-Welcome to The Daily Show. -Thank you.
And congratulations on making a movie
that has taken you, what, two decades
-to finally put together? -(chuckles) I-I read the book.
I read the book about the time we were f...
-putting out Fight Club, so 20 years ago, yeah. -Right.
So you read this book when you were making Fight Club,
and, like, the story gripped you,
and then you were like, "I'm gonna make this movie."
Yes. Well, it's a great... The character, um...
In case you don't understand what you just saw there,
uh, he has... he has Tourette's syndrome
and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
And, uh, he's-he's a detective,
but he-he trips himself up quite a lot,
-as you can see. -Right, right, right.
Um, he's not exactly the, uh,
the Bogart smooth, um, smooth detective.
-Um... -Right, it's a... it's a different type of story.
-Yeah. -And, I mean, that's what made the-the book interesting,
was it was a story of a P.I.
who has Tourette's and also has OCD
but is brilliant.
-Yes. -And as the reader, we fall in love
with this character, you know,
because we-we root for the underdog, you know?
And-and you've taken that story,
and you've turned it into a movie.
But what's interesting is the book was set
in the, like, the modern-day era.
-Yeah. -It was, like, in the '90s.
And then you've taken it to the '50s. Why?
Well, it has a... It...
The-the power of the novel is just what you said.
It's-it's your deep identification with this guy
with his very chaotic, uh, hilarious,
-poignant mind. -Right.
And, um, the plot...
It's hard to explain. In the novel,
it feels like a '50s gumshoe novel
though it's set in modern Brooklyn.
-Interesting. -But in a way,
what we wanted to do was stick to the feel of it.
-Right. -And, um, I'm a...
I'm a big fan of films like, um, L.A. Confidential
and Chinatown and things like that.
I love those films that really take you...
take you back into a-a sensual, atmospheric time
where, um...
You know, the magic of movies when it's...
You-you go into those worlds, and you go, "Wow, this is...
"this is really cool. The music is great.
"The actors are adult and great,
and the dialogue is great and..."
And then they-they take you down into sort of a...
a-a dark, uh, weave
of-of the dark things that are going on in society.
But-but I really liked the idea of doing that
with, um, a character who's a little different
than your-your typical gumshoe.
It-It's interesting that you say
the story takes us back to a time,
because although the story's set in the '50s,
it feels very much applicable to what life is like today.
Because-- I won't spoil anything for you--
but this is basically a story
about a racist landlord from New York
-who's destroying the world. -Yes. (laughs)
I...
(laughter)
Um...
And he's played by Alec Baldwin.
-(laughter) -Um...
-Well... -Yeah.
-(applause) -Um...
I want to qualify that,
uh, because there's no wigs involved.
No small hands. Um, this-this...
And it's not... it's not based on our insane clown president.
Um, it-it's not. It's really not.
There was a... there was a, uh...
there was a true Darth Vader in New York in the 20th century
named Robert Moses
who, uh, unlike, uh, others, was a genius.
-Right. -He-he was a genius. A dark genius
but-but kind of like Anakin Skywalker
-gone over into Darth Vader. -Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
He-he was this, uh-- this great, progressive thinker
who went very dark
and to a degree that people really don't understand.
He ran New York City like an imperial fiefdom
for nearly half a century,
and everything that was done in this city
that, in some ways, baked discrimination
into the infrastructure of the city was done by him.
-Right. -Um, and so our-- In the same way
that, let's say, Chinatown is sort of the story
of how L.A.'s original crime is that it stole all its water,
what we wanted to do was sort of tell
the secret history of New York, in some ways.
It-it really does make it a story, because, on the surface,
everyone will immediately jump to Trump.
But, as you've said, what it really does--
and I guess noir is a perfect format for this--
is that, like, it-it tells the understory
-of the ugl-ugly underbelly of New York -Yeah.
and how people were forced to live
where they were forced to live
and how this shaped their lives,
oftentimes, in a really negative way.
Yeah. And, look, I think-- I think that...
It's true. N-Noir films,
you know, it's not-not the dime-store gumshoe novels,
but real noir is--
it's a great tradition in American film.
It-It's a commentary that, in some ways,
we have this narrative of our country.
-We're proud of it. We're invested in it. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And we go along in our daily lives trusting it,
for the most part.
Noir kind of peels the corner back and says,
"Hey, there are things going on in the shadows
"that we should be concerned about.
"There are people who are rigging the game,
and if we tolerate it too much, they're gonna do us damage."
-Right. -And I think, um-- I think that remains a very--
a very healthy, uh, challenge to the public narrative.
And I think, um--
In some ways, the only tricky thing on this one
was I was essentially going to people and saying,
"Hey, it's, um-- it's sort of like L.A. Confidential
but Rain Man is at the center of it."
-And, uh, some people... -(laughs)
some people's eyes sort of crossed.
Um, but I do think-- I do think that, sometimes,
an underdog, like someone who you root for
not-not despite their affliction
but because of it and because of their unique characteristics,
-it-it engenders your empathy. -Right.
And I think when you feel empathy for a character,
it-it reminds you, in some ways,
like, what you care about the most.
Uh, you want to be the kind of person
who roots for Forrest Gump or G--
-you know, Rain Man. -Right, right, right.
And I think, um--
And I think that, in a lot of ways,
to me, Motherless Brooklyn, the title of this great novel,
it-it was not just applicable to the idea
of people looking out for each other on a personal level
but the idea that we've-- we need to--
we need to not orphan our own communities.
We need to stand up as citizens and-and take care of each other.
And I think, uh, it's-it's, uh--
We're in the middle of that argument again, amazingly,
I think, whether we're gonna confer a heroic value in America
on the idea that we take care of each other
or whether we're gonna romance power.
And I think, um--
and I think that's-that's what this digs around in.
I think it digs, it digs deeper and then you enjoy a movie.
But at the end of the day, you walk out and you're like,
"Damn, I'm living in the 1950s,
"modern-day version of a 1990s,
"2017, 2019, modern-day,
old-time movie that you've, like, put together."
You directed, um, starred
and produced and wrote the movie.
-Like, this is... -I'm getting exhausted
-as you say-say it. I'm-I'm... -Right. Yeah.
That's-that's, like, really complicated for somebody to do.
Like, did you-- Like, was there ever a point where you, like--
you thought you were working with other people and then,
-at the end of it all, you were like... -It was all me.
-You were like, it was all you. -Yeah, yeah. It was Tyler Durden
-times five. Yeah. -Yeah. It was just you all over.
But that must have been a weird p--
Why did you choose to-to take all of that on?
Well, look, there are some times
when a story is rattling around in your head
and when-- and I'm not joking-- when it is a little strange,
when the mash-up is a little strange.
And, like, the music is done by Thom Yorke and Wynton Marsalis,
-you know what I mean? Those are things I love. -Mm-hmm.
They don't necessarily go together, but they do.
-Right. -You have to have conviction in a way
that the mash-up of things you're interested in
-is gonna lead to something original and great. -Right.
And, um-- But sometimes, uh,
sometimes, y-you know, you don't--
you don't want to try to direct something
through someone else's hands.
But, plus, honestly, like, a lot of the f--
You know, when I was 18 or 19 and Do the Right Thing came out,
um, it was-- it was one of the seminal experiences
of my young adult life,
in terms of here's this guy, Spike Lee.
He's this kid. Who is he? He-he wrote and produced
-and directed and starred in a movie -Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
about his neighborhood in Brooklyn,
uh, and it was wildly entertaining,
with great music and mash-ups
of Public Enemy and jazz and all this stuff.
And it was also this deep commentary on American life.
It was, uh-- it was as trenchant and explosive,
uh, a forced conversation about race without easy answers.
And for a lot of us, a film like that just rewrote the-the--
you know, what we were aspiring to.
-Right. -And I-I think when you've done this long enough
and you get a chance, you--
sometimes you want to take a swing
at doing something like that,
like tell a story that matters to you
and tell it in an interesting way
and do something, uh, original.
I was very inspired by Spike.
I was inspired by Warren Beatty,
who directed Reds, you know,
and-and wrote it and produced it.
And sometimes, sometimes it's hard
to explain to people why you want to do something.
And when you feel that way, you just got to do it.
Well, you did it and you did it well.
-Thank you so much for joining us on the show. -Thank you.
-Yeah. -Congratulations.
Motherless Brooklyn is in theaters now.
Edward Norton, everybody.