Jim Belushi: My Movie Best Friend

25:07Oh, it's a beautiful spot. Right on the river, I'm 75 feet from the river. I went a little overboard on the builds, but it is spectacular.

25:18Rob Lowe:How often are you up there? This year I haven't been up there as often as I usually am. But, you know, sometimes I spend weeks there. you know, it was a great place for COVID. I was there forever there. And, you know, I don't know. I've been on the road a lot this year. I've made like four movies this year and I've been doing a lot of publicity. I mean, you're crushing it in the, I mean, you've got the Song Song Blue and you've got the Kristen. Oh, Rob, that is so good. By the way, I hear Song Song Blue is going, is like the secret, like atomic bomb. That's like when it, when people, when it comes out, people are going to like, What the fuck?

26:02Yeah, it's an old-time storytelling movie. And Craig Brewer is, what a storyteller. And Kate and Hugh, Kate Hudson is going to get a nomination for sure. And so is Hugh. I mean, they are so beautiful in this movie. And Craig just nailed this movie. I mean, there isn't a bad review. Every review has been just, like, sensational. because Rob, I cried three times watching it and I knew the story. Wow. I mean, I didn't bawl, but I mean, as actors, we watch movies like this. You don't get that. You don't forget you're watching a movie. That's right. But I did, and I just got so caught up in the story.

26:51Funny, moving, great music, the best performances.

26:55Rob Lowe:I mean, they're opening Christmas Day. And it's Neil Diamond, obviously, Song Sung Blue. Well, the music is great. Neil Diamond music is great. It's the music of my childhood, you know? I mean, it's every karaoke, every, right? And Kate, Kate's got a beautiful voice, you know? She's got like three albums on. She's, you know, she's a band. Oh, she's? And Hugh is like, come on, he's Mr. Broadway, you know? They just nail this duet. But the story is, it's a real story based on a 2008 documentary about a couple in Milwaukee who fall in love and do a Neil Diamond tribute band. It's about their story.

27:43It's a love story. It's a story of, you know, just real working class and down and out people with a dream that they won't give up on. And it's a beautiful tale.

27:56Rob Lowe:That's so interesting because I, just until right now, because it hasn't come out yet, right? There's still a lot of time and the press is just beginning. Because the biopics are so big, I just, until this very moment, assumed it was about actually Neil Diamond. But it's - No, no, no, no. It's about a - Yeah. It's about these people in Milwaukee. I mean, you know, the documentary is sensational. And again, Craig Drewer just killed the adaptation. I mean, he should get nominated for the adaptation for other material. I mean, this guy, he's the real thing. And, you know, we worked with a lot of directors.

28:40This guy is the real thing.

28:43Rob Lowe:And then you play Ken Casey in Chronology of Water. That's a hell of a part. I'm looking at your variety review, bro. quietly shattering performance, a masterstroke. I've framed that. That was the best review I've had in my career since about last night. It's a hell of a read. Oh, yeah. When does Chronology of Water come out? That comes out in December. I mean, it is a beautiful woman's film directed by Kristen Stewart, adapted from a memoir by Kristen. It took her eight years to get this thing made because it's a very

29:34visceral story about this woman's plight in her life. Real story. And it's very moving and very hard-hitting. And I play Ken Kesey. You know, Ken Kesey wrote The Cuckoo's Nest. sometimes a great notion uh he was the electric kool-aid acid test was basically about him you know i i studied that character for three months i've watched every video and audio that that he had what a brilliant guy by the way way ahead of his time but you know he started he started the cultural revolution he made the transition from the bohemians to the hippies basically because when he he was going to college he worked in a hospital ward to make money and he worked in a ward that was basically one flew over the cuckoo's nest that's where he got that story wow but in that ward they had a lot of experimental drugs and in that ward was this thing called LSD so he would take that LSD and then he would start to throw these parties and put it in Kool-Aid and he had a farm and so he'd have these parties on the farm and he had a little band playing called the Grateful Dead.

31:17That's where the Grateful Dead started. And he slowly turned on the West Coast, that whole San Francisco, then out in LA, Big Sur, and then the electric Kool-Aid acid test. I mean, he was the one that switched, created the doors of perception. Puxley's doors of perception was an extension of that. So he was quite a character, and he's such a brilliant thing. I mean, I still, Kristen was really nice on the movie because I had studied the guy so much. And when I got to the set, I asked the producer, I was like, so Kristen wrote this, and how tied is she to the words? I mean, is she like a real stickler, you know?

32:05She goes, well, yeah. I went, oh, okay, okay, okay. and then we did the first scene and I did it just the way it was written and then we did it again and then a little bit and she was like that was all I needed

32:21Rob Lowe:yeah no that's like waving a fucking red flag at a bull you give you have to give Jim Belushi the uh give me more signal and you're gonna get it that's all I know he let me go and I you know I wouldn't say improvised because I was really recreating all the things that Ken Kesey had said in his life. And so I really got to add a lot of layers to the Kesey character. Yeah. When you play a real character, like I played JFK a few years ago and you do the research and there's so much audio and you can really find deep cuts that a lot of people may not have known. Exactly. Right. You find something on YouTube really obscure.

33:10Rob Lowe:It's not famous. And they're using an intonation you've never heard. Or there's a line, oh, this has to be in the fucking movie. This has to be. No, I did that. I did exactly that. I mean, there was one thing that he talked about. His wife was a Bible girl. She taught Sunday school. She loved the Bible. She studied the Bible. And, you know, he was like, well, that's her thing. You know, she doesn't bother me about the Bible, and I don't bother her to do amyl nitrate either.

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36:22But you're a good woman, and he was going out about her, but he said I was walking past her one time, And she was studying the Ten Commandments. And I looked over her shoulder and I go, oh, there's a commandment missing. What are you talking about? Well, there's the 11th commandment that should be there. She goes, what are you talking about? He said, the 11th commandment should be, have mercy. He goes, actually, that should be the first commandment. Have mercy. he said when you walk out of a restaurant or a store and you see a man or a woman on the street asking for something he was give him a couple dollars have mercy everybody have mercy for each other where would we be today it was like it comes right out of that kind of you know the psychedelic change in our perception of the world you know that opening up with a heart, that the hippie kind of way, you know.

37:28So I got that in the movie.

37:30Rob Lowe:Oh, yeah, that feels like an easy sell. That's a really, like, that's a good one, right? Yeah. And Chris, you've worked with so many directors, dude. You've worked with, I mean, Oliver Stone, sort of before Oliver was Oliver, really. Yeah, Salvador. I mean, and with James Woods, one of the great lovable maniacs who ever, one of the greatest, dude, between you and Jimmy Woods, I can't, that's like the scene-stealing Olympics. Well, you know, I didn't know that when I first started. I was a young actor, you know? I mean, I did that before about last night. I know you did. Yeah. And, you know, Jimmy was very intimidating.

38:12Oh, yeah. You know, I'm like a kid and I'm just like, this is the biggest part I've ever had and Jimmy would like lose his shit before a scene for some reason makeup or hair or somebody's in the way and what it would do it would suck all the energy to him and intimidate everybody and I was like oh I don't want to get the guy upset so I'm like a little quieter in the scene and I was like what the fuck this is bullshit so the next scene I saw him ask for a mirror right to look at himself and I knew that that's where he was going to start his ramp up of rage before the take right it just gets his energy up I guess and before he opened his mouth I threw a shit on the set.

39:15What the fuck is that potato sack doing there? I'm supposed to walk down this hall with that fucking potato sack there and Stallone did I don't know what movie, Rambo or something down there in the same area and James had already said something like Stallone doesn't have to put up with this shit when he shot there, right? Stallone, you think Stallone will put up with a fucking potato sack like this? And then I turned and I looked at Jimmy. I stared at him. And he went, okay. He stopped doing that.

39:58Rob Lowe:I worked with him on Contact. I did like... Oh, God. You know what I'm talking about, then. And he's... And I love it. He's so charming and smart and unabashed. He literally goes, I took this part because... I knew that I'd be standing in every two shot with the lead, like the calculation of it all. Well, that's what Oliver did to us. So Oliver went to Jimmy Woods and said, hey, man, you're going to watch out for this Belushi. This guy's better than his brother. Watch him. And then he came to me and said, hey, man, you got to watch this Woods guy. He's done a lot. He's been playing supportive roles.

40:46He knows that camera like a hawk. So Oliver set us up to like...

40:56Rob Lowe:The manipulation of directors that... I never worked with Oliver, but I did a... Pacino was going to do the... Remember Manuel Noriega? Like the stand-in-histo where the fuck he was? and Oliver wrote this script Noriega it was called and you know Al always likes to have big elaborate readings before he even decides to do a movie and you know he has a sort of Mercury players and of course everybody gets a phone call when you do a table reading with Al Pacino particularly you know 25 years ago everybody was like hell yeah so I got this call to come in for Oliver Stone's script directed by Oliver, starring Al Pacino as Manuel Noriega, and I would be playing Oliver North.

41:49Rob Lowe:Oh, God, perfect. Right? And like, so perfect. And we go through half the script, and then we take a break, and I'm at the water fountain, one of those old water fountains in Oliver's office, which had some gnarly El Salvadorian name that nobody could ever pronounce. Exapla! Yeah, yeah, yeah. whatever the hell, some shit. Like, you'd hear the people answering the phone, except, blah. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know what it was going on. And Oliver hasn't said one word to me the whole time. Not one, not hello, not nothing. And we've read half the script. And I'm getting my, bent over, getting my drink out of the water fountain.

42:34Rob Lowe:And I look up and Oliver's standing right there. And I go, hey, so what do you think? He just looks at me for a long time, puts his hand on me and looks at me like really sadly and then shakes his head like he's just deeply disappointed because I just was expecting a lot more energy and walks away. So I'm like that motherfucker. So he did exactly that to me. So I, in the next half of the reading, if literally the line was, I'd like two pina coladas to a waitress or whatever. I was like, I'd like two fucking pina coladas. Just for, you know, fuck it, one more energy. What do you want from my life?

43:22Rob Lowe:All right. And I could see him out of the peripheral of my eye kind of just like laughing and being like, yeah, it's fucking sick. Oh yeah, he did that to me. the character I played in Salvador was a real guy. It was a radio DJ. And I did a scene and, you know, when they say cut, the first thing you do is you look up at the director, right? Yes. Like, thumbs up, bring it down, bring it up. Give me the direction, am I getting what you need? And I would look up and Oliver, and he would do exactly that.

44:06His hand on his forehead. Do it again. Another take. Look up at him. Have his handkerchief wiping a sweat off his brow. Do it again. Do it again. saying, not pleased, right? And I'm like, what? What do you want? Tell me what you want. He goes, more whiny. What do you mean more whiny? I can't play this character. Whiny's going to be the most unlikable character in the whole goddamn movie industry. What do you mean more whiny? More whiny. More whiny? Roll. And he got me right to a whiny spot and rolled

44:54Rob Lowe:and got what he wanted, you know? It's great. I mean, listen, whatever it takes, right? I don't give a shit. No, you can't. You're a great director. You can't argue with the results, right? No. And then. It's beautiful. And then what was it like when you were in your, like, movie star mode for you? Where, like, you're getting all these big leads. You're working with Arnold. I mean, it's a whole different world, right? Blood rub. It's fun. Fun. It's fun. It's fun. Yeah. It was fun. I had a good time, man. I went from movie to movie to movie. It was, I had a ball, man. I had a blast going to Cannes, going to Rome, going to Paris, going to London.

45:44Rob Lowe:Okay. So Netflix has a documentary coming out on my life. Oh, nice. It's going to be really cool. I've seen a cut of it. It's pretty cool. But there's a picture, there's a archival footage of you and I literally rolling around on top of each other in Venice Beach on the Lido for the About Last Night tour that we did. And you and I are like, we're literally, it's like the scene in About Last Night where we're wrestling each other. It's like we're just always wrestling all over each other and yelling and laughing. Oh, man, we had a good time. Remember that tour? Remember how great that was? I remember every moment.

46:24I'm talking about Paolo Fiati. Yeah. Remember Paolo? The guy that had a distribution in Rome and he took us to Venice and he took us to dinner. He was the most beautiful man.

46:38Rob Lowe:We had a great time in Italy. That was an amazing, amazing, amazing moment. And, by the way, and the Bears won the Super Bowl that year. Oh, can we talk about, were you weren't you were with me when we so we shoot the very first scene of about last night at grant grant park and then we wrap and walk to soldier field yes and we go to and i have i have really good sports karma i have a way of being at very famous sports events i it's crazy i don't know it's insane i have good sport like i could list the stuff that i was there for so we go to this game, it's a regular game. It happens to be a Monday night football game when Monday night meant something.

47:24Rob Lowe:And it was Packers-Bears, and it was the first time the refrigerator lined up and scored a touchdown. Very first time ever. Wow, yeah. That was a time. That was a great time. That was a good time to be in Chicago. Yeah, it was a good time. You know, I have to say that But I have been, I've just been having a great life. I just had a good time, man. Good life. Done so many great things. Met so many people. Worked with great actors and directors. Michael Caine, Woods, you know, Kate Winslet. I mean, Hugh Jackman this time. Kristen Stewart. Yeah. By the way, this movie, Chronology of Water, Kristen Stewart, you know, she's an actress, but she is a writer and a director, and she directed this movie.

48:24She knew every breath of every beat and opened her hand up and let me improvise, too. She just, this is an extraordinary movie, and I hope people go to see this or at least speak. Academy members see it, Golden Globe people, because she has a marvelous hand, and I think she should get nominated for it. But I don't know how many people are going to see it. You know, it doesn't have the budget like Song Sun Blue. But it'll come out really quietly. People are going to really notice that she is a killer director.

49:07Rob Lowe:You know, I've only met her briefly, and you just get the sense that she's got the kind of whatever it is going on inside that you want from somebody who, and clearly smart, been in the business her whole life. She is wicked smart. She's seen everything, dude. She's lived it all. Yeah. And she brings it to this performance she gets out of her star is beautiful. It's a beautiful movie. Very, very visceral. It's a great woman's film in a real way. And it's just gorgeous. It's a gorgeous film. And by the way, I have a nice job. I did a nice job at it. Very nice. I'm usually really tough on my performances yeah you know even Song of the Blue I'm like people love it I'm getting great reviews for it I go really but the chronology of water when I saw my performance and I went okay I like this performance and I don't like much of my stuff you know she did it she did it I'm so happy for you because I mean I know it's not like people don't know you're a great actor, but like, like we all do in the, in the current iteration of show business where it is today, where it is today, not where it was, but where it is today.

50:32Rob Lowe:Right. You know, there, we're doing many, many, many other things that are acting adjacent. Yes. Very well put. Right. And, and it's all great. It's all, it's, it's, it's, but it's not the way it used to be. Um, and you know, I was watching, you know, I'm watching these commercials. with Samuel Jackson and McConaughey and Tina Fey and Academy Award winning actors doing commercials. When we were making movies, we couldn't do commercials. No, you couldn't. I remember when we were making About Last Night, I got offered a million dollars for a Maxwell House commercial that I could write, direct, full creative control, one day's work when a million dollars was even more than it is.

51:18Rob Lowe:Oh, it was a lot of money. And I remember at the last minute, I remember this is what I said. And it makes me laugh now because today I'd be like, thank you. We'll see you on the set. Yeah, see you on the set one day. See you on the set one day. And I thought, I just had this, I remember I had this notion that Marty Scorsese would be staying at the Chateau Marmont, casting his new lead. and he would turn on the TV and see me in a Maxwell House commercial and there would go my chance. Well, meanwhile, Marty Scorsese never did call me to do anything anyway. Right, right. And, you know, I'd like to have the million dollars.

51:57Rob Lowe:Yeah. I turned down a$2 million

52:03Budweiser regional commercial in Texas. Regional? Regional I turned it down. And Randy Quain did it and I was like, shit. Robbins is a real joy being with you. Oh, isn't that fun? Yeah, buddy. I'm so happy for you, man. I'm so proud of you. I see you doing all kinds of adjacent stuff and I'm like, ah, it's my boy.

52:25Rob Lowe:Listen, it's a different world. There's more opportunity. You know, nobody has those prejudices anymore. I love that show you're doing on Netflix with your boy, man. God damn it, you're good in that. Can you believe I get to work with my son? I know, I love it. I work with my girl. I work with my sons once in a while. I try to create things where they can be. It's so sweet to work with them, isn't it? Oh, it's just the best. It's a dream, right? I mean, we get to live the dream. We get to, and just circling back that you're having this resurgence in December. What a December you're going to have with two movies out.

53:12And like we said, reminding people, because we're all in adjacent stuff,

53:19Rob Lowe:you know, that, that, uh, you know, what, what an actor you are and, and, and always have been. And you're at a great place in your life. I like, like the roles that, that you can do now, dude, you, you should, you're going to be the new Gene Hackman. Let's make you the new funnier Gene Hackman. You got the cigar. You got the goatee going right now. Yeah. I'm kind of seeing it just occurring to me. I kind of like it. Yeah, I'm really enjoying myself. And what I've really been enjoying is, you know, the four movies that I've done this year. I didn't have to carry them. Yeah. I could just come in, have a ball, and go.

54:14You were asking before, starring in all those movies. When you're carrying a film, that's a brutal thing on your body, on your mind. But you just power through it, and you still have fun. but I've been really just so excited when I come home from working this last year. Just so excited.

54:36Rob Lowe:It's freeing. It's really freeing to be, it's like you're, you know, it's like a starting pitcher. You don't have to carry that whole game. You come out of the bullpen, throw your fucking, your best, you know, throw your best pitch against the best guys. Yeah, get those four innings and get out. And get out. Yeah, it's Mariano Rivera time. I think that's a really good place to be. Yeah, it was like, you know, about last time, it was the same thing, you know. You had to carry the sucker. I came in, did a little dance, a couple little jokes, and go, you know. Murdered. That was a license to, Bernie Litga was, is and was a license to print money.

55:18Rob Lowe:I mean, that was license. What? License. That character printed it for me for many years after that movie. well if everybody listening if you haven't seen go spend a little time with 25 years 30 years younger Rob and Jimmy Belushi and Demi and Elizabeth ah Demi she was so sweet man she was so good so good she's been on the on the podcast and and she's she's just the best we're still in in very good close contact well Jimmy I love you brother this is great everybody's gonna see these movies I'm gonna be out there banging the drum let's thank you let's let's get you up uh let's get you up in those golden globes baby let's let's globe you up well let's thank you sir let's thank you let's globe that up uh thank you for having me thanks for your support thanks for your love and know that you have my full love always every time i watch it every commercial i see in that game show i'm like you motherfucker i love you You keep going.

56:23Rob Lowe:We'll do, we'll, if we ever do celebrity floor, we'll, we'll get, well, you and I will have some fun. We'll do some shit. All right. All right. Love you. God bless you. See you soon. Bye buddy.

56:40Rob Lowe:Jimmy Belushi with the cigar before, before noon morning cigar baller move, but that's my man. I hope you guys had fun on the walk down memory lane and just get a little taste of that just larger-than-life personality that makes him so special. And obviously, his movie's coming out. Be sure to have a look at the Chronology of Water and Song Sung Blue. I can't wait to see those two. They look spectacular coming out in December. I'll see you next week right here on Literally. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Growl.

57:26Rob Lowe:Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.

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