JT Foxx Interviews Al Pacino, John Travolta, Calvin Klein, Arnold Schwarzenegger
JT Foxx has been blessed to interview some of the biggest A-list celebrities and business game-changers in the world at Mega Success. Behind their celebrity image are great down-to-earth human beings.
Al Pacino
JT Foxx: what does it feel like to be Al Pacino, one of the greatest actors of all time?
Al Pacino: well, it feels in many ways naturally. Like all of us, some days we feel better about ourselves than on other days. But I feel pretty good now. Let’s put it that way; it’s a bit of a reality check. You take a look at the work you’ve done, and it’s exciting that I’m still sitting here; I’m grateful for that, I’m grateful for this astounding reception. It’s a wonderful thing.
John Travolta
JT Foxx: You’re such an icon; your movies have inspired people, have made people laugh, cry, dance; they’ve done the whole emotion. And when you look back at it all, you feel about what you’ve accomplished.
John Travolta: I’m very proud of what I accomplished. I’m proud of all my movies; I don’t do them unless I think they’re good entertainment. So, I am very proud of my product. Let’s say I’m very proud of my accomplishments in aviation. When I was a little boy of five years old and watched these airplanes go over the sky and wanted to be an aviator, I wanted to be part of the airlines, and I had all these dreams. You could have secret dreams, and they’re always brewing, and then you don’t realize how much they can come true until the day they’ve come true. Besides being proud of my film career, I’m very proud of my aviation career.
JT Foxx: What is the favorite movie you’ve ever done?
John Travolta: I used to have favorites. The truth is I kind of like the movie I’m working on at the moment of any given time. Because that’s the one I’m the most enthusiastic about, but if you had to put movies in a capsule for future generations, I would have to choose those who have given the most pleasure over the years to people I observed be true. What do you think it is for everybody? I think people love “Grease,” I think people like “Pulp Fiction,” and then you have to remember the kids. You’d put “Lucas talking” or “Bolt” in there to satisfy the little ones. Is “Swordfish” your particular favorite?
JT Foxx: Yes, it is.
John Travolta: It is an urban cowboy who was interestingly enough to become one of my favorite. I enjoyed the process of that “Saturday night fever.” Let’s face it; I wouldn’t be here today without “Saturday night fever.” so you’d have to put that in the capsule as well.
JT Foxx: none of the people would be here today if it hadn’t been for you. Thank you!
Vanilla Ice
JT Foxx: not only is he a successful reality tv star, but he is one of the best property flippers in one of the hottest and hardest markets for the flipping property; that’s Palm Beach, Florida. That’s where some of the jack welches live, some of the biggest celebrities. It’s kind of like where everybody in New York goes. So maybe give us a little bit more background on what it is that you do now.
Vanilla Ice: I’ve been doing real estate for 24 years, and I started off with the smaller homes. I wrote “Ice ice baby” when I was 16 years old, and this is how I didn’t end up like M.C Hammer — I went to work. And ironically, I’m the one that ended up swinging the hammer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
JT Foxx: you are a businessman, a real estate investor. Many people don’t know that side of you and how successful your malls, businesses are. You and I had talked off air how visionary you’ve been. That’s probably shaped your entire career because you came to Hollywood with a business mind rather than coming from an artist’s perspective. Can you elaborate on that because a lot of people are here for business?
Arnold Schwarzenegger: First of all, I was very fortunate that when I went to school in Austria to trade school, I learned how to be a sales knife. I had developed a certain skill and a nose for real estate. For instance, when I came to America, I looked around, and there was training down in Venice, and the gold’s gym was in Venice and as I was driving through the main street and that’s always the drunks and the homeless and the drug addicts lying around down the street. So I say to myself: you know one day I see this street becoming a busy business street with restaurants and shops and all this, I see it differently 10- 20 years from now. And I started buying up buildings there, and sure enough, within a few years, the property went up double triple quad triple. And I started the buildings that I bought with three houses in the back for four hundred and fifty thousand dollars; I was selling three years later for two point three million dollars. Eventually, the show business took over. And when you start making 20 30 million dollars a movie, no matter how well you invest on this item, this kind of money comes in such staggering amounts, including a very good tax advantage. And then I got involved in businesses like we started buying 747s for Singapore air and then leased it back for themselves and got all the tax write-offs on that. So I mean, there were great deals that I started making even though they said this is impossible. You can’t do that; the only financial institutions invest in those kinds of airplanes 747 for Singapore; they don’t take private investors. I had the team flying from Singapore. Because I was a celebrity, they were willing to do that. So we met in my office, and I told them why I’m interested in this business, that I seriously want to invest in that and that I’m a serious player, not just some crazy actor. After our conversations, they all agreed unanimously to let me invest in their planes. And I went in and had this great investment that ended up being an absolute jewel from a tax write-off point of view and an investment point of view.
Calvin Klein
JT Foxx: I have so many questions, but I’m going to start with one because I want to get the essence of this — how did Calvin Klein start? Let’s start with that one. I know you’ve been asked that many times but there are different versions online. When I researched, I asked various people, but it remains like the legend, like the myth. There are so many other stories so let’s hear from yourself directly; how did it start?
Calvin Klein: Well, I was very fortunate because I always knew from the time I was very young,
I knew what I wanted to do. I had this gift which was sketching and drawing. I had the option to go to fine arts schools or something that would be more commercial where you study visual arts and graphic design, fashion design, and I opted for that. None of my family was in this business and what I did was got as much of a foundation through universities as I could get, which I think is important. And then I went on my first job,
I got the job, and there was a person there who hired me. he didn’t own the company, but he became my mentor for many years after leaving the company and started my own business. So that’s how I began. There was a funny story when I started. I had three coats and four dresses. And I told two stores in New York that I was going to make these clothes while I was still on this job which was not I had a contract. It was dishonest, but I was making clothes that were not in competition with what I was designing on 7th avenue. They promised to buy the clothes, and I took a little room in a hotel on 7th avenue where out-of-town salespeople bring their lines to New York to show to buyers. And my room was right opposite the elevator, and we always kept the doors open. And sure enough this the elevator door opens, this man walks in because he sees my clothes on the rack and he introduced himself, and he said: “I am Donald O’Brien, I am from Donatella (which was a great store at that time), I will bring the buyer down.” I showed him the clothes. “I’ll bring the buyer down tomorrow, and then the next day, you’ll be discovered.” And sure enough, it was the president of Bangladesh who did discover me. In those days, retail stores were very different; they supported designers — young designers, paid for the advertising, etc. Today that all went out the window; no one pays for the advertising except you.
JT Foxx: the game has changed
Calvin Klein: everything has changed
50 cents
JT Foxx: this whole “Get rich or die tryin’” movie -how much of it is accurate about your life story?
50 cents: well, about 75 percent of the story is accurate. The other parts are what they had to do — to turn it into a great two-hour film. I had a great writer on that project, Terry Winters; he wrote “the sopranos,” he wrote “wolf on wall street,” he wove many successful projects out there. So it came out pretty good. Jim Sheridan, I had him from Dublin; I got Quincy Jones to do the score. They spent 36 million dollars on the project, and the movie did well. There was “Eight miles” before that. But it was the same production crew, the same team behind “Eight miles.”
JT Foxx: what is the thing that you learn the most from being a hustler, a drug dealer to the business world. A lot of people say: it’s the same.
50 cents: it is; there are many parallels. The CEO in corporate America will do pretty much whatever he has to do to acquire a functional and profitable company. And the neighborhood sees it as they can kill you to acquire your company. It’s just it’s a little bit more black and white, more straight to the point type of thing- like I want your business I’m going to kill you.
