Joan Allen (Nixon,Ice Storm, Pleasantville)
Director Jim Stern (Stomp, 35 Miles From Normal)

The New York Film Critics Series debuted the East Coast Premier of All The Rage, starring Joan Alen, Jeff Daniels and Gary Sinise. The film is a fun, yet highly intelligent, satirical look at  modern American society. It presses all the hot buttons such as: guns, internet, computer moguls, homosexuality, prosititution as well as other controversial topics. It was written by actor/writer Keith Reddin (The Alarmist) and produced by Christopher Ball (Mrs. Dalloway, The Velvet Goldmine), Adam Deldeo (Digging To China) and others. Featured here is NY Film Critic, Bob Campbell, critic for Newhouse Newspapers interviewing OscarÒ Nominee Joan Allen and Director Jim Stern.

Bob Campbell: I thought it was a good job, all I want to know is how they got Warren to show up at five in the morning. That was the only question left from me. Yes, what did he tell him to get him there at five a.m. Is Keith Reddin in the audience I would like him to stand up? The author of the film, there he is waking, ducking and I think Adrian Deldaio, one of the co-producers, are you there, ok so we are here. And now, moving on to the heavyweight division, actually we are pretty much in there. First, I would like to introduce the director James B. Stern, he is best known as a Broadway producer of in the revivals of Diary of Anne Frank, Sound of Music, off-Broadway cash machine of Stomp. This is his first film as a director and it looks like he's been doing it for a while so I would like to introduce James B. Stern, would you please come up. And I hope to God she's here, a woman I think, on a sane day is the best actress in American movies, who I have seen on stage in Chicago, and off-Broadway, Broadway and is seen in 15 movies and I've never seen her dishonest moment or a false flourish from her, as I said in one of my movie reviews last year, 'why don't they give her the damn Academy Award and get it over with. What amazes me is that she's kind of typed she's married to every star in Hollywood in last couple of years, John Travolta in Face-Off, Daniel Day Lewis in The Crucible, I should say John Travolta and Nicholas Cage in Face-Off, Kevin Kline in Ice Storm, Anthony Hopkins in Nixon, I am leaving one out but what, Pleasantville, right where and she's gotten a bit typed as to descent repressed a little bit throttled down and beleaguered wife but each one of portraits that she's done is so separate and individual that you realize that she could play the same part and make you think you were seeing five different individuals and so it's really so everyone is proud to have Joan Allen, star and co-producer. And you may have noticed 5 foot 10 inches tall. I'm going to ask them to talk for a while and then ask them some questions and then it's open to you. So should I just start out or just start asking you some questions?

Jim Stern: I will just start to tell how this all came to be I saw this as a play in the Goodman Theater in Chicago and Keith just had the play produced there and I was incredibly struck by how I felt like it was cut like a film and felt like which was right for adaptation through this medium. So you know Keith was fortunate for me with his lot in with me and my partner Peter Gilbert and you know came the really difficult part of adaptation and also getting the film made. Joan's faith and sort of paraphrase John Belushi, she well, in any rate she trusted me from Animal House I won't bring forth anymore and we had a cast and we end up getting to the shoot and we actually shot the film in twenty-five days so that was pretty amazing because that's about a third to about half of what other films get to shoot at. So this is actually the first American audience to see this film so thank you.

Audience Member: Would you like to since you're one of the co-producers one of the powers that be behind this movie was this some that you took on as part of your role or was it something you felt so connected to or important that?

Joan Allen: I was just, Jim came to us with this script and showed us…

JS: Begging…

JA: And his partner Peter Gilbert both wonderful men and I just liked the material so much in Jim and Peter it just seemed like a wonderful project to be involved with.

JS: It's sort of boring talking about the people in the movie 'cause they like each other so much. They just want to tell you how great everyone else is in it. What a nice person that person they are talking about.

BC: You probably know Joan if I may call you Joan is one of the original Steppenwolf founders and co-creators and along with Gary Sinise who interacts so beautifully in this movie as Morgan with John Malkovich which will lead me into the Malkovich story.

JS: Oh, I'll go ahead.

BC: Yes, go right ahead but you have to tell them a little bit about John Malkovich is about entering John Malkovich's brain, multiple John Malkovich's, John Malkovich's existence taking over pretty everybody and…

JS: I saw this movie with my wife the other night in Chicago and it's all about Littley entering John Malkovich's brain which John would know more about than I would but in any case it's amazing and inventive and you really go into his brain and you see John Malkovich, John Malkovich, John Malkovich and the next morning as I'm driving with my wife we just ran smack down into John Malkovich on the street and we though we were still in the movie. I almost killed him but he doesn't know though.

BC:  Well, there is a sequel.  He's every where.   Do you still work with ________ at all or was your last thing _____?

JA:  Well, the last show, I haven't done a play in ten years, but the last play that I did was a play called Earthly Possessions.  I still am a member of the company and I just haven't done any theater for a long, long time.

BC:  I'm a fan as you probably guessed.   Do you think that you have been type cast at all in the Hollywood films that you've been in?  I mean I would go to a movie if it had 5 minutes of Joann Allen but that’s the way that it seems now.

JA:  I think it's sort of in retrospect you know it's like I can kind of see a bit of a pattern which this film sort of dispels which I'm glad about.  I think bye the time I got to Pleasantville I started going wife, mother, wife, mother, unhappy wife, mother but it didn't really dawn on me until afterwards because I really did see the characters.  I mean if you're going to do unhappy wives, I've gotten to do the best ones that have ever been out there really in the last few years and I feel very fortunate and I've worked with some amazing people.  I did see them as, even though their circumstances were sometimes similar, I saw them very individually and from a different viewpoint for each one of them and I really didn't see that coming.

BC:  Some of you might have seen the Heidi Chronicles or Burn This which are her best known stage performances here, do you feel you have made sort of a psychological shift over to movies as your first base, base of operations?

JA: Have I…

BC: Intentionally made a shift from being a stage actress to being pretty much a film actress?

JA: Yeah, that's how it's pretty much evolved for me in the last ten years I guess I also became a mother and I think in someways doing film is a little bit more parent friendly it's less of a commitment and in someways that sort of facilities my personal life a little bit better in someways.

BC: Joan is married to an excellent actor named Peter Freeman who you may not be aware of having been seeing him and everytime you see him you've been impressed. Yes he's very terrific. So you two were sort of the original force for the first drive behind this, you and Mr. Reddin.

 JS: Yeah like I said Peter Gilbert and our casting people I mean there were a lot of people that really helped this get on the road and it was Joan coming forward and throwing her laugh in which inspired other actors to decide if it was good enough for her then maybe it was good enough for them, so without her this would have never happened.

BC: She was sort of the judo-scoot, that was how Robert Altman once described himself as you know the one who leads all these talented actors into movies where they don't make any money. Everyone worked for scale on this one correct?

JS: Yeah essentially…

BC: Yeah you were more definite then before…

JS: I think they all did this project out of whatever misguided love and affection they had for the project and myself.

BC: It's also reminded of the richness of American acting. I mean the number of people in this film are real portraitists.

JA: But I think yeah I think the whole ensemble is really remarkable I think every performance is so strong and truthful and the cast is amazing.

JS: Yeah it was amazing for me as a first time filmmaker to be able to work with these people was incredible and I felt like I was learning everyday. There's a really good director named Tina Landau who I am very close with and Tina said before I left I said "do you have any advice for me." She said,"my advice is when in doubt trust them because you have the best people in the business." I never lost sight of that one intelligent thing that I did.

BC: In my correctness…

JA: Among many I can't agree with that.

BC: I am correct that this was Los Angeles playing Chicago?

JS: Yes.

BC: Did you, was it all location shooting pointlessly expensive or…?

JS: Let's see, first we did shoot exteriors in Chicago, some exteriors in Chicago to sort of confuse people and I think as is the case with many first time people, I think the people who finance the film felt more comfortable with a first time director who they could keep their eyes on. So I think that had a big part…

BC: Including Denmark right?

JS: Exactly Denmark right…

BC: Scan-Denmark

JS: Scan-Box, one of the companies that produced it.

BC: And it didn't pose any problem for you since it was essentially an indoor piece, an interior piece.

JS: Yeah I loved being in California shooting, I mean the only hardship was that my wife was pregnant at the time besides that and the fact that she's a saint. It was great for me and it gave me complete focus and concentration the company was able to give me their support and be there for me which would have been more difficult then Chicago and I think was particularly something a first time person can benefit from.

BC: If you saw Pleasantville you would have remembered Joan going from black and white to color which is exactly something she can do without any technical help the transformation she does. It was one of the more memorable visual moments in the movies in the last few years. And as a matter a fact, is the haircut from the movie for this movie?

JA: It's a little shorter even though but no I got my hair cut even before.

BC: When you came out this haircut I just turned to my girlfriend and said, "great haircut."

JA: Oh, I often wear wigs so it was kinda nice to have my own hair in this own I have to say.

BC: Now, did you have to do a lot of preparation, a lot of preproduction to keep it in bounds to keep in budget and get everyone's schedules coordinated?

JS: Ah, the preproduction was actually pretty short so which can be very beneficial because you only have a chance to make a few decisions so you make the decisions you make the best decisions and hope they are the right decisions, like I think what Holstoy would have done with computers. Because he's got 800, 1000 pages every novel if he's rewriting which you can do so effortlessly on a computer he probably would have written one novel instead of all the novels in the world…

BC: Actually my fantasy is to do a hyperlink version of War and Peace where each character will lead you to another 800 page novel about that character and ultimately spend your life.

JS: We could make a movie called Bean Bob Campbell…

BC: Well I was thinking Being Joan Allen would nice, would have a nice distaff piece. Have you seen that movie by the way?

JA: No I haven't seen it yet, I got to get there everybody raves about it saying it's wonderful

BC: Yeah you have a long time connection…

JA: I went to college with John so he got me into the Steppenwolf company I sort of owe my career to John.

BC: Acted with him and burned those switches you know together. So is there anything you two want to say about the film before…

JS: I think the thing that is interesting to me in like this film and other films cropping up now is translation from theater to film which is something that is near and dear to my heart because I'm a member of the theaters as is Joan and I think in heart the difference is that we listen to theater and we watch films and trying to meld that into something that is a constant challenge I think it's interesting to me because in the old days watching the Philadelphia Story and movies like that it was not a challenge because it was accepted and now that I think that people's attention spans are a little bit shorter because of commercial, television and everything else that becomes more of an issue, more of a challenge so I think that was one of the things that we attempted to do with this.

BC: I don't think there's anything anymore about attention spans I think people expect the movie to wash over them and lift them up, take them down and deposit them on the far shore kind of exhausted but happy. It's sort of a lost discipline as I was saying before I don't know if you heard me watching a movie and actually thinking about it as it goes along instead of waiting for something zowwie to happen next. I think this is a pretty good textbook illustration of that often Eastern black comedy but it's on the positive because rather than the nihilistic or anything for a gag it's also traditional with a social satire real point of view and sense of the culture around us that's in my opinion, so questions from anybody?

Audience Member: I first wanted to say that I absolutely loved the movie, I thought the screenplay was marvelous and the ensemble cast I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to ask Miss Allen, we had seen Pleasantville actually in this same group I guess it was about a session or two sessions ago and we really took it too and I don't know if it was intended to but my mother and I took it to deep political level and your character was exceptionally strong because she came into identity with herself, she also represented a lot of things to us and I also found your character in this movie was very strong emotionally, politically and so forth. I was wondering if you look for characters that have those qualities?

JA: Yeah I suppose I do in with the issue that this film deals with guns and gun control I think I don't consider myself extremely political by nature but this particular issue means a lot to me and I think also in Pleasantville that character represented a lot of women who lived at that time and I was aware of that so it was a combination of that, so also at heart whenever there's heart in the material well it's both of those things that I look for.

JS: That was my college roommate who was shot to death. Ah, gun control is a big issue to me so clearly I have always wanted to do something that deal with the issue…

BC: What are you a Democrat?

JS: Guilty as charged but the short is answer is yes guns is something you know if you get the opportunity to do something which is wonderfully well written as this is and it is about something that is important to you it is much easier to stay the course and to see through, spend the two years that it takes then that's on the short side. So as is with Joan extremely important issue to me and happy to have the opportunity to do this.

BC: The acoustics aren't so great coming in this direction so I may ask the next people who ask questions to stand.

AM: Hi, how are you doing Joan, I thought you did a wonderful performance. I worked with Toby McGWire, I'm also an actor on an After-school Special about eight years ago out in L.A.  I was wonderin' I haven't seen him, how was it working with him on Pleasantville? And I also my second question, I also have a question for you too Jim, are you directing do you see that in your future.

JA: No, no I don't see directing at all in my future I just don't think I think that way. I really think too specifically in age and a character and relate to that character on my own wave length it's really difficult for me to see the whole thing I really see the things I work on very specifically as a actor's stand-point and in terms of Toby, I got to work with him twice because he also played my son in the Ice Storm and so that was wonderful to get the opportunity to get work with him the second time because he is wonderful actor and is very good and has, is very spontaneous real and honest and I enjoyed working with him both times very much.

BC: Let me say, after you left us feeling about sex in the Ice Storm, I am glad it's in Pleasantville.

JA: Yeah, exactly…

BC: It was more of a positive shift…

AM: Jim, great job. Two questions what's your next project and also I noticed you did a little thing in there about Pulp Fiction, was that insider's joke or did you do it to see if anybody would catch you?

JS: The short answer is yes, it was inside joke I guess I mean it's also in a way not such an inside joke because although these sorts of movies are so deftly and brilliantly handled in the hands of someone like Taratino, I think that the kind of hip-nihilism that pervades you know film in culture today I feel can be irresponsible. So you know I throw that stuff in a lot of posters of people and stuff like that, so none of it was unintentional and in terms of the next project from the sublime to the ridiculous I am completing producing and directing an IMAX film on Michael Jordan, so MJ coming at you eight stories high and the next film I hope to do, you know there's a couple of projects and they are well on their way so if someone is willing to give me money to do this again I will be back in it in another year.

AM: Hey Jim, wanted to ask what was the most surprising thing and the most difficult thing about directing your first film?

JS: The most surprising thing was how comfortable I felt on the set. I didn't think that I would necessarily but I think that's because Joan is so fantastic to work with as was the rest of the cast and the kinds of horror stories that sometimes people hear I experienced none of them. So that was the most the surprising thing. The most difficult thing was certainly getting the money, no no, was the most difficult thing was you know the visualization knowing where to put the camera fortunately my partner is a fantastic cinematographer in his own right Peter Gilbert so he, you know I mean almost not almost I did I had two d.p.'s on the set so that was huge benefit to me, it was the bigger challenge for me.

BC: I have to ask, what is the distribution situation?

JS: Adam, you're over there why don't you talk, the distribution situation is that in the next six months the film will be out, we have had many people distribute the film and the question is which way the financing entity chooses to go. So the film, you know in the near term will be seen and I'm sort of, you know Adam could get up here but he's hiding now he's shaking his head he doesn't want to get up - I don't blame him for that question. So it's very positive for us, it's just unclear who wants to do it.

(AM speaks -- can't hear what he says)

JS: Thank you. The film cost less the Titanic and more the Blair Witch. No I think the film cost north of five million dollars I didn't have to raise any of it fortunately I just went to Adam and he gave me the money.

AM: This question is for Joan, was it at times - I'll stand up - was it at times, at least at times trying to play the straight woman to everyone else's insanity and how did you ever keep even the hint of a smile off your face in that dinner scene with Gary Sinise's dweeb?

JA: I didn't keep a straight face a lot of the times as I recall I did a lot of giggling off you know in between takes fortunately they have to tweak lights and things like that, I was able to get my giggles out and it was especially funny because I've worked with and I've known Gary like 22 years and some of the stuff he was doing was how we used to entertain each other in the earlier days of Steppenwolf when nobody was getting paid and we couldn't afford to go to movies we would entertain each other while we were building the sets for the plays that we were doing. It was especially funny for me because being sort of reunited with me and I guess I didn't feel so straight while we were doing it relatively straight but I just had I lot of fun.

JS: You know one of the most fabulous things for me directing this is, I would be working or whatever  and then I would  look over between takes and I would just see Joan and Gary talking about starting this theater company in a basement in a suburb of Chicago and building like cardboard sets and I felt you know you always say that could be the fly on the wall and there were times when I was, it was because Steppenwolf was the most great thing, the most important you know theater group to come up since the group theaters, don't mind me.

AM: You've directed on Broadway I know that… 

JS: No, I haven't, can't claim it would love to but I haven't …produced

AM: Oh ok…produced, I know you've worked on Broadway and the director of Cabaret has been offered a career in film now too, I was wonderin' if you feel there seems to be more acceptance of the Broadway people in the movie industry since you didn't see that for many years?

JS: That's true, he is really brilliant you know I hope that's true I think that it's great that you know that people again will listen to movies a little bit which they need to do with a film like American Beauty and that's a great thing and he's brilliant, brilliant director.

BC: I can't see a damn thing with these lights so I guess you're handing the microphone around so whoever has the mic on this side.

AM: Hello hi, I loved the movie I won't ask you who was your favorite actor…

JS: Joan Allen.

AM: I was talking to you I was talking to Miss Allen, I won't ask you who your favorite actor was to work with but, because they enjoyed working with you too, did you have a favorite movie?

JA: All the Rage. No, I enjoy All the Rage very much for me The Ice Storm is my favorite film I have to say in every way how he realized that story and also the material, sorry (feedback from mic), the material was also very challenging because on the face of it when you look at it, it sort of self involves upper, middle class disconnected Connecticut folks you know that he made that film so much harsh and you just died when, destroyed when this young man was killed in the course of the film I think it really was an achievement because it easily could've been a very bad film I think with that material but he turned it into something brilliant.

BC: That was such a warm heartbreaking performance and the film was a terrific piece of work. But the scene that stayed with me was, of the 90's that keeps coming back to me, is you are sort of the straight man again in Face/Off at the child's grave with the husband who isn't husband who killed the child but has to play grief now but is feeling real grief and the interplay between the two of you, I took it into some sort of metaphysical dimension, it was great.

JA: Thanks.

AM: Hi, after playing Pat Nixon, did you get any feedback from the Nixon girls or there representatives?

JA: No, no they, I can't see where you are I apologize oh way in the back oh great, no, no they were not involved at all in any form of it at the beginning subsequently understandably so they kept themselves removed from the whole experience they didn't need to go through any more. No didn't hear anything from them.

AM: On your left, two question each one of you can answer, on the distribution of the film do you expect it to go to the theaters because by the way you said I swear I could see it going ShowTime or HBO?

JS: I expect it to go to the theaters.

AM: And since you are, Miss Allen and Jim are both involved with theater in the past, change subject a little bit did you have a commitment about the health Broadway stage and economics?

JS: I think that Broadway is extremely health, I think that question gets asked all the time I'm never quite sure why I mean you can't book a theater today in New York, there's a waiting list, people are spending money on Broadway in record numbers, it all seems incredibly positive to me.

(AM doesn't use a mic)

JS: It's good for the investors, no, it's, you know I guess the short is yes because Broadway is still that archaic of forms on the kindness of strangers and angels and when there is chance for returns you know frankly we made on Stomp or on Cats or something like that then keeps people involved in financing things and without that disposal income that investors are willing to put up for theater, then commercial theater won't be healthy sort of a stranger to say yes I do.

BC: Anybody else?

AM: I loved the movie, I have a very short question about the original play that this came from one the title and two as a result of this is there a renewed interest in the play itself being performed off-Broadway or somewhere?

JS: I don't know, Keith is out there I guess he could answer that question but the title was fabulous title which was Keith's who wanted to make sure we kept it.

BC: You know there's a little Keith Reddin _____ taking shape the last movie I don't know if they show here the Alarmist, another dark social comedy and I'm sure there's going to be more.

AM: Right here, Joan, like Bob I am also big Joan fan. For Pat Nixon you played in the Nixon movie, could you could you tell us what preparation you made for that brilliant performance?

JA: Oh, thank you very much. Thanks, thank you. Well I first started going out to the museum of television and radio broadcasting in New York thinking I would punch up Pat Nixon's name and find 500 pieces of footage and there were about 3, and I thought this has to be a mistake, you know there has to be more on this woman and then I thought well maybe I need to punch in Patricia. So I punched in Patricia and there were about 12 entries and so I, Patricia Nixon gives a tour of the White House or something like that for 60 Minutes. Well I got it and put it up on the television screen and it was actually her daughter Tricia who had taken Mike Wallace, she was very, around with him a lot kind of in the background, on the sidelines so there actually a lot of footage of her talking but I landed on 'cause I read in one of the books there's a biography written by her daughter that I read and I read that Barbara Walters had done an interview with her in 1972 so I wrote a letter to Barbara Walters's office and they sent me a copy of this interview and it became my bible in terms of studying her physicality and her vocal qualities because Oliver Stone was interested in having me sound a like bit you know she's from Nevada originally and she's sort of lived in the small, very poor upbringing in California, so he wanted me to have sort of a western sound so he wanted me to work on that a little bit, I used that a lot I watched a lot of footage on him as well. Read a few books about her and there were consultants Alexander Butterfield was a consultant on the film and he knew her very well, he was a liaison between herself and Dick Nixon and often you know they were throwing a party for someone she would plan the menu and then he would take it over to Dick and he would say I don't want that kind of food I want that kind of food, tell Pat I don't want…and the butler's like why don't you tell her yourself? So there were some people who were also consultants on it but my own personal background, I grew up in the Midwest and there was something about Pat Nixon that I understand from a lot of Midwestern women who are sort of that standby your man, pull yourself up by your boot straps, upper lip you know school of thought and so there was something very familiar to me about her personality as well from my family background.

BC: I sort of wish Anthony Hopkins had seen the right newsreels, I don't know which ones you were looking at Laurie George I think because he was staying very far away from Nixon mannerisms so it was and Nixon diction.

JA: I think he had a very much more difficult job then me because Nixon was much more known than Pat. Ultimately I think I had a fair amount of lease with her because she was seen but she was never really heard very much and they went through a whole rigmarole with Anthony in terms of should we do a prosthetic nose, there were all these kinds of makeup test ultimately decided to do it with contact lenses, shaving his hair line and some false teeth which he put in the front of his mouth. He had a much more difficult role I think to do plus being an Englishman doing a this famous American figure, he actually said it was bigger then doing King Lear, he had a monumental task which I think he pull off really beautifully.

BC: Back there.

AM: Can you hear me? Is this on? Two questions, what will the rating of the movie be and from the transference from the page were any of the parts enlarged or amplified or the plot?

JS: The rating will be "G", no,  I don't want to doing anything that 3 1/2 daughter wouldn't want to see, I assume the rating of the movie will be "R", I have no idea and in terms of amplifying parts, yes there was actually quite a bit changed in Keith's play, the part of Morgan was Norton, which we can't use because of Peter Norton and he was 19^th centurieth industrialist or 20^th centurieth I guess. And that gets changed to sort of Bill Gates on crack sort of guy and then Joan's character got amplified because I wanted to make sure there was somebody to really bring through this evil, crazy world, on stage it was more of an even ensemble.

BC: Was, oh god what was I going to ask, in terms of character bound oh, oh, yes I know was Warren Harding as the name of the character in the play also.

JS: Yes it is.

BC: An odd but welcome little reference, little historical joke.

JS: And a strange reference with Helen Harding who, Keith told me this, I think the first secretary of something like that, first something I don't remember now. I hope I got that right.

BC: Movies are educational. Anybody over here?

AM: I am just going ask a question, I appreciate your generosity in answering these questions so I have a question a very oddball question, but it's one of these opportunities where you so solemnly get to talk with people who are so intimately involved with the film after you've seen it. I would like you to address this if you may I don't know if it's much of a question, how were the guns handled physically in terms of society, guns carry such enormous potency sociologically, how you dealt with the guns the emotional response with having guns those kinds of weapons because that was what the film was about?

JS: Yeah it gave me the willies whenever they were around frankly, they're handled really carefully, you have some guy who has to check them out you got to open them up and put a flashlight in them to make sure there's nothing in there that's gonna be, you know with what's he face - Brandon Lee - Brandon Lee, they got into a hurry and he was killed as a result so you have to make sure there's no light ammunition. But not to make an obvious pun, it's a loaded situation when there's a gun around and for someone who has as a strong emotional reaction to guns as I do you know it's very startling there like very intense weapons and they are nothing anything but that and there intent is never not to kill you know whatever people try and tell you otherwise it's not true they are sold to kill that's what they do that's why the Cary Grant movie, His Girl Friday is used so many times in the background because the point of that film is that guns are utilitarian, guns are there to be used, the argument that Rosalyn Russell and Cary Grant keep coming back to as a reason why this sort turpy guy shouldn't be electrocuted so that was sort of the point of that. So it's sort of real loaded situation.

JA: Also when you're an actor too they are handled extremely carefully and before every take whoever is handling the guns brings it over to you in front of the actors, the person who holding the gun, the gun who is pointed at shows you every time it's empty there's nothing in it they go through this whole rigmarole just to assure you that you're glad every time they do it feels really comforting.

BC: I've been told by a couple of actors that making westerns are a real pain because as soon as the actors strap on guns, boots and spurs that they all of a sudden start swaging around. I mean it's the most peaceful you know hippie actor flower trout starts acting like a Wyatt Earp.

JS: I know I do but that's at home

BC: Take his gun away.

AM: Over here.

BC: Anybody else, great. No wait one last question.

JS: She just wanted to know why Keith choose the name Warren Harding, you know I meant to ask him myself. Thanks.