How Brian Grazer Built a Hollywood Empire Through Curiosity, Courage & Relationships | E185

0:00You just need one person, one person that has undying belief in you. She'd look over my shoulder at the report card and she'd say, you're going to be special, you're going all the way. She had all these isms like think big, be big.

0:17People make too many steps out of one step. It's only one step. I didn't need to ask anyone's opinion. So what kind of advice can you give people out there? Because there's thousands of people watching this show who would never do that in a million years. And I do a lot of professional coaching. You have to be interesting. You have to read, get pieces of information. So the you in that one action be interesting. But you just have to have the courage. You have to take a breath and just go, I'm doing it right now. Nothing to lose. Zero to lose. And everything to gain.

1:06Welcome to In Search of Excellence. My guest today is Brian Grazer. Brian is an Academy Award-winning producer who has produced 130 feature films, including 8 Mile, The Da Vinci Code, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind, for which he won the Oscar for Best Picture. Brian has also produced 45 TV shows, including Empire 24, Arrested Development, Friday Night Lights, and Parenthood. His productions have been nominated for 47 Oscars. He has nine wins, 296 Emmy nominations with 63 wins, 71 Golden Globe nominations with 11 wins, and he's also won two Grammys. Collectively, his films and TV series have grossed over$15 billion worldwide.

1:49Brian is also the author of the awesome number one New York Times bestselling book, A Curious Mind.

1:54Brian Grazer:Brian, thanks for being here. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Wow. Thanks for the introduction. Brian, thanks for being here. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Let's wrap the show. Let's go. So you grew up in Sherman Oaks in Northridge. And I want to start with family because family always shapes our childhood and our future. I want to start with your four foot 11 Jewish grandmother, Sonia. And I want to ask you about her taking you to Dodger Stadium and Hollywood Park and the influence you had on your life growing up. Okay. So, you know, I had kind of a 1950s, early 60s father, you know, a dad that doesn't necessarily hang out with their kids.

2:30Good guy, but just wasn't the way he went. So I was fortunate enough to have a mentor and best friend and Insonia Schwartz. Insonia Schwartz was my grandmother that lived on the fancy side of Los Angeles, the other side of the hill. She lived in Beverly Hills. And she would come over at least once a week, at least, and take me to some new place. She's the one that took me to all these different new restaurants that were opening up in Los Angeles. She always knew, she called it the big boss. The big boss would be the chef, the master chef. Then she'd make sure that the big boss was there when we were there.

3:08And she'd introduce me. She's this tall. She's 4 '10", 4 '11", max, you know. But she thought she was really hot. She was really confident. Like, really, really, really confident. Like, she felt very much like she was worthy of talking to every big boss there was. We'd go to different restaurants. We'd taste the food. We'd see how the food was made. She took me to Hollywood Park, taught me how to bet on the horses. Dodger Stadium, we called it Chavez Ravine. She had season tickets to the Dodgers. We kind of did everything. Met with the Elliotts, the founders of Mattel, because Mattel was the toy factory of the world at that time.

3:48So I got to have this mentorship from my grandmother. And she's the one that really felt that my asking questions and being involved with human beings on, you know, on a real like this kind of a basis where you're talking and genuinely focused and involved was the most valuable commodity that one could have. She believed in you like my grandmother believed in me. You know, I stuttered. I was bullied as a kid. And my grandmother, my Nana Judy, who was 104, was raised in foster care. It was my hero. And I'd come home from school crying every day. And she would tell me, it's OK. Go back. All the bullying kids are not going to be cool when they're adults.

4:29Your grandmother served a similar role with you as well. Very similar. And so how important is it to somebody who's feeling not great, insecure, to say the four most important words in the English language, which is, I believe in you? Wow. It's everything. You just need one person. Same with what you're saying. One person that has undying belief in you. And we're there saying, I mean, I would look at my, I was very, I was acutely dyslexic, so I couldn't read for a very long time. And I would get straight Fs. And she'd say, she'd look over my shoulder at the report card. It was straight Fs. And she'd say, you're going to be special.

5:11You're going all the way. She had all these isms, like think big, be big. She just believed in that and believed in me, you know. And I basically said young, I said, Grandma, like there's like no empirical evidence that I'm going anywhere, you know, like at all, much less going up. But she just, you know, had an illogical amount of belief in me. We had a similarity as well. I would sit in class. I'd be petrified the teacher would call on me. I would stutter and everyone would make fun. Oh, me too. What were you feeling as a kid? And, you know, I mean, it really affected me hugely in my life. God, my heart would be beating out of my chest.

5:48Wow, it's hard to imagine. You know, I mean, it really was. Well, thank you. But what was your experience like? And did you say to yourself, God, I can't do this. I need to be better somehow? Yes, I felt like I couldn't do this because I had to go see Mr. Polivoyal, the teaching, the reading teacher. And I just like would fall asleep because in that day it was this kind of manual device that sort of a line that went down and forced your eyes to go from left to right. And, you know, it was all these different mechanics. and but it caused a lot of shame a tremendous amount of shame because the minute it was open to a question and the teacher was going to point I would try to deflect because I knew I couldn't answer it so I don't know if you did this but I'd look the other way or I'd cough and be disruptive to the class or you know in the day I'd have these little straws and shoot little spit wads at people and then get in trouble but not have to answer a question and be wrong you know blank face and I I kind of did everything to avoid those questions and it was traumatizing.

6:56Brian Grazer:I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I wanna know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach the next level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google Lift and Seagate. And I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than$15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey. And at this stage of my life, I wanna give back. I wanna share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals.

7:28Brian Grazer:I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video. Your parents at some point with your dyslexia and poor grades thought about holding you back and they called you the let's put them back kid.

7:58My God, you do do a lot of research. It was that, yes. They were always talking about it. They didn't talk about it really in front of me, but I could hear them always through my closed door. She'd, you know, we're not putting him back, Tom. We're not putting him. Like it was one person, it would be one or the other that's defending me not being put back. But it was like an ongoing, very heated conversation, a debate between the two of them. But they didn't put me back. I didn't want to be put back. I thought, I'm going to be in the same place being put back. So let's just keep struggling through this.

8:37In school, sometimes we do things to get out of certain things. We don't want to go to class or we don't like a certain class. You did something to skip your first class in the morning. So tell us about the city swim meet and the outside lane and then what happened. What were the lessons you learned from that? Okay, so I couldn't really read at all in elementary school. And in junior high, I was kind of getting through it with like C's and D's. And in high school, as a freshman, I was getting C's. And I did, as a sophomore, I went out for football. And I was out in Chatsworth, California, which is very hot, like well over 100 degrees in the summer.

9:24And you had to do this thing called Hell Week, which is two weeks of football in the broiling heat, you know, sometimes 110. I was there once. It was 127 degrees. You were the helmet and all the gear. Helmet and all this stuff. But I'm not big. There was a time, I mean, I was a very good athlete, but then everybody got big. I mean, all my friends got well over six feet, but I still carried the confidence like I could still kick your ass. But when it came to this football, I did get through the hell week, and then we all had to go to an assembled auditorium event. There was about 250 kids of all the leagues and stuff like that.

10:05And Coach Ogao was in the front of the class, and he said, okay, name and status. I didn't even know what he meant, really. I only learned by example because my close friend Chris Parkinson was first. He'd say, Chris Parkinson, center. Then it was Perry Schillmeyer, wide receiver. Then it was Richard Cox, quarterback. Brian Grazer, tailback. Incorrect. And basically, I just, I got cut like in front of 250 guys. And it was like horrible. It was just a horrible feeling. But I was able to really granulate the memory of what that felt like. And I felt when I was going down the line, I was a human being.

10:50And then when he cut me, I was no longer a human being. I was just, I thought of it in those terms, that I just fell off a cliff of being a human being. It was really traumatizing to me and troubling. And I think of it later that it was probably even somewhat imperceptible to the group because it's not them. They're concerned with themselves. But to me, it was a seismic event. I didn't know what to do. I had to pivot and figure out what am I going to do in the first period. So I decide I'll go out for swimming. I start going out for swimming. I don't even know how to swim. I'm swimming a little bit, you know, like that, usually holding on to the side and clowning around with guys and laughing and stuff like that.

11:29And then all of a sudden we have a pre-meet and it was like a pre-meet, but it was all city schools were involved in it. So I'm in the pre-meet and they just ran out of people and they threw me in lane eight, which is the worst lane, literally the worst because all the water sloshes into your face and everything. And you're in lane eight and to the hundred yard butterfly. I'm swimming this butterfly. My body just kind of, it just naturally contorted in the direct, in the way of a butterfly stroke went. So it was extremely natural to me. And I went, I moved along, and then I looked ahead, and I could see I was coming towards touchdown.

12:06I looked behind me. I didn't really see any, and then I see this Coach Wiley now. He's got this stopwatch when I touch down, and he said, Grazer, you just broke the city record. And I thought, wow, that was like amazing to me. And I realized that I couldn't see people because they were so far behind me. And I just took a glance, and I thought, And it was like a magnificent event for me. What did shaving your head have to do with that story? Oh, what happens? Okay. For a while, you know, like in the school, like they'd say, I did have to shave my head at the very beginning, head and legs and stuff and body.

12:43Because, you know, you go faster with shaved head, shaved hair and everything. People go, hey, what's the great grazer going to do? It was like this. There were people who said the great grazer. And I thought, who are they talking about? But it was me. And so then it came to the end of the season. I was doing very well. Our coach really wanted to win, of course, this final event that was at, oddly enough, at Beverly Hills High indoor pool. I didn't want to shave my body again because I just didn't want to, you know, just somewhat defiant. They elect Ogawa, of all people, to lobby me because they think maybe Ogawa thought I liked him or something for cutting me.

13:22I don't know. but Ogawa tries to get me to shave my hair, my head. And I said, no, you shave your head. You know, I'm not doing that. And I didn't. I won anyway. And that was the story. Like I just, I wouldn't do it. I thought it was just kind of funny as a postscript that Ogawa was the one that was elected to do it. And I won anyway without shaving my head again. Then I have a later thing. I was at an international press junket and some little, some girl came over. I was, I was like, I was at that time a pretty big producer. And she goes, by the way, I'm the niece of your coach Ogawa. I swear.

13:58And I was really nice, of course. I said, oh, God, I hope he's okay. And oh, yeah, he's still healthy. He's alive and all that. But that was the story, basically. Let's talk about college separately from brief stint in law school. You went to USC on a scholarship. How did you go from an F to a C student to getting a scholarship at USC? I did learn how to take tests. I would, not cheating, I was able to synthesize information. I could compress information to the point that I could yellow marking pen, yellow line, essential information right before I went to sleep at night. And I found that really living it by the yellow, you know, my synthesized information, then falling right to sleep, I was able to wake up with it.

14:44And I would have the information and the tools to facilitate, you know, pivots. So I'd have knowledge. And then if the question didn't have to be right on point, it could be any variation of the question. And I was capable of pivoting into the correct answer. And so I got quite good grades. You've talked about something that I feel is very unique in terms of gaming the system. arguing with your professor. I've never heard of that. Oh, yeah, I did do that, too. So how does a professor, you know, you walk in, you knock on the door and say, hey, Professor Grazer, you know, I've got a B, but it should really be an A.

15:15Yeah. How would that work? Oh, yeah. Well, that was helpful. Like, Grandma Sonia was good at that. I mean, she didn't show up with me. But I was really honed the skills of conversation, you know, debate. So I would debate every single one. I'd challenge every single one of my grades. And the way you challenge it is if you get a C or B, you know, and you want to advance that. I mean, I got C's turned into A's by going in and talking to the professor. And through a relatively long interaction with that professor, they felt I was worthy of a higher grade. Sometimes I did have to take a test, but mostly it was just, you know, an in-depth, thoughtful conversation.

15:57And I was always very persuasive. And I got, again, I could get C's turned into A's or often at least one jump, you know, B to an A easily. But all my, I think I did get very few C's in college or even in high school. In high school, I got C's, but in college, very few C's. But I was able to really get those grades to be higher, you know, strong B's or A's always. We talk about moments in our lives that are very important and profound that we look back and we say, oh, gosh, you know, that's one that I really, you know, changed our life. And one thing that you did that was really cool, which I think everybody should do, is you want to be a better public speaker.

16:34So you took a public speaking class in front of 250 people with Mr.

16:38Brian Grazer:French. Yeah. So. Very good research. Tell us about Mr. French. This was troubling. Okay, so I've always had somebody that's challenging me, actually. I've always felt like an underdog story and still even to this day. You know, I'm always me against a man. Today still? A little, because even if you're successful, I mean, Spielberg got E.T. put into turnaround after Jaws. I mean, there's always somebody judging you. There's always that. And it's not always data-driven. It's just to be subjective. And so anyway, yes, I always just feel it. You know, when you've been it so long, you feel it. That's all.

17:15And that's largely why I make a lot of movies that are racial alger stories, that are underdog stories, the common man that triumphs on a high level. The French thing was, yeah, I wanted to be better at it because I was very uncomfortable public speaking. I take a public speaking class. It's a very big class. He takes me aside and he says, I really have to talk to you. And I said, OK. And he said, look, I encourage you to drop out of this school, out of the university, and to go to occupational school because you are not going to make it. And I kind of thought, you know, F you, you know, like I couldn't change him, but I changed myself, you know, that that was it.

17:55But I thought it was it was kind of a snap judgment on Mr. French's part. It's a little unfair. I think you should quit college and go into occupational school. He was very, very, very discouraging of my further, you know, interaction with college.

18:17Brian Grazer:I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google Lyft and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than$15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey, and at this stage of my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals.

18:49Brian Grazer:I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions. And if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video.

19:12you know there's times in our life where someone will put you down or do something very negative in your life and yeah um aspen's a place where we've met a few times now yeah and i dated a girl in law school that was very wealthy and i wasn't and so i remember going to this party at

19:29Brian Grazer:red mountain and just being insecure and there were no phones and i called them and said hey i just don't feel good i don't have the right clothes these people are not you know my kind of people. And at one point, my girlfriend's mom said, let's take a walk. And it was snowing. And we went around the little now she worked, she lived on Hyman Street. And so we're taking this walk around and she said, what's it going to take for you to stop dating my daughter? Oh my God. And I thought, fuck the fuck. That's so brutal. And I was 23 years old. And of course I could use the money, but I'm like, fuck you.

20:01And I'm not for sale. You know, when my company went public years later, you know, I, you want to be humble, right? When you're successful, right? You never always. And, um, but you know, I thought about all the kids that made fun of me when I was younger and called me retarded. And if there was anybody who I wanted to call and just say, Hey, you know, look at what I did. It was my girlfriend's mom because, you know, here I wasn't good enough. She wanted a Rockefeller or wanted someone in Aspen with two homes, had a home in the South of France as well. But 30 years later, you win the Oscar and you call Mr.

20:33French again. so tell us about that conversation i guess it worked out mr french yeah i have some version of that so so what so he was like you know he couldn't really he couldn't associate he couldn't comprehend the impact he had the negative impact he had he you know and so i didn't get tremendous amount of gratification out of it i mean he was just like wow you're doing great he just focused on how great I was doing. Yeah. Not the counterpoint of where he left me last. But it was fine. I'm not a person that takes revenge on people. I have no ability to hold negativity. Yeah. I mean, I get mad.

21:12If I get mad, it kind of goes away maybe in an hour, maybe a minute. It doesn't stick with me. I can't wake up every morning. I have a friend that can wake up every morning like hating the same person or several people. I can't. Huh? Not healthy. No, it's not healthy. You're killing yourself. Let's talk about insecurity, which we hit a little bit before the show, and I want to talk about it as well. So you bought yourself a Porsche 914 at some point. 911 T Targa. 911 T Targa. Which means a little pop top, so the top comes off, you can be convertible too. When you were at USC, and you created this fake persona because you were insecure.

21:52So talk about that. And then what's your advice to people who are feeling the same thing? When I moved to Los Angeles, by the way, I had nothing. I had$3 ,000 in the bank. I lost my job. I was a lawyer. I got fired. And I remember driving around and seeing all these people in these fancy cars, right? They had Ferraris and Rolls Royces and everything was so fancy. Of course. And I thought, and then people told me, yeah, you have a Ferrari, but you live in a one-bedroom apartment and paying$900 a month. It was very intimidating to me. Yeah. So you're at USC with all these wealthy kids. You're not a wealthy kid.

22:23No. Why did you create a fake persona? Well, because I realized I was surrounded by really rich people, sons and daughters of the biggest titans in industry. And I became popular very quickly because I took 26 units one semester. The required amount is like 12. And sometimes people are ambitious and did 16. Yeah. But I had to kind of catch up and everything. So I all of a sudden took 26 units. A girl I was dating was really good friends with a little football players. And so all the most popular football players, this one named Lynn Swan, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hall of Fame wide receiver for those people who don't know.

23:07Yeah. And he just liked me. And so he started this thing of me calling me 26. So between he and Anthony Davis and Pat Hayden and John McKay and Obradovich, all these, the in crowd that lived at Twin Palms, which was on the road but not in a fraternity. They were too cool. They were like the Delthouse in the Animal House. They were all going, hey, 26, come on over. Like, we're partying. And so I became like a popular person. And so with that group, I was just like a popular object. But outside of that, it was all these, it was all rich people. And I had to, my dad was a criminal lawyer. And criminal lawyers kind of live the life of a criminal.