Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 36. Gary Busey
Episode Date: February 1, 2015Oscar-nominated actor Gary Busey has been in over 150 movies, working alongside everyone from Barbra Streisand to Steven Seagal. On a recent visit to LA, Gilbert sat down with Gary to talk about his n...ear-death experience, his character "process" and channeling the spirit of Buddy Holly. Also, Gary hosts "Saturday Night Live," spoons Mel Gibson, jams with Rick Danko and praises Gene Hackman. PLUS: Jack Elam! Jan-Michael Vincent! Rod Steiger eats a sandwich! And Gary tells Gilbert the meaning of life. Also, we apologize for the first minute or so of audio. It sounds rough but it clears up and get MUCH better. You're not going to want to miss this ep! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.
No, you're not here.
He's not here.
Well, Frank's not here.
I'm in L.A.
Frank Santopadre's, my co-host, is in New York. How long has a co-hosting job worked being long distance?
We'll see if it works.
I'm up for everything, guys.
I'm a free spirit.
So, I'm in L.A.
Frank is in New York. And I'm a free spirit So I'm in LA Frank is in New York
And I'm right here
Yes
And this is still
Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast
And I think
It's still
Carrie Busey
Anyway
Our guest this week is almost as well known For his on-screen antics as he is for his off-screen ones.
He's an actor and musician who's been in 150 movies, including A Star is Born and Lethal Weapon, Point Break, The Firm, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and
of course the Buddy Holly story for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
Along his very strange journey, he's worked with icons like Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Jeff Bridges, David Lynch, Sidney Pollack,
Tom Cruise, Tony Curtis, Robert Duvall, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbara Streisand.
Please welcome the man who manages to make me seem grounded and normal, my friend Gary Busey.
Yay!
Hey, well, thanks for the introduction there.
I'm very happy to be with you right here by the Capitol Records Tower and the Wicked
play going on over there.
And it's just great to be with you, Gilbert.
I respect you.
play going on over there.
It's just great to be with you, Gilbert.
I respect you. I have a great
honor to be with you doing
this stuff. And you incite
me and motivate me and inspire
me to do things
that will feel like
somebody just pulled the rug out from
under you.
They're ready to
fall.
Well, you're scaring me already, Gary.
Is that you laughing, Frank?
That's me, Gary.
That sounded like a young girl who lost her child wig.
Small child's wigs
are hard to lose.
I have no comeback to that.
No, first time I saw Gilbert was in a movie
called Beverly Hills Cop.
And Eddie wanted to do
this scene with Gilbert. And when that scene
was over, I said, who is that
guy? I'd never
seen Gilbert before. And I went, oh my
God, what happened?
What happened to the director of the screenplay?
And everything was on the
money and knocked me out.
And I'm very happy to be here today working with you.
And we have an idea we're working on for later talking that I'm very happy about.
Yeah, that was Beverly Hills Cop 2.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah!
Yeah!
Did you have trouble hearing the word cut?
Cut. Did you have trouble hearing the word cut? Now, let's talk about your most famous part.
And that was the Gary Busey story.
That was the Buddy Holly story.
You know, I had people come up to me after the movie
and say, you were great
in the Gary Busey story. And I said, no,
no, no, it's Buddy.
That's funny.
And one guy had tears in his
eyes in New York City when we showed it
there. And I went up to shake
his hand and he said,
get away from me, get away from me. You spooked me. You spooked me. You had Buddy with you.
And I said, well, thank you very much. And months later, after the movie was finished,
I realized that I did channel Buddy Holly's spirit in my voice. And my whole posture changed when the movie was over i felt smaller i felt like i'm back to
earth because that movie took me someplace that project took me someplace that i hadn't been
before and i'm not talking about star trek i'm talking about heavenly spiritual connection
with charles harden holly aka a buddy, how did the part first come into your life?
The people who, Joyce Selznick, God bless her.
Joyce Selznick, in a way, discovered me
and said she wanted to take me in and see the Buddy Holly people.
I said, you can't make a movie about Buddy Holly.
Nobody can sing like him.
And I told her, I reminded her, I was in a movie about Buddy Holly's story
called Not Fade Away about the crickets and Buddy Holly three years ago.
But they didn't have the rights to merchandise Holly's name in commerce movies.
So then the guys came to town from Philadelphia and never made a movie
and then cast me as Holly and I said you guys
every story
they told me about Buddy Holly I changed
because I knew the truth
then they took me down to Village Recorders
and I sang two songs
Raining in My Heart
and
Heartbreak
why do you kiss When my baby touches me
Got the gig
Went and did it
Every shot was one take
It was a magical
Spiritual connection
With Buddy
And you sang
You did all the singing yourself in that movie
I did all the singing myself
And playing the guitar
Yeah I was live And in color I was going to say Gary yourself in that movie? I did all the singing myself and playing the guitar.
Yeah, I was live and in color. I was going to say, Gary, there were so
many great actors in that film and that ensemble
with Charles Martin Smith, Don Stroud
and your old friend Gaylord Sartain
playing Big Bopper.
No, but what you
don't understand, Frank, it was
not great company. Really you don't understand, Frank, it was not great company.
Really?
It was cast away from the authenticity of the drummer, J.I. Allison,
and the bass player, Joe B. Malden.
And so, therefore, it didn't work in that way.
And the authenticity of it, because I know all those guys.
I never knew Buddy, but I know him now very well
because of the movie and Jay Allison,
Joe B. Maldon, Sonny Curtis.
People who knew Buddy back then were writing songs with him
and playing music with him.
So I was on my own there, but I wasn't running
because I had Buddy inside me
and in my spirit.
And you were nominated for an Academy Award
opposite De Niro and John Voight
and Sir Lawrence Olivier and Warren Beatty.
Tell us what John Voight said to you on Oscar night.
I found that kind of touching.
John Voight said,
Gary, listen, you know what?
If we all traded parts, all
five of us, none
of us could do Buddy Holly like
you did. And I said,
thank you. And then John
won the award. And I said, John?
And winked at him and said,
congratulations. Well, you
were, I guess, the first time
or one of the times
you were in a very serious motorcycle. Yeah. And you weren't wearing a helmet. No, I guess, the first time or one of the times you were in a very serious motorcycle.
Yeah.
And you weren't wearing a helmet.
No, I wasn't.
I wasn't.
I went around the corner in Washington and Robertson, right across the street from Bartell's motorcycle shop.
And I hit some dirt and spun and started fishtailing.
and dirt and spun and started fishtailing.
And I hit the rear brake and the front brake,
and it flipped me over and hit my head on a curb and split my skull open from the ear to the top of the crown
and knocked a hole in my skull about the size of a 50-cent piece.
And they took bones out of my pelvis to replace the hole in my head.
And my pelvis has a double compound fracture scar.
But I'm living and walking, and I had to start all over at Daniel Freeman Theater,
learning how to walk, talk, eat, dress, have a memory.
I just started from nothing.
I just started from nothing.
I started from my source, my life, and went forward to become more so now than I was before the accident because my brain has been altered.
It hadn't been damaged.
I see life in a very, very different way than I did before that accident, that blessing, and that trip.
It's really amazing what life can give you.
It's really amazing.
You just got to pay attention.
And it's okay to be nuts.
It's okay to be nuts.
And when you first walked in, you gave me a plaque.
I gave Gilbert a plaque that has the word nuts on it.
And nuts stands for, using the letters that spell the word nuts on it. And nuts stands for using the letters that spell the word nuts. Never
underestimate the spirit.
When you are feeling the grace
of the spirit, it's okay to
be nuts. For you, sir.
Thank you. I'm going to
put this up in my house.
Now, and that's a great
lesson. Now, so you
had to relearn everything like an infant.
Yeah.
After the accident.
Yeah.
And it was really an enlightening experience.
And you had to learn how to eat again.
Yeah.
I would eat a lot of times with forks.
I would eat without utensils but I could feel the
food going in me this is the power of your mind and then I would say I would take green beans
about four of them and stick them up under my lip so I'd have a snack later and then I ate
I ate as good as I could, but I needed help.
You need help with everything you do for your coordination, your posturizing, your talking.
Even your, you know, from the waist down, you have a set of plumbing in your body.
Well, you have to work to do that.
So did you have to be potty trained again?
Potty trained? Yeah. I don't remember, but maybe so. That's when you could have videoed.
No, not now. But you experienced death. Huh? You experienced death at that point.
Well, I left my body and went to the other side. I died after brain surgery.
I mean, my body quit working.
So I found myself in the spiritual realm of the supernatural, surrounded by angels.
It looked like just about as big as a volleyball.
Breathing gold lights and magenta and amber.
And three of the lights came right in front of my essence
and the one light on the left spoke to me and thought an androgynous voice and told me what
i was doing was good but when i the responsibility that was coming to me i had to look for help in
the spiritual realm and said you can come now or turn to your body it's your choice
and once when you're on the other side and you hear the truth, that's where you are.
There's no thinking over there.
No thinking.
You said in an interview that you had forgotten that whole experience.
I had what?
You had forgotten the whole experience
in the other world.
And then you saw ghosts?
Yeah, that's right.
I had a friend of mine,
Joan Culpepper,
rest in peace, Joan.
She said,
go see this movie, Ghosts.
And I said, why?
She said,
you'll have an essence
come from your subconscious
to your conscious
and you'll realize
you're not in a dream.
Oh, okay.
So I went, and when I saw the balls of light around Patrick,
that's when the weeping started from down deep.
And when the movie was over, credits rolled,
the lights come on, the audience leaves,
my friend said, are you okay?
And I looked at my friend and said, I've been there.
I've been to the other side.
And it was a, boy, it's a beautiful experience, beautiful experience,
that gives me the power to motivate and inspire other people with looking with love from my eyes to others
and considering their feelings first. Even Frank.
See, I got that
same feeling
when I saw Abedin Costello
meet Frankenstein.
You what? You touched Solomon and the Gentiles?
What did you do?
Solomon?
You touched Solomon and the Gentiles?
What is a gentle?
Gary, I was told you had some anecdotes about hosting Saturday Night Live in 1978
and spending time with the original cast and Belushi in particular.
It was 79, and I don't even know what an anecdote is.
It's not like a medicine you put in your butt to keep you from farting.
That's an antidote, yes.
That's different.
Now, that was like the wild
time on that show.
And Belushi was there.
He was a crazy man.
When I was having the first meeting with the 19
writers and Lorne Michaels,
Belushi called from L.A. and all the
writers went, oh, no.
And Belushi said, tell all the writers I'm going to be in
every skit with you. Every one.
I said, okay, that's fine.
The writers all go, uh.
But it worked.
It worked.
It was the best it could be.
My favorite skit we did was Women's Problems.
Oh, sure.
Where we talked about Dan Aykroyd was the host.
Then it was Murray, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris, and me.
And Dan said, what parts of a woman's body do you like the most?
And Murray said, breasts.
Put me down for breasts.
And what about you, Wally?
That was me.
Breasts.
Humongous breasts.
And what about you, Mike?
And that was Garrett.
I like a woman with a big butt.
Something I can hang on to and hit with a car antenna.
I remember it well.
That episode also had the great Sonny Dacey in the fireworks.
Oh, but wait, wait.
There was one line when they asked you, who was the ideal woman for all of you?
Oh, I said Wonder Woman.
I said Wonder Woman is six foot four.
But I remember when you said,
you were talking about all of you would love big breasts.
Garrett Morris loved a big butt.
And then they said, who's the ideal woman?
And all of you said Adrienne Barbeau.
No, I didn't say that.
I said Wonder Woman.
Oh, yeah?
Wonder Woman.
Yeah, she's six foot four.
When I said that, Lauren said, oh, my God, I couldn't stop laughing.
Because we were all...
What?
I was going to say, in that episode, that was the episode where you played with Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield.
Yeah, that's the tour we put together.
We should have filmed it, but we didn't.
And Rick and Paul are now gone to musical heaven.
But that was an incredible journey with Rick Danko, who played bass with the band,
and Paul Butterfield, who is a harmonica player like no other.
And now you have a thing, a book called Bucisms.
Yes, Bucisms.
That's where I learned to do this several years ago.
I was dealing in the past and writing in a journal all the things I did wrong, how I was betrayed.
And I said, what are you doing this for?
This is in the past.
Where are you?
I'm in the now.
So the first Bucism was the word now.
N-O-W stands for no other way.
And I have, it's a big, thick book, and it's going to be out.
I don't know.
Stephanie's gone, so I don't know who you can call in.
Out when Stephanie comes back. And get a Bucism from my home, like you have there in Nuts.
Yeah.
Do you know where?
You go to GaryBucy.com and click on Bucisms.
GaryBucy.com and click on Bucisms.
Thank you very much, Don.
And now, like, one of them is fart.
One of them is fart?
That's a bodily function you can't deny, buddy.
Yeah.
So you need to understand that F-A-R-T stands for feeling a rectal transmission.
It's free.
It's easy.
It comes with a dinner.
You were given that fart tube
because to get the gas out of your lovely little body
this podcast has never been so educational well let's let me ask you about your musical
background and and the rubber band and i'm interested in i think our listeners would
be interested in how you made the transition from music to acting.
They're both the same thing.
They're just different instruments.
Acting is the instrument with my body.
Music is an instrument like the drums I play and the guitar I play.
And they're both music, though, in my feeling of truth,
is the highest art form of them all, music is.
Tell us a little bit about the rubber band and how you guys made your way out to L.A.
Well, I transferred to Oklahoma State University in Oklahoma
when I hurt my knee playing football, so I lost my athletic scholarship.
And I took a drama, drama, drama scholarship to OSU.
And I was pledging Sigma Chi Chi so I went in their house
they had a piano player a bass player a guitar player and I was just learning to play the drums
self-taught so we formed a band ended up being the best band on the campus then we went to
California and made a deal with Epic Records and that's when the name of the band was Carp, C-A-R-P, which is a horrible name.
And then we broke up when I started acting because I had to leave the band to go do the stuff on the set.
And it was just a natural segue.
I see.
Now, you talked about taking drama. wait a minute one other thing i must say
the music that i played and she'll play gave me the inspiration and the knowledge of free openness
to do the buddy holly story and did you play drums with leon russell and willie nelson and
chris christopherson do i have that right yeah you do. And I wanted to ask you, you said you took drama lessons,
and you always hear stories about how actors prepare for a role.
Well, I never prepared for nothing,
because I think acting is the absence of acting.
I think it's believing the truth in the moment you're creating.
You know, back then in the old days, they were doing this.
In film, you have a lavalier mic and a mic here.
You talk like that.
Honey, listen to me.
I want to reach your ears with the softness of my whisper.
Woo!
That brings the audience very close into the heart of the players on screen.
If you were hired to do the Gilbert Gottfried story, how would you prepare?
Oh, dear.
I would have to study your childhood, you know, your authentic childhood,
and have an interview with your parents, and also your beautiful, significant other,
and people you've worked with.
And I would get that all in a line. And course we're not the same size we don't have the same color of hair
uh same color faces yeah but so what's in a color i don't see the color of someone i see the heart
of someone and that's a beautiful thing to go on. For you, I would see your heart. And I would see your emphatic nature to be just obnoxious.
You're so good at obnoxiousism.
I mean, celebrity apprentice talking to the executives.
If you're trying to do that, I'll give you a gun.
I can't do it.
I can't even keep my underwear on.
Okay.
That's uncanny.
It is uncanny.
Wow.
Okay, I want to ask you, smart man.
Okay.
Of minimum intelligence.
You've got me figured out.
Yeah, I know.
It's easy.
Yeah.
Where did the word uncanny come from?
I don't know. You're supposed to know. Well, I don uncanny come from? I don't know.
You're supposed to know.
Well, I don't.
Well, if you don't make it up, give me a good one.
It means before cans were invented, everything, all these green beans and things like that were uncanny.
It means they, because they couldn't be put in cans.
You sound like you're on the old Liars Club with Jack Barry.
On the Liars Club?
Making up definitions.
Am I correct, Gary?
Your poet?
Am I correct?
No.
Yes.
No.
No.
Uncanny has nothing to do with being in a can or not.
Well, that would be a homosexual reference
Homosexual reference would be riding a ferris wheel backwards with the underwear down
So if you don't indulge in anal sex
You're uncanny
Anal sex?
Yes
What does a can have to do with a rectum? you're uncanny. Anal sex? Yes.
What does a can have to do with a rectum?
I would think of like,
you know what? A can has been used for both breast and asses.
Sometimes you see a girl,
she has nice cans,
or look at that big round can.
What is a round ten?
Her ass, Gary.
Well, I'll meet you at round ten and we'll figure this out.
What does uncanny mean, Gary?
Uncanny means something that can't be understood by the way it's said.
Oh, interesting.
This means you can't understand the definition of what it truly is
because you're missing the fabric of its core, and that's uncanny.
Now, you told me the definition of relationship.
Yes.
And ebusyism.
Yes.
Could you repeat that?
Yes.
R-E-L-I-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P stands for really exciting love affair.
Turns into overwhelming nightmare.
Sobriety hangs in peril.
On the other hand, let's look at romance.
R-O-M-A-N-C-E.
Relying on magnificent and necessary compatible energy.
Hey!
That's what I mean.
It's impressive that you memorize all of these, Gary.
I don't memorize them.
I travel with cue cards.
There's 500 of them in here now.
I see.
Can I ask something about, I saw an interview with you and you were talking about how you
create a backstory for every character you play, like Mr. Joshua.
So you do prepare.
No, I don't prepare.
I don't prepare at all.
Mr. Joshua, the antagonist in Lethal Weapon, yeah.
Lethal Weapon.
I remember.
I'm not having a senior moment like Gilbert.
Okay.
Okay, Mr. Joshua, here's his back story.
He would walk through his grandmother's blood to get a postage stamp and never look at her.
That's the epitome of the definition of being cold in your heart and your eyes.
Do you do that with every character you play?
I do that with everyone I meet, buddy.
So you fucking lied to me and said you don't prepare.
That's not preparation.
Yeah, okay.
That's not preparation.
That's giving me the backbone of Mr. Joshua's emotional field.
Okay.
Could you give us the backbone of some of your other characters?
Like in Under Siege, you were this psycho who was going to...
Well, that was great.
John Lawton, who I saw the other night,
did a greeting called Whiplash that you all must see.
And he wrote a scene for me when Andy Davis, the director,
gave me a book about the USS Missouri going to combat zone.
When they cross the equator, all the first-year sailors have to do horrendous things.
And there's an executive officer that dresses up like a woman, and he's called Queen of the Wogs.
Wogs, W-O-G-S, which is short for Pollywog.
At the end of that day, all the first-year sailors ready for combat
are graduated into a shellback,
which is they have the right mental armor on them to face the enemy.
And I told Andy, I said, well, I got an idea from the book.
He said, yeah, what is it?
I'm going to kill the captain in drag.
Why?
Well, because crew doesn't like me.
I'm going to send for the Fosco.
And that's the deal.
I said, okay.
So I did it.
And I'm sitting there at the desk with a 44DD stuffed bra on the desk.
And my pantyhose around my hand
and the makeup on that I put on
myself. I said,
Tommy Lee Jones' character was
Stranix. Stranix,
look what I'm going through. Nobody
likes Commander Krill.
He needs to go to the hospital.
Something's wrong with him
in a mental way.
We've got to take care of this guy. We've got to take care of this guy.
We've got to take care of this officer.
Then I looked at Tom and he said, do I look like I need psychological evaluation?
And he said, not at all.
Boom, and we're out.
And the way I looked saying that, I belong in the padded room on the lower story of the mental institution, the way I looked.
And I bet you saw me like that and wouldn't have mind going out with me.
Maybe not.
So it's kind of like when they criticize an actor and they say you could see the wheels turning.
criticize an actor, and they say you could see the wheels turning.
I'll give you an example.
Kirk Douglas was sitting with Laurence Olivier.
And Kirk said, Laurence, I got this review.
This is a bad review.
Look what it's saying about me.
Look what it's saying about me.
Look what it's doing.
This is a horrible review.
And Olivier said,
My son, you must learn to get over the good reviews as fast as you can get over the bad reviews.
They're meaningless.
Yay!
That's from Lawrence Olivier, folks.
Here's one you would know.
What is the meaning of life?
You talking about Monty Python?
No, do you have any theory?
You talking about me and Mr. Creosote?
Mr. Creosote.
Yeah, he threw up until he bombed everybody in the restaurant with his vomit.
That's a big eater.
What's your feeling about, if I just had to ask you, the meaning of life?
If you, right off the bat.
The meaning of life is forever unlimited.
And it has everything to do with the freedom you hold in your heart
and the way you feel good about everything.
The way a smile makes you feel good about yourself and good to other people and other people will feel good one way
to do this smile technique is to get a kitchen timer for an egg it's one minute and when you put
the egg in the water you set up the chick kitchen timer for the egg.
It goes tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
And while that's going on,
you look in the bathroom mirror,
you're looking at yourself and you start laughing.
You might think this is stupid, God, this is stupid.
And then you laugh and about 25 seconds into it,
you see what you're doing to yourself
and you laugh for real at it and you're really laughing at yourself.
And then when ding, when the timer's over, ding,
you go outside and you're already automatically smiling.
And your aura, your rhythm, your vibration
is flowing in a way of compatibility
to others
it's smiling and laughing
life
is really
nothing on the earth is forever
but life is forever
because you don't die
and I've been on the other side twice
what was the other time other than the motorcycle
it's like explaining an orgasm
to a 10 year old
you ready
no on the other side it's uh you don't think you don't have emotions you don't
you just feel and you see forever but you're seeing with your spirit and you can go anywhere you want
to as fast as fast as a finger snap that means we could go from here to the three stars of orion's
belt and go around the three stars and be back to where you started from in less than a second
it is so pure and nothing but life over there in the spiritual realm and i've had angels
visit me i've had people who passed away visit me one day i was sitting on a bench out the back of
the house and patrick swayze who just passed away from pancreatic cancer i felt his energy and i saw
him a vision of him he flew right through me and right behind him was
my earthly father flew through me the spiritual realm is all around us now we're sitting in it
but the deviations life can give us no I don't do that I won't do that no no no you're thinking
without feeling and when you think without feeling you're not living life to its fullest example
of who you are and your truth and your core
and why you came here.
And the only reason we come to earth
to get in this dense body and have parents and peer groups
and go to schools where we went,
we're here for one reason,
and that's to find the truth of ourselves.
And when you find the truth of yourself, you automatically are your best friend. And that makes everyone
else your best friend. Because there's no judgment.
There's no, I don't know. There's none of that. Leave that alone. Put that away.
That's life. Freedom.
Now when you're dead, when you are.
Now when you're dead?
Yeah.
You don't die.
You don't.
But when you're in that other realm, is that total happiness?
Yeah.
It's not happy because, you know, happy is an emotion on earth.
Sadness.
That's an emotion on earth.
You don't have any of that over there.
You have what life is, which is freedom.
And the word freedom, F-R-E-E-D-O-M, I'm going to give you abuse for the word freedom.
F-R-E-E-D-O-M stands for facing real, exciting energy developing out of miracles.
And the miracle is the greatest freedom you can have.
And miracles and blessings are all around us.
You just got to reach up and catch them when they come down.
Now, here's something.
I'm not done.
I always, oh, go ahead.
Go ahead.
I'm kidding.
I just thought I'd pull you out.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Oh, no, don't be sorry.
Did you fart?
No.
What do your farts smell like?
To get personal.
You eat kosher food, don't you?
Cheer up, Gilbert.
This is all going to get better.
We will return to Gilbert Gottfried'stfried's amazing colossal podcast after this
now here's something i want to know oh finally well about heaven and stuff oh heaven yeah
if that's what you'd call it now it that's an earth word. Yes, but does sex exist after you die?
Because you're a spirit now.
You're not a physical being.
No, sex does not exist over there because you don't have to reproduce.
Earth is for reproduction.
Let's get together and multiply, reproduce, get all these people to work on the farm.
If you're a Mormon, you're going to have 30 kids so the farm can keep working.
Well, that's not.
Yeah, yes and no.
There's no sex over there.
Love over there is beyond love you feel here.
And you don't need sex.
You did a movie with someone we interviewed recently, Roger Corman.
Wow.
Yeah.
My first movie.
It was called Angels, Heart as They Come.
And it was me and Scott
Glenn. That's where Scott and I met.
We've done three movies together, Scott and I.
God bless Scott. You're great.
Good man.
And we had to...
I had a van.
I drove my van there.
There were no dressing rooms
you got dressed out in the woods
there's one little shack
without one wall
that was where the costumes were
everything was quick hitting fast
and dusty
and it was my first time
it was like great
it was like a quasi boot camp
for doing a movie
and it was a gift.
I called it the gift and the blessing to be able to be chosen to play Henry the Hippie.
And Charlie Deercock, wonderful actor, killed me.
And to play dead in your first movie you're doing, you have to be shot and die.
Man.
Gilbert and I loved Tony Curtis.
and you have to be shot and die.
Man.
Gilbert and I love Tony Curtis.
Gary, did you,
any special or fond memories of working with Tony Curtis
and Insignificant?
Nothing in my life is sad.
And the word sad, S-A-D,
that stands for
seeking another detour.
Huh?
Seeking another detour.
Yeah, Gary's wife is correcting him.
She's correcting him on an afternoon?
She's correcting abuseism.
Would you like to come on the mic and say what the...
Come on, Stephanie.
We want to hear your lovely voice.
I think Stephanie said seeking another defeat.
Well, that's what she's always doing.
But Tony Curtis.
Stephanie is beautiful.
Tony Curtis, okay.
That's the movie Insignificance I was talking about.
He played Senator Joe McCarthy.
I played the ball player.
Teresa Russell played the actress. Marilyn Monroe,
DiMaggio, and Emil.
Michael Emil, who never acted
before, but who looked just like Einstein with his hair.
So we did that movie together.
And Tony and I would go.
We hung out a lot together.
And I haven't seen him in a while, but we hung out a lot together after the movie.
And we were shooting in New York City, in significance.
And we were dressed in 1950 clothes,
and we went over to a sushi bar
and had sushi,
and I said,
one of the movies,
one of your works,
it's an honor to me to see
and to know you now,
something like a hot.
What was that like?
And he went,
oh, my God, oh, my God.
Oh, my God. And he went, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
I said, well, okay.
What do you mean, oh, my God?
And he said, looked at me and said, Marilyn Monroe.
I said, oh, yeah, she's really pretty.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
He said the love scene they did on the couch, Marilyn and Tony, she wanted to make it real and imagine her feeling him inside her.
And it just, boy, Tony said, I was up and at him in no time.
But there's no penetration of the women.
But still, again, I might as well have been
because Marilyn's taking a role, taking a performance,
taking the scene, and putting herself into it so deep
that that felt safe for her and her person,
her person Marilyn Monroe,
taking the character she's playing, the singer,
and the all-girl all girls man to take it
in that deep
in her mind in her heart
in her soul so Marilyn was
actually experienced Tony Curtis
fucking her in that
scene well so
she feels yeah
and that's what counts for
her Marilyn was misused She feels. Yeah. And that's what counts for her.
Marilyn was misused and mistaken and misled.
But boy, did she leave a mark.
I saw her in a movie last night, two nights ago, called Bus Stop.
And the freshness she has, the freshness, the energy, the excitement she has comes out of her face.
And she was the very first playmate for Hugh Hefner's Playboy. Now, were you
do you ever watch your own movies? Do you ever watch
my own movies? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do.
Yeah, I want to see what i've done which movie have you loved
yourself in i mean you thought which movie have you seen where you said wow i really did it that
time buddy holly story i saw it the other night and i hadn't seen it in a long time
and it's so pure where are you going you okay
come here Where are you going? No one. You okay? Yeah.
Come here.
Playing boy, Lindley.
No.
Now, what was it like working with Dustin Hoffman?
Oh, it was great.
Straight time.
Dusty was really supportive with me.
And that was the beginning of my career pretty soon.
Yeah.
I did Gumball Rally, Star is Born, Straight Time with Dustin, Big Wednesday, Buddy Holly.
All in a row without a day, without much time off.
And you, tell us more about A Star is Born.
What?
A Star is Born. A Star is Born. What? A Star is Born.
A Star is Burning?
A Star is Born.
Yeah.
Yes.
When's your birthday?
February 28th.
That's good.
That's when A Star is Born.
That's what I'll tell you about that.
Cheer up.
But the movie, A Star
Is Born. Oh yeah, what about it?
Chris Christopherson and Barbara
Streisand. What's the difference in who?
One's a man, one's a
woman. It's pretty easy to see.
Well, that's the question.
I wanted to know which one was the man
and which one was the woman. Which one was the man and which was the woman.
Which one was the man?
It had to be Chris.
Okay.
Even though Chris is also a girl.
You said that Barbara Streisand said something to you, like the way to direct you.
I'm telling you, I've never been told this before, and when she said it to me,
God, inside I just went like that because she
hit it right on the head after dailies one time we came out and she said bucey and i said yeah
she said i know what to do to get you to do things my way. And I said, what? Tell you the opposite.
And I went, oh my God.
I said, close,
but no cigar. But what I meant,
what was true is she hit the nail right on the head.
She's brilliant.
Give us an example of this.
What? Give us an example
of what a director could say
to you and how you'd react.
Oh, depends on what it is.
Well, if he said, be very sad, you're probably.
Okay, okay, no, no, they can't direct emotions.
Yeah.
The emotion comes from the line.
I had a line in Big Wednesday, and it's when the three of us were going to Mexico.
And I came out and said three words, surfboards, women, and guns.
And I said, what does that mean?
I directed John Milius.
What does that mean, surfboard, women?
What's my motivation there?
He said, you're talking about three of the best things in the world.
And I went, oh, yeah.
Simple direction comes from another direction.
But he's one of my buddies.
Spielberg, Milius, Terry Gilliam.
Oh, my gosh.
You work with some really iconic directors.
Milius, David Lynch, and Sidney Pollack as well,
in addition to Gilliam.
I'd go up to David Lynch.
We were doing a movie called Lost Highway.
And he had on the same khaki hat with a real long bill, a black shirt and khaki pants.
And I'd say, David, what are we doing today?
And he would look at me and pause and go, I don't know.
And that was it.
Pretty good direction.
You're on your own.
And you worked with, I'll just say some names to you.
Gene Hackman.
Gene Hackman.
Worked with Gene in the firm.
But we didn't have scenes together.
But he was there.
And when I met him in the, when you go to lunch,
when I met him at that line, it was like meeting royalty.
Gene Hagman, man.
It's just, whoa.
And Robert Duvall.
Robert Duvall.
He's an interesting, eccentric, beautiful artist.
I first met Robert Duvall when he was on screen
in To Kill a Mockingbird playing Boo Ratley.
Great.
We did a show called To Get Hairier.
Let's find Harry.
And Robert Ryan.
Robert Ryan is a very quiet, withdrawn man.
That was the beginning of my career, so I didn't know much about him, but now I do.
Man, that guy has been around the horn, Robert Ryan. Incredible actor.
Oh, Rod Steiger.
Had a scene with Steiger, sitting across from him.
Which movie? At the other house. Lolli Madonna War.
Okay. And Steiger was looking at me, and he prepared a sandwich on a piece of bread with ketchup and raisins.
And the mother, his wife, Ross Stager's wife, standing at the door was going to shoot me in the head with a squib blowing out my brain's hair.
And I had to wait.
This is tough.
I had to wait until that shot was fired I couldn't register any
expectation of anything that's sitting there like a frog on a log you know and when it came off I
went out and then when we had lunch I sat in the table next to Sam Peckinpah. Hmm, you know that throat.
And he gave me a good look, you know,
like he was impressed with what he saw.
And that's all that happened.
But I was impressed with, oh, look at me.
I got blood hanging.
I got my hair all out here with blood all over it.
That must be a very hard thing to do.
What?
When you know a squib, which is an explosive,
is going to blow blood out of the side of your head
and act like you don't know what's coming up.
What they do, they take a piece of leather about three inches long
and about two inches wide, and they put a quarter.
They glue a quarter on that piece of leather. Then there's
four holes in the corners of the leather on each point. They put that under your hair and take your
hair and weave it through the holes and tie it on your head. There's the quarter. Then they take the
splib, which is the blood chute. They put that on the top of the corner, then they take the wire to
that, run it down the back, down my shirt,
and out my leg and over there
so the guy can go
to set off the squib.
It's
a lot harder than crossword puzzles.
I'll tell you that.
You know, Gary Gilbert and I have a
we love Jack Elam, the old character actor.
I think the first time I ever saw you was in the show The Texas Wheelers.
If you could look him up.
Or he was always that actor who had an eye pointing in the other direction.
You know what he did?
He did a lot of shows on, he did Gunsmoke shows there at Studio City Studios.
And they'd go across the street and play liar's poker.
Jack was a brilliant mathematician.
And he had that one eye.
He got stabbed in the eye with a pencil when he was 12.
That's how that happened for Jack.
But he would win.
I'd say, he'd come back from lunch. I'd say, Jack, how'd you do?
$85.
See, now him getting stabbed.
He would have little bottles of clear gin.
You know, you see these, you know how the set is on, it's a bunch of boards like this and like this.
And they stick out four inches.
You see those little bottles empty sitting on those.
Then at 5 o'clock, he'd go to Brown.
With his gym beam or something.
It's so funny.
God bless you, Jack Elam.
I love you, man.
God bless you in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
How life works.
Him getting stabbed in the eye.
Jack Elam getting stabbed in the eye with a pencil when he was a kid would, you know, catapult his career.
Oh, Mel Gibson.
Do you have something to say about Mel Gibson?
Men's history?
Good enough. Men's history? Good enough.
Men's history.
Started with Adam.
Who writes the damn questions here?
Yes.
Men's history?
Yes.
Men's history.
Is this history 101?
When you co-starred with men's history.
When you co-starred with Mel Gibson.
Oh, that guy.
Yeah, he is the definition of men's history, that guy there.
No, Mel's great.
We had such a great time doing Lethal Weapon.
And that fight scene at the end, it took five nights to film from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.
And it was full speed, four martial arts, cameras everywhere.
The water coming out of the fire hydrant was pointed the
drops were pointed at both ends as big as your little finger hitting you pretty hard and there's
one shot of us before we we had to start the fight scene in a certain position in the fight scene
and we had to start on the ground so there's a picture picture of Mel and I, there's a picture of Mel and I
spooning, you know,
like gay lovers of Fire Island.
We're laying there all
turtled up together.
But did action?
It went ahead.
It was great working with Mel.
Great, great.
I work with him any time.
He's very smart.
He's got a good way of thinking.
And of course,
we all go through our things in life that transfer us into a better place.
And that's what he's done.
Tell him why you were spooning.
Huh?
Tell him you were spooning to keep warm.
Tell him why you were spooning Mel Gibson.
Oh, whoa.
Gary Busey's wife leaned over to him and said, tell him why you were spooning Mel Gibson. Gary Busey's wife leaned over to him and said, tell him
why you were
spooning Mel Gibson.
It was a way to
understand that we
enjoyed how we inserted each other's
suppositories.
We were
spooning because it was freezing cold
and we were damn near
shirtless and we spooned because we were freezing cold, and we were damn near shirtless,
and we spooned because we were, the body heat kept you warm.
At least that's your side of the story.
Is that what you want to hear?
Go on.
All right.
Look.
I've gotten this far without Gary killing me.
So I feel.
One thing that I really liked in the beginning of my career was when a show that was on the air for 18 years was going off the air. And the show I was on would be the last show.
And it was called The Busters. Busters. B-U-S-T-E-R-S.
And it was about these Bronco Busters. And I fell off the horse, my horse in the show and hit my
head on the fence post. And I died in the streets because my buddy, John Beck, the actor, we were
going to make money and go build a ranch in Montana.
And I died with my eyes open and one eye crossed.
And they called me back in and said, it's against TV standards to die with your eyes open on TV.
Wow.
I didn't know that.
That's great.
They said, Gary, are you ready?
And I said, yeah.
And here's what I did when they said action say action action
he's squinting his eyes basically like me said relax Gary and I did it so I
died twice on gun smoke so back then you couldn't die with your eyes open on TV. That's right. Wow.
Now, look. You know what wow stands for? Okay.
Speaking of Buseyisms.
Walking on water.
Stephanie. That's Stephanie's Buseyism.
These you can all
get with Gary Busey's
Buseyisms on
GaryBusey.com
Yeah, yeah.
Come there and we'll send you one that you want.
And then there's going to be a
book published this year
sometime called
Spiritual Lyrics
a.k.a. Buseyisms.
And Gary,
before we go, tell our listeners about your
foundation.
Kawasaki Disease Foundation.
Buseyfoundation.org.
Kawasaki Disease is very, very, very much alive.
And we're here to put it out by research, laboratory tests,
and get these kids and their families together to get to the doctor fast.
Anyway, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
I must tell you, Gilbert Gottfried, in your Amazing Colossal Podcast,
that this is a joy for me to be asked up here by you
to pontificate the meaning of nonsense syllables.
Hey, can you figure out what Gilbert means in your way of buceuses?
Oh, man, I'm telling you.
G-I-L-B-E-R-T.
Oh, you don't do buceuses with a name.
Yeah.
Proper name, no.
Oh, no.
Okay, so this has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast
I've been here, kind of, over the phone with my co-host Frank Santopadre
What do you mean, kind of?
Well, he's not sitting next to me
I know, he's absent, he's not here
Yes, well, he's here in voice and spirit
Take it with a laugh
Anyway
Nice chatting with you guys Yes, well, he's here in voice and spirit. Take it with a laugh. Anyway.
Nice chatting with you guys.
Nice chatting with you, Frank.
You're very good.
Shut up, Gilbert.
You're a very good sport, Frank.
So are you, buddy.
You gave me a lot of feeling to deal with, and they were good feelings.
We thank you for giving us your time and doing this for us.
And when I come to New York, we're going to have to go out and shout insults at people wearing zippers.
Fantastic.
That leaves out the Amish.
You're right.
Okay.
While I'm trying to figure out what this interview was, we have been interviewing the great Gary Busey.
Yeah, I think nothing was said, nothing was heard,
nothing was done.
It's like every one of my podcasts, basically.
I think this is exceptional
and people will be writing in to get
eight by tens of you.
Let's hope.
Yeah, let's hope. No, let's hope.
No, it's already happening.
Hope.
H-O-P-E.
Another business for you.
Yes.
The word hope, H-O-P-E, stands for heavenly offerings prevail eternally.
Oh, wow.
Now, what about hate?
What?
Hate.
Hate. H-A-T-E.
Holding a treacherous energy.
Wow.
How about anger?
Okay.
Anger.
Another negative grievance explaining rage.
And that is you.
Gilbert, I mean, not you for me. Thank you, Gary Busey. Thanks, Gary. And that is you.
Gilbert, I mean.
Not you for me.
Thank you, Gary Busey.
Thanks, Gary.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Are you paying me now?
With the check in the mail?
I'm not kidding. Can you do an imitation of me before we go?
Yeah.
This is Gilbert Gottfried.
I'm talking with Gary Busey.
I can't believe the guy's got teeth bigger than a graveyard in Alphagatta.
What did you say?
Alphagatta.
Where's Alphagatta?
I don't care.
Okay, back to what we were talking about when we were talking about me.
I want to let you know how I brush my teeth in the dark.
That's it. I'm out.
Chirrup. That's it. I'm out. Cheer up.
Keep saying cheer up.
Keep saying cheer up.
I'm cheered up.
Get five smooth stones.
What?
Get five smooth stones.
Say it?
Huh? Say it or get it. No, get. Get five smooth stones. Say it. Huh?
Say it or get it.
No, get.
Get five smooth stones.
Stones.
Stones.
And it will come to you what to do with them.
Okay.
Well, you've got your homework assignment, ladies and gentlemen.
There's a lot of pressure.
Okay. Do you know where that came from? Oh, gentlemen. It's a lot of pressure. Okay.
Do you know where that came from? Oh, no.
You want to know where it came from?
I'm scared to ask.
Oh, do you ask?
Okay, where did it come from?
From me to you.
What is that?
So life's that simple?
Life is simple.
You're on my cord.
Oh, I beg you.
You're on my cord.
I'm not breathing.
Can't breathe.
So did I say this was...
I think you did.
He didn't. He's trying to find out which vowel to use next.
trying to find out which vowel to use next.
Did I say, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast? How many times do you have to say that?
You think people aren't hearing you?
I don't know.
I'm repeating myself.
You know, it's funny to see you repeat yourself,
because the more you repeat yourself,
the more you forgot what you're repeating.
See, that's true.
So I won't repeat it.
Oh, go ahead.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, Gary Yeats. See, that's true So I won't repeat it Oh, go ahead Okay
Ladies and gentlemen, Gary Hughes
Thank you, it's been an honor being here