A Filmmaking Legend Reflects On His Remarkable Career

If you don't know who Roger Corman is, you should. I guarantee you that your favorite filmmaker does. There's an argument to be made that no one has influenced modern movie-making more than Corman has. Over the course of his career he's mentored and helped jump-start the careers of legends like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson, and Peter Fonda. Is there a word for a legend who has helped mold other legends? Whatever that word is, Roger Corman is it. That said, our Keith Phipps recently sat down and [had a long conversation with Corman]( at the Overlook Film Festival in Oregon, where the 91-year-old was given the "Master of Horror" award. In that chat, Corman reflected on his life and career, and shared some incredible anecdotes along the way. Here's a sampling. When I watched the documentary about you a couple of years ago, Corman’s World, I was surprised and very impressed by how hands-on you still are with the films you make. It would probably be easy to kind of lay back and not do as much, but is that just not in your nature? It takes the fun out of it, if you’re just sitting in your office. There was a couple of car racing films, not recently, but a few years ago. I was one of the stunt drivers. I was one of the stunt drivers for a simple reason: Stunt drivers get a salary, but if they do a dangerous stunt, they get what’s called a bump. Which is a bonus, and for a really dangerous one, they get another bump. Well, this was the original Death Race 2000. Stunt drivers wanted a double bump on this, and I said, “Forget that.” Paul Bartel was directing the film. I said, “Forget that. Give me the helmet.” So I did the stunt, and to me that was fun. These guys said this was dangerous? Didn’t seem like it was dangerous to me. It seemed like just fun driving wildly. You can read Keith's full interview with Corman [here]( and below are a few other things we made for you that we didn't want you to miss. -- Aaron Williams shared some [interesting thoughts about Netflix's Dear White People.]( -- Bernie Sanders is [very amused by Trump's admiration for Australia's universal health care]( system. -- [Andrew Husband chatted with Chris Gethard]( about his new HBO comedy special, and with Daily Show alum [Al Madrigal about his new Showtime comedy special](. -- Kanye has [deleted his Twitter and Instagram accounts](. -- Brian Grubb [ranked the beards of the men on The Leftovers](. -- Mike Huckabee [is still bad at making jokes on Twitter]( and still kind of terrible in general. -- Steven Hyden reviewed [At The Drive In's first new album in 17 years.]( -- Martin Rickman [went to Las Vegas to see what the Mint 400]( off-road race is all about. -- Today in LaVar Ball: he [may have stolen the logo design]( his show line, Wale called him out [for insulting people who can't pay $500]( for a pair of sneakers, he [defended the price of the sneakers]( in a bombastic radio interview, and Dick Vitale [thinks he's full of shit](. -- Oliver Maroney explains why the Wizards [have the talent to come back and beat the Celtics]( in their Eastern Conference playoff series. -- Sean Hannity creepily [claimed that he has some dirt on Chrissy Teigen](. -- We explored the revolutionary programs that are [helping Native American kids pursue careers]( in math, science, technology and engineering. -- Trump has apparently ordered that [all U.S. government TVs be tuned into Fox News](. -- A Southwest Airlines pilot [bestowed some nice gifts on his 1,000,000th passenger](. -- A [new Jay-Z album may be coming]( a lot sooner than you think. -- A craft brewery in Charlotte is [naming all of their beers after trailblazing women](. Thanks for being an Uproxx reader and (obviously) feel free to share our work with your friends. You can download the Uproxx app [here.]( And here's a song of the day for you: ["J-Boy" by Phoenix]( You are receiving this email because you subscribed to UPROXX You can [update your preferences here]( or [unsubscribe from the UPROXX Daily Newsletter list]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2017 UPROXX MEDIA GROUP INC., All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: UPROXX MEDIA GROUP INC. 10381 Jefferson Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 [Add us to your address book](