Episode Transcript:

 

00:06

Welcome back to FORTitude folks. I’m your co host JW Wilson and across the desk today
as my other co hosts are my co hosts not other is Brenton Payne.

 

00:15

We’ve
not done this before

 

00:17

I know
each other.

 

00:17

We typically
sit on the same side so

 

00:20

well we
have two special guests that required some room and some in some frontage
space, if you will. I had

 

00:25

the best
pizza the other night. Twice. Yeah, what was the place called DeLuca and I
believe our guests own that restaurant Correct? Is that correct? I’d

 

00:33

love to
take credit but it’s all right with that that’s

 

00:36

what’s
Restaurant Week we had Bunnell the Alex Snodgrass and this now,

 

00:40

we
Britain we have we are blessed to have the greatness of Angelique and Mike
DeLuca. Not Luca pizza fame.

 

00:53

It’s
very extreme dating.

 

00:54

Let’s
begin with Angelique Angelique, Fort Worth gal. She went to southwest High
School Correct. I did. You were a child actor in such things as the Power
Rangers Correct. Not child. Well, I guess you weren’t a child but your your
younger, younger.

 

01:10

I was.
Gosh, I was young. I was a baby. How old to Winnie’s

 

01:20

you and
some shoe called actually looked us up Pensacola Wings of Gold. Yes. Yeah. It’s
like a Top Gun. Sorry.

 

01:28

That was
a lot of man with child actors to because we talked about JW had a
conservatorship thing against me for some period of time, but I’ve broken out
of it. With the credit free. Wings, man.

 

01:40

I was
not a child actor. It was Believe it or not, it was my mother’s idea for me to
move out to LA. And you want to know why? Why? Because she said I was partying
too much here in Fort Worth. What

 

01:54

itself
was high school in the early 90s. You gotta be kidding. What a fix to LA

 

02:00

and one
year at Arlington Heights. Oh, yeah. That’s probably well, no, I take that
back. They were both pretty

 

02:05

she was
gonna fix you by sending you to La Yes. We’re parties don’t exist.

 

02:09

We knew.
We knew nothing. Obviously. We were just your get all small town. Fourth folk.
Nothing about Hollywood

 

02:20

just go
out there. Like I mean, it was just I

 

02:22

did so.
It was funny, because we had just had a hailstorm here in Fort Worth. And I was
I think it was 21. And it totaled my car. Well, years ago. Yeah, yes. Yeah, a
couple years ago. And it totaled my car. So my mom, she was driving me to work.
And she, through this supposedly grand idea that she had that she that, you
know, she thought I should move out to LA and try to pursue the acting career.
And because we played around with it with you know, Walker, Texas Ranger here.
And, and also bottle rocket, which will I’ll tell you the full circle, okay,
you know, down the line, they were gonna kind of get to that. But anyways, um,
so she just thought it’d be great, because I was, you know, I guess going out
too much here in Fort Worth.

 

03:19

Because
some movies are very sober environment, correct? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I
figured it’s great as can be.

 

03:26

We did
not never stress. Yes. You know, she goes, Look, she goes, you will have every
you know, I will I will help you. You know, I think you should do this. Just
try it for one year, just one year. And if you don’t like it, you can come
home. And I was like, there is no way I want to move out to LA. I was about to
move out to the country here with one of my best friends. This big city was
just no. And then Hollywood. I mean, it was such a foreign thought. Yeah, in
my. I mean, it was just crazy. But, you know, I thought about it over about a
two three month span. I asked everybody I knew what do you think I should do?
What do you think I should do? And finally I just thought, okay, you know what,
I’m 21. And if I don’t do this, I will regret this for the rest of my life. You
know, it’s just one of those things that you just you just knew, especially for
my mom to be supporting me in every way. Because when most young children, you
know, or kids say, hey, I want to move out to LA the parents are like, Are you
effing crazy? Yeah, no way but yeah, my mom’s like, yeah, go go so short. I bet
you know it’s funny cuz three, three years into it. She calls me crying. Come
home, come home. I miss you. I’m like no as I am finishing what you started Oh,
yeah, yeah. And then sure enough, I ended up living there for 20 years. There
Yes.

 

04:50

That’s
where you met this gentleman.

 

04:51

This is
where I met my my amazing was bend you why he’s my husband. Yeah, it It’s
funny, we were at the, at the, at a football game recently. And this lady walks
up and says, This is my husband. I was like, Oh my gosh, I love that. And like,
yeah, that’s kind of

 

05:09

how’d
you get out there? Mike, can we ask that?

 

05:11

Yeah. So
I grew up in New York and I went to film school at NYU. And I couldn’t wait to
get out to LA because it’s, it’s really the hub of production for TV and film.
So I did my time in New York, and then just got shipped up on my first

 

05:23

job to
LA. And so you were there before you? Yeah,

 

05:27

I’ve
been there since 8990. Okay.

 

05:29

Yeah. Mike’s
nine years. Yeah, he’s nine years older. Yeah, I am.

 

05:33

I’m in
my early 30s Obviously, beautiful.

 

05:35

And of
course, he went out there. He went out there, you know, like, the, you know,
with kind of the burden his hands he went out there was already a career I went
out there and I knew no, no, what I always know anybody that

 

05:48

only
like analogy that I liken it to is Axl Rose coming off that bus and that Guns
and Roses video, or I don’t know if it was him. Yeah, welcome to the jungle. Like,
it’s just like this is what are all these people who go out to LA, they just
come off that bus and they’re like, what’s about to happen with my life? You
know, this is crazy. Mike,

 

06:05

before
we get to you, Angelique. Your mom, Donna is a cancer survivor. That’s kind of
a really cool part of your lifestyle. Woman that pushed you out of the house?

 

06:14

Wish me
yet? Yeah. So um, gosh, I still I actually I still can’t really wrap my head
around this because I it’s I think we are literally witnessing a miracle so to
speak. But in March, I believe it was she was diagnosed with stage four cancer
from her neck, all the way down to her organs. And her you know, from pelvic
all the way up, I mean, you could literally feel and see the knot in her her
swollen lymph nodes in her neck. And I saw it, I saw it on the computer, it was
everywhere. And you know, it changed. I mean, it rocked her world. I mean, it
just when we just, you know, kind of automatically just thought, Okay, this is,
this is how she’s going to pass. And so thankfully, she’s got a really amazing
doctor here in Fort Worth, and they suggested immunotherapy. And, but my mom
being the, probably one of the strongest women I’ve ever known in my life. She
just thought, okay, you know, we cried. And then she goes, Okay, she goes, this
is, I have cancer, and but we’re not going to let this take us down at all,
we’re not going to go down this road. And so she did everything in the book
that I think everybody should. And what she calls now her toolbox, but she
started doing lots of forgiveness. She started forgiving a lot of people in her
life, she started asking for forgiveness. Because as we know, when that
negative energy is in your body, it can also help feed the cancer. And so she
just went through a really, you know, major cleanse that way, lots of prayers,
we obviously had lots of friends and family praying for the ones that knew. And
then she did this. This, she would sit on this mat that’s called the beamer
mat. And it actually was taken off market because it was known to cure cancer.
But she would sit on it and between all her reading between the combination
from immunotherapy to everything to you know, a healing spiritual aspect. The
cancer is gone.

 

08:43

Yeah,
it’s an amazing story and cancer is gone. So it’s incredible and congrats in
having a man on the other side of the other side. Your life is your dad, Kelly
Pruitt. He’s really famous, really famous Western painter. I know his work
really well. That’s another really cool.

 

09:02

I know
it’s fun. You know, he was he was this tall, good looking Western artist. And
he was he had an exhibit at the Fort Worth Stock Show. Back in the 60s. And my
granddaddy. He was the manager of the exhibit for the Stock Show for probably
about a decade. And so my mom and her brothers and sisters, they would always
work, you know, during the show and whatnot. And so she was walking down the
aisle with a friend and she spotted him. She was like, Who is that man? Wow.
And that was it.

 

09:38

I mean,
she had hot tubs at the exhibit hall at that time, or was that later on?

 

09:44

Hot
tubs? Yeah, 60s. Totally kidding. I don’t know. Probably

 

09:53

the
randomness of this stuff in their fine art. You know, it’s like it’s crazy that
yeah, all of that.

 

09:58

So
anyways, they got married. In, more or less, you know, he was your typical, you
know, artist and she kind of knew nothing but she was very she was a very smart
woman. She would in college she would go to bed reading the dictionary every
night. So she you know, she’s really just knew the words and coming from my
granddad. He also worked for the Star Telegram. And he also owned Texas patios.
So business definitely ran in her family. So she knew the business side and she
kind of studied at his feet growing up, obviously. And more or less, she made
Kelly famous. And they traveled around the world. They had the Spanish Steps
gallery in Taos, New Mexico, and they had their ranch in Presidio. So I was
actually born in Alpine. Oh, wow. Yes. Yeah. Very, very proud. Yeah. But
anyway, so then she had this idea that they needed to start casting is bronzes,
and it was either New York, she throughout New York, three different places
can’t remember the third but the other one was Rome. He goes, Okay, let’s go to
Rome. So then they had a boundary in Rome. And so they would travel between
Taos Presidio and Rome. And she just pretty much grew his career from shows and
he also believe it or not taught Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter how to paint when
they were living in Rome one time, they were happy to be there at the same
time. And so she

 

11:28

just,
like, Damn what your mom was to you on getting out.

 

11:31

That’s
why she was like, you know, I mean, she was yeah, she was my biggest fan. Yeah,
she was the one who was signed me up to, you know, go on castings. She actually
got me. My first big audition with Robert Rodriguez down in Austin. Yeah. And
believe it or not, I did get a couple of callbacks for his movie. And it was so
fun because I got to die in front of him.

 

11:57

Which
one the vampire one? No, no, I’m

 

12:00

Desperado.
Or Dusk Till Dawn. Now for that maybe it was Desperado. mariachi the first one
no. Oh, yeah, that was I think it

 

12:07

was was
it Jessica Alba and one of those. Oh, Sin City Sin City. That was Sin City. Oh.

 

12:15

I agree.
If you guys had an argument on Yeah, show that would be a first for us. So just
give it a minute mark.

 

12:26

Really
good when he spit out

 

12:30

our
street Angelics paranoid about like people knowing Yes, where we are, of
course, as if anyone cares. It was gonna show up.

 

12:38

Okay.
Let me tell you something. Yes, it does matter. Because when we first moved
here, we got some letter from somebody trying to get a hold of him. Like how
did they even um, like

 

12:47

somebody
owes money to

 

12:52

everything’s
cleared out again.

 

12:55

Protection
like cover all five of our followers? Yeah, yeah.

 

13:04

The car
slowing down in front of our house. I’m like, Who is that? What are they doing?

 

13:10

machinee
You know, but she’s got some haters these days he’s a great human being a
friend of mine but he gets you know he’s had a tough deal with the

 

13:17

gate
anonymous where they live but now you throw the exact

 

13:25

argument
with you and my

 

13:28

great
living with machines the whole time we’ve been here we obviously we all share
the same house and that’s where we are.

 

13:33

Yeah,
it’s an ANSI program right for LA. Come in and show the culture of LA to our
editor to fix for the movie executive.

 

13:44

Angelina
so you meet this guy to your to your left? Yeah, he was a kid from Brooklyn as
as you already in tough, tough kid from? Yeah, you grew up loving comic books.
You became a Trekkie, which is cool because those are tricky. Real tough, tough
kid. Okay. Your your Mom Your mom was a German Jew she survived World War Two
in Germany right? She wasn’t in the Holocaust but she was in Germany in somehow
survived that which is obviously fantastic. Your career business your career
and your career in the show business began at six with an internship in New
Line Cinema. Some guy net we know who this is. But Robert Shea was your was
your mentor at the time right still close with with Robert

 

14:23

Yeah,
yeah, we we we have lunch occasionally. But it slowed down to a trickle. Just
life took us in different directions. Early text occasionally. But we stay in
touch.

 

14:31

Was it
like was it watching Star Trek where you’re like, I gotta do this. Like, I
mean, like, I love this show so much. I got to do this.

 

14:37

It was
in syndication in New York. And it was on like, twice a day. But it was more
old movies on old TV stations. There was no VHS obviously back then. Yeah. 70s
So it was seeing old movies on TV that kind of you know, made me fall in love
with the medium.

 

14:52

Yeah.
And you really just didn’t know that you wanted to do it since as far back as I
can remember seriously. Like the making of Like typically when you’re watching
that stuff, you’re kind of like, man, you know, it’s cool.

 

15:04

Like,
you know, like so in New York, they had King Kong for some reason King Kong was
the holiday Thanksgiving movie on Sunday. After that Thursday, yes, every
weekend, every year, that weekend, they’d run King Kong on channel nine or
channel live in black and white, the black and white 1933. Yeah, no, you know,
when you’re little like when you’re three or four, think it’s urgent. Or a
documentary, like a real giant gorilla. Oh, I must have packed the Empire
State. Yeah, it’s not and they get a little old. It’s not I’m sorry to say, and
then you get a little older. And you see, wow, what are the special effects?
Like how did they do that? And the minute you start asking how they did it,
you’re hooked for you know, life.

 

15:37

Yeah,
but where do you go? I mean, obviously, you’re NORC that New York? That’s
great. Because there’s probably more people to answer that. But I would think
around here, you know, your kid and you’re asking those questions like, I don’t
know why did he go play outside with your friends? You know, like, I have no
idea how they make this great thing about now

 

15:51

is
filmmaking tools are so affordable. Like now kids are making movies on their
iPhones and going to Sundance with it. Yeah, no, it’s a lot more it’s the same
with podcasting tools. That’s right. Well, it’s like screenwriting. Everybody
thinks they can do it, but it’s still an art. What you guys do is still an art.
Yes.

 

16:06

Y’all.
It was it was a it was young guns for me. Oh, yeah. Oh, really? Okay. China at
all the China at the time it was it was hurting China.

 

16:16

She the
size of that chicken. She was

 

16:19

Kiefer
Sutherland’s love interest. I was so wanted to be her and I just thought I have
to be in a western we all have a

 

16:28

great
writer John Fusco, NYU grad also. Okay. NYU alumni.

 

16:33

Like was
but was yours Westerns to me King Kong you mentioned but let’s at all

 

16:37

I’ve
loved I loved it all. Yeah, growing up. I mean, the searchers is my favorite
Western of all time until unforgiven. And then they’re like, they’re both right
up there. Yeah.

 

16:44

So he
has. He’s speaking of westerns, he’s trying to get one made. Now on the
Chisholm Trail,

 

16:51

well,
when I was a producer, I really wanted to develop a mini series about the
Chisholm Trail yesterday and really show like, what because cowboys were so
young in that era, like 1415 Yeah, getting to go he’s long cattle drives and go
into these towns, you know, on the way up to Texas from where they were coming
from with the cattle. No one’s done it. Yeah. Period authentic. And then But
then I left producing. So yeah,

 

17:11

you
know, it’s funny you say about the young cowboys, because I was at the rodeo
back before the new era. And you’re in the like, stage here, like the bar area
with the bands. And I saw these young guys with these jackets and stuff. And I
was like, I know, I was like, what’s the deal? Can you even Are you allowed to
be in here? And he’s like, I just wrote in that, like what you wrote in it.
Like you don’t think of cowboys being that young. But I met him

 

17:33

back in
the day in the 19th century. We just go on these long cattle drives. And it’s a
great coming of age story.

 

17:38

Yeah,
yeah. So Mike, you you, you’re with New Line Cinema doing all these things. And
you do so? Well. They make you president of the company at age 27. What’s that
feel like?

 

17:49

Wow, all
your facts are correct. I can’t believe it.

 

17:52

Gone by
what the Wikipedia tells me.

 

17:55

It felt
great. It felt like being given the keys to like a Ferrari when you’re 17 years
old. It was it was fabulous. Yeah. Fantastic.

 

18:01

So how
long into it? I mean, we’ll get back into more of this, but I wanted to know
how you guys met and like what the like, the movie name game happened at that,
like, first date or whatever. Like, I got to think so.

 

18:13

Okay, so
one of my best friends. One of my best friends. Riley Smith, he’s an actor.
Great actor. Y’all should definitely look him up.

 

18:23

What’s
even in?

 

18:24

Oh my
gosh, she was on. Wasn’t he on? 24

 

18:29

Yes, he
was on 24 He’s gonna watch he’s done. Yeah, he just his career keeps going.
Yeah, his career just keeps going. But anyways, he’s also a musician, too. But
anyway, so he Riley was working on one of Mike’s pilots that he was executive
producer on right at that time. And so they were they were on location. And I
remember Riley come in, write it off.

 

18:56

Yeah, we
started hanging

 

18:58

and I
was executive producer between that and producer like difference there. It

 

19:04

means
different things in TV that it doesn’t film in TV. It’s an actual credit for an
actual role where you’re kind of putting the show together sometimes the writer
creator gets an executive producer credit in movies, it’s more it can be a
ceremonial credit in movies. The producer. Yeah. Actual produced by carries a
lot of meaning. It’s kind of the reverse in television, but it

 

19:25

funders
right? If you if you are investing in a movie, your producer Correct.

 

19:29

Bam.
Yeah, you can’t you can be Yeah, I mean, it’s like an industry joke. Like
producer it means so much. It’s so different. Yeah, different. But it sounds
like

 

19:38

on TV.
You are expected to be on set where maybe a producer executive producer,
executive

 

19:43

producers,
there are some there are some producers in movies, but much less executive
producers you’d never see on set. Yeah, really?

 

19:49

Okay.
Sorry. Back to Riley’s No,

 

19:51

no
worries. So, anyway, so he had they had gotten, you know, gotten done filming
and he calls me one night. It was a Friday night and he said Hey, He goes you
know, I became really good friends with one of the executive producers on my
show and he’s gonna cook an Italian dinner tonight and he said I can buy the
handful of friends so you want to call him and I was like Sure. And sure enough
we all met at his house and then headed up to his bachelor pad on the top of
Sunset Plaza.

 

20:24

That’s
where the DeLuca concept for the restaurant on Heelan again,

 

20:28

absolutely.
Great to see if we added another seat of my name that would that would

 

20:35

take all
the way out of it.

 

20:38

I think
I’d rather be part of the dean and DeLuca

 

20:42

you guys
came to town around the time of that sponsorship? Like that was my thought.

 

20:47

How can
we do this and get in to see the tournament?

 

20:51

Like
your debut film was a legend Leatherface The Texas Chainsaw Massacre three

 

20:57

I’m
shocked I was allowed to work again after

 

20:59

that.
How do you How does one find their way into Leatherface? I mean, that’s that’s
in itself is incredible. You know, we

 

21:04

were
like an opportunistic company. So the rights were available. So you know, like
occasionally you’ll see a new Halloween or a new Friday like yeah, sometimes
these rights because of the way the original films were put together or
available, and opportunities to companies snap them up. So we ended I forgot
how but we ended up with the rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

 

21:20

And then
briefly companies go with like, well there’s like this huge generation of kids
who saw the first Halloween like it was done they’ll go back and see it. Okay,
back to the dinner though. Like we barely got to you know you guys meeting so
you go to meet this guy. Yeah, well,

 

21:35

I Well,
it was just like a group of friends so it wasn’t like a date or anything. And
we had cooked this huge Italian dinner we hung out for a little bit and then we
went out to hide which was that the hit the like hit the hip club at the time
where everybody went and so it’s like a

 

21:55

dance
club or just

 

21:55

like no
it’s a drink your ass off because nothing’s better than than sweating your ass
up at two in the morning when the lights come on and tumbling out exactly no

 

22:15

yeah
like

 

22:15

eating a
half a pound of pasta Yeah, I was thinking back in those days in LA which is
really health conscious like serving up these giant carby meals I was the only
man out of place in

 

22:26

time
yeah you’re Italian though Yeah, please pasta every day

 

22:31

I
further to stare at cultural stereotype yeah guilty about it.

 

22:34

Yeah.
Okay, so So it went off well right.

 

22:38

We pasta

 

22:39

we
weren’t necessarily being set up this night. But I remember the next day Riley
texting me or calling me or something saying hey, so Mike really likes you and
would like to take you out and I was like he didn’t even know me I’m like
that’s crazy because well he’s so sweet Angelica I’m like all right he seemed
really nice anyway just didn’t he

 

23:05

just
right producer New Line Cinema like what like no thank

 

23:09

you
don’t understand living in Hollywood you you get burned really fast when you
have people saying that they are somebody and they’re not so you just kind of I
don’t know you just kind of and then living there it’s just you just kind of
realize there

 

23:28

that’s
why we’re here today. Yes. Show that Mike is not actually a producer but the
owner of a restaurant called I was trying to hide it yours so many pizzas.
Right.

 

23:43

Yeah,
no, but we were we were actually friends first that’s

 

23:46

waste
those fuck up my my plan. Plan eventually have my own restaurant

 

23:55

with
just keep that

 

23:58

No, no,
no, you can still do your restaurant. Yeah. Or over five

 

24:04

or so.
Yeah, a few to go.

 

24:05

So you
said it was like a thing you guys like teach it and then went out again?

 

24:09

Yeah, we
just actually hung out and believe it or not Mike had a girlfriend kind of not
he wasn’t brought in. I was transitioning. Yeah, but he actually set me up on
my very first blind date you guys. And then he told me he goes I’m setting you
up but I I hope you don’t like him.

 

24:26

Oh,
yeah.

 

24:32

When
you’re in transition, you’re always trying to set up the next chapter. Yeah, as
you’re closing the book on the

 

24:37

I was
the guy terrible looking possibly very handsome guy. Very

 

24:41

cute. I
don’t know. No, no. Yeah. But anyways, like I said, Mike and I, we were we were
friends first and it just kind of you know, organically happened. You know,
after getting to know him, which a lot of people you know, I think that was one
thing that really was attracting attractive to me about him is that he was a
very famous Hollywood producer, but you would never know it because he was so
humble. Yeah. And that was so refreshing. Yeah, thank you very much so
refreshing and then just getting to know him. He’s got the biggest heart and
whatnot. And you know, it was kind of hard at the time he was Republican. He is
not that’s a whole nother story. That stuff on this show. But I was like, Oh my
God. I’m like, I’m in LA and I’ve met a Republican This is amazing. Yeah, you
know, I will say and I tell everybody this you know, he’s one of the most
brilliant men I’ve ever known in my life because he’s very, very smart and the
applause Oh, I just asked

 

25:54

if I
could real quick go through a couple things that Mike’s done it new one proceeded
on to DreamWorks but a new line. You did the movie Seven. These are a couple of
mini but seven Friday. A lot of guys favorites. Boogie Nights. Austin Powers
rush hour American History X. Dumb and Dumber. Low. And yeah, blow
transformers. I mean, this is incredible.

 

26:15

So Sam,
hit transformers was a pitch I bought at DreamWorks. Okay. And then I was
actually I was gone from Dreamworks. By the time they produced that DreamWorks
was 2001 was after new line was my job after Gotcha.

 

26:27

So Is
that so? Is that how it worked? Like, are you going and grabbing that content
and deciding to make it or to somebody come to you and say, Hey, Mike, would
you do this? Or is it kind of combination? Yeah.

 

26:37

So we
get pitched a lot of stuff and get submitted a lot of stuff. And then when you
work at a studio, you’re kind of the filter and you try to choose, you know
what you think would be commercial?

 

26:45

Well,
and I can ask both of you guys this. Yeah. I mean, what what is it with that
decision? I mean, there’s just something just happened where you’re like, this
thing jumped out at me like it’s hitting me where I am in my life. Like there’s
this emotional appeal, but also, I do you start envisioning the actors to
almost like I can see this person in this role, and that type of thing.

 

27:04

Oh my
gosh, okay. Speaking of speaking of that, you may speak okay. Yeah. Okay. Now,
okay. And you guys, I want you to know, I am taking full on credit for this.
Full on credit for this. So, okay. 50 Shades of Grey.

 

27:21

We’re
getting we’re getting there. Don’t worry. You’re ready. Okay,

 

27:24

hold on.
Jamie Dornan. He has this job because of me.

 

27:33

Please
explain. Okay.

 

27:35

So they
it was between Hat No, it was

 

27:38

we had
originally cast Charlie, Charlie Hunnam, and Charlie Hunnam decided he didn’t
want to do it. I mean, he needed a new well,

 

27:44

he
wasn’t no, no, he hadn’t really decided that he wasn’t gonna do it. Do it. At
that time. He was kind of debating he was debating. And was he nervous?

 

27:54

Nervous?
Just, you know, on all honesty, he just decided creatively he didn’t. He wanted
to do something else. Yeah, he just wasn’t

 

27:59

into it.
And so I had already read, you know, the book. So I was like, I’m sorry, but
he’s not Christian Grey. He is not Christian. In your mind, alright. It was
just it’s just one of those instinct type intuitions or something, or I just
had this picture. You know, you when you read a book, you have a picture of the
character because you know, you can see them. But I was like, this is not
Christian. Great. There’s no way he this is this is no, this is not going to
work. And I remember us sitting in Hawaii. And Mike

 

28:31

is one
does, yeah.

 

28:35

Oh my
god. We were sitting in Hawaii. And he gets a call days to fly back to LA. I’m
like, Are you kidding me? This is our family vacation because I have to go it’s
about casting. And I was like Mike as like Charlie’s not the person. I said,
You tell Donna. He is not the person Donna Lang leaves runs universal. He’s one
of his best friends by virtue and I’m like, he’s not it. He’s not it. He goes,
Well, he goes, Okay, I hear you. He goes, Well, I was looking at this one, you
know, guy, and he pulls up his phone. He pulls up Jamie Dornan picture, like
half naked. Yeah, like a model for guys. And granted, yes. That was the picture
I saw. But I looked at him an inch, you know, just intuitively I was like, He’s
Christian gray. Yeah, he’s it. He’s it. He’s it.

 

29:24

Jamie
was performing in this great series with Gillian Anderson. And I’m blanking on
the name right. X

 

29:29

Files
now. No, it

 

29:30

was on
Neff. It was a Syrah Killa drama. She played a British person was on Netflix
and I’m just blanking on the Yeah, the title of it. But he was he had something
about him that he did, it would be

 

29:41

but it
was it but sure enough, like a month later, it was still Charlie, Shawn like
Mike. It is not it is Jamie Dornan, you are.

 

29:50

Why did
you go back to that? Yeah, James really

 

29:53

hadn’t
left yet. Okay, so it was still Charlie. Yeah.

 

29:56

And he
came in and read I guess Yeah, blue socks off and my This is the guy gotta get
around. Yeah.

 

30:03

Thank
you.

 

30:04

So
before we move on to current stuff and DreamWorks happened in 2001, DreamWorks,
you did a couple films ones called Old School and Anchorman that have done
quite well in the world. US gentlemen, love these movies, most quotable movies.
Yes, absolutely. Especially after DreamWorks, you started Mike Mike Michael
DeLuca productions, but you still have right

 

30:27

now I
had a I had to withdraw from the second version of it to go take the job at
MGM.

 

30:32

MGM
happened in the year 2020, you became named as the chairman of MGM. Correct,
right. So then, I mean, it’s, there’s a lot of things happen in your life. You
were nominated in 2010. This is going back a little bit for three best picture
Oscars social network, Captain Phillips and Moneyball. We actually one of our
guests a few weeks ago is Kirk Carlos, tissues baseball coach who was part of
the Billy Beane team. Yeah,

 

30:59

which is
kind of interesting. He said that as a coach, he was super competitive like he
in games and in practices he’d be like on the treadmill like just looking at
stats he wouldn’t even be out there with absolutely was that a fun movie to
make?

 

31:10

It was
so much fun. It was it was great getting to know Billy and all the folks that
major league baseball because normally my in my line of work, you don’t
intersect with those kinds of people as a wonderful I’m a big Yankees fan and
grew up with you know, that was my team. But it was we got to shoot, you know,
in baseball stadiums and we shot at Fenway and it just was like a neat thing.
Oh, yeah, to be honest, guys.

 

31:33

50
Shades of Grey we just talked about 2015 film is the highest grossing R rated
film of all time. That’s still the case.

 

31:40

Is it I
thought the passion might be

 

31:43

way his
Oh

 

31:47

yeah.
Might have the thing that might be

 

31:48

much
different films. Yeah,

 

31:49

for
sure. Yes, yes. Do you KNOW STARRING sexy

 

31:53

guys
with facial hair right right.

 

31:55

What do
you think thank you. You are working for the what’s been the hardest movie
you’ve ever had to make?

 

32:12

Probably
the movie that got me fired from new line this this Warren Beatty, infidelity
comedy called Town and Country was just like a runaway train. And no matter
what we did to fix it. It just got worse and worse. And then it was just this
this disaster that blew up when it was finally I was actually fired before it
was released. But that was the movie that took me down

 

32:29

was a
disaster is more like a financial thing or an actual financial disaster. And it

 

32:33

all
comes down on you. Because you’re Yeah, the buck stops with me. Yeah. And so
the investors are the I mean, is that the kind of pressure that you guys feel
like in this business is that you’ve got projects, you got to get them done,
you got to get them on time and on budget. And if you don’t, they’re like

 

32:49

you have
a little bit of a grace period. If you’ve had success before, you know, it’s
helpful you don’t you don’t get terminated it with the first failure but a new
line towards the NIT stacked up a fair amount of failure. So

 

33:01

they
still managed to land on your feet like extraordinarily well. Yeah, you’ve got
to be there’s something there. Right.

 

33:07

You got
to keep moving forward. You know, like I I’m going to quote Yoda in last Jedi
failure is the best teacher what time point of my life I get taught that lesson
it’s never it never loses its its its truthfulness. Yeah, absolutely. I’m yeah,
I’m so grateful for my failures. Because yeah, made me a better person.

 

33:26

Yeah.
The film are you most proud of? That’s a hard

 

33:29

question.
Because there’s so many I’ve been really blessed to work with incredible
filmmakers. I’m really proud of American History X because I thought it
advanced the conversation on absolutely unreal

 

33:40

time,
way before it came around. Right? Very proud of

 

33:43

the
movies we’ve made. I’ve made with Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights and
Magnolia now, licorice pizza, which comes out. This was December in January.
Very proud of seven. It was this guy, David Fincher second movie, and he’s gone
on to be one of our best directors. But yeah, that movie is a classic Captain
Phillips, very proud of because it just celebrated so much authenticity and
heroism. You know, I mean, part of

 

34:07

Canada.
Kind of brag on that one too good.

 

34:09

How
about it? Yeah.

 

34:12

So I
don’t know if y’all remember the story breaking on the news. Do y’all remember

 

34:19

with
Captain Phillips? Yeah. And he was taking?

 

34:21

Yeah, so
I remember. We were at the house. Mike was sitting on the couch watching and I
was passing by and I caught it and I was sitting there just kind of sat down
probably on the arm of the couch. I think it was moving with Skylar somewhere.
And as it just you know, the the story was the news was just telling about what
was going on. I turned to him I turned around is like, this needs to be a
movie. You better jump in this right now. Isn’t I go, Mike. No, no, seriously,
this is an incredible, incredible story and it’s a true life story. You have to
make a movie about this right now. You need to go because lots of people are
going to be trying to get this get the rights to this. Yeah. And so he called
his producing partner at the time. Dana brunette who burnetii sorry, Dana
Brunetti who they had just done a social network that you said, Patricia is
great, but that was later on. But anyways, and so because Dana had had ties in
the East Coast. He was an ex Coast Guard. He made a call. And then next thing,
you know, a couple days later, they were on a plane to go out there. And sure
enough, so I’m gonna take a little credit for that. Intuition. And this is another
thing about Moneyball,

 

35:43

like you
were some applause. Yeah.

 

35:45

I’m
gonna get another one after this, too. Even Moneyball, I have really great
intuition that I’m going to brag on just because I feel very blessed to have
it. But with Moneyball, it was struggling. And we were on our honeymoon.
Speaking of another vacation,

 

35:57

and the
first version of that movie fell apart. Yes, it

 

36:00

fell up.
It fell apart. One applause. And yes, we will in just a minute. So here we are
in Europe on our honeymoon. And it was, he was so stressed out. This was a Sony
Sony Movie, and he was like Brad Pitt. He has he goes, this is falling through.
And I don’t think Brad’s gonna come back. And I said, did he liked the story?
He goes, Yes, I go, he’s not leaving. And I know it. And I said, and I said, I
said, Watch, he’s not gonna leave. And this is also going to be nominated. And
then sure enough, that was true. It came back around, and it was nominated

 

36:37

for that
Warren Beatty movie, but I haven’t

 

36:39

met you.
So that is the reason is, are we each other’s views here. Like, who’s who’s I
don’t like it’s

 

36:48

kind of
like, but I will say, Look, I don’t know what she’s gonna say about like, she
probably might not be I don’t know what she’s gonna say about me. She may I may
have to leave the room or come back another day. She may want privacy.

 

36:59

We have
this button. Just do that all day when

 

37:05

she is
relentlessly truthful and honest. Like she’s never told me a lie. Yeah, that I
can remember or think of. And if you want an honest opinion, she is absolutely
the best person to just go gut check me and she cuts through all the bullshit
sometimes mercilessly. Yeah, you will get the straight story. Yeah, that’s
just, you know, rare.

 

37:25

Well, and
it’s probably good in a, in a, in a field full of actors. And people portraying
themselves not as themselves. You know, like, that’s probably a super important
thing.

 

37:36

It’s
true. It’s true. Because you know, that that was a I think that was another
thing that attracted him to me is I wouldn’t I wouldn’t take his bullshit like
some of his other girlfriends. Like, yeah, yeah, right.

 

37:47

And I
have some serious bullshit.

 

37:50

Yes.
Imagine

 

37:52

just
close all mics. Let’s go back to Captain Phillips really quickly, just couple
notes. I wrote down but how do you how do you hire or rent out a aircraft
carrier for the scene? Because

 

38:05

yeah, it
helps when first of all, you have to send the script to the to the armed forces
for approval. In this case, it was the Navy. And you know, they they approved
it. Obviously, the story has a good ending for them so that we have their
cooperation and then if they’re, if they’re cooperating, you know, they open up
the doors and they were great partners, they I have to say they really ran the
marine unit when we shot off the coast of Virginia naval base at Norfolk and
they gave us the two destroyers and the aircraft carrier and basically produced
that section of the movie with us

 

38:34

that
final scene we take out the bad guys I mean it Tom Hanks it’s it’s powerful
stuff. Yeah, Tom Hanks wonderful to work with like everybody.

 

38:42

Not only
he’s the nicest man on the planet, and he actually I’ll never forget he his
kids went to the school in California we send our kids to before we moved and
he wrote a letter of recommendation from my daughter just put in Yeah, just
super super, super great guy.

 

38:59

He is
and I you know, speaking speaking of that scene, when he’s rescued I will never
I mean that I think out of all his arching career that scene like I could
almost cry now thinking about it because it was so like that nurse you guys
that was a real nurse. And that was her first time and he she just oh yeah,

 

39:19

I forgot
you’re gonna make me cook cuz I forgot about that was what I was doing was
going towards your work in horror movies. And I can’t think of anything more
horrific than climbing into that small little pod running open ocean or, like,
gives me chills on my face with bad guys, you know, and just I mean, oh,
terrifying. Yeah, you get a great job will give

 

39:39

you
let’s do some applause for

 

39:41

that. We
here at afford a kid, we approve of that?

 

39:46

One of
the questions I think most people in the world who’ve seen this movie probably
have asked themselves are asking others and don’t know maybe you could help us
but social network. Zuckerberg I kind of read a little bit about it a couple
weeks ago, but It was a story about him in he never sued or guess you guys were
afraid he might sue or why? How did that work? Because obviously, it doesn’t
put them in the greatest of light. Well,

 

40:10

you
know, there’s, we were always on the right side of the law with that project.
So when you do a movie about real people, you know, you can either if it if
it’s based on source double, you know, material that can be vetted. As long as
you’re not derogatory and defamatory. You know, you have a lot of dramatic
license. So we did social network, really based on the transcripts of the of
the, of the, you know, lawsuits he was involved with, with his with his ex
partner. And as long as you don’t stray from that record, and what can be kind
of vetted and sourced. You’re okay. On Captain Phillips, we went and got life
rights of obviously, Richard Phillips, and them, me some of the other crewmen.
And then with Moneyball, Major League Baseball, we made a deal with Major
League Baseball, and they were the umbrella that kind of gave us the rights to
all the people, Billy included. So yeah, so it’s really different each time. We
have this movie, house oguchi at MGM opening Yeah, and Thanksgiving based on a
true a true story. And, you know, there was a book written, same with social
network. It was based on a book, Accidental Billionaires and sometimes the book
has been through a legal vetting as long as you stay, you know, in the in the
confines of adapting the book, you’re on your own, you don’t need the person’s
cooperation or life rights as long as you’re not being derogatory or
defamatory. What, what was your

 

41:35

part in
the social network? As far as the advice to Mike The brutally honest, keeping
him in check?

 

41:41

Actually,
I came in. During social network know you were there. I was there. I read

 

41:48

the
script in our kitchen. Actually, I

 

41:49

remember.
Oh, I don’t think I clocked out. At that time,

 

41:53

it was
an easy one. To buy an Oscar.

 

41:58

Let’s
see upcoming projects. We talk about 12 Money orphans just happen a longer
project and

 

42:05

movie
reality movie.

 

42:08

Thank
you to mazing you know, especially it being a fourth story, you know, my
hometown, which I absolutely I JW have has heard me say this quite often. And I
even had joked with Ed bass about it before. Of course, he laughed. But I just
thought Don’t laugh. But I love, love, love, love. Fourth, I think it’s one of
the best cities in the world, and especially to raise a family. I think we just
have so much to offer across the board. game here. I mean, was it for that? Or?
I mean, this at home? Yeah, I was home. Yeah. So, you know, I wanted to raise
the kids here. Because, you know, I say this, you know, Hollywood is
fortunately unfortunately, always gonna be a part of our lives. And I really
just wanted them to be raised in a very humble setting as much as possible, and
then that just to have a kind of a real life, so to speak, you know, living in
LA, we couldn’t really do because of the traffic. It’s so bad. It’s hard to go
to museums to parks. I mean, it was it’s just, it’s just stressful. And that,
you know, it’s just just wasn’t what I wanted. And luckily, you know, Mike
being the the Great Father, he is agreed to

 

43:36

you just
answered our selling was yeah,

 

43:39

he just
you know, he agreed. He agreed to fly back and forth every week. And it’s
funny, because when I first brought up a smoothing, and I was like, Are you
sure? Are you sure you don’t mind flying two and a half hours? He goes,
Angelique, he goes, I will sit in a car in LA going to a meeting for two and a
half hours z.

 

43:59

So I fly
back and forth. Sometimes. The trip from the airport in LA to my house or
office longer as long as the flight from it’s crazy. Yeah.

 

44:08

There’s
something to be said too, about having your work far away. Like you can just
get more done than no way you can go do all these dinner like all these things.
And then, like you’re you there’s a geographic thing that’s already a barrier.
Where it’s like, not your choice, like but you’re in town dad, you know, it’s
like no, I’m not, you know, yeah, there’s something to that.

 

44:26

Yeah.
Yeah, I found that

 

44:27

to be
true. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it’s just neat. Well, I think for Mike, you know,
just being in you know, such a crazy, you know, high high pay, you know, high
pace, stressful industry. You know, it’s good for him to come to Fort Worth and
chill

 

44:42

focus on
my restaurant touring. I was gonna probably open DeLuca on Heelan had I not
been traveling back and forth. Tell him Mike. Yeah, love it. Have

 

44:57

you
found that useful? You’ve been That crazy life in being here, you were able to
turn the switch and be here.

 

45:04

It’s
yeah. And then of course, the pandemic now, you know, has taught me along with
everyone on the planet that, you know, you don’t need to be sitting in an
office from nine to five to get stuff done. So yeah, you know, if my schedule
was flexible before it, post post pandemic, I think we’ve all learned that if
you’re in an office job, depending on what you do for a living, you can you can
have a pretty flexible schedule. Yeah.

 

45:26

So you’ve
been on a lot of sets. I mean, really excellent ones. What would you say about
where you’re sitting now, as far as caliber of set quality goes? The fortitude
set that we’ve created here?

 

45:39

Not bad.
I immediately look at the catering. There’s no There’s no discernible. Picking
up the empty car. To start, I mean, I’m not gonna get down on anyone. It’s a
work in progress. I think when you get your food chute handled. We have a
relationship with

 

46:01

jelly
beans

 

46:04

at the
beginning, okay.

 

46:07

Together
correct. Let’s see.

 

46:16

told
many orphans. Yeah, we’re

 

46:17

so good
about getting off track.

 

46:21

So much
fun. 12 money orphans. Oh my goodness. Okay, so another best friend of mine. He
was kind like my little brother Lane Garrison, who was actually really good for
actually met lane with Riley. Riley. They were really close. But anyways, Lane
was in town. They had just done a small, independent film and then we’re here
for the Lone Star Film Festival, which by the way, Lone Star Film Festival, you
guys is this week if y’all can get out and be part of the passes. I am. I’m on
the board. Many as it’s going on this weekend, and then we have the the gala on
Saturday night. Which you can buy after party tickets. So keep that in mind.
Anyways, okay, there’s my plug for that. But 20 orphans, so lane. He was in
town, and we had gone to the premiere of iron orchard. And

 

47:18

look in
the movie. It was

 

47:20

good. It
was good. They really did a good job. And he goes hey into like he goes, you know,
we’re gonna be shooting another independent here in Fort Worth. And he goes,
you want to come and be do a cameo. And I was like, hell yeah, of course. I’d
love to. Because, okay, because I’ll send you the book and the script. And I
was like, awesome. So he’s he, you know, right before he said it, he calls me
he’s like, Hey, because do you think Michael, you know, would maybe be
interested in producing it? I said, He will not be allowed to say no. Yeah,
because this is my hometown. This is a story about Fort Worth. So yes, he has
to do it.

 

47:59

I can’t
look look, I came dangerously close. I retreated. Your respect? Yeah,

 

48:03

yeah.
Yeah. So anyways, um, you know, Mike said, Yes. Thankfully, and, but you know,
Mike DeLuca, being the, the extraordinary movie, producer, man at that time, he
was had a few projects going on. So he asked me to be his producing partner.
And luckily, speaking of learning at somebody’s feet, I had I had been learning
from Yeah, you know, from his feet. Yeah, you know, for over a decade of
producing and hearing all everything come from conversations to being there,
you know, so I knew exactly kind of what to do. And I said, Sure. You know, and
on this, you know, on this movie, there were other producers. And when I
wasn’t, you know, we weren’t the only ones, you know, really takes a large,
large team to make a movie, which a lot of people don’t understand. I mean,
it’s there’s a lot of moving pieces with a lot of people that have so many
different what I want to say jobs, yeah, I mean, from the beginning to the end.
And so anyways, we had the honor of being part of this just beautiful, amazing
story. And it’s funny, I had a girl come up to me last night at dinner, and she
goes, I’m sure you’re sick and tired of hearing this, but I just have to tell
you that I saw the movie and it was amazing. She was it had every emotion. And
I said, Let me tell you something as it I will never get sick of people telling
me that they love this movie. Yeah, I’m not kidding you. I will get messages at
least once a week. Either text messages, Facebook messages, all kinds of
messages, emails, people coming up to me. The movie was so good. So good. Oh my
I love it. I love it. I love it. It really expected me. Yeah. Yeah.

 

50:03

You
guys, Jim did fans the writer of the book, you know much about him? No, no.
Yeah, I hate to say of all people worth, I mean, it’s mentioned but the poor
guy, he’s he’s doing some prison time doing some prison time. Yeah 10 DWI is
but he’s got about five or six books like junction boys and the undefeated
deaths from his writing is really amazing. And obviously, money orphans is one
of

 

50:26

them. So
mean that you have Luke Wilson and you did bring up bottle rockets?

 

50:31

Okay.
Oh, about that. Yes. Okay. Are you ready for this? So like I said, my mom, you
know, was the one always signing me up to do little background? Yeah. work here
in the DFW area. And so she says, Okay, this weekend, you’re gonna go to
Dallas, and you’re going to be an extra on this. This, you know, small
independent film called BottleRocket. Oh, Mike. Okay. So here I go off the
Dallas, you know, again, just an extra and next thing, you know, I’m getting
bumped up. And then I have a scene where I’m sitting on the couch with Owen
Wilson. And, and James Caan, which was awesome. It got cut, unfortunately. But,
you know, here I was on Luke Wilson’s first movie. Yeah. And then 20 years
later, more. I’m his boss. on me. That’s pretty cool. I’m sorry. For the
integrity of the party. It’s pretty cool.

 

51:38

Yeah.
Um, upcoming question for you both upcoming projects, things you’re working on?

 

51:45

I don’t
have Well, I was approached about a TV show that I probably will do eventually.
That’s a pretty amazing story. The the author, she’s the best seller sold over
a million bucks about nurses. That’s called the nurses story. And her lover was

 

52:06

Mary
abuser of godfather. Oh, wow.

 

52:09

Yes. And
he wrote the script for her. And back after he wrote it, Stephen. No, sorry.
Spelling, grammar and spelling Aaron Spelling wanted to we only know Tori, the
God, right? Yes. Aaron Spelling wanted to make it of course, that was during,
you know, Baywatch, and this and that. And it was it. It just wasn’t the right
time. And he should look, he goes, my name is attached to this. He goes, and
this is going to be really important. Because we you hold on to this, and
whatever you’re ready, then you can do something with it. And sure enough,
she’s a friend of my sisters. And my sister introduced me to her and so it’s
something I can’t do right now. Because I’m actually working on some
significant projects for Fort Worth, that I can’t talk about just yet until the
contracts are signed. But I’m hoping to definitely tap into this down the line

 

53:17

and
happen a lot with like these pieces of work where they’re they’re kind of
shelved for time reasons. Or they’re like, do you all have people on staff, not
like your own personal staff, but on staff who are out seeking stories, like
doing their research folks, just looking for these great stories?

 

53:34

Yeah, I
mean, the studio, we have a whole department of creative executives, you know,
that are in touch with that kind of grapevine about material and like who’s
writing a script? Or who wants to who’s got a pitch or you’re looking at books
and magazine articles, there’s a whole department that yeah, is whose job it
is, is to find in field material. Mm hmm. And then smaller version of it at my
own production company. We had a few a few people that were charged with
bringing stuff in,

 

53:58

yeah,
but is this like, gem of a fine because of the way that it happens? Like this
right, kind of through a friend of a friend or? Yeah, I

 

54:06

would
say so. I mean, sometimes it is through, you know, people, personal contacts.
But, you know, like Mike said, you know, when you’re when you’re sitting, you
know, at a production office, it’s you have the job to go out and either find a
book or a script, and it can come about either way. I know Mike, you know,
that’s one thing as you can see, you know, kind of through his past few movie
movies there. They’ve been true, you know, inspirational stories. Yeah, that’s
definitely that’s what I think draws him, you know, to those and it definitely
drew me to the 12 money orphan story, and it’s because to me, you know, it’s
life. It’s what we’ve been through in our time. It is yes, I

 

54:48

mean, we
live in interesting times. So an endless supply of material. Yeah. Yeah, you

 

54:53

really
believe that there is a movie houses are making old movies new again and seems
like they might be running out material but not not the case in your mind.

 

55:02

Yeah, I
mean, I’ve, I mean, I hope it’s the case, but I’ve always liked to believe that
there’s never not a market for originality. So you know, if an audience is getting
a steady diet of giant tent poles and Marvel franchises, that’s great. But in
between those, you know, will they have an appetite for the occasional true
life story? Yeah. Or, you know, just just something different. So that’s the
those are the spaces I try to fill in between when we have a James Bond movie
or a Creed’s equal in a new project for you, Mike. So yeah, so the studio is
coming off the James Bond release. That was our last movie. And then we have
house oguchi. Yeah, this Thanksgiving. Licorice pizza, which is another Paul
Thomas Anderson movie, the aforementioned Boogie Nights with me way back in the
90s. Yeah, and then a wonderful musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac called
Sierra now that comes out Oh wow. Also I can’t wait to see it and yeah, every
February

 

55:51

is movie
making better with all the distribution like Netflix and everything now or is
it like you like the old way like you

 

55:58

know I
love I love the way it is now because as a first as a consumer because I’m I’m
still a movie freak and you know see everything and enjoy it I love as a
consumer I can I have it everywhere I can go to the movie theater for the thing
I want to see I just went to dune and IMAX Yeah cuz I thought that deserved to
be seen on I’m How was he? It was I loved it. It was I thought it was moving
poetry was just so visually stunning.

 

56:20

I’m a
big sting fan, so I can’t I wouldn’t feel

 

56:22

I
changed your you I think that character is she’ll be doing to you just like the
speedo Speedo he wore in a

 

56:30

movie
sting does a lot of psychedelics apparently he talks about that on one of these
shows that in so I think about that with Okay, so I mean, so the dude and then
yeah, James Bond in the movie theater. Well, I

 

56:41

mean, I
worked on it. Yeah, so I saw a lot a lot and yeah,

 

56:46

tell
them about the premiere and who who was there

 

56:49

I got so
we had the pirate we had. Yes. The premiere. It’s in the rural album. The
Albert Hall was a royal Yeah, and the Albert Hall which I had never been to which
was stunning. And then the royal family was in the box next to mine. Oh wow. So
let’s have a word with no I just stared at him going oh my god That dress is
stunning.

 

57:08

Yeah,
that is amazing.

 

57:12

Watching
now both of you guys like like if we one series that is like I’m gonna Stone
Man.

 

57:18

I am so
glad it’s

 

57:22

gonna
guess that yeah everybody’s Yes.

 

57:24

Yes
love.

 

57:28

People
in Hollywood it you don’t know are great guys that are great people great girls
and guys who’s who’s the nicest guy who were some of the nicest people in
Hollywood.

 

57:36

Because
you already said that?

 

57:38

A lot. I
mean, the guy who directed Captain Phil was Paul Greengrass is a wonderful
human being. Brad Pitt was has been wonderful with me to his whole art my whole
career and was great to work with in the 90s. It was great to work with him
again. Yeah. Recently. There was a woman, Amy Pascal, who ran Sony when I was
there who continues to be a mentor of mine. It’s just a really wonderful
person.

 

58:01

I can
cue up some applause. It’s almost like an acceptance speech.

 

58:07

Jim
Carrey what’s he like?

 

58:10

He is so
big hearted, like just a giant, sensitive, beautiful heart and spirit. He was
so it was great to catch him for the Mask and Dumb and Dumber when he was
beginning his kind of ascent. And he was incredibly grateful and loyal to our
studio at the time. And I just think he’s unique and, and a tremendous guy.

 

58:30

I have
to say, one of the nicest people that I met. It was at one of the after award
show parties by throughout the weekend or something was Jennifer Aniston. So
I’m standing at the bar waiting to place my drink order. And she steps up right
next to me. And I was like, oh, like and because I had been in all of her, of
course, ever since Friends. Friends. And what happened was is actually Mike and
I, we were just talking about her because he was mentioning how he was
interested in reaching out to her to do like a movie or sourcing time. Yeah,
there’s some projects and we were just talking about some project, you know,
that he was like, I think I’m gonna reach out to Jennifer Aniston. So anyways,
so we were just talking about it. And here she is, and, you know, being so kind
of Starstruck, which normally I don’t get. Yeah. And I was and so I was
nervous. And I turned to her and I just said, Hi, I’m Michael dilute because
why

 

59:47

Name
Dropper?

 

59:49

But
didn’t even say my name. Yeah. Like, Hi, I’m Angelique. Yeah, yeah, Michael.
And I just kind of went into this whole thing of like, I’m Michael DeLuca, his
wife and we were just Talking about you. He wants to reach out to you and she’s
like, Oh, she was so nice. Nice. Yeah, I think I finally like introduce myself.
But I was just like this is like how

 

1:00:12

it
happened. I met Wilco. Like I went backstage when they played, they played
these small theaters. They played it the Avon car over by the rodeo, and Jeff
Tweedy was sitting there and I was just kind of like, um, you don’t know what
to say. So do you still get that way?

 

1:00:25

Yeah.
Yeah, that way. I’m trying to think of the last time that happened. Oh, Roger
Corman. I met Roger Corman, who’s this legendary sci fi writer, no producer,
and really like, studio head for this independent studio back in the 60s like
he started the careers of Ron Howard and yes, Coppola, with low budget movie
James Cameron. You know, the list goes on and on. He’s a legend like an
institution in film and he came to we had a screening of a bond. We made a
James Bond documentary, being James Bond, but in the Daniel Craig era. Yeah.
And Roger was at that. I was like, Oh, my God. Roger Corman.

 

1:00:59

Do you
say anything? I

 

1:01:00

turned
into Jeff, Chris Farley on that sketch from SNL where it’s like, do you
remember when you started? Yeah.

 

1:01:09

Morgan
Freeman. A good dude.

 

1:01:10

Such a
good? Yeah.

 

1:01:12

Do you
have the picture?

 

1:01:14

Morgan
Freeman do not Oh, God. I had dinner with him. That was yes. We had a fun
dinner with him. And I’m just think, Oh, he is amazing with the voice of God.

 

1:01:27

I could
have sat there probably for days. Just listening to his voice. Johnny us so
sweet.

 

1:01:33

Got to
ask for my wife. So Johnny Depp’s doing that thing with Keith Richards. You
know, narrating the book that What did you work with him

 

1:01:39

on? In
the 90s? Well, yeah, um, two movies on a movie called Don Juan DeMarco and the
centerfold that he did with Brant Marlon Brando and blow.

 

1:01:48

Was he
hard to get to? He seems like is he just is he distant? He

 

1:01:51

said he
was so warm. When she got to know him. He was just you know, the he was he was
a megastar. Yeah. It’s really weird when that happens to someone because no
matter how unassuming you are, no matter what family you came from, you can say
goodbye to privacy, say goodbye to you know, not having a rich scrutinize life.
And yeah. And then they withdraw. Because they have to Yeah. And then if you
have if you want to have children, sometimes you got to move to another
country. So your kids aren’t harassed when they go to

 

1:02:18

Yeah,
and stuff. Yeah, I was gonna ask you guys that, like, you know, la B, and you
guys are around creative types constantly. I mean, is that hard to sometimes
that get old? Like the whole game? Or is it like really inspiring? Like, it
just makes you more boring?

 

1:02:33

Because
it’s really at the end of the day. Storytelling like being around storytelling?
Yeah. That’s really what it’s about. At the end of the day, you take away all
the bullshit. And it’s just, you have a story to tell. Is anyone else gonna
like it? Yeah, I like it. Let’s see if anybody else likes it. Like, it’s still
that pure debate about doing something and it’s it’s a turn on? Yeah.

 

1:02:56

Are you
in Fort Worth Mike’s? Yeah, that’s every week.

 

1:02:59

I split
the week. So I’m in LA Monday through Wednesday, sometimes Thursday, and I
usually travel Thursday and then I’m here with the family Thursday to Sunday.

 

1:03:07

What
about your answer on the creative types and stuff you like being back here kind
of away from all of that a little bit? Or?

 

1:03:13

Well,
you know, I feel like there’s you know, here in Fort Worth, there’s so many
creative types as well. I mean, not as much as out there in LA but I do feel
like the Duke I know

 

1:03:23

exists
for the to use two C’s in your name as opposed to our humble one C is pretty
creative. It’s bold. It’s very it’s very creative.

 

1:03:31

Yeah.
It’s just pure balls. I mean, it’s just such it like literally any yeah the
brave brave brave JW in

 

1:03:46

it
absolutely. All right, guys. You both wonderful for sharing. Thank you. Oh, you
guys two more we go. We like to ask our guests one at a time though. Aside from
familial stuff marriage kids all that business what’s the greatest day of your
whole life? You go first?

 

1:04:02

Oh my
gosh, the greatest day of my whole life

 

1:04:06

it’s a
really intentionally hard question but we’d like to know if you could come up
with some

 

1:04:11

I know
it’s like ending with Is there a god discuss Yeah,

 

1:04:14

right
we’ll be in the break room if you need us

 

1:04:16

Yeah,
well, tape riser come down cleaner come in

 

1:04:20

yeah Hmm
I don’t know if I have like a greatest day of my life

 

1:04:30

but by
stalling you’re giving Mike time to think of something such Mike How about you
Would you got to go first? Oh, she’s and you said kids without kids marriage
all the stuff and he fares just best day of your life.

 

1:04:46

Wow, to
be honest with you what where my mind goes is so I’m in recovery like I’m
sober. Hey, brother, Jay. The tape.

 

1:04:55

Yeah.
Oh, yes. Oh my gosh. This thing right until it ends mike on that one

 

1:05:02

even
though you’re supposed to not not rest on your laurels and and it’s a day by
day thing they tell you day by day thing. But the day I realized internally
that it was behind me. And I thought, well this could last forever is
absolutely the greatest day. How long sober? It was just three years. Thank
you. Thanks very much. Yeah All right.

 

1:05:24

Without
asking for it

 

1:05:27

No, you
know you’re on the hot seat. Hey, no,

 

1:05:30

I don’t
know if I haven’t Greatest Day. I think my mic if it’s not a day to day
probably moment running

 

1:05:38

out your
mom’s cancer free. Probably it was right up there.

 

1:05:42

Yeah,
not that I was going that direction.

 

1:05:45

I think
I think for me, the greatest moments is, is when I when I see that God has
asked me when he’s got my back, you know, and he’s put me in certain situations
in my life to prepare me for certain features that you’re you know, situations.

 

1:06:09

Good,
safe answer for Yeah, I

 

1:06:12

just I
don’t know. Can you just like feel so special and knowing that, you know, I do
I’ve got some really great things to do in my life. And I see that God’s been
preparing me and it’s just really cool to see kind of those. Those peaks come
to come into to life, you know,

 

1:06:35

so I got
a volume in applause there. We just graduated.

 

1:06:43

Yeah, I
definitely feel blessed for sure.

 

1:06:45

Well,
Angelique DeLuca Mike DeLuca we appreciate your time very much. Thank you man. Been
great guests. You guys don’t know 42 DFW on social media. You can follow us and
you can listen to this in due time but you

 

1:06:57

guys
have been fantastic. Thank you guys.

 

1:07:01

To Lucas
on huge