Peter Bogdanovich has had an interesting life from the time he was literally in the womb. While his mother was pregnant, his Jewish parents moved to the U.S. to escape Nazi-occupied Austria. His 1971 movie, The Last Picture Show, was named a National Treasure by the Library of Congress. He was living with the 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten, when she was murdered by her jealous husband, from whom she was separated. He’s collaborated with some of Hollywood’s biggest legends.

His latest film is She’s Funny That Way. In the film, director Arnold Albertson (Owen Wilson) casts his call girl-turned-actress Isabella “Izzy” Patterson (Imogen Poots) in a new play to star alongside his wife Delta (Kathryn Hahn) and her ex-lover Seth Gilbert (Rhys Ifans). Jennifer Aniston plays Izzy’s therapist Jane, who is consumed with her own failing relationship with Arnold’s playwright Joshua Fleet (Will Forte), who is also developing a crush on Izzy.

Bogdanovich recently talked about some of legendary collaborators, his inspiration for his latest film and weighed in on the Pete Rose/Hall of Fame controversy.

You’ve had a fascinating life. Between the people you’ve worked with and the people you’ve been friends with, you could have your own version of the Algonquin Round Table.

I’ve met a lot of interesting people, that’s true.

If you were going to have your own version of the Algonquin Round Table, who from your past would you want and why?

Oh wow. Orson [Welles] obviously. He’s a talker. Jimmy Stewart. Cary Grant. What a great meal that would be. [Stagecoach director] John Ford to make things awkward. [The Big Sleep director] Howard Hawkes. Jean Renoir. [Alfred] Hitchcock. You can’t put more than one director in the same room, but it’s an imaginary dinner.

Is that why it would be awkward with John Ford?

John Ford was always awkward. He was always so crusty.

You said Orson Welles was a talker.

He could talk about anything and keep it interesting.

I’m from Ohio originally and I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask about the Pete Rose film, Hustle [which Bogdanovich directed]. What are your thoughts about Pete Rose and his Hall of Fame ban?

I think he earned [his way into] the Hall of Fame with what he did as a player. What he did as a coach wasn’t very kosher. It’s hard to make a judgment. He should be in the Hall of Fame for what he did as a player with an asterisk since he didn’t behave very well after he stopped playing. Tom Sizemore was very good in that part [as Pete Rose]. He’s a brilliant actor.

So let’s talk about the actual movie we’re here to discuss, She’s Funny That Way. It seemed to me to be a throwback to the farces made in the Golden Age of Hollywood that they don’t make too often anymore. When you wrote the script, were there any particular movies that inspired you?

I’ve made so many pictures by now that I have a pretty good sense of how to make a picture. I like certain comedies from the 30s and 40s. For some reason in movies, we don’t say farce. I don’t know why. It’s either ‘screwball comedy’ or ‘romantic comedy’ or something. It’s the same thing with what [Pulitzer and Tony winner] George Kaufman said about satire. The definition is satire is what closes Saturday night. [Kaufman co-authored many popular comedies—and satires—but he felt that satire is often lost on an audience and is difficult to write successfully. Broadway shows often officially open on a Friday, so a Saturday closing means a quick death to a show.]

[She’s Funny That Way] is basically a screwball comedy. We wanted to make a comedy in that style with the complications and coincidences. I was most influenced, as I think many filmmakers were, by a French writer, Georges Feydeau, who sort of invented the farce. He had a golden rule which was ‘the one person who must not come into the room, must come into the room.’

[Co-screenwriter and ex-wife] Louise [Stratten] and I only had two thoughts. We were going through a hard time – not in our marriage – just a tough time and we started writing the script with two ideas. One was the [original] title, Squirrels to the Nuts. That comes from an [Ernst] Lubitsch film, Cluny Brown where it’s a running gag. We wanted [Squirrels to the Nuts] to be the name of the picture, but we were talked out of it because [studio execs thought it] thought it sounded like a kids picture.

The other notion was wouldn’t it be funny if a guy paid an escort not to be an escort and gets in trouble for that. The idea for that came from the fact that I did something like that in Singapore when I was making Saint Jack in 1978. Have you ever seen the picture? It’s about pimps.

I saw it a while ago before I probably should have.

It’s about pimps so we did some research with various madams and hookers and pimps. We got to know a few of them and used some escorts in the picture. One or two of them really [figuratively] touched me and they wanted to go home. I paid them for [their work in] the picture and gave them a little extra to go home and they did. Then I knew a girl in Brooklyn who was kind of an escort and that’s where we got the idea for [Imogen Poots’] Brooklyn accent.

How were you able to get some pretty big name actors in smaller roles in the movie?

You mean like Cybil [Shepherd] and Richard [Lewis]?

Right. Like Tova [Feldshuh from The Walking Dead] and Ileana [Douglas].

We just asked them. [Boardwalk Empire’s] Mike Shannon wanted to be in the picture. There’s a long story about Mike Shannon. I had hired him back in Chicago in the 90s with Sidney Poitier for a movie called To Sir, with Love II. Sidney didn’t like Michael Shannon so I had to fire him and I felt terrible about it. I liked him. I thought he was good, but Sidney didn’t like him.

Mike talked about that experience with David Letterman or with Jimmy Kimmel or somebody. The producers saw it and said, ‘why don’t we ask him to be in this picture?’ and [producer] Holly [Wiersma] did ask him. Michael came up to me years later and asked, ‘why didn’t Sidney like me?’ I said, ‘he thought you were weird.’

With Cybil [Shepherd], I just asked her to do me a favor and the same with Richard Lewis. There’s a funny story about Tatum [O’Neal]. When we finished shooting Paper Moon, she had just turned nine. It was before anyone had seen it since we had just wrapped. I said, ‘Tatum, do you want to make more movies?’ She said, ‘only small parts, like a waitress.’ So I called her and asked her if she wanted to play a waitress. I don’t know if she even remembers that she said that.

Kathryn is hilarious and I thought her and Owen had great chemistry.

And they ad-libbed a lot of it. The whole cab scene was ad-libbed, almost entirely. There were some written lines, but they worked it out together and just did it. That whole business with the cab driver was all Owen. He’s brilliant. He started out as a writer with [She’s Funny That Way executive producer] Wes [Anderson], so he thinks like a writer.

Speaking of Wes, him and Noah [Baumbach] are producers and I could feel their fingerprints on the film.

They liked the script and Louise said that we should ask Wes and Noah to executive produce it. They got us to UTA, which was their agency to help us get the financing. And that’s how we got Jen [Aniston]. We sent Jennifer the script and asked her to play Owen’s wife. She said ‘no, I want to play the therapist. Why don’t you use Kathryn Hahn?’ Jennifer also heartily recommended Will Forte.

They laughed a lot in Venice when we showed it there and got a 10 minute standing ovation. It was amazing. They just kept applauding.

She’s Funny That Way is now playing in select theaters and on Video on Demand.