The Matt Walsh Show - Clearing the A.I.R. – The Making of Am I Racist？

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00:01:57.320 Every day of shooting, there was a level of dread and concern that things were about to blow up in our

00:02:02.120 faces. Just had to ask who you are, because you have to be careful. Never be too careful. Every 30

00:02:08.220 seconds, you're like, oh my gosh, are we exposed? Are we done? Remind me of your name again?

00:02:12.680 Uh, uh, Stephen. Stephen? Yeah? We had no right to pull off what we pulled off.

00:02:18.440 Marking.

00:02:25.580 Whew! That was a robust slate right there. This film came together in the aftermath of

00:02:32.320 What is a Woman? What is a Woman was a big success and accomplished a great deal. I think we were all

00:02:37.460 very, very proud of that film. You put out a podcast and everybody forgets about it by tomorrow,

00:02:42.020 and you got to do it again. What is a Woman was my first time helping to create something that had an 0.86

00:02:47.100 impact that lasted for longer than a day. Months later, years later now, people are still

00:02:51.400 talking about that film. It came out, we were done, we were proud of it, and all of a sudden,

00:02:56.100 I'm just seeing it every single day on every app that I'm on. Instagram reels and all these

00:03:00.700 social media sites. I thought, we've got to do something else. We have to keep the momentum going.

00:03:06.100 I think we realized that we didn't want to just limp in with a sophomore effort. Like,

00:03:09.240 we had to kind of go bigger. They said they want to do a movie about race. Honest to God,

00:03:14.140 like, my first, like, gut reaction. I didn't say it out loud, but, like, was like, hell no.

00:03:18.680 This was, you know, summer of 2020 when whole cities were being burnt down over race, and now

00:03:23.880 we're going to do race. It was just as hot as the subject of transgenderism was when we did what

00:03:30.480 as a woman. I didn't think it was dangerous. I mean, it is in a way. Obviously, it's provocative,

00:03:35.920 but that's what we're looking for. We're looking for the dangerous topics. Growing up in the 90s,

00:03:40.260 I never thought much about race. Sure, you noticed if somebody was black or white or Mexican or

00:03:46.160 whatever, but it never really seemed to matter that much. Maybe it's because of the time and

00:03:51.620 place I was raised, LA, 80s and 90s. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be easy-eat. I mean,

00:03:58.320 I didn't want to die of age, but I wanted to be easy-eat. I was taught and brought up to not see race

00:04:04.280 as an issue, so I didn't really know that it was as big of an issue that people were making it out

00:04:11.120 to be. That's how we deal with racism. We just say, oh, it's not happening. Yeah, the more you

00:04:16.480 talk about it, the more you are blatantly acknowledging race, and if you want to forget 0.97

00:04:21.640 about it, you need to shut up. What I guess made it dangerous to me in terms of trying to make a movie

00:04:25.880 about it is that it's so big. So figuring out, you can't just make a movie. You just say, well,

00:04:31.200 we're making a documentary about race. What does that mean exactly? One of the first meetings I

00:04:35.780 had with Justin, he just talked about his interest in pursuing this kind of DEI stuff that was

00:04:42.140 happening was getting bigger and bigger. Black, Latino, and Indigenous people are suffering and 0.98

00:04:47.780 dying. Violent. White supremacy. White. White. White entitled. We've got to do the work. I put my name 0.99

00:04:55.180 on what is a woman. Prior to that, I'd worked on a lot of things that were, you know, progressive

00:05:00.440 in nature because I'm freelance, so people call me, ask me to do jobs. I filmed Obama in the Oval

00:05:06.680 Office for a media outlet that is very liberal. I'm not going to say it blacklisted me, but it's very

00:05:13.400 likely that they're going to say, oh, Anton's working on that type of project. Well, he's not going to be

00:05:18.180 working on our projects anymore. I still had one foot in Hollywood and had concerns about my

00:05:25.020 livelihood and would I be hired again in Hollywood if my name was associated with this film. We need

00:05:30.780 to stop being nice about racism because nothing has been advanced by being nice. You have to come at it

00:05:36.980 with a lot of humility. These are massive, massive topics we're going after and powerful people we're

00:05:43.380 going after. The thing that became very apparent to us was we wanted to do a comedy. We knew we were taking

00:05:50.560 on these tough issues. They're hard for people to talk about. So we really felt like humor was the

00:05:55.300 way that we could kind of pick the lock, get our message across, and actually have people listen.

00:06:00.120 We have a petition. We want to rename the George Washington Monument to the George Floyd Monument.

00:06:04.200 We're talking about painting it black. We're going to raise it 30 percent, increasing in the height.

00:06:09.700 You're trying to battle in common sense and facts and being serious about something,

00:06:14.860 but it doesn't work. Truth is hilarious and I think that the truth speaks for itself best in comedy

00:06:23.380 of all forms. Humor is not easy to do. It's actually probably the hardest thing to do. It really does

00:06:29.900 take an incredible amount of talent to pull it off and this is where Matt Walsh just completely shined.

00:06:35.220 I told them to find anybody but Justin Folk and they came back and said he's the only guy willing to work

00:06:40.580 with you. So I said, shit. No, of course there's no, there's no question at all. Is he, is he sitting 1.00

00:06:46.920 around here? It was awkward if I'm complimenting him if he's, can you leave Justin? Get out of here.

00:06:51.000 Oh, you are there. You can't, I don't, I don't compliment people normally. So it's always awkward

00:06:55.780 for me. One of Justin's best features as a creative is that he's willing to listen to ideas and be

00:07:02.680 collaborative. It's actually a very rare trait. Now he's got a real great creative vision himself.

00:07:07.880 So it's not like he's going into this and he has no idea what to do. But if you step in and say,

00:07:12.560 well, what about this? Or what if we think about it this way? Uh, he's willing to listen to that and

00:07:16.900 we can have a conversation about it. And like I said, that's, that's pretty rare. There's a lot

00:07:20.200 of egos, you know, in this business.

00:07:29.280 One of the things that makes documentary filmmaking difficult is it's constantly evolving.

00:07:34.640 You have to roll with the punches. You can't get a take two.

00:07:38.480 With what is a woman, our very first day, Justin told me, hey, by the way, 1.00

00:07:44.120 they might cut this interview off immediately.

00:07:46.860 You know what? I think this interview is over.

00:07:48.760 Yeah.

00:07:49.280 I think, I think this interview is over.

00:07:50.940 I just had one last question.

00:07:52.280 Uh, well, I, I, I, the interview is over.

00:07:54.540 We want to know what, what is a woman? 0.99

00:07:56.380 I was like, wait, what?

00:07:57.580 You get the interview that you didn't think you were going to get, and then you have to pivot.

00:08:02.120 You don't get the interview that you were hoping to get, or you don't get the location that you were

00:08:05.240 going to get. There are decisions that have to be made along the way. And not only is it

00:08:10.900 your livelihood that you're entrusting in your director, you're entrusting in your reputation.

00:08:16.620 Ultimately, the decision is his. And we all as a team are very confident in him as a director.

00:08:22.100 He's very much a leader that we all trust.

00:08:24.960 If you don't have confidence in your director, you have nothing. Okay? Like,

00:08:29.920 you might as well direct it yourself.

00:08:31.940 Sean Hampton has a great quote about directors. It's that directors are the only people who have

00:08:36.760 seen the movie while we're making it. He's the only person that actually knows what we're doing.

00:08:41.580 Uh, everyone else is just kind of showing up and trying to support and help him.

00:08:45.160 Daily Wire.

00:08:47.440 Oh, that's good. That's good. Okay. Now let me grab your hat. Stay right there. Don't move.

00:08:51.260 Justin, compared to most of the directors that I've worked with, is way more planned and organized

00:08:57.660 and strategic and outlined. And there's purpose for everything. It's not like a director just

00:09:03.820 filming a whole bunch of stuff and saying, here you go, editor, make something cool.

00:09:07.820 Matt, can you slide just a little bit to your right? Just a hair. Just, just a, just a fraction.

00:09:13.500 A little bit more. A little bit more. There it is. There it is. Okay. Ready?

00:09:17.580 He can see the edit while he's shooting. Justin understands how to play those moments

00:09:24.700 in the moment while Anton's shooting, while Matt's in the zone.

00:09:28.760 Oh. Okay, good. Back down, back down to one. When I saw his nuanced directing like that,

00:09:39.880 obviously I'd seen one as a woman. No safe spaces. Justin created a genre that didn't exist. And that's, 0.99

00:09:47.880 to me really exciting because we can push boundaries at that point. Yeah. I mean,

00:09:53.240 it's a great team. I really like three of them. Um, it's a pretty good batting average.

00:09:59.640 Matt's ability to sit in discomfort and, and just like relish it. It's such an amazing skill set. So I

00:10:10.360 think like Matt's ability to do that coupled with Justin's storytelling is one of the things that sets

00:10:15.560 it apart. I would like you to close your eyes. What does that loss feel like in your body?

00:10:21.640 It feels like a thousand knives plunging into my soul. And a sack being hit by bats and bricks. And the whole

00:10:36.920 sack is thrown into the ocean. Thank you. That's what it feels like. Matt goes to the White Grief

00:10:43.560 Counselor. That shoot made me the most nervous. We went into that needing something specific for the story.

00:10:51.640 But there was no guarantee we're going to get it. We're moving to her now. Well, I didn't, I didn't

00:10:56.600 finish. Please finish. Um, who the sack's thrown into the ocean and then the sack's taken out.

00:11:03.880 And it's set on fire. Thank you. That's what it feels like.

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00:11:51.880 I think with the group setting, it's sort of easier. It feels like a higher probability to get

00:11:57.400 what you want. Can you please leave? I would like it if you left. I'm trying to learn. I'm on this

00:12:02.200 journey. Come with me. Well, thank you. I didn't, I didn't consent to be touched. Maybe there's somebody

00:12:08.680 in the group who's not exactly reacting how you want, but then you've got all these other people,

00:12:11.880 and there's just a lot you can sort of play with there. And then in a moment... Are you saying

00:12:16.760 I needed a better disguise? Is that what you... I don't know, maybe, but you can figure that out

00:12:21.240 as you walk out the door. It all came together and it's all thanks to Matt. There's nobody I know

00:12:27.560 that's quicker on his feet than Matt. It was my favorite to film. It's also my favorite scene in

00:12:32.840 the movie to watch. The very last scene we filmed, even though it's early in the film, obviously there's a

00:12:37.560 lot of like awkward cringe humor in the film quite intentionally of course, but that scene has the

00:12:43.080 most of it and it's a very concentrated form. I am here to dig a little bit. I'm sorry, I forgot one

00:12:51.400 other thing I wanted to promise the black community. It's really important that we don't interrupt each

00:12:55.400 other. That one was hard for so many reasons. You know, I'm a cinematographer so I'm thinking about

00:13:00.680 lighting and that sort of thing. If you notice there's windows 360 degrees in that room with sunlight

00:13:06.280 coming in. If you were to film that with no lighting, everybody would look like a silhouette.

00:13:10.120 So we actually had a light called the Aperture Infinibar mounted to the ceiling. It took us

00:13:15.720 a day beforehand to pre-rig all that. So a ton of equipment that we have to break down. Afterwards,

00:13:20.600 they called the police and the police showed up. Now, of course, I fled because the cops were called.

00:13:26.280 As a leader, I left my team behind to deal with the cops. I was gone. So I don't know, like, am I gonna

00:13:31.240 have to, you know, give a statement to the police? And also we're gonna be here for hours afterwards,

00:13:36.600 breaking all this equipment down. So as far as like the stress of production that day specifically,

00:13:42.760 it was very, very stressful. Every day of shooting, there was a level of dread and concern that things

00:13:48.280 were about to blow up on our faces. And there was a divine providence in the works of creating this film

00:13:53.880 that it didn't. There wasn't one specific moment. It was every 30 seconds while cameras are rolling,

00:13:58.520 that you're like, oh my gosh, are we exposed? Are we done? And that just kept on not happening

00:14:03.160 right up until the workshop scene in New York. If they know that I'm Matt Walsh, I'll always be

00:14:08.680 an outsider. I need to go deeper undercover. And that gave rise to this amazing character

00:14:16.120 that Matt got to dive into, this woke man in a wig. When we were talking about what should Matt's

00:14:25.320 disguise be, he didn't want to shave his beard, to be honest. Because I have to go home to my family

00:14:30.120 at the end. I mean, I have to walk in the door to my wife and kids, and I cannot walk in barefaced.

00:14:35.320 It would legitimately be traumatizing. My wife's made it very clear that she likes the beard. She doesn't

00:14:41.160 want to see my entire face. And when it comes to my face, I guess like from here up is just, it's a

00:14:46.280 better experience than from here down. What was the question? The idea of putting him in Professor

00:14:53.400 Grazonka's costume, A, is hilarious. B, I will give all credit to Sean Hampton who came up with that.

00:15:00.840 I wish it was my idea. The first time I saw the disguise, I laughed because it was the perfect bad

00:15:08.200 disguise. You know, I mean, we, instead of giving him a full transformation, it was like, okay, we want

00:15:13.480 Matt Walsh, but just slightly different and slightly more woke. I honestly still can't believe

00:15:20.120 that he didn't get recognized. Like there were moments where as a team, we were like, oh my gosh,

00:15:25.480 like we did it. Like he's actually not getting recognized. This is how clueless they are.

00:15:32.200 That was all it took. I mean, honestly, I'm still freaking shocked. People can have their opinions.

00:15:38.120 People keep on crafting on the wig. It's a fantastic wig. I know that because no one called him on it.

00:15:44.200 As soon as that man bun came on, he was a different guy. It was incredible to watch. It was 0.98

00:15:48.920 like Clark Kent going into the phone booth, coming out woke. And that was Matt Walsh. When we're

00:15:54.680 traveling with the Walsh costume, we have the entire wardrobe in a suitcase that we call the football.

00:16:00.200 And that's a reference to the briefcase that the president carries around for the launch codes and

00:16:05.400 doing nuclear attacks. And that's exactly how important this thing was to the film.

00:16:09.800 I thought to myself, well, like if I choose between sacrificing myself for the wig,

00:16:16.760 I'm going to have to take that bullet. It's easy to come up with, theoretically,

00:16:20.120 ideas for disguises, but they have to be things that we can do on the fly. So if we get an opportunity,

00:16:25.960 you know, we hear from Robin DiAngelo, she says, I can talk to you tomorrow, then we have to be able

00:16:29.160 to just show up there. And if it's something that requires seven and a half hours in the makeup chair,

00:16:33.480 doing prosthetics and all this stuff, it's just not going to work. It felt very weird putting it on

00:16:37.320 the first time. I didn't like it. The wig was made of human hair. I was very aware of that, 0.99

00:16:41.720 that I'm wearing someone else's hair. I asked for information on the person. Did we take it with

00:16:46.200 their consent or without? I don't know. So that felt weird at first. By the end of it, though,

00:16:50.600 it became part of me. I started to like it. It's changed me as a person. I'm revealing something

00:16:56.360 I've never revealed before. You're telling me I'm full of shit. 1.00

00:16:58.360 Did you like wearing your costume? Yes. There were a number of scenes that I did 1.00

00:17:03.480 not know if it was going to work or not. Up until the very moment that we were in those scenes,

00:17:08.040 race to dinner, we have these ladies who are doing this charming dinner for these white women and 1.00

00:17:12.840 telling them that they're all racist. And there's a lot of moving parts there. There's the food.

00:17:17.400 There's the filming of it. There's Matt coming in and out of that scene. There's just so many things

00:17:21.720 that are taking place. Matt's security team had bets on how long is this actually going to last?

00:17:27.560 One guy was like, five minutes. One guy was like, I think I'll go 23 minutes. And so

00:17:31.640 everyone's placing these bets. All you do is talk shit about each other. Talk 0.99

00:17:34.680 shit about yourself. Oh my God, I'm so sad. That's all they do. That's all they do. I'm telling you. 1.00

00:17:39.000 These white women? The Indian woman came off camera a few times and was just wondering, 0.97

00:17:43.400 hey, what's up with this waiter? That's all. You may have to add you to our team. Oh,

00:17:48.360 I would love to take a seat and join you. No, you're not allowed to.

00:17:51.000 Okay. Definitely not allowed. Okay. I do have my, I have my DEI certification that I, that I got.

00:17:57.400 Oh, okay. Okay. So he's kind of throwing off the flow. Seems, you know, seems odd. And of course we

00:18:02.680 were like, oh, we don't, you know, I, the waiter, I don't know about that. So many people on our team

00:18:06.920 had to wear so many hats because we had to be so careful about confidentiality and not wanting to get

00:18:12.440 found out. So I did set decorating and hired the florist and then race to dinner. One of their requirements

00:18:19.240 was that we hired a black owned catering company. So we hired a catering company and they brought it

00:18:23.960 in, but then we didn't want extra people on set. We have to have sign an NDA or whatever. So I

00:18:29.800 actually cooked the food, plated it, was handing the plates to Matt. Matt dropped the plates.

00:18:36.520 This country is a piece of shit. Oh my goodness. Oh, sorry. We'd have to like scramble to find a 1.00

00:18:44.840 bandaid because he got his hand or we'd have to hurry up and get the plates all set and back out.

00:18:52.040 Sorry. It is a really uncomfortable situation to be out there and I'm making a total ass of myself. 0.88

00:18:57.880 And then you go into the kitchen and it's like, I don't really want to have to keep coming back.

00:19:01.960 I want this just to be over. So I got to like psych myself up each time to go back out there

00:19:06.680 and just keep antagonizing them. He was kind of like, what else can I be doing to kind of like troll

00:19:11.240 this dinner? And I was like, just take this butter and like really fwap it on the plates.

00:19:16.840 And even if someone's like, no, I'm good. I'm good. Just, you know, keep, are you sure?

00:19:22.520 And that was, that was really fun. All that preparation time, all that work to get to that

00:19:26.920 point paid off because now you're in that moment and you're watching it unfold. And I wouldn't say

00:19:32.360 my job is done at that point, but it is nice to kind of step back and be like, okay, I'm just going

00:19:36.120 to watch Matt Walsh do his thing. I'm going to watch this scene. And frankly, it's pretty enjoyable to watch.

00:19:41.240 If you sit for an hour watching this whole scene play out, I'm like, what do you cut?

00:19:45.960 These women and the scene is so crazy. Like you could put that out as its own feature link doc. 0.96

00:19:51.480 As we kept whittling down to try to get this from an hour and a half to 60 to 30 to 20 to seven or

00:19:57.640 eight minutes now, Justin had to kind of like, Hey man, like it's not about these women. It's about,

00:20:02.840 it's about Matt inserting himself so many times over and over just to make the audience just so

00:20:08.920 uncomfortable with all these different moments that Matt is having.

00:20:12.040 Are you an actor?

00:20:13.160 Oh no.

00:20:13.720 Can you let us, we're trying to listen and trying to have this conversation.

00:20:16.840 Okay. You know, we're all acting all the time in our lives. And, uh, and I think that

00:20:22.200 that's part of the problem, you know, after like the fifth time I came out and interrupted,

00:20:26.760 the audience is almost like groaning a little bit. Like they think it's funny,

00:20:29.080 but it's almost like they want me to stop too, because it's just too much. It's too uncomfortable.

00:20:32.920 And I very much felt that as well. Can I just, can I just say one last thing? Can

00:20:36.440 I just propose a toast? Raise a glass if you're racist. 0.98

00:20:39.560 Oh, I'm not racist. Let me go.

00:20:41.000 Well, all the rest of it, to racist.

00:20:46.040 Matt Walsh is a very special talent. We can come up with all the scenarios we want,

00:20:51.720 but it's on Matt to pull it off. And he does.

00:20:55.320 Uncle Frank, it is not funny to mock marginalized people. It's not a joke. It's not funny.

00:21:04.840 So to become this character, he had to understand what this character believes. This character was

00:21:11.160 a creature of this anti-racist movement. And he actually understood that movement,

00:21:16.600 probably even better than some of the people that are in the movement themselves.

00:21:19.720 Ultimately, should we be colorblind society is what

00:21:22.840 Luther King said not to judge people by the color of their skin.

00:21:26.120 Um, so Martin Luther King said a lot of stuff.

00:21:28.840 Really amazing to watch. And as a director, it made my job a lot easier.

00:21:33.160 More and more as the film went on, everyone felt he's just part of the team. And I felt like Matt

00:21:38.760 feels like he's one of the team. And I think from a talent perspective, that's exceptional.

00:21:43.880 I don't know that I saw a need to be like reverent to him as talent. I think he just

00:21:50.200 really wanted to make a really solid film that would change the culture.

00:21:55.320 If you ever bump into Matt Wolfe on the street, please run up to him, say hi, give him a hug.

00:22:00.280 He's a really big hugger. That's just kind of the tender hearted soul he is.

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00:23:17.880 Is there a black person around here? I would hug them and apologize to them all day long for what 1.00

00:23:22.200 a black person right here. Does he not exist? I'm sorry, I just didn't look that direction. 0.99

00:23:27.000 Sounds like you're in the habit of overlooking marginalized communities. Brother,

00:23:32.360 you are an American. I love you. I'm sorry for what happened in the past.

00:23:35.720 For me, the most fun thing to shoot was Washington, D.C. Grassroots, like we're just going to come

00:23:41.800 out here with a camera and Matt in his wig and we're going to try to talk to real people and we're

00:23:47.880 just going to grab them. We have a petition for the to redress historical inequities. Would you mind

00:23:51.880 signing it? You will? We want to rename the George Washington Monument to the George Floyd Monument.

00:23:58.520 There's something really special about being there. When you're on the mall in Washington and you're

00:24:03.320 at the Monuments, you feel it. Like you're like, America's not perfect, but pretty cool.

00:24:09.720 So are you going to erase all of it? Yes. No. Well, can you sign it anyway? Nope.

00:24:15.720 We have to get permits to be there. So that was part of my job is pulling permits to make sure that we

00:24:20.200 are okay to be filming on the street and getting people to agree to be on cameras, kind of being in

00:24:25.800 the moment and running down the street to find somebody, you know, being out in the middle of the

00:24:29.960 traffic. Those things are always fun. We were flying by the seat of our pants. Even Benyam out

00:24:35.880 there, he was freezing. He gave his coat to Kelly. The hair and makeup person, she was cold. So Benyam's

00:24:44.440 such a gentleman, he gave her his coat. When you're watching the movie, he's freaking cold. But he did it

00:24:49.960 anyway. And he did that so many times. The truth is, this movie isn't this movie without Benyam.

00:24:56.920 All of us played a part. All of us are integral to making this thing.

00:25:01.560 Film is such a collaborative medium. You really do rely on everybody to do their job. You have to

00:25:07.640 trust people. You have to allow them to do what they're going to do. And ultimately, you're putting

00:25:11.800 these people in these roles for a reason, because they're smart people and they're good at what they

00:25:16.440 do. This is probably the first project that I've worked on, whether it's Hollywood or in the

00:25:20.920 conservative space, where I completely trusted everybody. I never had to make sure that Anton

00:25:27.160 had done his thing or make sure that Rebecca had sent that email. That was something that was

00:25:31.400 really powerful. So for me, having our team be who they are was the most important thing to me.

00:25:37.080 And so my job as a director is to just harness that and let those people run and do that and

00:25:42.200 and keep just sort of reminding all of us about what the vision is of this film. I think the entire

00:25:46.920 film was difficult to make. Essentially, we're creating these scenarios for Matt to be in. The

00:25:52.200 way I describe it is we created a sandbox for him to play it. At any moment, it could all take a turn

00:25:58.200 and go completely in the wrong direction. The Robin DiAngelo scene, which was the first time I went on

00:26:02.600 camera, we didn't quite know what is the craziest thing to do in this scenario. Well, why don't we try to

00:26:10.200 get her to pay someone reparations? I want to pay you reparations right now. Will you accept

00:26:16.920 it? I won't turn it down. Okay. I don't know. Um, it's 20. Well, this is all I have. I don't

00:26:28.600 remember where that idea came from. I want to say it was my idea because I want to say that all the

00:26:32.840 good ideas were mine. We went into that interview with a rough kind of outline of what we wanted to

00:26:37.640 get out of it. But it is very rough because again, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know

00:26:41.960 what someone's going to script it. And I've found through two movies now, as long as I know where

00:26:46.760 this is all supposed to go, what is my end point supposed to be? Then I feel pretty confident that

00:26:51.320 we can sort of construct a plan and then revise it on the fly to get to that end point. Did you,

00:26:56.760 did you want to pay any? That was really weird. Why was it weird? That just seemed really weird to me.

00:27:05.560 Of all the things that we did and all the kind of little stunts we wanted to pull, that was the tallest

00:27:10.360 task. This is a real person. This is not a cartoon. There's no way we can get her to actually do this. 0.56

00:27:14.440 The moment she got up was a feeling of pretty immense pride in our team and what we pulled off.

00:27:18.840 It was that moment where I think collectively we realized, well, we have a movie now.

00:27:23.080 When Justin sent the hard drive for D'Angelo, I'm like, dude, you guys got this already? This is gold.

00:27:29.080 This is like the end of our film. Everything else that came after that was just cherry on the top.

00:27:33.720 And then you get like race to dinner. I'm like, you guys got this? How do you guys pull this off?

00:27:37.800 There's a lot of power that Matt has when it comes to him being very, very comfortable with silence.

00:27:41.800 A lot of people can't handle that. Robin can't handle that. When Matt asked her the question

00:27:46.520 and just let it hang in the air. Because I think reparations is like a systemic.

00:27:53.240 This is something that I can do right now. Why wouldn't I do it?

00:27:57.320 You'll actually see Robin start looking around the room for anyone, anyone to give her an excuse

00:28:03.400 to not go down the road of her own ideology. In that moment, I kind of had a new hope about

00:28:10.200 conservatives and conservative media actually being able to take on Hollywood.

00:28:14.360 When you make a film, it takes a considerable amount of time and you go into essentially a dark room

00:28:20.680 with a computer and you just pour over things for weeks and months at a time. And ultimately,

00:28:26.920 you don't know if what you're making is good or not. I was pretty well terrified before it came out,

00:28:34.120 especially once we decided to release in theaters. I believed in the film, we all believed in the film,

00:28:38.840 but there are a lot of films that are good and the people who made them believed in them and they

00:28:43.000 didn't work. When you finally get to sit down in an actual movie theater with people and hear them

00:28:49.080 laugh and hear them gasp and hear them groan at some of the uncomfortable points in the film where

00:28:54.920 they're just crawling out of their skin. There's something really magical to that.

00:28:58.760 I think about 10 minutes into that experience is when I finally like, okay, we're good. And I

00:29:03.400 wasn't worried anymore. And hearing how much they really legitimately loved it, like thinking that

00:29:06.840 all the things that we thought were hilarious were hilarious, like that's, it just, it just clicked

00:29:10.280 with the audience. It brought in huge crowds this opening weekend. Your movie is really funny.

00:29:16.840 It's really funny. It's one of the best comedies I've seen in a long time.

00:29:20.680 It's had enormous success in exposing just how extreme and dangerous this movement has become.

00:29:27.080 The impact that this film has had is huge. This film was wildly successful. The most

00:29:33.720 profitable political documentary of the past 20 years. We are showing people that we can create

00:29:41.000 culture and not just fight it. Fighting it is important, but creating the reality that we want to

00:29:47.000 live in is everything. My goal for this film, which is actually similar to what is a woman. It's the same 0.64

00:29:53.000 goal. It's courage. I want people to have courage to speak out against bad ideas. This experience has

00:29:59.160 really taught me something. The anti-racist industry says that America is racist down to its bones.

00:30:05.720 And if that were true, there wouldn't be anything we could do about it. White people could only wallow in 1.00

00:30:11.480 their guilt and black people in their victimhood. This movie gives people permission to question 0.99

00:30:19.160 things that were not allowed to be questioned two years ago. That's the Andrew Breitbart line. Politics

00:30:25.080 is downstream from culture. And this film does shape and move culture. I would get texts and phone calls

00:30:32.040 from people that I haven't talked to in years or old college buddies or whatever saying like, dude,

00:30:36.520 you worked on Walsh's doc. This is bad-ass. Like over and over again, people saying like this stuff

00:30:41.240 is crazy and all stuff like that. They don't say that I'm racist and you're a victim because that's

00:30:46.600 what they think we are. They tell us that because that's what they want us to be. Well, it's time for us

00:30:55.320 to say no. Do I think that most Americans are racist? No, absolutely not. I think most Americans just

00:31:04.280 care about getting through their day. And if you're nice to them, they might be your friend.

00:31:08.600 I grew up in a community that is predominantly a black community and never ever looked at anybody

00:31:15.160 any different. They were just my friends. I think for me, the biggest lesson of all is just to love

00:31:20.040 people with your heart and not look at people's skin color. That's it. A lot of these bad ideas that

00:31:27.640 are dominating this cultural battle of ours is being ran by and organized by a powerful,

00:31:34.360 a vocal, a well-funded, but a very, very small minority of people. Once you get out of that bubble,

00:31:39.240 once you talk to the average person, you realize it has a lot less power than you think it is.

00:31:44.760 I've kind of been working on de-centering my whiteness.

00:31:48.280 I think just what Milton said, I almost could start crying. Like, we just kind of love each other,

00:32:04.600 you know? And I think the divisiveness that's happening in our country is heartbreaking. And

00:32:12.520 when you see someone like Milton, you know, hit Matt's arm and be like, we all bleed the same.

00:32:17.080 Like, we just got to love each other.

00:32:19.720 Great final note to end on. And that's a cut.

00:32:23.720 Perfect now, thank you.

00:32:27.640 Is that good? Is that it? Yeah!

00:32:29.800 Is that it?

00:32:30.440 They gon' say I'm racist, but they call everybody racist.

00:32:34.120 I guess that mean nobody is racist. Now it doesn't mean much when you say it.

00:32:39.160 When you say it. They gon' say you racist, but they call everybody racist.

00:32:44.200 I guess that mean nobody is racist. Now it doesn't mean much when you say it.

00:32:49.160 When you say it.

00:32:50.120 Set us free.

00:32:52.120 The heat change. The heat change.

00:32:55.080 Will you set us free?

00:32:57.080 Will you set us free?

00:32:59.080 The Lord set us free.

00:33:01.320 The Lord set us free.

00:33:03.320 The heat change. The heat change.

00:33:05.240 Will you set us free?

00:33:06.120 When you say it.

00:33:14.200 No, sit.

00:33:16.280 They gon' say I'm racist, but they call everybody racist.

00:33:22.760 I guess that mean nobody is racist.

00:33:24.760 I guess that mean nobody is racist

00:33:27.300 Nah, it doesn't mean much when you say it

00:33:29.940 When you say it

00:33:31.240 When you say it

00:33:32.420 Racist dude 0.97

00:33:33.820 Racist dude 0.99

The Matt Walsh Show - November 08, 2025

Clearing the A.I.R. – The Making of Am I Racist？

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