00:00I just met Cynthia Ariaville. It was wonderful. She was lovely.
00:04Um, and after seeing Wicked the movie, I'm like, how starstruck. But yeah.
00:09Did you know she was going to be here at Sundance or was that a surprise to me?
00:12I knew she was going to be at Sundance, but I was not prepared for today.
00:16Just a mirror. I'm like, wow, such a treat. Yeah.
00:23An independent movie is a miracle to get made. But beyond that, like we,
00:28I wanted to use all my friends who, who, um, um, you know,
00:32I had been working with for a decade and a half and off and on and stuff.
00:36So, uh, my DP is from here. Uh, of course he has like a crazy,
00:40amazing career. And, um, the writer is from here. Uh,
00:44Preston is part time from here. Um, myself, I've been here for 20 years.
00:48So shooting it here and I'm like, this story is a rural story, you know,
00:52it's a Southwestern United States story. And Utah, um,
00:57is, is that for, for many, many reasons. So yeah, we did like, you know,
01:0220 plus days of the movie here and the rest,
01:05a few on the road in a haunted house in Wyoming, a little bed and breakfast.
01:09Yeah.
01:10Haunted. Did you have an encounter?
01:14Um, well, there was this hotel called Elk Mountain and it was amazing.
01:20There was all these frames on the walls with like black and white, like pictures of
01:25old fashioned, like people in outfits, like smiling, but like, it was creepy, but it was good fun.
01:32Before I get any further, I wanted to ask about Rex. What is his real name?
01:36The dog actor. We, I was kind of hoping maybe he would come to or two.
01:41That's like Lassie. It was like, you know,
01:43But admittedly, the first Rex worked a day or two days.
01:48We're sick.
01:49Was he five?
01:50And we said-
01:51I couldn't work with him.
01:52I got his agent down and I said, I've got my lead actor.
01:55Ashy personalities. Yeah.
01:58That, that dog was a lovely, uh, little hyper. So we went to a much more subdued dog,
02:03which, do you remember his name?
02:06Rigger.
02:06There you go. Rigger is his name. Lives in Utah, alive and well.
02:10Can I let me not forget the dog?
02:12Yeah. Lives a couple hours away. We checked up on him for the premiere. Wasn't available.
02:17It's on to other things.
02:19Were there anything that was surprising about, like, the realities of making a road trip movie?
02:26Challenges, et cetera. Just car acting, anything like that, what?
02:30Well, it's confined. I mean, it's confined space, you know? It's, uh, very tight. You're spending
02:37eight hours a day in a old, beat-up, uh,
02:43coaching wagon. Yeah. So, uh, and then on top of that, it's an indie film. So it's very
02:48scrappy and all hands on deck kind of situation. Um, but it's an obstacle. But this is a movie that
02:55thrives on obstacles. So you, you, you want those kinds of things.
03:00To, uh, push you and get you into the place that you need to be. But we had a lot of fun.
03:05You know, I mean, you're shooting value. This story takes place from Nevada to Omaha.
03:10And I think a big reason you're shooting it here in Utah is because it gives you a sense of that
03:16journey. And also in the script, a big portion of it took place in the salt flats. You can't
03:20recreate that. You gotta be here. Uh, and then obviously we had to go on the road a little bit.
03:26We went through Wyoming, like we said, and then we finished out in Omaha, um, to get,
03:33you can't, I mean, you can't just recreate Omaha. There was discussion about that,
03:37but we knew that we weren't going to get the value if we shot it here in Salt Lake City.
03:42Um, but beyond that, uh, it's a, for a limited crew with a lot of local people on it,
03:51it really forces you to bond. It's, you know, there's something about road trips in general
03:56that forces people to bond and share memories. It's almost like summer camp. And with this tight crew,
04:02we went to a place called little America on the Wyoming border, this amazing, very strange motel,
04:09like quintessential Americana. And we spent some nights there. And how did there may have been
04:14fireworks going like the crew and they were, cause it's legal year round to do fireworks,
04:19I guess, in Wyoming, you know, fireworks. And so they're like off shooting fireworks and playing pool.
04:24And then it was a good, it was a good journey for us. Does anyone remember the first time they were
04:33starstruck? Not to speak ill of the dead, but I'm going to. When I was a kid, I met Paul Newman
04:41and it was really cool. I was my, there used to be a thing called the Cleveland Grand Prix. It was a
04:45car race, like an Indy car race in Cleveland. My dad was, uh, kind of one of the head of the volunteers
04:50there. So I had great access. I, as a kid, I would go through the paddocks and get all the
04:54drivers autographs. And I would just like have free reign. One year, I don't know if you know
04:59this, but, uh, Paul Newman owned race car teams. So he owned a team that Michael Andretti raced for
05:07and some other great drivers. And one year they placed, I think Michael Andretti got second place
05:13and they're in the winner's circle. And I was standing in the winner's circle and there's Paul
05:16Newman and I'm from Cleveland and he's from Cleveland. And I want to be an actor. He's a great,
05:21legendary actor. He's sitting there smoking a cigar, just smoking a cigar. I look at him. I'm like,
05:28I go, Mr. Newman, Mr. Newman. My name's John. I was probably like 12 at the time. I'm like,
05:34my name's John. I'm from Cleveland. I really want to be an actor. And I look up to you so much. I love
05:39car racing. And I was wondering if you could just sign my program. And he looks at me and he goes, no.
05:45And that was it. I mean, this is why I signed like anything. If anyone asks me to sign stuff,
05:53I'll sign it. Cause it was just so, cause this like no one else was around. It was like me and
05:57Paul Newman. Like, it wasn't like he was getting hounded and it was just like, no, good. It was
06:03my heart shattered. But, but sometimes, you know, meeting the people that you look up to,
06:09you learn a different lesson and, and it doesn't change how I feel about him as an actor, but maybe
06:16I feel about him as a person. I'm Robin Williams. I think I was 16 and we were on a trip down from
06:22Montana. We'd come down to LA and we'd all gotten to go in and I met him out front. And I was just
06:28unable to even speak. It was just wonder. He was drunk. He was completely high or drunk or whatever.
06:34Didn't get bit with the big beard and everything, but he was a big hero. So
06:39he said.
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