I'm Boots Riley.
I'm the writer and director of Sorry To Bother You.
Significant Productions.
That's Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker.
MNM Creative. They're money people.
Macro. You all know who Macro is.
Charles King and them.
Cinereach. They're really cool,
New Yorker, hipster film people.
The Space Program. Gus.
(dial tone drones)
(phone dialing)
(line ringing)
BOOTS: So this scene...
I knew...
This was the first scene I knew that I had in the movie
because it is, uh, kind of based on
how my friend, Rob, always got his jobs.
But he never got caught, though.
And he would get some really cool jobs.
He actually got jobs at Bank of America,
like, you know, not even as a teller,
as like a, uh...
as a, uh...
...Bank of Oakland between 2014...
BOOTS: ...an executive, by lying and giving out phone numbers
that were supposedly to managers
of restaurants and stuff like that,
but were really to the busboys, um, of restaurants, and, uh...
That is intriguing.
BOOTS: And just was really good at lying to get jobs.
Um, so shout-out to Rob,
if you are watching this.
And you, Mr. Green, you never fucking worked there.
And the number that you gave to the Rusty Scupper...
BOOTS: This is a scene
that we actually did in the Sundance Labs.
You know, when you go to the Sundance Director's Lab,
you get to try a few scenes.
And luckily, we got to work it out
because I had this crazy, like, figure-eight idea,
like, to be like, "I'm a new director on the scene.
Check out what I can do."
Well, I had them made.
Listen, I just really...
BOOTS: We worked out the scene there,
so I think that's one reason why it works really well.
Robert Longstreet is an amazing, crazy dude.
And the other crazy dude that you will see
throughout this whole movie is Lakeith Stanfield.
Um, you see it in his eyes.
Not just that he's crazy, but that he's vulnerable
and that he's open to what's happening.
And I needed someone like this to take us on this journey.
And you will show up tomorrow happy.
- Hmm? - Thank you, uh, thank you.
BOOTS: Robert Longstreet, I saw him
in a movie called Thou Wast Mild and Lovely
and just knew I had to have him.
Stick to the script.
BOOTS: And yeah, those are those stupid slogans we see.
This font is created by J. Otto Seibold.
I had this font before we even had the movie.
He's a good friend of mine.
CASSIUS: Detroit.
BOOTS: That's Tessa Thompson. That's Lakeith Stanfield.
Tessa Thompson.
CASSIUS: Detroit?
BOOTS: Watch this. Lakeith Stanfield. See how that works?
And...
CASSIUS: You ever think about dying?
BOOTS: I'm not gonna tell you who that is.
And this...
Although, the actor in the picture is Keba Konte
who took The Coup's first publicity photos.
CASSIUS: ...when we're old, like, 90.
BOOTS: I really needed this to be a movie
that, uh, we highlighted the humanity in the characters.
And for me, one missing part of the humanity in characters,
um, especially when people of color are portrayed,
is, um, they're the idea of, um,
them thinking of themselves in the context of the world,
in the context of time and space.
DETROIT: You will always matter. Okay?
BOOTS: You know, something that people would call
you know, "having an existential crisis" in his case.
But I thought that it made him more human.
This room, um...
Actually, I'd seen a picture of Bob Marley's room
on a documentary,
and I took a screenshot of that picture,
and it was like, this is Cassius's room.
And it really represents the beautiful clutter
we were trying to get with this whole movie.
Production designer Jason Kisvarday
really did a great job.
That's my boy Tyranny's house,
right around the corner from my house.
I just knocked on his door and said, "We need your house."
He said it was cool.
We, uh, got his wife a couple days at a spa,
and it was all good.
DETROIT: I have to go to work, anyway.
BOOTS: All of these fliers and pictures,
they're all stuff that means stuff to people,
and I think that's why this works.
You could try part-time.
WOMAN (ON TV): Everyone is talking...
BOOTS: That's actually a picture from...
WOMAN (ON TV): WorryFree is the revolutionary new business...
BOOTS: ...a prison that was made into a hotel
in the Netherlands.
WOMAN (ON TV): ...your guaranteed employment
and housing for life.
Stop worrying and get WorryFree!
The WorryFree living quarters...
BOOTS: WorryFree.
WOMAN: The WorryFree food is to die for.
BOOTS: It's a program, takes care of all your needs, right?
Cash, baby, what are they paying you?
I think it's just commission.
Hey, baby.
BOOTS: This was actually like the first or second scene
that we shot in the movie...
DETROIT: Are you crazy?
BOOTS: ...and the chemistry
between Lakeith and Tessa is awesome.
Nice earrings.
BOOTS: Also designed by J. Otto Seibold.
So this is a great scene, uh, for two reasons.
One, Terry Crews, uh, is somewhat of a reveal
unless you've seen the trailer.
Um, and then, two, Terry Crews is an awesome actor.
And then, watch this, what Lakeith does, right here with his finger.
He should be pointing at Terry,
but instead, he bends his finger slightly.
And that's just one of the little details
that make us feel Cassius as a person,
as a human being.
Terry Crews is someone who,
he... he is a very inspiring guy.
He's very full of life.
He got behind this project when he really didn't have to
and, um, came and gave it his full force,
gave a lot of energy and brought Sergio to life.
This car is definitely based on one of The Coup's songs,
uh, "My Car Is Better Than Your Shoes,"
but it's also just based on a lot of cars that I've had in my life.
Hi. Forty on two.
BOOTS: Yeah, a lot of people thought I should cut this scene out.
♪♪
Those are homeless camps in Oakland.
We didn't have to build those.
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
BOOTS: We had fun making those billboards.
Got two of my kids in that, two of my nephews.
Uh, football team, a fun, fun bunch.
♪ Hell yeah ♪
♪ That's tight ♪
BOOTS: Various shots riding around West Oakland and downtown.
♪ ♪
♪ Hey, hey ♪
(music fades)
(suspenseful music)
BOOTS: This... It was hard on this day building that lobby.
Um, we only had one side of it ready at one time,
and so we could only shoot in one direction at a time.
JOHNNY: Make sure that thousands of calls can go out and in at the same time.
BOOTS: This was just straight built out of nothing,
and, uh, Jason Kisvarday and crew...
which, that is Jason Kisvarday.
Hal Jameson is our production designer Jason Kisvarday.
And, um...
they really outdid themselves.
We worked from pictures of the cubicles in Tron.
This is closest we could get with the space that we had.
You might even be able to be a Power Caller.
A Power Caller?
BOOTS: This guy, Michael X. Sommers,
he, uh, actually lived only a few blocks away
from where we were shooting, so he's technically a local hire.
But I have a feeling that by the time
you guys see this DVD,
he will be known way more than locally.
He really brought a cool energy to this.
Again... picture of someone.
And I really wanted to...
(phone buzzing)
...be able to show an emotion.
I wanted to take the audience through
the same emotions that Cassius is going through.
And I figured that if I did it visually,
we wouldn't just be understanding what emotions he's having.
We'd feel it with him.
Again, the papers in the background...
WOMAN: Hello?
BOOTS: Well, not again. The papers in the background
are ones that, uh...
I wanted to use to...
make us feel the frustration
that's happening in Cassius and, uh...
CASSIUS: Hi, Mrs. Costello.
BOOTS: I think I got a lot of that idea
from, like, Emir Kusturica films
where they'll have, like,
just a whole flock of geese going by,
filling up the whole frame, out of nowhere,
and kind of adding to the chaos and...
So, all of this is this beautiful clutter
from just...
these pictures, which is our neighbor's house,
and then, um, to stuff that we created.
The chaos that's happening not only in the story,
but visually, with the production design.
CASSIUS: Damn it.
BOOTS: And in Cassius's mind and face,
and those papers add a lot to it.
This cut is something I figured out
right then when we were shooting that scene was,
I figured out that we could do that
with him, um, saying, "You're gonna just eat all those fries."
So, we changed this scene later to fit it.
SAL: Hey. That's that dude from that show.
Hey!
- CASSIUS: Oh, shit! - SAL: Hey!
That's fucking cool. I hate that show.
But I never noticed that room. What is that?
BOOTS: Yeah, this is the first time we really get to...
we... we start to meet Sal.
And that's... Jermaine Fowler,
an amazing comedian who, uh...
This was his first movie,
and he really killed it on this.
(hip-hop music playing)
The VIP room.
Um, I described it in the script as ten-by-ten
and didn't realize till it was time to shoot it
that ten-by-ten was too big.
This was supposed to be a much smaller thing.
So, as soon as he stepped in,
we should've seen how small it was.
But we made the scene work anyway.
CASSIUS: That's some baller shit.
Hey, Mr. D. Imits.
Cassius Green here. Sorry to bother you...
BOOTS: Really grateful to have worked
with Danny Glover on this.
Danny Glover and my father...
Hey, youngblood.
BOOTS: ...actually, uh, went to San Francisco State together.
They were part of the 1968 student strike at San Francisco State
that created the first, uh, school
or department of ethnic studies in the United States.
So, I have been knowing Danny the longest out of all of the cast.
LANGSTON: I'm just trying to give you some game.
You wanna make some money here?
BOOTS: He really, like everyone on here,
came and took it seriously,
and I think, um...
Well, you don't talk white enough.
BOOTS: It really, uh...
I can't speak for Lakeith, but I've heard him say
that he was really in awe of Danny as he was working with him.
This scene is really interesting because...
when I wrote the monologue that Danny is saying here,
I had no idea that I would take it
to the point of it being
an overdubbed white voice.
Only when I... after I wrote it that I realized that's where it had to go.
LANGSTON: You've never been fired.
Only laid off.
It's not really a white voice.
It's what they wish they sounded like.
So it's like what they think...
BOOTS: It was better, you know, for me to bend a reality
to put my ideas of contextualizing what was happening...
than to have it be explained.
And so that's how I started going down the rabbit hole
of this being this fantastical, absurdist movie.
'Cause I didn't know that that's what it was gonna be
when I started out writing it.
JOHNNY: ...you drop that shit, 'cause it crossed the line.
BOOTS: And we all have been through stuff like this,
these bullshit pep talks where someone's...
They're trying to get you excited about...
making them money.
JOHNNY: But instead, you drag that heavy...
BOOTS: And there's always bad pizza.
- ...and then you tag it. - ANDERSON: Okay.
I-I just...
I feel like these metaphors have not been cleared for this.
BOOTS: Now, this is Kate Berlant.
I had been wanting to work with her for a while as I was writing it.
I didn't really know what she would do,
but, um, this is kind of really...
this character is kind of really in the wheelhouse
where I knew that she could kill it.
There was a point where we were going to have to hire
a local actor for this instead of bringing her in,
and I was just like, "I will..."
"I will bring her in myself because she's amazing."
And, um... so, certain part of this was written,
but the funny stuff like what she's doing right now
with her hands, that's... that's just her.
And, uh, she is, uh...
"No."
BOOTS: You gotta check out her stuff.
Just look up Kate Berlant, and you'll never go back.
Once you go Kate, you'll never go straight.
...all kinds of media: digital, paper, otherwise.
Media is changing, so is capital.
Get with it. I don't want to scare you, but it's a new world.
Okay, team members, let's, uh...
Thank you very much, and let's all get back to work.
BOOTS: And obviously, we're doing...
we're showing Steven Yeun, so...
um, most people will be like, "Oh, they're showing Steven Yeun,
so he must be a character in this movie."
Um, and he is.
He is, um...
Squeeze,
someone who would be known as a "salt."
And a salt is someone who gets a job at a place, uh,
with the purpose of organizing the workers.
And, uh, Steven talked to a number of folks
who had experience salting in order to create this character.
CASSIUS: People call me Cash.
It was a really good question in there, man.
What, about us getting paid?
BOOTS: I really like what he did with Squeeze.
- SQUEEZE: I know, right? - CASSIUS: It's bullshit.
Exactly. I mean you just cut straight to the chase, man.
BOOTS: And that was improvised, about the, uh, the machine,
about it not being free.
So, there's a lot of stuff in here that was cool that we kept in
that happened before the dialogue was supposed to start.
I like this thing that's about to happen.
...your energy to jump things off.
Yeah, um, look. I gotta get back to work, man.
Hey, man, look...
BOOTS This, uh, reverse "that's all, folks."
See, I don't know the...
I don't know what the, uh...
It's on me.
BOOTS: That wipe, I call it reverse "that's all, folks"
'cause I don't know real terminology.
That was the thing on the set. I don't know the...
Even in music, I don't know the real terminology.
I don't... I'm not gonna stuff my brain with those words.
SAL: Hey, lady, how much?
BOOTS: That was Giant Burgers, the sign she was in front of,
which is very much a Bay Area thing.
- DETROIT: Who are you? - CASSIUS: That's Squeeze.
- Squeeze. - He works with us at RegalView.
Squeeze, Detroit.
- Detroit? That's cool. - Yeah.
My parents wanted me to have an American...
BOOTS: This is another, uh, scene that we shot in the labs,
and so, I knew from the labs that's something that I was...
concerned about before we started shooting was
keeping the pacing right on this...
so that we felt a certain energy happening in the car with them.
And...
once we started shooting, I realized I had nothing
to worry about with this group of folks.
CASSIUS: ...furniture store and play football all day.
BOOTS: That was a cheap joke right there,
but I think it worked on a number of levels,
'cause we needed to see those football players again.
DETROIT: Baby, can we please not talk about the sun exploding tonight?
Okay.
(upbeat music playing on radio)
BOOTS: And she switches it from one Coup song from the soundtrack
to the other Coup song from the soundtrack.
This is a world in which, um,
the whole world listens to this one album,
which is the soundtrack to Sorry To Bother You.
- DETROIT: You can wipe my ass, Sal. - (laughter)
SAL: Oh, really?
BOOTS: And that is from a story from my mother.
She would tell me this story about her and her boyfriend
taking these long trips, and the windshield wipers didn't work,
and they didn't... um, they used string.
Her boyfriend, which is my older brother's father.
Boom. I've had this scene happen in my life many times.
This is actually footage from Occupy Oakland.
NEWSREADER: WorryFree CEO Steve Lift
was interviewed on Oprah today.
No. Conclusively no.
BOOTS: Steve Lift. The sandals are important.
...threats of physical violence,
so, therefore, the comparison to slavery is just ludicrous...
BOOTS: The wardrobe.
Very... Very cool, very liberal wardrobe there.
Deirdra Govan, our illustrious costume designer.
This is actually footage from Greece.
There's no employment for many people.
Even sweatshops have been replaced...
BOOTS: Cynthia Rose, played by Indigo Jackson,
who is also the voice you'll hear later on,
during the stop-motion animation.
People had to do double duty on that.
That's J. Otto Seibold, with the beard.
SAL: ...in the sauce with the cheese in it first,
- that's some white shit. - CASSIUS: That's some bullshit, man.
BOOTS: That's Silk-E, with the head wrap.
She's in The Coup.
SAL: That's how black folks do it, man.
- No, nigga, I'm black. - We talked about that, man.
You're kind of black, you Lionel Richie black.
(laughter)
Look, I make my noodles,
and then I put the sauce on them, then, look it...
Then, I put a little...
BOOTS: Right here, this bar is The Layover,
and the woman serving the drinks at the beginning is Christi,
the owner of The Layover.
Spaghetti's Chinese.
Speaking of white, I wanna make a toast.
BOOTS: In the background, there's Lisa Aurora.
Many of you guys won't even know
these are just shout-outs to people who are in there.
CASSIUS (white voice): To my esteemed RegalView associates...
BOOTS: We see some foreshadowing of some Left Eye activists
in back of Detroit.
(white voice) I'd like to dedicate this imbibing of intoxicating...
BOOTS: This is also a scene that we shot in the labs.
It was interesting.
We went through many ways
of figuring out how to do the white voice, and, uh...
So, we did it different times in different scenes.
Sometimes we had the actor
just mouth the words without saying anything,
um, and have someone off-screen read 'em.
SQUEEZE: That's a scam.
- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
If you work hard enough...
BOOTS: Other times, we had them actually just speak it
and then overdubbed it later.
And then sometimes we had them mouth the words
without anyone reading it off-screen.
That was the hardest part to sync to.
And the best word. "OFF."
It is the anchor to the slogan.
- So... - So what's the point then?
What you think, I'm just supposed to work,
eat, fuck, sleep?
No, I'm not saying that, I'm saying...
BOOTS: So this is Squeeze giving...
giving his opening salvo to this group of folks.
That way, we all get paid.
BOOTS: Ostensibly, he's been talking to other people
at the telemarketing spot before this.
Yeah, another reverse "that's all, folks."
I wanted it to feel like a comic book, the way that it...
I don't know if that makes sense, the pacing feeling like a comic book,
and the way... the different wipes
that we would've thought of as corny just a couple years ago,
because they were.
Um, I wanted to use them.
You should find a new place.
BOOTS: That shirt that Tessa is wearing
is a shirt that was passed from Joe Strummer
to Billy Bragg to me.
That's the green shirt.
And then the other shirt is... you see what it says.
He sent me a brochure.
BOOTS: Originally, that cross was something
that Sergio was supposed to be wearing.
But we... we only...
I only got to see it for the first time on the day of,
and it was way too big, and it looked clownish with him wearing it.
CASSIUS (white voice): You bring a chick home to your apartment.
It's clean. It's stylish.
Of course it is...
BOOTS: All right. Now we get to see
Cassius, like, getting into it.
Really, um...
CASSIUS: It's fuck time, you know what I mean?
BOOTS: ...doing well
and starting to feel hisself.
Spin Doctors. Classic!
Tim, I want to chop it up more,
but I gotta get to my squash game.
Was that Visa or MasterCard?
- (rock music plays) - God, this voice shit is crazy.
BOOTS: I needed to show him really enjoying his success.
And so, I think maybe we have
the first high-five montage ever in cinema history.
♪ Oh yeah, alright ♪
BOOTS: And if not, it's the best high-five montage in cinema history.
We had... This was so fun.
We wanted to keep shooting it, but we had to keep moving.
♪ Hey, hey ♪
BOOTS: Those two crazy dudes together,
they need to do a series of movies, um, together.
(both laughing)
BOOTS: The song playing under here is The Coup's "O-Y-A-H-Y-T-T."
JOHNNY: You're doin' so fucking good with the voice thing.
BOOTS: We needed that happy feeling in this movie right now.
We needed it because there's a lot of crazy shit to come,
and we need to know what Cassius is getting out of this
that's beyond just the money.
Almost.
PC, baby. Power Caller.
No, uh...
- Did you hear what he just said? - Yeah, yeah. I heard him, man.
He told me the exact same shit three months ago.
BOOTS: So this next thing is, uh, very Edgar Wright-ish of me,
but I'm down to steal from people,
I don't care, to make a good movie.
That's iDummy,
a very well-known turf dancer in the Bay Area.
There was a line that we had to cut out
where Cassius orders a Long Island Iced Tea neat.
I wish we had the time for it.
Just imagine him ordering that right there.
SQUEEZE: They say 150 million people watch this every night.
LANGSTON: Mm. I personally...
BOOTS: That game show...
is, uh...
I don't think it's impossible to, uh, happen.
It's not that far off from what happens.
(hip hop music playing)
BOOTS: Right here...
LANGSTON: Mm-mm-mm-mm!
BOOTS: I just wanted to... Oh, yeah. This thing.
Yeah, I really have...
really want to talk about what that is, but I don't.
CASSIUS: So, why you ain't dancing?
BOOTS: Anyway, there are a lot of details
in this movie that, um...
have to do with, uh, how mysterious life is,
and you don't always get the answers.
So, not gonna answer you about that.
Um...
Maybe it has something to do with Danny Glover and who he is
and why he knows so much.
They make a shit ton of money, man.
BOOTS: So that line that he just said,
"I'm too old for this shit,"
I didn't even think about it
as being one of his classic lines until I was in the edit.
Because I had that line there before he was cast in the role.
CASSIUS: Apples to oranges.
More like apples and the Holocaust.
CASSIUS: Alright, bye.
BOOTS: This is one of my favorite moments.
Just to shoot with all the coordination that we did,
and all the pieces.
The smoke happening,
the tires, the sound of the bicycles,
the bicycles going past.
Football players there.
So all the elements just felt messy
in a way that I don't normally see.
And that was a big thing
that we were going for, was some sort of mess.
And along with this moment with...
- SAL: Who invited you? - DETROIT: Who asked you?
BOOTS: Cassius and Detroit.
DETROIT: ...pop up earlier, I thought you were gonna come by.
Oh, to your gallery?
BOOTS: The painting that you see on a lot of...
Detroit's clothing is by Omiroo,
who also did the artwork
that you see later in Detroit's...
Can I get a light?
BOOTS: What do you call it? In her gallery.
SQUEEZE: Those are nice earrings.
CASSIUS: Wait a minute.
I didn't know you changed your earrings.
BOOTS: The earrings.
Um, the other earrings, the costume designer made.
This earring, production design department made it.
And, um...
That guy is actually the guitar player in The Coup.
Grego Simmons.
♪ ♪
One of our producers, Jonathan Duffy.
Waldenbooks in Oakland.
SQUEEZE: Alright, everybody.
This is a pretty amazing turnout...
BOOTS: This was the only homeless stuff that we built,
was that part that exists right there.
Today is the warning shot.
Telling them that we stand united.
BOOTS: This part came out really good
'cause we had... we had to be moved
from the other spot we were having.
We originally wanted to do...
I'll give the call.
BOOTS: I wanted to make it look like N.W.A. on this,
like the album cover for N.W.A.
So we beat from down below looking at them up above.
And it didn't work out because of where we had to be.
It just didn't look...
Compositionally, there was nothing behind it.
There weren't the things.
So, we came up with this, like, right before.
Which was these wipes.
...and they don't share.
If we're gonna give them our day...
we need to have enough to cover our basic necessities.
BOOTS: Fast pan the camera.
Is anyone not down?
BOOTS: Combined with wipes,
because we only shot pieces of the crowd at once.
Yeah. One for all, all for one.
Yeah! I brought all types of weapons.
BOOTS: And that... (chuckles)
And that was... That was, uh, Jermaine.
This was actually Jermaine and Steven improvising.
People don't know that Steven, uh, did improv early on.
This is something which is an homage
to a Paul Schrader movie,
or at least a shot in a Paul Schrader movie called Mishima.
Um, there's a section called "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion."
And I wanted that same feeling for Cassius,
that same sense of awe.
Omari Hardwick.
CASSIUS (white voice): Thanks, Mr. Goldberg.
As always, we'll be getting that out to you right away.
By the way...
SQUEEZE (shouting): RegalView management!
BOOTS: This is, uh, time,
it's time for things to take off.
...we will not be overlooked!
BOOTS: We had made that up.
It was supposed to be, originally,
like, him putting the fingers to his head
like he was mimicking a phone call,
then putting it up and putting it down,
but the actions got too complicated.
JOHNNY: Fuck you!
MAN: And fuck you!
Fuck you, RegalView!
ALL: Fuck you, RegalView!
BOOTS: The crowd got...
The extras got really hyped during this part and got out of control.
People started taking off their headsets and throwing it.
It might not have been shots that we used,
but people forgot that this was...
They were making, uh...
They were making, you know,
everybody that was playing management feel bad
because they were shooting a lot of hate their way.
♪♪
(cheering and applause continues)
♪♪
Out, out, out, out, out.
BOOTS: Now, the production design in this office,
I didn't talk about it, but if you notice...
in the back of Cassius's head, it goes from light to dark yellow,
and that is more noticeable earlier on.
(laughter)
Pack up your shit and get out.
Well, fuck you and fuck you and fuck you! Fuck you!
BOOTS: I just realized there's a lot of fuck-yous in this movie.
Mr. Green, you're starting to sound a little paranoid.
BOOTS: That's cool. There's a lot of fuck-yous in life.
Great news.
Great motherfuckin' news.
Power Caller.
- CASSIUS: What the fuck... - ANDERSON: Yeah, we just got the call.
They think you're A-1 material.
BOOTS: This was a scene that...
ANDERSON: Yes, you are getting...
BOOTS: ...really got a lot of re-working...
as I was writing it.
Because...
Young, strong, intelligent power caller.
BOOTS: we had to make...
I had to make you understand
why he might make the choices he does.
ANDERSON: All their issues are down here, not up there.
(clicking tongue)
ANDERSON: Two very different kinds of telemarketing.
CASSIUS: Wait a minute, wait a minute, uh...
BOOTS: And I think, uh,
what's interesting about when you're writing,
you're not thinking about how much the actor will bring to it.
So a lot of the job was done by Cassius...
I mean, by Lakeith.
Yeah, I have a couple band members in that group of football players.
Maybe you're right.
JOHNNY: The big money.
The top fucking tier of telemarketing.
Making history with legends like Hal Jameson.
Badass!
BOOTS: And everything in this after the champagne pop...
Oh! It's a really good batch.
BOOTS: ...is improvised.
A lot of times I just didn't yell "Cut!"
(laughter)
- Just drink it right now? - JOHNNY: Yes!
BOOTS: Just to see where it went.
Ninety percent of the time it was something
we didn't want to use, but...
here it gave us a moment
that we really needed in this film,
which is...
Power Caller, baby!
BOOTS: ...right about...
JOHNNY: Power! Power caller!
BOOTS: All the improvising we did on our other scenes
that we didn't use paid off with having that moment.
(Diana laughs)
Wow, you really are ready, aren't you?
- Hey, Miss D. Yeah. - Wow.
Okay. Well, let's do this, motherfucker.
BOOTS: This scene was one that we were re-writing
as we were shooting it.
Just trying different stuff, and we got it down to something.
And this was something where I just said,
"Compliment him on his pink shirt,
and give me a statistic about it."
Thirty-five percent of men who wear pink are more likely to start a franchise.
BOOTS: And, uh, it is hi-larious.
CASSIUS: Wow. Damn.
- This is crazy. - Oh! I'm sorry.
BOOTS: The elevator was something that went through many...
(keypad beeping)
many different iterations on paper.
There was a version with a fireplace in it and all that kind of stuff.
So we just had to have the right balance of possible...
and impossible.
Or possible and ridiculous.
You need help or something?
BOOTS: Like this, uh...
These, uh...
This code is one of those ridiculous details
that, I think, fill up our lives
and end up being funny in a way that I'm not used to seeing.
Voice here is Rosario Dawson.
ELEVATOR: ...place alongside legends like Hal Jameson.
BOOTS: She, uh, came on after it was already done,
did this, and she's been a really big promoter of this movie
even though this is all she did.
All right. Does it do that every time?
(white voice) Welcome to the Power Calling Suite, Mr. Green.
White voice at all times here.
(white voice) Yes, I, uh, almost forgot.
BOOTS: Now, that, those series of lights
is the reason why I was okay with settling with this location.
This was another last-minute location change,
and it really worked.
The look of, uh, mister...
whatever we want to call him, Omari Hardwick's character...
MR. BLANK: Who do you think, Mr. Green, makes that call...
BOOTS: ...is something that was a series
of back-and-forths and negotiations.
I found the eye patch and suggested it.
Deirdre Govan really wanted him to have a bowler hat,
and I gave in on that.
And then at the last minute, Omari was like,
"I wanna have sideburns like you have."
So I was like, "All right."
So it came up with this look that is really out there,
but I think we needed
this sort of a out-there guy for Mr. Blank.
(can rattles)
MAN: Hey, what the fuck are you doing?
Dave, stop him!
BOOTS: That's Kelly Williams, another one of the producers.
He fell. He didn't sue us.
Left Eye, bitches!
(white voice) WorryFree has resuscitated...
BOOTS: So the WorryFree, uh, production work space
is very much influenced by Manufactured Landscapes,
the documentary that beautifully shows, uh,
some terrible work spaces.
(normal voice) Okay, but see, I don't know if I can...
Ah! Sugar on top, white voice.
Yeah, but what I'm saying is, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to...
(laughs)
Here's the starting salary.
BOOTS: And again, this was the other spot that...
behind Cassius,
that made me be okay with using the location we used.
Just this shot, knowing we'd have that shot.
(laughs in white voice)
(honking)
Hey baby, what's your sign?
DETROIT: I haven't heard that one before.
Yo, that was crazy yesterday. That was like that scene in Norma Rae.
You know the one where she's like on the table?
SQUEEZE: Yeah, yeah.
BOOTS: There's some beautiful, uh...
graffiti all throughout Oakland.
Beautiful artwork of all kinds.
You guys didn't know that Steven Yeun could do this.
He trained for six months.
(Detroit laughing)
Okay. Bravo. Where'd you learn how to do that?
BOOTS: No, that actually was a...
He's credited in the credits. You can look him up.
That was a... the world champion sign twirler.
Trouble's already there. I just help folks fix it.
Yeah, that's what I do with my art too.
BOOTS: Uh, what's happening here is an important...
I haven't seen your stuff, so I can't...
BOOTS: ...debate about art and organizing.
So, how does it work with, uh...
BOOTS: But it kind of got cut down, um, into a couple of lines
because, you know, what's more important
is people not getting, um,
bored of the scene and conversation.
So we made this into a scene that really worked.
But if you read the script that came out on McSweeney's,
you'll see there's a longer conversation
that maybe only artists and organizers would care about.
So, I'm not talking to y'all, this movie.
I am, but you get it.
You look like you're done here if you need a ride.
No, Cash is on the way.
But thank you.
Nice work.
BOOTS: We filmed a lot of this movie...
in, like, a two-mile radius of itself.
WOMAN: Hey, girl!
BOOTS: So a lot of people that are from... that really know Oakland might be like,
"Why is she getting in a car
to go over to where her gallery spot is?"
(electronic music)
Hal Jameson again.
♪♪
I love this music that's right here.
The mus... Let's talk about the music.
Um...
The music is done by Tune-Yards as far as the, uh, the score,
which is all the stuff that the characters can't hear.
You okay?
BOOTS: Except for the one song, "O-Y-A-H-Y-T-T."
And I worked with...
Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of Tune-Yards
since before I was in the labs,
before I was in the director's lab.
Does that mean you can pay me back my $80?
BOOTS: Started going back and forth on music for the scenes.
And they've been down, and they really came through
and gave this a unique and original score.
Baby, this is beautiful and big.
DETROIT: Africa.
BOOTS: This artwork here is by Omiroo.
O-M-I-R-O-O.
And, uh, except for the, uh, the statues.
The statues were something that the art department made,
so that it could help with the story later on.
Hopefully, you're not watching this before you watch the movie.
I wanted to talk about a life shaped by exploitation,
about fighting for a say in our own lives,
about how beauty, love, and laughter,
thrive and flourish under almost any circumstances...
BOOTS: I think right now, uh...
Cassius feels the way a lot of people feel when, um...
DETROIT: About how you're nodding like you're listening, but you're not.
Oh, no, sorry, baby. I just...
BOOTS: ...when folks are really deeply explaining something
that they politically really care about,
but is not as connected...
That the other person is not as connected to.
CASSIUS: Yes, okay, listening now.
Capitalism in Africa is booming.
DETROIT: Shh! I'm done talking.
I just want to marinate in this.
BOOTS: So many scenes in this movie that I...
was asked to cut.
That's definitely one of them.
Without it, Detroit would've been much flatter.
SQUEEZE: It felt good the other day, right?
- WOMAN: Yes. - SAL: It was good, man.
It's like I've known y'all my whole life, you know?
SQUEEZE: Don't forget that, okay?
Remember each other's faces.
SAL: Cassius? What's up, man? Where you been?
What's up with the suit?
CASSIUS: I got promoted.
BOOTS: That's my father in the hat.
Are you a manager now?
That means I'm a Power Caller now.
BOOTS: This scene right here is, um...
We were gonna do it as a team. Are you on the team?
BOOTS: The other scene that I knew that I would have in the movie,
and it's because, uh,
it happened to my little brother, Manuel.
And not the context of him getting a promotion,
but just the compliment, argument thing.
And this was a hard one to make work.
And I was getting nervous as they were rehearsing it,
when we were setting up for the scene.
Because to get that tone that we got here,
is like walking on a tightrope.
You don't want it to be obvious between those two actors
that they are trying to be funny.
It doesn't work that way.
It will work for some people but not for me.
So the first couple of lines were written, the rest of it was improvised.
Steven Yeun's face is a big part of why this scene is funny.
It's on me. No, it's on me now!
- It's on you? - Yeah, it's on me now!
- Yeah, it's on me. - All right!
All right!
BOOTS: They really pulled it off.
It took a lot of takes to get that one.
And not a lot of takes because of anything except for,
it was a tone that we hadn't really seen before.
Or a thing that we had never really seen before.
ELEVATOR: Greetings, Cassius Green.
I hope you did not masturbate today.
We need you sharp and ready to go.
I detect the pheromones percolating out of your pores.
They say to others around you,
"Hold my penis while I piss on your underestimated expectations."
BOOTS: Again, Rosario Dawson.
ELEVATOR: Mr. Green, I am a computer...
BOOTS: Coming with it.
There was a whole elevator malfunctioning scene
in that part that we cut out.
There was this whole interrogation scene
that, uh, we didn't shoot...
that came up in that one, but cut that out.
2:00 p.m.
Almost breakfast time in Japan.
CASSIUS (white voice): Oh, okay. Doodley-doodley-doodley-do.
- Moshi moshi. - Mr. Son.
Cassius Green at WorryFree calling.
Sorry to bother you.
I'm calling about who is assembling your phone.
Now I know they're being made in China...
BOOTS: And I didn't say it before,
but David Cross is doing...
...when I found out you acquired Tanrio.
BOOTS: ...Lakeith's voice.
David Cross is doing Cassius's voice,
and Patton Oswalt is doing...
Mr. Blank's voice.
I will say "Mr. Blank," but that's not how you spell it.
(both laughing)
Power Callers, our very own Cassius Green
just made our client, WorryFree, upwards of$10 million
in one call on his first day nonetheless.
Oh, it's not that much.
Indeed one for the history books.
ALL: Cheers!
(glasses clinking)
Excuse me for a second.
What can I do for you, chum?
Yes, I have a question...
BOOTS: This next scene coming up...
And don't ask me about Mr. Blank's apple.
But this next scene coming up is...
maybe one of my favorite sequences in the movie.
One of them.
The red to the red.
God. You know, look at Terry's buff wife,
like he's buff.
♪♪
Some of these things are very simple things,
but just putting them together in a way
that feels like a reveal and having a rhythm to it.
♪♪
And obviously helped out by the amazing music
that Tune-Yards has for this.
♪♪
Boom. Have the sheets cut, with that on.
Boom.
Boom!
And the bed gets wider.
There was another move that we just couldn't pull off,
which was the wall of the other place being here
and then getting pulled back.
We just weren't able to make it work.
Maybe I shouldn't have told you that, but I just wanted to be real with you.
Because this came out really good.
(upbeat music playing on TV)
That's Damion Gallegos,
uh, who co-produced the soundtrack with me,
and co-produced the last Coup album with me.
He's a funny dude in real life.
NEWSMAN (on TV): This was the scene yesterday
at the RegalView Telemarketers' strike.
The striking RegalView workers are joined
by other telemarketers, phone operators,
and university students from all over the area.
(channel changes)
After a long day of hardy-ass work, you feel me?
We ready to eat. This is where...
BOOTS: I think that if there was a WorryFree,
there probably would be, you know,
some sort of show like this
trying to make you feel like it was normal.
That's Lyrics Born.
SQUEEZE: What do we want? We want enough money...
BOOTS: And that's Steven Yeun.
(crowd cheering)
We want enough money to not eat Cup O' Noodles every night!
(crowd cheering)
I'm sick of Cup O' Noodles!
BOOTS: Really like this scene myself.
SQUEEZE (ON TV): ...when we get drunk one night!
(crowd cheering)
BOOTS: I always kept telling Lakeith
that he's really good at watching TV.
Like, you can keep the camera on him watching TV
and you feel a certain way.
(crowd murmuring)
Fuck RegalView!
CROWD: Fuck RegalView!
(chanting) Fuck RegalView! Fuck RegalView!
Fuck RegalView!
SAL: And fuck chlamydia, too.
NEWSMAN: Although strikers have kept most replacement workers...
BOOTS: Yeah, that's, um...
I always wonder if people recognize that that's Cassius in the red suit.
That's why we put him in the red suit.
Although, that red suit was awesome and always...
It kind of got put in that right there,
and I didn't see how awesome it was.
We didn't have time to change him
because he really should've been going through
most of the movie in that red suit.
(in white voice): Hey baby. Good morning.
BOOTS: You live and you learn.
Please no! Stop with that stupid voice, Cassius.
(clears throat)
Didn't even realize I was doing it.
Uh...
That's a problem, you know.
BOOTS: Um...
So, at one point at the Sundance labs,
I was talking to this guy Karim Ainouz,
and he was an adviser.
And he said to me,
"You know, I really love your lead character.
"I really love Cassius. I wanna take care of him.
"I wanna have a drink with him.
I wanna hang out with him. I wanna hug him."
And he said, "That's how I know it's bullshit,
because I hate everybody."
And what...
And we ended up having this two or three-hour conversation
about people in our lives...
But they should be! I'm so tired...
BOOTS: What caused them to make different decisions
and how they were about it.
And I realized that up until that point,
I had all the same things happening in the script,
but I had it all happening to Cassius.
I had him like a pinball that was getting slapped around.
And that conversation made me change the script
and give him agency and make him make the choices
and be proud of the choices that he made.
Because that's more true to life.
You know? Yeah, we do think about those things
and have hangups about them,
but very often, um, people make the choices
they think they're supposed to make
and then dig in their heels more when they get...
you know, challenged on it.
And the first thing that changed was this scene.
- What you doing? - I'm taking them.
- I'm cold. - I'm not playing, Cassius!
- You're being greedy. - Don't play with me!
BOOTS: This apartment is my boy Victor Kali's apartment.
He gave it to us for free.
We were in there for two days.
Amazing dude, which it also happened to be an art gallery. So...
You know, it's his house, but he also uses it as an art gallery,
so we didn't have to do much to it.
Cassius, the old you was way more interesting.
If you go to work today at RegalView
crossing the picket line...
we're done.
CROWD (chanting): Scabs won't pass! Scabs won't pass!
Assholes and elbows, people! Let's go!
(chanting continues)
BOOTS: Boom.
Yeah, that one was hard.
There's violence on all sides in this
'cause it's the way the world is.
If you are gonna have a strike,
only way it's gonna work is if you don't let scabs in.
Um, and the other side knows this too.
So there's violence on all those sides.
Let's give it up for the boy wonder!
- Huzzah! - (cork pops)
(white voice) Yeah, yeah, yeah! Some for the homeys and some for me.
BOOTS: That line was improvised by Lakeith.
CASSIUS: We hunted mammoths. Yeah!
MR. BLANK: Douse him! Douse our winner with champagne!
BOOTS: Her art show is called The New Fuck You,
which is the title of a Street Sweeper Social Club song.
Which is... Street Sweeper Social Club is a group with me and Tom Morello.
Right here, this is a beautiful work of lighting
by our lighting guy Drew Nelson.
CROWD (chanting): Scabs won't pass!
Scabs won't pass!
- (chanting continues) - (grunting)
BOOTS: In this scene coming up right here,
or this thing that happens is basically kind of, uh...
I got the idea for this in the script
because we used to go and fight the Nazis.
And I mean, the literal Nazis.
We also fought white supremacists,
but there were neo-Nazis, I guess literal neo-Nazis,
and they would come and have rallies.
And one time, they were having a rally in Union Square in the early '90s,
and me and some friends took
a bunch of cans and shook them up.
Call me (bleep). Million dollar question...
BOOTS: Look at the artwork on his wall
versus the graph on the other wall.
It's making a statement.
There's all sorts of little statements in the production design that we do.
Fudge all that.
Hmm.
Steve Lift is throwing his yearly party.
BOOTS: This magazine is also another cool thing
that art department made up.
A great photoshoot with Armie Hammer
that yielded some other pictures that...
we didn't get to use that were, nevertheless, great.
(funky music playing)
This music playing right here
is not being released on the initial soundtrack,
but possibly we may release the rest of the soundtrack.
DETROIT (white voice): Beauty, love and laughter...
BOOTS: Maybe it'll come out with this DVD. Who knows?
I realize you were asking about a specific...
BOOTS: Uh...
Tessa Thompson being overdubbed by Lily James.
(white voice)You know what? Will you please excuse me just a moment?
BOOTS: And that's actually Victor Kali that she was just talking to,
who owned...
the spot.
In this movie...
the extras are all friends and family and I...
It's just good that I have
a lot of friends and family in Oakland.
And that way, they can be directed more.
(normal voice) All right. I have to go get ready for my performance.
You should really stay and see it, okay?
BOOTS: Her earrings, "You're gonna have to fight your own damn war."
- It's important. - DETROIT: A slave auctioneer's party?
- Hey. - SAL: Yo, what's up?
DETROIT: Thank you for coming.
I wouldn't miss this for the world.
You always know just what to say, huh?
I literally just said that.
I hope you stay.
Yo, is the reason why you don't call me no more is cause, uh, you're a sellout,
or cause you're just a star?
What're you talking about?
Eleven million views, man.
BOOTS: The space that this is in
is the old Best Music.
People didn't understand that.
That's Indigo Jackson again as Cynthia Rose.
But the old Best Music in Oakland
which is, uh, was the place that...
was the place you had to come to get instruments,
and it closed down some years ago.
So it's really cool that we were able
to use it as the gallery.
(dramatic music plays)
(white voice) Welcome friends.
BOOTS: Bunch of her Left Eye friends in yellow.
(in white voice) Tonight, we will have a transformative experience.
In those containers...
BOOTS: All amazing artists in Left Eye, Bay Area artists,
in either visual
or, uh, music ways.
Her outfit right here is an homage
to Prince itself. Right here.
There's a lot of little Prince things in this movie.
Cynthia Rose, the earrings, this.
It was like Dirty Mind, right here.
...movie entitled The Last Dragon.
I will recite those lines that Angela says to Eddie Arkadian
as she leaves him.
Let's begin.
BOOTS: The Last Dragon was a very important, uh...
movie to me. I remember watching it in a theater
that we picked specifically
because the movies that we used to like to watch
were where we picked crowds
where there were funny people in it.
We would look for those crowds.
And in high school, we went to see The Last Dragon
in one of those theaters which was called The Parkway.
Not The New Parkway,
but the old Parkway, I guess, on Park Boulevard,
down near East 18th.
And I remember there's a scene in there with, uh...
with Sho'nuff at the theater in there,
where I thought that that theater
was just an exaggerated version
of the theater we were watching the movie in.
The guy that just threw that last balloon
was Githinji Wa Mbire
who also goes by Omiroo,
the artist that did the Africas.
And also getting by on my tits!
CASSIUS: Hey, hey! Stop!
What the fuck is this?
BOOTS: This was a hard scene for everybody in the room
to, um, watch.
- "Stick to the script." - No.
Don't you have a party to get to, Cash?
- (stomps) - Go!
Go, Cash.
BOOTS: Some people don't know that her voice
was overdubbed in that part.
Because...
even though Lily James has a British accent,
the timbre of her and Tessa's voices are very similar.
And in the end, Eddie...
(sniffing)
BOOTS: Yeah, um, Armie is a fool for that.
Um, he had to sign a waiver in order to do that scene.
(ominous music)
Well, I guess you're all wondering why I've called this meeting.
BOOTS: Originally, that line, "I guess you're all wondering
why I've called this meeting"
was a recurring bad joke that, uh, came up.
It was a joke that my father would always do,
and so I put it all throughout the thing.
But I realized it wasn't...
as funny to everybody,
but it really worked right there.
STEVE: Stick around because, uh,
I think a lot of these bitches are gonna be getting naked.
BOOTS: Look at the woman who just fell down back there.
That was funny.
Um, that was real, though.
It worked.
(white voice) It's a pleasure to meet you. An honor even, sir.
BOOTS: Look at the...
STEVE: Ah, yeah. How you doing, man? You all right?
I'm really well, thank you. Thank you for inviting us.
BOOTS: ...the wallpaper.
I mean, it's not wallpaper.
The tapestry on the walls right there.
- Oh. Uh, Steve? - I never said "Steve."
BOOTS: Pretty damn crazy.
CASSIUS: Sir.
BOOTS: This place is called Spring Mansion
in Berkeley that we used.
- I'm fucking kidding with you, man! - Ow! Ow!
You can call me whatever you want, you keep closing those deals.
- (chuckling) - STEVE: You must be like a fucking genius.
BOOTS: In this part,
what Armie is doing here,
what Steve Lift is doing is...
It's people like you that are gonna save this nation.
BOOTS: Looking at... is looking at different parts of Cassius' body,
in between his sentences,
and deciding whether Cassius could kill him with it or not.
Like a cunning raccoon.
Like a snake.
Or like a tardigrade.
Thanks.
DETROIT: Go, I'll lock up.
WOMAN: Great performance tonight, D!
I told you, you didn't have to do that, really.
No, it's my pleasure. This is good.
BOOTS: We're about to come up to one of the most
stupidly controversial scenes in the movie.
There were people that were more...
Not everybody, but some people...
the people that didn't like this
were more mad about this happening
than they were about Cassius selling slaves.
DETROIT: All right. Shh, you can tell me later.
BOOTS: But fuck 'em.
That's a joke, whatever.
Everybody has different opinions.
We'll talk about it more.
STEVE: ...crushed, bloody body of my now inconveniently deceased guide, right?
And just as I get this thing out, I spin around...
BOOTS: So this constant critique of art
and implying myself in it as well.
Fucker took two mags to the head.
Turned that bitch into a trophy.
BOOTS: Yeah, um, Omari Hardwick took that rhino
after the thing as his wrap present.
So he has it, apparently, in his living room.
STEVE: Come on.
I want to hear about some of that Oakland gangster shit, man.
Oak-town.
- Just right here? Just sit down? - Yeah, yeah.
CASSIUS: Well... (sighs)
luckily...
BOOTS: Very proud of this scene and the way it looks.
By the way, of course the way this looks
is so much to do with Doug Emmett
and his, you know, his amazing...
I keep using the word "amazing" 'cause it's so used.
But anyway, his very skillful and thoughtful way
of framing something.
And often we'd have back and forths,
and, uh... he'd just one-up whatever idea I had.
It was good. It was like cranking the thing up,
that idea up that I had and being like, "Well, look,
"if we just pull it a little bit more this way, that'd be cool."
Now this scene, when I originally wrote the movie,
uh, I mean, when I got to this scene.
'Cause I took the journey with Cassius.
I didn't know exactly everything that was gonna happen.
I thought that this would be his turning point.
And when I wrote it, I realized it didn't make sense
for it to be his turning point.
But it was funny.
I mean, things that are painful are also really funny.
I think that contradiction and irony...
♪ Nigger shit. Nigger shit ♪
BOOTS: ...and pain are very much related.
And in comedy, of course.
♪ Nigger shit. Nigger shit, nigger, nigger, nigger shit ♪
BOOTS: So, you know, some people were saying that
they were feeling weird about laughing about this, but...
♪ Nigger shit, nigger, nigger, nigger shit ♪
BOOTS: You know, um,
in Richard Pryor's Pryor Convictions,
he starts off each chapter
with one of his hilarious comedy bits.
And that's the first page.
The rest of it is all the painful, crazy stuff that he went through.
The stuff that might make you cry to read it,
that created that comedy bit.
(soft piano music playing)
This shot, we, uh...
if you look at it, you'll see the sun is coming up,
which kind of works, kind of makes sense, but...
we had to go, we had to wrap, and the sun was coming up.
So we only had two takes of this.
- (leather squeaking) - (woman moaning)
BOOTS: And we put out a call for people
who were down to get naked and be in a sex scene.
But in the Bay Area, you're not just gonna find people
that are already ready to go, but we did.
(normal voice) Go through that big-ass foyer.
Go through the door next to the stairs.
Go down the other stairs, hang a left.
Go to the end of the hallway, then make a right.
You'll see it.
Big magenta colored doors at the end of the hall.
BOOTS: This was important that we waited till now
to have Mr. Blank finally speak.
We just thrive in what is and what is...
BOOTS: So what he says is his philosophy.
Which is a lot of people's philosophy
about why they're doing what they're doing
and not helping to change the way things are.
It's a natural thing to come to, that conclusion,
if you have no idea that there's a movement
that can actually do something.
(laughter)
(sighs)
(eerie music)
BOOTS: Students of UC Berkeley might actually recognize
these hallways as the faculty lounge.
Not the faculty lounge, the faculty club.
We, uh...
shot 61 locations in 28 days on this movie.
So we were moving fast.
Heads up.
BOOTS: There was originally much more
that was supposed to go into this office,
I think... but we did not have the time...
and ran out of money
to do some of the things I wanted to do.
But I think we got the perfect amount done.
Fuck it.
BOOTS: Next time you watch it,
watch it while noticing the paintings that are behind him.
Ah! Fuck! It's strong.
BOOTS: They actually sold those plates online.
And I wanna listen to your proposition, Stevie.
I want you at WorryFree.
I see something in you.
I think that you are more than just
the world's greatest telemarketer since "Hal Jameson."
BOOTS: Um, Armie's idea for his... the fangs on his beard
was supposed to be, uh...
mimicking his agent.
I don't know who that is.
(whimsical music plays on TV)
BOOTS: Armie's only, like, 31 years old,
but in here, um, he's able to look older.
So, like I said,
originally, I thought that the performance,
the rap performance would be his turning point,
but I realize in a world where
there's literal slave labor being sold and he's one of the people selling them,
and that slave labor is accepted in the world,
how could that be his turning point?
Oh, they're racist and that's enough?
No, I realized we... he needed something
to shake him to his mortal core,
to make him see who he was.
Cause that's what the rap performance scene was supposed to do,
was to make him see who he was.
And this...
No! No, I can't. Sorry.
BOOTS: ...is also supposed to be someone... something to make him see who he was,
but in a way that shook him out of that world enough...
Okay.
BOOTS: ...for him to see.
And so, as I decided to write this, I really asked myself,
"Are you really gonna do this?"
And I was like, yep.
- Help me! - Fuck!
Help me!
(neighing) Help me!
BOOTS: I knew that it had to be done right
or it would seem like a joke.
So we got Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated.
Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis,
the ones who did the creature effects
for Alien vs. Predator to do it.
I said the jade door!
BOOTS: And actually, Tom Woodruff...
No, that's an olive door. That's very clearly...
BOOTS: ...who was an alien in Alien vs. Predator,
was in a suit for this one.
Let's just take a deep breath.
BOOTS: It's actually just one suit with four different heads and different...
We shifted around the hair patches
and the, uh, tattoos to make them...
and then shaded them different to make them seem different.
And Tom Woodruff is in all of them.
...you went in there, you wouldn't even be scared.
What the fuck was that thing?
BOOTS: I would say that all of these characters
are like me in certain ways,
and definitely this is the way Steve Lift is like me.
I like to force my friends to watch movies
they don't want to watch.
(whimsical music plays on TV)
STEVE: There's a lot of production value in this.
BOOTS: This is not actually done by Michel Dongry
or Michel Gondry.
It is done by Ri Crawford and David Lauer,
two folks that do stop-motion animation,
um, a lot for times for Tippett Studios,
but this they did on their own.
And, um, my involvement was in the animatic stage.
I worked with them back and forth on the animatic,
which is the drawing... the drawing version of all of this stuff,
which is slightly animated in the computer.
And while we were actually shooting, this was being shot.
And they did this in just a couple of weeks
after the animatics... after the stuff was...
the things were made.
So it's not... Some people thought it was claymation.
It's not actually claymation.
They molded the figures.
In the script, it's pretty...
a lot of this stuff is written in there.
We did, obviously, edit stuff down
so they would have less work to do.
NARRATOR (ON TV): ...human productivity is dawning.
Our workforce of equisapiens...
BOOTS: Yeah, these are actual... they poured...
um, into the molds
and made figures around, uh, around wire frames
that could be posed.
There's no fucking misunderstanding, man!
So you're making half-human half-horse fucking things...
BOOTS: For some reason, I love that picture
of Lakeith with his hands open.
I just didn't want you to think I was crazy.
That I was doing this for no reason, because this isn't irrational.
Oh.
Cool. All right.
Cool. No, I understand.
I just... I just gotta leave now, man.
So, please get the fuck out of my way.
You haven't finished the movie.
Call me about that next week, please, and then we'll... we'll talk.
You're gonna sit in that chair
and we're gonna watch this movie.
And then I'm gonna make you a proposal.
BOOTS: Yeah, again,
I really relate to me trying to get people to watch movies.
They really don't understand how important the movie is
I'm gonna show them.
NARRATOR (on TV): It works for 70 percent of humans
who take the fusing catalyst.
(synth music playing on TV)
♪♪
BOOTS: And again, the animatic of the other thing
pretty much had to match frame by frame...
frame for frame... so that they could do it right.
CASSIUS: What the... what the fuck was that?
- Wait, what? - What did I snort?
- Cause I'm not even fucking high. - You're not what?
Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Wait.
No, no, no, I don't give a fuck about that anymore, all right?
I don't give a fuck about that shit.
If you had me snort some shit that's gonna have me mutated, man...
BOOTS: This scene here is actually
one that we did in the labs, too.
I need you to be a little bit more particular, man!
BOOTS: So, it was...
That... that was really good to do, uh,
kind of test it out even with other actors
to kind of get a sense of...
where you thought you were going to have to keep it going at,
where you thought you were gonna need
to invent ways to make it interesting, visually.
...is because your adrenaline is pumping so hard right now,
that, to be perfectly honest, you're starting to harsh both of our mellows.
Okay? So sit down and just...
BOOTS: That was an interesting discussion,
'cause it used to be "harsh your buzz."
He changed it to "harsh your mellow,"
um, and "harsh both of our mellows."
It was something he asked for that I gave in on
that I think he was right about.
It's a little funnier that way.
I don't know, 'cause we didn't say "harsh your buzz,"
so, who knows?
I'm gonna have millions of 'em.
This is fucking crazy.
STEVE: They're gonna form their own society.
They'll probably form their own culture.
Then maybe they wanna organize.
Maybe they wanna rebel.
And that's why we need someone on the inside
who represents WorryFree's needs.
BOOTS: I like how he's about to say "interests"
and changes it to "needs."
- For fucking horse people. - No. No...
BOOTS: And you kinda see how someone is thinking.
...equisapien Martin Luther King, Jr.
BOOTS: Again, beautiful, chilling score
by Tune-Yards happening right here.
I mean, all the score is by Tune-Yards, but...
Yeah, keep shit simple.
(whispers) Fuck, man.
Well, why the fuck did you choose me?
Out of everybody you could've chose, why did you pick me? For what?
Cash, Cash.
BOOTS: This was a shot I knew was in the movie when I wrote it.
I've never seen anyone go through the ranks
at RegalView like you did. Hmm?
And I want someone like that at WorryFree.
BOOTS: It's kinda symmetrical, kinda...
This is probably like the most Wes Anderson shot
we have in the movie.
STEVE: I can see that you're freaked out,
and that you want to say no.
But I wouldn't do that before you see what I'm offering.
No, man. No, no.
There's no fucking amount of money that'll make me do that shit.
Two things.
One, it's a short-term contract.
Five years, done.
Then we give you the diffuser antidote special sauce serum...
BOOTS: Yeah, that diffuser antidote special sauce serum,
that was something that was hard for people to remember.
You're gonna have a horse cock.
What the fuck is a special antidote sauce serum? What the...
It sounds like you made that shit up, man. That shit ain't real.
No, it's real.
And so is my offer.
Five years as our man amongst horses
for $100 million.
Just go sleep on it, okay?
And after that, holla at your boy. Okay?
Get out in that party and go fuck something.
BOOTS: This is the Cathedral Building in Oakland,
which is where their apartment is.
We were lucky to get this spot because...
it's such a well-known spot.
(eerie music)
Oh, fuck. Fuck.
BOOTS: Again, you stay on Lakeith's face,
and it's so expressive but in ways that...
aren't very normal for other actors.
A lot of what he does...
is just making sure that he is emotionally there.
He's not making sure that his face looks a certain way,
and that he emotes a certain thing.
That's not what he's doing.
Which, uh, I don't know, I've never directed a play,
but I imagine that often it's what, uh,
theater actors might be doing on stage,
'cause you have to do that a little bit more.
But he's just making sure that he's emotionally there,
and then, I think everything else comes from there.
And so, uh, he ends up emoting in a more natural way.
MAN (on phone): Jake?
What're you talking about? No, Cassius.
Cassius Green.
(line disconnects)
BOOTS: He's talking to Eric Arnold
who's an actual writer.
That's the Yuka lady actually.
She's playing this character on there.
Voila! Have-a-Cola-and-smile-bitch wig.
Fuck! Where the fuck is my cellphone?
ANCHOR (on TV): And the strangest thing to happen in advertising history,
Soda Cola has announced working with Cynthia Rose,
the foul-mouthed heroine with perfect aim
from the "Cola-and-Smile-Bitch" YouTube clip.
Rose reportedly signed for an amount of money
that could buy four white babies.
The strikebreaker who was hilariously...
BOOTS: This was, uh, fun.
That's Gabby La La, my baby mama.
I got a little worried, you know.
Because I was looking at it maybe from up here.
But that it might be different.
BOOTS: Um, this guy was one of my doctors.
No, no. It's the same size.
BOOTS: Again, that's a outfit, uh, collaboration
between Deirdre Govan and Omiroo.
DETROIT: What is up with you, Cash?
You called me at 3:23. You left a video message.
I didn't check it because I assumed it was lewd as fuck
- and I wasn't trying to do that... - Can I see that?
BOOTS: Omiroo painted all over it.
Matter of fact, because he's painting all the time,
a lot of the times, his clothes end up looking
exactly like that by accident.
We're hurting! Help us! Help us!
MAN: Get back in there! Get in there!
EQUISAPIEN: Please, help us!
We're hurting!
WOMAN: Security code cleared.
BOOTS: I always thought we messed up when we showed her phone
'cause I felt like Detroit's phone case
would've been way more decorated than that.
This, uh...
The shots that happen here, um, from longer away,
were really inspired.
Looked for this shot because of some stuff
in One from the Heart where they do...
In Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart
where they do a lot of stuff with reflection.
The scene... the shot doesn't look anything like One from the Heart,
but it just gave me the idea of the reflection.
We found this spot which was right by the Cathedral Building.
DETROIT: Relax a little bit so I can see.
Okay, okay. They're the normal size.
They look normal sized. They look normal sized.
You are okay.
(Cassius sobbing)
(electronic music)
BOOTS: And, um...
This song right here
that's playing, um, in the background,
has, uh, me,
Silk-E, who's also in The Coup, and Janelle Monae.
- I still have problems with all this. - I'm not...
Only something happening to you turned you against them.
Okay. But I know how they view me.
How I look in the eyes of fucking WorryFree and RegalView.
They just view me as another one of their fucking creatures...
BOOTS: The lighting in this scene is very different
from anything else in the movie,
but it's also a mood that we haven't had in the movie.
DETROIT: That doesn't change what I said about us.
And also, I kinda messed around with somebody last night.
What? Wait.
What do you mean you kinda...
I need you to explain that one, 'cause I don't understand...
BOOTS: And right here is a shot of Lakeith's ass.
But that shot was probably the quickest one that there was.
There was one that was longer.
'Cause I really felt like you have to see...
Like, for it to feel real, you need to see
people just bare as possible.
But, um, the other shots that took longer
just didn't fit in here.
Anyway, this is, uh...
the part where people like, "Why did this happen?"
And, um, the truth is is that
her dude that she was down with
was totally against everything she was for all of a sudden
and, um, didn't...
and was selling slaves and came and interrupted her art show.
She went for somebody that was way closer
to what she was about.
(horns honking)
BOOTS: "Tell Homeland Security we are the bomb."
That's a quote from a Coup lyric
from the song "The Magic Clap,"
and also the title of a book of my lyrics.
For those of you that maybe don't know,
I am also the lead vocalist and producer of The Coup.
That's Mistah F.A.B.
Rolling up, Mistah F.A.B.
Bay Area legend.
What the fuck, man?
For you lying!
BOOTS: This was a fun and interesting scene to shoot.
Maybe first stunt.
(men jeering)
MAN: That's all right.
Happens to the best of us.
(men laughing)
Walk it off!
BOOTS: The ADR. on that was very helpful.
This is Cassius Green from "Have a Cola and smile, bitch" fame.
I want to be on your show tomorrow.
♪ Have a Cola and smile, bitch ♪
BOOTS: Fake Cassius and Cynthia Rose.
♪ Have a Cola and smile, bitch ♪
(audience cheering, clapping)
AUDIENCE: I got the shit kicked out of me!
Today, YouTube sensation Cassius Green is here.
You had 500 million people
watch you get pegged to the noggin and get utterly humiliated.
It was effing hilarious.
The way your hair went up like that!
(audience laughs)
The whole world is laughing till they pissed.
Well, I got a new clip that I need you to play.
And the only reason I came on this show
was because you agreed to show this clip
to your 150 million viewers.
Well, If you want some ass, you have to bring some ass.
So get ready for an ass-whupping,
then jump in the shit tank,
- then we'll play your clip. - (applause)
- (grunting) - (blows landing)
(whimsical music playing)
(audience laughing)
BOOTS: Went through a lot on the sound for that.
That was the actual regular "that's all, folks."
Okay. Is it as crazy as the Cola-and-a-smile-bitch clip?
Not possible!
(audience laughs)
It's crazy, Mary. It's fucking crazy.
MARY: Woo-hoo! Let's roll the clip.
BOOTS: Cake batter.
EQUISAPIEN: We're hurting! We're hurting!
If you beautiful perversions don't shut the fuck up,
I will turn you all to glue!
(audience gasps)
As a Power Caller for RegalView, WorryFree was my premier client.
This is just incontrovertible proof
of WorryFree's evil practices.
They're turning humans into grotesque horse-people.
And I want the world to know
that... that they are manipulating humanity
for the sake of profit.
Now, we cannot let this go on!
BOOTS: You know, a lot of times the idea in movies is
if you expose the problem, that's the end of it.
Like, the end of it is "Wow, they exposed the problem."
In, you know, most movies, Steve Lift
would be going off to jail because of it.
But that's not... I don't believe that's how it works in the real world.
So, it didn't happen like that in this world.
WOMAN (on TV): To celebrate the record stock market rally
- WorryFree's success has created. - Fuck you!
BOOTS: And, you know,
that's also the conversation about art.
A lot of times, the idea with an artist is,
"I'm doing my job. I'm exposing the bullshit."
And that's not enough.
You gotta connect with folks.
At least connect with folks that are...
trying to make some material changes in the situation,
and that are organizing.
Everybody can't just be, like, saying what the problem is,
and that includes artists.
If you are an artist and you just expose what the problem is,
you don't even know the exact right problem to expose.
You don't even know the question that folks are having.
As Squeeze talks about here, people know what the problem is.
But if all we're doing is saying what the problem is,
but not connecting it to how we can change stuff,
then we're just adding to it.
We're just proving the point to the powers that be
that, "Yeah, there's a lot of problems,
and you can't do anything about it."
It's important.
If you can stop them from crossing the picket lines...
BOOTS: But the key is to...
- That's a good plan. - Yeah.
BOOTS: ...have a way to change things.
And if you don't have them,
join with folks that are, um,
actively trying to do those things.
CASSIUS: You see that shit? What the fuck is that about?
What the fuck, man?
That's what I'm talking about.
BOOTS: And with mass organizations.
(rock music)
Spring Mansion.
- (gate unlocks) - ELECTRONIC VOICE: Security code cleared.
Fuck you, RegalView! Fuck you, RegalView!
None of the strikers here at the RegalView strike
will tell us why they're all wearing
their Cola-and-smile-bitch wigs.
Although the strikers have been extremely militant
over the past weeks,
they've not been able to stop the Stackwater juggernaut
from breaking through the lines.
(chanting) Scabs won't pass! Scabs won't pass!
BOOTS: When I shot the movie...
shooting everyone with the (bleep) and-smile-bitch wigs
was the time when I was like, "Oh, my god,
we're making a very strange movie."
- (crowd yelling) - (whistle blowing)
(shouting)
BOOTS: This is the one sequence
that I wish we had more time to shoot.
We didn't really, uh...
have the shots to build the things we needed to.
We're telling the story but, uh, in my mind,
I understand how we could
have made you feel the story
of that sequence a little bit more.
But who knows? Maybe it would've opened up
a different can of worms spending too much time on that.
(cheering)
- Yeah, man! - Yeah!
BOOTS: Like I said, we were able to get...
we got so many people from Oakland...
in it.
OFFICERS: Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup.
Looks like the cavalry has arrived, folks.
- (siren wailing) - Hup, hup, hup, hup...
(shouting)
(people screaming)
BOOTS: Private mercenaries.
Private security, corporate security.
OFFICER: Get the fuck back! Move!
SQUEEZE: This way. This way.
Come on!
WOMAN: All right! All right!
(screaming)
CASSIUS: Over here, over here.
This is when the magic happens.
- (beeping) - SQUEEZE: Get them here quick!
(whistle blows)
BOOTS: Right about... now,
you will hear the voice of our editor, Terel Gibson.
Terel Gibson...
is... is an editor
whose name you will probably start hearing a lot more of now.
He and I sat in a room four days a week
for 10 hours a day...
Let me out!
BOOTS: ...for about...
uh, 10 weeks.
Maybe 11 weeks including the time
we went back and did stuff to it.
(tires squealing)
BOOTS: And each week he did an extra day by himself
without me around to mess with him
because during that time...
Wait a minute. Yeah. Here we go.
Equisapiens coming to help out.
Anyway, um, during that time, on those three-day weekends,
I was working on the soundtrack, The Coup's portion of this.
And as you hear right now,
more beautiful score by Tune-Yards.
There are two musical worlds in this movie.
One being the score,
which is all the stuff that the film is saying to you.
I guess we should talk about the penises.
And for me, it made it way more real...
to not have them covered up right there.
To be wearing like the Hulk
or, like, a loin cloth or something like that.
Then it becomes like Land of the Lost,
Sleestaks, or something like that.
But it made it feel more... much more human
to show genitals.
(helicopter blades whirring)
WorryFree is here.
Hey, same struggle.
BOOTS: You know, to have them with tattoos
and things like that that made you think of people.
(people shouting in distance)
BOOTS: And they're only men
because we only really had one suit.
DETROIT: Hey.
Mastermind.
(ethereal music)
BOOTS: I love this moment and the music that Tune-Yards made for it,
which was kind of Brazilian inspired...
Or not Brazilian.
More like Italian inspired.
It didn't come out that way but that's...
kind of where it seemed to come from.
(scoffs)
Are you serious right now?
Serious as cake in a can, man.
Don't... don't play with me, Cash...
BOOTS: This scene was actually the first scene
that Jermaine Fowler and Lakeith shot together.
They had just met each other, like, 20 minutes before.
Plus, I wanted to say I'm sorry.
BOOTS: And...
their connection was so real right here.
SAL: This is good. This is...
BOOTS: I mean, in the sense that they open themselves up to connect.
Because my whole thing was...
I almost took this scene out.
I was like, "Wait a minute. Maybe it doesn't make sense
that he gives his... he gives Sal this Maserati."
I said, "It doesn't make sense unless they're like brothers.
Like, and you guys have to really show us that."
And so, that hug that they gave really felt special,
and the way that they were looking at each other.
DETROIT: Kiss already, y'all.
(car door closes, engine starts)
So, what about being a part of something important, huh?
BOOTS: Here we have the sun literally setting.
It's a beautiful happy ending right now
that most movies would end at...
or some version of that.
Notice her earrings say Bella Ciao.
Bella ciao is also a song lyric
of a famous Italian revolutionary song
that, uh, is about someone
going off to fight the fascists tomorrow,
and this is their last night together.
- (Cassius groans) - What happened?
(moaning)
What, Cash?
(grunting)
(ominous music)
BOOTS: Hmm. So maybe Cassius is going off to fight.
That's my name. That's the title.
(intercom ringing)
(ringing continues)
BOOTS: There are reasons that Steve Lift is limping there.
(over intercom): I'm Cassius Green calling on behalf
of stomp-a-mud-hole in-your-ass.com.
Sorry to bother you.
(static)
(rattling in distance)
(alarm blaring)
(roaring)
BOOTS: That's the end. Lakeith Stanfield, he's in it.
So is Tessa Thompson.
Jermaine Fowler's definitely in it.
Omari Hardwick's really in it.
Terry Crews.
Kate Berlant, Michael X. Sommers.
Danny motherfucking Glover.
Steven Yeun, he smokes weed.
Armie Hammer.
That's me. I wrote and directed it.
Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker.
Charles King. I'm just reading for you.
Produced by George Rush, Jonathan Duffy,
and Kelly Williams.
Executive pro... Oh, my god, it's going too fast.
I don't read fast or talk fast.
All these people really helped make this movie happen.
Brian Benson. Doug Emmett, Director of Photography.
♪ Imagine this hymn is a hand grenade Asphalt sheet rock serenade ♪
BOOTS: Eyde Belasco, Terel Gibson.
♪ Joint in my mouth, pass the fire ♪
BOOTS: Deirdra Elizabeth Govan. I didn't...
She does not use that word in formal times.
She does not call herself Deirdra Elizabeth
when you meet her in person.
I'm gonna ask her about that.
Annapurna Pictures. They came and bought this
and put it out to the world.
This is why you're now getting it on DVD
because you saw it in a crowded theater of course.
♪ Alright ♪
♪ Hell yeah ♪
BOOTS: All these folks really, um...
came and helped make this dream come true.
It's something I worked on for many years.
And, uh...
And many times told myself it was gonna happen
but did not know whether I was lying to myself or not.
And the movie, as you have now seen,
is really different than other things
that are out there.
Script supervisor Andy Manners.
I have to say that definitely first-time feature directors,
you're gonna lean on your script supervisor.
They are the person who's like,
you know, who you can at least rely on
to tell you the truth, like,
"Okay, you're gonna need... you're gonna need another shot of this."
Meaning, like, if you're worried about any sort of coverage,
which, you know, being someone
who hadn't gone through the editing process of a film,
um, it was good to have someone like that
to make you feel like you knew that you got it.
And so, give a shout-out to Andy Manners.
There are many people who are going by on this,
all... many of whom I love and who helped make this happen
in really large ways.
This was not a movie that
many people thought could get made,
you know.
And not only because of the content,
which I didn't talk a lot about right here
because you can probably see any interview with me
and I'll talk your ear off about the content of this.
But also because of the narrative form,
and the, uh... idea
that it was doing multiple genres.
And even though I don't really think in those terms,
and that I hadn't ever done a feature film before.
I did talk about how I...
I did sell people on the fact that I had been to film school
uh, twenty-something years ago,
but in reality, I didn't remember any of that stuff.
But I did study hard in between that time.
Thanks for watching this.
It's in memory of my mother who died a few years ago,
Anitra Patterson,
and Pam the Funkstress, The Coup's DJ,
who also died last year.
That's the title again. Thanks.