00:03Hey everyone! Welcome to InStudio and we have Emilio Estevez here with us today. How's it going?
00:09It's going great. No complaints.
00:11So you're here to talk about your latest project, The Public, a film that you wrote, directed, produced, starred in.
00:20Can you set it up for the viewers at home?
00:21Sure. So this began, the journey is really a 12-year journey. This began 2007, April 1st.
00:31The LA Times arrived at my door. I opened it up. There was an essay written by a former Salt
00:39Lake City librarian named Chip Ward.
00:41And the thesis was about how libraries had become de facto homeless shelters
00:47and how librarians had become de facto social workers and first responders.
00:52And I was really moved by it. It was a very touching, very intense piece.
00:59And I had done the bulk of my research for Bobby at the downtown LAPL here in LA.
01:06And so I knew kind of what Chip Ward was talking about.
01:09I didn't understand the degree in which he was describing in the piece.
01:15But he said this is an epidemic and we need to all be aware of it.
01:19So I went back down to LAPL, started doing the research, started to imagine this idea of what would it
01:25look like if the patrons,
01:27mostly whom are experiencing homelessness, decided not to leave on one of the coldest nights of the year.
01:35What would that look like? How would the press respond? How would the police respond?
01:40In the middle of what is really a humanitarian crisis, would they force these people out into the cold?
01:47And so that was the beginning of how this thing all came together.
01:53So you mentioned 12 years in the making.
01:55That's right.
01:55And then now people are starting to see the film.
01:58And you've been screening the film around the country to different groups of people.
02:01That's right.
02:01So what has the reaction been?
02:03It's been amazing.
02:06I feel a little less crazy because, you know, I would go on these hikes and I would imagine what
02:10the movie would look like.
02:11And I would write a scene in my head or I have already written the scene.
02:14And I said, when this person says that, the audience is going to laugh.
02:17When this person does that, the audience is going to react.
02:19And they're going to cry at this point.
02:21And again, if you never make the movie, you'll never know.
02:23So to this day, I still stand in the back of the theater and watch the reactions.
02:29Because as my worst fears are dismissed, the movie is actually landing.
02:38And those jokes do land.
02:40I feel less crazy.
02:42And I feel like my instincts were right.
02:45But we've been on this cross-country tour.
02:48I'm in the middle of it now.
02:50We're going to do about 30 cities.
02:52Wow.
02:53We screen at libraries.
02:55We screen at a couple of film festivals.
02:59We screen for social workers, homeless advocate groups.
03:04And so they have seen themselves on screen.
03:09Yeah.
03:09The movie celebrates misfits.
03:12It celebrates outcasts.
03:13It celebrates those who don't see themselves represented on screen, if ever.
03:18And so to see it in a group of individuals who are experiencing homelessness and have them yelling
03:25and cheering at the screen and seeing themselves in an empowered position on screen is pretty special.
03:34Now, you've been in this business a really long time.
03:38Hey!
03:39Hey!
03:40Hey!
03:41Now, do you think, I mean I have seen some of those movies from your earlier career.
03:48Do you think you would have been able to make a movie like this, of this caliber, with this cast?
03:53You have a great cast.
03:55Earlier, maybe in the 90s?
03:58I think this would have been an easier sell in the 90s.
04:01I think that the business, you can look at the business and say, well, it's really expanded
04:05with all of the outlets and the streaming and the cable and all that.
04:09But it's also contracted.
04:11And there are more of us.
04:12There are more artists.
04:13There are more people who want to tell their stories.
04:15And there's some extraordinary storytellers out there.
04:18There's only room for so many.
04:23This is an independent film that, due to your point, I believe would have been a lot easier
04:28to get made 20 years ago.
04:31Yeah.
04:32So you think films today are a lot harder to make?
04:36Or do you think filmmaking in the 80s and 90s is easier?
04:39I think what you're forced to do now is get super creative with your schedule.
04:44We shot this film in 22 days.
04:46Wow.
04:47You know, Bobby was shot in 40 days.
04:49The Way was shot in 40 days.
04:51So just in that 10-year time period, 12-year time period, you just feel the dollars contracting
04:58towards being spent on an independent film.
05:02And if you want to stay truly independent.
05:05On this picture, we didn't sell any of our foreign territories.
05:07We kept the picture intact, which puts a different sort of demand on the overall production.
05:15Yeah.
05:15You wear many hats in this film.
05:17Do you find that easier or harder?
05:19You know, you get to control it, but then you're also doing all the work.
05:23Well, the good news is you don't have anybody to talk to.
05:26The bad news is you don't have anybody to talk to.
05:29Yeah.
05:29And so I find often that you're leaning into people that have been your associates, your
05:37friends for years.
05:39I was fortunate enough to have my son work with me on this picture.
05:44He's a man.
05:46He's 35 years old now, but he's somebody who I really leaned into.
05:51When you are wearing so many hats, he would pull me aside and he'd watch from the shadows
05:57and he'd say, you know, I don't think the character is that cool.
06:00I think you're a little too cool, Dad.
06:02Oh.
06:03Right?
06:03Oh, okay.
06:04Yeah, he would school me.
06:06Okay.
06:07You know, Stuart's a nerd.
06:08You've got to remember that.
06:09You're an outcast.
06:11You're a misfit.
06:12You're not Emilio here.
06:13Yeah.
06:13And so he was that guy that I really leaned into during production.
06:19Who was the first one cast?
06:21Well, I was.
06:22Oh, of course.
06:23After you.
06:24Number two.
06:25Alec Baldwin came aboard.
06:26Okay.
06:27Almost immediately.
06:28He read the script and, you know, not somebody who I was friends with.
06:33We knew each other 30 years ago.
06:36Christian and Jacob were the only two that I had previously worked with.
06:41But this was a whole new experience for me where Jeffrey Wright, first time.
06:45Yeah.
06:46Michael K. Williams, first time.
06:47Taylor Schilling.
06:48Gabrielle Union.
06:48Jenna Mulan.
06:49Yeah.
06:49I didn't know any of them.
06:50And they all responded to the material.
06:53And also, they responded to the fact that they were only needed for four, five, six days.
06:58So they could come and play in our sandbox and not have this protracted commitment.
07:04Yeah.
07:05Because, of course, with a film like this, there wasn't a lot of money to pay people.
07:09Yeah.
07:09I bet.
07:10And you shot this in Cincinnati.
07:12We shot in Cincinnati.
07:12Okay.
07:13We were supposed to shoot here in L.A.
07:14Okay.
07:14It was designed as an L.A. shoot.
07:17If you know, it's very difficult to get the California tax incentive here.
07:24There was a moment where we were going to shoot here, where I was spending some time
07:28in the downtown branch of the L.A. library, the central library.
07:33And I was walking around with the then head librarian.
07:37And she was just kind of shaking her head and looking at the floor and looking at me.
07:41And I was doing my two-hour pitch.
07:43Yeah.
07:44About how important it was.
07:45And how we were not going to impinge on the patron's right to access the information.
07:50And I understood.
07:51And blah, blah, blah.
07:52And she just finally said, look, you can't.
07:55And I said, why?
07:56And she says, we had a film crew here before.
07:59And they put their lights on.
08:01And the lights triggered the sprinklers.
08:04They got hot.
08:04I know.
08:05And the sprinklers went on and they soaked a number of books.
08:08And we just, I'm just, I'm so against it.
08:10You'll never, you'll never be allowed to share.
08:13No.
08:13And I said, wow, who are those amateurs?
08:16And she said, it was a show called The West Wing.
08:18Oh, man.
08:19So, I was like, yeah, okay.
08:22I know nothing about that.
08:24Right?
08:24Yeah.
08:25So that was that.
08:26So I have to ask, when are we going to get the Brat Pack together back on screen?
08:32I don't even have any of their numbers.
08:34Oh, no.
08:35No, I don't, I have no, no contact with really anyone.
08:41I, I became a father at 22 years old.
08:45I mean, I was kind of, and then I, you know, I chose this path of being a filmmaker.
08:51And it kind of put me in a, just a different head space.
08:54Yeah.
08:56And I, listen, I adore everyone from there.
08:59Yeah, there's no animosity.
09:00No.
09:00It's just moved on.
09:01No, Demi and I worked together on Bobby.
09:02Yeah.
09:03So, so certainly there's no, no, no animosity.
09:07Yeah.
09:08So, you grew up in a showbiz family.
09:11Had you not grew up in the family that you did, do you think you would have still pretty
09:15sued a career in show business?
09:17Hard to know.
09:18Hard to know.
09:19It's, I, I love, I love writing.
09:22I wrote for the school paper in junior high as well as high school.
09:28And so I, I may have chosen the life of a journalist.
09:31I like to think of myself as, you know, in some, as a foreign war correspondent, you
09:37know, something really glamorous and wildly dangerous.
09:41But, but I, I don't know.
09:43It's hard to say.
09:44Yeah.
09:44Maybe for your next film.
09:45Yeah.
09:46Anderson Cooper.
09:46Yeah.
09:47Maybe.
09:47There you go.
09:47Do his life story.
09:48I don't know.
09:49Just putting it out there.
09:51Whatever's next.
09:52Well, we're really excited about your new film.
09:54I personally saw it.
09:55It's definitely a must see.
09:57Thank you so much for stopping by.
09:58Great.
09:59Great to be here.
09:59And be sure to check out The Public coming out on April 5th.
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