Joe Rogan Experience #2053 - Danny & Michael Philippou

Identical twins Danny and Michael Philippou recount growing up obsessed with making violent backyard movies, building a million-subscriber YouTube channel, and the years of rejection before Causeway Films and ultimately A24 backed their debut feature Talk to Me. They describe the gruelling five-week COVID-era shoot, reinvesting their own fees to keep unknown lead Sophie Wilde, and the chaos of its Sundance premiere where A24 made an offer the same night. The conversation ranges across practical effects, the uncanny valley, hauntings and psychics, sleep disorders, and their love of extreme physical performance. Both brothers are deeply tied to combat sports and are making an A24 documentary on death-match wrestling, while developing a Talk to Me sequel and the Street Fighter movie.

• Danny spent two-to-three years as a paid medical-trial subject, testing over ten unapproved experimental drugs for about $90 USD a day.
  00:05:46
• One trial drug paralyzed Danny's entire arm mid-infusion, forcing the whole study to be cancelled.
  00:06:49
• Michael says he has been deliberately hit by cars roughly two dozen times as an accredited stunt performer.
  00:14:07
• Casting unknown Sophie Wilde as the lead cost them a million dollars of budget; the producer and the twins reinvested all their own fees to finish.
  00:34:55
• A24 made an offer on the film the same night it premiered at Sundance.
  00:40:07
• Talk to Me has grossed over $90 million worldwide and sits around 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.
  00:42:40
• The film's hand concept came from Danny's car crash at 16 and his sister holding his hand to stop him shaking in the hospital.
  01:23:15
• They are making an A24 death-match wrestling documentary; Danny once had a light tube driven into his ribs during a backyard match.
  01:39:24

• Their YouTube channel hit a million subscribers within a year, largely by accident from fake-fail prank videos.
  00:19:19
• Every studio initially rejected the Talk to Me script, citing a stigma against YouTubers becoming filmmakers.
  00:27:32
• Sophie Wilde was asked to come to set without sleeping so she could authentically play her unravelling character.
  00:35:27
• Shot in five weeks during COVID, they sometimes had to film eight minutes of the movie in a single day versus the usual ninety seconds.
  00:36:29
• Actors wore extremely uncomfortable sclera contact lenses and endured up to six hours of prosthetic makeup.
  00:55:42
• Joe and the twins debate why model cars look fake, concluding it comes down to light reflection and surface area.
  00:58:20
• The original composer's score was scrapped weeks before delivery, nearly derailing the film until a new composer saved it.
  01:30:03
• Danny has a lifelong sleep disorder, waking every ninety minutes; doctors diagnosed idiopathic hypersomnia or narcolepsy.
  01:48:11
• They helped convince Logan Paul to fight KSI, and Michael fought 1-0 on that event's undercard.
  01:56:35

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