The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - Actor Rob Schneider - On Woke Hollywood, Great Films, and Politics (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad

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00:01:16.280 Hey everybody, this is Gadsad for The Sad Truth. One of the things that I love in doing this show is I

00:01:22.420 get to connect with people that otherwise I would have never had the chance to meet, the pleasure to

00:01:28.300 meet. Today I've got the comedian, the actor, and now the author, Rob Schneider. How are you doing, sir?

00:01:36.060 Thank you. It still sounds very silly, the word author. Like, eee, what? What did I say? I don't fool

00:01:43.600 myself. I think my book is, it's not like your intellectual, you know, artistry that you bring to

00:01:50.960 it. My book is kind of an edutainment, or I feel like I have to make people laugh, otherwise they'll

00:01:57.960 stop reading it, you know? Whereas I really think what your specialty is to be able to be, to persuade

00:02:04.080 people through your intelligence and your wit and your will and your courage to get them to your point

00:02:11.080 of you with reasoning. And that's the thing, like when I see you give a speech, I go like, man,

00:02:17.340 why am I even doing this? Gadsad is so much better than me. You're so persuasive, but you don't speak

00:02:23.080 over people's heads. That's the key. You're not trying to impress them with your, how much smarter

00:02:29.040 than you are, even though you are. But you impress them because you create a logic and a rationale

00:02:36.720 that isn't easily, you know, dismissed. I think that's one. Yeah. Thank you for the kind words. I

00:02:45.800 mean, I've often had a fellow academics say, well, you know, why do you use, you know, your satirical

00:02:53.680 skills and, you know, that kind of removes your professorial facade and that exactly demonstrates

00:02:59.980 that they don't get it. Right. I mean, and I don't need to explain to you the power of humor. Look,

00:03:04.820 I'm going to use a wide range of weaponry within my arsenal of persuasion. Sometimes I'm professorial

00:03:12.660 when I'm speaking at Stanford. Sometimes I'm, you know, depending on the medium, I will adjust.

00:03:18.100 But to your point, I get a lot more satisfaction receiving a fan mail from a trucker who says that,

00:03:27.460 you know, because he saw me on Joe Rogan, he decided to go back and study psychology at night school.

00:03:32.480 That impresses me a lot more than receiving some nice email from a colleague from Stanford,

00:03:38.120 to your point. But I want to mention before I see the floor, I want to mention at least the title

00:03:43.120 of the book. You can do it, which is a signature saying from many of your movies and so on and SNL

00:03:50.880 and so on. Speak your mind, America. You can do it. Speak your mind, America. What led you to write

00:03:56.440 this book? When did you first come out from, you know, being a raging progressive? Maybe you

00:04:04.160 weren't, but at least most people in Hollywood are, to actually finding your brain.

00:04:08.540 I remember being angry at people who were conservative because how could you, I didn't

00:04:12.560 even understand it. I mean, I didn't, I didn't understand the, well, I didn't understand the core

00:04:18.440 of what conservatism was because, you know, the old, well, I guess the best description that that's

00:04:24.880 part of my belief system was how Noam Shomsky describes conservatism, which is just, conservatism

00:04:31.620 is just adopting what was radical 90 years ago and clinging to it. But some of the progressive,

00:04:39.100 progressiveness is where the, the, the bad ideas seem to be sneaking in. But when you grow up in a,

00:04:46.120 in a progressive, um, environment that was a very culturally, um, you know, the overused term

00:04:53.600 diverse, it was just a melting pot, which I prefer that because it, because it's, it's a

00:04:58.320 cohesiveness. It's like making a pasta, you know, the idea about, uh, you know, being diverse means

00:05:05.300 separate and staying. But the old idea that we used to describe as a melting pot because it becomes

00:05:10.700 something because of the different mixtures that they're going into it. So growing up in

00:05:16.060 San Francisco, my mother being Filipino, not understanding any jokes, she would laugh. She

00:05:21.360 had great timing. She was like, what does it mean, Robert? And then, uh, growing up with that,

00:05:27.760 it was just naturally to be, uh, to grow up and be a liberal because that was the, not the dominant

00:05:34.320 time. I mean, at that time you had more conservatives, whether it was, uh, by the time

00:05:39.020 the eighties came in, cause I just assumed everything was going to continue to get more

00:05:42.060 liberal under the Carter administration. And then by eight, 1980, it was, it was a real

00:05:48.240 stop. And there was, uh, a constriction of, of ideas of speech and attacking that was coming

00:05:55.080 from the right at that time. So that was a awakening, uh, but they have not come anywhere

00:06:00.420 close to, uh, to what the left has done. And when the left and the right are screaming at the

00:06:06.940 same time, they're really back to back being just as irrationally authoritarian and, uh, sensorial.

00:06:17.240 But I think the left has gone, uh, farther than it's any other time in my lifetime. And I think

00:06:23.160 they have more tools at their disposal. Well, they dominate almost everything in the culture,

00:06:28.580 right? Uh, academia, of course, journalism, Hollywood. I mean, everything is, is a chokehold from

00:06:35.280 the progressives. The hegemony of the, of the left, of the leftists and, uh, their stranglehold on big

00:06:42.140 tech has the potential to do what's happening now, which is really to suppress, uh, free speech and

00:06:48.840 freedom. If the, if, if tyranny does come, and I recognized this in 2013 and I went public with it,

00:06:55.520 tyranny is coming and it's coming from the left now. That was 11 years ago under the Biden administration,

00:06:59.740 I mean, under the Obama, um, who was trying to convince people after the second time, he was a

00:07:05.080 black president was elected in America that somehow to quote Douglas Murray, when race has never been

00:07:10.760 better, they try to frame it as it's never been worse. That's right. Which is a real manipulation,

00:07:15.760 a real, a real, a real interesting magic trick. So is there, is there an episodic memory that you

00:07:21.320 have? I mean, it doesn't have to be down to the last nanosecond, but something that flipped you from

00:07:27.100 being, you know, a leftist to more conservative. So, and here I'm thinking about, I don't know,

00:07:32.260 do you know, Dave Rubin, do you know who Dave Rubin is? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he always

00:07:35.960 talks about, I didn't leave the left, the left left me. And then he kind of explains his journey

00:07:40.620 from how, what was it for you? When was that? Well, I think seeing parental rights being taken

00:07:47.400 away in California, uh, because they wanted to raise their children differently. I didn't realize

00:07:52.660 that the state, uh, was intending to interfere in every aspect of, uh, of the citizen citizen's life

00:08:00.120 in California and to co-parent with them. And so when the state was mandating that the parents had

00:08:07.640 to do all these lists of vaccines that they would take, and, and we've, we have chronic illnesses

00:08:13.460 that are unheard of when you and I were children, uh, that are happening now. And we have to be able

00:08:20.280 to at least ask questions. And so, you know, whether they, you know, the, the constant verbiage from the

00:08:26.180 pharmaceutical industry is that, uh, cause, you know, uh, coincidence and causation or, um,

00:08:32.260 there that we can't go by, well, we can go by evidence that the parents know something's going

00:08:37.340 on with their children. And so what happened was there was a manipulation going on in the state

00:08:41.720 legislature. And I think 2013, uh, 2014, where they wanted to like, you could get an exemption if you

00:08:49.380 wanted. In other words, if your kid had a bad reaction to a vaccine and you had another kid,

00:08:54.540 which is the same genetic predisposition as your other kid that was injured, you should be able

00:08:59.680 to say, well, I want an exemption. So this other child doesn't have a traumatic brain injury,

00:09:03.620 like, uh, or, or seizures that would go into it. Uh, and, um, and so you should be able to get

00:09:10.360 a doctor's exemption or a medical exemption. And so they were trying to take this away.

00:09:15.240 And I found that to be egregious. And then when I, you have a child, forgive me for interrupting.

00:09:20.140 Did you have a child of that age at that point, or it was just an abstract, uh, you know, uh,

00:09:27.280 situation that you were dealing with, or was, were you personally affected by it?

00:09:31.000 I, you know what, I'm one of the, like Del Bigtree, who's the high wire, and he's, he's one of the

00:09:35.380 great advocates for, um, for medical freedom in America. Him and I come at this with uninjured

00:09:41.920 children, but we, I was having a baby at the time. And I remember, um, meeting with a doctor

00:09:48.820 who was, um, married to the, this director that I was going to be making a film with.

00:09:54.620 And she's, she was one of those TV doctors who would go on TV and talk. And, uh, they had a

00:10:00.400 beautiful baby and, you know, I was about to have a baby. And I said, well, what shots did you give

00:10:05.080 the baby? She said, none. And I said, why? And it's well, because they're, they don't have an immune

00:10:10.940 system. Their immune system for babies is external and their immune system is their mother's breast

00:10:16.520 milk. And they can't absorb those toxins and it could cause, um, brain inflammation. And I'm like,

00:10:22.600 well, why do you tell other people to do it? And she said, it's up to them.

00:10:26.900 So when I learned, I met with these, these parents who, uh, had injured children, um,

00:10:32.760 through this medical procedure that they were told was guaranteed to be safe. And it wasn't,

00:10:37.440 and their child was irreparably injured. And my friend, Barbara Lowe Fisher, who runs the

00:10:42.500 National Vaccine Information Center, the oldest and longest running parent, uh, uh, vaccine

00:10:48.320 advisory group. Um, I was astounded by it. And when the NIH in 2013 came up with a statistic

00:10:55.580 that 54% of children suffered chronic illness, it was something you can't unlearn that. And so I said,

00:11:01.780 well, I gotta, you know, um, so I got, I didn't realize that, uh, how it would affect me, uh,

00:11:08.520 and my career financially to go up against this monolithic pharmaceutical industry and the

00:11:13.980 tentacles that they have, but the, the pharmaceutical industry is only allowed to advertise their

00:11:18.780 products in two countries and it's the New Zealand and it's us. And they spend up to 85% of all ads

00:11:25.320 in a non-election year. So their power is monolithic. It is, um, it's very strong. So, um,

00:11:33.420 and that was your original entry into sort of activism. Yeah. I mean, it was, I mean,

00:11:40.000 thinking about children and parents and parental rights and the health of children,

00:11:43.660 it definitely got me into that. And then when you realize, you know, and then Robert Kennedy and

00:11:48.940 I'm a supporter of Robert Kennedy's and, and now we support Donald Trump because we think this is a

00:11:54.100 way to the best way we can to, um, what he calls making America healthy again. You realize that

00:12:02.440 it's not just the pharmaceutical industries that have, that have controlling the powers, uh, power

00:12:08.380 switches of America and the power base. We're all our agencies, our federal agencies, whether it's

00:12:15.780 the FDA, whether it's the CDC, whether it's NIH, these agencies have been, um, captured by industry,

00:12:25.200 the industry that they're supposed to, that is supposed to regulate these industries. So once you,

00:12:29.560 once you open that up to realize that corruption that, and it is globally, uh, you can see how

00:12:36.820 when an, when a, uh, uh, industry gets too much power, they could shut down the world and they

00:12:41.980 were able to do that in COVID. So we can see that. And they're also able to, we got to be careful that

00:12:46.680 we don't start world war three just to satisfy the military industrial complex, which I think,

00:12:52.040 you know, I'm worried about the Democrats getting in, staying in power and continuing these, uh, this

00:12:58.860 war in Ukraine. Um, so this is something that I think you have to put your own interests aside

00:13:05.200 and think about, um, getting involved because, uh, I don't think you can stay on the sidelines

00:13:12.700 at this critical point in our, uh, world history.

00:13:16.120 So political orientation and academia would probably be the most lopsided there. There are

00:13:22.460 studies, which I'm sure you're familiar with that sort of break down the percentage of Democrat

00:13:29.220 professors versus say Republican in the American context, there's a similar breakdown in Canada.

00:13:33.480 Uh, and, you know, depending on the discipline, it could be as unbiased as five to one, meaning

00:13:40.360 five times as many Democrat professors as Republicans that might happen, say in engineering or in the

00:13:46.760 business school. Yes. But then in most of the more activist based fields, you know, anthropology and

00:13:53.360 sociology and African American studies and so on, so on, you can have, you know, 130 to zero. I mean,

00:14:01.160 literally, you know, you, you're more likely to run into a unicorn than to run into a Republican

00:14:06.060 professor in a sociology department. Uh, so that's an academia. Now I suspect that it's almost as

00:14:13.380 lopsided in Hollywood, but how many people do you know? So of course the, the classic ones are

00:14:20.020 Clint Eastwood are James Woods. I mean, there's you, there's maybe a few others I could think of,

00:14:25.200 but what is it, is it, you know, is it 5% of all Hollywood people might be considered conservative

00:14:33.080 or is that even too optimistic? I would say, I would say closer to 12. Okay. But I would say of

00:14:40.940 those 12, less than 1% speak out. Sorry, 12 people or 12%? 12 people. Okay. No, it's a 12%. I would

00:14:49.900 say it has grown because what happens is, I mean, I would take this as a, um, as an indicator and I'm

00:14:57.940 not a, um, you know, not, not an academic and I, I really didn't like statistics in college. I found

00:15:03.620 it to be, uh, uh, confusing and also misleading because the statistics, you can find out you could

00:15:10.700 get these statistics if you cherry pick the numbers and that not necessarily the statistics that are

00:15:15.580 saying what's really happening. There's actually a book by the way, Rob, uh, that, that many doctoral

00:15:21.680 students will take when they're taking a methodology course. And it's called how to lie with statistics

00:15:27.400 to your point. I mean, literally it's a very, very small book. You should, you should read it

00:15:32.940 because it's a very small book. It's, it's very accessible and it's exactly to your point.

00:15:37.680 Anyways, go on. No, but it was astounding to me with that, that, that in college in the short term,

00:15:43.100 the short time that I was in college until I started making money as a comedian, I was just astounded

00:15:48.020 that that I was actually, um, the manipulation of, of, uh, the manipulation of math, but also

00:15:55.480 the manipulation of minds because you can, and you can, it's when, and that's what's, it seemed

00:16:00.900 to be what's happening at university. Whereas, um, I mean, Scott Atlas talks about this much better

00:16:06.980 than I do. The professor from Stanford who was brought in too late to the Trump administration

00:16:11.280 because I think Trump was manipulated by the people that were there. And according to Don

00:16:15.580 Jr. And on my conversation with him recently on his podcast, he said, he's going to be

00:16:20.100 more careful this time, uh, you know, to, to who he's going to listen to. And he's also

00:16:23.980 not going to be Trump. President Trump is not going to be so easily swayed by people who

00:16:30.380 been there and people who were threatening him with that millions of people would die and

00:16:36.220 it'll be all your fault. So I'd take this as an indicator, uh, two stories. One is that

00:16:41.920 my attorney, my entertainment attorney, who said five years ago, Rob, I thought you were

00:16:47.280 nuts. He's in Beverly Hills. He's Jewish. Of course. Right. Of course he is. Thank God.

00:16:52.980 Okay. Go on. Of course he is. That's, that's why he's successful in the, thank God, the pinnacle

00:16:58.080 of his, uh, but he's also, uh, totally, uh, indoctrinated into this, you know, illogical, uh, you

00:17:07.920 know, liberal, uh, and yet he represents you. Well, because he's a good attorney and

00:17:12.440 you know, you have to have somebody from the tribe if you want to get a good deal in show

00:17:14.920 business. So what happened was he called me? He says, I can't, I said, I got to tell you,

00:17:19.380 Rob, I thought you were nuts five years ago, but now I can't believe what they're teaching

00:17:22.660 my third grader. And I said, so are you still going to vote for a Kamala? He said, yeah,

00:17:28.240 yes, of course. So it's like, it doesn't even matter. So those are people you can't get to,

00:17:32.760 but what we're really happening now is we're, we're not teaching kids in this era. And I would

00:17:39.940 just go back to like, I'm old enough to remember in the early seventies, if you got a university

00:17:45.520 from Santa Cruz, university, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, or even UCLA in the early 1970s, late

00:17:52.600 sixties, early seventies, those were useless degrees. Everybody knows that they were teaching

00:17:57.500 kids. They were getting a degree by sitting out in the woods, holding hands or, you know,

00:18:02.500 they're, they're in flowers and, and it's, it's going to be the same thing. Now you have

00:18:06.800 universities that are not teaching kids how to think critically. And I'm not talking about,

00:18:11.720 you're right, not the graduate schools, because the graduate schools of Harvard business school

00:18:15.440 is still 85% conservative, but it's 85 to 95% liberal in the student body. They're cranking

00:18:22.540 out illiberalism and they're not cranking out critical thinkers. They're cranking out advocates

00:18:28.080 to a partisan illiberal ideology. And, and that's what they're doing now. So I think that's,

00:18:34.420 that's wasteful. And what happens is to my friend, Peter Brugosian, who told me a story

00:18:39.580 at his school in Oregon, where he was a professor. And he said, they had an opening in the philosophy

00:18:46.540 department. And one of the, um, one of the people that were coming in for, um, an interview

00:18:53.700 to fill that position in the philosophy department, an associate professor position.

00:18:58.860 The first thing he said, I am from Peru and I am homosexual.

00:19:04.700 So in other words, you get, you got the job, you got the job, you have two boxes scratched off.

00:19:10.220 So there you go. Why wouldn't you hire me? But the difference is academia allows this

00:19:15.140 and can, because academia doesn't fall. Academia just is this funded system that keeps going.

00:19:20.900 And that has been polluted by this leftist. And I think Marxist, uh, leanings bend and it's

00:19:27.540 deliberate. Whereas if you were in the marketplace and you had to make money, you had to be a profitable

00:19:33.280 company. If you had to be a football team that was, uh, that could kick footballs, uh, through a

00:19:39.420 goalpost, if you were a soccer team, or if you play for one of the three different rough riders,

00:19:44.460 uh, teams that are a part of the Canadian football league, I don't know why the hell you have three

00:19:48.280 teams. Can you imagine three teams in the NFL?

00:19:49.840 And we've got nine teams of which I think six or eight make it to the playoffs. So you play 16 or

00:19:56.880 17 games to get rid of one or two teams, but it was gone. So it's insane. So if you had, so there's,

00:20:03.780 there's no logic to it, but if you had to, one of your many, many rough riders who all make the

00:20:07.680 playoffs, as you just, as I've just learned, um, you wouldn't have a, you wouldn't have a Filipino

00:20:12.740 Jew like me because we're, you know, we don't, we can kick about eight feet of football.

00:20:16.660 Well, you would want somebody better, but you, in a philosophy department, you can have

00:20:21.220 as many Peruvian homosexuals that you want, uh, that you can fill the department because

00:20:26.100 it doesn't matter really. And it, unfortunately, uh, it's not the best people that are getting

00:20:32.140 the position and it's happening all over. It is a woke, which is woke as I agree with

00:20:37.220 James Lindsay. It's nothing but, you know, Marxism dressed up as manners. Uh, and, and

00:20:42.800 you have, um, society now where you have a president of the United States, what's left

00:20:47.880 of him, Joe Biden, who wasn't, uh, you know, uh, wasn't a great intellect 30 years ago when

00:20:53.740 his brain was properly functioning. And he says, we're going to, we're going to have a Supreme

00:20:58.740 Court justice who is a black woman. I mean, I, I'm nothing against black or, or women

00:21:05.640 or black women, but we need to have not the person, the color of their skin or their genitals

00:21:11.500 was deciding because we only have nine in the United States who are deciding to interpret

00:21:16.340 the constitution for our society and how we live in our society. Uh, we need to have

00:21:21.660 the most qualified people for these positions and we need to return to that. And, and so

00:21:27.640 I really think we have a, a system where it is devolving into a system that, that is not

00:21:35.920 serving society. And I don't think that's a system that will, will survive. It will collapse

00:21:40.800 at a certain point. You can't have a plumber, uh, coming in to fix your toilet based on if

00:21:46.720 he's a homosexual or based on the color of his skin. I want a guy who knows how to get

00:21:50.780 the, the bopper to go up and down. So the stuff in there leaves my house, you know, I

00:21:57.680 mean, but to your point about when you mentioned Harvard business school being more conservative,

00:22:02.540 I, so I've argued that some disciplines are naturally more inoculated against all those

00:22:10.200 parasitic ideas because there is a feedback loop called reality that tests your ideas, right?

00:22:16.800 So if you are in engineering and you want to build a bridge, then you can't use postmodernist

00:22:23.900 physics to build the bridge because the bridge will collapse. You can't build mathematical

00:22:28.680 models to understand the economy at Harvard business school that are completely unwedded

00:22:33.280 to reality because then someone will be pissed off because they won't make money because you

00:22:38.060 won't cater to the customers. So, so there is an auto corrective feedback loop that makes

00:22:43.100 sure that you are wedded to common sense in reality. So that doesn't mean though, that

00:22:46.880 those disciplines can't be somewhat parasitized, but they're much less likely to be parasitized

00:22:52.340 than activist fields where the main reason that is just to create, as you mentioned earlier,

00:22:57.760 activists. So I can be in some esoteric department in the humanities, espouse all kinds of bullshit.

00:23:04.440 And there's no, there's nothing that slaps me back into reality. As if anything, I'll get promoted

00:23:10.720 and I get tenure to, to parasitize more incoming students. So I think that's the key issue. Okay.

00:23:17.160 I want to talk a bit about humor because you mentioned offline before we got on that, you know,

00:23:21.660 one of the things that you wanted to do in your book, and let me mention the title again,

00:23:25.380 you can do it exclamation point, speak your mind America. You, you try to infuse your humor. I mean,

00:23:31.740 that's what your profession is. You're a comedian. You want to try to persuade people through your

00:23:35.260 comedy. Uh, I mentioned offline that actually comedians are some of the smartest people.

00:23:42.640 That's why women will always say, I want one of the most attractive traits in a man is for me to

00:23:49.100 be with a funny guy, because I argue that being funny is a proxy measure for intelligence. There is

00:23:56.480 no way that Dave Chappelle can get up for an hour and captivate thousands of people if he didn't score

00:24:04.420 off the charts and IQ. Do you agree with that? I agree with that. I do agree with that. I think

00:24:09.660 that has some limitations in it. I think that, um, for us, the idea is the art, I guess, Shakespeare,

00:24:17.200 the art of the artists to make it appear like it's not art. And I don't know if Shakespeare is the

00:24:21.420 only person who said that, but it is, we have to make it appear and, and, uh, and make it

00:24:27.160 approachable. And, uh, you know, I, I did realize at a young age that with my height, five foot five on

00:24:32.640 a good day. And with, uh, my apparently odd looks that I was not going to be able to, uh, acquire the

00:24:40.040 interest of women that I found extremely attractive unless I had something else going for me.

00:24:46.260 But is that, is that literally true? Like, do you, do you remember engaging in that calculus?

00:24:51.440 I remember, yeah. Thinking like this is going to require something else. I also remember like,

00:24:56.840 uh, a funny story that I would never want to tell anybody, but I remember like, cause I used to play

00:25:01.520 trombone and I just, it did not attract the, um, the sexy girls. Yeah. It certainly didn't attract

00:25:07.320 anybody. As a matter of fact, it's not a, a nice saxophone at least sounds kind of, you know,

00:25:12.100 sensual. Um, you know, however, I remember going over and I practice and I, maybe I practice a half

00:25:18.500 an hour at the most a day, whatever. And I remember going over to my friend's, um, house and his

00:25:23.840 brother, uh, was in the San Francisco symphony, which blew me away because, you know, that's the

00:25:29.120 ultimate if you want to be a musician. And I remember him, he would practice seven, eight hours

00:25:33.480 a day. I never went over to my friend, Mike Robinson was my friend's name. He was a trumpet player.

00:25:37.420 And his brother, uh, his dad, Bill Robinson was a tremendous trombone player. Um, and a teacher

00:25:44.120 and his, and his older brother would be in his room. I'm doing triplets, doing the scales. And

00:25:55.240 we're the whole time, every time I was at his house and I went like, man, that's a lot of work

00:25:59.420 just to be the, the first trombonist in the San Francisco orchestra. And my friend, Mike said,

00:26:05.980 no, he's the third trombonist. No, there's two other guys better than him. And he's working

00:26:11.800 eight hours a day. I quit the trombone that day. And I said, I got to do something else.

00:26:16.660 And I noticed that with jokes and then, you know, entertaining being in high school, I noticed

00:26:20.600 that that was my in. And, uh, cause I was a nervous kid cause my mother, you know, she spoke

00:26:26.060 very good English, but she didn't understand it. So I was always a little bit more, you know,

00:26:30.420 my speaking was a little, not quite stuttered, but it was stopped starting because that's

00:26:36.980 just the way I was raised. And so people would laugh. And I remember going, I could either

00:26:42.400 fight this or this could be my way in.

00:26:45.820 So, okay. I mean, you used it for, to hopefully get in with the ladies, but then when did you

00:26:51.820 decide, wait a minute, I can, I can make a career out of this.

00:26:55.320 Well, they would, they did a, um, I mean, my dad had comedy albums. So we listened and

00:27:00.340 you know, I was the youngest kid, so I didn't get the most attention. I, you know, they were

00:27:05.260 my, but I said this joke when I was young, I said, you know, my parents, I was the fifth

00:27:08.960 kid. So by the time I grew up, they were over it. They're like, you know, Rob, here's where

00:27:12.640 the alcohol is.

00:27:13.380 I'm the exact same way, by the way, I'm fourth of four. And the next youngest is 10 years

00:27:18.620 older than me. So I, I, I empathize.

00:27:20.500 And so you had it all and they were up, but they also left you alone. And then they did

00:27:24.820 spoil you. I remember two things. Like my parents were basically like, Rob, here's where the

00:27:29.020 car keys are. Here's where the alcohol is. Just do whatever you have to do. And, and I

00:27:33.080 remember my mom, when I was a little baby or three years old yelling at my siblings

00:27:38.020 because my mom and dad would go out to dinner and they would have a social life. They, my

00:27:41.280 dad would take my mom to see comedy shows, which she didn't understand. And she'd have

00:27:44.960 explained later because my mom spoke five languages, but a distant second language was English

00:27:50.880 for her. Uh, she would yell at my siblings. All right, we're going out to dinner. Anybody

00:27:56.880 touch a hair on Robbie? I murder all of you, you know? So, uh, they're still alive.

00:28:04.120 No, they passed away. My mom, almost 93. She was a survivor of the Japanese occupation of

00:28:09.740 the Philippines, but never bitter. But I remember my dad who also, you know, all those relatives

00:28:14.160 were, were of course killed. And, um, you know, by the, by the, the real Nazis, not the

00:28:20.700 Nazis at the Trump rally, not at the Madison square garden, Nazis, not those Nazis, you

00:28:25.100 know, actual Nazis, you know, I mean, the, the, the, the definition of Nazis, not people

00:28:29.300 who just happened to be in the second party that were allowed in the United States, you

00:28:34.080 know, not those Nazis, but real Nazis. He used to say this to me. He said, Robbie, John,

00:28:40.740 here's the thing when they come again, cause they're going to come again. They're not taking

00:28:45.500 us alive. Like they did in Europe and Eastern Europe and Poland. His, his family is from

00:28:51.120 Tarnapol, which was a part of Prussia. Now Poland, Tarnapol. And, um, he said, we got

00:28:57.460 guns. We're not taking us alive. You're going to get this gun. You're going to get this

00:29:00.620 gun. We're going to shoot our way out. And he would have that meeting with us. And he

00:29:04.260 meant it. And I always thought it was nuts. And now that I know it's, it's not nuts. It

00:29:09.580 isn't. And yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Finish your point. But unfortunately it isn't nuts. I

00:29:14.460 mean, we have to like, I have guns. I never had guns in my life. I do now. Uh, so, you

00:29:19.000 know, I, I think it's, um, for the people who the leftists and the Democrats who are putting

00:29:25.300 in, you know, who were all for open borders and stuff and look for, you know, Michelle

00:29:30.260 Obama and for, um, Oprah Winfrey, these very, very wealthy people that have, as you say,

00:29:37.340 inoculated themselves from the, uh, from the policies that they're pushing. Exactly. Uh,

00:29:42.420 they, they don't live in a border state and they don't, they don't realize that the, that, uh,

00:29:47.420 letting in millions of people that will be forever Democrat voters is also putting a lot

00:29:51.040 of people at risk. And it's, it's, uh, they're inoculated. They're living in their, you know,

00:29:56.080 they got gated communities and, uh, most people Americans don't. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Let's

00:30:01.520 continue with, uh, so many questions that I want to ask you in the Hollywood world. Uh,

00:30:06.720 are there any, uh, I mean, I'm sure you have a million stories that you could share, but are

00:30:12.660 there any stars that you haven't met that are still alive that you would love to meet? And

00:30:19.940 before you answer, I'll answer. If you asked me that question, actually, sorry, who would you

00:30:27.700 want to meet? Yeah. Well, thanks. Thanks for asking. Uh, Clint Eastwood would be one names that

00:30:34.540 comes to my head too, but I have met him. Okay. Well, I want to hear about that. So hold off,

00:30:38.840 but let me finish my answer. Then I want to hear your meeting with Clint. Now for me, Clint,

00:30:43.420 it's not a lot of people might think, Oh, it's because he's conservative. Not at all. It's because I

00:30:48.640 grew up in Lebanon, Rob, watching this guy coming into town. Remember you, like you see how you,

00:30:58.580 you notice that, Hey, I can get the girls by being the funny guy. That was my way in. Well,

00:31:03.280 I looked at this guy. I didn't speak English. So I'm talking about the spaghetti Westerns.

00:31:07.760 And I said, I want to be that guy when I grow up. That's my guy. And so that's one of the reasons

00:31:15.340 why I want to meet him. The other guy I wanted to meet who's not passed away is Bert

00:31:20.380 Bacharach. Do you remember, do you remember Bert Bacharach now? So he's the, the, they called him

00:31:27.180 the, uh, uh, the Mozart of pop. Exactly. Uh, because he, you know, his music is really eternal. I mean,

00:31:36.180 he's, you could, you could find his stuff, you know, in the sixties, seventies, eighties,

00:31:41.080 and then maybe a bit less. And, uh, I mentioned these two guys on Joe Rogan show about a day or

00:31:48.660 two later in my Instagram, I receive a private DM from the son of Bert Bacharach who says, Hey,

00:31:57.000 professor, I watch your thing. Let's try to hook it up. But then he passed away before we were ever

00:32:02.820 able to do it. So those are my two guys. Those are beautiful. Who would be yours? Go ahead.

00:32:07.220 My goodness. Well, I love Bert Bacharach because he really, he really took a form of music and then,

00:32:15.860 and then made it wonderfully. I mean, it wasn't simple. It wasn't simply done, but he brought

00:32:21.200 orchestral to it and, and, and, and, but didn't do it in a, uh, didn't do it in a complicated way

00:32:30.320 that benefited that, that, that kind of complimented his ego. Yeah. He made it, he made it sound

00:32:35.100 beautiful and simple and approachable. Just like what you do with your works and your speeches

00:32:39.540 is that you make, you make people feel relaxed because you're not going over their head. He did

00:32:45.220 the same thing musically and beautifully and beautifully layered. And he really was, they

00:32:50.040 called him the Mozart of pop. And he really did deserve that title. And he did have beautiful music

00:32:54.780 that'll last forever. I mean, Clint Eastwood was my guy because I grew up in San Francisco.

00:32:59.040 So Clint Eastwood was when I was a kid and you saw Dirty Harry. Oh my God. Yes. Well,

00:33:05.100 Dirty Harry was actually, you know who they offered that role to first, Gad? Who? John Wayne.

00:33:11.200 Is that right? And he thought it was too violent. He ended up- From Newport Beach,

00:33:15.360 conservative from Newport Beach. He thought it was too violent and didn't think, but he ended up doing

00:33:19.840 a movie called McCain or McQueen or whatever, McQueen, McQueen or something like that, which was, uh,

00:33:26.020 McLean. I think it was called McLean, which was a Dirty Harry, but it was too late. But the guy

00:33:29.920 that was perfect for it was Clint Eastwood because you saw this guy, friend of mine who was making

00:33:34.560 movies in Italy back in, uh, you know, was an extra and in movies back in the, in Italy,

00:33:40.140 back in the 1960s. In the Spaghetti Western movies? Yeah. He was like, he flew out there as 19 years

00:33:45.940 old. He's a Canadian. He's a director by the name of Boone Collins, very dear friend of mine.

00:33:51.200 And he said, he was, he said, I want to be in movies. And he heard about that. They were making

00:33:54.220 him in Italy. So he flew out there and he was an extra in some of these movies. And he said,

00:33:58.880 when you saw Clint Eastwood walking down the street, it was like seeing the, the Mona Lisa

00:34:03.660 walking down the street. This is perfectly handsome guy with coiffed hair and built, I mean, Clint still

00:34:08.560 to this day. And unlike us, tall. Yeah. Tall and six foot four when that was something, you know? So,

00:34:16.000 uh, but he, um, he was a guy that, uh, I would say one of the most talented guys ever in the

00:34:23.460 Hollywood system. And he was a guy that truthfully didn't have the most range. He stuck to his,

00:34:29.600 there's two kinds of actors, Gad. You had a guy that could, you had different guys that

00:34:32.880 could play everything. You know, you see Dustin Hoffman, uh, when Rain Man, or you see him in,

00:34:38.000 um, uh, you know, in, in, um, you know, Kramer versus Kramer, no? You see him in different,

00:34:45.460 he's different in every movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He can hide himself. Al Pacino is different in,

00:34:49.540 uh, you see in the Godfather. Do you see him in, um, you know, uh, cruising is very

00:34:55.680 different. Oh, hold on. Stop right there. I got to tell you a story about cruising. You

00:35:00.280 ready? Yeah. 1980. My parents, I think have just returned for the last time from Lebanon

00:35:08.100 post having been kidnapped by Fatah. I think it was 1990, maybe 1979 when we went to see the

00:35:14.180 movie. I go with my mother. One of the only times I've ever gone to a movie. I took her to see

00:35:20.660 cruising, which for those of you who don't know, it's Al Pacino. He's an undercover cop trying to

00:35:28.720 find a serial killer within the hardcore leather gaze world. At the end of the movie, my mother looks

00:35:36.480 at me and says, are you trying to tell me something? I said, no, mom, I'm not trying to

00:35:43.600 come out as gay by taking you to the movie. I'm just, I really like Al Pacino. Was she looking at

00:35:49.940 you during the movie? Like she wasn't, she was uncomfortable because there's a lot of scenes in

00:35:55.000 the movie that you wouldn't expect your 14, 15 year old child to be sharing that experience with you.

00:35:59.940 And especially if you come from the middle East, but anyways, forgive me for interrupting you. It just

00:36:04.220 seemed like the right story to know. That was absolutely right. Because I remember my parents,

00:36:08.940 they went to go see a movie that sounded like it was a dance movie. And it was Last Tango in Paris

00:36:14.640 with Marlon Brando. And it was, you know, him with the butter and the girl having, you know,

00:36:19.300 this, you know, these sex and blah, blah, blah. And it was just that my mother, they were scarred for

00:36:25.220 seeing movies for years. And then they finally went again and they went to go see this movie that

00:36:30.820 Diane Keaton was in it. And they thought it was going to be a Woody Allen movie. And it turned

00:36:36.040 out to be this Richard Gere's, one of his first movies. And it was about a serial killer. It was

00:36:40.640 called Looking for Mrs. Goodbar, which is about this woman who was this promiscuous woman who kept

00:36:45.240 sleeping with everybody until she finally met a serial killer who killed her. My parents stopped

00:36:49.240 going to movies. That was it. They said, we're not doing this again. But I remember my mommy horrified by

00:36:55.160 those movies. Okay, go on. So you were talking about guys that have range, Pacino and Kramer would

00:37:01.160 be an example. You had a guy like, you would have a guy that would cling to a character and would

00:37:05.560 basically play different variations of that, whether it's Adam Sandler is a common version of that or

00:37:09.720 Brad Pitt, or you'd have, you know, Humphrey Bogart, whether he was basically the same guy in the

00:37:14.740 Maltese Falcon as he was in the African Queen. Yeah. So he basically hang on to this guy and he would be

00:37:23.740 this guy forever. And that's what you were going to get. You're going to get Humphrey Bogart,

00:37:27.580 whether you saw the petrified. Ah, that's good. And show it up to what you'd get. And then you

00:37:33.460 have, like, Klinice was one of those guys too. But he also became a director. And one of the reasons

00:37:37.880 he said he became a director is because he made this movie in 1965 with Lee Marvin that was called

00:37:42.900 Paint Your Wagon that was directed by an Englishman. An Englishman who are very, you know, in England,

00:37:48.580 they have a saying, which is very true. They said, the man does not know his place.

00:37:56.400 In other words, you're here and they're here and you better, there's a chasm there for a reason.

00:38:02.620 And this director would set up a scene, a shot, and it would be all day setting up one shot. And it

00:38:09.160 would be this cascading thing of events happening. And, you know, these rocks coming in the water

00:38:13.980 flowing and people running. And he was just waiting around all day. Him and Lee Marvin were

00:38:19.640 waiting around for this shot to happen. And he said to himself, if I can paraphrase for him or

00:38:24.100 speak for him, I'm never going to do this. If I get a chance to direct a movie, I'm going to make it

00:38:29.220 quick and I'm going to shoot this thing. And he has, and he did. And his first movie that he directed

00:38:33.740 was called Play Misty for Me. Oh, yes. In his hometown, brilliant little thriller about,

00:38:39.500 and truthfully, before Fatal Attraction, this was the Fatal Attraction. It was about a female

00:38:43.900 stalker of someone who was a radio personality. Like 74, 75, something like that? Yes, I think

00:38:49.740 73, 74. You're right. And he filmed it in his little hometown, beautiful hometown of, this is

00:38:57.580 before drones. So all the shots you see of beautiful coastline is a helicopter shot. I remember making

00:39:03.280 movies when I was young. Can we get a helicopter for this scene? It's like, no, it's too expensive.

00:39:07.140 Now you get a drone. It's a nickel, basically. And so he made this movie a taut little thriller.

00:39:13.900 And then he directed all these other movies since, whether it was comedies with an orangutan.

00:39:21.580 Right. Orangutan. Exactly right. That's the only time you can ever work. There's a story about that.

00:39:27.200 The only time you could ever work with an orangutan, a full grown orangutan. Because once these great

00:39:32.200 apes turn adolescent, 13, and they grow their incisors, they want to take you out. And the only guy

00:39:38.720 that I know of in existence that ever was able to work with full grown orangutans was a guy named

00:39:44.440 Bobby Bersini. Bobby Bersini had his own act where he had literally six full grown orangutans on stage

00:39:52.740 at a casino, a live show, that these could have jumped into the audience and killed people. But he

00:39:57.820 was able to manage them. And so when I was doing a movie called The Animal, we wanted to get, you know,

00:40:03.080 at that time, special effects was the one where now you can just create it and do it. We had to

00:40:07.380 actually get chimpanzees and orangutans. And this was 20 years ago. So we said, I said, well, let's

00:40:13.600 get that guy who did the Clint Eastwood movie. You know, what's it called? Loose or, you know,

00:40:22.320 I forget the name of the Clint Eastwood movie where he worked on orangutan, like left hand Clyde,

00:40:28.900 remember? Left side Clyde, where Clyde would punch a guy. And it was Bobby Bersini. So we got him.

00:40:37.400 And then he told us that, you know, he's Italian, Bersini. He said, Robby, let me tell you,

00:40:42.820 everything was good in my business. Everything was good. And then I have one guy who make a

00:40:48.600 complaint. One guy, he videotaped me. He videotaped me to make an animal. Because you

00:40:53.500 have to, I mean, let me tell you the truth. Robby, we have to fool these animals. We cannot just tell

00:40:57.860 them to do stuff. They don't just do stuff. You have to pretend that you are stronger than them.

00:41:01.880 The minute, the minute that they think, the minute, the minute, did I say the minute? The minute that

00:41:07.800 they think that they are stronger than you, you're dead. You're already been there four times.

00:41:11.500 He has a, the bone density is nine times more than a human. Oh, I'm sorry. Nine times, seven to nine times

00:41:18.080 more. Okay. I forget. But anyway, and so what happened was he was correcting one of the animals

00:41:23.120 and how they corrected is, Hey, go over there. You got to do this. And, you know, don't misbehave.

00:41:28.120 And what he would do is he grabbed his chest hair like this and like, Hey, no. And so that was cruel.

00:41:33.680 And then the casino, it was beginning of canceling. And so we had him come out to work with us. And,

00:41:40.100 and the animal actually did some weird things with me and he left. He literally, the animal was doing

00:41:47.560 this rehearsal with me. We're about to shoot Monday and this is on a Saturday. We got to

00:41:52.840 shoot Monday. And the full grown orangutan started doing something where the neck kind of goes up

00:41:57.680 and he just distract the animal puts it and he's got it on a wheelchair so he can move it because

00:42:02.440 they're very, you know, they can't move that great. And, uh, he just wheeled it out. And I said,

00:42:07.380 what happened? Is everything okay? I said, Robbie, I've known this animal. He's there for, for many years.

00:42:11.640 And, um, I must tell you that I've never seen him do an aggressive move like that. And so we can't do

00:42:17.120 the movie. I said, what we're shooting Monday. Yeah. I'm sorry for you. I can't have this happen

00:42:22.080 to me. And you specifically triggered his ire for some reason. Yeah. The animal did a move that I

00:42:28.800 don't know. I could, I didn't recognize it, but the, the whole thing went out like that. Right. As soon as

00:42:33.000 that happened, Bobby, he came in between, took the animal, distracted the animal, turned it on his chair

00:42:37.980 and took it out. And he said, Robbie, let me tell you, I mean, he sees a problem, be a problem for me,

00:42:42.920 the problem, uh, for the animal and mostly a problem for you. They're so quick and so strong, just like

00:42:48.660 that. And then bada boom. And so he literally got in his, in his, you know, he had, he had a cage in

00:42:55.140 the, in the bus on the lot. He literally put the animal in the cage on the lot and drove off, went back to

00:43:00.840 Vegas. And, um, and so that was it. So we had, we, but luckily there was a universal, there was another

00:43:07.080 orangutan that was younger and we got to work with that one. So, uh, that's just, I get it why

00:43:12.780 they don't, um, you shouldn't work with, with animals, um, you know, big, strong animals that

00:43:18.060 want to kill you. But I did work with this one orangutan, uh, who was nine, not an adolescent.

00:43:23.540 Then we had, we shot that scene, which has ended up being pretty funny for the movie.

00:43:26.720 So tell us the story of when you met Clint Eastwood.

00:43:30.280 Well, um, not a great story. I literally was at the whole foods, uh, in, um, studio city

00:43:40.120 and I'm walking through the aisle and all of a sudden I walked and it was one of those

00:43:45.280 things like, and he literally was on his hands and knees reaching in, grabbing a can

00:43:52.480 of soup, organic soup. Oh my God. And I was like, I, I need to want to bug people. They're

00:43:59.360 groceries, grocery shopping, whatever. And he's literally turns around, he says, hi, hi.

00:44:06.560 Is that true? Or you're just doing the Rob thing?

00:44:09.780 No, I just said, I, I'm just, thank you for the joy that you brought. You know, you don't

00:44:14.680 know what to say to people, like the joy that you brought, the family, me, and, um, and

00:44:20.920 I said, and your new movie, um, grand Torino. I mean, wow.

00:44:26.540 And, uh, he said, um, and he basically just didn't say much, but like, uh, I said, that's

00:44:32.600 your best movie. You should get an Academy award for that. And he said, the Academy hates

00:44:35.860 me. They've seen too much of me. He said, they're sick of me because he just won the Academy

00:44:43.640 award for before that. But, um, for, you know, unforgiven, but that was when, well, fantastic.

00:44:50.660 But that's when you could be a conservative and it didn't, they didn't hold it against

00:44:54.260 you if you made enough money, but then they, they kind of changed, you know, and it's a

00:44:59.040 closed system and they are, uh, they, they have retribution. You don't, it's sad because

00:45:05.700 it just, we should be, they, they, it's all tolerance. It's a party of tolerance that

00:45:10.700 has no tolerance and they're not playing around when you're out forever.

00:45:14.940 That's right. Uh, you know, and, uh, before my wife and I had kids, uh, we embarked on

00:45:20.300 a project. So, you know, the AFI, the American film Institute, every, I don't know how many

00:45:25.040 years, 10 years or something that they come up with their new top 100 rankings. And so

00:45:29.220 we thought, look, uh, you know, we need to be, you know, cultured people when it comes

00:45:34.160 to films. So let's kind of try to go through all of these. And so we started going through

00:45:39.700 the list, uh, and in no systematic way, but to try to get through as many as we could,

00:45:44.600 but then we had kids and we had to abandon the project. Uh, it was really incredible

00:45:49.240 because some of the movies you'd see and you'd go, Oh my God, I get why this is amazing.

00:45:53.780 So here's, here are two that are on the list and I'd love to hear what you think about them.

00:45:58.460 So I saw the apartment with, uh, do you remember the apartment?

00:46:02.340 That's a great story. I only got to meet, um, Jack lemon one time, Jack lemon. Uh, there's

00:46:08.700 a very good story because he got to work with, you know, the, the great, one of the great

00:46:13.300 directors has ever been in Hollywood, Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder made a movie that's probably

00:46:18.820 the most consequential film. That was the transition between the silent era and, um, the talkies,

00:46:26.480 which was sunset Boulevard, an incredible thing. And, um, that that's one of the greatest films

00:46:33.020 of all time. But the, the movie that he made with Jack lemon was really great. You know,

00:46:38.600 the apartment is, is probably, you know, one of their best collaborations that they made.

00:46:43.120 And Jack was just this incredible actor. And, uh, I only got to meet him one time.

00:46:47.340 There's a great story that, um, about Jack lemon, Billy Wilder, um, was giving him direction

00:46:53.560 on a scene. And he said, Jack, can we do the take one more time, Jack, but can you do me

00:46:58.120 a favor? Can you take it down 50%? And Jack was like, uh, yeah, all right. He doesn't take

00:47:05.280 again. Cut. Jack. It's marvelous. I really like it, but can we try something for me, please?

00:47:12.860 Can we take the same thing that you just did and take it down another 50%? Another 50% Jack.

00:47:19.240 So Jack was like, all right. He does the scene again. Cut. Okay. Jack, just one more favor.

00:47:28.480 Can you take what you just did there? Take it down another 50%, just another 50%. Jack's

00:47:34.960 getting a little annoyed by this point. So he does one more take. Cut, Jack. Can we do

00:47:38.920 another? He said, if I take it down another 50%, I'll be doing nothing. He said, try that.

00:47:45.380 Isn't that beautiful?

00:47:47.260 You know what that reminds me of? Do you remember the scene in forgetting Sarah Marshall,

00:47:53.940 where Paul, what Paul Rudd is great actor. Right. It's teaching Jason. Uh, what? I don't

00:48:02.100 remember his name. The tall guy, the main actor, uh, how to, uh, surf. And as he's getting on the

00:48:09.060 board, he goes, no, no. Could you do a bit less than he could you do a bit less? And then at one

00:48:13.540 point, Jason doesn't know what to do because anything less would be for me to just stay on

00:48:17.800 the board. So it's exactly the same principle. Okay. So I saw the apartment. I saw,

00:48:23.920 double indemnity loved it. I saw probably my favorite all about Eve. I went crazy. I

00:48:31.300 love unbelievable. But now here's, here's some other ones that I saw and I didn't get

00:48:36.400 the Philadelphia story. I thought sucked at Roman holiday sucked. So having said all that

00:48:44.540 you're the professional, I'm just the amateur. It's all about taste. There are some movies that

00:48:51.840 get like literally Academy. You always like when people, when a hundred million people used to

00:48:56.680 watch it for the Academy Awards, as opposed to less than a million now, it's because they've,

00:49:01.720 they have changed their course. They become, um, so politicized that they're no longer

00:49:07.440 entertainment based. They're just preachy. And, uh, back when in the old days, like back in the

00:49:12.880 height of it, I mean, the best movies that came out of the late 1930s, 40s, um, literally 1939,

00:49:21.700 you had six movies that were up for Academy Award and they were all some of the greatest films ever

00:49:25.220 made. You know, whether it was Gone with the Wind, it was Gunga Din. Um, it was the Wizard of Oz. I

00:49:32.220 mean, you had like, there were six and they were all incredible. Um, and, and at the same time,

00:49:38.100 you know, in the 1970s was the other high watermark of comedy. And I remember watching the Academy

00:49:42.480 Awards with my parents, no politicization at all. What it really had was a hundred million

00:49:48.340 Americans would watch the show. And then so many around the world, because it was the, it really

00:49:53.120 was a celebration of movies. And you had, you know, beforehand you'd have the interviews with

00:49:57.620 Barbara Walters and they'd interview the movie stars of their day. So she'd be interviewing Sean

00:50:01.880 Connery and said, Sean, you said the thing about where that a woman that you could hit a woman. Now,

00:50:09.840 can you, can you please, can you please with her lift, can you please clarify your position for people

00:50:16.020 who are horrified, but what a horrible thing is it? I said, well, Barbara, what I was saying was

00:50:20.900 basically that for a woman who can get particularly stuck in a, in a, uh, well, emotionally stuck,

00:50:27.720 you know, I never hit a woman with the front of my hand, but the back of a hand, I find a woman

00:50:32.560 could get unstuck or whatever he would say, which is absolutely horrible, you know, but you would

00:50:37.940 have these, these, these consequential interviews with these gigantic movie stars. And we didn't

00:50:42.700 have that. You didn't have social media where they were telling you what you had breakfast every

00:50:46.620 day. There was some, they were, you know, these mysterious people that were just fascinating

00:50:52.460 that you only knew from the, literally the big screen and you would go see them. And there

00:50:57.300 were bigger than life. I mean, I remember like, you know, what, what Richard Pryor said about John

00:51:01.720 Wayne, when he was a kid, like John Wayne, he don't go to the bathroom. Will you talk about go to the

00:51:05.420 bathroom? It's John Wayne. You know, these people weren't people. They were these gigantic movie

00:51:10.520 stars. And that's when you had the Academy Award that had a hundred million people where you had

00:51:14.200 amazing, you know, talent that was, that was trying to make the best movies that were something,

00:51:19.020 you know, and as opposed to now, now there's like, you know, they, they literally have diversity

00:51:24.320 to qualify for an Academy Award. So they're just shooting themselves in the foot. That whole,

00:51:29.040 that whole racist thing were like, um, which was totally like fear of being a racist. Cause

00:51:36.140 that's the worst thing you could be in America now. I'm sure in Canada as well, Gad, it's like the

00:51:40.520 worst thing you could be in America is being perceived as a racist or accused of being a racist.

00:51:44.660 You know, it's, it's, it's like the worst thing you can be in America is three things,

00:51:47.280 pedophile, Trump supporter, racist. Those are the big three. That's true. So, and so now you have,

00:51:53.620 um, you know, it's, it's devolved into where, you know, where you have to have 30% LBGTQ plus to

00:52:03.100 qualify for the Academy Awards and, and it's all being preachy stuff. And here's what you never hear

00:52:07.960 on a Friday night. Hey, let's go see that new movie. I heard it's got 30% LBGTQ plus in, in,

00:52:16.380 in the, in the crew and 35% in the cast. And the boom man is a Peruvian homosexual. He used to be

00:52:23.060 an associate professor at Portland university. Nice, nice link back to an earlier thing.

00:52:27.860 You got it. That's how the comedians work.

00:52:30.680 How does that, has that made you less in love with your profession or you're able to still

00:52:38.540 navigate in your creative juices, notwithstanding the fact that all this diversity stuff is in

00:52:44.980 Hollywood. It is in Hollywood, but the GAD, I mean, the thing I started out as a comedian,

00:52:50.560 so this is like, God works in very mysterious ways. Whereas the thing that you need to learn,

00:52:57.620 like we're all here to learn. I would say that if, if there was some design and I'd say like,

00:53:04.940 why did God put the apple in Eden? And I just tell people in a crude way, God wants shit to happen.

00:53:11.600 And he doesn't just want this peacefulness and everything to be Eden. He wants us to test us

00:53:16.040 in every way that we can. And, and, um, not just as individuals, but as families, as communities,

00:53:21.060 as nations, and, and, and, and for us to be good stewards, hopefully to continue to be good stewards

00:53:28.240 for this planet. And so these things are these tests that happen. And, and, um, and it's happened to

00:53:36.040 me, um, for, for, for my career. Uh, and it's, it's to see it, um, to see the evolution of it.

00:53:45.400 And I started out as a comedian and I gave it up because I respected it too much. I didn't want to

00:53:51.220 just do it on the weekends. I remember Jay Leno, when I would use the promote movies, I go on Jay

00:53:54.920 Leno. Hey, why don't you do standup anymore? I don't understand. You can make like,

00:53:58.580 and it was this little thing, you know, you're going to do this corporate gig. I'm doing one

00:54:04.680 tonight after the show. And, uh, those are Jay's two moves. You talk up here, you know,

00:54:10.620 he didn't come down here. And, uh, those are great moves though. He was the best comedian of

00:54:15.140 his generation. And I said, it's because Jay, I respect the art form too much to just go out and

00:54:19.800 make a buck on it on weekends. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it full time and make that my

00:54:23.760 thing. And so when the career kind of got blacklisted or, or I should say, cause it isn't

00:54:29.200 just a black list, but when your movies don't make money, you have a couple that miss, or if

00:54:33.600 you're controversial, because, and I say this to people like, cause I say, cause you've been

00:54:37.980 blacklisted. It's not just that it's very complicated because it's not just the studio. It's not just

00:54:44.220 the people, the producers and directors and the executives. I mean, because the executives who are

00:54:48.960 making the decisions, they're not making the decisions. Like let's make another all about

00:54:53.620 Eve. Let's make another African queen. They are the godfather. They're making decisions in a much

00:54:59.780 more, um, I would say self-serving method. Gad, uh, they know they're going to be fired and then

00:55:07.760 they know it's a matter of time. And they know that the good life meeting girls, uh, having a house on

00:55:12.420 the beach and traveling around the world and having a lot and the power that it comes with. And when you

00:55:19.120 ever go to a studio lot, there's something that's really interesting. Nobody ever talks about.

00:55:23.860 And I've never talked about this either. There's a book because I was waiting for my cab one time

00:55:28.960 and I was waiting in the cab wasn't coming. There's a book, a huge books. And I just went in at the

00:55:34.000 gate to get into the lot of Fox. I said, what are those books? And this, these are the, all the old

00:55:38.300 executive producers, directors, and writers who are banned from the lot because they're that angry

00:55:43.120 and whatever. They're now controlling the democratic party. Those same people. That's my guess. But these,

00:55:48.200 all these malcontents and angry people who've made threats or whatever, these lunatics,

00:55:52.080 folks, because that's what gets in show business.

00:55:55.360 Oh, you mean Robert De Niro?

00:56:00.200 These people who are unbalanced. Yes. Um, they're not allowed on the lot. And so these are people.

00:56:07.340 So going back to the executives, they're making decisions, not what's the best movie I can make.

00:56:12.400 What can I put my name on? What could be stand the test of time and break into that top hundred movies?

00:56:17.900 It's simpler. What will delay my inevitable fire firing the longest? How can I keep this party going?

00:56:26.940 So the art part is gone. It's just survival.

00:56:31.220 Yeah. Well, and that, that's a shift that wasn't that, that was a long time coming because

00:56:35.000 the, you know, what, what really changed the industry was the, they had the studio system

00:56:39.840 collapsed in like 1967. And it was, you know, whereas it used to, whatever, you know, whether

00:56:45.720 it was somebody was gay and got found out, he was gay, that they had a studio system that would

00:56:49.160 protect them. And whether it was, there was, you know, somebody got into, was drunk in a car

00:56:52.580 accident, they would, or got divorced and they're supposed to be, you know, they're Mickey

00:56:56.720 Rooney, blah, blah, blah. And they would protect it. But the star system, I mean, the studio

00:57:01.120 system collapsed and with it, the stars that were being held up by it. And so you had to

00:57:05.560 be a producer yourself. And Warren Beatty was one of the guys who produced and found material

00:57:10.180 that was interesting for him. And he made Bonnie and Clyde, which was the first movie that had

00:57:15.180 literally both leads murdered or killed violently at the end of the movie. And that was a studio

00:57:22.140 picture because the studio system had collapsed. And so you also had a movie that was rated

00:57:27.920 X. Another interesting story that was rated X called Midnight Cowboy. Yeah. John Voight

00:57:34.080 was the second choice. The first choice, you know who that was for Midnight Cowboy? Elvis

00:57:38.620 Preston. Wow. But Elvis and John Voight doesn't like to tell that story because he feels bad

00:57:44.320 for, for, for Elvis, but he won the Academy Award for that. And that would have changed Elvis's

00:57:48.240 career, but Elvis's manager thought it was, you know, too dirty of a movie.

00:57:52.960 And Elvis's manager didn't want to get kicked out of the country because he wasn't here legally. He

00:57:56.280 was a Dutch, a crazy Dutch criminal. So they made that movie and that movie was rated X because

00:58:02.140 here's an interesting thing that happened. That's how old the Academy of Motion Pictures always is

00:58:06.720 and the people in it. Because at that time they started putting into a new rating system,

00:58:10.920 a rating system to come in to be more modernized. So they put, instead of just having a general audience

00:58:16.700 and the not general audience, they had G, which was for general audience and then, um,

00:58:23.000 PG, PG, which was general audience mature. And then they had R for restricted. And then there was

00:58:29.600 X for adults. Now what happened was the bunch of old fogies didn't realize that the R was for

00:58:35.560 teenagers and the X was going to be for adults for mature themes. So the first movie that got that

00:58:40.920 stamp was midnight cowboy, but they didn't trademark this, uh, these new symbols. So the PG, you know,

00:58:49.980 PG and R, they weren't trademarked and X wasn't trademarked. So what happened was the nudies came in,

00:58:56.220 the nude pornographic movies in the movie theaters swept in by that night. It's 1967, 1968. And, uh,

00:59:04.820 the censorship laws got dropped in America. Thanks to Lenny Bruce and Ken Kesey and Henry Miller,

00:59:10.360 uh, which the obscenity laws changed, which allowed for this, this new cinema X. And so you had X and

00:59:18.340 double X and triple X. So the movies, which were supposed to be divided into four quadrants, which was

00:59:23.680 all, everybody, everybody. And, you know, if you're 13, whatever you should be with your parents

00:59:28.300 and then teenagers, and then it was also adults, 17 and over. So the X got thrown out and all those

00:59:35.040 other movies, which are more adult fair or violent, like Scorsese movies come to mind, Tarantino's,

00:59:40.100 they got squished into the R ones. And so it's still to this day, I still think there needs to be a

00:59:46.960 revamping of R plus or R with a red label or something. And so that's what happened. But the

00:59:53.820 first one that, that was the only one ever that was a, a, um, best picture Academy award winner that

01:00:00.020 was X was Midnight Cowboy.

01:00:02.400 Very interesting. Would you, speaking about range that we were talking about earlier,

01:00:06.740 one could argue that obviously you're, you're a comedic actor. Most, most, not all of your movies

01:00:14.060 have been in comedy. Would you, is it an aspiration of yours to say, Hey, if I can get my hat, you know,

01:00:20.280 Adam Sandler, your, your buddy did do a movie where he, he's not a funny guy, right? Pretty recently.

01:00:26.400 If you, is this something that you aspire to do or no, no, I know my lane. I'm comfortable in my lane.

01:00:32.900 I want to make people laugh. That's what I'm good at. And I'll stick to it.

01:00:36.220 Well, I was talking to my friend as the best comedian, the most famous comedian in Spain,

01:00:41.380 the most, uh, certainly the, I think the greatest comedian ever in Spain, uh, is, uh, not that I

01:00:47.160 know every comedian there, but Santiago Segura. And he's a friend of mine. And, and I, I was talking

01:00:52.900 to him about us doing a dramatic film. He said, Robbie, why would you want to do this? We have,

01:00:58.340 we have a specialty. We're a comedian. How many people could get laughs like us? I mean, come on,

01:01:02.720 let's do it. Why don't we stick to what very few people can do like us? Huh? Robbie, we stick to this.

01:01:07.400 We stick to this. Robbie. Oh, with the, with the, with the Spanish lisp.

01:01:12.560 It's a specialty. Yeah. Specialty.

01:01:15.320 Puerto Puerto, Puerto Puerto, Robbie. And he's right. But I do want to stretch and do things that,

01:01:20.740 that call out to me. Um, and so there is, there is some films I'd like to make, but we'll see. I mean,

01:01:26.560 I'll say that, um, you know, the, the difficulties that we have, I really do have faith in God and,

01:01:33.900 and that these are just opportunities, opportunities for us as a society, as family,

01:01:39.200 as a country to see, uh, what, I mean, America's going to decide how we want to move forward as a

01:01:45.280 country. Are we going to have, still have two parties? It'd be nice if we had three,

01:01:50.200 but are we still going to have two? I mean, that's really up for grabs now in this new election.

01:01:54.660 You you're referencing sort of the super majority that happened in California. And you would think

01:01:58.780 that you're going to have like what happens in California. Cause I was just there meeting with

01:02:02.580 some investors for my new, my new film and TV and media company. Are you, are you ready to talk

01:02:08.140 about that here? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's a new, I'll talk about for the first time. No apologies. Media

01:02:13.860 is my new film company and broadcasting. We're going to do the whole thing. And I was meeting.

01:02:18.540 Wait a second. Sorry to interrupt. Is there a movie that focuses on a ridiculously good looking

01:02:26.820 professor of Lebanese descent in it? Is there at all? Always. So there is in the production queue,

01:02:34.060 a movie where I star as the leading man. You're going to say that on the record,

01:02:38.380 on the record, the TV series, you're saying this now, and I mean this, you're going to have to come

01:02:42.820 to Georgia part of the next word. Wow. I love this is a real Academy award that I received. Now it says

01:02:49.260 here best husband and my, my, my wife picked it up for a few bucks in Hollywood, but you did get it

01:02:57.260 in Hollywood. I did get it. So it is real. Okay. Go on. But there's a, there, we are going to be

01:03:01.540 doing shows with the, about a university professor. That's one of our TV shows we're doing. So you're

01:03:07.100 going to like that. I'm going to send that to you. See if you like it. Okay. Oh, I would love to check

01:03:10.640 it out. So you mean like, like a script or something? Yeah. It's going to be a new TV series.

01:03:15.320 Oh, that's amazing. That's so exciting. So with, in your new role with this media company,

01:03:22.120 would you be largely behind the scenes? You're a producer or you'd be both, you'd be, you'd be

01:03:28.460 Clint Eastwood. Well, with all the people that are investing money in this and a lot of money,

01:03:34.700 you, I really want to do, you have to do what's best for the project. If I can be helpful or if I'm

01:03:39.580 too, if I'm too controversial, then I'm going to step out and bring in somebody that,

01:03:43.360 that has less baggage to it. But if I can be controversial in a good way, I'll stay in it.

01:03:48.920 But again, it's just, you know, we have to do what's best for the project. And I do think we

01:03:55.180 are coming out of this illiberal, illogical mess that's happening. And I think more people,

01:04:01.240 it was nice to hear Zachary Levy, who member of the tribe. Yes.

01:04:05.600 Yes. Yes. Stepping out. And, and, you know, he's, he's made movies, um, um, you know, Shazam,

01:04:11.620 and he's a really good and handsome member of the tribe. Should I, should I bring him on the show?

01:04:17.480 You should. He's always very important. I mean, it's, it is impossible to ever be better looking

01:04:22.700 than me, but I don't like having anybody on the show that could come close to being as good. Not

01:04:28.120 that you're not as good looking. Thankfully, I'm glad you had me on. I said, well,

01:04:33.620 certainly 10 years ago, we might've been, had a competition. Um, but yeah, it's just, um,

01:04:39.900 it is nice to, uh, to be able to make some things and have the creative freedom because I think

01:04:44.060 traditional show business, as far as the studio system is collapsing in real time. And I think

01:04:49.360 you're going to have the independents that are filling up, that are going to, that are going to be

01:04:53.360 the ones providing content for the major streamers and for what's left of terrestrial broadcasting

01:04:59.440 network TV. And so that I think it's going to, cause they, they take up the risk cause it's a lot

01:05:04.000 of risk. Um, but I, I think at the same time, we're going to have to, I don't want to just be a

01:05:09.580 conservative media company though. We are, I just want to make content for everybody. Uh, you know,

01:05:14.980 Gad, I don't want to, you know, which is, is really because I used to work for Disney. I made some

01:05:20.460 very good movies. I think for Disney, um, back, uh, 20 years ago. And it's just, and I don't mind

01:05:28.240 saying publicly, it's a shame that my wife and I have to watch the movies first before we show it

01:05:32.820 to our children. Yeah. So when would be the first product that comes out from this new media company?

01:05:39.480 It'll probably be, we're going to start with, um, uh, Andrew Doyle is a British broadcaster.

01:05:44.740 You might know he's also, he's been on my show. I think he's brilliant. Then yes,

01:05:48.720 you know, he has a PhD. Yeah, no, he's absolutely, he's a real professor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:05:54.880 Go on. And he's a real intellectual as I'm, I'm, uh, I'm just a fill in the blank because there's

01:06:00.580 nobody available intellectual. Uh, no, but, but he's coming over and he's going to be one of our

01:06:05.080 broadcasters and one of our men. And then, um, we're bringing over some people, some comedians

01:06:10.100 who I can't mention now because they're worried about the, um, being, uh, continued to be canceled.

01:06:15.480 And I told him that you're going to be free here in the United States. And then we're,

01:06:19.640 so the, probably the first product we're going to make is a TV series. And, uh, I can't say where

01:06:24.780 it's going to come out, but we're in negotiations for one of the biggest sites in the world and

01:06:30.080 we'll be their first TV series. And the first person I tell will be you when we can. Oh,

01:06:34.020 I am so excited. All right. Before I have you in that show, I can't wait. That's one thing that I

01:06:40.000 don't have. I'm already soccer star. I'm former adult film star. Okay. That's not true. I just

01:06:46.400 made that up, but you know, but honestly, I mean, I know we're joking around. I love people who are

01:06:54.000 true polymath. So if you ask me who is the person that I'd want to most sit down with for dinner

01:07:01.060 historically, it'd be Leonardo da Vinci. Why? Because he's a surgeon. He's everything,

01:07:07.660 right? He's an artist. He's an artist. He's a dreamer. He's a futurist. He's an engineer. He's

01:07:13.240 an anathema. Everything. So, so I love that. I mean, if, if, if truly ever I could have some

01:07:19.500 appearance in your movie and I could put that, it's, you know what? Life is a playground. So

01:07:24.200 in this book right here, right? This is my book on happiness. I have a whole chapter about life as a

01:07:30.000 playground. Even science is a form of play, right? Well, I believe, I believe it. I mean,

01:07:34.900 that's, that's the true definition of, of, of, of existence to me. What is it? What, I mean,

01:07:40.860 if you had to say it's why our eyes, as Alan Watts said, that's why our eyes point out, not in where

01:07:45.860 we're supposed to look out like that. And if you look at, there's really only, well, most people

01:07:50.560 would say that there's two interpretations of existence and, and, and, you know, I think Alan

01:07:57.220 Watts talks about the third one. I mean, one is the clay model of existence, which is simply like

01:08:02.360 we, that God made us from clay and from dirt and that we, and then Adam came from the rib

01:08:06.420 and that our whole existence is, is looking at things like, well, we, you know, we owe God. And

01:08:10.980 there's this, you know, you never see a picture in the medieval picture of, of Jesus laughing or

01:08:16.680 smiling. It's always like, we're going to talk later and you know what it is and it's going to be

01:08:21.580 important. And the other one is, you know, these, this worse than agnostic is this, this atheistic

01:08:29.700 view of the world is, you know, you know, um, everything's just an accident bumping into each

01:08:34.940 other. And then when you're dead, you're dead. And it's kind of this cold, uh, nihilistic version

01:08:39.680 of, of existence. But there is a third one and which you've alluded to, which is the idea of life

01:08:45.440 as a drama, life as play, life as a gigantic play. Um, and life as a joyful play for us to learn

01:08:55.680 whatever we're supposed to learn this lifetime and experience that from a place of learning.

01:09:01.140 And that learning is something that's the first thing we do is we teach kids the first game,

01:09:05.780 which is the game because it's the beginning game. We teach kids and it is the end game for all of us,

01:09:12.020 which is you're not here. Now you're here. Now you're not here. That's the beginning and the end

01:09:19.380 of all games. And from there, it's this joyous, beautiful search. And I would just tell all people

01:09:25.160 like to calm down about this entire, uh, experience that we're having here in the United States where

01:09:31.240 people so upset and so worried about the election. It was much tougher in the 1860s during that war

01:09:36.580 where so many people, uh, one out of every six citizens died in the colonial United States.

01:09:41.820 Um, and, and then there's the same time, World War II with what my mother starved and both her

01:09:47.320 brothers were killed by the Japanese during her world, her childhood. And she had, she never felt any

01:09:52.980 bitterness towards the Japanese. She just was able to put that out of her and to categorize that as a

01:09:58.960 time of war. That's what she told me. And she never felt fearful. So I would just say this experience

01:10:04.660 that we're going through right now is, is a blessing because we're able to decide what kind of country

01:10:11.340 you want it and what kind of experience and how we're going to interpret this in a way where we could

01:10:15.940 live peacefully with one another and, uh, joyfully. Amen. Let me remind people of the book. You can do

01:10:24.060 it! Exclamation point. Speak your mind, America. Go out, get it. Rob, what a delight it is to have

01:10:30.880 met you. I know we met in person, uh, last year, but we didn't get a chance to have such a in-depth

01:10:36.540 conversation. Thank you so much for coming on. Stay on the line so we could say goodbye offline and

01:10:40.840 please come back anytime when you want to talk about it. This is just part one. Exactly. By the way,

01:10:45.740 to talk about your book and your influence on me, you have a calming, great influence,

01:10:51.940 not just on me, but, and so many people that I know, we all are your admirers, but we're also

01:10:57.100 your students because you're a peaceful warrior and you are, you are secretly teaching all of us.

01:11:05.260 And that is a wonderful place. And I, when I'm going to give speeches, when I talk to kids

01:11:08.580 just yesterday, I was thinking about you and having that positive, peaceful warrior, uh, and

01:11:15.540 gently instructing people and subverting them. Not beautiful words. Thank you so much. Maybe I'll

01:11:23.480 cut that clip and play it back whenever I feel bad about myself. Thank you so much.

01:11:27.660 Stay on the trophy. There it is. There's my Academy Award people and stay on the line.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - November 04, 2024

Actor Rob Schneider - On Woke Hollywood, Great Films, and Politics (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_741)

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