Chapter 1: What insights does Gus Van Sant share about his film 'Dead Man's Wire'?
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Chapter 2: How do studio politics influence a filmmaker's career?
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The guys we don't like, they're like, yes. And the guys we do like, no, they wouldn't have done that. No, I'm not saying that. The contestants, the people up for the award. Nominees, you mean? Nominees.
We're not contestants, Gus, for Christ's sake. Great pleasure to meet you, sir. How are you? Good. You comfortable? Yes. Very. Are you comfortable doing conversations?
Chapter 3: What are the psychological dynamics between actors and directors on set?
This is not an interview because I never prepare anything. Oh, good. All right. It's just what I know about you, which is I'm a big admirer of your movies. Oh, thanks. And I saw the latest one, liked it a lot, Dead Man's Wire. Are you excited about the upcoming Oscar season?
Yeah, it's coming up today. What? Today is the first day that it plays in a theater. Oh, really? It plays in two theaters. One is in L.A., one in New York. I think to qualify for at least Oscars. And then it goes to streaming? No, it's not a streaming project. At all? It's a completely independent. That's rare these days. I don't know if you saw the end credits. There was 100 producers.
So kind of a crowdfunding. 100 producers? Yeah. Come on.
Chapter 4: How did Gus Van Sant's early films shape his career?
Because I think each one put in like $100,000, added up to $10 million. Oh, I see the money. Yeah, the money.
It was all about the money. I mean, every director of a certain age that I've talked to in recent years, you know, some very big names like you, and it's always about getting the money. Yes.
I mean, maybe it always... I mean, kind of, this is such a low budget that there were a lot of things that weren't like... You know, if it's a $100 million project, you know, there's a lot of things that are about the money, but this was so low budget that there were a lot of things that weren't. What's your budget these days? Ours was $10 million, $10.8 million.
Do you know how much Cleopatra cost?
A million. One million. Really? And that was a big deal. Well, it was 1962, so come on. I was around. I was around. It is pretty funny that they went batshit about that number. Yeah. You know what a ticket for My Fair Lady cost on Broadway? The best ticket in the house in 1956, the year I was born? No. $6. Wow.
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Chapter 5: What role do critics play in a filmmaker's success?
Those are the days. Well. But a car was like $1,500 and... That's the interesting thing. Somebody put out a great article recently pointing out that the poverty level, what we call below the poverty level is a certain thing where you qualify for government funding, food stamps and stuff. It's based on something like from the 50s where it's like a third of your money goes to food.
Back then it did. But now, not nearly a third of people's money goes to food. Food is cheap, but housing, college, medical, childcare, all that shit was way cheaper or didn't even exist. My childcare, we had childcare, it was called my mother. Same with us. Yeah. My family. I mean, you're from the... Mike May, born in the 50s, right? Mm-hmm. Grew up on the East Coast. 52.
I grew up... My family was from Kentucky. First six years were in... Colorado, Denver, Colorado. A suburb. What was that like back then? It was very suburban, like new, the new houses were, you know, whole section of the city.
It's kind of a western city. I mean, Denver is, I always found it fascinating, that whole state, it's what they call a purple state, because, you know, it's sort of like, it's got like fucking hippies, you know, there's a big bowl.
Chapter 6: How does comedy lineage connect to modern filmmaking?
Neil Cassidy came from Denver.
Neil Cassidy.
One of the beats. Yeah, sure, I remember. With Ginsburg, right?
But he was from downtown Denver.
And Kerouac?
Kerouac was from Massachusetts. But they were all in the same coven together, right?
Yeah, yeah. They met at Columbia in New York. And Neil was just driving through, you know, and Alan was like, this guy is amazing, and introduced him.
Yeah, I feel like your early movies that made you famous, The Drugstore Cowboy and Private Idaho, that's sort of that milieu. It seems like you were very inspired by that when you were a kid. Yeah, I was. It wasn't early. See, four years were different. That's just a little before I was. It's true, yeah. When you were a young teenager, that was a thing you would, as a smart 13-year-old,
that's something you would be interested in. Whereas in that era, I was just into baseball cards. 1968, I'm 12. The first year I sort of became aware of the world outside of me, I was suddenly into music. That's a big difference from baseball to music.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do directors face in today's film industry?
It's huge.
So it's four years basically. So I was 16 in 68. So it's a little different.
Yeah, very different. And if you're 16 and 68, the number one worry you have?
Is the draft. Is the draft. Which came up and my number, by then they had a lottery. My number was four, but I had a student deferment. So I was a student.
You and your fucking white privilege. How dare you even sit here and drink with me, you fascist. White privilege. Well, it actually was. I mean, they overused that phrase, but back in that day, it kind of was. And not just that day. George Bush, famously, the first, I mean, the second George Bush, famously was in the National Guard.
when he could have gone to Vietnam and when he ran against John Kerry, he was always like, stop denigrating the guard. And like, we're not denigrating the guard, we're denigrating you for having your Congressman father pull strings and let you in the guard. Because the guard was, you know, when he was prosecuting the war in Iraq, he sent a lot of National Guard.
But when he was in the National Guard, they didn't go to Vietnam. Because we had a draft. Your background there, like in
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Chapter 8: What future projects are on the horizon for Gus Van Sant?
A place that was this sort of cross currents. I feel like you get that. I mean Denver Colorado can be a redneck place.
Yeah Well, we left when I was six and we traveled around what's like Chicago for two years San Francisco area for one year and then Connecticut so I was 10 when I got to Connecticut and So a lot of, I pretty much grew up in what you were saying, Canada, Darien, Canada. Darien.
Oh, I know the area well. You do? Well, I was a pot dealer in college. I went from never smoking to dealing it in six months. because it's certainly the best way to afford it. And my pot dealer, when I got out of college, I kept the, I started in college, but I kept the job because I had to, as a comedian, how am I gonna make a living?
You know, like you have to, comedians are really great at like just figuring out ways to not work in the day and somehow survive. And that was my scam. Not a scam. I was an honest drug pot dealer. And I went to Westport, Connecticut. Oh, to sell.
To buy. To buy. To buy and to sell. There seemed to be like a lot of pot in the area.
It was just lucky that there was this guy. who was introduced through a friend. And I think this guy's brother was in the mob. And he just got tons of pot. And so the prices were great. He was just a sweet guy. I think he wanted people to come over and sit and smoke pot with him, like drug dealers do. You have to, like, talk to the drug dealer for an hour. Right. And you become their friend.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. So I would go up there, you know, with my briefcase that my mother gave me for Christmas, looked like a businessman's briefcase, dressed like, you know, I was 22 and had shitty clothes. I must have stood out thinking my briefcase was going to make me look like a businessman. I'd have, like, a $99 coat from Macy's that I was wearing.
But I'd go there, and I would fill that briefcase up with a couple of pounds of pot. that's my and bring it back to the city take the train um so you grew up in new york city no i grew up in new jersey but then i was living in new york after college i moved into new york um dirt poor living in um you know you got to start somewhere were you poor ever i mean just on my own when i was just
Starting out, I was technically poor.
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