Insider Explains the Real Reason Hollywood Is Collapsing | Chazz Palminteri

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0:43If it doesn't fit a certain criteria, they won't show it. I hope it gets away from that, you know. I really do. I hope it does because, I mean, Godfather couldn't be made today. Midnight Cowboy couldn't be made today. You know, a lot of great movies couldn't be made today. So that's what's said. I mean, I'm hoping that, I'm hoping one day it changes back, you know.

1:23all right i'm dave rubin and joining me today is an oscar-nominated actor best known for his roles in a bronx tale the usual suspects bullets over broadway and many others chaz palmentari it is good to talk to you how you doing all right i'm pretty good javid how are you i'm i'm all right i have to say i was going through the long list of movies you've been in those were the three that i picked, and I know Bronx Tale particularly has a special place to you, and I re-watched it last night, so I want to talk about that a bit. But should I have thrown something else in there if I just had to pick three films?

1:54Should Analyze This have been in there? What else should we have thrown in there? Yeah, well, I mean, those are all good movies. Some more, you know, Guide to Recognizing the Saints is one of my favorites. The cast was pretty amazing. We won the Sundance Award for best cast. Robert Downey Jr., myself, China Tatum. It was a great cast. But yeah, no, I have Mulholland Falls, maybe. I mean, a lot of great movies. You know, I'm very fortunate. So I'm thrilled to talk to you because my audience knows I'm a big fan of mafia movies in general. I just had a long flight back from Australia where I watched Godfather.

2:34I watched Godfather 2. I watched Goodfellas. Last night, I rewatched Bronx Tale, which I probably haven't seen for about two or three years. First off, I did not know that you wrote it. I thought you just starred in it. So tell me a little bit about where the story, which I know is at least semi-autobiographical, came from. Basically, I was nine years old, just like you saw in the movie. Exactly. I was sitting on a stoop and I saw these two cars parking and I thought they were fighting over a parking space. And one guy got out with a baseball bat, smashed the window. And then he got out of the car.

3:11He was going to hit him again. And then the guy's friend came over with his gun and killed the man with the baseball bat. And I kind of like stared at him. He stared at me. And it was kind of surreal. And my father, next minute I knew my father dragged me up steps. He came running down and grabbed me by my arm. And exactly like the movie. Exactly. And then the cops came, and I didn't identify the man. I knew even at that age that you don't rat, you know. And kind of like the next day when I saw him, he kind of looked at me, and I looked at him, and it was like, I know you know. You know that I know.

3:58But he took a liking to me for some reason. I mean, and I started hanging out in the bar. And my father always told me, get out of the bar. You can't go in there. But I would go there, cut up the lemons and the limes for the bartender and help make the guys cappuccino. And, you know, they gave me a lot of tips. And that's how it started. So what do you think it is about mafia movies in general that hold such a special place for everyone? You know, obviously, there's sort of there's something about the music. There's something about the food. I'm a New Yorker. Originally, most of my family was from Jersey.

4:33There's something about the rhythm of the speaking. But I think there's something much deeper than that, obviously, about family and also deeply connected to the American dream about just getting what is yours. Well, Bronx Tale is really, you know, people say it, but it's really not a mafia movie. It's a family movie. It's really about a father who doesn't want his son to go in that direction. But the thing that makes it different is that Sonny didn't want me to go in that direction. Sonny was telling me the same things as my father was telling me. It's just like my father kept saying, you'll be influenced because of what he does and who he is.

5:13And you could be hurt by just being around him. But, you know, when you're young, you don't see it that way, you know. So what was it? Was it just the flashiness that you saw? I mean, you know, De Niro, who plays your father, obviously, he's making that point. Like, just by you being around it, you're going to fall in love with it. Well, yeah, well, I mean, you know, we didn't have any money. My father was a bus driver. We didn't have a car at that time. My father worked hard for a living. These guys had all the sharkskin suits, all the pretty girls, all the flashy cars. You know, you're young and you're impressionable.

5:54You think that's like, wow, you know, Sonny had all the power. You know, power is an aphrodisiac, man. Do you think it has something to do with also the code, that there is a code that these people live by so that you can end up rooting for people who do terrible things, whether it's Tony Soprano or any of these people that do terrible things in these movies, but yet you're rooting for them the whole time. So there's that sort of anti-hero component to it. Yeah. Well, if they're not too bad, yes. I mean, the thing about Sonny and a character like Tony Soprano, they're good guys in a lot of ways, but they're still bad guys now.

6:34You've got to remember that. They still could kill—Sonny was a great guy to me, and he wanted to see me really do well in life, but I knew that Sonny, deep down, was a bad guy too, you know. So they're kind of a paradox, these guys. You're really, they're funny, they're charming. Not all of them, some of them. They're smart and they have big balls. So it's a combination that a lot of people would like to have. What do you make of the general state of movie making in 2025? because I have to tell you, it is very hard for me to find a new movie that I walk out and I'm just knocked out by. You know, it does happen every now and again, but something, you know, back in the day, it was just like every week there were five new movies and four of them were great.

7:34And it just doesn't seem like it's that way anymore. No, because back then they made movies where the artists made the movie. You know, now you have to be so careful of what you say in a movie. If it doesn't fit a certain criteria, they won't show it. I hope it gets away from that, you know. I really do. I hope it does because, I mean, Godfather couldn't be made today. Midnight Cowboy couldn't be made today. You know, a lot of great movies couldn't be made today. So that's what's sad. I mean, I'm hoping that, I'm hoping one day it changes back, you know. Do you think it will? Do you think that's that the people got more politically correct or afraid of art?

8:30Or is it that the studios were doing it first? I think it was both, you know. I think both of them did. You know, now you have to have, don't get me wrong. I think there's a renaissance is that the word? I don't know if I'm saying the right word but where they're using a lot of African American and Latinos and Asians in movies and they're pushing that and that's good I find that to be good I think it's good but you still got to be allowed to make another movie where like if you don't have enough of one ethnic group in the movie, they kind of like shy away from it. And you can't dictate art like that, you know?

9:26I just think it's wrong, you know? But again, like I said, I think it's good that you, look, the African-American people got shut out for a lot of years where they couldn't get a part. So I have no problem, like, being in the forefront right now. I think it's good. When I write a movie, I always put a, you know, where I could try to, like, let me find a role. Let me put this, a person of color, Hispanic or Asian or whatever. I do that purposely because I want to do that. But you can't stop a movie, like, if you make a movie from the deep south and you're using all rednecks, Now you can't make that movie because you don't have ethnic people in it?

10:15I mean, that's wrong to me. See, that's wrong. Right. Well, the ideology shouldn't supersede the art. What do you like doing more? Do you like writing more? Do you like acting more? Does it kind of change over the years? I like both very much, but I think I get more satisfied by my writing. Hmm. because writing you know david the writer like you remember the plays of shakespeare right yeah but a lot of great actors played hamlet but but you really remember shakespeare he wrote it yeah you know there's something about the writer i i love when i see a play what other people do in my words, you know, or a movie.

11:10It's real personal. It's real personal. How did you decide to go about being public about what your beliefs might be as a Hollywood star? Because, you know, as I was watching Bronx Tale last night, you know, on my show all the time, we play clips of De Niro now, and he's obviously become very, very outspoken on the left and really hates Trump and all of that stuff. and I find when I watch movies of him now, it's very hard to watch. Then I watched Godfather II with him and I was like, oh, he's much younger. For some reason, I can kind of, it's easier for me to watch in a way because he looks so different.

11:44But all of these guys that have become so political and outspoken and I think alienated so much of their audience. How did you decide to speak or not speak during your career? Well, I just stay away from politics. You know, I really do. I stay away from it. I think my vote is my own choice. That's why voting is in a booth where you close the curtain. You know, and everybody has their own choice. And I respect that. And if people want to speak up, I think they should speak up. Listen, I don't agree with everything that either party says sometimes. You know, I'm an independent. I'm my own person, you know.

12:34And I just think it's, you know, as they say, democracy is a flawed system, but it's the best system we got. That's it. How come more actors don't realize that and realize that if they would just kind of be a little more quiet, that they've kind of removed some of the mystery around themselves, which I think in the old days was good. I don't know. Maybe some actors are really genuinely concerned, and I think that's good. And maybe some actors just do it to be, you know, to have that self-adulation on them. I don't know. I don't know. But I find things to be, you know, like I don't speak about politics too much.

13:25I think when Charlie Kirk got killed, I didn't really know too much about him. But I said, all right, well, if everybody's saying these terrible things, let me look. You know, and I got on and I did a deep dive into him. And I said, well, okay, so I could see where people find some of the things he said divisive. But he really just wanted to have conversations and let's see if we could work it out. And I thought that was like, okay. I didn't agree with a bunch of things he said, but I can respect him for saying it. You know, I'm not going to kill him. I don't wish him dead. I don't want anybody to shoot him and he has two children.

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15:00It absorbs quickly and won't leave your skin greasy. Just apply a thin layer, massage it in, and let your body recover. Get 15 % off at twc.health slash Ruben with code Ruben. Move freely again with TheraBlue. All right, let's get away from politics then. Let's not drub you over the head with that. Let's stick to the movies and acting and the writing and all that stuff. But so, no, no. So let's talk about comedy for a second, because analyze this. I don't think anyone had kind of seen you in a role like that before. And the whole movie was really a flip on, obviously, the mafia style movie. And yet, again, De Niro in it, Billy Crystal.

15:37Did you enjoy? I mean, it must have been fun. It must have been fun to do. Oh, yeah. Anytime. It was one of the most fun times I had on a set. because the fun thing about wise guys in comedy is you have to play it real. You have to play it real because the realer you are, the funnier it is. If you start trying to be funny as a wise guy, you look like a dope. Right. It's like inherently over the top in some sense, so you don't need to go that far over the top. Yeah, but the more real you are, the better it is. And I loved it. I mean, that's why at the very, I think at the very end, we had that scene where Billy Crystal and I, we went off on an improv thing.

16:28And Alec, Harold Ramis, God rest his soul, great director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I started going, Mikey, Gaga, Vinnie, and Bob. Yeah, yeah. And then he went off. and sometimes magic happens and it's great. How much is the director? I mean, Harold Ramis, yeah, he was phenomenal and he went too soon for sure. How much is just the director giving you the right cues versus letting you do that kind of stuff? Yeah, you know, he was a very smart director. He knew some guys who could improvise and some guys who shouldn't improvise. So he let me improvise and he let Billy improvise and he picked the best of the stuff that we were doing, you know.

17:13Very smart guy with comedy. Well, he was a comedy all his life. I think he was in Second City. So he was really, truly a bright, bright guy. How was it working with Crystal? I mean, I would imagine it was kind of like a Robin Williams situation, like you hand him a script, but then he's just going to do whatever the hell he wants with it. Yeah. Yeah, Billy's funny, man. He's funny. He's very brilliantly funny, you know. He knows what's funny. Look, there's funny people and not funny people. And that's just the way it is. Some people are just funny. And some people are just not funny. I have that timing, that sensibility.

17:56I can make a joke. I find everything funny. That's me. I can make a joke of everything. And so that's what funny people do. I mean, the worst thing is when you have somebody who thinks he's fun and he's not. I've interviewed a lot of those. Trust me. Well, yeah. You know, the worst thing is if you interview a famous person who's very famous, a big star or whatever, and they think they're funny, but they're not funny. Yeah. Oh, my God. you see because people laugh at their jokes they have to laugh because they're famous but they're not funny yeah that's like a nightmare and you don't want that stare from them when they when you don't laugh and then you just get the stare that's that's what you really don't they truly think they're funny i did a movie once that was like that oh my god it was terrible I mean terrible and the director kept saying yes oh that's funny when the movie came out he cut everything out what was your worst maybe you just told me what was your worst sort of filmmaking experience like just in terms of just the whole production you don't have to throw anyone under the bus obviously but just in terms of the whole experience maybe walking into something think you were making something great and then it didn't turn out the way you wanted or something like that But I think it was – I had a great time doing it, but I hired the director myself because I wrote the movie.

19:34It was a movie called Faithful, F-A-I-T-H-F-U-L. And it was a funny movie. It was a play. Then I wrote the movie. And we just banged heads. And I hired the guy. And he was very insecure. and it was a struggle through the whole movie. It was a struggle, but it came out okay, but it was a struggle. Yeah. Was that, that was mostly just the talents didn't match or it was personalities or? Creativity didn't match. Well, he felt that he was right all the time. You know, I actually said to him, I said, haven't you ever done something and you thought something was right, but it ended up being wrong. And he looked at me and went, no.

20:23Oh, well. And then I threw my hands in the air and I said, okay. I see where this is right now, so. And what would you say was the best creative experience you had on set? Oh, I've had a lot. Obviously, Bronx Tale, Bullets Over Broadway with Woody Allen, Usual Suspects, Got to Recognizing Your Saints, Hurley Burley, Mulholland Falls, with Bill, you know, Jade with Billy Freaking. I've had great experiences. I get along with everybody. You know? It must be tough when you get an actor on set or a director on set that just is fighting with everybody and all the stuff that we all read about. Yeah, I mean, some people, David, they, you know, if you don't know who you are, if you're not comfortable in your own skin then you have to like show people who you are and sometimes that's terrible you know they have to show people that they're always right and they're geniuses and they're confidence look sometimes you're wrong man I mean we never met before I don't know how you deal with your staff, but sometimes the staff comes up with a good idea.

21:47I credit them once in a blue moon. You know, sometimes they, and you go, oh, shit, that's better than what I was thinking. Yeah, and you have to be man enough to go, let's do that. Because it doesn't hurt you. It doesn't demean you. You're going to get credit for it anyway. It's the David Rubin show. You get credit for it. No. Why? What are you trying to protect your show from? Great idea? I'll tell you, Chaz, I always tell my guys the same exact thing, all of my guys, is you must tell me what you're thinking. I will never punish you for telling me what you're thinking. I may not agree with you.

22:26And you'll win some and you'll lose some. You know, if it's about content in the show, something like that, sometimes I'm going to win, but sometimes you will win. But you have to tell me what you're thinking. It would be far worse if you didn't tell me what you were thinking. Yes. He could be right. Now, at least he tells you honestly. And you can say, I agree with you. Oh, no, no, I'm going to do it this way. And that's it. Because, and Robert De Niro is the one who taught it to me. He said it takes just as much talent to recognize a great idea as it is to come up with it yourself. So if 10 people give you an idea and you take number six, his idea, you get sick.

23:11you have the same amount of talent as him because you recognize that was the best idea so it has no bearing on you know if you're talented or not it doesn't do you think do you think in some way you mentioned woody allen it was making me think did you think in some way that the pressures of the industry that we sort of talked about before and just how everything has changed now it doesn't allow sort of for a certain amount of greatness to come in because we don't it would be very hard to have a director that could now have 20 hits in a row because they want you to have hit after hit after hit where even a guy like Woody had a couple flops in there now and again and then would have some gems where now it's like you they want you to have that hit or they'll just find somebody else well the good thing about Woody's movies is he doesn't make them for a lot of money you know and he had and he's um and the way the way I talked to Woody about this I remember and the way he explained it to me he said a third of the world a third of the people will go see anything that he does, no matter what it is.

24:14Another third will never see a Woody Allen. They just hate his movies, will not. He goes, when I make a movie, I look for that middle third to come and see my movie. And he explained it like that. And I says, wow, that's a good way to look at it. Yeah, it just seems like we won't have these guys with these decades-long careers anymore because of the pressures of the industry. It always is looking for something new. So it just seems like it would shift, unfortunately. You know, it's funny. The studios, they want something new. And then when you give them something different, they go, nah, that's too out of the box.

24:57So, you know, it's crazy. What do you make of that? I mean, that actually, when I tell you that I can't find things to watch these days, what I find constantly is I'll start watching something And I'm like, this is just, I've seen this already. It was just called something else. It's just a retread of something where everything's a reboot or a remake or a Marvel movie and another Marvel movie. But that seems to be where we're kind of stuck at the moment. Yeah, they would rather put up. There was a movie I wrote another. I'm sorry, I didn't write it. I directed it. And it was a really good script.

25:36and I went to the studio and they said, oh, what a great script. It was called Noel. It was a Christmas movie. And it was a great script. And they said, well, who could you get in it? So I said, all right, well, let me. So this is the cast I got. Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Alan Arkin, Paul Walker. No, before I got Paul, Robin Williams. Think of that cast. Arkin, I mean, yeah, Arkin was amazing, but they're all, yeah, they're all major stars, yeah. And they said, well, you need somebody else. And I'm going, what the hell do I need? They said, I just gave you a big monsters, kid. Well, you know, the movie's going to cost, at that time,$25 million.

26:31they said if you get Paul Walker from The Fast and the Furious we'll make the movie I got Robin Williams I got Susan Sarandon I had to get Paul Walker and you know what I got him and he was terrific he was absolutely terrific and he was a good actor nobody gave him a chance to act but before they made it originally they said no because they I said, well, it's$25 million. The movie's got to gross$50 million. Nah, it's not worth it. They would rather put up$400 million for a comic book thing than$25 million for a great script. And then finally, after I badgered them, kept talking, they let me make the movie.

27:23So I made the movie. But it's like they go, who cares? You made a great movie. Who cares, Chaz? Right. If they put up the 18 and you make 36, they only made 18. If they put up 400 and it makes 800, they made 400. Exactly. They put up 400 and it makes a billion around the world. Now you're talking now. If they're going to make 20 million, it's not worth the risk to them. You know? And that's the sad part. Oh, that's, yeah, that's, that's the risk of art. What, what else is on your docket? What are you, where are you, are you writing now? What are you, what are you thinking of doing? And yeah. Yeah, I'm writing another play and a series for TV.

28:11We'll see. You know, I always say, who knows? You know, it could one day when I finish, they love it. And one day, you know, that's it. It doesn't work. You know, it doesn't sell. But I'd rather do it myself, not get paid. Just do it myself. So this way I can write it the way I want to write it. What if the medicine that helped save millions during the pandemic was now being made mostly in China? It's true. About 58 percent of the world's ivermectin comes from China and 75 percent from Asia overall. But not the wellness companies. Introducing American-made ivermectin, safe, trusted and produced right here in the U.S.

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29:28So you can just do things on your own terms. And yeah, I'm doing very okay. Yes. Yes. Yeah. No, I am. I'm not going to, I don't have to, I just, I just did. It's on pay for view. I just did the one man show of a Bronx. I haven't seen the one man show. I, but I, but last night when I was doing research, I saw that it exists. So I will, I will check it out. Yes. I mean, it's out on, uh, I, I, you know, that's how I got famous. Yeah. I did the one man show and everybody wanted it. Right. So I didn't know it was a one man show before until, until last night. It went up to a million dollars and I still said no at$200 in the bank.

30:10Finally, I, De Niro walked in one day after I turned down the million, he saw the show and said, you should play Sonny. You could do it. It'd be great. He goes up and you should write it. I'll direct it and I'll play your father. And that's how it happened. And so I never had it on film. So just recently last year, I put up my own money for the movie. I directed it. And it's out now. It's doing great. It's on pay-per-view TV. And it's on Amazon. So if you get a chance, see it. It's really good. I absolutely will. Well, even just the story behind it, the fact that you end up playing Sonny, the guy that you admired as a kid.

30:58And so that was De Niro's idea that you were going to play him. Well, I wouldn't sell it unless I played Sonny. That's why the prices kept going up. Because everybody wanted to make the movie. Right. But they didn't want me. You know, they wanted to put a star on the road. They wanted, you know, A Pacino wanted to do it. Nicholson wanted to do it. at that time, Robert Redford wanted to do it. Wow. Everybody wanted it. And you had the balls to, you had the balls to hold it. Yeah. I had 200 bucks in the bank and I wouldn't sell it. It only happened twice in history. Sylvester Stallone made it. I swear, I was just about to say Rocky.