The Michael Knowles Show - Daily Wire Backstage： The Joe Rogan Experience

00:00:00.000 Hey, Michael Knowles here. The latest episode of Daily Wire Backstage,

00:00:03.700 The Joe Rogan Experience, is available now. Join me, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan,

00:00:08.420 Matt Walsh, and the God King Jeremy Boring as we discuss everything from the woke mob's attempt

00:00:12.400 to destroy a DMT-loving cage fighter, the Democrats' sleazy 180 on mask mandates,

00:00:19.080 and The Daily Wire's new movie, Shut In. Take a listen.

00:00:30.000 I like that Matt can't even fake laugh. Joyless scold.

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00:01:01.600 Joining us tonight, well, you know everybody, Ben, Andrew, Matt, Michael, me, Jeremy, the God King,

00:01:06.700 the lowly, lowly guy who calls himself a God King.

00:01:09.380 For tonight's show, Daily Wire members can ask us questions in the chat box over at dailywire.com,

00:01:14.180 and we will answer them. I mean, we say that every time, we rarely do, but I promise we're going to try.

00:01:19.500 If you haven't heard yet, Daily Wire is fulfilling our promise tonight of bringing entertainment that's

00:01:24.000 actually, you know, entertaining, which is why we're very excited that you're joining us tonight,

00:01:27.920 and we would love for you to join us after the show for the original, for the streaming premiere

00:01:32.820 of our first original production, Shut In. The film is a tale of redemption amid an intense

00:01:37.740 and suspenseful thriller that delivers riveting action without missing a beat.

00:01:41.160 And if you weren't planning on tuning in, I hope you are now.

00:01:44.060 Again, that'll happen right after the show tonight.

00:01:47.020 It's going to be on the Daily Wire channel as well. For all of you YouTube subscribers out there,

00:01:51.180 head over to the Daily Wire YouTube channel after the show. Keep your eye on the countdown at the

00:01:55.060 bottom of the screen. Click the link in the description to join the premiere to make sure

00:01:58.940 you catch the film and a few other sneak peeks of what we've got in store for you throughout the

00:02:03.680 rest of the year. Guys, it's a new day. It's a new week. Change is in the air. I would like to

00:02:10.780 come out and say that I fully favor masking our children and that vaccines should be mandated for

00:02:17.220 all. And my hope is that the entire right wing will change their narrative on this as quickly

00:02:22.560 as the mainstream media seems to have changed in the last 72 hours.

00:02:26.520 If you did, you would only be following the data and the science. If you shifted,

00:02:29.520 they would only be following the data and the science. Can I just say, I'm not sure what frustrates

00:02:34.740 me more. The fact that they are claiming credit while changing or the fact that some of them are not

00:02:43.040 even changing. Honestly, I have a tough time with this. Some of them are like, well, you know,

00:02:47.580 like the CDC, well, we'll just stick to our guns here. We still have to mask the children. It's

00:02:50.780 very important. And to a certain extent, I have to say, okay, well, at least they're committed to

00:02:54.260 the lie. They're just going to stick with this thing all the way through. And then you have the

00:02:57.300 people who have told a new lie. And I think I find the new lie even more despicable because the new

00:03:00.780 lie is that, yes, yes, we're releasing our grip upon the throats of the American people. And yes,

00:03:05.780 we're finally allowing some children to unmask. But it's only because we always wanted to,

00:03:09.860 guys. We always wanted to. And now the data have changed and we've been following the science.

00:03:14.020 And honestly, it's because of you guys that it's lasted this long. Because if you had followed

00:03:17.900 the science like us, we wouldn't have had to do it this long. But you know, nothing changes like

00:03:21.660 science. The real reason why they need to get rid of all the masks now is you can't smoke crack with

00:03:27.500 a mask on. So if you want to put the pipe in, you've got to take the mask off. We now have to thank

00:03:33.760 the Truc Fudeau movement in Canada. We now have to be nice to Canadians because that's

00:03:39.520 obviously one of the things. They're looking at their poll numbers. Yeah. But they're also

00:03:42.180 thinking, those trucks come here. It's not going to be a pretty sight. We're going to have supply

00:03:46.620 side problems out the wazoo. Truckers are officially the only Canadians that I support.

00:03:52.200 Exactly. But they seem to be everybody. By the way, I'm just going to point out here that

00:03:55.880 under no circumstances do I believe that Justin Trudeau is Fidel Castro's son.

00:04:00.640 100% do not believe. No, of course not. They don't look alike. No. Young Fidel Castro and

00:04:05.960 Justin Trudeau, his mom was definitely not in Cuba when she was in Cuba about eight and

00:04:09.700 a half months before. With a certain reputation. Certainly didn't have that. None of that happened.

00:04:13.200 He's definitely not related to Fidel Castro. And all rumors, to the contrary, are scurrilous

00:04:18.380 and baseless. So wait, is he just channeling Castro?

00:04:22.620 Yeah. I said on Twitter, he's the bastard son of Castro either way.

00:04:28.120 It is astonishing. Hakeem Jeffries. Did you see this one? Hakeem Jeffries that was going

00:04:32.720 around. The Democratic congressman from New York, who is thought by many to be the heir apparent

00:04:36.620 to Nancy Pelosi should she not be the speaker anymore. And he actually gave a quote where he

00:04:43.320 said that we can finally unmask and let go of all this because after all, Joe Biden has won. Joe

00:04:49.140 Biden has achieved victory over COVID. And largely that's because of the American Rescue Plan. If it

00:04:54.240 had not been for the American Rescue Plan and Joe Biden's intervention, then we would all still be

00:04:58.180 masking up forever. And all I wanted to do at that moment was reach through the television and

00:05:02.540 commit acts that would get me thrown in jail. Except I would be in New York, so I'd be okay

00:05:06.940 probably. There's no bail. This is the part of politics I like. The lying and open corruption

00:05:13.220 where if you believe this, you deserve everything you get. As for me, it's high comedy. It's high

00:05:19.720 comedy to watch a guy. He basically said, we lick this disease. I mean, this virus has done exactly

00:05:24.980 what every virus that has ever existed on the face of the earth. It peaks, it goes away. It has

00:05:30.360 nothing to do with anything they've done. Yeah. Well, I mean, the joke of it is by their standard,

00:05:34.620 it isn't going away. The actual hospitalization and death rates are higher today than they were

00:05:39.440 when LA re-implemented all of its lockdown policies. I sent a shout out to you. I don't

00:05:44.020 know if you saw it on Twitter. I did. I know it hurt you. I ripped it out of my side, like,

00:05:49.140 you know, my kidney. But it is because you were so right about the shutdown. And Dennis Prager,

00:05:54.640 he said it was the worst mistake anyone had ever made. I thought, well, World War I. I still think

00:05:59.720 World War I was a little worse. Up there, at least. What shows you how evil this is, of course,

00:06:04.840 we know this is not unrelated to 2022 in the midterm elections, if I could engage in conspiracy

00:06:09.220 theories. But when children started killing themselves in record numbers, like, that was

00:06:15.420 not enough. In fact, that was happening for a year. And if you brought that up, I mean,

00:06:20.900 I went and spoke at a school board meeting here in Nashville. And I brought up this problem of the

00:06:25.760 psychological effects of masks. And that was still at a time when people would laugh at you for what

00:06:31.100 do you mean psychological effects of masking? And of course, now we can talk about that. But kids

00:06:35.700 were killing themselves at record numbers for a year. And that was not goods over the ambassador

00:06:39.000 bridge. But there is this aspect, the dishonesty, the incompetence, the lies, that's very annoying.

00:06:46.560 The gaslighting is genuinely infuriating. The fact that you, just picking at random here,

00:06:53.640 Fauci and Walensky, they come out, they say, and Biden, for that matter, they say,

00:06:57.700 the vaccine will stop you from getting infected or transmitting the virus. They will do that.

00:07:02.780 Then they come out later, they say, actually, the vaccine won't do that. Then they come out later,

00:07:06.380 they say, we never told you. We never told you that it would do that. They did it with the crack

00:07:10.760 pipes. They said, here's safe smoking kits, which include crack pipes. There are pictures all over

00:07:15.600 the internet of it, especially for black people. You know what these lies do? It really is. It's

00:07:20.000 gaslighting of the highest order. So Leanna Nguyen, who's been the lockdown masking crazy person this

00:07:24.920 entire pandemic. Three weeks ago, she was literally asking whether we got to lock the unvaccinated in

00:07:29.180 their homes. I mean, this is something she was saying three weeks ago. So she came out with this

00:07:33.060 column in the Washington Post where she said, well, you know, there's really three groups in America.

00:07:36.800 There are the people who are pro-mask. There are the people who are anti-mask. And then there are

00:07:39.940 those of us who follow the data. And, you know, 2020 is not the same as 2022. And it's like, well,

00:07:45.520 you know, there was this intervening period between 2020 and 2022. Because I think at the

00:07:50.760 very beginning, nobody knew what to do with this thing. At the very beginning, they were saying,

00:07:53.440 you got to lock down because we literally didn't know who was going to kill. It could kill kids.

00:07:56.380 It could kill normal, you know, people who are 40. It could kill people who are 70. Then within two

00:07:59.820 months, we knew that it was mainly killing people who are highly vulnerable and or elderly. We knew this

00:08:03.980 within the first six weeks of the disease's course in the United States, because we had seen this

00:08:07.740 happen in Italy already. And then that data was clear. And so people started saying, well, maybe

00:08:12.180 we should shield the most vulnerable and allow everybody else to live a freer life. And then there

00:08:15.940 was still some debate over, okay, what if you infect somebody who's old, then the vaccines hit.

00:08:19.340 And at that point, we were done. Not one piece of data has changed since vaccines became widely

00:08:24.800 available. The vaccines prevent hospitalization and death for the vast, vast, vast majority of people

00:08:28.900 who take them. And they do not prevent transmission. And we have known this for months. And when it comes

00:08:32.800 to Omicron, we have known that these masks do absolutely nothing. And yet, again, all of

00:08:38.300 this-

00:08:38.400 Not just with Omicron. That's the one thing I'll-

00:08:40.920 Even Delta, by the way.

00:08:41.980 We knew that the masks were meaningless from the very, very, very, very, very beginning.

00:08:46.580 We glommed onto masks and the government glommed onto masks because they were desperate for any

00:08:51.460 kind of ornamentation, any kind of symbol, a symbol that we're fighting back against it.

00:08:57.220 They knew before anyone had ever conceived of COVID, we knew what cloth masks do and don't do.

00:09:02.800 You remember all of the, I wear my mask to protect you, you wear your mask to protect me.

00:09:06.520 Right. That's if you use the mask precisely, which also no one does. If you've been in a

00:09:12.080 grocery store in the last two and a half years, two years, you know that when someone who is masked

00:09:17.100 sneezes, they remove their mask. Of course they do because it would be disgusting to sneeze into

00:09:22.620 your mask and then have, you know, snot in your face. It's also, of course, they do because they

00:09:28.840 don't wear their mask to protect you. At this point, if you are wearing a mask, it's either

00:09:32.740 because of coercion or because you have been so, yes, delusion that you are so fearful

00:09:37.500 that you do believe that the mask is protecting you from my germs, which is not science.

00:09:41.780 And to me, that's the part that's offensive because watching politicians lie amuses me.

00:09:45.520 That is actually what I do for laughs, you know, but making me lie, I don't like that so much.

00:09:49.200 And I really feel that this has become part of the culture of America. It's like, you know,

00:09:53.720 Matt says a man can't become a woman. I would never say that, of course, but Matt says it.

00:09:57.840 And it's like you get penalized for that. You come out and you say, you know, I think

00:10:02.620 this Hunter Biden may be corrupt. They throw you off Twitter. I mean, it is the truth. It's

00:10:06.860 literally the truth that is being defined as misinformation. Any truth they don't like.

00:10:11.660 If you read their fact checks, many of the fact checks will say, this is accurate, this

00:10:15.800 is accurate, this is accurate, this is accurate, false.

00:10:18.840 This is the biggest, I think the biggest lie of all, like the master lie here when it comes

00:10:22.400 to this sort of stuff, is that they ban conversations or they put critical race theory in the schools

00:10:26.800 or they put gender identity garbage in the schools. They do all this stuff. And then when you call

00:10:31.400 them on it, they say, we're not doing it. We're not doing it, but we should be doing it. And if

00:10:35.260 we are doing it, it's good that it's happening. And they tell these, they say these things simultaneously

00:10:39.460 with a straight face. And that's the part that's driving everybody up the wall because that is true

00:10:43.320 gaslighting. Simultaneously saying we are not doing X and also we are doing X and it's good that we're

00:10:47.780 doing X. These are mutually exclusive arguments and they will say these things in the same sentence on all of

00:10:52.260 these topics on all of them. We're not saying that you should mask forever, but if we were saying

00:10:55.940 you'd mask forever, then that would probably be a good thing. We should keep in mind too that the

00:11:00.000 government is, yeah, they're not going to shut down COVID and they realize that, but they've moved

00:11:04.340 on to bigger fish now because now Biden is going to end cancer. He's promised that. And the

00:11:11.100 transportation secretary is going to stop all traffic deaths within the next few years. He's announced

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00:12:24.960 in the world was locked down except me. This is the honest to God truth. I never for one day didn't go

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00:13:02.100 rate. So head over to PolicyGenius.com today to get your free life insurance quote and see how much

00:13:07.320 money you could save. PolicyGenius.com. Quick note, I'm very proud that Plots has now entered

00:13:13.740 the last time. I took it from you. I know you did. So this is, I'm not attempting to convert anyone

00:13:17.400 except Drew back to Judaism. All the rest of you guys are safe, but I do wish to inject a couple of

00:13:23.400 Yiddish words into common use. Plots is one. Shtup is the other one that you guys got. Shtup is a great

00:13:27.960 word. Shtup is a great word. And shtup is what we have been doing to us. I wasn't going to get to

00:13:33.660 Jeff Zucker quite that bad. Can I just say that while we're getting rid of the masking and people

00:13:40.820 are coming to their senses about it, it makes it all the more frustrating that the one place

00:13:45.720 in the country where you still have to wear the mask all the time, and we'll probably have to

00:13:49.900 always wear the mask, is the one place where you never, where there's never any good reason to

00:13:54.840 wear it, which of course is on airplanes. So we've all been doing a lot of traveling. I've been traveling

00:13:57.700 a lot over the last few weeks and I'm just, I get angrier and angrier every time I get on a plane

00:14:02.340 because this is so, it's so, everyone involved. And it gives the petty authoritarians such pleasure.

00:14:08.040 They're so happy about it. Everybody involved in it knows that there's no reason to be doing this

00:14:12.180 and there never was a good reason. You know what I've noticed though? What I've noticed on these,

00:14:15.300 it's not airline dependent. It's not day of the week dependent. It's flight attendant dependent.

00:14:20.100 It's flight attendant. And it depends where the flight attendants are based. So, and if they happen to be

00:14:25.240 based actually, because if you're flying from Texas to Tennessee, you're fine. I'm no joke. I went on one,

00:14:31.160 the stewardess was wearing a mesh mask, actual like, you know, leggings. I did this. I went out

00:14:37.280 and got myself, I found out that cloth masks specifically, I went out and got myself a really

00:14:40.980 fancy cloth mask. It's kind of gauzy because I think if I, if they're going to force me to wear a

00:14:45.120 mask, I want them to know it's not going to do a damn thing. If I'm sick, I'm going to kill you.

00:14:49.940 I actually spray COVID on the outside of the mask before I get on the plane and just go on.

00:14:54.500 Yeah, it was, it was, it was only a few weeks ago that I was on a plane and I got yelled at by the

00:14:58.620 flight attendant because I was, I was eating without a mask on, which of course, how can you

00:15:02.820 do them both at the same time? But she explained to me that, no, sir, when you, when you, when you

00:15:06.380 eat, you need to just lower the mask and have it over your chin and then you can't take it all the

00:15:11.040 way off because the, the COVID fumes can come out of your chin. I got, I got worse. I got, I was

00:15:16.260 eating popcorn on the plane as I'm on to do. And the flight attendant came by and she said that I

00:15:21.340 had to mask up between bites, which have you, I mean, when you eat popcorn, that's like half a

00:15:26.920 second between bites. It's like, oh yes, you've, you've saved the universe. Well done. But it really

00:15:33.460 is, it's, it, there, I wonder if there's going to be, I really think there will be a certain

00:15:37.240 percentage of the population, maybe 10% of the population that will continue wearing masks

00:15:40.080 forever. Did you see the study today? A YouGov economist study just came out. 30, now who knows,

00:15:45.740 take it with a grain of salt, if you will. 38% of people say that they still today wear

00:15:51.840 masks every time they go outside. Wow. They're lying. They're lying. They're lying, right?

00:15:55.720 It's not true. Yeah. And nine, only nine out of 10 men masturbate. Yeah. But you walk around

00:16:00.960 1%, 1% are damn filthy liars. You walk around DC and everybody's masked, except me. Are you

00:16:06.940 serious? Still, everybody outside. Everybody. Outdoors, everybody's masked. Do they know what

00:16:11.520 outside is? No. Do they know they're outside? I don't know. I feel like this is a

00:16:15.660 great way to screen who you want to hang out with. Yeah. Like, really, like, at this point,

00:16:20.260 at this point, if you're still wearing a mask consistently and you're not immunocompromised

00:16:23.960 in some serious way, in which case, like, if you're really immunocompromised, you should

00:16:27.280 probably wear a mask, like, before this, after this, for all time. And only an N95 mask. Right,

00:16:31.920 only an N95, not a cloth mask. But if you're not in that category and you're masking up at this

00:16:35.820 point, I feel like I don't really want to hang out with you. I agree. Really? Like, you seem kind of

00:16:40.680 paranoid and, you know. Well, that's actually, that's actually what the mask is about. I think we

00:16:43.660 should be open about it. And places like DCM, there are people who are still afraid. Why wouldn't

00:16:48.180 they be? It's the biggest onslaught of government and media behind a narrative in probably all of

00:16:52.500 human history. Yeah. But most of it is actually about who you want to hang out with. Most of it

00:16:59.480 is a kind of tribal recognition. If you're wearing the mask, you're one of us. If you're not wearing

00:17:04.800 the mask, you actually deserve to die. That is the actual narrative that undergirds the narrative.

00:17:10.480 What they say about you, if you feel that way, if you feel that you, you should die if you don't

00:17:15.040 wear a mask, when what a mask is, is a useless piece of fear-mongering that has made you a slave

00:17:21.940 to the government. It's basically saying, if you are a bad boy, if you're not going to listen to

00:17:26.700 the authorities, I don't want to know you. What kind of attitude is that for an American? When has

00:17:30.960 an American ever listened to the authorities? Well, I mean, it's just, it's a religious adherence

00:17:34.200 tool. And all religions require you to make certain sacrifices on behalf of the religion

00:17:38.600 to show that you are a member of that religion. I mean, I wear a yarmulke to do this, to demonstrate

00:17:43.560 that I'm a Jew, for example. And Christians go to church on a regular basis, and they hang out in

00:17:47.820 the Christian community specifically for this purpose. You have to have skin in the game. The

00:17:51.080 skin in the game, when it comes to the religion of government, can't be taxes because everybody

00:17:53.840 pays taxes. It has to be something else. It has to be a particularly useless sacrifice. It cannot

00:17:58.360 be a useful sacrifice. If it were useful, we'd all be doing it. They have to pick something useless

00:18:02.040 in order to demonstrate fealty to the cause. I mean, this is really, like, behind a lot

00:18:06.460 of theory of religion and religious practice lies this basic idea. But there are certain

00:18:10.040 things that you do, and you don't know why you do them. But you do them really because

00:18:12.780 it's a group-building exercise. You know, the most popular day of the year in the Catholic

00:18:16.020 Church is Ash Wednesday. More than Christmas, more than Easter. People who never show up to

00:18:21.600 Mass, don't have the sacraments, they show up because you get the ashes on your head,

00:18:25.760 and you feel like you're in the club, and people are searching for meaning and belonging.

00:18:29.060 Yeah, I was going to say, Ben, I don't know where you got the idea that Christians go to

00:18:32.100 church, but that's a rumor.

00:18:35.320 Misinformation.

00:18:36.100 Yeah, the most frustrating thing to me with the masking is when we hear people say now that

00:18:40.060 we've learned things about it, and so maybe that will change our approach. There was someone

00:18:44.260 on The View, I think it was supposed to be the conservative woman on The View a few weeks

00:18:47.500 ago who said that she's going to continue wearing a mask because of what she's learned

00:18:50.720 about masking, what we've all learned. So what have we learned about masks exactly? I always

00:18:55.260 knew that masks existed. I always knew that germs existed. I always knew that

00:18:59.040 the basic idea of why you wear a mask. So what exactly has anyone learned about masks?

00:19:03.480 I did learn some things about the Holocaust on The View the last couple of months. That's

00:19:07.040 probably as valuable as what I learned about the masks.

00:19:09.440 The mask works for Michael Myers in those movies.

00:19:11.560 I didn't know that.

00:19:13.540 I think that you're right. The only thing we've learned about the masks that we didn't

00:19:17.400 know is how ineffective they are. Probably before COVID, I had not thought about the efficacy

00:19:22.120 of a mask, and I probably would have guessed, oh, it's probably pretty useful in a respiratory

00:19:27.100 pandemic to wear a cloth mask. And as it turns out, it's not. That's the only thing we've learned.

00:19:31.140 It's not.

00:19:31.900 But you literally couldn't say that for a year.

00:19:33.080 Stop just drooling into your wounds.

00:19:33.960 You literally, you couldn't say it for a year. If you said it, they would be, I mean, we still

00:19:37.000 have this thing that is now on my show. It's almost every day. If I talk about COVID, because

00:19:41.280 of the big tech overlords and because they have decided what you can and cannot say, there's an

00:19:44.500 actual cut into my show, in the YouTube version of my show, where I have to say every single

00:19:48.680 day, guys, stop and head on over to dailywire.com and subscribe right now, because I'm about to say

00:19:53.320 something true about COVID. And if I say something true about COVID, there's a very good shot that it's

00:19:56.920 going to be taken down. So if you want the full version, you have to go over to dailywire.

00:19:59.000 You know, this is what's why they're going after Rogan, right? I mean, this is what they do.

00:20:01.600 This is what's important, actually, about the crack pipe story. It's why I keep coming back to it

00:20:05.360 also, because I'm jonesing. But with the crack pipe story, what they said on Snopes was, here's the

00:20:10.480 claim. Here's what's true about the claim. Everything. Here's what's false about the claim.

00:20:15.340 Absolutely nothing. So we rate this mostly false. And you look at that and you say, how can you do

00:20:20.180 that with a straight face? What's the point of this ridiculous article, Snopes? Here's the point.

00:20:25.040 Snopes is a fact checker partnered with Big Tech. And with that mostly false rating, anytime any of

00:20:29.900 us point out the Biden policy was what it was, we will be censored for that. We'll be suppressed.

00:20:36.360 You can share the free beacon link. Yeah, that's right. Facebook stopped you from sharing the free

00:20:39.800 beacon link on an overtly true story. But the good news is, and they've been doing this all along,

00:20:44.040 right? I mean, you remember the other Hunter Biden story, not the crack pipe Biden story,

00:20:46.880 like the other one with the Biden and the crack pipe. You remember that one from right before

00:20:50.320 the election when they were removing all of the stories? Well, I mean, one of the things that has

00:20:55.860 become perfectly apparent from Big Tech is that this is the end goal. They have created a false

00:21:01.220 fact-checking system specifically to ding people they do not like. And this is the Rogan story,

00:21:06.160 right? I mean, the misinformation stuff about Rogan had nothing to do with misinformation. It has to do

00:21:09.160 with the fact they hate Rogan because Rogan said a couple of years ago during the election that Biden was

00:21:13.760 senile. Ever since then, they've been very angry at him. They're very angry that Rogan

00:21:16.680 hosts people like me or hosts people like Jordan Peterson. That's verboten. And so they went after

00:21:21.340 Rogan. And it's not going to stop. It's not going to stop. And so this is why we here at The Daily

00:21:28.400 Wire, we used to have a pretty anti-cancel culture view, and we still do. But there is one addendum.

00:21:33.400 If you are a participant in the cancel culture, you should be canceled beyond all redemption.

00:21:38.860 I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. What is the exception here?

00:21:42.560 The exception is if you are a member of the mob, and you mob other people, and then you sin,

00:21:47.160 and the mob comes after you. I am more than happy. Paraphrase Chesterton. There is a thought

00:21:51.380 that cancels thought, and that is the only thought that ought to be canceled.

00:21:54.560 But this is the thing that really bothers me now about cancel culture. It's the normal thing that

00:22:00.360 the left does where they're saying, well, there's right-wing cancel culture, and there's left-wing

00:22:04.620 cancel culture. There is zero right-wing cancel culture. Cancel culture is an outgrowth of the left's

00:22:10.700 strategy of defending the indefensible by calling you names. That's what it is. It's a strategy.

00:22:15.780 Everything they've ever done has failed. Everything socialists have ever done has failed. And so what

00:22:20.400 they do is they say, well, if you don't agree with us, you're racist. And nobody wants to be

00:22:23.720 called racist. Cancel culture is also through the institutions. That's how you get canceled.

00:22:29.100 And that's also why cancel culture is only on the left, because the left owns all the institutions.

00:22:35.020 And the right, we don't, as much as we would love to. And what they call cancel culture is like when

00:22:39.960 we say, we don't want you to indoctrinate my child into believing that they can be. That's right.

00:22:43.940 And then they'll be like, well, we'll pass a law saying, don't do that, like they're doing in

00:22:46.680 Florida. And they'll be like, how dare you, sir? This is canceling the teachers. You're violating

00:22:50.780 the teacher's freedom. Well, I didn't delegate my child to some teacher, so the teacher can teach

00:22:55.640 them that boys can be girls and girls can be boys. There's a whole article in the Washington Post about

00:22:59.180 this supposedly don't say gay bill, which is exactly not what this bill is in Florida. It's amazing.

00:23:04.500 The operative provision of that bill is two paragraphs long. It's very easy to read. It's

00:23:07.460 in plain English. And what the bill basically says is you are not allowed to teach about sexual

00:23:12.500 orientation or gender identity in a non-age-appropriate way to primary school kids, right? Kids K through

00:23:18.120 three, K through three. It's not even up until fifth grade. Right. By the way, I would back this

00:23:21.540 level in K through 12. I would, because here's my feeling about this. I did not delegate my kids

00:23:26.660 to you at any point for you to teach this garbage to my children. And so Greg Sargent over at the

00:23:30.720 Washington Post, who writes this entire article, he says, well, you know, this makes teachers very nervous.

00:23:33.860 It makes them feel on edge. And I said on my show, I don't know a group of people in America.

00:23:37.140 I want to be more on edge than teachers. I want them to be on edge. I'm delegating to you

00:23:40.820 the most precious asset that is in my control, my children. You should be on edge. You should feel

00:23:45.580 like your job is on the line every time you teach my kids. Yes. I want you to feel any moment that

00:23:50.580 the trap door could go out from under you and you could be fed to the alligators. I want you to feel

00:23:54.060 that way. And now that we know that there are a bunch of Marxist racist wackos, like we should be

00:23:58.200 watching them double time. I have to say, I have to congratulate the left on the don't say gay thing.

00:24:02.860 They're so good at this. They instantaneously brand things with this very repeatable name that makes

00:24:09.120 it sound like it's hateful. Well, they have two things going in their favor. One, they use marketing

00:24:13.000 and we don't use marketing on the right. The 1619 Project. I guarantee you a marketing agency came

00:24:22.320 Ogilvy or something. Yeah, exactly. Don't say gay. And then the other thing is that they're so good

00:24:28.140 because they control all the institutions at, in less than a day, they can ensure that whatever

00:24:33.480 they've created in their marketing agency is ubiquitous. Right. And so on the right, we end up

00:24:39.620 being victims of it. So we, in the same way that atheists have to affirm God every time they say

00:24:44.620 what they are because the word contains the is right in it, right? On the right, we almost exclusively

00:24:52.440 talk about these issues while affirming the broad structures of the left's created narrative.

00:24:58.060 We all say COVID. We all say COVID instead of the Chinese virus. Well, and worse than that,

00:25:01.980 we say tested positive when we get it. Yeah, I know. Oh, I'm not feeling well. What happened?

00:25:07.880 Nah, tested positive. Really for, tested positive is a reference to AIDS at a time when AIDS was a

00:25:14.860 death sentence. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Why do we use the term tested positive? Why don't we test

00:25:19.360 ourselves? And I'll go one step further. Even on things, you brought up Joe Rogan and you brought

00:25:25.000 up the misinformation stuff, all of their objections or no objections. Yeah. That story was something like

00:25:31.120 270 medical professionals. Yeah, yeah. Sign letter condemning Joe Rogan. And we all reported

00:25:37.800 on it. And they keep repeating it, too. And we keep saying, well, that's like 0.00001% of medical

00:25:44.700 professionals in the country. It was also dentists. When we talk about it, when we were nobodies,

00:25:48.340 there were nobodies. A more proper headline would have been statistically no medical professional.

00:25:53.540 Sign letter condemning Joe Rogan. Yes, yes. But we grant them all these premises. And we're also

00:25:58.440 always about three or four decades behind the left. And that's, so we talk about gender ideology or

00:26:05.160 what's going on in the schools. Well, this is all a direct outgrowth of what they used to call

00:26:10.980 comprehensive sex education, which has been in the school system since like the 50s and 60s.

00:26:15.820 And there's always been people, some people on the right who criticize comprehensive sex education.

00:26:19.680 But for a long time, up until recently, that you were considered kind of like a puritan, a prudish.

00:26:24.720 But this, the moment that we granted to the government education system... This is right.

00:26:28.440 The right to talk to our kids, not about the biology of sex, but about the, about their own

00:26:34.260 ideas of... The morality. The morality of sex. The moment we, we, we gave that, we ceded that ground

00:26:40.500 to the government, then all of this stuff was going to follow behind. Because what, ever since

00:26:44.100 comprehensive sex education came along, what, what we are doing now is that government employees

00:26:48.920 are the teachers. They're talking to kids about not just the birds and the bees. This is how

00:26:54.060 babies are made, but this is the right time to have sex. You know, these are the attitudes

00:26:59.240 you should have about sex. Why would you ever want a government employee to talk to your kid

00:27:04.660 about it? You know, to that point, right now, the move is to justify and normalize adult child sex.

00:27:14.000 Yeah. And we're not taking it seriously, and we don't see it coming, but it's obviously coming.

00:27:18.040 It's their next move, and it's like, it's what they're pushing. And this time, you know,

00:27:22.340 this time the guy gets thrown out of school. This time the guy gets fired. Next time he won't get

00:27:26.080 fired. Next time it'll be like suddenly an editorial in the New York Times. You know,

00:27:29.660 well, man, child, you know, the draw, the appeal is not...

00:27:33.800 Well, they'll start, no, they'll set the predicate. So what they'll set the predicate for is they will

00:27:37.480 say children have, they won't call them children, they'll say young adults have, have the power to

00:27:42.640 make autonomous decisions. We know the science with regard to gender, and kids can choose their own

00:27:47.380 gender as, as young as the age of three. And we know that kids need to have

00:27:51.520 life-destroying surgery and hormonal treatment by 15 to prevent puberty from fully setting in.

00:27:56.420 And those kids are capable of making those decisions. How can you possibly say a 15-year-old

00:27:59.920 is capable of making those decisions, but is not capable of having sex with the person?

00:28:02.680 And how can you? How can you?

00:28:04.220 By the way, it is logically consistent.

00:28:05.800 It is.

00:28:06.040 I mean, if you're making the argument that a 15-year-old can chop a penis off and turn it into

00:28:10.420 a gaping wound, and that this is going to be treated by society as an overt good, it's going to be

00:28:16.500 treated by society as a positive step on behalf of humanity.

00:28:19.400 How can you say that? Right, then how can you rule out sexual identity?

00:28:22.440 I actually think it's a lot, it'll be the easiest one that they ever do. Because convincing

00:28:28.120 human beings to deny biological reality cuts against all of human history. Literally since

00:28:36.380 the beginning chapters of the Bible, male and female, he made them. We have understood since

00:28:43.300 at least kindergarten cop in 1995 that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. This

00:28:48.980 has been part of what every human on earth has ever known. Conversely, for most of human

00:28:56.760 history, adults had sex with children. I'm not suggesting it's a moral good, but I am suggesting

00:29:03.520 that the age of sexual maturity used to probably be about 13, 14 years old in almost every society

00:29:11.100 on earth. And those 13 and 14-year-olds didn't have sex with other 13, 14-year-olds. They

00:29:14.820 had sex with adults.

00:29:16.340 30-year-olds, right.

00:29:16.920 That's right.

00:29:17.300 Right.

00:29:17.920 And so this will be, it seems outrageous to us. You say we're not even talking about it.

00:29:22.480 It seems so far-fetched. It's so much less far-fetched.

00:29:25.580 Yeah, of course.

00:29:26.100 In the comparative scope of human history. Anthropology. Anthropology. Then the things

00:29:31.360 they've already convinced us all must be.

00:29:33.680 Yeah, that's why I hate the slippery slope. This is not a slippery slope because we've

00:29:38.000 actually, we've got to the bottom of the slope. We leapfrogged all this stuff and now we're

00:29:43.160 just going to go back and cover the bases we skipped.

00:29:46.300 You know, before the show, Knowles and I were talking and we were saying, you know, we now

00:29:49.880 live in a country where we slaughter 3,000 babies a day, where I have to say slavery was

00:29:55.640 a grave evil and an offense to God. This is worse. This is actually worse. 3,000 babies

00:30:00.460 a day. We're mutilating children, as you say. I have gone from praying God bless America

00:30:06.500 to God remembers you're faithful in the day of your wrath.

00:30:10.160 If there were even 10.

00:30:12.920 Because we are really in a bad way. And when I talk to young people, when I talk to young

00:30:17.680 people, they don't love America like I do because I remember an America that wasn't

00:30:21.480 doing this stuff.

00:30:22.020 You're living in the wrong place, man. I mean, I really like, I'm such a believer in

00:30:25.620 the big sort. I think the big sort is the best thing that's happening.

00:30:27.920 I do too. And I think if they overturn Roe v. Wade, it'll double time.

00:30:31.340 Yeah, good, good. Really good. This is, honestly, I felt about the masking rules and about all

00:30:36.660 this. I was like, listen, these are all bad and I'm glad that more Americans are now living

00:30:39.280 in freedom in blue states. But to a certain extent, I want blue states to govern exactly

00:30:42.380 like blue states govern. And you get to choose to live there and you get to choose to vote for

00:30:45.480 this garbage. I want red states getting redder. I want blue states getting bluer. And let's see,

00:30:49.340 clarity above agreement, right? I'll paraphrase my friend Dennis Prager.

00:30:52.200 Clarity above agreement. Then you get to choose how you want to live. Because I can tell you,

00:30:55.700 people who are living in Tennessee are very proud to be American. People who are living

00:30:58.260 in Florida are very proud to be American. People who are living in Texas are very proud

00:31:00.840 to be American. People who live in New York are very proud to be international citizens

00:31:04.260 with global perspectives on the innate non-difference between men and women.

00:31:09.480 I will agree with you 100% on this.

00:31:11.660 I will acknowledge that I find our national anthem painful to reflect on today. That it's impossible

00:31:20.600 to watch children being masked. It's impossible to watch people being driven into poverty and despair

00:31:28.320 and government dependency by their jobs being not only shut down, but all the wealth being

00:31:33.520 redistributed to a very small handful of corporations at the government's express doing.

00:31:40.420 With no loyalty to the nation.

00:31:41.840 Well, and not because of they won in some sort of competitive market environment,

00:31:46.560 but because the government forced it to then sing the land of the free.

00:31:51.000 Even freaking Tom Hanks can't with a straight face today say it's the land of the brave.

00:31:57.660 Well, he doesn't say the land of the brave.

00:31:58.520 Which is why he says it's the land of the brave.

00:31:59.640 The land of the brave. They took out the free because they couldn't say it.

00:32:03.060 Here's a question for Ben.

00:32:04.260 Why didn't our founders give us a process for kicking states out of the union?

00:32:09.720 It never really occurred to them that states would have to be kicked out of the union.

00:32:14.300 What the federal government is allowed to do is intervene if certain things are prohibited by the state.

00:32:19.320 So, for example, the federal constitution does require that the federal government has to guarantee

00:32:24.340 to the state's republican form of government.

00:32:26.600 So, for example, if there are certain basic rights that end up being violated to the extent that there is

00:32:30.340 no republican form of government in the states, then the federal government does have the ability to intervene.

00:32:34.040 But those were very, very narrow powers.

00:32:36.300 And actually, the federal government, you know, this was the battle during the Civil War.

00:32:40.240 And it's, which is really separatable into sort of two things.

00:32:44.000 One is, does the federal government have the power to intervene when it comes to things like stopping slavery?

00:32:49.340 And one is, does the federal government have the power to intervene over a vast panoply of issues that don't include slavery?

00:32:55.280 And, you know, these are very open questions.

00:32:58.240 You can say on a moral level, the federal government had the power to intervene to stop slavery,

00:33:01.140 and it was the right thing to stop slavery.

00:33:02.540 And you can also say that as a constitutional question, it was quite open as to,

00:33:06.720 there were full-scale constitutional debates from basically inception until the Civil War

00:33:10.220 about what exactly were the powers of the federal government

00:33:12.500 if the states felt that they were going to go a different direction than the federal government.

00:33:16.460 Was the power to secede present in the Constitution?

00:33:19.000 Was it a debate that encompassed everybody up to the former vice president of the United States, John C. Calhoun?

00:33:23.680 Try it.

00:33:23.980 And you can read the dissent in our Supreme Court case about the OSHA mandate

00:33:28.920 and see that three of the nine justices currently on the court actually believe

00:33:32.800 that the constraint on the federal government is only what they think is best.

00:33:36.600 Yep.

00:33:37.020 If they think it's best, they should be able to do it.

00:33:39.160 Daily Wire members, the chat box is still open.

00:33:41.040 You can submit your questions at dailywire.com.

00:33:43.180 And coming up in just a short amount of time here,

00:33:46.400 we're going to be bringing you the premiere of our original movie, Shut In.

00:33:50.260 The world premiere will be streaming right after this episode,

00:33:52.600 so you'll want to click on the link at the top of the description after our show to join the premiere.

00:34:00.480 I have absolutely no idea what this means in the teleprompter, but...

00:34:04.340 Oh, it's the Helix AdWords.

00:34:06.400 We should definitely talk about Helix.

00:34:08.060 You need to get more sleep as well.

00:34:09.940 I'm going to tell you the problem with Helix Sleep.

00:34:13.020 I'm going to tell you the problem with our advertiser.

00:34:15.360 They told me it says Riff on Helix Sleep and how everybody on the show has a Helix mattress.

00:34:20.880 And then I realized, wait, you all have Helix mattresses?

00:34:23.480 That's great, yeah.

00:34:24.120 Yeah, it's great.

00:34:24.700 I love it.

00:34:24.960 They're really nice.

00:34:25.840 Unbelievable.

00:34:26.800 I'm the only guy on the set who hasn't slept on a Helix mattress.

00:34:29.640 And then I think about how I make all the money for everybody,

00:34:32.960 and I'm always freaking tired.

00:34:34.640 And you guys come breezing in here rich, happy, satisfied, and well-rested.

00:34:40.040 And I can only assume it's because you have Helix Sleep.

00:34:43.020 Helix Sleep has a quiz.

00:34:44.260 It takes just two minutes to complete,

00:34:46.320 and it matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you.

00:34:50.180 Why would you buy a mattress made for someone else with Helix?

00:34:52.760 You're getting the mattress of Andrew Klavan,

00:34:54.560 the mattress of Matt Walsh,

00:34:55.800 the mattress of Michael Knowles,

00:34:57.440 and the mattress of Ben Shapiro.

00:34:58.900 Not our actual mattresses, but yeah.

00:35:00.160 And you will get a wonderful night's sleep

00:35:04.880 that has been denied me for too long.

00:35:07.980 Everybody is unique, and Helix knows that.

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00:36:05.320 Head over there right now.

00:36:06.840 I'll be right behind you.

00:36:08.620 Helixsleep.com.

00:36:11.040 So what else is there to complain about tonight?

00:36:14.500 Not too much, because it's a very good night,

00:36:16.460 because we're releasing our first original movie.

00:36:18.260 Yeah, absolutely right.

00:36:19.480 That's pretty good stuff.

00:36:20.560 The Biden administration,

00:36:21.640 they can try to get us all to smoke crack

00:36:23.200 or whatever they want.

00:36:23.920 But we're not just commenting on it.

00:36:25.800 We're actually creating the culture.

00:36:27.300 Yeah, that's right.

00:36:28.380 I couldn't be more thrilled about the movie.

00:36:30.160 We're going to hear from DJ Caruso,

00:36:32.000 the director of the film,

00:36:33.400 coming up in just a few minutes,

00:36:34.380 and then Dallas Sonnier,

00:36:35.340 our producing partner,

00:36:36.420 on all of our projects in development right now,

00:36:38.320 will be joining us.

00:36:39.260 But it really is a huge night.

00:36:41.320 We get to do so many incredibly fun things

00:36:44.120 in our jobs, right?

00:36:45.800 I mean, just that helix ad alone.

00:36:47.380 We do.

00:36:49.360 We get to work with great people.

00:36:52.060 We get to be a part of historic events,

00:36:53.320 as with the OSHA mandate case.

00:36:55.620 We actually get to feel

00:36:56.860 like we're participating in the democracy.

00:36:59.660 I actually know that a lot of people

00:37:00.780 are very depressed by what's going on in the country.

00:37:03.020 And people ask me all the time,

00:37:04.100 how do you live in this news environment

00:37:06.280 and not get depressed?

00:37:07.180 How do you get out of bed in the morning?

00:37:08.060 And the answer is, I'm in the fight.

00:37:11.280 And win or lose, we're expending our best

00:37:14.420 in defense of what we believe.

00:37:16.100 And that's rejuvenating and enlivening.

00:37:19.940 Also, we get to make a freaking movie, right?

00:37:22.340 We get to do the thing that our mentor,

00:37:25.000 Andrew Breitbart, always said,

00:37:26.660 that politics is downstream of the culture.

00:37:28.980 And he used to say, you know,

00:37:30.140 one of these days, someone in our space

00:37:31.880 is going to have to get upstream of the political

00:37:34.240 and do something.

00:37:35.480 Because of our dailywire.com members,

00:37:37.060 we've been put in a place where we get to do,

00:37:39.700 get to do it.

00:37:40.320 It really is a dream come true.

00:37:41.100 It's funny, I see conservatives on social media

00:37:44.480 sometimes ragging on us, you know,

00:37:46.520 like for making movies and things.

00:37:48.600 And I just think like,

00:37:49.480 no, you're missing the whole point.

00:37:51.080 I mean, this is celebration time.

00:37:53.120 This is the best.

00:37:53.880 They're addicted to losing.

00:37:55.200 Some conservatives love,

00:37:56.380 I think they're so used to losing

00:37:57.880 that they cling on to it.

00:37:59.840 They've gotten used to it.

00:38:00.460 Yeah, I agree.

00:38:01.020 One of the things that was important to Ben and I

00:38:02.740 at the onset was to make movies

00:38:04.440 that people want to see

00:38:05.400 instead of movies that people want to want to see.

00:38:08.280 And it occurred to me recently

00:38:09.880 that art is the only place

00:38:12.740 where conservatives don't believe in meritocracy.

00:38:15.180 Yeah.

00:38:15.520 Like we,

00:38:16.700 our entire worldview is premised on

00:38:18.600 work hard,

00:38:20.140 excel,

00:38:20.740 do better,

00:38:21.320 and rise.

00:38:21.900 And when it comes time to make art

00:38:23.720 or entertainment,

00:38:24.880 we're like,

00:38:26.000 forget everything we just said.

00:38:27.500 Yeah.

00:38:28.580 Just.

00:38:29.400 That was,

00:38:29.900 that was pretty good.

00:38:31.240 Yeah, right.

00:38:31.960 I have to say,

00:38:32.640 this is,

00:38:33.420 not to get too intellectual,

00:38:34.780 this is part of the Protestant ethos

00:38:36.140 from the very beginning,

00:38:37.100 from the Reformation,

00:38:38.280 was that things should be,

00:38:39.840 art is a snare and a delusion.

00:38:41.960 Yeah.

00:38:42.140 And it should have a good message

00:38:43.180 and the message would be better

00:38:44.580 just said directly.

00:38:45.960 And that,

00:38:46.220 that was very,

00:38:46.880 right after Luther nailed

00:38:49.160 the 95 theses on the wall,

00:38:50.600 that was like basically

00:38:51.520 what Protestants thought.

00:38:52.580 No, Plato was kind of,

00:38:53.880 Well, Plato was,

00:38:54.700 yeah.

00:38:55.160 Not too happy about it either.

00:38:55.980 But seriously,

00:38:56.980 this is a thing that has leaked into our culture.

00:38:59.600 Well,

00:38:59.800 but it's a unique moment

00:39:00.580 because I was thinking about this a lot

00:39:01.960 the other day,

00:39:02.660 that virtually all great art

00:39:04.820 is in some way subversive.

00:39:06.360 Yes.

00:39:06.620 It has to be subversive of something

00:39:08.100 because it has to comment on something.

00:39:09.580 Art is a medium

00:39:10.160 where you're commenting on the thing

00:39:11.280 that you're observing.

00:39:13.080 And I think that for a long time,

00:39:15.120 it was hard for conservatives

00:39:16.000 to make great art

00:39:16.680 absent being Solzhenitsyn

00:39:18.640 in the Soviet Union

00:39:19.440 or absent living

00:39:20.860 under East German Stasi rule

00:39:22.380 or something.

00:39:23.200 And now the truth is that

00:39:24.660 when it comes to the culture,

00:39:25.920 we are losing.

00:39:26.960 And so that actually offers us

00:39:28.300 a couple of opportunities.

00:39:29.380 One,

00:39:29.580 to make actual great art

00:39:30.980 that I think is a commentary

00:39:32.860 on the world that we live in.

00:39:34.800 But second,

00:39:35.920 there's no market for this.

00:39:37.720 I mean,

00:39:37.880 Jeremy,

00:39:38.120 you and I started talking

00:39:38.860 about making movies together

00:39:39.740 before we talked about

00:39:40.560 doing any other sort of business together.

00:39:41.940 We literally,

00:39:42.540 when we,

00:39:42.900 like our very first conversation

00:39:44.160 was this.

00:39:45.080 It was a conversation

00:39:45.720 hooked up by,

00:39:46.640 at that time,

00:39:47.040 our friend Mark Masters

00:39:47.760 over at Talk Radio Network.

00:39:49.280 I was working over there

00:39:50.160 and he had wanted to do some movies.

00:39:51.360 And he said,

00:39:51.700 well,

00:39:51.840 Ben,

00:39:52.040 you know movies

00:39:52.400 and Jeremy,

00:39:52.820 you know movies

00:39:53.160 you guys should talk.

00:39:54.380 This was back in,

00:39:55.300 it would have been 2010 probably.

00:39:57.340 Yeah.

00:39:57.480 And our very first conversation

00:39:59.660 was about this

00:40:00.280 and you were doing something

00:40:01.440 called Declaration Entertainment

00:40:02.340 which was a support-driven

00:40:05.140 entertainment idea.

00:40:06.660 The idea was people were going to

00:40:08.140 essentially donate money to you

00:40:09.760 through subscriptions

00:40:11.440 in order to make movies.

00:40:12.980 And the time wasn't right.

00:40:14.120 And the reason that the time

00:40:15.260 wasn't right

00:40:15.760 is because Hollywood,

00:40:17.560 as much as they hated Americans,

00:40:18.660 was still making movies

00:40:19.740 that Americans actually wanted to see.

00:40:22.000 That was still at a time

00:40:22.740 when things like

00:40:23.520 Return of the King

00:40:24.480 could win Best Picture

00:40:25.120 and Dark Knight could be nominated

00:40:26.120 for Best Picture.

00:40:27.200 And now,

00:40:28.780 Hollywood so overtly

00:40:29.940 hates our guts

00:40:30.740 that you cannot name

00:40:32.280 a movie or a TV show

00:40:33.680 where there isn't

00:40:34.420 some sort of sucker punch.

00:40:35.480 You know,

00:40:35.700 we were talking about this

00:40:36.560 the other day.

00:40:37.320 Try and name a movie

00:40:38.100 or a TV show

00:40:38.640 where there isn't

00:40:39.120 some sort of message

00:40:40.520 directed subversively

00:40:41.720 at traditional values.

00:40:43.320 It's literally impossible.

00:40:44.940 Even films that are ostensibly,

00:40:46.460 even films or television shows

00:40:47.700 that are ostensibly conservative.

00:40:49.120 So my favorite example

00:40:50.520 is Captain America

00:40:51.300 in The Last 10 Game.

00:40:52.560 Here's a guy from the 1940s

00:40:54.120 who's a Christian.

00:40:55.500 Who volunteered underage

00:40:56.980 to go fight Nazis.

00:40:58.260 Who subjected himself

00:40:59.200 to human experimentation

00:41:00.520 so that we could defeat the Nazis.

00:41:02.460 Who gets frozen

00:41:03.540 and comes back.

00:41:04.420 Literally wears red,

00:41:05.440 white, and blue

00:41:05.780 and calls himself

00:41:06.420 Captain America.

00:41:07.720 And they had to have him

00:41:08.960 in a scene

00:41:09.380 at the beginning of Endgame

00:41:10.280 where he's in a counseling session

00:41:12.240 because of the horrors

00:41:13.160 that the world has endured.

00:41:14.980 And we come to find out

00:41:16.320 through sort of a revelation

00:41:17.440 that the person he's talking to

00:41:18.680 is a married gay man.

00:41:20.100 Now, what is that about?

00:41:21.960 Well, that's about

00:41:22.680 the filmmakers

00:41:23.600 being embarrassed

00:41:24.480 that they've been making a show

00:41:25.760 about a guy called Captain America

00:41:27.180 for the last 20 years.

00:41:28.620 And they need to let you know

00:41:29.820 that he may have,

00:41:31.020 he may come from the 1940s

00:41:32.360 middle America.

00:41:33.160 He may call himself America.

00:41:34.640 He may wear red, white, and blue.

00:41:37.700 But he doesn't belong to you.

00:41:39.620 Yeah.

00:41:39.820 You don't get to have him anymore.

00:41:41.240 And, of course,

00:41:42.920 it's not just around sexual ethics

00:41:44.880 that they do this.

00:41:46.000 They're doing it across all the stuff.

00:41:47.160 The best is Yellowstone.

00:41:47.960 The best is Yellowstone.

00:41:48.540 Of course, Yellowstone.

00:41:49.420 You've got a rancher

00:41:51.520 who believes in nothing.

00:41:53.040 Millionaire rancher.

00:41:53.640 Who believes in nothing more

00:41:55.000 than his freedom, right?

00:41:56.340 Get off my land,

00:41:57.460 literally, is his mantra.

00:41:59.260 And he decides that he's going to

00:42:00.960 shack up with a Greenpeace protester

00:42:02.940 and give, shock her

00:42:05.540 with the degree to which he believes

00:42:07.440 we've destroyed the earth.

00:42:08.820 It's all for naught.

00:42:09.860 He actually has a line

00:42:10.940 in which he says,

00:42:11.840 I don't think we have

00:42:12.760 a hundred years left

00:42:13.720 before God wipes us all out

00:42:15.600 and starts over

00:42:16.600 if he has the heart for it.

00:42:20.480 What are you talking about?

00:42:21.700 So the bottom line is that

00:42:22.660 the left, over the course

00:42:23.760 of the last couple years particularly,

00:42:24.980 has decided that they

00:42:25.940 are going to become

00:42:27.160 what we are currently

00:42:28.380 accusing the right of being.

00:42:29.400 They're only going to make

00:42:30.240 missional movies.

00:42:31.300 So for years,

00:42:32.080 the left was like,

00:42:32.460 I'll make a good movie

00:42:33.060 and then the mission

00:42:33.480 will just sort of be there.

00:42:34.500 And now it's like,

00:42:35.440 no, no, no, that's not enough.

00:42:36.540 This is why they're also

00:42:37.440 doing the routine where

00:42:38.300 if you are casting

00:42:39.600 a gay person,

00:42:41.000 the person who's playing it

00:42:41.940 has to be gay.

00:42:42.580 Or if you are casting

00:42:43.820 a disabled person,

00:42:44.800 the person has to be disabled.

00:42:45.720 You can't have a white couple.

00:42:46.860 Every couple,

00:42:47.700 every single couple

00:42:48.440 has to be either

00:42:49.160 mixed race or black.

00:42:50.820 And you can't talk

00:42:51.500 about the problems of,

00:42:52.440 if you ever have a movie

00:42:53.240 about the problems of

00:42:54.220 white people

00:42:55.480 who are not wildly impoverished,

00:42:57.580 it's a problem.

00:42:57.960 And even if they are

00:42:58.440 wildly impoverished,

00:42:59.080 if you make Hillbilly Elegy,

00:43:00.140 it's a real problem.

00:43:00.940 Interestingly,

00:43:01.520 when I was in England,

00:43:02.600 this killed

00:43:03.040 the British film industry.

00:43:04.280 They hated

00:43:05.180 four weddings and a funeral.

00:43:06.660 I said,

00:43:06.840 that's an entertaining film.

00:43:07.700 Oh, yeah,

00:43:08.260 we don't want to do that.

00:43:09.060 We want to do two gay guys

00:43:10.520 who are Muslim

00:43:11.660 in a laundrette,

00:43:12.940 you know,

00:43:13.160 because everybody

00:43:13.600 wants to see that.

00:43:14.520 And it just killed

00:43:15.040 their industry,

00:43:16.220 which had come back

00:43:17.180 because of these great films.

00:43:18.580 You know,

00:43:18.940 I have to say

00:43:19.980 about Shut In,

00:43:21.680 about 15 years ago,

00:43:23.480 I went into a hotel.

00:43:25.600 I stayed in the penthouse

00:43:27.240 where there was one room

00:43:28.160 at the top of the floor.

00:43:29.840 I came in,

00:43:30.820 I locked the door,

00:43:31.560 I put the chain on the door,

00:43:32.740 I took my clothes off,

00:43:33.680 I went into the bathroom,

00:43:34.540 closed the door,

00:43:35.060 went to the bathroom,

00:43:35.700 went to open the door

00:43:36.380 and it was locked

00:43:37.720 and there was no button on it.

00:43:39.520 The only time,

00:43:40.320 I've been in war zones,

00:43:41.320 I've been in fist fights,

00:43:42.200 I've been in all kinds of,

00:43:42.920 it's the only time in my life

00:43:44.100 I ever said to myself,

00:43:45.600 don't panic.

00:43:46.760 Out loud,

00:43:47.380 out loud,

00:43:47.900 don't panic.

00:43:49.980 Watching this film,

00:43:51.060 I'm going to get you for it.

00:43:53.860 PTSD.

00:43:54.680 Yeah,

00:43:54.880 because I,

00:43:55.120 Andrew Klavan walked

00:43:55.860 into that bathroom with hair.

00:43:58.240 It was like a shock

00:43:59.700 of blonde hair.

00:44:01.220 Yeah,

00:44:01.680 somehow conservatives

00:44:02.580 still hold on to hope

00:44:03.620 for a franchise,

00:44:05.160 you know,

00:44:05.340 for some of these franchises

00:44:06.280 that exist.

00:44:06.680 I don't know how they do,

00:44:07.680 like for example,

00:44:09.200 this,

00:44:09.840 the Lord of the Rings,

00:44:10.840 Amazon series.

00:44:12.020 Yeah.

00:44:12.280 And you still have conservatives,

00:44:13.340 oh,

00:44:13.460 I hope it's not woke.

00:44:14.480 What do you,

00:44:14.900 of course it's going to be woke.

00:44:16.760 Amazon is making

00:44:17.860 Lord of the Rings,

00:44:18.660 what do you think they're going to,

00:44:19.820 there is zero chance.

00:44:21.180 Every single,

00:44:21.700 this is what,

00:44:22.160 you have to understand,

00:44:23.320 every single franchise you love

00:44:25.020 is going in this direction.

00:44:26.600 It cannot go any other direction

00:44:28.220 but that.

00:44:28.880 So just have a foolish hope.

00:44:30.020 And we can't afford

00:44:30.640 to buy those,

00:44:31.580 have fools hope,

00:44:32.160 yeah,

00:44:32.260 we can't afford

00:44:32.980 to buy those franchises

00:44:33.940 so we have to start

00:44:34.480 creating some.

00:44:35.160 Like if I could do anything

00:44:35.980 I'd buy Superman

00:44:36.720 to keep him Superman

00:44:37.540 but I don't,

00:44:38.360 I'm not a multi,

00:44:39.100 multi,

00:44:39.380 multi-billionaire

00:44:40.040 so I can't buy Superman

00:44:41.220 so we've got to create

00:44:41.960 some stuff.

00:44:42.840 And you know,

00:44:43.580 you talk about these

00:44:44.420 very overtly left-wing movies

00:44:46.460 like Don't Look Up

00:44:47.360 or things like that.

00:44:48.100 I got nominated for an Oscar

00:44:49.000 with 55% on Rotten Tomatoes.

00:44:50.420 That's right.

00:44:51.120 But I don't mind that.

00:44:53.180 If you want to make

00:44:53.960 an overtly left-wing movie,

00:44:55.280 I'm fine with it.

00:44:56.280 It's the sucker punch

00:44:57.300 that I hate.

00:44:58.180 It's every conservative

00:44:59.300 in America

00:44:59.760 fell in love with Ted Lasso

00:45:01.040 last year.

00:45:02.060 And you're in the

00:45:02.580 penultimate episode

00:45:03.560 and Ted Lasso

00:45:04.660 refers to God

00:45:05.480 as a she.

00:45:06.100 That was a dishonest show

00:45:07.740 from the first frame.

00:45:09.860 What is the point?

00:45:10.840 The point is to say

00:45:11.840 Midwestern American

00:45:13.700 football lover

00:45:14.520 doesn't belong to you

00:45:15.700 Midwesterners.

00:45:16.600 He doesn't share

00:45:17.460 your values.

00:45:18.060 That was the whole

00:45:19.320 theme of that show.

00:45:19.960 I said the minute

00:45:20.560 it came on,

00:45:21.360 I said this guy

00:45:22.020 is a fundamentalist

00:45:23.000 Christian

00:45:23.360 except they won't

00:45:24.480 let him believe in God,

00:45:25.400 they won't let him

00:45:25.920 not have sex,

00:45:26.700 they won't let him

00:45:27.260 keep his marriage together.

00:45:28.340 Oh, the marriage thing

00:45:29.140 was unbelievable.

00:45:29.760 It was unbelievable.

00:45:30.600 I mean, they literally,

00:45:31.360 they're like,

00:45:31.680 oh, you know what would

00:45:32.200 be best for the kid

00:45:32.760 is if you abandon

00:45:33.360 your child and remain

00:45:34.300 several thousand miles

00:45:35.260 away never seeing

00:45:36.000 your son.

00:45:36.480 But that's, you know,

00:45:37.020 that's just the way

00:45:37.520 modern families work now.

00:45:38.640 The whole show

00:45:39.420 is a lie.

00:45:40.240 It's a lie.

00:45:40.720 You know, it's funny

00:45:41.180 with all these shows

00:45:41.940 though, I mean,

00:45:42.340 I watched a little

00:45:42.940 Yellowstone,

00:45:43.840 but not too much.

00:45:44.640 I watched a little bit

00:45:45.160 of this.

00:45:45.560 I never watched

00:45:46.080 the franchises.

00:45:47.180 I just won't do it.

00:45:49.340 I don't, I love movies,

00:45:50.800 I grew up watching movies,

00:45:51.860 I love watching,

00:45:52.580 but I'm just not going

00:45:53.580 to do it.

00:45:54.080 My life is too precious,

00:45:55.680 my time is too short,

00:45:56.840 so what I will do

00:45:57.680 is I will watch

00:45:59.260 old movies

00:46:00.060 and old TV shows,

00:46:00.940 there's plenty of them,

00:46:01.640 I can play those,

00:46:03.000 or on the rare occasion

00:46:04.780 that there is some movie

00:46:06.640 that I know

00:46:08.020 isn't going to cram

00:46:09.180 some insane,

00:46:10.860 insipid,

00:46:11.740 tedious agenda

00:46:12.380 down my throat,

00:46:13.100 I'll watch it.

00:46:13.760 And I just think,

00:46:14.440 if you give me

00:46:15.640 three shut-ins a year,

00:46:17.560 I'll be happy.

00:46:18.300 I'll get to see some movies,

00:46:19.420 but I'm not going

00:46:19.920 to watch this other crap.

00:46:20.500 Here's a question

00:46:20.800 from a member.

00:46:22.280 Run, hide, fight,

00:46:23.000 shut-in,

00:46:23.340 and terror on the prairie

00:46:24.340 all have strong

00:46:25.460 female leads.

00:46:27.280 Was this a coincidence?

00:46:28.200 Will you make a movie

00:46:28.780 with a strong male lead

00:46:29.700 as well?

00:46:30.520 We've been getting

00:46:31.100 this question a little bit

00:46:32.000 on Twitter,

00:46:33.900 and I'm going to tell you

00:46:34.780 that we have a fourth movie

00:46:35.940 that we're going to

00:46:36.600 surprise everyone

00:46:37.280 with the trailer for

00:46:38.100 later on tonight,

00:46:39.020 and it also has

00:46:39.760 a very strong female lead.

00:46:41.280 So we're going to be

00:46:42.000 batting four for four

00:46:43.060 in 2016.

00:46:44.700 We're misogynist.

00:46:45.700 Yeah, we're misogynist.

00:46:46.320 The question is why,

00:46:47.340 and the answer is,

00:46:48.840 it's very difficult

00:46:50.360 to do what we're doing.

00:46:52.840 Dallas Sonnier

00:46:53.660 has read 400 scripts

00:46:55.860 this year

00:46:57.280 in his search

00:46:58.560 for great content

00:46:59.320 for us.

00:47:00.020 We've interviewed

00:47:00.980 dozens of writers.

00:47:03.000 We've paid

00:47:03.800 many writers,

00:47:05.360 Drew,

00:47:06.060 to develop shows

00:47:06.940 for us.

00:47:07.860 Its development

00:47:08.820 is incredibly challenging.

00:47:10.700 It's a lengthy process.

00:47:12.000 You don't always

00:47:12.700 hit the target

00:47:13.220 that you're aiming at.

00:47:14.360 Even when you work

00:47:14.980 with some of the best

00:47:15.540 people out there,

00:47:16.300 you don't always hit

00:47:16.860 the target that you're aiming at.

00:47:17.880 It's a miracle

00:47:18.660 when any movie gets made.

00:47:20.600 Our goal over time

00:47:22.120 is to grow up

00:47:24.400 our own,

00:47:25.420 our whole own industry.

00:47:26.600 Not to be dependent

00:47:27.440 on Hollywood

00:47:28.040 really much at all.

00:47:29.740 You know,

00:47:30.020 because obviously

00:47:31.100 they don't like us

00:47:32.400 over there.

00:47:33.600 But in the beginning,

00:47:35.160 you have to fish

00:47:35.980 where the fish are.

00:47:36.780 In the beginning,

00:47:37.560 we're sorting through

00:47:38.440 the kinds of scripts

00:47:39.160 that are available.

00:47:40.240 And we're finding

00:47:41.000 the ones that do

00:47:41.760 have our values in them.

00:47:42.960 We're finding the ones

00:47:43.640 that don't have

00:47:44.300 left-wing sucker punches

00:47:45.180 in them.

00:47:45.600 We're finding the ones

00:47:46.420 that Hollywood won't make.

00:47:48.720 Nevertheless,

00:47:50.040 no one has written

00:47:50.880 a script

00:47:51.420 that is perfectly

00:47:52.800 what we might hope

00:47:54.000 that it would be

00:47:54.580 in 15 years

00:47:55.900 because there's been

00:47:56.820 no market for it

00:47:57.520 because Hollywood

00:47:57.920 won't buy it.

00:47:58.880 And so,

00:47:59.300 I haven't read,

00:48:00.380 I've read 100 scripts

00:48:01.800 this year probably.

00:48:03.420 10 of them had male leads

00:48:04.660 and they weren't very good.

00:48:05.760 You know,

00:48:06.260 you get a thousand,

00:48:07.120 if you make a thousand movies,

00:48:09.420 700 of them

00:48:10.280 can be lousy,

00:48:11.440 but people remember

00:48:12.700 the good ones.

00:48:13.360 If you make five movies,

00:48:14.860 it's because

00:48:15.400 that's what we can make.

00:48:16.420 That's what we can make.

00:48:17.220 But that's,

00:48:18.060 it's a good thing.

00:48:19.160 It's a positive thing.

00:48:20.400 It's a thing we should be

00:48:21.060 celebrating every step

00:48:22.560 of the way

00:48:22.900 because we're climbing

00:48:24.560 out of the pit.

00:48:25.380 That's right.

00:48:25.820 And of course,

00:48:26.320 we'll make movies

00:48:26.820 with strong male leads.

00:48:28.840 Also,

00:48:29.820 we're so fortunate

00:48:30.980 when we find

00:48:31.680 a piece of content

00:48:32.520 that we believe in,

00:48:33.300 when we find a piece

00:48:33.780 of content that we can make,

00:48:35.060 we're excited about it.

00:48:36.520 We're thrilled to get to go

00:48:37.360 take a swing at it

00:48:38.500 and that doesn't mean,

00:48:39.720 you know,

00:48:40.160 you can't just say,

00:48:41.040 well,

00:48:41.160 next,

00:48:41.480 a movie with a male lead

00:48:42.520 any more than you can say,

00:48:43.240 and next,

00:48:43.440 we'll make a movie

00:48:43.800 with dinosaurs.

00:48:44.260 You have to find it

00:48:45.280 on the page.

00:48:45.900 You have to find the content

00:48:46.720 that you want to make.

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00:50:04.700 What I'll say

00:50:05.280 about Shut In,

00:50:06.360 it was on the

00:50:06.860 very prestigious

00:50:07.580 black list,

00:50:08.360 which is probably

00:50:09.840 the most prestigious list

00:50:11.020 in Hollywood

00:50:11.400 that you're scripting.

00:50:11.980 I know it sounds

00:50:12.580 like the opposite.

00:50:13.480 When you think of

00:50:13.840 Hollywood and black lists,

00:50:14.780 you think about

00:50:15.100 the things people don't want.

00:50:15.340 It's the second best thing

00:50:15.860 that can happen to you.

00:50:16.560 Yeah, yeah.

00:50:17.220 But being on the black list

00:50:18.300 as a script

00:50:18.700 is a great thing.

00:50:19.760 This is one of the

00:50:20.160 five best scripts

00:50:20.660 I've ever read.

00:50:21.800 The best script

00:50:22.500 I've ever read

00:50:22.960 is by my friend

00:50:23.600 Roderick Taylor.

00:50:24.360 It's called

00:50:24.560 Goliath Awaits.

00:50:25.640 It's just an absolute

00:50:26.900 home run.

00:50:28.240 Maybe one day

00:50:29.100 as our opportunities

00:50:30.600 increase,

00:50:31.120 we'll be able to

00:50:31.520 make a project like that.

00:50:33.000 When I read

00:50:33.720 Melanie Toe's script,

00:50:34.760 I thought,

00:50:35.060 this is 100% for us.

00:50:37.140 In fact,

00:50:37.700 we had to pay a lot of money

00:50:38.440 to get it

00:50:38.780 because the film

00:50:39.240 was set up at New Line.

00:50:40.640 Dallas had found it

00:50:41.400 on the black list.

00:50:42.160 He had gotten it

00:50:42.620 a deal at New Line.

00:50:44.220 Big names.

00:50:45.060 Jason Bateman,

00:50:45.980 Nicole Kidman

00:50:46.580 had circled this project.

00:50:48.080 COVID happened.

00:50:49.020 The film gets knocked

00:50:49.720 off of the production roster

00:50:50.820 and that gave us

00:50:51.700 a window where we could

00:50:52.660 swoop in there

00:50:53.320 and pick it up

00:50:54.660 and we count ourselves

00:50:56.000 very fortunate

00:50:56.540 to have done so.

00:50:58.020 You have to understand,

00:50:58.800 though,

00:50:58.880 that when we do this,

00:51:00.740 even the screenwriter

00:51:01.660 isn't all that happy.

00:51:03.760 She's getting her

00:51:04.460 very first movie

00:51:05.240 ever made.

00:51:06.300 We're honoring

00:51:07.100 her script.

00:51:08.060 Keep in mind,

00:51:08.540 I've been telling

00:51:09.280 this story for a week.

00:51:10.080 When New Line

00:51:10.640 had the script,

00:51:11.360 they rewrote it

00:51:12.260 to take the kids

00:51:13.500 out of peril.

00:51:14.500 They didn't want

00:51:14.900 the kids to be in peril

00:51:15.720 because Housewives

00:51:16.800 won't watch it,

00:51:17.720 which then takes away

00:51:18.840 all the stakes

00:51:19.460 in the movie.

00:51:20.300 They took away

00:51:21.000 all the Christian symbolism,

00:51:22.200 which you'll see

00:51:22.620 throughout the film tonight,

00:51:23.800 which is critical

00:51:24.420 to the story

00:51:25.040 of her redemption.

00:51:26.300 It's sort of

00:51:26.860 the central ethos.

00:51:27.420 It's the best part.

00:51:28.400 They take all of that out

00:51:29.820 because they homogenize

00:51:31.200 the film.

00:51:31.580 They sanitize the film

00:51:32.440 to make it

00:51:32.840 more broadly appealing.

00:51:34.460 Which, of course,

00:51:34.980 takes away

00:51:35.300 the redemptive message.

00:51:36.100 You've taken away

00:51:37.140 the stakes.

00:51:38.260 You've taken away

00:51:39.360 the impetus

00:51:40.040 for the transition.

00:51:41.540 Then they took out

00:51:42.980 the villain.

00:51:44.480 I'm not making this up.

00:51:46.080 They replaced the villain

00:51:47.160 with an evil dog.

00:51:49.920 Really?

00:51:50.780 Yes.

00:51:51.500 That's amazing.

00:51:52.400 Major Hollywood stars

00:51:53.620 circled this script

00:51:54.720 in a version

00:51:56.360 that had no villain,

00:51:57.740 an evil dog,

00:51:58.800 no threat.

00:52:00.620 It's a woman in a pantry

00:52:01.680 with an annoying dog

00:52:02.520 outside.

00:52:02.760 Was the dog

00:52:03.700 at least a pedophile

00:52:04.640 or no?

00:52:05.080 No, no, no.

00:52:06.200 Also, the thing

00:52:07.260 about the female lead

00:52:08.060 thing is that

00:52:08.800 it's almost a leftist

00:52:11.440 mentality in a weird way

00:52:12.560 if we were to say,

00:52:13.960 well, now it's time

00:52:14.820 for a movie

00:52:15.420 with a male lead.

00:52:16.200 It's like,

00:52:16.700 well, let's go through

00:52:17.240 each identity group

00:52:18.060 and make sure

00:52:18.440 they each get

00:52:18.940 their own movie.

00:52:21.020 I think the better

00:52:21.780 approach is just

00:52:22.380 what's the best movie

00:52:23.220 and we'll make it.

00:52:24.500 But the important point

00:52:25.400 is that we're not

00:52:26.080 saying that,

00:52:27.060 you know,

00:52:27.980 this is not a message

00:52:28.740 that we're sending.

00:52:29.380 Oh, the Dems

00:52:29.940 are the real sexists

00:52:30.800 and so we're going

00:52:31.220 to make a lot of movies

00:52:31.780 with female leads.

00:52:33.200 I don't think

00:52:33.460 that's the point at all.

00:52:34.120 And another thing

00:52:35.100 I like about this movie

00:52:35.640 is that it is

00:52:37.280 a redemptive story.

00:52:38.360 That's another thing

00:52:38.880 that's missing

00:52:39.420 in most Hollywood movies

00:52:41.060 is a story

00:52:41.600 of real redemption

00:52:42.260 and especially

00:52:43.300 in cancel culture,

00:52:44.400 graceless society

00:52:45.260 where there's no forgiveness.

00:52:47.160 To have a story

00:52:47.820 where there's actual redemption

00:52:49.020 and that is,

00:52:50.400 in fact,

00:52:50.720 the story itself

00:52:51.420 I think is really important.

00:52:52.520 That's what I liked about it.

00:52:53.680 Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

00:52:54.820 There's something else also

00:52:55.560 which is that

00:52:56.080 we on the right,

00:52:56.960 we tend to focus in a lot

00:52:57.820 on the fact

00:52:58.200 that masculinity is under attack

00:52:59.400 because it's 100%

00:53:00.720 under attack.

00:53:01.800 I mean,

00:53:01.920 the left has pretty much

00:53:03.000 attempted to turn

00:53:03.860 men into,

00:53:05.440 I mean,

00:53:05.940 literally,

00:53:06.740 in many cases,

00:53:07.700 into women, right?

00:53:08.960 Yeah, yeah, right.

00:53:09.560 But the other thing

00:53:10.060 they've done

00:53:10.300 is they've turned

00:53:10.660 women into men.

00:53:11.840 The idea from the left

00:53:12.940 is that women,

00:53:14.240 your strong female character

00:53:15.600 is a bare-knuckles,

00:53:18.880 brawling woman

00:53:19.640 who can knock a man

00:53:21.020 through a wall

00:53:21.880 and all this kind of stuff.

00:53:23.020 That's not what this movie is.

00:53:23.940 And don't need no man.

00:53:24.960 Right, exactly.

00:53:25.380 That's not what this movie is

00:53:26.400 at all.

00:53:27.140 I mean, by the way,

00:53:27.580 if Hollywood had actually

00:53:28.860 produced a film like this

00:53:29.780 without the haunted dog

00:53:31.960 and such,

00:53:32.720 the movie would be

00:53:34.040 35 seconds long

00:53:35.040 because she would get

00:53:35.840 trapped in the pantry

00:53:36.480 and then she'd bust out

00:53:37.340 her female superpowers,

00:53:38.440 her kick-ass girl power,

00:53:39.760 she'd have bust down the door

00:53:40.680 and she'd have beat

00:53:41.140 everybody up, right?

00:53:42.240 That's not what this film is.

00:53:43.680 Women are more under attack

00:53:45.080 than men in our culture.

00:53:45.980 I agree.

00:53:46.380 It's just not as overt.

00:53:48.000 Well, because they're

00:53:48.500 attacking men

00:53:49.960 in order to get to women,

00:53:52.060 really.

00:53:52.260 Yeah, that's right.

00:53:52.820 I observed recently,

00:53:55.540 according to the left,

00:53:56.360 men and women

00:53:56.780 are exactly the same

00:53:57.600 except that women

00:53:58.180 are much, much better.

00:53:59.700 That's basically

00:54:00.440 the new mantra.

00:54:01.060 But much better

00:54:01.780 at being men.

00:54:02.380 Much better at being men.

00:54:02.980 It's not that men

00:54:03.680 and women are the same

00:54:04.320 and women are much,

00:54:05.160 much better at being women.

00:54:06.520 It's men and women

00:54:06.960 are the same

00:54:07.300 and women are better

00:54:07.820 at being men.

00:54:08.460 Because the superpower

00:54:09.520 that women have

00:54:10.140 is the one thing

00:54:10.740 that they are

00:54:11.200 hell-bent on removing,

00:54:13.020 which is childbearing,

00:54:14.440 child-rearing,

00:54:15.380 marriage,

00:54:16.120 nurturing,

00:54:16.820 all the things

00:54:17.400 that evolutionary biology

00:54:18.460 actually focuses in.

00:54:19.680 And all the things

00:54:20.280 that matter.

00:54:20.980 And ultimately,

00:54:22.660 that's what

00:54:22.900 Shut In is about, right?

00:54:23.780 Shut In is a story

00:54:24.560 about a mom.

00:54:26.380 A not very good mom.

00:54:27.960 A mom who thinks

00:54:28.920 that she's a victim

00:54:29.540 of circumstance

00:54:30.100 when in fact

00:54:30.600 she's the victim

00:54:31.080 of all of her own

00:54:31.820 horrible choices.

00:54:33.220 And you open the film,

00:54:34.360 she's not very sympathetic.

00:54:35.920 She is thrust

00:54:37.620 into a position

00:54:38.180 of raising her kids.

00:54:39.040 She didn't choose

00:54:39.660 to be in a position

00:54:40.300 to have to raise these kids.

00:54:42.320 She had her grandmother

00:54:43.100 raising the kids

00:54:43.800 and her grandmother died.

00:54:45.100 And now she's stuck

00:54:46.040 with these kids

00:54:46.480 that she,

00:54:47.460 by her own admission,

00:54:48.280 didn't want

00:54:48.660 and isn't ready for.

00:54:49.780 And because of

00:54:50.540 the trauma

00:54:51.440 that she suffers,

00:54:52.180 like Christ learned

00:54:54.440 faith from what

00:54:55.000 he suffered,

00:54:55.780 we are almost

00:54:57.860 all of us

00:54:58.400 redeemed by suffering.

00:54:59.880 And through her

00:55:00.580 suffering,

00:55:01.440 she becomes

00:55:02.400 a mother.

00:55:03.500 That's the thing

00:55:04.000 that Hollywood

00:55:04.360 doesn't want you to see.

00:55:05.120 That's the reason

00:55:05.660 that they have to

00:55:06.080 change a movie like this

00:55:07.100 before they can

00:55:07.780 think about making it.

00:55:08.900 They don't want you

00:55:09.480 to see that

00:55:10.020 the high aspiration

00:55:11.620 of this woman,

00:55:12.140 the high accomplishment

00:55:12.860 of this woman,

00:55:13.780 the thing that actually

00:55:14.420 does redeem her,

00:55:15.660 is that she becomes

00:55:16.600 a mother.

00:55:17.640 That in that way,

00:55:19.160 yes,

00:55:19.340 it's an action film,

00:55:20.200 yes,

00:55:20.340 it requires the

00:55:20.860 suspension of disbelief,

00:55:22.340 yes,

00:55:23.040 because it's action-y,

00:55:24.100 she gets involved

00:55:24.800 in some action.

00:55:26.520 Ultimately,

00:55:27.080 though,

00:55:27.260 what it's all in service

00:55:28.080 of from a storytelling

00:55:28.980 point of view

00:55:29.500 is the elevation

00:55:30.440 of motherhood.

00:55:31.920 And to me,

00:55:32.860 that's why when I read

00:55:33.560 the script,

00:55:34.200 it's terrific writing,

00:55:37.400 but also just

00:55:38.240 that particular theme,

00:55:39.440 I thought,

00:55:40.060 if we don't make this,

00:55:40.880 I actually don't think

00:55:41.620 a film like this

00:55:43.560 gets made.

00:55:44.200 We're going to be

00:55:44.620 bringing the movie

00:55:45.100 to you in just

00:55:45.940 a short time.

00:55:47.100 Remember,

00:55:47.380 we're going to break

00:55:48.040 the feed,

00:55:48.940 but if you're on

00:55:49.640 Daily Wire's YouTube

00:55:50.640 page,

00:55:51.300 as soon as we finish,

00:55:52.020 you'll be able to click

00:55:52.640 on the link in the

00:55:53.400 description,

00:55:53.860 and it will take you

00:55:54.380 to the new feed

00:55:56.220 where the countdown

00:55:57.340 clock will be playing,

00:55:58.400 and you'll be able

00:55:59.080 to tune in.

00:55:59.700 We're also going to

00:56:00.140 roll out trailers

00:56:00.800 for the first look

00:56:02.380 teaser trailer

00:56:03.000 of our new film

00:56:03.740 with Gina Carano,

00:56:04.540 Terror on the Prairie,

00:56:05.420 and a new little

00:56:06.480 something-something

00:56:07.020 that we're going to

00:56:07.940 be bringing to you

00:56:08.600 one month from today,

00:56:09.600 and we couldn't be

00:56:10.100 more excited

00:56:10.660 to show it to you.

00:56:12.080 The trailer for that

00:56:12.760 will also be playing.

00:56:14.300 But for right now,

00:56:16.060 I'd love it if you'd

00:56:16.680 take a look at the

00:56:17.260 trailer for tonight's

00:56:18.060 feature film,

00:56:18.860 Shut In.

00:56:20.140 Lady?

00:56:21.060 Where have you been?

00:56:23.880 Jessica.

00:56:25.600 I can smell

00:56:26.960 the weakness from you.

00:56:29.180 You had your way.

00:56:32.580 No, stop!

00:56:34.640 Let me out, please.

00:56:37.000 Now you must pay.

00:56:40.020 Don't you touch

00:56:41.640 my kids.

00:56:42.760 Your daughter.

00:56:44.040 She's very pretty.

00:56:49.740 I'm scared.

00:56:53.620 That's our trailer

00:56:54.340 for Shut In,

00:56:55.020 and it's coming your way

00:56:55.980 in just a short time

00:56:56.880 at 8 o'clock

00:56:57.780 right here at Daily Wire.

00:56:58.880 We couldn't be more excited,

00:56:59.860 and we're joined right now

00:57:00.780 by our producing partner

00:57:01.840 and good friend,

00:57:02.420 Dallas Sonnier,

00:57:03.100 who produced the film.

00:57:03.900 Thanks for having me.

00:57:04.640 Yeah, welcome back.

00:57:05.280 We let you out of the pantry

00:57:06.000 just for this.

00:57:06.480 Yes.

00:57:07.940 We were in there

00:57:08.720 for two weeks straight,

00:57:10.160 and prior to that

00:57:11.540 in the very old house,

00:57:13.840 so it was nice

00:57:15.140 to finish the movie

00:57:16.020 and be able to

00:57:16.800 not be so compact,

00:57:18.920 but yeah,

00:57:19.480 we built the set

00:57:20.180 on a soundstage

00:57:21.200 here in Nashville.

00:57:22.840 Yeah.

00:57:23.360 It's unbelievable,

00:57:24.300 and we're so thrilled

00:57:25.360 to be able to share

00:57:25.900 the movie with everybody.

00:57:26.540 You've been involved

00:57:27.320 in this project

00:57:28.440 really since it appeared

00:57:29.400 on The Blacklist.

00:57:30.020 Most of our Daily Wire

00:57:32.200 members probably don't know

00:57:33.580 much about The Blacklist.

00:57:34.680 Explain to us

00:57:35.060 how that whole thing works.

00:57:35.800 The Blacklist is a good thing

00:57:37.040 now run by a guy

00:57:39.700 named Franklin Leonard

00:57:40.480 who I've known

00:57:41.000 for over a decade,

00:57:42.400 and it's the best

00:57:43.840 unproduced scripts

00:57:44.960 every year,

00:57:45.920 but then they expanded

00:57:47.020 and they started

00:57:47.720 to allow young

00:57:48.880 unproduced writers

00:57:49.840 to submit their scripts

00:57:52.160 for coverage

00:57:52.860 so they could reach

00:57:53.720 representatives,

00:57:55.860 producers,

00:57:56.460 financiers,

00:57:57.040 things like that.

00:57:58.140 So they send out

00:57:58.940 this email every week

00:58:00.720 of the best scripts

00:58:01.820 that week that they read,

00:58:03.160 and I deleted

00:58:03.740 every single week.

00:58:04.840 One time,

00:58:06.160 I didn't have a lunch,

00:58:07.100 I didn't have an afternoon

00:58:08.200 full of meetings,

00:58:09.420 I got the email,

00:58:10.320 and right there on top

00:58:11.160 it says,

00:58:11.640 shut in,

00:58:12.560 in the vein of panic room

00:58:13.960 and a quiet place.

00:58:15.660 So I read it,

00:58:16.920 and right there

00:58:17.660 on the cover page

00:58:18.520 is the screenwriter's

00:58:20.100 phone number,

00:58:20.880 and I called it,

00:58:22.020 and she answered,

00:58:23.380 and about 24 hours later

00:58:25.480 I had the script

00:58:26.120 under option.

00:58:27.400 Wow.

00:58:27.820 Was going to just make it

00:58:29.880 in my system

00:58:31.400 and very low budget.

00:58:34.840 But I said,

00:58:37.380 before you do that,

00:58:38.360 why don't we just

00:58:39.080 take a shot

00:58:39.960 at getting you an agent,

00:58:41.900 right,

00:58:42.220 getting you in front

00:58:43.240 of the right people

00:58:44.160 in Hollywood.

00:58:45.220 Let's try it.

00:58:46.880 And I sent it out

00:58:48.440 and it just caught fire,

00:58:50.440 right,

00:58:50.920 CAA,

00:58:52.040 UTA,

00:58:52.720 all these different agencies

00:58:53.700 coming after it.

00:58:54.640 and then the studios

00:58:57.980 started to read it

00:58:58.860 and other producers

00:58:59.780 started to read it.

00:59:01.220 And so all of a sudden

00:59:02.220 I found,

00:59:02.940 you know,

00:59:04.100 UTA signs Melanie,

00:59:05.680 a big producer signs

00:59:06.880 the script,

00:59:07.880 and takes it into

00:59:08.840 New Line with me

00:59:09.740 attached and her attached,

00:59:11.380 and it sells

00:59:12.340 in a bidding war

00:59:13.300 with Sony.

00:59:14.240 And then everything

00:59:16.760 went to hell

00:59:20.180 and back from there.

00:59:21.460 Yeah.

00:59:22.040 It was the craziest thing.

00:59:23.860 You know,

00:59:24.080 I decided to take

00:59:25.080 sort of a mercenary

00:59:25.800 approach to it,

00:59:27.060 let it happen,

00:59:28.040 right,

00:59:28.400 as long as she,

00:59:29.400 you know,

00:59:30.140 was willing to do the work.

00:59:31.460 And so it just went

00:59:32.320 through this draft

00:59:33.960 and that draft

00:59:34.800 and it was such a mess,

00:59:36.220 right?

00:59:36.480 We call it

00:59:36.880 development hell.

00:59:38.280 And I just would call her

00:59:41.520 and say,

00:59:42.360 this is just so bad.

00:59:44.640 The second New Line

00:59:46.040 lets this go,

00:59:48.020 we're going to make

00:59:48.700 the original script.

00:59:50.080 And that's what happened.

00:59:51.540 Yeah.

00:59:51.800 In fact,

00:59:52.220 they didn't let it go.

00:59:53.320 I took it away from them.

00:59:55.280 And Jeremy and Ben

00:59:57.000 read it in an afternoon.

00:59:58.440 They had an evening,

00:59:59.600 but they only took

01:00:00.240 an afternoon,

01:00:01.480 and we emotionally

01:00:02.440 greenlit it

01:00:03.240 on the phone together

01:00:04.140 one day.

01:00:05.640 And, you know,

01:00:06.600 30 days later

01:00:07.440 we were in Nashville

01:00:08.160 prepping and 60 days later

01:00:09.420 we were shooting.

01:00:10.260 Wow.

01:00:10.460 I mean,

01:00:10.680 it couldn't have happened

01:00:11.300 faster.

01:00:11.660 Oh, it was awesome.

01:00:12.580 Yeah.

01:00:12.960 And I'm sorry,

01:00:13.780 we had some technical

01:00:14.380 difficulties.

01:00:14.960 I guess DJ isn't

01:00:15.740 going to be able

01:00:16.180 to join us,

01:00:17.400 but DJ did such

01:00:18.660 an amazing job

01:00:19.320 on this movie.

01:00:20.020 I mean,

01:00:20.480 and a real trooper

01:00:21.560 at an impossible time.

01:00:23.620 DJ,

01:00:24.340 a very well-known

01:00:25.340 director,

01:00:26.020 huge hits,

01:00:26.540 basically helped create

01:00:27.360 the career of Shia LaBeouf.

01:00:29.080 And at the time

01:00:30.060 that he came out

01:00:30.520 and did this movie,

01:00:31.400 he had another film

01:00:32.400 that was still

01:00:32.900 in post-production,

01:00:33.860 which is

01:00:34.520 Redeeming Love

01:00:35.220 based on a really

01:00:37.060 beloved Christian novel.

01:00:39.440 a difficult,

01:00:41.480 challenging Christian novel,

01:00:42.540 but a beloved Christian novel.

01:00:44.340 And DJ is one of the only guys

01:00:45.800 now in Hollywood

01:00:46.320 who in this month

01:00:47.300 is rolling out two

01:00:48.320 feature films,

01:00:50.000 you know,

01:00:50.240 which the amount of work

01:00:51.460 that that guy had to put in,

01:00:52.860 unbelievable.

01:00:53.660 He was finishing

01:00:55.420 the sound mix

01:00:56.440 and driving

01:00:57.500 to his other premiere

01:00:58.740 on our movie

01:01:00.080 and then to the next.

01:01:01.260 So yeah,

01:01:01.660 DJ was so great.

01:01:02.860 We sought him out.

01:01:04.200 We knew he was a Christian.

01:01:06.220 We knew he had

01:01:07.700 big studio-level experience,

01:01:10.360 right?

01:01:10.780 And there is a common thought

01:01:12.840 that once you make

01:01:13.820 a big movie,

01:01:14.680 you can't go back,

01:01:15.840 right?

01:01:16.040 You can't make a smaller one.

01:01:17.260 You sort of lose

01:01:18.160 that mojo.

01:01:19.840 But in conversing with him,

01:01:22.000 we had a lot of conversations

01:01:23.120 with him.

01:01:24.540 We got a good sense

01:01:25.720 that he was going to hit

01:01:26.620 the commercial beats

01:01:28.840 on a movie like this

01:01:30.000 that we needed

01:01:30.800 because I want this

01:01:32.460 to compete

01:01:33.340 and beat Hollywood.

01:01:35.280 I don't want to

01:01:36.400 just make independent movies

01:01:38.340 or low-budget movies

01:01:39.700 or anything like that.

01:01:40.680 I want to whoop them,

01:01:42.780 right?

01:01:43.600 And so this was important,

01:01:46.380 I think,

01:01:46.960 in many ways

01:01:47.800 that the first Daily Wire

01:01:49.720 original production

01:01:50.660 had a scope to it,

01:01:53.460 even though the story

01:01:54.320 was contained.

01:01:55.460 Big idea,

01:01:56.200 little box.

01:01:57.420 I think DJ knocked it

01:01:58.420 out of the park.

01:01:59.020 I think some of the camera moves

01:02:00.360 in the movie

01:02:01.400 are just awesome.

01:02:03.020 The cinematography

01:02:04.220 in particular

01:02:05.040 is really incredible.

01:02:06.940 It's,

01:02:08.100 yeah,

01:02:08.380 no,

01:02:08.560 it's when,

01:02:09.860 I've been doing

01:02:10.760 a number of interviews

01:02:11.540 to promote the movie.

01:02:13.060 I don't know why.

01:02:13.780 I had nothing to do

01:02:14.400 with making the movie.

01:02:15.400 I've been doing these interviews

01:02:16.400 to promote the movie

01:02:17.100 and they said,

01:02:17.980 so what can you tell us

01:02:18.860 about it?

01:02:19.100 And I said,

01:02:19.520 the thing that no one

01:02:20.820 is going to believe

01:02:21.640 that is actually,

01:02:22.500 I've really got to tell you,

01:02:23.980 is that it's a real movie.

01:02:25.500 It's like an actual movie.

01:02:27.800 It's not the Daily Wire

01:02:29.000 made a movie movie.

01:02:30.000 Bingo.

01:02:30.540 It's a movie movie.

01:02:31.060 What is the release strategy here?

01:02:33.000 Just so I understand it.

01:02:34.900 How are we trying

01:02:35.740 to reach people

01:02:36.520 with this movie?

01:02:37.600 Well,

01:02:37.760 the reason we're premiering

01:02:38.480 the movie tonight

01:02:39.100 on YouTube for free

01:02:40.380 as a live stream,

01:02:41.280 and what that means is

01:02:42.000 the movie will play

01:02:42.900 the second it's over.

01:02:44.820 It's gone from YouTube forever.

01:02:46.200 So if you were to join

01:02:47.220 15 minutes late,

01:02:49.760 you're only going

01:02:50.340 to get the last,

01:02:51.040 right?

01:02:51.360 Because one minute and 40,

01:02:53.140 or one hour and 40 minutes in,

01:02:54.540 gone forever

01:02:55.360 behind the Daily Wire

01:02:56.240 paywall after that.

01:02:58.260 Why?

01:02:58.860 Well,

01:02:59.640 the reason it goes

01:03:00.180 behind the Daily Wire

01:03:00.820 paywall is because

01:03:01.420 we're trying to build

01:03:02.860 the golden goose.

01:03:03.900 If conservatives

01:03:04.680 really want to compete

01:03:05.480 in the media

01:03:06.020 in a major way,

01:03:07.580 we have to own

01:03:08.500 production,

01:03:09.840 marketing,

01:03:10.260 and distribution.

01:03:11.560 Things have changed

01:03:12.320 technologically.

01:03:13.260 For one,

01:03:13.820 we built the Daily Wire,

01:03:14.700 and the Daily Wire

01:03:15.320 is an enormous

01:03:16.160 marketing machine.

01:03:17.520 We teamed with

01:03:18.020 Dallas Sonnier.

01:03:18.760 Dallas Sonnier

01:03:19.280 is a fabulous producer.

01:03:21.000 So now we have

01:03:21.420 two out of the three.

01:03:22.960 What's changed

01:03:23.560 technologically,

01:03:24.540 and we saw it so much

01:03:25.600 during COVID,

01:03:26.100 is the rise of

01:03:27.000 the SVOD platform.

01:03:29.340 What Ben and Caleb

01:03:30.820 and I were talking

01:03:31.500 about a year ago

01:03:32.340 or 18 months ago

01:03:33.240 in the early days

01:03:34.660 of COVID was

01:03:35.480 SVOD is about

01:03:36.620 to really ascend,

01:03:38.060 and we sort of

01:03:39.080 accidentally built

01:03:40.320 technologically

01:03:41.000 an SVOD platform.

01:03:42.120 We built it

01:03:42.740 to distribute our podcasts,

01:03:43.880 the video versions

01:03:44.580 of our podcasts,

01:03:45.320 but the technology

01:03:46.540 is agnostic

01:03:47.120 as to what the content is.

01:03:48.520 We have a real opportunity.

01:03:50.020 We could put films

01:03:50.880 on this platform,

01:03:52.480 use our marketing engine

01:03:53.520 to promote them,

01:03:54.860 and not just release

01:03:56.060 a movie,

01:03:57.080 but actually create

01:03:58.160 an industry.

01:03:58.840 We actually have a shot.

01:04:00.400 Everything has to go right.

01:04:01.500 We have to win.

01:04:02.060 The projects have to be great.

01:04:03.440 People have to support them,

01:04:04.380 but if they do,

01:04:05.780 we can build

01:04:06.260 the Golden Goose,

01:04:07.080 and the Golden Goose

01:04:07.720 can produce

01:04:08.220 not just a movie.

01:04:09.540 The Golden Goose

01:04:10.000 can produce movies.

01:04:10.760 The power

01:04:12.360 of the recurring

01:04:13.440 subscription

01:04:14.000 is that you get

01:04:15.600 to over time

01:04:16.540 become a Netflix.

01:04:17.220 You get to over time

01:04:17.700 become an HBO Max.

01:04:18.660 You get to over time

01:04:19.240 become a Disney.

01:04:20.440 That's never been possible

01:04:21.500 before without enormous

01:04:23.320 amounts of institutional capital.

01:04:24.460 So all the people

01:04:25.200 who subscribe to us

01:04:26.240 are actually making

01:04:27.140 this work.

01:04:27.880 Yes, yes.

01:04:28.380 They're the only reason

01:04:29.140 this is happening.

01:04:29.900 And so you might say,

01:04:30.420 well, why put it out

01:04:31.020 for free on YouTube first?

01:04:32.180 What's the point?

01:04:32.700 Well, part of the point

01:04:33.520 is because people

01:04:34.320 don't believe the Daily Wire

01:04:35.120 can make a movie.

01:04:35.780 Right.

01:04:35.920 So part of it

01:04:36.680 is a brand play

01:04:37.480 that we're saying,

01:04:38.040 look, this is real.

01:04:39.860 This isn't

01:04:40.600 Hillary's Hard Drive

01:04:41.380 Part 3 or whatever.

01:04:42.340 This is an actual movie

01:04:44.360 that we've made.

01:04:44.680 I love that film.

01:04:46.080 I'm not saying

01:04:46.800 we wouldn't make it.

01:04:49.460 There goes my pitch

01:04:50.600 next week.

01:04:51.260 All right, fine.

01:04:52.940 So as with our podcast,

01:04:55.040 we've always taken

01:04:55.740 a strategy that

01:04:56.820 you have to put content

01:04:58.360 out wide enough

01:04:59.160 that people

01:04:59.660 want to then

01:05:01.420 support the endeavor.

01:05:02.960 I think that for us,

01:05:04.900 sometimes we fall

01:05:05.900 into the trap

01:05:06.380 of thinking

01:05:06.720 that there's a distinction

01:05:07.520 between mission

01:05:08.820 and value.

01:05:10.480 But what I've come

01:05:11.400 to learn

01:05:11.680 throughout this business

01:05:12.420 in particular

01:05:12.940 is that the mission

01:05:13.960 is part of the value.

01:05:15.760 That the reason

01:05:16.720 DailyWire.com members

01:05:17.980 become DailyWire.com members,

01:05:20.020 yes, they want the value

01:05:20.980 of the content

01:05:21.460 that we offer,

01:05:22.380 but they really want

01:05:23.120 the value

01:05:23.560 of the mission itself.

01:05:24.740 They want to be a part

01:05:25.600 of punching back.

01:05:26.960 They want to be a part

01:05:27.460 of the fight.

01:05:27.980 They want to be a part

01:05:28.500 of saying to the political left,

01:05:30.440 no,

01:05:31.180 and they want to be

01:05:31.660 part of saying now

01:05:32.500 to the cultural left,

01:05:33.580 no.

01:05:33.900 Welcome to the party, pal.

01:05:35.320 I think that's great.

01:05:36.220 Yeah.

01:05:37.200 Well, that was

01:05:37.720 the original thesis

01:05:38.420 that Jeremy and I

01:05:39.220 were talking about

01:05:39.680 a decade ago,

01:05:40.280 and it just took

01:05:40.680 the technology

01:05:41.320 to develop

01:05:42.120 and the left

01:05:42.700 to move into crazy domains

01:05:44.360 where they don't even

01:05:44.920 make any good movies anymore.

01:05:45.800 Well, that's the market

01:05:47.180 opportunity.

01:05:47.860 The market opportunity

01:05:48.480 is the biggest thing.

01:05:49.180 Honestly, we turned

01:05:49.720 to each other

01:05:50.100 in the middle

01:05:50.500 of the riots last year,

01:05:51.440 and we said,

01:05:52.220 right now,

01:05:52.680 if we just bought up

01:05:53.780 shows about cops,

01:05:55.860 we would make a fortune

01:05:58.180 because Hollywood

01:05:58.760 literally will not make

01:05:59.660 a movie in which

01:06:00.300 the cops are just

01:06:01.080 the good guys

01:06:01.640 without some sort

01:06:02.280 of self-flagellating speech

01:06:03.840 about the internalized

01:06:04.800 racism of the police

01:06:05.760 and how they had

01:06:06.200 to get beyond it

01:06:06.880 and how the police

01:06:07.300 used to be homophobic,

01:06:08.240 but now they're

01:06:08.620 super tolerant

01:06:09.300 and have diversity,

01:06:10.360 equity, and inclusion.

01:06:10.760 They actually brought

01:06:11.540 Brooklyn Nine-Nine back

01:06:12.820 out of cancellation

01:06:13.720 to do a season

01:06:15.060 to apologize

01:06:15.800 for Brooklyn Nine-Nine's

01:06:16.980 existence.

01:06:17.660 That's exactly right.

01:06:18.460 That's exactly right.

01:06:19.040 I mean, Dallas,

01:06:19.900 you've worked obviously

01:06:21.040 inside the Hollywood machine.

01:06:21.940 Now you're working

01:06:22.280 well outside the Hollywood machine.

01:06:23.940 What's the difference?

01:06:24.960 Well, keep in mind,

01:06:26.340 I made a cop movie

01:06:28.140 with Mel Gibson

01:06:29.220 called Dragged Across Conqueror.

01:06:30.960 Very not politically.

01:06:31.580 I am.

01:06:32.480 Yes.

01:06:33.040 It was a good movie.

01:06:33.820 I mean, that, you know,

01:06:35.980 it was interesting.

01:06:38.000 Right when we announced

01:06:39.520 the movie,

01:06:40.080 I got a phone call

01:06:40.820 from Color of Change, right?

01:06:42.680 And they put me through

01:06:44.220 a Maoist struggle session

01:06:45.720 of just, you know,

01:06:47.080 how dare you cast him

01:06:49.160 and how dare you make this?

01:06:51.380 And it was just,

01:06:52.020 it was awesome.

01:06:52.900 I mean, I really enjoyed it.

01:06:54.900 I so enjoyed the conversation.

01:06:56.800 And they really had never run

01:06:58.500 into a buzzsaw before

01:07:00.600 who told them,

01:07:01.740 absolutely not,

01:07:03.320 I'm not changing a word.

01:07:04.940 I even sent them the script.

01:07:07.280 They never wrote me back.

01:07:08.980 They never called me back.

01:07:10.820 That's just impolite.

01:07:12.240 Yeah.

01:07:13.560 So I, you know,

01:07:16.200 it's like all the 16 years

01:07:18.180 I was in LA

01:07:19.040 and the seven years since

01:07:21.320 making movies

01:07:22.500 with Jason Sudeikis

01:07:24.700 and Guy Pearce

01:07:25.940 and Thomas Jane

01:07:26.980 and Mel

01:07:27.820 and Vince Vaughn

01:07:28.780 and Kurt Russell

01:07:29.640 and all these fantastic actors,

01:07:33.680 I am bringing all of that,

01:07:36.900 all those relationships

01:07:38.000 in the agency world,

01:07:39.600 all of my sort of understanding

01:07:41.780 of how productions are made,

01:07:43.880 but also an incredible chip

01:07:47.260 on my shoulder.

01:07:48.000 And when I talked to the two of you,

01:07:54.880 you and I meeting originally

01:07:56.740 and you and I doing the deal

01:07:58.740 for Run, Hide, Fight originally,

01:08:00.660 I knew I had my tribe.

01:08:04.620 I knew I had my team.

01:08:06.480 And so now I'm evangelizing this

01:08:08.360 to all the filmmakers out there

01:08:09.920 and I want to build this bigger.

01:08:11.940 I don't want to be the only producer

01:08:13.420 because I can't be on that many sets

01:08:15.480 at the same time.

01:08:16.300 So this is an opportunity

01:08:18.480 of a lifetime

01:08:19.060 for a guy like me,

01:08:22.060 but also I'm just so happy

01:08:23.600 to have this opportunity

01:08:25.060 and have these relationships

01:08:26.160 with you guys.

01:08:28.040 Hollywood is in the rearview mirror

01:08:30.600 so far for me

01:08:31.600 I don't even remember.

01:08:32.600 By the way,

01:08:32.860 I think one of the cool things

01:08:34.440 is that some of the people

01:08:36.280 that we're working with,

01:08:37.400 we know these people

01:08:38.140 are just going to be

01:08:38.880 blockbuster stars.

01:08:40.120 And there is this stigma

01:08:41.320 that attaches to working

01:08:42.900 with a conservative outlet

01:08:44.220 like the Daily Wire.

01:08:45.100 But that stigma is just,

01:08:46.440 it's not true.

01:08:47.280 Correct.

01:08:47.460 It's not real.

01:08:48.400 Isabel May was the star

01:08:49.440 of Run, Hide, Fight.

01:08:50.160 She's now the star

01:08:50.900 of 1883.

01:08:51.900 And how do you say

01:08:52.580 Taylor Sheridan found her?

01:08:54.800 It wasn't from Kate and Alexa

01:08:56.540 on Netflix.

01:08:57.740 Right.

01:08:58.460 It was from Run, Hide, Fight.

01:09:00.280 And, you know, look,

01:09:01.800 they then go out there

01:09:03.820 and poke at us a little bit

01:09:05.800 by saying introducing

01:09:07.100 Isabel May on the 1883 trailers.

01:09:11.220 And, you know,

01:09:12.800 I spend a few minutes

01:09:13.940 calling her manager

01:09:15.620 and, you know,

01:09:16.260 giving him my piece.

01:09:17.340 But the truth is,

01:09:18.580 is that you're right.

01:09:20.440 Like, Isabel May,

01:09:22.080 now Rainy Qualley,

01:09:23.440 and she's going to explode

01:09:24.760 off of this.

01:09:27.040 And so on and so forth.

01:09:28.520 And you look at, you know...

01:09:29.820 It's also worth noting

01:09:30.520 that I don't know the politics

01:09:32.340 of either of those two actresses.

01:09:33.780 You know, we're doing,

01:09:35.320 we did a deal recently

01:09:36.260 for the film

01:09:36.960 that we're going to be

01:09:37.600 introducing people to,

01:09:39.320 our sort of surprise trailer.

01:09:40.800 I keep referencing it

01:09:41.940 so it's not too much

01:09:42.560 of a surprise.

01:09:43.540 But we've acquired a film

01:09:44.780 that we're going to release

01:09:45.460 a month from today.

01:09:46.580 And I doubt that anyone

01:09:47.500 involved in making that film

01:09:48.700 is a Ben Shapiro listener.

01:09:50.640 But what they are

01:09:52.680 is incredible talents.

01:09:54.020 Yeah.

01:09:54.280 And what they are

01:09:54.740 are people who are willing

01:09:55.660 to make films

01:09:56.340 that don't cut against

01:09:59.040 our audience,

01:09:59.620 which is really all

01:10:00.180 we're asking for.

01:10:01.100 We're not saying

01:10:01.760 make things that

01:10:02.760 champion right-wing causes.

01:10:05.420 We're saying

01:10:05.780 make films that are

01:10:06.900 for everyone

01:10:07.500 and in particular

01:10:09.100 don't cut against

01:10:10.880 or insult

01:10:11.520 a conservative audience.

01:10:14.260 Even that

01:10:14.920 is, you know,

01:10:16.820 unheard of in Hollywood

01:10:17.720 right now.

01:10:18.180 And what you said before

01:10:18.960 about assaulting Captain America,

01:10:20.960 taking away

01:10:21.780 things that are naturally,

01:10:24.300 and not right-wing,

01:10:25.100 but just, you know,

01:10:25.900 old-fashioned traditionalist

01:10:27.160 and American.

01:10:27.660 That's right.

01:10:28.120 That is their mission.

01:10:29.500 And so just not doing that

01:10:31.320 is actually...

01:10:32.140 Do you think that

01:10:32.780 in Hollywood

01:10:33.600 there's a core of people

01:10:34.900 who want to make

01:10:35.820 real movies

01:10:37.120 that don't have

01:10:37.540 all the woke stuff

01:10:38.220 but they just don't have...

01:10:39.180 That's a good question.

01:10:40.000 They don't have

01:10:40.620 the mechanism to do it?

01:10:42.100 Does that exist?

01:10:43.020 I'll go a step further.

01:10:44.600 There are people

01:10:45.160 that call me...

01:10:46.300 It's starting to become daily,

01:10:47.980 right?

01:10:48.920 Executives within the business,

01:10:50.680 filmmakers,

01:10:51.520 agents,

01:10:52.500 managers,

01:10:53.900 all kinds of different people

01:10:55.340 just wanting to know

01:10:57.500 what this is like for me.

01:10:59.280 Because they...

01:11:00.780 And they're not even conservative.

01:11:02.240 They're just so sick

01:11:03.560 of going through

01:11:05.340 those implicit bias training sessions

01:11:07.880 and having to act

01:11:09.120 like they care.

01:11:11.040 And it's...

01:11:12.340 Their heart and soul

01:11:14.880 are just dying inside.

01:11:17.200 And so they're starting to call.

01:11:19.860 And I won't break any trust yet,

01:11:21.980 but that number is going to grow

01:11:24.520 and the squad is going to...

01:11:26.940 True.

01:11:27.300 I interviewed a writer yesterday

01:11:28.860 who is certainly a Democrat,

01:11:31.700 not a leftist,

01:11:32.300 but certainly to the left

01:11:33.780 of any of us.

01:11:35.540 And willing to come right for us.

01:11:37.340 Pitched us some stuff

01:11:38.320 that was really good.

01:11:39.040 And I said,

01:11:39.460 what motivates you

01:11:40.500 to do something like this?

01:11:41.480 Obviously,

01:11:42.720 you're not a perfect alignment fit

01:11:44.640 with us politically.

01:11:46.520 And he said,

01:11:46.820 well, I'll be honest.

01:11:47.380 He said,

01:11:47.620 I've been building my career.

01:11:49.440 I've worked my way through

01:11:50.340 250 episodes

01:11:51.920 of scripted television.

01:11:53.100 Starting as a producer's assistant,

01:11:55.180 then becoming a script coordinator,

01:11:58.260 working my way up.

01:11:59.620 I've had scripts produced

01:12:00.660 on major shows.

01:12:02.140 He said,

01:12:02.780 and starting about 18 months ago,

01:12:05.860 it was just over for me.

01:12:07.460 He said,

01:12:08.180 you know,

01:12:08.660 I've put in all this work

01:12:11.020 to cultivate this skill.

01:12:12.520 They gave a PA on my show.

01:12:14.940 A PA is a production assistant.

01:12:16.740 The lowest person on the set.

01:12:18.980 It's an hourly wage job.

01:12:20.720 Sometimes what a PA does,

01:12:21.900 like the actual job,

01:12:23.320 is sit by that door

01:12:24.920 and make sure no one comes through it

01:12:26.400 for 12 hours.

01:12:27.780 Now listen,

01:12:28.100 you can't make movies without PAs.

01:12:29.620 Many people get their start as PAs,

01:12:31.900 but it is the lowest job

01:12:33.780 in the hierarchy.

01:12:35.500 He said,

01:12:35.860 they went to a PA on my show

01:12:37.360 who was black

01:12:38.000 and gave him three episodes to direct.

01:12:41.720 Wow.

01:12:42.540 Didn't go to film school,

01:12:44.020 has never done,

01:12:44.760 has never actually contributed

01:12:45.980 to an hour of television being made.

01:12:47.980 They made him an actual director

01:12:49.060 because Hollywood decided

01:12:50.920 during the Black Lives Matters,

01:12:52.560 riots in particular,

01:12:54.240 that they will not grow more

01:12:59.920 straight white men

01:13:01.220 into these positions.

01:13:02.680 And so there's a lot of those guys

01:13:04.020 who've put in the work.

01:13:05.100 They've put in the effort.

01:13:06.820 And because they're in a disfavored

01:13:09.120 racial category at this moment,

01:13:11.380 Hollywood just won't work with them.

01:13:12.500 And it's horrible for everyone involved.

01:13:14.600 If you're that PA,

01:13:16.040 that's actually horrible.

01:13:16.980 It seems like your dreams

01:13:17.900 just came true,

01:13:19.120 but what a terrible thing

01:13:20.200 to one day know

01:13:21.380 that you're merit,

01:13:22.800 even if you have merit.

01:13:24.420 I mean, that PA may be

01:13:25.800 the greatest filmmaker

01:13:27.620 who ever lived

01:13:28.180 if he got to put in the work

01:13:29.400 and grow.

01:13:30.500 But it isn't his merit

01:13:31.860 that got him this opportunity.

01:13:33.340 It's only the virtue-signaling charity

01:13:37.020 of also white guys

01:13:39.940 in positions of power

01:13:41.600 who don't want to leave.

01:13:42.560 It's just like Biden saying,

01:13:44.120 I'm going to have a black female,

01:13:45.700 just, great,

01:13:47.520 let's have a black female jurist

01:13:49.020 on the Supreme Court

01:13:49.700 if she's there

01:13:50.900 because of merit.

01:13:51.580 But if you've said

01:13:52.620 from the outset

01:13:53.320 that those are the only people

01:13:54.360 who will be even considered...

01:13:56.600 94% of the country

01:13:57.800 is completely out of the running.

01:13:58.900 That's right.

01:13:59.200 Then you've actually said

01:14:00.080 to the eventual nominee,

01:14:01.280 even if you have merit,

01:14:03.560 we all know why you really got the job.

01:14:04.860 We all know why you really got the job.

01:14:06.300 You know, it's funny.

01:14:07.240 Working in Hollywood,

01:14:08.180 I noticed,

01:14:08.740 I couldn't help but notice

01:14:09.980 that the black guys

01:14:11.180 I worked with

01:14:11.820 were either the very best.

01:14:14.040 They had worked over

01:14:15.100 all the prejudices

01:14:16.520 and all that stuff.

01:14:17.360 And they were great.

01:14:18.100 You know,

01:14:18.200 you just were thankful

01:14:19.140 to be in the room with them.

01:14:20.060 Or they sucked

01:14:21.260 because they had been hired

01:14:22.700 because of the color of their skin,

01:14:24.060 which is degrading to everybody.

01:14:25.740 It's just degrading.

01:14:26.820 And now I know people

01:14:27.880 who are having

01:14:28.840 black writers attached

01:14:31.120 and giving credit,

01:14:32.020 black producers attached

01:14:33.600 and giving credit

01:14:34.680 on screen

01:14:35.660 who aren't doing anything.

01:14:37.160 Yeah.

01:14:37.340 And if that's not degrading

01:14:38.360 to a person,

01:14:38.880 I don't know what is.

01:14:39.480 That's our show for tonight.

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The Michael Knowles Show - February 10, 2022

Daily Wire Backstage： The Joe Rogan Experience

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