Meet Mike Medavoy! With a career spanning six decades and over 300 feature films, you can imagine my surprise when I got a response to a Twitter DM I sent out in a moment of boldness. Oscar-winning Producer, Mike Medavoy, agreed to be on Blissful Spinster. Being the kid that grew up wanting to find out who was MAKING the films I loved, I’ll admit, I was a mix of nervous and starstruck to meet Mike, he was, after all, part of the teams that were responsible for such films as - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Apocalypse Now, Network, Platoon, Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Thin Red Line, Black Swan, and Shutter Island… Just to name a few. Mike was open and insightful during our chat and the thing I loved most, was learning how much he valued the collaborative nature of making films. Find out more about Phoenix Pictures on their website at: https://phoenixpictures.com Connect with Mike on Instagram at: https://instagram.com/mikemedavoyup Connect with Mike on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/mikemedavoy
[00:00:00] Cris: Hi, and welcome to bliss will spinster. This week's guest is Oscar winning producer. Mike meadowy Mike lives in Los Angeles and has a producing career spanning six decades with over 300 films. He's worked on. He started in the mail room at universal studios in the sixties and working his way up through the executive ranks eventually became the senior vice president of United artists in the mid-seventies, a co-founder of Orion pictures in the late seventies, chairman of Tristar pictures in the early nineties.
[00:00:27] And eventually he co-founded. Own production company, Phoenix pictures in 1995. And that company is still around today to name a few films that he's had a hand in shepherding into existence. One flew over the Cuckoo's nest, Rocky apocalypse, now network platoon science of the Lamb's Philadelphia, the thin red line, black Swan and shutter island.
[00:00:47] What a career with such a prolific career, you can imagine my surprise when Mike responded to my DM in Twitter and I'll. I was fan growling a bit out and a bit nervous during our chat, but Mike was super open and insightful. [00:01:00] I think the thing that most impressed me about our conversation was how much Mike values, the teamwork it takes to get a feature film made and how he wouldn't take sole credit for just about anything he worked on.
[00:01:10] However you found this podcast. Thank you for tuning in, and please enjoy this week's episode first. I just wanna thank you for doing this. You're someone I really respect. And I've known about since I was really little actually. Cuckoo's nest was something that was on my radar in the I didn't watch it until the eighties cause I was literally little in the seventies but but I was always fascinated that Michael Douglas had been a producer and then I looked up the other pro and that kind of so thank you for responding to my tweet and agreeing with yeah, no, it's my pleasure.
[00:01:39] So the first thing I was curious about your beginnings, cuz. I actually much like you other, I wasn't a refugee from a war. That's a really spectacular, you were born in Mexico, right? Yeah. No, I was born in New Hampshire, but moved there when I was one. Okay. And I grew up there until I was 19.
[00:01:56] And I think that shaped someone a little differently, and I was [00:02:00] curious what your thoughts were on that. Yeah.
[00:02:01] Mike: I think, if the more experience you get in life no matter, where and how The more, it allows you to expand and think somewhat differently. I lived in China till I was eight and then lived in Chile till I was 17, but late sixteens, it forced me to think of the world is not only, any regular American I, I was in the army.
[00:02:26] I was, I became a citizen. in 63, I think. And I'm an immigrant, like a lot of people are you on the other hand were born here, but I, being an immigrant or Russian Jew from China, made me distinctly different.
[00:02:41] Cris: So were you in cheerleader in Pinochet? She, then,
[00:02:44] Mike: you know what?
[00:02:46] I was not there during Pinochet. She, but I did go there. Once with Haskel Wexler. Okay. Is that name familiar to you? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was there with [00:03:00] Haskel and another man who who was photographer too. And we were there actually, because they wanted to do a documentary about the Brazilian prisoners that had.
[00:03:14] had come to Chile. And that was an interesting period. It was this, it was a actually, I don't remember the exact year, but I remember that it was the first time that I'd been back to Chile. And of course I did this movie in Chile after that , the whole idea was eventually I wanted to go back to all the places that I'd been in one time or.
[00:03:36] And Chile was one. And of course I did this movie and Chile, the 33. And then of course I wanted to do something in China. I've continued to figure out there's an interesting way of really going back to the places that you grew up in, in that's basically, you know what I'm doing.
[00:03:52] I've been working in a book about my parents and their lives in Shanghai. And I took him back. Actually, I took my [00:04:00] father back to Shanghai.
[00:04:03] Cris: What was that like for him?
[00:04:04] Mike: It was an interesting story because I was on the Wampo river, which is the river that's, facing the embankment.
[00:04:13] And I noticed that he was crying and I said, dad, why are you crying? And he said he said, I didn't want to come. He said, I felt that, all of the beautiful memories I had would be gone, but I'm really happy I did. And it's, these are tears of joy. And so that was great.
[00:04:32] Cris: Oh, that's really nice. I when I was, I wanna say I was eight or nine I don't know how much you've been to Mexico city at all, but they used to film a lot of movies.
[00:04:41] They had been there. Yeah. Yeah. The neighborhood I lived in, there was a house they filmed a lot in and they filmed missing. And speaking of yeah. And I ran Costa gravis. Yeah. Costa gravis. And I ran into Jack lemon. He was coming out of the set when I was walking. Yeah. Down the street and sweetheart E was, [00:05:00] yeah.
[00:05:00] They I, that house was the embassy in missing Uhhuh. Which I much later watched it and I, oh, that's what they shot there. . Yeah. But I would sneak on the sets there at that house. Yeah. Growing up how much, cuz I, and I've heard you talk a little bit about it in the book, which I haven't gotten all the way through, but I'm listening to it on my walks but the industry obviously has changed quite a bit since you started can you walk me through what you think the major, like to a producer like you, who seems that you're drawn to material and want to support the artist?
[00:05:31] I don't know how much of you're like cut from a different cloth to some of the producers I've met.
[00:05:38] Mike: The business continues to change, even though, some of the things have to be the same. The camera, you got a camera, you got actors. Yeah. You got the script, you got people, But if you think about it, I, if I think about United artists, now your daughters was formed by chaplain, DW, Griffin what's her name?
[00:05:56] Mary Pickford, there were four of them. And they basically a [00:06:00] distribution company and they let everybody. Do their thing, you made a movie, got the money, financed it, put it through their distribution apparatus. Then in 1950 they sold the company to Crim and Benjamin and group and that part of it didn't change, they continued to do that.
[00:06:22] And so there. very artist centric. That didn't mean that they would let 'em run rough shot cuz they didn't, there was, they had to adhere to the budget that they agreed to, that they signed to. So every company that I was a, a part of basically I ran that way.
[00:06:40] I was artist friendly. The excuse me. The that was true. Tristar has been true at Phoenix. I am who I am. I'm not, I'm not saying that I can learn new tricks cuz I have, but , it's the big difference now I think is that is the streaming platforms, [00:07:00] everybody's got a streaming platform because for all I intents and purposes, the idea of video, or even video on demand, or, those have all declined and networks, even.
[00:07:16] Excuse me, national networks. I'm tired. You can tell that's okay. Like CBS, NBC, ABC, are, some, are somewhat different. And I think movies are somewhat different because the concentration now is on, you can make a movie and it doesn't have to look like a 70 millimeter presentation.
[00:07:34] And I think that. There's something wrong with that. , I would prefer, having a larger format in larger theaters but you know what I want and what's realistic is not necessarily the same.
[00:07:46] Cris: Do you think the cause what's mostly put out from the studios that I see and most people see and we hear the arguments, the superhero or
[00:07:56] Mike: the yeah. It's Marvel, the Marvel universe. [00:08:00] Yeah. They call it the Marvel universe. I don't know how long that will be going.
[00:08:03] Maybe, maybe I will be around. Maybe I won't be around. but you can only eat so much sugar or any other thing that you just keep doing over and over again, it gets tiring and somebody's gonna come up with something different, and I love, some of the older movies, I pay attention to them.
[00:08:25] There was something interesting about some of these films
[00:08:28] Cris: Yeah, even like that event at the big chill, I don't think I'd watched it since it came out, yeah. Theater. I actually wrote a paper about it in high school. Cuz we watched it for a film class I took. Yeah. But I'm watching it and it resonated on a, such a different level with me cuz now I'm, 51, but also I've lived a life and I know where those characters are in their life too.
[00:08:48] It was so well written. Yeah. As well.
[00:08:52] Mike: Now he's a very talented guy. As I said that Y that night, I remember I've turned down a lot of really good movies and that was one of them. , and some of them, I had 'em in the grasp [00:09:00] of my hands and I could have said yes, but didn't you can't bat a thousand, if you can bat 3 33, that would be great.
[00:09:08] You'd be in the hall of fame.
[00:09:10] Cris: Also, you have seven Oscars I think you're batting pretty well, right? Yeah.
[00:09:15] Mike: All these things that see in the back, they're all, nominated movies and look, every single one of them, as I said that night requires a lot of people doesn't, you know what?
[00:09:27] It's never only about me cuz you know that. It's pretty stupid, yeah. Think that we can do everything, there's actors, there's writers, there's directors, there's producers. Yeah. Cinematographers, you name it.
[00:09:40] Cris: Yeah. It's a, definitely a collaborative art form. I studied theater before coming to film.
[00:09:45] So yeah. Technical theater. Yeah. What I loved was I heard you say a line and I'm gonna paraphrase cuz I was walking and I stopped to write it. Which it goes to this point, Hollywood is a dream factory. The dreams are the making of the films and [00:10:00] what it took to make it where the nightmares or something.
[00:10:02] It was something like that you said in there. And I really love that. cause it, it, yeah, really resonated cuz right now I'm in that, although I wouldn't call it a nightmare, I call it my learning stage to getting the film off the ground. Cause every time. I have a moment where I think I'm gonna get my development funds and it goes away because somebody's wife is divorcing them and locked up their financing, which actually happened literally a month ago to me.
[00:10:27] Yeah. But it all makes me better and it all makes me STR the foundation stronger. Yeah. And in that you're, so you've been on both sides, the side of trying to package things and trying to get a green light and bend the green light. Can you kind. What is that like? And what
[00:10:45] Mike: did advice?
[00:10:45] Obviously of that preferred, I preferred being the green light. It's pretty simple. Cuz then I don't have to ask anybody for anything. Just go ahead and do it. So that's always better, if you don't do that and I've, I did that for [00:11:00] hang on a second. So there.
[00:11:02] Four years at UA, I think 16 or 17 years at Orion, four years at Tristar and I, and at, or at Phoenix for the first, I think eight years, I didn't have to ask anybody anything. Wow. I've done it for a
[00:11:22] Cris: long time. What did you enjoy most about that? Was it getting to support those artists and see something?
[00:11:28] Mike: Yeah. It's getting, it's saying, I know what this is gonna look like. I know that it's, we're gonna find a way to sell it. And I love seeing it from beginning to end play out, variably you'll run into interference from. whether it's the filmmaker or the studio or from, it's none of it.
[00:11:50] None of it is great. And then it either becomes a hit black Swan became a big hit or it doesn't. And you take the it's what [00:12:00] was interesting the other day is I got somebody saw a movie that I did. I. At Phoenix called Dick I don't know if you know the
[00:12:09] Cris: movie or not.
[00:12:10] I remember the movie. I don't think I saw it, but I remember the name.
[00:12:13] Mike: The, it was, it's been rediscovered.
[00:12:17] Cris: Yeah. And it's, I'm gonna have to go watch it.
[00:12:17] Mike: It's, what's interesting about the movie is that these two girls get hired to be the white house dog, walkers. and they run into the Nixon tapes.
[00:12:30] Okay. That's essentially if it's comedy obviously, it's pretty funny. Yeah. I mean it gets rediscovered. I don't know. It must be at least 25 years ago, 20 years ago.
[00:12:41] Cris: I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back and watch it. yeah, it's fun. Yeah. That sounds fun. And that gets to. You strike me as someone from looking at like Philadelphia or, there's social movements that you seem to want to make sure that no, I don't.
[00:12:58] I
[00:12:58] Mike: don't look at it that way. [00:13:00] Okay. I don't it's, it's I like the idea of having something that it says, but I don't know about social movements. I love Philadelphia made me cry. Yeah, and I love that, but equally I like 2001. I like apocalypse. Now Cuckoo's nest, as you probably figured out films that are extraordinarily well made that have a story to tell, and that you will remember 10 years from.
[00:13:34] Cris: You said something about in the book that you were, if you had one talent, it was to spot talent. Yep. Can you talk about that a bit and what you like, what is it that you see when a Martin Scorsese or someone like that walks in or speed limit? Part of
[00:13:49] Mike: it sometimes I see their work, which sometimes I talk to them.
[00:13:53] I can feel it and hope that I'm right. Everybody can talk a good game or can talk, not necessarily do a good game, talk [00:14:00] it I'm, I think I'm good at spotting it, but, I've also been wrong.
[00:14:04] Cris: Is that important to, cause I've heard this before and I'm, I live this way quite a bit is to know what you don't know or to know when to ask or to know when you're you need to learn something
[00:14:14] Mike: that I think is important. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just remember you don't know everything. Yeah. And you should learn I, you.
[00:14:22] I hear a lot of things in this business all the time. I get, people that are selling something I'm very aware of salesman. Somebody trying to sell me something, and I, I have to put that into, the test. you just trying to sell me something that you believe in or are you really just trying to sell me something period?
[00:14:45] Yeah. I'm not an eager buyer on those occasions.
[00:14:49] Cris: Interesting. You mentioned ageism a little bit in your speech or? Yeah.
[00:14:54] Mike: We all know that there's ageism then there has been ageism in Hollywood for years, it's. [00:15:00] Something new , and that was the case, I think, with Arthur crim in UA.
[00:15:04] And there was the case, I think, with Arthur and, or Ryan , and you can feel it. It's people feel it. As I get older, not that people look at me as an old guy, because I think maybe not, me be wrong, but I think they, or less inclined to think I'm too old.
[00:15:24] But I don't know who knows what, and in, in a way I go, Hey, who cares? I really don't care. I'm, I've done this body of work. And that's why I said that evening is the important. is not you , the the important thing is what you do for others in the work that you do.
[00:15:43] Because that's the only thing that remains everything else is gone.
[00:15:47] Cris: Yeah. I was struck that you said somewhere in your book that you didn't you've for the longest time, didn't even take a credit. On a film. Yes. Which made me smile [00:16:00] because it is about the work and it is about those.
[00:16:03] And
[00:16:03] Mike: I didn't take a credit on the thin red line. Yeah. The company got the credit, but yeah. But I didn't take the credit.
[00:16:09] Cris: That's, it is like the script to me is always a conversation between me and the other artists. Yeah. It's not a finished product, it's a living product, but it's also, when I fight, start to write it, I have to think of all those oil artists that are reading it and make sure that I'm communicating with 'em I'm talking to them through my spirit, right?
[00:16:28] Yeah, exactly. And. Also, I was also struck by, I think you had a section in there about the mail room and then also about all the really fantastic directors that you ended up repping as their agent that you then brought along. Yeah. And rise up and, can you talk a little bit about that?
[00:16:46] Because I think networking laterally is such an important, yeah.
[00:16:49] Mike: Yeah. It definitely is, the people that you meet along the way, if you recognize they're talented and you can help them get to the next step, it's great. [00:17:00] And look throughout it. I made a bunch of mistakes, in part having to do with my own pride, probably, it's like my, I, my decision to move to a studio was largely because as an agent, when you represent somebody, you get your 10% and you're treated as though you're 10 percenter.
[00:17:25] And I didn't particularly like that. In some instances I did more than 10% cuz without me, that wouldn't have gotten done. So that's the basis. Yeah.
[00:17:37] Cris: Do you have any advice or insight that you might want to impart to the listeners of the podcast, the young filmmakers coming up?
[00:17:45] Mike: Do it, if you love it, that's, if this is what your passion is, just keep going at.
[00:17:51] Know what you want is another thing. Okay. Yeah. If you wanna go after it, it's not, [00:18:00] you have to feed yourself, obviously. So you have to work.
[00:18:03] Cris: Yeah, no, I have a, I worked in true crime doc series for my day job. yeah, because I'm trying to get this film made good. But you learn so much.
[00:18:12] I've learned so much working on the doc. .
[00:18:15] Mike: Yeah. I love dogs anyway. Yeah. I was
[00:18:17] Cris: wondering why you don't have a doc. My new
[00:18:18] Mike: passion. Yeah. You mean a doc about me
[00:18:22] Cris: or about yeah. About you and your journey.
[00:18:24] Mike: I'm writing this third book, but yeah, somebody wants to do a doc actually about me and I'm, they're gonna come in from England and talk to me about it.
[00:18:31] I'll be I'll be interested to see I told them that I wouldn't do one, that it. Purely about me because I wanted to say, make that statement, which is, Hey, it's not about me. It's about the work. Yeah. And if it's about the work I'm interested, cause then it says, okay, this is, you leave this to other people cuz then you, you say, Hey, this is about your work.
[00:18:53] Yeah.
[00:18:55] Cris: That's cool. Yeah, I was just, I cuz I've like there's a doc that [00:19:00] Alan lad Jr's daughter did. Yeah. That's kinda cool. And there was cuz he was another one who championed artists quite a bit, I think. Yeah, no
[00:19:07] Mike: Alan, Laddy is everybody knew him. Yeah. He is a he was a really sweet guy.
[00:19:12] Very internalized and I think it may have something to do with his father and mother in the relationship, but it was it was interesting, there was there, he was at a studio in which a father, son relationship was at the forefront of that studio, XK.
[00:19:30] Yeah. It was Darrell XEK that gave, dig Xanax is wings. . I can't imagine what I' been like, but he was. All right.
[00:19:41] Cris: I don't wanna take up too much more of your time. That's it?
[00:19:44] Mike: That's all you got.
[00:19:48] Cris: thank you so much for tuning into bliss. Spinster. If any of these conversations are resonating with you, please subscribe on apple podcast, Google podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast, you can find BLIS will spinster on Instagram and [00:20:00] Twitter and through our website list will spinster.com.
[00:20:02] Again, thanks so much for joining me on this journey and until next week go find your.