Less Than Zero
1987 filmWikipedia
97
MENTIONS
37
EPISODES
36
PODCASTS
Search complete. 97 mentions across 37 episodes found for "Less Than Zero".
Sep 14, 2026
Max MinghellaGUEST
But we've, we've really tried, I think, to do it right, and I think the ambition has always been to, um, respect his work and respect this novel.
Steven T. HanleyHOST
I remember telling Bret, I think he thought I was insane, but I just had this theory that if I become a billionaire, I would feed in a Blu-ray of Less Than Zero to an AI machine and then the book, and then say, "Keep all the characters, keep the look of the sh- of the-
Max MinghellaGUEST
Mm
Steven T. HanleyHOST
... of the movie, but can we-
Steven T. HanleyHOST
It was
Max MinghellaGUEST
...
Max MinghellaGUEST
Less Than Zero is tricky.
Max MinghellaGUEST
They've tried twice, by the way, to do TV shows of, of Less Than Zero, and I, I've seen-
Jason MilesHOST
That, the, you know, the way you said that makes me feel real uncomfortable.
Jason MilesHOST
[laughs] I'm gonna be like Robert Downey Jr. in Less Than Zero.
Jason MilesHOST
[laughs]
Ryan ZickgrafGUEST
Come along, buddy.
ChrisHOST
This was outdone by the four-woman band out of Los Angeles, The Bangles, in 1988.
ChrisHOST
It's called A Hazy Shade of Winter, and they took it from a folk rock hit to a hard rock hit, which was used in the soundtrack of the movie Less Than Zero, starring Robert Downey Jr., Andrew McCarthy, and Jami Gertz.
ChrisHOST
Another totally '80s movie.
ChrisHOST
They took that song to number two on February 6th of 1988, kept out of the top spot by Tiffany's Could've Been.
ChrisHOST
This is song number 1536, The Bangles' cover version of A Hazy Shade of Winter.
35 MINS LATER
ChrisHOST
Remember, if you do respond to my questions in the Facebook group, you could be in this podcast.
ChrisHOST
Closing out this podcast with the last two songs, we first start with song 1522, and another sort of polarizing artist from the '70s, John Denver.
ChrisHOST
Not that he was a bad dude, he just got exposed a lot in the '70s between his songs and his variety shows and all his TV and movie appearances.
SteveHOST
Absolutely.
IzzyHOST
Is this Less Than Zero?
SteveHOST
It is Less Than Zero, also starring Jamie Gertz and Robert Downey Jr.
SteveHOST
Guess which one has the drug problem?
IzzyHOST
[rire]
IzzyHOST
Oh.
SteveHOST
Uh-
RyanGUEST
Less Than Zero, you say.
John SlavneyHOST
Pryor was still a student at Yale when he began acting on Broadway stages, and he went on to a busy career in television and film that ran from the 1950s into the 2020s.
John SlavneyHOST
In the 1980s, he played the father of Tom Cruise's character in Risky Business and that of Robert Downey Jr.'s in Less Than Zero.
John SlavneyHOST
Pryor is also a member of The Adams Chronicles club, yet another RMT actor who turned up in that 1976 PBS miniseries playing John Quincy Adams II.
John SlavneyHOST
The series was filmed largely at Manhattan's Fox Movietone Studios, which goes some way toward explaining how so many New York-based actors ended up in its cast.
Media MelanieHOST
Maybe one is playing against the other and setting them up.
Media MelanieHOST
Steven wants to co-produce with Terry this less than zero.
Media MelanieHOST
And like Terry says, why is everybody so concerned or into this idea of a script by a high schooler? Honestly, really good question.
Media MelanieHOST
And Terry turned Stephen down, which makes me think Stephen has one of the biggest motivations of all.
19 MINS LATER
Media MelanieHOST
And then Terry having mentioned, yeah, you're always there to clean my stuff up.
Media MelanieHOST
Could Stephen have actually done it this time and cleaned it up in a way to frame Terry? But then Stephen says to Liz, do you have proof that Terry did it? Now that could either be feeling out what she does know if Stephen is involved or Stephen also believes that it's Terry.
Media MelanieHOST
And the motive is there for Stephen to push him off, especially after Terry says no to the whole less than zero involvement.
Media MelanieHOST
And why wouldn't Steven have been a little bit harder about the blackmail if he really did want something from Terry? Like, why not go all in with blackmail? That seemed a little bit odd to me.
Peter RiosHOST
And this whole concept and some of the characters was based off Get Ready.
Peter RiosHOST
A number of things, but was mostly based off of Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis.
Peter RiosHOST
I was obsessed with that movie.
Peter RiosHOST
I eventually read the book.
speaker_6HOST
Plus, we're drawing on director interviews, production histories, and literary critiques that have tracked this whole evolution.
speaker_6HOST
Our mission today is to trace this journey from The Informers to Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, the 2026 series The Shards, and finally, American Psycho.
speaker_3SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
It's
speaker_6HOST
quite a lineup.
14 MINS LATER
speaker_7HOST
It is the entire philosophical point.
speaker_6HOST
Okay, I'm following.
speaker_7HOST
The true horror of the novel Less Than Zero is that no one in the story is horrified by Julian's descent.
speaker_7HOST
The social world they occupy is entirely post-moral.
MoHOST
He ends up telling her that all he needs her to do in order for Terry to never find out her secret is she needs to whisper into Terry's ear every night, no less than 100 times, that he needs to...
MoHOST
He really needs to consider this less than zero, right? Making him a producer or something like that on the less than zero screenplay that he's supposed to be, I guess, adapting for Robert's book.
MoHOST
Lord, Freudian slips all over the place.
MoHOST
I'm sorry, y'all, for Brett's book.
MoHOST
But Terry is really not giving him the time of day.
MoHOST
He's paying him dust, right? He doesn't see the vision that Steven can provide.
MoHOST
You know, according to him, this less than zero thing can make like $100 million.
MoHOST
The problem is...
Kim JimGUEST
He was, did some extra work.
Kim JimGUEST
He was, um, an extra on, like, Less Than Zero and-
Rob CesterninoHOST
Wow
Kim JimGUEST
... a couple other movies.
27 more episodes mention Less Than Zero.
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