tavis: good evening from los angeles. we are to with david cronenberg, director of the new movie darren hardy -- "a dangerous method" and we have a magazine publisher and author darren hardy right now. >> everyone has a martin luther king boulevard.

cee all ithe place we all know o make every day better luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day>> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is to improve financial literacy a time. >> and by contributions to your you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: david cronenberg is an award winning director and writer whose previous films include "a history of violence" and "eastern promises."

he has a new movie called "a dangerous method" and here is a scene from it. >> i do not think you understand the depth of the opposition to our work. there's the old -- the whole medical establishment, of course. but that is nothing when our guided -- our ideas began to trickle through to the public. the frantic, the denials, the encoder and rage. >> might that be because of your insistence on they explicitly sexual material. >> all i am pointing out is what >> doing period piece work is a different kind of animal. >> i have done. pieces before with naked lunch

and a spider and butterfly. but those were fictional pieces. these are very iconic people, avoid -- sigmund freud. there is a love triangle. it is interesting because you have tons of material. this was a lecture-writing era in vietnam. there were some wear -- a letter writing era in vienna. but there was something like five deliveries a day. it was basically like e-mail. we have tons of information about them and they reported in great detail things they said about each other, what they ate, what they drink. from the process of resurrection, i wanted to make them come back to life so i could feel them and see them and

small them. tavis: there are two things that i want you to unpack for me. in no particular order, one, since you made the distinction between this kind of. peace and the others who have done before -- this kind of period piecce and others who have done before, what is the challenge in bringing these real-life characters to the screen? >> you have a lot of freedom, even in casting. if it is people who are physically well known, you are limited. you have the age range, but you have the physical stature. most people who know jung and freud know them as very grandfatherly.

here we have a sigmund freud who is 50 and he is described as being handsome, charismatic, masculine, witty, elegant, funny. these are not things that people normally think of when they think of sigmund freud. once you start to think ofay w- that way, -- suddenly viggo mortenseneems not so broadly cast after all. you can see youtube videos with when he is in his 70's and he is very grandfatherly and charming. but here he is in his 20s and intellectual and arrogant. a very different time in his life. the challenge is not only to bring him back to life, but in a way that is not familiar. that is also exciting. tavis: this next question gets

to the heart of what the narrative is all about tell me about the territory that you traversed in this film that is unfamiliar to the rest of us. we think of freud and we think we know everything there is to know about him. >> freud had a group of people working with him in vienna creating what they wanted to be considered new science. it was psychoanalysis. it was exploring uncharted territory in terms of what the human mind was and the way people's minds work and what dreams work and what is significant and so on. this was at a time that we would consider victorian. it was very repressed and restrained and everybody knew their proper place in society. there were things you did not talk about. you did not about the body, the functions, such route.

and women were put up on a pedestal as goddesses, but that is not a great place to be if you are human because they were worshiped in a way, but they were not allowed to be human, sexual, well educated. you had many women suffering from hysteria. that we use the word hysterical. it was at the time considered to be a disease of women. there would actually removed the uteruses of woman to cure them of this hysterical data -- state of mind. the we now see it as a product of repression of women in vieira and in the way that their sexual energy and everything had to come out in the form of this disease, which they called hysteria. and freud was examining the meaning of these things in a way that was very disturbing to that society at the time. he was talking about things that you didn't mention in

polite society, but you also did not even want to think about those things. tavis: the become back to a character you mentioned a moment ago. viggo mortensen, i like him. he has been a guest on this program before. you must love him because you are reunited with him again. for what purpose? >> this is our third movie. the history of violence is where we met, then eastern promise, and now "a dangerous method" and i suppose this would be the most unusual casting of viggo mortensen, casting him as the sigmund freud. he is a cut -- a fantastic collaborator, a beautiful guy, and it wonderful actor. but he is a real comrade in arms. he brings real things to set. never with any agenda, never with strings attached. he will decorate your set. he will come here and bring you water bottles that he found that

he thought maybe you would like. if you said, i do not like those, he would say, no problem. he will be your set decorator, do your customs. we exchange about 25 e-mails just about freud's cigars. how many a day did he spoke? it happened to be 22, which is why he got -- did he smoke? it happened to be 22, which is why he got cancer of the job. were they expensive? did he always smoke the same kind? did he sometimes smoke smaller ones, bigger ones? all of this research that we would do together, which was very exciting, and it might seem trivial, but it is not for an actor. >> your note -- tavis: you know viggo mortensen better than i do. he is very into the details. >> he is into rare books that he bought with his own money and he brought to the set. these are things that sigmund

freud would have had in his office that are props department had been unable to find. he traveled to freud's birthplace and found these but that no one else had managed to find and offer them to us as separation. i do not know any other actors to do that. -- as set decoration. i do not know any other actors who do that. tavis: the third part of this triumvirate is the person winnow least well historically. tell us about that character. >> in 1977, at the university of geneva, a suitcase was discovered that have letters left behind by a woman named sabina. she was russian and jewish. at that time, she was a psychoanalyst. she brought psychoanalysis to russia. in this case were discovered

these letters that she had written to freud and jung. and it was understood that she had had an affair with carl jung after being his patients, and this was only from these letters. jung never gave her any credit. freud gave her a footnote. christopher hampton, who wrote this script for this movie, discovered all of this and started to put together a play based on the three of them. it was the first time -- reading the play was the first time i had ever heard of her. i thought, wow, this is an incredible structure you could use to explore freud and the birth of psychoanalysis and that whole era before the first world war that was so crucial. tavis: is is a question i hate to ask, but i do want to get to this point, which is, when we

get a chance to see this film, what is the take away for the audience with regard to psychoanalysis and freud's contribution to the subject matter? >> i think it might be very revealing in terms of the potency of freud and what he created. i think we are not through with freud now. a lot of people say, well, you study psychology now and they hardly mention him. in fact, freudian analysis is apparently huge in china now. now that there is a middle- class evolving in china and people are starting to think about themselves and their families and their inner lives. they are finding freud to be hugely valuable. i find it interesting that suddenly freud is rising in the east. tavis: we have a freud renaissance now. >> i think so.

tavis: good timing for the movie. >> i think so. tavis: it is called "a dangerous method" and the director is david cronenberg. up next, publisher and author darren hardy. stay with us. tavis: darren hardy is the publisher and editor of "success" magazine and numerous books. his latest is called "a compound affect." you are looking like a million dollars. >> thank you. tavis: that is part of it. >> right. tavis: you are doing better than that. let me get into the book, because everybody define it differently. mine is that success is what you determined to be. how do you define success?

>> the cover of the magazine is a "success." how do we define success? i think in the 1980's it was one way, the 1990's, it was another, and in the 2000's, it is something else. it is not just someone who is successful in their business, but someone who is successful in their relationships and also in their contributions, giving back. these are the things that we look for when we profiled people for the cover. do they have whole life success? just one of those is not buying it these days. tavis: in difficult times like these, folks are repelled by success, turned off to it, or are they craving this kind of information now more than ever? >> i think these are the times of greatest opportunity in human history. we have seen a flattening of the

globe. but we are now technically connected at the fingertips. for a budding entrepreneur, this is not -- there could not be a more exciting time. there is incredible opportunity. the media and the competition for our attention is focusing on the most perverted and scandalous and offal and nasty. and people are definitely looking for a beacon of hope, inspiration, in view of what is right with the world. people are doing incredible things, overcoming great obstacles, and doing like changing work in the world right now in this economy -- a life- changing work in the world right now in this economy. tavis: in the book, you talk about the fact that you put yourself on a media diet. you suggest others take a media diet. you are not the first person to suggest this, but it resonates with me now more than ever. that might sound strange to an

audience watching me on television right now, and i pose a couple of radio shows, etc. but i am for the media died because so much of what we, against every day is negativity. -- of the no, diet because so much of what we, against every day is negativity. >> the media has a double challenge in front of them because they're used to be just a few channels that you could get on your dial, a few magazines and newspapers. now there are thousands of all of those. and there are blogs and tweet and facebook post and the rest. the average person is overwhelmed by the inputs to their attention, and media is fighting for that attention. they know they have to go to the worst of our nature, which is, what is the most sensational, shocking, lou, crude, scandalous thing that you can drive their

attention toward long enough to put the toothpaste commercial in front of their eyes and monetize their business. and we get a very perverted view of the world. they take the 12 ugliest, nastiest things that happened in the world and parade them every day. meanwhile, abundant and prosperity-oriented things happen in the world and we do not hear about it because it is not sensational enough to compete for our mass attention in order to sell advertising in a monetized business model. i have come to this conclusion. there is the world and then there is my world. the philosophy of control the current control birds -- controlled of controllable. i cannot control washington or foreign policy, but i can control what is going on in my own life, my own relationships, my own health. it starts with me and what i put

in my mouth and how often i move my legs. it is about focusing on the things you can control that will put -- make a positive contribution to your life right now. tavis: i was making it the same argument to one of my producers one time and he said, news, by definition, is what gets the headlines. it is the good stuff that ought to get the headlines. it is a good stuff that we are not seen enough of a but i digress. >> if you are on the freeway and you are late and traffic is backed up, and now you are anxious and you can finally see up ahead that is a car wreck and not intending traffic. the hola thing that a slowing traffic is rubberneckers. people do not want to look at something in this, but they cannot help themselves.

if there was a beautiful, miraculous sunset, traffic would just be streaming by. we cannot help but look at shock and sensationalism and things that are lewd. it has damaging effects because our mind is like a computer. garbage in, garbage the creative process is, you get in life what you expect. you expect what you are thinking about. you are thinking about whatever you put in front of your eyes and into your ears. if that is hateful and dangerous, then that is going to affect the outcome of your life. tavis: tell me how to jump-start success in our lives? >> how do you become successful? walk into barnes and noble and there will be several hundred answers conflicting with each other. commercial media is bombarding us with get rich quick, get

gambert, get it, get sexy for very little work and only three payments of $39.95. i was just ticked off at what you people be fooled and misled. -- watching people be fooled and misled. i wanted to turn people back to the truth of what it really takes to succeed. it is hard, monday, laborious, sometimes defeating work -- mundane, laborious, sometimes defeating work. it comes down to one thing that determines all outcomes in life, all our results. right now as we sit here, always line. everybody listening here, your waistline, your bank balance, the intimacy of your relationships, the size of your business, your health, -- is your fault. we are all self-made.

whether it is year to year, we to become a moment to moment, the aggregate choices have compound into the waistline, the wallet size, the size of the business, the current relationship status. the book is about identifying the key choices, being able to start making positive choices and keep from sabotaging yourself and making poor choices, and change the trajectory of your life. as einstein said, the eighth wonder of the world as a compound interest. the eighth wonderful -- the eighth wonder of the world is compound choices. it is america's what those are over time. tavis: speaking of choices, i respect you and i read the magazine all the time, and i have come to accept what you offer me as true. but when i got this but i literally had to do the exercise myself because i said, he can not be smart -- right about that. i am a reasonably smart guy, but

i was not buying the story about the magic penny. tell the story of the magic penny. >> have you ever been bitten by the elephant -- by an elephant? tavis: no. >> but you have been bitten by a mosquito. nature informs us. is the little choices that add up to big results. the magic and that doubles every day for 31 days, would you rather have that or $3 million in cash? which would you rather have? a tavis: everybody goes, for the $3 million in cash. >> yes, that is the daigle, to get rich quick program. -- the diet book, they get richer -- the get rich quick program. and that is the temptation. however worked out

mathematically is you take that penny and after five days is worth 16 cents. after 10 days, it is worth $5.12. after 20 days it is worth $5,000. after the 31st day it is worth $10,737,000. the interesting part of the whole equation is, the map between day one and the math between day 30 end date 31 is exactly the same. but the cumulative effect of that is what compounds to the $10 million. at lunch, do you order the hamburger and fries or the salad? at the end of lunch, nothing seems to have changed, but you have ignited the compound effect. over time, those same choices and up in cardiac arrest. the one cold shoulder to the spouse, nothing seems to change. compound, it ends in divorce.

not making those last few phone calls, instead, calling it a day. that ends up in financial emergency, or bankruptcy. it is so small choices over time that accumulate to extraordinary positive results or devastating negative results. tavis: i wonder why most people are not willing to do the hard work. success is hard work. it is about good choices consistently. and being true to the choices that you make. but that is not sexy. it does not sell as well as the of the headlines. how do you get people to offer -- to actually accept the hard truth? and it is a good book, an easy read a, but there are some hard truths in this book. >> if you just look around us at the result, obviously people are not doing this. we all start resolutions, go to

seminars, read books, but we have a hard time finishing. if you can narrow down the truth to something simple and easy to digest, that is the attempt. take all of the clutter, demystify the truth, narrow it down to half a dozen fundamentals, rewire this operating system and everything you do after can be successful. tavis: you have done it beautiful in a new book called "the compound affect." he is darren hardy and also the publisher of a magazine called "success. -- "success." that is our show for tonight. we will see you next time. until then, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. conversation with father-sundew wrote martin sheen and a million on their new film -- martin sheen and emilio

estevez on their new show "the way." join me again. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and every answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic mea nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television]