Film & TV Producer Brian Grazer Visits CBS SUNDAY MORNING Today

Brian Grazer is a powerhouse in Hollywood and a guiding force behind some of the most popular movies and television shows of the last 30 years. However, as a child he struggled with reading and it was his grandmother who found his strengths, he tells contributor Scott Simon in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast today, March 29 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

"She identified my strength, which was to ask questions, to dig inside subjects, to dig inside of people," Grazer tells Simon. "She told me that that would have a great value in my life. And it did."

Grazer parlayed that CURIOSITY into a career in Hollywood, which includes producing the films "Apollo 13," "Splash" and "A Beautiful Mind" along with the TV shows "24" and one of this season's hits, "Empire." As a side project, for the last three decades, he's also written notes to famous people asking them to have what he calls a "curiosity conversation." Since he started the project, Grazer has talked with scientists, politicians, artists and more. He writes about CURIOSITY and includes anecdotes from some of those conversations in a new book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to A Bigger Life, published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS.

The book is not a memoir, Grazer says. "I think writing a memoir in some way suggests you've figured out life, and I definitely didn't figure out life," Grazer tells Simon. "But I thought the process of CURIOSITY was really worth writing about."

Grazer talks with Simon about the book, his career and the genesis of his trademark spiked hairdo. Grazer also shares with Simon some of the most challenging CURIOSITY conversations.

Has he ever been intimated in the process?

"I've been intimidated, yes. I've been intimidated," Grazer says. "The first one that comes to mind is George W. Bush, I was a little intimidated."
CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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