Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Classic: Rosanna Arquette
Episode Date: August 10, 2023GGACP celebrates the birthday (August 10) of actress and director Rosanna Arquette by revisiting this in-depth interview from 2018. In this episode, Rosanna discusses the vindictiveness of critics, th...e pros and cons of autograph shows, the vanishing haunts of New York City and her 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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TV comics, movie stars, hit singles and some toys.
Trivia and dirty jokes, an evening with the boys.
Once is never good enough
For something so fantastic
So here's another Gilbert and Franks
Here's another Gilbert and Franks
Here's another Gilbert and Franks
Colossal classic
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 the equally amazing Frank Santopadre.
Hi, this is 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 & 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's 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 shmuley
do you celebrate do you celebrate the high holidays? 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 am. You know, it was interesting, this trip. It has changed a lot.
Sure.
And it really feels...
I just said, oh, my God.
I'm alarmed.
I say, oh, my God, a lot.
Yeah, see, 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, guest.
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, 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. 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. My, you know, that dark sense of humor that my father has and I think all the Arquettes have
is part of our,
part of our, you know,
our blood.
And 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 kind of was
a little bummed out about.
Very strange.
But, you know,
especially now,
I was like, what?
He, he, he, you know how Patton had that?
You know Patton?
Yeah.
General Patton, yeah.
General Patton had deja vu and felt like he 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
there, I can't read. 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 battlefield is where they were, that my parents conceived her.
And one thing I have to get out of the way is I remember years ago watching the Executioner song on TV.
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.
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 it,
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 watched 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 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
um the dark secret or harvest home with betty davis and it was sean
penn's father leo penn who directed that film so when i went in there uh 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 then I got the role that movie
scared the hell out of me when it was creepy right an intense movie was yeah
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 you know, she's tough. She knew her stuff, but she first, 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.
René Auberjonois. Oh, yes. He's a wonderful actor. We love him. I'll go back just for a second to go back to Harvest House. Rene Aubergineau.
Oh, yes.
He's a wonderful actor.
We love him.
And Norman Lloyd, who is still with us.
101 or 102?
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.
And then 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 like
Crow Haven. 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 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
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 but betty davis sits you in her lap at one point and 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 you know 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 a teeniest little cubby
hole 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.
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.
I love other actresses. I love when they
do great work. It always inspires
me.
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 dad,
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 did the Shirley show.
That's right.
You were Shirley Jones' daughter.
My first,
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.
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.
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
oh where he's an acting
teacher yeah
I like that show he's a good guy
we had him on this show he's a sweetheart
he's a mensch so 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 the goodbye girl and everything. just and just 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
happened 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 dishevel everything. 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 or 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.
Yeah.
I hope they'll tune into this TV show I'm just doing.
Tell us about, 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.
Yes.
She was in Hall Pass. I'm playing her mom. Right, okay, she's funny. Carly Craig. She worked with the Farrelly brothers. Yes, exactly. 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 hadn'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.
Stuff in the village, like bombed out buildings.
How old is she?
What?
How old is she?
She, well, she died recently.
She was 66.
But, yeah, that was what she was fascinated by old New York.
She loved.
She captured really historical documents.
Well, this is really wonderful that you have this.
You put together a beautiful book or something.
Yeah.
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 doesn't exist anymore. We'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?
I don't know what it was 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 Cindy 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 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
a clip of it
the other day
and I was like,
oh my,
there I was
with red lipstick on.
It was just so ridiculous.
And I, you know, you didn't
in those days, I mean, the makeup artists,
how they wanted me to look and
it was 20s, but
silly. But you've never been a fan of
critics. I found that in my research.
Oh, oh. You don't, you don't. I don't
read them anymore. You don't read them anymore. Well, after
after Rosanna Arquette
is,
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 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.
Who wrote that?
Who wrote that?
You know who wrote that?
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've been trying to keep my shirt on ever since.
It's a great story.
By 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 motherfuckers.
Just like just pounding the floor, sobbing.
They killed him.
They killed him.
She was it was terrible.
And I impacted me in a huge way.
I was 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.
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 um in the 60s with the vietnam anti-vietnam
war movement uh is are these students the parkland students and the young kids oh yeah and they're
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. 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?
Yeah, it was called, what the hell?
I Blame Dennis Hopper.
Oh, oh, oh.
Yeah, I believe she lived in a similar circumstance.
Well, we were in the south, though, 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 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 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.
Well, it's great for me because I'm so ADD.
You guys are...
It's the perfect location for you.
Right, exactly.
And I have pretty bad...
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.
Yeah.
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 crazy, open, weird, vagina-looking wound
in the back of my leg.
It's a very, 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 Gattea.
Good cast. Great cast.
Cool cast.
And Debra Unger.
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 on the jury. He was the president.
I think he was the president, but Bertolucci loved it.
So they had this.
Makes sense.
It 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 wondering if if you're going to lactate and I was like and I don't know what claim 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 cause it was too weird
yeah
it was definitely
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 like it.
I was watching some of your Coachella interviews.
Oh.
You're very good at it.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, I have a...
And the docs, too, which we'll plug. How did you get the Coachella interviews? They're hard to find, damn it. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I have a... And the docs too, which we'll plug.
How did you get the Coachella interviews?
They're hard to find, damn it.
How did you get those Coachella?
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 Diane Lane and Jane Fonda.
Yeah.
But they're hard to find.
I don't understand.
Searching for Deborah Winger.
Is hard to find?
Well, you can get a DVD of it.
That's such a joke.
You know, I wish Showtime would at least, 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 We Are 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 and motherhood.
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 um she uh 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 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,
a 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.
That's terrible.
I don't know why.
I searched Apple TV.
My wife and I went on a wild quest for it.
I don't know why.
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, actually.
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 Dead Women.
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.
Burt Bacharach
who Gilbert and I
obsess about.
I know.
And so all the rockers,
I mean,
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, so.
Okay.
Yeah.
No, it's a good one.
Okay.
Yeah.
Will you make more docs?
Now that you've got these two under your belt.
I would like to.
I have a movie I'd like to direct, which kind of is about basically growing up in the commune
with a little bit in that time
and then goes to my mother's death, you know, dying of cancer.
I'd 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...
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 Ballhaus shot that.
Yeah, it looks great.
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.
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, Too.
Yes, Yeah.
But to talk about After Hours for a second and your knack for comedy, which is, you know, in the genes.
And I don't know about your great-grandfather.
We know he was a vaudevillian.
Yeah.
Was he a comedian too?
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.
But that scene and just you're so alluring in that scene but hilarious at the same time.
It's a crazy movie.
I could see.
Well, the thing about Martin Scorsese, and I'm sure 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 and then really gives you the freedom I mean he rehearses you rehearse you rehearse it like a play but then you then you
have the freedom to do your thing and whatever that is and it just like then it's like 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.
Yes.
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.
I know his mother was always popular.
Well, she's doing the off-camera voice in The King of Comedy.
She's there.
Rupert, lower it.
And she always cooked and had yummy King of Comedy. 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
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.
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 movie a four hour mini series I did
in Poland
called The Wall
The Wall yeah
with Eli Wallach
with Eli Wallach
right
Lisa Eichhorn
yes
remember her
sure
Tom Conti
great actor
Rachel Roberts
uh
all these people
you work with
Rachel you really
and
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 Dunn.
He's just most...
Because he has stories for days because of the way he was raised, too.
Of course, his parents.
He grew up in Hollywood, really grew up in Hollywood.
So he has, like, you know, character grant stories.
I mean, he has great stories.
Wow.
Yeah, definitely get him on.
Oh, see there, I just said wow.
That's okay.
Yeah, 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 a 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,
and 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 a great tip.
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.
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 you know that he doesn't think she does.
Yeah.
And she knows he doesn't.
Paulette.
Paulette.
And you know that she most likely will never recover from that.
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 kept going and i just let me do my thing yeah it's the most i love to work with him
again at this point in my life yeah i i i really would love to work with him again um who knows
we'll see the the uh 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 You remember the trilogy, New York Stories. Yeah, and I remember. It's 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 lessonsons, 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 don'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 was, it's, um, 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. 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.
Yeah.
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.
And you get three glimpses of New York that's gone, mostly gone.
Yeah, right.
The loft that we shot on used to be um where tower records was
right across the street from tower records which is now when i was there yesterday and it was at
one time tower records what was i doing there yeah i don't know do you remember i don't know
i don't remember what it was we did all this press yesterday so but i ended up in being in
the old tower record building oh 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 you with any hope.
I know.
Well, I love,
like I like a good bookstore
and, you know,
hit the Strand or any...
Colony Records is gone.
Yeah.
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 lostores. Sure, sure. Used bookstores. All over the place.
It's so depressing.
We've also lost the book chains.
We lost the Brontano's.
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?
Oh, here in New York?
No, in L.A.
Oh, in L.A.
They have a Spotted Pig in L.A.?
There was not the Spotted Pig.
I know.
Bourgeois Pig.
Bourgeois Pig. Bourgeois Pig. And there was a bookstore. They're still there. Itgeois pig. Pig with 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.
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,
which 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'd 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.
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 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
of 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 liked to work with. Rosanna, tell us. I loved working with David Bowie.
He was such an art,
he was an art poet,
connoisseur of every kind of,
he turned me on to,
he turned me on to,
oh my gosh,
he turned me on to the Smashing Pumpkins.
Okay.
Some really good bands that he taught me,
he turned me on He turned me up.
You were 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.
That movie.
Yeah.
And he was 25 years old
when he wrote,
when he directed this film.
So,
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, and we
hung out a lot, and we were great
friends, and he turned
me on to the the artist odd nerdrum
you know odd you're not he's a norwegian a norwegian painter and uh you know we used to
be really really close and then i was so sad i ran and i ran into him through the years
saw him and i went to one of his shows in in.A., I don't know, maybe 15 years ago.
And then, you know, that was a sad thing.
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 French 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 wife very much. Nancy. Nancy's sweetheart. And I love his family.
We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast after this.
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 Gilbert the clip.
You have that?
It'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'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.
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 to mistake him. That's so funny.
I was going to ask if you interacted with him.
But I didn't like, probably I was just,
I didn't get it.
Your second episode, you were with Alan Thicke,
who was a friend of Gilbert's. 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, Karachi'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.
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.
Interesting.
He thanks me on the record.
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 Piccaro, thinking we were married, but we weren't.
Oh, interesting.
But that's me.
You're like a showbiz zealig, Rosanna.
You've been around.
You've been a witness.
I know, I have.
For all of this great stuff
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
and I was a kid
I don't
I can say that
I don't remember anything
but
they brought me
by the way that was July 25th 1965 tomorrow 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, 1965.
Tomorrow is the anniversary.
What is that?
1965, so yeah.
Wow.
53.
Wow, I said wow, see?
53 years since Dylan went electric.
I say wow all the time.
And that was like a scandal.
Yeah. For Dylan to die electric.
They were so angry.
Yeah, I just, I don't remember any of that,
but my mom always told me that you were there.
We were there.
The Philadelphia Folk Festival they would do every year,
and 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 the fairy tales,
all different 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 founder
of 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.
So they did the show, and there is an album of it.
It was on Broadway.
I want to revive it.
I just 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.
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 know.
I remember them like your dad.
I remember them as a face turning up on sitcoms.
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.
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 SOB 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 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 I, and so, 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 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. Um, I was young and I just, he's a collar agent. Uh, you know, he, he, he intimidated me. Like I was going to lose a job if I didn't do it. I mean, it's a
sad story. I mean, he, 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.
He is, you know, he is a master director.
A lot of rehearsal.
We rehearsed, you know, the crap out of it.
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
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 it really is a good movie.
Alexis is in that movie.
Alexis is my trans sister that died of AIDS two years ago.
Yes.
Almost two years ago yes almost two years
before we go
do you want to tell us
anything
what else do I have
on the cards
you want to tell us
about 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
Jason was fantastic
but Hal was my pal
Hal was my pal Hal was my pal
and
we hung out
we hung out
well some
my favorite movies
ours too
and the world
Gilbert Law is the last detail
I mean
that's
oh come on
and Landlord
and there's Lee
but for me
being there
Shampoo
yeah
I mean
yeah
Lee again
yeah
yeah
Shampoo and being there with Ileana's grandfather yeah she did Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Lee again. Yeah. Yeah.
Shampoo.
And being there with Eliana's grandfather.
Yeah.
She did.
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.
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 really did.
And I remember seeing him and having to go to in front of a judge.
What is it called?
Arbitrator.
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
and 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
and he sent me Summertime he wanted me to see Summertime 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 Catherine Hepburn
in Venice.
He sent me...
That's the one
when she fell in the fountain.
Yes.
Without the ear.
Forever.
Because it was so...
She got the ear problem.
Did she have vertigo?
I don't know what happened.
She was...
I was with...
She was Rosanna Brazzi.
Yeah.
She got sick. She got sick because of soap. She was with... She was Rosanna Brazzi. Yeah. She got sick.
She got sick because of...
She had something with her eyes.
It may have been her eye.
I thought it was...
It was so polluted.
It was a bacteria that got in and they could never get rid of it.
Yeah, 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, produced that.
Oh, my God.
I'll find it.
Yeah.
And you have to find
the Tower Records.
Did Christine do that movie?
I guess,
or she did it,
went on,
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.
He did.
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
my favorite up right up there with marty so tell us uh and felini yeah and and and i know you're
like powell and press burger and well i do love the red shoes i know and um you've seen stairway
to heaven haven't you is it the one with Niven? Yes. Yeah.
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.
The Matter of Life and Death was Stairway to Heaven. They changed the
title. That's where the Led Zeppelin
got that. That's right.
That's right. Very good. Very good. Tell us about your projects, your various projects... That's where the 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, when Alexis
died on September 11th, it will be two years. It was really devastating for our whole family and
really, you know, losing our parents,
but Alexis was just the light and the 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 foundation. So the Alexis Arquette Family Foundation
and then we partnered
with Dr. Astrid Hagar
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
and you know
a very marginalized community
and they need help.
So people can go online if they want to support it and learn about it.
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 to be able to do that and it's it's very new but
the 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. For the trans community, for women.
For women. And we all are still at it.
And for justice.
And for justice, the most important thing right now for all of us 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.
We could do that.
I'm going to send you the documentary.
You'll like it because it's a good one. I could just sit here and talk about your favorite albums., I could too. We could do that. I'm going to send you the documentary. You'll like it
because it's a good one.
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 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.
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 Piccaro 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 goes, I want to. David took me. It was They were making the record. He goes,
David took me. It was like 3 in the morning.
He goes, I want to play you something.
He played the song for me.
I was like, oh, that's neat.
It was inspired. Use my name.
There you go.
That's followed you your whole life.
Yeah.
They would do that.
For better or worse.
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.
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 to it. What a a good one. Yeah. Another life. A long, long time ago. Another lifetime.
I'm still really close
What a transcendent talent
he is.
With his daughters.
I'm really close
with his daughters.
And he has grandchildren
now, so I'm, yeah.
A whole different world.
I got to see him
inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in Brooklyn.
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, Arkansas.
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.
Our director from the whole 90 yards.
Yeah, that was fun.
That was, oh, wait, wait.
Ah, 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
is 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
they talk like that
you know like not that you know I worked really hard with somebody, and they talked like that.
You know, like not that.
You know, 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
remembered 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.
What movie is this?
Bergman's Daughter? Oh, that's my God. What movie is that?
The Birdman'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 are your favorite performances 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 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. 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
just to relax your body
you know like
when you see parodies of actors
you know rolling their heads
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 I get very judgmental.
But always going back to the truth.
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. Just cringe? 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 fun. Matthew Mod, that was fun. That's funny.
Matthew Modine's first movie.
That's right.
Yeah, that was his first performance.
I worked with Matthew Modine in a movie called Funky Monkey.
There you go.
You know he got good reviews for that one.
That movie never was released.
I never saw it.
It wasn't released.
It escaped.
He was kind of really creepy and good in Stranger Things, that television show.
I'd like him to marry to the mob.
Yeah.
He had a good career.
Is your daughter still acting? She's doing fashion right now. Yeah. Is your daughter still acting?
Your daughter's... She's doing fashion right now.
Okay.
Figuring it out.
She's really a wonderful actress,
and I think if she wanted to go back into...
She did two movies with James Franco
and then decided not to work anymore, so...
I see.
But I don't know.
I think she just...
She liked him very much, but I don't know. I think she just, she 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'd 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. 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
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 Gayden um who's
a canadian actress wonderful actress and then i did puppy love which is coming out um and i'm
playing uh hopper penn's mother in this with paz del huerta and hopper penn and uh some really good
a lot of good actors in there. Who else is in there?
And then I have a film called Holy Lands,
which is Amanda Stier's,
a French director with Jonathan Riesmeyer 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, 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 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 that.
But I really did, I was inspired by a few books,
and 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, and that's why she's on her Turner Classic movies.
I got Ben Mankiewicz and I have become, you know, friendly.
We should have Ben on this show, too.
Definitely should have.
There's a guy that knows.
And talk about him.
Yeah, everything.
Story's forever.
And a famous family.
Mankiewicz, I love him.
Yeah, and then some.
That would be a really good one. Why don't you just go out to L.A. sometimes and just And a famous family. Mangled. I love it. I'm joking. Yeah, and then some. That would be a really good one.
Why don't you just go out to L.A. 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 on 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 you.
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 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.
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 Toddess 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 had chosen.
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 because i really at one point i i 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
um tree grows in brooklyn sure because oh yes great one oh and man that's it and i'd splinter
in the grass again yeah yeah it again? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
And the streetcar.
Yeah.
We were going to do Brando's story.
Yeah.
I love a 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 comedy.
Well, the listeners of this show say that.
Yeah.
They say Gilbert doesn't like comedies.
It's funny.
Yeah.
So what am I?
I can watch over and over again Some Like It Hot.
Right.
You know.
That's great.
We talked about wilder films on here too.
We used to do many episodes on Thursdays.
We just talk about movies we loved
and we talk about Ace in the Hole
and we 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 that's just –
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're to put in a different way.
And I loved this one is Inside Daisy Clover with Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Christopher Plummer.
Never seen it.
You've got to see it.
Did Robert Mulligan make that picture?
Yes.
You have to see.
No.
Yeah, he did.
Yeah.
Pakula produced it. Alan Pakula. Have you seen it? No, I've not seen it. You have to see, no, 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.
No, it's what, it's really great.
Ruth Gordon is in it.
The best.
Harold Lamont 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
yep
do you think
that movies
I know movie theaters
are closing up
like crazy
yeah
it's
no do you think movies are ending That movies, I know movie theaters are closing up like crazy.
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, and that's their, like Netflix,
and they're turning it into that where they're going to have original programming,
and, you know, 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 were all the directors i got to work with and you work with
great directors i did beresford and huh bruce beresford oh that's and hal ashby and uh well
bruce well that was we're talking about because that was that was a little kind of favor
Catherine Keener
and Jane
found her
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 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 on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley having a salad.
I was going to go to an audition,
and there was Marlon Brando sitting across from me with his, I think, then wife.
I think I was about 20, and I went.
I love him
so much
and I just kept
I kept staring
and I'm staring
and I'm just staring
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 was
Mr.
Mr.
I just want to tell you
that
like I was just
a gushing
did he know who you were
no no no because I was and he goes thank you 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, 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
pretty cool
he has an island you know that Mike Medavoy
had his
estate
and he
his island in Tahiti
is now this beautiful resort that 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 reason he
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 and in the woods, in the jungle.
An interesting man, an interesting life.
Yeah, and then if you get down to 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 Your Life, what is that?
This is Your Life. This is Your Life.
This is Your Life.
I know a little bit about his relationship with his father.
That really, you could see how it really affected his psyche.
Very much so.
On that note, should we not leave on that note?
Yes.
We'd say we have to leave on something funny.
Wow. leave on that note yes we'd say we have to leave on something funny how much how many times we say wow and 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.
Right.
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 God's amazing.
Amazing.
Amazing.
It's very Californian.
I'm not Californian.
Now amazing will be a new drinking game.
Oh, exactly.
It's right in the title of the show. How many times can we say amazing? This will be a new drinking game. Exactly. How many times in your honor can I 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.
Oh, my God.
I didn't know that.
Wow.
I didn't draw that connection.
Holy shit. It's true. 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.
Scratch this.
Please do come back.
Wow.
Thanks for squeezing us.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Thanks for squeezing us into your schedule. Thank you for squeezing us. Oh my gosh. Thanks for squeezing us into your schedule.
Thank you for having me.
Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and 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.
Get up 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 into the groove
Boy, you've got to prove your love to me
Yeah, get on your feet
Yeah, step to the beat
Boy, what will it be?
You've got to get into the groove
Boy, you've got to prove your love to me Bye. Get into the groove, boy, you've got to groove Come to me, yeah
Get up on your feet, yeah
Step to the beat, you're up in the beat
Got to groove, got to groove
Boy, you've got to groove