SmartLess - "Peter Berg"

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Put down the sugar– we have the wonderful Peter Berg. A rash, a seething ball of confusion and rage, and a love for the game. Happy New Year, Listener. It’s an all-new SmartLess. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

For resources and to support those affected by the California wildfires, go to smartlis.com slash wildfires. Hey guys, I just want to say welcome to all our fans overseas. I don't think there are any. Hang on a second. I don't think we've ever done a welcome to our overseas fans. Wherever you are, I know we get a lot of listeners and this is not a bed we get a lot of listeners in Iran and I will say we do have a huge listenership there we have a some listeners in in Germany we have some French listeners

Bonjour, ça va? UK, Canada, Australia. Well Canada is not over NEC but look at it. Okay sorry. And so but certainly the people that are friends down in Australia down under we have a lot of fans down there. How are you? A lot of fans in Brazil the home of the Brazilian and so just to all of our fans welcome to Smartless. Lattice. Smart. Lattice. Smart.

Lattice. Yeah, God, that was. Yeah, he's barely with us. Stupid Sean didn't know we had a record today. What did we interrupt, Sean? Were you in the middle of toasting Pop-Tart? No, I wish. I still have my things in, my trays in. Take, oh, yeah, take.

It's not your trays, it's, is that Invisalign? Yeah, that's what I mean. Or is it just a bite, is it like a bite stick? No, I have one more tray to go. And then what, what are you working towards? Perfect teeth for when they lay you in the coffin? Is that what it is? Why'd you choose to do it in the last third of your life?

They were pretty jacked, they were getting real jacked. No, they really weren't. You're just running out of shit to fuck with. Well, this is true, this is true. No, I panicked, I had a whole other thing and then I just got the text and I was like, oh my, there's no words, it's like getting a text saying. It's like you were sleeping through your alarm clock.

Absolutely, or getting a text that says, where you at? You're on your way? Yeah. I'm like, oh my God. What do you guys do? How do you guys not miss appointments on a day? I usually don't. Do you, but do you, but why?

Why do you not miss them? Is it because you look at your calendar app the night before or morning of? Night before. Night before, yeah. Night before, and I get an email the night before as well from people I work with that say, here's what you got coming up tomorrow.

I do a week. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're getting an email from people you work with that they send, so this is from your executive assistant. From Sweet Liz. And they say, hey this is from your executive assistant. From Sweet Liz. And they say, hey boss, boss man, here's what's coming up for you tomorrow.

I don't make her talk to me like that, I'm not like you. She sends me an email Sunday night, I get week at a glance. Oh nice. And she does. Like it's a TV show. Yeah, I get week at a glance and she sort of says, this is what's coming up in the next week, and sometimes even if it's a busy month and she sort of says, this is what's coming up in the next week,

and sometimes even if it's a busy month, she'll be like, this is what's coming up. Yeah, but you can't do that yourself. I kind of do that too. Hashtag relatable. I could do it myself. By the way, you're the call my assistant guy. I never say that.

No, I, where do Wush says that? You do. I make, I look at my own calendar. She'll put stuff on my calendar, but I will give myself a week at a glance. A day at a glance. Talk to the assistants, you say that, I've heard you say it a million times.

Listen, I love you. There are very few people who love you more than I do. I love you a lot. Thanks, Sean. But you're made up of your nothing but blind spots. Sean, do you have an assistant? Sean laughed at it too. You know what, he loves you too. Do you have an assistant? Sean laughed at it too. Do you have an assistant, Sean?

I do, yes. It helps my life. Do you not know who his assistant is? Hang on. JB? No, I don't. How do you not? Why do I not? Because I know Liz and I know Bloom. Wait, what's his or her name?

Nick. Why have I never met Nick or ever heard of Nick? Because you're not, this is what I'm saying, because you're living in a blind spot, bro. Hey, Wayne, keep your voice down. I'd love it if your name was Wayne. I know, Wade. Only thing better would be Wade.

If my name was Wade. I had a buddy named Wade, Wade Wilson. Hi, Wade. Wait, what's been, Sean, how you been doing? Are you okay? Great. I just, I'm still frazzled about that being late. You're frazzled, but how are you in general? Oh, thanks for asking.

I'm really good. Are you? Yeah. Why, something I should know? No, I couldn't tell the other night. Like I just, I feel like it's a very, nothing to do with what's going on in the, I don't mean like sort of,

No. I just mean that like in general, it's a weird time. For me, it's kind of a weird time. I woke up yesterday with, and I don't get this a lot, I had like general anxiety. About? I don't know, I couldn't explain it. Low grade?

Yeah, kind of low grade and I couldn't shake it and I don't know and I'm not really made that way in the sense that like, I feel really lucky that, I think I've mentioned this before, Downey once said, nobody wakes up in the morning happier to be themselves than you. And it's sort of true. That's kind of true, yeah.

But I do. But you're not bright enough to be concerned about things. I think so, I think that's probably true. It takes a lot of intelligence to really see all the problems that could come your way. I think that's true. Or it's just that everything's worked out. Mm-hmm.

But it's one of the two. But we had a wonderful conversation on Saturday around the table, I loved that. We had a really great conversation with our friend Danny Dees, whom we all love and adore. But you know, sometimes, so I think that the contrast when I'm not feeling great is so, is I really feel it because. Usually you're 72 and breezy.

Yeah, yeah, and it was weird, man. And I kind of took all day and I was like, and I was just trying to, I don't know, I was looking to redirect all day. I was like, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And how about today? Did you wake up back to it today? Yeah, a little bit better today.

Little bit better. Can I tell you what it was? Because I had the same thing yesterday. It was the sugar. You think so? It's sugar, I swear to God. Oh, that's interesting. It's fucking, we had that big fat fucking carrot cake

and God, was it good? And I was a disaster yesterday. Really? But it was Will's cheat day and everybody had a little piece and I was a disaster yesterday. Really? But it was Will's cheat day, and everybody had a little piece of cake. Cheat meal, not day. Cheat meal, cheat meal, sorry. And everybody had served a little piece of cake,

and Will got served two pieces of cake and five things of ice cream. And I said, how many people are you cheating for? Exactly. Well, how many people are you cheating on? You did, but did you notice this week that I ate mine, I only had one piece of cake and then I had a few scoops of ice cream, which I brought with me like a psycho.

You brought fucking chocolate sauce with you too. No, that was Jen's, that was at her house. This isn't a cheat day, you're impregnating people as well, I guess. It's like, it's not just, you know, heavy padding. But do you remember two weeks ago when Jen, when our friend, when I went to have a second piece and she looked at me and she was like,

honey, do you really want to do that? She shamed me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This week. You guys just need to get married and get it over with. I know, this week, she saw me look at her, like she'd had like three tiny bites of her cake and she pushed it towards me. And I thought it was a really kind.

I saw that. And then I kind of got sad. I was like, why didn't she push it towards me? Because you don't look as much like a trash can. A little bit. I think that, Shawnee, this is my vision of you, is that you're like, I'm only having one piece and then you kept going into the kitchen and you would stuff.

That is correct. And silence and shame, yeah. That is correct. Stuff. And silence and shame, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so we're feeling good today though, right? We're all back to it. That's interesting about the sugar thing though, Jay. I want to talk about that.

I swear to God. I think the sugar thing is good, and you know what the other thing is? My new hack, and maybe I've talked about this, I just, I tried to call a few people and talk to a few people and ask them how they were doing, and that was really helpful. Oh, that's they were doing, and that was really helpful. Oh, that's good.

Yeah, that really, really helped. And get out of your own head a little bit. Do you not have my right number? You might not have my right number. I knew how you were doing, okay? Which I just seen you nine hours before. We all know how you were doing, okay? I'm cold this morning.

It's chilly in LA. We love you. We love you. You got the hoodie on. I love you and I love our next guest guys today We have a fella who's been a part of our lives for a long time He's been delivering films and TV shows as a director and as an actor for about 35 years He's a huge part of the entertainment business, but keeps well out of the spotlight as a director He can deliver some of the most hilarious moments on screen or the most brutal and disturbing. As an actor, he can do the same.

He loves football, his son, and Ari Emanuel. Not necessarily in that order. I love him, his movies, and his ability to send hilarious gifts in that order. Folks, it's America's Pete Berg. Come on out, Pete. Wow! Ah!

Wowie, wowie. Woo! Did I get that right? Is that the order? Is your love for football, Emmett and Ari, is that the right order? It's my son. Fletch weights.

It's my son Ari football, I would have to say. But they're all up there, dude. They're all up there. That's cool, it's so nice to meet you. It's a pleasure to meet you. Well, sorry to hear about the anxiety. I agree with Bateman. It's definitely, the sugar's not helping, so.

No. And you're very smart about that stuff, right? Pete, you should know I've been off the sugar for a few months, but I have one cheat meal every seven days as per my. That's why it's affecting you a lot. Yeah, probably. Because your body's so cleaned out.

But does sugar have to be part of the cheat meal? Can't you just eat pizza or something like- Bacon. Yeah, have bacon. I think it's that and everything else. I probably should. I think that it's just- Well, but like any of us sort of folks in recovery,

we miss the sweet. We miss the sugar of alcohol, and I think it's, for a long time, for some reason cigarettes curved that, curved it for me for a while, and then when that went away, like, yeah, then the Coke, because it looks like sugar. Stevia helps me out. Stevia helps me out. Pete, you're good with, you're good with, look at you, God.

You look trim, man. You look great, Pete. You always look so good. If you took that tarp off right now, you'd see someone that could beat your ass, Arnett. Pretty handling. I know he could. I would never.

Runs a boxing gym. I do. I've known Pete, Pete, you and I have known each other very loosely for years. I've said hi to you many times, and I wish it was more than just a hi, it's always been in passing. And Sean, I don't believe we've met,

but it's a pleasure to meet you also. This is correct, we have not met, and it is a pleasure to meet you too, Peter. I'm a big fan. Pete, tell me about the boxing while we're here. It's been a steady escalation of commitment from you, not just in training, but then like now you're co-owning a gym. Yeah, so about 15 years ago,

I was thinking about maybe a side hobby, and people were asking me if I wanted to go in on a restaurant or maybe a bar, and to me that just seemed like a horrible idea for many reasons. Just like, talk about all blindspot. I had enough of, because I'm like you, I have a lot of blindspots, but I sensed that

that would be a bad move for me to open a bar, be part of that. And at the time, I was boxing at a club that Bob Dylan owns in Santa Monica. And the trainer of the gym got into a beef with Bob, which is a whole great story in itself. Getting into beefs with Bob Dylan, which like there's a whole side of Bob Dylan around a boxing gym. Hey, he'll hit you with a guitar.

You know, you're really annoying me today. If you don't do something, I'm going to get physical on you. But we used to spar Bob, but you could never hit. You weren't really allowed to hit him back. And he would pop you. Bob Dylan had a sharp jab. It was supposed to be like, but you couldn't hit him back. So I took a few shots from Bob. But Dylan got in a fight with the then head trainer

and fired him, and Gary Shanling, who's a good friend of mine, was also training at that gym. And Gary came to me and said, Pete, why don't we take this trainer and start our own gym? And I said, okay. Seemed like a better, more interesting experience than opening a bar. And so Gary and I backed this gentleman,

started our own gym, and the gentleman who we hired ended up leaving, we had some problems with him, and then Gary died, RIP Gary Shanling, who I love so much, and left me alone with the boxing gym. And it has been one of the stupidest things that I have ever done in my life. Barf fucking none. Wait, why?

What's the next? Do not open up. That sounds like such an easy thing to run. Low overhead, there's no maintenance, there's no. Clean these towels and lock the door. Two things, actually, technically three things. One thing is people say that I got a lot of blind spots, but I don't see them.

The other thing is this, Pete, is my son who's 16, the last year and a half, he's gotten into boxing and he's boxing at another gym that I'm not gonna name, but he's going twice. And now he just said to me last night, dad, can I start going three times a week? And he boxes with this guy, which is really cool. And I was thinking like, I'd love to get him out to your gym maybe

and get him in there and get another. Church Hill Boxing Club in Santa Monica, come on down. It's a great gym. Great, well, we're gonna get a nice boon. But here's what I wanted to say is a little sideline because I do want to finish the boxing theme is, we haven't spent enough time, I feel like we've been delinquent on this podcast,

we haven't spent enough time talking about and giving credence to Gary Shanley. Because he was one of, talk about a heavyweight to use the analogy. This guy was an unbelievable, he's the reason I got HBO. Because Pete, you knew him, I didn't know the guy,

but what an influence he had on what we consider to be comedy now, in a lot of ways. Gary Shandling, fuck. Actors, writers, format, show us. What was he like? What was he like? So, I mean, I got to see both sides of Gary. I saw him as a comic titan,

and a very entrenched member of our industry. And that's how most people knew Gary. The boxing gym is actually a fascinating culture. Our gym is meant to be a pretty traditional boxing gym with pro fighters. So we would have a lot of Russians, South Americans. We had folks from Japan. we had Chinese fighters, and these were young men who would come to LA, rarely spoke much English, were not at all connected, and Gary took a deep interest in their lives. And I would come into the gym, and Gary would be sitting

with a couple of kids from Argentina, talking about boxing and talking about life, and had this incredible connection and when Gary passed away there was a huge memorial. I don't know if any of you guys went to it, you know, a couple thousand people, you know, everyone in Hollywood went to Gary's memorial service and then the next day we had a service for him at the gym and there were a couple of hundred people who knew Gary only as G from the gym. And they had no idea that he was famous,

they had no idea that he had this other life. They just thought he was a really sweet guy who cared about them. And he really did. And so that was a side of Gary. He absolutely loved boxing. He loved Bob Dylan and loved fighting with Bob Dylan. I'd love to see that pay-per-view.

That's such a funny image. Gary tried to do a talk show where he would fight you three rounds in the ring, and as soon as those three rounds were over, you would collapse and he'd do an interview. He would do the interview after you'd been punching the shit out of each other, and he only did one with Alec Baldwin.

And I was there for it, and they both, I think, had heart attacks, literally mini heart attacks. And at the end of the third round, Baldwin was laying on his side and Gary was laying on his stomach and they were wheezing, there was like. And Gary was trying to ask him questions. How'd you get started Alec?

Yeah, and Baldwin was just like, I think I really need some water. And I'm like, guys, Alec. Yeah, and Baldwin was just like, I think I really need some water. Or something. And I'm like, guys, you're both. Did we see this? You're both, it never aired. Did you shoot it? We did.

I've seen it, and it got kind of real too when they were fighting too, right? They were beating the shit out of each other. Baldwin was tough, and Gary was deceptively effective as a boxer, and I think Alec didn't quite know was deceptively effective as a boxer. And I think Alec didn't quite know what he was in for. So it started and Alec thought it was going to be kind of fun. And Shanley just started face punching him

over and over and over. Yeah, it got weirdly real and it was uncomfortable. Pete, you got to show us this. You shot it? Gary shot it, so we could maybe dig it up, but it was priceless, but I was literally concerned that they were both having heart attacks and I got them to stop and drink water

and then it was one of those, it was a deep level of exhaustion that just wasn't going away. It's just like an icebreaker before an interview? Yeah, just to put everybody at ease. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Pete, I do want to go back though.

I want to get back into how you became who you are, which is, as Jason said in the intro, I mean, you're an incredible filmmaker and actor, and you haven't acted as much in the last few years as you used to, but you started as an actor. And Jason, you probably feel a lot of connection to what Pete does because he was able to kind of go from an actor who was in a lot of stuff

and people wanted him to become a director yourself, which I know is a trajectory that you're sort of on. Pete, talk a little bit about that, like about being an actor who's auditioning for jobs, then an actor who's in demand, and then turning that into, or having the vision, or having, talk about what it was that inspired you to become a director, et cetera.

So I think one of the light bulb moments for me that got me really starting to think about directing, which is something I'd always thought about, and I think Jason always had too, and it was something we used to talk about when we were working together. I remember on the set of Hancock in particular, you talking about filmmaking and me kind of sensing

that you were going to move in this direction. But for me, I was an actor on Chicago Hope, which was a pretty successful medical drama, and we went up against ER every Thursday night at 10 o'clock, and they beat us every Thursday night. But we were still getting 23 million people watching us, which we thought was just horrible, because we were coming in second, and that was horrible,

but looking back on it, obviously it wasn't. But I was getting kind of famous as this doctor, Dr. Billy Cronk on Chicago Hope, and you know, thank you. And when you back then in particular got TV famous, you were pretty famous, so wherever I went, people were like, hey Billy, how you doing Billy? How's Diane, my wife on the show. Hey Billy, how's the, and I'm like,

okay I'm not fucking Billy, my name's Pete. And at a certain point I started sensing that if I wasn't careful, my legacy was going to be Dr. Billy Cronk, the TV doctor. And I was on a plane flying from LA to JFK and I was sitting in my seat and people were walking by me and a man stopped and he said, hey Billy. And I said, my name's not Billy.

He goes, hey Billy, my wife has this rash, what do you think, show him the rash. And she pulled up her shirt and stuck her elbow which had a really bad rash on it, in my face. And I'm just sitting there staring at this rash, and they're smiling at me. And other people on the planet are all kind of like, hey Billy, what do you think the rash is?

And I'm like, that's it, I'm not doing this anymore. And I started writing, and I wrote a movie, Very Bad Things, which was my first film. And that was something that once I got a taste of that and figured out that I could do it, I never really looked back. And I do love acting, but I was not gonna be Billy Cronk for the rest of my career.

But what was that thing that made, were you scared to be like, I can't believe I'm gonna try to be Billy Crunk for the rest of my career. But what was that thing that made you, were you scared to be like, I can't believe I'm going to try to do this. Like, how did you get over the fear of- Because you had a real career as an actor. Like, you see, you got to make a leap a little bit and go like, all right, I'm going to do this. So I was flying to New York to act when the rash-

The same guy was on the plane and said, I have a different rash. And the reason I was on that plane and said, I have a different rash. And the reason I was on that plane where I was presented with the rash was I was flying to New York to be in a movie called Cop Land. I was going to act in it. And that was Stallone and De Niro

and Stallone had put weight on and was going to try and win an Oscar. And this was Harvey Weinstein producing it in the height of his power and Ray Liotta and Harvey Keitelan all these big stars were in the film And I I had a small part in it and and I directed that too, right? You know James James Mangold Directed it wrote and directed it in mice I was one of the cops and most of my scenes were in this like bar and I would just sit around

Waiting for my one line. So Stallone would talk and De Niro would talk and then finally it would be my line and I'd be like, yeah for sure. And then, and then. Sounds like me in Kingdom. No, you had a great, you were phenomenal. No, Jason. Turn left.

No, no, no. Jason, by the way, sidebar, sidebar, Jason had one of my favorite lines ever delivered in the film and you know what it is. He He's like hey driver. Are you late for something? That you guys are cruising along the desert fuck I love that I'll be Dobby scared out of my mind, but I was on the set of Copland just watching everything happen and there was this young director James Mangold and I was watching him and he was arguing with Stallone and getting into all this creative stuff with with

With De Niro and Ray Lee and just like he was alive He had this energy coming out of him and I was sitting there waiting for my line and I'm like, yeah And I finally at lunch. I walked up to him. I didn't really know him. I said, hey man, can I ask you a question? So do what's up? He said I said, how, I walked up to him, I didn't really know him, I said, hey man, can I ask you a question? He said, yeah, what's up? He said, I said, how do I get your job? Yeah. How do I get your job? You want to work 60 minutes an hour, not just 10.

And he said, you gotta write. And I said, okay, well how do you do that? He goes, well, do you know how to write? I go, yeah. He goes, well, do you have an idea? I said, kinda. He said, well, what I do is I use note cards. And I outline, and so then when I get all my cards,

then I start writing the scenes. And so I went back to my hotel, and I was staying in the Essex House in New York, you know that hotel? It has a big, it has the big, beautiful park views, right? I had the shittiest room in the hotel. I had the back, tiny little room in the back of the hotel that looked out over an alley, and I went home,

and I went to the drug store, I got note cards, I got pen, and I started writing the note cards and outlining the script, but I had a really small room. And I had the note cards kind of all over the room, and I'd go to work and come back in more note cards, and I had this whole crazy system. And one day I came back, and the note cards had all been moved and cleaned up.

And I'm like, who did this? And they told me it was Manuela, the housekeeper. So I found Manuela, I'm Manuela, you can't do this. I'm writing a movie, so I found Manuela, and she's like, what? And I told her it's about these guys who go to Vegas and accidentally kill a hooker and then have to chop her up. And she's like, oh my God, then what happens? And I had the script up all throughout the room, it was on all the walls, so I was living in it.

One day I came back and I went to go in the room and the key didn't work and I went down and they said, Mr. Berg, we have a problem, we have to move your room. And I'm like, holy shit. They took me up to the top floor, I went to turn to where the shitty rooms were, they go, no, you're this way,

to where the good rooms were, walked me down into the park suite and I walk in this beautiful suite and the staff at the Essex house had cleared out the walls and put my script up on the walls no man well it told us what you're doing we wish you the best of luck come on that's amazing that that moment really changed everything for me. That's incredible. I never knew that. Dude, dude. Pete, Jesus, that's fucking great.

Dude, that's incredible. That's so fucking incredible. What a great story about humanity, people and belief and all that kind of, also I like to think that Manuela, before she knew it was a screenplay, she was nervous because she had all these cards about going to Vegas and killing the hookers.

She's like, I got a serial killer here. Well, Pete, how did you take your, you know, your very, you've got a very, your taste, your sensibility, your personality is very, you know, seasoned and no bullshit. And, you know, there's no real artifice to you which I just fucking love. And yet, and you've somehow managed to take that

and mold it into an actual visual aesthetic too. Where did that come from? Like the style of your films, the way in which they're shot, the way in which they're cut, the actors you hire, the things you ask them to do and not to do, like how is that shaped? I mean the things that I think that I do that tend to work the best, like if it's Friday Night Lights

or The Kingdom or Deepwater Horizon or Patriots Day, these are films that I do a tremendous amount of research on, you know, I'm kind of a psycho about that. I'm in Tel Aviv right now. Last night we had a missile attack that was pretty amazing and somewhat terrifying. I've always been someone who likes to see things for myself. That generally translates to my writing. And I try to have as deep of an almost anthropological or almost journalistic understanding of my world.

So, I went to Saudi Arabia a long time ago before we did The Kingdom and lived there for three weeks and got as much of an understanding as I could of that culture. And once I kind of feel like I've done that work and I understand the world, I mean, when I did Lone Survivor, I went to Iraq and embedded with the Navy Seal platoon for a month on the border of Syria. And that helped me make a better film.

And that helps me in theory communicate with, you know, someone, you know, like when we were doing the scene in the kingdom where they were gonna cut your head off. I've tried to have a proximity, certainly never to that kind of level of violence, but to at least understand as best as I can what these executions were looking like and how they might have gone down. And that I think could help me help you reach an appropriate level of Terror and a willingness to fight which you did so well in that

Which I found fascinating and I've had so many people talk about that scene and how Jason Bateman this sweet funny guy went fucking psycho to save himself. And that really comes from the research. So then you're looking for a level of authenticity that then just naturally lends itself to, let's say, a handheld camera, de-saturated color, blah, blah, blah. So all of these things, you're engineering it

from a very organic place. You're not kind of going backwards into an aesthetic. You're just going, yeah. And you know, when I was acting on Chicago Hope, back in those days, I learned so much, because we were doing 28 episodes a season, and we would have 28 different directors coming in. And I learned so much, and a lot of these directors were,

they tried to have feature careers and they were a bit older and they were angry. And they were trying to prove that they were Tarantino or Scorsese and they would just spend so much time setting up shots and doing all this stuff and we as actors would sit around waiting for all this equipment and I'm like, what the fuck are we doing here?

I want to act, I want to feel free to not be beholden to the, and you guys have all seen it, the machinery of filmmaking where cranes and dollies and lighting and hair and makeup and every, it seems like it impacts everything other than the actual acting. All right, and so Pete Stylist, yeah, multiple cameras,

handheld cameras going at the same time. And when they run out, we're shooting on film, and they'd run out of film, the AC would just put the camera on the ground, reload it, put another magazine of film on top of the camera while the other two are still rolling and while we're resetting back to the top of the scene.

No fucking way. Like multiple takes over and over and over again without ever cutting. Just reloading the cameras quietly. at the scene like multiple takes over and over and over again without ever cutting, just reloading the cameras quietly. I remember when we were rehearsing Hancock, remember we would have all those crazy rehearsals with Will and Charlize. On soundstage with the key of it.

And when I first met Charlize, she came up to me because Jason and I had worked together and I knew Will and I think Will had heard a little bit about my style of work and Charlize, she came up to me, because Jason and I had worked together, and I knew Will, and I think Will had heard a little bit about my style of work, and Charlize said, you know, Pete, I understand, I've talked to Jason, I know how you like to do this kind of wild thing, and move around lots of cameras, just so you know, I don't work that way. I need a certain amount of organization,

and there has to be a system where I can, and I'm like, Charlize, no problem, I got you. We'll do it, we'll cut and we'll reset and do it. And then like the first day I was working with Jason and we were just going off and Will was into it and I would come up for Charlize and in about an hour she came up to me and she said, you know that thing you're doing with Jason,

do that to me. And I want that too. Pete, I was thinking about you the other day. I was down in Fort Worth, Texas, not a bit. And I was truly, I was doing this thing. I was working with Taylor Sheridan, he was a great guy. And so I was staying at this hotel and it was the fall. And I hear, I'm in my this hotel and it was the fall

and I hear, I'm in my hotel room and I'm trying to go over my shit that I'm working on. I keep hearing this like, sadasasaa, sadasasaa, ah, sadasasaa. Like what the fuck is like, is my phone on? And I keep looking around the room, the TV's not on, I go out in the thing and I look out and I can just see over the treetops in the distance this Stadium and I fucking look at him on my phone and it's a fucking Texas high school football game

Yeah, oh wow and the stadium is packed and I can hear the fans and I can hear the announcement. I was like holy Shit, it was Friday fucking night lights man. Like it was incredible. Yeah. Yeah, how did that, how did, so for the listener, yeah, Pete brought us Friday Night Lights, the film, and then shepherded the television series to us as well by doing what the pilot, probably the first couple, and EP'd the whole thing, right? Yes. You're, the writer, your second cousin to the writer, perhaps? Yes, Buzz're the writer, your second cousin to the writer perhaps?

Yes, Buzz Bessinger's my second cousin. Was that helpful in it finding its way to you or did it happen without that? It was, you know, I had followed the book and read the book and Buzz used to push me to try and make it. At the time I actually didn't really have the juice. There were a lot of filmmakers that wanted it,

and Brian Grazer controlled it. And I would call Brian and just sort of check in with him. And I knew they were going through a list of, you know, some pretty top-tier directors. And Brian was always nice, and he was pretty honest, saying, you know, maybe we'll get to you. And two directors, one fell out and one Brian got annoyed with and fired.

And he called me and he said, okay dude, it's yours. And that was an incredible experience. And you know, when I was doing Friday Night Lights, I went and I was, I think I was 41 at the time, flew down to Texas and moved into a high school, this school, Austin Westlake, and I stayed with a football player's family, let me live in his house,

and I lived on a futon in Koyani, who was a wide receiver for Austin Westlake, an 18-year-old, I was probably 17 or 18 at the time, and I went to high school with him every day, and I went to football practice with them every day, and I went to football practice and lived with this team, and it was really an amazing experience. That's really cool.

And that's why it feels so real and authentic, and just the way in which you just shot the sport as well. What was your, did you play a lot of football growing up? I played high school football, but I tried, I wanted to be a quarterback. My ego was like, I'm going to be a quarterback and I was horrible. So for three years, I tried to play quarterback very unsuccessfully. In my senior year in high school, my coach moved me to defensive end.

And I really realized I should have done that all along because I liked hitting people and I didn't have the pressure. I would get too anxious and couldn't remember the plays and just had some horrible disasters as quarterback. When I finally moved to defense, I developed a real love for the game. But the book is about so much more than football and I think that's why the show has worked so well.

It's really just, you know, you're a huge sports fan, Jason. I know how much baseball means to you, right? Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, I played football when I was really young, and I remember my mom telling me to go to this guy's house to get fitted for the equipment,

and so I did, and he gave me the mouth guard to fit my mouth. And the only good thing from the whole experience was that it tasted like mint. It was like a deep flavored. And I was like, oh, maybe I could do this because it tastes so good. That was the extent of my happiness.

Go ahead, Will. Well, I just, I don't know where to start. Honestly, that's so funny. I mean, so much. I was like, oh, maybe there's a silver lining here because it takes a minute. Part of it's funny and then part of it's just a nothing story.

It is a nothing story. And disturbing and you know. Hey, Pete, I'm sure that all your films have, and you mentioned a few of them, like have a place in your heart or in your life where you look back and they represented a thing, and I'm sure you learned a lot from them. Was there one of your films that really,

for you, transported you and kind of, not like, hey, I figured it out, but more like, and again, not even necessarily your favorite, but something you just like, you learned a lot from, that was like a turning point film for you. I mean, there was a moment when I was, sometimes I answer that question, and I mean it by saying,

you never set out to make a shitty movie, no filmmaker does. And we all understand how hard it is to make a good film And sometimes they're good and sometimes they absolutely suck But so hard to just make a movie that doesn't suck not a good just one that doesn't suck. It's so hard I don't think people appreciate that You know and people don't magic trick. It's not their responsibility to appreciate. Yeah, it's on us Yeah, you know I've had people just say, God, your movies,

that movie sucked. And I'm like, okay, fair enough. I mean, really, people would do that. Appreciate that. That wasn't my goal, I assure you. It's usually in the Boston area, by the way, that you get that, fuck you, dude, that fucking sucked, huh? For real, for real.

And they don't, but yeah, Boston's very direct. But I do love everything I've done, and I find that these are things that I try as hard as I can, and hopefully the result is good. So I do have connections to every film I've done. There was a moment when I was making Friday Night Lights, the movie, where we were going to film a scene,

there's a coin toss scene, there's a coin toss scene that's a big dramatic scene where all these schools have to decide who's going to be in the playoffs. And we'd been, but we scheduled for three nights to film this scene. It was a big scene, you know, a hundred extras, Billy Bob Thornton, all the principals were there and it was a complicated scene. And this was when I was starting to find a style with multiple cameras and what Jason was talking about.

Just keep moving and don't cut and shoot and do it. So we had three nights scheduled to shoot it. And we got up there and rehearsed it for a couple hours and I had the cameras going and we shot it in about two hours and we cut. And I'm like looking at Eric Heffron, who was my first AD and you've worked with him Jason, and he's looking at me and I'm like looking at Eric Heffron who was my first ADA and you've worked with him Jason and he's looking at me and I'm like,

do we have this scene? And he's like, I think we do. And this was two hours, we had three nights to shoot this scene. And we're standing there and the DP comes over and he's like, what just happened? I go, I'm not sure. And the script supervisor was all confused

because he couldn't make sense of any of it. And I go, I think we've got it. And then the producer came over and he's like, you can't do this, I'm going to get in so much trouble. And I realized then that I was able to work in a way that I didn't realize was possible. And the actors loved it and and it came out great, and I loved it, and the studio saved a shitload of money.

And that became, for me, kind of a personal sort of realization that there are not as many rules as we think there should be. Interesting. You know, I think the Successive Euroguys podcast is another example of that. You know, like, really? Like, this happened?

That's what happens when you just go forward. You just did it and you followed no rules and you followed your hearts and you have this incredible relationship with each other and people responded to it. And I think that those are the kinds of signals or signs that I look for as I kind of chug through my life. Yeah, you know what else is great about that that particular specific style too is that it's super reliant on the team. Those camera operators and focus pullers,

you can't get to them in between action and cut and they've got to be making decisions in the moment, watching and listening to the scene, making composition work, et cetera, et cetera, tagging certain things that they didn't get in the last take. And it's all that sort of teamwork that maybe is an exciting comparison for you to sports

and to what you appreciate with your you know, your fellow linemen, as opposed to perhaps the quarterback route you could have taken where it's just like, oh, I'm the star and who cares who's blocking for me? I just need to, you know, you got more in the trenches and you potentially became more of a crew guy than a cast guy that you may have stayed had you gone the quarterback route

or maybe just stayed, you just stayed as an actor. I don't know, I'm just such a big, I just love- Well, I think also everybody's probably really present, right, Pete? Like everybody's in it. For sure. As you say, Jason, everybody's listening, everybody's in it.

There's no chance to fuck off and get on your phone or whatever. You gotta be- It becomes kind of like a bit like theater or a live experience. So I've had a lot of actors say, like they've gone into some sort of creative blackout while we're doing it,

and they don't remember exactly what happened. And I've experienced that. I used to do theater and I loved it. And I'm sure you guys have felt that before where, you know. Sean won a Tony last year. I know you did, Sean, congratulations. Yeah, there we go. Did you ever- Goodbye Oscar, goodbye Oscar.

Did you ever find that- It's actually good night, sorry. You must have gotten into that flow state on stage where you're just in it and you don't necessarily remember it, you're not thinking- That's so true, from the second you start pacing backstage waiting for your entrance, right?

You're somewhere else a little bit, and then the second you step on, you're like, oh, there's just a couple shows here and there where you have your markers, where as you're talking in like a monologue or something, you go, from this point on, I have about 25 more minutes. Then I get to go home and eat pizza. And so, you know, you start having those markers.

But most of the time you're in it. Yeah, most of the time you don't have a choice but to be in it, right? Yeah. We'll be right back. And back to the show. Now Pete, I want to talk to you about potentially one of the most challenging periods in your career,

going through the work experience with Justin Theroux on Leftovers. How did you manage to just keep your head up, go forward and say they're not all gonna be like this? I did see that he managed to work in a shirt, like he went tarps off in a running scene in the pilot, which probably was his call. Well, and fucking Theroux stole your sleeveless look.

Pete's got a great war cry basically, physical work war cry. He'll take, he'll grab his short sleeves, he'll pull them up over the top of his shoulder cap and turn his t-shirts into shirtless. I like that. Justin just cuts off the sleeves, but Pete's actually got a move there

that creates the sleeveless look and it gets everyone fired up. You know, when we were getting ready to cast leftovers, Damon Lindelof, who is a genius, was telling me, I was directing the pilot and he wanted me to do kind of what I wanted to do and he certainly wasn't giving me mandates, but he really was encouraging me to meet with Justin Theroux

and I met with him and I couldn't figure him out. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it was a bit. You thought Damon was having a laugh. He can't figure himself out, so I mean, keep going. And you know, the tattoos, and I've never seen someone with less body fat. There's just no one.

He's so ripped and so intense, and I was like, I didn't get it. And then I met him, and Damon's like, he wants to meet you again, and I was like, I didn't get it. And then I met him and Dan's like, he wants to meet you again and we met again. And I still didn't totally get it, but he covered his sleeves, he wore a shirt. So I didn't have the tattoos. And then we met a third time.

And I guess he wore me down a little bit and he was Play this role and I have to say once he showed up on set that guy is legit He he did such a great job. He covered the tattoos He got his haircut looking like cuz I didn't buy him as a Midwestern cop, you know I was having trouble seeing that and he really transformed himself and That show is so fucking he looks like a West Village like he's just kind of like a downtown New York dandy that guy So if he doesn't you know what I mean like you can't even Andy

No, he doesn't you can't even see him above 23rd Street, so forget For sure, but yeah, he's a real actor and you know. He is. He really is, and that show. Such a good writer. Pete, that show is so good. You and Damon and then what Mimi Lieder did afterwards. Mimi did a great job. Keeping that thing going, like it's just fucking beautiful.

Max Richter's music, it's just. Max Richter the best. But you made all those decisions setting that show up with the way it looked, music, it just, and you make, but you made all those decisions setting that show up with the way it looked, the way it sounded, who's in it, where we're shooting it, what the crew is, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so thank you for that, among all the other things you set up.

I just love your taste. No, I appreciate it. I was thinking about what you were saying, I'm kind of going back a little bit, but I've had this same frustration about, and I love hearing about your style, Pete, because there is nothing, I think it's even, the hardest thing to do is to make a funny film,

because there's generally no flow on set, and you're turning around, and you're doing, and all this kind of shit, and there's nothing less fun than trying to make a comedy film. They're really fucking tough to do. And because the system is set up, it's set against you. And that's why often really funny films that break out

are films that are small films that come out of nowhere because they don't have the budget to fuck around and to have a big company move and all this shit. It's just young people who are like just grabbing cameras, throwing cameras on their shoulders and getting it. Two or three, you know, two cameras, handheld, blah, blah, blah, and that immediacy is what you need in comedy and it just doesn't exist in a bigger format.

Would you agree with that? I saw Sean Baker's film, his new film, Anora, have you guys seen it? Yeah, Anora is incredible. No, I haven't seen it. That's the hardest I've laughed in a movie in quite a while. That's great. And Will, did you see it, Sean?

Yeah, I saw it, yeah. What's the film? Anorah. Oh, yeah, we were just talking about it. I haven't seen it yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got to check that out. That's fantastic.

I mean, when that dude is in the courtroom and the judge throws him out and he starts objecting like he's part of the legal defense team. I just haven't laughed that hard. And to your point, Will, it's just, I'm a big fan of Sean Baker and it's just loose, wild. You don't know who these people are that are in the cast. I remember seeing Rushmore in the theater when it first came out and feeling like,

fuck, this is fucking great. Because there wasn't any- There's no winking. Well, there's no, yeah, and there was no pretense. It was just, they came out, obviously they had Bill Murray, but you got the sense that these guys were young and they didn't know what they were doing, and they were gonna try shit,

and they weren't part of the system yet. Now, Pete, you being an actor, how does your, do you have more patience or less patience with actors as a director? You know, I recognize, I think I have less patience at times and I value, I have so much more respect for actors who really come to bring it, who are really there to work, and who are smart, and who are thinking, I just worked with Betty Gilpin,

I don't know if you guys have met Betty Gilpin, she's in something I just did, American Primeval, and she's just a wonderful, wonderful actress. Which by the way, Amanda saw my wife over the past couple of weeks. I don't know, she sneaks off and she watches shit. Well, I'm busy doing dumb shit. She says, it's so incredible, Pete.

You guys, what's it called again? American Primeval. It's called American Primeval and it's a very violent, very violent show. She says, and you guys both know Amanda very well, and Pete, you know her a bit. She does not give it up. She will not shut up about this.

Appreciate that, Amanda. This is fantastic, she says. But so, to your question, I recognize if I've made a mistake in casting, and sometimes you do, and usually it's smaller roles, but sometimes it's not. Who, who? I'm not going to say I'm not, I won't mention names.

But you, I can't get, I get frustrated with myself for allowing myself to put someone in a situation that they're just not right for. And I've had moments where I want to get angry with actors and just say, you know, give line readings or just yell at them. Or be better. Yeah, just do it fucking better.

Do something. But that unfortunately is not an effective strategy at all. So I've learned enough to know that generally in editing, you can fix things, and oftentimes I've worked with, I've directed actors who I thought were really kind of shitting the bed, and later in editing, I found that they weren't. But in general, I find that getting, as I've gotten older,

when I did my first movie, Very Bad Things, I was so insecure and confused. And I had Cameron Diaz and Christian Slater at the height of his career, and I was making a movie. If you walked up to me and said, good morning, I would respond with, go fuck yourself. What the fuck does that mean? So much stress.

What does that mean? Have you stress. What does that mean? Have you seen it lately? I just saw the first thing I've directed and it did not hold up. I used to think it was so great. What was it? It was called Bad Words. And there were parts of it,

I was like watching it with my kid the other day, I was like what the fuck was I thinking there? Anyway, there was a lot that I liked, but still. Have you seen Very Bad Things lately? Does it hold up? Not lately, but I've watched it, and it's like I said earlier, I am not happy about how unhappy I was making that film.

I was just a seething ball of confusion and rage every day. And thank Cameron Diaz for being so sweet. She would pull me into her trailer, and she would watch Uncle Buck in between takes and just I'd walk by her trailer, I'd hear this laughter and it would be Cameron Diaz watching Uncle Buck and she'd be like, Pete, just come and watch Uncle Buck

for a little bit and calm down. And I would just sit there trembling watching Uncle Buck and Cameron's laughter calmed me down. She was such an angel to me. That's so fucking, by the way, one of the great line readings of all time, Uncle Buck, is John Kennedy when he's talking to the principal and she's got the wart on her nose.

And he interrupts himself like eight times because he keeps saying, warty nose, warty nose. No, wart on the nose, what? And it's one of the great line readings of all time. Pete, before we let you go, tell us what drew you to American Primeval. This is a show.

Can't wait to see it. Yeah. I know. This is a show that is coming out January 9th, I want to say. Yes. Does that sound right? Yes, sir. Yes? January 9th on Netflix, yes. January 9th on Netflix. What. January 9th on Netflix.

What about it drew you to it? What part of it now that you're done with it do you like the most? Yeah, so I wanted, I'd always wanted to explore the Western world, and I say the Western world because it's not a traditional Western. There was a movie called Jeremiah Johnson that Robert Redford did a long time ago

where he played a mountain man, or he played a city man who came to the mountains to try and find gold and he became a mountain man. And he developed a relationship with the Native Americans out there and it was just a really formative movie for me as a kid, my parents took me and I always wanted to do something like that and

Mark L Smith who's a friend of mine who wrote the Revenant And I were talking and I'm like what if we did something in this world? And we started and my goal was I wanted to go out into the elements. I didn't want to shoot in sound stages I wanted to challenge so we ended up with this six-part series That's about a very violent period in American history in 1857, where the Mormons were just starting to have an army and Brigham Young was very violent and they were trying to hold out in Utah. The army was coming after them.

Multiple Native American tribes were fighting. And I thought this would be a really interesting environment to set a story. It was a very, very violent time in a very violent history, which is American history, in a very violent global history, which is planet Earth. And we wanted to explore man's innate desire and inability to not kill each other. And we thought that that was just something, living in this world today where obviously violence

is on the rise and will it might not all be sugar that got you anxious, like these are rough times, you know? And this is something we wanted to explore. And I think one of the biggest takeaways for me, and this isn't necessarily the sexiest takeaway, but learning about Brigham Young and the history of the Mormon church and how persecuted they were.

And they were run out of New York and then they were run out of Georgia. And Joseph Smith, the leader, took them up to Illinois to try and create this nabu, this place where they could live. And Joseph Smith was killed. And Brigham Young fled across the country on foot with 2000 of his followers and ended up in what was a God forsaken land,

Salt Lake City at the time. And he said, well, we'll stay here. This is the place. No one will ever come for us here. And he started growing the religion and the US military started coming for him. And the Mormons were a very cunning and at times.S. military started coming for him. And the Mormons were a very cunning and at times violent organization.

And one of the things I'm very happy with is actor Kim Coats who plays Brigham Young. He was in Sons of Anarchy and thought I was joking when I cast him as Brigham Young, just a great actor. And learning about that aspect of it was something that for me was just really personally quite interesting. And getting to know the great Betty Gilpin who does such a good job in our show.

Yeah, that's what Amanda said. And Taylor Kitsch, your- And Taylor, who I love with all my heart. Collaborator, yeah? Yeah, man. Yeah, he's a great actor. Well, I'm fucking thrilled for you. I'm just excited we get more Pete Berg stuff.

Hopefully you're there in Tel Aviv researching something that's going to be awesome to see one day. Yeah, no kidding. I won't even ask you about it. I know, I've been thinking the whole time. I'm like, what is he doing? I know, exactly. I know.

But I miss you, buddy. Hurry back. Let's all hang out. Let's go watch Will's kid go box over your gym bring them in anytime or Sean if you feel like hitting Something come on in Are you getting right after this he's gonna hit the fridge She'd say every day thanks Pete nice to meet Pete love you Every day. Every day.

Thanks Pete. Nice to meet you Pete. Love you. Great to see you man. She's the only help pal. Thanks for doing this. Congratulations on everything fellas. Keep up the good work.

You're making people really happy and we need that. No thank you. Thank you pal. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. I'm excited. That was great Jay.

I'm excited for his show, American Prime. It was wild when he came out. I never met him. I think he's like one of the best. He's just the guy, such a great filmmaker. He's a really, really good filmmaker. And you know, he doesn't throw that in the public's face or the industry's face. No. Keeps low profile, you're right.

Yeah, low profile and he's not... He's just making stuff. Yeah, exactly. And every once in a while stuff will show up and you'll go, oh, fuck man, is this fantastic? Nothing ever sucks about what he does. And Jason, you were fantastic in The Kingdom. So good. Jason, you were so good.

I remember loving that movie. I loved that movie. I thought that movie was fucking great. Yeah, it was scary. It was like one of those rare ones that was like all... It was so good. I'm telling you, that line reading, I saw it in the theater with Kraz, with Krasinski.

And yeah, we did, we saw it in New York, and you delivered that line, we were fucking. Are you late? Are you late? No doubt. It was so fucking good. I can't wait that, it's called American Primeval. American Primeval, correct.

Sometimes in January, go on the Netflix. Yeah. Or the reflux. Yeah. Yeah. Sean, I don't see you looking off to your P.I. show. I know, Sean, this is a fun day. I wasn't prepared.

I wasn't prepared. You're not prepared. That's why. I'm nervous. So we're going to stall a little bit while you pull, now I see him looking around all the different windows Possible by possible by Whole thing with Gary Shanandling. Yeah.

The whole boxing thing with Bob Dylan. That was really funny. That was a story that I was really blown away. Buying? Buying. Buying. Good. Huh.

Okay. The problem with that is that it's so close. It's so on the nose that to be honest for me, I just don't buy it. That will work. You know what I mean? Two half ones make a full. Smart. Less. Smart. Less.

Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smart. Less.

Smart. Less.