Simon Helberg

0:03how's it going it's going well how are you very good very good how were your holidays uh... they were lovely they were lovely just uh... trying to adjust the uh... two thousand eleven vibe by the way by the fact uh... so far it's been sleeping way too late and uh... staying up uh... way too late as well so well that's a lot of debauchery i guess so far well that's that's what happens when you're in a big tv show you got a party man i i i guess i would do it yes but it's usually more like watching you know uh... the real housewives of the hill there's something until they want the morning you know i think that you don't know the actual title of that song you just get a lot of respect

0:49ok ok uh... so you're calling for a reason because you got this film and and you're looking for funding by the end of the week basically uh... well yeah that's the that's the short of it yet will you want to tell people what it is how they can help what what's going on yeah well first off we are i i'm doing a film uh... producing a film with my wife uh... john flintown she wrote it and it's starting in as well uh... i'm also going to be in it as is jason ritter and uh... we're sort of trying to figure out the rest of the cast uh... it's an amazing film or using this thing called kickstarter uh... and uh... that is a basically like a launching pad for inventions fashion it's becoming this kind of

1:37unbelievably popular thing it's right now within the very like picking phase of it but it's it's amazing there have been people that have raised almost a million dollars on their and then provide like and movies like i said there was some of them in mention with the uh... the nano uh... my pod watch that they invented on their they could raise i think like fifteen thousand dollars they ended up raising about eight hundred thousand uh... it's like one of those things where you feel like you're catching on you're like kind of i feel like i'm hearing about you to like a week after it was invented it like that it would be uh... anyhow so we're we're trying to raise a hundred thousand dollars by the end of this week and we have at this point almost seventy thousand and it's been unbelievable support but the thing about it it's totally

2:24and free if you don't reach the goal of all the money goes back all the donators but but for making an independent movie it's basically a way of making the fans the stirs on this movie so there's incentives if they give a hundred dollars they'll become an associate producer with the credit at the end of the movie and they get two hundred dollars all send them a ringtone of my annoying boys going at the phone a thousand dollars they're gonna walk on roll ten thousand dollars will fly out knocked on their door and and scream the movie for them when we're done and and so it basically if we read seven hundred thousand uh... by the end of this week we uh... we have an angel donor that will give us uh... match that so we'll have two hundred thousand

3:11uh... which is basically enough to either make it or start to really get some you know people to attach themselves to the movie and and really you know get going into independent movies it's not going to be you know a fifty million dollar thing we're looking to do it around this this price so yet we need we need help to get that extra around thirty thousand hours where we uh... what we need to end uh... yeah if you go to uh... i am i the film dot com it's uh... i and then the letter and click on the kickstarter uh... link which will take you to kickstarter dot com where there's the way to uh... made and we made a uh... a little short

3:56film to kind of show what the process of this was for us and people really love that it's like a four and a half minute one shot movie that's that's the long-ended version of uh... of what we kind of are doing right now i think that's cool because we have a lot of government grants for canadian filmmakers up here but you guys don't have that down there so this is something equivalent but i guess it's as close as you're gonna get in the state yeah that that is probably true yet we don't have a government does not care about that our artistic endeavors um... you know this is sort of a revolutionary thing in a way because it's it's set up legitimately and it's like i said it's scam free it's not like

4:42you know you can't take some of the money it's not like oh i want to raise a half a million dollars and if we get a hundred thousand well then i'll just make a really crappy movie brother that you know it will all go back to people so um it really is that you know i really feel like it is that sort of that early stage of something really special where it's it's it's making you know it's turning it's really the true kind of definition of indie filmmaking which is a community effort and it's getting everybody involved at this sort of a grassroots level and making everybody producers and and and giving everybody sort of a chance to support something that they care about to directly make an impact on

5:28you know some something that they have a passion for it you know and that's what i'm on the uh on the i-m-i the film com website you can see sort of the synopsis and the idea of what we're trying to do and on Kickstarter we made this movie so i mean it's people they're getting a chance to see what we want to do and if they connect to it they can they can give it it's sort of a direct way of of giving back to the arts i guess is one sort of grand way of saying it yeah for those who who haven't gone to the website yet what what is the synopsis what what is the story that your wife wrote um let's see if i can uh do a justice it's uh it's sort of a um kind of like a twist on uh on a love story it's basically a

6:16uh a girl so a girl's mother passes away he goes to the funeral and meets the father that she never knew um and uh he it turns out he has a form of uh retrograde amnesia which is uh it's a disorder it's a specific disorder it's called corsacostin so he actually thinks he's still 30 years old um and he has no memory of her and she has no memory of him because he left him to his little um and he actually mistakes her for her mother and she realizes that that's happening and decides in order to get to know this father she really she's gonna play along and pretend to be her own mother and allows

7:04him to court her uh so that she can get to know this this man um and there's no incest or anything crazy like that uh uh just just just uh you know i think that's a good disclaimer um unless that's your thing you know and if that's your thing this is the wrong movie uh but no it's uh it's sort of like a you know uh kind of like a herald and mod love story and uh yeah sort of like that our loss in translation it's kind of that uh it's funny it's touching it's and it truly is one of the better scripts i have ever read and it made it easy for me because i'm i'm married to her but if i you know i was scared that it was going to be not great and then i was like how am i gonna have your own life uh but thank god it was really amazing

7:51and um and it really is and i believe in it so much and we've had a tremendous amount of support and people giving donations you know uh the donations that people the people that have been donating or mostly people we don't know and you know people have been ten thousand dollars that we don't even know and they're just they're touched by the by the video and the story and um you know and again it's uh it's one of those things where people don't realize also that every dollar counts people have given a dollar ten dollars one hundred dollars and all those things are are you know making a huge difference and and uh we just we just need yeah about 30 and that we will get to actually begin you know pre-production of this movie and

8:40and it's cool yeah it's a great way to connect with fans too of of mine from the show and and all that sort of stuff that people are you know been really tremendously generous i was going to ask you about um about the difficulties of making an indie film but i guess if you guys haven't really started to besides the financing bit i guess there's not really much to say there well have you noticed any have you encountered any difficulties besides the financing so far um well i mean you know the whole film business is definitely is is more difficult uh these days than you know i obviously i'm not an authority on all uh sort of business stuff going on there but you know you can you can just see that there is

9:25i mean the thing is is that independent movies kind of they've kind of taken a turn in the sense of they're they're not as all as independent as they used to be you know and so you're looking at movies that are called independent but you know have 15 million dollar budgets or uh which which is i mean it's great that and there are a lot of them are amazing movies but it's sort of as the independent movie started to get more i think the ward recognition they started to beef up uh now the budgets and and the uh the caliber of sort of like movie star uh people and then so anyhow it's just left it's it's now become like to make a truly independent movie which

10:11you know to make a movie for under a million dollars or whatever is very very hard to find production companies or studios that are gonna invest even though it's a little money it's if you're not dealing with with huge huge stars or people that have done tons of movies um you know it becomes hard to actually get even if you have a great script even if they you know if you go on an actor to attach themselves they want to see some financing and if you want to get financing they want to see some actors so it's a catch 22 and and the kickstarter thing seems like a real way to kind of beat that where you can you can raise it a bunch of money and then you know because we're still looking for actor to play but the father who's sort of the lead in the movie and um and a lot of people were interested in it was great and but then we didn't

10:58have a financing which is something you know you do you don't want to attach yourself to a movie that doesn't have anywhere to go so it's it's kind of like this is a way to kind of beat that and um again it's really it's even just to look around the website kickstarter is is so cool to see all these projects and bands and people that are really like you know using using the internet to actually create a fan base and then to allow that fan base to become part of their their success for you or their you know or their uh how has how has the big

11:43bang affected this for you i mean obviously people know who you are now right i mean you've done a lot of work people people have seen you over the years but but i mean now it's i think it's like the number one show on tv is it not or something like that yeah yeah it's um it's you mean in terms of just how is it affected me just just awareness for for this project i mean you know you and Jason Ritter is well being attached sure yeah i mean obviously without the big bang i think we would be in a different place you know a lot of this has come from twitter uh which is amazing um you know i hadn't really joined twitter i hadn't even i didn't know what was what was up with twitter really until uh like a few months ago um and and i i've really grown to love it not just because i think sort of wax poetic about nonsense in the middle of the night

12:33it comes to me but i also enjoy uh you know kind of trying to give back to people that are so kind and some of all these fans and and then when this kind of thing came about uh trying to raise money for for iMI we we definitely have been milking it from from twitter and uh just trying to get the word out through that and it's just an amazing tool and obviously a lot of that those people following me are are from big bang and so and then Jason Ritter has people following him and and other means obviously too and so yeah it's definitely been it's been totally uh you know crucial to to the whole process in terms of confusing and exploiting the the amazing fan base you know i mean

13:19nerds are a powerful force and when they get together and then they believe in something um yeah i mean the outpouring of support from all the big bang fans it's been really amazing so yeah that that has definitely been um you know invaluable yeah i'm thinking that but not not even that just be in behind the scenes as well just you must know a lot more people now than you did before that that can get the film place yeah i mean there's there's an element of it it's also it's it's funny kind of what a how what a separate community television is though from oh really and yeah and even what a separate community indie movies are from from big studio movies it's it's like

14:08there's almost i mean not to be not to say that i haven't met a nice amount of people and and and people that have been great and and people that i have admired and all that but there's definitely you know the world of of tv and there's not a huge overlap always and and especially sitcom for some reason that there's it takes a little while to kind of get you know integrated it the film world so it it has helped to a degree but honestly what's really helped have been the fans and and uh and when i you know when we went to um Toronto a few months ago it was just amazing i mean we fell in love with what the city and i mean partially because we were spoiled and

14:54you know taken to the opening hockey games and had fans just following us down the street and buses but it was like i felt like it was like being in a parallel universe where it was like kind of like America except it was cleaner people were nicer and we were just enormous celebrities it was uh though it was we were spoiled but everybody was so sweet and i mean our show is is real popular there and the people are just i mean you know the amount of i mean it's the die hard fans i mean Canadians are sweet until you cut them in line to uh you know when they're waiting to like panel or whatever people are like getting vicious i mean it's like it's really crazy um

15:39so yeah we were you know we're huge fans of Canada and and you guys are Kickstarter campaign and that whole thing too so what is going on with Big Bang so it comes back Thursday what uh can you give us any details on on the show on the episode um you know well how long do you shoot it like has this been in the can for a while um yeah it's been probably a few weeks but i'm trying to like i'm i'm but i this is this is my fault something about it so there's an app someone creates an app yes it's that one no see look at you yeah

16:24the the show the story is that Leonard comes up with an app idea and then of course Sheldon tries to take over uh and impossible person to get around and we're all trying to help make it and we ultimately have to fire Sheldon um and that creates sort of this dichotomy of him trying to one up us and and sabotage our project and us doing the same and it's it's sort of like it's more of like a a classic like more of like a first or second season story where it's that it's just like the group of us it's a small story and it's really funny and there's some weird weird things that happen and a lot of it takes place sort of in the apartment and it's it's a it's a really nice uh sort of small episode that

17:12that we had a lot of fun doing and then i think and then i think the next one after that we have Rick Fox is a yes and yeah and there's uh there's some really fun stuff there we go on a road trip and uh and we all are going we're going to speak at a conference and of course it turns into sort of a forest like a you know a door slamming bedroom by a hotel room kind of switching uh cars and it's really really fun in Rick Fox's of course really tall and handsome and funny um so uh you got a little man garage do you? Well um no so that's yeah so there's some really great stuff coming up uh yeah and it's it's that we've been doing a lot of fun stuff with

17:58with the uh kind of the newer people too Bernadette yeah I'm the one for Ashlazer and uh my ambience character and it's been really it's been a great season so far I feel like we're really lucky that the episodes are getting stronger and stronger so um yeah so we're just uh that's right yeah we start up uh well we actually go back to work Wednesday um from our break and then Thursday is a new episode and uh Friday is the end of the campaign for uh trying a life so it's been two weeks so how far in advance do you guys shoot? Um we shoot it can be oh man well we try to you know be a couple weeks ahead but uh or a few weeks ahead but sometimes we're literally like a only a week we'll shoot an episode and then we'll air a

18:44week later wow um yeah which is definitely uh keep several on their toes yeah yeah it's sometimes we end up sort of in that uh predicament but um but yeah so we're uh we have a little time to catch up now that we're we had this break and yeah it'd be awesome nice well before I let you go five quick questions one word answers uh oh why no you did a little sketch comedy back in the day so sketch comedy or acting acting Lennon or McCartney? Never uh it it's varied so many times that that would be one word I'm gonna have to say one and cool uh were you a good science student? Yes all right roll your most proud of

19:30oh uh probably serious man you played a rabbi in that is that correct? yeah cool and one word Simon Helberg short