- And we're going to give you the hard science,
Here's the data, here are the facts.
No politics, no anything.
(intense music)
- You've got your perspective.
I just want to be happy, don't you want to be happy?
(jazzy music)
- Our first guest is Tom DeSanto.
He's an extremely popular writer and producer
known for some of the biggest movie blockbusters,
including "X-Men" and "Transformers."
Tom will tell us more about how he is partnering
with the CDC to challenge kids to wear a mask
as they go back to school
through the "Heroes Wear Masks Challenge."
And interestingly,
according to our VaynerMedia back to school study,
this will hopefully help not only kids, but their moms,
who we learned from our study,
are two times more fearful of their kids
going back to school, then their dads are.
Welcome, Tom.
- Thank you all very much.
I feel like we are forming a real life Justice League
to save (laughing)
Instead of pretend we're doing it for for real.
And hopefully we'll keep some kids from getting sick
and bringing that home.
And that's what we're all here for.
- So Tom, before we go into the back to school stuff,
just for the audience,
'cause I know a lot of individuals
will be familiar with what you've been involved in,
but maybe not necessarily you.
So, just a little back to comic book fame, actually.
What about a little three to four minutes
on comic book number one, origin story.
Like what kind of kid were you?
Like going over there?
Just professionally.
'Cause I know a big percentage of the audience here
from 18 to 81 years old,
have aspirations to do things similar to you.
And I think we should spend three, four minutes on that
and then we'll get into some of the other stuff.
- Got it.
You know, as Gary was a baseball card kid,
like my brother Dan, I was a comic book kid.
So, first story I have
is we were across the street at this little candy store
in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
And I was three years old and my mom tells me
I threw myself on the ground
until she would buy me a flash comic book.
I couldn't even read,
but I think I saw the images of the superheroes
and I knew that was my inner spirit animal.
And then from there, you know, I was, comic books,
we lived in a four room apartment.
We were five people.
My dad was a cop in New Jersey.
We never wanted for money or anything,
but we weren't wealthy.
And comic books allowed me, in my imagination,
to leave that four room apartment
and to go to different universes
and to go save the planet.
And when you're a little kid,
I think one of the things you really want to do
is make a difference on the planet.
But you're small and you don't have that strength
or that ability and superheroes give you
that aspirational thing.
And look, if we were back in ancient Greece,
we'd be teaching our kids about Hercules arrogance
and his hubris.
And we would be telling them,
"Oh, we need to do these labors in order to learn humility."
And that's what comic books are when they're done right.
These are our modern myths.
And then that's why I think it spoke to me
in that Joseph Campbell 101 way.
And if anyone doesn't know Joseph Campbell,
if you really want to understand the human ability
and storytelling,
on why humanity was always asking the same questions
around the planet, through their myths,
even though they had no interconnection with each other,
it's a great way to take that college class,
on your own and go look up those interviews
with Bill Moyers.
It will give you a massive insight into the global audience,
and what's in people's hearts.
So for me as a comic book kid,
I remember one day, I was also that kid rushing home
from football practice to play "Dungeons and Dragons."
- Yes.
You nerded out, Tom.
Let's get everybody to understand,
you are nerding out.
- I was nerding out.
And I'm living proof that your action figures
can become real.
(laughing)
And pay your mortgage many times over.
And that's, for me,
that's the true success in life.
The one thing I would say is don't chase money.
Money, if that is your only goal,
you're always going to want more
and you're never going to be happy.
Don't chase success.
Success, you're always going to want more,
and it's the same thing.
But when you do what you love
and you can find success
and find financial freedom in that,
that's where you're truly a successful person.
- Because you're enjoying it
instead of what it can bring to you.
- Yes, yes.
- I agree, I agree.
- And that thing, your 80 year old self
is going to be very happy if you live that life.
- What was your big break?
'Cause a lot of people ask me about breaks
and or moments, or like, (fingers snapping),
you know, that.
Just for more, another perspective,
another story for the audience.
- I think for me, it was, I was a kid,
we moved from Elizabeth, New Jersey,
to this place called Izlan.
- I knew Izlan super well.
What years were you in Izlan?
- I was, I left Izlan in 1994.
- Oh, perfect.
So do you know the Clark,
the Bradley shopping center in Clark?
The Clark circle?
- Yeah.
- My dad's, the liquors,
my famous story of growing up in Jersey
and my dad was a stock boy in a liquor store
was in Clark Circle Liquor,
Shoppers Discount Liquors,
in that Bradley's shopping center.
- I know exactly where there was that.
They also had that video store on the corner.
- That's right, that's exactly right.
So, that's like literally,
that's where I grew up, that general area.
Edison, you know, 15 minute drive away.
- I went to high school in Edison.
- Is that right?
Which one?
- I went to Bishop Ahr,
which is now St. Thomas Aquinas again.
- Tom, my backyard in Edison,
was in Tingley Lane and I used to play
football with my friends
on Bishop Ahr's high school field from 1982
to 1988.
- So that, we literally were in that same.
- Tom, I'm sorry to interrupt you like just for everybody,
'cause I know a lot of people watching from my world.
Tom's high school was actually
where I put one of my lemonade stands
when I talk about my Lemonade's.
Literally that street of Tingley lane.
- Yup.
- That's crazy.
- And now with that type of suburban area
where I probably bought lemonade.
I'm sure I did because it was that type of growing up,
that type of.
- Well actually, wait a minute, you grew up,
you graduated high school when.
- 86.
- Got it, 86, Got it.
- Yep.
- And then moved then, yeah.
Jesus Christ, that's crazy.
Keep going.
- Yeah, super small world.
And for me it was,
I had that dream of making movies,
but it's a dream.
So I was working actually at JC Penny in Woodbridge Center,
I was delivering pizzas.
I was at a, my first job was washing dishes
at Denny's in and Avenel, New Jersey.
Once you have a job like that,
you appreciate any other job
because that is really, really hard work.
And it's honest work.
And then I took, I started taking classes.
I was going to school at Rutgers
and I started taking a screenwriting class at NYU at night.
So I would hop on the train, I'd go in.
And one of my teachers,
who was working with Robert De Niro at the time,
said, I was much more of a USC writer
than an NYU writer.
Meaning that I was much more of a pop culture writer
than gonna be doing "Taxi Driver."
So I took all of the money I had earned from that point,
which was about five grand,
I went to a summer film program at USC
where I got to write and direct my own short film.
And I made my teacher cry.
- Wow.
- After he saw the film.
And that gave me the validation that, wow, I can do this.
I can make someone take their shoes off.
- (fingers snapping) In that moment.
- In that moment.
- You can get somebody into your world.
- Yes.
- Tom, I apologize for jumping in.
I always get yelled at for interrupting,
but we have so few minutes left.
And so I want to get to this point.
Give us the context,
because we are on this kind of back to school moment,
you've dived, you've gone headfirst
into an initiative for back to school.
Please explain that to the audience and give some context.
- Great.
So back in February,
I'm sort of seeing that the medical community
was having some issues with messaging
and struggling on that front.
And I really thought of what Hollywood did
during World War II.
So I reached out to some friends I've had,
who've worked in the government,
going back to the Clinton administration.
These are lifelong public service people.
And I said, "Hey, is there anything we can do teaming up?"
And that's, I called John Rogers.
And he reached out to the CDC with the CDC foundation
and we formed this partnership with Facts2Health.
And our whole idea was,
"Hey, let's create a hub for people."
Except instead of just being Hollywood,
let's unlock the internet
and the artist that is in everyone around the planet
and their voices.
And we're going to give you the hard science.
Here's the data, here are the facts,
no politics, no anything.
This is how we all stay healthy.
This is how we all stay safe.
And this is how we all keep as normal a life
in a pandemic world as possible.
Because there are countries that are killing it right now.
Like Japan, Japan has 2.9% unemployment.
They have 1,200 deaths.
They have no economic shutdown.
Because as a culture, since the Spanish influenza in 1918,
they all wear masks.
Whenever they're feeling sick.
And now everyone has the potential to infect someone else.
I don't wear my mask to protect myself.
That protects me this much.
I wear my mask to protect you, which protects you that much.
And that is why we wear a mask.
You're not doing it to, you're not appearing weak.
You're appearing strong.
You know.
- Tom, you know,
how difficult is it to overcome
when something gets politicized, right?
Because I think, you're sitting here
and saying very nice thing.
It's very easy from, I'm very common sense
over politicization as a human.
So like to me, so to me,
I find myself on many sides of both arguments.
- Yeah.
- But, but do you feel like once something
goes full tilt politicization, it becomes real hard?
- It becomes real hard, but it's not impossible.
And we can't give up, you know?
And that's why it's like, look, no one,
there is not a report of the daily death toll
of doctors and nurses who die from wearing masks
because they overheat.
- And by the way, by the way, the good news is,
'cause I have arguments with my friends.
I find myself, back to because I have personal views
and I can sit in different sides on different things.
I find myself having conversations with a lot of friends.
The mask one's been easy lately
with my couple of friends that are trying
to get their juices flowing on it with me.
'Cause they, I think they love the debate
more than even like they have passion for it.
And I said, no, no, but,
everybody's kind of succumbing to this one.
This one's kind of like, the world is flat,
used to be a political debate.
- Yeah.
- Like this one's kind of,
I think we're on the other side of it.
I'm like razzing my buddies.
I'm like, "I think we're on the other side of this one."
- But we're not.
The LA times.
- I'm aware (laughing).
- I wish we were.
I wish.
I wish I could.
- You would agree with me, though,
in the last 30 days,
we're appreciative of the momentum a little bit, right?
- Oh, absolutely.
Totally.
I think, when the President started embracing masks.
- When you now start having to think about,
"wait a minute,
"my nine year old daughter's going to school."
From the confines of our home,
it can be politicized when your 13 year old
is going to school and your 81 year old mother
is with you still at home.
All of a sudden you might decide to put your energy
on a different political issue.
- Totally.
And look, those stories are out there.
There was a story, somebody went to a funeral
a couple of weeks ago and they brought it home
and they ended up killing someone.
Girl in her early twenties.
She just wanted to go to a party.
I get it.
I would love us all to go back
to being able to go have a beer and a movie
and a ball game, but that's not the world
we can intelligently live in right now.
And history is watching us.
And unless we handle this properly, they're going to go,
"Wow, they really screwed that up."
So, the number one weapon we have is wearing a mask,
washing hands and physically distancing.
Those are the three things we can do.
Other than that, see Rob is leading the way.
Rob, you're going to be the Incredible Hulk
in our Avengers here.
So there we go, see?
But honestly,
the best way we can keep it together
going back to school
and give people as normal a life as possible
is through this.
There is no debate.
If you have science that says, this is not effective,
go recheck your facts.
Just look at other sources.
Do not trust a Facebook post
when you have thousands and thousands
and hundreds of thousands of scientists
and doctors and people who devote their lives to this
saying this mask is going to help keep people safe.
And, we're trying to prevent that story of that girl
who went to that party.
And four days later, she killed her grandfather.
- (sneezing) Excuse me, I apologize.
Andrea, I know you're, you've got to bring in the next one
before we get in trouble here.
Tom, I could speak with you about Bishop Ahr in Jersey
and "X-Men" and masks all day.
And I'd like to get connected offline.
I really appreciate you being on.
- Absolutely.
And if people could just tag
@facts2health.org and.
- Spell that out slowly
because I know people miss it sometimes.
- Yes.
Facts, F- A- C- T- S, the number two,
and then health,
H- E- A- L- T- H-.org, O- R- G-.
And then do a #HeroesWearMasks.
Go to the website, it has all the information there.
Gary and team, thank you so much.
- Thank you, brother.
We'll talk soon.
Stay well.
- You got it.
Bye buddy.
- Hey, everybody on YouTube.
First of all, thank you so much.
So humbled for your time.
I don't wear a watch, but time is the biggest asset.
So thank you for watching that video.
If you got some value out of that,
there's plenty for where that came from.
Feel free to check it out.