Hi, my name is Jon Turteltaub, the director of Last Vegas,
and I'm sitting with the writer of Last Vegas, Dan Fogelman,
- who's kind of nervous. - I'm very nervous, Jon.
- Have you done one? - I've never done one of these,
and I'm afraid I'm gonna talk too much or too little.
No. Well, one of those will be true.
Certainly, I'm the same.
I will. I'm just not afraid of it.
All right, well...
It's always fun to sit and talk with the writer
because they probably know a lot deeper
about what went into the movie,
as opposed to the director,
who knows what came out of the movie.
- No. - No.
- Not that interesting. - When we first...
When I sat down to write the movie for the first time, we were...
I tried to figure out how we were gonna introduce four characters,
at once basically, as old men
and thought it might be good to do a prologue.
But I don't believe... I... The photo booth was your idea, Jon.
Yeah, I thought it was a way to just sort of separate them
and create a...
Like a little motif that could come up throughout the movie
and save these pictures.
And then we got these kids.
We set up our own little makeshift photo booth
and when there's no sound, like this scene doesn't have,
you can direct it like they directed silent movies.
Talk the actors through it, which is what I did.
"You sit down here, you look at... Give her a kiss,
don't give her a kiss, react the way you wanna react,"
all that kind of stuff.
That little trick that I taught that kid,
and they thought it was awesome.
How much does this guy look like Morgan Freeman?
Yeah. I remember at the first preview,
when I kind of saw it in full with an audience for the first time,
and this... Right here, this kid doing De Niro,
was getting a laugh every time from the audience, just there.
- I was like, "Wow." - The only thing we had to do
was we penciled in his beauty mark a little bit.
We drew...
Which is all it was.
So here we had to re-create a 1950s little general store in Brooklyn,
and David Bomba is the production designer
who had to not only create this whole store,
but create it not just in any empty store,
but in an empty store in Atlanta, Georgia,
which is where we shot the bulk of the movie.
And collecting stuff...
You know, to get stuff... You need products,
and chairs and all this stuff from the 1950s.
And there are prop houses and places that supply all this.
You don't have to go on eBay for hours at a time.
There's actually ones... Oh, there. "Written by Dan Fogelman."
Yup.
Dan, list some... I should, actually. I know.
I mean, I know you wrote Tangled. You wrote...
What was the Steve Carell movie?
- Crazy, Stupid, Love. - Crazy, Stupid, Love.
I almost said Sex, Lies and Videotape, which you definitely didn't write.
- I didn't, no. - It wasn't that funny.
And what...?
What...? Where in your career did you write this?
Was it at the end of those movies or in the middle?
No, it was before. I wrote this a while ago.
And I'd written it actually before The Hangover had even existed.
- No kidding. - Yeah, I wrote it I think six years ago.
And then...
And then it took a while.
We're missing out on some great stuff here.
Here... That is Joanna Gleason, who was a huge Broadway star
and a terrific movie star.
And the rest...
Of course, there's Kevin Kline,
who did not want to grow this beard for this movie and...
For obvious reasons. It's itchy.
But my feeling was, he looked too young without the beard
and he needed it.
And with it, he has that kind of yummy Papa Smurf quality to him.
Now, ladies, show us what you got.
Show us what you got. Come on, gents, you can do it too.
- Ira? - What, Sam?
No, I was just... Just checking.
Now grind it, grind it, grind it.
You are my sunshine
Morgan Freeman actually was in the Air Force. And...
So that's where we got a lot of these pictures of him.
And we'd let his character be an Air Force veteran having...
I went on a trip with the Air Force last year to...
They take trips for VIPs and movie people
and as a result of that, I thought:
"Yeah. Let's make him a character from the Air Force."
A little touch.
That's an actual baby, unlike in most movies.
That baby is an identical twin, so that...
You're only allowed to work with a baby for two hours at...
In the course of a day.
So if you need four hours of baby time, you get identical twins
and they each work for two hours. Did you know that, Dan?
- I didn't know it was two hours. - See that?
See you this evening, sweetie.
Now, here again, we're faking Atlanta for Englewood, New Jersey.
Here's where you get your first taste
of how good an actor Morgan Freeman is.
By doing so little, he immediately brings in...
For a comedy, what was so bold, I thought, that you did
was you begin with that scene with Morgan
and that scene with Robert De Niro we have here
are kind of sad.
And usually in a comedy, you wanna start
by getting the audience laughing right away.
And we're introducing these characters in kind of depressing situations.
- Were you worried about that? - No. I mean, I think...
You wanna... You wanna know what you want from them, right?
You wanna... You wanna see these guys have fun.
So I feel like the way to do it is exactly what you did,
which is it's kind of comedically sad.
Where they are... Morgan's is probably...
Morgan's and De Niro's here are the saddest
probably of the four... Of the four guys.
But they're all kind of lacking for something in their lives
that has to be found
in the course of, you know, the 90 minutes we've got.
Well, each of these scenes, as you set them up,
you see there's something missing in each of these guys' lives.
And it... It's...
You know, when you have that many characters to set up,
you have to do it really quickly and efficiently and...
Which you did, but you also put humor in each of these scenes
so it makes it a little bit more enjoyable.
That is a terrific actress we found who lives in Austin, Texas,
who flew in to Atlanta and now is living in L.A.
And by now, I mean, God knows when you're gonna watch this, so...
For all I know, she's back in Austin and unemployed.
See? See? The pictures came back.
I'm not such a slouch as a director.
Now, what else we had to do here with each actor... And each character,
I'm sorry, that we establish,
aside from their photo-booth picture, there's a piece of music
that's associated with each.
To do that, it's not... You know, people think
that the composer's the one doing all your music.
Well, for the most part, that's true.
But there are a lot of songs and prerecorded pieces of music.
And for that, you use a music sup... Hi.
Use a music supervisor.
That's a friend of our... Mine, so I can't... I'm not looking.
Mary Ramos and her partner, Holly,
really put together an amazing song score,
which we'll talk about a bit more later.
Did you have any songs in your mind before you shot?
You know what? The one song I had in my mind before we shot
- was the opening title song. - Great song.
And I... The "Little Bitty Pretty One" was there when I was prepping
and I thought "I've got... This is... " I knew it beforehand.
And it worked.
Here's... Blowing over...
I'm blowing it. I have so much great film school stuff
to be talking about with these shots,
gosh, instead of blabbing on about music.
What did you shoot on? I wasn't... I never visited the set.
Well done. Integral part of the process, Dan.
Thanks for having such a care.
We shot a digital format.
We used the Arriflex digital cameras.
- It looks like film. - You'd never know the difference.
...but as a fellow bachelor, I know you're gonna bounce back,
because you may not be smart
and you may not be good-looking,
but you got one thing that every woman loves.
This scene was one of the first scenes we shot in Atlanta.
And this was a relief because it's a day we only had Michael,
as opposed to having four
of the hugest celebrities I'd ever met in my life
all together on the set.
I only had one of them and it gave me a chance
to just get some sort of alone time with Michael
and work on this lovely scene.
And you look at him here and you say, "That's a movie star."
Not her,
but him.
And...
Just what charisma he has, as you could tell by the yawning person.
And you can see, he...
You know, Michael Douglas is, of all the actors I've ever worked with,
he's also the best movie producer.
He cares about the entire production,
whether you're on time, how quickly you're working,
how many hours everyone's working,
and that's a big help.
It lets the director know that what the director's needs are
are being listened to also by the actors.
I said it, babe.
- Yes, Dan? - No, I was just...
When we first went to Vegas to table-read the movie,
I remember you made that speech before we started.
It was this very intimidating table,
it was Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro,
and Michael Douglas, and Kevin Kline and Jon.
And Jon got up and made a speech in front of the room:
"I know you all must be nervous working with me."
There was really... It got a big laugh,
- everyone relaxed. - A little icebreaker.
Yeah. Like, me, of all people.
This beautiful Malibu house
is actually in suburban woods of Atlanta.
And thank God, there's just sky
that we have to look at outside that window.
But if you look at the ocean
in some of the earlier shots, later shots,
they were actually shot at my beach house in Malibu.
So trivially, now, you now know
that if you wanna come hang out at my house,
it will look like Michael Douglas' beach house.
You know, there hasn't been a DVD I've done
where I don't slip in that I have a beach house, you know.
That's what's important.
Get that in there.
That wasn't in the original script, the booze, the bottle.
The runner of this important bottle wasn't your idea, was it?
I don't think so, no. I think it was...
It was put in subsequently and it really works,
especially towards the end of the film where...
It becomes a symbol of the guy's childhood which is...
Is an important thing, actually. It kind of helps track,
reminds you how long they've known each other, in case you ever forget it.
Don't mention it enough.
All right, now, let me talk about this scene a little bit.
This was written...
You've got these two guys, plus you then add Morgan
and we're thinking of adding Bob, they call him, but he does...
They don't call Bob, but there's three... Bob, by the way,
I just wanna point that out.
The character of Paddy.
It was originally designed possibly to be done
as a split-screen to see all three of them,
and we cut it that way originally.
But when you do that, you can't really adjust the timing
the way you may want to change the pace
or some of the dialogue, add a line, take out a line.
But what we did is we built three sets.
This is a set,
Morgan is on a set, and Kevin Kline is on his set.
And all three sets are smooshed up right against each other.
These three guys are all actually on the phone with each other.
The sound guy, David Kelson,
hooked these three prop phones up
so each guy could hear each other,
and they're sitting on three sets.
If they put the phones down, they could hear each other too.
And so they can really listen to each other.
We could shoot it all at the same time.
Because phone scenes can get really annoying.
You shoot one actor, you have some guy like me
on the other end of the phone with the actor,
acting badly and hoping the actor's overcoming it.
Here, they actually had each other to talk to.
So it was fun, and it was a good challenge
for the cinematographer too,
to light three sets at once.
We had three cameras and we would just shout "action"
and shoot all three of this at once.
It's kind of the opposite of what you normally do on a movie,
which is make things take longer and be more expensive.
We actually found a way to do it quicker.
I wanna stop talking, I love this scene. I wanna listen to it.
- It's a really good scene. - Yeah.
- Well, it was... We're really great.
But it is... This for me is... The movie just really takes off here
because it's the first time you're getting them as themselves together.
And it's all done on a phone and the way you guys cut it together,
it works really well.
And you've established where we're going with the movie
and the plot kicks in here and the music kicks in here.
The score was done by Mark Mothersbaugh,
who's a delightful guy and who...
Most people know him as... He was the leader of the band, Devo,
which was a brilliant... It still is, they're still playing music,
and began as a music and art project in the '70s.
And they're still going strong. And Mark has done a lot of movies,
a lot of animated movies,
and also did all the music for The Pee-wee Herman Show,
which is what sold me on him.
Yeah, so who's gonna call Captain Sunshine?
You know, Mark is just such a great rock musician.
And, you know, guys...
All of us in this business, and in most creative businesses,
are most afraid of being pigeonholed and locked into one thing.
And, you know, I...
I once heard somebody say that if Edison were alive today,
you know, and you brought in his...
The patent for the phonograph, someone would've said:
"Oh, no, no, he's the light bulb guy."
You know, Mark is a brilliant composer.
And you'd think, "Oh, Devo. The music's gonna sound like Devo."
As you listen to the score, there's not a lot of Devo-sounding score in this.
He's really quite amazing.
Now, there's Joanna Gleason,
who I've actually known since my childhood.
She's...
Her parents and my parents were friends.
That's how I first got to see her.
And she starred in the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods,
which I believe is now going to be a motion picture for an interesting studio.
What the...? Now, if you look carefully,
you'll see that that's a generic movie-brand condom
that doesn't actually say anything offensive or common.
In fact, if you look at it carefully, it's not actually a Viagra pill either.
I believe that that's a...
We had to get a fake one for safety on the set.
Don't ask me what the safety was for.
But needless to say, we had to take good care
and that exact same envelope
managed to make it through the entire production
without anyone stealing either the Viagra or the condom.
Did you keep the note as a memento?
Exactly right. I wrote the note. No, I didn't.
This airport is definitely not the Miami airport,
even though we brought in plants and palm trees.
This is a convention center in Atlanta.
Kevin ad-libbed that and made that his...
The script simply says he celebrates,
and that's what... Where he went with it.
Now, this scene, this is Michael Ealy in this scene with Morgan Freeman.
Michael and I did a TV series together called Common Law.
And in spite of the fact that he's the best-looking person I know,
he's also just a great actor and...
Again, back to pigeonholing.
He's really funny but because he's so good-looking
and, like, a leading man, he doesn't get that chance that much.
And I love using him whenever I get a chance to in terms of a comedic role.
So I called him right away as soon as I knew I had to cast someone
to play Morgan's son.
Oh, Pop, I'm sorry.
It's just one of those things a man has to deal with, alone.
Meanwhile, this is not a set. This is an actual person's house.
You saw this same room in that phone call.
But for the phone call part,
we just built that little corner there where the chair is,
for the phone call part.
That little fanny pack shot, we actually got later.
We realized we wanted to establish more funny, the fanny pack.
And that was shot six months after all the rest of this.
This wasn't in the script, this was all Jon. It's...
Well, it wasn't all Jon, actually. I...
This wasn't in your script, is the bottom line. It was...
- Was this in someone else's script? - Yeah, someone put this joke in
and I will take all credit because, of course, I had to shoot it perfectly.
But every now and then, a writer will write a visual joke.
And it is, again, example number 8000
of writers not getting enough credit and it looking like:
"Oh, the actors thought of that, the director thought of that."
A writer thought of that.
Here, however, this was just supposed to be, "Jump in the car
and the door is locked."
But Kevin and Morgan just kept this thing going.
Kevin Kline, given one prop,
will come up with six different ways of using it.
He is always looking to make something funnier.
And so building up this...
Turned this into a huge sort of physical-comedy scene
because he finds funny things to do.
And the notion of not knowing how to open the trunk
and you open the hood instead is so real
because that's what happens when you have a rental car.
And so here we are, looking like the fall in New Jersey
when it's really suburban Atlanta.
This looks like Brooklyn and New York City because it is.
And to make you think this is Brooklyn,
you make a yellow taxi go by and everyone goes:
"All right, whatever. Fine."
And the key to making it look like New York is garbage.
See? Morgan laughed at my joke.
Hundred dollars says Paddy will...
I love Morgan's jacket.
Way to feed in to talk about the costumer.
I'm try... Listen, I'm just here to cue you.
Well done.
Now, if you look at these two guys, just wardrobe-wise and...
From Robert De Niro's bathrobe to Morgan's madras jacket,
these are all the genius ideas of Dayna Pink.
Dayna's our costume designer,
- who I found through Dan. - That's right.
She had done one or two of your movies.
- Just Crazy, Stupid, Love. - That's right.
Which was brilliantly done.
The wardrobe in that movie,
whether someone was wearing it or taking it off, was fantastic.
And Dayna is a brilliant costume designer
who is fun and playful.
And the kind of people I like to work with are that.
People who are good at their jobs,
but don't take themselves and their jobs too seriously,
and that's where Dayna really fits in.
Really supportive of the whole movie.
And... How do you make De Niro...?
I mean, partially, make him look like a lonely guy sitting in his apartment?
The bathrobe, the boxer shorts, the messy hair,
and the performance. And a lot of the dishes.
- Here's a... - Great shot.
It's a great shot. That's what I was gonna say.
It's a great shot.
Now, here in this apartment, you know, these...
Whenever you do a movie, you got all these photographs, right?
What do you do?
Photoshop has been great for helping us put these together.
We actually hire an actress
and you use her as an actress to pose in all these pictures
and you make them yourself and you get actors
to volunteer pictures from their own lives.
So you get their childhood pictures put together.
Say what you want to me, but leave my hat out of this, okay?
My hat has never done a thing to you.
- I'm not going to Vegas! - Paddy!
This was the day I thought Morgan Freeman was gonna yell at me
because I made him wait so long while we were shooting this scene.
And I was sure Morgan was gonna be hard to work with.
I decided before we shot,
Morgan Freeman is so serious and so important and all that.
He's not gonna get me and...
I'm gonna get... He's gonna be mean to me, I know it.
He couldn't have been sweeter, more of a love.
And when I told him that, I thought... I was scared of him
and I told him I thought he'd be too serious.
He laughed and he said, "Yeah, I've got gravitas sewn up."
Yeah, he's master of gravitas, no question about it.
We all went out to dinner the night before we started shooting,
and he gave a beautiful toast, remember?
Oh, yeah.
Plastered.
Not really plastered, pretending plastered.
It's easier to pretend you're drunk when you're a little drunk.
But, no, he is the greatest imitator of a drunk person.
He's really funny and he knows what everyone thinks about him.
Well, now we're actually in Las Vegas, Nevada
at the real Las Vegas airport on a real baggage-claim area,
and they were nice enough to let us shoot there,
but not nice enough to stop all the rest of the people from walking through.
So some of the extras you see
are very confused tourists who were standing around.
What was it...? I've shot a little in Vegas, but were people going...?
I wasn't there very much, were people going nuts with the four of them?
You know, Vegas is interesting. It's a little bit like L.A.
People expect to see celebrities in Vegas.
They're excited to see celebrities in Vegas.
But they treat celebrities nicely in Las Vegas.
It's not like running into them on the street of your own hometown.
- Right. - But the person...
Whenever you're out, and I even said it would happen and it did happen,
people tend not to scream:
"Hey, Kevin Kline!"
But a lot of people love when De Niro's on the street.
You get a lot of "Bobby!"
And we had a lot of that when we were out.
But very few people shouting out, "Hey, Mary Steenburgen!"
That didn't happen too much in front of the Bellagio.
Here, we not only had a lot of people,
but the PA system kept ruining takes
when they would page someone or announce a flight.
...or so help me, I'm gonna rain holy hell down on both of you.
What was your first scene shooting where you had four of them together?
That's a very good question, and it's not this one.
This was our very last day of shooting in Las Vegas.
My first scene shooting them together is the scene coming up
where they enter Binion's Casino.
And that was a little dicey. A little dicey.
Because, you know, on any movie,
director and actors are figuring each other out.
And so I had to figure all four guys out at once so they didn't fire me,
which is always a concern.
I loved shooting in Vegas because I like being in Vegas.
It is one of those fun places to go
that most people I know who hate it haven't been to it.
And if you have a good trip, you have a good trip.
Now, Binion's was wonderful with us.
They were great because they knew in the script
this is the place they don't stay,
that's supposed to be the not-nice place. It's hard to say to a business:
"Hey, can we use your business as the not-nice place?"
They said, "We get it. We know what our positioning is here in Vegas.
We know that we're not like a strip hotel.
It would be nice if the dialogue didn't say:
'This place stinks and it's horrible.'
But we totally get it."
And they opened their doors to us and there we are shooting
actually in the middle of Binion's Casino, which is not easy.
So this was the first day of shooting the movie.
And... Now, if you listen carefully, poor Morgan has a horrible cold
and he sounds a little bit gravellier than the rest, but he's amazing.
Most actors, you know,
if you're really sick, you're allowed to stay home.
Not him.
We shot. And I'll tell you about, later on, another scene
where he was even worse sick with a huge fever,
and he just went for it.
Meantime, I got to look for a bathroom. Or don't they have that either?
De Niro is so surprisingly funny.
Yeah.
People think, "He's a tough guy, " and all that.
He has got such a great sense of humor,
both as a person and as an actor.
And he really knows how to play it without overplaying anything.
Michael just exudes charm and movie star in this.
And, you know, you think it's a lot easier
to just act with other people, but here he is without anybody,
just doing his thing.
Now, here's a little trick.
So here we were in Binion's,
and now he walks into the club, and now we're in Atlanta
on another beautiful David Bomba set.
And the muse of the movie,
who is not just the muse for these characters,
but for me and for so many of us, is Mary Steenburgen.
You'll never... It's impossible for there to be a nicer, better person.
Kinder, more supportive.
Did so much to really buoy these guys up
and flirt with them and tease them
and make them feel all puffed up and great and...
This is really her singing.
No movie tricks here.
She is a brilliant songwriter.
She lives part-time in Nashville, works in Nashville,
and writes music and sings.
So this was just the right part for the right person,
and it just came together so perfectly.
And she also has studied
in the school of how to look stunning in a red gown
because she couldn't look any better. Just amazing.
My one and only
You
Her character's name is Diana Boyle. She starts introducing herself...
That's my mom's best friend, Diana Boyle.
- Really? See, I didn't know any of this. - Yeah, growing up. Mrs. Boyle.
Is...? Does she look like Mary?
No. No, but she's lovely. I haven't seen her in quite a while,
but I e-mailed to tell her there's gonna be a movie coming out
where she says her name about 15 times in this upcoming scene
because it's the joke that she keeps reintroducing herself.
And did your mother's friend have this issue of reintroducing herself?
- No, no, no. - Okay.
That's also better.
They all loved working together and I... And I...
You know, we say that and you hear that, I'm sure,
on these DVD things. "Oh, it's like a family, " and all that.
But whenever Mary was on the set,
it just got that much more fun and delightful.
It was also fun... If Mary was on the set,
sometimes her husband would come visit.
And he's another one of the...
Like, nine nicest, best people in the world.
Now, for a director, these scenes are not fun,
because you have so many people that you have to film
that you have to do the scene over and over and over.
Actors, not so thrilled either.
They don't mind as much the parts where the camera's looking at them.
But if you'll notice, any one of these shots,
the camera is not looking at them
and they're doing it over and over and over again.
People get used to doing that,
but in a scene like this where you have four people,
plus a waitress, and then you add Bob De Niro,
now you have five people in this scene.
That's a lot of different people to do what we call coverage on.
And they just kept doing it and doing it and doing it.
So it worked out great.
And, see, if you look carefully... I think we may have missed it,
but there's kind of a creepy guy in the background with a beard
that looks right into the camera a lot of the time.
Sometimes you'll see him.
I think he's friends with Michael Douglas,
but I can't be sure.
But he made it into the final cut of the movie,
so you can keep your eye out for him.
See, there he is in the very back. He's blurry.
No, actually we're here for a wedding.
Now, this "hazelnut" joke,
everybody wanted to cut that joke out of the movie.
They kept thinking, "Oh, it's not funny. No one's gonna like it, it's not funny."
But somehow we managed to keep it in the film.
I know it gets a laugh in the theaters, having seen it in theaters.
You people watching the DVD at home probably aren't laughing at anything,
which is okay too.
My wife dies about a year ago, he doesn't even show...
When you have these guys all in a scene like this
and you have all the coverage,
how do you decide what order you're gonna shoot them in?
Well, that's a good... A really funny question.
That would keep me up at night.
You know, what you do,
you start by putting the burden on the cinematographer.
You know, the reason this set looks both like it's in...
It was shot in Atlanta and looks like it was in Vegas is not just the set,
it's the lighting and the camerawork to make it look the same.
And our cinematographer, David, really did an amazing job
of matching the looks of both places.
But you turn to him...
David Hennings, by the way... he says, "Look, we're looking in this direction.
It's quicker to do this guy, then this guy, then this guy."
And then I might turn to him and say:
"Yes, but I would rather shoot this person first."
And then you kind of just work that out.
But for the most part,
you wanna start on the person who's gonna have the bulk of the story
to tell in the dialogue.
In this case, it was this... We started
- with the shot of Kevin and Morgan - Sure.
because they had the most to do in the scene.
That is not Bombay Sapphire gin in that glass, just so you know,
because we'd get arrested if we actually put that in there.
This scene was shot in a parking lot in Atlanta
to simulate traffic.
And they just ad-libbed the big fight. We just wanted to show...
Get them on the street and explain... We could've cut from the bar to this,
but everyone said, "Who would walk in Las Vegas?"
"Well, nobody knows." "Well, I know."
And there are certain logic things you can push, but it's not my favorite.
Getting out on the street in Las Vegas was just fun for me.
Being in front of Bellagio and all this.
Now...
We could talk for a long time about that postcard.
That actress will appear later in the movie.
And it was only a few days before shooting
that we realized she appears later in the movie.
We need these cards. This is what they really do in Vegas.
They hand out postcards of girls
that you think are the ones who are gonna come to your room
and give you a foot rub.
But it's usually the friend of theirs
who's not quite as good-looking as the one on the card.
But we needed the picture of the girl.
And that actress was really great
and sent us some amazing photos of herself
that we were able to doctor
and put on there at the very last minute.
So there is that story. There's more to that story,
but you're gonna have to get me at home, alone, privately
to tell you that.
Are you set for life at the Aria?
Well, first of all, I'm so set that I know not to call it "the Aria."
- Well, what's it called? - Aria.
- Oh, sorry. Got it. - We don't say "the Aria, " Dan.
That was one of my first little pieces of learning.
Because it's not "the Aria," just as it's...
It's not "the Caesars Palace."
They don't mind what you call it as long as you come,
and have a good time, and spend your money.
Yeah, I... I'm probably good at Aria for a while,
until everybody I know there is either retired or fired.
Because it's those personal contacts that make the difference.
This is the one, this is the one.
Okay, so put a dollar down.
- I don't gamble. - Oh, this is not gambling.
Now, we created this wheel of fortune
to make it look like something that might actually exist.
They tend not to have cheesy promos like this at nice hotels like Aria,
but this one we were able to get in.
Shooting at a huge place like this is not easy, clearly.
What's funny is, people say:
"Can you bring your cameras in and shoot in the casino?"
If there's ever a place that has cameras in it,
it's a casino.
Everywhere you look is cameras.
There's no way that we are a security concern.
What we are is a distraction and a disruption to the guests.
So just keep in mind, for every actor you see,
there's about 30 other people on the crew
taking up room in the casino, in the hotel,
in the lobby and all of that.
So we always made sure not to shoot there
during their busiest times, which, of course, is Fridays.
Oh, my Lord.
If you'd like to know more about the traveling problems in Las Vegas
and their traffic, please call at any point.
Look at his face. Look how much he does by not doing much at all.
He's really incredible. I mean, I'm saying that about Robert De Niro
like I'm a genius, but still.
Now, here we are walking right into the casino,
and all the things you look at, you think are difficult.
What do you do with people?
Every person you see, for the most part, is involved in the movie.
These are all extras or actors,
including Jerry Ferrara, who is seen there, and that dealer.
This is one of my favorite stories.
We were very close to shooting, a couple days away.
We hadn't cast anyone to play the dealer
and I really wanted someone who knew what they were doing.
So I sat down at a whole bunch of different tables,
got a sense of the dealer I was with and kept asking:
"Wanna be in a movie? Do you wanna be in my movie?"
Like some kind of perv who was using the fact:
"You know, I direct movies. Do you wanna be in it?"
And this dealer, her name is Lisa, said, "I'll do it."
And we... And I was so thrilled
because she's so sweet and was so great.
Everybody else said... Was too scared.
"No, I don't wanna do it. I don't wanna do it."
But she is an actual Aria blackjack and pai gow dealer,
and she's just perfect and does such a great job.
We needed someone who knew how to handle chips and deal
and count money and do all that stuff,
and she was just fantastic.
Now, shooting in these casinos,
the issue isn't the people, the lights, it's the sound.
A casino is a loud place. And to not have to re-record all this dialogue,
you need some place a little quieter.
We didn't have it.
- Is this Atlanta? - This is now Atlanta
substituting for a Vegas club.
You're wondering, "Why are you in Atlanta?"
Well, the answer is one nobody wants to say, but it's...
Bottom line is, it's a great place to shoot.
There's great movie crews there and it's cheaper.
Okay.
They're gonna cut that part out. I know it.
No, we spent as much money as we possibly could
to bring you the greatest entertainment on earth.
Now, this lovely woman who we cast,
this beautiful girl, is Roger Bart who is one of the funniest and...
Actors and best guys.
He has starred... Also a big Broadway star.
Yes, we still look to great New York actors when casting.
- This scene... - Look what you do to that...
What I do with...
Yes, because we have so much respect for them.
Now, poor Roger Bart is gonna get cast as tall guys from now on.
He... Don't worry. He's standing on an 8-inch box
to make him look taller, so don't get excited.
And what a beautiful girl he makes.
This scene, Kevin just turns into, basically, every one of our fathers,
trying so desperately to say the right thing
and do the right thing.
But this happens.
- No, no, good. - It's a Madonna song.
When you were writing this,
were you thinking that this was gonna be
a bigger character in the movie that would come up a lot?
I didn't write that scene, Jon.
Jesus, Dan, why are you even sitting here?
Yes, I thought that would be a bigger...
Well, it... There was a moment in the film...
Are we allowed to talk about such things, where...?
- The deleted scene? - The deleted scene?
Yes.
Why don't we talk about it when it happens?
But there was more intended for that character at one point.
Originally, actually, the character was a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator.
That's right. I'd forgotten about that.
- That... That's correct. - And so...
A Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator.
They meet when they go touring around Vegas. There was extra stuff.
- And then... - That's right.
They go on a tour bus with a bunch of retirees
and have a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator show them around.
And we didn't wanna do the scenes with them driving around
because it was cheaper.
So we ended up with a Madonna look-alike in Roger Bart.
Now, here's an interesting question.
Now, there's an interesting moment on a DVD.
- Yeah. - You didn't write that.
You wrote the Sammy Davis Jr. thing, we switched it.
- How does that feel? - I like it. I think it's funny. I think...
The Sammy Davis Jr. thing, in the deleted scene that we'll get to later,
made more sense possibly.
- But for what... - Yes.
For the purpose it's serving in the film, I think this is better. It's more fun.
- And when you get rewritten, - Yeah?
how good are you at not getting upset?
- Oh, yeah, I'm good. - You are.
- Yeah. - Is that because you've done a lot...?
- Yeah. - Is it because you've done a lot of TV?
Because I've done a lot of films, I think, and I think at a certain point,
you stop taking everything so seriously
and you learn that, you know, it's gonna...
You stop being precious about everything and...
What happened on a thing like that was there was stuff...
A character that changed in interim drafts of the script,
and then I came back and I said:
"What lines need to be better from it? What lines are great?"
I love when people do stuff that's good, so...
You were pretty good about saying that.
You'd say, "This is... I didn't write this, but it's funnier. It's funnier."
Which helped us to buy that it wasn't personal when you'd say:
"I know this is new, but I don't think it's funnier.
And I think we should change it back or do something different."
Because it was clear you weren't just saying that for ego reasons.
Yeah. There's so much...
It's such a different thing from script to page too and, you know...
On this, I was... On this film in particular,
because I think I was doing another film or I was doing a TV show.
I don't... I don't remember what it was going on...
- You work so much, so successful. - I work a lot.
I was only there for the first day of shooting.
That can be a really daunting thing, and at a certain point, you just let go.
It's the director's movie anyway, ultimately.
I mean... And honestly. So if it's not... It's got to work for them.
If not, even if you like something that's on a page,
if they don't get it or like it, it's not gonna work in the film.
Now, let me just jump in and talk about this scene.
This is my first scene with a bevy of trannies.
I have never done that before.
And one of the great things about working in the movie business
is new experiences and new things you learn about.
And we had this whole group,
because of the Madonna look-alike,
and got to know them, got to know what they're lives are like,
and got to realize, "Wow, are they gorgeous."
And there were a lot of guys on the crew that were sort of thinking:
"All right, this isn't what... This is difficult.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here."
They were a lot of fun and they really taught us a lot
on how to, like, make the scene work better.
Atlanta, by the way, is like the gay capital of the South.
There's an enormous number of clubs,
and it's sort of this safe haven in the middle of a place
that doesn't normally deal with that stuff as well as other places.
And there was no trouble in Atlanta finding transvestites, transsexuals...
There. And transgender.
This wasn't in the script
and this was something you felt very strongly about
that there should be a misdirect
where it seems like Morgan's lost a lot of money.
Then there's this big reveal that the opposite has happened.
And I did it for you, but I did not think it was gonna work.
If I'm being completely honest, and then it really... It really does.
Right there. It really works.
You know what? I thought rather than just make him a huge winner,
it'd be fun to make you think he's a loser and then...
See, let me explain something to you about writing.
- This is what's known as drama. - Thank you.
Yeah, and you think one thing's gonna happen
and something else instead happens.
Great table, great game.
How much?
- Hundred and two thousand. - Hundred and two.
Now, there was a big argument about how much money he should win.
- I remember that. - When you're talking
to a group of multi-multimillionaires about what is a lot of money to win,
it's not always the same amount
as when you realize it's for a regular character
who's on a pension and all that kind of stuff.
There were people on our... Like producers and such
who were thinking he needs to win $20 million
for it to be considered a lot.
I think $100,000 for me would be a great trip to Vegas.
- Praise the Lord! - Ezra, I'm going to have to go.
I think the Holy Spirit's about to leave the room.
Morgan, in this scene,
was trying so hard to remember his lines with Kevin Kline
standing and screaming behind him.
Kevin really went for it. It was so much fun here.
This was one of the most fun scenes
because he just was told, "Improvise. Just ad-lib."
And when you have Kevin Kline ad-libbing, you're gonna get a lot
because he's brilliant, but he's gonna really go for it.
- Yes! - Yeah.
- Relax, Gherson. - Yeah.
It's not like you invented it.
Oh, Jesus.
Let's take a look at this shot.
Actually we can replay it and look over and over.
- When Kevin Kline saw that shot, - Yeah.
he looked and went, "That's my wife."
Kevin Kline is married to Phoebe Cates
and there's a very similar shot of her getting out of a pool
in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
I had no... I wasn't even thinking and had no idea,
but he looked at me like, "What did you just do to me?
I'm gonna get in trouble for this."
So when Phoebe saw the movie, she said:
"No, it's not the same. I had really sexy slow-motion water behind me."
- There you go. - Now, how did you find this guy?
Okay. Miracle story.
The scene calls for a bikini party.
And all it says is, like, "host."
Out of the blue, we get a call from Redfoo's people saying:
"Would Redfoo be good for this scene?
He'd love to do some acting."
It's like, "Would Redfoo be good? The whole thing is based on Redfoo.
He's the most perfect person ever."
And if you need someone to be the life of your party,
that's what Redfoo does for a living.
And he was brilliant.
We didn't... We found ourselves stuck for time on this day,
and had almost no time.
And we ran through this entire scene
all the way straight through twice, and that was it.
And threw the cameras everywhere we could.
Redfoo didn't miss a beat.
Got every line right, ran through the whole thing perfectly.
And got... We got these girls to come out.
They were all fun, they got it. They knew what we were doing.
I never know when... I mean, I get so uncomfortable
when I'm shooting sexy, sexy scenes and things like that.
I don't know whether I'm supposed to celebrate how sexy it is,
or be embarrassed about how sexy it is and all that.
So I enjoyed being there, I have to say.
But at the same time, it's all awkward.
Girls were great. They were like, "Tell us what you want.
That's what we're here for, what we wanna do.
And we wanna look good." They looked good.
- How many cameras did you have? - Four cameras.
- Yeah. - Two on cranes.
- That's a great shot. - Now, that shot was...
Kevin just added that.
And I missed it on camera the first time he did it.
So that was one little spot we went back and got it.
Now, talk about an actor who went for it, that woman was the best.
She was just great.
Now, to me, this is one of my favorite moments
in my entire career coming up.
When I talked to Redfoo about what he does,
he talked about how in the show he likes to bring the beach balls.
He brings everybody... His gang with him.
And one thing he likes to do is he likes to strip his pants off.
And wiggle his Speedo-y, tighty-whitey, leopard-print tuchus
in the face of someone.
And I said, "Oh, my God.
Please, please wiggle your you-know-what
in Robert De Niro's face."
And I thought, "Oh, come on.
That's an Academy Award winner right there."
And we thought... And then De Niro added that,
giving him a zero by himself.
Came up with that joke at the end.
Now, as a director,
you're always aware in your cast
of who the actors are in terms of their persona.
I've never experienced a movie...
Well, not just that I've done, but that I've seen.
...where your knowledge of who the actor is
plays a bigger role in how their character comes off on-screen.
Knowing that the wiener wiggle
was in the face of Robert De Niro made that joke funnier.
Not just that it was Paddy, but it's De Niro.
And it's funnier than if it were any of these other guys.
And that plays throughout this movie, you know.
There's a beautiful speech towards the end of the film
that Michael Douglas makes.
Well, it's a speech about aging and feeling old.
And if there's any of these actors
that has a greater sensitivity, who has stayed the leading man
and has stayed youthful,
but is now suffering through aging
with getting sick and all that and overcoming all that, it's Michael.
So to see him embrace that role made it better.
And there's something about all of these guys
where they brought who they are to the movie
that really affected, I think, the success
of how all these characters play together.
You guys killed it with this set. I mean, this is...
I remember when I saw the movie the first time.
Because this is Atlanta also, obviously.
This is...
This is great production design.
Well, again, David Bomba, the production designer,
wanted to make this awesome and right.
I kept saying, "Bigger, bigger, bigger."
And he got plans and designs and blueprints from actual suites.
And then created this, that we needed. With pools of water,
huge windows that you think, "Oh, what are we gonna do
looking out those windows?" But we got an amazing backdrop.
The editors called us on the set and said:
"We just got this footage from Vegas. How come it came in so late?"
They thought this was actually a suite in Vegas and they're editing the movie.
My editors are morons, by the way. That's... No.
- It looks so believable and real. - Palette.
It's... The whole movie has the same... That palette of Vegas.
It's that kind of deep red and brown.
It's very kind of sophisticated and classy.
It's what I like best about the way you shot the movie.
It's more...
It looks... If you closed your eyes and didn't listen to the dialogue,
you could be watching a drama, the way it looks, you know what I mean?
It looks like a... It doesn't just look like
kind of one of those bright, nauseating, you know, comedies.
It's very sophisticated and sexy and the color...
- And deeper and richer. - Yeah.
Now, here to open these curtains,
they were all supposed to open electronically,
but we couldn't get it to work.
So there's five chubby guys off camera pulling them all at the same time.
Each curtain, to let in that bright Vegas light.
And there again, it's the cinematographer
getting the color of that outside light right to make it look just right.
I'll talk more about Romany later, who's the actor that just left the room.
Now, here is again the Scotch bottle that Dan Fogelman didn't think of
making a second appearance.
What you can't see is that on this shot, while Michael's talking,
Kevin Kline drops this bottle by mistake,
ruining Michael Douglas' close-up,
which I just found so delightful.
Michael, less so. But I just thought it was great.
But never put a prop in Kevin Kline's hand,
that's all I'm gonna say.
That's not all I'm gonna say. I gotta talk for another hour.
This was really the first heavy dramatic scene in the movie.
And this was one I was really looking forward to doing.
Because here I get a chance to do a real dramatic scene
with Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro.
But what happened was, while I was shooting this,
I couldn't help but notice in the background behind Michael
is Morgan Freeman putting ice in some glasses back there.
And what you don't see is he drops the ice by mistake.
And the ice is made of rubber, so that it doesn't make noise.
And it bounced around the whole set.
And if you ever look at the outtakes, if you can get your hands on them,
it's pretty great.
Hey, Paddy, come on, man, for crying out loud...
And meanwhile this scene, there was a big debate
whether to have any music on this scene or not.
I wanted music, the producers did not want music.
So I told them they were probably right, and then we put music on it.
It's probably the only time I really strongly disagreed on anything
with these two brilliant producers.
They were fantastic.
Amy Baer, who has been a studio executive her whole career.
This is her first movie.
And... Nap time.
And Larry Mark, who has produced not only Oscar-winning films,
but the Oscars themselves.
I've never felt I could just trust a producer more.
Just get an opinion
and say, "I'm gonna go with their choice over my choice"
because of just how good their taste is.
Here we are at a club.
This is the experience everybody has gone through. You go to a club,
and you're standing in line and you wanna be important and you're not.
And you're the people stuck
and you don't know whether you're supposed to make a stink,
whether you're supposed to stand in the back.
You don't know what to do. All you know is everyone else
seems to be having more fun than you are.
And then you go and you think you know how to work your way in
and you don't.
Now, sometimes you get really lucky.
And we had to find a massive Las Vegas nightclub in Atlanta.
Atlanta, it turns out, has huge clubs.
And this club, which you'll see in a minute,
is this size in Atlanta, and great.
And you also get lucky and you find local actors,
such as this guy.
And Michael was adorable,
kind, and gigantic.
And just brought a joy to him so that...
This was supposed to be his only scene.
I put him in three other scenes in the movie just because...
Just because, really.
And he helped, and made everything better that he's in,
which is all good.
Now, here what they're talking about, it's 18 to get in.
They're... Of course, it's 1,800.
Who would think it's $1,800?
Until I went to Vegas, I couldn't imagine
they could charge $1,800 for anything.
Let... A car is $1,800.
So now what you just missed is the only F-word in the movie.
We would not have gotten our PG-13 rating
had there been two of those F-words in the movie.
You also just missed the S-word.
There's a lot of those.
We'll take it.
You had a couple of F-words to choose between, right?
Yes. We had to pick the one F-word we wanted.
And that was the... We thought was the funniest of all of them.
But this is an actual club, and it is massive,
in Atlanta.
But those aren't actual people.
Those are extras that are paid to look like they're having a good time
for 14 straight hours in the movie.
One of the hardest parts of shooting big scenes like this
is you can't make it loud inside or you'd never really hear the dialogue.
So you have to make it really quiet.
But then to make that believable, the actors have to shout,
even though there's no noise.
So it's dead silent in there,
and the actors are screaming at the top of their lungs.
To get... And then we fill it in with sound.
That's a little movie trick that probably is boring half of you at the moment.
But it is a strange thing because you sit
and you watch the dailies in dead silence.
You have to trust that this will make sense when the sound goes in later.
Right. You think, "Wow, this director's an idiot."
Now, here in this club,
you know, you've got all these people moving around to no music.
And you play a little music for them
and you hope that they start dancing and looking good
and doing what they're supposed to do and that they keep dancing
even after you turn the music off.
These actresses, and the two lead actresses also from Atlanta...
Archie!
It's amazing how much talent there is all over the U.S.
Partially because filming has moved outside of Los Angeles,
that places have had to grow and build up their talent base.
But not just film crews.
There are great actors and actresses
outside of New York and Los Angeles now,
and we've been able to find them.
A lot of television shows shoot in all these places.
So a lot of the times,
you think you bring all the actors in, and you don't.
You can make a career being an actor
if you live in Austin, New Orleans, Atlanta,
and a few other places actually at this point.
Probably New Mexico.
Boy, these "Red Balls" vodkas are strange.
I feel like I'm getting drunk and electrocuted at the same time.
Now, this is your best example of Morgan Freeman
knowing how to play drunk.
...same song over and over and over and over again.
I probably should get up and dance, but I'm used to having a partner.
Certainly doesn't seem to matter to that fella.
Maybe I'll give it a shot. Maybe not.
Well, if they play something different. Oh, shit, maybe now.
The amount of times you think someone's gonna make a long speech
that you're supposed to make edits and cut away,
but it never was as good as when we just stayed right on top of him
and just let him... Let him go.
When he finished that speech, the entire set erupted in applause.
All the extras, all the crew.
It was one of those moments
where you know it's just that funny and just that good.
Does Lipitor count?
That was one of the jokes from your original script, you know.
- Yeah, that was the one that made it. - The one. I kept that one, Lipitor joke.
I...
But there's probably new drugs out from the time you started writing it.
You know, this is an interesting thing here
because very seldom in the movie
do we kind of make fun of or talk about the fact
that they're... These guys are getting old.
But it's very strategic spots.
This is one where she says:
"If you're getting married to a young girl, you're probably rich."
But most of the jokes are made by them, right?
And this movie would have a completely different tone,
and not be nearly as funny as if... If she had said, "Do you have drugs?"
And some other jerk said, "Yeah, probably Lipitor."
It's the fact that they make the jokes themselves about themselves
that gives the movie the tone it has, that I think gives it the charm it has.
And that's because of the writer.
Thanks, Jon.
- I didn't mean you. - Yeah.
Now, there's Jerry Ferrara.
We were mixing the movie.
And we had some young person come visit us
while we were doing the sound mixing on the set.
And there was a shot from this scene
with Morgan Freeman and Michael Douglas,
Kevin Kline and Robert De Niro,
and this person walked on the stage
we were doing this on and said:
"Oh, my God, it's Turtle."
Couldn't have cared less about the Oscar winners.
Here's Jerry.
He is so sweet, so fun, so talented, and for...
That's why he took this part.
When he came in, he said:
"I'm only doing the part if you promise
that Robert De Niro will punch me in the face."
It was the main thing he was looking forward to.
- Take him out the side. - We're going.
- I'm not kidding, by the way. - We...
That night before we started shooting, a few of us had gone...
Or two nights before, we went to a private steak house room in...
For a little cast dinner, remember?
And I was sitting next to Jerry and we just kept...
It was Morgan and Kevin. De Niro wasn't there.
It was Morgan and Kevin and Michael.
We just kept going, "Can you...?" I won't curse, but...
"Can you believe where we are right now?"
It was a crazy table of people sitting and drinking wine and eating steak
- in Vegas, and he was so excited. - Yeah. Just amazing.
It is amazing. You know, you balance
between the excitement of saying:
"Wow, there's... There...
I'm doing a shot with Robert De Niro pretending to box like in Raging Bull"
and being amazed by it. And also being the guy who's saying:
"The writing, the pace isn't right. I've gotta do it again.
I don't really like this, that, and the other thing."
If you're too amazed by what you're doing...
Now, here's my favorite shot in the movie.
Why? Because I'm driving that taxi.
And I had to drive that taxi
because in Taxi Driver, De Niro drives the taxi.
And the director, Martin Scorsese, is in the backseat.
And I thought, "If I'm getting a taxi with Robert De Niro in it,
I'm driving it." And so I did.
- That's one of the perks to being me. - That's right.
Maybe that story was more interesting when I told it to my wife.
Okay. So...
Again here, this is a song that Mary wrote herself.
I talked over it. But Mary actually wrote this song
because we needed a song to throw in there.
We didn't wanna use another old standard.
We wanted something a little different. And she wrote a song for us.
This was your first... The first shot of the movie.
Yes. This was the first thing we shot,
and it has the greatest actor in the world in it
and maybe one of the greatest actresses in the world in it
and the worst drunk extra right behind them.
Oh, my God.
I was so mad.
But we didn't quite notice when we shot it
and we just noticed later.
I used to be able to make women...
Here's a place where it was loud.
You can shout, "Quiet, please,"
but it doesn't quite work out on the streets of Vegas.
But this was it. This was my first moment.
And what's also interesting
is that these actors had never worked with each other.
So not just am I as the director going:
"Wow, I'm doing a scene with Mary Steenburgen and Robert De Niro."
Mary Steenburgen is going, "Wow, I'm doing a scene with Robert De Niro."
I don't think Robert De Niro was amazed he was working with me,
but he should have been.
He was eventually.
But Mary kept commenting to me on how delighted she was
and how impressed she was and how good they are.
And I can tell you folks, these actors who are this good, it's not an accident.
They don't just happen to be good every now and then.
They're really good at this. They prepare, they do their work.
They study. They know what they're doing.
And they really give everything they can.
It's not an accident.
And they ask questions, and they wanna know...
Was that your idea, this joke? Okay, good.
- See, you got like three still in there. - Yeah. Yeah.
Now, this building is all glass.
We're in Vegas. The sun is a gazillion degrees.
- What month was it? - This is now October.
So the sun is beating against that building of glass
and causing bright sunlight.
And the sun reflects off of that building onto another building,
so there are three suns in the shot.
And the cinematographer is ready to kill me,
kill himself, kill the... Blow up the building.
So these actors are actually surrounded by black tarps
to keep the variety of suns off their bodies.
...and I'm having a Bloody Mary.
I used to like Bloody Marys. Maybe I'll like them again.
Here's a lovely scene, just with the two of them.
This felt like a treat to me, because it was again, a quiet scene.
I'm not sitting, trying to get the joke.
I'm just trying to lay back and let them do their thing.
And to see these two guys act with each other,
you know as a director, you're... You don't have to do a lot.
All you have to do
is put the camera in the right place where you can see them,
make sure the actor feels comfortable
and knows what is expected in the scene.
Now, I don't give a flying crap about you,
but if I did, I gotta tell you, I see a few red flags.
It is a real good scene.
They're very... They're so good together.
They really are and they're... You know, they really...
They felt... Feel like grown-ups, like legends, like big shots.
And yet you take these guys coming in too, who are just as big.
But they're wearing goofy hats and sunglasses
and zinc oxide on their nose.
- Oh, crap. - I...
Here comes a big joke. What did you wind up doing here?
- Well, you'll hear. - Okay.
Now, this coming up is...
There was a joke. I'm probably gonna get in trouble for telling this story.
But there was a joke here that was...
What I thought was the single funniest joke in the whole movie.
Michael Douglas is pretending that he's a big gangster.
Based on Romany's character acts like these guys are tough guys.
And that's why the young guy is apologizing.
He calls on his tough henchman named Knuckles.
He makes up the name Knuckles for De Niro
who clearly doesn't know he's talking about him at first.
And he is threatening the kid.
Kevin Kline throws in a line here
where on camera, you'll hear him say:
"If you do what you're told, basically Knuckles here will let you..."
I think he says, "Wash your balls," is what we had.
"Wash your balls" was a reshoot
because he originally said something much more offensive than that
which got one of the biggest laughs I've ever heard in a movie theater.
The problem is, it got us an R... Here it is.
Maybe Knuckles here will let you wash his balls.
Sorry, that was weird.
But it was gonna get us an R rating. And an R-rated movie... It's funny.
Normally you worry that an R rating is gonna... Is...
The problem is, it's gonna keep kids away.
On this film, we were afraid an R rating
would keep some of the adults away.
People over age 75 who might be going to this movie
might not wanna see an R-rated film.
So we had to change it to keep the PG-13 rating
and I will always be sad about it.
The cast was great. They understood it.
These guys could say, "No, I'm not rerecording it. I'm not doing it."
Oh, they were great.
Next comes the only, I think, typical part of this movie
which is we made a fun montage.
Typical doesn't mean bad, but it still works.
And it was a way to tell a lot of story in a short amount of time
and seeing how they prepared.
I like this one, although, is she throwing up or crying?
Okay, and you kept this song.
- Oh, yeah. - This works great.
- What is it? - This is a song
by David Guetta and will.i.am
that we found in an editor's library of songs
that was originally...
They were thinking of using it on the Smurf2 soundtrack,
but it wasn't.
And we said... And we just stuck it on there.
It was just... Found it.
I don't know if it was ever released on an album.
Shooting this was also one of my favorite moments.
These are the actual cast of Cirque du Soleil, Zarkana.
And getting them on the set,
talking to them, their artistic directors, their...
They were so helpful.
And you talk about talented people.
The cast of Cirque du Soleil are so gifted
and it could do anything you need over and over again.
And, come on, talk about a celebrity.
Cirque du Soleil, man. That's the coolest thing ever.
Yeah.
This is... This is your shot coming up here
- in a little bit. - The slo-mo shot?
- Yeah, it's coming up in a while. - It's not for a while?
Not just for... It's for... You should... It's... Jesus, Dan. Seriously.
Now it's getting just awkward.
This is the greatest outfit ever for a straight man to wear, is that.
If we were able to, I would release...
Again, it's fun shooting a montage
when you know it's gonna be a montage.
You just shoot little bits and pieces. The problem with some montages
is you're calling from scenes that just didn't work.
And you have to... Getting...
You actually have to shoot the whole scene.
- Here's the shot you were talking about. - Yeah.
You've seen it before. They're dressed so great, it's Vegas and it's these guys,
and it's... I just... I love it so much.
And you really feel they've come a long way when you see that,
compared to how Dayna Pink costumed them earlier
in what they were wearing to what they're wearing now.
There's a big difference.
This is a...
Again, this was not in the script.
But we needed a little piece... There was a piece where he comes
and picks her up and they have a whole bunch of dialogue.
And we needed to do something quicker and we...
We were also running out of time shooting.
So we basically created a visual joke that we could do it really quick.
Let me just check with the crowd.
Right. And it's hard to say it, though.
Now, this is a real place that exists. This is a s...
Was originally just a sign graveyard where they throw stuff.
Now, it's turned into the sign... Las Vegas Neon and Sign Museum.
I've never shot...
I did both of the National Treasure movies
filmed in the National Archives
in Philadelphia's Independence Hall and the Library of Congress.
And they were not nearly as protective or annoying
as the people who run this place who wouldn't let us...
"Don't stand too close to the R in 'Stardust.'
And there's a light bulb that's broken, but we like exactly how broken it is.
So don't touch it."
It literally... A museum of broken things.
And they were afraid we'd break something.
That said, it's gorgeous.
And truly, when you're visiting Vegas,
once you lose all your money, go here. It's really fun.
And if you're... Been to Vegas in the olden days,
you'll see stuff you miss.
Okay. Here we go. Now we're on the Stratosphere.
The Stratosphere is a Space Needle and a hotel casino in Vegas.
And this ride actually exists.
And I can tell you the names of two people
who hated this: Heights, going on it, being near it.
They didn't wanna go on. One of them wanted to go on when we shot it,
one wanted to go on for rehearsal to learn what it'd be like when we shot it.
And the other one said, "No, I wanted... I don't wanna have to go on ever."
They hated it, and as a result, hated me for making them do it.
If you like being scared to death,
and doing things that there's no good reason to do,
go to the top of the Stratosphere and ride these rides.
It... Ridiculous.
Especially when you get up there and there's 28-mile-an-hour winds.
The ride shuts down at 30-mile-an-hour winds.
And I told the actors it was 16-mile-an-hour winds.
We were getting close to dangerous, but that's what happens.
And this is what the ride really does.
- It's nauseating. - It's horrible.
You're at the top of a Space Needle...
And I was so glad you got this shot right there.
That's the one that's just nauseating.
And that's literally what it is.
And the only way to shoot this
is to mount cameras and get them out there.
I can't... There's no cameraman that can shoot that.
It was scary. And the actors hated doing it,
but were thrilled once they had done it.
Because there's a lot on your mind when you're acting
that you're supposed to be paying attention to
other than, "I'm about to fall and die and vomit."
When I first wrote the movie, my mom...
I had written this... I had sold this movie, and then my mom had died.
And I took a little time off and then I said, "I gotta go write the movie."
And it was a while after and I went to Vegas by myself,
which is a very weird thing to do.
I didn't know what the movie was gonna be about.
And I just kind of walked around Vegas for two weeks by myself,
like, eating dinner by myself at 6:00 in Vegas
and I was taking notes.
And at a certain point, there's only so much you can see
from casinos and games and things,
I said, "I should go check something else out."
And I came across the Stratosphere and I went up there and I saw that ride.
And I said, "Oh, a guy's gonna let go and fall in love
and there's gotta be something to do with that."
I watched people go and was actually getting nauseous
just watching people go on the ride.
- It was making me sick. - Yeah.
That's really a depressing story.
- Sorry, Jon. That will be... That... - This was going well, and then just...
- I want to give you... Sorry. - "My mom died" story
and eating dinner by yourself in Vegas.
I can't do a DVD commentary without talking about my dead mother.
That's really...
You should see...
But didn't that prompt you to write a different movie?
- Yeah, it did. Yeah, it did. - Didn't they have you do commentary
- No. No. I don't think any... - or did no one do it?
I don't think they made a DVD.
There's no DVD.
Come on, tell them the name of the movie you wrote.
That's called The Guilt Trip.
- Starring? - Barbra Streisand.
- That's right. - Yup.
- Playing like your mother, right? - Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. But Barbra Streisand is still alive.
- That's the difference. - That's different.
This was on the first day.
- I was here for this one. - Yeah. When we came over.
Right after we did the thing, we came down here.
This is a little scene that seems like nothing,
but it was really important, I thought, to me.
The guy is just talking and it reads like a scene of the guys reminiscing.
But what it really is to me, it's about Michael Douglas' character
realizing he's gotten his wish,
which is to have his friends all together and be with everybody again.
And that's what he really wanted for his bachelor party.
Gentlemen, you have definitely outdone yourselves.
Yeah, I got a little something for you, my best men.
Now, these...
This little gift, which he gives everybody,
we made this a crew gift for everybody, a lot of people.
And I actually now have my own pair of asshole/prick cuff links.
- Dan, did you get those or you didn't? - No. No, never got them.
You know, it's funny. The other writers...
- Writers got them. Yeah. - Yeah.
- Well, that's fine. That's okay. - I get to do the DVD commentary.
- That's true. - A treat.
- Yes! - Yo, fellas?
Now, there she is again.
So that's the girl from the postcard.
Scripted.
Now, again, you gotta get a lot of people... This...
Fill this whole room with great-looking people
and getting the Cirque du Soleil people, flew in to Atlanta
just to help us out with this.
So terrific.
Really great, to make this all work.
They do all their makeup themselves, bring their wardrobe themselves,
and do that stuff, you think that's nothing.
But if you look at that makeup, that's a lot of work for each of them to do.
Coming up is one of... I think one of the most special scenes.
There's the Cirque du Soleil thing. Now, here's the strange thing.
So here he is. You're gonna see this is the guy...
That's Roger Bart. ...who plays Madonna. Okay?
This character, in Dan's original script and what we shot,
was at the end of this party,
this character has a heart attack and dies.
Now you're getting an insight into Dan Fogelman.
Happy DVD. My mother died.
Well, but he was... He was much older in my version.
Originally, that's correct.
He was an old guy playing Sammy Davis, Jr. in the original thing.
And so when we switched it to a Madonna impersonator,
it just felt weird that this guy was passing away at a party.
And we shot it. And we shot a funeral.
And one of my great regrets for this movie
is that in the funeral scene,
one of the guests at his funeral was Carrot Top
who came out and was hilariously funny
and played the funeral with himself sobbing
and his mascara running.
And he was hilarious. And it all got cut out.
So I'm saying it sort of publicly, even though it's just this DVD,
I'm so sorry for cutting Carrot Top out
for his sake and for the audience's sake because that part was great.
Now, if you've never seen a movie
where Morgan Freeman is having a great time,
you're about to.
In all of his career, I can't remember another moment
- where he was this happy on-screen. - It was so great.
And look at him go.
Now, on this day, as great as he is,
- he had a hundred and three fever. - Really?
Had that flu that was going around at that time and just went for it.
He said, "Look, let's just keep shooting. I know we can't wait.
Not waiting for me." And off we went.
And he was just delightful.
We rehearsed and we learned this whole dance sequence all morning
that he's got with these ladies, with Cher.
You think it's easy to dip a 160-pound woman?
It's not that easy.
In high heels, no less.
And she was fantastic in health, and so was she.
Just great. Her hair alone weighed 16 pounds.
But they were all so much fun and really helped us out a lot.
Here's Michael Beasley again, who got added to this part.
This is the scene of three bald black men,
the only one in this movie.
Why is 50 Cent in this movie?
I will tell you how 50 Cent came to be in this movie. We...
Early on in the scene,
the room was supposed to have been taken this weekend by a big star,
but a big star that our lead characters had never heard of.
So who could that be? Well, you need a guy
that's from the music business they wouldn't have heard of.
And a name like 50 Cent maybe these three guys...
Four guys didn't hear of.
Well, how are we gonna get 50 Cent to be in a movie?
The answer is Robert De Niro.
He came to us and said, "Who's in it?" And we said, "We don't know yet."
I said, "It could be Kanye, 50 Cent." And he goes, "You want 50?"
I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Hang on." He speed dials him on his phone.
Speed dial.
Says... He talks to him, hands us the phone and says:
"Here, talk to him. He's in."
And 50 says to me, he goes:
"Hey, man, Bob De Niro told me I'm in this movie.
What do I do?"
I'm like, "I don't know."
But I'll tell you in a minute. But I'm so thrilled you're doing it."
He flew in. He was just so great.
Really funny, did a great job in the movie.
That's great.
This girl's great.
Really fantastic.
Let me show you around.
Kevin Kline is the most in-shape,
most physically fit person, let alone, 65-year-old person you'll ever meet.
The guy can do anything.
And he is such a great physical actor, physical presence. Remarkable.
Put that stuff down.
Now, this is always a fun treat, because, again, this is Jerry Ferrara,
working with legend number one,
after... Legend number two at this point,
after legend number one punched him in the face.
Loving doing this scene.
And if you get Jerry Ferrara to yourself one day,
ask him about the scene he did with this actress in gold.
There's good stuff there. That's all I'm gonna say.
- What happened? - I'll tell you afterwards.
But there were things. Not during. Maybe.
But there's things.
See, other guys talk. I don't talk.
I just let you know that... I just cause trouble is all it is.
I'll be damned.
Now, it took us one take to shoot Morgan Freeman doing everything.
And it took us about 90 takes to get the digital phone right.
Inserts take more time than it takes to shoot an actor doing a monologue.
Now, speaking of monologues,
in this scene with Morgan and Michael Ealy,
these two are just terrific.
There is nothing fancy in how this is shot.
These are two basic, boring, over-the-shoulder shots.
One actor, the other actor, close-up, close-up with little cam pushes in.
And the reason is,
you have Morgan Freeman and Michael Ealy.
And when you have actors that good,
all you need to do is take a picture of them talking,
and you have a really good scene.
Especially if you have a mustache as cool as Morgan has in this scene too.
And often, you see a lot of directors overdoing it.
And you just don't want to overdo it when you have actors like this.
Just stay... Now, here he goes. This beautiful...
Look at Michael's face here. That's a kid in trouble.
And then you just push the camera in a little bit.
It takes nothing. And we're brought in.
...and the other one is having a drink.
I've danced. Now if you'd care to join me,
I'd love to have a drink with my son.
See. And Morgan is so good that you don't have to do anything.
Especially when he has good dialogue to say.
That was originally written at the end when he comes back home,
and you moved it up into the first part of the movie.
Originally, the son doesn't find him.
Right. He... Well, it's... There's kind of a little epilogue
where you see everybody return home, which wouldn't have fit in the film.
And that's where he tells off his son, basically.
It's better here.
Now, this was one of those really fun and really awkward scenes to shoot,
as they are every time someone has to take their clothes off.
The least uncomfortable person is the person taking their clothes off.
It's everyone else around them
trying to make everything comfortable and nice and easy.
Including Kevin, who... Who's trying desperately
to make this young woman comfortable, who was great.
I don't know if you guys know this, but when you shoot these nude scenes,
the actors usually are not nude.
We use a little bit of visual effects and a little bit of some cover-up
and all kinds of things to do what you gotta do.
But sometimes you do what you gotta do.
It seems like a big deal.
It's amazing how not a big deal it is. Everyone wants to be comfortable.
We've all done these before, so it's not that big of a deal.
Everyone just gets on with it and it...
It all looks like it's real. "Oh, it must be sexy."
No. It's a lot of work, you're hurrying and trying to get through your day.
Especially when you have...
You're doing it as a comedy scene.
You're still looking for the jokes more than you're looking for the sexy part.
That said, there were 16 grips peeking over the wall at the time.
- That's not true. - It's a great scene.
It's... This scene could go bad 18,000 different ways and it's...
It's actually really funny. It's really sweet.
You must have written this one.
No. I'm saying, the scene as written could go bad 15 different ways,
and it didn't.
You know, and it's...
This scene, believe it or not, got the most debate.
Kevin Kline's character has been sent to Vegas with a condom and a Viagra
to go cheat on his wife.
And now he, finally, after trying the whole movie, gets his chance.
And as you can tell from that expression on his face,
he chooses not to go through with it.
People were divided on whether or not he should go through with it.
Not women. Women were not as divided when I asked them:
"Do you think it's weird he doesn't go through with it?"
I always thought, "There is no way he can go through with it
and still love this character."
But there were men on the set who thought this is impossible.
It's crazy. How could he not go through with it?
So you can answer the question yourself.
If it were you, and you were him,
would you have gone through with it or not?
It all depends, I guess, on your marriage and your relationship.
Dan, what would you have done?
I would have done exactly what Kevin Kline does in this film.
- But less humorously. - But less funny.
Less funny.
The whole thing about this scene, though, is it's sweet, it's schmaltzy.
He stays with his wife. It's the right...
It's what you want him to do.
But then you completely undercut it with the joke
- At the end. - at the end, which is, I think
what the film is.
Because if you were ever gonna...
If a man was gonna groan, it's not realistic,
the best part is that he calls back after her afterwards.
- Is that still in the film? - Yeah.
All right. All right. Good.
It's still in.
And that was point of contention number two,
which got the second biggest laugh in the movie, which is right here.
You know, a blow job wouldn't be out of the question.
He... Which is what you had to have in the movie
to undercut the schmaltziness of what he says with his wife.
By the way, the lady with the snake, nobody invited her.
I have no idea how she got to the set.
But there was a lady with a snake,
so we made sure to use the pictures of the lady with the snake and all that.
Here we go again with shooting these two guys.
And, again, you know, one of the big differences is,
De Niro is one of the quietest speaking actors I have ever worked with,
and Michael is one of the strongest speaking actors I've ever worked with.
The poor sound guy in this scene, between the two of them,
was the guy who was doing... Had the most struggle with it.
Sounds pretty good, though.
I know that's not a big deal talking about someone doesn't talk loudly,
but I'm really out of stuff an hour and ten minutes into the film.
Right?
No, listen, I got nothing to go home to anymore.
Now, at this point in the story,
they're both realizing they're attracted to the same woman, which comes up,
because when they were young, they were both attracted to the same girl,
and De Niro ended up marrying her.
So the conflict is still there.
A lot of what this is, gets to the fact that it... It's just trying to say
that, you know, people think, "They're older and it's different."
Things don't change.
Matters of the heart don't change no matter how old you are.
I still see my mom, who is 80, get jealous and upset
when talking about stories about my dad
before they were married.
And who he was with and who he hung out with.
Now, this next shot, we rehearsed more than any other shot,
but shot only once for this reason.
It would've been great if we could've used the stunt man, but you just can't.
And you get one shot at it, because everyone's hair is wet.
Those girls would have taken a lot longer to get back into shape
than De Niro would have.
But you've got to just go for it.
And De Niro, oh, what a sport he was.
But we heated it as much as we could.
I love this dress.
I know I'm not supposed to talk about things like that,
but I thought this dress was vital to a character.
I know it sounds crazy on the DVD,
but when she walks in this room, you need to notice her.
And this dress is so stunningly gorgeous.
And the fact that it's white stands out.
And there are times when costume is just a nice little thing
and there's other times that costume really matters.
And this was one of those moments that costume really mattered.
Dayna Pink fought very hard for this very expensive dress,
and it was really worth it to us.
I went and shot a bunch of close-ups where you don't see it as much.
But that's...
That's not important, because in the earlier scene
when she first walks in, you definitely see it.
How's it different?
That true?
Now, one thing we learned about a white tuxedo jacket,
is it doesn't show water that well.
But poor Bob is dripping wet here.
And, again...
Shot's great of the reveal over his shoulder. You've seen that shot,
but there's something about the way you established the white tuxedo
and the perspective.
- It's really nice. - And you know who it is.
And the sadness in his face, that's an actor, and an actor's face.
That's not writing, that's not directing, that's not lighting, that's an actor.
Look, Paddy...
- It's a little writing. - It's a little bit of writing.
Well, it's directing. I... No.
It really is.
And lighting. Because look at Michael in the pitch dark with her lit and it...
You know, all of this stuff has to come together and...
You know, people think the lighting guy is worrying about the lighting. He's not.
He's worrying about the story.
The costumer's worrying about the story and the characters.
And that's what prompts all of this stuff.
All those things come first.
And it sounds corny and hokey to say, but it's true. It's really true.
Now, in an alternate universe, Madonna is dying right now.
- Right? Right now? In that room? - Correct.
Right now, literally, there is a version of this movie
where you could cut away to the guy
having a heart attack and lying on the floor.
And what originally happened is... Where Madonna...
I thought you meant the actual Madonna was dying.
But, no. The poor Madonna look-alike was over, going:
Now you know you why we cut it out, okay?
Just because we didn't make the right choice right away
doesn't mean we didn't figure it out eventually.
But as De Niro walks away, we would cut back to Michael Douglas, who's...
Hear a scream, and come running down,
and Madonna was dead, and he had to give her mouth-to-mouth.
Reason number nine we cut it out.
But these are the lessons you learn. I remember having a conversation
with Francis Ford Coppola once about The Godfather.
And he was telling me about certain great scenes in the movie
that were afterthoughts.
And it makes you realize that genius is not always planned.
Geniuses like Coppola
are also able to see the flaw and see how to fix it
and find solutions.
So it's not about getting it right the first time, it's about getting it right.
And I love that shot of the flashy light on the ring.
Only because that's me flashing my cell phone...
And flashing the little cell-phone light on it
after the DP told me to stop.
- That's funny. - And he likes it now.
Now we're out... At ARIA pool.
See, I almost said "the ARIA."
So this was our big debate.
My only contribution, I feel, of substance,
was this big conversation or resolution that comes in the next two places
were actually happening at the funeral scene.
That, on paper, of the Madonna impersonator, right?
That's correct. That's exactly right.
This used to take place at the funeral.
I was not convinced the Madonna impersonator was gonna work out.
And I kept forcing us to rewrite it at different scenes at the pool.
Thank God.
Because we would have been stuck with the funeral.
Because we'd have to do the whole funeral. That's...
- That's funny. I forgot all about that. - Yeah.
- Well done, Dan. - But as of the day before...
- You're a genius. - No. But it...
Remember, we were up on the fence on it until the day before shooting.
Yep.
But setting it back out here saved us and enabled us to cut the funeral part.
She's great, this actress. Where did you find her?
She came in and auditioned, and her name is Bre Blair,
and just was... I thought she was terrific,
but her best compliment came... Look out.
Only can rehearse this one time.
Take two is not so good with the hair dryers
and all the things you need and the blow drying, and a new suit.
But Bre is a terrific actress
and Michael Douglas just thought she was terrific.
And it really made such a difference.
Because they actually had lovely, beautiful chemistry
to understand why these two people would be falling in love
and he would be proposing and all that stuff.
And when they worked together, Michael kept saying, "She's terrific."
And that was true even before she opened up her robe.
That was a joke.
I'm just... I mean, that's true, but it's just, you know...
I'm gonna be quiet now. Dan?
- She looks like your wife, actually. - A little bit.
I can't let him marry you.
He's my best friend. I can't let him marry you.
And here, again, this is,
you know, Michael Douglas, soaking wet, not looking his best.
You don't see it a lot in movies.
You see a lot of those other actors looking soaking wet
and not looking their best, but not Michael Douglas.
And that, again, is where the actor and their body of work
really affects what you see.
- Madison. - Taylor.
Madison.
- I love that there. - Me too.
They're both named Madison.
- And it's just a little too believable. - Great joke.
She was terrified to slap Michael Douglas in the face.
He kept saying, "Hit me, for crying out loud."
Would you?
I don't wanna hit Michael Douglas in the face.
I like that man. Way too much.
This is gonna be one sloppy, drunken weekend.
Yeah. Bye, Taylor.
Bye, Madisons.
You know, the moments too.
What's interesting is, in the course of the movie
and the course of the filming, it's not just these four guys,
eventually emerges a sense of two and two.
Which is Kevin and Morgan together,
and Bob and Michael together.
And... Because that's where the plots go.
And you don't know it at first, but it does pan out that way.
Now, I will say, on the day of shooting this, I had the flu.
And, to me, it was maybe the most important scene in the movie.
I wasn't gonna stay home.
But I basically came in, talked to the cast.
We knew what the scene was.
This is Michael's big scene in the movie.
He is so brilliant.
I wasn't gonna over-direct it anyway,
but I literally said, "Everybody, we know what the scene is.
Find where you wanna stand and stand there,
and I'll take your picture. I've gotta go lie down."
And they did. They really did.
The cast really pulled together for me, understood,
and we really worked it out. I said, "This is gonna be good."
We... The DP just said, "I got it. I know where you want..."
We talked it through and off we went.
Our girl's gone, Pat.
And I wasn't there at the funeral.
And I'm so sorry about that.
You know, Michael here...
You know, not worrying about it, but take... Just taking it seriously.
We talked about this scene so much.
We wrote it and rewrote it and rewrote it so much,
because we really wanted to get it just right.
And I'm feeling old and alone.
And you don't wanna take a comedy
and ruin it by making it all sappy and overly smooshy.
At the same time, what's the point of making just a comedy
unless there's some heart and some depth to it?
So this becomes really a vital scene and it really...
I think the words came out great.
And in the hands of these actors, came out great.
And I take no credit, because I was in the other room throwing up.
Well, this scene makes it... This makes it about something, right?
It's not just kind of older guys having fun in Vegas,
it's about... It's bigger.
Yeah, and it's about... A little bit about mortality.
And it's about knowing you're getting older
and getting there with your friends and with people you love.
Comparing yourself and judging your age
and judging how far you've come in your life
based on the people you're around.
And if you're still hanging out
with the guys you loved back when you were 10 years old,
you can really chart your whole life by charting your friendships.
I mean, this movie is about friendship,
and about that kind of closeness,
and about really how your friends are there for you
but especially in male friendships, those friendships are...
Men aren't that nice to each other.
Especially if they love each other.
In some ways, the closer you are to your guy friends,
the more horrible you treat each other.
But it's only on the surface. Am I right on that?
- Do you agree or disagree? - Yeah, yeah. No, it's true.
And... And... You know... I don't... I'm not a woman.
I don't know how women are with each other,
but I know that guys tease more and rib each other more,
the more love you have for one another.
And that's what you see with these guys.
And the teasing they do really shows you
the affection they have for each other.
But when it comes time to having a real argument, a real conversation,
it's tough for men.
And it takes these guys an entire movie
to get to the point where they can have the conversation.
Because they just have little spats and little fights all along.
But it takes this whole experience to get to the point
where De Niro and Douglas can really talk it through.
they like men that like to play hard-to-get.
Now, just a little piece of trivia.
That wonderful, funny actress there is Tony Shalhoub's sister.
So who knew?
This is Movie Star 101 stuff from Michael, right?
Well, who knew Tony Shalhoub would have a sister who lived in Atlanta?
That's the crazy part.
or you want to hear more about how I'm falling for you?
Now, I don't know if any of...
This DVDs gonna come out long after the movie's done,
but I don't know how much people are gonna talk about this.
But I find it fantastic that we made a movie
where the 60-year-old woman gets the guy.
And you can count on one hand the number of times
you've seen big movie stars at this age get the big kiss in the movie.
I think we need more of it and we...
It's crazy it's so rare, but it's really nice.
All right, kid, we'll take it from here.
You know, one of the tricky parts...
And I don't know, Dan, if this bugged you,
but when you have a movie with a lot of characters...
And I don't just mean the four guys and Mary,
but also, Jerry's character,
and you had Roger who got a send-off with a heart attack and a funeral,
and as you see coming up, Romany Malco's character of Lonnie.
- You gotta wrap these characters up. - Yeah.
And it takes a long time.
And, you know, for all intents and purposes,
right now this movie is over.
- Right? - Yeah.
Once you get to the kiss, basically, the movie's done.
He's had his speech and it's done.
And it's very hard to judge
how much wrap-up an audience wants.
Do they wanna just be done? It's over, they kiss, good night, goodbye?
Or do they wanna really settle through and know?
And we took our time with the end of this movie
and really let ourselves say goodbye,
wrap each thing up and not rush off.
Now, the thing I'll say about Romany is, this guy is amazingly funny.
But what he did brilliantly in this movie was play the straight man.
Yeah.
Let himself feed these guys and let them be the funny ones,
rather than try to steal all the focus and make himself the funniest.
Which he could have, because he's that funny.
And that's why I think of him as just doing a perfect job in the movie.
- Found it in the garbage. - Crack that puppy open, buddy.
It's about time.
Big debate on the set. Big debate.
Because we really wanted, again, to take the sappiness,
and the sweetness, and the warmth that you get,
but you can't overdo it on a movie like this.
So just like the scene with Kevin talking about his wife
ends with him making that crack to the girl.
After this toast, this happens.
But as Morgan says here:
Scotch doesn't go bad, but... Okay, that's one of those little logic things.
And believe me. Bad scotch can go bad.
That's one of the little catches there.
Now here, this was our last day of shooting,
and everybody was literally getting on planes after this.
and... that way.
Sam, you go in and that way.
Again, here's one of those scenes
where we just decided we're gonna take a chance.
And even in a comedy, we're gonna be patient.
And so we took our time.
The dialogue is great because almost nothing is said.
Until something's said.
Yeah, next year...
...Disney World.
Myrtle Beach.
- Poconos. - The Poconos.
Yeah, that's supposed to be nice.
- Atlantic City. - Atlantic City?
But it's gotta be summer.
Kayaking in Norway.
Or the Orient Express.
We could take a barge through the canals of...
- France. - France, Europe, Germany.
You guys are the best thing that ever happened to me.
Yeah.
I don't care how ugly you are.
See now, that's the only line in the movie that... Not in the movie.
It's the only line in the scene that matters.
And it's not a short scene.
Him saying, "You are the best thing that happened to me."
And this scene doesn't work
if that's all they say or that's what they talk about.
They have to talk around it.
And they're men, they have to say things like, "Okay."
Okay.
Especially this generation of men.
- Okay. - Okay.
Now, that was originally the theme, the "okays."
Do you remember that from your original script?
- Originally in the little-kid section. - In the flashback, they all say "okay."
- Got rid of that. Terrible. - It's good.
No, it was good, I cut that. It's all gone.
Hey! Wrong way.
And that, by the way, is the final plug for ARIA hotel right behind him.
We managed to get 7,000 of them in there
because I get a lot of free stuff as a result.
It's all personal.
That's funny, 58 days later. I hadn't seen that.
The... You're supposed to act on this DVD thing like you're a part of it.
- I wrote that "58 days later." - That's beautiful.
No, man, it's not my prostate.
This is all so good. And Michael was great.
Well, it's not his favorite look,
but the fake tan, really, I thought, was a bold move on his part
and really funny, and worked really great.
Now, this phone call we didn't build four sets for.
We couldn't, because we were dealing with a swing set,
a house in Malibu, and... And all that.
But this is all part of the wrap-up that we really wanted to get and there...
We found that these characters are so likable and lovable
that you really wanna feel a sense of completion with them all.
So rather than just end when the plot ends,
you end when character ends.
And those are two things that aren't always the same thing.
But it seems like the character story doesn't really end until here.
We're heading to a concert now at the park.
And you wanna see he's got another girl. He...
Morgan's able to play with his grandchild
without the parents taking her away.
Even those she looks like she's frozen to death and stuck in the swing.
With her identical twin waiting in the wings.
It's a different kid, by the way, it's six months later.
See, we think about these things.
And then here's your final button.
Oh, good, it stopped.
- Good. Hell with it. - Hell with it.
How about that, eh?
- Pretty amazing. - Yeah.
And no Viagra.
Or Dramamine.
We're gonna go again.
So we see he's back with his wife
and they came to enjoy the bed that he didn't get to enjoy.
Which is fine.
Well, I hope you enjoyed it more than we did, talking to you.
And, Dan Fogelman, extraordinary work.
You can see his television show.
Thank you, Jon. Are we doing The Howard Stern Show?
- Are we doing plugs? - Exactly. It's so sad.
You were fabulous on this, Jon.
Thank you. I agree. I did great.
Thanks and enjoy it,
- and we'll see you again. - Bye.