Mark: You know what Jay and I do
when we're on set and we're trying to figure out
whether we should go this way or that?
Jay: We grunt.
And -- -Mark: [ Grunts ]
Jay: Eh, yeah. Mnh-mnh. Mnh-mnh.
-Mark: That's the conversation. -Jay: That's the conversation.
Mark: That's what it looks like.
-Jay: Yeah. -Mark: This is how
brother filmmakers communicate. -Jay: Yeah.
♪♪
In general, when we make stuff,
we call it like the caveman process,
where it's more a physical process
of, like, putting things in the world,
and it's much more based on, like, doing things
and then the other person will, like,
react to what has been done,
but not talk too much about what's been done.
Mark: Yeah. If we're on a plane,
we'll hang out and we'll talk about stupid stuff,
but when we're working, it's not --
it's not a words thing.
-Jay: Yeah. -Mark: It's like a very much
kind of animalistic, interpersonal thing.
Jay: We don't learn a lot from each other
because we kind of function as the same person.
-Mark: That's fair. -Jay: We kind of function
as like two sides of the same person, almost --
Mark: Mm-hmm. There are aberrations in there,
but it's pretty much a single force.
Jay: A single force.
And then we sort of polarize within that force.
-Mark: Yeah. -Jay: We sort of play roles.
Mark: I don't know where the learning comes from.
Jay: The learning comes from watching people watch our movies
and either laugh or don't laugh.
-Mark: Right. -Jay: Or cry or don't cry.
-Mark: "Oh, that wasn't funny." -Jay: "That wasn't funny."
-Mark: I learned something. -Jay: Yeah.
Mark: That really long edit we made where someone was like,
walking a long time to the car in their underwear?
Mark: It was not as funny as we thought it was gonna be.
-Jay: Yeah. Mark: 'Cause they didn't laugh.
Jay: We thought it was a funny tone poem.
Mark: I learned that right there, the hard way.
-Jay: Not good. -Mark: In the audience.
-Jay: That was not good. -Mark: Yeah.
So, I think if I was gonna give you a big piece of advice,
it would probably be a hike. -Jay: Yeah.
Mark: It would probably be a hike,
where we take a walk and we have to look forward
and we don't have to look at each other,
'cause we know it's gonna be a big thing.
And then about 10 seconds into me saying it,
you'd already know what I was gonna say,
and then we'd be fine. -Jay: Right.
It would be like a maybe -- "Remember that time..."
Mark: And I'd be like, "I got it, I got it."
Jay: It'd be, "Maybe go for that." Yeah, yeah.
You would say, "I got it" before they even got to the thing.
Mark: Yeah. I don't know how helpful this is,
but this is how we communicate.
I always end up bailing when things get really, really tough.
On a scene or an episode or a movie,
if it's like 97%, I'm like, "That's good.
We're good. Let's move on."
And you have nice fortitude and patience to stick in there.
One time when I was about 7 and Jay was 11,
and our friend Brandt Pratt was 9 --
who was a bit of an interloper in our relationship --
he came between us and it was difficult at times
'cause Jay wanted to play with him a little bit more than me
'cause I was just younger.
They started a business together called J&B.
It stood for Jay & Brandt.
And they spraypainted it on a box.
And I, like Travis Bickle,
watched darkly from the corner as this happened for a day.
And when he went home and when everybody went to sleep,
I came downstairs with a hammer
and I destroyed that fucking box.
Um...And I -- I still do that to this day
in much more subtle ways so that I can keep you mine.
But, uh --
Jay: Little did you know, I left the hammer out.
Mark: You left the hammer out.
-Jay: Making movies is hard. -Mark: Yeah.
Jay: And making good movies is, like, almost impossible.
So to have someone that you share the same sense of humor,
same sensibility, work right next to you, is --
It's insane.
Mark: It's only helpful for people like us.
-Jay: Yeah. -Mark: Yeah.