Joe Rogan Experience #2053 - Danny & Michael Philippou

1. 0:00 – 1:14

   Meeting the Philippou twins & the breakout horror film Joe discovered

   1. DPDanny Philippou0:00

      (drum music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) What's up?

   3. DPDanny Philippou0:13

      Hello, hello, hello.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      What's going on? Pleasure to meet you guys.

   5. DPDanny Philippou0:15

      Nice to meet you too. Oh my God, we're live.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      Int- ladies and gentlemen. Introduce yourselves to everybody.

   7. DPDanny Philippou0:19

      (clears throat) Uh, I'm Danny Philippou. That's my clone, Michael. Uh-

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      You guys are not clones.

   9. DPDanny Philippou0:24

      Oh, well, no. Yeah, there's a big difference, isn't there? Is there? Danny acts like we look s- well, we're identical twins, mirror image twins. Uh- yeah. Michael's the dumb twin, the unreliable twin. Uh- Danny's the arrogant twin. I wouldn't say, uh- Uh, but ladies and gentlemen, we're here on the Joe Rogan Experience. I'm so, uh, like, yeah, like, uh- It's very surreal. (laughs) ... I'm fanboying, yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       (laughs)

   11. DPDanny Philippou0:43

       We got Young Jamie over there. We might pull some things up and we're gonna talk about DMT and elk meat.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       (splurts water)

   13. DPDanny Philippou0:49

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       Did you guys prepare for this?

   15. DPDanny Philippou0:51

       No. (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:53

       (laughs)

   17. DPDanny Philippou0:53

       Yeah, we were writing last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (laughs) I don't know, yeah. Michael was like, "We're gonna be at the Joe Rogan podcast." And all of your guests are really, um, smart. I feel like people would be dumb about listening to us.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:02

       There's a lot of dumb ones too. Don't worry about it.

   19. DPDanny Philippou1:04

       Okay. (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       (laughs)

   21. DPDanny Philippou1:05

       That'll- that'll be the playlist we're in. We-

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:07

       So, h- how- tell me about you guys, the- the background. First of all, how did it come that you made that movie?

2. 1:14 – 3:13

   Childhood obsession: homemade movies, violent drawings, and backyard wrestling

   1. DPDanny Philippou1:14

      Well, uh, we've always wanted to make films, uh, ever since we were, like, little kids.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:17

      Is that your first, like, real film?

   3. DPDanny Philippou1:19

      Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was our first proper production, yeah. We have- we have-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:20

      That fucking movie was awesome.

   5. DPDanny Philippou1:22

      Uh, it was so weird that you posted about it. How did you hear about it?

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:25

      I was just flipping through, uh, I think I was just flipping through, like, the current movies on Apple.

   7. DPDanny Philippou1:32

      Okay.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:32

      On Apple TV.

   9. DPDanny Philippou1:33

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:33

       And I saw... My daughter loves horror movies and so we will- we like to watch horror movies together. And- and I was like, "Let's try this one." And we watched a preview and she was like, "Oh, it's good." And then I watched it, I'm like, "That is a really good original movie."

   11. DPDanny Philippou1:47

       Fuck, yeah. Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:47

       It's fucking scary as shit.

   13. DPDanny Philippou1:49

       (laughs) Oh, man, it's crazy.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:50

       And it wasn't like any other movie. Uh, uh, it wasn't like, oh, this is, like, 28 Days Later or, oh, this is like The Exorcist. No, it's, like, very original.

   15. DPDanny Philippou1:58

       Yeah. Uh, uh, it's something we've been, like, building towards making a movie for forever. Like, uh, and we've been writing scripts forever as well. Uh, we had a YouTube channel. So we started off, like, uh, making stuff as little kids. We were- we've been obsessed since we were seven years old with, like, making stuff. Even before filming, we'd just wr- draw movie covers and shit like that and pretend we're... We'd- (laughs) we'd, like, play, act through a movie and look at the time and, like, act for 90 minutes and then draw the cover for the... Like, we were loser kids, yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan2:27

       (laughs)

   17. DPDanny Philippou2:27

       There was- there was-

   18. JRJoe Rogan2:28

       (laughs) That's not loser, it's creative.

   19. DPDanny Philippou2:29

       (laughs) Yeah, I remember even in primary school they had to bring my mum in. They're like, "We're really concerned about Danny," 'cause I would draw the most violent, fucked up, you know, movie covers. Or just- just, like, someone getting split in half- Yeah, we- ... trying to figure out different ways that I could kill these stick figures or, you know. Y- yeah, like, it was like... And then, like, we had a group of friends who are in the same age, like, 12, 15 kids our same age in the neighborhood. Yeah. And we'd do two things together. We'd beat the shit out of each other, like backyard wrestling, and then we'd do, uh, make movies. And, like, that's, like... If you- if our friends wanted to hang out with us, they had to do it. Like, I feel bad for them. And then, like-

   20. JRJoe Rogan3:01

       (laughs)

   21. DPDanny Philippou3:01

       ... they- they'd come together and we'd just fuck each other up and then we'd, like, film movies and stuff.

   22. JRJoe Rogan3:06

       So you've always been interested in some kind of filming and something and-

   23. DPDanny Philippou3:10

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan3:10

       And so you started off with a YouTube channel?

3. 3:13 – 4:31

   Early series and the reality of pursuing film in Australia

   1. DPDanny Philippou3:13

      Yeah. Well, well, initially we were just making stuff with friends and then everyo- We made a- a TV show. It was called Temuhi, 96 episodes.

   2. JRJoe Rogan3:20

      And where was that?

   3. DPDanny Philippou3:21

      Ten seasons. That was just- That w- My- Mine didn't even air on a TV show. It always says it's a TV show. It was never on TV.

   4. JRJoe Rogan3:25

      (laughs)

   5. DPDanny Philippou3:25

      It was- it was on our TV. What the fuck are you talking about? Yeah, it was on our TV. Yeah. Yeah. We would- we would play it for our friend's older sister, Nellie, and she would- we would just premier it for her. And- and as we got older, all of our friends were growing out of it and were like, "Why are you still doing this? It's really immature." Everyone was growing up, getting jobs, getting girlfriends, and we were still trying to make movies. Uh- Yeah, we'd organize, like, a big weekend with everyone. But everyone was 18. They'll go... Like, in Australia, you can go out when you're 18. And we're like, "Look, guys, we've organized this weekend filming." Like, trying to organize all these people and they're like, "Uh, no, I'm fucking going out. What the fuck I'm doing this shit?" (laughs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan3:55

      (laughs)

   7. DPDanny Philippou3:55

      And then- and then, like, yeah, we had to... We were d- doing a media course, like, after high school. Didn't know what, like, we're like, "Oh, let's just pursue this thing." Even though film industry- film isn't a thing in Australia, so we were just filming stuff. It's- it's a thing, but it's not... No one looks at it like the- as- there's no entertainment scene. It's not like LA. Yeah. It's not like LA where you go... First time we went to LA and everyone's talking about scripts, you're like, "Holy fuck, it's like a real..." It feels like a different world almost. So- Or an impos- impossible job. Yeah. 'Cause at school if you're like, "I wanna be a filmmaker," teachers are like, "What? You need to be an electrician." I remember that was one of our teachers, like, "You- you should be an electrician." (laughs) Or, "You've gotta pick a trade."

   8. JRJoe Rogan4:29

      Oh.

   9. DPDanny Philippou4:29

      Yeah. Because it just seems- it seems impossible.

   10. JRJoe Rogan4:31

       (laughs)

4. 4:31 – 5:25

   Free work on sets, learning departments, and building a crew network

   1. DPDanny Philippou4:31

      Yeah. You know, as a kid, it seems impossible to... Yeah. But that was, like, pre-YouTubes sort of stuff and then, like, we were doing, like... I was doing, like, just, like, work experience jobs on movies just to get experience. Like, 'cause no one will turn a- y- that no one will ever turn away, like, a free pair of hands. And I'd always be like, "I'll come on set for free, just let me... I just wanna, like, I wanna see everything, how things work." So I worked with all different departments and a lot of people that we worked with, we used on our movie, because I remember, like, the ones that were, like, there for a reason, like, they're, like, excited to be there, uh, versus the ones that were like, "Uh," you know, like, depressed and, like, don't really wanna be there, it's just like a paycheck thing.

   2. JRJoe Rogan5:08

      Mm-hmm.

   3. DPDanny Philippou5:08

      So, like, I remembered, like, certain people, caterers, grips, all from different departments, and I was like, "I'm gonna, uh, use these people when we do a movies."

   4. JRJoe Rogan5:15

      Cultivate the good ones.

   5. DPDanny Philippou5:17

      Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and 'cause, like, if you... On a film set, like, when it's, like, when, like, the crew morale is so big, like, if you have, like, everyone clashing with-

5. 5:25 – 13:09

   The wild detour: Danny’s years as a drug-trial ‘guinea pig’

   1. JRJoe Rogan5:25

      Yeah.

   2. DPDanny Philippou5:25

      ... against each other, it's the most fucked. Oh, but with that being said, I- I think we did piss off crew a whole bunch of times in our- Maybe. Yeah, yeah. Well, we- 'cause it was supposed to be an eight-week shoot that turned to a five. Yeah. But anyway, we- you're- you're- you're skipping ahead, man. Oy. I- I'm just saying. But, yeah, so we went to, uh, we s- Wait, before that. So we had to finish this series that we did and no one wanted to do it anymore. Everyone had grown out of it, so we started just finding different ways to express ourselves. We could never get a normal job, so my only paid job I ever did was, yeah, medical trials, checking into hospitals and testing out drugs that weren't on the market yet.

   3. JRJoe Rogan5:53

      Whoa.

   4. DPDanny Philippou5:54

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan5:54

      You did that?

   6. DPDanny Philippou5:55

      Yeah, I did that for two years.

   7. JRJoe Rogan5:57

      What'd they test out on you?

   8. DPDanny Philippou5:58

      (laughs) I- I stopped listening. Uh, you know, I- I was like, "Whatever."

   9. JRJoe Rogan6:00

      You just let them try it?

   10. DPDanny Philippou6:01

       Yeah, yeah. Uh. They- they would tell me-

   11. JRJoe Rogan6:03

       Jesus.

   12. DPDanny Philippou6:03

       ... they're like, "Oh, this could happen or this could happen." And I was like, "I- just give me whatever. I don't give a fuck, just give me some money." Danny would have crazy, like, side effects.I, I- He was, like, yellow once. Yeah. So, yellow. You're yellow now. Yeah, yeah. W- I was like, he was like, he was like, once he was like... We have, well, we have ADHD, we're always shaking. But Danny was like, once he was like this. Like, I went to visit him, he was doing, like, shaking. And I was like, "Are you all right?" He's like, "Yeah, it's just a side effect of the drug." Uh, anyway, w- (laughs) It was like, it was like a, uh, muscle tremors all up through my arm, so I just couldn't physically... Yeah, I just couldn't do it.

   13. JRJoe Rogan6:29

       What was that drug?

   14. DPDanny Philippou6:31

       I, I literally... Dude, I did not listen to a... They would tell me, they would send all these big pamphlets and we'd have to sign a bunch of shit, but I would never listen. I would never know what I was there for. I would never do this, by the way.

   15. JRJoe Rogan6:39

       Did you have any concern about doing that?

   16. DPDanny Philippou6:41

       No, I was more excited to get some cash.

   17. JRJoe Rogan6:43

       How old were you at the time?

   18. DPDanny Philippou6:44

       18.

   19. JRJoe Rogan6:44

       Yeah, that's the problem.

   20. DPDanny Philippou6:45

       Yeah, yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan6:46

       You shouldn't let 18-year-olds make that decision.

   22. DPDanny Philippou6:48

       (laughs) Yeah, uh, 18 to 20 is when I did it. Well, it was a way for you to, like- Make money as well. ... write as well and meet, like, peop- 'cause there's a lot of interesting people that would go through there.

   23. JRJoe Rogan6:56

       For sure.

   24. DPDanny Philippou6:56

       But I, I just hate injections, so I don't know if I could actually- I, I also did it to try and get over my fear for injection, 'cause once they'd take, like, administer the drug, they have to, like, get your blood every 15 minutes. So, like, they'd put the cannulas in their arm, in your arm, and they just keep taking out blood, taking out blood and just testing whether or not things would go wrong. Um-

   25. JRJoe Rogan7:11

       What was the worst side effect you got?

   26. DPDanny Philippou7:13

       That- You grew a third eye. Oh, fuck off. No, I didn't (laughs) . I was, I, I, um, I remember they were, it was, they were administering it with like a cannula. It was, it was a drip. They were dripping the inject- uh, the, the drug in, and it was really fucking hurting. And usually it doesn't hurt. Usually, I just, like, uh, take it or, you know, they'll administer it and I don't really feel anything. But it was painful. And it was hurting, it was hurting. I was like, "Oh, god." She's like, "Are you all right?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah. It's okay. It's okay. You can keep... Yeah." And I was like, "Oh, fuck, that really drills." It was like, it felt like someone was punching my arm.

   27. JRJoe Rogan7:39

       Did they miss the vein-

   28. DPDanny Philippou7:40

       No, no.

   29. JRJoe Rogan7:40

       ... and go into the tissue?

   30. DPDanny Philippou7:41

       It wa- it was like, whatever had happened was my whole arm went paralyzed. And I was like, "Dude, I..." I'm like, "I can't, I can't, I can't move, I can't feel my hand. I can't move my hand." She's like, "All right, well, just squeeze my finger." She put her finger there, told me to try and squeeze it. And I'm like, "Oh, I f- I literally can't do it." So, she had to... They're like, "All right, quickly take the drug out," and they took the drug out, and I was just sort of sitting there with a paralyzed arm. And it probably sat there for like an hour, and once the drug had worn off I, I got my, my feeling back.
6. 13:09 – 18:33

   Stunts as identity: car hits, accreditation, and practical action ambition

   1. JRJoe Rogan13:09

      Are you guys both left-handed?

   2. DPDanny Philippou13:10

      No, I'm right-handed. We're mirror image twins. We're mirror image.

   3. JRJoe Rogan13:12

      Interesting. Oh.

   4. DPDanny Philippou13:13

      Yeah, yeah, yeah. No wait, I'm left-handed. Yeah, well I'm right-handed. Yeah. But yeah, the, the left-handed is your- We, we're split, we're split like, uh, 'cause we're mirror image, but, like, the, like, d- I guess I'm more physical and, like- Yeah, I'm, like, the nerd twin. Danny's more the, like, the brains. (laughs) Like, I'll get hit by cars for videos and Danny will record it. And tell him to go faster. If he's not going- And every time we did a car hit, we'd have to, like, we'd step it up a little bit. (sucks teeth) There was one nasty one we did and I was like, 'cause I was like, "Oh, I know that if it does, like, half-assed, Danny will go do it again." So I'm like, "Oh, let's just do a, like a good..." And usually I have stunt performers for car hits 'cause you usually, you, you, uh, before you hit someone in a car, you, like, brake a little bit to, like, dip the, the bonnet down.

   5. JRJoe Rogan13:55

      Mm-hmm.

   6. DPDanny Philippou13:56

      And, uh, this guy wasn't a stunt driver and I was like- (laughs) "Just do it." And then-

   7. JRJoe Rogan14:00

      (laughs)

   8. DPDanny Philippou14:00

      (laughs) And then he hit me and I was like, "Woo." There, there, it's an interesting thing for car hits where it's like, 'cause you lose where you are for, like, a flash second, you know?

   9. JRJoe Rogan14:07

      It's called getting a concussion.

   10. DPDanny Philippou14:09

       (laughs) Yeah. Did you, I gotta show, wait, do you have the video of it? Yeah, it was extreme deaths. Do you have the car hit? He's a pretty brutal car hit. It was, like, a brutal one.

   11. JRJoe Rogan14:15

       How many times have you been hit by cars?

   12. DPDanny Philippou14:17

       Uh, I don't know, two dozen? Something like that.

   13. JRJoe Rogan14:20

       What the fuck, dude?

   14. DPDanny Philippou14:21

       Not that many. But that's, like, a stuntman. Michael's a, uh, an accredited stunt performer. I'm a certified, in, in Australia, you have to get certification to get stunt, like, a stunt license. In America, you can just say, "I'm a stunt guy." And then I guess- You're a stunt- ... if you're bad, they just won't call you back or something.

   15. JRJoe Rogan14:34

       So, was getting hit 24 times a part of that-

   16. DPDanny Philippou14:37

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan14:38

       ... accreditation?

   18. DPDanny Philippou14:39

       (laughs) Also, some, some of the stuff was, like, uh, martial arts for six months, body control, stunt reel, being on set for 10 days, uh, a letter of recommendation from an assistant stunt coordinator and a stunt coordinator. You have to get set on fire, you have to, uh, do high falls, you have to get your bronze medallion swimming. So there's, like a big every, there's, like, five categories you have to do. I mean, it takes a few years. But I was driving on, like, I was production running for a TV show and I met a stunt guy, Judd Wild, and, um, we just, like, got along 'cause I was, like, I was interested in stunts. Like, our, we'd been doing stunts in, since we were little kids. And, um, I showed him some of our old videos, like, pre-YouTube, and then, uh, he's like, "Dude, you should get accredited." Uh, and then he helped me get my accreditation. I was, like, doing some editing for him, like, some stuff. And then for our videos, we would get him and we'd create, uh, like, we were introduced to the stunt world through Judd. And, like, we would work, we've worked with over 100 performers now and, like, special effects guys. And like, and we would create different, like, our videos on YouTube, we'd always go, like, with a new, uh, like, "Oh, how do we do, like, a sinking set where we can fire and the set's sinking and filling with water?" Or, "How do we do this, this rig, this stunt rig?" Um, and we'd, like, innovate and, like, create different things. So we're looking forward to doing a, an action movie 'cause we have a cool team. We're attached right now to the Street Fighter movie.

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:01

       Oh, really?

   20. DPDanny Philippou16:02

       Uh, yeah, for the Capcom video game. And we're gonna-

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       Can I, hold on. Do you have video of you getting hit by a car?

   22. NANarrator16:06

       I think I do, yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:07

       Let me see this.

   24. DPDanny Philippou16:08

       It, wait, 'cause the thing at the-

   25. NANarrator16:09

       It's called ex-

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       Here we go.

   27. DPDanny Philippou16:10

       No, no, no.

   28. NANarrator16:10

       Oh.

   29. DPDanny Philippou16:11

       This is a bad one. Wait.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:12

       No, no, no. Let me see this one.
7. 18:33 – 24:58

   From viral fake-fail clips to YouTube fame—and the algorithm trap

   1. MPMichael Philippou18:33

      So, you guys are doing all this fucking around and having a good time and creating all these things. How does it get to Talk To Me?

   2. DPDanny Philippou18:40

      So, we always wanted to- Double sunlight! Oh, shit. We always wanted to get into filmmaking and make films. The YouTube stuff was a really good way for us to just like-

   3. MPMichael Philippou18:50

      Well-

   4. DPDanny Philippou18:50

      ... yeah-

   5. MPMichael Philippou18:50

      Yeah.

   6. DPDanny Philippou18:50

      ... build, build, build up as filmmakers.

   7. MPMichael Philippou18:51

      But, but it was an accident though, is all. Like, YouTube, we just posted, 'cause we were doing these sh- fake fail videos, like pretending things went wrong when they didn't, like sticking a knife into a toaster, things like that- Mm-hmm.

   8. DPDanny Philippou19:01

      ... and just putting them on Facebook. And they were, they were going really viral, um, but no one knew where they were coming from, so we create... Our friend said, "You should do a YouTube channel just to show where y- like, who's making the stuff." And we didn't expect anything from it. Like, we were working on short films and things like that. And then, uh, one o- uh, like in a y- inside a year, the, like, the channel got... How many subs? Yeah, a million subscribers on YouTube.

   9. MPMichael Philippou19:23

      A million subscribers. And then we were like, "We're not even putting that much effort into these videos. What if we actually focus on it?" And then we went down the rabbit hole of YouTube forever. But the end goal was always film and television. We never set out to, to be YouTubers. But the world's so fun, you know? And it's instant gratification. You see growth, comments, likes, you know- Right.

   10. DPDanny Philippou19:43

       ... and then, you know, and, and, and cool opportunities to, like, go to cool countries and do, like, awesome things.

   11. MPMichael Philippou19:48

       But, but, uh, you end up just, like, you're taste, you're trace, you're chasing trends, and you're just m- following the algorithm and you're not really- Ah! ... expressing yourself towards the end. So that's when I was like-

   12. DPDanny Philippou19:56

       I don't know if we were doing that.

   13. MPMichael Philippou19:57

       Oh, we were towards the end, don't even lie.

   14. DPDanny Philippou19:58

       We, we were more ... It was more like you c- yeah, like i- it was like our videos are like crazy, like action comedy, but stunts, stunt stuff that we don't... Like, the movies t- we saw, like watching is very different to the stuff we were making. Um, so i- we couldn't, couldn't do like a deep serious thing on our channel, like, uh, 'cause people just click off straightaway, you know?

   15. MPMichael Philippou20:17

       Mm-hmm. Yeah.

   16. DPDanny Philippou20:18

       You have to be like, yeah, someone has to jump through a window like within three seconds.

   17. MPMichael Philippou20:21

       Right.

   18. DPDanny Philippou20:21

       Couldn't, could never express myself personally. Like I wanted a, a have scenes where two characters can sit down and have a conversation.

   19. MPMichael Philippou20:26

       But-

   20. DPDanny Philippou20:27

       But with our YouTube channel, we weren't able to do that.

   21. MPMichael Philippou20:28

       But hold on, as you say, "weren't able to," you just didn't want to because you didn't think it'd get as much engagement.

   22. DPDanny Philippou20:33

       Well, I think that the audience that we built would be like, "What the fuck is this?"

   23. MPMichael Philippou20:36

       Well, how do you know?

   24. DPDanny Philippou20:38

       We posted some like longer stuff that's-

   25. MPMichael Philippou20:40

       Yeah, yeah. Didn't-

   26. DPDanny Philippou20:41

       But you know what? It's actually true. We, we never did like a, we nev- never went for it in that way and tried to do it. But we just thought, once we had like a minute intro, like a slow intro, and then you see the attention rate, and it's just... Pe- people that (laughs) -

   27. MPMichael Philippou20:54

       Right.

   28. DPDanny Philippou20:54

       ... people that stay past the first minute-

   29. MPMichael Philippou20:56

       Yeah, yeah.

   30. DPDanny Philippou20:56

       ... watch the whole thing.
8. 24:58 – 26:12

   UFC connections: Israel Adesanya friendship and fighter talk detours

   1. DPDanny Philippou24:58

      You know we're friends with Israel Adesanya?

   2. JRJoe Rogan25:00

      You're friends with him?

   3. DPDanny Philippou25:01

      Yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan25:01

      I love that dude.

   5. DPDanny Philippou25:01

      He's the fucking coolest motherfucker in the world.

   6. JRJoe Rogan25:04

      He's very cool.

   7. DPDanny Philippou25:04

      Yeah. Him and his brother. Have you met David, his brother?

   8. JRJoe Rogan25:07

      I, I met him when he was with Israel, but not, like...

   9. DPDanny Philippou25:10

      He is the funniest guy ever. Their whole family is like... Oh, they're so cool, man. Like, Izzy saw, like, we, we met him through Talk To Me, and then, um, we went to his premiere for his documentary and stuff. And then, like, I, I've, I used to watch him fight Neza Fury in Adelaide in South Australia.

   10. JRJoe Rogan25:25

       Oh, wow.

   11. DPDanny Philippou25:25

       So I, I was a fan of him way back when. I remember him, like, just, the first time I saw him fight, he was main event and, uh, he was fi- fighting the champ. And I was like, "Oh, man, uh, this guy's gonna get killed." Because I, to Izzy, but then Izzy just flying knee the dude in the face, like, first round just, and the guy didn't get up for half an hour. Everyone started leaving. (laughs) Fuck, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah. It was, it was so, like, savage, and the way that he moves is like... And he, there's like a flow and a rhythm, like, the last fight we went to, the last fight, um, uh, it was unfortunate what happened, but he, when he came out, like, moonwalking, it was like-

   12. JRJoe Rogan25:58

       Mm-hmm.

   13. DPDanny Philippou25:58

       ... "Oh, man, I like..." He's got such a fucking vibe about him. He's the best. He's all pro- stage presence. Coolest guy ever, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's so awesome. We wanna cast him in something. Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan26:07

       Yeah, it's a good idea.

   15. DPDanny Philippou26:07

       'Cause I feel like he could act.

   16. JRJoe Rogan26:09

       Fuck, yeah.

   17. DPDanny Philippou26:09

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan26:10

       Yeah.

   19. DPDanny Philippou26:10

       Dude.

   20. JRJoe Rogan26:10

       Yeah.

   21. DPDanny Philippou26:10

       Yeah. And do his own stunts.

9. 26:12 – 27:10

   Origin of Talk To Me: real-life drug incident, the possession ‘party’ concept, and writing sprint

   1. JRJoe Rogan26:12

      So did you guys write Talk To Me? Did you... How'd the idea come about?

   2. DPDanny Philippou26:16

      There was these neighbors that we watched grow up and one of them was experimenting with drugs for the first time and was having a negative reaction to what he'd taken. And he was on the floor convulsing and the kids that he was with weren't helping him. They were filming him and laughing at him.

   3. JRJoe Rogan26:30

      Oh, Jesus.

   4. DPDanny Philippou26:30

      So that was the first, uh, like, that was the first thing that really stuck into my head that I wanted to put on the page. There was, uh, a guy named Daley Pearson who produces a show called Bluey in Australia. It's like a cartoon kid's show. He had a short film that was about kids having fun with possession. It was, uh, a comedy horror short. And he said- But that, that was like hand or anything? There was no hand or anything. But it was like that kind of concept of, like, using it for fun, like, possession for fun.

   5. JRJoe Rogan26:54

      Mm-hmm.

   6. DPDanny Philippou26:54

      And everything, so I did a rewrite of the short film, and then once I did that, I just couldn't stop writing. So within the first, what, like, 10 days, 12 days, I had 80 pages for a script, and I've got a co-writer named Bill Hinzman that I send everything, uh, through and we just collaborate and bounce drafts back and forth.

   7. JRJoe Rogan27:10

      Mm-hmm.

10. 27:10 – 33:59

    Hollywood rejection, YouTuber stigma, and choosing the independent route

    1. DPDanny Philippou27:10

       So that happened around 2018, 2019, and then we decided that we're gonna move out of Australia, move to Hollywood, said goodbye to all our friends and family, did a big dramatic goodbye, we're like, "We're gonna go to LA and we're gonna sell this fucking script." And it's gonna take years to sell it. Well, no, we went- That's what we told those out, like, "We're gonna move there to sell it."

    2. JRJoe Rogan27:27

       Right.

    3. DPDanny Philippou27:28

       Well, we went out there and everybody said no. Every single- (laughs) Every studio said no, we couldn't get meetings anywhere. There's like a, a, like, a low budget place called Shudder that do, like, low budget horror films, we couldn't even get a meeting in there. So we've- Well, being a YouTuber comes of, like, there's, like, a stigma attached to it.

    4. JRJoe Rogan27:44

       Yeah.

    5. DPDanny Philippou27:44

       Yeah. If you wanna break outside of it, there's like a stigma for being a YouTuber, 'cause they-

    6. JRJoe Rogan27:48

       Right.

    7. DPDanny Philippou27:48

       Like, like people knew, like, we can keep an audience's attention for five minutes, but a film is so different. Like, people will go, "Yeah, you're a YouTuber, not a filmmaker." Um, but then, like, there was one studio that was, like, eventually we talked to- But after that, we, we reached out to Causeway Films, who Michael did some work experience on this horror film called The Babadook, and- Babadook.

    8. JRJoe Rogan28:06

       Oh, I love that movie.

    9. DPDanny Philippou28:07

       Babadook. Yeah, yeah. So Michael was- I was on a, I was on pre-work... You were work experience on The Babadook. I was production runner. Well, Michael was paid to drive around actors. Yeah, yeah. And Danny was, you did lighting. I did lighting. Work ex- Do you know what work experience is like an intern? For, yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan28:20

        Right.

    11. DPDanny Philippou28:20

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan28:21

        Yeah.

    13. DPDanny Philippou28:21

        So that- So we reached out to Causeway Films and said, "We've got this project." We sent it through to them. They were surprisingly interested and surprisingly took a chance on us. They helped us develop the script further. So we did another draft and then, like, probably after three months of them we were ready to go, and by then another, a company in Hollywood reached out and were gonna make it. But they started giving us creative notes that were pushing it into a bit, bit more of a typical direction. They weren't bad notes at all, but it was sort of wanting to ex- explore where the hand came from, explore how to beat it, explore who the demons were.

    14. JRJoe Rogan28:53

        Mm-hmm.

    15. DPDanny Philippou28:53

        And it felt too typical, whereas I really wanted the kids to be in out of their depth-

    16. JRJoe Rogan28:57

        Right.

    17. DPDanny Philippou28:57

        ... and over their heads and not understand what it is that they're messing with.

    18. JRJoe Rogan28:59

        That was some, part of the intrigue of the film. It's like-

    19. DPDanny Philippou29:02

        Yeah.

    20. JRJoe Rogan29:02

        ... "What is that? Where did they get that?" And then you don't really explain it that well, which is kind of cool.

    21. DPDanny Philippou29:06

        Yeah, yeah, which is what we wanted to do as well. Because at the end, there's a death scene.

    22. JRJoe Rogan29:08

        'Cause it also seemed, like, typical, like what kids would do if they were partying and someone brought something fucking crazy out. There would be a lot of confusion.

    23. DPDanny Philippou29:17

        Yeah, yeah.

    24. JRJoe Rogan29:17

        Instead of having, like, a clearly defined origin story of it.

    25. DPDanny Philippou29:21

        Yeah. Or like the scene where they go to the library and they dig up the old archive footage or-

    26. JRJoe Rogan29:25

        Yeah.

    27. DPDanny Philippou29:25

        Yeah. "Hey, this was back in the day, the 18th century." Like- Yeah, it's so... Yeah. We had, we know what it is, but the, even the kids, they have an idea of what they think the rules are. But that's not necessarily the rules. That's just what they think they are.

    28. JRJoe Rogan29:38

        Right, right, right.

    29. DPDanny Philippou29:38

        It's their perceived... And every, everybody's body reacts differently to drugs. So one person's experience with weed will be different from another person's experience of weed. And so we wanted to sort of have that sort of vibe with the hand as well. Yeah, like they-

    30. JRJoe Rogan29:48

        Oh.
11. 33:59 – 36:49

    Production under pressure: budget cuts, COVID chaos, and Sophie Wilde’s commitment

    1. DPDanny Philippou33:59

       ... I remember going to the studios. The people that financed it were still iffy on us directing. They said to Sam, our producer, they're like, "Can you... What, what have they done exactly? Can you send some stuff?" But they were still a little bit unsure-

    2. JRJoe Rogan34:10

       Hmm.

    3. DPDanny Philippou34:10

       ... 'cause it's a big gamble with so much money. Sure. So we sent them the car hit video. The-

    4. JRJoe Rogan34:14

       Ah.

    5. DPDanny Philippou34:15

       Yeah, well, we just sent them some examples of a more narrative-driven video, which our YouTube videos n- never really were.

    6. JRJoe Rogan34:20

       Mm-hmm.

    7. DPDanny Philippou34:21

       So it was, it was hard. I remember we did a short film called Deluge before we started the YouTube channel.

    8. JRJoe Rogan34:25

       So was there talk of someone else taking it over?

    9. DPDanny Philippou34:27

       That's what I... Uh, they didn't say that specifically, but- Well, the thing is, like, the, the... There was- Yeah. And one of the reasons we didn't go with the Hollywood studios because they would have final cut and be able to make changes and stuff. And like-

    10. JRJoe Rogan34:37

        Yeah.

    11. DPDanny Philippou34:38

        Every single, like, shot and, like, sound effect and everything was so, like, uh, I guess have, like, a strong sense of w- how we want it.

    12. JRJoe Rogan34:45

        Mm-hmm.

    13. DPDanny Philippou34:45

        I couldn't imagine having that control taken away from us.

    14. JRJoe Rogan34:48

        Right.

    15. DPDanny Philippou34:48

        So during the... So we went the independent route, lost half the budget. And then it was, it was supposed to be an eight-week shoot. We ended up... It dropped to a seven, then a six, and a five. So we had five weeks. We lost an extra million dollars out of the budget because we, uh, cast Sophie Wilde, 'cause she wasn't a name yet, like, as a lead.

    16. JRJoe Rogan35:05

        So they took a million dollars away from you guys?

    17. DPDanny Philippou35:06

        Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it, it, it was- Yeah.

    18. JRJoe Rogan35:07

        Meanwhile, she was great.

    19. DPDanny Philippou35:08

        She was incredible, yeah. She was the best. She is the best. And now she's doing, like she's got a lot, like, a lot of stuff coming up, which is amazing. Like, it was worth it to us because she was the best, like, performer. And like I've never... Man, it's such a amazing experience having someone that's, like, so good at their craft and, like, will elevate it t- uh, to a, a, a point higher than you could imagine in your mind. Like, we have a strong thing of like how we want it to be.

    20. JRJoe Rogan35:32

        Mm-hmm.

    21. DPDanny Philippou35:33

        You get amazing artists like that, and they just fucking elevate it, because- She, she was so committed. There were days when we asked her not to sleep and come to set not having slept because her character's losing her mind or she's meant to-

    22. JRJoe Rogan35:42

        Wow.

    23. DPDanny Philippou35:42

        ... have been up all night. So she would do that. There was a scene where she starts, like, hitting herself. And she was so committed she started beating the crap out of herself for real. She was just so caught up as a character in the moment. She was like... (yawns) Yeah, yeah. So- Yeah, she was like, uh... Yeah, and 'cause it was such a short shoot, like, uh, we had to really... And it was, it was during COVID was go- like, down but coming back up. Yeah, some are like- So if you get, if you get COVID, then, you know, you can't come to set for a week or... So it was like survival on set. Like-

    24. JRJoe Rogan36:11

        Mm-hmm.

    25. DPDanny Philippou36:11

        ... peop- like... There was one week where we lost like seven people or... And it w- that was on a Friday. Like, come Monday, there's gonna be no one left. Like, uh, uh, yeah, we're just, like, losing so many people. Everyone was constantly getting tested. And we knew if the production shut down, we just, yeah, we weren't gonna finish it. We weren't gonna make it on budget. There was, like, budget set aside for certain emergency situations, but it was, like, really, really tight. So we had to reinvest all of our fees back into the film. Our producer reinvested all of their fees back into the film to make sure that we could get Sophie. And it was just a race for the finish line. It was so... There was days when we had to shoot eight minutes of the film in one day. Which, u- usually on a film, it's supposed to be, like, on average, what, 90 seconds? Something like that? Yeah. Per day of f- filming.

12. 36:49 – 45:02

    Sundance breakout to A24 deal: hype, anxiety, and realizing it was a hit

    1. JRJoe Rogan36:49

       So how did the film get so popular?

    2. DPDanny Philippou36:52

       Well, so we had a ...

    3. JRJoe Rogan36:54

       Was it just word of mouth?

    4. DPDanny Philippou36:56

       It, well, we, we got picked up from, so we got into Sundance Film Festival, which is like a really, like prestigious film fest, one of the biggest in the world, Sundance. Yeah. Uh, and we got into that somehow. And then, uh, there was, I think like word started spreading there. So we were getting contacted by like all the agencies, like all these big, you know, talent agencies. And we're getting like, and they were getting people to like reach out to us. So we were getting like 200, 300 emails a day of like people like, "Oh, sign with us," like this thing. So word was spreading before the movie even, no one even saw the movie. I think they spoke to the people at Sundance, like, what's like a buzz title or something.

    5. JRJoe Rogan37:33

       Mm-hmm.

    6. DPDanny Philippou37:33

       And that came up. It was like- So when we got there, we, it was like this chaotic like, yeah, like a strange ... E- e- everything we were trying to get, achieve in our life, like being in film was like, and like we were scratching at the door forever. It just like blew open and then-

    7. JRJoe Rogan37:48

       Whoa.

    8. DPDanny Philippou37:48

       ... everything was like, like the most fucking surreal. It was the most overwhelming. We spent all of Sundance, because we had the crew there and the cast there, everyone was just crying the entire time. It was so overwhelming. And even though all those emails, all these people reaching out, all these heroes of ours, all, all these companies that you've seen so many products from, saying, "Oh, do you want to look at this script? Do you want to have a look at this?" It was the first time I got so overwhelmed. I couldn't even open emails. I couldn't look or I was so ...

    9. JRJoe Rogan38:12

       Did it just feel surreal?

    10. DPDanny Philippou38:13

        Everything felt like ... Yeah. Yeah, like Jordan Peele sent a message, like randomly. And then, uh, Ari Aster, who did Hereditary, he came to the premier. And like, man, it was, there was all this hype around the movie before anyone saw it. I was like, "Man," I would have rather it be like you, no one knows, like you just go in not knowing, expecting anything.

    11. JRJoe Rogan38:32

        Mm-hmm.

    12. DPDanny Philippou38:32

        But there was this really high expectation going into it. We were sitting at the back of the theater just cringing, man, like oh, like it was the most painful experience because it was, it was the first time we were going to be exposed to critics, and like harsh critics, you know, Sundance and things like that. And uh, the, we, we wanted audience members just in the, in the theater, but I think it was all just like industry professionals. So it was like, it was terrifying. It was, it was- It was tough. ... I was troughing so bad throughout the screening, thinking it was playing like shit. Yeah, people would get up to go to the toilet, they'd open the s- the back door and then light would go over the crowd. We're like, "Oh." You know? Yeah, it just, constantly people were moving around. I'm like, "What, is the movie boring? Why is people moving to the toilet?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think, and it was like a midnight screening as well. Like they play it at midnight and Egyptian Theatre, it was like a big famous theater. And like it was midnight, so it was late, people like a little bit maybe drunk. Or you know ... (laughs) So ... (laughs) It was like a weird ... But yeah, that whole night I just remember being really emotional and just troughing a lot. And, and cringing and-

    13. JRJoe Rogan39:24

        Tr- troughing?

    14. DPDanny Philippou39:25

        Uh, in film, like there's peaks and troughs. Peaks and troughs, peaks and valleys, yeah.

    15. JRJoe Rogan39:30

        Oh, I see. Oh, I see.

    16. DPDanny Philippou39:30

        It was like troughing and feeling really down. We went up to Ari Aster to apologize to him after the movie. I literally got up to say, "I'm so sorry you got dragged here because of all this hype for no reason." I went to apologize to him. So I walked up to him, I'm like, "Bro, I'm so sorry that ..." And he's like, "That was amazing." And I was like, "Whoa, what the fuck?" And then he's-

    17. JRJoe Rogan39:46

        So you thought it wasn't being received well just because people were distracted and moving around?

    18. DPDanny Philippou39:51

        Yeah.

    19. JRJoe Rogan39:51

        Or just you guys were hypersensitive?

    20. DPDanny Philippou39:52

        Hypersensitive and focusing on small things. Yeah. Any, any, uh, yeah, anything that was like, you know, like a crackle in the speaker or someone going to the toilet was like ... You're, you're o- overthinking. ... a tsunami hitting. It was such a, a very heightened emotional moment that every small thing, I was like, "This is playing like shit."

    21. JRJoe Rogan40:06

        So when did you realize that it wasn't? When did you realize that this is a hit?

    22. DPDanny Philippou40:09

        When it ... At that night, our producer said A24 want to make an offer on the film. And I was like, "What the fuck? A24?" Which is, we would joke about it on set. "Oh, this is very A24, this film. This is a very A24 shot." You know? You guys do know A24?

    23. JRJoe Rogan40:23

        No, what's that?

    24. DPDanny Philippou40:24

        So they're a distributer, uh, distribution company. Oh no, they're also like a, like a production company. They are like a film company, production company. They're like the most- They're a studio. ... prestigious, like st- like, i- like kind of indie studio thing.

    25. JRJoe Rogan40:34

        Okay.

    26. DPDanny Philippou40:35

        So like, it's all, like they're really selective with their talent and, and it's kind of like art films.

    27. JRJoe Rogan40:39

        Like can you give me an example of a film movie?

    28. DPDanny Philippou40:41

        Ex Machina. Oh yeah, give me, oh yeah.

    29. JRJoe Rogan40:43

        Oh, Ex Machina, one of my all time favorites.

    30. DPDanny Philippou40:45

        That was on, yeah.
13. 45:02 – 55:07

    Release strategy, worldwide performance, and sequel/spinoff ambitions

    1. JRJoe Rogan45:02

       So whe-

    2. DPDanny Philippou45:03

       But it was-

    3. JRJoe Rogan45:03

       How long did it take? Was it a slow build? How long did it take before it hit, like, 90 million? Was it like ...

    4. DPDanny Philippou45:08

       I think, it's been in- It's been in cinemas for a while now. It, it still hasn't come- Y- it's still in cinemas right now.

    5. JRJoe Rogan45:12

       Really?

    6. DPDanny Philippou45:13

       Playing in some theaters, yeah. I think they, they ... I think every week, they, like, drop it by half, the amount of theaters that it plays in.

    7. JRJoe Rogan45:18

       Oh.

    8. DPDanny Philippou45:18

       Um, and, and the way they promoted it was, like ... And I think A24 does more, like ... Again, this whole world, like, making stuff where that's our, like, whole lives. But the stuff after, all this stuff, I have no idea what ... Like, this is such a new process for us, like marketing and release-

    9. JRJoe Rogan45:33

       Mm-hmm.

    10. DPDanny Philippou45:33

        ... and all that stuff. So, I, I think the way that they do it is- If you say bola, we got a publicist. Sorry, our publicist doesn't speak- (laughs) Oh, man. It was the first time we had, like, you know ... Like, our schedules now ... It's good that we have, like, uh, management now that like s- gives us a schedule 'cause we have no idea what's happening every second. But yeah, like, w- uh, in a publicist, you got a new thing. There's, like, a list of, like, 30 interviews that you're doing that day. And then, like, you just got to get some control. There was ... It was, it was a lot of word-of-mouth screenings. And- Yeah, they didn't do, like- Yeah. ... billboards and things like that. That wasn't the way that they promote. Yeah. They did, like, uh, showing the movie to people that they think would talk about it, and then, like, kinda spread that way, I guess. It was a word-of-mouth campaign. Yeah, word-of-mouth campaign. Yeah.

    11. JRJoe Rogan46:11

        So it just sort of slowly kept going?

    12. DPDanny Philippou46:14

        Yeah. 'Cause we've been promoting it since Sundance 'cause we got into Sundance, which we did that whole thing there. Then in February, we were in Berlin Film Festival. There's a bit more promo there. And then March, we're in South By Southwest here in Texas. And so, all those screenings just came word-of-mouth. And then they would just- Yeah. ... and then out to live

    13. NANarrator46:30

        We put up with it.

    14. DPDanny Philippou46:30

        And then, like, I guess it, it did really good in South America, uh, like Mexico, Peru, like, all those places. And they went hard on the marketing. There's a company called Diamond Films. They do i- They made, like, a giant hand, and they were parading it through the street. Yeah. (laughs) It was so fucking awesome. I mean, I was like, "Man, I wanna go over there." Like, "I wanna get a picture," like. They had, like, a whole, like ... A bus stop where it was, like, four bus stops with, like, hands in between them, like, all in the road for the film.

    15. JRJoe Rogan46:52

        Oh.

    16. DPDanny Philippou46:52

        Big walls of it. So cool, man. Yeah, Me- Very different to the- ... Mexico went hard. They went, yeah. Yeah, I was like, "Man, next time ..." 'Cause we're gonna do a sequel. Mexico, yeah.

    17. JRJoe Rogan46:59

        You're gonna do a sequel now?

    18. DPDanny Philippou47:00

        Yeah. I, I ... Even when you're writing something like that, you get so caught up in the world and with the characters, you can't help but start writing scenes for a sequel. And so, I had ideas for it, and I told A24, I said, "If it's successful up, I would be so down to do a sequel." So I just sort of planted the seed. In every Q&A that we did in these, like, word-of-mouth screenings, I was like, "You know, A24 should give us a ..." I was always just s- sort of hinting, saying that I would do it if they wanted to do it.

    19. JRJoe Rogan47:22

        That's a big thing now with horror movies, where they have all these spinoffs. Like, look at The Conjuring.

    20. DPDanny Philippou47:27

        Oh, it's-

    21. JRJoe Rogan47:27

        How many movies do they have off of that?

    22. DPDanny Philippou47:28

        Yeah, yeah. Crazy, there's a whole universe. It's a whole franchise.

    23. JRJoe Rogan47:30

        Yeah, there's a whole Conjuring universe.

    24. DPDanny Philippou47:32

        Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it does help solidify things in pop culture if you look at Friday the 13th, you know, with Jason or, or Freddy. If it was just one film- Yes, but there's a two ... It depends, like, if ... At what point does it become, like, a money grab, I guess, is, like, a thing where it's ...

    25. JRJoe Rogan47:46

        Well, when you don't wanna do it anymore.

    26. DPDanny Philippou47:48

        Yeah. Yeah.

    27. JRJoe Rogan47:48

        When you're just doing it for the money.

    28. DPDanny Philippou47:49

        Or a cool thing, I think, would be if people wanted to ...'cause they're talking about ... If, if you ... Like, imagine a movie where we get a cool, talented, like, director, like Africa, writer-director. And then they do, like, a version of that world, like, in a, in a, in-

    29. JRJoe Rogan48:03

        Mm, yeah.

    30. DPDanny Philippou48:03

        ... their surroundings.
14. 55:07 – 1:06:14

    Craft deep-dive: practical possession looks, prosthetics, ‘uncanny valley,’ and ultra-violence roots

    1. JRJoe Rogan55:07

       Yeah, how did you decide how to have them look when they're being possessed?

    2. DPDanny Philippou55:12

       We ... I- I knew that we didn't want it to feel too elevated and-... for them to feel and look like corpses.

    3. JRJoe Rogan55:17

       Mm-hmm.

    4. DPDanny Philippou55:18

       You know, and, and so our, our- Well, the light, their eyes as well to be like- Yeah, yeah.

    5. JRJoe Rogan55:22

       Did you guys use, uh, contact lenses?

    6. DPDanny Philippou55:24

       Yeah, everything was practical. Yeah. Scleras, big fat scleras. You know, this- A bit like when you're on, like, uh, people when they're on, like, pingers and your iris changes.

    7. JRJoe Rogan55:34

       Pingers? Pinger?

    8. DPDanny Philippou55:34

       Pingers, mate. Bloody, uh, it's Australian term. It's Australian term for, like, uh- Ecstasy or- Yeah.

    9. JRJoe Rogan55:38

       Oh, pingers.

    10. DPDanny Philippou55:39

        It's pingers, mate.

    11. JRJoe Rogan55:40

        Never heard that one.

    12. DPDanny Philippou55:41

        Yeah, no. But, yeah- Come down to Red Square in Adelaide, mate, get some pingers.

    13. JRJoe Rogan55:47

        (laughs)

    14. DPDanny Philippou55:47

        (laughs) Yeah, and so yeah, we just wanted to, uh, we, we told ... We sat the actors down 'cause makeup ... Uh, VFX always looks really odd around the eyes and you can always tell. So we had to sit them down and say, "It's gonna be really uncomfortable, but we need everyone to be able to put these proper contact lenses in. Like, we need to be able to do it." So he- I said, "I will do it as well. I will wear these contact lenses in if you do." I wore them for like 30 minutes. I'm like, "I'm fucking taking them out." They're the most uncomfortable things in the world.

    15. JRJoe Rogan56:10

        I can imagine.

    16. DPDanny Philippou56:11

        Yeah. But, uh, all the actors were round with it and, yeah, the makeup, the makeup, uh, bible, there were so many references of real corpses and real dead bodies and just to try and capture it and make it feel really real and authentic. And not too, yeah, not too heightened was the makeup effects. Yeah. And then also doing everything practically, even with the kid that's pulling his eyeball out of his face.

    17. JRJoe Rogan56:29

        Mm-hmm.

    18. DPDanny Philippou56:30

        We built his face on top of his face so he could, you know, interact properly and practically- Like a prosthetic face on his face.

    19. JRJoe Rogan56:37

        How did you have him slamming his head against things?

    20. DPDanny Philippou56:39

        So we did it a few different ways. We had the way that we initially thought of, which it worked, um, but we had some backups just in case. We had like a, a foam cover of the table so he was just hitting his head on foam. Uh, and then we did one where we had like a, like a, a head mold made of him and then we're just slamming that into a real table.

    21. JRJoe Rogan56:57

        Mm.

    22. DPDanny Philippou56:57

        Uh, and we had like blood tubes going, uh, through his head and that for blood effects. That fucking kid, man. Up to six hours of makeup and he didn't- Joe Bird, yeah.

    23. JRJoe Rogan57:05

        Yeah, Joe Bird, the kid, who just didn't complain once. And there were scenes where we're like, "You have to be in, out of focus, sitting on the bed." And he has to go through all those hours of makeup and he just did it without complaining.

    24. DPDanny Philippou57:14

        Yeah. Yeah, he did that. They were like long prosthetics, but it, it ... There's something about it, like when you do things practically, it has like a, a genuine feel. It feels a lot more real.

    25. JRJoe Rogan57:23

        Yeah.

    26. DPDanny Philippou57:23

        I can ... And even if audiences don't understand it like base level, like what they're looking at, something will just not feel right.

    27. JRJoe Rogan57:29

        Right.

    28. DPDanny Philippou57:29

        Yeah. Uh, even if you can't, uh, verbalize what it is, uh-

    29. JRJoe Rogan57:32

        The uncanny valley.

    30. DPDanny Philippou57:33

        The uncanny valley, yeah. The uncanny valley. What's that? Oh, come on. You don't know? I'm sorry, mate, what's the uncanny valley? There's just something off about it and it's, yeah-

Episode duration: 2:10:54