Actor Don Cheadle and show runners Jordan Cahan & David Caspe join us from home, for a special 'Stuck at Home' edition of Hollywood Unscripted to share inside stories from Showtime’s 'Black Monday'.

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1:21 - Don, David and Jordan share their experiences of staying at home how they are practicing social distancing.

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3:30 - The three discuss the irony of doing Black Monday with the current stock market situation and how it evolves and relates to today.

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4:50 - Don expresses how is working from home and the change in his work schedule on current projects, including having children at home and how that affects their daily routines.

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6:50 - Jordan and David share how this pandemic and working from home changes their perspective on their daily routines and the realities (good and bad) of being at home and the gratitude for both long days and the time they now get to spend with their families.

 

8:40 - What it's like being on set with 'a big happy, family' that has genuine chemistry and the importance of surrounding yourself with people you know and love and who are so immensely talented.

 

11:17 - David and Jordan talk about how the show began in 2007 and selling it to Showtime and what they though the impact of 'Billions' would be on their show. They elaborate with the experience of having executives producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg join the project.

 

12:38 - What is the real Black Monday and how it influenced the story: where could they make the stakes higher in their own story, but also keep the ridiculousness of the truth of this era?

 

15:00 - The showrunners talk about previous comparisons to the 'Wolf of Wall Street' and the fun they have including those comparisons in their own show. 

 

17:30 - Don shares his experiences of coming from a previous Showtime series, 'House of Lies' and what the comparisons are between these two characters.

 

20:00 - The three laugh about the opener of season 2, in which Don has to wear a long hair wig and his reaction to the journey of his character, Mo.

 

23:52 - David and Jordan share their thoughts on the responsibility of the show and where to land the responsibility  for the crash of Wall Street in the 1980s and the real Black Monday - and who will suffer the consequences for it in season 2.

 

25:50 - David and Jordan express how fortunate they feel with their incredible writing team.

 

26:25 - Don reacts to reading to the crazy things that happen to his character in the script, including some absurd things he is asked to say, and the importance of leaning into the time period .

 

30:40 - Don shares his passion for the organizations he is involved with, including The Solutions Project with Mark Ruffalo, and the importance of finding the right way to draw attention to these issues unless there is a national disaster.

 

32:00 - The three discuss their views on if there is there an obligation to use their celebrity platform to give back?

 

35:00 - Final words from our guests: gratitude for those working on the frontlines during this pandemic, and to remind listeners that 'Black Monday' is a comedy!

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Transcipts

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*PLEASE NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS ARE GENERATED USING A COMBINATION OF SPEECH RECOGNITION SOFTWARE AND HUMAN TRANSCRIBERS, AND MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. PLEASE CHECK THE CORRESPONDING AUDIO BEFORE QUOTING IN PRINT.

 

00:00:03
Jenny Curtis: Hello  listeners  and  movie  lovers,  this  is  Jenny  Curtis,  producer  of  Hollywood  Unscripted.  We  hope  that  you  are  staying  safe  and  healthy.  While  we  are  on  a  season  break,  we  will  be  bringing  you  a  series  of  specials  throughout  this  time.  We  ask  that  you  forgive  the  audio  quality  as  we  are  all  recording  from  home  on  whatever  technology  is  available.  We  hope  that  bringing  you  more  conversations  with  the  creatives  you  admire  can  help  brighten  your  days  in  this  trying  time.  So,  without  further  ado,  we  present  Hollywood  Unscripted:  Stuck  at  Home.

 

00:00:36
Speaker 2: From  Curtco  Media.

 

00:00:37
Speaker 3: There's  no  place like Hollywood.

 

00:00:50
Scott Talal: Welcome  to  a  special  edition  of  Hollywood  Unscripted:  Stuck  at  Home  edition.  I'm  Scott  Talal,  executive  director  of  the  Malibu  Film  Society,  and  today's  guests  are  actor  Don  Cheadle  and  show  runners,  Jordan Cahan,  and  David  Caspe  from  the  Showtime  series  Black  Monday.  Welcome,  gentlemen.

 

00:01:09
David Caspe: Thank  you. Glad to be here.

 

00:01:09
Don Cheadle: Hi.

 

00:01:09
Jordan Cahan: Hello.

 

00:01:11
Scott Talal: We're  recording  the  show  April  first.  It's  the  third  week  of  California  stay  at  home  order.  I  just  wanted  to  ask,  how's  everybody  holding  up  right  now?

 

00:01:19
Don Cheadle: Pretty  good,  considering  everything.  I  don't  think  I  got  the  'rona.  I  couldn't  say  for  sure.  Obviously,  because  people  can  be  asymptomatic  and  still  be  carriers.  But  everybody  who  I've  sneezed  on  to  see and  to  test  has  not  come  back  positive,  so  pretty  good  over  here.

 

00:01:39
David Caspe: There's  not  a  lack  of  testing  in  your  home.  You've  developed  your  own  test.

 

00:01:43
Don Cheadle: Yeah.  I  think  when  you're  in  the  field,  as  I  am,  we  all  are,  but  I'm  in  my  own  Petri  dish.  You  have  to  do  what  you  have  to  do  to  practice  safe  meing.  And  so  that  meant  I  have  to  try  to  transmit  it,  see  if  it  comes  back.  I'm  doing  a  little  science  on  my  own.

 

00:02:00
David Caspe: We're  hanging  in.  I  mean,  obviously  there's  so  many  people  in  such  a  worse  situation  than  the  three  of  us  you're  asking that question  to.  So  we're  super  fortunate  to  even  have  the  option  of  just  how  are  we  hanging  in, in  a  work  from  home,  be  with  our  families  situation.  There's  obviously  so  many  people  in  such  a  worse  situation.  It's  just  the  darkest  time  we've  experienced  in  a  while,  and  our  hearts  go  out  to  everybody.

 

00:02:24
Jordan Cahan: I  would  say  for  me,  the  one  thing  that  I'm  enjoying  in  this  difficult  time  is  I  get  to  sit  with  my  daughter,  who's  in  third  grade,  and  teach  her  math.  And  that's  been  really  nice.  We  shoot  Black  Monday,  we're  on  a  pretty  rigorous  schedule.  We're  doing  long  days  and  stuff.  Not  that  there's  any  silver  lining  to  this,  but  it's  been  nice  to  teach  math  fractions.

 

00:02:53
Scott Talal: So,  this  is  obviously  an  odd  time  for  everybody.

 

00:02:56
David Caspe: Trump  seems  unbothered.  It  doesn't  seem  like  that  odd  of  a  time  for him.

 

00:03:00
Don Cheadle: It  was  pretty  startling  to  watch  the  press  conference  yesterday  and  hear  Fauci  speaking  about  if  we  do  this  perfectly,  we  could  maybe  get  between  100,000 and 240,000  deaths,  if  we  do  it  great.  I  really  hope  Americans  are  ready  to  all  pull  together  and  do  it  great.  But  like  we  were  talking  about,  people  are  still  congregating  on  beaches  and  having  church  (inaudible)   and  a  lot  of  folks  are  acting  like,  because  they  don't  have  it,  there's  no  problem,  that  they  can  perceive  that  they  have  it  because  they're  asymptomatic.
So  yeah,  it's  a  very  interesting  time  and  a  very  interesting  time  to  be  doing  a  show  called  Black  Monday,  with  the stock market  doing  what  it's  doing,  and  what  we're  looking  forward  to.  But  I  think  it's  also  a  perfect  time for it because  who  doesn't  need  a  break  from  all  of  this  to  just  laugh  at  the  ridiculousness  of  it.

 

00:03:45
Scott Talal: David,  I  read  an  interview,  some  of  the  pre- season  two  publicity  that  you  were  doing,  and  you  were  talking  about  how  you  could  theoretically  take  this  show  into  the nineties  and  then  into  the  2000s,  right  up  until  the  2008  crash.  And  then  even  beyond  until  the  next  crash.  And,  of  course,  this  was  several  weeks  ago  when  you  said, " Of  course,  that's  assuming  we  don't  have  a  catastrophe  before  the  next  crash."  Well,  we  got  both.

 

00:04:11
David Caspe: I said that?

 

00:04:11
Don Cheadle: Yeah.  Thanks  a  lot,  David.  Good  job,  buddy.

 

00:04:14
David Caspe: (crosstalk)   That  sounds  like  a [ inaudible 00:04:16].  I  think  we'll  all  keep  going  as  long  as  they'll  let  us,  right?  We  had  initially  chosen  the  Lehman  Brothers because  we  started  writing  this  a  little  right  after  that  '08  crash  and  Lehman  Brothers  went  under,  which was  so  crazy.  So  we  just  thought  wouldn't  that  be  funny  if  the  two  villains  in  the  show  are  the  Lehman  Brothers,  the  actual  brothers.  And  of  course,  we  made  them  twins  that  may  or  may  not  be  having  sex  with  each  other.  So  it's  divorced  from  reality  a  little  bit.  Yeah,  we  always  imagined  that  the  whole  series  would  end  in  '08,  but  who  knows.

 

00:04:47
Jordan Cahan: Yeah,  it's  strange  but  we've  had  four  black  Mondays  in  the  past  two  months  or  something.

 

00:04:54
Don Cheadle: Exactly,  yeah.

 

00:04:55
Jordan Cahan: The  timing  was  incredibly  bizarre.

 

00:04:57
Scott Talal: We've  got,  obviously,  the showrunners,  the  writers  and  the  session,  as  well  as  Don  the  actor.  But  for  the  writers,  writers  can  write  at  home.  Actors,  what do  you  do  at  home  during  this  time?

 

00:05:06
Don Cheadle: It's interesting. I have  a  script  that  I  haven't  been  working  on  for  the  past  season.  I  have  a  production  company,  so  we're  still  having  meetings  around  things,  which  is  very interesting.  We  were  talking  before  we  went  online  about  Zoom  stock  zooming  through  the  roof  right  now  probably.  But  yeah,  I  had  two  projects  that  we  were  just  getting  ready  to start.  This  would  have  been  day  three  for  me  on  the  set  on  one  of

 them.

 

00:05:27
David Caspe: Oh,  really?

 

00:05:28
Don Cheadle: Yeah.

 

00:05:28
Scott Talal: Can  you  say  which one, Don?

 

00:05:29
Don Cheadle: Kill Switch. It was  a  Steven  Soderbergh  movie.  We'll  see  if  it  comes  back.  Who  knows?  And  I  think  that's  where  everything  is  for  everyone  right  now.  Piggybacking  on  what  David  said,  I'm  not  crying  poor  me  because  I  believe  when  everything  comes  back,  we'll  have  the  ability  to  go  back  to  work,  hopefully.  I  don't  know  how  far  we're  going  to  have  to  be  staying  away  from  each  other,  it's  going  to  be  very  interesting  to  be  doing  scenes  if  you  have  to  stay  10  feet  away  from  your  scene  partners.

 

00:05:56
Jordan Cahan: The second that someone else is covered, you leave anyways. So it's kind of perfect, right?

 

00:05:56
Don Cheadle: That's true. I don't stay  for  off- camera.  Thanks  for  letting  Scott  know  that.  I  barely  stay  for  my  own  coverage.

 

00:06:06
Jordan Cahan: It's just the back of your head most of the time.

 

00:06:06
Don Cheadle: That's  all  contractual  though.  That  doesn't  have to do  with  me.  That's  agent  stuff.  (inaudible)   I  think  we  just  hunker  down  and  try  to  get  ready  for  when  we  can  come  back  and  do  stuff.  I  mean,  it  definitely  gives  us  the  opportunity  to  do  tons  more  research.  I'm  reading  a  ton  of  stuff.  So  there  you  go.

 

00:06:22
Scott Talal: How  many  of  you  have  kids  at  home?  Because  Don,  I  know  that  you and Bridgid have  a  couple.

 

00:06:26
Don Cheadle: Yeah,  they're  out,  thankfully.  They  left  last  year.  I  finally  got them out of  the  door.  They're  11  and  14,  but  they're  a  very  mature  11  and  14.

 

00:06:35
Scott Talal: Jordan?

 

00:06:36
Jordan Cahan: I  have  a  five  year  old  and  an  eight  year- old.

 

00:06:39
David Caspe: I  have  two  and  a  half  and  four  and  a  half.

 

00:06:41
Don Cheadle: Wow.

 

00:06:42
Scott Talal: So  you're  in  the  thick  of  it  my  friend.

 

00:06:44
David Caspe: It's  funny  because,  not  to  get  weirdly  melodramatic,  but  obviously  always  in  life,  there's  things  that  give  you  a  bunch  of  perspective.  And  man,  this  is  a  perspective  thing  I  don't  think  any  of  us  saw  coming.  I  mean,  this  is  insane.  I  mean  just  across  the  board,  everything,  like  what  a  luxury  it  is  to  leave  your  home,  how hard  working  the  people  are  who  teach  your  kids  or  watch  your  kids,  if  you  have  two  working  parents  or  whatever.  The  list  goes  on,  it's  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  things.

 

00:07:12
Don Cheadle: Are  your  kids  wondering  why  you  and  Casey  are you  home  so  much?

 

00:07:14
David Caspe: Honestly,  they're  in  the  best  moods  I've  ever  seen  them  in.  And I think  it's  just  because  they  love  that  we're  around  all  the  time. And  I  have  definitely  been  home  for  every  dinner  in  a  way  that  I  never  was  before.  (inaudible)   you  remove  all  the  travel  time, and  so  many of  the  deadlines  have  relaxed  in  a  way  that  I'm  able  to have  dinner  with  them,  which  it's  been  really  nice.  But  there's  also  this  underlying  dread  that  I'm  sure  we  all  feel of  why  it's  happening,  is  so  dark  and  heartbreaking.  It's  just  horrible,  it's  just  horrible.

 

00:07:41
Jordan Cahan: I  will  say  that,  speaking  specifically  about  the  show,  when  we're  in  the  thick  of  it  in  the  show,  no  matter  how  much  fun  we're  having,  I  think  we  could  all  agree,  we  have  a  great  time  on  this  show and  we're  incredibly  fortunate  that  everyone  on  the  cast and crew  is  so  awesome.  But  it's  still  a  grind.  David  and  I  and  Don,  you're  still  working  18, 19, 20  hour  days,  some  days.  And  in  the  middle  of  a  season  when  you're  trying  to  edit  and  you're  running  from  stage  to  stage  and  setting  up  shots  and making  sure everything's  okay  and  putting  out  fires,  you  feel  that  grind.  And  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  I  appreciate  it  now,  now  that  I'm  not  doing  it.  Honestly,  we  are  so  immensely  fortunate.

 

00:08:26
Don Cheadle: Well,  your  kids  hate  you.

 

00:08:27
Jordan Cahan: No, it's  true.

 

00:08:28
David Caspe: I'm  lucky  that  my  kids  are  in  preschool.  So  there's  not  really  a  lesson  plan  or  anything.  So  I'm  not  having  to  teach,  which  seems  brutal.

 

00:08:35
Scott Talal: It's  interesting  because  talking  about  family,  the  show  had  so  many  family  connections.  I  mean  your  wife,  Casey,  plays  Tiffany  Georgina  and  her  comedy  writing  partner,  June  Raphael.

 

00:08:46
David Caspe: June  Diane  Raphael.

 

00:08:47
Scott Talal: Yeah.  Plays  Corky  Harris.  Her  husband  is  Paul  Scheer,  Who's  also  on  the  show.  It  seems  like  a  nice,

 big  happy  family.

 

00:08:54
Jordan Cahan: Yeah,  it  goes way beyond  that.  Don's  wife,  Bridgid,  is  the  wife  of a  Black  Panther  friend  of  his  that  she's  in  episode  three.  Our  costume  designer,  Melissa,  her  husband,  played  the  private  investigator  in  season  one  and  season  two.

 

00:09:11
David Caspe: Tuc  Watkins  who  plays  Congressman  Harris,  which  is  Blair's  love  interest  this  year,  is  Andrew  Rannells  boyfriend  in  real  life.

 

00:09:18
Scott Talal: So  you're  saying  their  chemistry  is  genuine.

 

00:09:21
Jordan Cahan: Oh,  yeah.  Absolutely.

 

00:09:22
David Caspe: Yassir  Lester,  who's  on  the  show  and  also  writes  for  the  show,  in  episode  four  that  he  wrote,  his  girlfriend,  Chelsea  Devantez,  is  in  that  episode.  She  runs  up  asking  Regina  for  a  photograph  at  the  beginning.

 

00:09:35
Jordan Cahan: June's  sister,  Deanna,  is  racially  profiling  her  in  season  one  and  then  joins  the  TBD  group in  season  two.

 

00:09:45
David Caspe: Our  writer,  Amelie  Gillette,  who  wrote  episode  two,  her  husband  is  a  guy  named  Mark  Proksch.

 

00:09:51
Jordan Cahan: Amazing.

 

00:09:52
David Caspe: He  plays  the  bank  manager  that  Cheadle  and  Scheer  were  in  all  that  stuff  with,  in  the  shootout  episode.

 

00:09:58
Jordan Cahan: Also  Janelle  James  is  a  writer  on  our  show.  He is  one  of  the  women  in  the  office.  We  have  Bridger  who  is  a  writer  on  our  show.  He  plays  the  concierge  of  the  hotel  that  Mo  lives  at.

 

00:10:13
David Caspe: And  his  boyfriend  plays,  in  episode  five,  he  plays  a  prison  guard.

 

00:10:17
Don Cheadle: So  nepotism  basically  is  what  you're  talking  about.  This  started off with  family  and then  it  turned  into  we  only  hire  our  friends.

 

00:10:24
David Caspe: It's  easier  than  that.  It's  if  they're  within  arms  reach,  we  use  them  on  the  show.

 

00:10:31
Don Cheadle: I'm in a  show.

 

00:10:32
David Caspe: I'm  sorry.  What  were  you saying?

 

00:10:39
Don Cheadle: Sorry, I just took it back to me for a second.

 

00:10:39
David Caspe: Yeah. Let's get it back to what's important.

 

00:10:40
Scott Talal: It's  obviously  not  endemic  to  Hollywood.  It's  all  business.  You  want  to  surround  yourself  with  people  who  know  will  do  a  good  job.

 

00:10:48
David Caspe: It's  part  of  the  fun  of  it,  for  us  at  least,  is  working  with  people  we  know  and  love,  but  also  people  who  are  so  immensely  talented.  I  don't  know  if  we  ever  would  have  landed  June  without  her  being  married  to  Paul.  She's  so  good.  Or  getting  Brigid  to  come  on.  Again,  we're  immensely  fortunate  on  this  show. Every time I think about  the  show,  I'm  like, " Man,  we  got  lucky  there.  We  got  lucky  there.  We  got  lucky  there."

 

00:11:16
Scott Talal: The  casting  has  been  amazing.  Let's  go  back  to the beginning of this,  the  genesis.  Because  as  I  understand  it,  you  actually  were  trading  emails  and  conversations  about  this  as  far  back  as  2007?

 

00:11:27
David Caspe: Very  long  time. And then  we  sold  it  to  Showtime  and  we  wrote  the  script  and we  kind  of  got  close,  but  then  didn't  happen  and  then-

 

00:11:33
Don Cheadle: Didn't  you  guys  say  that  Billions  happened  and  you  guys were like, "Oh,  well  now  it's  never  going  to  happen."

 

00:11:36
David Caspe: Basically. Yeah.  It  seemed  like  they  probably  wouldn't  do  two  Wall  Street  shows.  And  then  I  think  they  slowly  realized  that  our  show  has  basically  nothing  to  do  with  Wall  Street.  But  yeah,  when  Cheadle  and  Seth  and  Evan  came  on,  then  obviously  they  made  it  because  you're  going  to  make  whatever  Cheadle  wants  to  do  next.

 

00:11:53
Scott Talal: Talking  about  your  executive  producers,  you have  Seth Rogen  and  Evan  Goldberg.

 

00:11:57
David Caspe: Yeah.  When  they  came  on  to  direct  and  when  Cheadle  came  on  to  star  in  it,  then  Showtime  was  like, " Yes,  let's  make  it."

 

00:12:03
Scott Talal: It's  still  remarkable.  You  hear  about  movies  that  are 10,  12  years  or  in  development  or  longer,  but  for  a  series,  that's  not  so  normal.

 

00:12:11
Jordan Cahan: I  remember  when  we  thought  we  were  dead  because  Wall  Street Two  had  come  up,  Money  Never  Sleeps.

 

00:12:17

Don Cheadle: Money  Never  Sleeps,  that's right.

 

00:12:18
Jordan Cahan: So  Wall  Street  Two  came  out.  We're  like, " Okay,  we're  dead."  And  then  Wolf  of  Wall  Street  came  out  and  we  were  dead.  And  then  they  bought  Billions  and  we  were  like, " We're  dead."  But  we  kept  hanging  around.

 

00:12:31
Scott Talal: What  took  you  to  this  content  though,  because  this  happened  when  we  were  all  a  lot  younger  and  I'm  older  than  you  guys.  I  remember  it  very  well.  But  Black  Monday,  October  19th, 1987  was  wild.

 

00:12:44
David Caspe: Yeah,  it was a day before  my  ninth  birthday.  My  dad  was  a  commodity  trader  in  Chicago,  a  soybean  trader.  And  so  he  always  told  me  crazy  stories  about  all  this  shit  that, I mean,  he  claimed  that  he  would  just  sort  of  see  on  his  way  home  and  stuff.  I  would  leave  on  Friday,  waves  of  prostitutes  would  walk  in  and  all  these  guys  would  do  coke.  I  could  see  him  on  the  other  end  of  the  floor  and  stuff.  And  writer  quickly  pointed  out  like, " Oh,  sorry,  you  believe  that  your  dad  just  happened  to  know  about  and  see  all  this  stuff  in  explicit  detail,  but  did  not  participate  in  it?"  I  like  to  hold  onto  that.

 

And then  maybe  he  did  it,  but  who  knows?  But  yeah, he would tell  crazy  stories  (inaudible)   excess  is  always  funny  because  it's  so  stupid.

 

 And the  80s  Excess,  particularly,  we  always  say  the  movie  Wall  Street,  which  was  like  an  Oscar  nominated  drama,  had  a  robot  butler  in  it.  I  mean,  if  the  robot  butler's  in  the  drama,  then  we're  not  going  to  have  to  stretch  reality  at  all  to  be  broad  because  that's  as  broad  as  it  gets.  So  you  have  the  comedy  right  there  and  then  you  have  the  drama and  the  stakes,  you  can  lose  all  your  money.  I  mean,  it's  the  only  job  I  can  think  of  where  you  actually  can  lose  money.  A  lot  of  people  can  go  in  and  not  sell  a  car  that  day.  So  they  didn't  make  money.

 

 But  very  rarely  do  you  go  in  and  they're  like, " Okay,  we're  going  to  take  all  the  money  you  made  the  last  three  years  away  from  your  bank."

 

00:13:58
Jordan Cahan: For  our  show,  which  totally  is  admittedly  purposely  kind  of  all  over  the  place.  It  felt  like  a  fun  way  to  do  something  where  the  stakes  could  not  be  higher  in  a  business  world.  And  yet  it's  such  a  ridiculous,  intense  pressure  cooker.  But  again,  dramas  like  Scarface,  the  guy  owns  a  Bengal  tiger.  It's  just  insane.

 

00:14:21
Scott Talal: We  know  this  happened  in  '87, '87  was  also  the  year  that  Bonfire  of  the  Vanities  was  published  by  Tom  Wolfe.

 

00:14:27
Jordan Cahan: That  was  really  influential.  I  loved  that  book,  and  there's  an  episode  of  season  one  where  they  get  lost  in  the  middle  of  the  city  and  it's  kind  of  this  no  man's  land.  And  that  was  a little  bit  inspired  by  the  inciting  incident,  I  guess  you'd  say,  of  Bonfire  of  the  Vanities  where  he's  driving  with  his  mistress  and  they  get  lost  in  New  York.  It's  like  they're  lost  in  a  third  world  country  in  the  middle  of  the  city.  And  so  we  thought  that that would  be  a  really  cool  way  to  kind  of  honor  some  of  the  inspiration.

 

00:15:02
Scott Talal: Of  course,  Wall  Street.  And  as  you  said,  Wall  Street  two  later,  but  Wall  Street  had  come  out,  but  this  was  still  six  years  before  the  Wolf  of  Wall  Street.

 

00:15:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.  In  the  second  episode,  we  really  wanted  to  capitalize  on  the  comparisons  to  the  movie  Wall  Street  by  having  the  Hollywood  screenwriter  come  in and everything.  And  it  was  our  way  of  kind  of  jumping  all  over  that,  but  also  hopefully  putting  it  to  bed  a  little  bit.  We  were  making  fun  of  it,  and  having  fun  with  the  comparisons  to  it  and  saying  that  Maurice  Monroe  was kind of  the  model  for-

 

00:15:31
Jordan Cahan: Gordon  Gekko.

 

00:15:31
David Caspe: Yeah.

 

00:15:32
Scott Talal: Gordon  Gekko,  yeah.  You  had  started  in  on  development  in  2007-

 

00:15:36
David Caspe: Well,  I  mean,  started  in  like  having  breakfast  and  being  like, " Hey,  wouldn't  it  be  fun  to  write  a  show  about  Wall  Street  or  Black  Monday?"  But  we  were  both  doing  other  things  separately  for  a  long  time.  So it  was  slow  development.  Probably  didn't  go  in  and  pitch  it  until  like  2011  or  something  like  that.

 

00:15:53
Scott Talal: So  what  was  the  elevator  pitch?

 

00:15:55
David Caspe: Oh,  gosh.  It would have to  be  an  elevator  from  like,  floor  zero  to  like,  1050.

 

00:16:00
Don Cheadle: You  were  pitching  for  sure.  Cause  I  know  you  went  on.  They  were  like, "Just  what  is  it,  David?" You're  like, " I'm  getting  to  it!"

 

00:16:07
David Caspe: They  basically  bought  it  to  shut  us  the  fuck  up.  They  were just  like, " If  we  (inaudible)   this,  will  you  leave?"

 

00:16:16
Scott Talal: So,  when  did you get  it  in  front  of  Seth  Rogan  and  his  producing  partner,  Evan  Goldberg?

 

00:16:20

David Caspe: When did  we  shoot  the  pilot,  guys?  2018  or  something?  Or  '17,  or what?

 

00:16:24
Jordan Cahan: '17,  maybe.  I  don't  remember.

 

00:16:26
David Caspe: So, probably about  a  year  before  that.

 

00:16:28
Jordan Cahan: And  they're  such  bright  guys  that  it  was  really  cool,  but  David,  I  think  had  had  a  meeting  with  Evan.  Right,  Dave?

 

00:16:34
David Caspe: Yeah.  I  had  a  meeting  just  about  a  movie  thing  with  Devin  and  he  read  a  few  of  my  scripts  and  that  was  one  of  them.  He's  like, " Oh,  that  was  really  funny.  What's  going  on  with  that?"  I  was  like, " Nothing.  You  guys  should  direct  it."  And  he  was  like, " All  right,  I'll  bring  it  up  to  Seth,"  and  Seth  liked  it.  And  so  then  it  was  sort of a question of  Showtime  would  do  it  obviously  only  with  someone  great.  And  then  Don  said  yes.

 

00:16:55
Scott Talal: Yeah, I understand  it  was  Seth  who  had  recommended  Don.

 

00:16:56
Don Cheadle: I'm  not  sure.  I  had  a  meeting  with  David  Nevins.

 

00:16:59
Scott Talal: CEO  of  Showtime?

 

00:17:00
Don Cheadle: Yeah,  when  he  first  called  me,  he  said, " Hey,  I'm  thinking  of this  show.  I  got this  show  that  I'm  thinking  about,  and  I  don't  think  it's  right  for  you."

 

00:17:08
Scott Talal: He  knows  how to press  your  buttons.

 

00:17:10
Don Cheadle: I  think  he  was  just  processing  his  stuff  out  loud.  He  was  like, " But  I'm  just  thinking  about  it.  I  was  like, " Okay,  I'll  talk  to  you  later."  And  I  didn't  talk  to  him.  We  didn't  talk  again  for  weeks.  And  then  he  called  me  back and  said, " Do  you  know  what?  Actually,  I've  been  thinking  about it. I  think  maybe  you would  be  good  for  this.  Let's  get  together  and  talk about it."

 

00:17:27
Scott Talal: You had  just  come  off  of  several  seasons  of  House  of  Lies  for  Showtime.

 

00:17:32
Don Cheadle: Correct.

 

00:17:32
Scott Talal: Playing  Marty  Kaan,  who,  while  not  the  same  as  Maurice  Monroe,  along  the  same  lines  as.

 

00:17:39
Don Cheadle: It's  dealing  with,  obviously,  in  the  financial  world,  but  completely  different  aspects.  And  he's  a  person  who  is [inaudible 00:17: 46],  Mo  is [inaudible 00:17:46].  No  family  to  sort  of  anchor  him  or  anything.  Just  bananas.  I  think  this  is  a  true,  true  comedy.  House  of  Lies  was a  comedy,  but  it  had  much  more  down  notes  than  this  has.  And  I  think  that's  what  David  was  dealing  with.  Kind  of  going, " Is  there  enough  of  a  separation?  Is it  something  that  just  be  sort  of  a  redo?  Is  this  something  that  will  work?"  And he was just  kind  of  processing  this  out  loud  to  me  and  saying, " So  I  just  wanted  to  let  you know,  I  was  not  sure,  but  these  are  the  things  I  was  thinking  about."  I  said, " Okay,  well  let  me  know  if  anything  settles  in  your  brain."
And then  he  called  me  a  few  weeks  later  and was  like, " No,  actually  I  thought  about it.  I  do  think  this  could  work  with  you.  And  do  you  want  to  meet  David  and  Jordan?"  And  I  said, " Yes."  We  kind  of  had  a  two  part  meal/ dinner  and  chopped  it  up.  Right  guys?  Remember  that? Unless it  was  at  lunch,  I  think  it was ...  Was  it  lunch  or  dinner?  I  don't  know [crosstalk 00:18:33].

 

00:18:33
David Caspe: I think it  started  with  a  dinner,  but  I'll  never  forget  because  it  got  me  so  excited.  I  was  like, " Holy  shit,  we're  going  to  sit  down  with  Don  Cheadle  about  this."  And  one  of  the  first  things  you  said,  Don,  was,  you  were  like, " Yeah,  these  monologues  are  fucking  insane.  And  then  he  said, " I  was  reading  one  to  my  wife,  just  being  like  'can  I  even  say  some  of  this  stuff?'" And  we  had  never  met  Bridgid  and  I  know [inaudible 00:18:59].
But  I  was  like, " Oh  my  God,  Don  Cheadle  was  reading  our  show  to his wife!"  Concerned  about  how  insane  it  is.  I  was  like, " At  least  he's  on  the  same  wavelength  as  us."  Because  I  think  we're  a  little  concerned  about  how  far  we  went,  too.

 

00:19:13
Don Cheadle: Yeah.

 

00:19:14
David Caspe: And  then  once  Don  was  in,  we'd  spent  so  much  time  together  with  him,  just  developing  it  into  a  character  that  fits  him  more  and  also  gets  away  from  anything  that  is  similar  to  Marty.  And  it  doesn't  seem  similar  to  me.  I  mean,  especially  now do  we  even  say  Mo's  in  the  financial  world?  He  plays  bass  in  a  hotel  band  in  Miami.  It's  pretty  far  away  from  it.  But  yeah,  I  think  his  assessment's  right,  is  that  Mo  is  all  (inaudible)   Marty  was  always  in  control,  which  is  basically  polar  opposite.  But  yeah,  the  three  of  us  really  from  the  beginning  clicked  and  developed  it  together  and  Don  calls  me  one  of  his  best  friends  at  this  point.

 

00:19:48
Don Cheadle: I did  (inaudible)  until  I  saw  your  hair.  And  I  was  like, " He's  trying  to  boy  band  it.  We  can't  be  friends  anymore."

 

00:19:59
David Caspe: I  had  strange  days  over  here.

 

00:20:01
Scott Talal: I  do  have  one  question  about  the  preparation  for  season  opener  of  season  two  because,  Don,  there  was  a  time you had  the  wig  on,  you  had  the  goatee  going-

 

00:20:10
Don Cheadle: What  wig?

 

00:20:13
Scott Talal: And  you  looked  in  the  mirror,  your  reaction.

 

00:20:16
Don Cheadle: I  mean,  it  was  fitting.  It  made  sense,  obviously  Mo's  trying  to  hide  and  he's  on  the  lam.  We  spent  quite  a  bit  of  time  over  a  hiatus  talking  about  what was  going  to  be  coming  in  the  writer's  room,  putting  pictures  up  on  the  board,  getting  reactions.  We  spent  a  lot  of  time  trying  to  figure  out  which  iteration  of  Mo  we  thought  would  work  and  not  just  who  he  was  going  to  be  then,  but  who  he  would  then  become,  when  he's  going  to  try  to  return.  And  what  does  Mo  think  is  hot?  What  does  Mo  think is  the  look  that  he  needs  to  have? It's  not  just  about  hiding  out.  It's  also  about  looking  good  when  you're  wearing  a sleeveless t-shirt [inaudible 00:20: 55].

 

00:20:55
David Caspe: I  love  the  long  hair  so much.

 

00:20:57
Scott Talal: Was  there  any  part  of  you  that  liked  how  the  long hair looked?

 

00:21:00
Don Cheadle: It  grew  on  me,  so  to  speak.

 

00:21:04
David Caspe: I  love  in  the  show,  how  you  deal  with  the  long  hair,  Don,  so  naturally  that  he's  full  doing  like  the  flips  and  the  hand  coming  back,  all  this  shit  that  you  would  do  with  long  hair.  I  mean,  the  stuff  that  I  still  dream  about,  he  was  doing  all  that.  So,  naturally,  I could  tell  that  there  was  a  part  of  him  at  least,  that  appreciated  getting  to  do  that.  It  was  fun.

 

00:21:26
Don Cheadle: You  have  to  make  it  yours,  right?  Can't  look  like  a  foreign  animal  on  top  of  your  head.  Again,  I  think  all  of  this  stuff  plays  into  who  this  insane  dude  is.  And  that  of  course  he  would  do  that,  of  course  he  would  go  that  far  into  that  extreme  and  then  figure  out  the  next  move  should  be  like  Lando  Calrissian.  (inaudible)   It  all  fit  in  the  world  of  Black  Monday  for  sure.  And it  all  made  sense  for  me  for  Mo  100%.

 

00:21:58
David Caspe: It  kind  of  helped  the  journey  too,  because  season one,  the  character  takes  such  a  strong  journey.  I  would  say  he  kind  of  realizes  that  you  can  only  walk  on  that  tight  rope  for  so  long.  He  really  gets  stabbed  in  the  back.  He  gets  (inaudible)   twice  at  the  end  of  season  one.  So  it  felt  like  we  needed  to  start  him  somewhere  in  a  new  journey  for  season  two  that  I'm  excited  to  to  expose  to  people  soon.
And  if  we  get  a  third  season,  I  think  the  first  thing  we'll  probably  talk  about,  again,  is [inaudible 00:22: 29],  how  is  Mo's  (inaudible)   in  the  early  '90s.

 

00:22:34
Don Cheadle: You  almost  have  it,  David.  You're [ inaudible 00:22: 38].

 

00:22:47
Jenny Curtis: Hello  out  there.  This  is  Jenny  Curtis.  I  am  a  podcast  producer  at  Curtco  media.  And  I  am  currently  sitting  alone  in  a  very  empty  podcast  studio,  surrounded  by  hand  sanitizer.  And  I'm  recording  this  in  an  effort  to  reach  out.  It's  not  an  easy  time  right  now.  We  don't  know  what  the  day  to  day  is  going  to  look  like  for  the  next  few  weeks,  even  months.  So  I'm  proposing  something,  let's  all  make  something  together.  Curtco  media  has  launched  a  podcast  called  A  Moment  of  Your  Time.  These  are  bite- sized  episodes  and  each  one  features  you,  out  there.  Go  to  Curtco.com/ AMomentOfYourTime  for  more  information.
We  may  have  to  stay  apart,  but  let's  create.  Together.

 

00:23:35
Scott Talal: So,  the  show  is  called  Black  Monday  and  the  show  is  ostensibly  about  how  this  wild  and  crazy  group  of  traders  were  secretly  responsible  for  the  Black  Monday  crash  of  Wall  Street.  But  season  one  ends  with  the  crash  of  Wall  Street.  At  this  point,  you  have  to  decide  where  do  we  go  now  and  where  do  our  characters  go  now?

 

00:24:09
Jordan Cahan: Well,  I  think  we  felt  it  was  really  important  to ...  I  love  mysteries,  and  so  one  of  the  mysteries  that  we  didn't  hit  on  the  head  on  purpose  is,  by  the  end  of  season  one,  we  wanted  people  to  be  satisfied  as  far  as  who  was  behind  Black  Monday.  I  think  that's  definitive.  I  think  the  question  for  season  two  is  who's  going  down  for  Black  Monday?  If  it  was  manmade,  if  it  was  manufactured,  which  is  what  we're  positive  in  our  alternate  history  timeline,  that  might  as  well  be  real,  who  ultimately  has  to  suffer  the  consequences  of that. And  that  really  is  the  back  half  of  season  two  is  as  alliances  get  tested  and  all  of  that,  it's  kind  of  like  who  is  going  to  take  the  fall  for  this  giant  act  of  global  terrorism  or  every  financial  terrorist?

 

00:25:00
David Caspe: We  had  zero  plan,  if  that's  the question.  We  had  zero  plan.  I  don't  think  we  ever  really  expected  the  show  to  get  made  period,  much  less  get  all  the  way  through  the  first  season  and  get  a  second  season.  So  yeah,  we  definitely  left  the  second  season  being  like, " Okay."  When  we  got  into  the  writer's  room,  we  were  just  like, " All  right,  so  Mo's  fled,  the  FBI  has  to  be  probably  after  him.  What  would  they  be  after  him  for?"
And  then  we  got  to  like,  well,  he  killed  two  people.

 

00:25:26
Don Cheadle: No,  he  didn't!  No,  he  didn't.  You  keep  saying  that. [crosstalk 00:25:32].

 

00:25:29
Scott Talal: Defend  your  character.

 

00:25:34
Jordan Cahan: We  have  an  awesome  team  of  writers  overall,  two  seasons,  so  many  great  writers.  And  everybody  just  kind  of  pitched  what  they  thought  would  be  a  funny  place  to  take  it.  And  Don  pitched,  and  Regina  pitched,  and  Andrew,  and  Paul  and  everyone,  and  my  wife  pitched  her  hair.  She  said, " Look,  the  one  thing  I  want  is  a  Princess  Di  bouffant  and  whatever  else,  is  up  to  you."
We'll  take  ideas  from  anywhere.

 

00:25:55
David Caspe: Yeah.  I  mean,  talking  about  fortunate,  our  writers,  we  have  been  so,  I  mean,  it's  just  amazing  how,  when  I  talk  about  how  brilliant  the  cast  is,  the  fact  that  we  get  to  work  with  these  writers  for  two  seasons  is  unbelievable.  I  could  go  through  every  name  of  every  person  now, but  we  got  so  lucky  that  all  these  writers  were willing  to  jump  in  and  do  something  with  us  that's  so  stupid.

 

00:26:22
Scott Talal: Don,  when  you  get  the  script,  talk  to  us  about  that.

 

00:26:25
Don Cheadle: Getting  the  script?

 

00:26:27
Scott Talal: Yeah,  because  what  they  have  Mo  doing,  and  saying ...

 

00:26:30
Don Cheadle: Well,  that's what a lot of  the  calls  are  before we get to  the  table.  I'm  like  so,  we're  going  to  say  this  tomorrow,  right  guys?  We're  all  agreed  that  I'm going to  say  these  certain  lines.  And  I  tell  them,  sometimes,  there's  some  things  I'm  just  like, " No,  we're  not  doing  that."  I'm  like, " If  you  guys  want  to  step  in  during  that  part  and  do  the  lines,  that's  fine,  but  I'm  not  saying [ inaudible 00:26:52]."

 

 So,  there's  always  a  negotiation  around  things.  But  I  will  say  honestly  that  those  moments  are  rare.  I'm  usually  100%  onboard  with  everything  that  we're  doing  and  wanting  to  push  it  further.  And  in  a  show  like  this,  with  these  characters  at  this  time,  you  do  have  to  walk  a  line  in  some  ways,  but  if  you're  not  leaning  in  to  some  of  the  misogyny  and  some  of  the  racism  and  some  of  the,  all  the  isms  and  ognyies  these  guys  are  rife  with,  you  wouldn't  really  be  doing  the  time  period.  You  wouldn't  be  doing  it  legitimate.  So  that's  a  lot  of  it  is  trying  to  figure  out  how  far  can  we  step  on  that  line?  And  sometimes  you  don't  know  until  you're  across  it.  And you're  like, " Okay,  that's  too  far.  Let's  pull  it  back."  But  we're  always  trying  to  push  it.

 

00:27:33
Scott Talal: Well,  that's  the interesting thing  is  because  you're  doing  the  late  '80s  with  all  of  those  excesses,  but  you're  also  talking  about  today.

 

00:27:41
Don Cheadle: Correct.  And I think  that's  when  the  show  is  working  at  its  optimal  level.  That's  what  we're  able  to  do,  is  to  make  fun  of  that  time.  But  at  the  same  time,  sort  of  draw  a  line  between  how  we  got  here  from  there  and  how  a  lot  of  it  is  circular  and  cyclical.  And  we're  not  really  going  to  get  past  it.
One  of  the  things,  when we were  doing  the  research  for  the  show, one of  the  books  that  I  was  reading  was  talking  about  this  was  sort  of  the  era  when  all  of  these  regulations  were  just  being  put  in  place.  It  was  kind  of  the  wild,  Wild  West  before  people  like  Milken  came  in  and  did  what  he  did.  Everybody  was  doing  it.  He just  did  it at  such  a  level  that  they  went, " Okay,  we  got  to  do  something  about  this.  It's  gone.  It's  too  big  now."
And  even  as  we  can  see  today,  the  one  thing  that  you  can  not  excise  from  this  process  is  people.  And  people's  inherent  desire  to  get  over  in  greed  and  grit.  And  if  there's  a  way  to  game  it,  they're  going  to  game  it.  So  we  put  all  these  regulations  in  place,  try  to  protect  people,  try  to  protect  the  process  and  not  have  people  get  robbed  blind,  but  there  will  be.  And  there  will  always  be  someone  who's  going  to  figure  out  a  way  to  get  around  the  rules  and  make  it  work  for  them.  And  it's  just  up  to  are  people  going  to  do  anything  about it? And I think  that's  what's  fun  about  the  show  is  to  keep  getting  our  characters  in  those  positions  where  they're  doing  all  of  this  stuff  and  figure  out  now  what?  Paint  them  into  a  corner.

 

00:28:58
Jordan Cahan: This is  not  a  tagline,  but  one  of  the  things that David and  I,  what  I  was  (inaudible)   about  is  one  of  the  rules  of  the  show  is  kind  of  look  how  far  we  haven't  come.  And  it's  just  seeing  that  drug,  that  line and  that  parallel  to  now  and  saying  that  despite  the  '80s  being  years  and  years  ago,  it  still  feels  like  all  of  these  issues  are  just  still  bubbling  to  the  surface  all  the  time.

 

00:29:22
David Caspe: And  we  discover  some  shocking  ones.  There's  a  joke  that's  coming  up  in  a  few  episodes.  That's  just  about  what  are  classic  boy's  clubs,  where  there's  not  really  women,  they're  like  country  clubs  or  the  boardroom  of  a  fortune  500  company  back  in  the  '80s  we're  talking  about.  And  we  discovered  that  legally  women  weren't  allowed  on  the  Senate  floor  in  pants  until  like  the  early  '90s,  which  is  shocking.  I  mean,  I  was  born  in  '78,  the  '90s,  I  was  a  person.  You  stumble  on  some  of  that.  You're  like, " They  weren't  allowed  to  wear  pants?"  Women  were  not  allowed  to  wear  pants  on  the  Senate  floor  up  until  like  '92  or  something  like  that.

 

00:29:58
Don Cheadle: If  we  can't  see  your  legs,  it's  distracting  when  you're  trying  to  get  (inaudible)   legislation  through.  I  can't  see  your  legs.  I  can't  be  sure  you're  really  sincere  about  this  bill.

 

00:30:09
David Caspe: So  crazy.

 

00:30:11
Jordan Cahan: (inaudible)   correlation [ crosstalk  00:00:30:12].

 

00:30:12
Don Cheadle: I  get  it.  No,  I get it.  I'm trying  to  explain  it  to  David,  why  that  would  be.

 

00:30:17
David Caspe: Stuff  like  that,  that  just  shows  you  how  far  we  haven't  come  and  how  far,  yeah.

 

00:30:22
Don Cheadle: Well,  who  knew?  I  mean,  aside  from  the  point  of  whether  or  not  we  get  more  seasons  or  not,  who  knew  that  you  would  never  be  at  a  loss  for  material.  Jordan  said  earlier  now  we've  had  three  Black  Mondays  in  the  last  month.  You're  never  going  to  run  out  of  material  in  that  area.

 

00:30:38
David Caspe: No.

 

00:30:38
Jordan Cahan: Sadly,  it's  true.

 

00:30:39
Scott Talal: Don,  you're  famously  a  activist  in  a  lot  of  causes.  That  seems  to  be  a  passion  of  yours  outside  of  acting,  outside  of  producing.  What are  the  causes  you're  supporting  today?

 

00:30:49
Don Cheadle: A  lot  of  times  we're  trying  to  figure  out  timing  on  things.  And  it's  such  a  24  hour  news  cycle  around  what's  happening  right  now  with  our  country and  the  pandemic  and  always  trying  to  figure  out  how  to  speak  about  climate  and  keep  that  in  the  forefront.  As  the  EPA  is  easing  more  and  more  restrictions  and  everything's  sort  of  happening  behind  closed  doors  while  we're  focused  on  this and  trying  to  keep  that  front  and  center  in  different  ways.  Work  with  a  group  called  The  Solutions  Project.  I'm  on  the  board,  Mark  Ruffalo  sits  on  the  board,  he  got  me  on  the  board.  And  we  were  doing  some  work  with  the  USDA  around  the  US  open  this  year,  trying  to  focus  on  some  water  mitigation  things  and  some  community  facing  stuff  that  was  happening.  But  now  that's  pushed.
So  it's  constantly  trying  to  find  the  right  time  and  way  to  draw  attention  to  these  issues.  And  we're  always  fighting  for  space  because  the  most  sensationalistic  thing  leads  and  unless  there's  a  national  disaster  at  your  feet,  and  you  could  point  to  that  and  show  some  cause  and  effect,  it's  hard  to  get  the  attention  for  something  like  climate  change,  right  now.

 

00:31:57
Scott Talal: I  don't  know  if  obligation  is  the  right  word,  but  can  you  talk  to  us  about-

 

00:32:01
Don Cheadle: Is there an  obligation?

 

00:32:02
Scott Talal: No,  just  using  your  platform.

 

00:32:05

Don Cheadle: I  guess,  really,  at the end of  the  day,  it's  a  personal  thing  for  each  individual  to  figure  out where  you  get  in,  where  you  fit  in and  what  their  responsibility  is.  Are  they  obligated  to  use  your  word  to  give  back  once  you  have  this  ability  to  be  in  the  spotlight  and  direct  people's  attention  toward  the  things  that  are  important  to  you?  I  personally  feel  that  it  is,  for  me.  And  it  probably  comes  from  my  parents.  It  probably  comes  from  my  family  and  always  being  told  that  it's  your  job,  quote,  unquote,  to  speak  up  when  you  think  something's  not  right.  Not  just  for  yourself,  but  for  whoever,  for  those  who  can't.  And  it's  something  that  was  demonstrated  for  me.  So  this  happened  before  I  had  a  platform,  I  was  vocal  about  things  before  anybody  gave  a  shit about  who  I  was  to  listen  to  anything  I  had  to  say.

 

 So  it's  just  consistent  for  me.  It's  a  continuum,  but  yeah,  I  think,  and  I've  been  very  lucky  to  work  with  a  lot  of  people  who  are  like  minded.  We  started  Not  on  Our  Watch  with  George  Clooney  and  Matt  Damon  and  Brad  Pitt  and  Jerry  Weintraub.  So  it's  been  sort  of  throughout  my  career  that  I've  worked  with,  like  I  said,  Mark,  Ruffalo  working  on  the  solutions  project  together.  I've  been  very  fortunate  to  work  with  people  who  do  feel  it  is  their  obligation  and  do  want  to  take  the  light  that  shown  on  them  and  try  to  shine  it  on  people  that  need  the  attention.  And  it's  a  more  rewarding  thing  to  do  than  just  try  to  cut  lines  at  restaurants  and  get  a  bunch  of  perks  for  stuff.  It's  being  able  to  actually  use  this  to  highlight  people  who've  been  on  the  front  lines of  these  issues  for  a  long  time  and  are  really  struggling  to  get  purchase.  So  I  feel  honored  to  be  able  to do it.

 

00:33:37
David Caspe: I've  never  understood  the  concept,  like  actors  and  people  in  Hollywood  and  stuff  always  get  shit  from  certain  people  saying  like, " Why  should  we  listen  to  you  just  because  you're  an  actor.  Just because  you  can  be  in  movies,  that  doesn't  mean  we  have  to  listen  to  you."  They've  never  understood  the  point  that  it's  usually  actors,  they  have  access  to  such  a  huge  platform.  It's  using  their  platform  to  get  people  to  listen  to  other  people,  Don  or  an  actor,  usually,  who  comes  out  or  Joaquin  Phoenix,  talking  about  animal  rights  and  things  like  that.  They're  not  coming  out  saying  do  this  because  I  think  it,  if  you  like  my  movies,  then  you  also  have  to-

 

00:34:11
Don Cheadle: Agree  with  my  politics.

 

00:34:13
David Caspe: It's  more  just  saying  like, " Okay,  this  is  how  the  word  gets  out.  And  these  are  people  that  are  trying  to  get  their  word  out."  You  pick  the  time  when  everybody's  watching  so  that  everybody's  watching.  It's  not  disrespecting  that  time.  It's  that,  yeah,  you  do  it  when  everyone's  watching,  you  know  what  I'm  saying?  I  don't know.  That  always  just  seems  so  stupid  to  me.  George  Clooney  is  not  saying, " Because  I  know  about  acting,  I  know  about  this."

 

00:34:38
Jordan Cahan: It's  just  sharing  the  spotlight,  there's  a  generosity  to  it.

 

00:34:41
Scott Talal: Yeah.  Well,  Brad  would  often  say  like " We  can't  get  out  of  the  light  and  they  can't  get  in  the  light.  We're  just  trying  to  take  that  beam  and  refract  that  light  and  put  it  on  people who have  been  doing  this  work  in  the  trenches  way  more  than  we  have."  We're  just  the  lightning  rod  off.
We're  all  obviously  at  home,  staying  at  home,  trying  to  stay  safe  during  this.  Any  final  thoughts,  any  final  words  to  the  audience?

 

00:35:04
Speaker 3: Well,  I  would  just  like  to  say  thank  you  to  those  that  have  tuned  into  the  show  and  I  hope  that  you're  enjoying  it.  And  hopefully  we  can  be  some  kind  of  a  respite  during  this  time  when  we're  all  hopefully  being  responsible  and  hunkering  down  and  staying  a  respectful  social  distance  away  from  each  other.  We're  going  to  come  out  of  this.  We're  just  grateful  that  people  seem  to  be  digging  what's  happening  and  we  hope  you  continue  to  do so.

 

00:35:29
David Caspe: 100%.  Thank  you  to  all  the  people  in  danger  right  now  that  are  working  jobs  so  all  of  us  can  stay  home.

 

00:35:35
Scott Talal: Any  final  thoughts,  Jordan?

 

00:35:36

Jordan Cahan: I'm  not  going  to  put  a  better  than  Don  just  did.  Talk  about  a  beautiful  sentence.  I've  been  feeling  it  in  my  chest  too.  That  heaviness,  that  gravity,  that  we're  all  feeling.  I  read  an  article  about  this,  but  they  call  it  existential  grief.  That  we're  all  just  feeling  this  giant  wave.  All  I  hope  is  that  we  give  you  one  or  two  laughs  or  even  tougher,  a  gasp  at  a  twist  or  something  that  our  show  can  deliver.  To  me,  that,  if  we  can  do  that,  I'd  be  thrilled  and  delighted.

 

00:36:08
David Caspe: And  it  is  a  comedy  by  the  way,  a  lot  of  people  for  whatever  reason, because it's  called  Black  Monday  and  it  has  such  high  level  actors  who  can  also  do  drama  along  with  comedy.  I  think  the  first  instinct  before  people  watch  the  show  was  like, " Oh,  that  must  be  a  drama."  It  is,  in  fact,  a  comedy,  there  are  a  lot  of  jokes.  And  if  you're  looking  for  a  laugh  to,  like  Don  said,  take  your  mind  off of  the  Hell  we  find  ourselves  in,  watch  Black  Monday  on  Sunday.

 

00:36:32
Jordan Cahan: I  was drinking  the  other  night,  and  someone  asked  me  to  describe  what making this  show  is  like  with  my  oldest  friend  or  one  of  my  oldest  friends.  And  I  said, " It's  kind  of  like  we're  robbing  a  7/ 11."  It  feels  just  like  I  cannot  believe  they're  letting  us  get  away  with  the  things  that  we  can  get  away  with,  and  doing it  with  Don.  There  is  just  a  sense  of  joy  and  freedom  to  it.  Even  if  we're  giving  people  1%  of  that,  I'm  really  appreciative,  too,  that  people  are digging it  in  that  way.  So  thanks  everybody.

 

00:37:05
Scott Talal: And  thanks  to  our  guests  today.  After  Don  Cheadle,  show  runners  Jordan  Cahan  and  David  Caspe  from  the  Showtime  series  Black  Monday.  Gentlemen,  stay  well  to  our  audience.  Stay  well,  stay  healthy,  and  join  us  again  next  time.

 

00:37:17
Don Cheadle: Appreciate  it.

 

00:37:19
David Caspe: Stay  safe, everybody.

 

00:37:19
Jordan Cahan: Take care, guys. Be safe.

 

00:37:20
Don Cheadle: Thank  you.

 

00:37:26
Jenny Curtis: Hollywood  Unscripted  is  created  by  Curtco  media  and  presented  in  cooperation  with  the  Malibu  film  society.  This  episode  was  hosted  by  Scott  Talal  with  guests  Don  Cheadle,  Jordan Cahan,  and  David  Caspe.  Produced  and  edited  by  Jenny  Curtis,  mastering  by  Michael  Kennedy.  The  executive  producer  of  Hollywood  Unscripted  is  Stuart  Halperin.  The  Hollywood  Unscripted  theme  song  is  by  Celleste  and  Eric  Dick.  Make  sure  to  subscribe  because  throughout  our  off  season,  we  will  be  bringing  you  more  bonus  episodes  of  Hollywood  Unscripted:  Stuck  at  Home.  Stay  safe  and  healthy.  And  thanks  for  listening.

 

00:38:08
Speaker 2: Curtco  Media.  Media  for  your  mind.

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