Movie Courage: Shane in your new book What Did You Not Learn at the School of Fine Arts, was there a chapter or section that sparked the controversy?
Absolutely. I think the most controversial chapter in the book is the most important one is going out, digging ditches, getting your hands dirty and making yourself available, and whatever it takes to get on a set as part of your morality, your values, and your ethics parameter to do it. And when I got there while we were talking about how I was making phone calls and rushing to find work and get on film sets, I worked for free, I brought my lunch. I arrived first and left last. I was sweeping floors when it wasn’t in my job description. I have close friends when our generation grew up … you know I have a friend whose father won two Oscars and his mother has nine Emmys … you mean nepotism? And when he pulled himself together as I did, he said hey, you know I want to work in this business. I want to be a publisher, Mom picked up the phone, made a call. Okay, she’ll be here tomorrow. Two hours, perfect, thanks. Click on. Do you have a job? Sweep the floors in Color. You are not paid for anything. Make a lunch, my dear. And he has been sweeping floors for two years and hasn’t had a problem with that. He thought it was normal. I won Emmys as a young man and started over and talked about not being able to pay the rent. There was something called Crew Call back then when I was joining and you sign up for literally around $ 50 a month. You would call an 800 number and say press one for the camera, two for the sound, three for the electricity and press on these things you could do and then you hear about the jobs and write it down. There would be a fax number and fax your resume. You would spend one day a week doing this and pray that your phone would ring and sometimes not. So a friend would call to say hello, I need a swing in the camera department tomorrow. I pay for lunch. You in or out? And I like yes, here I am. The biggest problem I have today is when I am speaking to a film school or when people read this chapter about investing in themselves and building their CV. You know a lot of people in my film school are despairing of dreams and being the next Tarantino or Damien Chazelle and my advice is good if this…
