being able to show a weakness of vulnerability is a strength and that is something that he learns and that is something that we too when we were you know starting because when you're morocco you're very like macho culture you're a man you know after if you keep this like in
a kind of cocoon or laying on that thing and you don't let it go basically you break yourself you crash [Music] hey everyone welcome back to on purpose the number one health podcast in the world where we get to dissect stories of people who are living with
purpose people are living with meaning people who are living an incredible life based on their passion and transforming lives and the world through it now today's guests if you haven't heard about them i am so excited for you to learn about them not only are they listeners of the
podcast they're dear friends of mine and they've made an effort to be here in between they're crazy schedule of what they've been up to so i want to tell you a bit about our two incredible guests today and here i go so adil el arbi and bilal fala are the
newest set of big budget studio directors you will want to keep tabs on moroccans by way of belgium they partnered in film school and are known for writing and directing the feature films image 2014 black 2015 and pazza 2018 and they are the directors of the smash
hit bad boys for life if you've not seen it make sure you go check it out i saw it twice in the week that it dropped starring of course the one and only will smith and the awesome martin lawrence lrb says our movies are for a generation who doesn't have dreams
we want to give them a voice i can't wait to hear their voices today welcome to the show adil ambala it's so good to have you man i was so excited for your guys energy to come to the podcast because i remember the first time we went out for dinner yeah and then when we hung out together
and then back at the premiere as well i mean you guys just you literally lose authenticity like you just have that energy and vibe like whenever i'm with you i feel like you're being totally yourself you're just super down to earth you're super grounded and despite all your
amazing success that you're having you're just good human beings man so thanks man it means a lot that it comes from you so yeah yeah i mean i mean it's such a big honor to be here yeah and a privilege well no i'm excited to dive into your stories today you've got a phenomenal
story and i think anyone who's listening and watching today this is one of those stories that's going to make you dream again it's one of those stories that helps you realize the value of hard work and the value of what it takes to really chase your dreams and i think both of
you embody that so so let's dive straight into it and i want you to talk about the first thing is i want you to tell me about a funny memory that you two shared at film school when you met in saint lucas well you know saint lucas in brussels was a very artistic school and he was
actually full of white people and we're we're moroccans and really yeah yeah yeah yeah 100 and and you know i was very shy and not really sociable and i didn't talk a lot and i also didn't know how to dress well so i was like in my corner and then came
somebody that was really loud i wasn't i wasn't that loud but yeah but it was it was like the fresh prince came in you know fresh prince of brussels [Laughter] i was talking to everybody uh and uh and i was like who's this loud guy yeah and but i was like
i only saw like white people i was like what what's what's going on and in the corner i saw a deal and i was like is that a moroccan is that a maracas i went to him and said yo you moroccan and i said yeah and then we became brothers we formed the gang right away then yeah
that's amazing how old were you guys then i was 18 then yeah so it's been like 14 years yeah roughly of being friends exactly yeah that's a real friendship man it's amazing that did you ever imagine then when you guys were 18 you're at film school you both
see each other two moroccan like did you ever imagine that you would make movies together one day well yeah i was i always thought i was going to be a lonely filmmaker yeah and i was i thought i was gonna be like a dictator my my first movies i was like handling
the on camera my i did everything myself because i couldn't like give it to somebody else so yeah you have your like your own vision like that you know but but when we we became friends we were helping each other out with movies and step by step we realized that we had
the same ideas the same vision also when we would read like a script or or a story we in our head i would explain to him how i see it visually and how cut together with what kind of music and he said i got the same thing yeah it was like
super freaky yeah it was i i it's it's really phenomenal to have a feeling like that like see somebody's seeing the same thing yeah that's that's that's like uh it's scary at first yeah scary you know first of all i was thinking what the [ __ ] you know like i i gotta i
beat this guy yeah in the beginning you're thinking like is this person just agreeing with everything yeah like that's amazing that's very rare by the way i just wanted to say and i'm saying this for everyone watching this is the first time that we've ever done a double guest
history yeah yeah this is historic for the podcast and you've already raised the bar the chemistry here right now now next time we have double guests it's gonna be hard work to beat you guys but how did you what did you learn about yourselves and each other in in
developing that collaboration because i feel like when you're 18 we have this childlike collaboration of like oh we'd love to work together it'll be cool but now that you're actually doing it as adults and you've made multiple movies together yeah he said what have you learned about
collaboration and working together in the process well being uh collaborating because i was like a dictator and i wanted and nobody can touch it i i learned to like listen to all the ideas and and be open and and absorb everything so but i was i was like
i everything yeah perfectionist and and he learned me mostly of you have to let it go sometimes and let it lose as i'll be working for everyone on one thing and for me i was the country i was at that time really happy too fast like that's good enough and he was like no man you got to like
pay attention to the details so his crazy perfectionism and my lazy nonchalance just let it happen that that combination made it work like a very good balance yeah you know it's so good hearing that because i think there's so many people who are listening and watching right now
and they're either trying to do everything on their own or i know a lot of people who just say to me jay i need to be in a team like i need to work with people around me and energy and it's fun to see how both of you actually thought you were independent
yeah but you found your complimentary skills and and and that's really good to hear that i love hearing it yeah like yeah teamwork is like central in everything we do it's it's actually the the most important thing if we start a project then it's just like a family like a team
yeah and bring the best out of everyone to bring the best yeah project because when making movies it is like you're in a in a football team basically you well the premier league is practically the belgian league it is exactly exactly oh yeah i got to interview hazard last year
yeah you've got an amazing team but uh okay move away from football we'll get back to more serious stuff but it's interesting i don't know if you uh read bob iger's book so in in bob iger's book he talks about how like at one point steven spielberg quentin tarantino
george lucas they would all get together yeah and watch each other's movies and give each other feedback yeah like it's amazing to hear that like i mean do you feel that now that you're in l.a and you're spending more time here like who do you guys go to for mentorship and
feedback and who are you learning from well you know obviously working with will and and you know that's that's like for us that's like a mentor you know you grew up with him as an actor but also a great filmmaker with so many ideas and being with jerry brookheimer or you
know the iconic producer one of the most famous producers in the world so those people that we work with that was already like our first circle but now that we're here there's so many directors that we'd love to meet that that that we don't be a big fan of of
scorsese if we could meet him one day or tarantino or you know but also newer generations you know steven chazelle's hears us or barry jenkins would love to be your boys so these we did that in belgium where there's also a new generation of
filmmakers that are starting to break out also internationally in television and and we're all friends and we all watching these other stuff and it's great to see that we're basically all coming together in hollywood now so on the belgium fronts you all we already have that
yeah okay this is awesome before before we dive into the main part of what i want to talk about today i want to hear the one thing that annoys you the most about the other person and and the one thing that you love about the other person we start with the annoying annoying but
there's a lot of things yeah there's a lot of things yeah yeah i know it's difficult to choose one but you know i mean there's like a small thing you know it's for some reason he always like like slurps i mean like you know sucks on his food even when he's not a soup
yeah and he always like like when he eats it with his mouth open and that sound is so annoying it is like it's like there's only one sound and there's a so that makes me nervous yeah that's really sorry that you say that so you can't eat dinner together
yeah no it's difficult i mean you don't just you're in your zone we do a headset and we don't talk to each other you know so that's what about love what do you guys love about each other well one of the things that that could annoy me but actually is awesome is the fact that he's uh
besides the movie you know where his perfectionist is really like let live and let live really like you know um he's a good guy he's he's really chill he's really sometimes you know i get worked out i'm stuff about the small thing i talk to him and say yeah i'm so angry
and he's like come on man just take it easy be grateful be chill don't worry about it and i'm like i wish i was like you but it calms me down you know and the fact that he's really very calm and and and chill and serene well the funny thing is i like when actually when you're mad
because then you then then he has his driving force that that takes me gives me a lot of power to to to go and and that mad or when you're mad you put it always in in in work positive yeah analyze it in some positive thing in positive energy you know so so that's
that's why it's good that we have this dynamic thing because it's you know he's when i'm stressed out yeah he's like a defend master you know and and the energy booster yeah well no it's good you can tell that you guys are great friends man and and i want to dive
into it now we want to talk about serious filmmaking stuff because you guys are incredible filmmakers you're innovative you know when when i saw bad boys for life and i remember you sent me your belgium movies too which i'd seen so when i when i watched them i was blown away by
whenever you see sequels being made now of movies it's always quite it gets harder and harder and harder yeah and usually the quality of the movie goes lower and lower and lower and lower yeah and obviously i knew you guys before i watched the movie and so my hope was
that you were going to bring something amazing to it and you did like i think everyone who watched it genuinely believed that the storytelling was incredible the videography was awesome like it was fresh it was new but it still kept the same like
roots and grounding of what we all grew up watching bad boys but let's let's tell me that journey and we'll do the bad boys journey and then we'll go backwards on everything you did in belgium tell me the journey of youtube being at film school together watching things like fresh prince
growing up and martin after school and then you get this call that changes your life that brings you into this world like tell us about that journey well yeah for us when if you when you're in art school mostly they train you to make a very author cinema which is good it's a good thing
it's but it's mostly like art house movies and movies that you go to film festivals and and stuff like that so hollywood is not really a good word there hollywood's like no you're not in the right school you know hollywood's not cool no it's not not
cool at all you know and and we as you know we we we would secretly say you like you like action movies yeah yeah yeah yeah do you like jerry brookhaven movies yeah yeah if you're like bad boss yeah yeah yeah hey what if if one day if they don't make it when when are they gonna
make a third bad boys movie that was what we were starting to say and at film school yeah yeah and year after year we say if they don't make a bad boys movie we're gonna make that because back then we were 100 sure we're gonna do film school and then we go we make one
move in belgium and right away we're in hollywood and we make bad boys three so that was all the time the thing that we would talk about is bad boys three specifically we were even saying that we were like the bad boys of cinema back then like we related so much to mike and
marcus yeah so yeah we were always here well have a little bit of mikey me but also marcus yeah it depends you know sometimes sometimes i'm mike yeah i'm mostly marcus like but sometimes everyone want to be better i'm not but everybody wants to be like mike yeah
but everybody's mostly marcus yeah but funny and sweet and warm and a good guy but tell us about that process then so you've had this dream you're talking about it you're thinking about which which when you first told me that yeah that blew my mind because i was just like
it's so cool when you've talked about something and it's not like it's not like it's it's quite a rare thing to pull off yeah right it's like first of all they've got to be ready to make another movie second of all you gotta be the guys who
get picked tell us about the process of being picked chosen selected getting the getting the job how did it work yeah i just wanted to uh tell another little story so when when i was 12 years old i grew up i was like small and then i grew up really tall and i became really skinny
and at school i was like a nerd and everybody laughed with me so i was like a big nerd and after school i always saw the fresh prince of bel air and the fresh prince of balleria started to think like i have to be like that guy you know i have to be like open and
and and just like so because of fresh prince i started to think like um i can be of movie maker i can do this i can be cool be cool and and yeah basically because he was silly billy like yeah and will smith saved his life yeah basically because of him i started to
open my mind to whatever i can be whatever i want to yeah and to have to make a movie first hollywood movie with will smith it's just like yeah bigger than life yeah and it basically it all started when we met each other there was a book which was called black which was about
uh gangs in brussels and it was a romeo and juliet story between a congolese girl 15 year old girl that falls in love with the moroccan guy from a rival gang and it was a very hard very shocking story based on true events and and when we read that book right
away we knew okay this is going to be our do the right thing our our la and our our you know mean streets this is this movie this movie is going to be our ticket to hollywood no matter what but we were in the first year of film school and we had flunk that first year
when we read the book so it was like four years ago as a student so we were like okay we need to make this movie by any means necessary um because this is gonna be the one that's gonna bring us to hollywood and everyone's in hollywood we're gonna ask for bad boys three so
that was like yeah the ticket that was a plan yeah it was really like that and and they were going they were already planning to make a movie out of that so we were thinking oh yeah in belgium game over we are still students so we're year after year we started to make better short
movies and every short movie was basically a sort of adaptation of that book up until we start to win a lot of prizes with a movie that was called brothers and then we got the opportunity out of nowhere to direct the adaptation of that book black and
that's what we did then we did we did this movie came out in 2015 and he blew up in toronto film festival it won a prize there and that's our out the doors of hollywood opened right away and the first producer to see the movie was by a chance of god jared brookheimer and when we thought
it worked yeah this movie has been seen by him his eyes and then they said well smith also watched your movies like the eyeballs of williams is on our stuff and that's where we got a meeting to meet jerry brooke like one of the first meetings in hollywood was at jerry bruce
office it was 2015 and that's and then they said what do you want to do guys bad boys three and that's it no it's not available which is the same situation as with black but we were like okay you're gonna steal that project somehow and uh and year after year you know we
were always like you know chasing it and eventually the director great guy joe carnahan he dropped out of the project um and then bad boys all of a sudden in the mailbox the script of bad boys and like it's real and the fact that you know when we were
like 19 it was we we really wanted it but it was a dream and we never thought it was really going to happen because when you say yeah we're going to adapt that book and then that boot is going to go to hollywood and then will is going to see the movie and then
you're going to give us bad boys 3. we say that as 19 year olds it's just yeah we say a lot of stuff yeah we say a lot of stuff but when it really happens like so at the point where we got bad boys for live description in our in our mailbox we were preparing a belgian movie but or
the international title is gangster and we were like two weeks or three weeks from the shoot so jerry said are you available to make bad boys and then we said no no and we turned it down and we turned it down i didn't know that it was the most difficult note ever
because you were already signed up yeah yeah and like the whole crew was ready all the actors and it wasn't yeah and and i i could never imagine i could say no to yeah i never believe that we dream yeah like i can't believe we're going to say no to bad boys for life
to will smith to jeff brooke to martin lawrence and we did that and it was just that's just life man it's just if it was not written for us it was now written for us and eventually in 2018 he came back like hey we're going to do it again and then we said yeah yeah yeah now we're
available and that's that's how it all happened so it's amazing it was it was meant to be that's incredible tell me about what it was when you read the book black and you thought this needs to be a movie like what was it about the story what was it that connected with both of
you that you felt so confident that that was gonna be your ticket yeah in into the directing world well for us because we're from moroccan origin moroccans in belgium it's sometimes tough you know there's there is racism there is poverty among the
moroccan community there's a lot of also there's crime there is you know there's a stigma so so there were no really public figure of or filmmakers or actors that were that looked like us you know everybody was white basically and also the movie world as well in the tv
world so that's why film school well the only twos and you read that book and you just know okay there's never been a story told like that in belgium these stories aren't told and tell us a bit about the story yeah the story it it was you know it was about this this
this african and arab community in those poor neighborhoods that we really know because it it's close to us it's close to our friends to our families even even like at school when we made short movies it was like in that world yeah so it was we were making all these little stories in that
world and this book is yeah telling and actually you heard about the real story of this girl that that basically when a girl is in a gang like that in belgium she's just an object you know she she's forced to have sex with everybody of that gang and it's a very
harsh hard reality that nobody really talked about and nobody wanted to see us that because all the victims are gang members even though they're just 15 16 years old and we felt compelled to really tell this story because it's a reality and and and they they're
these are victims they are also their stories are worth being told to the world yeah it's and those stories were like it was in the newspaper just one line nobody talked about all that violence that was happening in that world so um it it is and because all these
victims are from that world and it's not like they don't care they don't care so having this story and telling this story from a black girl's perspective was just uh we felt like this story has to be told and at the same time the casting there was all the actors never played in a
movie before because in in acting schools or in the casting agencies you didn't have the diversity and and we needed to find them on the streets and and there were some singers some rappers that eventually got the party and for the first time they
you know people could go to the cinema and watch um the diversity on the screen reflected yeah i'm just going to explain more about that process while i was at school i saw this movie city of god and yeah yeah yeah and i saw like everything about that moved
making off and all these actors were from the favelas so it it i i had just this personal connection with that movie because it was like uh you don't see the moroccans or black on on on on the tv screen so we were forced to yeah to find actors that or people that never acted
and this project this movie was exactly like city of god we had to like search on the streets and we knew there is such a big pool of talent that nobody saw yeah so we did like three four months of six months of intensive casting on the street we went everywhere i came for
every actor i can tell you an amazing story and and also nobody believe like really we're gonna play in a movie because it's it's it's it seems something so inaccessible to them yeah and uh and yeah then we professionalized them they played in a movie but
the thing is like for each role there were like so many good options yeah there was like over too much talent so it was really difficult to find the best of the best so what we did at that point because after we had all the actors there was so much other talent we said we have to start
this our own casting agency and put them uh you know giving them the opportunity to to do other yeah uh you know give the chance because you know the thing is that that these actors they never thought they would play in a movie before well will smith saw their performance and
then people like jennifer lawrence saw their performance and margot robbie and they're big fans of them and who can say that you know that the biggest stars in the world were in awe of their performance people that were just on the streets never
thinking that it would be part of of the movie industry and that that caused like their new generation of of of dreamers basically now now you have these guys girls and guys in those neighborhoods of different origins that believe that okay you can be an actor or even a director
or even a screenwriter that was very important to us another filmmaker that was like a big inspiration that was spike lee yeah and he was like one of the first big black uh directors and and he all these actors like denzel washington and and morgan i uh uh or wesley snipes
even even uh martin lawrence he brought them to the big screen yeah and though when i was young i saw saw you know spike lee was such an inspiration i was thinking like one day that's how we basically started and then with black we we had the opportunity to do that yeah there's so many
beautiful messages in your in your lives whether you guys see them or not like there's so many beautiful ones like first of all just having a vision a dream a plan like it wasn't just like oh we want to do this it's like you had a plan you're like we're going to do
this and this is going to happen and this you know it's like you had a plan you'd envisioned it and you'd seen it become true whether you believed it or not at the time it was there and then the fact that you're both so purposeful when i hear you talk about this
it's not like a strategy or a technique or like trend it's like you guys really care about telling these stories like yeah you really believe in the fact that there are these people with no voices there are these people that are marginalized and you know not really understood and and
you genuinely believe that they deserve a voice exactly and to hear you both do that so purposefully is amazing tell me about you said there's loads tell me about just one of the stories of one of the actors that just blows your mind or one of the actresses that you worked
with that you just like this person can't believe it because i know what you're saying that if someone came up to me on the street especially in those streets yeah and said oh do you want to act in my movie you just laugh at them yeah right yeah exactly and so so tell us about some of
those fast just one yeah yeah a couple of them well one of the stories like the leader of the black gang um is his character's ex and when i i had a phase in my head you know every time i read something i see a face and i was just you know outside of the
the place where we're doing the casting i was just smoking my cigarette outside and and i saw a guy pass with that face and i was like this is not true and he stopped and he looked at the paper casting black he looked at it and he wanted to move on and i said wait stop
is it come over here you can do a casting right now he said no no i have to go to my work i have to like go in five minutes i said no no just come inside just five minutes and then you can but i'm gonna be too late i said come on so he went inside and he got one of the
biggest roles of the movie yeah and we were like searching for months and every time i saw the actors playing this character they were always like yelling yelling it's a violent character yelling and he was the only one that like was super quiet when he talked and it
was so dangerous and the thing is that the character in the movie is like an ex-child soldiers because a lot of leaders in those gangs are exiled soldiers and and our actor he was not a child soldier but he lived the civil war in burundi so so so the scenes that we
shot with him was looking at at you know civil wars uh footage on the tv screen he felt that he he understood completely character he was very close to the real character you know so what a coincidence yes it was like a sign another story i was just you know uh just in the center
of brussels eating my my my bread and and the world and this there is this character who's like a white guy but he wants to be like a moroccan you know street he wants to be like he's he wants to be the most moroccan of the gang yeah but he's a white guy
and i was just eating my my bread and we were searching also months for for that character and there was this guy next to me with his two friends and he was like talking he was like like the character and i said to him hey um and he was talking about this girl on
the other side of the the street and i said to him tried to get his uh her number he said no problem man i'm going to get a number he went there tried to get his no i tried to get her number he came back and i said you got her number he said no he said but next time another girl i
said okay you must be an actor yeah yeah and he got the part so it was it was crazy to see these characters you know alive here and they eventually played in the movies and and also uh uh yeah the story is about this black girl and and we were the the the character that plays the the
main black girl she uh was the only one from the whole casting that found her only way her way to us yeah we didn't search her she came to us and she was a fan of the book a huge fan of the book and and it's because of that that she eventually went
to the casting because she was such a you know she loved the character ever since you know she as a young girl read it and and always thought that one day there should be a movie about that book and that's how she became the main actress of the movie and now she's you
know she's she's playing in other movies and i can tell you a story about each character your guys stories literally sound like magic literally because when you're like oh this girl she loved this book and she wanted you know it it just it's so beautiful to hear it
like it really is like it sounds like you listen to music speaking to you guys talk about it because it's it's like it is just the imagination of what happens when you dream but tell me tell all of us about the days when it didn't feel like magic
oh yeah well tell us about the days when like you were starting out and and you once the magic like this this magic wasn't there like there was time when money was low or when the production budgets were too low and you're sitting there i mean we've talked about this you're sitting
there editing for hours and you're stressing out yeah tell us about like what kept you committed to your dreams well it's when when yeah when there wasn't a feeling of magic yeah the thing is that it's it's um you got a lot of fear you know you got a lot of
because there's no guarantee the dreams you dream so big and it's so unbelievable it's like you now you why would we be with will smith making a movie with martin lawrence i mean that's for special people it's for big stars you know especially with you don't have an
example of people like us from belgium at this young age so there was no precedent to it and we had no money and our family were really poor and but my family was okay but you know when you start to study yeah you live on your own no money no money and my family was really poor and
they didn't have any money and and and movies is basically a job for either the super rich because you got mom and dad giving you know it's like funding your hobby or for the super poor because you ain't gonna get any money for years and and it's not something that you you
you cannot do that on the sides you gotta do all the way go all the way for movies if that's really your passion your dream yeah you got to spend all your time in it which means that you don't spend your time earning money and and and you know it would that was that but it was also the thing
that would make us survive it's like when you say it was our purpose you know it was really the the thing okay we're in a difficult situation it sucks we're i'm i'm sleeping in at his place which is the place of his parents on somewhere you know in the attic you
know on a matches on the ground but at least we are filmmakers and you know that one day we're gonna laugh about this we're gonna laugh about this now it's a struggle and and it's that dream and that passion and and that that makes you feel alive that
keeps you going no matter how hard the struggle is and when we speak to young people to students when they ask us yeah what's your advice our advice is always or we say you're gonna you're gonna fall flat on your face and ground it's gonna hurt but you got to get up
and continue just just don't be surprised when it's going to hurt it's going to hurt a lot but all of that is going to make you stronger and and through all the struggles through all the you know the heartbreaks and the pain and all of that that's why when people say hey how does
it feel now that you made bad boys and it's a success we always say we're relieved i mean yeah you can think you're happy of course you're happy and you're really like we went we went it was a hell of a variety it was dangerous like an action
movie you thought you were going to die yeah yeah and eventually you survived that ride and and yeah you know making bad boys was the hardest year of of our lives so it was maybe the worst year of my life you know everybody's like oh it was such a fun movie it was probably also really
fun to make it yeah i don't know i think i went deep man i went really deep in in darkness in in sadness and and i would ask well hey well you know it's like our dreams that come true i didn't feel and you know it was going to be a nightmare sometime and he said it's
always like that it's a big change big achievements and it's going with a lot of pain it's gonna hurt and uh and you know it's well said that it's like you know you're on a mountain really now fast and high and you cannot breathe because you know there's not a lot of
oxygen and you're like panicking and the thing is you want to go down quickly but he said no stay there you stay on that level and get used to it and starts to to breathe no panic and then after a while you get used to it and and the pain and the heartbreak and
the doubts they go away because like oh yeah okay i'm getting used to it and people around you some people around you will be on the same level and also learn to adapt with you but some other will like no no go down and pull you down and they said no
stay on that level that's that's what will said to me when i was really drained i've been crying for an hour on set and say whatever's going through your head it's going to be all right it helps having him motivate you and yeah it was like a godsend you know there must be a sign something
from the universe or god that from all the stars you could work with it's him it's a motivational speaker well helping because he was sometimes you would have lunch meetings and not talk about the movie but he would talk about life and how you know
you know how to heal yourself and and and as around that period that that i got to know you you know a person very dear to me talked uh about you and and she said you know you should listen to jay shetty and and i was like who's that guy and and like you know you just gotta do your
own stuff don't listen to all that that's things and and then i started to listen to you and it was like like medicine it was like whoa this what is that he's like it's it's as if where were you all my life jay i needed you all my life and it opened up a whole world to me of the
the the healing and and and growing and the on the spiritual level you know because i always thought when i when i achieved something and same for you you achieve something and then you're going to be happy and then you'll be going to be good like oh yeah okay we're struggling we
have no money but one day we're gonna make our first movie and then we're gonna be fulfilled and then it doesn't happen we make our movie but you're not fulfilled then oh yeah we're gonna make a better movie and then oh we're gonna go to hollywood
and then we're gonna make bad boys and when you make bad boys for life with those two stars and you're on the top of the game and still you're not happy you crash and then you know you gotta find something else you're gonna find something deeper and listening to you it was it was so
funny that adil is like before you before bad boys he was like totally not motivational he didn't like all the quotes he didn't like it all those all those meanings he was like trash because i was like into it on instagram and i started to like getting to the
podcast and i was like and all of a sudden i see a deal like listening to you to you and i'm like you're listening to jc well for me it was like when i started listening to you it kept it a secret so when we met i didn't tell him because he's gonna say i'm so crazy you know
and then we saw the picture that that you and i took on instagram yeah he said you know shitty you're a fan too it's like you can't yeah yeah and it's like it's crazy that we talk about everything but you were our secrets that is the best story about me
that's hilarious thanks for sharing that my spirituality because uh we're muslims yeah yeah it's also been a strong force throughout our uh throughout the pain and every time when you when you don't make it you just accept the fact that god has a has a plan for you and
and that's something that i always hold on to like you want to achieve that dream but imagine i did everything i can that's the most important thing at the end of my life i have to know i have to talk to myself and say you did everything for your dreams and if it
didn't work out it didn't work out it's just is this the way yeah yeah anything and if you believe in that you accept everything you start to accept everything in god's hands or in the universe yeah whatever spirituality you have it's i think it's important to yeah to have yeah that's true in the
journey to your dream and you see that in so many incredible people's lives their faith and belief in god or the universe was such a important thing for them look at the people that made the biggest changes in the world yeah exactly they all had that yes
and and so you can see how important it is for all of us yeah in the way because you both are change makers like you're filmmakers but you're change makers because you're trying to make films that change people's lives you're not just trying to make films no like messages are so
important tell us about so you talked about the advice that will was giving you which is beautiful to hear because i know they're saying like well as we're so philosophical we had that conversation that we were together at like it was brilliant but it's like tell us about the advice
that you had to give will in mind tell us about that process of when you're sitting with like you know like you respect these guys like i had to make that trailer with them right like for me you weren't there that day i needed your help like i was
when i got the call to be on that trailer so it was it was the production company that sony was working whatever they're like we want you to be in this trailer and we want you to come in and we want you to be a life coach or a therapist for for will and
martin and it's kind of like couples therapy and they were very respectful they were like you know like we don't want to make coaching look bad or like are you and i was like no this is great it's fun and you know i was like holding the [ __ ] this is amazing i'm so excited
and and so i want to put that i won't put that scene in the movie and i was literally i was so nervous because you know i'm like and i've spent time with will before but i was like i was so nervous to like be in an acting setting with him i was like what
do i know man and so i went to acting class for four days in a row yeah two hours you did it really well by the way thank you but i went every day to acting class because i was like i can't go in there and not feel comfortable and confident yes exactly and it's just like i went in
there and i was like wow like this is gonna you know it's it's when you've looked up the same with me i grew up on fresh prince my favorite show of all time i've watched a million times every episode so i feel everything you guys are saying how hard is it to then go in there and
then have to give advice give feedback give direction yeah as directors tell us about that well it's you know i was seven years old when the first bad boys was made and now you got to 25 years later you're there and you have will smith and martin
lawrence who play these characters who know everything who know the industry 30 years in the biz and 30 years that's our age and and then we just do rats from belgium yeah we don't know and then and then you're gonna have to say to will and martin look you could do this better and they
could easily say i've been doing this for 30 years you know and and they never did that they never said that because unbelievable how humble they are yeah they would ask us well and martin so how do you think is it good and i mean in the beginning like
you're willing because we're not gonna you know say anything but but the thing is that they chose us they chose us to be their directors so they want you they want you to direct them and yeah sometimes well you know the first week will tested us he tested us
there was something he didn't want to do he didn't want to wear the badge you know the cop badge on the chain for some reason he didn't and every time he had it for us it was super cool to have the miami bed yeah you know because of the second movie you know they have that and then you know every
time he had a good argument a filmmaker's argument like a scene said no we're at the bar we're not on an intervention so no reason to do it so okay and now the senior said yeah we're just walking here we're not in an intervention no reason to do it all right and there always
there was only one scene left if we don't have that it's never in the movie and it was an intervention scene so we go to well and it was the first week of shoot so well it was your bad [ __ ] on the chain and we said oh no no we're not gonna do
that because because because because what it's an intervention scene and then you say in front of the whole crew everybody is a this is so unnatural this is so wrong on so many levels and we're like and then you know heartbeat goes fast you know he's like well he's
he's talking you know he's like agreeing with you pretty angry and then this is wrong this is wrong and then and then martin can wear it martin i would wear the battery well he can wear it then both 45 minutes and after 45 minutes visit you you gotta wear the badge well it is a
okay i will do it for you only for you but know that it's wrong it's so wrong the whole crew was looking at us going to be directors yeah yeah and that and that process was the whole time even with the script if we had an id he went like why and and like
asking so many questions we had to like normally we think till a certain point but he pushes us to go all the way like why as a filmmaker's creative standpoint do you want to do that and if you really as a creative you want to do that he fights for you he falls on the sword for your ideas so
that was really great wow that's awesome man that's great to hear and this is this is what i love about this conversation that we're having is that people see like getting the movie seems like an achievement but actually the challenge starts there yeah
because you're now in the big league you're now working with people that you admire and on top of all of that you've got to realize the fact that now you're being judged for real directing real filmmaking on a high level which seems like a high chance how did you guys prepare yourself
to to learn how to be open to recognizing that now the challenge starts and still allow your creativity like you know when you were doing black you had a lot of guerrilla filmmaking you were trying a lot of taking a lot of risks you're like how
did you let that energy stay or did you actually have to change energy well whether we had our camera man uh robert have a great guy who did all our student short movies and all our it's like still work with him yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it looks like it looks
also a story yeah we basically we said to to sony um okay we only have one requirement our our dop director of photography our camera man it's it's rob is a guy who did all the belgium movies without him we don't do the movie and we were prepared to turn the movie down
if we didn't let you know he said we ain't gonna do the movie without rob and all of a sudden this 15 year old looking guy who never made a big hollywood movie makes a 100 million dollar movie with with these great stars and that was you have to imagine as a studio and jerry
brookheimer and you have two young guys who never made a like a big hollywood movie our biggest budget is like 3 million and this is like 100 million and then the cameraman is also somebody who never did this like the the who's in charge for all the image yeah the same guy like us and and but
having having us three basically helped us in in eventually thinking it's the same as making a movie in belgium because yeah the first couple of weeks you don't breathe you don't sleep you're like it's like dead or alive it's like it's also weird because it's
like a dream you don't it's weird to be on set of a big hollywood movie with like 250 people and being in a movie yourself yeah yeah like this iconic we always thought this is like an episode of punk michael bay's gonna come and say yeah you know that's show actually guys i
mean because it's like you don't fit you don't belong there you know it's like you enter the making of or something and and but the thing is the eyes of the world on this movie uh whereas when you do a belgium movie it's only the eyes of some
belgians you know if you tank nobody's gonna know but there if you crash you crash hard and there's there are so many fans in the world that grew up with that you don't wanna i mean yeah and the thing is that it's like as if you're okay you're in the war or you you
gotta jump in the water and either you're gonna like like sink or you gotta swim even you think i cannot swim all that ocean you're gonna have to learn and do that and it's and and before you know when you do that that switch um not thinking too much actually not
thinking not overthinking basically not overthinking yeah but you guys broke through imposter syndrome because that's what so many people struggle with that when you finally made it yeah into what you always wanted and now you're like well maybe i'm not actually meant to be
at this table like maybe we don't deserve to be here like what makes us deserve to be here what made you trust the process like what made you feel like you were like no actually we've worked for this and we're going to deliver something because when you watch the movie i mean there
are so many great parts in the movie where i'm like like i love the part where you think it's a funeral but it's the wedding yeah right i love in the beginning where you think it's a car chase but it ends up being that they run into the hospital
yeah like to me like all those moments are genius and they're brilliant and they're shot so well that you completely are in and you think it's something and i'm like you you definitely owned it yeah yeah yeah i owned it like there was no part of me if i didn't know you guys let's
say i didn't know you guys and i went and watched the movie i would not have known that someone who'd never made a hundred million dollar budget movie made it i would just never have known like you wouldn't even think of it yeah right but but that's why i'm happy i
know you guys yeah because it just makes me believe even more that imposter syndrome is just a belief set exactly it's it's a thing you know i mean the impostor syndrome would be just once in a while like we would look at each other and look at the dp and he said it's
weird that we're here right you look at the monitor you have will and martin and jerry's like whoa that's some freaky dick and then it goes away right away because you got to work and the thing is that that you got to power through that but also it's it's
the crew and the cast is around you the trust that you get from people that become family and when you feel like you're you're between friends and between family that is what really helped us the most going through that imposter syndrome feels feeling safe and feeling the trust and the love
of everybody around you and and and that's and that's the same thing for with you you know we we were scared of coming to the podcast because we listen we're big fans huge fans of your podcast we listened to that and we're like whoa how deep everybody's speaking how
smart and we're like intellectual lightweights but talking now with you is like we feel like you are broke yeah we're family yeah we're family and that's what helps us going that trust and love and that caring and respect that helps us you know just you know go with
the flow basically yeah yeah how many days i had doubts doubts doubts like i was thinking i am totally not good so many times but it's the people that surround you is like a super important aspect in this in this process yeah and you guys are natural storytellers like even when you're
telling me the story of the actors and people behind he's like you guys are brilliant like that is you know it's i felt your energy when we met and when i wanted you on the podcast is because i wanted people to feel that just and i love how genuinely vulnerable you
are about being excited about what you're excited about yeah because i think what happens sometimes is sometimes people make it or go somewhere and then they act like all cool about it yeah you know like oh yeah it's just you know it's just meant to be no it's just that
i remember like for me it was things like first time i went on when i went on ellen yeah like that for me was just like flipping ellen like watch my interview and wanted to come on like that's so cool like and it's like it's so fun to celebrate stuff
yeah yeah because i feel like sometimes we get scared of celebrating because we think it makes us look less yeah yeah but actually it's just you're right we're just kids who just yeah living these incredible lives and i love feeling like that you know listen to the podcast with jada
and it was like oh my god he's interviewing jada and i'm like i don't think we know jada yeah yeah it's that's the vibe that we have it's a good it's i i like seeing it with you guys yeah and i want people to experience that too that you don't ever have to pretend to be
someone you're not or you never have to lose that excitement and that you know authenticity has always been something very important to us and we did everything to keep the same authenticity in a hollywood movie because we could have done maybe any action movie but the thing
about bad boys is that these two characters it's us it's a we told with this movie a very personal story what it means to be like the right to get a diet together what i mean sometimes when you know you're almost on the verge of a breakup you know you don't want to do
the same thing you have another vision sometimes there were periods where we didn't want to make movies together like this is over ma'am i got another vision and and in the end it comes together and by reading that script of those two characters we felt like
this is us i think every every human being in the world searches that same connection with somebody that friendship that you know that you know if times go up that that you have somebody yeah having your back and and that friendship that mike and marcus has is
is so universal and so beautiful and so personal at the same time it's it's uh it's just a it's just it was a very personal story this is a 100 million dollar action movie what were the other messages i i think that's important because you've already done you've focused on making movies that
have messages before this yeah i felt when i was watching there were a ton of messages like the one you just shared what were other messages that you were trying to that you know maybe we never needed to watch it again and notice that and what were some of the
messages that were big for both of you well it was you know working with will is like the the the grower grow or die message basically even though i mean when you make all movies as a certain have a certain message and you don't want to like message you know it becomes cheesy but
you know it's like the underlying theme and it's if you want to have an arc where people evolve and this mike larry character he has like he's at the start of the movie a certain way he wants to remain strong and young and and and wants to remain the
image of mike larry yeah and forgets how to become just himself yeah my the normal mic larry and seb in fact that he's growing he's growing is he's older and he's any and it can be a weakness weakness is not just it's not actually really a
weakness being able to show a weakness a vulnerability is a strength and that is something that he learns and that is something that we too when we were you know starting because when you're morocco you're very like macho culture yeah yeah you're a man you know after if you keep
this like in a kind of cocoon or fling on that thing and you don't let it go basically you break yourself you crash and that is something that we learned you know during the making of this movie where we all crashed eventually it's like you know you gotta you gotta
let it go and you gotta find you gotta find ways to grow and to heal yourself and allow yourself to be vulnerable and and to be open and you really you really changed yeah yeah yeah yeah he wasn't like that before but that was bad boys really changed him yeah this experience at home as
a as a person he's so really yeah during the yeah you guys really disrupted i feel like you know just what you're just saying right now like that's what i noticed in the movie when i was watching it that you were able to show the weakness of the character we all grew up
admiring or wanting to be like yeah yeah and and showing that it was actually better for him to be vulnerable to that yes rather than just continue to pretend and i i thought that was really it was bold as well it was a bold move yeah but it was also very culturally
relevant right now to show that in a man and being more vulnerable yeah very relatable you know very reliable for all of us and and i really feel you guys have disrupted the industry because even when i hear you say stuff like oh we're not going to do this if it's not
our dp yeah right like if you're not bringing your crew with you yeah and and i'm excited to see and and i don't think you guys are ever going to change because you're just who you are like i'm excited to see how you continue to represent diversity how you continue to
tell stories of people that are not told enough what kind of stories are exciting you right now in general not just the ones you're making movies on but have you heard any stories recently or read any books or anything like that that you're like
i'm fascinated by this right now there's a lot of there's a lot of stories that are you know obviously now in this time in culture it's it's a great opportunity to to to tell stories of people of different ethnicities different backgrounds stories that you didn't usually see that
much you know on on the big screen and for us because it's important we're we're muslims we're arabs we're morocco africans you know things like that are very important to us just just as fans seeing that they're more and more female filmmakers you know this year it was a lot of of of
women filmmakers and it's gonna be more and more in every kind of genre just seeing that evolution is so exciting and to be a part of that yeah to be just to be a part of this new generation of filmmakers that's so diverse and and see parasite in the total not in
english language that's when the authors history that's a milestone for cinematics yeah it sure just us we don't want to make movies only in english we want to tell stories if it's in china we want to keep it in chinese language or in germany it has to
be in german so the fact that yeah it's very diverse and very exciting these kind of stories that's that's what we're looking for now and uh yeah i mean we would love to make movies back in belgium as well you know about our community and and alternate that with with uh american movies and
and in a very naive way we believe that movies can save the world yeah and i mean i'm with you yeah exactly for us there are two reasons one reason is just as filmmakers when you are when we did bad boys you have 250 people on the crew and nowadays we all say there's people
don't agree anymore people are polarized polarizing all that but we gotta say that when you make a movie you got 250 very different people for different backgrounds different ethnicity different history different political views your religion
they're all super different on the paper they would say they never will get along yeah they're like totally yeah there would be war and on our movie they're all together like a family working for the same goal working for one vision and we're all friends and then you see
that everybody's so different but everybody's working together and it's not what you hear sometimes you know that it's like you know everybody's like on their own no a movie set proves that we are all able to go in the same direction for the same goal and it's maybe very naive
but i just see it as a proof it happens that's true and in theory there would be enemies but on our crew there are allies and friends and family and they care about each other and on the other hand movies is something very empathetic you know you cannot
make a movie or watch a movie if you don't have empathy and empathy is something that you talk a lot about and it's just crazy that everybody in the world no matter where you are where you are you have empathy for this character that you don't know it's a character you don't know
it not it may be also a fictitious character a character from another planet from another era and you feel for that character you fall in love maybe for that character you you you hope that a character is gonna make it you're gonna cry that character dies and that's
crazy that that proves that movies make people human and and that empathy exists through movies so that's why in in this very childish way we we think movies save the world no it's not childish man you guys i feel the same way the reason why i started doing podcasts or media or
videos and all of that was because i felt that media changes our vocabulary yeah around an issue around a theme like when you were able to show a a man's vulnerability like now it's like oh wait a minute i think i'm my glory but he's growing when he's doing that or
maybe i should do that right it's like we mirror what we see in media all the time yeah and i feel like media is always going to lead the way because more people are going to watch movies than read books more people are going to watch movies than
uh then uh come to a course or a workshop or a seminar it's always going to be the same way and therefore i'm so happy that people like you are making movies because i feel like our faith is in good place you know we need storytellers who want to tell those stories you want to
have deeper messages but in a smart and entertaining way and and i think you guys do it beautifully so we're going to do what we always do on the podcast as you know it because you listen yes uh we've added another segment recently which i don't think you would
have heard yet because it's in the new episode it's called fill in the blanks oh fill in the blank so i i read a sentence and you both have to fill in the rest of the sentence so we'll we'll go both of you whoever goes first i don't mind you decide who goes first
okay being a director is similar to being a captain of a boat exactly and sometimes it can be the titanic okay oh exactly no you can't say that no you're not being director is similar to is is uh is is pretending you know it okay good good answer a great movie starts with a great title
okay oh i would say i would say a killer opening scene okay good all right the best way to manage actors is being a psychiatrist a lawyer a politician a diplomat all the skills that's gonna be everything all right uh there is no film without empathy oh nice camera
all right good all right working with a partner is love writing together dying together nice i like you guys all right the one film i wish i made is star wars well there's a lot but i would say but you know star wars is such a such a big universe between us star wars is like
the greeks have their mythology we have star wars just between it it became a religion even though i did yeah yeah it came out of one mind yeah and yeah the whole universe it's created it's unbelievable it's infinite i would say jurassic park uh martin lawrence and will smith are
both brothers for life for life nice when i first started directing i wish i knew that no matter how big the movie is going to be that movie is not necessarily going to make you happy or bring your happiness it's going to be something else yeah beautiful and and no matter how big
the budget is there is never enough money never enough time nice that's good answers these are great these are good my proudest moment has to be lots but i think i think being able to to show the movie to my dad basically you know to have him in he was sitting in the
theater next i know i know it's nice to meet you yeah and he knew also his wife is a big fan of you so you know you're a secret fan you're secret fans of you but being able he's there you see the movie and he's the first maybe also the first time he met will
smith because the very first single i got was miami by will smith and he met him for the first time in miami oh wow my proudest moment is that i always kept going and kept going yeah that's right that that it's the the movie is made it's just uh amazing my proudest thing i love it man
all right these are your final five your fast five which you guys know about so the first question i'm gonna ask you is if someone gave you a 300 million dollars in funding what movie would you make and who would you cast [Music] a new star wars new universe
not based on any books it's just like george lucas you come up with something new and then you have nerds doing fan fiction and making warmth clothes and toys yeah yeah and it goes on generation to generation frankenstein basically you know in the movie world so that
i love it that's a good answer okay uh let's do this question what advice would you give to young filmmakers out there you got to stay true to yourself and do something with your heart yeah because if you make something just for the for your for the sake of it so just for the money
you okay you may earn a lot of money but you're gonna lose a year of of mindfulness of of your soul and all that so it's got to be something true to your soul yeah something that feels the soul and be be prepared to have a lot of pain just you're gonna fall a lot and be prepared to
don't be scared to make mistakes don't yeah because making mistakes that's when you learn i love it it's good answers all right um question number three your favorite movie and why my favorite is jfk by oliver stone ah because it's uh yeah i was very young i
was nine years old when i saw that and it's a historical movie about something that really happened about conspiracy theories and it makes you think and it's a movie that has an impact um also in real life because you know in 92 the congress had to release like
check out you know we didn't kill jfk okay if you cannot make a movie that has an impact in society in real life that is really you know that's that's what we want to do so jfk yeah for me it's um a french movie called la anne um and it's about uh yeah the the bonus ghetto
in in in france uh in paris and um for me because i grew up with hollywood movies and this was the first time i saw a movie with uh you know a moroccan or a black guy from like the same world as me and i and it was shot in a way it was like cinema it was like
in a hollywood way it was shot and then i understood that maybe i can do that too maybe that made me made me believe that i could do a movie and i think that's the most beautiful thing you can do as a filmmaker or any artist is if you can inspire somebody to do it
that's that's what lyon did for me awesome question number four out of five what's happening with beverly hills cop four yeah adam sandler what's happening i saw the story so when bad boys when we didn't get bad boys we got beverly hills club four so
we thought it was gonna be the movie we're gonna make in 2016. didn't happen then bad boys came and because bad boys worked out and now we got beverly hills cup four and we're working on it yeah eddie murphy so the way we look at will smith will smith looks the same way at eddie
murphy it's the tom you know and making making a movie with a legend like that with next level and adam sandler he he's just the coolest guy ever the sweetest guy ever and he said hey if we find something to work together let's do it you know yeah what he did in uncut james was so
unbelievable yeah and yeah he has so much to to offer yeah yeah i love it all right and final question all right so we can stop being in this sauna right now i love sauna but dr daniel amen who was on before he told me that this is good for our brains
okay so yeah yeah that's why i'm using okay fifth and final question what is the biggest lesson you've learned in the last 12 months for you it doesn't have to be professional whatever oh yeah one well when i'm in a meeting or i have some a good idea somebody says something good
or bad or i think it's good or bad i gotta say let me think about it because i didn't do that enough and when you're in belgium with a small movie your reaction or your decisions don't have that much consequence as a 100 million dollar movie and whether i was enthusiastic for
something or i hated something i should have just said first let me think about it before i say yeah oh no so that's what i like let me think about it for me it's um let me say it it's sometimes i mean or in a meeting and i'm thinking something and i'm like
i'm i i think i have to say this but i'm not going to say it right and and that makes a big difference because sometimes it's too late and then you say i had to say it so don't regret say don't be afraid yeah so i'm starting to learn that don't be afraid of saying what you think
and you know the worst meetings that we had is because he didn't say it and i didn't say let me think about it i love him i love it you guys are the best honestly this is the most fun but like this is so good like thank you i can sit and talk to you guys for hours
like i'm excited i'm genuinely so excited to see the movies you guys are going to create uh i want to serve and support in any way that i can i'm here for you guys if you ever need me can't wait to read your book yeah yeah yeah yeah thank you i'll definitely get
you guys copies but yeah don't um literally you guys can message call me anytime i can help either of you with anything and just yeah so so proud of seeing what you guys are doing and i know that there are so many people out there listening and watching that can be
inspired by you guys and and i can only hope that you continue to be the same way because you guys are great just the way you are man thank you i just wanted to say jay thank you for being in our lives thank you so much everyone has been listening and watching go and follow
these guys on instagram go and find them we will tag them into all the posts go and follow their work go and support everything they do they've got so many more amazing stories to tell they're just getting started please please go and give them all your love and all your
support and anything that they said because they they're so humble that they don't know it they dropped so many lessons today they've dropped so many messages today there's so many beautiful insights today i want you to share those insights i want you to tag all three of us so we
can see it mainly so that they can see it because i want them to realize how many beautiful lessons they're sharing with the world so thank you for watching on purpose thank you adele for being here and we'll see you again soon guys take care if you want even more videos just
like this one make sure you subscribe and click on the boxes over here i'm also excited to let you know that you can now get my book think like a monk from think like a monkbook.com check below in the description to make sure you order today