Anthony Michael Hall: Believe It for Yourself (Re-Release)

23:36I mean, I just feel that way about any Kubrick films. Anytime you see them on TV, it's just worth another look.

23:41Rob Lowe:But it's also that moment in time where you're really in demand and there's a lot going on. Yeah. And it's a year of your life over in England. Right. It's already been a year of your life negotiating it. And it's when you're like, ah, ah. Yeah. Right? Well, you nailed it. That's exactly it. And I think at the time, because my parents were very, you know, I was raised in New York City. and I had great parents. They were protective. And I think that that was a concern for them that, you know, could I deal with that emotionally? Because it was going to be quite an experience. Even though I was a kid, you know, I was becoming a young man.

24:13I was only 17 at the time. But yeah, nonetheless, incredible. But you're right. You just honed in on all the details. It was going to be a year of my life. And it's so funny that the sort of epilogue to this is after the fact, I run into Modine in New York.

24:26Rob Lowe:Who did get the part. He did get the part, right. And he played the Joker. And I said, man, how long did you wind up shooting the film for? He goes, 54 weeks. 54 weeks. That's right. Of shooting. A year and two weeks. And by the way, then you work in a Thanksgiving break and a Christmas break, and it's a lot longer than that. That's just shooting. Somebody else told me a story recently, too. I think it was what actor was hired on Full Metal Jacket. He wound up, oh, it was actually Harvey Keitel, and I think he walked off. I think he wound up not finishing the film, and he was replaced with Sidney Pollack, the late, great Sidney Pollack.

25:02Rob Lowe:That's right. And even Sidney Pollack, when Sidney replaced Harvey, they said it's a month. Right. And Sidney says, can it be three weeks? And Kubrick said, it's a month, Sidney. Came over, he was there for six months. Right. So Kubrick liked to play with timetables, clearly. Yeah. I had a little bit of my version of that where Roman Polanski was making a movie called Pirates with Jack Nicholson. And the same thing, the negotiation, it was easily nine months. Wow. Easily. And again, I was like, so I ended up not doing it. Neither did Jack at the end of the day. You know, those great directors, they don't come around all the time.

25:47Yeah.

25:47Rob Lowe:Or those experiences. No, you're right. And it's so funny. We share that in common. You may be outsiders. I remember auditioning for that as a kid. Yeah. Oh, you would have been great in that. How did I not? I must have seen you somewhere at those auditions because everybody was there for them at the same time. We watched each other audition. Right. Well, at the time, I was still a kid living in New York. So you probably auditioned out here. But that was a thrill. Oh, you were in the New York crew. Yeah. Yeah. And then I wound up working with Coppola on SNL because Coppola was friends with Lorne.

26:16He actually kind of co-directed an episode of the season. on that 85 season. So I wound up meeting Coppola.

26:21Rob Lowe:That might have been one of the reasons why it wasn't a great season. The hilarious Francis Ford Coppola? Yeah. The comic genius? Was directing SNL? Love that. I know. It was funny because he was kind of making fun of himself too. I mean, he was great. He was actually really cool. But I think at the time I was just too young because like C. Thomas Howell, those guys, they were all teenagers. I was just a little kid. I was probably 10 or 11, so I was too young. But just even all these experiences are incredible because I think that auditions teaches you just to take a better meeting, right? You really do learn in that process of, you know, you learn to learn your lines and hit the mark and take a good meeting.

26:54So even in these situations where it didn't work out for us, it was always a great experience, you know, and helping inform us, I think.

27:00Rob Lowe:My son is an actor, my oldest son, and it's a different world. They don't audition like we used to. It's by Zoom and it's, you know, you go on tape and you self-tape. The thing I learned, too, that over the years, I often felt like a lot of the casting directors are great. They would be sometimes better directors than we got to work with. So I've always enjoyed that. I think a lot of times in the room, the casting directors can be really helpful and great. But you're right. In the old days, they didn't do that. You're right. I remember there was no video. And the executives would have to kind of shuffle the executives into the room.

27:32So they'd go through a series of auditions and callbacks and pairing people off. And you'd come into a room and there'd be three people there. At your next audition, there might be six people in the room or whatever.

27:42Rob Lowe:For outsiders, it was me and a casting director. Yeah. Then it's me and a casting director again. Then it's me and the casting director and Fred Roos, the producer. Right. And then it's me. And then it's the cattle call with everybody else. And just incrementally, like you say, more people show up in the room. Well, how was that experience for you, man, working with Coppola on the outsides? That must have been great. It was great. I mean, I was like – that's why I relate when you say you were 17. How much did you know at 17? I didn't know anything. I thought everything was like this. Yeah, I didn't know anything.

28:12Rob Lowe:I'm sure you thought like every movie was going to be vacation or 16 candles. That's the way the world goes. And that's definitely what I felt like on The Outsiders. I mean, we shot that movie totally in sequence, first of all, which was so bizarre. We'd be in the Curtis house shooting. And if the next scene in the movie was across town, that's where we went. And then we would come back to the Curtis. It was nuts. You could never do that today. It's too expensive. In what state were you in, Rob? Did you shoot that in Oklahoma? Oklahoma. Oklahoma, right. In Tulsa. You know, and Francis had doing us our like, you know, playing football, tackle football on the street to toughen us up and making us show up an hour before call to do Tai Chi.

28:53Rob Lowe:You know, we had a wrap party every single Friday with flown in food from Italy and wine and Francis cooking. Wow. It was something else. It was great. That's cool. Yeah. Great group of guys on that too, man. Everybody went on to stay very busy. Tell me about the indie movie that you have, The Class. Are you done with it? Is it in the can? It is. It's in the can. We shot it this past summer in Chicago. This came to me from a writer-director named Nicky Salozzi. It's a guy who is from Chicago. He's produced some stuff in the past and directed some films. He wrote a really great script, and I was really taken by it.

29:35It's not a remake, but it's sort of a modified, sort of updated version of The Breakfast Club for a new generation. It's six kids instead of five. It kind of takes the framework, Rob, in terms of the three acts and certain things. And then it goes from there. So what they did is we cast Debbie Gibson, who did a great job, really nice lady. And she plays the kind of the drama teacher. And I'm the assistant principal. I was one of the producers on it. Great young cast of actors. We had Lyric Ross, a young actress who's on This Is Us, that show. Hannah Keppel from Cobra Kai a young guy named Charlie Gillespie who has a hit show on Netflix called Julie and the Phantoms and a couple other kids that were really fantastic but what Nick did with the script which I found really compelling Rob was that the stakes are even higher so I think that when young audiences see this film we're already getting offers from streamers and there's a lot of interest already but the stakes are really higher for all the kids so it's very contemporary the conflict is great, the comedy is great and he really did a great job and it's very much inspired by The Breakfast Club, but it's a sort of updated new version.

30:41Rob Lowe:That's so cool. By the way, I don't think there's ever been a better debut than Judd as Bender. Judd was great, yeah. I mean, it's unbelievable. You guys are all great, but that's like Vince Vaughn and Swingers. Yeah, no, Judd killed it. He was great. It's so funny because back to the audition phase, we were at Universal in Midtown Manhattan and I remember other guys coming in that were friends of mine, Billy Marty, who was in The Lost Boys at the time. Oh my God, yeah. Remember Billy? Yeah. Yes. Judd walked in, Rob. It was so funny, dude, literally wearing the jacket, the gloves, bouncing the ball, the overcoat.

31:15We were all buying those coats at the old vintage stores at the time, right? Judd walked in like literally, man, to the T, bouncing the ball, the handkerchief wrapped around the ankle, the boots.

31:24Rob Lowe:The unlaced boots. Dude, yeah. Unlaced boots, wearing the Dickies pants. So he was kind of method. I remember he kind of came in with that kind of chip on his shoulder, and he was great. And I remember John Hughes and I, because John was so cool that after 16 Candles and, you know, we just, we were so close. We really were really great friends. And there was no age gap in my mind, even though I was a kid when I think back. I'm 15. He was 35. It was like we were both kids. So anyway, he would include me in the audition process. And Judd walked in. He was just, he nailed it, man. He was awesome.

31:54He was really funny. And I think, too, a couple people had to jog my memory. But when we started shooting, he kept it kind of method. and he kind of, I think he started to piss Molly off or maybe it was Allie too. So he had a talking to, I think, but then he settled down. He went all in, man. He was really like kind of method about it. And very funny. He's a great guy, Judd, as you know, he's fun.

32:13Rob Lowe:He's one of the funniest, smartest guys. I remember actually, not so funny, but we got into production that they sent us to a high school too. I think they thought that would be kind of fun. So we wound up being dropped off at a local huge high school somewhere in suburban Chicago to kind of get the feel of that. So I remember that happening too. Yeah. It's funny. What was cool too is that he, one thing I liked that he did, Robin, I don't know how this was for you with other directors, but he would carve out time for that rehearsal period. So we'd have like a week and we just kind of sit on our asses and talk about the role and share lunch together.

32:45And it was great. We'd read the script and discuss it and, you know, and then it was cool too, because he was getting ideas about how to block the scene. And so we kind of rehearsed on that set. It was a high school that had been abandoned. And then they built that library set inside that abandoned school. I think it was Glenbrook North.

33:01Rob Lowe:That's the other thing that, you know, as the world changes and everything becomes about money is you don't get rehearsals anymore. Nobody's paying for two weeks of actors to sit around and talk about a screenplay. It's just not going to happen today. So true. In any context, right? Especially when you're doing a TV show, you're just going right to set. Yeah, exactly. Like it's a foregone conclusion. Now remember, you know, all of the great directors used to, you'd show up, even if you'd done the two-week rehearsal. And we shot The Outsiders on video twice. Wow. Before we ever shot anything. Is that right?

33:34Rob Lowe:Wow. Yeah, on green screen. Wow. And still, you'd show up on the set finally shooting. And a genius like Francis will be like, all right. And you rehearsed. And you were allowed to do what you wanted to do. And then he would figure out. And he would say, I don't like it. Or I do like it. Or I want to put the camera here. But today, and even the great directors, you show up and they go, okay, so you're sitting here. And then I thought you would sort of maybe enter from over here. And I remember the first time I had a director tell us what to do. Yeah. Before we'd ever done anything on a set, I could not believe my ears.

34:19Rob Lowe:I remember who it was and where it was. Now everything is like that. No one ever says to an actor today, okay, so why don't you guys do the scene? And then they – no, you just don't have that latitude anymore. It's gone. It's so true. You just go right into a blocking, right? Yeah. You're right. You're right. It's a different time. Yeah. It's not that it's better or worse, but it is really, really different. It is because you would welcome that because it's also that thing too for us when we were young actors, looking up to those people. We want to get a sense of how they worked. And that was fortunate, like you said, the time you had with Coppola or how John Hughes worked.

34:54He was great.

34:55Rob Lowe:you know the the rise of the storyboard killed the rehearsal that's interesting everybody grew up you know aping spielberg and lucas and zemeckis and storyboards and you can't make an indiana jones without storyboards but you could sure the fuck make an ordinary people without one but but i don't think they are today hey you're bringing up interesting points they're like transitions in our industry just in terms of the uh logistics and how things are done yeah And TB is just a foregone conclusion. There's just no time. You just. There's no time. Yeah. You just come in. It's like blocking rehearsal.

35:27We're shooting it. And like you say, you're being placed like a prop. Like, okay, you're going to come over here. A prop, yeah. Yeah.

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36:16Rob Lowe:And in terms of outcomes, 93 % of RULA patients report symptom improvement. If therapy has been sitting in the back of your mind, RULA is a pretty simple way to take that first step. So turn off the talk track that's keeping you from progress and head to RULA.com. That's R-U-L-A.com to find a therapist the easy way. Guys, let's face it. As we get older, we can't just skip sleep and eat whatever we want and still feel great the next day. But if you're entering your men's health era, you know it can feel complicated. Sprouts Farmer's Market makes it easier. Not only do Sprouts have the high-protein foods, nutrient-dense organic produce, and innovative snacks your body craves, It's also got the newest supplements, vitamins, joint support, even creatine to help get you feeling more like you used to.

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38:19Rob Lowe:i remember working with a director who was a dp director of photography and he shot the abyss so he shot water yeah he shot backdraft so he shot fire yeah so he's like i mean he's like uh i'm not worthy i'm not where like the king of the game and he was directing me and he wanted me to walk over and go to a window and and stare at the window and open the blinds and i knew he's a dp he's doing that because he wants that shot and it's gonna look bad ass but he was like well i Maybe you get angry and then you just need a moment to clear your mind. So maybe you sort of get up and clear yourself and you kind of come over to the window to gather you.

39:02I'm like, bro, bro.

39:05Rob Lowe:You just want me to walk to the window, right? Because it's going to look good, right? Well, yeah. Okay, cool. Just say that. It's cool. Right. Right. You want to get the cool shades on the shadow of the level or blinds on your face or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I'm all about it. I don't need the hand-holding. But that stuff never went on when we were kids, right? Nobody did that. Kubrick wasn't doing it, I can tell you that. But it's interesting, too, because even though we've had great opportunities to work with great filmmakers, also, I've learned a lot from great TV directors, too. There are a lot of great TV directors.

39:37They really, you know, you learn how they attack the coverage or shooting multi-cameras. It's just interesting. It's been an interesting process, you know, the learning over the years. Absolutely, man.

39:47Rob Lowe:I think to the extent that the culture of storytelling that at least made me want to get into movies, i.e. acting and probably you, now has pretty much migrated to TV. I came across the other day when I'm bored in my trailer, I watch American movie classics and American Gigolo was on. Right. I hadn't seen that movie in a gazillion years, but I remember when it came out, it was the first time as a teenager was like, oh, I should really dress up. Right. If I dress up, my life is good. I mean, it is insane. The get-ups he's wearing in that movie. It was cool, right? That was cool. I remember that movie too as a kid.

40:30I loved it. Richard Gere was awesome in that. And very well-directed, very slick movie, right? Yeah. It's very cool. It's Paul Schrader. Yeah, Paul Schrader.

40:36Rob Lowe:And I remember like, oh, man, yeah, I need to wear like hard-soled shoes. anyway so so but there's a there's a scene in an american gigolo where he's just driving down hollywood boulevard and he passes a marquee flashes in the background and on the marquee is norma ray and coming home that tells you everything you need to know now if you're filming down hollywood boulevard and you pass a marquee it ain't norma ray and coming home on the billboard that time of the late 70s yeah that's interesting no that was a cool film i remember that as a kid I love watching that movie. Yeah. Very stylish movie.

41:10Yeah. I like that.

41:11Rob Lowe:Oh, the Giorgio Maroder? Yeah. Maroder soundtrack. Yeah. Oh. Oh, we're doing a deep 80s dive here, kids. Yeah. Of the good stuff. Like, people forget all of the, like, there's the 80s stuff that everybody remembers, but like Dead Zone. Like, you know, that's a deep cut that people forget about. What's your favorite movie of all time? That's too hard. Top three. Well, you know what? One of the first that came to mind, and it was because I had met Martin when we were doing the Breakfast Club, and I remember getting stories from Emil with Apocalypse. I remember hearing those stories about his dad and what he went through.

41:47Yeah, I mean, that holds up. That's one of the things.

41:49Rob Lowe:It's my third. It's Godfather 1, 2, and then – well, no, it's Goodfellas, The Godfather, and Apocalypse. All Italian. Well, see, I was just going to say my favorite filmmaker growing up was always Scorsese. I loved him, and my father and I would always watch Scorsese stuff together. I loved Raging Bull. That's one of my favorite. Anything by Scorsese. The early stuff is great. Yeah, it's hard to pick a top three, but I would think, yeah, Raging Bull, Apocalypse. Those are some of my favorites. Just such a great filmmaker. I mean, Coppola was too. Incredible stuff that they did. Did Emilio try to get you to work out every five seconds on Breakfast Club?

42:26No, no. I think he was hanging with John. They were going out for beers and stuff. I had homework to do. I was still a kid, so I was going back. When I'd wrap, I literally would go back to the hotel. My aunt was my guardian at the time. She was traveling with me. And I'd be doing homework. It was pretty pathetic.

42:41Rob Lowe:You remember studio school? Three hours a day. Oh, yeah. That was ridiculous, right? And they had this insane rule where it was like 20-minute intervals. Like, that's going to do anything. So, in other words, they wouldn't break you unless you could go in for at least 20 minutes at a time. So, it was all a joke. It was kind of ridiculous. Whenever I work with little kids now, and they're like, all right, that's a break. And back to school. And they go to some horrible bunker on the edge of the soundstage. and you try to ignore the fact that they're walking away from what they really want to do and all these adults having fun and working so hard and they've got to read the periodic table of contents or something.

43:17Rob Lowe:I'm like, God bless them. How do they do it? Yeah. At the time, Molly and I had this really cool lady named Irene Brafstein. She was no longer with us. She was a sweetheart. She made it fun, but it was kind of ridiculous, right? And I went to one of those liberal arts high schools in New York, too, where it was like a correspondence method. So you'd have your work cut out for you. So if you had to leave school, you kind of knew what you had to deliver. But on set, yeah, it's always kind of a joke. You have a three-hour minimum rule, which was, yeah, as a kid, it was kind of weird. It's the equivalent of being a little kid who's been allowed to stay up with the adults at a party, and you can't believe you're still allowed and you're hoping that they don't notice.

43:55Rob Lowe:And then finally somebody goes, hey, it's time for you to go to bed. That feeling right there, that's what it's like. Good call. Yeah. Totally. Well, this is so fun. I'm so, again, I'm psyched for you on Halloween. Thanks, man. We got to figure out something to do together someday. I'd really love that. I would too, Rob. I would too. It's great to spend some time with you and to catch up on your show. Congrats on your continued success, man. You're always working. Thank you. You know, they haven't found me out yet. Success is a job, right? That's right. You got to keep puzzling. What a great, thoughtful guy, huh?

44:30Rob Lowe:That was so fun. I had a great talk with him. Thank you, Anthony, for coming on the show. What? 3 ,000 messages. We got to get to it. All right, I'm going to listen to some of these lowdown lines.

44:45Rob Lowe:Hello, you've reached literally in our lowdown line where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. So, Rob, my favorite, favorite movie that you've ever been in, probably one of my favorite movies, definitely one of my favorite books, is The Hotel New Hampshire. And I'm so curious. I listened to this podcast. I read your books. you never mention it why why why do you not mention it it's the most brilliant thing and you were so good in it and so beautiful in it that's what i want to know this is julie thanks rob

45:35Rob Lowe:well julie it's so funny you say that um i i literally just assume nobody saw it because it came out the same weekend as splash and nobody saw it um but what's interesting about that movie and thank you because i love it and i'm really proud of it and and i and i really liked the work i was doing i was really young and and there were everybody had such high hopes for that movie um it was as you allude to a great book a john irving book um it was my first really important movie um you know it's like a prestige project every wanted everybody wanted to be in it everybody wanted that part um tony richardson had won an academy award um who directed it and you know it was a big step from doing sort of teen comedies and stuff which i had been doing um and and then um you know people didn't see it um but i love that you love it and the other thing to think about when you think about that movie is that movie was a big summer studio release i mean if If you really want to know how much the movie business has changed, look no further than that.

46:49Rob Lowe:The Hotel New Hampshire was an Orion summer movie. Okay? It's basically about a brother and sister who are in love with each other and end up sleeping with each other, who live in a crazy hotel with a girl who wears a bear suit. I'm not making it up. Summer blockbuster. Thank you for the call. Thank you all for listening. Hey, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already to Literally. Also, by the way, don't forget Parks and Rec election. For you Parks and Rec fans, brand new podcast. We take apart every Parks and Rec episode, episode by episode with Alan Yang, who is one of the great writers in the show.

47:34Rob Lowe:So join me for both podcasts. Download them both. I'll see you next week. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe Produced and engineered by me, Rob Schulte Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile Jeff Ross, Adam Sanks, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco And Colin Anderson at Stitcher Our talent bookers are Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn And the music is by Devin Torrey Bryant Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts And we'll see you next week on Literally with Rob Lowe.

48:16Rob Lowe:This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

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