00:00Oh, she just met Cynthia Rivera. It was wonderful. She was lovely.
00:05And after seeing Wicked, the movie, I'm like, how was Starstruck?
00:09Yeah.
00:10Did you know she was going to be here at Sundance or was that a surprise to me?
00:13I knew she was going to be at Sundance, but I was not prepared for today just to meet her.
00:17I'm like, wow, such a treat. Yeah.
00:24An independent movie is a miracle to get made.
00:28I wanted to use all my friends who I had been working with for a decade and a half and off and on and stuff.
00:36So my DP is from here. Of course, he has a crazy, amazing career.
00:41And the writer is from here. Preston is part time from here.
00:47Myself, I've been here for 20 years.
00:49So shooting it here, and this story is a rural story.
00:53It's a southwestern United States story.
00:55And Utah is that for many, many reasons.
01:00So, yeah, we did like 20 plus days of the movie here and the rest, a few on the road in a haunted house in Wyoming.
01:08A little bed and breakfast.
01:10Haunted. Did you have an encounter?
01:14Well, there was this hotel called Elk Mountain and it was amazing.
01:20There was all these frames on the walls with like black and white, like pictures of old fashioned, like people in outfits, like smiling.
01:28But like it was creepy, but it was good fun.
01:31Before I get any further, I wanted to ask about Rex.
01:34What is his real name? The dog actor.
01:37I was kind of hoping maybe he would come, too.
01:40Or two. That's like Lassie.
01:43But admittedly, the first Rex worked a day or two days.
01:49And we said, I couldn't work with him.
01:52I got his agent down and I said, I've got my lead actor.
01:56That dog was lovely, a little hyper.
02:00So we went to a much more subdued dog, which do you remember his name?
02:06Rigor. There you go.
02:07Rigor is his name. Lives in Utah, alive and well.
02:10Yeah, lives a couple hours away.
02:14We checked up on him for the premiere, wasn't available.
02:17It's on to other things.
02:19Were there anything that was surprising about like the realities of making a road trip, maybe challenges, etc.?
02:27Just car acting, anything like that?
02:30It's confined. I mean, it's a confined space.
02:33You know, it's very tight.
02:36You're spending eight hours a day in a old, beat up coach and wagon.
02:46And then on top of that, it's an indie film.
02:48So it's very scrappy and all hands on deck kind of situation.
02:53But it's an obstacle.
02:55But this is a movie that thrives on obstacles.
02:57So you want those kinds of things to push you and get you into the place that you need to be.
03:04But we had a lot of fun.
03:07This story takes place from Nevada to Omaha.
03:11And I think a big reason you're shooting it here in Utah is because it gives you a sense of that journey.
03:17And also in the script, a big portion of it took place in the Salt Flats.
03:20You can't recreate that. You got to be here.
03:23And then obviously we had to go on the road a little bit.
03:27We went through Wyoming, like we said, and then we finished out in Omaha.
03:32You can't just recreate Omaha.
03:36There was discussion about that, but we knew that we weren't going to get the value if we shot it here in Salt Lake City.
03:43But beyond that, it's for a limited crew with a lot of local people on it.
03:51It really forces you to bond.
03:54There's something about road trips in general that forces people to bond and share memories.
03:59It's almost like summer camp.
04:01And with this tight crew, we went to a place called Little America on the Wyoming border.
04:07This amazing, very strange motel, like quintessential Americana.
04:12And we spent some nights there.
04:14There may have been fireworks going.
04:16I was like, where's the crew?
04:18Because it's legal year-round to do fireworks, I guess, in Wyoming.
04:21Shooting fireworks.
04:22And so they're like off shooting fireworks, playing pool.
04:26It was a good journey for us.
04:29Does anyone remember the first time they were starstruck?
04:34Not to speak ill of the dead, but I'm going to.
04:38When I was a kid, I met Paul Newman, and it was really cool.
04:42There used to be a thing called the Cleveland Grand Prix.
04:45It was a car race, like an indie car race in Cleveland.
04:47My dad was kind of one of the head of the volunteers there, so I had great access.
04:52As a kid, I would go through the paddocks and get all the driver's autographs, and I would just have free reign.
04:57One year, I don't know if you know this, but Paul Newman owned race car teams.
05:04So he owned a team that Michael Andretti raced for and some other great drivers.
05:09And one year, they placed.
05:11I think Michael Andretti got second place, and they were in the winner's circle.
05:14And I was standing in the winner's circle, and there's Paul Newman.
05:17And I'm from Cleveland, and he's from Cleveland, and I want to be an actor.
05:20He's a great legendary actor.
05:22He's sitting there smoking a cigar, just smoking a cigar.
05:26I look at him, and I go, Mr. Newman, Mr. Newman.
05:31My name's John.
05:32I was probably, like, 12 at the time.
05:34I'm like, my name's John.
05:35I'm from Cleveland.
05:36I really want to be an actor, and I look up to you so much.
05:39I love car racing, and I was wondering if you could just sign my program.
05:43And he looks at me, and he goes, no.
05:48And that was it.
05:50This is why I sign, like, anything.
05:52If anyone asks me to sign stuff, I'll sign it.
05:55Because no one else was around.
05:57It was, like, me and Paul Newman.
05:59It wasn't like he was getting hounded.
06:01And it was just like, no, good.
06:03It was my heart shattered.
06:06But sometimes, you know, meeting the people that you look up to,
06:10you learn a different lesson.
06:13And it doesn't change how I feel about him as an actor,
06:16but maybe I feel about him as a person.
06:18I'm Robin Williams.
06:19I think I was 16, and we were on a trip down from Montana.
06:23We'd come down to L.A., and we'd all gotten to go in,
06:26and I met him out front, and I was just unable to even speak.
06:30It was just wondering.
06:31He was drunk.
06:32He was completely high or drunk or whatever.
06:34Didn't get bit with the big beard and everything,
06:37but he was a big hero, so.
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