TLPP: Hollywood Samizdat with Film Producer Rambo Van Halen

Rambo Van Halen is a pseudonym. He's a Hollywood producer — the real kind, the below-the-line kind, the guy making sure the steel gets to the factory — who worked in the industry for decades, walked away in 2019, and wrote a book about it.The book is called Hollywood Samizdat: Notes from Below the Line. It's published by Passage Press. Lou read it. He dog-eared it. They talked for an hour.

Topics include: what a producer actually does (mostly administration, definitely not what people think); what happens to actors when nobody says no to them for 20 years; the feminization of Hollywood and why straight guys stopped being able to do their jobs; military veterans vs. film school graduates on set (no contest); Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, and the Amazon river; the unwritten casting rule about who can and can't be the butt of the joke; MeToo — the careers it should have ended, the ones it shouldn't have, and the Joe Gatt story that will make your jaw drop; and why Rambo Van Halen is not his real name and probably never will be. Get the book → https://passage.press/products/hollywood-samizdat?srsltid=AfmBOorHefB5b7WS0T_hiObEIcPzGEWLHKXoL-4gInHttqmha-D5SLuiRambo on Substack → https://substack.com/@rambovanhalenTIMESTAMPS:0:00 — Intro — who is Rambo Van Halen?1:40 — What a producer actually does (it's mostly administration)3:50 — Building a bubble around the creatives — and what it does to them6:20 — Film is a business, not a public service — and film school gets this wrong7:25 — Jim Carrey, Michael Jackson, and what happens when nobody says no10:55 — Plastic surgery, masculinity, and actors who should leave their faces alone12:46 — Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and the men who used to be on screen16:25 — How Hollywood got feminized — and why straight guys couldn't do their jobs anymore19:06 — Military guys on film sets — why they beat film school graduates every time21:32 — Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog, and Klaus Kinski's on-set meltdown25:04 — Why he made his lateral move out of LA in 201927:30 — White male shit libs coming at him on Facebook30:56 — Comedy as a masculine art form — why wokeness couldn't kill it35:00 — George Floyd, Memorial Day, and saying what you actually think37:25 — The unwritten rule: the black guy can't be the butt of the joke43:28 — Roy Price, MeToo, and the careers that got destroyed45:01 — John Lasseter, Aziz Ansari, and Joe Gatt — three very different MeToo stories50:37 — The sushi bar incident — actress hits on producer, ignores her date54:24 — Bikini casting, auditions, and what actresses will do for a role58:12 — Who is Rambo Van Halen — and why the pseudonym?1:01:16 — Why he wrote Hollywood Samizdat as a journaling exercise1:03:08 — On publicist spam, bad podcast guests, and only booking people worth talking to1:04:01 — Outro — where to find Rambo Van HalenWatch full episodes on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Vb53s4I0A&list=PLb5trMQQvT077-L1roE0iZyAgT4dD4EtJListen on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lou-perez-podcast/id1535032081Listen on Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/2KAtC7eFS3NHWMZp2UgMVU Lou's book — That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r TheLouPerez.com |  info@thelouperez.com Newsletter: https://substack.com/@louperez#Hollywood #FilmIndustry #RamboVanHalen #HollywoodSamizdat #MeToo #LouPerezPodcast #LionsOfLiberty #BehindTheCamera #FilmProducer #ComedyPodcast