James L. Brooks (director and producer)
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What is discussed at the start of this section?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts, or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. I'm Jan Shepard.
Hello.
And I'm joined by Monica Padman. We have an absolute titan of show business today, James L. Brooks. He is an Academy Award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter. He wrote and directed As Good As It Gets, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons.
Wow.
One of the creators of The Simpsons.
And he helped Bottle Rocket.
He produced Bottle Rocket, which was a mess when he first heard it, as we'll learn. He has a new movie in theaters December 12th, Ella McKay. This was a delight. Very Norman Lear-esque, created like a real genre of TV that persists today.
He broke a lot of barriers.
He did, he did.
Boundaries, barriers. He broke through a lot of barriers.
He broke things. Please enjoy James L. Brooks.
He's an object expert.
How you doing?
So good, how are you?
Pleasure. Yeah, great to meet you, Dax. Am I free to call you Jim?
Yes.
Okay, great. Are you someone who's perpetually early?
I try and be on time. I used to be the reverse and then change my act.
Because someone forced you to or you just did some soul searching?
I was working with an actor who has to remain nameless, who was always late. Always late. Guy flew and he said he'd pick me up. No, don't pick me up. I'll get there. Don't pick me up. Two hours late waiting there. This is a big star where I'm really, I think I finally figured out that it was a sort of social distancing thing because every interaction would begin with him apologizing for 20 minutes. Oh, interesting.
Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, what a time suck. It's like you're late and you got to apologize for so long. The day's gone. Let's try this again tomorrow. So you were born in Brooklyn in 1940. But how quickly do we move to New Jersey?
I was two, I think. So that's my only memory, really. How far from the city were you in New Jersey? We were up a hill that was directly across from 72nd Street in New York City, where I ended up getting an apartment one day. And as a kid, I was looking across down the hill at that. And then at one point you were looking back at home. It was almost if you drew a straight line. Yeah. And that hit me one day. Yeah, did it fill you with satisfaction? It was emotional because I was not in a great environment and I was not a happy kid.
Yeah, I get to talk to people with a lot of childhood stuff, myself included, but yours is really up there. Publicly so. Dad leaves mom the second she's pregnant with you? Yes. I think it explains your career in a big way. Maybe you'll agree with me or not agree with me, but... I was raised by a single mother who was a gangster, who was working nonstop and building a career. And I was in the shadow of a very impressive woman. And I think it helped me throughout my life have an appropriate amount of respect for women. And I'm just wondering if you think being raised by just your mom, watching her kill herself and all that played a role ultimately.
Well, it was my mom and my sister was eight years older than I. Oh, okay. So she was saddled with me quite a bit. It's ever the regret of my life that my mom couldn't see some good things happen to me.
She was 22 when she died?
No, no, no, no.
I mean, I'm sorry, you were 22 when she died? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously, she's going to add both of you with an eight-year gap.
Yeah. My sister had become divorced, so she moved home. I had a job as an usher in New York that I commuted to after high school. And between the three of us, life became a little easier economically. Okay. With the both of them contributing? She worked six days a week, two nights a week.
What was she doing?
She sold children's clothes.
Oh, wow.
And your dad was a furniture salesman? Furniture salesman. Do you think you were imbued with that sense of like, go get them, walk into a room, win them over?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is discussed at the start of this section?
0:00–5:33
2
How did James L. Brooks get his start in journalism?
5:33–12:05
3
What challenges did James L. Brooks face in his early career?
12:05–25:19
4
How did James L. Brooks transition from television to film?
25:19–58:01
5
What insights does James L. Brooks share about ambition in storytelling?
58:01–58:24
6
How does the discussion of contemporary female characters unfold?
58:24–58:50
7
What emotional experiences does James describe regarding his family?
58:50–59:12
8
How does the conversation shift to the impact of personal experiences on creativity?
59:12–1:48:40