- Hey, I'm James Gunn, the writer and director
of "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3"
and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
[upbeat music]
And I'm Sean Gunn, I play Kraglin.
And I'm James' sidekick in real life.
- That's right.
[upbeat music continues]
- [Sean] "Is James Gunn related to Sean Gunn?"
- He is his brother.
We are brothers. [Sean chuckles]
We are one of, two of six children.
- I hope none of 'em are harder than that.
"Is James Gunn directing "Superman: Legacy"?"
- James Gunn is directing "Superman: Legathy" Leg, Legathy?
We start shooting in January.
- Yeah, I could've...
- You could have answered that.
You answer the next, I'll give you the next one.
- "Is James Gunn the Kevin Feige of DC?"
[James laughs]
Of course you made me take the hard one.
There's a Venn diagram where they, what they do is similar
and there's part of it where
what they do is different, right?
- It's actually a little different.
I mean, number one, DC Studios is a studio,
so it's a little bit different.
Peter Safran does a lot of what Kevin Feige does.
A lot of what I do is
I just work on the creative side of things.
So mapping out the stories
and the creative side of the universe is my job
much more so than some of the more
administrative, executive type stuff.
And Kevin has to do both.
- I thought it was a baseball cap question.
I thought it was about how often you wear baseball caps.
- I wear baseball caps never.
- "Is James Gunn an auteur?"
- [James] Oh my God.
- I don't know, the auteur, like...
- It's a weird question.
I mean because like, I don't know what that means exactly.
There's so much baggage to it.
I mean, auteur theory means that the director
is the author of the film
and I am definitely the biggest voice in a film.
I make all the choices, I draw all the frames.
But no matter what,
there are a lot of people that work on a movie,
a production designer, a costume designer, a DP.
They all affect the movie. - Actors.
- Not to mention- - Actors.
- Some actors, you know.
- [Sean] "Is James Gunn married?"
- Ooh. - I can answer that one.
The answer to that is yes
- She's right over there.
- He's married to Jennifer Holland, right over there.
And I married them.
- He did. Yeah.
- I'm a very- - You officiated the wedding.
- I officiated the wedding.
- And I officiated at his wedding, so...
- Yes, that's true.
- All right. Do I get this one?
"Who is Sean Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy?"
First of all, he plays the role of Kraglin
who is the first mate of the Ravager ship
and goes on to become a Guardian of the Galaxy
in "Volume 3" and in "Thor", I guess.
But he also plays Rocket on set
which means he waddles around on all fours.
He does all the motion capture for Rocket on all twos.
And a lot of the times when you see Rocket's expressions,
that's actually Sean's acting.
And then Bradley Cooper comes in and does the voice.
And in this movie you actually also play young Rocket.
- Yeah. - Which he does the voice
for young Rocket when Rocket's a toddler.
- He's correct.
- Thank you. - That answer is correct.
- I passed.
Did I get 100?
"Who is Sean Gunn lookalike?"
Who do people say you look like?
- I used to get Sam Smith all the time.
- Yeah, I remember. - Kinda like a younger,
sexier Sean Gunn.
- [James] "Sean Gunn motion capture."
- Well, I think we kind of talked about this.
Is that I've done motion reference for six movies as Rocket,
which is a little different.
It's just a reference point for the visual effects team.
But I also did some motion capture work as Rocket
in this third movie when Rocket is young.
And I've also done motion capture
as Weasel in "The Suicide Squad".
It's something that has become a part of my career
that I never expected.
- "Can Sean Gunn direct?"
That's on Google?
- I don't know. What does Google say about that?
I used to direct theater many years ago.
- Yeah. - There's a part of me
that thinks that maybe someday
I'll do something behind the camera.
But I love being an actor so, so much.
I'm not one of these actors who's like,
"I wanna do something else." You know?
I love it so much that the idea is
sometimes it's enticing, sometimes not.
- You don't wanna do it.
[they laugh] - Yeah.
Okay.
"What was James Gunn first movie?"
- First movie I ever did was a movie called
"Tromeo & Juliet", but I didn't really direct it.
- No. - Directed aspects of it.
But that was my first movie. The first movie I directed
was a horror movie called "Slither"
with Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker and Greg Henry,
and Elizabeth Banks,
and I've put them all in numerous movies since that time.
- Yeah. If you haven't seen it, you should see it.
It's really good.
"What movies did James Gunn write?"
- How many can you name?
- All of the movies that you-
- Directed.
- All the movies that you directed.
So "Slither", "Super", three "Guardians" movies,
"Suicide Squad",
both "Scooby-Doo" movies.
- Yeah. - The first one
and then "Monsters Unleashed".
- [chuckles] Classic. - I remember that.
Oh, and Tromeo obviously,
you wrote "Tromeo & Juliet." - Tromeo, "Dawn of the Dead".
- Yeah. Outright, you wrote "Dawn of the Dead".
- "Belko Experiment". - "Belko Experiment".
- I think there's a couple more.
It's a lot of movies.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
I've made a lot of movies.
- [Sean] "What has James Gunn directed?"
I think we just kind of went over that.
- I directed a two minute end-credit sequence
over "Movie 43",
and so I often get credited with "Movie 43".
- Your finest work.
- It brings down my Rotten Tomatoes score quite a bit.
[Sean laughs]
- [Sean] "What is James Gunn working on now?"
- I'm working on "Superman: Legacy",
which we shoot in January.
I'm doing the press tour
for "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3".
We've been recording voices for our animated show,
"Creature Commandos".
And then I'm helping other writers
work on other projects in the DC world.
- "What movies has Sean Gunn watched?"
There's gonna be a long list.
"What movies has Sean Gunn been in?"
Okay, you were in "Pearl Harbor".
- That's a pretty long list.
- You were in "Tromeo & Juliet".
- Yeah. - You were in,
what's the movie with Jamie Kennedy
where you played a dead body for second half of the movie?
- "Stricken".
- Stricken. "Thor Love & Thunder".
You were in "Guardians" movies, of course.
You know you were in the "Avengers" movies.
- Yeah. - What else were you in?
- Let's see. "Belko Experiment".
- Yep.
- Some of the indie movies I've done.
My gosh, "The Auteur Theory", "Boy called Po".
"Who The F is Buddy Applebaum?"
- Were you in "The Hive"? - So many more.
"The Hive".
I don't know how many it is overall
but I would guess it's around 20.
- "When Sean Gunn was discovered."
You were discovered in numerous,
I remember you were on "The Andy Richter Show"
when we first came to LA.
Your claim to fame initially was Kirk
on "The Gilmore Girls". - Yeah.
- Which you were on for seven years.
- Yes. - And bought you a house.
"When Sean Gunn appeared on Gilmore Girls."
When did you appear on "Gilmore Girls"?
- I was on the second episode of the first season.
So it was like, I came in kind of right out of the gate
and I played a character named "The DSL Installer"
which dates myself and the show.
[James laughs]
And they kind of just kept asking me back
to play other small roles
and it just went on and on and on.
- What season did you become a regular on the show?
- Season three.
- When did you get a name?
- I actually got a name pretty quickly.
I got a name in like the third or fourth episode that I did.
- Yeah.
- [Director] Do people stop you
on the street for Gilmore Girls?
- Oh my God. Constantly.
- Every single day for decades.
- You gotta real realize how popular Gilmore Girls is on,
is it on Netflix now? - Yeah.
- And it's just, it's like one of the most
popular shows of all time.
"Does Sean Gunn play Rocket?"
- I participate in the creation of Rocket.
It kind of takes a team of people.
There's the writer and there's me
and there's the visual effects team
and there's Bradley Cooper,
and between all of us together, we create Rocket.
- Yeah, I think it's one of the reasons why
I'm so attached to the character
is because he almost seems real.
Because it's all these people kind of coming together
to create this character that's bigger than all of them.
"Does Sean Gunn not like James Gunn?"
Wow.
What asshole searched Google for this?
Somebody looking for some dirt.
Oh, wait a second.
You're the one that did Google this.
- Relax, come on.
I would never Google that.
[they laugh] Though I should.
If I needed to know, that's how I would know.
I'd go to Google. "Do I like my brother or not?"
- Sean and I started making movies together
when I was 11 and he was like, you know, five or whatever.
We've never gotten into a fight about like a creative thing.
- No, no, no, no.
- Never, ever. - Never.
- So it's just really fluid.
- Imagine if like, Oh yeah, we-"
- "Well..." - "We worked together on set
but like they really, those guys really don't..."
- It would be weird if it was the other way around
considering how many times I've chosen to work with you.
- Yeah, no, I know. - You know, it would be like,
what? Yeah.
"Does James Gunn read comics?"
I read tons of comic books.
I always have.
- [Sean] Oh, absolutely.
- Does James Gunn dye his hair.
James Gunn does not dye his hair.
This is James Gunn's actual hair color.
- Neither does Sean Gunn by the way.
"Did James Gunn go to college?"
He did. - I did go to college.
I went to Loyola Marymount and got kicked outta that school.
Then I went to St. Louis University
and then I went to graduate school at Columbia University.
- "Did James Gunn direct "Peacemaker"?"
Yes. - I directed five
of the eight episodes of "Peacemaker".
- "Did James Gunn help with "Infinity War"?"
- I did. I helped with "Infinity War".
I was an executive producer
and I just helped to guide the Guardians along that process.
"Sean Gunn Weasel".
Yes. - Agree?
[they laugh]
"Sean Gunn Rocket Voice."
- In this new movie. I do.
I do a little section of adolescent Rocket
- But I bet they're wondering
like what you sound like on set when you do Rocket.
- I try not to like do that voice.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know,
but there is a voice.
- Yeah, there is. Yeah. - Yeah.
- "Sean Gunn Creature Commandos."
- Yes. - Sean Gunn plays
Weasel on "Creature Commandos" but he also plays GI Robot.
- Yeah. - An actual person
who can speak words. Well he's not a person.
He's a robot. - Yeah, he is a robot but-
- And he hates Nazis.
- It's good. Oh, Nazis are the worst.
Oh God. - Yeah, yeah. And he grieved.
- And it's good to not just be Weasel
and be like... [mimics Weasel's snort]
- Yeah, yeah. He's not coming for two hours of squealing.
"Sean Gunn looks like Sam Smith."
- I told you. [James laughs]
I told you.
- "Sean Gunn LinkedIn".
You have a LinkedIn? - No, but like eons ago,
like when it first came out.
Never. I still don't know how to log in.
- You know, LinkedIn used to be the worst
about you'd sign up for LinkedIn
and it would send out LinkedIn invitations
to everybody in your phone book.
And I remember getting a LinkedIn invitation,
I think, from Rob Zombie one time
which I thought was the funniest thing in the world.
- Colleagues on LinkedIn.
- He's looking for a step up in the world.
He's gonna make some business connections on LinkedIn.
- Okay.
- "James Gunn..." - Oh James has one more.
What a surprise.
"James Gunn"- - "James Gunn.
- [Sean] "Favorite movies".
- I have a lot of favorite movies.
Among them are "The Long Goodbye",
a Robert Altman film with Elliott Gould.
I love "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", a Paul Mazurski film.
I love "After Hours" by Martin Scorsese.
I love "Once Upon A Time in the West" by Sergio Leone.
I love a lot of movies.
- [Sean] "James Gunn Funko Pop."
- I do have a Funko Pop. It's worth about
five, six, $700 online if you can get it on eBay.
- I have one.
I'm really excited to have one.
- I have a box of them.
- If you wanna buy one,
it could be, unloaded. - Hey.
I gave that to you as a gift.
- [Sean] "James Gunn influences."
[Sean laughs] - No. James Gunn influences.
I have a, I mean, listen.
I'm influenced by every movie I see.
But I will give a shout out to a lot of Asian cinema
which has been a big part of what I feel like I've done.
I fell in love with Hong Kong movies
when I was a very young man
and I watched, you know hundreds of them,
owned them on video cassette,
sometimes not exactly legal, sorry.
'Cause you couldn't watch Hong Kong movies
in the United States.
They weren't well distributed.
So I was very influenced by the way that
Hong Kong movies in particular, at that time,
mixed drama, comedy, you know, edgy stuff.
And then of course the way they shot action
was like nothing before it.
And I feel the same way about many Japanese movies,
many Korean films.
My dog is named Ozu
after the great director Japanese director, so.
- "James Gunn King Shark."
- James Gunn King Shark.
Yeah King Shark's a character that I have
in "The Suicide Squad" that I wrote
and played by Sylvester Stallone who is also in-
- Guardians of the Galaxy. - Guardians of the Galaxy,
as Stakar.
- [Sean] "James Gunn Lollipop Chainsaw."
- "Lollipop Chainsaw" is a game that I wrote
with the fantastic Suda from Japan
and it was a Japanese American co-production
and it was a blast.
We had a lot of Guardians people in that,
'cause Linda Cardellini's in the game,
who plays Lila The Otter.
You're in the game, you played like the bad guy.
- Swan. - Swan.
Tara Strong plays Juliet Starling
who's like the main character
and she plays Mainframe now in the Guardian's franchise.
Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Martinex plays her boyfriend
who's a beheaded guy who she wears around her waist.
It's a weird game.
Rooker. Rooker plays a pirate or something,
or Viking or something like that.
- Yeah.
- [Director] What do you think of your Google searches?
- Um.
- They're good.
- Yeah. - I dunno?
[Sean laughs] - Yeah.
[upbeat music]