Movie Presidents Draft (w/ Jean-Pierre Boudreaux)

Eli (00:01.686)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies I am your host Eli price and we are here on episode 104 of the podcast joined again by Jean-Pierre Boudreaux From yeah from last week you may recognize him from the Lincoln episode where we find out found out that he is in fact

Jean-Pierre (00:20.769)
Lolo.

Eli (00:30.59)
more man than lizard, not more lizard than man. As House of Representatives, Thaddeus Stevens calls old George Pendleton on the House floor. Yeah, two great names. Yeah, two really great names. And then a third one, Jean-Pierre Boudreau. I mean, great name, you know? Yeah. JPD, you know, people, that's what eventually like when you make it big time,

Jean-Pierre (00:37.538)
Daddy Stevens.

Jean-Pierre (00:42.466)
What a name.

Jean-Pierre (00:46.083)
Peace.

Jean-Pierre (00:51.182)
Yes, thank you.

Eli (00:59.756)
people are going to be like, yeah, did you see the new JPD? know, JPB, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's probably what I was thinking. Let's, let's roll with that.

Jean-Pierre (01:04.216)
JPP.

jelly and peanut butter, you know?

Jean-Pierre (01:11.542)
Yeah, I've always thought it's like I just I can't imagine someone being like I can be cool to be like did you see the new the new Jean Pierre? And it's like Boudreaux movie like what?

Eli (01:15.426)
It's APB.

Eli (01:20.539)
Poodo.

man, but yeah, JP, he is well decorated on the podcast. Been on many times before, so we'll skip the introductions. You can go listen to past episodes to hear more about him. And we'll get right into it, because this week, you know, we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies, but we also do fun, you know, fun, exciting.

Episodes in between those so we're doing a movie draft today. We're doing movie presidents So this is gonna be a fun one now some ground rules for this draft we We kind of talked about it and we decided Since there is two categories of movie presidents, there's real presidents represented in movies and then there's fake presidents I guess for lack of better term in movies

fictional, I guess would be the better way to say it. Fictional presidents and nonfiction presidents. So we're gonna actually, instead of just lumping them all together, we're gonna require that we draft three each from each of those, from the real presidents and from the fictional ones. So we don't have to do them in any sort of order. So we can draft all of our real ones or all of our fake ones or mix it up.

Jean-Pierre (02:41.319)
No. Well, I always think we could do our... Yeah, I'd say we should do our historical presidents first and then we'll do the... Okay, all right, fine, whatever you want to do.

Eli (02:49.801)
No, I think we just mix it up. Yeah, take who you want to take when you want to take them and we'll slot them into the categories. But by the end of each of our six picks, we have to have three in each, I think. But before we get into that, what is better? Are real presidents in movies better or fictional ones? It's tough, you know?

Jean-Pierre (02:55.777)
Alright, alright let's do it.

Jean-Pierre (03:02.497)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (03:12.193)
I don't know, man. It is, it is because I think historical presidents can give an actor so much room for a great performance, like we see with Jane Day Lewis here in Lincoln for what she won in the Oscar. But I feel like there's just something really fun about fictional presidents and putting them in a situation that the president would.

Eli (03:23.285)
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Jean-Pierre (03:36.216)
probably never find themselves in or do things that the president would never do. So I think I might have to lean fictional president personally, just because it just leaves the door open for so many more. What's that movie that's coming out soon called? I think it's called Heads of State, where it's like John Cena is the president of the United States and Idris Elba is the prime minister of the UK. And it's like an action comedy where they have to fight off

Eli (03:46.753)
They're more fun for sure.

Eli (03:59.062)
Yeah. huh.

Jean-Pierre (04:06.229)
terrorists together and it looks really fun. kind of I kind of want to see it but but especially with you know John Cena kind of being a bit of a bumbling idiot and Idris Elba is like the straight man kind of you know trying to trying to be all serious so but yeah just stuff like that like you can't you can't like you wouldn't you can't have like Abraham Lincoln in a situation like that so you know

Eli (04:09.824)
Yeah.

Eli (04:17.899)
Yeah.

Eli (04:26.911)
Right, Yeah, it's fun. I think fictional presidents are definitely more fun and we'll definitely get into I like that you pulled an example that is not eligible because it's not released yet. So getting nice with that. because I can't even give any examples. Can't give any- I'm gonna draft this trailer. I'm gonna draft the president in this movie trailer. no not-

Jean-Pierre (04:39.085)
That one's not on my list. It's not on my list. I just saw the trailer and I was like, yeah, exactly. Don't want to give you any inspiration.

Eli (04:56.521)
Not allowed. But yeah, I agree. I think there are some fun, real president stuff that we might get into, depending on how the draft goes. But yeah, I think when you're dealing with fictional material, it can be fun, but it also can be like, you can explore scenarios that didn't.

happened most of the time when you have like a real president movie, it's like you're exploring the real things that happened. And I think even if it's not like a fun movie, a more serious drama, you're able to like maybe explore some scenarios that haven't happened to our real president.

Jean-Pierre (05:34.41)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (05:42.198)
Yeah, it is crazy because I think we even could have split this into a third category because you have your fictional presidents, then you have your historical presidents. You could have split that into two where it's like historical presidents historically portrayed versus historical presidents non-historically portrayed, like whether it be a comedy or, you know, or like, you know, a what if kind of situation.

Eli (05:58.164)
Right. Yeah.

Eli (06:02.506)
Right. Yeah.

Eli (06:10.367)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I think we're pretty much on the same page with that. yeah, I don't think, know, usually we'll talk about like, what criteria did we use for making our list? Well, we just looked at what presidents we've seen in movies.

Jean-Pierre (06:28.546)
I was actually surprised that I expected to find lot more options than I did, but yeah.

Eli (06:34.111)
Yeah, me too. There's, there's honestly like there's a whole Wikipedia, you can, there's a whole Wikipedia page if you're interested in looking at this on your own, but, where you can just type actors that have played presidents in movies. well, actors and actresses, but, and, there's just like a whole Wikipedia page. So it has like fictional representation, fictional presidents. has the real presidents.

And the real presidents it lists like in chronological order and like all the people that have played them and what movie it was And so it's pretty cool. There's like there's a decent amount of them But when you look through the list, you're like, I've never heard of like 90 % of these movies

Jean-Pierre (07:15.487)
Yeah, well, it is also really interesting. Like, your Abraham Lincoln's or your John F. Kennedy's have like a bunch of people have played them. But then someone like, like George Washington, not that many options. You know, I think I saw like one guy that played Grover Cleveland in some, some random TV documentary thing one time, you know, just, yeah.

Eli (07:32.543)
No, yeah, right.

Eli (07:39.051)
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a lot of Lincolns, there's a lot of Nixons, there's a few JFKs, but other than that, most of the presidents don't have a lot of options. Like one or two, maybe.

Jean-Pierre (07:51.982)
Yeah. mean, Nixon and Lincoln, I mean, JFK obviously, you know, with his assassination, that's kind of interesting. I do feel like Lincoln and Nixon are the two that give an actor the most to work with, I think. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's also really interesting, especially like I was looking at the list for Nixon and just like...

Eli (08:09.481)
Yeah, for very opposite reasons.

Jean-Pierre (08:20.545)
the range of actors that have played him in different scenarios was really fascinating. But I know for me, my criteria is I usually try and pick movies I've actually seen because I want to have some conviction behind my choice,

Eli (08:27.403)
Yeah. Yeah, but let's get.

Eli (08:34.113)
That's fair.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely not picking movies that I haven't seen. I've never done that before. I don't foresee any scenario where that would happen because typically I don't suggest a draft if I don't even have enough movies to draft in it. So yeah, I am trying to remember. I'm going back because we did a Christian Bale movie draft last time we were on.

Jean-Pierre (08:55.307)
Yeah.

Eli (09:06.401)
And you, yeah, you chose first for that one. So I'm looking at it right now. Number one, Patrick Bateman to JP. So you took the first pick in that one. So it's my, it's my turn. That's true. I thought he would take you a long way. American psycho Christian bell, but

Jean-Pierre (09:20.309)
And I still lost that draft. can't believe it.

Jean-Pierre (09:28.521)
I don't think enough people have seen it outside of the beams.

Eli (09:30.997)
Maybe not, maybe not. Yeah, definitely like a cinephile favorite, guess, or letterbox bro favorite, I don't know.

Jean-Pierre (09:41.641)
I I think I didn't really get it. Like, I don't think I'd ever watch that movie again, but I did appreciate the context for the memes. I'll say that.

Eli (09:46.434)
That's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the acting is good. Absolutely. All right. All right, this is tough. Really, really tough. I don't...

Jean-Pierre (09:52.022)
yeah, I he's great. Also Willem Dafoe is hilarious.

Eli (10:05.345)
I know, so there's, so I'll say this. There's an upcoming draft that there's a little bit of overlap with. And I have a, I know that like there's a pick I made in that one that like I wish I could have back. And I might go ahead and just like start this draft off by making up for that future draft that no one's heard.

And I might go ahead and pick Peter Sellers as the president in Dr. Strangelove as my first fictional president. So yeah, just think, I mean, so Peter Sellers in that movie, obviously he plays three parts. He plays the titular Dr. Strangelove.

Jean-Pierre (10:43.937)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (11:03.873)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (11:04.85)
I'm assuming you've seen Dr. Strangelove.

Jean-Pierre (11:08.383)
Actually, I actually haven't. It's always been on my list. Yeah, it's one of the movies that's always on my list, but never got around to it.

Eli (11:09.653)
Blindspot. It's... Yeah. So, I'll say this. I only saw it for the first time... I can't remember if it was two years ago or... I think it was two years ago, maybe. I haven't seen it since, so I've only seen it the one time. man, Peter Sellers plays... I mean, so he plays the titular Dr. Strangelove. He plays President Merkin Muffley and he plays...

Captain Lionel Mandrake. He's playing three different characters in this movie and he's just like incredible hilarious There's this you can look up the scene on YouTube it would it's not like spoiler or anything, but it's him I guess a little bit to this the scenario you can probably figure out what the scenario is for the movie, but Yeah, he's he's on the phone with I can't remember the name of the

Jean-Pierre (11:40.513)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

killing it.

Jean-Pierre (11:58.424)
mean, the movie's like 60 years old.

Eli (12:07.105)
the Russian guy he's on the phone with, it's like this hilarious phone call about like, hey, know, some of our guys went rogue and there's some bombs on the way or whatever, potentially. you know, there's this like back and forth of like, kind of satirical back and forth of like, you know, you know, well, obviously I'm calling because this is important, you know, and then he's like, well, yeah, of course I would have called just to talk, you know, we're

You know, we're friends, you know, of course I wouldn't. So it's like this really hilarious back and forth great scene. He's just great in the movie. I want to give big props to that and maybe make up for a potential future snafu that I made in a future draft that you will find out when it comes. So

Jean-Pierre (12:38.893)
Hmm.

Jean-Pierre (12:54.573)
You

Eli (12:56.659)
Yeah, so that's what I'm gonna go with. Dr. Strangelove, fake president, number one pick.

Jean-Pierre (13:00.429)
Okay.

Interesting. think I'm also gonna have to start with my first fake president. And I feel like I gotta go with possibly the greatest fictional president ever. I gotta go with Bill Pullman as Thomas Whitmore in Independence Day. I mean, quite possibly.

Eli (13:04.266)
I think it's a good one.

Eli (13:11.649)
Okay.

Eli (13:25.203)
Okay. Good. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (13:29.297)
one of the greatest fictional president portrayals of all time phenomenal movie I mean his whole speech about and they will know this is our Independence Day I mean just man is it your first time seeing it? okay okay you just so happy to watch yeah yeah yeah so

Eli (13:42.014)
It's great. I watched it on YouTube the other day. Great. It's great. No, no, no. Yeah, I was trying to like, it's been a while since I've seen it and I was like, okay, let me go and watch some like YouTube scenes of like some of these presidents. And I pulled that one up and I was like, this is still great. Even out of context.

Jean-Pierre (13:58.318)
Yeah, yeah, dude, I mean, and I love that he's, you know, he's just a solid portrayal, he's just a solid character. You know, he cares about people, you know, everything you could want in a president, which makes him all the more fictional, actually, guess. So, sad, sad, but true. But I think I gotta go with Thomas Whitmore from Independence Day.

Eli (14:21.013)
Yeah, sure.

Eli (14:27.285)
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, great pick. I think Worley is, it's not, I don't know that he's would be, well, obviously he's not, I picked a different fake president first, fictional president, but even Strangelove aside, I think there might be another like big one that.

Jean-Pierre (14:52.823)
Probably.

Eli (14:54.913)
I don't know. So I do have to do another pick. Um, and I'm struggling, like, do I go? I don't think I, I think I'm going to stick in the fictional president realm. Cause I think that's where like, we're both like really trying to snatch guys up. Um, and I'm not really sure like where you're going to go with the real presidents. Um, and so I'm going to, I'm going to go.

Jean-Pierre (15:09.826)
Yeah.

Eli (15:23.081)
It's okay. This is where it gets tough because there's four fake presidents. I really would love to have and One of them I don't think you're gonna pick but all but another one I think you might pick and so I'm struggling of like, okay Do I want to get the one that you might pick or do I want to like take the one? don't think you will and leave the one for you. So at least both of them are on our lists

Jean-Pierre (15:51.91)
That's what the mind games are all about.

Eli (15:53.249)
It's killing me.

Okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to pick this one at the risk of leaving off a really great one from my list that I want, but I'm going to go the more like, this is a great one. That is also going to be a crowd pleaser. I'm going to pick President James Marshall from Air Force One, Harrison Ford, you know, the line, get off my plane.

Jean-Pierre (16:29.195)
Yeah, it's a classic.

Eli (16:29.299)
So good, so good. Yeah, so that's what I'm going with. Great Harrison Ford action president performance.

Jean-Pierre (16:37.677)
Surprisingly he has not played I could have sworn he's played more presidents, but apparently Well, apparently only one he's played is President Thaddeus Ross in Brave New World Yeah, yeah, I was like When I saw him on the list, I was like, is that really the only two times he's played a president? Okay He just feels so presidential, you know, he's got he's got that presidential finger

Eli (16:42.879)
He has.

Eli (16:50.697)
Yeah, that's what I was referring to. Unfortunately.

you

Eli (17:06.451)
Yep. Yeah, he's, I mean, it's great. I'm glad we have a Harrison Ford president. I'm glad to have him on my list. So it's been a long time since I've seen that movie. So definitely pulled up some YouTube clips to refresh on that one.

Jean-Pierre (17:07.755)
You know, so, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (17:13.537)
Yes.

Yes, I agree.

Jean-Pierre (17:20.301)
Well, think I need to go with a fictional president for round two because I really want to lock this one in for me because I'm Really wanting to win this draft this time, you know, so so I think Another one that I think a lot of people probably will have

Eli (17:35.307)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (17:41.966)
fond memories of. This is from a movie that if you haven't seen it, maybe don't watch it because it might depress you a little bit actually. But I think I got to go with Terry Crews as President Camacho from from Idiocracy. I think it's one of those movies that is so far ahead of its time and if you watched it right now today in 2025 you'll

Eli (17:51.339)
Okay.

Eli (17:57.347)
I'm so glad you picked this.

Jean-Pierre (18:11.061)
Yeah, it'll probably leave you with quite a mood. But yeah, think Terry Crews, love the man. He's so funny. He's so funny and gosh, I'd have to look it up.

Eli (18:15.935)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli (18:23.947)
What's his full name? Cause he said like, I know Mountain Dew is in there. President something something Mountain Dew Camacho. man, it's great. Luke.

Jean-Pierre (18:32.567)
anyone was seconds

Jean-Pierre (18:39.156)
It is...

Eli (18:42.377)
Luke Wilson too. You could have also, you could also went with President, not sure, played by Luke Wilson. Spoiler, I guess.

Jean-Pierre (18:42.985)
see here. Luke Wilson's in it, yes, he plays...

Jean-Pierre (18:51.621)
yes, yes, yes, yes. His full name is Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew A-Bear Camacho or Herbert Camacho. I don't know if it's A-Bear or Herbert. It's probably Herbert because I don't imagine this movie was written by K.J. Yeah, yeah, quite the name, quite the name. And he is hilarious. He's so funny.

Eli (19:01.345)
Yeah, they're not Cajun.

Eli (19:08.321)
Yeah, love it Yeah Great pick. it's it's definitely like one of those like mid 2000s comedies that it's like Yeah, it got lost but also it's I was gonna say it's one of those where it's like I don't know that some of these jokes would have gotten written today. but you know

Jean-Pierre (19:22.475)
It got lost in the radar, I think.

Eli (19:37.28)
a little bit dated in that way. but yeah, and in other ways, like, yeah, very fun movie. I actually had seen like parts of this in the past, but I did actually watch it like a couple of weeks ago, cause I knew this was coming up and I love Terry Crews. So I was like, let me see if I want to take a Terry Crews president, but, but alas, you got it. So I don't, I don't know that I was going to take it honestly, but, but yeah. So.

Okay. all right. My, guess I think I'm going to save my other fake president for now, or fictional. keep saying fake. It's more fun to say fake president. cause I do have two fictional ones that I'll still want, but, so I have options there. I'm going to go to the real president realm.

And I'm gonna take a performance that I thought was really incredible. It's a very like, it's a one scene. It's a recent performance and it is, I'm trying to get the actor before I mess it up to make sure I have the right person and I'm not finding it. Shoot.

I'm just going to edit this out.

Eli (21:10.803)
Why is he not coming up on this list?

Eli (21:35.611)
I know who it is. I don't know why I'm looking so hard. Yeah, okay. It finally hit me like, why am I looking so hard for this actor name? And then it finally hit me like, duh, I know who this is. Why am I looking so hard for this? Okay, I'm gonna jump back in.

Eli (21:55.202)
Harry S. Truman in Oppenheimer, played by Gary Oldman, just like knocks it out of the park in one scene. So good. Apparently a very like historically accurate conversation. You know, I mean like it's behind closed doors, but like things that were said are noted in history, like the whole like...

Jean-Pierre (22:00.513)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (22:24.097)
I don't want to see that crybaby scientist again. That's actually documented, he said, something like that. And Gary Oldman, just one of those guys that just transforms into somebody else. Yeah. I'll say this, I don't know a whole ton about...

Jean-Pierre (22:40.685)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (22:47.649)
President Harry S. Truman, but I'll tell you this, after watching him in this scene, one scene in this movie, I don't like the dude. So, yeah, great, great performance by Oldman there and Oppenheimer. And yeah, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (22:54.194)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (23:04.225)
Great pick. Great pick. yeah, I gotta say, I love seeing him pop up in that movie. Fun fact about Gary Oldman is he has played so many characters with different accents that he actually had to relearn his native accent because he forgot what it was. Yeah, he's great. think...

Eli (23:22.177)
That's wild.

Jean-Pierre (23:26.605)
Man, one of these days maybe you'll do a movie where you can just do a Gary Oldman draft and that would be such a fun list to go through. But I love him and as Jean-Baptiste Zorg or whatever his name is in Fifth Element. Probably one of my favorites. But that's a good option. was one I had on my list but you know, you got to it first. But that's how the game works folks. That's how the game works.

Eli (23:33.055)
Yeah, yeah, that would be fun.

Eli (23:42.665)
Mm. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (23:54.23)
Alright, well I think I'll also go ahead and throw my first historical president in there. I think this is gonna be, I'd say probably a childhood favorite. This comes from a movie that my family and I would watch every year on July 4th.

You know, so I grew up in a musical group in a family where we watched musicals all the time. You know, pretty much everyone else in my family plays some kind of instrument except for me. And one of my favorite musicals, because I love history, has always been 1776, which has quite a few people who have become presidents in it. But my favorite is kind of the central character and the standout. I'm going to go with William Daniels as John Adams from 1776.

Eli (24:21.663)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (24:44.399)
Thanks

Eli (24:45.087)
Okay, never seen it. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (24:48.223)
It's great, it's great, and he is great. It's the same actor that plays...

I'm gonna date myself here because I'm not super familiar with the show but Boy Meets Worlds. What's the name of the teacher that lives next door to him that's like his buddy? Yes, same actor. That guy plays William Daniels. That's him and he plays John Adams and you know.

Eli (25:06.874)
Mr. Feeny, yeah. Yep. Yeah, I just pointed him out.

Jean-Pierre (25:18.133)
This is one of those movies where I tell the audience listening to this, you're not a big fan of musicals, totally understand. I do think it's worth the while of just maybe looking up some scenes. I think he played John Adams on the stage play, and then they also had him play John Adams in the film version, which they shot in 1976 for the... That would have been what? The... Tricentennial? Bicentennial? Bicentennial.

Eli (25:45.577)
Yes.

Jean-Pierre (25:48.686)
Bicentennial because it was 1876, 1976. So I think a lot of the cast are, people from the stage play that got transferred over to the film version. But it's fun and it's a movie that is like kind of on a short list of like if I ever got an opportunity to remake a film, I think an updated version of something like 1776 would kind of be cool. Maybe even Spielberg wanted to do an update like he did with West Side Story. I think that'd be really fun. So yeah.

Eli (25:51.105)
Yeah, yeah 1976. Yep.

Eli (26:16.245)
Yeah, yeah. So is it like, is it like filmed on sets or like, it filmed on a stage?

Jean-Pierre (26:23.915)
Yeah, well, yeah, it's not...

Yeah, it's on sets. So it's not like Hamilton, right? Like the recording of Hamilton where it's just the stage play recorded. No, it's on actual sets. Most of it takes place within the confines of the building which the first congressional Congress or Continental Congress took place. A lot of it takes place just in that main room because it's all centered around the debates about the Declaration of Independence is kind of the main focus.

Eli (26:30.505)
Okay, gotcha, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eli (26:48.565)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Eli (26:57.857)
Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, I've never seen it, but I might have to check it out now. Yeah. Yeah, me and my wife. Yeah, yeah, for sure. My wife and I did like musicals in March. So we watched a bunch of musicals in March. But yeah, we're always down for another one.

Jean-Pierre (26:58.511)
of the film.

Jean-Pierre (27:08.365)
It's fun, it's a fun 4th of July watch for sure. Nice double feature with Hamilton.

Eli (27:27.253)
Yeah, okay. This is where it gets tough. I'm going to go ahead. I'm just going to go ahead and do this, take another real president, but in a, in a more like fictional portrayal. So this is one of those that like could fall into a whole nother category, but we're only doing the two. I'm going to, I'm going to take, trying to find the actor's name. I'm going to take.

Robert V. Barron playing Abraham Lincoln in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Four score and checks watch. Seven minutes ago. Love it. Man, love, love this movie. My wife and I watched it.

Jean-Pierre (28:02.093)
man! I was really hoping that be...

Jean-Pierre (28:18.529)
really hoping that was gonna be a dark horse one that you somehow didn't know about you know I thought I was really really pulling something from from deep when I found out what that guy's name but I love what he's like be excellent to each other and party on dudes yeah it's great

Eli (28:23.816)
Yeah, love it, love it.

Eli (28:29.811)
Yeah, and I mean you gotta think

Be excellent.

Yeah It's phenomenal. It's and you know, you gotta you gotta give real props to this particular lincoln because He goes to the future He sees how everything's turned out and he still like goes back and just like does exactly what he was supposed to do, you know because I mean if he didn't you know things would have Yeah, butterfly effects and he you know, he sticks to his convictions just like in the movie

Jean-Pierre (28:57.901)
The butterfly effect does not exist in the universe.

Eli (29:05.205)
Lincoln that we talked about last week, which I should mention people might be wondering why has no one taken Daniel Day-Lewis's Lincoln yet? Because this is like a memorial draft for that movie. We like set it aside. It's it's like the main It's it is the number one I think Without question, but yeah, we do that Exactly, so so just but

Jean-Pierre (29:24.203)
I think typically when we do drafts, we don't include whatever movie we're talking about.

Eli (29:33.855)
Just in case anyone was listening and didn't know that, I forgot to mention it at the front. yeah, Lincoln obviously, I think would have been really high up on both of our choices and would have been taken by now. But yeah, it's set aside for the sake of we discussed it last time. yeah. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (29:53.422)
Alright, okay sir, I see, I see. Alright, you're playing a little dirty here, but it's alright, it's alright. I think, well in that same vein, I'll do another historical...

President but a non-historical portrayal and Look, you know him you love him. I got to go with Robin Williams is Teddy Roosevelt from night at the museum he is Just such a such a lovely presence in in all all the films I can't believe they made three of those movies, but I don't think I've ever seen the other two Maybe maybe the second one. I've probably seen the second one, but not the third one

Eli (30:08.481)
Okay?

Eli (30:14.899)
Yes. Yep.

Eli (30:24.043)
Mm-hmm.

I can't either.

Eli (30:32.011)
feel like I've seen the second one, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (30:35.127)
But I do have some fond memories of the first one being like a movie I liked when I was younger. especially I think my favorite scene is the United States of don't touch that thing in front of you. Like that's the line that always sticks with me. yeah, just, know, Teddy, like Robin Williams, Teddy in these movies, he's just a very warm like figure.

who kind of is a bit of a mentor, so to speak, for Ben Stiller's character. And yeah, and a great likeness too, I think, to the real Teddy Roosevelt. think, you know, RIP Robin Williams gone too soon.

Eli (31:15.243)
Yep.

Jean-Pierre (31:16.715)
You know, we are still recording this during men's mental health month specifically, still June. So definitely want to say like anyone listening out there, especially with the men out there, like if you're struggling with things like, you know, reach out to your friends, your family, let them know. but, man, it's, it's,

Yeah, there's just something about the funniest people are the ones who are dealing with the most. And it also, I love a role like this where yes, he has an opportunity to be funny, but also you get to see another side of Robin Williams too. And it makes you wonder what other kinds of performances we could have gotten from him had he still been with us.

Eli (31:39.841)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli (31:53.772)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. yeah. I mean, great pick. It was on my list, of real presidents. my short kind of short list, but, yeah, that would have been the other, like fictional portrayal of a real president that I would have picked. I might've, I might've gone that, I probably would have gone that way if you had gone Bill and Ted before me.

But yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back to the fictional president. Well I've made up my mind who I'm gonna take and it is a president that might feel a little bit too familiar to our current situation today and you can only wonder what would happen if You know aliens from Mars came

to Earth under our current administration. I have no idea what would happen. But yeah, I'm taking Jack Nicholson playing President Dale in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks. Have you seen Mars Attacks?

Jean-Pierre (33:08.095)
I have, and he was also on my list, which means I now need to find another fictional president option because I only had four and you took two of them, so... man, it's all good, it's all good, we'll figure this out.

Eli (33:14.948)
no. no. man. Okay.

Eli (33:25.375)
Alright, if you don't have anybody, I can switch. We'll get at the end of the draft, I can switch. Okay, you do? Okay.

Jean-Pierre (33:29.609)
No, no, no, no. That's right, I got another one. got, yeah, I got, I got, yeah. Yeah, well, I'll figure it out.

Eli (33:37.538)
All right. Well, that's, that's my pick. mean, present Jack Nicholson is great in this role. he's like, if you haven't seen the movie, so like, it's really like crazy Tim Burton. he just like going nuts. Yeah. Very like, yeah, there's a lot of wild stuff that happens in this movie. one of the, like the funniest things though, is that the general, like the

Jean-Pierre (33:51.883)
Mm-hmm. It's very zany. Yeah.

Eli (34:06.505)
I guess the head military guys like we got to kill these fools. These these these Martians are like crazy. We just need to kill them and President Dale. He's he's like trying to befriend them and it just like it doesn't go anywhere like because they're here to take over and Yeah He meets a he has quite the fate President Dale after a wonderful

Jean-Pierre (34:25.249)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (34:35.857)
speech that is full of like profound nothings I guess you could say. So yeah, yeah that's my third fake president. I'm leaving a really good one that I don't think you would take this one. I don't know if you've seen the movie but anyway I'll leave you to take your second to last pick.

Jean-Pierre (34:44.685)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (35:03.915)
My, might, might, might have to at this point. so I think I'll go ahead and wrap up my, my fictional presidents. And I think the other option I've got to go with, that I just reminded myself of, from a movie that I don't necessarily think it was.

Eli (35:10.283)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (35:19.085)
It's like one of those movies where you watch it and you're like, don't think this is as good or as smart as people think it is. But it did kind of feel very relevant the year it came out and even now in some ways still does. I think I gotta go with Meryl Streep as President Orlean from Don't Look Up. know, yeah, yeah, know, there are some out there.

Eli (35:35.393)
Yeah, I'm glad you took this, because we needed a female president on here.

Jean-Pierre (35:45.538)
You know, I was kind of interested in seeing, I think Viola Davis is in this movie called G20 where she's the president and the G20 summit gets taken over by terrorists and she has to fight them. I've heard it's terrible, but I do like Viola Davis, so look, yeah, I kind of still want to watch it. And Antony, Homelander himself, Antony Starr is the bad guy. But yeah, I do think...

Eli (36:03.349)
Yeah, I mean you have.

Eli (36:10.431)
Yeah, you have Angela Bassett

Jean-Pierre (36:13.823)
It's true. I haven't seen it, but it's true. But yeah, I do. I mean, I love Meryl Streep. Great actress. Probably one of the best of all time. And I think...

I think she really nails her character who's this kind of very, in some ways, of Trumpian, but maybe a little bit more intelligent and intentionally kind of foolish. And of course, her death scene at the end is really, funny. But yeah.

Eli (36:28.064)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (36:34.177)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli (36:42.251)
Yeah, for sure. And has really good comedic chops. She plays really well off of Jonah Hill, who's like her, I guess, assistant or something like that in the movie of sorts. Yeah, you wouldn't ever think, yeah, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, that's a pair. That's a pair that I'm looking forward to. But actually, they play off each other really well. And I think she is a strong point of the movie, for sure.

Jean-Pierre (36:50.445)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (37:01.577)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (37:12.493)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (37:12.811)
For Don't Look is one of those movies where like some of it works and some of it doesn't. And I wasn't like super, I wasn't as negative as many people were on the movie. I thought it was fine. But yeah, she's definitely a strong point. Meryl Streep. President, what's her name in the movie? President Orlene, yeah. Orlene, yeah. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (37:26.903)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (37:33.421)
Mm-hmm.

Orlean or orlean orlean

Eli (37:43.042)
okay. I have to take another real president. This is my last pick. I do have like a few options left. two stronger options and I think I'm going to go with one that's probably not very, this isn't going to get me any votes. I don't think in the poll, but, it's, I've caught up with it, in preparation for this and

was just kind of like blown away by the performance. But I'm gonna play Philip Baker Hall portraying Richard Milhouse Nixon in Secret Honor, Robert Altman's movie Secret Honor. So this is a movie that is, I'm pretty sure, adapted from a stage play, it's Philip Baker Hall as Nixon is the only person in the whole movie. It's just him and his little like study.

Jean-Pierre (38:33.325)
Mm.

Eli (38:41.881)
And the, it's, it's a fictional premise. but it's, it's all based on like who Nixon was and what we know about him and, and all that. And, it's basically him like recording, the, the, it's basically him recording like a memoir of him like defending himself. So this is like post post Watergate post resigning post like

Jean-Pierre (39:04.962)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (39:09.853)
all this stuff and it's basically like him defending himself and there's it's this interesting hour and a half long monologue by one actor in one room with the camera following him around with different angles and it's just really a really really interesting movie a really really interesting like exploration of like what are these men like

Jean-Pierre (39:30.314)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (39:39.69)
Richard Nixon, like, what happened to these men? Why are they the way they are? And you're kind of looking at him, exploring like his psyche at the end of his like era of power. And, you know, there's moments where like, there's moments of even a little bit of sympathy. But it's kind of like this exploring like, okay, yeah, there's certain like

from this person's background that maybe made them who they are, but it doesn't excuse those things, but it explores them. And so it's really, really good. I really enjoyed it. I thought Philip Baker Hall was really, really... I mean, to be in an hour and a half long movie and you're the only one on screen in one room, like, you really have to go all out. And he's really, really good in it. So, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (40:33.677)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (40:38.719)
That's when I'm gonna pick Robert Altman's Secret Honor. it is... the only place it's streaming is Criterion Channel, but yeah. I haven't seen very many Robert Altman movies. He's one of those blind spots that a very well, like, well-respected director that I just haven't seen enough of his movies. So yeah, this made me want to check out some more, so...

Jean-Pierre (40:38.731)
Yeah, I'm not familiar but I'll check that one out.

Jean-Pierre (40:47.883)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (40:55.629)
I'm coming.

Jean-Pierre (41:07.073)
Yeah, great. Okay, I think for my last pick, my last historical president, yeah, I want to go with a performance that...

from an actor that I love and pretty much everything that he does. I think he's one of the best to ever do it. And a performance you're probably very familiar with and probably talked about very recently. I'm gonna go with Sir Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in Amistad.

Like I said, I haven't seen Amistad in a while, but I do remember his performance being great. And I mean, I love Anthony Hopkins and pretty much anything he does.

Eli (41:49.109)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli (41:54.432)
Yeah, I don't. So the thing about that movie is like, I don't like how he's maybe used necessarily in the movie, but like his portrayal and like his acting isn't the problem. Like he's phenomenal in the part. so my, my problem would be more like just like how it's used in the movie and all that. But, yeah, great. mean, great real president pick for sure.

Jean-Pierre (42:08.109)
Hmm.

Jean-Pierre (42:18.41)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (42:23.899)
And at that point in the movie, he's not president, but he's still eligible because he was a president. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great picks. I think we got some great lists. Any honorable mentions you want to throw out there for real or fictional?

Jean-Pierre (42:32.169)
Right, mean, 1776 John Adams isn't president yet, but he will be, you know, so.

Jean-Pierre (42:49.491)
Yeah, think, you know, I never finished the series, but I did really enjoy Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in House of Cards. And I do believe he becomes president in like the second season or whatever.

Eli (43:06.699)
Yeah, I've watched like maybe a few episodes of that, but yeah.

Jean-Pierre (43:10.345)
Yeah, and I also really love Aaron Eckhart in the Fallen franchise. I think he's only the president. He's the president in Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen. And then by the third film, Angel Has Fallen, Morgan Freeman's character is president.

Eli (43:28.224)
Okay.

Eli (43:37.43)
Gotcha.

Jean-Pierre (43:38.572)
But in the first film especially...

I think he does a pretty solid job. He's very presidential. I think he has a very presidential face. He has a politician's face. He's one those actors where I'm like, I don't know why his career is kind of falling off in the way that it has, but I guess it happens to everybody. I think that's kind of the ones I can really think of.

Eli (43:49.141)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that.

Jean-Pierre (44:10.937)
I think I there's a few more I kept seeing pop up on like every single list that I looked at but And then maybe I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that Sebastian Stan is amazing in The Apprentice So an honorable mention for myself that I need to watch that

Eli (44:24.095)
Yeah, I have also not seen that, so, no.

Eli (44:30.015)
Yeah. Yeah. My, my honorable mentions for, I have a couple for real president. so, how have you seen the movie Selma?

Jean-Pierre (44:46.23)
maybe maybe like bits and pieces but

Eli (44:48.787)
Yeah, a really good movie, but Tom Wilkinson plays Lyndon B. Johnson in that movie. Really, really good performance in that. And then I also watched John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda playing Abraham Lincoln kind of in the beginnings of his career as a lawyer and politician. And it's pretty good. I didn't love it, but it's a good movie.

You know 1939 John Ford movie so And I did I didn't count Yeah for sure. I didn't count this as like a proper movie Even though I really wanted to take Either Christopher Jackson as George Washington or Daveed Diggs as Thomas Jefferson in the recording of though either of those could have been my very first pick if

Jean-Pierre (45:21.773)
Mmm, yeah. It's different era, you know?

Jean-Pierre (45:41.356)
Yeah.

Eli (45:48.342)
but I was like, it's kind of in that gray area of, think it's doing enough with the camera where you can count it as a movie, but I'll just leave it and do an honorable mention, you know.

Jean-Pierre (45:51.885)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (45:57.556)
Yeah, yeah, especially who plays George Washington.

Eli (46:03.809)
I just said his name and now I've forgotten all right. Christopher Jackson. So freaking good.

Jean-Pierre (46:09.163)
Yeah, I mean, I love W. Diggs as Thomas Jefferson, but I think I actually think I prefer him as Lafayette in the first half. But yeah, but Christopher Jackson as Washington, like his voice, the way he performs those songs, iconic.

Eli (46:12.723)
Right. I would have picked Washington. Yep.

Eli (46:20.778)
Yeah, that's fair.

Eli (46:24.905)
Aw man.

Eli (46:28.445)
Mm-hmm. Love it.

Jean-Pierre (46:31.157)
And I'd also say like, you know, 1776 includes quite a few other presidents to be. mean, you got Thomas Jefferson is in there. plays, he's like kind of like the main trio. The main trio is like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Like that's kind of like your main three. then there's a bunch of other, much like Lincoln, there's a bunch of other representatives that have like more bit parts, but that's kind of your main kind of trifecta.

Eli (46:48.009)
Okay, all right.

Eli (46:59.521)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (47:01.071)
like a whole song they do together and everything so so yeah I think I think it's kind of a similar thing where there there's these other really great performances in there but but yeah surprisingly like I said I think you know this this draft maybe realize like there's not as many options out there as I as I would have expected but or at least are at least not ones that people would know yeah

Eli (47:20.481)
Yeah, I feel like there's a lot more fictional ones Yeah, yeah, this is so the one that I really wanted to take and just I don't know I left it off my list. It's probably one of my favorite movies Of all the movies we've mentioned I watched it last year for the first time Cindy Lumet's fail safe 1964 have you ever seen this movie? It's also a Henry Fonda playing a president unnamed president

in this like

Jean-Pierre (47:51.565)
I did see a lot of them were called the President, and I'm like... I don't know if that counts.

Eli (47:54.282)
Right. Yeah. But yeah, this movie is so freaking good. It's like a it is like a political thriller where some there's some like it's like Cold War era. There's some bombers that don't get a certain code at a certain time and are going and their radios are cut off.

And so they, they're not getting the directive that they're not supposed to go drop bombs on Russia. And so, and then it's, you know, it's, it's cutting me between all that. And then it's just Henry Fonda with his like assistant in this room with a phone, like making calls and it's just like captivating and thrilling. and Henry Fonda is really good in it. has to make a very difficult decision at, you know, towards the end of the end of the movie.

That's very very very good and interesting so

Jean-Pierre (48:55.386)
And I'll say less.

Last honorable mention, you know, if you want to do a 2012 Lincoln movie, you know, double feature, Abraham Lincoln, hunter, or alternatively, you could watch the asylum parody, Abraham Lincoln versus zombies, which features like a 10 year old Teddy Roosevelt. So yeah, yeah. I watched that one as a kid. think we actually rented that movie.

Eli (49:12.161)
Ha

Eli (49:19.136)
Yeah.

Okay.

Jean-Pierre (49:27.439)
from like Blockbuster or something or a Hollywood video back then. Maybe it was Netflix or I don't know. Somehow I remember we my family and I we watched that movie and at the time I think I actually preferred that over Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter because I think it's one of those movies where it's like awesome premise, terrible execution but I haven't seen in a long time.

Eli (49:47.98)
Yeah, I've not heard great things about Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, obviously, but I feel like the vibe I get is that it's not one of those types of bad movies that's still really fun to watch.

Jean-Pierre (50:05.045)
Yeah, well, mean the most... it had some cool...

I haven't seen it in forever, but I remember it had some cool action stuff. mean, it was kind of at the height of 3D, so there's some of that stuff in there. I think the most interesting thing about it is, and they kind of do this in Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies as well as part of the parody, is they frame the assassination by John Wilkes Booth to cover for the fact that Abraham Lincoln is infected and he's soon to turn into a vampire. I believe, it's been a long time since I've seen it, but I believe that that's...

what the explanation is for that. So... Yeah! You know. Well, but I think it's like... I think, if I remember correctly, it's like John Wilkes Booth still hates Lincoln, but they like pay him to do it and be the fall guy for it. But he is more than happy to do it.

Eli (50:40.491)
little bit questionable of a choice but okay.

Eli (50:55.007)
Okay, sure.

Eli (50:59.373)
Yeah. Oh, that's great. yeah, I mean, I think we ended up with some great lists. Um, I would say honestly, like, if I could recommend any of these movies to watch, it wouldn't even be, I would, I would recommend people watch fail safe. Cause I just think it's a really great, you know, classic Sydney Lumet movie of such classics as, you know, 12 angry men and

dog day afternoon and yeah.

Jean-Pierre (51:28.653)
check it out. sounds like, have you seen Black Sunday?

Eli (51:36.609)
no, I haven't, but I know what you're talking about because it, relates. It came up in Munich talking about Munich.

Jean-Pierre (51:39.575)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (51:45.76)
Yeah, I think we actually may have talked about it during Dark Knight Rises. I don't know if I did that episode with you or not. Because it was one of the movies that they had everybody watch before they did that movie, Dark Knight Rises. it sounds, there's some plot points, you said it sounds similar, where it's like, it's this really weird premise that wouldn't work these days, where they get in this blimp and it's designed to drop, to explode, and it's gonna drop all these lawn darts,

Eli (51:51.391)
Maybe, I don't know.

Eli (51:59.212)
Mm-hmm.

Jean-Pierre (52:15.663)
a bunch of people in this football arena but outside of that kind of very 1970s silly premise it's a very intense like movie like as far as like how they set up the plot and like these like kind of eco-terrorists so to speak kind of formulating this attack and like it was it was quite it's quite tense it's very good so but fail safe sounds great I'm gonna definitely need to give that a watch

Eli (52:23.521)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (52:41.749)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I highly, highly recommend it. And in fact, like I was doing kind of a Sydney Ylou Matt watch through filling in a bunch of blind spots last year. Cause it was a, it would have been his hundredth birthday last year. and I think after I ended up with like 10 of his movies logged and that was my favorite, of all of them, even over some of those classics. So the whiz. Yep.

Jean-Pierre (53:08.525)
Oh, he did the wiss. Oh, 12 Anchoring Men. Okay, yeah, I'm looking at his list right now. Dog Day Afternoon. Uh-huh, I've heard of a bunch of these. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. The original Murder on the Orient Express. Okay, yeah. I haven't seen most of these, but I've definitely heard a lot of these names that have floated around.

Eli (53:13.021)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's Serpico.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Great director.

Eli (53:28.757)
Yeah, he's just worth watching through his filmography. He would be a future subject for the show for sure.

Jean-Pierre (53:38.561)
So it sounds like of like a John McTiernan, you know, where it's like, just has all these random movies that he kind of did that you're like, I didn't know that was his film.

Eli (53:49.026)
Yeah, so yeah, I'll read back our lists and then we'll wrap up. So I'm not gonna read them in the order picked. I'm just gonna read through. So JP ended up with his three real president picks were 1776, Night at the Museum and Amistad, and his three fictional president picks were Independence Day, Idiocracy, and Don't Look Up. Great list.

My picks, my real presidents were from Oppenheimer, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Secret Honor. And my fictional presidents were from Dr. Strangelove, Air Force One, and Mars Attacks. So two great lists. I think it'll be fun to see what people go with. I think, so I think for your list.

I Independence Day and Night at the Museum are going to be the vote-pollers.

Jean-Pierre (54:53.457)
I'm hoping theocracy enjoyers will be like, yeah. So maybe I'll pull some points. But I think.

Eli (54:57.589)
Yeah, maybe so. I'm hoping for an Air Force One Oppenheimer pool. That's what I'm hoping for, you know.

Jean-Pierre (55:04.203)
Yeah, probably, probably. think, but I don't know, think Independence Day is kind of like the, it's the bulldozer in this race for sure, but we'll see. I think people just buy us and just pick your options regardless, but we'll see.

Eli (55:09.215)
Independence Day is a good one. Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. People love that one.

Eli (55:19.977)
Yeah, probably so. People love me, I guess.

My mom always votes for me, even if she's never seen any of the movies that I picked. So thanks, mom. Shout out to my mom. That's all we have for this week, though. You can follow JP on his Instagram or on Letterboxd, which I will link in the episode description to see what he's up to and what movies he's watching. So go do that whenever you finish the show. But yeah.

That's all we have for this week. Next week, we are going to jump back into Spielberg with Bridge of Spies, the third Tom Hanks collaboration with Spielberg. So that'll be fun. I already recorded that. It's a good episode. So yeah, check that out next week. But until then, I've been Eli Price for JP Boudreaux. You've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We'll see you next time.