FIRST ON FOX: A well-liked host, storyteller, producer and creator has a brand new challenge popping out — and “it traces up, not coincidentally,” with the Fourth of July, he informed Fox Information Digital in an on-camera interview.
Talking in a video interview from his house studio in Northern California, Mike Rowe, host and narrator of “How America Works,” “Soiled Jobs” and “Returning the Favor,” amongst different endeavors, informed Fox Information Digital all about “One thing to Stand For,” his new movie hitting theaters throughout the nation beginning June 27, 2024.
“It is not like some other movie I’ve seen,” he mentioned. “Frankly, I am unsure what to name it. It is not a documentary, though there’s lots of historic data in it, and it isn’t a traditional narrative. There are in all probability 300 actors in it, however they do not actually speak to one another. They’re all there to assist deliver 9 particular person tales to life.” (See the video on the prime of this text.)
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He pulled these 9 tales, he mentioned, from his podcast, “The Method I Heard It” — opening a window into the world of those that helped deliver us the nation we name house.
“It was an opportunity to study one thing you did not find out about any person,” mentioned Rowe. “Type of a little bit thriller with some biography shot by, with some historical past.”
“Anyway,” he added, “I wrote a couple of hundred of these issues. They become a e book, after which they become a TV present, after which any person mentioned, ‘Hey, what if, for an event, you took half a dozen or a dozen of those tales and put them right into a film?’”
At first, he and his crew talked about doing a Christmas film, he mentioned — however he very intentionally selected a July 4th connection and theme as a substitute.
“The film consists of 9 of those brief mysteries stitched collectively by me, with a visit to Washington, D.C. I go to varied monuments and memorials and have some unplanned encounters with some veterans.
“And all of it comes collectively in a means that’s — and I do not need to overstate it — however you realize, it is fairly good. Positively pleasant, I have been informed,” he added with the self-deprecating smile and good humor his audiences have come to take pleasure in and respect.
Rowe reaches almost 9 million individuals on his social media channels alone. He shared way more about “One thing to Stand For” with Fox Information Digital.
He and his crew shot the historic recreations for the new movie in Oklahoma “with Oklahoma actors and an Oklahoma crew.”
Mentioned Rowe, “A few of the recreations are actually bold. The casting is nice. I did not need to shoot in L.A. or New York,” he added. “This isn’t a Hollywood manufacturing. It is a message from the guts, and we shot it within the heartland. I am actually happy with that.”
He mentioned that engaged on it and making the tales come to life was “a privilege. And it is humbling — to place it collectively is de facto instructive. You study lots of issues if you work on a challenge like this. And all of it occurred very quick.”
Rowe famous that he is learn tales about “script improvement and films taking years to get off the bottom. Properly, this occurred in about two-and-a-half months.”
Finally, he mentioned, “it did not occur as a result of the ‘Soiled Jobs’ man had some secret want achievement to be on the large display. It occurred as a result of our nation appears to be torn in half. And it worries me that so many individuals on each side can not seem to agree on so many issues.”
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Rowe mentioned he believes that the tales included in his movie “are emblematic of individuals and concepts that we might all agree have been value standing for.”
America, Rowe made a degree of claiming, “was fashioned by imperfect individuals and we’re nonetheless very a lot a piece in progress.” He wished to foster a brand new appreciation for the previous but in addition a practical one, he mentioned.
“The film would not try to wrap itself within the flag and say, ‘Hey, we did it. Go us. We’re excellent.'”
It’s “not that in any respect,” he mentioned.
Even so, it is “an unapologetically patriotic film that provides me, I feel, permission to say that despite the imperfections of our Founders and despite the world we discover ourselves in immediately, we nonetheless have quite a bit to be happy with, we nonetheless have quite a bit to be thankful for — and we nonetheless have quite a bit to have a good time.”
Basically, he mentioned, “that is what the film is. It is a celebration round Independence Day. And I hope the film will make it simpler for individuals to really feel grateful concerning the miracle they have been given” — the miracle generally known as the US of America.
“We’re alive. We stroll the Earth,” he mentioned. “We have hit the best lottery of all time. We dwell in a reasonably great place. So, above all, [it’s about] feeling grateful about that.”
He continued that that is “not only a factor that I feel we owe our forefathers. It is a factor that we must always selfishly latch onto proper now. As a result of research present if you happen to really feel grateful on a fundamental, basic stage, you are going to be a horrible sufferer.”
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He elaborated, “You are going to have a really exhausting time feeling sorry for your self and feeling bitter about any variety of issues … It is definitely been true in my life — and I’ve by no means met anyone that that fundamental reality would not apply to.”
Mentioned Rowe, “Should you’re a essentially grateful individual, you are going to have a hell of a neater time navigating the world as we all know it.”
Rowe mentioned he realized not way back about his profession “that actually, what I have been doing is tapping the nation on the shoulder and saying, ‘Hey, what about him? What about her? Get a load of that.’”
After which, he mentioned — he leaves the scene.
“It is so vital to go away,” he mentioned. “You realize, I do not keep too lengthy in a single place or linger, sometimes, as a result of there are lots of people that I feel are value realizing and lots of tales value telling.”
He mentioned that his life and actually his profession “have been outlined by the behind-the-scenes digital camera.”
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And “this film was completely different as a result of the tales which might be in it have been rigorously written, they usually have been very intentionally delivered from a stage in an empty theater, straight to digital camera. After which they have been very intentionally delivered to life with actors who have been very intentionally forged.”
So “I might say the most important distinction [between this film and what he’s done before] is the extent of intentionality that goes right into a film, versus a ‘Forrest Gump’ randomness.”
Rowe mentioned his favourite second of constructing “One thing to Stand For” occurred “when these two issues collided.”
He was strolling by the World Conflict II memorial in D.C., about to “introduce the following story” on digital camera. “And this memorial, by the way in which, if you have not seen it — it is simply breathtaking. It is simply overwhelming. And whereas I am standing there amassing my ideas, I regarded over and I noticed an Honor Flight enter.”
The Honor Flight Community has been welcoming America’s veterans to Washington, D.C., since 2005.
Half a dozen older gents in wheelchairs, he mentioned, have been there with their households, and “volunteers [were] pushing them round. And I noticed this man, 91 years previous. His title was Andy Michael. I did not understand it on the time, however I turned to my director and I mentioned, ‘Hey, seize the digital camera, guys. I am simply going to go over and speak to him, and I need to put him on digital camera.'”
He mentioned that upon introducing himself and starting to speak to the older gentleman, he discovered that “he is my dad’s age. He was in Korea concurrently my dad,” mentioned Rowe.
“And he noticed some some exhausting issues and and did some exhausting issues. However he had by no means been to D.C.,” mentioned Rowe. “He had by no means been to this memorial. Right here he was for the primary time in his life, trying round in any respect these stars on the partitions and all of these stunning — all that statuary” of the memorial.
“And I let you know what, man. You see a 91-year-old man who risked his life a technology in the past for you with tears of gratitude operating down the wrinkles of his leathery face — nicely, if you happen to do not put that in a film, disgrace on you. So he is within the film.”
Rowe talked concerning the energy of storytelling, concerning the energy to maneuver individuals in a movie.
“Look, no person needs a lecture. No one needs a sermon. No one needs a lesson,” he mentioned.
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“I would personally imagine that we in all probability want all of these issues, however no person needs it … No one needs to see a middle-aged white man shaking his finger at them, telling them to work more durable and study a commerce and be extra grateful and pull your pants up and blah, blah, blah. No one. That is simply not persuasive,” he added.
“So what you are able to do on the large display is let individuals know that you just give a rattling about all of this. And, you realize, I inform the tales I inform as a result of I’ve an agenda — and typically my slip exhibits. No matter. I can dwell with that.”
Rowe mentioned that for him, the saving grace was that “I used to be actually sincere and genuine … I [wanted] to let the viewer see me doing one thing that I actually hadn’t achieved since I used to be within the eighth grade, which was to go on a subject journey and wander by the statuary and, and simply be with the monuments. Be with the memorials.“
He additionally commented on a stunning information story that got here throughout his telephone simply minutes forward of his interview with Fox Information Digital.
The headline was, he mentioned, “U.S. flag burned as veterans memorial vandalized … leaving crowds horrified.” It occurred in Morgan Hill, a little bit city close to San Francisco.
“You realize, I do not know who did that,” mentioned Rowe. “However I’ve no sympathy or persistence for them.”
He mentioned that when he thinks concerning the “statues which have been pulled down and the outrage over the previous and the try to right it by graffiti and vandalism — I did not write this film for these individuals, however I did write it as a result of of them. As a result of there’s such a distinction between having a respectable disagreement between left and proper, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat.“
But his new film, he mentioned, “is de facto for individuals on each side of the aisle who see themselves firstly as People — and who share my disgust at that form of straight-up vandalism.”
“That is not political, proper? That is anti-American. And it is rooted in certainty and ignorance.
“And so to the extent that we’re ready to have the ability to inform tales about imperfect individuals who did nice issues — I hope that can elevate the logic of remembering them.”
Rowe mentioned, “The necessity for patriotism is, I feel, clear and current” immediately.
“And it begins with our capability to separate it from politics.”
He went on, “Patriotism has nothing to do with politics and all the things to do with curiosity and a need to understand the previous. [George] Santayana was proper. Clearly, if we do not study from the previous, we’re doomed to repeat it.”
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He mentioned he believes it is “incumbent on storytellers to do their greatest work and to inform the tales as actually as they’ll. We do dwell in a time if you present me a room stuffed with consultants — and I will present you a room full of people that do not agree.”
And “that is exhausting for the townspeople. That is that is exhausting for normal individuals. Whether or not it is docs who cannot agree or whether or not it is journalists or politicians or historians — I stipulate all of that. None of us have been within the room when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed or the Declaration of Independence was signed. We weren’t there.”
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“But when we’re curious and if we’re prepared to pay attention to varied takes from varied consultants, then we are able to not less than start to kind our personal opinions and our personal connection.”
Mentioned Rowe, “And that is what I will go away you with. We’re both linked or we’re not. We’re both linked to our workforce or we’re not. We’re both linked to the place our meals comes from or we aren’t. We’re both linked to the individuals who present the vitality we depend on — or we’re not.
“And we both respect these individuals or we do not. My basis” — the Mike Rowe Works Basis — “offers with all of that every day.”
He additionally mentioned, “To me, it interprets and migrates fairly simply into historical past. Every little thing I simply mentioned could be utilized to how we really feel about our shared historical past and the extent of enthusiasm we’ve for it, and finally, the extent of patriotism that metastasizes on account of it.”
And “to me, that is what Independence Days is about. And that is why this film traces up, not coincidentally, with that a part of the calendar.”
“One thing to Stand For” hits theaters June 27, 2024.