There’s a world in which Donald Trump pursued a career as a Hollywood producer instead of becoming a politician — at least according to Tim Allen.
The “Home Improvement” star stopped by Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast on Monday and couldn’t help but discuss one memorable interaction he had with the then-real estate mogul.
“I met the dude at a dinner with his wife, who was genuinely a wonderful person. This was, I think, the second-to-last year — the last year of ‘The Apprentice’ — and he was thinking of moving to Los Angeles and being a movie producer, and he was talking about movies,” Allen said. “He said this — really, he said, ‘I really like the film business.’ More than that, the guy’s addicted to comedy.”
The “Shifting Gears” actor recalled cracking jokes at the table and was, in his opinion, killing it when Trump said being able to do comedy was a real gift and they began talking about movies.
“He goes, ‘So what was the movie he was talking about?’” Allen said as he described their conversation. “And he said, ‘So if we got a studio together — let’s say the movie cost a million six or, back then, a million twenty.’ And then I said, ‘You’ve got to double that at least for promotion.’”
He continued: “So you’ve got $210 million into a movie — $200 million. He goes, ‘What if the ticket sales are slow?’ You lose. He goes, ‘Yeah, but you’ve got to make up the loss somehow. How do you make up the loss?’ I said, ‘Well, there’ll be some tax benefit, but you lose the money. That’s how come the studios struggle. They’re looking for winners. You advertise your loss with losers over winners.’”
Allen added, “He completely decided at that moment, ‘I’m not going to get in this business.’”
According to the “Santa Clause” star, Trump compared the experience to buying a bad building — noting that even if it didn’t sell, he would still have the building — noting that no one wants a “sh—y” movie.
“And he says, ‘No, this is not an easy business. Every movie is like a startup company,’” Allen concluded.
