Tonight, an 80s all over, Patreon exclusive interview with the star of Dressed to Kill, Blow out and RoboCop, Nancy Allen, and now your Obstes, Drew McQueenie, and Scott Wyber I'm excited that this is the first one because I think this, you're the perfect person to talk to because so much of the work that I really want to dig into is the exact error we'll be talking about. So I think it's great. Oh well good, good. I'm glad it all worked out. Well, first I want to thank you for your work with Weespark.

My sister is a breast cancer survivor this year,

and the work you do with that organization is incredibly valuable. Well, thank you, and I'm glad to hear that she's doing well. It's a very traumatic thing to go through. Well, in a way, this is a perfect place to start the conversation. We Spark was founded by Wendy Joe Spurber,

who I always think of as such a big, vibrant, hilarious presence

in so many of the films that we're gonna get to talk about on the conversation. We Spark was founded by Wendy Joe Spurber, who I always think of as such a big, vibrant,

hilarious presence in so many of the films that we're gonna get to talk about on the podcast. And when I think of comedy in the early 80s, she was a big part of that. She was one of those faces that popped up in so many things I loved. And you guys worked together right at the beginning of the Zamekis Gayle career. And I'm fascinated by them as writers and by Robert as a director.

Can you talk a bit about your impression of them as writers, both on I want to hold your hand in

1940. of the Zamekis Gale career. And I'm fascinated by them as writers and by Robert as a director.

Can you talk a bit about your impression of them as writers,

both on I want to hold your hand in 1941?

And then about Zamekis as a director on his feature debut?

Sure.

I guess it was, I met Bob, the Bob Z, I'll call him Bob Z,

for the audition, actually.

If I want to hold your hand, I read the script, loved it, and couldn't wait to go in there. Sally Dennison was casting, and I was walking down the hall so this little building, this little offshoot of Universal Studios, and this geeky kind of skinny guy with glasses looked like a, you know, a go-for, you know, an office point. He said, hey, you're Nancy Allen. I just loved you and carried. And I said, thank you. Thank you so much. And walked away and went in, signed in for the audition and sat there for a little bit and then Sally called me into the office and that geeky guy. That was Bob Zemeckis. And I looked at him and I said, you're the director. Oh my God, what's going to happen now? But seriously, what became very clear, very quickly was that this was a guy who knew what he wanted, who was a natural, I like to pride myself in saying that I can really have a sense of directors and good directors because I feel immediately safe with him and I felt that way with Bob. So we read a few things and yeah, and then I was able to close the deal and go to work on that film. First day of rehearsal, we had the cast, I met Wendy. We were actually fast friends almost immediately. We connected to one another. And Bob looked at me, said, well, should we just all read the script? Is that what you guys did with Harry? And I said, yeah, something like that. So that's where it started. And it almost seemed like, well, a few people looked around saying, does this guy know what he's doing? But boy, did he know what he was doing? I mean, on the set, it moved. He knew what shots he wanted. He knew exactly what he wanted out of the actors. And he had a very clear vision. And Bob Gale was a constant presence because he was one of the producers. It was tomorrow, say, of an al-Cros, but Bob Gail was really the grounding force for Bob Z. And I love those guys. I still love those guys. I loved working with him. It was one of the most fun experiences in my career. And we just had a blast on that movie. Well, I know I know Scott is just a big fan of hi. Mr Weinberg, you know, like me, you're a huge 1941 fan. And that's a movie that I had kind of a legendary script. It was one of those things that everybody was talking about. And of course, Spielberg couldn't have been any hotter at that moment. Did you feel any, was there any unusual pressure on you guys as a cast on that film or re-shielded from all that

and just working on the movie, whatever the movie was? Oh, now we're getting into a hornet's nest. Let's see, I think I might have been the last person cast in the movie. Everybody had read it. In fact, it was called The Night, The Jobs Attacked Originally. And then the studio said, oh no, we won't be calling at that.

And then it became 1941.

And every... In fact, it was called the Night the Jobs Attack, originally, and then the studio said, oh, no, we won't be calling it that.

And then it became 1941. And everybody kept saying, oh, this is a perfect part for you in here. Perfect part. They couldn't cast the role. And I kept saying, well, Steven knows me. He knows my work. He knows me personally. If he really thought I was right for it, But at the same time, it was kind of heartbroken,

because it seemed like so many people I knew were in the film

and doing the film. And so finally, when Stephen couldn't find anyone and they kept, I think the bobs, kept pressuring him and Sally Denison, he called me in. They were actually shooting the miniatures and we were sitting in his trailer and we're just sitting there. He says, you know, I'm not going to read you. You're perfect for this. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess, you know, I just knew you and I wasn't even thinking of you as an actress. And so I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled. And then the first, I'll just say the first day, I don't even know if I should tell this story, but I'm going to tell it and you guys can decide if you're going to use it or not. But might as well tell if this was just kind of fun otherwise, it's not fun. But it was night shooting, we were shooting out in what was supposed to be barso, and it was out in Indian dunes. And I was just reminded actually by Chris, I can't think of his last name, who was the second assistant AD who gave me directions. And apparently I didn't make it there. I was somewhere out in Malibu and that was the last thing. Let me drive to a location on the rest of the movie. I didn't even know where I was. But anyway, I got there and one of the actors grabbed me. And you me and you know these were the days when Coke was very much part of the scene out here. It's like if you have any Coke do not give it to Belushi. He asked me for just a little bit and he did my entire stash. Okay, you know, here we are for night shooting and that actually that day day, that's when Tim and I were in the car and he's saying, you know, the scene where I'm looking out and there's a plane and he says, oh my God, it's just a plane. I said, I don't care. I said, anyway, you might recall a scene where John comes in after us and he gets up on the plane and he falls off and jumps back on and falls back off. Well, that was never supposed to happen. You're just supposed to get up there and when Warnos says, showing your guns, you're just supposed to shoot it, shoot the guns and then take off. So they turned it into a stunt as they dragged him off to the hospital with a broken rib. But there was an interesting energy on the set. Everybody was happy, happy, happy, and excited to be there. And Steven Spielberg, big production, huge cast, and terrific script. The script was, the original script was very funny. And it had an edge to it. It was a little bit darker than I think the movie turned out, but I will tell you the first page, the very first page of the script when you open the front cover, it said, it's a quote from Stephen. It said, I will not make this movie if it cost one penny over $11 million. Well, it cost 40. And you know, at that point itheard of. But at some point, you could feel as we're shooting, could sort of feel things changing and things growing and new people being cast and new parts being written and inserts of pages and pink pages, blue pages, all pages are in pages. At one point, everybody kind of just threw their script away and said, well, let's see what happens today. And so what was 11 week shoot, I think, ended up being, I think I started in November and finished in April or May or something like that. So it was a long, long shoot. And at times, very problematic production, problematic production I think from my perspective one of the real big problems was there really wasn't just a strong producer nobody would say no Stephen let's shoot this grip no we're shooting what we have scheduled don't make something up today but we had fun and a lot a lot of people got hurt. Tim and I got almost incinerated in the plane on the sound stage. So there was a lot, just a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff going on. Wow. Yeah. Well, so much of what's great about that era of film, I think comes from all the collaborations and the collisions between all the filmmakers who were sort of friendly and in that social group. So you had like Brian DePalma and Spielberg and Millius and Scorsese all sort of looking at each other's work and judging it and giving notes and things. Can you just talk about Los Angeles in general at that time and what it was like for you as an actor working with that group of people? You know, hindsight's 2020. I mean, I didn't realize that I was just right in the middle of every important piece of filmmaking that was going on. I mean, it was, that was a really special time. And you know, so many people, everybody just hanging out, everybody was young and going to dinner and talking about movies and movies they liked and things they were working on and sharing ideas and it was, you know, it was dream come true. I mean, I'm just a crazy movie fan from the time I was a little girl. So there you are in the middle of all this, although it just didn't seem as important as it does now looking back. They were all very supportive at the same time, very competitive. I think that part of that, each one trying to outdo the other, but not in that, not in a negative way, but looking at the work and it spurred the other ones on to just do more and to do better and to try things. They did go to each other's There's cuts of films and we had, you know, it was just, if your baby was young, it was fun.

You know, we were just all having a great time. I personally just wanted to tell you how flat and I was back in 1981 when I was a young kid and I saw blowout and I noticed how beautiful Philadelphia looked in the movie. That's where I'm from, that's where I'm at right now. And I was wondering if you could just share any stories or anecdotes or memories of shooting anything about the production in Philadelphia because it is a touchstone Philadelphia film. Well, I love Philadelphia. We had a great time shooting there. It's obviously it's an amazing location. So much history there and so many great places and food the food But we were set up the production was set up over God, what was that area called over by the water? I don't know what that. Penn's Landing. So we were set up there, sets were built there. And one of the most amazing things when we started that was with all the production being set up there, everyone came into town, all the actors were here, and we were able to rehearse the movie like a play. Brian and his producer and whoever I guess different heads of departments would be sitting stationary in a room. And scene by scene we come in and we perform the movie. So he was able to see it from beginning to end and see what works and what needed work and all of that. That is is my first recollections. What a gift that was to be able to rehearse the film in that way. We had a great crew and some from LA, some from New York. We had the wonderful teamsters in Philadelphia who took the film. Yeah. Let me tell you my personal teamster. When I upset one day he offered to break the legs. I'm so I'm a gentleman. I said well I don't think we have to go there yet Greg. So I knew I was in good hands. It was that particular winter was freezing cold and a number of people were getting sick but we had a great time. I went out to watch when they were shooting at Wissahic and Creek, which was spectacular. I mean, Vilmos Ziggman's lighting. And you're just standing there. It looked like you were just standing in the middle of a painting. It was so beautiful. The Mummars Parade, which was fabulous. They shot that there. And everything we did, the train station, the 30th Street Station, and then that other smaller station where we shot the scene where John, where I'm running away, and he's looking up, I forget what station that is. And the wonderful market, I mean, I think about I think about it, location after location, it just was visually so interesting and fun to work in that environment because you saw a lot of energy that you pick up when you're shooting in practical locations. So, we had a great time. Phil, Philadelphia movie buffs are very proud of the films that were shot here. We're very protective of your rock and your mannequins. So yeah, when you have a great thriller and it happens to take place in Philly, it's a special movie here. Really is because it makes the city look great. Like you said, Mr. Sigmund's cinematography is gorgeous. And it's just a fun movie to revisit. It really holds up blow out. It does not feel overly dated. It still feels very contemporary as far as the filmmaking goes. I think it's in my personal opinion, I think it's the best work Travolta ever did on the film. And I think a big part of that is the way you two play off of each other in the movie. There's this wonderful sadness to it. And it really brings out strength in both of the characters. It's so different than you're working, Carrie. Can you talk about him as an acting partner and the opportunity of working in such different roles with each other? Well, John is a close to, as close as you can get to a perfect acting partner, because he's a wonderful collaborator. He's creative, he's improvisational, he's supportive, He's just a really, he's a great partner. I first met him at the screen test for caring. I had actually rehearsed with Michael Talbot who was also testing for that role. And so I tested first with Michael and then John walked in the room and just the way he presented, the way he walked in the room, I thought, oh, he's getting the part. I don't know who reversed with him, but he's definitely getting the part. And I will say without saying anything besides, hi, how are you? We sat down and something for me, it was magic. Right away we connected to one another. Right away there was chemistry between us. And it felt so different doing the scenes with him for the test that I had rehearsed with the other actor. It was just, oh, this is it. This works. And of course, that's what happened. And we ended up doing it together. And we had a great time working together. He started when we started. He had just caught her was new and it really hadn't exploded yet. But by the end of the film, it had exploded. And when we were shooting out the car crash scene or the flip, the car flip scene, they had to put up barricades to keep people back. But John was just a dream to work with. And I remember him saying to me, he was so sweet. We came out of Daly's one night and he looked at me and said, you know what? People are going to be very surprised when they see you because they're going to look at you and think, oh, she's a pretty girl. But when they see your work, then they're going to know how great you are, too. and meant the world to me because I thought so highly of him. So we had a great time on that. And actually when they were casting Saturday night fever, he recommended me. And I went in and read for that. And I was so disappointed that I didn't get it because I wanted to dance. I started out with a dancer and worked with John again. We would have had so much fun together and it was You know a few years later as you know more than a few years that Blowout came along John was not on the list of Actors for that particular nor was I who I wasn't going to do it and he simply asked called Brian said what are you working on?? And Brian sent him the script and I said, oh, Brian, hmm, are you going to help you like him? He said, oh no, he's going to see that it's really not for him. And I said, yeah, I don't know. I think actors are going to help any actor is going to really like this role. And of course, that is exactly what happened. And I was actually out of the country and when he called me he said, well,

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