In Part 2 of this special Movie Rob Minute episode, Christian and Corey Johnson continue their conversation with Rob about Saving Private Ryan, diving into the intricacies of Corey's role on set, military bonds, and reflections on the powerful themes of Spielberg’s war epic.

From detailed behind-the-scenes tales to touching insights on military brotherhood and trauma bonding, this episode brings it all.

We explore how Corey's experiences on set—like working with dummies, blood bags, and Tom Hanks—compare to the real horrors of war. Plus, Christian shares her reflections on the connection between veterans’ war experiences and the power of storytelling in her documentary The Girl Who Wore Freedom.

As the conversation shifts to film scores, we jump into Maestro Mondays to share our top 5 John Williams movie scores, dissecting what makes his compositions iconic and unforgettable.

Key Takeaways:

•Corey shares how he worked with Tom Hanks on Saving Private Ryan, revealing behind-the-scenes moments that most viewers don’t know, such as the use of dummies and blood bags in the intense D-Day sequence.

•Christian and Corey dive into the concept of trauma bonding, drawing parallels between military camaraderie and the deep connections shared by actors on set.

•A fascinating discussion on the therapeutic impact of storytelling, both for veterans and filmmakers, and how film scores can evoke deep emotions tied to historical moments.

•In the Maestro Mondays segment, we break down our top 5 John Williams scores, exploring the enduring power of his music to transport audiences into the heart of a story.

Additional Information:

•The Girl Who Wore Freedom is available for viewing in the U.S. on platforms like Amazon, Apple TV, and Vudu. Check out the trailer and learn more at thegirlwhoworefreedom.com.

•Be sure to listen to Part 3 of this conversation as we continue our analysis of Saving Private Ryan and dive deeper into more movie magic and historical stories.

oh

2

I thought I heard it was happening.

3

Who else was on the list?

4

my god.

5

don't remember.

6

Well, I mean, anyway, doesn't matter.

7

He was perfect.

8

And that movie was phenomenal.

9

Okay.

10

So I guess I have to give my next two.

11

So my next two are, um, actually they go together.

12

So Sleepless in Seattle, uh, this movie was the first movie that my husband and I saw

together.

13

Uh, it was our very first date.

14

And of course it is such an incredibly romantic movie.

15

He's phenomenal at those.

16

yeah, it was, um I just think it was, you know, this very tender, real, believable

performance and it stuck with me forever.

17

And then my second one is You've Got Mail.

18

For a lot of the same reasons, You've Got Mail, ah we also, my husband and I saw that

together.

19

We watched those movies still all the time, all the time.

20

You've Got Mail to Me is just a uh classic and always will be.

21

Anyway, so those are my uh two and three.

22

uh

23

three and three.

24

So uh a few people that so Robin Williams was up for the role Harrison Ford back to.

25

uh

26

Harrison Ford was up for it when Spielberg was going to direct it.

27

apparently Kevin Costner, Gutenberg, Warren Beatty, Dennis Quaid, Matthew Modine, Albert

Brooks, Jeff Bridges, John Travolta, Sean Penn, Gary Busey, Andy Garcia, Deborah Winger

28

was going to play it.

29

Were they going to do it for a woman?

30

Deborah Winger was going to play it.

31

Bill Murray.

32

Judge Reinhold, Michael Keaton, it's just unbelievable the number of people that they

wanted to give this-

33

go, are people who were offered the role but turned it down.

34

They turned it down.

35

They were offered it.

36

Kevin Costner, Steve Guttenberg, Warren Beatty, Dennis Quaid, Matthew Modine.

37

They got so lucky that they all turned it down.

38

Holy cow.

39

did get lucky.

40

think, you know, Matthew Modine would have been great.

41

uh Dennis Quaid could have been great.

42

I think Dennis Quaid is...

43

any of these people could have pulled off being a 13 year old boy.

44

which, amazingly, but Gary Busey's out of his Maybe, maybe.

45

A lot of those guys.

46

Well, but you see, even Robin Williams, because he's so, what he would have been would

have been so identifiable as Robin Williams, where you had no understanding of who Tom

47

Hanks was.

48

True.

49

oh so Christian, what's your number two?

50

So, well, I gave you my number two.

51

My number two is you've got mail.

52

That's right, that's right, that's right.

53

Sorry, what's your number?

54

my number one is that thing you do.

55

Have you ever seen it?

56

You have, you are a movie nerd.

57

What's my name?

58

Oh my gosh.

59

Let me put it this way.

60

On my website, have reviewed more than 12,000 movies.

61

I watch 100 movies a month.

62

That's a lot.

63

Not necessarily new movies, you know, like sometimes, usually about a third are rewatched,

but there are months where I watch even more than that.

64

lot of movies.

65

I hope your family likes watching movies.

66

Nope, they don't.

67

My wife hates it.

68

She can't understand why I love movies so much.

69

she loves me enough to let me do my thing.

70

You are blessed.

71

You're very blessed.

72

Well, yes, that thing you do for me.

73

It's a tiny little movie.

74

Tom Hanks wrote it.

75

He stars in it.

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is.

77

Yeah, he directed it.

78

It is a thing of beauty for me.

79

I love the music.

80

I think it's one of the most masterful things he ever did because it's totally him.

81

He's back.

82

uh So that thing you do is one that my family watches all the time.

83

And so it's become a family classic.

84

uh

85

And you get that song stuck in your head also.

86

Yes.

87

Hi.

88

You missed my number one.

89

Should we go back?

90

No, what was your number one?

91

My number one, are you ready for it?

92

That thing you do.

93

I know it's the best.

94

I mean, it's because he wrote it, he directed it, he stopped it.

95

He made the music of, see, it was so good that at the end, where he writes what everybody

did, the first time I saw it, I went and I Googled everybody in there.

96

I I really thought it was a

97

real movie, based on true fact, you know, and he made up plate on records.

98

mean, his company is called playtone.

99

Like it's so much a part of who he was that film.

100

Um, so I think he, it's one that he's really, really proud of.

101

Cause I feel like it's just so much a part of him.

102

m That's why I like it.

103

And you know, a lot of those people that were in there, it was like one of their first

starting.

104

Dawn.

105

I mean, my gosh, that's where I fell in love with Steve's on.

106

He's hilarious in that movie, Liv Tyler.

107

And then Tom, what's Tom's name?

108

The drummer, I am Spartacus.

109

Thix, yeah, I can't remember.

110

Gosh, she's so funny.

111

Anyway, love him.

112

He was also in La La Land.

113

Anyway, great, great cast.

114

Super awesome movie.

115

Great music.

116

There are always some people who do something like what he did with that thing you do.

117

And you think, wow, this could really sort of, it could be his, it makes you understand,

like with acting, with writing, anything, maybe not producing, you have to love directing

118

in order to be a director.

119

There are some great actors who have done brilliant movies, but they come up against

120

It's not the wall of their limitations.

121

It's just You have to have a certain mindset in order to be a director that must have very

little to do with acting because Robert De Niro who I thought did a brilliant movie in a

122

Bronx Tale and Then get the good shepherd and the good shepherd literally ended his

directing career Yeah, you know and I don't think Tom Hanks has directed much since that

123

thing you do if anything at all.

124

I can't think of anything

125

I don't think he's directed any other movies.

126

directed, think, episode of...

127

Did he direct an episode of Dunder Brothers?

128

Mayhem.

129

Is that right?

130

I didn't know that.

131

And he's produced a lot of stuff.

132

Because I think there's less, it's like producing, you're always behind the scenes, but

directing, you have to be at the forefront and you have to have that ego, but you can't

133

have the release of being in front of the camera where you get to feed your ego.

134

you know?

135

And so there's something I think for an actor possibly inherently unsatisfying about a

director, unless you are supposed to be a director.

136

And I think he's a brilliant actor.

137

I don't think, in a way, and this is leading into my number one.

138

One of the reasons he's a great actor is that he's kind of like having a director who

behaves in front of a camera.

139

Well, would tell you, think it is uh like being a director and the girl who wore freedom

or working on the production side.

140

And I did that for a long time has made me a far better actor.

141

When you have X, Oh gosh, yes.

142

When you have experience on the other side of the camera and you understand what's

happening on that side.

143

Right.

144

my gosh.

145

I now, I mean,

146

doesn't it work both ways?

147

No, that's what I was going to say.

148

It doesn't necessarily.

149

It's like, I know a lot of actors who go, I look, I need the money.

150

And so I'll do this reading for, you you off camera to help you with these actors.

151

But I really don't.

152

This isn't me.

153

I'm not that actor.

154

I'm an actor, not a.

155

You watch other actors, how they come into a meeting and you immediately you go, oh, don't

do that.

156

Don't he wants to look at you.

157

Don't don't.

158

Why are you doing that?

159

Don't don't make that choice.

160

Look, I'm giving you this line, why you...

161

And they'll sit there, the director will go, what did you think of that?

162

He says, I don't know why she did that.

163

She made that odd choice there.

164

Did you think that was interesting?

165

No, I thought it was the wrong choice.

166

It's like she didn't know what the sentence meant.

167

And you just realize that actors nine times out of 10 shoot themselves in the foot.

168

And so being on the other side of the camera, not only has it helped me, it's why Harrison

Ford got Han Solo.

169

You know, they asked him to read, came in and read and they went, of a bitch, no one's

doing this better than you.

170

You know?

171

And that made his life.

172

I mean, it made his life.

173

um anyway, the idea that, I mean, I believe working at that thing can make you a better

actor, but I don't believe being a good actor makes you a better director or producer

174

because the funnel doesn't run the other way.

175

It's like when you pour things into that funnel, it focuses down and goes to the channel

it needs to go to.

176

But when you flip it around, you know.

177

understand what you're saying except I will say this as an actor.

178

Okay.

179

Yeah.

180

I now understand the pressures that are come to bear on a director.

181

And I now understand the whole scope of the production.

182

So before I was very let's you know, ethnocentric like it's as an actor.

183

It's all about me.

184

Like it's about the script.

185

Right.

186

It's about what I'm doing.

187

It's about who my part is.

188

You're so focused with what you look like.

189

Do I sound okay?

190

What do they think about me?

191

know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

192

You know, are they going to pick me?

193

And even when I go into auditions, oh my gosh, do I look okay?

194

Am I all right?

195

Now I know that it's not about me.

196

None of it's about me.

197

None of it is about me at all.

198

you know, if I don't get picked for an audition,

199

It's not because I don't look right.

200

It's not because necessarily I'm a bad actor.

201

It's because I don't look right next to this person.

202

I don't fit into this family.

203

I may remind the director of his ex-wife.

204

Who knows what it is?

205

It doesn't matter.

206

I just didn't get the role for whatever reason.

207

Or if I'm in a scene or whatever and something's going wrong, it's not necessarily my

fault.

208

It could be that the lighting is wrong.

209

I know

210

as a an actor, I'm sitting back here.

211

I am the least important part of whatever's happening on set.

212

Because the people that are setting up the lights and the camera and the sets and all of

that that takes.

213

5 times longer than it does for me to do I seen and if all those things were not right.

214

couldn't do my scene.

215

Now as an actor I have perspective.

216

about what's happening around me.

217

And so I feel like I can be a much better actor because I care about the whole of just

myself.

218

I would say...

219

I would say having a well-rounded acting career, and that means playing small parts as

well as medium-sized parts as well as character parts as well as carrying something, would

220

potentially have given you the same type of perspective on things.

221

uh It's great that you were a producer.

222

It's great that you worked behind the scenes because that's just, it's just valuable.

223

It's about rounding you.

224

I think uh most actors become producers in name only.

225

In other words, they don't have to pay them as much if they make them an executive

producer on the movie because they'll get an EP bump at the end of the film, as well as

226

getting an actor's salary.

227

uh But there are people who make actors producers because just because doesn't cost

anybody anything and it means they can save on salary.

228

we'll make you an executive producer.

229

You know, a lot of independent movies, it's like you see all these actors who are

executive producers.

230

The list of producers and executive producers on a movie nowadays sometimes is as big, if

not bigger than the main cast.

231

And you just go, that's frightening.

232

That's frightening because direct producing has become a thing unto itself.

233

It's like you used to have an actual agent being an agent.

234

More and more, your agent is a lawyer.

235

That's because it's about contracts and it's about stipulations and it's about did they do

such and such and while you know Hugh Grant jokes about his agent he said I want to thank

236

my agent for being very short and very vicious you know and that's what he was he was

about five foot five and he was just the nastiest man in London.

237

And to this day Hugh Grant still talks about him saying my agent was a particularly

obnoxious little man and you know, but it worked you know he worked for him and he worked

238

for a lot of actors.

239

And so, you know, that was when an agent used to be an agent.

240

Now an agent is someone else, you know, it's like a court case.

241

uh And producers, it's almost like you go, producers and directors almost nowadays can

have absolutely nothing to do with acting.

242

You have to look to a cinematographer to go, how's it looking?

243

It's looking great.

244

Am I in the shadow there?

245

Well, you can back off a little bit.

246

Okay, fine.

247

Because I got to be lit, you know?

248

I gotta make sure I'm being seen.

249

And a director sometimes is going, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine.

250

Because he's worried about whether there's enough smoke or whether such and such, you

because directors are like auteurs and they need to control everything.

251

And they don't get that the person telling your story is in front of the camera.

252

It's not you, it's not the camera, it's me.

253

And so you got to help me.

254

Anyway, the reason why no one

255

First of all, before you get to your number one, just to end what we were saying about Tom

Hanks as director.

256

So he directed one other movie, Larry Crown.

257

I never saw that one.

258

And he directed an episode of Band of Brothers, an episode of From New York to the Moon,

and then three TV show episodes in the early 90s.

259

An episode of Tales from the Crypt, an episode of The League of Their Own, the TV series,

and an episode of Fallen Angels.

260

Wow.

261

There's a total of seven directing credits.

262

Sorry to cut you off there, Corey.

263

No, you're good.

264

What?

265

My number one is Apollo 13.

266

Because, you know, again, yeah, it's just there's something it's like, but it's the same

thing, you know, when you said, you know, League of their own, when you said, what was

267

your number one thing you do?

268

You do there's something about a movie that, you know, in a way, it's like it's why I like

the soundtracks of Thomas Newman, because there's something intangible about them.

269

when I hear them, go, that's him.

270

He wrote the soundtrack.

271

And yet you don't know what it is he's done.

272

don't know.

273

It's just, there's a kind of a noise it makes that I go, oh God, you know?

274

And there's something about, there's something about a movie.

275

Maybe it's at a particular time or maybe it's just a movie that someone is in or something

that makes you go, I gotta have it.

276

I've got to have it.

277

Cinema Paradiso is like that for me.

278

It's just one of those movies.

279

It's a perfect film.

280

It's just a perfect film.

281

Apollo 13, I was very interested in space and the space program when I was growing up.

282

And I remember where I was when we landed on the moon.

283

And I remember looking at my aunt who was sobbing and I couldn't imagine.

284

you?

285

I in New Orleans.

286

Yeah.

287

I was eight.

288

Do you remember watching it?

289

Yeah, I remember watching them step off the ladder.

290

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

291

old.

292

I'm ancient.

293

Are you kidding?

294

I'm crusty.

295

When I get up, I make noise.

296

Yeah, oh, I remember it.

297

But I remember my aunt crying and not understanding why she was crying because it was just

so exciting.

298

But she'd seen so much.

299

look, my aunt in 1969 was about as old as I am now.

300

wow.

301

I know.

302

scary.

303

uh anyway, uh so Apollo 13, there were just so many moments in that movie that I remember

going, this is just brilliant.

304

My favorite is uh when they're trying to watch the thing that's going on and the kids come

and see the grandmother to take her mind off of it.

305

And the grandmother looks at the little girl and says, are you scared?

306

And she nods her head, yeah.

307

And she goes, you worry, sweetie.

308

If they could make a washing machine fly, my Jimmy could land it.

309

And you just went, this woman is as tough as nails.

310

Whatever it is she's going through, she's still as tough as nails.

311

And to have that moment in that movie at that point was just, it's what makes a movie

great.

312

Apocalypse Now, Coppola going, don't stop, keep moving, don't look at the camera, don't

look at the hand.

313

It's like, where am I?

314

It was just a brilliant moment in that movie.

315

That moment in that movie was inspired, just inspired.

316

I mean, they had Jim Lovell greeting Tom Hanks at the end of the movie, shaking his hand,

one of the admirals.

317

Was Jim Lovell shaking Tom Hanks' hand?

318

That didn't mean as much as that moment with that woman, if it could make a washing

machine fly.

319

Well, you know who played that woman.

320

Who?

321

You know who played that woman, don't you?

322

Ron Howard's mother.

323

Really?

324

That's an interesting fact.

325

She was great.

326

He put both his parents in every movie until they passed.

327

He puts his brother in his movies as well.

328

Clint's in all his movies.

329

That's really cool.

330

Did you ever do anything with him, With.

331

with Ron Howard?

332

No, I'd love to, but no, um I was doing a play last year.

333

Yeah, I was doing a play last year.

334

And I remember I got a jacket for Captain Phillips, and they gave me a jacket and it's got

Captain Phillips across the back.

335

And I was like, the last thing I'm going to do is wear a jacket with Captain Phillips

across the back.

336

We just made the movie.

337

So I left it in the plastic and I put it in a drawer at my house.

338

And literally a dozen years later I go, I just lost my favorite rain jacket.

339

This is a rain jacket.

340

It's a warm rain jacket.

341

It's always, hell with it, I don't care.

342

I ripped it out, pulled it out and put it on.

343

A couple of friends of mine give me stick for it, but I don't care.

344

It's a jacket, it's warm, I don't care.

345

I'm wearing it when I'm going to the theater and they come backstage to tell us, listen,

346

Tom Hanks was in tonight, he wants to meet the cast.

347

So I was like, okay, all right.

348

So I go out there and weirdly Tom Hanks was in and Orlando Bloom was in as well.

349

So I saw Orlando Bloom and I looked at him and he came right over to me because we did

Black Hawk Down together.

350

He had a huge role and I had a small role but I spent a lot of time with him.

351

He's a lovely guy.

352

And I just said, dude, I'm so proud of you.

353

And he said, buddy, it's great seeing you.

354

And we chatted and everything and Tom was talking to everybody else.

355

And I kind of stopped and listened.

356

He was saying something.

357

And then he kind of looked around and he said, have I, have I worked with anyone here?

358

And I raised my hand and went, yeah, yeah, we haven't.

359

There he is.

360

And so we started chatting everything.

361

He's really lovely.

362

He's a great guy.

363

they go, know, and I told this story about, uh, Captain Phillips when, know, like Paul

Greengrass keeps the terrorists separate.

364

So we had never met them.

365

And the first time he said, okay, they're to come into the bridge.

366

So.

367

Do your thing.

368

what you, you know, this is, they're going to come in.

369

And so they've got the door rigged and everything and they come running up and we can hear

the gunshots going off and we're panicking and the door explodes and they come busting in

370

and they're screaming at us, get down, get down on the ground.

371

Screaming, everybody's got their hands up in the air like this and we're all freaking out.

372

The first AD runs in and goes, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

373

You know, stop.

374

Everybody's all pumped up and all of a sudden you hear.

375

Hey, how you doing?

376

Tom Hanks.

377

Good to see you.

378

Good to see you.

379

He's like the mayor of Hollywood.

380

He's glad handing the terrorists.

381

looking at him like, what's what's you?

382

Hi, how are you?

383

Good to see you.

384

You know, he didn't care.

385

He's, he's, he's that guy, you know?

386

Welcome to my movie set, you know?

387

I remember he walked on the set at Private Ryan the first time I saw me.

388

Okay, everybody works today.

389

Everybody works.

390

You know, even me, you know, it was kind of like that.

391

Yeah, he is awesome.

392

really cool.

393

uh

394

Sorry.

395

Corey, I have one question for you.

396

know you were also in United in 93 and you played the character, the real life portrayal

of Louis Naki.

397

Did you get a chance to meet with his family at some point?

398

Oh, wow.

399

oh

400

Brother, sister, and cousin.

401

uh was asked to fly over to uh Pennsylvania to uh visit the site.

402

uh the girl who was Paul's assistant at the time was making a documentary.

403

And she said, I want you to come.

404

You're going to see the site.

405

You're going to meet his brother and his sister.

406

And I said, okay.

407

And then I, I mean, almost instantly regretted it.

408

And I was just going, well, I'm not going to back out now, but I did write a long, I

remember writing an article because I was in business class for among the, I think I was

409

in first class flying from London to New York for like the first time in my life.

410

And I'm in first class and I'm going, well, I'm not just going to sit here and cruise.

411

It's like,

412

I gotta pretend I'm doing something.

413

And so I pulled out my laptop and said, I'm gonna pretend I'm writing.

414

So I'll pretend I'm busy.

415

And this is before internet, it's 2006.

416

And I remember pulling out a sheet of paper, pulling up an open document and going, I

don't wanna be here.

417

I wish I wasn't here.

418

And I was going, I don't know why I'm writing that.

419

I don't wanna be here.

420

I wish I was anywhere but here.

421

And I kept thinking, why?

422

Because I don't wanna meet these people.

423

This is going to be scary.

424

This is going to be weird.

425

played and then I started to explain.

426

I played Louis Naki and I talked about the film and I talked about this and that and it

worked its way around because then I met them and they were just lovely.

427

And I said to Kenny when I spoke, because I'd spoken to Kenny on the phone and I said,

listen, if I get sort of personal and if things get hairy for you, just tell me to shut

428

up.

429

And he said, no, no, no, it's OK.

430

And literally word for word, I don't mind talking about my brother.

431

And this was five years after it had happened.

432

And I was just like, OK, you know, and I met him and I remember saying to Paula, I said,

he's so great.

433

He's so he's so he's great.

434

And she said.

435

Yeah.

436

And I said, how badly was he affected by it?

437

He said he's a different person now.

438

And I said, I wasn't going to say anything, but it looks like.

439

It looks like he's been on it, he went on a diet.

440

and he lost weight that he wishes he'd never lost.

441

And she said, that's, yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

442

It was like he left the best part of himself somewhere else.

443

When he hit the site, he came to the site, he started working it, he's a cop, he started

working it like a cop because he said, I can't think about the remnants of my brother up

444

there, you know?

445

Because when he came to the site, the plane had hit the ground and exploded into these

trees.

446

There were bits of the train, bits of the plane

447

inside and out in the trees, hanging in the trees, and they made a decision never to take

them down.

448

But every day they would go to the trees and they would walk around, the people who worked

at the site, and they would find a piece of cloth or a document or something that fell

449

from the tree.

450

They'd pick it up, they'd figure out what it was, they'd catalog it, and they'd put it

into the storage, you know, and now it's a permanent part of the museum there.

451

uh So

452

Yeah, I met them in Pennsylvania and they were both, you know, I mean, amazing.

453

They're amazing people because it's like meeting someone who's fought in a war.

454

You went through something no one should have to go through in a way.

455

in a way, you did it for us, so we don't have to go through it.

456

You I mean, you would say that to Joey if he was here, but he's not.

457

And so you say it to Kenny and Paula because they're here.

458

I didn't meet his mother and she didn't express a desire to meet me.

459

And I didn't want to push it because I thought I doubt she's seen the movie.

460

And what am I going to say?

461

Hi, I played your son.

462

You know, you don't do that.

463

So I stayed away from that one.

464

But yeah, I met him and.

465

What did they think of your portrayal?

466

I don't think, frankly, I gotta be honest with you.

467

I think there was a movie called Flight 93.

468

that they sort of, I don't think anyone particularly called them to say, we're gonna try

and do, Paul was meticulous about getting all of the family members on board with what he

469

was trying to do.

470

Right.

471

said, I'm not going to make them.

472

I don't want to make them heroes.

473

I don't want to make them something they weren't.

474

They were just ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

475

There's a line from a Charles Lawton biography that Simon Callow wrote where a man who

watched one of a handful, mean, a few thousand people who watched Lawton's portrayal of

476

King Lear near the end of his life.

477

And he said it was the most extraordinary thing he'd ever seen.

478

and he described, because Lawton wanted to do something different with Lear, and he did,

and no one saw it, and no one got it, except this guy who not only got it, he wrote about

479

it.

480

And the opening line of his, or one of the opening lines of one of the paragraphs he wrote

to his friend was, even now, he's talking at the interval, even now, I am only half in

481

this world.

482

He said it was just the most incredible thing.

483

And one of the ways he described Lawton's Lear was it was as if an ordinary man were

called to crucifixion.

484

And that's what happened with United 93.

485

It wasn't just like, we were on a plane that was hijacked.

486

This was going to be like, I mean, it was, I hate saying, you oh, they were gonna die.

487

They must have known they were gonna die.

488

They must have known the chances were good that they were gonna die.

489

And in the moment they were looking death in the eye was when they chose to live their

greatest.

490

And that's, it's a beautiful, brutal thing, but it's the most succinct summation of what

life is that I can think of.

491

Because it's why, it's what makes acting great.

492

It's when you're at your most vulnerable that you're strongest.

493

It's doing the thing that's hard.

494

It's like Kennedy's speech.

495

Why does Rice play Texas?

496

Because it is hard, you know, not because they're going to win, but because they'll

probably lose.

497

And that's what makes it great.

498

You know, why do we choose to go to the moon?

499

Not because it's easy, but because it's hard.

500

know, that's why, you know, they, they, they didn't have a choice.

501

This is what I was saying earlier.

502

We would, we would run down the aisle of the plane, going at the cockpit to take over the

plane.

503

And they'd go, cut, cut, cut, cut.

504

And we'd just slow down and keep walking and walk right off the plane and walk into a

sound stage and just be like this, breathing and trying to catch our breath and calm down.

505

And then we'd go have lunch.

506

And then an hour after lunch, they'd go, okay, 20 minutes.

507

And so we'd start walking back up the plane.

508

I was sitting there in my seat and I had a pen.

509

and I'm looking at the United Magazine from September 2001.

510

There's a crossword puzzle in it.

511

And I'm going, I remember right before we were about to film, I said to someone, I said,

hey.

512

Weather pattern.

513

No, she was asking me.

514

I'm reading the magazine, but she asked me, she goes, Corey, I said, yeah.

515

She goes, weather pattern, six letters.

516

went.

517

Isobar.

518

She goes, Isobar?

519

What's an isobar?

520

I said, it's a fucking weather pattern, isn't it?

521

All right, let's go.

522

You ready?

523

And we were like called in.

524

That's where we were.

525

We were at the end of that shoot, that vicious, violent, inhuman shoot.

526

It's an isobar.

527

OK, let's go.

528

Right.

529

And we were there because we were ready, you know, and we could do it.

530

But it didn't make it easy.

531

We could just do it.

532

You know, those guys in Private Ryan, they got to walk off the set.

533

The guys in World War II didn't, know.

534

They walked off the plane.

535

The guys in United 93 didn't, you know.

536

And that was the thing that was hard about meeting their family was it's like, I kept

worrying, am I reminding you of him somehow?

537

You know, and they were like, no, it's fine, it's fine, you know.

538

But it was just, know, people ask me, what's your favorite movie?

539

And I say that one, United 93.

540

They'll ask me to sign something.

541

I go, you understand I can't sign that?

542

I can't, I can't sign it.

543

I don't say I won't, I say I can't.

544

Do you understand why?

545

Yes, yeah, okay.

546

Thank you, I appreciate it.

547

I've signed two things for United 93.

548

I think I signed something for the museum in Shanksville.

549

and I signed the poster that we gave to Paul.

550

Everybody, every cast member signed the poster.

551

Those are the only two things I've ever signed for United and the only two things I will.

552

I haven't done anything.

553

I'm gonna show you something.

554

Oh, look at that.

555

Everybody who's not watching this are on a zoom.

556

He's showing us a poster of United 93 with lots of it's a.

557

closer.

558

And that's on your wall right across from me.

559

It's on the wall in my office.

560

Yeah, it's right there.

561

And by the way, everybody, um I am going to put this up on the documentary first YouTube

page.

562

So you are able to see this if you go over to there and are interested.

563

Yeah.

564

Wow.

565

All right.

566

So, uh, Corey, why don't you tell people where they can find you.

567

Right now I'm in my study.

568

um you know, look up any bad movie at two in the morning and sure enough, I'll be there.

569

um No, uh go and see Midnight Caller.

570

That's the movie I'm very proud of.

571

uh It was, you know, to say it's a micro budget uh movie is to do an injustice to the word

micro as far as our budget went because we literally had no money.

572

was...

573

made, directed, written and produced by two brilliant people.

574

it's just, it's a surprising and brilliant uh film.

575

It's not that the subject matter is sort of extraordinary.

576

It's just about a DJ, but it's a man who kind of has a dark night of the soul.

577

I think it's on Amazon Prime.

578

It's on a few other places.

579

here, buddy.

580

My dog just came in here.

581

Yeah.

582

He's just a good boy.

583

He hears another dog barking and he starts losing his marbles.

584

So I'm going to take him upstairs.

585

Yep.

586

My production page is documentaryfirst.com and uh also my film page, the girl who wore

freedom.com.

587

You can find our movie there and you can find me at Christian at documentaryfirst.com.

588

If you have anything to say, please write me.

589

Social media is all documentaryfirst.com YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, blah, blah,

blah.

590

Should I have said that about Twitter?

591

Do you have any of

592

No, if you need to if you need me throw a rock at my window for God's sake

593

Or, you know, send him a carrier pigeon.

594

Right, pigeon.

595

You can always use a carrier pigeon.

596

Yeah, Kori Johnson, Somewhere London.

597

Somewhere in London.