363: Behind the True Story: She Wanted To Do Everything with Robyn Flanery

Dan LeFebvre  01:52

Before we learn more about your film career, everyone watching just heard your last name in the introduction. I’m sure you get this all the time. Your brother is Sean Patrick Flanery, who I will always remember as Conor McManus from the cult classic film The Boondock Saints. So let’s start by getting that question out of the way. What’s it like having a famous actor for a brother?

Robyn Flanery  02:12

Um, interesting, and we’re, I don’t think of him as famous because we’re barely two years apart, so we kind of grew up really tight and so on. People are like, Oh my god, your brother. I’m just like.

Dan LeFebvre  02:28

He’s just your brother.

Robyn Flanery  02:31

Yeah! But I live in New Orleans right now, and there’s a bar here called The Boondock Saint where they play his movie on loop. And yeah. So a lot of people do ask that question to me on the regular, and he’s, he’s just a regular dude who’s, you know, got kids, and is a really nice guy. I mean, he does do the Comic Con circuit for that movie still, so he’s really active in that, and I know that he’s written and produced and directed a few things, so it looks like he’s but he spends a lot of time with his kids, doing athletics. Mostly, that’s really what his life is

Dan LeFebvre  03:17

We’re going to talk mostly about your career, but I had to ask that up front.

Robyn Flanery  03:25

No worries at all.

Dan LeFebvre  03:27

Well, you you started to go down the acting road back with student bodies. Was a horror comedy in 1981 but what made you decide to work behind the camera instead of front of it?

Robyn Flanery  03:36

Well, the funny story about student bodies is this, I was in a very exclusive private school in high school, and a girlfriend of mine, it was for actors, models and athletes and things like that. And I wasn’t any of those. I was just a science person. But she said, Hey, can you drag me to an audition after school? And I said, Okay, what’s it for? And she’s like, I don’t know. And she showed me the sides, which I didn’t even know what sides were at that time. I mean, no acting experience at all. I She goes, come in with me. So I’m sitting in this row of chairs. There’s literally hundreds of people there, and this dude walks out of the room, and he walks up and down and he points at me. I go, I’m not here to audition. He goes, you are now. Do you know how to scream? And I’m like, No, dude, I I promise. I’m sure I didn’t say dude, because I was 17, but I was like, no, no, no, I don’t want to do this. And and my friend says you should go try. And then I went in, and they’re like, You got the part. And then that girlfriend, I think he still hates me this day, because that was kind of her dream, but it wasn’t mine, so I wanted to learn the science behind film always, but I’ve had offers to be in front of the camera a lot more than behind, but I don’t. I struggle on camera. I struggle with that. So I chose to do what I felt was more i. My speed, which is producing and directing. And first I started out making little commercials for people, and then I started making documentaries about things that I thought were really globally important. But that’s kind of how that started. And then Sean moved out to Hollywood after I did that movie, way after I did that movie, because he was in St Thomas at University of St Thomas when he left, and he’s that was the funniest story, because we both worked for our dad at that time. He’s just a semester short of finishing college, and oh, oh, I don’t want to talk about all that, but yeah, he went out there, and then he got, you know, he really wanted to be in front of the camera. I never knew that, because he was in school for pre law. Oh, okay, yeah, I Yeah. So it was a surprise, but he got a big break while he was working at DJI Fridays. Isn’t

Dan LeFebvre  05:54

that kind of the classic story, going to Hollywood work as a weird and then become an actor. That’s

Robyn Flanery  05:58

what happened. And then. So he always had work, you know, sort of rolling since then, and but I also got into it. But I started doing location scouting first, and then, before I got my hands on any really big equipment, and doing that, I was able to move from that. And because that doesn’t pay a lot of money, and it’s not like I’m following the money, but you always sort of want to move up, but at least I do, if I’m going to work at all, if I’m going to work at all, I’m going to work, you know, up a ladder, I hope. But the next way up was to do housing for a list actors. So I got to meet a lot of A listers, and that helped me a lot in getting into documentaries and stuff like that, but also finding them houses when they came to New Orleans to film. So I’ve some of them. I have NDAs that I can’t discuss. Some of them I can. And, you know, very, very interesting field,

Dan LeFebvre  06:59

I’ll say here on the podcast, normally, when I talk about the true story behind historical movies, I’m referring to the based on a true story part the actual history. But I’m super excited to get to change that up with you here, Robin, because now we’ll get to hear some true stories from historical movies that you’ve worked on, like Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey and the butler with Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. What are one or two of your favorite stories from your time working on those movies? Yeah,

Robyn Flanery  07:26

I did a a list actor scouting for houses on multitudes of films. Dallas Buyers Club. I ended up showing a lot of houses to to Matt McConaughey, and he chose a different one from another person. So I wasn’t every day on I wasn’t an everyday person on that, but a lot of my friends worked like solidly on that set for so many weeks. It was a really fun set to work on, and a lot of people really enjoyed it. But that’s one that we all have NDAs that we can’t even discuss where we showed anything. I can tell you Matt McConaughey talked about Halo with my daughter for 30 minutes, and I was like, hurry up. But other than that, I can’t say much about it. Still, I

Dan LeFebvre  08:18

just, I’m just picturing him looking at the house and going, all right, all right, all right, all right. And that’s the 180 pictures. Oh,

Robyn Flanery  08:23

cool. He’s paraded through that. He’s not like that, just a regular person he was. We really nerded out with my daughter about video games for a long time, and she was about to go off to college to become a computer engineer to program video games. So they had a lot in com. They got a lot more talking time than I did, but, um, he’s really, really nice person. So is his wife. They’re really stellar people. I don’t have anything negative to say about them. And he’s really easy to work with, like, super easy. And seems to be, I don’t know if he’s a method actor, but he very well could be from some because it’s been on two occasions whenever, for two different movies when I’ve seen different sides of him. So I think he may be method, but I could be way wrong. I don’t know, but he’s a really nice person. As far as the butler, that was an interesting experience, because I did housing for some of the executive producers and things like that, and learned a lot about the way people want to live as the opposed as opposed to reality. So we did a lot of we did have a lot of 2am calls from people in houses and things like that for simple things, but, but I had to be back and forth on set to pick up checks a lot for that. And everybody was lovely and staying with Django Unchained, same thing that was very interesting, the most interesting feature I’ve ever had any affiliation with ever, just because of the way that they did it and the way that the stars worked. And I also might, since my daughter was doing a she. She was about to go off to college. She was in her senior year, and I got her an internship on that film and art department. And during the filming of that movie, Michael Riva, who was the art director, died, and Paige Buckner took over as the art director, and that’s who my daughter was directly working for, and she also side gig as a nanny for their baby. So just and I house them. So it was, it was, it was real tight. And I remember opening the refrigerator in our department, there’s notes on everything, because everybody, evidently, they had somebody that went around, not

Dan LeFebvre  10:40

to name names, but somebody, yeah.

Robyn Flanery  10:43

It was really fun. Doing all of that is really an interesting psychological study in people, and learning how to deal with people, places and things, and not making any of them mad at the same time. It’s an interesting and almost impossible job, but I tried to give it my best. As you say, the

Dan LeFebvre  11:04

first thing that comes to mind is, you can’t make everybody happy. But it sounds like that’s what you try to do. Yeah, try to

Robyn Flanery  11:11

do that. It’s, it’s, um, it they all have personal assistance so, but when they’re on in the middle of tonight, they don’t, so you’re dealing directly with the stars and the producers, and they don’t know how to do certain things. And, you know, sometimes you have to kick in and help and or just, you know, read a manual. And back then, you know, it wasn’t as easy to Google every single thing or YouTube every single thing and just send them a video, and they wouldn’t have put up with that anyway. You have to really go there and go, no, here’s how you open this. Here’s how this works, and don’t shut this this way, or that will happen. And this, you know, in New Orleans, there’s a lot of mixed craft architecture that is very interesting and old. There’s a lot of history. So it’s not new construction and smart houses everywhere. There, we do have that. But back then, wasn’t so much fat. So there was a lot of I’m sure people would come in and go, it’s beautiful mansion. I don’t have work anything well.

Dan LeFebvre  12:06

And it’s a house like this, not the normal house like it’s, and so it’s, I could see that too, where it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s new you think of when you get new car, you got to learn where all the different little pieces and all the things are, yeah,

Robyn Flanery  12:15

you’re right. It is a lot like that and and just the interesting personalities and things that people you think everybody knows how to do a certain thing? Nah, no, no, no. Some people have never done things like making beds or coffee, and that’s okay. I don’t do that for a living, but I learned that so I could teach somebody. It’s not that hard, but for the most part, that was just a real pleasant, pleasant experience. The only unpleasant experience I’ve ever had doing any kind of location or cast and crew work is on a reality show that will forever go nameless, call them Voldemort. It was a year of my life that I would never want to put on my resume again. I don’t ever want a job like I get, and never want to deal with

Dan LeFebvre  13:09

that. I guess you got to have the lows sometimes, to appreciate the the better jobs. Yeah,

Robyn Flanery  13:14

yeah, it does. It made me that’s a good point, because that’s exactly what it did. It made me go, oh, I don’t like that, for sure, and I know and because the only thing that really benefit for that are the viewers, writings and the producers, all the other rest of people really don’t. And it’s made me sad as a human to sort of see people exploited that way. I couldn’t deal with it. I have a I have one of these empathetic hearts that makes now I do movies that are only to do good or to call to action, and that’s pretty much it, but I had to find my niche by learning all those things. Just like said, Yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  13:47

well, I know we all understand that. You know, movies are for entertainment, so they’re not going to be entirely accurate, but the flip side of that, we expect documentaries to be factual. And as a filmmaker who’s worked on both historical movies for entertainment, we just talked about some as well as documentaries. Do you take a different approach for these two kinds of movies? And you’re when you take work on them?

Robyn Flanery  14:07

Yeah, there’s two totally different forms of development for both. There’s, you know, there’s research and development for both types. But one of them is strictly creative, and the other is factual. And now sometimes on the feature films you do, if you’re using a living character or public figure, you have to make sure that you’re legally accurate. But on a documentary, I know there are some people that do make documentaries now based on their feelings and what they think a situation is, rather than doing the research that’s unfortunate that that’s happened. I’m trying my best to revive the the method that we learned before of always telling the truth and having sources and facts. That’s why I said I was I started with a scientific background, because I if it’s not on pub men, there’s no paper about it, I’m not sure that’s a real cure. I. I want to know. And I worked in the library one because I finished all of my electives way too soon, and I was in all AP classes. So I worked in the library and I read. People would ask me where the fiction section was, and I would tell them it was the eight hundreds, which is biography. So that’s the kind of All right, go learn something. I’m not a fan of big academia, but I am a fan of the truth, so I try to seek it out and tell it as much as I can. But I think that’s an important part of being a really good filmmaker, and also asking everybody that works with you what their perspective is, so you know where they’re coming from.

Dan LeFebvre  15:36

That’s an interesting point, too. Yeah, that I’ve heard Justine doing this show. You know, you when you talk to historians and stuff, they they’ll point out that, you know, one person’s perspective of the truth is is different than somebody else’s. An example that I always like to give is the battle of Dunkirk. You know, this huge historical battle. But one person’s perspective of that, depending on where they are in that battle, is, can be very different. They can both be valid and so telling those stories from the perspective matters. What perspective you’re telling the story from

Robyn Flanery  16:07

too. Oh, that is. That’s so that is so profound and so perfect, because that’s something that I think a lot of filmmakers could really learn from. If you only tell it from one perspective, your lack, you’re really ripping yourself off. Tell the whole gamut and let the the watcher, the viewer, decide what they think is best from their own value system. Usually the truth will come out, but if you tell it from only one side, that is, for instance, that you see, I guess there are four documentaries on the men in Dez brothers, and also Diddy and also Anna delvey, and there’s a million perspectives. But wouldn’t it be cool if you could see them all in one Yeah, that’s the way I like to make stuff. People got really angry with me when I made broken worlds the island, because a lot of people on the island that sold property thought that I was going to negate them from making sales. Yeah, maybe so, but the truth is going to get told, and I’m going to tell it, and you can’t stop me. Just try. That’s what I always tell people. I’m like, just like Sean. People are like, he’s a black belt. You know, he might be a little dude. Sean and I are about the same exact height and and we’re both tall and skinny, but we’re formidable in different ways. He’s a black belt, and I think I’m kind of that same way, but with my mind, because I will not let something go until I get to the bottom of it. And people know that about me, they’ll they’ll sidetrack. They’ll be like, I don’t need your help. You might want to know something, but then again, I’m just about to do a documentary on a family Hollywood royalty level, like, let’s say it’s not John Wayne, but of that ilk, their whole family and all of their generations now want to tell all their trauma. So we’ll see. Will I want to see what their perspective is from a victim and from an attacker and from just as a human being, what they think of these stories as When, when, when they write their out rings, somebody’s going to tell them that read them their outline back so they can hear it from a different perspective, so they can go, oh, wow, how does that land? You don’t want to just start talking on a live stream and and spew a bunch of stuff with no background. So I tend to have my subjects talk about it from their perspective. And then I get all of them together, and then I can sort of go, oh, a ball just formed in the air. Let’s it’s the earth. And now we have a project, but we have it from all perspectives at that point, and then we can tell it from to make some reasonable assumptions and truths, possibly, well,

Dan LeFebvre  18:59

you mentioned briefly broken worlds. And I want to ask about the broken worlds the island and Rita’s Island. Both of the documentaries tell stories of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the category five hurricane that hit Puerto Rico in September of 2017 How did you get involved in those projects?

Robyn Flanery  19:13

Well, I lived there for I had a my vacation house was on that island, and I just sold it in April of 2022 and I lived there for a long time without knowing that, because even in the disclosure of real estate, the realtor did not let us know that this was the island that had been bombed by the Navy for over 60 years, and the ground Water might be environmentally challenged. So I took it upon myself after finding that out from meeting a person who was an Army UXO tech who worked on the range, told me the whole story, and said, yeah, they keep trying to cover it up for everybody buying new stuff here. And I went, huh? Then I noticed. Al Jazeera went and did a an expose on that exact realtor by saying, I’d like to talk to you about your luxury properties on this now, I don’t go do stuff like that. I’m going to tell them I don’t know what I’m going to do with this footage. I want to interview you. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have just turned it on someone like that. But people do need to know, but they need to know that there’s also a lot of good being done about it. You know, at the same time, there’s a cleanup being done. It’s a major Superfund site. It turns out that it you do have to disclose that it’s a super fun site on a real estate disclosure. So that’s a good thing that people know now when they move there, there’s also not a hospital there, and you could step on depleted uranium, and they’re still still radioactive. You know, you can guide your counter around there and find a lot of stuff. So when I find out things like that, I want to get the whole story. So I did in the course of that, I met are Rita Maldonado, who has a book out called the zen of dancing in the rain, whichever, it’s an Amazon bestseller, and I highly recommend everybody read it. She is, was an Army veteran who was shot in Afghanistan and all, and was on a reality show after that, did a lot of promotion for herself, but went through a serious, serious evolution in her life of losing capacity to walk, and had to reteach herself and everything. And she’s won a Purple Heart, which is now in the Smithsonian, you know. So there’s lots of cool things that she’s doing from that, and that spun off from that. So I wanted to make a special documentary about her that covered why she was even in it, because she wasn’t a native or a Taino Indian, Native of the island of bieke Vieques, but vieque is the way the islanders say it, and they pronounce it that way, and they’re Taino Indians, indigenous people, and they have specific religions and all that. So I wanted to do a part two to that, to let them know about the culture and what they really respect, because it’s an island off of it’s seven miles off the southeast coast of the island of Puerto Rico, so it’s like its own little country. Very, very interesting. There’s usually never more than 10,000 people on that island, even in the highest of seasons, and there’s not a hospital. So it’s, yeah, people who have healthcare issues. It’s, it’s a serious issue. That’s why I just finished making alongside Carrie Mitchum, who’s Robert Mitchum granddaughter, she and I produced and made a show called profit over people. That’s the content is all out on YouTube, but we’re going to sell the content to a streamer, to do a documentary like the 10 Melendez brothers, or whatever you know, that they want to put out there. I don’t know, but that’s not the documentary about their family. That’s a separate project in itself. But profit over people is based on the United States healthcare system and how broken it is with and it’s got stories from people of from all walks of life to verify this, and it’s almost medieval how cruel some of the things are that we found out during the the making of that it took us two years to make it

Dan LeFebvre  23:12

so just to make sure I’m understanding, the island vis is where they dropped bombs for like, 60 years, And there’s also not a hospital on the island for this radioactive I mean, that just seems crazy.

Robyn Flanery  23:28

Oh my god, let’s do a TV show, a reality TV show, on this island, and make it about cheap places to live in the Caribbean and sell a bunch of property. And that that happened. I bought one, and then I went down there and I found all that stuff out. Now, you would think, that’s really stupid, Robin. Why didn’t you do the research on I was, I was that blue water, it can pin it’s, I mean,

Dan LeFebvre  23:57

just seeing the footage in the documentary too. I mean, there are some beautiful visuals. I mean, it’s a beautiful location, unbelievable.

Robyn Flanery  24:03

And I didn’t use, and neither did any editor use any colorization on that. It’s natural. That’s the way it really is. So you walk out every day and you’re like, oh my god, this is so beautiful. This, oh my god. And then you just it affects your mind, and you get Island time, and then you find things out. And you then finally, your mind back after the spell is all from the beauty, and you want to find out what’s in the dirt. And that’s what led me to that, and some other people were talking about it on the island. And then we made the movie after the hurricane, really, I went back to the I went down to the island that visit after, directly after the hurricane, just to make tourism promos for my friends who own businesses that they I thought they had lost. Just as a help, I was going to donate my time just to make promos. But I got there and a lady that I met who worked on the range sat me down and told me the story. She goes, and then the town doctor comes to me and says, Robin, you’re here that you got a whole crew here. You’re not making promos. This is what we’re doing. And I’m like, tell me, what the hell is going on? She started telling me and about all of the cases of the diseases. And so then we started talking to historians and scientists and everybody, and it got bigger than we thought. And after many years of reformatting and making it, we sent it to film festival, 101, of awards, way more than I thought. And then we did spin off Rita’s Island, and then people just kept hiring us to do different things. I

Dan LeFebvre  25:35

mean, it sounds like people were just itching to tell their story. And yeah, I mean,

Robyn Flanery  25:40

but then they wanted to hate me after I told

Dan LeFebvre  25:44

well, yeah, I guess, I guess that’s how it goes. Yeah.

Robyn Flanery  25:46

I mean, my agent at the time said, Robin, haters are fans. I’m like, I don’t like this, this. I’m not I like this. And he’s like, just calm down. It’ll die down. And it did, but boy, it was rough the two years that it was on Amazon, ever United States people to see I’m I’ve never received that level of hatred for anything I’ve ever done from the most entitled people on Earth. Disgusting is

Dan LeFebvre  26:18

this broken worlds, arenas, Island are kind of both together.

Robyn Flanery  26:21

Worlds, broken world. Island redesign was just a love fest. Okay? I was gonna say

Dan LeFebvre  26:25

because, I mean, her story, since it follows more just her instead of it is kind of her perspective, but her story to me as I was, I mean, it just, it’s, it’s like the topic of a movie. I mean, she’s in the army, she on a reality TV show, and then she ate a slug or something. And then, like, I got a 50% chance of not waking up. And then she goes, like, from running 50 miles before the TV show, being paralyzed, having to relearn how to walk. And then finally, sets down there on the island in March of 2017 and then hurricane Maria hits, destroys the home. Her husband passes away while she’s five months like it just it seems like a movie plot line.

Robyn Flanery  27:06

I know it is, and I’m sure that, I’m sure the right producer will end up making that. If it’s not me, I don’t know if it’ll be me. And Arita are pretty, you know, type, we still talk, you know, on the internet a lot, and I love her children so much. The first time I interviewed her, Alex was there, her husband was there, and she was pregnant, so, you know, I met, was able to meet him. And this is a really small community, so everybody’s really knows everybody. It is the story for a movie, and she’s written a book, like I said, Zen, the zen of dancing in the rain. And it’s a beautiful story. Everybody should really read it. And she’s working on another book now. She also is so healthy that she’s able to teach dance every day. I mean, well, I think she’s gotten down to twice a week or three times a week now, but yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  27:56

wow, wow. Yeah, I can’t wait to hopefully that becomes a movie to shine more light on her story too. I

Robyn Flanery  28:03

hope so it should. It’s a beautiful story. The locations are absolutely fabulous. But I do think that now that I have this type of experience, it should be a body who makes it, a Boricua, a person of that that culture, a filmmaker who lived there on that land, that’s who deserves to make it. I wouldn’t mind being a contributing producer or being the director if they wanted to hire me, but I do think that that story should be told by them. Well,

Dan LeFebvre  28:32

if we shift back to movies for entertainment purposes, a lot of people see, you know, the list of names, and there’s just this whole screen, you know, black, and then just huge list of of white text of all the different people. And it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around how many decisions are made across the entire production that can impact in particular for my listeners, you know, the historical accuracy of movies. I like to use Titanic as an example, because, you know, the tip of the iceberg above the water, but most of it’s underneath. Nobody really sees. So over the course of your career, what sort of things have you seen that have impacted the historical accuracy of a movie? For those of us that are just watching it, might not even think about gosh,

Robyn Flanery  29:15

I would think the thing that comes to mind also is Titanic and the amount of scientific experimentation and historical facts that James Cameron went out and got, I mean, there’s so much of that that changed what people thought about the way that movie was made. And I went into like, making broken worlds the same way I wanted to find people who were for it and who were against it and why, what their reasons were. And in the final cut, I think one of the biggest monologs was cut out and and I would like to put that in our and so I think the the way you make decisions can really, really change the inflection and tone of a film in such drastic ways that you it, and the way you cut. At it. The editor has amazing control. Oh, if you allow them to, and a director and an editor and producer, an EP should work like it should be a triad to get if you if you’re all in the same headspace, that’s perfect. If you’re not, it’s kind of a disaster. So yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  30:18

think we’ve seen those movies too, yeah,

Robyn Flanery  30:22

but I do think a lot of things, like there were so many different perspectives of Docu movies, on documentaries, on a 911 for instance, that had drastically different perspectives. J6 same thing. So I think it comes from the mind of the storyteller anymore, whereas it should go back to the history and accuracy of a panel. And I think that the panels that we all use as test data for different movies, different scenes and movies even it can go down to like, does this scene work? You know? Well, let’s get a panel and see what they think. You get 12 different or 25 different opinions, and that can help you change things. That’s when pickups come in and you gotta spend that extra budget that you better plan for. So it’s a an integral part of it. But if you also have an auteur, it doesn’t play a part in anything, because they’re going to tell the story the way they want to, and it’s all written up beforehand in pre and you just show up, and that’s what you do.

Dan LeFebvre  31:27

Not as much of that design by committee. It sounds like with the focus groups and things,

Robyn Flanery  31:32

if you’re if you’re an episodic director for a series that’s all done for you, you don’t really have a lot of choices like that. It’s more just, I don’t like that finally

Dan LeFebvre  31:41

work. Yeah, creative

Robyn Flanery  31:45

to me, I would like, think of it as, like, let’s say, if you’re a cardiologist or an ER doc, an ER doc, you’re like, doing a shift, right? You see all kinds of stuff. But if you’re a cardiologist, you’re just seeing a bunch of parts, and you get to know those patients. So it’s like, you know your waiter is on his shift, your ER doctor is on his shift, but the manager of the restaurant cares what you think, and the doctor who’s going to look at your heart is going to need to know you and all of the aspects of your life. I think that has a lot to do with movie making. How much you want to tear it apart depends on, unfortunately, these days, it depends on how much money you

Dan LeFebvre  32:19

have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s true. I guess Money Talks, as they say sometimes,

Robyn Flanery  32:24

in my little field, that now I have a little niche little I consider it a niche field of empathetic, call to action, journalism, documentary. And in that field you do have a lot more people that go, Wait a minute. I wonder what these people’s we’re sitting here doing this right now. We don’t know what they think. We don’t know what they think. Why don’t we ask them? It’s as simple as that, because you when you’re doing a really good documentary, sometimes you’re out shooting a scene and you’re like, there’s all these people around wonder what they think we’re doing. Let’s ask them. That’s who I am. I’m just so inquisitive I think I’ll die asking a question, and are probably the wrong kind of question. I’ve been told by so many scientists because I’ve made a scientific documentary recently, and scientists would tell me, You cannot ask me about my intellectual property. You’re ruining me. Oh, my God. I’m like, What in the hell are you talking about? You have taught me this whole class. So clearly this information is out there. I’m just asking you to elaborate on the subject matter at hand. Some people do not want to do that, so it just depends on subject material, I think, and who the person is. Everything is so different. We call it the film Apocalypse right now because we don’t know what’s happening. Everything’s changing to streamers, independent journalism is happening. It’s just not the hierarchy that was so a lot of people think of it as we’re doomed, and then the other half of the people think, wow, I finally get my shot playing films level so you see what you were talking about. They’re two totally different perspectives.

Dan LeFebvre  33:59

Well, that leads right into my next question, because earlier I mentioned you’re acting in 1981 and you’re still in the business, so I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of Hollywood history over the course of your career. What are some of the key ways that you’ve seen the feature film industry change over the course of your career? I hate

Robyn Flanery  34:15

that they sold out to loud audio mix in.

Dan LeFebvre  34:19

Gotta make the theater rumble.

Robyn Flanery  34:23

I don’t like that. And I don’t like that. They make prequel sequels, everything to nonsensical, ad nauseam. I don’t like that, and that’s for money. But then again, I think we’re turning a little corner, which I just mentioned about. Uh, everybody’s has a level, level playing field. A lot of people can produce their own films and try to sell them, or put the content out on a public streamer that they use, and somehow come along, what they’re doing right now is a lot of people can glean from this little tidbit, which I’ll throw out there, which I. Probably shouldn’t. People always tell me, you give out ideas so freely structure map. But this is the truth. If you put out your content, it’s decent content. There’s Netflix scrapers. There’s those your internet scrapers that go and scrape for content, and whatever’s getting the highest numbers, they’ll call to buy. So why not make your own stuff and put it out there? That’s what I was talking about. Profit over people, all the contents out there, whenever we mix it correctly and I list it to people that I might know at Netflix or wherever go. You might want to take a look or scrape my site. They might have already done it and said, I don’t like it. F that. That’s fine, too. But you know, people love and hate you as you go through life, and if you don’t get used to that, you’re not doing well as a human. Gotta get used to all of the stuff. Yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  35:44

yeah. It makes sense. Well, you talking about the way things have changed. What’s some advice that you would give for the next generation of aspiring filmmakers? Go for

Robyn Flanery  35:55

it and do not listen to people who tell you, Oh, it cannot be done that way. Bs, because people told me that a lot, and they’re like, Oh, pretty little girl. Let me tell you how to do stuff. Don’t listen to that ever in your life, sweetheart, go out and do it you can. And whether it flops or whether it makes you a billionaire, do it from your heart and you’ll never be a failure.

Dan LeFebvre  36:21

Makes sense. I mean, and I love the telling the story, but not being afraid to go out there and ask those questions, because, you know, there will be people that push back on even the questions that you’re asking too.

Robyn Flanery  36:33

Yeah, some people don’t like to answer questions, and some people do you, but most people want to talk about themselves. So to an aspiring documentarian, I would say, and this might sound manipulative, but go read the 48 Laws of Power. Robert Green has some things in there. It’s not all satirical. Just do it. Utilize at rule number one all the time. Never outshine the master. Just don’t you might be 10 times smarter than the Master. Don’t say it, don’t act like it, and don’t pontificate on anything. Just take the notes internally and use them for what you need later. That’s Val that’s a very valuable lesson that I think a lot of kids should learn right now. Don’t outshine the master until it’s your turn to do that, and then take what you learn from them and use it. And I’ve always done that. There’s a lot of people who will love to talk about themselves, and this is a little bit of manipulation, like I said. But if you want to ask questions to somebody who doesn’t like to answer questions, start talking to them about themselves, then they open up. And it’s a it’s a really good way to make friendships too out of people that you ordinarily would have been an adversary with, you know, I don’t have, I don’t think I have very many enemies anymore, but who knows next project I might have a billion. I feel

Dan LeFebvre  37:50

like that’s something that has been lost. Just just talking to people and just, you know, getting on, figuring out where that that page is, that you can have a common thing, like you said, a lot of people like to talk about themselves, so just do start there, yeah, yeah,

Robyn Flanery  38:05

they do. And they like to talk about successful projects that they’ve done. And any like, I like to tell I like to ask filmmaker, like, one of my mentors, that I took a really small mentorship class with Jeff arch. He wrote Sleepless in Seattle. He told me, he gave me the best advice. He’s like, take out your anger in writing. And boy, that works. It really helps. When you’re angry, you can become use that creative energy to write out a scene and you it’s amazing how it can cure you from you don’t punch a hole in the wall, you don’t do anything crazy. You just write it down, and it affects what you’re working on right now, you know, and finish what you start. Don’t have 25 projects ever open everywhere, because, believe me, none of them will work. I’m saying this from experience. No, it doesn’t work. Three. Do three at a time. That’s okay, like one, one in thought process, one in development, and maybe one shooting, you know, at the same time. But don’t have 25 projects open, and you’re going to be email crazy. Your brain can’t handle it. You’re just a human. We all think we are more than that. And yes, we have chat GPT, and yes, we can do or work a lot faster, but it’s not the same thing as like, if you, if you do things, if your brain fires too fast, it’s it won’t rewire as fast. And I’m working with a neuropharmacologist right now on a medical device video that is, she’ll be speaking at all of the conventions coming up. She’s amazed and doing a TED talk. But um, the science that I’m learning from, from just that and the perspective of the way MRIs can read brains and map people and think they there’s so many, you know, ways you can look at that. I’m just saying. Be open to anything but, but just like I told you before, learn what you don’t like and then don’t do it anymore. Don’t make yourself do that. It’s not worth it. It doesn’t grow you. Sometimes

Dan LeFebvre  40:11

you don’t know until you go through it, though. So that’s, that’s a definitely good piece of advice.

Robyn Flanery  40:16

Yeah, some people love working on reality shows. Boo day to them. You know, there’s more for them.

Dan LeFebvre  40:24

Yeah. Well, movies always do a great job of helping the audience kind of travel to another time and place, and we see, especially with the historical movies that we talk about on this show, where the wrong location can really take you out of the story if it’s not in line with what really happened. It’s just another crucial element to storytelling that I think a lot of people don’t really even realize how much work goes into it. So with your experience as a location scout, how do you help ensure that the actual location that we see in the movie aligns with the story that’s being told? Before

Robyn Flanery  40:56

you go scout, you talk to all of the players, sometimes they don’t want to let you do that. I would say you read the entire script and all of the director’s notes and any editor’s notes that are already there, because there might be color grading notes, there might be VFX notes, there might be all these things that can change the appearance of places. If you do all that, you’re pretty prepared. I would say, if you want to be a location scout, go out and do some spec for some big guys. They’ll take it. That’s means free go out. They’ll they love Wait, let’s free work. Yeah, I’m sick. I’ll be 62 this year, so I’m not doing spec work anymore. But when I was younger, I did a lot of spec work. That’s how I got into this. And then journalists came to me, and they’re like, How’d you do this? How’d you get the snitch? And I’m like, Well, I just started doing it, and then I started doing it for free, like the for instance, the first time the NASA me shoot facility was used for movie making is really kind of because of me, because I was hired for spec to do by Ken Gord, a producer who was good to make a movie called silver cord, and he needed to do 35 he needed to have a space to do 35 foot higher wire hanging stunts, right? So I’m thinking, and my friend husband, was an engineer at NASA. I said those silos are empty right now, because we’re not doing space shuttle anymore. Can I come out and look at them? You know, a crazy thing like that. So I got there, and I met with the guy who took me on a golf cart all through the whole secret facilities, and everything was really cool. And I ended up that that movie never ended up getting the green light. But with my big mouth, I tell everybody, oh, my God, this is a perfect place to make movies, and tons of them, Green Lantern. Oh, Green Lantern was a lake for airport, but, Geostorm, there’s so many on my resume that did stunts there, but I didn’t get any pay for any of that, because that was spec work I did. And I could be angry, but no, I’m like, real. I’m cool with that, that they figured out a place to make our our little area, some money, I

Dan LeFebvre  42:56

think too. It kind of goes back to what you’re talking about. Dan, don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if somebody doesn’t want to answer. But, I mean, the answer might be no, but you want, okay,

Robyn Flanery  43:07

just don’t be afraid to ask, because the worst that somebody can do to you say no. And you can just ask as many people as you want, and you can get a whole lot of knowledge that way, perspectives too. And then it might help you in script writing, if you need to make changes. Well, so and so and so I heard on the street said this about this place and so and so said that, what do you think we should do? Y’all and you might get a whole team, your of your data people to tell you, Oh, wow, that makes sense. Maybe we should change that. Well,

Dan LeFebvre  43:34

we talked a little bit about some of the differences between like Dallas Buyers Club and documentaries, but you’ve also worked on some fictional movies, like Planet of the Apes. Do you approach your work any differently knowing that a film is, quote, unquote, based on a true story?

Robyn Flanery  43:47

No, because during those I didn’t really care what the story was about, because I was dealing with the A list actors and housing them on those so I didn’t care much about that. But if I work directly on the show, then, yeah, I wanted it to be historically active, but I was the low person on the film at that point in time to writing. How many say by the time it got to me, everything was packaged. Makes

Dan LeFebvre  44:15

sense. I know throughout your career, you’ve helped some other directors bring their vision to life, and you’ve also been in the director’s chair yourself. Do you find it’s easier to tell a story on screen as the director, or is it easier to follow someone else’s vision?

Robyn Flanery  44:29

It’s easier to tell my own story, and also harder, and it’s also harder, and then easier to tell someone else’s and you have to ask a ton of questions if you’re doing someone else’s vision. Because no matter how they say, Oh, my heart’s not in this. Yes, it is. And if they tell you, Oh, you do whatever you want, they don’t mean that. They don’t, especially when it comes to VFX or any kind of thing like that, they it’s like an explosion escape means you. 10 different things to 10 different people. So if you that’s ringing the script building, to me, that means somebody walking away from throwing a match explosion behind him. I’m victory. But to someone else, it means someone exploding out, you know, and that’s a whole different thing. So either way, whatever you’re trying to portray, you need to develop a deep and intensive relationship with your director or your writer, your executive producer, who has, whoever has gone out and gotten the money for that movie you listen to, and they’re the boss. Yeah, pretty much the buck stops there. Literally, I like that. Yeah, and on my movies, in in K in catering, I don’t adhere to this rule at all that the director always eats last. I’m always the hungriest, so I just eat whenever I want. But on a lot of feature movies, you there must be special accommodations for the director in the catering areas and so, and they make sure that there’s the way that they make sure their crew got fed, is make sure there’s still enough for them when they get there. And so that’s a thing I learned that that, you know, a lot of people do. And I was like, Well, you know, I ordered enough, so I know I didn’t just trust somebody doing a line item on my finance sheet and maybe cut this and not that. That’s where, if you have a little bit of control, then you don’t have to have those types of rules. That’s what makes it easier. Whenever you’re telling your own story and you’re making your own budget, it’s so much easier because it flows easier. But then again, if you get something wrong, it’s all on you. Now that’s true. So some It depends if I if I want to do someone else’s vision, like I just got asked to work on something that was about human trafficking. And for me, the story was too dark and there was too much content. It was at critical mass. And so I passed. I think it’ll be a wonderful movie, but I don’t know how many people it will help at this point. So to me, in with my vision, what I do unless it could be a real call to action, it didn’t seem it just seemed salacious to me, so I didn’t want to do it. But someone else will see that project as not salacious and find a way to help people, because it’ll fit in with them, and that story would be better told by somebody is, I think, getting to the point in your career where you can realize what you’re good at and what you’re not good at, and being okay, and being able to throw your ego on the floor and go, you know, I don’t think I’m the best person to do this, but here’s this person might be. That’s when you’re really good, when you can do that and and I’m not saying I’m really good at all. I’m bad at a lot of stuff, but I’m good at knowing what I’m good at and what I’m bad at. Like

Dan LeFebvre  47:47

you mentioned earlier, talking about reality TV. I mean, that’s not for you, but it might be for somebody else, and that’s fine. You’re like, they might be good at

Robyn Flanery  47:53

it too, yeah. And I’ve referred my friends to the name. Some of them love it. I’m like, yay. They go for you

Dan LeFebvre  47:58

exactly. Wait, you talked briefly about visual effects. And I have to ask about your VFX background, because before I started this podcast, I worked in CG software, like real flow was kind of my specialty, with my soft image xsi, for those old so I love to hear more about your visual effects background. Can you share a little bit about

Robyn Flanery  48:18

that? Yeah, I mean, a little bit about it, is, is, is, is pretty much as far as I ever went in the old school way of doing it, you know. So I can’t really talk from a place where you can talk from, from Maya and, you know, writing your own code for this, although I’ve done that for specific animations, but that’s in the 90s, you know. Yeah, little different sense, totally different since then. So right now, I will hire it out if I have the budget for it, but if I don’t, if it’s for, like, a little short commercial. I mean, look, I’m not above using a plug and play, drag and drop type of thing anymore, but I also have worked on some you know, where you use the platters, like where the Mandalorian was made, so you can have a lot more freebies in writing than programming and engineering those scenes. But most people nowadays just want fast, fast, fast. And I, I think there’s an art to it that’s lost right now, but I think it’s on the way back. So we shall see. I’ve done a whole lot of like, you know, DIY, Foley and stuff like that, which goes along with the FX in many ways. But people don’t want to spend money on that anymore. They don’t even want a wine item. If they just, oh, we’ll use this app later. Yeah, that doesn’t work.

Dan LeFebvre  49:42

Foley art is one of those. It’s just pure magic to me. I don’t I’m not a sound person, but just just the way they’re able to come up with, oh, this sound is this? I, my mind doesn’t work that way. Yeah. For me,

Robyn Flanery  49:55

if you take like, a machete and you have like, a very, very hard, I. Burg lettuce, and you whack it, it sounds like decapitation. So

Dan LeFebvre  50:05

I would, I’ll take your word for it,

Robyn Flanery  50:13

just nerdy, weird stuff. You’re like, well, I bet that sounds like this. You have to start the you have to listen for about, I guess, a good month or so, or you can take a class in it now, but listening to things, and if you listen more and talk less, it’s amazing how many patterns you can find in sound. So perhaps that helps. But I’ve helped a lot of people find studio space that do Foley, you know? And it’s really interesting to learn. And I watched some stuff audio, you know, and have some dps, like, my daughter is engaged to a DP, who’s amazing. And I’ve learned some techniques, you know, that I would never have known, because I have a car that I have, a Bronco that has a convertible top. So and I bought it so I could shoot, like crane shots from the top and Astro photography and stuff. So I think, if you I really like the old school ways that we when we used to be able to program things and make them unique, than the way we use the little drag and drop or overlays and things like that these days, but it’s so much more expensive to do that now. So people are taking it like, Oh, my, I can handle looking, but I can tell I’ve done a lot of betas for a lot of AI VFX and stuff like that. So I can, I can really, really tell when it’s not real and I don’t like that, and I know it’s not real when you’re writing the program, either, but it seems a lot more real. Look Okay, for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the cloud progression. Come on. Genius. Can you do that now? You can do some smoke effect, but it’s not the same. No, not to me. I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know, and maybe that, since I don’t specialize in that anymore, there’s a lot of stuff that’s better, but I haven’t seen it,

Dan LeFebvre  52:12

yeah, well, I think a lot of it kind of sounds like it goes back to what you were talking about before. Like, if you have 20 projects going on, you’re not going to be able to stop. And you’re talking about, like with foliar, to be able to identify the different sounds. And it almost sounds like another way of saying, stop and smell the roses. Like take the time, especially when it comes to something creative, it helps to take that time, and the best way to do that is to not have a million different projects going on at once, but rather just focus on what you can do. Know what you’re good at, like you were talking about earlier

Robyn Flanery  52:41

you’re so right, and it’s always that way. I think the older you get, the more you realize that and and maybe I’m just privileged to have been able to have that type of time, and other people don’t, and I recognize that, but it always helps everything if you put your whole heart into a project, and if you do put your whole heart into a project, then you’re real dedicated to listening and learning and experiencing so that other people can experience what’s going on in your head. It’s really hard to get what’s out in here, out onto paper or out onto the screen in a way that is relevant, relatable to other people if you don’t, and especially if you don’t do that.

Dan LeFebvre  53:26

Well, let’s say they made a movie about your life. What would the title and synopsis of it be?

Robyn Flanery  53:31

Oh, God, she died in the saddle. I don’t know. I mean, I have no idea. I’ve done so many things and so many projects that it would sort of be like, I think she maybe the title would be, she wanted to do everything.

Dan LeFebvre  53:49

Good title, yeah, I do,

Robyn Flanery  53:51

and it would be about all the different things I’ve learned how to do. Because I think the more I know how to build a house, I know how to fly a plane. I know how to fly a drone. I know how to operate multiple cameras. I know a little bit about good lighting and audio, VFX, every, every aspect of everything. So you just if somebody walks in and they’re a green director that didn’t, never went to film school or anything, perhaps they don’t know what the departments are, you know, and what they’re for. I think if you sit and learn all that, like you said, there’s a million white names under that. This keeps scrolling forever. If you start learning what all that is, you’re better help to the team. So maybe just do that. And that would be what I would suggest doing, learn, use. I think we’re put here as human beings to learn. So I could be well wrong. Maybe if you are here to be hedonistic, you know, person and run around naked and do wild things. But to me, it’s been about to learn about those people. I want to know about those people, why they chose that. You know, when I was four, I wanted to join Greenpeace, and, you know, so. I think this just, I was just boring like this to be people called me, God, you do so much Superwoman Rennes. I’m like, No, I’m really not. I’m a regular person. I’ve just have an inquisitive mind. That’s it. I’m not anything special,

Dan LeFebvre  55:15

going back to not being afraid to ask questions, and also what you’re talking about too, like not to outshine the Masters, but but to learn from them and soak it in. Go to those different departments, talk to those different people, find out what they do, and learn from them

Robyn Flanery  55:28

and always credit them. Always it’s I mean, unless they don’t want you to like if they don’t like their name associated with yours. You know, some people don’t for different reasons, and so you don’t do that, but if you do, they’ll come and tell you, yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  55:46

usually not shy about that. Yeah,

Robyn Flanery  55:48

no, they’re not shy if you do anything like that. But for the most part, if you, if you’re just trying to learn from the master and like, like Robert Greene said, Well, I edited this piece of, you know, journalism and I did a better job than my teacher. I should have never done that well. But that also pulls up my heart two different ways, because if you’re learning from your master, aren’t you supposed to go out and do a better job than them? Or they’re the teacher. They’re not doing the practice anymore. Aren’t you supposed to go out and practice that? So I do have a little there’s always a difference. That’s why I’m saying. There’s a million sides to everything. If you can spend your time on your project, figuring out what everybody and everybody’s opinion is on it, then you can tell the story. That’s part of being a historian, though, and it’s part of why your your podcast is so good, because that’s what people need to know. Especially Gen Z and Gen alpha, they don’t know everything’s so fast and about hype and and followers and popularity, that’s fame takes you here, where things are hollow. David Bowie, I mean, think about what you really want, and if what you want is for people to like you, people don’t really like you or even know you, if they’re just responding to you on social media from a character you play. For instance, my brother. Everybody thinks my brother’s like Connor. No, he isn’t. He doesn’t even have a tattoo, for God’s sake. Y’all, it’s he’s an actor who does a job well in real life. He’s a very thoughtful, intuitive. He loves music. He’d be great DJ if he wasn’t an actor. I think he’s given me some soundtrack of my life. And you know, it came from our parents. And our dad loved music, and Sean does too. But I think that taking the time to learn how things used to be done, how you think things will be done in the future, and all the choices you have now, and choosing the best every time makes you a better filmmaker or a better person at anything. Never be afraid to ask questions to people. I mean, if you’re intimidated, remember you’re alive right now and I’m live right now. We’re both wearing meat suits that we didn’t have choice to pick, and we’re in the same timeline, so we all have about the same lifespans, basically. So why would you be afraid of asking another being like yourself? You’re at a different point in this journey. So they’re on the same journey. They’re not better than you. Ask them, all I can do is tell you, no kid, I’m not going to answer that, or F you, or whatever they’re going to say, don’t be Be not afraid. My children. Get out there. Ask questions. This is your earth. Pound it down and learn about it. Watch all the movies, man, watch all the old movies, and then watch all the remakes and see what you like better. Yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  58:48

see how they’re different. We’re talking about with Rita. And just you talk about movies in general, there’s just a great way to tell stories to be remembered. We just heard kind of what your movie was going to be. But of course, the whole concept of my show is to compare movies with the true story, and so there’s gonna be some differences there. Let’s throw out the constraints of a movie. How do you want to be remembered as

Robyn Flanery  59:10

a person who really cared about and gave their whole heart to things? I would literally give the shirt off my back, even if it was my last shirt, to someone who I thought needed it worse than me. People know that about me also. People think I am very, very mean and harsh. If you get that side of me, you deserve it, and I know that, and I’m okay with that, but I would like to be remembered as a person who considered all viewpoints and who was kind. That’s it, not rich, not famous, not smarter than anybody, but a person who really was inquisitive boy, she really needed to ask a lot of questions. That’s probably the way it would happen, is like, damn, she asked too many questions, but

Dan LeFebvre  59:56

you won’t know until you ask. And so I think it’s great to ask those questions. Questions, and because other people, too won’t think about that some sometimes too, I can’t remember you just, you just mentioned it a moment ago, where somebody else had a different approach on on something, I think was one of the DPS, or something had a different approach, you wouldn’t even thought of that same sort of thing with questions you wouldn’t even you might ask questions that somebody else won’t even think about, and then that sparks another question that they have that you wouldn’t think about, and everybody learns and is better because of it. Yeah, and that’s

Robyn Flanery  1:00:26

the biggest thing that I wish people would get back to you in filmmaking, is teamwork. Okay, like, really, really, really, using the I don’t know if hivemind is PC anymore, running or whatever, but everybody getting on the same thought track, and so you’re all sort of rolling things off each other to where you make that perfect. And you can all see the little glowing sphere whenever the minds come together in the writing room. You know, you’re like, we got it and it wasn’t what you originally thought. If you walked in and just started being authoritarian, telling everybody what to do, you would have never gotten there. So why not just ask and give everybody respect. I don’t care whether they are your intern or whether they are the executive producer or God, they are all going to get respect and be treated equally as human beings that are in the same timeline, in the meat seat they didn’t choose trying to just live, you know, so respect is really key. Yeah,

Dan LeFebvre  1:01:23

yeah. Well, as we start to wrap this up, let’s end it on a happy note. What’s one of your happiest memories from your years working in the film industry? Oh

Robyn Flanery  1:01:31

my goodness. I think getting that shot over Mount parada boy. I mean, that was the perfect lens flare. I’m

Dan LeFebvre  1:01:41

gonna go back and watch that. Watch for that one again too. Yeah, now that I know that there’s no extra effect, you just assume there’s gonna be effects or things like that. And it’s like, too perfect to be real, but

Robyn Flanery  1:01:50

it’s all real. I mean, you know, I wanted to do the low water high rise, and did we? It didn’t even take us. I was blown away whenever I saw that in the dailies. I’m like, No, I was crying. It was fat. I mean, it takes a lot to get me to tears. Well, not really anymore, but you know, it That was beautiful. Finding something that just is physically perfect in the world, the film, the celluloid, whatever you want to call it these days, all melds together. And there’s just such beauty that it can’t be deny that.

Dan LeFebvre  1:02:23

Thank you so much for coming on the show to help my audience learn a little more about your part of Hollywood history. Thank you. And speaking of my audience, if you’re watching this right now, go to the show notes, because there’s a link to Robin’s latest project. So before I let you go, Robin, can you share an overview of profit over people?

Robyn Flanery  1:02:39

Yeah, profit over people is about the failure of the United States healthcare system and how people have suffered and died due to this. And so a lot of individual stories where people just want to talk about it. And I thought that it was me, because I have a disease that is a horrible stage four disease. I have had stem cells now, and they’re a very wonderful benefactor, and I’m much better because I went from being a terminally ill patient to a chronically ill patient. So I don’t want any more go find me money. Thank you, though, for offering that was really cool, but I don’t want to take anything that I don’t need anymore, because that’s not who I am.

Dan LeFebvre  1:03:20

I mean, I’m happy to hear that much better, too. That’s great.

Robyn Flanery  1:03:24

It is. But profit over people is at profit over people on YouTube, and it is a story. It are there multiple stories. We go all the way from a diagnosed narcissist talking about how they react. So that’s a really interesting episode, all the way to bioengineering and cell human cells and how they can be manipulated through CRISPR and DNA to different diseases and how they’re treated in different countries, as opposed to the United States of America. So it’s really interesting. Explains why medical tourism is $180 billion business, and we don’t get any healing. Why not? Yeah, we’re one of the very we’re one of the few developed countries that don’t have socialized medicine, and our our our congressmen and senators do, but we don’t get it. That’s not fair

Dan LeFebvre  1:04:18

for thee and not for me, is that, as it goes,

Robyn Flanery  1:04:21

right and so that that whole, this whole show, hopefully will shame them into fixing this. That’s our hope. We want to get an audience with Congress. We’re attempting to do that.

Dan LeFebvre  1:04:33

Oh, that would be fantastic.

Robyn Flanery  1:04:37

Yeah, I’d like to go speak to Congress to talk about why somebody like me has to go to lose a house in the Caribbean to pay for their illness and then get do a GoFundMe, you know, and continue to have to work really, really hard just to scrap to get to make a living, because I got sick when it could have been okay, but a doctor said you need to turn the camera on yourself. Rob. It. Well, I didn’t like that, but I did it, and then I went, Wait a minute, how can I get out of turning the camera on myself? I’ll tell other people’s stories. So that’s how it originated, and that’s what it’s about. And it’s, it’s tales of really strong things, and also it has some wins too. So runs the gamut. It’s fantastic.

Dan LeFebvre  1:05:17

I’ll make sure to add a link to that in the show notes. Thank you again, so much for your time, Robin. Nice talking with you.

Robyn Flanery  1:05:23

Thanks for having me.