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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the

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Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio My guest today is a Juilliard

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Speaker 1: trained actor whose work spans film, television, and the stage.

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Speaker 1: For seven seasons, John Tenny played FBI agent Fritz Howard

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Speaker 1: on the hit TNT drama The Closer, a role he

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Speaker 1: would reprise on its spin off, Major Crimes. His television

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Speaker 1: credits also include Scandal, True Detective, The Sex and the

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Speaker 1: City Reboot and Just Like That and The Lincoln Lawyer.

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Speaker 1: His film appearances include Rabbit Hole, The Seagull, and I

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Speaker 1: See You. A much respected stage actor, Tenny has performed

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Speaker 1: works by acclaimed playwrights like Tom Stopperd and David Mammot

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Speaker 1: on Broadway. This year, John Tenny stars in the new

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Speaker 1: MGM Plus series American Classic, alongside Kevin Klein and his

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Speaker 1: former Juilliard classmate Laura Lenny. With such an impressive cast,

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Speaker 1: I assumed this was an easy show to green light.

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Speaker 1: I was curious how Tenny first got involved with American Classic.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually, American Classic was an idea that my wife

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Speaker 2: and I had been developing for years. Like we actually,

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Speaker 2: I mean so we You called yourself so when Kevin

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Speaker 2: said I'm in. That was when it happened, because this

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Speaker 2: was back in twenty eighteen. I'm doing a play at

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Speaker 2: Lincoln Center, doing this stop and play the Hard Problem,

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Speaker 2: and we go it. Afterwards, we go out to see

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Speaker 2: a friend of ours doing a play down at the

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Speaker 2: Lucille Alerts Ellen New York and Dana Delaney, and she

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Speaker 2: does this amazing play called Collective Rage. But we go

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Speaker 2: see it, and we go out afterwards and we run

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Speaker 2: into some friends, some writer friends, Tom Fontana and John Marcus,

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Speaker 2: two terrific television riders. We all go out, we're talking

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Speaker 2: after the show, and they're telling talking about a project

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Speaker 2: working on in different a television series. And then my

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Speaker 2: wife's goes, well, you know, I have an idea for

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Speaker 2: a television series. And I'm like, what's that. You didn't

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Speaker 2: tell me that, because we've been looking for something to

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Speaker 2: work together. We've done a film together.

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Speaker 1: But your wife had told youion she didn't.

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Speaker 2: She didn't. She goes, you know, we shout having this conversation.

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Speaker 2: She goes, imagine Kevin Klein. That's how she starts it.

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Speaker 2: And she pitches the bare bones this idea, and the

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Speaker 2: two friends Tom and John go you know, that's a

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Speaker 2: really good idea. And after that conversation, Leslie was saying, oh, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, if these professional writers think it's a good idea,

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Speaker 2: maybe we should do this. So that was like the

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Speaker 2: genesis of the idea and we began developing this project

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Speaker 2: soon after that. Michael Hoffman, who Leslie's worked with before

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Speaker 2: they did a film call that they did it with Kevin,

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Speaker 2: they did The Midsummer Night's Dream, calls up. He's living

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Speaker 2: in London. He goes, what's going on? You know, I've

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Speaker 2: got can't got to get something going on. What's happened?

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Speaker 2: She goes, well, I have this idea. He's like, I

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Speaker 2: love this idea. Let's go with Kevin would love this

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Speaker 2: idea too, Let's do this. And then we knew this

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Speaker 2: show Slings and Arrows. Bob Martin created this beautiful show,

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Speaker 2: Slings and Arrows, a Canadian show, and we said we

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Speaker 2: loved the voice of that. And so she goes, well, Michael,

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Speaker 2: you know, do you know Bob Martin? Well, we know,

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Speaker 2: I don't know them. Anyway, we put that those two together,

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Speaker 2: they got along and everybody kept on saying yes to

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Speaker 2: the project, and then Kevin we pitched to Kevin, and

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Speaker 2: you know, Kevin had known Leslie and he known Michael.

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Speaker 2: We never worked together, but we both went to acting.

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Speaker 2: It's the same acting school we went to Juilliard, so

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Speaker 2: we knew we actually had similar like professors and stuff.

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Speaker 2: Back in the day, we all went out to dinner

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Speaker 2: and he said, I'm in. This is great and so

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Speaker 2: that's how it all. And then we hit like serious hurdles.

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Speaker 2: I mean we had you know, we had pandemic, we

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Speaker 2: had strikes, we had studios leaving, a new studio coming in.

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Speaker 2: I mean, crazy hurdles. But it was like this little

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Speaker 2: engine that could that kept on going. So which is

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Speaker 2: kind of, you know, kind of part of what we

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Speaker 2: talk about in the show itself, this sort of uh

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Speaker 2: collective of people come together to put you know, make something.

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Speaker 2: So there was something sort of meta about it in

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Speaker 2: a way.

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Speaker 1: I watched the show not just because of Kevin. I

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Speaker 1: mean I love Kevin, I love everybody on the show.

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Speaker 1: I love Laura and Len. And so for Len, god,

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Speaker 1: what a character he was. Oh my god.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he saved the day, you know, because he came

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Speaker 2: in right. We had been developing, like I say, for

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Speaker 2: a number of years and having some table reads working

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Speaker 2: on the script, and it had always been Harris Eulen.

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Speaker 1: The late late I just booked to christ today.

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Speaker 2: Oh you did that is memorial? Oh my god. I

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Speaker 2: love that man. And and Laura goes way back with

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Speaker 2: him obviously, and know we were we had started filming,

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Speaker 2: we just started filming. In fact, the day, our first

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Speaker 2: day of shooting, we got a call, Hey, Harris is

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Speaker 2: in the hospital. And that was the beginning of the

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Speaker 2: end of that. And and so that was and I

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Speaker 2: actually if you notice the first episode is dedicated to

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Speaker 2: him at the end of it. If you look really

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Speaker 2: carefully in the in the second episode, Kevin and I

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Speaker 2: are drinking some bourbon on the getting drunk on the

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Speaker 2: stoop at the end night. And if you look at

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Speaker 2: the label, it's you reserved and it's got a picture

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Speaker 2: of Harris on it. And we toasted up there, just

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Speaker 2: a little nod, you know. Yeah, but it Selene came

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Speaker 2: in and just you know, at the eleventh hour. But

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Speaker 2: he's extraordinary, extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: Well, the Harris my neighbor in on Long Island, and

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Speaker 1: he and I did a couple of things together, little programs.

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Speaker 1: We did a he would do celebrity autobiography, We did

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Speaker 1: the stage readings of plays. Everybody out there worshiped Harists.

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Speaker 1: They just thought he was he was it. You know

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Speaker 1: that that brings to mind, you know the people we

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Speaker 1: worked with that we really really learned something from. We're

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Speaker 1: just admired. Like you're there on a set with someone

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Speaker 1: in and going, I can't believe I'm doing something with

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Speaker 1: this person. Is Kevin one of those people? For you?

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Speaker 1: It was a dream to work you never worked.

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Speaker 2: With him before that, never worked with him before, but

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Speaker 2: you know, I grew up. I mean he was like

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Speaker 2: a pinnacle for me. And it was like I remember

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Speaker 2: I remember reading I'm a kid. I'm reading this article

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Speaker 2: spread on him in the Times. I guess. He just

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Speaker 2: come out in Sophie's Choice, which was I think his

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Speaker 2: first film, you know, like making that Way, and there

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Speaker 2: was a big shot of him leaning out from the

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Speaker 2: Brooklyn Bridge, leaning out and was talking about this new

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Speaker 2: generation of actors that are like trained and physical, and

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Speaker 2: and I was like, well, that's that's the pinnacle. That's

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Speaker 2: I mean, he's got it all, you know. So I've

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Speaker 2: admired his work like yeah, for years and years and years.

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Speaker 1: He came and did my podcast down in Red Bank,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey at the Two Rivers Theater. Comestey and John

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Speaker 1: Diaz run Or were running Two River Theater down at

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Speaker 1: Red Bank, and I said, let's do my podcast down there,

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Speaker 1: and Kevin said yes and drove down in a town

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Speaker 1: car just that night and did the thing and drove

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Speaker 1: right back. And it's funny how people like that who

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Speaker 1: you admire so much, like he turned me, he goes,

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Speaker 1: He goes, I really enjoyed doing this with you, and

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Speaker 1: he goes, we should do something together. And like I

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Speaker 1: was like, you know, I was like, like I hit

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Speaker 1: a cocaine, you know what I mean, we should do

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Speaker 1: something together. I'm like, you probably see that. Everybody told you.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, we had been talking about this with him,

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Speaker 2: and we all went out to uh we came into

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Speaker 2: New York from Los Angeles, and we all went to

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Speaker 2: dinner at Orso's, you know, and we're sitting there and

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Speaker 2: having to have a and at the end of it,

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Speaker 2: he kind of gets up and he goes, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: we could be brothers. And I was like, my brother,

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Speaker 2: my brother.

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Speaker 1: Now he went to Juilliard.

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Speaker 2: You went to Julian I was in the first class

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Speaker 2: at Juilliard. Yeah, and then I went after vas after Vassia,

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Speaker 2: I graduated. I graduated Vassar. And why did you think

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Speaker 2: you needed more acting training? Well, you know, I was.

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Speaker 2: I went there for my I did a very practical

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Speaker 2: major in drama and philosophy advance I forgot. I always

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Speaker 2: fall back on that philosophy. So look, I wanted to

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Speaker 2: be an actor since you know, the third grade play

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Speaker 2: was one of those things you did. Yeah, yeah, since

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Speaker 2: I was a kid. Everybody kept on saying I'd grow

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Speaker 2: out of it, and I was like, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: I never did. But I wanted the training. I wanted

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Speaker 2: that conservatory training. I wanted to go to college. I

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Speaker 2: wanted to have a liberal arts education and then but

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Speaker 2: I wanted the sort of conservatory training. So that's why

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Speaker 2: I went.

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Speaker 1: To Julia were there.

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Speaker 2: I was there for a year and then I left,

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Speaker 2: and then I came back, and then I left again.

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Speaker 2: I did two years and two different classes have masters.

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Speaker 2: Well they not. You get a certificate. You get a certificate,

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Speaker 2: you know, and saying.

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Speaker 1: Your name is Rockefeller, it says ends there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what did Juliet?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 2: It's over. But you know the second class I was in.

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Speaker 2: There was Laura, Laura Lenny so we you know, we've

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Speaker 2: known each other since we were like in our early twenties,

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Speaker 2: so when she agreed to do this, that was just

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Speaker 2: like old home. You know. We we've done plays together

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Speaker 2: at school and then outside of school, we've done some

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Speaker 2: stuff in New York and we did a film together.

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Speaker 2: But that was like a reunion. And there was a

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Speaker 2: list of actress that Kevin really wanted to work with

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Speaker 2: to play Kristen and the show. And that's Laura, that's Laura.

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Speaker 2: That's Laura's his ex, his ex love. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 2: got a.

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Speaker 1: Big spoiler alert, what's coming about the Supergrass Okay, but

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Speaker 1: that ending of that show was what fucking insane. I'm

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Speaker 1: so well done.

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Speaker 2: I'm so I'm so glad you're.

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Speaker 1: Talking about it and they're both talking about the other it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like you're both talking. I'm watching it going

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Speaker 1: this is I'm crying laughing. Oh good, it was really clever.

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Speaker 1: Oh good, well done. That's Shakespeare and it's intelligence. Well

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Speaker 1: that makes that's made me really good episode.

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Speaker 2: It was Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin did episode eight.

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Speaker 2: The two of them did that together. Ellen Ferry is

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Speaker 2: another one of our writers. We had three writers.

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Speaker 1: It was how many shows did you do?

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Speaker 2: Eight episodes? Eight episodes?

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Speaker 1: Is it coming back?

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Speaker 2: And uh, well, we we wanted to come back. We

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Speaker 2: haven't heard a word yet, but we you know, I

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Speaker 2: think we're gonna know sometime before like midsummer, by end

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Speaker 2: of summer. We should know something.

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Speaker 1: When I watch something like I have things I watch

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Speaker 1: to comfort me when I'm really not feeling my best.

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Speaker 1: The thing that medicates me is old episodes of Alfred

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Speaker 1: Hitchcock Presents. That's very comfortable. Outer limits, twyl I need

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Speaker 1: give me Rod Serling talking to something from my childhood.

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Speaker 1: And every now and then I want some that's pure

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Speaker 1: and clean and and and decent. And your show is

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Speaker 1: pure and clean and decent and clever.

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Speaker 2: Well that's really that means set a goal. Well, it

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Speaker 2: was a goal, you know, we really wanted to. We

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Speaker 2: set it in the world of community theater and the theater,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I think it's been sold that way

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Speaker 2: a little bit, but I think the show is really

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Speaker 2: about a lot more than just that. You know, It's

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Speaker 2: about family and community and and and the importance of

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Speaker 2: coming together to create something of value. And and and empathy,

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Speaker 2: and so we wanted to touch on all those elements

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Speaker 2: and it was kind of a needle to thread, you

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Speaker 2: know that, you know, how do we We want it

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Speaker 2: to be funny and entertaining and I'm glad you found

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Speaker 2: it clever and all that, but you know, I find

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Speaker 2: it really poignant in a lot of areas. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we end up doing this production of our town and

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Speaker 2: like the perfect player circumstances, Yes, exactly, that's a long

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Speaker 2: way to get there.

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Speaker 1: Ony of me missing was the building burning down?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well in that sort of mirror, do you

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Speaker 2: believe me? It was a miracle. The whole production happened

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Speaker 2: because we were, like I say, we've been pushing this

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Speaker 2: up the hill for a long time. But it's nice

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Speaker 2: to hear you say that you responded that way, because yes,

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Speaker 2: we definitely wanted it to be. I feel proud of

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Speaker 2: the show. I feel proud of the company, and I

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Speaker 2: really feel good about, you know, putting a story like

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Speaker 2: this out into the world at this time. You know,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, the older I get it's like, what

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Speaker 2: do you want to spend your energy is doing? And

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Speaker 2: we're proud of putting this story out there right now,

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Speaker 2: if you go to a.

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Speaker 1: Movie, and I want to ask you this as a

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Speaker 1: father and as a filmmaker and a producer, if you

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Speaker 1: watch an act of violence, that it inspires violence and

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Speaker 1: there's something wrong with you. You know, if you watch

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Speaker 1: adult content sexually speaking, then sex is something you ought

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Speaker 1: to be doing. There's nothing wrong with that. So if

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Speaker 1: you watch something that's very sexual, that concerns me too,

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Speaker 1: but not in the same way that violence in films

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Speaker 1: and TV shows concerns me. Now and now it's just

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Speaker 1: like so much blood and so far.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is trauma TV they call it, right, is

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Speaker 2: that what they?

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Speaker 1: I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I've heard that expression out there, and

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Speaker 2: it is it's like you get. I mean, the world

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Speaker 2: can be traumatic enough. And and you know, I don't

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Speaker 2: think the show is just pure escapism at all either.

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Speaker 2: I Mean, you can sit back and you can laugh

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Speaker 2: at it, but it's not there's some stuffy it's not

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Speaker 2: pure escapeism.

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Speaker 1: When somebody on the show is actually the father of

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Speaker 1: your child.

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Speaker 2: I know you to be that way, right. There's other

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Speaker 2: messages to be found in there, other things to think about.

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Speaker 2: If you, if you let yourself take the journey of

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Speaker 2: the show.

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Speaker 1: I want to go back to one thing, which is

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Speaker 1: what did you get from Juilliard when you went to Julia,

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Speaker 1: What did you get from that?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know what what I appreciated about that was

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Speaker 2: the rigor. You know, it was that sense of like

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Speaker 2: I said, I'd always wanted to be an actor, but

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Speaker 2: I took it very seriously. And you know, I was

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Speaker 2: doing community theater as a young kid. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and it was

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Speaker 2: I didn't realize it until I left Princeton just how

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Speaker 2: sort of lucky I was to grow there because the university. Now,

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Speaker 2: my dad worked for the university.

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Speaker 1: What'd your dad do?

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Speaker 2: He was a research physicist. He was a nuclear physicist

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Speaker 2: and he worked there's a fusion test reactor.

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Speaker 1: That's what some of the Manhattan Project was birth.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the Institute for Advanced sh Einstein was at

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Speaker 2: Prince absolutely an Oppenheimer and yeah, but he worked there's

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Speaker 2: a Forest Hall campus. Is that he was involved in

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Speaker 2: nuclear fusion, not fission, and they have a test reactor there.

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Speaker 2: That's why we were in Princeton.

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Speaker 4: And uh and yeah, you know my dad a nuclear

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Speaker 4: physics I know it sounds I'm not trying, but you know,

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Speaker 4: when I went away to look at college, I was like, wait,

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Speaker 4: not everything looks like Princeton.

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Speaker 1: It was.

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Speaker 2: It was What was great about it was what the

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Speaker 2: university brought into the town. I mean, you know, we

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Speaker 2: weren't old money Princeton or anything, but the university brought

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Speaker 2: in this amazing theater, amazing you know school. Oh yeah, music, dance,

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Speaker 2: all this culture because of the university. And so I

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Speaker 2: was exposed to that at a really young age and

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Speaker 2: just loved it. So to come back around why I

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Speaker 2: wanted to go to a place like Juilliard lucky enough

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Speaker 2: to get in there was that, you know, it was

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Speaker 2: a real conservatory.

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Speaker 1: Describe for people who don't know what is a conservatory, Well, I.

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Speaker 2: You you go there and you study voice, you study dance,

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Speaker 2: you study movie, when you study steam study it's very

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Speaker 2: very focused.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: When I got out of high school, I knew I

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Speaker 2: wanted to be an actor, but I also wanted to

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Speaker 2: go to college and study like say, philosophy or history

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Speaker 2: or something like that. You know, I grew up. Education

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Speaker 2: was valued in my family that I grew up. I

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Speaker 2: got older brothers and sisters and I'm the youngest four

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Speaker 2: two older brothers and an older sister. It was one

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Speaker 2: two three, then dot dot dot me. So I was like,

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Speaker 2: you know, id so of course I became the actor, right,

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Speaker 2: and I need to find my guy. I had to

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Speaker 2: have my say at the dinner table, right, So I'll

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Speaker 2: show you. But I remember I was like, what do

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Speaker 2: I want to do? I bett out of high school.

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Speaker 2: I know, this is what I want to do. Some

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Speaker 2: people said, well, don't you just go in and start auditioning,

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Speaker 2: and I said no, no, no, I want to go

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Speaker 2: to college. And then I had the liberal arts education.

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Speaker 2: But then I wanted that conservatory that that really working

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Speaker 2: on my body, my voice, text analysis, all of that

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Speaker 2: was an English well, I mean yes it was. There

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Speaker 2: was a lot of technique there, which is something that's

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Speaker 2: something I think you can go to school for. I

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Speaker 2: mean there's a lot of other things that you you

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Speaker 2: I don't think you necessarily have to go to school for,

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Speaker 2: but such as some of the well look, imagination, yeah exactly,

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Speaker 2: you know. I mean, every every actor comes at it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, look, you know, I mean we all everybody

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Speaker 2: has their own way to add it, but we're all

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Speaker 2: sort of after the truth in some way, and we

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Speaker 2: just get to it in different ways.

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Speaker 1: Right, But my technique seven. Nothing happens to take seven

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Speaker 1: technique or burned the first six.

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Speaker 2: It all comes together a little bit. At the time,

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Speaker 2: I thought, you know what I want to go into that.

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Speaker 2: I want to have that training. And so I went

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Speaker 2: and then and then I left. And it's interesting because

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Speaker 2: you know, I left because I got a job. You're

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Speaker 2: not supposed to work while you're there, and I had

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Speaker 2: been working. I had been you know, doing community I've

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Speaker 2: done summer stock. I had this plan when I when

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Speaker 2: I went to college, I said, I knew I want

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Speaker 2: to be an actor. I want to be in the union.

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Speaker 2: So every summer I was a vasser. That's where I

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Speaker 2: went to college. Every summer I went up to Williamstown

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Speaker 2: Theater Festival to do plays. Yeah, and I started out

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Speaker 2: as an apprentice, and I then went into the non

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Speaker 2: equity company painting sets off and I was like, I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna by the time I get out of here, I'm

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Speaker 2: going to accrue enough points to be in the actor's equity.

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Speaker 2: You know, That's what I wanted to Well, they kept

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Speaker 2: on adding rungs to the equity ladder. So like I

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Speaker 2: was like, this is not not happening, but.

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Speaker 1: Going to a DMV.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're like you're not ready, right right right.

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Speaker 2: So I sort of had this plan, and then I

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Speaker 2: got out of college and I thought, well I still

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Speaker 2: need you know, I'm not equity, but I wanted this

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Speaker 2: conservatory training. But then I started getting jobs and working

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Speaker 2: in the waiver. Well, well, actually, somebody I met at

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Speaker 2: Williamstown while I was there a directing intern. I'd gotten

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Speaker 2: into school, but the last summer I was at Williamstown,

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Speaker 2: I had to make some money and so I said, well,

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Speaker 2: let's run the company bar. And I ran into this

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Speaker 2: directing intern, Melanie, and she had this big boom box

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Speaker 2: and I was like, I need a box for the

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Speaker 2: for the bar because we're this is this little basement

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Speaker 2: where the company comes after the shows and we get

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Speaker 2: to be friends. Smash cut. We're out of the Juilliard.

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Speaker 2: I go to I go to Juilliard. She goes to

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Speaker 2: the city. She starts working at Simon and Cuman Casting,

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Speaker 2: and I run into her to party in the city

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Speaker 2: and she goes, what do you do you have a

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Speaker 2: picture and resume. I'm working at the Simon. They're they're

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Speaker 2: casting this national tour. Mike Nichols is cashing this national

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Speaker 2: tour of the real thing. And do you have an agent?

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Speaker 2: I don't have an agent, but I got a picture

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Speaker 2: of resume. She we'll give me a picture and resume.

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Speaker 2: I'll slip it into the thing. So this woman I

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00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,399
Speaker 2: met at Williamstown slips some of the thing in. I

389
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Speaker 2: get a call back, I get them, blah blah blah.

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Speaker 2: Long story short, I get the gig.

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Speaker 1: You auditioned for him?

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Speaker 2: For him? Oh oh oh, I went oh. I was like,

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Speaker 2: I was so fucking I didn't think I realized at

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Speaker 2: the time. I was like, I went to the bar

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Speaker 2: the house, I walked into the wings. It was the

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Speaker 2: first time I'd been in the wings of a Broadway house.

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Speaker 2: That was like the final callback and Lincoln Center. No, no,

398
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Speaker 2: that was it was what was the Broadway house we

399
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Speaker 2: auditioned with they were doing. I think we might have

400
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Speaker 2: been the booth you toured for how long? It was

401
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Speaker 2: supposed to be a year? It was supposed to be

402
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Speaker 2: a year. And I was at Juilliard and I got

403
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Speaker 2: cast in this and I was like, listen, I gotta go.

404
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Speaker 2: I got the job, and they were it was Brian

405
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Speaker 2: Bedford was the lead in the in the tour National Tour,

406
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Speaker 2: and he had taught at Juilliard back in the day,

407
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Speaker 2: and so they sort of thought, okay, it's Mike Nichols,

408
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,560
Speaker 2: it's this. They sort of gave me a leave of absence. Basically,

409
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Speaker 2: they said you can go for a year, which you

410
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,679
Speaker 2: were probably like the thirtieth year. And people go to

411
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Speaker 2: that school then they're getting jobs. They're like, okay, come

412
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Speaker 2: back later. So I got that, I went out and

413
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:35,080
Speaker 2: that was that tour was produced by Emanny Aisenberg. You

414
00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:38,760
Speaker 2: remember many Iron Mountain Productions producing all the Neil Simon

415
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Speaker 2: shows on Broadway at the time. And the tour ended

416
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Speaker 2: before a year and ended after eight months, and I

417
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:46,639
Speaker 2: came back. I was all of a sudden, it was

418
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Speaker 2: summer in the city. He goes, hey, man, we got

419
00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,000
Speaker 2: all these young kids in these Neil Simon shows, Biloxi Blues,

420
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Speaker 2: Brighton Beach. Aisenberg, you want to come in and be

421
00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:55,879
Speaker 2: an understudy here and do that. So all of a

422
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Speaker 2: sudden I started working. I had this Broadway gig. I

423
00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:02,919
Speaker 2: was understudying on Broadway, and so I stayed out Juliard.

424
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Speaker 2: I didn't go back. I did that for a couple

425
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Speaker 2: for a year, and then I thought, you know, I missed.

426
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:10,800
Speaker 2: I kept on feeling like I need to. I I

427
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:12,440
Speaker 2: kind of want to go back, and I want to

428
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,960
Speaker 2: I want to do the class work. And I so I.

429
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Speaker 1: Won't know why, Well, weren't you getting from working with

430
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Speaker 1: Mike Nichols that you well, no, I know, you know,

431
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Speaker 1: it's where you're not getting from your national tour of

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00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:24,159
Speaker 1: stop art.

433
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,880
Speaker 2: I don't know if I made I don't know. Maybe

434
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 2: it's crazy how I was thinking. There was some part

435
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,760
Speaker 2: of me that felt like I needed you need to train,

436
00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,000
Speaker 2: you need to study, you need to train your voice.

437
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,280
Speaker 2: You trained when you're young. Yeah, you need to go

438
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 2: back to that. I that was sort of in my head.

439
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 2: And and then I went back and I was there

440
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,720
Speaker 2: for a year and I got cast in another thing,

441
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,159
Speaker 2: and uh, and I left. But you know, when I

442
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:52,720
Speaker 2: left the second time, one of my professors, because you know,

443
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 2: when I went to Juilliard, it's changed much a lot

444
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 2: of over the years. When I was there, it was

445
00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:58,440
Speaker 2: a real sort of break you down to build the

446
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,680
Speaker 2: up kind of school, which I don't really agree with.

447
00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,880
Speaker 2: That respond to I don't know. I mean the rigor, yes,

448
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,440
Speaker 2: but like the we got to smash it down to

449
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,960
Speaker 2: build you up is not I don't I don't think

450
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,159
Speaker 2: that's the best way to do it. But when I

451
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 2: left the second time, one of the professors pulled me

452
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 2: aside and he kind of wanted to put a little

453
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 2: earworm in me, just to like stick it to me.

454
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 2: He goes. He goes, you will always feel like you

455
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,480
Speaker 2: could have been better. You will always feel like you

456
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:26,960
Speaker 2: could have been Like he's just like a like a

457
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 2: little curse ever going to get it. And I thought, yeah, yeah,

458
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:35,879
Speaker 2: and yeah, and man, to this day and I have

459
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:37,840
Speaker 2: to say, you know you coming back to Kevin Kleine,

460
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:40,600
Speaker 2: I shared that story with him actually when we were

461
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,600
Speaker 2: working on the thing, and he's like, hey, John, I

462
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:46,639
Speaker 2: was only there for a year. He was in the

463
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,480
Speaker 2: first he was there, you know, the first class. He's like,

464
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:53,560
Speaker 2: I was only there for two years. Like don't you

465
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 2: know he don't. He kind of just tried to help

466
00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:58,639
Speaker 2: me let that go, because I to this day, like,

467
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:01,040
Speaker 2: you have these little things that stick with you.

468
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,640
Speaker 1: You wanted more, you wanted more school, you wanted more

469
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,040
Speaker 1: training after you had you know, now when you work

470
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:07,760
Speaker 1: with something. I worked with Mike. I did my first

471
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,080
Speaker 1: one of my first parts in the movie was Working

472
00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 1: Girl with Mike, and I thought Mike was just hysterically

473
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:14,399
Speaker 1: funny because we take him in there and he was

474
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:16,280
Speaker 1: just everything was right to the marrow. He just told

475
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,159
Speaker 1: you we didn't have time, you know, just cleave right

476
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 1: to the marrow. And he'd say to me, he goes.

477
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:23,160
Speaker 1: I mean, he would always be very polite and say

478
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:24,199
Speaker 1: to me, he goes, how do you see this? He

479
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,080
Speaker 1: was very kind to me. He was so kind to me,

480
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 1: and he goes. Because we were going to do the

481
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,880
Speaker 1: movie Working Girl were Mellie and I were the leads.

482
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 1: And I think I've had like two or three other

483
00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:35,879
Speaker 1: directors say the same thing, So I think this is

484
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,679
Speaker 1: a thing that directors say just to enlist you in

485
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: their cause and make you feel secure. Mike says to me,

486
00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:44,359
Speaker 1: I wanted you to do play the two leads, and

487
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: they told me if I had you with the leads,

488
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:47,679
Speaker 1: they were going to give me thirty million dollars, but

489
00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: if I had Harrison and Sigourney, they were going to

490
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:51,920
Speaker 1: give me sixty five million dollars to make the movie.

491
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:53,960
Speaker 1: And I've been, oh, well, I get it. I understand,

492
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: I understand. I had other directors said now I want

493
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 1: one famous one. I won't tell you. He said, Now

494
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: if I do it with you, they're gonna get gonna

495
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:02,239
Speaker 1: me thirty million, But I would do with these other two.

496
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 1: They're gonna give me seventy five million. I was like, well,

497
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,439
Speaker 1: I understand, yes, of course, and what is this the

498
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: thing directors say, like to get you to play the

499
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 1: other role. But he comes up to me and he goes,

500
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 1: how do you see this scene? And I go, well,

501
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 1: I thought maybe i'd be playing around and I'm having

502
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 1: sex with this girl and she go to see her

503
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 1: head slide down, slide down, and just see me smiling,

504
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: and he goes, He goes, Okay, he goes, that's not

505
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:23,879
Speaker 1: a bad idea. You know, we say that that's not

506
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: a bad idea. And he says, but what I thought was,

507
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 1: you know, she opens the door and there she is

508
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 1: naked right on top of you, riding you for all

509
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: it's worth. And I go okay, okay, And the two

510
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 1: of us had to be like, you know, all our

511
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,280
Speaker 1: clothes off, boom boom, boom, boom boom, and Michael was amazing.

512
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: But Mike then he said to me, one this is

513
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,480
Speaker 1: my favorite Mike. Mike issays to me, he goes, I

514
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 1: want you to do another movie with me, and then

515
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: he calls me up and I'm in my old apartment.

516
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 1: I was just breaking up with my girlfriend and we've

517
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 1: been breaking up for like a year, and it was

518
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:52,760
Speaker 1: really like the one of those shitty relationships that way,

519
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 1: and we just can't seem to euthanize this thing. Mike

520
00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:58,040
Speaker 1: calls me and he goes, I would like you to

521
00:22:58,040 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: do it's January. It's right after the Hall. He goes,

522
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 1: I have this part for you in this movie. And

523
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:03,440
Speaker 1: I said, well, I said, I don't think I can

524
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,680
Speaker 1: go to work right now. I'm really like so depressed

525
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 1: and I'm bringing up with my girlfriend and my life

526
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,320
Speaker 1: is hell, and my mom's been sick and you know

527
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 1: my mom at Breast Catcher she beat it, but everything

528
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:14,679
Speaker 1: was not great and he and he goes, we're not

529
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: shooting the movie until May. This is January, and I go, well,

530
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't tell you how, you know, I

531
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:21,919
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen. How he goes, what

532
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 1: problems could you possibly have that couldn't be solved by May.

533
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 1: He said, I what a thing to say. He got

534
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,880
Speaker 1: me there, Mike, he got me there. But but did

535
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,200
Speaker 1: he help he was it director or was it just casting?

536
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 1: He just turned you loose?

537
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:36,840
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, he completely Wait what was great? Yeah, he

538
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 2: really helped me. Yeah. I mean it's just watching him

539
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 2: to do the whole thing and working with Stoppard, I mean,

540
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,480
Speaker 2: the two of them, it was. It was an extraordinary

541
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:46,680
Speaker 2: Stopp'd like his pieces.

542
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: Are so dry.

543
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 2: A Stoppered is a rock star. He was a rock star,

544
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 2: the smartest guy, could talk about anything, anything, and you know,

545
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 2: a genius and always choosing the right word, always just

546
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 2: the right way to say it. Butcess completely accessible. Not

547
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 2: I'll stand off at all. Yeah. Actually, I just you know,

548
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 2: I got my equity card with Mike doing Stoppard and

549
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,119
Speaker 2: then I just The last thing I did in New

550
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 2: York was this Stoppard. My hard probably was about It

551
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 2: was a play that was done in London with the

552
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,640
Speaker 2: New York premiere was in twenty eighteen at Lincoln Center.

553
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 2: I played the father of a girl who was adopted.

554
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 2: It's about a group of scientists, young student scientists who

555
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 2: and the lead girl had been adopted by you, yes,

556
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 2: as a child, and that's revealed at the end of it.

557
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 1: But I first found him really tough to you know,

558
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:40,640
Speaker 1: it's very heady and very very.

559
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 2: It is very heady. I mean he was working actually

560
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:46,760
Speaker 2: on Leopoldstadt at the time, which is that this masterpiece

561
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,800
Speaker 2: that the last play he did, which was really his

562
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 2: personal story about you know, d deeply personal story that

563
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 2: I think that was the last play he'd written that

564
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 2: before he died. But it was a it was a

565
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 2: very heady thing to come into with Mike Nickels and

566
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 2: Tom Stopper to sort my that. But Mike was incredibly

567
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 2: helpful to me, very kind, although you know, he would

568
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 2: also do things like we're in tech rehearsals and run

569
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 2: through before we open, and he he comes and he

570
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 2: puts his arm around me and he starts walking me

571
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 2: across the stage. He doesn't say anything. He's going he's

572
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 2: walking me across the stage. He's like he's going to

573
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,640
Speaker 2: say something important. He doesn't say anything, walks a little farther,

574
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 2: doesn't say anything. Well, falks little far, doesn't say anything.

575
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 2: Finally we get to the other side of the stage.

576
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 2: He goes faster, gotcha, okay, understood. I remember the little

577
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 2: funny story. We opened in Palm Beach. That's where the

578
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 2: tour started in Palm Beach. Stoppard in Palm Beach. Yeah,

579
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 2: well it's it was the circuit, you know, it was

580
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 2: Palm Beach, it was Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio. There's a

581
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 2: whole Yeah, well, no, the whole Shubert. Yeah, and he's

582
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:56,360
Speaker 2: going on to me. So I'm gonna take everything back

583
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 2: to dinner. And there's this great restaurant there. They got

584
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 2: the best key lime pie. This is a key line high.

585
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 2: He goes on and on about this key limp pie.

586
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 2: You gotta get the key linpie. I gotta get. As

587
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 2: we go, we have this amazing meal, you know, appetizers,

588
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 2: this this Entre's whole thing finally gets to be deserved.

589
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 2: We've got He's got the whole company there, and he's like,

590
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 2: now we'd like key lampie for everybody. Waiter comes back,

591
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 2: he goes, we're all at a key lim pie. We

592
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 2: have no key line pie. Next day we go to

593
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 2: this to the stage. We walk into the theater for

594
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 2: Tech and lined up across the proceeding from one end

595
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 2: to the other, one of these boxes of key lin

596
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 2: pie that he tracked down and he was like, everybody

597
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 2: gets there.

598
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: He doesn't mess around.

599
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, he doesn't mess around.

600
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: Actor John Tenney. If you enjoy conversations about the craft

601
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: of acting, both on the stage and screen, check out

602
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 1: my episode with Tenny's American Classic co star Kevin Klein.

603
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 3: Pacoola would say to me, look, whatever we've talked about

604
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 3: in this scene, what we think it's about, or what

605
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 3: you know, what could happen if you get a different

606
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 3: impulse during that scene. Forget what plan you follow your impulses.

607
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 3: The character was this psychopath and had to be unpredictable,

608
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,120
Speaker 3: and he wanted it to be as spontaneous as possible.

609
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 3: And then again I was blessed with Merrill who Merrill said,

610
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 3: don't be afraid you're gonna hurt me, because a lot

611
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 3: of it was very physical. She said, you can't, which

612
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 3: I took as a challenge, of course, but she was right,

613
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:25,880
Speaker 3: and Picola said, do what you want.

614
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 1: To hear more of my conversation with Kevin Klein, go

615
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, John

616
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 1: Tenny talks about working opposite Mary Louise Parker on stage

617
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: and the irreplaceable feeling of the theater community. I'm Alec

618
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:57,399
Speaker 1: Baldwin and this is here's the thing. John Tenny played

619
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: FBI agent Fritz Howard on The Closer for seven seasons.

620
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: Tenny appeared in one hundred and nine episodes and impressively

621
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: long run for a single series. The Closer was just

622
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:13,879
Speaker 1: one stretch of a career that has navigated seamlessly between television, film,

623
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,120
Speaker 1: and the stage. With so much of his recent work

624
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: being on TV, I wanted to know when was the

625
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: last time John Tenny acted in a film and if

626
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 1: the medium still interested him.

627
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 2: Well, I did a little indie called Ice at the

628
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 2: Bottom of the World that actually did that right after

629
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 2: I wrapped, so recently, but yeah, recently, Yeah, do.

630
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,360
Speaker 1: You find that films are still interest you? You don't

631
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 1: have kids at home now? Your daughter's home?

632
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, my daughter, she's twenty eight, she was. She lives

633
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 2: in la but I think she's moving to New York

634
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 2: in the fall, that's what she's saying. So just as

635
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 2: soon as you got to play, ye would be very nice. Yeah,

636
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 2: she's she's the best.

637
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: She's does TV. You feel like like for me, I

638
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 1: feel like I've done that. I traveled, I broke my

639
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: I unpacked the suitcase, repacked the suitcase. Shoot shoot, shoot shoot.

640
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 1: Now I'm like, I really don't want to work that

641
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 1: much anymore. Yeah, but did a TV show. I feel

642
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: very comfortable with that. Yeah.

643
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think it depends on the project,

644
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 2: it seems. I mean, if I hope we get to

645
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 2: come back and keep on telling the story of American classic,

646
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 2: I mean I would love that. And that was a

647
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 2: real That was the first time I'd actually really developed

648
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 2: something from the ground up. You know, with television. A

649
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 2: lot of times with the TV series, like there's a

650
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 2: train that's moving and you're like a gun for hire,

651
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 2: and boom, you step on the train and it's going.

652
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 2: But there is something to be said about the community

653
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 2: of television, especially if something goes on for a while.

654
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 2: It's more like a play in a way. As far

655
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 2: as you get a company as opposed to film. You know,

656
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 2: you're very close for a second and you're gone, the

657
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 2: travels staying yeah, yeah, no, I understand with all those kids.

658
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 2: Absolutely no, of course, Well, you know, the closer was

659
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 2: I stayed. The Closer was a godsend for me because

660
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 2: you know, I had split with my ex, the mother

661
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,400
Speaker 2: of my daughter. I used to always go like I

662
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 2: would come back to New York. I would do a play,

663
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 2: a movie, or a TV show in LA to sort

664
00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 2: of support my theater.

665
00:29:58,920 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 1: Happened.

666
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 2: I come back to New York and I do a play,

667
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 2: and I go back and make a little money in LA.

668
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 2: Then I come back and do a play in New York.

669
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:05,520
Speaker 1: And that was just the dream.

670
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 2: That was my life for years. And then when I

671
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 2: split with my ex and I have this five and

672
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,959
Speaker 2: a half year little girl that's in LA, I had

673
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 2: to cut off that whole New York life of me.

674
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 2: I was like, no, I'm I'm raised, I'm raising I'm

675
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 2: raising my daughter for in La for you know, because

676
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 2: I got her half the time. So U and the

677
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 2: Closer allowed me. They were such sweethearts. They allowed me

678
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 2: to take my daughter school every morning, picked my daughter up.

679
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 2: They you know, the role I played was you know,

680
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 2: I was. I had all the love relationship, you know,

681
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 2: I had you know, all everybody else ran around, did

682
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 2: all the cop talk and all that sort of stuff,

683
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 2: and then I got all the kitchen sinks, you know,

684
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 2: meaty scenes that you want to do as an act.

685
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't have any of the cops speak.

686
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 2: I just we had the love scenes and the and

687
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,720
Speaker 2: the home drama, and you know, I adored Kira. But

688
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 2: they worked around my schedule so I could help raise

689
00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 2: my daughter, which was and it ran for seven years.

690
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 1: It was like just we looked at at one hundred

691
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: and nine episodes, one.

692
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 2: Hundred and nine episodes to just a God sent you know,

693
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 2: a lifeline as far as that goes as a single

694
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 2: dad for sure. And actually the head of TNT that's

695
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 2: where the closer was, is a terrific guy, Michael Wright,

696
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 2: who's now but now he's ahead of mgmus. We took

697
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 2: this to Michael because he used to be an actor

698
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 2: and when this project we were shopping it around, I

699
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 2: was like, we got to bring it to this guy.

700
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 2: He's gonna love this because he loves the theater. And

701
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 2: sure enough he stepped up.

702
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,120
Speaker 1: And then when the theater for me, the theater is

703
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: something I still cling to.

704
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you no, I've seen you on I

705
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 2: mean what you get a stage performance? Said like, really

706
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 2: was an amazing prelude to a kiss?

707
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: Oh god, you saw that.

708
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty nine, I'd just done a play with Mary Louise,

709
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 2: What you doing down the Old Globe. I'd done a

710
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 2: big Terrence McNally play that was supposed to come into

711
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 2: town didn't end up coming into town, but we did

712
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 2: it down to the Old Globe and it actually that

713
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 2: that started my career at in Los Angeles. Actually, but

714
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 2: she came in and said, you got to come see

715
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 2: this play I'm doing in New York. And I went

716
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 2: to see that, and that was an extraor that Craig

717
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 2: Luke's play was just extra.

718
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: I tell you she knows this. When I did Streetcar,

719
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: I'm Broadway, I'd go on stage. Amy Madigan would come

720
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 1: to my room just for five minutes. It was fun

721
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 1: and I just adored her. And Amy Maddick would come

722
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: to my room. And the joke was she'd say, because

723
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: I smoked then, and she'd say, not a lot, but

724
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: I smoked pretty habitually. She come to my room, Amy,

725
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: and she said, let's rehearse our smoking. Was the joke

726
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: we'd say. So we both let up a cigarette and

727
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 1: be like rehearsed. We said, well, you have to rehearse

728
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,960
Speaker 1: our smoking. So we did that. But when I did

729
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: Prelude with Mary Louise, I went on stage, and I

730
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: don't say this. I'm sixty eight years old now, I

731
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: I think I have enough perspective to know what's really So.

732
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: I fell in love with Mary Louise Parker. Every night

733
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: I walked down stage. I was so in love with her.

734
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: I could not tell you how in love with her

735
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: I was. I'm sure you probably felt the same.

736
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 2: Way one hundred percent, and that strange different. Oh yeah,

737
00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 2: she came in. She comes in sideways to the room

738
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 2: like I remember meeting her and I was like, who

739
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 2: is this girl? This was before shed, you know, taken

740
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 2: off and I was like, who is this girl? What

741
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 2: is the choices she makes? Just mesmerizing. But you know

742
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 2: that I bring up that play because not only I mean,

743
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 2: you were terrific in it, but it's it was so

744
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 2: poignant and incredibly funny, and it reminds me a little

745
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 2: bit actually of American classes in that sense. There's a

746
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 2: poignancy to it.

747
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: There's things I want to do still work wise in

748
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: the theater, I'm really kind of strong on. I mean,

749
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: the last play I did on stage was twenty fifteen.

750
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 1: I think I did all my Sons with Laurie Metcalf

751
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,120
Speaker 1: out on Long Island. Oh, we had a real shot

752
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: at doing it on Broadway, and then Laurie had to

753
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: go do her TV series.

754
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 2: There's nothing like that community to do. What real experience

755
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 2: of the theater? Yeah, well yeah, especially with other kids.

756
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 2: I get it, I get it, but I tell you

757
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 2: there's something about that, a whole group of strangers being

758
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 2: in a room and experiencing something that you get in

759
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 2: the theater that is really helpful.

760
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: It's a part you want to play.

761
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I would actually love to go back

762
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 2: and revisit and revisit the real thing, only playing Henry.

763
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 2: That would be an extraordinary thing to do. There's a

764
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 2: bunch of parts that I've grown out of, but yeah,

765
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 2: I mean that's that's the one that comes to mind.

766
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:11,919
Speaker 1: Action. I mean for me, you find plays. I said

767
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: to somebody, I just look at Williams. I say, well,

768
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 1: you're going to be Chance, You're gonna be Brick, You're

769
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: gonna be Stanley. Then there's that huge leap and then

770
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 1: that's why you see every actor do Shannon. I just

771
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: sad Tim Daily do Shannon. Last year. Everybody rolls out

772
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: there iguana. Yeah, that's all there is until you play

773
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 1: the doctor and Streetcar or Big Daddy if that's it,

774
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 1: or Gooper and I have wanted to do a play,

775
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,319
Speaker 1: but the difficulty is the economics of Broadway now were

776
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: tough too.

777
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 2: Well, the economics in theater don't make any sense. Yeah,

778
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 2: they just don't. They don't.

779
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:44,800
Speaker 1: I can only do that for profit. I just, I

780
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: just I won't take the chance. I did Orphans on Broadway.

781
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: This is the moment where we had Shia and he

782
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:54,000
Speaker 1: quit Shia Labuff and Ben came in and saved us.

783
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 1: Ben Foster saved our lives parachuting in and learned all

784
00:34:57,920 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: the loves and took this place. But we did that,

785
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: and we got merciless reviews. They were like, you know,

786
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: you have no idea what you're doing. You suck, you

787
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,320
Speaker 1: ps you suck. And but I really enjoyed that experience.

788
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: I mean was there were some big problems with the

789
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: production obviously, but I really really enjoyed that experience. But

790
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: I sat down with Bob Cole, Him and Solo were

791
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: the producers, Fred and Cole, who I like very much

792
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: of her smoker. He kind of took me through the

793
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 1: economics of modern Broadway, the papering of the houses and however,

794
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: thy Vinnie works, and it was like, God, this is

795
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: a night I'm never coming.

796
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 2: Well, there's that great sequence with where Billy Carter plays

797
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 2: Connor Boyle in our show talks about the economics of

798
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 2: of his theater. Had like donuts pay, but theatre doesn't

799
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 2: you know when he comes and has that whole speech

800
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 2: where he talks about take your man, Stephen Sondheim. You

801
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 2: know he's a genius. Only two of the shows recouped.

802
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: Who is that woman that played his wife, the crazy.

803
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 2: Elise Elise Kiddler?

804
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: Do me a favorite, Tell her how much I love

805
00:35:58,520 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 1: She cracked me up.

806
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 2: She's amazing, She is amazing. She is the whole company

807
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 2: we have.

808
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 1: And Kevin goes through all four ways you can say

809
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: you have no talent, you have no talent. Finally, and

810
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 1: she's like.

811
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,320
Speaker 2: And then she breaks your heart in that scene, you know,

812
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 2: like you're laughing at her, and then all of a

813
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,319
Speaker 2: sudden you see her hear that she doesn't have any talent.

814
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 2: She's fabulous, she's crushed.

815
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: Tell those guys, Hoffmann, tell them I'm to save my

816
00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: hats off to them. Actor John Tenny, if you're enjoying

817
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:34,280
Speaker 1: this conversation, tell a friend and be sure to follow

818
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever

819
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. After the Break, John Tenny takes

820
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:47,360
Speaker 1: us behind the scenes of American Classic and its development process.

821
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing. Acting

822
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,839
Speaker 1: maybe John Tenny's first love, but it isn't the only

823
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: role He's held on a set. During his years on

824
00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:16,040
Speaker 1: The Closer and it's spinoff Major Crimes, Tenny directed several

825
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,880
Speaker 1: episodes himself well before taking on a producing role on

826
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: American Classic. I wanted to know what Tenny's experience was

827
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:27,320
Speaker 1: like directing a television show after acting in it for

828
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:27,879
Speaker 1: so long.

829
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 2: I directed one of The Closers, and then they had

830
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 2: did a spin off, Major Crimes, and I directed a

831
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:33,399
Speaker 2: bunch of those.

832
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: Did you enjoy that?

833
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 2: I did enjoy that. I mean again, it's like a

834
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 2: New York get on a moving train. But I felt

835
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,360
Speaker 2: like it called on all parts of me in a

836
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 2: way that look, I love acting, but he sort of

837
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 2: is a very single focus. But directing it was a great.

838
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 2: One of the directing mentors of mine said, you know

839
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 2: what it is, It's like painting a big triptick, huge triptick,

840
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 2: but from one inch away, and so you've got to

841
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 2: concentrate on these little tiny things. But you got to

842
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 2: keep all of this in mind. And I thought that

843
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:03,840
Speaker 2: was a great analogy, and so it was. It's exciting

844
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,439
Speaker 2: to sort of be called on, have all those parts

845
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 2: you called on, And I felt a little bit that

846
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 2: way actually, you know, producing, you know, being one of

847
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:13,359
Speaker 2: the producers on this show that was was the show

848
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 2: America classic. It was so satisfying being just involved in

849
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:18,720
Speaker 2: being in the conversations.

850
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 1: Where did you shoot?

851
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,560
Speaker 2: We shot in New Jersey. We're in New Jersey, Mapleo,

852
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 2: New Jersey. Remember, Yeah, yeah, half hour from the city,

853
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,760
Speaker 2: all location. It was cheaper to shoot all on location

854
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 2: then on stages. So no building.

855
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,560
Speaker 1: Netflix is building that big well campus out there.

856
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 2: They're building a big Yeah.

857
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,320
Speaker 1: But you like directing, I do. I do like that.

858
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 1: I directed once and I hated every moment.

859
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 2: Really what you hate all?

860
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: Well, First of all, the story is a legend which

861
00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:45,920
Speaker 1: I won't bore you with now. It's in bizarre because

862
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 1: the producer committed bank fraud that's of his. In fact,

863
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 1: two of his financiers went to prison. I contacted a

864
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 1: family friend of mine, who was a teacher with my

865
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: dad on Long Island for ten years. After he was

866
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,399
Speaker 1: like around thirty two, when he was still young enough,

867
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: he took the test and joined the FBI in Manhattan,

868
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 1: and he was friends with my dad. My dad passed

869
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,560
Speaker 1: away many years ago. He was very young. My dad

870
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: was only fifty five when he died. But this guy, Danny,

871
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:13,839
Speaker 1: will just say his name. I called him on the phone.

872
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 1: He's in the FBI and Manhattan, and I called him

873
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: and I go, here's what happened. He goes, Wow, you're

874
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 1: kidding me. And they go ahead, and these guys broke

875
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,440
Speaker 1: Nevada banking laws and two of them went to prison

876
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:24,880
Speaker 1: for bank fraud. I mean what they did was they

877
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 1: falsified the documents that collateralize the loan. So you go

878
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 1: to the bank, which I mean obviously there's good. There's

879
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: a few of the usual suspects out there, and the

880
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 1: bankers roll there and we're all signing the loans. So

881
00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: they're going to get Imperial Bank, the famous bank that

882
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: would lay out all the money back then, and Imperial

883
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: gave us the money to make the movie, and those

884
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,839
Speaker 1: guys collateralized that with false document They didn't have any

885
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:46,439
Speaker 1: money in the bank. They but one of the guys

886
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: was the producer. The other guy was a bank official

887
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,160
Speaker 1: from the Bank of New York who wrote false documents

888
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 1: for his clients, saying, oh, he's got the five bill

889
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:54,320
Speaker 1: and he's good for it. And then we go and

890
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: shoot the movie. And the producer comes up to me

891
00:39:57,640 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: in the beginning of the shooting first week. He goes,

892
00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm going to do, because I'm

893
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 1: gonna keep current on your acting because we bundled all

894
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 1: your money as a producer. He goes, but I'm gonna

895
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:07,680
Speaker 1: keep current on your acting payments, and i'm gonna keep

896
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: current on your directing payments, and all your money's frontloaded

897
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:11,480
Speaker 1: as a producer because I'm not going to pay you

898
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 1: a dime. I'm gonna pay you SAG minimum fix to

899
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: com and you're welcome to come and direct the movie

900
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: for free and finish the movie for free. This is

901
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 1: week one, and he goes, or per the SAG contract,

902
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:23,120
Speaker 1: the first ad will come in and finish the movie,

903
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 1: and I'll make you come and watch because you'll have

904
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 1: to come and do this. My point is is that

905
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: wh I directed a movie and the thing I hated

906
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:31,320
Speaker 1: most was dealing with actors.

907
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, it's yeah, getting.

908
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:36,759
Speaker 1: Them to do what I wanted them to do. The

909
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 1: lead actress turns to my friend. I'm talking to him,

910
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 1: going to just throw it away, just just do this.

911
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: When she says to you, just like you're you're a

912
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: sales clerk and you don't really give a shit, and that.

913
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 1: When the woman who shall remain names turns to me,

914
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 1: he goes, oh, yes, she goes, Listen to Alec. He

915
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: plays all the parts the best. He's great at everyone.

916
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 1: He can play all the parts in the movie. She

917
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,399
Speaker 1: was like really pissed that I was saying to her, Hey, man,

918
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: we got we got Tony Hopkins. I pay Tony Hopkins

919
00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:01,840
Speaker 1: a million dollars for one week, so I got dan Ackword,

920
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:06,920
Speaker 1: Kim Katrell, Barry Miller, Barry Miller, Barry Millerary Miller.

921
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 2: First television shows I haven't did with Barry My Eagle, Justice,

922
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 2: Thomas Carter with Equal Justice. Yeah, Joe Morton, I.

923
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 1: Love the taste. My girlfriend loves the teast. The communion

924
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:21,240
Speaker 1: Waifer's father. Now, Murphy Brown, you were Murphy Brown's love interests.

925
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 2: I was Murphy Brown's fifteen years younger than that was

926
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 2: Murphy Brown's work. That was great. I was doing I

927
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 2: can't I think I told you. I went out to

928
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 2: do that play with Mary Louise at the Old Globe

929
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,400
Speaker 2: and then I stayed on to do Romeo and Juliet

930
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 2: at the Old Globe. And I'm doing Romeo and Juliet

931
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 2: the Old Globe and a review comes out in the

932
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 2: La Times with my picture on it, and their second season,

933
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 2: Murphy Brown's about to come up, and somebody in the

934
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 2: casting sees his picture in the La Times and says,

935
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 2: this guy we were trying to hire Miles older brother

936
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 2: who comes in and has this little affair with Murphy Brown.

937
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:55,400
Speaker 2: So because of the review of that, they call me in.

938
00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:58,719
Speaker 2: I come up for a meeting and Mike Nichols, bless

939
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 2: his heart, because he goes way back Candy Bergan. There's

940
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,759
Speaker 2: a little call saying, hey, Candy, because they were you know,

941
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 2: I discovered John Tonny and so so that's how that

942
00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 2: all came about. But that was I remember. I was

943
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,799
Speaker 2: so excited to meet her and I get taken up

944
00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 2: to the stage and she's in the middle of the

945
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 2: there she's rehearsing something. She's with a bunch of people

946
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:23,320
Speaker 2: and she's talking to the crew and she's telling this

947
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 2: story and I'm just standing in the wings. I haven't

948
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 2: met her yet. I'm waiting on the stage. And she's

949
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 2: telling this story and she got all the crew and

950
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 2: she's telling a story about when she was shooting some movie.

951
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:34,320
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was eleven harrow House or something.

952
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:36,920
Speaker 2: She's talking a story about where she was squibbed up

953
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,320
Speaker 2: and she's running and she goes and I'm running and

954
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 2: I'm running. I have all these squibs on and I'm running.

955
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 2: I'm running and the squib starts sliding down, sliding down

956
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 2: like this, and they're about to go off, and I'm like, stop, stop,

957
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 2: stops kind of. He says, this is gonna look like

958
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 2: I got shot in the I don't know what I

959
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 2: can say on here right corpus Christie, right right, shot

960
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 2: in the corpus Crisby. Yeah, And then she goes, Hi,

961
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,400
Speaker 2: I'm Candide, So.

962
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:06,560
Speaker 1: Now what do you think about Like for me, it's

963
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,560
Speaker 1: changed so much, obviously, And I'm always haranguing and complaining

964
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 1: about virtual casting. I said, you know, when I was younger,

965
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 1: I said this numerous times on the show where I'd

966
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: go see Jane Jenkins and Janet Herschinson. I'm with Jane

967
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 1: and Janet and you walk out the door and they'd say,

968
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:22,879
Speaker 1: you know, the reason I had a career was they'd say,

969
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: he's not right for Tom in this movie, but he's

970
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:26,600
Speaker 1: right for Bob and the other movie. They got eight

971
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:28,760
Speaker 1: plates in the air. At the same time, they're casting

972
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:30,239
Speaker 1: lots of things, and there are a whole lot of

973
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:32,399
Speaker 1: to us, we're going to put you in something. Yeah,

974
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: we're gonna put you in. We like you, and we're

975
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: gonna make this work.

976
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 2: Somehow, it's so much harder now to get in, you know,

977
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 2: really much harder. I mean, Bernie tells he is our

978
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,440
Speaker 2: casting director cast the American classic. Yeah, Bernie, and he

979
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 2: casts a lot of theater. He knows everybody. When they

980
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:51,160
Speaker 2: were auditioning for young actors to play my daughter in

981
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:55,000
Speaker 2: the show, what's her name? Oh nell nell ver Lack,

982
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 2: Oh my god, nelver Lack just extray. So so Bernie

983
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,399
Speaker 2: gets these submissions, these tapes. He said, we got six

984
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:08,400
Speaker 2: thousand submissions for one part. Narrow it down to hundreds

985
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 2: and hundreds, and they're all these self tapes, these kids

986
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,840
Speaker 2: alone in a room like with a with an AI

987
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 2: reader or their own voice. You listen to some of

988
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 2: these tapes, you go, oh, wait, they're reading with themselves.

989
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 2: They've recorded their voice doing the other lines, like just totally.

990
00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 2: And you know, we ended up, you know, having a

991
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 2: whole rehearsal process and bringing in a bunch of people

992
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 2: like mix and match with the actors who are auditioning,

993
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 2: and all these kids would come in live in the

994
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 2: room and they would be so thankful. They go like,

995
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 2: I don't care if I get this job or not.

996
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 2: It's so nice to be in a room with people

997
00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 2: and actually work with and see people live and and

998
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 2: and and read stuff. Because these kids are just like

999
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 2: trapped alone doing these self tapes. It's a it's a terrible,

1000
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 2: terrible situation in community that it was I feel about.

1001
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:54,279
Speaker 2: Then yeah, yeah, well let me just say that.

1002
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 1: Then let me just say this, which is that I

1003
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:57,840
Speaker 1: wanted you to do this show because you brought a

1004
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: real important thing to me to mind, and that is

1005
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:02,879
Speaker 1: you've done everything. You've worked all the time for years.

1006
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: You've made a living as an actor for decades now.

1007
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:07,759
Speaker 1: And what I love is I watched the show when

1008
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: I realize watching you and the whole group, but you

1009
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 1: in particularly, I watched and I go, you know, something

1010
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 1: wonderful is right around the corner. I always felt like

1011
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: when I was working in this business, I don't believe this,

1012
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: but I started to believe that. It's like I'm in

1013
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,400
Speaker 1: that judge phase. I'm in the phil Bosco phase of

1014
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 1: my career. I have my tennis clothes on, I put

1015
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: the robe over my tennis clothes. I simply behide the

1016
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 1: bench and saying order the jury will disregard that comment

1017
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 1: from the prosecutor. You may proceed, And that's it. That's

1018
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 1: my one line for the day. They call lunch, I

1019
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 1: go to play tennis at the bubble, and I mean

1020
00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: that's I'm in the judge phase of my career. And

1021
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:41,800
Speaker 1: when I see you doing this show, I realized, you

1022
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: never know, there's something beautiful right around the corner. Even

1023
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 1: if you've been doing this for forty years, there still

1024
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: might be some wonderful opportunity right there.

1025
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, do you feel the way about the show, Well.

1026
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 1: I do, you know.

1027
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,799
Speaker 2: I mean, there was a dark period before we did

1028
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 2: the show and was pushing up the hill, but you

1029
00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,360
Speaker 2: have to create it. You have to create your own opportunity.

1030
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 2: So I'm in this show caming back because we created

1031
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,240
Speaker 2: our own opportunity, you know. And so there's a lesson

1032
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:07,720
Speaker 2: there and if at least other things fantastic, but character

1033
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 2: neath a lawyer, Well, I'm gonna hold you to that.

1034
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,359
Speaker 1: No, no, not for your result. I just tell your

1035
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:14,319
Speaker 1: hip with a lot of shit and you walk at

1036
00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:15,880
Speaker 1: it like god. You know what I mean.

1037
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 2: Well, I'm really happy that the show resonated with you.

1038
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 2: We're really proud of it.

1039
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,399
Speaker 1: I'm really jealous. I really really envvi you. Let'say it's

1040
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:23,839
Speaker 1: going to a great, great group of people.

1041
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:24,080
Speaker 3: Oh.

1042
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 2: The same director for all the episode, Michael directed six

1043
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 2: out of the eight, and then Trisha Brock, another director,

1044
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:31,440
Speaker 2: came and directed two of those. Yeah. I tell people,

1045
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 2: come spend some time in Millersburg and you won't regret it.

1046
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 2: You'll feel good.

1047
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 1: My thanks to actor and director John Tenney. This episode

1048
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,839
Speaker 1: was recorded at CDM Studios in New York City. We're

1049
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,840
Speaker 1: produced by Kathleen Russo, Zach MacNeice, and Victoria de Martin.

1050
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:56,200
Speaker 1: Our engineer is Isaac Kaplin Woolner. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's

1051
00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:58,720
Speaker 1: the thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio