-And I got this cast.
Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis.
-Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe is great.
-Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who's this wonderful, amazing actress.
-She's great. -And Bobby Cannavale.
-How was Alec?
-Alec is an animal.
He is, as everybody knows.
-He's a beast. -He's a beast.
But the thing is, like,
over in this building, Alec,
you know, he's one of our great comedians and great satirists.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
But we came up on Alec,
you know, "Glengarry Glen Ross" Alec...
-He's a good actor. He's a great actor.
-And, "Coffee is for closers only," right?
-He's amazing.
-And I think that he's, in this film,
I think it reminds you with a shock
of, like, the force of pushing you into the back of your seat,
that he is really one of our great dramatic actors.
He is really, really phenomenal in this film.
-He said the same about you.
He was here, and we were talking about it.
And I go, "What are you doing?"
He goes, "I'm doing this movie with Edward Norton.
It's a great film.
Wait till you see what Edward does.
Wait till you see what Ed-- He's going to get an Oscar.
He's going to get an Oscar. Wait till you see what he does."
I go, "Okay, I can't wait to see it."
-Did he say, "I will, too, of course.
But that's a given."
-I'll win an Oscar, as well, yeah.
-Long overdue.
-He's fantastic in it, though. He's great.
-He's truly fantastic in it.
-You were saying he yelled something before you --
-Well, he has --
You know, there are people who are kind of method actors
who go down within.
Alec is sort of the opposite of that.
He narrates his process, so --
-Out loud?
-Yeah. In a very dramatic scene,
he will, take after take, he'll go --
He'll finish one and go, "Aah! Don't cut the camera!
Nobody move, nobody move. Strap in.
This is going to blow your F'ing minds."
You know, and you kind of go, "Is he talking to me?
Who is he talking to?"
And he'll go, "Don't anybody move!
Don't cut the camera. Do it again. Stay right there.
Don't you move. Don't you move.
Bang!" He'll go --
-He says bang?
-Zoom!
-[ Laughing ] What?
-I think he's winding himself up.
He's putting himself in here.
-I love it. -But the outtakes --
-Are great. -See the movie first,
but later, I'll show you the outtakes.
-Next time, you're going to come back for the outtakes.
I want to see --
[ Cheers and applause ]
So how does one --
It's a great movie.
How does one get Thom Yorke to write a song for them?
'Cause I want to do this.
[ Laughter ]
Do you know Thom Yorke?
-Yes, I've known Thom a long time.
I went --
I saw Radiohead in a little club in New York called Irving Plaza.
-You saw Radiohead in Irving Plaza?
-Yeah, back in the day.
It was before "OK Computer" had come out.
And they came out and played the record.
And it was one of those moments --
Like, I'm not hip.
I'm not -- I don't end up at happenings.
When people say, like, "Oh, yeah, it was a happening" --
-You're not there. -I'm never there.
I'm always, like, hearing about these things.
30 years in New York, and that was one of the only things
that I've ever been at where I went, "I was there!"
-I was there! -I was at a happening!
-Guys, I was cool, yeah. -I was cool.
I was in the winner's circle, like, for once.
-So, Radiohead.
-Anyway, we've known each other a long time.
And I felt, you know, Thom in our generation,
I think, has really -- He's been a songwriter
who catches sort of the emotional, you know, longing
but also kind of just the terror and the dissonance
of the modern world. Right?
And their music has such beautiful,
melodic, anthemic stuff,
but then also just so much fracture in it, right?
-Yeah. -And I --
My character in this film, that's him in a nutshell.
He's kind of a sensitive and funny and thoughtful person.
But he has this brain that will not turn off
and can -- and the wordplay.
And I asked -- I said to Thom, "Look, I want a ballad.
I want an old-fashioned sort of jazz ballad that reflects this."
And I thought he was going to say no,
'cause like everybody in the world wants Thom to write music.
-Yeah.
-And like two weeks later, he e-mailed me.
At 6:00 in the morning, I get this track
called "Daily Battles."
And I sat on my bed in the dark literally crying.
It made me cry the first time I heard it and --
-What a great line, though. "Daily Battles."
-Yeah, and it's evocative.
It actually affected my view of the film.
I put the phrase "Daily Battles" into the film,
'cause it's very much about, I think,
people getting through their own struggles
and the need to have empathy with each other
and take care of each other in our daily battles.
And it's an amazing thing.
You ask people you know and love to work with you.
It's a little nerve-racking,
because you don't want that to go badly.
-Yeah, of course.
-And when they deliver something
that authentically moves you and makes it great,
it's just -- That's the dream.
-It worked. I want to show everyone a clip.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Here's Edward Norton in "Motherless Brooklyn."
Take a look at this.
-I got something wrong with me. That's the first thing to know.
I got threads in my heads. I got threads in my heads, man.
I twitch and shout a lot. Eh!
Makes me look like a damn freak show.
-Can't you ever cut that out?
-I'm sor-- Touch it, Bailey! I'm sorry.
But inside my head's an even bigger mess.
I can't stop twisting things around,
words and sounds especially.
Have to keep playing with them until they come out right.
♪♪
Sorry.
♪♪
-Geez, forget I asked.
-Like I said, a damn mess.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Edward Norton, everybody!