00:00Hi, I'm David Harbour.
00:01Hi, I'm Patricia Arquette.
00:02And I'm Courtney Cox, and we're here with the film Evil Genius,
00:05and you're watching The Hollywood Reporter.
00:15Does anybody have any home court?
00:17What's home court?
00:18I thought it was funny at the candles.
00:20I did.
00:21I thought you were a good actor.
00:22Damn it, I forgot.
00:23Hello, everyone.
00:24I'm Sayah Rankin, and I'm here with Evil Genius.
00:28And Courtney.
00:29Courtney, well, you are the Evil Genius behind this movie, I guess we can say.
00:33Talk to me about deciding to direct this movie.
00:39Like, were you looking for a new project?
00:41Did someone call you up?
00:43Okay, so I had directed the narrative version of a documentary called Tall Hot Blonde,
00:49which Barbara Schroeder, who did Evil Genius, directed.
00:53And I was, actually, if you want to hear the story, I'll make it quick.
00:55I was at the Beverly Hills Hotel, sitting at the counter, my favorite spot in the corner.
00:59I saw her, and I was like, oh, my God, I love Evil Genius.
01:01You did such a great job.
01:02She said, it's available to direct.
01:06And I, she goes, you should run with it.
01:07We had a good relationship before.
01:09And I did, and it took me eight years, seriously, through, you know, lockdown, strikes.
01:16It was something that I just couldn't let it go because I loved it.
01:18And then got these two amazing actors.
01:21I knew there was a story beneath the headlines that was really, you know, emotional and touching
01:26and terrifying and all of the things.
01:29And I got the best actors to play the parts.
01:30Have you done more deals like that at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the counter spot?
01:34Is that a lucky spot for you?
01:35I've made a lot of deals there, yes.
01:37And made a lot of money there.
01:38It's just interesting.
01:39Well, it seems like the place to be.
01:41Bitcoin? No.
01:43She's got a legal game going in a bungalow.
01:47No, no, it's a counter business.
01:50It's a strictly counter business.
01:52Yeah, no, I can't get it inside the puzzle.
01:55I feel like people will probably remember the Pizza Bomber.
01:58Was that a story that you were following when it was happening?
02:00I thought I was, and I thought I saw it on the news.
02:03But after you set up in that other interview, I thought, maybe I also only saw it in the documentary.
02:09I'm pretty sure I watched it live.
02:12You saw it live, but then I think...
02:14But I feel like that guy leaned up against the police car going like,
02:17I think somebody needs to do something.
02:18I think this thing is going to go, whatever.
02:21Like, I thought I was watching that live, but in 2003 or whatever, 2004.
02:26I thought I was watching it on TV, but I think I actually watched the documentary.
02:31I think someone said, have you seen that crazy documentary?
02:34And then I watched it way back then, and it was like, this is crazy.
02:40I mean, you know, I'm kind of all in for any kind of bank robbery movie anyway.
02:45But this went wrong, very wrong, you know?
02:49Yeah.
02:49Well, Attica, come on.
02:51What are you talking about?
02:53Gosh, I'm embarrassed.
02:55It's not like you make them all the time.
02:57How did you find these two?
02:59What was your process in getting the cast together?
03:03Well, strangely, my manager, I've been with her for a million years, and she is so good at casting.
03:10And she just said, you've got to have David Harbour in your movie.
03:14And I knew who he was, but then I really did a deep dive, and that's how that happened.
03:20She's really, really smart.
03:21She's the one who introduced me to Garrett Delahunt, too, when I didn't know who he was.
03:24Oh, really?
03:25He was a tall hot blonde.
03:25Oh, my God.
03:27Yeah.
03:27He's amazing.
03:29One of my favorites.
03:30And Patricia, you know, I've just seen, I mean, obviously I've known her for so many years, but I've seen
03:35all of her work, and she's got a quality that I've never, you can just transform into anything.
03:42Oh, thanks.
03:43Yeah, you guys do make a pretty good transformation.
03:46When you, like, pitched them, when you guys were getting pitched on this movie, what did you know about sort
03:51of who you were going to be playing, how eccentric or not they were going to be, the looks you
03:57were going to be wearing in the film?
03:59Like, what were you at the time saying yes to?
04:01I mean, it wasn't like a full pitch.
04:04It was like Courtney met, wanted to tell me the story, and got me a script, and I read the
04:11script, and we talked about it.
04:13And then it sort of came, I think the, you know, it's like we worked on it, and we thought
04:17about it, and we played with ideas and stuff.
04:19And then the idea of the looks with, you know, some prosthetics and also, like, for me, like a big
04:24bodysuit and stuff was, it was important to me.
04:27And I think, you know, I think we all sort of came together, made like a soup together on this
04:33stuff.
04:34It wasn't like a prepackaged thing.
04:35And that's one of the things I like, is that we were all creating this kind of on the go
04:40as we went.
04:41We didn't have a lot of time.
04:42We were all very invested and very committed, and we all just came in and said, look, this is what
04:46I bring to it.
04:47This is what I want to do.
04:48And Courtney was like, great, here's what I do, and Patricia, here's what I do.
04:52And that really is what galvanized the whole thing.
04:53Yeah, I mean, we both wore a little bit of prosthetics, but we didn't want to, like, here's this actual
05:02reenactment.
05:03Every time they blink, we blinked.
05:05You know, you wanted to feel the essence of the people.
05:09So also you wanted that sweet spot with the low-budget movie where you're not wearing so much prosthetics that
05:15it's taking you out of the scene,
05:17where it's distracting, like something's wrong, or I see a seam here, I see a seam there.
05:23So you have to find that kind of sweet spot.
05:26But there was a lot of also written material about these people.
05:31So that was very helpful, too, to kind of understand their underpinnings that went beyond even the documentary.
05:38Were the overalls always part of the deal?
05:41Yeah, the overalls.
05:42Because I saw, you know, well, the thing is you see things of him talking to the police,
05:46and there are sort of actual scenes that we almost recreate where he's telling the police what happened.
05:51He offers to tell the FBI exactly what happened.
05:55And those overalls were very specific.
06:00I remember I had the costume designer.
06:03It's very funny, like the little details, because, like, my shoulders are pretty broad, and his shoulders are less broad.
06:10And so we had to, like, manipulate the car heart, like where the overall, how the overalls fit, to get
06:15the right silhouette,
06:16which is like that he's kind of pear-shaped in a certain way.
06:20But, yeah, like the overalls were big.
06:22I really like the fact that he's this big, huge guy that could be very menacing and terrifying,
06:27but also had, like, little dainty hands sometimes and sweet little gestures that were very delicate.
06:32It was like he was holding a teacup because he's a genius, you know?
06:35And so I think I keep the pinky out when you say genius.
06:39But, you know, there were lots of sort of complexities to him and sort of paradoxes or whatever,
06:45and I like just highlighting all those things.
06:47But the overalls were a big statement the whole way through.
06:51It almost kind of cured me of my overall addiction.
06:55You had one before this?
06:57I don't know.
06:58I used to say I wanted to get buried in my overalls with, like, a caramel apple.
07:02That was my plan.
07:04And then after this movie, I was a little bit like,
07:07I don't really know if I feel the same about my overalls anymore.
07:11Do you have a pair that are really baggy and light?
07:16And I think you would put one shoulder of it down.
07:18Yeah, the girl, you know, anyone who really knows me knows my damn overalls, okay?
07:22I can deck you on my tombstone, not cured Patricia Arquette of her overall addiction.
07:27Well, what do you want to be buried in now that you're not going to do the overalls?
07:30Nude.
07:31Nude, not Coca.
07:34That's fair.
07:36With a caramel apple.
07:37Did I spy Coco in the movie?
07:39You did.
07:39Yeah?
07:40Coco's, she's got a little scene in the movie,
07:44and Harlow, Patricia's daughter, is young Marge.
07:48Oh, my God.
07:49Yeah, yeah.
07:50They're together in the movie.
07:51That's so fun.
07:52Coco's really sweet, too, and she just gets on off.
07:54Did you have to ask her to do it?
07:56Did she ask you to do it?
07:58Coco loves acting so much that she was so happy to be there.
08:02It's amazing she's definitely in your family.
08:05She's been studying since she was so little and doing shows and plays.
08:09She's the only one, well, her and David, who did a lot of musical theater and all of this.
08:14She just finished her first other movie.
08:17So it's very exciting, too.
08:20They're fifth-generation actresses, our little daughters.
08:23So sweet.
08:24That's so amazing.
08:25I love it.
08:26So cool.
08:26Thinking about, like, delivery drivers and pizza delivery made me think of a question that I've never known the answer.
08:32to, which is that when you are famous, can you still get delivery in the same way that someone like
08:37me does?
08:38No.
08:38Yeah.
08:39So what do you do?
08:40So Amazon came to my house, you know, dropped off the package and was like, can I get a picture?
08:47And I was like, bro, I'm at my house.
08:50I don't.
08:51He was like, of the package.
08:54To prove it was delivered.
08:55Yeah.
08:58So that happens.
09:00You're humiliated like that.
09:03So there's that.
09:04What if you want a pizza?
09:05No, I get a pizza, sure.
09:06Okay.
09:07I get a pizza.
09:08What do you, how do you get a pizza?
09:09I'm afraid of everyone, so I don't order pizza and I have, I don't answer the door.
09:15There's a lot of weirdos out there.
09:17Yeah, I mean, it's just reality.
09:19You, you, you do DiGiorno.
09:21It's not delivery.
09:23It's DiGiorno.
09:24You do cook well.
09:25I cook really well.
09:26It's like a, yeah, TV dinner pizza.
09:27Oh my God, it's a commercial.
09:28Oh, DiGiorno.
09:29It's a commercial.
09:29Yeah.
09:30Yeah.
09:30The commercial was, it's not delivery, it's DiGiorno, because it's a frozen pizza that tastes
09:34like delivery.
09:34That's how I know you didn't just watch Friends live on air.
09:39That was like Friends era live TV commercial.
09:42Oh yeah, gosh.
09:44I better be getting free pizza for the rest of my life.
09:47Well, you're certainly not going to get a free Amazon Prime membership.
09:50Let me make sure.
09:53Are you sick of being congratulated for your Emmy winner?
09:55We're still in the window.
09:56Please, no, I'm sorry.
09:57Okay, yeah.
09:58I think you won.
10:00I did.
10:01I did.
10:01You didn't notice.
10:04Thank you very much, y'all.
10:06That's actually really nice.
10:07Yeah, no, it's really nice.
10:09It was just a really like amazing evening.
10:11And I guess the, of course, it's nice to be celebrated individually, but like our show
10:15just got, it got best actor, sporting actors, sporting actors, writing, directing, cinematography
10:20and editing in one night.
10:22Wow, that's great.
10:22And it's like, I love this show so much and I'm so proud of it.
10:27And the fact that people embraced it as strange and as weird as it is of a show was just
10:32like
10:33lovely.
10:33I do feel like you had a really good week because did I see you, I think you were on
10:37TV during the Ben Shelton, Francis Tiafoe match.
10:39Oh my God.
10:40And I feel like that was probably a better night than the Emmys, but you told me.
10:44Oh my God.
10:44Yeah.
10:44It also was a later night.
10:47Yeah, yeah.
10:47The Emmys match started at 1130 p.m., went for four hours.
10:50Yeah, that'll do it.
10:51But wow, that guy served, the finals are coming up.
10:54I know.
10:55Tonight?
10:55It's an amazing match.
10:56Amazing match.
10:56For any of you guys, what is the best like congratulatory text or phone call that you've
11:01gotten from any like news that's been out there when someone.
11:05About this movie or just anything?
11:06Yeah, that sticks out.
11:08Oh my gosh.
11:10Hmm.
11:10I'm going to say whatever this is about this movie.
11:13Like just congratulations on Tiff.
11:15That means more to me than anything doesn't, yeah.
11:18You know what I used to do, when I used to do plays in New York, I love this.
11:21You'd get a good review in a play and your phone would just be like text, text, text, text,
11:26text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text, text.
11:28And the next day, if you got a bad review, there'd be one text.
11:33And it'd be like, hey bro, there's a picture of you in the Times.
11:39So that's like the worst congratulations on you.
11:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:42That's a good, that's a good one.
11:43What was the first job you had where you got like, what to you at the time was like your
11:49first real paycheck?
11:50What was that job and what did you buy yourself?
11:54I'll go first.
11:55Okay.
11:56I got, I was cast as a, not a recurring, a guest star on As the World Turns in New
12:03York
12:03City.
12:03Uh, and I got paid $1,000 for the day.
12:08And I was like 25 and I was like, oh my God, I made it.
12:14And I went to a vintage store and I bought a polyester blue, powder blue polyester suit.
12:20Ooh.
12:21Yeah.
12:23I, um, I think, you know, I could be getting this timing wrong, but I think it was, um,
12:28my second movie, which was, uh, Nightmare on Elm Street part three.
12:34Like I paid like $8,000 or something.
12:37And I think I bought a Suzuki Samurai, uh, which was a little tiny mini Jeep kind of, but
12:44a very, you know, tin canny little thing that you could like tap, you know, put on the top
12:52or take it off.
12:52Did you have a car top carrier?
12:53Oh.
12:54But I accidentally left it off and it just, all the rain was inside it.
12:58But I was so excited to have a new car.
13:01You know, I don't know that I'd ever, growing up, I don't think we ever had a new car.
13:06So even though it wasn't like an expensive car, I, I loved it.
13:10That's a good one.
13:11Um, I, my first, maybe it was a New York telephone ad, but I'm not sure if that was
13:16first or as the world turns.
13:18What the heck?
13:20I played an as the world turns sandwich.
13:22Oh my God.
13:23I played a girl named Bunny and I had a couple of lines and I had not lost my Southern
13:28accent
13:28and I can't believe I ever got a job after that.
13:32We need a clip of these people in the as the world turns.
13:36You could take every famous person's clips from as the world turns.
13:40That'd be a really cool little art piece.
13:42What did you, what'd you get yourself?
13:44Oh.
13:45Mmm.
13:46Probably a slice of raised pizza or something.
13:49Di journo, bring it back.
13:51Thank you guys so much for coming and chatting.
13:53I appreciate it.
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