[00:00:00] Sophia Lebano: Hi guys. What’s up. Welcome back to another episode of here in our podcast. I’m very excited to welcome Michael McGruther. He is actually a friend of ours ,family friend, and I thought it would be perfect to have him on the show. So, Michael, welcome.
[00:00:12] Michael McGruther: Thank you so much for having me and it’s great to see you.
[00:00:16] Sophia Lebano: Yeah, you too.
It’s been quite awhile. Um, but let’s just dive right in and tell everybody about you. Just give us a little glimpse into your life.
[00:00:23] Well, how I intersected in your life is, um, my family really relocated here from the New York city metropolitan area. Um, you know, me as the dad of somebody at school who is always there to pick up her daughter and, you know, a lot of dads around here have jobs that keep them far from home, but I’m a writer.
[00:00:42] So I’ve worked at home for many, many years. I started as a screenwriter. I originally wanted to be an actor, but something about storytelling really saying to me, and I lucked out and I sold my very first screenplay, which was Tigerland to 20th century Fox. That was Colin Farrell’s first movie. And I got on a fast moving train that took me directly into the heart of the business.
[00:01:04] And, um, I mean, that’s, that’s really my story. I’ve just have a lot of extensive experience in the screenwriting development. Production culture, everything you can think of that goes into making a movie. I’ve been a part of it in some way, this past 25 years.
[00:01:22] That’s incredible. Yes. So I am ashamed to say, I’ve never seen tigerland , you’ll have to give me an inside look.
[00:01:28] Michael McGruther: It’s got the most F bombs of just about any movie. So I warn you now.
[00:01:33] Sophia Lebano: I’m all for that now. That’s awesome.
[00:01:37] Yes. I love it though. That’s so amazing. Um, I mean, I remember the first time we met you guys and I was like, this guy has got such a cool story. Like it’s just awesome. Um, so yeah, give us a little bit more in depth of what living, you know, in the heart of the movie industry was like,
[00:01:54] Michael McGruther: well, it’s, it’s interesting because I had a very spiritual experience.
[00:01:59] Um, I, as you might know, I know your mom knows I didn’t start in my career as . I didn’t start my journey as a Catholic. I’m a Catholic convert. I was converted by my experience in Hollywood, which I can only explain as really knowing what it feels like to be around pure evil. Uh, the business itself is not pure evil.
[00:02:21] The act of trying to tell stories and, and, and entertain each other and make movies is not an evil thing, but somewhere along the line, Before I arrived there. I think it turned into a very materialistic place with corporations getting involved and the amount of money that people chase and the power.
[00:02:41] There’s a culture there that you don’t know anything about until you get there on the outside. You’re like, wow. Star wars. I would like to make star wars or Harry Potter. I’ve got an idea like that, but when you get there, Uh, nobody cares about that stuff. Unless it’s something they can make money off it, but with a really all doing is keeping [00:03:00] score of how much they’ve accumulated in power and wealth.
[00:03:03] And that is the overwhelming culture of it all. So it was a strange thing to kind of be baptized by. Before being officially baptized by this like dark world of worldliness. Now I’ve learned in our faith that worldliness is poison and you can’t, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, uh, a man who has great wealth and power.
[00:03:27] He didn’t find his place in this world. This world found its place in him. And to me, that that really is what happens just by default of human nature, to most people who find success in a business. Or success can come overnight because you had a good idea or a clever story. And then suddenly you have millions of dollars in every opportunity to ruin yourself presents itself before anything good shows up.
[00:03:53] So I don’t know if that’s an explanation, that’s going to make a lot of sense to everybody, but it really is living in it is really the heart of darkness. And that’s why it looks all shiny and glittery on the outside is because it tries so hard to look like. Uh, but what’s going on inside is not fun at all.
[00:04:10] It’s very hollow. And I remember, uh, Pope Saint John Paul, the opposite of love is used. I mean, one of the, that’s one of his quotes that drew me towards the church because I realized I’m in the using business. No wonder, I feel so empty. I’m in the opposite of love industry. This doesn’t feel right. What, so where is love, right?
[00:04:31] And then you begin, then you begin searching for that and you find. You find yourself at home eventually with the Lord. But, um, that question is, it only comes out of being in the middle of great darkness in the first place for some people like myself. Wow. Yeah. Do you ever watch shows on TV and know, like I know what happened behind the scenes to go into that?
[00:04:57] Sure. I mean, but there’s, some things are just lower that you wouldn’t even care about unless you’re in the business and, you know, for example, pretty woman. Is, uh, considered a romantic comedy. However, it wasn’t originally, it was a real dark movie about prostitution, right? So there’s things that you learn about how the business is just interested in returns and money in box office.
[00:05:21] But think about what they did in that story is they made light of her situation. They took a script that started out as a real dark tale about this turn you can take. Uh, going that way and they turned it into something fun and marketable and there’s women, you know, good women that are, I love that movie, Richard Gere.
[00:05:42] That’s the evil, that’s how it works. They don’t tell stories that are embedded with things that nudge you towards the truth. The stories that are told nudge. Towards a more worldly darkness. So I know all kinds of behind the scenes, things that I wouldn’t even share in here. Cause they’re just disgusting about [00:06:00] people, you know, this movie star and this, did you hear about them?
[00:06:02] And that one, you know, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of people out there that you wouldn’t even know it that are gay. And a lot of them aren’t even gay because they’re like, wow, I really am that way. It was just what they had to do. So I do know those stories and I wouldn’t share them here for your audience because they really they’re just.
[00:06:21] Sophia Lebano: Yeah, that’s awful. I mean, is there ever, um, I know this is probably a weird question, but is there ever something that did not have that kind of backstory? Like, is there like an exception to the story?
[00:06:34] Michael McGruther: Uh, yeah. I mean, there’s lots of exceptions to the story. However, the abuse you’ll see is, you know, the products get made.
[00:06:42] You know, you can watch a great TV series and there, there are great shows and there are great things and they do make it through, but it’s the little pockets of power that exist. And it’s why nothing really gets, you know, nothing gets reported. You know, what is it? It’s a great sin to look the other way.
[00:07:00] Right? So everybody’s looking at the other way just to maintain their access to the job, to the flame. I mean, to the fame, to the job, to the money. I mean, look, there’s parents. Everybody thinks their child is the cutest kid you’ve ever seen, you know, five, five aunts and uncles say that one’s gotta be in commercials.
[00:07:18] There’s people that mortgage, their homes set up shop in Hollywood. And as soon as their kid they’ve invested so much in it and their kid like lands a show. I mean, this is the, this is the journey of the Miley Cyrus is of the world and they bribed her father. That’s a behind the scenes. Uh, he, he didn’t want her involved and they, and because his fame had kind of worn down, they brought them in as a team and they sent him on vacations and they sent them champagne and bottles of wine, but they actually took her and cultivated her into what she is now.
[00:07:47] Wow. Which is kind of like an agent of worldliness and just everything to shock you. So that you’ll look and it’s all about getting your attention and it’s, you know, it’s drawing you to something that’s ugly, not.
[00:07:58] Sophia Lebano: Hmm. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I grew up on that show. So to me, it’s, it’s such a hard, um, it’s a hard balance to see because you know, that there’s all of this stuff that probably went into it that we haven’t.
[00:08:10] Michael McGruther: I can tell you, I can tell you a real unverified, you know, like I’m not going to give you a fact, but this is a behind the scenes story. Uh, everybody knows about the creator. Uh, his name is Dan, something from Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon, cut him up that, you know, take a look at, um, Britney Spears. Sister’s child and tell me he’s not the dad.
[00:08:32] Sophia Lebano: Right, right.
[00:08:33] Michael McGruther: And that happened when she was under age. Yeah. And there was a large payout. So yeah, the things I know are really bad and you don’t want to even just know that it all happens. It’s all true. And nothing you see is real. Everything is facade. All they know the business is clever enough to put that show.
[00:08:51] And, and get it right past the parents what’s going on and make it look right. So that when the parents come in the room and they go, oh, what is this about? Is, you know, it’s a, it’s [00:09:00] a, it’s something that seems innocent. But underneath the surface, there’s always the sub the sub message that’s coming through.
[00:09:07] And that guy, Dan did a viral video where he asked children to, uh, put ketchup all over their toes and send them, send the videos. And Tim, I think you can still find this online. And it’s because he had a fetish for that. And he had children sending him videos of hymns of them putting their toes and ketchup.
[00:09:26] It was the weirdest, bizarre thing. But think about it from the power angle of having your hands on media, you can do that. And you can like, like a devil. You can be like, watch, I’ll make everyone do this this week. You know? And so people don’t think to themselves, they’re thinking for themselves, they’re just reacting to this thing that is so important to you.
[00:09:46] And that’s where the equation gets really bad. It’s, there’s too much value put on the entertainment itself and, and just that PR participation, which is dark always. .
[00:09:56] Sophia Lebano: Wow. I have heard conspiracy theories about.
[00:09:59] Michael McGruther: They’re true.
[00:10:00] Sophia Lebano: That’s that’s insane. So take us through a little bit more of your conversion story.
[00:10:05] Um, was it something that happened while you were out in California?
[00:10:08] Michael McGruther: Okay. Yeah, so I was working with the director of the X-Men movies and, um, I had made it so far into the business that I was just basically found myself. You know, sitting on couches with a lot of celebrities, you know, smoking a joint, watching movies, going to parties, getting drawn into this world.
[00:10:29] And, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s like a popularity contest. It’s like, it’s like high school with money. It really is. That’s what Hollywood is. It’s high school with money. So if you write a movie and column ferals, and it you’re all in with a good crowd at that moment, you know, Toby McGuire and his crowd, that was one thing, you know, there’s, there’s different little gangs.
[00:10:46] And, um, so I was in a great gang. And the things that were happening, weren’t really making me feel good. I wasn’t involved in anything that I, I can look myself in the mirror every night, but I saw a lot of my friends using girls, girls desperate to be around someone famous. I remember going out, I’m not going to name this triple a list movie star that you all love.
[00:11:10] But we walked from his hotel at the Chateau Marmont down to this little bar called the Trocadero and everybody wanted to be around him. And, you know, I did too. I was like, this is pretty cool. I’m hanging out with this guy and you know, so I’m just like one of the girls, right. And. And then, you know, at the end of the night, one is coming back to the hotel and that’s where we parked.
[00:11:30] And she looked at us all nervous and I’m like the most innocent of them all. It was a couple of famous people. I’m the least known guy, the most removed from all that wealth. And she looked right at me and she goes, am I going to be, you. And I was like, wow, like you shouldn’t go there if you don’t, you know, if you, if you, you shouldn’t do, this is what I’m thinking, but I’m like, uh, you know, I have no words, but another guy rolls and he’s like, yeah, he’s a good guy.
[00:11:57] Don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. But it was just like that [00:12:00] arranged encounter. That arranged this thing, this shiny object, this famous human being I’m going to have this, this moment with him. I can’t resist. Am I going to be okay. So I started to see things like that. That really made me think, what am I doing?
[00:12:16] Um, I don’t treat women that way. You know, you know, my wife, we were together, then we’re together. Now. I’ve been one of those guys who was always, you know, been in a long-term relationship. I’m not, I’m not wired that way. And so that started the, the understanding that people are used professionally. But then I started to realize how I was being used to as a screenwriter and how you go from meeting to meeting and your agents and managers, when they make a sale.
[00:12:41] They’re just trying to like pile on all these friends, taking little percentages. You know, a lot of people don’t realize that some of your favorite actors make less money than a regular blue collar guy, because they give 10% here, 5%, it’s all together. They end up with like 70% of what they’re supposed to mean.
[00:12:56] So it’s kind of like this, this whole bad equation and I’m fiercely independent. And I started to butt heads with the power and I started to just feel like I didn’t fit in and I didn’t quite know why. And I go on this business trip of Brian singer to NASA and it’s, uh, you know, I sold a movie. Mankind breaking the speed of light, you know, something really dreamy and cool.
[00:13:19] And I actually wrote it as a script about God when I wasn’t even a religious person. So that’s kind of interesting. And, uh, we go down to NASA and, you know, he did attempt to sexually harassed me in the hotel room. I stood up to him and I kicked him out and I was like, yeah, if we’re not talking about the book, you can get out of my room.
[00:13:37] And then he goes, we go back to LA and. Yeah, I stopped working after that. I’m blacklisted. I crossed the line. I shot down too famous of a guy. He should have taken one for the team is what a producer told me. Oh, a producer of your, some of your favorite TV shows, including stranger things. So I thought this is really ugly place.
[00:13:58] Like it was getting more intensely ugly. And I was with Michelle in our little apartment and I kept saying to her, I’m at this intersection in my business. I feel that I have to go completely dark side evil to get to the next level of my success or what, I didn’t know what the, what was, I didn’t know any idea what the opposite of that was.
[00:14:20] So we go to a bookstore in Pasadena, my favorite place to hang. And I walk in and I kid you not the very first book that’s like set up on the shelf. A new edition was printed, was mere Christianity by CS Lewis.
[00:14:32] Sophia Lebano: Oh my gosh.
[00:14:34] Michael McGruther: So, so I I’m like, wow, what’s this, you know, an unreal cynical about Christianity or I’m like super cynical about it to the point where.
[00:14:42] You know, just, let’s just say I’m one of those guys and I’m reading it. And I open up the page and the, if you remember the beginning of the book, it says, uh, that there’s a kind of a scene where a woman gets on a bus and why does this guy give up his seat? Why does someone stand up and give [00:15:00] up their seat?
[00:15:00] And it’s, this act of kindness is simple kindness. And where does it come from? It comes from somewhere and it’s not coming just from you. It’s coming from somewhere else. And that stops. Dead in my tracks because that little simple act of kindness was missing from all of my interactions missing from all my friendships missing from every business relationship, it was, it was like I saw what water was going to, was going to be bought the book, went home, read it in one setting.
[00:15:32] I kid you not packed everything up and moved to the east coast two weeks later.
[00:15:37] Sophia Lebano: That’s insane.
[00:15:39] Michael McGruther: And then I said to my, to my wife, I think I want to be Catholic. And she bought me a cross and she never really, my wife is, is a cradle Catholic like yourself, but she was always, um, we weren’t married yet actually.
[00:15:52] And she was always that person in my life who lived the gospel, but wasn’t too preachy at me. And I also tell you something that really worked because she could have pushed me away other ways. Anyway, she buys me the, the cross and I start flirting with what I. What I want to know more about, you know what I mean?
[00:16:07] And, and it started my journey. And then when I joined the RCIA I went through this whole process. And as you probably know what it is, you probably have adult friends who have done it, of your family. And I converted and I, and I was like, I went from up here in the world of show business to down here in the world.
[00:16:26] Being small and understanding that God actually was real and loved me and answered my prayer because I didn’t tell you because I did lay in bed one night and ask, you know, don’t let this pursuit of this career kill me. And it was just the one of the one times I prayed in my adult life and I, everything dramatically changed after that.
[00:16:46] I’ve only prayed like that twice. The second time I prayed that way. When my daughter had spent one year in public school and we couldn’t find a good Catholic school where we lived and, uh, an actor in St. Malakai’s in New York, where all these actors get together. He said to me, just pray to Mary. She had never let you down.
[00:17:05] And I did. And then Michelle got her job offer to move here.
[00:17:09] Sophia Lebano: That’s crazy.
[00:17:11] Michael McGruther: And that’s how I found Villa
[00:17:12] Sophia Lebano: so crazy. Wow. I did not know that. That’s awesome.
[00:17:17] Michael McGruther: Sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble there, but
[00:17:19] Sophia Lebano: no, no. I mean, it’s such an in-depth story. How could you not? I love it though. It’s so crazy how God kind of just shows himself, but mere Christianity.
[00:17:28] I don’t know how you could read that in one sitting that’s a big undertaking.
[00:17:32] it was water. I
[00:17:33] Michael McGruther: mean, I was thirsty for it. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was like, literally like tell me more, tell me more like, wow. You know, and it was so hidden. It’s so hidden. That’s why I’m so adamant about the culture is it’s those things are so hidden.
[00:17:47] Your parents gave you this amazing gift, giving you a faith and, and staying together and all the sacrifices you guys make as a family that is so valuable. That’s more valuable than any academy award. Any [00:18:00] movie deal, any fame you could possibly get in this world, it’s the most valuable thing and you have it.
[00:18:06] And everybody else is looking for. And I’m just explaining to you how I found my way closer to what you have.
[00:18:13] Sophia Lebano: That’s insane. So what are your, what’s your big, I guess, mission now to try and revolutionize the culture and brand new well,
[00:18:22] Michael McGruther: yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m, I’m really drawn to a movement called communion and liberation.
[00:18:28] And I, I feel like I had this meeting with this priest, this. Uh, w he was, um, his name is Lorenzo . He was a physicist. And I wrote like all the science stuff. And he was also a priest. Is this Puerto Rican guy. And before he died, I got invited to one kind of like mystical mass with this guy. And the group called me.
[00:18:52] And when the phone rings, it says the human adventure. Like, that’s what their caller ID says. And it’s really where a lot of artists connect because you know, the movement is about following your nature and your nature will always lead you to God. And I’m proof of that. I followed my nature and my nature exposed what the, what the reality was and drew me to something that I wasn’t given as a child like you.
[00:19:17] So I kind of, I adopt that theory. Everybody’s on their own journey to understanding, you know, you’re not lucky, not everyone is lucky to be born in a situation like you are. So everybody’s kind of on their journey to understanding the truth and God is going to reveal it to everybody individually. And one way to get there is through artistic expression, which is revealing more and more truth.
[00:19:41] So I’m actually looking at art a lot differently now. And my mission is to get young people. Basically work with the culture and not be, not, not approach it with like a crucifix and holy water, but approach it with, you know, be very wise and know how to nudge and slowly pick apart all that evil that has been woven.
[00:20:04] So that’s a skill that I’m, that I’ve developed because I know it from the inside. So I have my own podcast and I do talk a little bit about politics, but I really try to get people inspired. To create their own realities and ignore the ones that are coming from a contaminated place. And, uh, you know, it’s just about empowering young people to not go seek fame and fortune, but to instead be more satisfied with maybe you’re an independent creator and you’re able to make 60 to $70,000 a year with your YouTube show or with your, your, your thing.
[00:20:41] By doing so everybody’s creations will be more authentic and those more authentic creations will more authentically reflect the views of, of all the people. And it won’t be like we could be programmed to be more like, you know, more primed to be used. Because if you really look at, if you really look at show business, does [00:21:00] your friends who are going to follow it?
[00:21:01] There’s some people, you know, that are going to be well-educated, but they’re going to get drunk. There, if they follow that entertainment, look what it’s doing. It’s prepping you to be victimized. It’s, you know, always encouraging you to be set up so that if that person makes it all the way to the headquarters of fame and fortune, there’s lots of people that know already by the look on their face, easy pickins.
[00:21:25] So my mission is to get people, not to find themselves in that journey. And also that there’s a better way. And it’s honestly the only way, because the system has completely changed.
[00:21:35] Sophia Lebano: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I looked a lot of. I would say gen Z people I’m like right on the cusp because I’m 2000. It’s really hard to tell if I’m a millennial or gen Z, but a lot of people who are in that gen Z and they are really embracing the technology that we are given to fully express themselves.
[00:21:56] Not everybody is going to be on a authentic path like you’re saying, but it really is inspiring to see people taking their own future into their own hands and making a living. Just being a creator. Um, so is that something that you would recommend, you know, starting YouTube?
[00:22:13] Michael McGruther: Yeah. I mean, and what I wanted to say is just to add to what you’re saying is, um, but they will follow their nature and it will lead them to the truth that will lead them to the truth.
[00:22:22] So I do think I’ve, I have kind of like a radical realignment and understanding of, you know, how do you get people to willingly go searching for the truth? Instead of trying to force them in line for it. Right. And that’s where culture comes in because there’s no way that, uh, on a Saturday morning people woke up and they were like, you know what?
[00:22:45] We need, we need some LGBTQ heroes on television. And you know, that’s a very slow road of cultural changing. They won those battles. They won those battles by slowly, there’s a Chinese saying it only takes two hands to unravel the car. And so all the values and all the things that hold society together there have been unraveled.
[00:23:07] You gotta hand it to the other team to really outplayed us. You know, they outplayed everybody, you set up a great system, they have all power everything’s under their control and there’s nothing you can do about it. You know what I mean? But there is something you can do about it. You can go to the other side, just ignore.
[00:23:24] Don’t give them the attention. Don’t tune into the shows and purposely tune into the shows of your fellow peers, creating things. Which are more, I don’t want to say wholesome, truthful or truthful about the experience. You know, you can tell LGBTQ stories, but they don’t have to be. As Andrew Breitbart, a very famous, you know, a guy who started Breitbart news, uh, there’s a lot of things that are just known there.
[00:23:50] There’s no way you can make a movie with a LGBTQ bad character, a serial killer of a villain. There are always going to be the best friend. They’re always [00:24:00] going to be the hero person that you, that you were always waiting for because storytelling is very powerful. And all it does is it teaches the audience that these are the.
[00:24:11] These are the people, you know, so you can take those values and you can put them on any character, but to choose over and over it’s that’s, that’s what I mean by changing the culture. So you can’t young people can’t go to NBC and be like, I changed the culture and I want to do this thing. That’s uh, you know, it’s about a religious family.
[00:24:28] No, they have a little religious family channel. They can put you on so that nobody sees it, but just the select group of people you’re trying to. Or you can just put it out into the world, not try to get rich off it, but your show might actually catch on and become the popular culture over time. When enough people become independent entirely and their expression.
[00:24:51] Sophia Lebano: Uh, of anything they create it’s artistic. Yeah. That’s very empowering. Um, I always do see like the people who are doing it, not for the wrong reasons, but who have the wrong mindset in starting out. Like I’m going to make 1,000 thousand dollars off of this TV show or, you know, YouTube channel. Um, they’re usually the ones that don’t make it very far because they’re, they’re doing it with such a limited mindset.
[00:25:14] Um, and that’s part of the reason why I started this podcast too. Not for fame and fortune, but just to share the truth whenever I can. And so, like you said about changing the culture, are there people that you’ve met in your journey that are not going with that mindset, but who have. A background that you align with, if that makes sense.
[00:25:35] Michael McGruther: Yes. There’s a bunch. I mean, I’m starting some things right now. I’m sure. You know, I, you know, actor, Matt Davis, uh, it was in my movie tiger land. He was just here. We’re about to launch a whole platform. That is, uh, he’s a, he had the same Catholic conversion as myself, by the way. Um, that’s the one podcast episode of mine.
[00:25:53] You should listen to. It’s a little rated R but it really talks about what it’s like to be a celebrity. Uh, something he said that was just incredible. Was he remembers being like at the buffet table of wealth and everything tasting like powder to him and like dry bread where everyone else is just enjoying, you know, the empty calories you could say.
[00:26:12] So yeah, there’s platforms that are being built. There’s a group of people in New York that I’ve identified that I’m really cultivating. And drawing them in and they’re called folk filmmakers and no budget filmmakers. And there’s these movements and, you know, the movements are everywhere now. It doesn’t have to be in Soho.
[00:26:30] It can be anywhere. You know, we got more space out here. I’d love to see some bulk filmmakers in Pennsylvania that figure. I got an iPhone and I can make a movie and I can edit it and I can do the sound. Right. I can release these things for $500 and it can be like little tiny, short films. And, um, there’s gonna, and the ways to monetize those that don’t involve YouTube and that’s kind of what I’m working on.
[00:26:51] So yes, I can’t give too much of it away, but, um, yeah, we’re building something like that, but a lot of people are because it is the new [00:27:00] business there. The ability to have a concept for something very high end, special effects driven, and then contact the guy in Norway, pay him like $500 and he does a special effects scene and emails it to you.
[00:27:12] There’s, you know, you can download music, you can have somebody’s songs that you licensed for 99 cents. It’s all available. The confusion and the chaos of what the storylines of the shows are all about and the self absorption of the people who are like, I’m just going to mine this for a hundred thousand dollars and get attention that person’s following their nature too.
[00:27:32] But they’re also distracted from the real person. And they want it that way. They want it that way. They don’t want anyone to compete. So here, oh yeah. Get rich, get famous kids. Yeah. Get a million likes. Yeah. You had a million downloads. That doesn’t mean anything that money has to be spent. Advertising money is really hard to get.
[00:27:49] I know one, one of these guys I track, he makes $20,000 on YouTube once in awhile, but it’s such a high threshold that it’s intentionally hard to.
[00:27:59] Sophia Lebano: Yeah, absolutely. That’s incredible. I’m excited to see where that goes. Um, maybe you can give a personal inside look.
[00:28:06] Michael McGruther: Oh, sure. Absolutely. Well, I’ll tell you what it’s called.
[00:28:09] It’s called Blocksi and it’s just, it’s just a new platform. So just keep that in mind, keep that in the back of your head, you can find there’s a Twitter account, but it only has a few followers right now, but there are some, some people that I’m sure you’re fans of that are. Oh, I’m excited to see.
[00:28:24] Sophia Lebano: That’s awesome.
[00:28:24] And Matt Davis, he is he’s awesome. But for people who don’t know, what, what were some of the movies that he was in?
[00:28:30] Michael McGruther: Well, I mean, I met him on his very first film, which was Tigerland. Most people probably know him from legally blonde. Um, they just had their 20th anniversary. He is Erlick Saltzman, I guess I’m saying it right on the vampire diaries series.
[00:28:46] Yeah. And he’s been on that for 12 years now. So he did the series with Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder and they were all the regular cast. And now he’s on legacies on CW and, uh, they just got renewed. So he was up here and now he’s back getting ready to shoot his last season of that.
[00:29:04] Sophia Lebano: That’s awesome.
[00:29:05] That’s so cool. I mean, it’s the fun friendship .
[00:29:07] Michael McGruther: Oh yeah. Well, he actually liked it here and his, his family is like, you know, he’s like, I think I need to buy a little piece of farm land up here. It’s really, there’s a lot. He said there’s a lot of good creative energy where we live.
[00:29:17] Sophia Lebano: Oh, I’m, I’m glad I need to do right.
[00:29:20] That’s so awesome. So I know you’re an author to kind of walk us through some of your books that you have.
[00:29:27] Michael McGruther: Well, I mean, my whole desire to be an author only comes from. A desire to tell stories. And I have sold a lot of screenplays that nobody will ever see, because when you sell a screenplay, you can get a lot of money.
[00:29:40] And the script is, is handled by like a development person, right? It’s like a person has a slate and a budget. And then let’s say in the year, 2014, I go in and I pitched to this guy at universal and he buys it and it becomes part of his package of things he’s working on that he’s been authorized to work.
[00:29:59] But [00:30:00] then something goes wrong, like six months down the line and he gets fired and the next executive comes in. He doesn’t want any of his projects to go forward. So he gets his own new slate going and he doesn’t want anything to do with anything that that other guy got, because it’s that competitive?
[00:30:14] It’s like, you know, it’s like baseball card trading. Well, I came up with that movie and now it’s the number one hit. So you owe me more money. That’s the game they’re playing. Wow. So I realized, wow, my crazy. Writing is going to be stuck within the whims of these power battles of people. So far above me that there’s nothing I can do it.
[00:30:31] You can work your butt off on something and then have it all disappear out of pocket. Politics has nothing to do with you, right? So I said, man, I should, I should really self publish a book. I put it off for a long time. And then when we moved to this area and Reagan started playing. A fantasy story came out of it.
[00:30:50] And I said, you know, let me do my, let me experiment and see what I can do. So I wrote this children’s book with a golf coach here who helped me understand the sport a little bit, just to see how different the process was. And it’s very, very different. A screenplay, one page of the screenplay is one minute of camera time.
[00:31:10] There’s a lot of space, you know, there’s just the cameras. At Sophia from a high angle and her hand is twittling something and you just write things like that down, right? Yeah. And you’re you’re, and then the director and actors, they all make it happen. A novel is different. Right. And you don’t have to really explain the story, draw people in.
[00:31:27] So I started small and I locked out, totally locked out, wrote a great book. Uh, and it was, uh, named one of the indie books of the year when I released it. And it won a very prestigious literary award from Kirkus and yeah. Uh, was, uh, one of the best independent published books, books. I got really, really excited.
[00:31:45] And I was like, oh, okay. I, I think I can do this now. It’s a lot harder way harder than writing a screenplay. But I dove in and I had this other really killer screenplay that I couldn’t sell it for political reasons. And it’ll make perfect sense when I tell you what it is. It was China in the United States in a war on the moon.
[00:32:02] And it was just a fun, fun, fun action movie. So I’m like, ah, right, I’m going to, I’m going to do that one. Yeah. Nobody’s going to Hollywood. It’s not going to stop me with their politics. So I published crisis moon a year and a half ago and, and it didn’t come out in my opinion, as good as my first, but it taught me a lot of stuff.
[00:32:21] So it’s just a fast paced action book. It’s not, it’s not fun, like memorable, heavy moments or things that make you go, wow. I really, that was a great book. It’s just pure action. Right. So I just finished my third novel, which is actually a C. Catholic novel and it’s called omen. And, uh, the premise is pretty simple.
[00:32:44] Aliens exist. We know they exist. It’s illegal to try and make contact with them in the future. This book is set for some rebels, some peaceful people have got themselves a spaceship and they go, we’re going to go introduce ourselves because we have to go in peace for all [00:33:00] mankind. And the story is really about a guy who is sent to stop them from doing that.
[00:33:04] And he get stuck on the ship with a beautiful. And they land on this planet together. And you find out that the OMIM are diabolical aliens, that claim to have killed God.
[00:33:16] Sophia Lebano: Wow.
[00:33:17] Michael McGruther: However, however, one of God’s offspring is there to defeat the omen.
[00:33:23] Sophia Lebano: Hmm. Interesting.
[00:33:25] Michael McGruther: Right.
[00:33:25] Sophia Lebano: Yeah. Wow.
[00:33:26] Michael McGruther: And what happens and how that’s all revealed is the story.
[00:33:29] So I do believe it’s one of the better things, right? And I’m releasing it this fall. I’m getting the covers this week. I get my covers from a company in New Zealand called , just to teach people who might listen to this, that you do farm out things in a professional manner, and you get professional work back and you can really up your independent game to make it indistinguishable from major corporate products.
[00:33:51] Sophia Lebano: That’s so crazy. Wow. I mean, I was in the pursuit of writing a novel, I would say two years ago, and I’d never realized how much work really went into it. I see all this, like, you know, everybody has such a good book and I’m like, I can never measure up to that. But, um, I I’m. So. That’s going to be awesome.
[00:34:08] Michael McGruther: Well, you do measure up to it. You have to understand that writing is rewriting and most people enter that whole world thinking that they have to be good at first. And every first draft I’ve ever written is terrible. You would never be able to read it, but I know where it’s going. And, and so it’s, it’s, it’s work through it.
[00:34:26] And also don’t take the lid off it and let people have tastes of your story. It diminishes its power in your own. You, you can’t be like, what do you think of these first 10 pages? Like, that’s the worst thing you can ever do. And that’s what everybody does too.
[00:34:40] Sophia Lebano: So I’m so excited, um, to read your new book, I still have to read crisis moon and not gonna lie,
[00:34:46] Michael McGruther: but, um, oh no, don’t worry about that.
[00:34:48] I mean, I’m not saying, I’m not saying it’s a bad book, but I’m just saying I got it out. I got it out of my system. Pure action movie. It’s not right. It’s more like airport you’re just on your waist. You read it on the subway. It’s not like puddle club, which I tried to write a good book with some meaning, something to take away for the audience.
[00:35:05] Oh, mum has got a real big takeaway. It’s like a, it’s the first science fiction. Pro-life movie anyone’s ever going to see because it’s pro-life without you knowing it. I mean, I don’t want to give, I don’t want to give anything about the book away, but let’s just say the aliens have figured out a way to survive for us.
[00:35:22] And it has something to do with that. And then we, you know, that’s all, I can’t say any more. I don’t want to, I don’t want to ruin it so amazing.
[00:35:30] Sophia Lebano: I’ll I need to see the movie version of that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. This has been so amazing. Do you have any other last words of advice for people who are maybe looking to get into the industry and are maybe either skeptical or know, just need a change of heart?
[00:35:47] Michael McGruther: Well, my advice is, and I say, take this very seriously because I am saying it from a place of authority. Um, I am definitely telling you the truth. The business is over. [00:36:00] You have to be independent creator, you have to be independent minded and you have to forge your own. And that is the new way, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
[00:36:09] There’s not, you know, but you gotta, people should get that blends out of their eyes where they’re like, if this, then that it’s no it’s, if I make a good show, I can probably get an audience. And then that audience will download my show and I can make money and you have to have a scaled down reality and a scaled down expectation.
[00:36:27] And then everything is going to make sense. But when people think that, you know, I want that house that Jay Z has that world. And. And thank God because it was a real bad world that led to all the things I was telling, telling you about, you know, that incentivizes the worst in human nature to sort of throw each other under the bus to get it.
[00:36:48] So stay independent and, and be aware of that scale down success is the real success. And I know that sounds counterintuitive, but you want to stay good here and you want to stay free in your mind. And you can contaminate it by aiming at the wrong target. So make sure you have the right target, which is little local and high quality.
[00:37:12] Sophia Lebano: Amazing. Yeah, no, that’s such great advice. So last question. Where can people connect with you learn more about your books and any upcoming plans.
[00:37:19] Michael McGruther: Well, you can go in my book. Publishing label is hossel books.com, H O S E L B O K S. I have a blog. I have a Michael mcgruther, her blog, but also more importantly as I have started a movement called sub pop culture.
[00:37:36] And that is.subpopcult.com. If you go to that website, you’ll see my manifesto. It’s kind of the stuff I’m saying here, uh, where it’s just like, we’re only gonna fix the culture if you and I become folk storytellers again, folk musicians, and we agree to look to each other for entertainment instead of to the corporations.
[00:37:54] So everything’s there. My podcasts, they’re all the innovating of interesting little filmmakers that I find I reviewed their movies. Um, one guy and I would, I think everybody should watch it. Everybody who listens to this podcast go watch this movie. You can find it on my website. It’s called pretend that you love me.
[00:38:11] It’s by a guy named Joel hayfever. You won’t think much at first, but trust me, go through that film. And you’re going to see something really, really special. I’m the only person who reviewed them in the entire world. He’s got 300,000 downloads, only about 30 dislikes. Everybody loves it. And I look at the analytics that people who come to my site to find his movie global, global audience, and it’s all about wanting to be loved.
[00:38:37] So it’s going to seem strange and bizarre, but watch it. That’s that’s what I end this podcast on is watch, pretend that you love me and realized that is the success.
[00:38:47] Sophia Lebano: That’s incredible. I need to go watch it online. It’s free. Free is the best style. I love it. And it’s free. And. Yes. Well, all of those things will be [00:39:00] down below for the show notes and you guys can check them out.
[00:39:02] So Mr. McGruther thank you so much for giving us so much wisdom.
[00:39:06] Michael McGruther: . My pleasure. And anytime you want to reconnect and do this again, when something happens, that’s cool. I’m always available. And you know, we’ll have to get our families together very soon when the world gets a little bit more, you know, un ridiculous, like it is these days.
[00:39:19] So thank you so much for having me on
[00:39:21] Sophia Lebano: you’re so welcome. And thank you guys for tuning into this week’s episode of here in on podcast. Have a wonderful week and we’ll see you next time.