Fireside Prime

Learn how the best reached their prime, then go find yours
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[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Sylvester Stallone reveals he was down to $80 with a pregnant wife when he pounded the ground, refused to break, and finished Rocky

"I don't want to get emotional. I won't. So, but I was at the, when I say end of the road, got a pregnant wife, nose is bleeding from the heat. You can't even cook. No expectations. I got a rusty car. I can't fill it with gas. And you're down to 80 bucks."

"And you're playing games with people that are willing to offer you the equivalent to a couple million dollars by today's standards. What is keeping you afloat? You can't be this narcissistic. You can't be this stupid."

"And I just, I think there was just something dragging me along, and I went in the backyard. I pounded my fist in the ground, almost broke it actually, you know, and relating to God, I said, 'Is this your plan, to like torture me to this and that? To test me?"

"All right. I've come this far. I refuse to break.' I've actually mastered the art of poverty, but I'm just so sad that I'm taking everyone with me. That's my only regret. And I went back in and I finished the last like few pages of Rocky."
______
Source: CBS Sunday News

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Michael Phelps explains what he controlled every day to treat his body like a Ferrari

"I mean, it's, it basically really is what can you control? What is in your control every single day? And it's like you're eating, you're sleeping, you're drinking water, you're stretching if you're sore, you're lifting if you're trying to get stronger, you're working on your endurance and staying in your endurance level, working on heart rate if that's what you're trying to improve. There are so many different little small things that you can do depending on what your goals are."

"So for me, it's how can I be prepared every single day, right? So like if I go back to that point, you know, after the 2000 Olympic Games, like it wasn't, you know, it was probably 2002, 2003 where I started doing ice tubs, right? So it's recovery. How can I, how can I recover my body and my mind every single day to make sure that my body, if I'm treating it like a Ferrari and I want it to go that fast every single day, I have to recover."

"I have to treat my body with love, right? So, if I'm not eating, if I'm not stretching, if I'm not drinking water, if I'm not sleeping, if I'm not staying off my feet, if I'm not all of these small things, then I don't have a chance to be my best during those two to four hours when I'm in the pool every single day."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Dan Campbell reveals that when he quit, his rancher father ran him down in boots and put him face down in the cinder

"And I hear this, I hear something behind me, and I realize about the time it got to me, it was boots and racing towards me. And then I'm, next thing I know, I'm face down in the cinder."

"And it was like, 'Don't you ever talk about quitting again. Like, we agreed to get out here, get this done. You said you were going to, you know, there was going to be a commitment for you to work and get better at this.' And I don't want to hear you talk about quitting or giving up."

"And that was a lesson learned, you know? He let me up, and I went back to it and got something done cuz I wasn't feeling sorry for myself."

"But that's a story I'll never forget. You know, that's one of those tough love, man. Dad was, he always pulled the best out of me and my brother."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Novak Djokovic admits part of what still drives him is a feeling of not being good enough rooted in his relationship with his father

"That's something that comes from a good heart, a good place. But what comes from maybe, I would say, not necessarily a bad place, but less of a good place, I have identified that as well, is my feeling of not being enough."

"And that goes back to my very, very beginning of my life and my relationship, particularly with my father, and not being, not doing enough, not being good enough, etc., etc."

"So now that I'm talking about it, I kind of get emotional about it because it's still deep inside of me, and it's kind of the battle that I also go through often, because a lot of people, even closest people in my life, ask me, you know, 'What more do you want? You know, you have achieved everything. What do you want? Why do you keep going?'"

"And I tell them the good part that I told you, that I still really strongly feel it's inside of me, and I feel like as long as I have the capacity or ability to compete for the biggest titles in my sport, I want to keep going. And also partly, the part that I didn't mention that inspires me to keep going, is to test my limits mentally and physically."

[Fireside Alpha @firesidealpha]

Ben Horowitz says every great entrepreneur has something horribly wrong with them, but that's okay, it's about what makes them truly great

“But that’s not what matters. What matters is: are their strengths world-class? Are they the best in the world at something? And then you overlook everything else."

"Kind of going back to Elon, he’s got some personality issues. He upsets people from time to time, but his strength is so ridiculous that you would put money on that every time."

“You want to look at the magnitude of the strength. Every entrepreneur we see who gets to us is pretty good, but are they outstanding? Are they better than everybody else at this? That’s what makes a company great, and that’s what makes an entrepreneur great."

“Not, ‘They don’t know how to do this,’ or, ‘They know nothing about finance,’ or they’re done with marketing. There are so many things that are wrong with every entrepreneur. Every great entrepreneur has got something horribly wrong with them, but that’s okay.”

“You know, it’s what are they truly great at? What they’re great at.”

[Fireside Alpha @firesidealpha]

Danny Meyer reveals Anthony Bourdain inspired him to write Setting the Table, and explains how a smoking-ban boycott ended with praise for Shake Shack and reconciliation

“You know, when I wrote Setting the Table, I haven’t shared this publicly ever, but the primary reason that I finally decided to write this book about hospitality and pull the curtain back on how we do business, 20 years ago, was because Anthony Bourdain had been so successful with his book, Kitchen Confidential."

“Even before his book came out, I read an excerpt in The New Yorker and I went, ‘Guys, that’s not my reality of our business. We’re not just a bunch of drug-knife-throwing people here. Restaurants can be really civilized places, and I wanted to show a different way.’”

Margaret Hoover: “Anthony Bourdain, like you, played an outsized role in changing the food-media landscape. And you wrote after he died, ‘If a life can be measured by the number of other lives it inspired, enlightened, enraged, delighted, provoked, instructed, touched, and ultimately devastated, Anthony Bourdain sits on top of the list.’"

“Eight years since his death, how do you think about his legacy?”

Danny Meyer: “His legacy is beautiful and complicated.”

Margaret Hoover: “Yeah. How is it complicated?”

Danny Meyer: “Well, I knew him when he was just the chef of Les Halles, a really fun guy and a really good cook. He’s one of the people who started boycotting our restaurants because I had eliminated smoking, and he was vociferous about it."

“He told everybody, ‘Who is that guy to be telling me what I can do and what I can’t do?’ He stayed away for a while."

“Then all of a sudden I started noticing that he was tweeting all these incredible things about Shake Shack. I said, ‘Danny, it’s time to bury the hatchet with this guy.’ I reached out to him and we reconnected."

“But that period when he was boycotting all my places as he was writing Kitchen Confidential ginned up my competitive spirit, and that was one of the motivators for writing Setting the Table."

“But you know what? He did so much to open the world of discovery, and I think one of the great things about food is discovering new things. It really is. It’s exciting.”

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals that even when he tells Brock Purdy a miss was someone else's fault, Purdy refuses the excuse and says the throw was on him, and that it is not an act

"But what I mean by his mental game is just the person he is. He's never too high, never too low. He's so consistent in everything he does. He doesn't blame anyone else for anything. He's so accountable. He's so easy to coach. He's never going to make excuses."

"Even sometimes I won't think something of his fault is his fault. I was like, 'Yeah, I know you missed that one, but it was cuz A, B, and C or this person could have done better.' And he really never looks at it that way. He would never say that."

"And he always like, 'No, that I get that, but that one's on me. I can make a better throw there.' And it's genuine. It's not just talk. It's not just trying to sound right and say the right thing. It's truly who he is."

"And I think he's that way off the field. I think that's he's that way in his relationships with people. And I think he's that way as a player."

[Fireside Alpha @firesidealpha]

Ari Emanuel reveals his mom put the family's grades on the fridge, A-plus, A-plus, "idiot," and says being told he couldn't read and shouldn't start an agency is what taught him to believe in himself and go up against people

"Well, my mom put our grades on the fridge. You walk in, A-plus, A-plus, idiot, you know? And, you know, like, I wanted my voice. And not that, I knew I wasn't stupid. Just because you're dyslexic, you're not stupid. But I wanted that ability to kind of make a name for myself."

"And it takes going forward, it takes agency, and it takes believing in yourself in the face of a lot of different things."

"And the other thing it does is if somebody tells you, no, you can't do it, which they told me I couldn't read. They told me you shouldn't start an agency. They told me a lot of things I couldn't do."

"But you have to believe. And that takes a lot, emotionally, physically, to go up against people. And that's not easy."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Ari Emanuel reveals a friend in the William Morris mailroom explained the business to him after Europe, and says once he got into the CAA mailroom there was no plan B, only plan A: make it

"A friend of mine, Michael Mendelson at the time, was working in the mailroom at William Morris in New York. And I had moved back from Europe. My father let me go to Europe."

"And he said to me, I said, what are you doing? He goes, oh, I'm in the mailroom at William Morris. And I go, what the fuck is William Morris?"

"And, you know, being from the Midwest, not understanding how the business worked, he explained it to me. And I said, you know, I think I would like that."

"Went to work for this guy, Robbie Lantz, who had bought this company, the DU agency that I was working at, and I understood it. And then I went into the mailroom of CAA. And I didn't have a plan B. I had plan A. Make it."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Michael Phelps reveals he spotted the red lights on two cameras as Chad le Clos shadowboxed in front of him before the Rio 200 butterfly

"I was on a mission. I didn't care really what anybody said, what anybody did, if anybody got in my way. I was going to push you out. I was just on an absolute tear. I was feeling the best I had felt in years."

"And I remember seeing Chad shadowbox, and I was like, 'What are you doing?' I don't ever remember seeing him do that once prior to that point. And it almost looked like it was on purpose. It looked like it was on purpose, right in front of me."

"And honestly, for me, it just pissed me off. It pissed me off more than anything else. And I knew there were going to be two cameras, one in each corner, and I looked at both of them and I was like, 'Oh shit,' cuz I saw the red lights. So if you see the red light on a camera on the bottom, you know that thing's rolling."

"So I was like, man, they're going to have a field day with the reaction and the facial expressions that I had, because, right, I don't really hide my emotions well, right? If I'm pissed off, you're going to see it. If I'm happy, you're going to see it. It's just how I am."

"And yeah, I think one of the best photos for me coming from those games was him looking like this during the race as I'm a half a body length ahead of him."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals how he grades a quarterback's mind on film, deciding from the sideline view where the ball should go before he watches the end zone view to see if the quarterback saw the same thing

"Mainly because you don't know the people. I mean, you can, there's two types of mental game. I mean, you can watch the mental game on tape and stuff. And I look at, I mean, you don't know what they're coached to do. You don't know what they're trying to do."

"I just look at the consistency and where I try to assume I know what they're doing and whether I always watch the sideline copy first, go through a progression, see where the ball should go and where I think it should go."

"Then I get to the end zone copy and watch how he plays and where his eyes are and where he watches the rush or anything like that, and see if it goes to where I think it should go based off the sideline view. And you can see how consistent someone is with knowing their job."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Michael Phelps reveals he spotted the red lights on two cameras as Chad le Clos shadowboxed in front of him before the Rio 200 butterfly

"I was on a mission. I didn't care really what anybody said, what anybody did, if anybody got in my way. I was going to push you out. I was just on an absolute tear. I was feeling the best I had felt in years."

"And I remember seeing Chad shadowbox, and I was like, 'What are you doing?' I don't ever remember seeing him do that once prior to that point. And it almost looked like it was on purpose. It looked like it was on purpose, right in front of me."

"And honestly, for me, it just pissed me off. It pissed me off more than anything else. And I knew there were going to be two cameras, one in each corner, and I looked at both of them and I was like, 'Oh shit,' cuz I saw the red lights. So if you see the red light on a camera on the bottom, you know that thing's rolling."

"So I was like, man, they're going to have a field day with the reaction and the facial expressions that I had, because, right, I don't really hide my emotions well, right? If I'm pissed off, you're going to see it. If I'm happy, you're going to see it. It's just how I am."

"And yeah, I think one of the best photos for me coming from those games was him looking like this during the race as I'm a half a body length ahead of him."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

LeBron James reveals how his trainer told him to take Wednesday off after two good days on the court, and why he showed up the next morning anyway for three straight days in what he calls a real competition with Father Time

"I think I'm more in love with the pursuit of like, how much can I continue to defy the odds? You know, it's this whole like Father of Time thing that I'm, that I've actually like dived into and like have a, like a real basketball competitive thing with him."

"So, last week, I've been doing on the court, I've been working out Monday, Tuesday on court, take Wednesday off, and then I go Thursday, Friday, and then take the weekend off."

"Last week, I went Monday, Tuesday, and then my trainer hit me Tuesday evening. It was like, good first two days, big fella, see you Thursday morning. And I was like, you know what? Actually, I'm gonna be in tomorrow morning. It was like, what?"

"And I showed up Wednesday and I did three days straight, like they was like, and I went through the workout, felt really good, responded well."

"And Chris, Chris, shout out Chris Johnson and Corey, man. Those are my guys, Corey Smith. Those guys are awesome. They was like, what you doing here three days straight? We ain't doing three days. I'm like, we're gonna get something done. And we got something done. It was super productive."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Michael Phelps reveals he spotted the red lights on two cameras as Chad le Clos shadowboxed in front of him before the Rio 200 butterfly

"I was on a mission. I didn't care really what anybody said, what anybody did, if anybody got in my way. I was going to push you out. I was just on an absolute tear. I was feeling the best I had felt in years."

"And I remember seeing Chad shadowbox, and I was like, 'What are you doing?' I don't ever remember seeing him do that once prior to that point. And it almost looked like it was on purpose. It looked like it was on purpose, right in front of me."

"And honestly, for me, it just pissed me off. It pissed me off more than anything else. And I knew there were going to be two cameras, one in each corner, and I looked at both of them and I was like, 'Oh shit,' cuz I saw the red lights. So if you see the red light on a camera on the bottom, you know that thing's rolling."

"So I was like, man, they're going to have a field day with the reaction and the facial expressions that I had, because, right, I don't really hide my emotions well, right? If I'm pissed off, you're going to see it. If I'm happy, you're going to see it. It's just how I am."

"And yeah, I think one of the best photos for me coming from those games was him looking like this during the race as I'm a half a body length ahead of him."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Michael Phelps reveals he spotted the red lights on two cameras as Chad le Clos shadowboxed in front of him before the Rio 200 butterfly

"I was on a mission. I didn't care really what anybody said, what anybody did, if anybody got in my way. I was going to push you out. I was just on an absolute tear. I was feeling the best I had felt in years."

"And I remember seeing Chad shadowbox, and I was like, 'What are you doing?' I don't ever remember seeing him do that once prior to that point. And it almost looked like it was on purpose. It looked like it was on purpose, right in front of me."

"And honestly, for me, it just pissed me off. It pissed me off more than anything else. And I knew there were going to be two cameras, one in each corner, and I looked at both of them and I was like, 'Oh shit,' cuz I saw the red lights. So if you see the red light on a camera on the bottom, you know that thing's rolling."

"So I was like, man, they're going to have a field day with the reaction and the facial expressions that I had, because, right, I don't really hide my emotions well, right? If I'm pissed off, you're going to see it. If I'm happy, you're going to see it. It's just how I am."

"And yeah, I think one of the best photos for me coming from those games was him looking like this during the race as I'm a half a body length ahead of him."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Stephen Curry reveals how film sessions used to skip past his and Draymond's wild turnovers, and says he has never been sensitive about being coached, so if you want to yell at him for it, go ahead

"Yeah, it is. I'm sure Draymond would probably say it. It used to be real awkward. It'd be in film and it'd be one of them wild turnovers and they'd skip it real fast and then bring up another one that was a little bit more legit and then talk about that one."

"But then that sound bite would come up and me and him would sit in the front of the film session like, is everybody else all right with this? But we understood what he meant by it."

"Like, we have a certain style that we've built over a long period of time that the chaos also creates beautiful basketball and a chemistry that has produced, you know, a lot on the court."

"When the numbers don't or stop adding up in terms of, you know, three, four turnovers each and the points per possessions and all the things that you talk about as a coach. Like, of course, you have to reimagine what that looks like and be honest about expectations."

"And to the point, like, I've never been sensitive about being coached. It's if you want to yell at me because I'm turning it over, go ahead. Like, I'm sure that keeps everybody on alert, and I'm prepared for that this year, for sure."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Stephen Curry reveals how film sessions used to skip past his and Draymond's wild turnovers, and says he has never been sensitive about being coached, so if you want to yell at him for it, go ahead

"Yeah, it is. I'm sure Draymond would probably say it. It used to be real awkward. It'd be in film and it'd be one of them wild turnovers and they'd skip it real fast and then bring up another one that was a little bit more legit and then talk about that one."

"But then that sound bite would come up and me and him would sit in the front of the film session like, is everybody else all right with this? But we understood what he meant by it."

"Like, we have a certain style that we've built over a long period of time that the chaos also creates beautiful basketball and a chemistry that has produced, you know, a lot on the court."

"When the numbers don't or stop adding up in terms of, you know, three, four turnovers each and the points per possessions and all the things that you talk about as a coach. Like, of course, you have to reimagine what that looks like and be honest about expectations."

"And to the point, like, I've never been sensitive about being coached. It's if you want to yell at me because I'm turning it over, go ahead. Like, I'm sure that keeps everybody on alert, and I'm prepared for that this year, for sure."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals how he grades a quarterback's mind on film, deciding from the sideline view where the ball should go before he watches the end zone view to see if the quarterback saw the same thing

"Mainly because you don't know the people. I mean, you can, there's two types of mental game. I mean, you can watch the mental game on tape and stuff. And I look at, I mean, you don't know what they're coached to do. You don't know what they're trying to do."

"I just look at the consistency and where I try to assume I know what they're doing and whether I always watch the sideline copy first, go through a progression, see where the ball should go and where I think it should go."

"Then I get to the end zone copy and watch how he plays and where his eyes are and where he watches the rush or anything like that, and see if it goes to where I think it should go based off the sideline view. And you can see how consistent someone is with knowing their job."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals how he grades a quarterback's mind on film, deciding from the sideline view where the ball should go before he watches the end zone view to see if the quarterback saw the same thing

"Mainly because you don't know the people. I mean, you can, there's two types of mental game. I mean, you can watch the mental game on tape and stuff. And I look at, I mean, you don't know what they're coached to do. You don't know what they're trying to do."

"I just look at the consistency and where I try to assume I know what they're doing and whether I always watch the sideline copy first, go through a progression, see where the ball should go and where I think it should go."

"Then I get to the end zone copy and watch how he plays and where his eyes are and where he watches the rush or anything like that, and see if it goes to where I think it should go based off the sideline view. And you can see how consistent someone is with knowing their job."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals that even when he tells Brock Purdy a miss was someone else's fault, Purdy refuses the excuse and says the throw was on him, and that it is not an act

"But what I mean by his mental game is just the person he is. He's never too high, never too low. He's so consistent in everything he does. He doesn't blame anyone else for anything. He's so accountable. He's so easy to coach. He's never going to make excuses."

"Even sometimes I won't think something of his fault is his fault. I was like, 'Yeah, I know you missed that one, but it was cuz A, B, and C or this person could have done better.' And he really never looks at it that way. He would never say that."

"And he always like, 'No, that I get that, but that one's on me. I can make a better throw there.' And it's genuine. It's not just talk. It's not just trying to sound right and say the right thing. It's truly who he is."

"And I think he's that way off the field. I think that's he's that way in his relationships with people. And I think he's that way as a player."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Chris Rock says you don't know you love someone until you have to forgive them, and reveals what he told a friend who asked how he could stay friends with someone who got canceled

"Put it this way. You don't really realize if you love somebody until you have to forgive them. I can enjoy myself with just about anybody. You know, I really can. You know, I absolutely, a thousand percent can. It's like, you want to go see Bruno Mars? It's hard to have a bad time if you're a decent person."

"It's when somebody tests you, when somebody betrays you, when somebody lets you down and you still want to be around them and maybe you see what they were being faced with. That's, now, you know, and if you elect to proceed, now that's love."

"I have a friend that's going to be nameless that, you know, might have gotten canceled or whatever, right? And another friend of mine was like, 'Well, how can you be friends with that person?' And I was like, 'Well, if you're only friends with your friends when they're good, they're not your friends.' You know, if you got a bunch of people that are only going to be there when you're good, you have no friends."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Alpha @firesidealpha]

49ers' Kyle Shanahan explains why his biggest scheme changes come from players rather than coaches being geniuses, and why plays he hated seven years ago work again once defenses stop watching them

"But one thing I've learned like over the years that anytime I've changed the offense up. It's never just been just a dream that you have that you just come up with some random idea. Scheme changes are always usually have to do with a player. Like you get a unique player and you're like, man, I haven't done this, but I think this guy might be able to do this. Let me try it. And then he does it and that's something you haven't done before and someone sees something new and then you can put 10 things off of that and it just kind of evolves."

"Other things that will have you change offensively is based off of what defenses are doing. If a D, like there's plays I would never have ran seven years ago. Because I thought defenses were good at stopping it. And then they start to pay attention to other things. Maybe what 17 offenses are doing now, and now it's like, wait a second, I used to hate this stuff, but defenses don't pay attention to it anymore. Now all of a sudden I like it. And it becomes a part of your offense."

"But when you get players, different players, they change things. George Kittle, when he got here, he could do some things different than I've done with tight ends in the past. So you start asking tight ends to do different stuff, which evolves your offense. Deebo, he was a unique receiver. Some of the things we could do with him in the run game and stuff. So we evolved our offense with that. It wasn't that we just were geniuses to come up with all these receiver runs. It's 'cause we had a different receiver who could do those runs."

"When Christian got here, we started doing things with the running back that other people hadn't done. It wasn't because we're geniuses or anything. It's because we had a running back who was capable of doing it. So when those things happen, that's when you really can evolve your offense and be different."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Kyle Shanahan reveals that even when he tells Brock Purdy a miss was someone else's fault, Purdy refuses the excuse and says the throw was on him, and that it is not an act

"But what I mean by his mental game is just the person he is. He's never too high, never too low. He's so consistent in everything he does. He doesn't blame anyone else for anything. He's so accountable. He's so easy to coach. He's never going to make excuses."

"Even sometimes I won't think something of his fault is his fault. I was like, 'Yeah, I know you missed that one, but it was cuz A, B, and C or this person could have done better.' And he really never looks at it that way. He would never say that."

"And he always like, 'No, that I get that, but that one's on me. I can make a better throw there.' And it's genuine. It's not just talk. It's not just trying to sound right and say the right thing. It's truly who he is."

"And I think he's that way off the field. I think that's he's that way in his relationships with people. And I think he's that way as a player."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt explains the checked-out summer that ended with the script for Seven

"But I, that was, like, I had hit a point. I had, oh man, '94, wasn't '94 such a bugged out year? That's Cobain. That's OJ, the whole summer."

"And I had, oh my, I had not such great experiences coming off a couple of jobs, and I just wasn't really sure. I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what I was doing. I had the weirdest summer. I had this girlfriend who was into reptiles. We bought 40 chameleons. I was living in Errol Flynn's old, like, bachelor pad, glass windows."

"I would get up. It was the most unhealthy time. I just needed to check out. And I was, I would wake up with a, I'd get a bong load."

"And then I read this script. My dear friend and manager and basically my sister now, Cynthia, sends this over. She says, you got to read this. I read the first seven pages. I call her up. I go, are you kidding me? Like, the cliche. The old cop wants out. The young cop comes in. He's looking at his trophies, his high school football trophies on it. She goes, just finish it."

"And I just got the jones back, and finding that thing kind of, it just reinvigorated what I wanted out of this thing."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Andrew Huberman says in the first 30 seconds of any stressful moment you are brain damaged, so the best move is to say nothing

"The ability to navigate stress of all kinds depends on your ability to do what I call, is control the tightness of this hinge."

"When you train your ability to think, breathe, stay calm, when your system is flooded with adrenaline, and that happens later in a way that was nonvoluntary, something happened that you didn't want to happen, your brain immediately flits to the understanding of that place and you are able to maintain thoughtfulness."

"You can know to not speak. That's often the best thing you can do. You know to react or not react."

"In fact, when you get into a cold plunge, one of the beautiful things about cold is that your prefrontal cortex that's involved in strategy setting and making meaning out of what's going on, its activity is greatly suppressed for the first 20 to 30 seconds."

"Know this about every stressful circumstance. In the first 20 or 30 seconds, you are brain damaged. You are brain damaged. You are in that mode of, like, you could react physically. Sometimes that can save your life, but most times you just don't want to do anything."

"Step out of the way of the car, get away from the aggressor, whatever. But most times you're best off not saying a darn thing."

"And then your prefrontal cortex slowly starts coming back online. And then you're back again, because you're ruminating, you know?"

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Brad Pitt says every instinct in an F1 car tells you to lift off the gas, but that sends you off the track, so you need to trust the car

"The first time I got in, I just could not believe you could take corners at these speeds and the car would stick."

"Every impulse is to get off the gas. But you do that, you destabilize, and they actually will, you'll go wide. Then you'll go off the track. So, you actually need to stay on it."

"They say if you're not on the gas or you're not on the brake, you're not driving the car and you're upsetting the car."

"So it was that, I just kept saying, 'Trust the car. Trust the car.' I like had this mantra going in my head. This is like week one. Trust the car. Trust the car. And then the braking capabilities are shocking."

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Nicolas Cage reveals he abandoned his impulsive lifestyle and now lives a "monastic life" for his young daughter

“In my own personal life, for example, when you met me seven years ago, I was more interested in other habits than I am now. I am extraordinarily boring right now. I live a very monastic life. I am not taking any risks whatsoever if I can avoid it. I am really going the other way."

"And I am all about raising my three-and-a-half-year-old, my toddler, for her to have a happy and healthy life. That is my focus. That and when I work, those, that’s it. My two boys are grown up. I mean, I do have vices. I drink entirely too much caffeine. I’m drinking 200-milligram strawberry energy drinks six times a day, and I’m not good with my phone, and the doomscrolling’s got to stop. They’re not good vices to have. They’re not good for your body."

"But I’m not enjoying a martini, which I did like my martinis, and I’m not doing other things. I mean, I am pretty monastic. So to answer your question, I’m not doing any unexpected things in life at the moment.”

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Jeremy Strong says he will not apologize if his total commitment to a role makes other actors uncomfortable

“No, just meaning that I’m there to commit utterly to serving the material. And so if some people feel that I’m taking it too seriously or it changes the molecules in the room in a way that makes something uncomfortable, I guess that’s something that I don’t feel that I need to apologize for, because I believe, and I think the directors that I work with all believe, that it’s in service of the material."

"And I personally think that a lot of the reactions to it are of a personal nature.”

[Fireside Prime @firesideprime]

Nicolas Cage explains why artists must enter the darkest corners of their minds without losing themselves

“I think it was saying something about passion, about the passion of facing the odds to get to the truth of what it is you hope to express as an artist.”

“Sometimes you have to be willing to, within reason, allow your instrument, your psyche, your imagination to go to very uncomfortable and dark corners of your memory or of your thoughts in order to convey a truth in a scene that is perhaps disturbing or dangerous in nature so that it doesn’t feel phony.”

“I’m not saying go out and do something dangerous, but I’m saying sometimes you have to allow your psyche, if you will, to embrace that dark corner of your mind...”

“It’s not always a fun process to go there, to go back in that dark corner of your mind or that memory, or even look around you at current events in a newspaper to get to that place where you feel the emotion and you feel the grief or you feel the anger so that you don’t feel like you’re faking it.”