Gabe: It’s been challenging, too. Jerry’s such a huge personality and obviously finessing all the details of this project and making sure that Jerry’s happy, which is hard to do obviously. But even the most difficult, I mean, you don’t learn anything if you don’t experience difficulty and strife and we had…
It’s a pretty plum project for two young producers that, at the time, no one’s heard of, right?
Gabe: I think it’s had a huge effect. You know, just dealing with the kinds of people we’ve been dealing with on this, from Jerry to Bryan Lourd to Graydon. So many people have been involved in this project. All those experiences with Jerry and everyone were an extreme. So we learned a tremendous amount, like, probably more so than our entire career. To just learn from someone of that caliber…
Can you elaborate on what you mean by “the idea?” Sort of seems like one of those important Hollywood words.
Alan: It’s a lot about perseverance and just what it takes. His tenacity is pretty amazing, you know. The guy just — it’s “Go, go, go!” until it’s done. There’s a really cool thing that Steven Soderbergh said about his connection — this didn’t make the movie — about his connection to Jerry and how they both will things to happen. He’s like, “Things just happen for us because we just will them to happen, you know.” And that is Jerry.
Alan: We went through the gauntlet.
Alan: I think, yeah, Soderbergh had brought it up to him and just said, “You know Jerry, you got to get these stories on tape or something before…” Because I guess [Weintraub] was kind of a little sick before that. So it was pretty fresh, I think we were the first or one of the first people they brought it to.
Monday night at 9, HBO will broadcast “His Way,” a new documentary about the Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub. The guy is beyond a legend. His recent film credits include “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Ocean’s Twelve,” and “Ocean’s Thirteen,” and go back to “The Karate Kid,” and Robert Altman’s “Nashville.” Before devoting himself to making movies, he managed and/or promoted musicians like John Denver, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, the Carpenters discount oakley sunglasses, Frank Sinatra and Neil Young.
Behind it all are two young brothers, Gabe and Alan Polsky. The duo (with a little help from Graydon Carter and Steven Soderbergh) were handed the project with little more than a single production credit to their name. We checked in with them to see what it was like being one of the youngest producer teams in Hollywood making a film about one of the city’s greatest.
You guys just finished directing your first film, “The Motel Life,” with Dakota Fanning and Emile Hirsch, and you have a bunch of producing gigs lined up, including a potential Will Smith project. Has working on this documentary opened doors for you guys?
Gabe: I think Jerry had talked a little bit — right Alan? — with Steven Soderbergh and Graydon Carter about…
What’s something concrete you’ve learned about being a producer from your time with him?
Alan: Yeah, he really understands the power of charisma, of putting things together. It’s the power of illusion; it’s just the power of the idea, and what that means, and how to sell people with just an idea.
Gabe: He may have liked the idea that we are younger guys discount oakley sunglasses, a little bit less threatening, so he could bring us into his sphere. Initially, meeting Jerry was sort of an interview process. He wanted to kind of interview us, make sure that he felt comfortable talking with us, and that we felt comfortable doing this documentary with him. That’s kind of how that worked.
Alan: Yeah discount oakley sunglasses, it’s hard to say why we got it, but I think there was something compelling to Jerry about the two different generations thing. We’re new in Hollywood, and he’s the kind of guy who’s been around music and movies for a long time, and there’s just kind of a nice natural relationship there.
Alan: Gabe?
Danielle LevittJerry Weintraub, center, with Alan Polsky, left, and Gabe Polsky, right.
Gabe: O.K., well basically, obviously before a movie happens, even the Weintraub documentary or whatever, all you have is an idea. And as a producer you have to make people believe in that. Even if it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist! You have to make people believe, visualize it as something that actually does exist and can and will be successful, or expensive, or whatever it is. And Jerry has the ability to… to show people something before it actually exists. Convince them of it. That’s kind of what he’s about in a lot of ways.
How did this film get started? Was it a project that had been floating around for a while?
Alan: We were just kind of like talking about projects, and our agent was like, “Why don’t you sit down with Jerry and talk to him about this movie that he’s been kind of toying with?” And so we just sat down with him.
Gabe: His tenacity, yeah, but also his creative thinking, and along with that, his experience. I mean if you watch the documentary you see that, he was selling things as a kid, his dad was a salesman. I mean he was almost groomed to, to become a guy who could sell things and sell things creatively.
Weintraub’s insane personal charisma and Rat Pack-era Hollywood charm will keep your eyes glued to the screen, but “His Way” doesn’t rest there. It delves into Weintraub’s somewhat unique marital setup. And to top it all off, the entire film’s narrative is punctuated with incredibly candid interviews and commentary with a slew of actors, including George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis.
Alan: Yeah, I mean Jerry has been an amazing kind of mentor and guy to learn from. It’s been a tremendous learning experience for us, being younger in the business.
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