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Transcript

"From Bodybuilder to Screen Sensation: The Andrew Bryniarski Journey" · Cinema Yūgen

• 0:00
  G'day, that's right, it's that time again, time for Cinema Yuga!
• 0:08
  Music.
• 0:19
  Okay little Yuga Nights, welcome back. and the Kent's Classic,
• 0:26
  request of this month of November is a cool one,
• 0:31
  was a great one was a really super funny one, Andrew
• 0:34
  Brianowski he's the 6
• 0:37
  foot 5 actor former bodybuilder came to Hollywood for a short summer vacation
• 0:43
  to visit a friend and was spotted by a talent scout who set up a screen test
• 0:48
  with Joel Silver and all of a sudden he was acting alongside Bruce Willis and
• 0:53
  James Coburn in Hudson Hawk.
• 0:55
  Ever since, he's worked with Al Pacino, James Woods, Michelle Pfeiffer,
• 1:00
  Halle Berry, Cuba Gooding Jr.
• 1:02
  His film work includes Pearl Harbor, Tim Burton's Batman Returns,
• 1:07
  Oliver Stone's Any Year in Sunday, which he's got a great story about,
• 1:11
  the remake of Rollerball, Rollerball.
• 1:15
  The tumultuous remake of Rollerball, Scooby-Doo, of course,
• 1:19
  Street Fighter, who wants to go home and who wants to go with me the program
• 1:24
  which was a great football pitcher and john singleton's higher learning he's
• 1:28
  also as i said got a great got a great poop story,
• 1:32
  from any given sunday and he's still got the
• 1:35
  portrait of him and christopher walken
• 1:39
  from batman returns which he offered to sell me
• 1:42
  for 30 grand and i'd still buy it off him if i had 30 grand to
• 1:44
  buy it but and so
• 1:47
  without further ado that fan requested kent's
• 1:51
  classics and an awesome one at that the mighty man mighty personality and a
• 1:58
  really great time on the chat with andrew brian asky hello andy that's all for
• 2:06
  this bit of thinking i'll smell you over well thank you,
• 2:12
  I love your questions.
• 2:15
  Thank you, sir. Anyway, so let's start at the beginning.
• 2:19
  I guess, is the story true that I've read that you were on a trip to visit a friend in L.A.
• 2:25
  And you were discovered by an agent who got you your phone?
• 2:31
  Fair Dankham. Yep. Fair Dankham.
• 2:34
  Yeah. So how did, can you talk us through that a little bit?
• 2:38
  Like, how did that happen? You just, you turned up one day and they go...
• 2:41
  I'm a bodybuilding champion, and I have a guy that saw potential in me,
• 2:47
  and I said, well, I'm moving to California. Yeah.
• 2:52
  I think I'm going to go be in movies. And he goes, okay, you should go be in movies.
• 2:58
  I said, oh, he makes my phone calls for me. Cool.
• 3:02
  He was doing that, but I was working at it, called Jimmy Dennis,
• 3:05
  and I got a chance to be an extra in a movie, and I was thrilled.
• 3:11
  And figured it out pretty quick. Cool. It's been 30 years. Wow.
• 3:17
  That's a great story. You just rock up there and you're the man for the part?
• 3:25
  Who's the guy with the hat? I said, that guy over there. I said,
• 3:28
  okay, what's he? They said, he's the director. I said, all right, great.
• 3:32
  And who? Well, I need to tell him. Then he said, tell him you've got to be in
• 3:35
  the union. I said, all right, that's what I'm doing. So I did. And he goes, wow.
• 3:39
  That was the first for him. And I said, well, it's great. It's the first for
• 3:42
  me. So where are you from? Philadelphia. He goes, okay.
• 3:47
  Wow. I said, all right, thanks. They put me in the union. And I've been working in a union.
• 3:55
  Wow. That's great. And your first big picture, you had to work with the Willis, Mr.
• 4:01
  Willis. They were the work on my part, you know.
• 4:04
  I put it to make it that easy. but that part of it is pretty fun. Yeah.
• 4:11
  But how was Bruce? What was Bruce like? Bruce was great.
• 4:18
  I was young. I was 20, 21 years old, and he kind of took me under his wing and
• 4:23
  gave me a shot to do my thing and be funny and supported that,
• 4:29
  and did his best to teach me about safety and about having to work and then
• 4:33
  to stay in the game, and we've been using that advantage ever since.
• 4:37
  Oh, that's great. We always felt the pad up.
• 4:41
  Yeah. Always take the time, let them keep you safe. Sure.
• 4:46
  That's how I work, so. Yeah. We can thank him for that, as well as for being
• 4:51
  a starter, I don't think. Yeah.
• 4:54
  I mean, yeah, that whole thing, but.
• 4:58
  Thanks to most, I was starring in the biggest smashing picture ever produced
• 5:01
  at the time of John Leroux. Yeah.
• 5:05
  That must have been, that must have been a real, like, shock to the system.
• 5:10
  Well, I was ready. I mean, it was for real. It was real.
• 5:14
  Yeah. It was great education and great experience.
• 5:18
  Yeah. And then the hits just keep on coming.
• 5:22
  You got to play Christopher Walken's son in Batman Returns there.
• 5:26
  Which was pretty amazing.
• 5:29
  One of the writers from Hudson was one of the writers in Batman Returns.
• 5:35
  He thought I was pretty funny. Right. And I used to set up a meeting with Tim
• 5:40
  Burton and talked to Tim Burton to see me, which he did. That was Daniel Winters. Right, yeah, Daniel.
• 5:46
  And Lee Heathers and The Adventures of Fort Fairway.
• 5:50
  Two funny memories. And I met Tim Burton and Christopher Lincoln and it goes from there.
• 5:57
  And there's Batman or Jones. Yeah.
• 6:01
  Was he a pretty cool guy, off camera? Oh, that's so walking? Yeah, walking.
• 6:08
  You know what I'm saying? Absolutely amazing. Yeah. Had to make mashed potatoes
• 6:13
  for Thanksgiving that year. Oh, that's cool.
• 6:17
  Had Thanksgiving with walking and associates. It was a great time.
• 6:21
  Oh, that's great. I still own the plumbing. Oh, you do?
• 6:25
  I'm just wondering, yeah. Oh, that's great.
• 6:29
  That's a thing. Yeah, so that's been a challenge to Logan Rounds for 25 years as well.
• 6:36
  Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.
• 6:40
  So then you go to, you've done a couple of football-type movies.
• 6:45
  You started with the program where you played the... I started at Barry Ruffness.
• 6:50
  It was actually between Hudson.
• 6:53
  Oh, was it? Okay. All right, yeah. And then you played Steve Latimer in the program.
• 7:00
  Yes, that's true. What was that experience like? Did you play football?
• 7:08
  Did you actually play football at one time? I did.
• 7:14
  Got a chance to put the pads on several times in my career.
• 7:21
  And so then after you do the program, Cyborg, a movie I really like.
• 7:28
  It's not a terribly well-known movie, but Cyborg 3 you're in.
• 7:32
  It's not a terrible film, actually. It's actually quite watchful for the very little ones. Yeah.
• 7:39
  These guys put on to get that movie made. Yeah.
• 7:42
  They were Richard Lynch, or the
• 7:44
  late Richard Lynch, and he was quite a character, and Malcolm McDowell.
• 7:48
  Yeah. Christine Hodge, who was that? That's a fucking... Yeah.
• 7:54
  What was Richard Lynch like? I've always admired his acting.
• 7:57
  What was he like off the...
• 7:59
  Hey? He was amazing. Yeah. He was an appalling guy.
• 8:03
  He was a master of his craft. He was quite the entertainer.
• 8:10
  I think that performance really shows you that a lot of digger and a lot of
• 8:16
  dope for his craft. for what he did.
• 8:19
  He was quite the drama guy, quite the lesbian.
• 8:25
  Right. I've heard he was pretty intense when he was flying. You know,
• 8:30
  back in the day, he lit himself on fire that he started to protest through that thing.
• 8:38
  You know, he left his entire faith scarred from the Swiss career.
• 8:43
  What did they talk about? Hey, you remember that time earlier, so...
• 8:49
  I think that's part of his story. I don't quote me on it.
• 8:53
  He was quite the same. He certainly sounds like it.
• 8:59
  So then you make your way down under here to do Street Fighter, Zangief.
• 9:07
  Did you like it down under? You see me swell with my Australian reference.
• 9:12
  I did, mate. I've picked up everyone. and you do them really well. Catch up the riches.
• 9:24
  So we had fun, and I'm hoping we should do it. Yeah.
• 9:28
  I don't know about it, but I guess that. Yeah. How long were you... Amazing. Yeah.
• 9:38
  Yeah. How long were you down in Australia for?
• 9:43
  I don't know. We were a few months in China and a few months in the Gold Coast.
• 9:47
  Right, yeah. I had the best digs on top of this high-rise, got the contestant.
• 9:52
  I moved myself out of the hotel and saved production money and went on like
• 9:57
  the 32nd stair of this fucking house building overlooking the river and the old shit.
• 10:03
  Yeah. It was quite the deal. We were having drinks with John Howard at the hotel
• 10:08
  right then with Ravel Julia and Kylie Mone.
• 10:11
  Yeah. Those were different tracks. Yeah. Different bands. I know people hated
• 10:17
  John Howard in Australia.
• 10:19
  They actually loved him. He was pretty cool, but I can tell you that.
• 10:23
  Yeah. The drinks with the bar at the old school, no secrets.
• 10:27
  It was just the most down-to-earth leader I ever met in my own life. Yeah.
• 10:32
  And what was... Well, after that, I heard I stayed in Stanley.
• 10:36
  Back in the day, he was quite good.
• 10:39
  Yeah, he... I don't know. I think in politics, he might have outstayed his welcome
• 10:44
  a little bit in some people's eyes.
• 10:46
  Yeah, I mean, you know, that's good business, but you're just asking me about my time in Australia.
• 10:51
  I mean, that's something I'll never forget that was part of it. Yeah, that's cool.
• 10:56
  Yeah, I'm not talking about it. Yeah. And what was Mr. Did you, Mr.
• 11:02
  What's his name? Van Damme. Did you have... At that time, I'd been a while of
• 11:06
  Van Damme at all. He was quite the jealous prick. He was there.
• 11:09
  He would just stare at my physique and shake his head, and then later I had something just left.
• 11:15
  Really? He'd say dumb things and show up late.
• 11:19
  Yeah. He had issues. He'd say, you can't treat me like this. I'm not a piece of meat.
• 11:26
  You're big. You're really big. How'd you get so big? Look at this job. Who hired you?
• 11:32
  Like, that's what I do, buddy. That's what I do. Yeah.
• 11:36
  Then I fed him a bunch of stuff and, you know, some scenes in the movie.
• 11:40
  I helped him along. And the movie turned out real well as far as movies he's done in the box.
• 11:47
  He actually got to be in a dick and we've been fed spotting for 20 years.
• 11:52
  So we have to be able to use him quite a bit for his cocaine and asshole.
• 12:01
  As one often is. As one often is.
• 12:08
  Not everybody on cocaine is an asshole. and then it's yeah there wasn't a flip for the fact that,
• 12:15
  How's this interview done? I'm sorry. It was, I suppose, for an example back of my girlfriend.
• 12:21
  But, but what was, it was, it was sad Roald Julia passed not long after that
• 12:26
  movie. What was, what was your experience with him like? Nice.
• 12:30
  He was an amazing, amazing, generous guy. I've done the post very professionally,
• 12:36
  and he's missed very convincingly.
• 12:40
  Yeah, I'll never forget standing on the, yeah, on the beach and,
• 12:45
  I saw him walking back from the waterline in the middle of the sand. The storm was coming in.
• 12:52
  And it was quite a really epic foreboding flood coming in over the sand.
• 13:02
  And he was there with his kids around the sand. And I stopped with his kids.
• 13:07
  And he came back up and spoke to me. And I knew.
• 13:12
  I knew that moment I could see right now that he was saying goodbye and that
• 13:16
  the only other thing that would be long for them on this earth I was right yeah,
• 13:23
  yeah that's a must have been a wonderful.
• 13:26
  Must have been a wonderful experience you must have had a lot of,
• 13:29
  you know, great stuff to pass on to you, especially you being a young actor.
• 13:34
  Yeah, for sure. At first he didn't understand what I was doing with Zangief and he got all upset.
• 13:39
  And they said something to me about, what are you doing?
• 13:43
  Well, I just saw the dailies and he thinks you're stepping all over his performance in the background.
• 13:48
  And how dare you? I'm like, look, you idiots.
• 13:52
  I'm like, I'm trying to fucking play this character the way everything that
• 13:56
  I'm given shows me I should play this character.
• 13:58
  That's a fucking comedy and I'm being comedic and then they got it and I'm like wow,
• 14:04
  you guys really watched it in your movie and I'm paying attention to what we're
• 14:08
  doing there was a first time director who was a writer,
• 14:14
  Stephen DeSue's liked the talent but he called me in I told him the next time
• 14:19
  if you don't like something I'm doing you should tell me the day that we're
• 14:23
  shooting it a week later when it's too late to do anything and you have notes
• 14:27
  based on somebody else's opinion.
• 14:29
  And I said, but you're welcome. I keep trying to do my best for the film, which I did.
• 14:33
  And I think it turned out good. Yeah.
• 14:37
  That's what I was doing. And I was not just being an idiot.
• 14:41
  I guess I was very convincing of Zangief. Then he embraced it and was really
• 14:45
  cool. And we had a wonderful experience.
• 14:48
  But, you know, every project has these moments. And I guess those are the things
• 14:52
  you want to hear about when you ask about it. Yeah. When you ask me, I'll do that.
• 14:56
  Yeah, but, yeah, when I told my friend... I could tell you I'll have lunch every
• 15:02
  day on Street Fighter, but that would be more fun.
• 15:04
  Yeah? I love the Crannaberry sandwiches. Oh, you did?
• 15:10
  Oh, yeah, you just do that like Thanksgiving so much every day,
• 15:13
  just great. Yeah? Oh, that's good. That's good.
• 15:19
  And some of that good Australian beer, hey? Yeah.
• 15:22
  That's right. A four-year-old. People start in here.
• 15:26
  Yeah. You guys don't like fosters, but if you're a four-strength analyzer,
• 15:29
  or some shit like that, that they said here, and I swear you would love fosters.
• 15:34
  Yeah. It's actually very good compared to some of those domestic exports. Yeah.
• 15:41
  But, yeah, when I spoke to my friend Daryl last night, and I said I might have
• 15:45
  had a chance at talking to you, he wanted to say thank you for beautifully destroying his model.
• 15:52
  Of the boss and often I got big feet it was easier I went like through that thing.
• 16:01
  Yeah for the movie straight side here that I yeah that's it yeah yeah good thought
• 16:10
  we didn't put down there.
• 16:14
  Yeah, he wasn't an insignificant bastard. No, no. At that time,
• 16:18
  fishing the bed bed at that piece, and then we crushed it all with our big-ass feet.
• 16:22
  Yeah, he was just excited that it was well-featured and, you know, his work survived.
• 16:31
  Yeah, he placed it well, right under my foot. I reckon.
• 16:36
  Well, I'll have the interview done for you. Oh, it's wonderful.
• 16:42
  It's fantastic. Are you having a good time?
• 16:46
  I think I'm very average. Oh, no. No, you're full of wonderful anecdotes.
• 16:54
  That's what we want. We want, you know, we want... Yeah, yeah.
• 16:57
  I'm still following that.
• 17:01
  I'm never going. Oh, mate. So then you got a chance to work with John Singleton on higher learning.
• 17:07
  What was that like? people don't like this interview you guys should have interviewed
• 17:12
  me like you know 25 years ago when i was young employee that was what you know oh no it's confident.
• 17:22
  Yeah yeah you know i've been tested with great directors he's certainly a revolutionary
• 17:30
  director yeah i mean it was cassavetes before john singleton and then there
• 17:35
  was pretty much nobody except maybe Woody Allen that was writing,
• 17:39
  directed their own films and tried to produce movies.
• 17:42
  Yeah, studio system and,
• 17:46
  So he was a maverick guy. Still consider John Sennfoot's under this day.
• 17:52
  No, it's great. As I believe.
• 17:55
  It was a good experience. It was a movie to wrap your head around as a performer for me.
• 18:02
  But it was a great film. It was a good shoot.
• 18:10
  It's got a very poignant message to question the hate.
• 18:13
  Not all hate is hate. yeah he'd make me that yeah,
• 18:19
  a lot of John's movies seem to carry that you can't really sugarcoat that kind
• 18:25
  of movie you can't really sugarcoat that kind of material and have that expected
• 18:30
  to have any effect no a lot,
• 18:34
  people's position yeah so you got you got to keep it I don't think people can
• 18:39
  handle movies that are real anymore I have to tell you the truth there is a vibe but No, no.
• 18:46
  I think it's... This is liquid back, ridiculous bullshit that I didn't have to say.
• 18:50
  Except it's time to have some man-man movies. At least I can answer it.
• 18:55
  That's just about what went right along with us.
• 18:59
  But I think John, as you were saying, he was a very independent voice.
• 19:05
  His films had a lot of impact, emotions-wise.
• 19:10
  He's a good, I mean, tomorrow he's not. Yeah. It's a begging film on a level.
• 19:17
  Yeah. So I was frankly thrilled, flattered to shave my head and play a neo-Nazi
• 19:23
  for Tom Silton because he was a genius guy. Yeah.
• 19:27
  I knew the movie, and unlike Spike Lee,
• 19:30
  even something like racism, he led us renderfully and inventively and creatively
• 19:36
  and effectively so that people might see his point of view and stay away from the bullshit.
• 19:44
  Yeah. So you...
• 19:48
  Yeah.
• 19:51
  Yeah. You've done a lot of appearances on television as well as film.
• 19:58
  Conan, you did Conan, an episode of Conan on TV. Yeah.
• 20:04
  Yeah. Yeah. and uh Lois and Clark and some other stuff like that what is what
• 20:12
  is it like I got the Superman I know that was yeah yep,
• 20:20
  Fuck shit. I mean, that's my kind of deal. Yeah.
• 20:25
  Walking up the streets of Gotham. Yeah. Street on fire. Superman. Yeah, that's cool.
• 20:32
  I don't know how cool he's at, rather than...
• 20:36
  Yeah. ...even japper. So that... Back in the day, that was the... Yeah.
• 20:42
  So what's it like coming off, like... I never estimate.
• 20:46
  Kicks the boy over the ass on the head, I don't know what it's called.
• 20:48
  That's oh mate that's that's a higher right there someone reads that and they,
• 20:55
  yeah someone reads that and they go yeah he's the man we're looking for.
• 21:01
  But so what's it like you know when you you come off movies and you and you're
• 21:05
  doing i have no doubt of that mate um.
• 21:15
  So what's it like um you come i'm not a member of fag the film actors guild oh you're not,
• 21:22
  well i'm not a member of fag the film actors guild no no i am a big i'm a big
• 21:29
  fan of matt and trey yeah yeah that's cool so what's it like when you come off
• 21:34
  um doing movies and then and then television is a different, you know, I mean.
• 21:42
  Television has their shit together a lot more often than films. True.
• 21:48
  There's a really tight schedule in television. Yeah.
• 21:52
  You don't get to lose a day or lose half a day. You have to shoot 20 pages a day. Right.
• 22:00
  And films, especially some bigger films, are a much bigger scale and a much slower piece. Yeah.
• 22:08
  But it's great. I mean, there used to be this saying I used to like that everybody hated me for it.
• 22:14
  That was, film is life.
• 22:18
  Well, theater is life. It opens, it breathes, and it's wide.
• 22:23
  And film is art at its height and precise. and television is furniture.
• 22:39
  I love it. That bigger line, which brings me to my favorite line from Straits and Nighter.
• 22:44
  Yeah. For me, it was Tuesday.
• 22:52
  That's wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful to you. This is the best day of your life.
• 23:00
  No, no. Day from the inside out. The day that will forever ring in your heart.
• 23:06
  Change your vision of the skies.
• 23:08
  Yeah. Tuesday.
• 23:13
  That's fantastic. That's fantastic. So the next big director you got to work
• 23:19
  with was Oliver Stone. What was the Stone experience?
• 23:22
  But then it's in two.
• 23:25
  No, you're right. I'm going to be sort of private. Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:30
  Yeah. All right. Yeah. Oliver Stone was fucking amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:37
  Oliver Stone was fixing to the program. He got me in to his office to meet with me.
• 23:46
  He said, well, I just read the one thing. And I said, what's that all right?
• 23:51
  He said, you blew your load.
• 23:54
  I mean, I'm pretty everywhere. I'm like, you're going to be kidding.
• 23:58
  I said, no crazy football, playing insanity. I said, you can't get a better
• 24:03
  deal for your buck. I said, I'm in.
• 24:05
  And then Al Pacino came up in the elevator and it opens, and Al Pacino comes
• 24:09
  out, and Oliver goes, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver.
• 24:14
  They give each other a big hug, and he goes, Oliver, I want you to meet this
• 24:18
  great actor. You know, this guy, he's amazing.
• 24:20
  He's such a great actor. Al, meet Andrew Bernerski. I'm like,
• 24:24
  Oh, I hear you're pretty good, too.
• 24:34
  And, I mean, stories like that are rich. And the time with Oliver was as rich
• 24:40
  every step of the way. He is fucking at home.
• 24:44
  And that movie was a great experience. I could talk about it for a minute.
• 24:48
  Yeah. At the end, Al says, I said, Al, I just want you to know,
• 24:53
  I'll never forget working with you. You really don't.
• 24:55
  So you're managing. And he goes, Andrew, stop.
• 24:58
  And I go, no, but Al. I mean, he goes, Andrew.
• 25:01
  And I go, I'm just trying. He goes, Andrew, I'll never forget working with you.
• 25:11
  And he goes, okay, you know, fair enough. Even if you're Al Pacino,
• 25:17
  that's got to be true as hell.
• 25:18
  You can't prepare for it. Oh, shit, I'm like, okay.
• 25:23
  It was a very sprawling movie.
• 25:29
  All those football games that you played in the movie, were they all filmed
• 25:35
  over a long period of time?
• 25:37
  A real deal was done to me for months. I mean, I'd start my day at 5 a.m.,
• 25:41
  get taped up, and I'd simply wear the same tape cutting into my heels at 2 or 3 in the morning.
• 25:48
  Yeah. Yeah, spots and I mean unbelievably gruesome and brutal as far as filming
• 25:55
  goes but amazingly rewarding yeah.
• 26:02
  That's an epic, it's an epic movie.
• 26:05
  I love the speech that Pacino gives, you know, you know, likes this game of inches.
• 26:10
  I'll say, because I'm really thinking back. I mean, it was an epic experience.
• 26:14
  Yeah, but what was what was Jamie Foxx like working with?
• 26:19
  Oh, no. Sorry?
• 26:22
  Viva Oliver Stone. Viva Oliver Stone, yeah. What was what was Jamie Foxx like working with?
• 26:29
  He got the job because Puff Daddy originally had the job, and Puffy got fired
• 26:34
  for throwing like a girl. Really?
• 26:37
  In Miami. They brought young James Fox in, who was completely green and completely
• 26:45
  new to the whole huge environment that all of them brought him down into,
• 26:49
  and he didn't feel like a girl.
• 26:52
  He made the role his own and took the opportunity, and I think everybody would
• 26:56
  say that James did a fantastic job in that movie it really established it was
• 27:00
  a big news after really and they
• 27:03
  had Puff Daddy cast as the guy before him that's the way it's a story wow.
• 27:10
  He literally got fired amongst conversations that he threw like a girl really
• 27:16
  and it was I was there I was there for all the conversations and walked him by,
• 27:21
  yeah that's what it is there was no saving if you threw like a fucking girl you had to go home,
• 27:27
  if I couldn't he was brutal to me if I didn't hit and it wasn't reported back
• 27:34
  to him that I hit then I could fucking go home too.
• 27:39
  Yeah he'd be down there probably getting to a full NFL style combine with real
• 27:43
  full guys that were NFL guys between teams and we'd go rive off the sofa and
• 27:48
  get in the football shape for that room,
• 27:53
  everybody doesn't have a job yet everybody could believe for his role yeah.
• 28:00
  That was like bring it on motherfuckers yeah so what I I understand that Stoney's
• 28:07
  a pretty hardcore sort of cat he's like he likes it real oh yeah it's real yeah he likes it hardcore,
• 28:16
  you know and if you can't go then get off the bus yeah it ain't it ain't forever
• 28:21
  and uh you know all of us two tours in Vietnam Two Purple Hearts,
• 28:26
  so he's a badass motherfucker, too.
• 28:29
  He can take excuses of people that can't figure it out when the clock's running
• 28:33
  and people that can't fucking get it done.
• 28:35
  He can't stand that. Yeah. He's got everything.
• 28:37
  He believes in it, all his passion and resources. That's the dead of that behind him.
• 28:42
  So I salute Oliver Stone in the way he makes movies. Yeah. Fucking Lord.
• 28:46
  Yeah. He's an artist. Yeah. So you asked me about the scene in any given Sunday
• 28:52
  with Matt McDonnell, That was Matthew Modine and James Wood. That's right, mate.
• 28:58
  That thing started out kind of rough.
• 29:04
  It was my idea to lift off the drugs that I thought the player would be taking
• 29:09
  when I was getting intravenous fluids and asking for pain pills and love for
• 29:15
  relaxants and driving Matt Modine nuts.
• 29:18
  And then it was on to the bathroom with the IV still attached.
• 29:24
  And that went pretty well.
• 29:25
  Those playoffs and pandemonium ensued, as you would think.
• 29:29
  And then we got to the stalls, and the kicker had been in one on the stall but
• 29:34
  decided to use that stall and improvise the rest of that scene and pretty much
• 29:39
  the fireworks that come next were my idea and James Woods' reaction was,
• 29:44
  damn he goes you shit a gopher?
• 29:48
  And act like you can smell it and then Matthew Mildee comes in and almost gets
• 29:54
  crapped on trying to get the IVs out and then James Woods had lives and he goes
• 29:59
  to Matt and he goes he's looking down over the stall and he says hey Ollie we
• 30:04
  should go out later for a little Chinese huh.
• 30:07
  Matt was like oh come on I think that take is in the extended release DVD with the director's cut,
• 30:19
  and you know it was good the rest it was you know you're an imagination for
• 30:24
  my motivation you know get out of the way face kicker unless you want to be
• 30:29
  in the middle of a major shit store,
• 30:32
  and see Got out just in time. Yeah.
• 30:36
  That starts football, baby, whatever it takes.
• 30:40
  But there's a story. That's fantastic. After that, Oliver Stone said to Bill
• 30:45
  Bellamy, Bill Bellamy was complaining about something.
• 30:48
  Oliver Stone just looked at Bill Bellamy. He goes, watch Andrew. Be more like Andrew.
• 30:56
  And Bill Bellamy says, we do this scene. And he threw his hand up in the air.
• 31:01
  He's like, what the fuck?
• 31:03
  What is that supposed to be like, Andrew? What am I supposed to take out of that?
• 31:08
  And I was like, you know what the fuck you're doing to do it well.
• 31:12
  So, you know, there's my shit story.
• 31:17
  So another big pitch you worked on with a director who's had a colorful reputation
• 31:23
  is Michael Bay in Pearl Harbor.
• 31:27
  Don't forget John McTiernan. Yeah, John McTiernan. Yeah, we're going to get
• 31:30
  to him, but let's talk about Bay first.
• 31:33
  Michael Bay Pearl Harbor Old Clash Yeah I love Mr. Bay,
• 31:41
  They built those ships, almost a scale,
• 31:45
  giant bays in Fox Studio, Brock, California, that were these huge infinity things,
• 31:52
  millions of gallons of water, and the same concept as infinity pools.
• 31:57
  And they basically loaded them up with hundreds of spent men.
• 32:02
  It blew the shit out of them by basically 100 great drownings.
• 32:07
  And they had 90 people that were survivors of the event.
• 32:10
  I'm in deck chairs on the side of the deck watching me on a big monitor while
• 32:14
  I did this stuff and tried to do them justice and make heroes.
• 32:20
  Out of real heroes so I think it's great shot the box on the deck of,
• 32:27
  the USS Missouri which is the boat that actually went and fed the tribe in a
• 32:32
  search of Japan so that he could get on his knees and sign the surrender.
• 32:39
  Yeah surrender I can mention.
• 32:42
  Yeah. So what was Michael Bay like to work with?
• 32:45
  He's a great guy. He doesn't put up with shit. And, you know,
• 32:49
  like Oliver Stone, he's got hundreds of millions of dollars riding every day, every minute.
• 32:54
  The clock's ticking. People need to help Michael Bay.
• 32:57
  I want a big movie like that. And that's why I was there. And I was proud to do that.
• 33:02
  Yeah, I hear people bitch about Michael Bay.
• 33:05
  And, well, Michael will say it clearly 10 times. And if it's a 10th time,
• 33:09
  he's still got to be talking. and the people are fucking sad.
• 33:12
  I'm going to ask you to get pissed off.
• 33:14
  And then people will be like, Michael Bay yells at his crew.
• 33:17
  I'm like, well, his crew needs to fucking snap to it and fucking pay attention
• 33:21
  and fucking help the guy in sport making this movie. Yeah.
• 33:25
  Pretty amazing. Yeah. I'm a bunch of cool Navy SEALs and...
• 33:31
  Smoked a bunch of good cigars and tried to do the right thing and put those
• 33:35
  people over that we were there to, you know, amplify their efforts doing such
• 33:41
  an amazing period in their history. Yeah, yeah.
• 33:45
  So it was my pleasure to be part of that movie. Yeah, really. Really. You drowned.
• 33:49
  Oh, you did? I seen that. Really? I hit my head on some metal as this thing was sinking.
• 33:56
  Got my spare air. Yeah. Wow.
• 34:01
  Yeah, wow. Keeping it real, you know? Yeah, yeah.
• 34:08
  But, yeah, as you said just before, John McTiernan you got to work with,
• 34:11
  too, on the remake of Rollerball.
• 34:15
  Yeah, John McTiernan, a great action director. Yeah.
• 34:19
  His wife was the costume designer. I had to describe him not to look like a
• 34:25
  complete retard in that movie, but I think we came up with approval of filing. Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:31
  Interesting. I don't want to say that some of the people involved were smoking
• 34:35
  crack, but it's just a distinct cause of knowing.
• 34:40
  So what was the John McTiernan experience like? What was he like to hang out? I didn't bump it up.
• 34:50
  But to me, it's all business.
• 34:54
  It's always business. I come with my ideas, I bring them to the table, and I try to execute.
• 35:02
  And other people's struggles around me are some of the things that leave the greatest impression.
• 35:07
  And that movie was truly a struggle to get made, but most movies are.
• 35:13
  And it's definitely another one of those movies where I put my soul,
• 35:17
  my body, and a little actual message.
• 35:20
  And that's something I've come to do a movie with, Jung-Wong Ping. Yeah.
• 35:25
  I was a great action director, and my legs swelled up like an elephant on a plane.
• 35:30
  Thank God for Thailand and some of their amazing medicines. I was able to bring
• 35:35
  the injury down and complete the next film after Road Bowl. Yeah.
• 35:40
  And what was McTiernan like behind the scenes? I mean, did you get to talk with him at all?
• 35:46
  He was stressed. He was stressed and tried to deliver a movie and grow on.
• 35:51
  Yeah. because he seems like a man of the things that I've seen of him he seems
• 35:56
  like a man of sort of few words like he doesn't give too much away he puts that
• 36:00
  he loves it or hates it I look for that positive reaction before we move on
• 36:05
  I always got from him but I remember he was quite involved in the past,
• 36:11
  that people spent a timeout effort,
• 36:15
  to bring in that movie I believe in my opinion.
• 36:20
  And then, um, after all this, well, you know, you got football,
• 36:25
  you got war, you got rollerball, then you decide to do something like Scooby-Doo.
• 36:30
  Yeah, Scooby-Doo, I think, where, uh, Warner Brothers spent a million dollars
• 36:35
  on the movie and it was not funny. Right.
• 36:39
  It was not touching well at all. And, uh, Roger Gosnell brought me in,
• 36:44
  who's a great director, you know, Big Mamas and us, hilarious guy. Yes.
• 36:49
  He showed me these storyboards for this. Basically, I saw this Three Stooges touch shit.
• 36:55
  And I thought it was hilarious, and I got it. And he couldn't find a big guy
• 36:59
  to shoot those scenes because big guys are mostly idiots.
• 37:02
  When it comes to trying to be in movies, they all freeze up and show their self-conscious,
• 37:08
  you know, nervous bullshit that makes them want to be big bodybuilding kids.
• 37:13
  And I said, you know, I said, oh, look, it's surgery.
• 37:16
  You know tell me my quote and
• 37:19
  we'll make it funny yeah and uh
• 37:23
  so we we went and we did some reshoot for
• 37:25
  that movie and uh I blocked that
• 37:29
  thing that little sequence with Shaggy I blocked that out yeah the beats I made
• 37:35
  it funny and uh you know so I said Penthouse Magazine gave me a bunch of shit
• 37:41
  when SHR came out and they were like oh yeah you may know him as Cameron Hensley from Scooby-Doo,
• 37:47
  and I'm like, what a bunch of dicks.
• 37:51
  But as it turns out, you know, one of the few things I was calling in that movie,
• 37:55
  and this one hired me in front of me is money and whatever's clever,
• 37:58
  so I was happy to make him or do something well during the classic struggle with great towns.
• 38:06
  Yeah. So, yeah, then we come to two Texas Chainsaw movies you did.
• 38:11
  You did the one in 03 and then the one in 06. How did you get the gig as Leatherface?
• 38:19
  Well, Michael Bay announced he was going to do that film, and I saw him at a
• 38:25
  Christmas party and told him I was born to wear the mask and not to make the
• 38:29
  same mistake that everyone else made by putting people with guitars in their
• 38:32
  fucking mask. I'm not Gary.
• 38:35
  Yeah. And he had said publicly that that's what he remembers and left his impression.
• 38:42
  And then they hired some guy when they didn't want to negotiate with me,
• 38:45
  and then he let his back out the first day of filming a friend to sue them,
• 38:49
  and then they started negotiations with me again.
• 38:52
  I threw it out that day, and that's just so true.
• 38:56
  Yeah, because, I mean, that's a pretty iconic character to be taking on.
• 39:05
  Well, they said, you know, that there were big shoes to fill.
• 39:09
  I said, I'd cut these feet off of them because I had big, I'd cut the does off
• 39:13
  the shoes because I had big feet.
• 39:16
  You know after that the rest is the rest is easy I say easy.
• 39:23
  When I say easy it's not the same as easy
• 39:27
  yeah those performances would be impossible physically and literally impossible
• 39:33
  for anybody that's talked to I did it and I was willing that it would be as
• 39:38
  sad as it was but I said you know folks let me have a good time sign me up yeah
• 39:44
  and And my heart, my soul,
• 39:46
  my body into it, and everybody came to their lives. Yeah.
• 39:50
  So I'm fine from somebody to get served. But yeah, those are special movies.
• 39:54
  They're an amazing fucking experience. Yeah, so they...
• 39:57
  Back to a level where horror is hard, it scares people again,
• 40:01
  the shit that was out. Yeah.
• 40:04
  Well, they must have liked what you did because they got you back for a second time.
• 40:08
  The second movie was banned in your country. Yeah, I know.
• 40:13
  Germany I mean don't figure that Germany and Australia are two companies to
• 40:17
  be two countries to be so sensitive with murder yeah it's a movie yeah,
• 40:26
  but oh hey irony it's the stuff of life yeah that's right so Gary from Australia and the New Jersey yeah.
• 40:39
  So so Andrew in this storied career of yours, have you got any I don't know,
• 40:46
  you've told us a lot of great stories, are there any moments that stick out for you in particular,
• 40:52
  aside from the ones that you've told me about that,
• 40:55
  a great story that happened on a set or with an actor or something like that you could share with us?
• 41:01
  Oh, you know, like, you know, did, you know, a particular experience or something
• 41:07
  that you might have, you know, something that happened to you making one of
• 41:11
  these movies that just sticks out that you never forget, you know?
• 41:16
  I did never forget any experience. Yeah.
• 41:20
  Um, so there you go. There's this, there's this, you pick a movie, I'll give you a story.
• 41:26
  Okay. Okay. What about, what about, okay, what about Batman Returns?
• 41:34
  All right. So me and Christopher Walken meet for the first time in Tim Burton's office.
• 41:42
  But I did one of the roles. I was willing to do it for scale.
• 41:46
  I wasn't going to do it for scale, but I was excited to meet these guys and
• 41:50
  wanted to do the film. I was 22 years old.
• 41:53
  Sure. I meet Christopher Walken for the first time, and Tim Burton's all excited,
• 41:58
  and we shake hands, and Christopher Walken's got this lip on his face like, wow,
• 42:04
  wow, and Tim Burton goes, well, what do you think, what do you think,
• 42:08
  Chris, and he goes, well, I don't know, what do you mean?
• 42:11
  And he goes well what do you think could he play my son he goes well I mean he's fucking huge.
• 42:22
  He goes yeah he goes you know it's like
• 42:24
  this he goes yeah he could
• 42:27
  be my son he goes you know he goes let me
• 42:30
  tell you why he goes you see when
• 42:34
  my father was young my father
• 42:37
  he was a baker he'd bake bread during the depression and during the depression
• 42:43
  they had no flour so the bakers would put sawdust in the flour to make it go
• 42:49
  further and therefore everybody in my father's age was very small because they had the rickets,
• 42:56
  because they had no flour he goes you you had orange juice.
• 43:06
  Because That explains it. That's why you're so fucking big.
• 43:12
  And I'm like, okay. And the two versions are like, I fucking love it,
• 43:17
  I love it. And it's a done deal. So we'll make the movie together.
• 43:22
  Bad on it.
• 43:24
  Do Christopher Walken really well. Well, thanks. Yeah. Sure, definitely. Yeah.
• 43:31
  I'll just have to put, I'll just have to put a little.
• 43:35
  You have to, you have to, yeah, I'll just have to, I'll just have to put it
• 43:40
  in brackets there in Christopher Walken's voice.
• 43:45
  Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah.
• 43:49
  But, yeah, but, uh, look, I'm, I'm a big, sorry. I'm a big fan,
• 43:55
  so it's been really cool today to hang out with you, metaphorically. Thank you.
• 44:01
  I believe that hopefully there's some other fans out there and they should really
• 44:05
  enjoy the center of Yoko Titha. Yeah.
• 44:08
  Yeah. You've got some good stuff out there from me, so it's been a pleasure
• 44:14
  remembering a good thing on my career with you. Yeah.
• 44:17
  I'm going to be there on a Sunday evening in Australia. Yeah.
• 44:21
  Well, we... Yeah, I'll see you up my ridges and say thank them and good on you.
• 44:26
  Yeah? Oh, well, look. Hey, mate, if you ever move down here,
• 44:29
  you'll fit in. They won't know that you're not an Aussie.
• 44:32
  Oh, I liked Australia, man. It was a beautiful fucking time.
• 44:35
  I built it on my train. Yeah. It was nice.
• 44:38
  Well, you've got the lingo, so if you ever move down this way,
• 44:41
  then you'll just fit right in.
• 44:43
  Tell all the women and single ladies to watch out. I will.
• 44:47
  Yes, Andrew Bryonowski.
• 44:51
  Brianowski you gotta be careful with that one brianowski anyway
• 44:55
  andy what a great bloke what a great character really would love to buy that
• 45:00
  painting hopefully i'll get a gig that pays 30 grand and i'll be able to uh
• 45:05
  to get in touch with him and get a hold of it because so yeah who wouldn't want
• 45:08
  that i would love that people walk in what a conversation piece it would be,
• 45:13
  anyway little yugenites that
• 45:15
  was andy checking him out in the description links in the description.
• 45:20
  And as always, my little Eugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify
• 45:27
  or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
• 45:30
  I'm Kent Hill, and until next time, you've been listening to Cinema Eugenite.
• 45:36
  Music.