of

somewhere between codependent and interdependent, which is kind of what the movie Magic Hour is about to a certain degree.

It was us expressing this sort of feeling of...

Um, isn't this everything you ever wanted to be so close with someone that you feel that you really can't live without them? Um, but we have become so inextricably intertwined that it can be a little problematic.

Um, and we think it's half good and half bad.

So we decided to sort of make a movie about it.

Um, but to your previous question, I think for me, I'm really grateful that this thing that I do telling stories that I take very seriously, um, that encapsulates the highs and lows of my day can be understood by the person sleeping next to me rather than sleeping to someone who works at Doctors Without Borders or is like...

share a therapist that you see for individual

Is Austin still important to you guys and your filmmaking journey, even as you sort of moved on from this as hometown? Yeah.

Well, I mean, Austin to me is sort of the epicenter of who I am as an artist in more ways than one.

I think for me personally, I moved there in 95 to go to school at UT.

But I've been coming there since 91 when Jay was in college.

And people were living in South Austin off of... very little money, making their art.

And it was not about getting it out into the world.

It was about making art and subsisting.

What else do you guys want to know about this film as they head into theaters?

Hmm.

And, and we started to build this bedrock of, I think subconsciously, "Oh my God, this person is still here, and they know all of this really ugly, scary shit about me." And that, to me, is the seeds of what I think led to this beautiful or terrible, whatever you wanna call it, codependency that we have now, which is this very firm belief that like, no one will ever be able to know me or understand me and love me the way that Katie does.

Please.

And the experience I have is that, um, Katie opened the back door of that car, um, and there was something about the way she was, the way she smelled, the way she looked.

It was just that was it right there, and then everything else was a decision and work.

Everything else from there.

And so, you know, th- I love this old adage of, like, there, there are no really right or wrong decisions.

There's a decision and then you make it right.

[laughs]

Once I saw this shot, I was like, "Burn my fucking dead ass.

Nobody needs to ever see this." Like, I-

I have no idea what that reference is about

...

I look like a melting candle.

You know what I look like? I look like the motherfucker who gets out of the tub in The Shining and hugs Jack Nicholson.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I could see everybody around me, and I could see people who were working less hard than me, who were spilling brilliance onto their little home-recorded machines, and it was very, very hard.

Interesting.

Um, and I had to reckon with that, and reckon with I didn't really like the music lifestyle.

I...

Being out touring, like I'm a homebody, and I had to try to figure out, "Am I gonna, like, start over-

Mm-hmm.

You know, um, for me, it feels like the, the depression was first and foremost, um, and, and my intense desire to fight that, my intense desire to not allow it to be there and muscle it into something else, started to create an anxiety.

So it's almost like-

Interesting

...

the, the depression can manifest as anxiety.

That's just my own sort of feeling about it.

Um, so I just like to encompass it all in this one word that I call the wug, and I can be wuggy, can be wuggin' that day.

Yeah.

... uh, thing going.

Okay.

So, I'm eight years old.

I'm on a trip to Santa Fe with my parents.

I quickly realize I am allergic to this horse.

I am in the far back of a line of about 15 people, and I see my parents and my brother up there having a really nice time.

Yeah.

Is there one that, I'm sure you get this a million times, that you like more than most in terms of doing, producing, directing, or do you love how everything kind of helps the other thing?

I do like the blending of all the things, and I come from the independent sector.

I came into this business making $3 movies in my kitchen with my brother on our parents' video camera.

So I'm no stranger to doing it all.

But that said, I think that as I've been fortunate enough to do both indie projects and also be on a show like The Morning Show, which one day's catering on that show is more expensive than most of the work I make.

I like the balance.

I like hanging lights with my friends and sweating on my indie projects.

play a bit more in the indie world?

Yeah, yeah.

"And, and, like, you know, but there's something about you that just makes me feel you and deeply understand you." And I just know that, like, of all the people, you know, who you're watching post on Instagram and whatnot, like, think about them and think about if they're posting the beautiful picture at the sunset light in Tuscany from their trip, or is it more endearing-

(laughs)

...

in any way, shape, or form, but like I look at you objectively.

I don't know you that well.

I know your story and I think about one of the most unfairly maligned people at the beginning of, um, what our press turned into in the last 30 years.

And if all you did after that was get up and get a job at Starbucks and watch TV at night to cope, you should be really proud of yourself if that was all you did.

How did that feel to share that? Did that, were you surprised by the reaction that you got?

100% surprised.

And here's the thing, it didn't feel weird to share because I live in Los Angeles amongst a group of artists where this is just dinner table conversation.

My favorite job.

It's a great, it's a great show, and a lot of the men who watch that show are not the men who are comfortable with talking about their mental health because they're football dudes and whatnot.

And so when I started going on my social media, I got this outpouring, particularly from men, just being like, "I can't believe you're saying this out loud." And it makes me feel really good to know that someone that I view as somewhat successful is still on their feet despite this, and it offers hope in that way.

So I never really planned on being some sort of mouthpiece for it, I was just sort of whining on social media.

(laughs)