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Did you say Tom? I'm at y'all. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gun down. The key to this case, it's Brian.
An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest, we had a killer amongst us.
Murder after you. Listen now. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody! Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show?
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Now, on with the show. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Rich Eisen Show. Here they are! The Rich Eisen Show. What are the Dolphins up to?
I mean, I think everyone knew Tyreek Hill would be the loose. A bigger question for Tyreek is just like, when does he play again? Earlier on the show. Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, Luke Keekly, ESPN NFL draft analyst, Mel Kuyper Jr. Coming up.
Academy Award winner, Billy Bob Thornton. Director, Andre Games. And now, Rich Eisen. Hour number three of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. Everybody, thrilled to be here with you.
After two hours on ESPN, we've moved to ESPN 2 for our third hour, but we're still on Disney Plus, the ESPN app. We're still on ESPN Radio, SiriusXM Channel 80, all live at once. As you know, this is more than just a sports show here. It's a pop culture show. The director of the Stuart Scott 30 for 30 documentary, Andre Gaines, is in our green room.
He's going to come out. And, you know, we always love talking movies. We always love talking TV. And the passing of Robert Duvall the other day at age 95, a life in full, to say the least, but it gutted me. I have been a fan of this man's work for decades.
And in case many of you may not know, the first time we saw Robert Duvall on the screen was in 1962. He played Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. Look at him right there back in 1962. And then, of course, after quite a A turn there appeared in many films. He was the original Frank Burns in the movie MASH.
By the way, he created that character. He played the lead in George Lucas's first film ever. Um T H X one one three eight Um that was back in 1971. He was Tom Hagen, the consoliary for Marlon Brando's Don Corleone and Godfather One, Godfather Part two as well in 1974. There is with Frank Pantangeli there, telling Frank what he needed to do back in the day.
Um Network, which is a movie that speaks so near and dear to my heart. This movie, he played the hatchet man, Frank Hackett, for CCA, the. uh network for Patty Tchaevsky's brilliant film that presaged everything that's happened with network news these days. Apocalypse Now, 1979, it was his second time being nominated. He was Colonel Kilgore talking about the smell of napalm in the morning.
His first nomination was for the Godfather. His third nomination came in 1979 as well. For the great Santini, he played Bull Meacham. An abusive marine pilot. Who had some family issues, you could see right there.
1983, a broken-down country singer who put his life back together, Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies. that earned him his first Academy Award win. Robert Duval back in 19 Another film that'll also talk about Of course, for you sports fans out there, the naturally played Max Mercy. Right. It wound up.
letting everyone know about Roy Hobbs's story. Look at him right there. 1996, he played Billy Bob Thornton's Dad in Slingblade. And there he is in that role, Billy Bob Thornton on the left, right there. The Apostle in 1998, he earned his final Best Actor nomination.
He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor two more times. Passed away at the age of 95, and the apostle. and also Slingblade, two of, to my count, five films. in which Billy Bob Thornton and Robert Duvall collaborated. And joining us now to talk about the passing of his mentor is the Academy Award winner, Billy Bob Thornton, here on the program.
Great to see you, Billy Bob Thornton. I hope I did a little bit of justice before you came on here about your mentor. Oh, it was awesome. No, you were terrific. I think you covered all the.
The main points there, you know, uh, and I did do uh. Five movies with Bobby as an actor, and then uh Uh and I directed him, he directed me. uh I directed him twice and uh Then wrote a movie, Tom Eperson and I wrote a movie called A Family Thing that DuBall started in with James Earl Jones that was shot at the same time we were shooting Slingblade.
So when's the first time you ever crossed paths with Robert Duvall? We had the same agent, Obert William Morris, in the late 80s. He said, you and Duval really need to know each other. Uh and uh Bobby had seen this movie that Tom and I wrote called uh One False Move. which was the thing that kind of put us on the map as writers and Hollywood, not with the public as much, but you know, with the within the business.
I guess that was 90, 91 somewhere in there, but Bobby liked that movie a lot. And we just, you know, started hanging out. And what was that like, man? What's it like hanging out with Robert Duval? Billy Robinson.
Bobby had a very quick wit, and he had two kinds of senses of humor. He had this really dry Uh irony. And then he had this sort of three stooges sense of humor. Like he had a dog named Gus. A little Jack Russell Terrier.
And um I remember being at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. I was meeting Bobby over there. And he had Gus with him. And he sicked Gus on me. He said, go get him, Gus.
And Gus kind of bit me on the leg. And Bobby thought that was the funniest thing on earth. But. Anyway, so uh he just He was my mentor, you know. I mean, to be plain and simple about it, uh, he uh.
It's the guy that I Looked up to, and you know, I, you know, I grew up in music. I didn't know I was going to be an actor, but you know, there are certain things even before I. Ever thought anything about being in movies that I'd seen him in that. really struck me.
So, you know, the character in Slingblade, I mean, has a... has a little bit of boo-rattle you know Yeah. But he just uh He showed me that, yes, you can be real, you can be natural in this stuff. And Bobby didn't like to talk about acting, and people. They always ask him.
I did a long interview about Bobby yesterday and And the writer wanted to know what tips, acting tips, I got from him. Right. And He just didn't like to talk about acting. He would talk about the movies, the experience of making something. You know, he would.
He would tell you about stuff like You know, that actor over there, I don't know. I don't know about him. I don't think I trust that guy, you know, and that kind of thing.
So he would say stuff like that. But or he would tell you about a directory he didn't like or uh you know somebody on the set that you know Slept with all their grips, or whatever. You know, it was some Hollywood tea, I'm sure.
So, what did you pick up from him then? Like watching him as a fellow actor or a director or being directed by him. What did you glean being around him? Yeah.
Well, um Really? That You can take all the methods in the world, all the tricks and They don't mean anything if you're not real in the moment and in the situation. You know, for instance, uh You know, when it says in a script, you know, Terry breaks down in tears or whatever. I've never uh I've probably never cried in a movie where it said I was supposed to. But I have in places where it said I Didn't say I was supposed to.
And Bobby and I talked about that once. And he said, You know, that's the thing. He says, Whatever you're feeling right now. Just be in that situation, you know. And uh I mean, it was a style of, you know, naturalistic acting.
I mean, He probably, you know, he did some other things where he did have to study up. More than I did. Like he would play. People with accents, a lot of times, like, you know, he played Stalin and, you know. people like that so um you know, sometimes he was very Hardworking and studied in his characters when he had to play someone that far from himself.
Now what do you think Billy Bob Thornton is his best work? What do you think? If you ever pull one, outside of whatever he did with you. Clearly. Uh but what what do you think?
was Seminole Robert Duvall. You want to tell somebody that that wants to learn about what he was about. Whether it was his physical acting, whether it was his spiritual acting, whether it was an accent. Whether it was his Oscar winning role. What wh which one would you say is uh Robert Duvall's Tour de Force.
But I would I would have to say tender mercies. Um you know, at least that's the one that struck me the most. Uh Uh tender mercies and lonesome dove. Lonesome Dub was Bobby's favorite performance of his ever. And he loved that.
I mean, he loved a lot of them, but that one. I think is probably the closest thing to his heart was Lonesome Dove. Yeah, you're talking about the television mini series that he did. What did he share with you, if you don't mind sharing with us, that that That he was proud of that one. Especially.
He just loved the way it was written and he loved the character. And, you know, Bobby was kind of a cowboy at heart, you know, and I think he had.
Some of the old west in him. He always wanted to do those shows around. you know, horses and outlaws and, you know Guys like you play like Gus and Lonesome Dove. He just liked that stuff. And like I said, I mean, I wish I had more to tell you about.
I spent You know, thousands of hours with this guy. And like I said, he was my mentor. I probably have Uh Acting information from him or things about his roles about as much as you could fit in a walnut shell.
Okay. He talked about meat. Yeah.
And tango. And see for about 25 years. I haven't eaten red meat in at least 25 years, probably 27 or 8. Bobby was obsessed with steak and barbecue. And uh So, I've spent these last 27, 28 years pretending that I eat meat.
And because I mean, he was completely obsessed. Every other week, he had a new best barbecue in the world. He goes, It's like, well, I thought this place over in Fort Worth was the best. He goes, No, no, no, this place in Virginia is the best barbecue in the world.
So, Bobby's wife, Luciana, who we call the saint, you know, she was with him for o over half her life, you know, and uh Uh up till now and uh She and I had a sort of runny joke about it because If Bobby had known. Did I eat quinoa and stuff like that? He would have hit the roof. Anyway, but he would go out. He loved to order for the table.
So he would order these giant steaks that were for three or four or five people. And he liked his just where they would just touch it to the grill on each side. It was essentially raw. And uh So I would just I mean when I was around him, when he had One of his dogs with him, I would just feed it to the dog under the table when he wasn't. I was going to ask: how did you dispose of the meat?
How did you make it seem like you were consuming it? If you get him in a conversation about something he's passionate about, you know, like it could be anything, it could be soccer. It can be anything in the world. Uh he um He wouldn't think about it. You know, so I'd always kind of set him, tee him up, you know, to start talking to people about something.
And then when he did that, I would give it to somebody, or I would, you know, not ever order anything, you know. I remember we were in Boston when we were shooting the judge, and we went out to a restaurant one night because Bobby said I had to try the steak. And. And Luciano was behind him, kind of laughing, and you know, because we've been keeping up this ruse for years, you know.
So I literally had a quinoa salad in front of me. Bobby looked at it and he goes, What the hell is that? And I said, Oh, that's just the salad. My steak's coming later, you know.
Well, they brought their food and everything, and mine just never came because when he would get going on a subject, he didn't pay much attention to. You know, anything else.
So I usually got by with it that way by just kind of getting him on something and, you know, never order a steak. And, uh, There were a couple of places we went that had a vegan kind of deal. that that kind of looked like steak, you know? I pretended that was steak a couple of times, you know, like a portobello mushroom or something. Who knew this is one of maybe your finest acting jobs ever?
Was letting Robert Duvall think that you were a steak eater, Billy Bob. Absolutely. Amen. Listen, I appreciate you sharing time. And if you don't mind me taking this moment.
To potentially embarrass you, but Landman is outstanding. You know how I feel about your. current work uh with with this show Simply outstanding. I love every frame of it. You are spectacular in it.
You know, your scenes, you know, this year. In particular, with your family members, they're just, it's great, it gets better every week. And I just wanted to get that off my chest with you right here. Oh, Billy, thank you very much. I love doing the show.
I really do. And I feel blessed every day. I mean, you know, it's, I mean, my mentor is Robert Duvall, that we just talked about. I grew up around a lot of those guys. And now I get to do a show like Landman, which Taylor actually wrote for me, which you don't get very often, you know, something where somebody just gives you a pair of pants that fit instantly.
You know, exactly. And for you, you show off your humble man, Billy Bob Thornton, that you get, you know, I guess, if you will, shown up in a scene by Jerry Jones and, you know, happy to talk about it. You know what I'm saying? Right. Well, you know, it was amazing because, I mean, maybe if that had been scripted in a way that Jerry had to know it all line by line, it wouldn't have gone that way, maybe, you know.
But he was telling his own story. Right. I mean, he told. his life story right there for me and John Hamm. I got to say, I was mesmerized.
I got caught up in the story and.
So there was no acting in that scene. From anybody, from me, John, and Jerry is just three guys, and they're listening to Jerry Jones' story. Uh So, I mean, if he had been playing some guy named Clyde, who was a bag man for the mob, might not have been, might not have been the same. But yeah, he. He was awesome.
Yeah.
You know, Jerry was on the because I'm a Razorback fan, you know. And grew up as one in Jerry and Jimmy, right? Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer were all on that 64 Razorback National Championship team. Unbelievable.
Isn't that crazy? It is crazy. It is.
Well, listen, Billy Bob Thornton, I really appreciate your time. You know, you know how I feel about you and your show. And honestly, I thought maybe we'll hear some, you know, on the set stories from back in the day that he shared with you. But I find it fascinating that he didn't talk about that sort of stuff. And that you know, I got stories.
I've got stories I can share with you, but they're like, you know, I'll just put it this way: Bobby didn't suffer, fools, you know, and uh.
So he told me one time, he said. On every movie, at least once, you got to let the director know who he's talking to. I'll leave it at that.
Okay. For the next time. Dot, dot, dot. Ellipses to end this conversation. Thank you, bud.
You be well. And I do hope to see you here in studio, if not us personally crossing paths. Appreciate it. Absolutely. I'll see you soon.
And my condolences to you. My condolences to you. He was a great man. I loved him. I appreciate you sharing your time about your mentor, Robert Duvall, the Academy Award winner, landman himself, Billy Bob Thornton here on The Rich Eisen Show.
That's awesome. Yeah, that was incredible. That's great. Who knew? One of his greatest acting jobs is to let Robert Duvall think he's a meat eater.
Portobello mushroom. That's great. What the hell is Keen Paul? What are you eating? You'd have hit the roof.
Do you think he let Coppola know who was your movie? I was going to say on that movie, which was one of that is one of my favorite movies. Which one? That's one of his favorite movies.
Now with it. And that scene. On the beach, Charlie, don't surf. Wait Him, Sheen, and Timothy Bottoms. That is one of the.
And the bomb's going off everywhere? And he doesn't fling? He doesn't even give a like, he's a man. It's just that scene. I have goosebumps because I saw that movie in the theater with my brother, and I remember the first time seeing it and going.
That scene was like it was like that just And he's only in the movie for this long, just like maybe less than like fifteen, twenty minutes. But he like embodied that time 'cause it's like he's just there as a general and he's just like running the troops and he w all he cares about surfing. He just really cares about surfing, and the war is like a backdrop. Right. The surfing, it's amazing.
Yeah.
1979. For me, Duvant wasn't that movie. But for me, Duval's Uh obviously the godfather hit hits you um But And the great Santini, he was spectacular in that, and it was disturbing, very, very disturbing. to watch him, you know, with his family and his son look Look at that. That's Danny Noonan, if you will.
That's Michael O'Keefe playing his son there. trying to get the love of his father. It was heartbreaking. It was crushing. But again, I Certainly since we're on television here.
The Movie Network Yeah. nineteen seventy six. This one, Rocky was out, Star Wars was out, and everything. Um He plays a television network executive. Who Puts Howard Beadle on the air, okay?
The actor Peter Finch, who died and won an Oscar posthumously for his role. you know, the famous scene where he tells everybody to get up out of your seats, open the window and scream out the window, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. And he comes in, you know, wet from the rain and in overcoat, and he's the nightly news anchor who's clearly off the rails. but speaks so plainly, And channels the rage of the viewer. and channels the rage of the people who are watching.
In society, About the inequities in society and how you're mad about it, and you're mad as hell, and you're not going to take it anymore. And this guy was clearly not mentally right. put on television and it's a ratings hit. And due to a heart attack of the Boss of Robert Duvall's character. Robert Duvall takes over.
Fires the network news division, Chief. puts the network news program into programming, entertainment programming. and keeps putting a clearly not sane man on television. And the rest of the nightly news also becomes reality television. They have they they they plant cameras into Um What what would you say?
What would be sort of the a similar to um The Black Panthers, or something like that. You're following them around, and suddenly news is becoming entertainment. Real life stuff is now viewed as entertainment. And it presaged everything that we're seeing right now on television. Everything that we're seeing, Patty Tchaiovsky wrote the script.
And his scene where he fires the, I posted it the other day, where he fires William Holden. And the executive played by Faye Dunaway. Is in the scene as well. She won an Oscar for it. His scene in that moment, the way he handles his body and the way that he handles his language, the way that he handles the scene.
I think it's his greatest work. In a very important movie. All right, let's take a break here because we have a guest in our green room right now. I didn't think I'd go down a network wormhole. Andre Gaines, what a beautiful 30 for 30 on my friend Stuart Scott.
He's the director. He's coming up next. The Rich Isis Show Podcast. Save money and get a better view of the road when you replace your worn-out wiper blades at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Right now, save $10 on a pair of Rainx Latitude Wiper Blades.
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Rich Eisen here. The tax deadline will be here before you know it. And you just want to know your taxes are actually being handled. But the old way, you hand everything off and then silence. Days pass, weeks pass.
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Disney Plus in the ESPN app with Andre Gaines, the director of the Stuart Scott 30 for 30 Booyah. Where everybody could still see it. I still get texts out of the blue from people saying. How gutted they are likewise by this documentary. And You know, when you and I were talking about it last December.
We were out there in New York when it first came out. And you asked me, hey, have I seen it? What I think? And I said I couldn't bring myself to watch it yet. And that I was going to sit down with my kids because they're 17 and at the time 14 and 12.
They didn't know Stuart. They didn't remember Stuart. Yeah, they didn't get a chance to get introduced to him this time. And the fact that Stuart was at our wedding, and he's been so integral in the life of me and my wife Susie, who I met in the SPN newsroom right there. A great story that I wish I could have more time for.
And I do want to get into that in a second, but I did show it to all three kids at once. Yeah, what was the. And they were. blown away. You know, first of all, that That I, you know, and that their parents knew him, number one, and were like, we didn't just know him.
Like, this is the real thing. Yeah.
But also, his story. um his story and um and and knowing What a crucial story it is to tell. And I'm wondering, like, w how did you decide? Which stories to tell and what weight to give them in the documentary. I mean, that's always the hard part, right?
You know, when you're making a movie, you only have a certain amount of real estate. And I remember sitting and talking to the team, to the ESPN executives, and even my own team at the beginning, saying, We're going to need a bigger boat here. You know, this is just too much. And they were really, meaning the team at ESPN was. You know, very precious about it, obviously, but also.
Forced me to really focus on the high. Highs and lows of Stewart's story that would make for a really great film. And I'm thankful for them for that. They were very supportive of me through the whole process. It was not an easy process, way harder than probably anything I've ever made.
I mean, I would say more emotional, more of an emotional journey than any film that I've ever made, for sure.
Well, the thing that I was. Taken aback by Even though I shouldn't have been because I knew Stewart. And I know that Stuart, as much as you know, he's loved his daughters, he loved his family, he loved. you know um He had pride in so much of what he did. But Stewart also loved him some him a little bit.
Yeah, for sure. I could not, I was taken back by. How much he recorded of himself. Yeah, isn't that amazing? All the time.
Yeah, that campaign. That was the gift. That was mana from heaven. When did you find out that there was so much source material that he was essentially unwittingly providing you from from jump of his from from from beyond the grave yeah it was it it was the gift that just kept giving i i i swear we could have made a Four part documentary out of this thing. It just Just so much of it.
I mean, just selfies before it was a thing, right? I mean, and these are with clunky cameras. You know, it's not like a sleek phone. This is a big old where you hit that, you know, reverse thing. You hit the reverse thing, and he's turning it around on his face.
And there was footage. I had no idea. There was footage of him and Kim getting engaged. Getting engaged. Yeah.
Like from afar. From afar.
Well shot, too, by the way. Like through leaves. Lee's unbelievable. All this sort of stuff. And so we just had this.
Treasure trove of it. And a lot of it was Kim, Stewart's ex-wife. She had a lot of this material, a lot of this footage, a lot of these photos that she kept. There was a lot from the ESPN archives themselves. There was a lot from his siblings.
Just just Piles and piles of it. I mean, it was just so much. And so it was very difficult, very difficult. There's that one shot of him where he's got the camera and he puts the microphone down and he walks off into the sunset. Yes.
You, as a filmmaker, see that, you're like, that's the last shot? I didn't believe it when I saw it, when my team, my editorial team, showed this to me. I was just like, what is this AI or something? You know, I was like, there's no way that. This is actually happening.
'Cause endings are like the hardest. Things endings and beginnings of movies are like the hardest things to like figure out. Like, you can figure out the meat of a story.
somewhat fairly early. but how to start it, how to bring people into it, and how to take them out of it. And the fact that we had this Which was our ending. You know, this was the ending of the movie, which we started with. We started that, the process of making this movie, knowing that this was the end.
So you had that source material? We had that pretty early.
Okay. Yeah.
So you worked with it. And so we just worked backwards. No kidding. Yeah.
So it's that everything that we're doing needs to serve. It needs to serve two things. It needs to serve. This ending of him walking literally off into the sunset. and it needed to serve his uh SP speech.
So it was those two pieces. where it was like everything that we're doing here, where we're telling this story. Service, what he's going to say. In this farewell speech that a lot of people didn't realize. And also the fact that um He as a young man, you know, had set up this camera.
Recorded himself and said, I'm going to walk off into the sunset. And it's like, wow, this is an incredible gift.
So, yeah, that's really touching. You know, it was a hard, it was a hard movie to make. It was just like not only just the. realities of I mean, every production is difficult. It's a difficult process if you're doing it right, I should say.
But just getting to know Steward. As a fan in this process. Yeah, it was it was just really hard. And when we you know, cut sort of the sequence where he does ultimately pass away. I was working with my editor, you know, on that, Sinkway Northern, and I didn't hear from him for a couple of days.
You know, Well, he he had taken my notes and normally would turn them around. Pretty quickly to me, but I didn't hear from him for a few days, and I said, Hey, what's going on? And he's like, text me back. I'm messed up. I'm really messed up.
And he's sending it to me. He's like, yeah, you're not going to be able to make it through this. And I like to watch, when I'm watching any part of the film, I like to watch the whole thing, kind of like from beginning to end. And I, you know, I remember sitting on the couch. And watching this and kind of getting to that moment where you're saying people were.
keep texting you about. And I said, oh boy, I said, yeah, here it comes. I sort of felt it. Kind of wave, you know, come over me when we got to this moment in the story. And It still hits me even now.
Me too, man. Just you, Andre Gaines here, the director of the 30 for 30 booyah on Stuart Scott here on the Rich Eisen Show. When you. Just mention the SP speech. That gets me every time, and it's not.
Just uh Context of it and how sick he was. and the message which is beautiful. What gets me um Even right now, is one of the first things the two of us did outside of Sports Center that made us feel like we're a team. This is it for like we're. We've arrived.
is we used to do the Pre-ASPE's Show. Right. Up in the balcony that Dan and Keith used to do. Right. Okay.
And we're like, so Dan and Keith had graduated from that, and now here we are. All right. Like Danny Keith always referred to it as like the old man Muppets, you know, up in the balcony. Yeah, right. Yeah, on the balcony years ago.
Yeah, right. And here we were. doing this. And It was just moments, you know, after Jim Volvano had passed and his speech would have already been iconic. And if you had told me that Stewart would be in the same position.
Yeah.
I can't even think about it. Without getting choked up. Yeah.
That he would wind up being the same situation. It would come full circle. It would. That he would meet the moment as well. Right.
That doesn't surprise me, because he met every moment. And that's the other part about this story, too. That I think you nailed. Is the joy, his joy. He was a joyful man.
Yeah.
He was a child. He was a total child, yeah. He was a man, right? Which is why kids loved him. Right.
Which is why. Um people watching Sports Center. Loved him. 'Cause he was joyful. He was a child.
And it was just so relatable. You know, it was just so relatable. It was just. It was easy to Like, fall in love with Stuart. And as somebody who grew up on him, and you.
Um You know, and I've said this to you off camera. I feel the same about you. Oh, no. Not that you're asking for this. Not at all.
Not that you're asking for it, but you know, the truth is the same. It's just like about you. And I think that. It just was the The The fact that you guys were coming into our living rooms on a daily basis and Uh back when that was Like the only thing. There wasn't all of the distractions of social media and all of the distractions of streaming.
There's so many different ways to consume now that it was just this one way. Yeah, we did it in a time where we were actually informing people maybe for the first time or showing them the videos that now you could see in the palm of your hand.
So that, you know, it's a different era now. I mean, and in terms of. You know, the source material that you do have, okay. The um Boom. Can't something be done with it?
Like, are you talking about doing more? I mean, possibly, yeah, possibly. I know from our interviews. I'm sure you interviewed. you know, everybody for the same amount of time.
And then the fact that you boiled in his Upbringing, his ascension, his plateauing, and then his meteoric rise, then his illness, all in 90 minutes. I mean, there must be so much more material that I think fans would love to see. Yeah, we just ran out of time. I mean, we talked about potential podcasts, we talked about. But um Shorts, we talked about other media, things like that to be able to kind of expand it.
There was only a handful of people, just to be clear, that I talked to as long as you and I talked to. Just by the way, we talked to a lot of people because everyone wanted to talk. Of course. Everybody wanted to talk. And one thing that I thought was Really interesting that I didn't end up putting in a movie.
was the fact that No. Nobody thought Stewart wasn't going to beat it.
Well, that's the youth. That's the joy. Right, because he was so full of life.
Somebody this full. I mean, you actually said this, I think. You were the, I told you this, that you. You were how I found out about his passing.
So it was on your show and the NFL Network. That's how I f found out about it. About him passing. Me too, by the way. Yeah, you're saying like 10 minutes.
And so the only two people that really felt, you know, something was. Not right, which I did put in the movie, was Taylor and then his dear friend Barb Lee. And, but, you know, again, if you're looking at anybody, it's going to be Stuart that's going to be able to make it. But at the end of the day, we're all immortal, you know, and thank God of the life that He did. Give us.
I mean, it's 49 years old. He lived three lives in that period of time. I think anybody could be. Lucky to achieve a modicum of what it is that he was able to in that period of time. It's really an extraordinary life.
you know to to be able to To do that much in that period of time. Can I keep you to the end of the hour? Oh, yeah, sure. I'm here.
Okay, very good. Andre Gaines is here. I can't. Have enough Stuart Scott talk here on The Rich Eisen Show. Booyah, with the 30 for 30, is available through all of the Disney.
Family of networks for you to take in. It's never too late. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast. Perfect time here with Andre Gaines of. the director of 30 for 30 Booyah to tell you about The Hyundai Hope on Wheels campaign.
I'm all about pediatric cancer research. Through my run, and when Hyundai said, Hey, would you talk about Hyundai Hope on Wheels? The answer is absolutely. Over 27 years, it's been going on. Hyundai's, every Hyundai sold has helped fund life-saving pediatric cancer research.
Together with over 850 dealers nationwide, they've raised more than $277 million, supporting over 25,000 kids in their fight against cancer. Please visit HyundaiUSA.com and search up Hyundai Hope on Wheels to learn more. At Hyundai, Hope isn't optional, it comes standard. It's All right, so a few minutes left here with Andre Gaines. I'll be straight up with you, man.
I mentioned it here on the show the other day. I'm in the stadium of Super Bowl 60 watching the bad bunny halftime. And I'm like, boy, this guy is doing his thing. talking about him himself. He is genuinely himself.
Lots of people are saying, don't be genuinely yourself. And he's doubling down. He's doubling down. He's tripling down. He's not dribbling down.
And I'm like sitting there thinking, who does this remind me of? Exactly. I swear to you, I thought this watching Bad Bunny's halftime show, and I'm like, this is. What Stewart would have done. Yeah.
You know, if he was in bad bunny shoes. He did that every night on the show. He'd be out there on the set. You know, because Stuart, when he was doing Sports Center and he was doing his catchphrases and he was pulling stuff from his pop culture, a lot of folks were saying, that's not my Sports Center.
So you're not talking about me to heck with you. That's how Stewart wound up being the most beloved and disliked sports center anchor in a USA Today poll at the same time, which really upset him, and I don't blame him. And I'm wondering, you know, how much of that did you hear anybody from ESPN saying, let's not talk about.
Some of the folks there at the time telling him to tone it down? I mean, I, again, I'm not. blowing smoke here. Like Yeah. I actually am extremely grateful at how supportive ESPN was.
It's clear through your work that it came out there. I'm asking questions that I think a lot of people were asking.
Well, yeah, people have asked me that all the time because I just said, Lad. When I first came on to this, I said. I'm going to tell a 360-degree story here. You know, warts and all, trials and triumphs. It's just what it's going to be.
in order for it to be interesting. I mean, at the end of the day, like Yeah. We could make a pretty homage piece and get all our families around and watch it together, and you know, and that'd be kind of the end of it. But for something to hit here, for something to actually resonate with an audience, for somebody to actually experience the nostalgia that they remember, but then also have an understanding of the sacrifices that this guy made, you need to tell the whole story. And they didn't shy away from it at all.
We made the decision, myself, and my. Yeah.
Not to name names or anything like that. We weren't being sort of specific in that way, just because otherwise it sort of felt like we were picking on people. But to understand it from a holistic standpoint of what Stewart actually went through. Yes. was important.
You know, this was an important piece of the puzzle that we wanted to make sure was shared. That only you and other colleagues knew and friends of his, people and family members that experienced this sort of behind the scenes, because he was never verbose about that sort of thing. Um just going back through the Footage in the sort of annals of history, and even his own book. He wasn't sort of outwardly spoken. about his experiences within the walls of the newsroom, put it that way.
And I think that was part of his very sort of curated personality in a way. But Now, many years, obviously, after his passing, and obviously making a film, that's the. The opportunity to dramatize some of these things and to really be able to tell a story that nobody's ever heard. We didn't want to do a visual Wikipedia version. You know.
He would come to work sometimes. He would be pissed. He'd be pissed about some of the notes that he received and wondered if we got the same notes. Yeah, we put some of that in the movie. I know.
And you put the actual notes. The actual damn man. What is it? The post-show notes? Yeah, like the notes from the coordinating producers talking to the, if you will, higher ups.
And there are a couple of times when I'm wondering: is he going to be the same self? Tonight, because he's not happy, he's pissed. He got through it, and then he showed up and he Stuart Scott. you know, and and he and then he would do he he would he wouldn't pull back. He would then do deaf poetry jam at the beginning.
Yeah, he would say, he would say, I need a microphone and I need a spotlight. And I'm doing a lead-in deaf poetry style. Right. I'll I'll show everybody w what it's about. Why, I watched it.
That's a tr that's that's a fact. Yeah, I mean, there were stories that we heard, again, just not with time to put them in the film, but even just about Booya. You know, um uh him being mocked about it in in in some circles. Within the walls, you know, of people sort of saying, Oh, here comes the boo boo yacht guy. But it was a lot of it was jealousy.
It just got so popular. Mm-hmm. That I mean, going to the Bristol campus to the ESPN headquarters and seeing that wall of catchphrases, which we put a bit of it in the film. And the biggest one there is Buyah. It's a signifier of.
this long history of of this great network of One of the guys that particularly stood out. Great job, Andre Gaines. Thank you. Congratulations to you making a beautiful film about something that Needed the spotlight and you to focus on it. We're back to wrap this on Disney Plus and ESPN2 in a moment.
Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show Podcast. You can watch and listen to The Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to 3 Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus, and on the ESPN app, The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.
