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Justin thorough is an actor and a writer
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and his latest role is in a little film
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called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice uh Justin
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is also a pivot fan that's how we met
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him welcome to Pivot finally thanks for
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having me thanks for having me on the
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show I am a huge pivot fan we're
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thrilled to have you here and we're
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thrilled to have you with such success
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Scott go for it if you were talking to a
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group of analysts or investors about
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what's going on in Hollywood how would
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you describe the industry right now like
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what do you coming what are your what
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are your thoughts on scripted television
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the streaming Wars what what do you give
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us a state of play from Justin too
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without disclosing anything to anyone
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you know I I've gone out with a couple
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projects this year that I think uh over
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the last 10 years would have been um
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easy buys you know like like this is a a
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thoughtful interesting script that's
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engaging um that has many elements that
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we haven't seen on television and you
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know a couple of those have not been
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accepted and it was the first time where
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I thought oh wow there really isn't an
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appetite for um wonderful uh at the
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moment that's not to say that it's I
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don't know whose fault that is could be
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my scripts could be that these are just
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not good scripts and my my radar has
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gone completely whack no I've heard that
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from a lot of people you know I've heard
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that from a lot of people yeah and I
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it's not discriminating it's that they
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don't know what's about to happen and so
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they don't want to take yeah think I
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think there's a moment of fear you know
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it's it's like you know if you're and
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I'm not a stock market guy but if you
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were a stock market guy um like you guys
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sort of follow um you're kind of just
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going yeah okay look let's just we're
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going to put our chips on cocacola we're
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going to spread our chips you know
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across you know whatever it is IBM and
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apple and and you know they're they're
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like we're not going to you know we're
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not interested in a cool little startup
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that might win a couple Golden Globes
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anymore you know um uh we're going to
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just play it safe I'm hearing a lot of
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and on the writing front on those sort
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of meetings that I've taken they're like
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do you have anything and then they
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basically without describing a medical
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procedural drama set in a hospital in
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Chicago they basically describe that and
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you're going well you're just talking
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about um you know ER gry's Anatomy or
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something and you're thinking wait what
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we're making we want to make those like
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um but I think you know I'm an optimist
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so I think those this will bounce back I
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think
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um I think you know the good news is is
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we still have an enormous uh an enormous
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amount of outlets an enormous amount of
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channels and frankly I think it you know
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it it gives YouTube an opportunity to
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play you know uh in a bigger they still
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have a big pot of money I think that
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they could play with and do some
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interesting things or you know I still
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don't quite understand how Tik Tock is
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going to make some money but you know
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they're certainly positioned to what do
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you do when you're signing onto a
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project now not just theaters versus
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streaming but where to go cuz you you
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you have a little more uh agency cuz you
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do more stuff right well Scott's the big
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Hollywood Mogul now he's the one selling
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scripts getting green in the room left
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and right% I'm glad you finally
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acknowledge that I'm glad you're in
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touch with your feelings are not
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threatened by our friendship
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Justin um and I'm out here in the desert
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just looking for a drop of water when
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you just said YouTube like when you're
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making project decisions you know it was
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a while when the tech companies came in
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and now they're buyers right apple is a
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real buyer of pretty good stuff right
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some of it good some of it not but a lot
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of it good absolutely where do you how
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do you make a decision of who you're
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going to affiliate with now because
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there so much well now we're starting
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choices and at the same time you know
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without describing what each
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characteristic is I think each place has
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um you start to go oh this feels like it
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wants to be at ex you know that's the
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decision that everyone makes you so a
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script comes in or or is created and
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then you go all right where are we going
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to take it and they go you know who
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would be and then you sort of isolate
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your three best buyers for it you know
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if you have a hard charging
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R-rated comedy um that's that's really
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going to be you know um trying to find
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the the edges of the room um comedically
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you're not going to probably go to Apple
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with it necessarily because um you know
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they're I think they're you know their
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businesses iPhones they you know they
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don't want to do anything that messes
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that up nor should they um uh you're G
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to probably go to Netflix because that's
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Ted Sandos who's who's shown to have
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some some real spine when it comes to
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putting edgy comedy out there um so it's
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it's um it's sort of like that I don't
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know and for dramas I don't know you
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think you know well this is a very peon
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you know um maybe you know a a much
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harder needle to thread uh drama about a
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blah blah blah well we might go to
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effects with that because um you know
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you know only make a couple things a
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year uh their output isn't as high as
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Netflix but but FX this really feels
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like it belongs with them you you want
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to find your partner I mean it's it's
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kind of like dating you know um if you
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want you know some sort of a you know
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whatever you're you know whatever you're
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if you're wanting to swipe right or left
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you know you want to sort of find the
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right um You just want to find the right
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partnership because inevitably if you if
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if in those situations where you make a
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piece of content which the word I hate
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um uh and it's not a happy marriage it
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will not be a successful show you know
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you want everybody singing in the same
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key if that makes any sense when when we
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talk we talk about AI all the time on
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the show and there's been a lot of news
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in Hollywood this week California
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governor Gavin Nome just signed a pair
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of bills that will give actors more
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protection over their digital likenesses
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landscape plans to start using
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generative AI in the creation of its new
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movies and TV shows according to the
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Wall Street Journal as a writer and and
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and particularly as a writer but also as
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an actor how do you look at these things
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it was a big contention during the the
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strikes um you how do you look at AI
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right now and do you use it what do you
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like about it what you know and again
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full skit credit to my friend Scott he
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you know when I would hear you guys talk
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about it like this is coming this is a
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tool this is a thing um I'm writing a
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script currently I reached out to Scott
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and I said okay what do I download how
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does it work is it private you know like
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what are they taking from me what are
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they not and he said probably the the
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most accurate thing he says it's you
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know AI as far as writing goes and as
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far as you know being able to write the
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right prompts for it is largely pretty
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anod so I dropped in it took me a while
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to figure out you know what parameters I
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wanted to sort of put in and what
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prompts I needed to give it to sort of
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really get where and where it was going
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um and gave me back something exactly as
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Scott predicted which was anod it was
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very kind of vanilla um but it had a um
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it had a couple little toe holds in it
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where I thought oh this is that's
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interesting I hadn't considered that so
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it
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was in the few instances where I've sort
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of used it or you
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know had a bit of writer block and going
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oh maybe um it's kind of like a writing
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partner in a way and that it it can kick
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back an idea that you weren't
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necessarily
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expecting um yeah so yeah ideas it's
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ideas that you didn't yes it's ideas
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that I didn't I didn't think it likewise
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can be helpful in saying in just
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answering simple questions in a way that
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Google doesn't you know like um work on
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this period thing and I needed to know
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sort of the origins of the word [ __ ] and
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and um you know whether this thing
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whether that word Works in a in a period
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piece you know and so in this time frame
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um give me examples of the time you know
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that you know that the word [ __ ] was
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used or first examp whatever um and it
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sort of just gets to the point a little
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quicker than than than Google does you
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know um with citations ET oh wow I'm
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excited to see that now I'm excited to
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see that anyway Justin tho you are we
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are your biggest fan actually and you
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can catch him if you want to see him in
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Beetle juu Beetlejuice and he's he's
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terrific in it it's really great thank
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you so much thanks Justin I want to come
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back Scott and I want to talk about my
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feelings later thanks gang
