As a writer in the writer's guild, every single time Babylon 5 airs anywhere Harlan Ellison makes cents, or fractions of a cent, or some portion of fractions of a cent. Doing publicity interviews increases the composite value of the physical media (which was a thing back then), which pays out greater residuals. This is why writers, producers, directors and actors do commentary for free. And yes. They all do it for free. Residuals are a keen advantage of being in the Writer's Guild, or the Producer's Guild, or the Director's Guild, or the Actor's Guild. I have a friend who has so far made about $35k for appearing as a no-lines extra in Mad Men in a scene that got cut before broadcast. My cousin was the voiceover in Jenny Craig commercials before they hired Kirstie Alley. She made enough to live in Santa Monica and drive an Audi. That said, the subject of II is getting residuals from all 14 of those movies and he's working at fuckin' Panera. Those "cameramen" and others he singles out, like the receptionist he's beating the shit out of? If you're IATSE, your residuals get pumped into your union pension fund, which you will never see unless you can get three big network shows or five big union movies a year for twenty years. And then you'll get about $1200 a month after you retire. Do a napkin calc on the likeliness of anyone my age or younger ever collecting that pension. Effectively, my residuals are paying people who got to work with Michael Landon. The receptionist? She's probably not getting paid at all. She's an intern. She probably has a film degree from USC and she's doing this for the "connections." A friend of mine did this. His "connections" got him a writer's credit on Private Practice and he's staff now on Colony. He could afford to not work for four straight years while also working 80 hours a week. I cannot. ________________________________________________________ Harlan Ellison has cultivated a reputation among his fans as being a straight shooter who speaks truth to power. In actuality, he's an asshole that speaks Harlan Ellison and outrage to anyone who will listen. I know of two nonprofits he has stiffed. I was at a memorial service for another (beloved, well-known) writer and he called in to say something nice. Instead he launched into a ten minute expletive-laced tirade about a fight he had the previous week with a producer. The officiant literally had to hang up on his ass. ______________________________ The Beast was the movie Kevin Reynolds exorcised what Red Dawn became from his psyche. I believe he'd already moved to Seattle at that point, or was at least visiting prior to moving, and saw a stage play about a tank crew in Afghanistan. The enfield from The Beast is apparently the most prominent decoration in Kevin Reynolds' office, which is in Issaquah, not Hollywood. When I flew out to Thailand we went through Narita both ways. Going there was Flags of our Fathers. Coming back was Letters from Iwo Jima. I imagine that was about .001% of watching Titanic on a cannery ship in the arctic circle. Or kind of like Harlan Ellison's residuals on Babylon 5.
Which is why just about everyone that has ever interacted with him at a convention hates him. One of the things I like about that clip is it shows exactly how he is, or at least was, at the few ComicCons I went to where he was on stage. Off the stage, I had a nice little interaction with him a million years ago, but then again I did not ask him for anything either. I've also know people who escorted celebrities at events, the guys who volunteer to pick people up at airports, escort to hotels, interact with staff so the "talent" does not have to do that stuff. Hearing all those stories (and one guy has been doing this since the 80's) makes me appreciate the whole Death of the Author argument. Never meet your heroes and all that fun. Huh, he did Waterworld? I've never seen Waterworld, maybe I should try to find a copy online and watch it. We wore out the tape watching and re-watching the boat sink. Working in extreme stress environments is a trip if you only do it for a short time frame. Definitely amps up your dark humor stats.In actuality, he's an asshole that speaks Harlan Ellison and outrage to anyone who will listen.
The Beast was the movie Kevin Reynolds exorcised what Red Dawn became from his psyche.
I imagine that was about .001% of watching Titanic on a cannery ship in the arctic circle.
I've worked with dozens of celebrities. Maybe two were not gracious, friendly, accommodating and amazing, even the ones who are paid to be assholes. Hollywood is an expensive place to be an asshole because we all share stories of who's nice and who isn't. Even the ones that get written up all the time in the tabloids - I mean, I worked with Christina Aguilera a week after she fucked up the Star Spangled Banner. I would describe her as "guarded" but how can you not be when there's an entire subclass of journalist whose profession is to take pictures up your skirt? Kevin Reynolds got kicked off of Waterworld by Kevin Costner. Reynolds discovered Costner back in the day and pretty much made all of his movies up to Waterworld, at which point Reynolds said "we're making a terrible mistake and was shown the door. Ever seen Steel Dawn? It's great because it's pretty much a low-budg US version of Road Warrior (yes, a low budg version of Road Warrior) with some Beastmaster thrown in. It cost very little, it didn't care, and it's entertaining for what it is. Waterworld was written for a two million dollar budget contemporaneously with Steel Dawn. It should have been a campy, ridiculous tale of mutants and trimarans with some dudes on jetskis wearing eyepatches on Lake Mead pretending that the shore isn't visible if we tilt the camera down a little. Instead, it cost a rumored $350 million. Jeanne Tripplehorn is at her hottest. Dennis Hopper throws himself unabashedly into the most ridiculous role he ever played. Even Tina Majorino gives it her all. But it is to Steel Dawn what World War Z is to Shaun of the Dead. I nearly did the fishing boat thing when I was in college. I chose not to when my uncle pointed out "yeah, you'll make money, but you have to understand there's a small percentage of those boats that don't make it back." My second job after college I had an office literally overlooking the Seattle Fisherman's Memorial. I was dating a girl who worked for one of the boats back then when the Arctic Rose went down. I watched them add the names, I watched them hold the memorial, and I saw a few people I'd partied with in the crowd. Then every year after, I watched more names be added. There's still a lot of room on that memorial.