Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. A couple of weeks ago, we were at
Speaker 1: the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. I was joined
Speaker 1: by Megan Mollally and Nick Offerman. Malally is best known
Speaker 1: for her role as Karen Walker on Will and Grace.
Speaker 1: Offerman's big break was playing the role of Ron Swanson
Speaker 1: on Parks and Recreation, but they also have a life
Speaker 1: together off screen. They have been married since two thousand three,
Speaker 1: and as Playboy Magazine wrote a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: their comic chemistry is akin to that of a hyper
Speaker 1: sexualized Jerry Stiller and Anne Mira. Thank you both for coming,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having us. Let me begin by asking that
Speaker 1: the two of you also. I'm gonna start with Nick
Speaker 1: because we've gotta go one at a time here, and
Speaker 1: that is that. What was the comedy d n A
Speaker 1: and your family when you were growing up? Did you
Speaker 1: come from a family of like rip snorton comedy people.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say rip snorting, but there is a powerful
Speaker 1: sense of humor in my family. They're hardworking and humble.
Speaker 1: Their farmers and school teachers and nurses and librarians. Sorry,
Speaker 1: and um, and so there's a real I think it's
Speaker 1: the farmer ethos where you have to work. You can't
Speaker 1: be too funny or too dramatic. You just keep working.
Speaker 1: But you know all of your year's work might be
Speaker 1: wiped out by locusts or storms, so you have to
Speaker 1: have a dry sense of humor of like, well, I
Speaker 1: guess we're eating our shoes this year. And I picked
Speaker 1: up on that. And were you the funny one in
Speaker 1: your family? Well, that might be over egging the pudding,
Speaker 1: but I uh, I was definitely the showman performer. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You mentioned in an interview where you said, like you're hardworking,
Speaker 1: kind of tough, no nonsense family. They viewed you as
Speaker 1: like the woofs of the family business. I'm the city
Speaker 1: when I walk in the door, it says that I'm
Speaker 1: the Milo of my family. Perhaps. And you you that
Speaker 1: you were born in l A but you grew up
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. Yeah, how did that happen? How did that happen? Well,
Speaker 1: my father was a contract player with Paramount in the fifties,
Speaker 1: and so they lived in Los Angeles for a long
Speaker 1: time and I was born here and then when uh,
Speaker 1: and then they moved back to Oklahoma when I was six,
Speaker 1: and I had a little bag packed by the door
Speaker 1: of that whole time I was in Oklahoma, just waiting
Speaker 1: to come back to Los Angeles. Although I had a
Speaker 1: great upbringing, but I just I knew better. Did he
Speaker 1: feel like he didn't want to ring. Did he feel
Speaker 1: like he didn't want to raise his kids in l A?
Speaker 1: That's why he went back to Oklahoma to have a Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: his parents had lived in Newport Beach and they both
Speaker 1: passed away in the same year, and he just didn't
Speaker 1: want to be here anymore. And he was very bitter
Speaker 1: about the entertainment industry. And he had grown up in
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City and my mom had grown up in Tulsa,
Speaker 1: so he just wanted to get back there. But can
Speaker 1: you imagine that being bitter about the entertainment industry. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know what that's like. Yeah, I think he wanted
Speaker 1: to be the big fish, you know, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to make it. He really wanted to make it, but
Speaker 1: it was really busy drinking alcohol, so it really cut
Speaker 1: into the acting time. Yeah, he was very busy drinking
Speaker 1: alcohol and having sex with women who weren't my mother,
Speaker 1: So it really took a bite out of the Some
Speaker 1: people are able to juggle those persons. Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: was more specialist. Yeah. So did he did he act
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma? Did he revive his careerty become like the
Speaker 1: he did Tony Randall of Oklahoma with gaily people? With
Speaker 1: his theatrical my father was. He wore an ascot and
Speaker 1: at one point had a yeah in Oklaoma City in
Speaker 1: like this early sixties, and had at one point bought
Speaker 1: a fant rolls Roy Roy's Phantom three, uh Gray you
Speaker 1: know what you know extravaganza and he would drive that around,
Speaker 1: tuning in ascot. So the fact that he was not
Speaker 1: way to bang a lot of women and what was that?
Speaker 1: He just had a very he was like a gay guy,
Speaker 1: you know. He just had like a very fantastical presentation. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my parents had a lot that I learned to sing
Speaker 1: because my parents had a lot of Barbera Streis and
Speaker 1: Judy Garland records. And I was like, we're my parents
Speaker 1: to gay men. What what's happening now? What he did
Speaker 1: he perform in Like I read that he performed at
Speaker 1: Dinner Theater there. He was kind of the only p
Speaker 1: something that I knew growing up who had this really
Speaker 1: you know, kind of um met a sense of humor
Speaker 1: and so I yeah, he could crack my mom and
Speaker 1: I for sure, but we were all so scared of him.
Speaker 1: That was a good combo. Well, know what your families?
Speaker 1: Are your parents both alive at all? Or now? My
Speaker 1: mom is my mom's ninety five? Yeah, she's she's she's
Speaker 1: an Oklahoma city in the same house that I grew
Speaker 1: up in. Did she get the roles? She know that
Speaker 1: had to be sold? I think. But my my dad
Speaker 1: never really had like a real job, but he had
Speaker 1: money from the family, had some oil money from way
Speaker 1: back when, so he kind of drifted along on that.
Speaker 1: But the roles was temporary. Was your dad around to
Speaker 1: meet him? Do they know each other? No? Unfortunately my
Speaker 1: dad passed away. But I is totally completely different? Is
Speaker 1: he and Nick? Are? I do think that there's some
Speaker 1: crossover because both gay? Um, there's that and wait can
Speaker 1: they yeah, ton, it's coming out? Okay? Speaking of gay?
Speaker 1: Can I mention what you said backstage? Backstage, Megan was
Speaker 1: staring at my balls when I was sitting down. Can
Speaker 1: you see the hole? You see the hole in my past?
Speaker 1: I split my pants? Can you see. Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put the paper, I'm gonna put my notes here. I'll
Speaker 1: read the trousers has been invented that will contain the
Speaker 1: testicles of like bald one, they will not be reined in,
Speaker 1: they will not be rained in. Nick has taken a
Speaker 1: rather festive handkerchief out of his pocket and wraps around
Speaker 1: his neck in the form of an ascot, So it's
Speaker 1: more of a crava. So the Offerman's. So the Offerman's
Speaker 1: and the and the uh and the Malawley's never met,
Speaker 1: I mean where you got the two families got together well,
Speaker 1: and that would have been an interesting thing. Yeah, Megan's
Speaker 1: mom came to Minuka, and the families have visited each other.
Speaker 1: Uh and and Megan's mom had a wonderful gentleman companion, Mr.
Speaker 1: Nat Smith, and they traveled all over together with them.
Speaker 1: And so they came to our little town of Manuka
Speaker 1: for holiday dinners. And then we came to Oklahoma as well. Minuka, Manuka, Manuka, Minuka.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna assume that Manuka people even coming there
Speaker 1: from Oklahomas. I mean, Oklahoma City is paris compared to Minuka,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, and so never even went Chicago is less
Speaker 1: than an hour away, and they never even when it
Speaker 1: was like going to Morocco, it felt like we were
Speaker 1: in Mayberry Um. When I finally got to Chicago, I
Speaker 1: felt like I had traveled from the fifties to present day.
Speaker 1: You you went to Champagne or Banna. I did to
Speaker 1: study what I'm proud fighting a line. I to study theaters.
Speaker 1: They yeah, they have actually a quite reputable theater conservatory.
Speaker 1: And that's what you wanted from when you were when
Speaker 1: you were young, you knew you wanted to study acting.
Speaker 1: I was really ignorant. I I knew that I wanted
Speaker 1: to perform, and I only is about a junior in
Speaker 1: high school. I found out that you could get paid
Speaker 1: to do plays in Chicago. Like I had heard of Broadway,
Speaker 1: and I had heard of London, but I certainly didn't
Speaker 1: think I could get there from Manuka. I was ignorant.
Speaker 1: I didn't do the math that that you watch. You know,
Speaker 1: my dad and I loved watching Jackie Gleason and John
Speaker 1: Wayne movies, and I never did the math of impersonating like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can learn to talk like Reverend Jim mcnatowski on
Speaker 1: taxi and then somebody will give me, you know. Instead,
Speaker 1: I just was like, hey, you guys crazy. You would
Speaker 1: have a breakdancing team with his cousin Ryan whatever they
Speaker 1: talk and flip flop flip flop was Ryan because he
Speaker 1: did the gymnastics and the popping locker here was TikTok
Speaker 1: fuking crazy guilty, So you realize you wanted to We
Speaker 1: did plays at my high school and it just plays
Speaker 1: in high school. Yeah, I did. How many people were
Speaker 1: in your high school? Like eleven people total? About eight
Speaker 1: hundred like you did? Good? Oh, and nine other people
Speaker 1: were in the audience. We did um, we did you know,
Speaker 1: the crampy plays that high schools do. We also did musicals,
Speaker 1: and so it was a revelation to discover that you
Speaker 1: could perform theater professionally in as close as Chicago, and
Speaker 1: that these kids were studying that to do this at
Speaker 1: the University of Illinois and I saw I that was
Speaker 1: my first audition, and it was I didn't even know
Speaker 1: what a monologue was like. For one of my monologues,
Speaker 1: I performed a scene of dialogue, played both parts. Yeah, Louis,
Speaker 1: what what exactly like doing both parts? What scene was that?
Speaker 1: What scene did you do to both parts. It was
Speaker 1: a scene from the place steam Bath once again scene
Speaker 1: from the Plague Glory Hole. And yeah, the professors were
Speaker 1: you could have done Boys in the Band and played
Speaker 1: all the parts from but they you know, I honestly think, um,
Speaker 1: they took uh sixteen students a year in this conservatory.
Speaker 1: And I was very affle deck and I think that
Speaker 1: you know, they do a lot of Shakespeare and big
Speaker 1: check off plays, and so you need a couple of
Speaker 1: guys to like carry the coffin or the carry the
Speaker 1: samovar on stage. He was an altar boy. Also, I
Speaker 1: was no, wait, what sports did you play? It was
Speaker 1: Central Illinois, so basketball, baseball, and football, but football was
Speaker 1: my best sports. Would you play position? Defensive back? Either
Speaker 1: cornerback or what they called monster back? That was good
Speaker 1: at at tackling people? Um, but people. It was a
Speaker 1: little weird, But I had, um, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: had the respect of the team, so they they kind
Speaker 1: of thought I was fruity, But I think I was
Speaker 1: tough enough at sports that they were liked. Saturday Afternoon,
Speaker 1: I was in the swing choir. You were gay until
Speaker 1: the kickoff? Were you a superstar athlete there in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: and Oklahoma City. Uh now I was. I wasn't a
Speaker 1: ballet company, though I was a serious ballet dancer for
Speaker 1: many years, and I was in a company for five
Speaker 1: years and studied at New York City Ballet's School School
Speaker 1: of American Ballet UM. But no, I, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: basically came out of the womb in a top hat
Speaker 1: and tapshi. I was developing my skills from birth, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was literally like in my room trying
Speaker 1: to perfect every possible performing skill imaginable from the age
Speaker 1: of four. Um. Yeah, I don't know why it's I
Speaker 1: think it's weird that those kind of things happened. I
Speaker 1: think that when kids have a certain predilection, predilection for
Speaker 1: a career. I mean I know so many people who
Speaker 1: who had that. Yeah, when I was a kid, that
Speaker 1: we would always torment my mother because like when I
Speaker 1: was a little you know that programming on TV was
Speaker 1: like old Warner Brothers, gangster films, or like the Bowery Boys.
Speaker 1: I don't know if people who remember the Bowery Boys,
Speaker 1: like my whole childhood, we just like shovel that on
Speaker 1: my mother all the time. She'd be like, are you
Speaker 1: boys gonna finish those potatoes. We're like, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: eat the potatoes. See who's asking? See why don't you
Speaker 1: know damn potatoes? Get out of here. See my mother
Speaker 1: will be like, oh God, oh God, what's happening. What
Speaker 1: did you watch? I liked the weird stuff like Mary Hartman,
Speaker 1: Mary Hartman, And yeah, that's the fact that they even
Speaker 1: aired that in Oklahoma City kind of blows my mind
Speaker 1: when I think about smoke pot and watched Mary Hartman
Speaker 1: Mary Hartan. I was it was. I was too young,
Speaker 1: but I had words. Don't bullshit us? Yeah, no, when
Speaker 1: it first started, I was. I didn't ever smoke pot
Speaker 1: till I was seventeen. I don't think I watched Mary Hartman. Mary.
Speaker 1: I used just to blow a big fat one out
Speaker 1: the window before Mary had I love that show my mom.
Speaker 1: My mom used to watch it with me. She totally
Speaker 1: got it. My mom encouraged me in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: and I knew every song on the radio and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And my mom always, you know,
Speaker 1: she gave me ballet lessons and encouraged me to be creative.
Speaker 1: Did you smoke a lot of weed there in Minuka? No?
Speaker 1: In fact, no, it was very conservative and the uh
Speaker 1: like the six known pot smokers, were completely alienated, like
Speaker 1: they this this was the eighties, and they like they
Speaker 1: announced their devotion to to marijuana with long hair and
Speaker 1: like rat concert t shirts. It wasn't even something you considered,
Speaker 1: like there was such a taint on it. And then
Speaker 1: I got to theater school and and my best friend Joe,
Speaker 1: it took him at the time time, there's a longside tangent.
Speaker 1: I was pretending to be a born again Christian so
Speaker 1: that I could sleep with this particular young lady, And
Speaker 1: so I had to kind of work out of that
Speaker 1: to save face. They would they would they were he was,
Speaker 1: they were both born again supposedly, and then he would
Speaker 1: like get her to like have sex with them, and
Speaker 1: then they would both cry and like get down their
Speaker 1: knees and repent and ask her forgiveness, and then the
Speaker 1: same thing the next night, and just on and on
Speaker 1: every single night, every night born again. She was born
Speaker 1: again and again and again highly recommended. And when did
Speaker 1: you decide you're going to go to to become like
Speaker 1: a pro. You got a college and what happened when
Speaker 1: you've done with college? Well, there was a group of us. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was really bad at acting like
Speaker 1: I was so ignorant. Um that I was trying way
Speaker 1: too hard in a nutshell was my problem. And uh.
Speaker 1: And so all through college I wasn't really getting cast.
Speaker 1: But I endeared myself to this group of of great
Speaker 1: artists because I could build scenery and I could choreograph
Speaker 1: sword fights. Became a a big sword fighter and um.
Speaker 1: And so we formed a theater company called the Defiant
Speaker 1: Theater and moved on Moss to Chicago. What's up? That
Speaker 1: was kind of the thing, was like, let's make a
Speaker 1: go of it in Chicago, which is probably the greatest
Speaker 1: theater city in the country. Um. For that reason, it's
Speaker 1: you can. You can. You can make a go of
Speaker 1: it with a storefront theater in a more affordable way
Speaker 1: and your audience there. There's no ulterior motive, there's no Broadway,
Speaker 1: there's no TV business. It's if you're doing Beckett in Chicago,
Speaker 1: it's because you really want to do theater. Why do
Speaker 1: you think that is? To explain to people who don't
Speaker 1: know and count me among them, why is uh, Chicago
Speaker 1: such a fertile ground for theater? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think it's a combination of not being uh, you know,
Speaker 1: New York, in l A, our places where if you
Speaker 1: if you have a scrap, yeah that's the full of dogs.
Speaker 1: If you if you have just a spark of talent
Speaker 1: or cuteness, in those cities, people are like, hey, we can,
Speaker 1: we can make a lot of money with you quickly.
Speaker 1: In Chicago, you don't have that ulterior motive, Like the
Speaker 1: top paid theater performers there are not doing that great,
Speaker 1: so it's not it's for passion and you're not chasing
Speaker 1: fame and fortune. And you also just have that Midwestern
Speaker 1: work ethic. Um, Chicago theater is a lot closer to
Speaker 1: farming than the coastal. I did a lot of theater
Speaker 1: in Chicago also, but before Nick and because I'm older,
Speaker 1: she wents to Northwestern. Ye, and then I did theater
Speaker 1: there for like six years. And um that's where I
Speaker 1: learned everything. Because I didn't study acting at Northwestern, so
Speaker 1: um mostly English and art history and UM. But I
Speaker 1: did a lot of theater while I was in school.
Speaker 1: It was right when steppin Wolf was really hitting. I
Speaker 1: got cast in a professional show while I was still
Speaker 1: in school at Northwestern, and Um, I was just starting
Speaker 1: my junior year and I had gone back to school
Speaker 1: for two weeks and I was doing eight shows a
Speaker 1: week at you know, and um, I went in to
Speaker 1: talk to the dean and I said, this is really hard,
Speaker 1: and she said drop out. I said, all right, don't
Speaker 1: mind if I do, and so I did. And then
Speaker 1: I got some calls. When I was doing Chicago Theater
Speaker 1: for some reason, I I tested for the lead in
Speaker 1: Risky Business spoiler alert. I didn't get it, um, but
Speaker 1: I was flown out here for two weeks. It was
Speaker 1: a really big deal and for me at the time.
Speaker 1: And uh then I had a lot of agents, like
Speaker 1: you know, big agents, Hollywood agents calling me in my
Speaker 1: little apartment in Chicago, and I was flown out for
Speaker 1: like two or three other movies didn't get them. And
Speaker 1: then I moved out here finally in six six yeah,
Speaker 1: five six, I don't know. And so I already so
Speaker 1: I had an agent right away, so it made it easier.
Speaker 1: I always was able to support I was very lucky.
Speaker 1: I was always able to support myself. I never had,
Speaker 1: you know, a civy job, you know, which is kind
Speaker 1: of bad and kind of good. What's the first thing
Speaker 1: you did, they really clicked for you, where you really
Speaker 1: started to get you on that path where you you
Speaker 1: know you're gonna work. I mean, I remember exactly. I
Speaker 1: did this movie called She's Having a Baby with Kevin
Speaker 1: Bacon years ago, no place, but I just mentioned it
Speaker 1: because there were these two women who were the casting agents.
Speaker 1: And once I got cast in that movie and I
Speaker 1: was on their radar, everything changed after that. Well, I
Speaker 1: was lucky if I worked, you know, I was able
Speaker 1: to work here and there, and I got a pilot.
Speaker 1: Most pilot seasons, I got a pilot or I you know,
Speaker 1: do episodic, but I never got any shows that really
Speaker 1: hit for more than thirteen episodes. But then I got
Speaker 1: cast in a Broadway revival of Greece. And I was
Speaker 1: doing Greece and somebody said, oh, they're going to do
Speaker 1: a revival of How to Succeed in Business without really
Speaker 1: trying with Matthew Broadwert, and you're perfect for the female lead.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know the show at all, and I
Speaker 1: rented the movie and it took me like three days
Speaker 1: to watch it. I thought it was kind of boring,
Speaker 1: and anyway, I ended up auditioning for it and I
Speaker 1: got it, and then we started before we went to Broadway,
Speaker 1: we did it out here in Lajoya and there was
Speaker 1: this guy who we still know, who worked for the
Speaker 1: Hollywood Reporter at the time, and he wrote this review
Speaker 1: and most of the review was about me, which was crazy.
Speaker 1: And that really was the thing that kind of that
Speaker 1: was my first really big break. Yeah, and what about
Speaker 1: you when you you came out here? When I did
Speaker 1: about four years in Chicago with my company, and things
Speaker 1: started to go well. I became better at acting, started
Speaker 1: getting you know, good roles, and I had a year
Speaker 1: in where the whole year I had just the best
Speaker 1: possible shows. I felt like it was my dream year.
Speaker 1: And I had a tooth. I had a hole in
Speaker 1: one of my molders that I could fit a pepper
Speaker 1: corn in, which was convenient um on long hikes. But
Speaker 1: it dawned on me I was twenty six. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm at some point I'm gonna need to like see
Speaker 1: a dentist. And I've heard about the like SAG medical
Speaker 1: insurance and things like this, and so I had a
Speaker 1: couple of little jobs out here that brought me out.
Speaker 1: It was very dubious. I mean, I was playing a
Speaker 1: bad guy in a weird cartoon thing on Nickelodeon. The
Speaker 1: producers were like, we can fly you out, but it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's on you Go Airlines and it's a subcoach. Um.
Speaker 1: I landed at L A X and I coming from Chicago.
Speaker 1: I just thought I would take the C T A
Speaker 1: to Hollywood, and I ended up finding a bus. I
Speaker 1: knew that Sunset turned into Caesar Chavez, so I took
Speaker 1: a bus to down to like right here, and then
Speaker 1: walked to the Sunset Gower and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I isn't it crazy? The ship? We didn't we had
Speaker 1: no money. How we survived and you love it? And
Speaker 1: I loved it and I didn't love it at all.
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to make money. And when did things
Speaker 1: When did things change for you? And did you want
Speaker 1: them to? Because you sound like somebody who you're you
Speaker 1: weren't maybe quite sure that was the goal was to
Speaker 1: make it or was it? Well? I wanted yeah, I
Speaker 1: always wanted to be, you know, to perform good writing.
Speaker 1: I mean that's what kind of like. I really thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna be a theater guy and I and
Speaker 1: I became one. But it uh there's there was something lacking,
Speaker 1: Like all my friends in my theater company didn't have
Speaker 1: They sort of lost their fire and they all dropped
Speaker 1: away and got jobs and had kids, and so I was.
Speaker 1: I was trying to find my place, and and I
Speaker 1: moved here, and I was kind of lost for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, and I finally said, I don't know
Speaker 1: what the funk I'm doing. I I, uh don't understand
Speaker 1: this business. I don't like it. I quit going to
Speaker 1: like commercial auditions and instead committed those hours to carpentry work.
Speaker 1: And finally I said, I just need to do a play. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I do. And I told everybody I
Speaker 1: knew and some friends again. Casting directors say, say, are
Speaker 1: the reason we're all sitting here. I mean, these two
Speaker 1: great ladies that championed me said hey, our friends are
Speaker 1: doing a play. And Megan was the lead in the
Speaker 1: play and it saved my life. I mean that. And
Speaker 1: that's where you met. Yeah, that's where we was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was in two thousand and it was a theater
Speaker 1: company on the East Side, and he was sleeping on
Speaker 1: a couch in someone's basement. Quite a catch. I've been
Speaker 1: looking for somebody just like him ahead a yeah, a
Speaker 1: pair of gold overalls that he he wrote all of
Speaker 1: his notes on, like people's phone numbers and stuff because
Speaker 1: apparently no paper. So I'll watch out. Come on over
Speaker 1: to my place and take a shower. You smell like
Speaker 1: you could use one. Didn't have a bathroom, Now have
Speaker 1: a bathroom. But what was the play? You had a
Speaker 1: pail chuck Me's the Berlin Circle? What was it about?
Speaker 1: What did you play? Uh? Meg? And played Pamela Harriman.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a comedy modernization of Caucasian chalk Circle,
Speaker 1: and it's like a deconstruction of mother Courage. Basically, I
Speaker 1: played an East German soldier who did a lot of
Speaker 1: breakdancing named Werner heine Um and he shaved his head
Speaker 1: for it, and he had um a big mustache, shades
Speaker 1: of things to and he was about forty pounds heavier.
Speaker 1: So meeting Megan and miraculously having her accept me into
Speaker 1: her body, um after a period of four months, that's
Speaker 1: that's one four months, So that's extreme. It was crazy.
Speaker 1: I I had all kinds of it really was very
Speaker 1: well orchestrated. At first, we couldn't do we couldn't even
Speaker 1: it wasn't even a possibility. We weren't going to date.
Speaker 1: Nothing was gonna happen. Yeah. Then then we then we kissed.
Speaker 1: That was that was. He got in my car one
Speaker 1: night and I was like, get out. And then a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, you know, there's a little making out,
Speaker 1: and then I wouldn't even let him come over to
Speaker 1: my house. Then finally he could come over to the house,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't come in. He could just drop me
Speaker 1: off for you know, or we could stand outside in
Speaker 1: the yard, but he couldn't come in. Then he could
Speaker 1: come in, but only the living room, and then he
Speaker 1: had to go. Then he could come in and I
Speaker 1: don't know. Then he could sleep on the couch, but
Speaker 1: I would sleep in the bedroom. Then he could sleep
Speaker 1: in the bed, but he couldn't have sex. Then finally sex.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I guess I had just been
Speaker 1: burned so many times. I was going to be goddamned
Speaker 1: if it was going to happen again. I was just
Speaker 1: gonna making really really sure. Wow, So did you feel
Speaker 1: about that? Nick? Four months of I would just what
Speaker 1: door I'm behind whatever she was playing there, I would
Speaker 1: have you know, I mean, I would have done four years,
Speaker 1: Like I knew, I knew it was I knew it
Speaker 1: was it, and so I was like this, I had
Speaker 1: that confidence, and I think I was just so skeptical
Speaker 1: about everything, and I'd been heard, and I just didn't
Speaker 1: want to I just didn't want to take any chances.
Speaker 1: The four months paid off for Megan Molalley and Nick Offerman.
Speaker 1: They've been married since two thousand three. They described themselves
Speaker 1: as simple, boring people and say one of the reasons
Speaker 1: they've lasted is that they like to go home and
Speaker 1: read books and do jigsaw puzzles and play cards to
Speaker 1: protect themselves from the craziness of the business. To year
Speaker 1: from another family pair, take a listen to my conversation
Speaker 1: with writer Erica Young and her daughter Molly Young Fast.
Speaker 1: What did you learn about marriage from your parents? Mom?
Speaker 1: Can I answer that question honestly? Of course, honestly is
Speaker 1: the only way. Well. I would say, have you seen
Speaker 1: Kramer versus Kramer? That was my general impression of marriage
Speaker 1: from my upbringing. But you know, my mom had some good,
Speaker 1: useful suggestions, but ultimately I sort of had to find
Speaker 1: my own way, though she did eventually marry a really
Speaker 1: great guy and they've been married for twenty one years.
Speaker 1: Take a listen at Here's the Thing dot org. This
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: My guests today are actors Nick From and Megan mollally.
Speaker 1: They joined me live on stage at the Ace Hotel
Speaker 1: in downtown Los Angeles. Megan mollally had already done a
Speaker 1: couple of seasons of Will and Grace when she met Nick.
Speaker 1: Nick told me that as a cast spouse, he was
Speaker 1: what he calls the main mascot on the set of
Speaker 1: Will and Grace, and in that role he learned a lot.
Speaker 1: So it was the most incredible education in wonderland to
Speaker 1: be there and watch them make every episode of that
Speaker 1: show for the last six seasons. And I was just
Speaker 1: happy as a clam. And I also had my wood shop,
Speaker 1: like I was living the dream. And so when Parts
Speaker 1: and Wreck came around, that was that was when thank
Speaker 1: you that that took it up an unexpected seventeen notches
Speaker 1: where I was like, oh ship, It was so crazy.
Speaker 1: We have so many parallels because we both moved to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Well both had a Chicago theater period and
Speaker 1: then we moved to Los Angeles when we were twenty six,
Speaker 1: and then we both got I got Casting, Will and
Speaker 1: Grace when I was thirty nine and you got Parks
Speaker 1: and Wreck when you were thirty nine. Right, so we
Speaker 1: have so many weird parallels, and he had watched me
Speaker 1: go through all of that, so he kind of knew
Speaker 1: what to expect. You were able to kind of Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was kind of satisfying for me to see him
Speaker 1: like encounter some of the things that I had dealt
Speaker 1: with because he thought that I was being why he
Speaker 1: thought I was being a baby, And then he went
Speaker 1: through them and he was like, I don't like it,
Speaker 1: And I was like, see, I don't like the color
Speaker 1: they painted my dressing room. But but but for example,
Speaker 1: what like, what's something you were able to guide him about. Well,
Speaker 1: one the one that is so valuable to me. Early
Speaker 1: on in our relationship, we were in New York and
Speaker 1: Megan was going to do Letterman and we were running
Speaker 1: ten minutes late, you know, to get to Letterman, and
Speaker 1: I was sweating bullets and I was new to the
Speaker 1: whole thing, and I was like, what the fuck is
Speaker 1: what's going on? How can you we'd be late for Dave?
Speaker 1: What's the matter with you. And we get there and
Speaker 1: there's some people outside that want Megan's autograph, and she
Speaker 1: stops to sign the autographs. So we're like Jesus and
Speaker 1: we'll get inside. And I said, are you crazy? We're
Speaker 1: late to Letterman And she said, I if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for the people who want my autograph, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: on Letterman. Ah. And now when did you get to
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want to be campy about it,
Speaker 1: but when did you get the big phone call when
Speaker 1: you knew you were going to go do the big show?
Speaker 1: That's Will and Grace? But yeah, Will and Grace. But
Speaker 1: I'm talking about not how to succeed. I got a
Speaker 1: lot more plus just I'm just saying whatever, stick around. Miss.
Speaker 1: I loved by the way how he didn't mention parks
Speaker 1: and he kind of laid back. It was then I
Speaker 1: got up with this thing called bucks. And are you
Speaker 1: talking about the first time? Will and Grace? Are this upcoming?
Speaker 1: Well and Grace? Well, miss fancy pants, I was talking
Speaker 1: about the first round of Will and Grace. Don't you
Speaker 1: guys want Alec to come on Will and Grace this time?
Speaker 1: Hand One of the greatest lines I ever had on
Speaker 1: Will and Grace. We did the live show when I
Speaker 1: had ice cream in a bag. You always gonna have
Speaker 1: ice cream with you, and you wouldn't let me into
Speaker 1: your apartment hint In made me wait four months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I got the ice cream and uh, I'm standing
Speaker 1: there and I say good night to you, and Eric
Speaker 1: McCormick says, your package is dripping. I said, what can
Speaker 1: I say? I like her. That was like the most
Speaker 1: ridiculous line I've ever been asked to say a television
Speaker 1: show in my entire life. But when you got the call,
Speaker 1: how did that happen? Were you? How did you get
Speaker 1: that job? Well, Jim Burrows always call that lightning in
Speaker 1: a bottle. I had moved out there five and I
Speaker 1: had auditioned for shows every year pilot season, and um,
Speaker 1: I usually booked a pilot. I was. I was lucky.
Speaker 1: But then I kind of got burned out. And so
Speaker 1: around nines seven, I was in the parking lot of
Speaker 1: a bed Bath and Beyond and I got on a
Speaker 1: pay phone with my agent and I said, Bob Gersh,
Speaker 1: I am not doing anymore. I'm not auditioning for anymore sitcoms.
Speaker 1: It wasn't It's not meant to be obviously, and he said, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I think you are auditioning for sitcoms and I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not. And then I had to pay my rent,
Speaker 1: so I was like, okay, I'm auditioning for sitcom. So
Speaker 1: I auditioned for Will and Grace for the role of
Speaker 1: Grace and they were like no, thanks, and I went home.
Speaker 1: A couple of weeks later, I got this call, they
Speaker 1: want you audition for Will and Grace and I said,
Speaker 1: I already did, dumbouse and they said no for this
Speaker 1: other part. And I said, there's not another woman in it,
Speaker 1: and they were like, yeah, there's and they sent me
Speaker 1: the script and I read it and I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: this is boring because it wasn't written the way that
Speaker 1: it ended up being. So I went in and I
Speaker 1: auditioned and then they wanted me to come to the
Speaker 1: network and I was the only person and UM, so boring, sorry,
Speaker 1: and uh so we are, okay, thank you, thanks for
Speaker 1: the I needed that well push. I was the day
Speaker 1: of the network and I didn't know whether it was
Speaker 1: going to go or not, and I finally decided I
Speaker 1: would go, and I went and I got the part
Speaker 1: and then we went and we had our first read
Speaker 1: through informally before the big table read, and I was like, M.
Speaker 1: And then we had the big table read and I
Speaker 1: was like And then we shot the pilot. And well
Speaker 1: before we shot the pilot, we were sitting there and
Speaker 1: Don all Meyer, who was a big friend of O. J's,
Speaker 1: a be network executive at NBC, came over to us,
Speaker 1: which is unheard of at that time for a network
Speaker 1: executive to come over to the horrible shitty actors, you know.
Speaker 1: And this was when Deborah Messi used to smoke cigarettes
Speaker 1: and she had a cigarette and he said, do you
Speaker 1: need a lie and she said yes, and he pulled
Speaker 1: out this gold Cardier lighter, this really glamorous lighter, and
Speaker 1: he gave attorneys and she lit her cigarette and went
Speaker 1: to hand it back and he said keep it. And
Speaker 1: we were like, oh, we're getting picked up. I'm buying
Speaker 1: a ranger over. So so we did the pilot and
Speaker 1: I don't even know why, but like it was mostly
Speaker 1: Sean Hayes, Like the audience just fucking flipped over him.
Speaker 1: And he had never he was twenty seven, he had
Speaker 1: never done anything, never been on a television show, and
Speaker 1: there was just an instant response, and then I thought,
Speaker 1: all right, And then about the tenth episode in it
Speaker 1: started getting really coming together and I thought this could
Speaker 1: be really really good. Well, what's interesting when I watched
Speaker 1: the show. When I came on the show, I decided
Speaker 1: to watch a whole kind of uh bin of the
Speaker 1: shows and your show. Like when I did a sitcom,
Speaker 1: you really don't get it until a few episodes in,
Speaker 1: Like your kind of your first season is nothing at
Speaker 1: all like your character in the thirds. You're really kind
Speaker 1: of short, taking more chances, taking more things on on yourself.
Speaker 1: I didn't do that high voice at the beginning because
Speaker 1: I thought they would definitely fire fire. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: it kind of like every episode gets a little bit
Speaker 1: a little bit, a little bit, a little bit higher. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's amazing because there you and I have such similarity
Speaker 1: because I have auditioned to play Kenneth on thirty Rock
Speaker 1: first and I didn't get the tar and I went home,
Speaker 1: and then they wrote another part for me to play. Crazily,
Speaker 1: Jack McBriar was almost Ron Swanson, No, just kidding, but
Speaker 1: he's not a very beast like you and me and
Speaker 1: I talked backstage about how we're men of a certain
Speaker 1: kind of a code, a certain kind of d n
Speaker 1: A god bless you, and I come on, put your
Speaker 1: money where your mouth is. They didn't pay enough preticket
Speaker 1: for us to do that. I'm afraid. Now. How did
Speaker 1: the parks andrec thing happen? For you? Well? In contact you?
Speaker 1: How does that play out? I auditioned Um a bunch
Speaker 1: for the show The Office, Um, and I loved that
Speaker 1: show and the sense of humor. And I had known
Speaker 1: Rain Wilson actually for a long time because we always
Speaker 1: auditioned against each other for like the weird Guy in
Speaker 1: the Basement for real, for real, and and Rain was
Speaker 1: scoring these victories. He had a great part on a
Speaker 1: six ft under and then he got Um and then
Speaker 1: he got The Office. And Megan and I loved watching
Speaker 1: the off this and when Dwight would have a great episode,
Speaker 1: it would end and I would say, you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm ever gonna make it, it's gonna be on a
Speaker 1: show like this with a part like Dwight shroot. And
Speaker 1: so I had I had auditioned for them like there
Speaker 1: there was a fundness, but I was never able to
Speaker 1: do anything on their show. A few years later, one
Speaker 1: of their main writers Mike Scher, who also played Mos. Shoot,
Speaker 1: that's some of the best Easter eggs. Uh, he's so funny.
Speaker 1: So he and Greg Daniels created Parts and Wreck, and
Speaker 1: Mike had remembered me. He had he had written my
Speaker 1: name on a post it and put it on his monitor,
Speaker 1: and years later, when they said we're gonna make Parts
Speaker 1: and Wreck, he said, I want this guy on on
Speaker 1: my post it on the program. They originally read me
Speaker 1: for a role that was a romantic interest for Rashida
Speaker 1: and everyone. We were all getting along great. Everyone's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is great. And they turned it into NBC and
Speaker 1: they literally said, you said someone like Aaron Eckhart and
Speaker 1: you fucking hand us Nick Offerman. Wow, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: So my part, Ron Swanson, was supposed to be an
Speaker 1: older guy, but they, bless them, obstinately said all right,
Speaker 1: we want Nick on the show. We're gonna make him
Speaker 1: Leslie's boss. And it took months. NBC was like, hmm,
Speaker 1: let's audition several hundred other people just to be sure.
Speaker 1: Let's go on a world tour. Yeah, every guy I've
Speaker 1: ever met read for Ron Swanson, Um, except Jack McBriar.
Speaker 1: And so finally, uh, finally, finally, after five months, Uh,
Speaker 1: they had me in one last time, put me on tape,
Speaker 1: turned it in and I got the job, and my Mike, Sure,
Speaker 1: my boss called me. I had inured myself. You learned early.
Speaker 1: If you're lucky enough to test for shows, you learn
Speaker 1: quickly how painful it is because when you test for
Speaker 1: the network, they have it figured out, so you have
Speaker 1: to negotiate beforehand, so that you can't negotiate once they
Speaker 1: want you. You can't say, okay, I want extra money.
Speaker 1: So when you go into the audition, they put your
Speaker 1: contract in front of you and it says this. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, if you get this job, you will get
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars a week for many weeks, and you
Speaker 1: know you've taken the bus to get there, and you're
Speaker 1: just like, God, she's as scritch, Please you can cut
Speaker 1: that at half if you want, you know, cool, And
Speaker 1: so then you're so crushed when you never get it,
Speaker 1: And so you learn to not get emotionally involved and
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, I know this doesn't mean anything. And
Speaker 1: I had done that for many years. So when I
Speaker 1: actually got the job, I just started sobbing, and I said,
Speaker 1: Mike please keep talking to me, but I'm gonna openly
Speaker 1: sob remember about fifteen minutes it was it was that
Speaker 1: was one of the greatest days of my life. I
Speaker 1: mean it really was such got the job on approximate,
Speaker 1: really was going to get it. It just took so
Speaker 1: damn long. Now we're going to be at a time.
Speaker 1: But I just want to ask you, like, what's entertainment
Speaker 1: in your life now? Like, do you go to the movies?
Speaker 1: Do you watch a lot of streaming TV? Do you
Speaker 1: watch your Because I read what you guys an evening
Speaker 1: for you was what piece puzzle in an audiobook we
Speaker 1: do on a table that you built Missing the Bachelor
Speaker 1: to be here tonight three hour episodes. So I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: that's a really big deal for us. I'm sorry, big
Speaker 1: sacrifice that is. That is our bag, Like, that's our
Speaker 1: ultimate escape, is doing puzzles while listening to audio. Yeahs.
Speaker 1: Anybody who doubts that we personally actually put every piece
Speaker 1: of that puzzle together, fuck you someone someone did it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, she's ready to play Karen again. You want
Speaker 1: to see like a time lapse video of us doing
Speaker 1: it because they don't believe that we do it. Or
Speaker 1: they just want to jerk off to us doing a puzzle.
Speaker 1: Very astute one of the other than you streaming live
Speaker 1: for people to jerk off to your puzzle making. What
Speaker 1: is entertainment in near your household? What do you like
Speaker 1: to do? Theater? Film, music? What do you went to?
Speaker 1: Megan's the entertainment director. Um, we we watch pay watch
Speaker 1: is uh literally yeah. We both love reading. But we
Speaker 1: also we watch a great variety of independent films, um,
Speaker 1: foreign films, comedies, and we watched a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: cable and streaming shows. But we do watch the entire
Speaker 1: entire Bachelor franchise and survivor Into the Bachelor? You into
Speaker 1: you into that? The Battle? Yeah? Oh um, yeah, because
Speaker 1: I wach that show once. It was very degrading. They're
Speaker 1: like begging the guy to marry them, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, the guy's a douche. What are you begging
Speaker 1: them to marry you for? Not all the time, but
Speaker 1: some of the time. Now, last question, Megan's math that
Speaker 1: I cast aspersions on her favorite show. Oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't mind. What's for you? Is there a play
Speaker 1: in your future? You want to get back on stage
Speaker 1: anytime soon? We both love working on stage. Uh. The
Speaker 1: last year I did Confederacy of Dunce's in Boston and
Speaker 1: UH and it was a huge hit. It broke sales
Speaker 1: records for the theater. The New York UH community informed
Speaker 1: us we were not invited at the time. Why do
Speaker 1: you think that is? I don't know, that's way above
Speaker 1: my pay grade. Um, we were hoping to do it
Speaker 1: in New York and then maybe London. UM. Beyond that,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, a couple of plays just
Speaker 1: came my way that were long commitments, and I had
Speaker 1: to say no to them, and it was heartbreaking because
Speaker 1: they were super juice. Aside a new play, is there
Speaker 1: a is there a classic revival role you're dying to play? Um?
Speaker 1: I mean I love a lot of different genres, but
Speaker 1: I think you and I should do ben Hecks the
Speaker 1: Front Page at some point the York. Yeah, we're a
Speaker 1: little late to that one. My friend, Well, there's always Cleveland. UM.
Speaker 1: I love Martin McDonough's plays. Uh there, but I mean
Speaker 1: I could go all night I love. I was in
Speaker 1: Chicago when Tracy Lets started writing plays. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: his first play, Killer Joe, I was one of the
Speaker 1: scenic carpenters on and so I I really love his
Speaker 1: work and I admire him a lot. But when you
Speaker 1: do play, when you're a guy like I love Williams,
Speaker 1: and you track that as you get older, and you go, well,
Speaker 1: I'm Chance and I'm Stanley, and I'm Thow and I'm Brick,
Speaker 1: and there's a big leap to Shannon and then your
Speaker 1: big daddy and maybe the doctor in the Indus street
Speaker 1: Car who cards s blanch Off to the nuthouse. But but, but,
Speaker 1: but I'm not just saying this to be polite, because
Speaker 1: every actor of a certain age is has their eye
Speaker 1: on Shannon. And in that play, you'd be great as
Speaker 1: Shannon is Iguana. You should do the Iguana you should
Speaker 1: do You would be fantastic as Shannon. Now you what
Speaker 1: about you on stage? Well, miss set preising my famous
Speaker 1: TV role? Anytime in your schedule, I've done well. I've
Speaker 1: done three musicals on Broadway and one play on Broadway,
Speaker 1: and then we did something off Broadway together, and then
Speaker 1: I got to do in I did um, I got
Speaker 1: to do Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane, um Carneie Hall.
Speaker 1: So that's doesn't just a lot better than that and
Speaker 1: that role. You know Adelaide. We're both like twenty five
Speaker 1: years too old for it, but it doesn't matter because
Speaker 1: we're both the same. So I would like to do
Speaker 1: that on Broadway with with Nathan Um. But I just
Speaker 1: did another play with with him and Matthew Broderick called
Speaker 1: It's only a play. And then there's a new musical.
Speaker 1: There's a couple There are a couple of musicals like
Speaker 1: maybe um you know Gypsy or Um Sweeney Todd that
Speaker 1: that I could do. But there's a new musical by
Speaker 1: the people who did Urine Town that I'm that I
Speaker 1: did a reading of in New York, that I really
Speaker 1: want to do. It's really funny and wrong. But I mean,
Speaker 1: doing eight shows a week on Broadway is is kind
Speaker 1: of hard. It is tough. I remember I would do
Speaker 1: I Heckt in MacArthur. I did Uh twenty century with
Speaker 1: Anne Hash And when you do too on Wednesday, that's
Speaker 1: one thing. But when you get to Saturday and see
Speaker 1: you have the flu and you're doing two shows and
Speaker 1: it said it's it shows number six and seven. I
Speaker 1: remember we would do the Mattinee and I would lay
Speaker 1: on my couch in my my bed in my dress room,
Speaker 1: and I'd say, I hope that Robber has come and
Speaker 1: rob the box office and then come up to my
Speaker 1: room and shoot me on my bed and kill me
Speaker 1: because I can't go out and do this fucking play
Speaker 1: one more time. So I'm so tired and I'm in
Speaker 1: so much pain. And you know that when you're performing,
Speaker 1: you'll do anything to get you know, the show must
Speaker 1: go on. So like they come up to you and say,
Speaker 1: we're gonna shoot some uh some gasoline in your ass
Speaker 1: to get you to go, and you're gonna take the
Speaker 1: shot of gasoline in the ask to get out. And
Speaker 1: you always have to give it your all. It's the
Speaker 1: thing for people like us, you know, you can't. I've
Speaker 1: I've worked with people I won't name any names, but
Speaker 1: I've worked with people who will sort of, um, you know,
Speaker 1: just phone it in, even god damn it cats out
Speaker 1: of the bed. Well, let me just say that, and
Speaker 1: I'm not being a hokey here. Let me just say
Speaker 1: that whatever you do, everyone here will be watching because
Speaker 1: the two of you are so loved and admired and
Speaker 1: respected by your audience, and deservedly so, because you're both
Speaker 1: so unique and so original, which is which is not
Speaker 1: easy to find in this business anymore. And as two
Speaker 1: of the great originals in show business, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming and being thanks for having us. Thank you.
Speaker 1: This week's show was recorded live at the Ace Hotel
Speaker 1: in downtown Los Angeles, thanks to KPCC Southern California Public
Speaker 1: Radio Alex Cohen, John Cone, Tony Federico, and Melissa La Case.
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing FOURT