Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer, Rich Martini, Luana Anders and Robert Towne

This is one of those podcasts that I can't really begin to comprehend, understand, other than to allow that the over four decades I knew Robert Towne, it was like I was put in his path so I could do this interview.

Robert was a prolific writer, some consider to be the greatest screenwriter who put pen to paper (or pages in a Selectric.)  Robert asked me to do this interview before he passed, made me promise.  I have sent the unedited version to his friends and family (without some pauses and spaces) and this version is slightly shorter - but not by much.

Where to begin? I spent three years walking his dog Hira - and when I told him I wanted to direct, he said "I think that would be a good idea, but you'll make mild comedies."  He was right. I've written and or directed 8 of them that most haven't seen or are aware of.

But while working for him, I got to know many of his closest pals - some who are offstage, some who are onstage - and in this interview I asked for his opinion about some of them.

I introduced him to Jennifer about five years ago - he was a skeptic until we did a session and he was able to learn new information from people offstage.  He learned new information from his dog Hira. He learned new information from people I didn't know, never met - nor could Jennifer.

I use first names in this interview, because that's all Jennifer needs. She doesn't recall the contents of our sessions - and she did a couple with Robert, but has done sessions with me weekly for 8 years.  She does sessions with law enforcement daily - and like an "Etch a Sketch" wipes her awareness clear each time.

But for whatever reason, we can bypass the filters, talk to people offstage together. We do this podcast to demonstrated that anyone can.  I recommend watching this on the HACKING THE AFTERLIFE podcast because in the video version I put up subtitles as to who was being referenced.  Not hard to figure out - but Fred Roos, Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn are mentioned. John Shaner. These folks were friends of his.  In some cases I didn't mention their names - and referred to them in Italian, because I know that Robert knows who I'm referring to, even if Jennifer does not. In the case of Eddie Taylor, we put to bed the idea he was the person who wrote Chinatown.

It's a live demonstration of how people can speak to their loved ones offstage. Learn new information.  You don't need Jennifer (but it helps.)  We've been doing this weekly for 8 years. Jennifer did a number of sessions with Robert, and I filmed at least two. 

Love is all there is. We come to the planet to have an experience with our loved ones, friends, animals. "It's over in the blink of an eye."  If one takes away anything from this session it's to realize that it's possible they still exist, that it's possible that we can communicate with them, it's possible that our pets, animals, loved ones still exist, are able to help us, reach out to us - keep an eye on us.

Two things: the reference to the "monkey scene" in the film "Five Easy Pieces" (written by Robert's friend Carol Eastman (listed as Adrien Joyce) and directed by his pal Bob Rafelson.  It's possible he's referring to favorite dialogue, instead of "favorite lines he wrote" - because I have no awareness of his writing scenes for this movie (even though he did it for so many others, sometimes without credit like Bonnie and Clyde, Godfather and others).  But here's the dialog that he's referencing:

Excerpt from “Five Easy Pieces” : Helena Kallianiotes is an over talkative hitchhiker:  Jack Nicholson is driving. (Just after the infamous table clearing scene)  Helena: (Palm) “Fantastic! .. I would have just punched her out... People... oof  (shakes her head) Animals are not like that... always cleaning themselves.  Pigeons! Always picking bugs out of their hair. Monkeys too. Except  monkeys do things out in the open that I don’t go for.”  Bobby’s eyes glazed over as he stares out through the windshield.  Helena: “I was in this place once, store with snakes, monkeys, everything  you could imagine. I walked in, had to run out. It stunk! They didn’t  even have incense.. Filth you wouldn’t believe! I don’t even want to talk about it!”  (From “Five Easy Pieces” written by Robert’s pal, Luana’s roommate,  Carole Eastman, directed by Robert’s pal Bob Rafelson, starring their pal Jack Nicholson. 1970) (Interesting to note; this dialog is in the script, but doesn't appear in the filmed version, some of the lines do, but the monkey part does not.  Robert like to say writing was "monkeys at a typewriter" until they get it right. When he left his deal at Warner Bros over the editing of "Personal Best" we took everything out of his bungalow except a giant stuffed toy ape that Warners had given him, and set him behind a studio typewriter with the page quoting Robert about monkeys at a typewriter. (Not his idea, mine and Richard Prince's)

With his daughter's permission, here is the poem that Robert references in the podcast that Kate wrote about him:

"I met the love of my life the day I was born.
My father put stars in my eyes and words in my heart. When reading a poem to me when I was 10, the word god appeared. I asked him if he believed in god and pointing to the words he said,” I believe in this.”

When I was about 6 it was my dad’s 50th birthday. I looked up at him and with a shiver in my heart I said, “you’re half of a hundred.”
It drove me to distraction the rest of my life knowing the inevitability. I have endlessly bargained with this grief, chased and run from shadows and dreaded this painful thing until it shaped every part of me.

He knew I could be morose and in his later years could gently point that out and boy, did it feel like home to be known by him.

I don’t know how to say I love you I love you I love you I will never let you go I will always be dreaming of you and I will always look for you in poems and magic hour and cats.
Thank you for the apologies and the tenderness and the time. It wasn’t perfect. It was better.

“The wages of dying is love.”- GK

In the podcast Robert refers to the last line being funny - "It was better."

I gasped when I read it, because it was a surprise to see.  Maybe me weep with the memory of my pal.

I did this interview at his request, and am sharing it as per his request.  Not only for his loved ones and friends, but for those on the planet who are suffering because their loved ones have "left the stage." Know that they are not gone. They just aren't here.  And we can access them if we need to or want to.