Hi, everybody. I'm the new Dennis Woodruff,
and welcome to "The Dennis Woodruff Show."
If you're in L.A.,
unless you're living under a rock, you know about Dennis.
I'm a famous actor who is right on the verge
of being discovered.
He's a worldwide legend.
We'd always see this, like, really, really cool,
crazy car by self-promoting.
I'm like, "Who is this guy?"
This is a while ago.
How long ago was this? 20 years?
Might have been before the Internet.
I remember seeing him as a kid.
His car was a spectacle.
I don't know that he was getting a lot of work from it.
He felt like an absurd version of someone
trying to make it in Hollywood.
Action.
I might be in another d-d-d-dimension.
Aah!
It looks like it's coming closer.
In a book in a film class in Croatia,
Dennis is, like, one of the chapters in there
about underground filmmaking in America.
There's a lot of stories to be told.
And...
[ Cellphone rings ]
Oh, it's Steven Spielberg. I got to take this.
Hello.
That was my Realtor.
♪♪
Hi, I'm Dennis Woodruff.
I'm an actor, director, producer, writer, artist,
and maker of independent films and TV shows.
The biggest star that ever hit the big screen,
and all I have to do is act naturally.
Howdy. I am the Hollywood cowboy.
This is where I work every day.
Nice to see you. Thank you.
Go ahead, take pictures. That's great.
I've become famous because of my own self-promotion.
I'm known all over the world.
Promoting myself as an actor,
I had a pretty elaborate portfolio of pictures,
so I decided to put my pictures on my crappy old beat-up car
and decorate it with my name and "actor" on it
and drive it around to promote myself
and let people know that visually I was here
and I was on a mission.
And I am on a mission.
On a mission to get discovered
and to fulfill my destiny.
I grew up in Huntington Beach, California, in Orange County.
Had a good upbringing, then made my way to Hollywood.
Hollywood is the industry factory of the world.
Studios on every corner.
But you can't get on the lot unless you're invited in.
And I don't know how to get invited.
Yeah, I got it.
It's a good picture.
After I came to Hollywood for a while,
I made my first movie poster of myself,
kind of like James Dean and Marlon Brando did.
That wasn't actually my motorcycle.
It was a prop.
And then I plastered it all over L.A.
This is a Dennis Woodruff car.
My promotional car that's broken right now.
It lets people know who I am,
my websites, et cetera,
and just a fun -- I like blue.
This was my mom's car before she passed away
and she said, "Dennis, please don't decorate it."
I said, "I won't, Mom."
And here it is.
But it's gonna be up and running in the next six months.
I was selling my movies out of the trunk
of my car around town in coffee shops.
I would say about 15 years I've been doing my own projects
and working with a friend of mine, Keith Kurlander.
We've made 28 movies and three TV shows.
I've known Dennis since even before I moved to L.A. in '86.
I'd seen the car for a long time.
I was the editor on "The Howie Mandel Show."
And when that got canceled,
I was just hanging out in a Coffee Bean
and thinking, like, "What am I gonna do?
What am I gonna do?"
Dennis rolled up. I saw Dennis.
We started talking, and we started shooting
like about three days later,
working on "Dennis Woodruff, Superstar."
Hey, I'm on TV.
Hi, my name is Dennis Woodruff. I'm an actor.
I just thought I'd do my audition
here at Taco Bell in Hollywood.
Quentin Tarantino, I met him once and he said,
"If you want to be a great filmmaker, make films,
and then you'll learn from it and keep doing it
and you'll get better at it."
So that's kind of what I've taught myself --
the craft.
♪♪
My stuff is good,
and it's got special effects and music and everything.
Stars just going around...
A lot of stuff, man.
I mean, just so much.
"Spaceman," "Spaceman Returns."
Must find Unarius.
"The Dennis Woodruff Experience Part One,"
"Two," "Three," and "Four."
"Horror Stories from the Laundromat."
"Surfin' in the USA."
"Obsession: Letters to David Lynch."
"The Dennis Woodruff Show."
"Movie Trailer Trash Man."
I'm losing rea-- touch with rea-- reality.
Dennis would do the bulk of the shooting.
I'd do the editing, post-production, music,
polishing, all of that.
Tell him Dennis is here.
Yeah, Dennis, I've already called the cops.
If I -- If you don't get away from here,
I'm going to shoot you with a bow and arrow
right in your chest.
Keith's performances, some are so raw.
This is Keith playing David Lynch.
He did a great job.
He's sending me videos,
he's sending me letters.
The guy's driving me nuts.
He comes up with things that blow my mind.
I would just say, "That's perfect," you know?
So he took it to the next level.
I couldn't make movies without him.
He's somebody I can depend on and lean on.
And he's also a friend.
It's -- It's a mesh and sometimes kind of
like two asteroids colliding.
And then there's like stardust created from the collision.
Sometimes it's better to let him be in control.
I'm not a control freak.
Mm.
Am I?
Yeah.
-Well.. -Yeah, you are.
Look, you're always bugging me about David Lynch.
I hate his fucking movies.
I haven't seen the clown in six months.
It's not a clown.
Yeah, I wrote all this.
Don't bother me with David Lynch no more, okay?
As far as I'm concerned, dude, you're giving me a headache.
Get the fuck out of here, alright?
Some of the best actors are just natural.
I like to get people to where I push them right over
to the edge where they're angry,
they're pissed off, and they're ready to beat me up.
I need candy. I need candy.
I need candy!
People love that tension.
I need candy!
And it's hard to find that.
But if you could find that place with people...
I need candy.
You made me rush out of the bathroom.
I was like, "What the fuck's going on out there?"
...And the confusion and the madness of the world,
that is true drama.
Would you like to just slug me right in the face right now
-as hard as you could? -No, I wouldn't.
The questions is would you like that?
A lot of people either love Dennis or they hate Dennis.
I mean, it's like he's a polarizing kind of figure.
People who get it, get it.
But I'm not sure why more people don't get it.
I'm very optimistic that my big break
could maybe happen this year,
after somebody sees this program.
I want somebody to let me go out on the street
and make my own once-a-week cable TV show.
I'm Dennis Woodruff. I'm a man on the street.
"The Dennis Woodruff Experience."
Let's hit the streets, baby.
Hey, sir, are you a Hollywood movie star?
Yeah. You didn't know?
You ever heard of Dennis Woodruff?
No.
Are you on your honeymoon?
No.
You look like it.
Have you ever heard of Dennis Woodruff?
-Nah. -That's me.
Is that real? Shit.
Yeah, this is real, man.
My whole life is a joke.
This is called "The Dennis Woodruff Experience:
-Man on the Free." -Oh, you're Dennis Woodruff.
What do you mean?
Worldwide.
I'm doing this in my sleep. How are you?
What y'all doing?
I'm doing my own TV show.
-Get over here, girl. -Ay yo, what's up?
What's up? Man, you got the moves, man.
Okay, well, now you know Dennis Woodruff.
When I picked up the camera,
I found out that I really enjoyed
working with the camera and creating like art.
What's your name?
My name is Ignacio.
And you do laundry?
Yes, sir.
How long have you been doing laundry?
28 years.
What drives me is that I'm a creative entity,
and artists need to create.
So they find ways to create no matter what's going on
in their life or how much money they have.
I don't know where to go. Can you help me?
Well, can you help me? I need some money, too, sir.
Can you help me?
I must go now.
I use my own money to do everything.
I don't have any outside investors.
I've sold over 100,000 copies out of the trunk
of my car around town in the last 10 years.
If I could sell 5 or 10 a day at $5 to $10 each,
I can make enough money to live.
Come on, Daisy.
Good girl. Come on, Daisy.
When you're born an artist,
most artists don't make any money anyway.
Do you give up what you are?
It's not always about the accolades and the money.
It's about being true to yourself,
the way I see it.
And if you're an artist,
it's born in you.
It's a part of you.
Van Gogh never got to receive the accolades
or the benefits of his work.
You still continue to paint.
You still continue to do something creative,
whether or not you're recognized by society at large.
About three or four months ago,
I ran out of money and I started panhandling.
And now I'm getting close to being broke again.
I've got a couple thousand dollars.
All of our lives are kind of like a movie.
And it's up to you to create the story.
Is your life a comedy or a horror film?
It's up to you, whatever you want it to be.
My life is a comedy,
but it's a little bit scary sometimes.
♪♪