such an art poet connoisseur of every kind of...
He turned me on to...
He turned me on to he turned me on to
oh my gosh
he turned me on to
the Smashing Pumpkins
okay
yeah
some really good bands
that he taught me
he turned me on to
you're in the Linguini
incident with him
to remind our listeners
we did a movie called
The Linguini Incident
which was written
by Richard Shepard
and Tamar Brott
and Richard
did The Matador the movie The Matador.
I like that movie.
Yeah, and he was 25 years old when he directed this film.
And I was in the midst of a very sad breakup from Peter Gabriel at the time,
so I went right into that movie with a super broken heart,
but there's nothing better to cure a broken heart than to do some comedy, physical comedy.
But we had a wonderful time.
We hung out a lot.
And we were great friends.
And he turned me on to the artist Odd Nerdrum.
You know Odd Nerdrum?
I do not.
He's a Norwegian painter.
And we used to be really really close
and then
I was so sad
I ran into him
through the years
saw him
I went to
one of his shows
in LA
I don't know
maybe 15 years ago
and
and then
you know
that was
I think he was
an underrated actor
I like him in Man Who Fell to Earth.
Oh, he's so great.
And Prestige.
Nicholas Rogue.
Nicholas Rogue.
Candy.
How about Candy Clark in that movie?
She's great.
Isn't she great?
And you're friends with Paul McCartney.
So he was getting divorced, and we were pals because Chrissy Hines, my best friend,
and so she's very close with the McCartney family.
So we just kind of helped each other through a hard time.
I like his wife very much.
Nancy.
Nancy's sweetheart.
And I love his family.
We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast after this.
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This I love.
Tell us about the Carson episode that you did.
Do you remember what you complimented him on?
I told him he had a great butt.
I sent over the clip.
You have that?
That's on YouTube.
Oh, that's one thing.
I didn't think that YouTube would have the documentaries. I know.
They have the things you don't want.
That's so strange.
The documentaries, though.
I wonder how he'd do that. We have the documentaries. I know. They have the things you don't want. That's so strange. The documentaries, though, like searching, I wonder how he'd do that.
We'll find it.
Yeah.
I just got to give it to them.
You told him that you saw him in tennis shorts.
I saw him walking out of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a tennis outfit with his tennis racket like he had had a lunch or something.
And, you know, he did have one of those.
He had a great tush.
Did you ever meet Carson, Gilbert?
No.
You never met him in your travels.
Never did the Carson show.
You never did the Carson show.
You did the Leno show a million times.
Yeah, Leno, Letterman, but never did Carson.
Do you know who was sitting next to you on that Carson show?
The guest that preceded you?
Who was it?
Liberace.
Was it? Liberace. Was it?
Liberace.
Yes, I watched the clip.
Was I actually on with him?
Yes, he was on panel next to you.
It's hard to mistake him.
That's so funny.
I was going to ask
if you interacted with him.
He doesn't exactly...
But I didn't like get...
Probably I was just...
Yeah, I didn't get it.
Your second episode,
you were with Alan Thicke,
who was a friend of Gilbert's.
Right.
But your first episode, it was you and Liberace, which is just surreal.
That's so funny.
Liberace's not someone who can just blend in with the crowd.
No.
And I was so nervous and young, but he liked me.
He was very sweet to me.
You know, it's kind of hard doing those talk shows live.
I did it last night with Andy Cohen.
I was very nervous, but it was fun.
And you worked with Michael Jackson too?
You're in a video.
He had a video called Liberian Girl.
Yes.
But I knew him because I was friends with Quincy Jones,
and during the Thriller album,
I was there a lot around the Thriller album,
in the studio.
Oh, interesting.
He thanks me on the record,
but Steve Piccaro, who was in the band Toto,
was my boyfriend,
and he wrote the song Human Nature.
So it says thank you to Steve and Rosanna Picard thinking we were married,
but we weren't. Oh, interesting. That's me. You're like a showbiz zealig, Rosanna. You've
been around for, you've been a witness. I know I have. For all of this great stuff.
I know, I know. All this wonderful show. And you were, when Dilden went electric, you were
there too? Because my parents. Was that Newport? It was Newport.
So I actually, they were there.
Wow.
And I was a kid.
I don't, I can say that I don't remember anything.
Okay.
But just to have been there.
They brought me.
Yeah.
By the way, that was July 25th.
Yeah.
1965.
Tomorrow is the anniversary.
What is that?
1965.
So yeah.
Wow. 53. Wow. I said wow. See? that? 1965, so yeah. Wow.
53 years.
Wow, I said wow, see?
53 years since Dylan went electric.
I say wow all the time.
And that was like a scandal.
Yeah.
That Dylan did the electric.
They were so angry.
Yeah, I don't remember any of that,
but my mom always told me that you were there.
We were there.
any of that but my mom always told me that you were there we were there um the new the the um philadelphia folk festival they would do every year and um we performed as actors in the festival
like children's paul sills story theater did you know paul sills did you ever see story theater it was on broadway and it was it was the um hello fairy tales um
all different uh fairy tales done in story theater technique viola spolin created the theater games
and her son was paul sills who directed it sure and paul sills was the grimm's fairy tales was
grimm's fairy tales done in the space, and it was incredible music.
And you can get, there's a live record of it, which if you can find, it's so incredible.
And it was Melinda Dillon and Dick Stahl and Richard Shaw and Richard Libertini.
Oh, we love him.
Hamilton Camp, who was my godfather.
Right.
Well, these were Compass Players people and Second City people.
Yes.
So they did the show, and there is an album of it.
It was on Broadway.
I want to revive it.
I was just talking.
We heard the daughter of Paul Stills, how we could do this,
and I'd love to do it with our family.
What great talent.
And you know Hamilton Camp.
You probably know him as a character actor, but he was also a folky.
He was Gibson and Camp. You probably know him as a character actor, but he was also a folky. He was Gibson and Camp. Big famous,
one of the big influences
of Neil Young. Yeah.
But those, the people you're naming.
You could get those records.
It's worth, Hamilton Camp has two
amazing records. I remember them like your dad.
I remember them as a face
turning up on sitcoms. They were best friends. My dad
and him were best, best friends. Paul Sills, all of those people and the names you're mentioning.
That was my childhood.
Libertini.
Yeah, growing up with all those people around and then having Viola Spolin.
My first theater piece was a show called Metamorphosis, which was Ovid's Metamorphosis done in the same way, a theater technique, story theater technique.
And, you know, being able to work with Viola in the workshops
because she wrote improvisation for the theater.
And so all the theater games were created by her.
And you're saying there's an album that's available?
So write story theater, and there is an album out there that you can get on eBay, and it's
worth getting and listening to, because it's fantastic.
I've got to get my hands on that.
Yeah.
Wow.
As we wind down, Rosanna, we could ask you a lot of stuff, but take your pick from these.
Do you remember anything about making, you can tell us if you remember anything about
making S.O.B. with Blake Edwards.
I do, and I actually just,
I might have told that story somewhere recently,
but it was my first sexual harassment moment in my career.
It's very sad, and I feel bad because, you know,
he's not here anymore, but, you know,
I think it's an important story,
and I really loved his daughter, Jennifer,
who played, we were the hitchhikers that were picked up.
But I got the role.
I had a bikini top. We all wore picked up. But I got the role. I had a bikini top.
We all wore bikinis, and I got the role.
And there's William Holden, Robert Preston, Julie Andrews.
I mean, an incredible cast.
Robert Weber.
Robert Weber.
Yeah.
And so, you know, Blake said, okay, so, yeah, you stand over there, but, you know what, lose the bikini top.
I was like, why, why, why? Mr. Edwards, what do you, I'll lose the bikini top. I was like, why, why, why?
Mr. Edwards, what do you mean, lose the bikini top?
You mean I have to show my breasts?
And he goes, yeah, yeah, do you have a problem with that?
And I said, well, I didn't know I was going to do that.
And I was 18, and I was 19, I think.
I was young, and I just, he's a collar agent.
You know, he intimidated me like I was going to lose a job if I didn't do it.
I mean, it's a sad story.
Oh, I didn't know that.
I mean, and he's a good guy.
He's made great movies.
Yeah.
But at the time, you know, people didn't have the consciousness.
That was just part of the deal, you know, and I didn't know how to say no.
So I was one of those women that was intimidated to do that.
It ended up being cut, thank God.
That's unfortunate.
But it really injured my spirit.
It did.
And, you know, the movie was a big hit,
but that whole thing was cut.
How about a happier memory?
How about making Pulp Fiction
with Tarantino? That was fun. Um, he is, you know, he is a master director, a lot of rehearsal.
We rehearsed, you know, the crap out of it. And, uh, and I, and I had a great experience
working with him. I did. I liked him a lot. I heard you say you had trouble.
You were pregnant and you had trouble watching that scene.
So I didn't see the movie for probably 10 years afterwards.
Oh, that's funny.
Because when I finally did see the movie, I was about eight months pregnant
or almost about to give birth when I saw the film.
And I had to leave.
It was too violent for me.
I just was like covering my baby.
I was like, oh, this is too violent. So I left. So I never really saw the movie until about 10
years later and really is a good movie. Alexis is in that movie. My, my, my trans sister died
of AIDS two years ago. Yes. Almost two years ago. Before we go, do you want to tell us anything?
What else do I have on the cards? You want to tell us about uh hal ashby do you want to tell us about jason robards i love both of those men but i loved both of them i loved they were both wonderful um
jason was fantastic but hal was my pal hal was my pal and what about work we hung out
well some of my favorite movies ours too and the world Gilbert loves the last detail I mean oh yeah
come on
Landlord
and there's Lee
but for me
being there
Shampoo
yeah
I mean
yeah
Lee again
yeah
yeah
Shampoo
and being there
she won the Oscar for that
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean
I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean I mean Being there is such an incredible film. Peter Sellers, he just was, what he also had the gift of, like Martin Scorsese does,
is the gift of music and understanding the marriage between, with music and,
contemporary music and film.
Hal had that, like Martin Scorsese does.
But he was such a wonderful human being.
And they took the movie away from him that I did with him, which was his last movie.
Eight Million Ways to Die.
Eight Million Ways to Die, which was an Oliver Stone script.
And they just took the film away from the greatest editor.
It's a sad story.
It's in the book Easy Riders and Raging Bulls.
It killed him. It did. It's in the book Easy Riders and Raging Bulls. It killed him.
It did.
It really did.
And I remember seeing him and having to go to – in front of a judge.
Arbitrator.
What is it called?
Arbitrator.
Arbitrator.
And they were just trying to tear him apart like he wasn't fit to do this movie.
And he was.
It was horrible.
And I got in their face.
I said, he's the most amazing director I ever worked with.
And he sent me, he would send me a lot of cassettes of movies to watch
because at that time we had like the VHS.
Sure.
And he sent me Summertime.
He wanted me to see Summertime with Katherine Hepburn in Venice.
He sent me.
So that was when she fell in the fountain.
Forever.
She got the ear problem.
Did she have vertigo?
I don't know what happened.
She was Rosanna Brasi.
She got sick.
She had something with her eyes.
It was so polluted.
It was a bacteria that got in
and they could never get rid of it.
I think it affected her eyes for the rest of her life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a bacterial.
So he sent you movies.
He would send me movies, and we'd listen to music and hang out in Malibu.
And he was just one of the great men.
There's a documentary on him.
Is there?
I'm going to write this down too.
That I'm in.
Okay.
That's, I think, produce that.
I'll find it.
Yeah.
And you have to find the Tower Records.
Did Christine do that movie?
Or she did it, oh, I'm so confused.
That's okay.
I've been in a couple documentaries recently of being interviewed.
He made a good Stones concert movie, too.
Let's spend the night together.
He did.
Yeah, he's, well, he could do no wrong.
He's, me too.
I would say probably one of my favorite right up there with Marty.
So tell us.
And Fellini.
Yeah, and I know you like Powell and Pressburger.
Oh, I do love the Red Shoes.
Yeah, I know.
You've seen Stairway to Heaven, haven't you?
The one with Niven?
Yes.
They changed the title to A Matter of Life and Death.
Yeah, it's A Matter of Life and Death, Colonel Blimp.
Oh, that's a different one. No, isn't it? I thought it was A Matter of Life and Death, Colonel Blimp. Oh, that's a different one.
No, isn't it?
I thought it was A Matter of Life and Death.
The Matter of Life and Death was Stairway to Heaven.
They changed the title.
That's where Led Zeppelin got that.
That's right.
That's right.
Very good.
Very good.
Tell us about your projects, your various projects.
Tell us about the Alexis Project, about Humanity Foundation,
and what you're doing. So the Alexis Project, about Womanity Foundation and what you're doing.
So the Alexis Project, when Alexis died on September 11th, it will be two years,
it was really devastating for our whole family and really losing our parents.
But Alexis was just the light and kind of the through line for everybody.
So it really fractured us all.
We're all kind of just in pstd and coming back together but i'm the eldest and i just you know felt very compelled to put together a um a a uh foundation
so the alexis arquette family foundation and then we partnered with dr astrid hagar of the violence
intervention program in new york in um in um los angeles at usc medical center and we've just of the Violence Intervention Program in Los Angeles at USC Medical Center.
And we've just opened a clinic called the Alexis Project,
and it helps LGBTQ youth in a very marginalized community,
and they need help.
So people can go online if they want to support it and learn about it.
Yeah, it would be great.
Yeah, and there's a website for the Alexis Arquette Family Foundation.
We're just figuring it out.
I think of it as a tree with all these branches
and everybody has a branch to do what they want.
So everybody might want to do it in different ways,
give money, but we're raising money
to be able to do that and it's very new.
But the Alexis project is actually up and running now.
We announced it on the one year
anniversary of alexis's death and now it's actually a clinic and we're going to open them across the
country good for you yeah good for you you're doing good work for a lot of people yeah well
for the trans community for women for women and we all are still at it and this and for justice
and for just the most important thing right now for all of us
is as Americans.
Just to survive.
Is to survive
and hold on to our democracy.
In order to do that,
we have to vote
and everybody needs to vote
and get your children
and everybody who can vote
because what's happening here
is we've never seen
anything like this.
Agreed. Gil, anything else for this lovely lady i could talk to you for hours just about music yeah i could too let me do that
i'm gonna send you the documentary you'll like it because i could just sit here and talk about
your favorite albums okay i will let's do that i would say i know you're a led zepp person no but
i really i love revolver i love patty i love um she's in my documentary um but i love revolver I would say... I know you're a Led Zepp person. No, but I really... I love Revolver. I love the Beatles. Patti Smith.
Patti, I love.
She's in my documentary.
But I love Revolver.
I love that Beatles record.
I love Radiohead.
I think they're an amazing band.
I also have to tell you, Rosanna,
that Gilbert's been sitting on this.
He's been sitting on his hands for the last hour and a half
because he wants to ask you.
Yeah, okay.
The question you hate being asked.
What was it like to work with Madonna?
No, no, no, the other one.
The Madonna one I'm going to be really good about
and I won't mention Madonna.
She was great.
But the song Rosanna.
Oh, yes, okay.
I was just asked that last night too.
So I was dating the keyboard player Steve Pic picarro of toto but david page
actually wrote that song and you know i was there hanging out in the studio they were making the
record and he he goes i want to david took me it was like three in the morning because i want to
play you something and he played the song for me i was like like, oh, that's neat. So it was inspired, used my name, but, you know, there you go.
But that's followed you your whole life.
Yeah.
I mean, they would do that.
For better or worse.
Yeah.
And was there another song written about you?
You know, I was with Peter Gabriel for a number of years,
and so In Your Eyes was about me. I was with Peter Gabriel for a number of years,
and so In Your Eyes was about me.
If you're going to have a song written about you,
that's a good one.
Yeah.
Another life.
A long, long time ago.
Another lifetime.
I'm still really close with him. What a transcendent talent he is.
With his daughters.
I'm really close with his daughters.
And he has grandchildren now,
so yeah,
a whole different world.
I got to see him inducted
into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in Brooklyn
a couple years ago.
Yeah, I was supposed,
they wanted me,
I wanted to go to that,
but I missed it.
I mean,
I also was really close
with Tom Petty
and lost him this year.
Yeah, our condolences.
It was a rough year, boy.
It was a rough year. Another giant. Another giant, and it was this year. It was a rough year, boy. It was a rough year.
Another giant.
Another giant.
It was really sad.
His daughter, Adria, is one of my dearest friends,
and her sister, Kim, too.
But it was a tragedy.
Well, I hope you keep making documentaries about music.
I'd like to.
Did I say that Jonathan Lynn sends his best to sitting in that chair?
That's so nice.
The director from the whole 90 yards.
Yeah, that was fun.
Yeah, that was, oh, wait, wait.
Ah, maybe it might have been that movie.
I got really bad reviews.
They killed me.
Because what they didn't realize, I got really killed for my accent,
but it actually is a Canadian, French-Canadian.
It's very different than...
Oh, that's right.
And so they went after me.
It was French-Canadian, and it is that.
I worked really hard with somebody, and they talk like that, you know,
like not that, you know, in the French,
but it was more like in the French, but it was more like, in the French-Canadian.
Anyway, so I got really,
I think that might have been the last review.
I burnt them all, and that was it.
You're smart.
They were mean.
Gilbert's still reading his.
Did you ever get a bad review
for an acting performance for a film?
Well, I remember another one.
Or one of those golden raspberries or any of that?
Pierre Lindstrom was once reviewing a movie, and she said,
and it also features the disgusting Gilbert Guy.
Oh, my God.
What movie?
Gilbert Bergman's Daughter.
Oh, that's so mean.
What did you do?
What is your favorite performance?
I don't remember the movie, but I remember that review.
Isn't that sad?
You remember the negative review that hurt your feelings.
I had a hard time watching Casablanca after that.
No, that's funny because of Mama.
Okay, I got it.
What is your favorite performance that you've ever done?
Oh, God.
that you've ever done?
Oh, God.
Well, I was very happy with that one scene in Beverly Hills Cop 2
where we're arguing over the traffic tickets.
You and Eddie Murphy.
We improvised that.
That's great.
And, of course, the parrot in Aladdin.
Oh, you're the parrot in Aladdin?
Yeah, of course.
He's Iago.
I didn't know that. That's so great. So do you're the parrot in Aladdin? Yeah, of course. He's Iago. I didn't know that.
That's so great.
So do you do a lot of voiceovers?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's your thing, right?
I always wanted to get in.
I'd love to do a cartoon voice.
You've never done one.
No, I would love to do a cartoon voice.
So much.
We'll put that out there.
I know, I wish.
Here's one of those great things
I'll ask actors from time to time.
What advice to give on acting?
Just tell the truth.
What?
Just telling the truth.
Just being super relaxed.
I think all those exercises that they do in the actor's studio
and just to relax your body, you know.
And when you see parodies of actors, you know,
rolling their heads and stuff,
but there's something about being actually really loose in your body
and not constricted so that when your body's relaxed,
you kind of are more relaxed to bring in whatever the channel is
that you're open to the muse
and i try to do that now i've i've done i feel like there's performances i've done that i feel
are you know good and then there's overacting schmaltzy stuff that i've done too and uh and i
get very judgmental but um always going back to the. Do you have a lot of times we've looked at stuff you've done and just cringed?
Yes, and I don't actually watch my movies a lot.
I mean, it's very hard for me to watch myself,
so I usually cringe at most things,
but there's a couple of performances where I felt like, okay,
I felt like I like After Hours.
I like Baby It's You.
You have a great drunk scene
in Baby It's You.
Yeah,
and I did this,
yeah,
that was,
that just came,
that was fun.
Matthew Modine's first movie.
That's right.
Yeah,
he was,
that was his first performance.
And,
I worked with Matthew Modine
in a movie called
Funky Monkey
there you go
you know he got
good reviews for that
never
never was released
I never saw it
it escaped
it wasn't released
it escaped
he was kind of
really creepy
and good
in Stranger Things, that television show.
He's good.
He's good.
I'd like him to marry to the mob.
Yeah.
He had a good career.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is your daughter still acting?
Your daughter?
Is she just...
She's doing fashion right now.
Okay.
Figuring it out.
Okay.
She's really a wonderful actress.
And I think if she wanted to go back into it,
she did two movies with James Franco
and then decided not to work anymore.
I see.
But I don't know.
I think she just liked him very much,
but I don't know.
Those were the only two things she did,
and now she's in London,
and we'll see if she...
I think she's really gifted and i love
her great i love her to act but she'll do her thing she studied well let's recommend to our
listeners we did a whole show about after hours so if they haven't watched it by now they need
to watch it baby it's you yeah which is is two great performances. I love Life Lessons, which is part of New York Stories.
And then what's coming up new?
I did a movie called Octavio's Dead with Sarah Gaydon,
who's a Canadian actress, wonderful actress.
And then I did Puppy Love, which is coming out,
and I'm playing a Hopper
Penn's mother in this with Paz de la Huerta and Hopper Penn and some really
good a lot of good actors there who else isn't there and then I have a film
called Holy Lands which is a Amanda Stiers a French director that with
Jonathan Rhys Meyer and James Caan.
Wow.
So those are all coming out eventually.
Wow.
Small movies that, you know, we'll see the light of day or not.
I hope you keep making documentaries.
And also, I think you need to—
Are you saying, like, just keep making documentaries?
No.
Stop acting?
Is that what you're trying to tell me?
But I like your subject matter.
Are you sure?
I like your subject matter. I like that you're trying to tell me? But I like your subject matter. Are you sure? I like your subject matter.
I like that you're a historian.
I think there need to be more documentaries like that about the creative process.
Yeah, I do like that.
And I think you need to either host your own podcast or write a memoir or both.
You should write a book.
A lot of people have said that, but you can't kiss and tell.
I know.
They want you to dig up dirt.
I know. I don't like dig up dirt. I know.
I don't like that.
But I really did.
I was inspired by a few books.
Christine Lottie's book is really lovely.
Check out Ileana's book.
Yeah.
It's fun because it's also about her, just her love of the movies.
Yeah, no.
That's why she's on her Turner Classic movies.
I got Ben Mankiewicz and I've become, you know,
friendly.
We should have Ben
on this show too.
Definitely should have.
There's a guy that knows
and talk to him.
Yeah,
everything.
He stories forever.
And a famous family.
Mankiewicz,
I love you,
tell me.
That would be a really good one.
Why don't you just go out
to LA sometimes
and just do a couple
in the studio?
Scheduling my day job,
his road schedule.
It's hard for us
to get anywhere.
Are you going the road?
Yeah, a lot of stand-up gigs and stuff.
Are you?
Wow.
That's so cool.
Do you cross paths with a lot of other comedians?
Yeah.
Not usually at my gigs.
It's usually when there's an event or something.
Right, right.
Cross paths.
I want to see.
I haven't seen your.
I've got to see your stand-up.
You'll like it.
It's filled with obscure references to old movies.
So what is your favorite movie?
If you had to choose one movie, what would it be?
Oh, Gil.
Oh, my God.
That's too difficult.
Wow. One. There's so many movies I like. If's too difficult. Wow.
One.
There's so many movies I like.
If you were on a desert island and you only could pick three, what would they be?
Holy shit.
Well, he was on with Robert Osborne on TCM and he picked four.
There I picked.
Oh, you were?
I got to see that.
Oh, yeah.
He was great.
He was.
I got to see that.
Oh, yeah.
He was great. He was.
There I picked the original of Mice and Men with Lon Chaney and Burgess Meredith.
Yes.
The Conversation with Gene Hackman.
Opala.
A Freaks.
That was Todd Browning.
Wow.
Yeah, I love that movie.
How many times did I say wow?
And The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster.
Frank Perry.
That's an eclectic collection of films, Gilbert.
I would have done, because I really, at one point, I thought I was going to do it,
and then I never got to do it, but I would have done The Red Shoes.
You know what?
Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Sure. Oh, yes. Great one. Oh, Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Sure, Kazan.
Oh, yes.
Great one.
Oh, and Mankiewicz.
And Splendor in the Grass.
Kazan again?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the streetcar.
We were going to do Brando's story.
Yeah.
I love Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Mankiewicz, when he was introducing this segment that I was doing with Robert Osborne,
he said that it's interesting that I didn't pick any comedies.
Well, the listeners of this show say that.
They say Gilbert doesn't like comedies.
That's funny.
Yeah.
So what am I – I can watch over and over again some Like It Hot.
It's great.
We talked about Wilder films on here too.
We used to do many episodes on Thursdays.
We'd just talk about movies we loved.
And we'd talk about Ace in the Hole
and we'd talk about Being There.
I'd tell you, speaking of Ashby,
I'd put that on any list.
Right, Being There.
And I'd throw Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven on that list, which is a movie.
One of my favorite.
That was on my list.
I have to swear to God.
It's on one of my lists.
You know a movie that's really obscure that I think would make a great remake if you were to put in a different way?
And I loved this one.
It's Inside Daisy Clover.
With Natalie Wood.
Natalie Wood.
Yeah.
Robert Redford.
Christopher Plummer. Never seen it. You've got to see it. Did Robert Mulligan make that picture? Yes, you have to see it.
Yeah, he did. Yeah. Pakula produced it.
Alan Pakula produced it. Have you seen it? No, I've not seen it.
You have to see this movie. It seems like one of those movies I probably watched like 50
times when I was three
and I've never seen it.
It's what,
it's,
try to,
it's really great.
Ruth Gordon
is in it.
The best.
Harold Amat
is one of my favorite movies.
Sure.
And that,
there you go,
is that how,
Hal Ashby.
Yeah.
They don't make them
like that anymore.
They do not make it
and his use of music, how he used Cat Stevens' Yep. records. Yeah. They don't make them like that anymore. They do not make it. And his use of music, how he used Cat Stevens' record.
Do you think that movies, I know movie theaters are closing up like crazy.
Yeah, it's, no.
Do you think movies are ending?
I mean, I'm here in New York to promote a television show that is not on an actual real network.
It's online.
It's YouTube originals, like Netflix,
and they're turning it into that where they're going to have original programming,
and that's what I'm doing.
The business is changing.
It's changing, and it's just i'm really happy and grateful that i and i know you are and you are that we actually got to
make movies and be a part of film and and lived in that i'm i'm very grateful for the the war
the directors i got to work with. You worked with great directors. I did.
Beresford.
Huh?
Bruce Beresford.
Oh, that's right. And Hal Ashby.
Well, Bruce,
we're talking about
because that was
a little kind of favor.
Catherine Keener
and Jane Sonder,
friends of mine,
it was peace, love,
and misunderstanding.
I actually just,
I got a phone call from Jane.
She goes,
come on and hang out with us
for a week in Woodstock.
So they kind of just put me in the movie
and then just played this,
you know,
cameo,
but it was fun.
You work with some great people.
Yeah.
You've had a wonderful,
wonderful,
Jonathan Demme.
Jonathan Demme.
Yeah, another person we lost.
Yeah.
That was really sad.
What do you think, Gil?
Let this lady's got a car service coming.
Yes.
Am I boring you?
No.
You want to tell the Brando story quickly?
Okay, really fast.
Before we run?
I was sitting,
I was in Ventura Boulevard in the Valley
having a salad.
I was going to go to an audition
and there was Marlon Brando
sitting across with me with his, I think, then wife.
I think I was about 20.
And I love him so much.
And I just kept staring at him and staring at him and staring.
And finally, he got it, and he just put his menu up over his face.
Oh, my God.
And I was just so mort And finally, he got it. And he just put his menu up over his face. Oh, my God.
And I was just like so mortified.
Just like so embarrassed.
And then I went, Mr. Brandon, I just want to tell you that.
Like I was just a gushing fan. Did he know who you were?
No, no, no.
Because I was.
And he goes, thank you.
You're very kind.
Thank you.
You're very kind.
And he goes, are you an actress?
I said, yes.
And he goes.
And then he said, are you an actress? I said, yes. And he goes, and then he said, good. And he actually said, I thought he may have said to me, tell the truth.
Wow.
He may have actually been, why can't I remember that moment?
But I feel like he's the one that actually said those words to me.
Pretty cool.
Yeah.
Pretty cool. Yeah. Pretty cool. And I just, he has an island, you know, that Mike Medavoy,
um, is, had his, his, uh, estate and he, they made a, his island in Tahiti is now this beautiful
resort, um, that I got to go to and it's really beautiful. Very cool. Yeah. He, I mean, he,
I don't know if he loved the, it's gorgeous i mean it's all sustainable
living in fantastic absolutely exquisite but i mean he was a you know he's living in the woods
in the woods in the jungle an interesting man an interesting life yeah and then if you get down to
like trauma and stuff i think because we're understanding so much
of that and abuse and his relationship with his father if you ever saw him on who your life what
is that um this is your life i know a little bit about his relationship with his father yeah
that really you could see you could see how it really affected his psyche.
Very much so.
On that note, should we not leave on that note?
We have to leave on something
funny.
Wow.
How many times we say wow and oh my god.
I know.
Three things I say too much. Wow, oh my god i know three things i say too much wow oh my god and
amazing it's embarrassing i know i have i do have a bigger vocabulary i just don't use it i don't
know why is it laziness what is that i've become so aware of stuff that i say just because people Tweet it. And they say they've got either drinking or smoking a joint or any kind of drugs and drinking.
They'll do a hit.
We have a lot of listeners who are just obsessed about the minutiae of this show, like what I say when I say at the end.
Scratching the surface.
I always say to the guests, we've barely scratched the surface.
So people have a drink.
He says, wow.
Wow.
People are too obsessed.
Oh, and another one, when I was a kid, a very-
They also love that we never end the show.
That's right.
We're going on and on and on.
Are we live right now?
No.
Oh, okay.
I was going to say-
We'll edit it and put it together.
Okay, good.
Thank God.
To your specifications.
Well, no, whatever you feel.
If there's something you want to take out.
Maybe just cut out
some of the oh my gods
and amazing.
Amazing.
Amazing.
It's very Californian.
I'm not Californian.
Now amazing will be
a new drinking game.
Exactly.
That's right in the title
of the show.
I can't say amazing.
This lady's got a car coming.
Let her go home.
So this has been
Gilbert Gottfried's
Amazing Colossal Party.
Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Oh, my God.
I didn't know that.
Wow.
I didn't draw that connection.
Holy shit.
It's true.
Amazing.
It is amazing.
With my co-host, Frank Santopadre.
And we're in the no longer in existence.
Well, they're transitioning.
They're transitioning.
But you have a studio you're going to, right?
Well, yes.
Yes, in September.
And we've been talking to the amazing Rosanna Arquette.
Thank you both.
Rosanna, we could keep going.
Well, we can.
I'll come back another time.
Please do.
Please do come back.
Wow.
Thanks for squeezing us.
Oh, my God.
Thanks for squeezing us into your schedule.
Thank you for to me.
Yeah.
Get up on your feet.
Get up, step to the beat.
Girl, where to be?
Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast is produced by
Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre,
with audio production by Frank Verderosa.
Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden,
Greg Pair, and John Bradley Seals. Special audio
contributions by John Beach.
Special thanks to Paul Rayburn,
John Murray, John Fodiatis,
and Nutmeg Creative.
Especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel
Farrell for their assistance. I'm dancing here all by myself Tonight I wanna dance with someone else
Get into the groove, boy
You've got to prove your love to me
Yeah
Get on your feet
There's a step to the beat
Boy, what will it be?
Fill out your fantasy here with me
Just let the music set you free
Touch my body, move in time
Now I know you're mine
Now I know you're mine
Now I know you're mine Now I know you're mine
Now I know you're mine
Now I know you're mine
You've got to get to the groove, boy
You've got to prove your love to me
Get on your feet
Yes, step to the beat
Boy, what will it be?
To get into the groove
Boy, you've got to prove your love to me
Get up on your feet
Yes, step to the beat
Come on, what will it be?
Got to get into the groove
Boy, you got to prove
You're up to the beat
Yeah, get up on your feet
Yeah, step to the beat
Come on, what will it be?
Got to get to you.
Now you've got to prove you're the one.