Renee russeau and one of my alltime favorites, i was just telling her, kthe thomas crown affair is one of my favorites. Nightcrawler, still, sadly, rules the air waves. The film was written and drekted by her husband. First, a look at a scene from nightcrawler street vid i dont go fer just what she wants from the video. We find our viewers are more interested in urban crime, creeping into the suburbs. What that means is the victim, or victims, preferably welloff, white, injured a minority. Accidents, planes, cars, busses. Well, graphic. To capture the spirit of what we air and think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street. I understand. So while that clip was running, a lot of great people in the film. And you were whispering to me that jam is on his game right now. He is on his game. cwell, first of all, the pa is written so beautifully. And i thought oh, well, okay, whos going to be able to film this . He went above and beyond. And to watch him work was a beautiful thing. Ive never it was like giving birth. I can tell that he had to walk this tight rope and use so many colors at once. He was charming and repulsive and so many things once. He killed that part. Im just hoping no one ever refers to me as championing and repulsive. Thats quite a duality. Charming and repulsive. But thats what actors do, though. And you get paid to do that. Theres another thing i want to dig into here about that phrase hes on his game. As an actor, when do you know . Well, gosh, thats really hard to describe. You know when you first learned to ride a bike and you realize oh, im okay. Im on. Im on. Im going. Thats what its like. And you can feel, sometimes, its like doing a talk show. Its like you hear yourself going, oh, okay, that sucked. Well, you know youre having a conversation. I think you just know. Its sort of like surfing. Sometimes youre good, sometimes youre not. Are there moments in your career when you look back and say i was on my game . I guess with thet crown affair i was on my game. Yes, you were. He was probably the best ive ever worked with. He constantly busted me. He was on me all of the time and got me through that role. Tin cup was great. I guess you have high moments and maybe others, e, not. You just want to go back and sometimes reshoot a scene. I think where im going with this is to get to what its like to be directed with dwour husband. So what kind of director do you work best with . What kind of directn is best for you . Specifics. Oc ij i will come with my idea and then i need someone to be clear in what it is they want and we can marriage the two together. John mctiernen had me go see a madame before the film because he wanted me to sort of, you know, use my sexual energy. He said, look, renee, you lead with humor, not with sexual energy. I want to bring that out in you. I said wow, he busted he. He can really see through me. If Marilyn Monroe walked through the door, youd say okay, shes got it. Do you stop . Do you stop sometimes . Well, thank you for stopping. I dont stop. Oh, my gosh, ive never seen a film unless i have to go in to adr. But i dont watch after. Im too critical. I dont think it would help me. But i have to see this film. Its my husband. It would be completely selfish if i didnt. All right. So no w weve got to your husbad here. How did this project come to be that you were going to star in it for him . So danny came to me one day and said he had this great idea and it was in a world that hadnt really been shown beforen and that he was going to write a part for me. I thought, well, great. But listen, how many projects get off the ground . When he said i was going to direct it, i thought yes. Inside, i went oh my gosh, okay, okay. And the ma teeshl is interesting. But i thought maybe it would be a hard sell. So, i mean, those were my feelings. Two months later, he hands me the skript and i read it just cold. I thought its a brilliant script, i felt. Im not always on his team. Hell show it to me and sometimes i go oh, that sucks. You know, i need to be a little more delicate. But i realize it was amazing. But the female needs a rewrite. He looked at me like i was crazy. 4 and the truth is, not one word was changed. But i couldnt find her. I did not it took me a long time to discover, like, her motivation. I didnt get im not the kind of person that would step on people just to get where i wanted to be. But i have crossed boar boundaries when ive been afraid or december pratt. Desperate. I had to find it in myself. So any moral boundaries, that would be out of fear and desperation. When i found that, i was good to go with nina. Shes a desperate woman. Could possibly lose her job, her health care, her, you know, her everything. Shes lonely. Shes older. Where is she going . And i think that that desperation was a thing that i needed for her to sort of for a you will of her little, unsavory behavior to come out. So she gigive us a good descn of who nina is. Describe the film for those of us wondering what this nightcrawler is. Well, i had no idea, but theres a whole group of people who go out and film everything from accidents and murders, set et cetera and t sell them to th news station because they get great ratings. I like to drive around late because i love los angeles at night. Now im looking for nightcrawlers. But it sells. And we watch it. It seems to somehow interest us, you know. And ive been asked to articulate i would say why does it . And i dont have a good answer. I think for me am i often . Am i off topic . No, no, im with you. But that is the gist. In how they sell sort of fear, really, to the new stations and we, as viewerins watch this. So thats what sells. Thats the answer. And its and its and then why, you know. I think human beings are brave in a way. We wake up every morning knowing that the abyss can end up under our feet. Maybe the reason the 405 is backed up for an accident is we drive by and thats that terror that we are always with, i think. We cant be constantly thinking about it. But there is a reality to it and its like how is that person dealing with this tragedy or that tragedy. For me, maybe thats why. Your relationship between her character, your character, nx ina and jake is . Interesting. Yaeah, thats one word for i. Complicated. Let me cut around. I e when im watching this, i originally bet that you were not going to cross that line. Im not giving the movie away, but i thought as im watching, she is not going to do this. She is not going to do this. Exactly. Thats what a lot of people thought. Ened you know what i said to danny . I dont think i would do this. I dont think i would do this. And i have none of us wants to think that we would do this. Right . And thats it. And i think for me, and the audience, i would hope that people would look at nina and think would i do that . Its a hard world out there right now. Its interesting because ive had discussions with women and men. Its not always age specific or gender specific, but sometimes women understand her pliegt better than say maybe men. Less than older women who are facing some of these issues. But, yeah, know no, youre i think there are people in the audience saying wow, i did that. I think fear and desperation, i think you do things you wouldnt ordinarily do if youre under that kind of pressure. What have you learned . I asked you to share confidences or tell you something that your husband doesnt but what have you learned, though . I wrestled with this w567ing the film myself. This film has you did a great job on it. The film raises a lot of questions it doesnt always answer them, but it raises a lot of questions. And i love that about the film. But one of the questions it raises is how we frame in our looifrin looi lives and how we figure out what the answers are to these moral canon drums. How you face these moral decisions in your life. What a good e good question. I think in order to live with yourself, you have to justify it somehow. And i have not always been able to justify it. And that can leave you really in a really feeling about yourselves. So for me, ive come to a point in mysi life where usually in a moral boundaries ive come across, ive been afraid. Thats not an excuse, but i can sit quietly and go reneea, youre terrified right now. I wish i werent, but im doing something i wouldnt otherwise do just out of fear of loss. So i think, for me, as i get older, instead of just beating myself up, im livering in denial. [ laughter ] denial is a good yeah, sometimes. As they say, its not just a river in egypt. Dee denial. So im trying to give myself a break and im saying, oh, renee, cam down. One of the thinks that i thought about again, after watching this film, ive been on this book tour for about the last year in the life of dr. King. Its a story about dr. King that most americans goent know and some issues he faced starting with will hether or not hefrs g to come out against the vietnam war. And he uses this line in the text and i found myself wrestling with this again, back to watching your film. He said theres some evil in the best of us and some good in the worst of us. Xl so that we are not human and divine, were just human. So m call for human. Woere fallible. We make mistakes. The same i wrestle with watching this film. If i had been nina, and, again, i goent want to give the movie away, if i had made that decision, how would i have lived with myself after that. Put another way, how do you not beat yourself up for that decision if you think you had no other choice. Exactly. I think its different for every person. I think, for 34rksnina, she daus or sonsed crossed that boundary and it wasnt a slippery slope. After all, im not asking jake too much. I dont want to know too much. And thank god i can hold onto my apartment and theres some hope and i think there was real excitement for her. I mean, i guess. I hi e think that i know that slippery voep. And i know that, you know, you can almost justify things. And youre right. Were not perfect and it has helped me not to judge people. I finally got to a point in my life now where i will not say in any conversation what i would never do. I took that out of my voe cab lake e laer. I will never say anymore what i will not do. Thats me. I put myself right there. I think thats really important. I you said thunderstand that. I understand the whole judgment deal. I get that. As director of this, i think danny did a really, really good job of putting on film what l. A. Night life is like. I think he nailed that. I do, too. There is a raw i dont know what other word to use but spirit. Its different from anywhere else ive ever been. It is a wilderness, in some ways. You feel that. When you were kbroing up here, is this what you always wanted to do . We know youre a wond earlful model, brilliant model. As a matter of fact, how did thatp happen . I love the story about how this so i i was a high school dropout. I was going to a Rolling Stones concert and my manager, who is my manager today, jop crosby. All of these years later . Same guy . He was like a father figure to me. I wasnt raised with a dad and i wouldnt have had the confidence to think i could be a model or actress. He got out and handed me a card and said have your mom call me. And so my mom did and we sent some pictures toi . cg chilene f and i lived at her house for a while. She sent me out of stuff and it sort of worked for me. So i was lucky. I didnt have an education and that worked. Why did you drop out of high school . I was bullied. I wore a body cast. I had scoliosis and i couldnt handle it. I really couldnt handle it. Its hard to be in a classroom and know youre a geek and youre shoving your bra with toilet paper because youre trying to fit in. I would be starting the beginning of the year with hope and i would hearc, jolly green giant because i think i wore green tights to school and i was really toll. E and i couldnt concentrate. I just couldnt stay focused. Every time i read the story, i it just does not equate. No no, i mean, no. I was fortunate. I was fortunate to have something in my life where i could make some money and, yeah, i mean, its a transition. But you know what, youre always sort of i think,for me, im aum wurmg e always in that body cast. So, no, it wasnt easy. I know its not easy for a lot of kids in school. But, you know, it is a tradeoff. I really do have empathy for people. See, thats the key thing, though, renee. Finding your way to that compassion, thats the hard part. I meet so many people, and, again, as you said a moment ago, were all the sum total of our lifes experiences. And i meet so many people who you can clearly see had some issues when they were a child at 40 or 50 that they aint got passed yet. When kids pick on you at such a young age, thats hard for people to break out of. They grow up with that in them and its hard for them to find their way to ever being an empathetic, come passionate individual. It will be with me forever. If i have to go to a talk show and dress up, its instead of hey, i have to dress up and its great. Its not that. You can have all of the therapy. All of the prayer. That will be with me forever. And i live with it and its okay. X if i can help someone, i dont feel so bad. you have to talk. There are nice things that can come out of it. You can sort of help people. This film, as i saw it, raises a lot of questions. Is there a message that you hope exists in this film . Squl i dhi more its the question. I think its a good conversation. I dont know if theres an answer to it. I really dont. I dont have a good answer for you on that. In many ways, its a dabber inindictment of our society . No, it is. All ayosz america. It is. And what are we doing . How do we deal with that . When oh, thank you. The film is nightcrawler. Interesting film that i think you will be in conversation as renee and i have been tonight. Always great e glad to have you on the show. Good to see you. Thank you so much. Youre so smart. Thank you so much. Thats our show for tonight. Thanks for watching. And, as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Hi, im rntavis smiley, joine next time with john secada about his memoirs. Well see you then. Next on kqed newsroom dynasty on display. The bay area celebrates another world series win for the unstoppable San Francisco giants. And down to the finish line, whats at stake in next weeks election . Will california be the first to have drug testing for doctors . Will berkley be the first in the nation to tax soda . Plus, competitive races, including a state Assembly Seat representing San Francisco. David and other people in city hall have rolled out the corporate red carpet for people like air b b. Companies like google so every lowincome kid lets not monopolize