Brian Koppelman: evaluation

Transcript context

…One way to put it is intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation that I really, really believe in. We mentioned Ryan Johnson at the beginning of the show. I'll tell a little anecdote about him. I made a short film that I submitted to a film festival and it got rejected, and Ryan had helped me make it. I was really proud of it. I had worked on it. I'd done everything for it. I had shot it, I had edited it, I had made the music, I'd done this whole thing. I'm like 23 or something and submitted it to a festival. It had gotten rejected. I was low about that. Ryan sent me a copy of the book, Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke, which is a wonderful book that I highly recommend. One of the things it talks about towards the beginning of that book, it's sort of a mentor poet speaking to, writing a letter to a young poet and saying, you're asking me whether I think your poetry is good and here's my answer to you. Forget about all that, forget what anybody says. Go into yourself. All you can really do if you want to be an artist—and maybe this applies beyond art, but I feel quite confident it does apply to being an artist—is just go as deep as you possibly can into yourself and see if you can dig down deep enough where you can honestly say, I'm not paying attention to anybody else, or anybody's perspective or opinion. I'm just here with myself because that's where your unique voice is. If you can get there, that's the thing. Yeah, then you can ignore the rest. That's not necessarily going to make you money or make you popular. But being an artist isn't about money and popularity. Ralph Waldo Emerson applies, too, which is the idea that if you do give voice to what's innermost. And that's not self-indulgence. That's just tossing it off. It's like doing the work of getting to the thing you really care about. It's likely that that's going to strike off other people too because you have the courage to put it forth. What someone like Joe could do is go deep enough to express with his face, his body, and his voice, something that's so particular, personal, and private to him, and because he does it with such openness and truth, we see it and we're moved by it because he's reflecting back to us parts of ourselves that we don't have the courage to experience or loss that we've experienced. That is the thing that the actors who are on Joe's level are able to do. It's a very beautiful and sacred kind of thing for that reason, I think. Thanks, man. The way that we tend to wind down episodes here is a section we call carve outs. This is where we ask the guests to make recommendations of something they've seen, or read, or anything they would recommend to listeners. I'm going to start real quick. For people who don't realize how insanely multi-talented Joe is, open up YouTube and search for The Cure Katy Perry Jimmy Fallon. This is the most unbelievable thing. Joe, you singing The Cure song in the style of Katy Perry on Jimmy Fallon's new show. Then I think there's a second one too of you playing a variety of instruments. So if you thought Joe is a talented actor, you got the depth part right, but you're missing the breadth. I'm flattered. Thank you, Ben. Those are fun.…

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