Speaker 1: My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast
Speaker 1: is joy. I talked to interest in people about what
Speaker 1: brings them happiness. Ed Begley Junior is a legend and
Speaker 1: show business and he came down from on High to
Speaker 1: talk to poor lonely me in Hollywood. He's a wonderful man.
Speaker 1: Ed Begley Junior. I first met you it was I'm
Speaker 1: going to say it would be about nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: Was it Drew carry It was the Drew Carey show, Right,
Speaker 2: so good on that show.
Speaker 1: Oh man, you're so good on that show. But I
Speaker 1: remember one of the things that really stick in my
Speaker 1: mind about it was that you turned up in an
Speaker 1: EV one.
Speaker 2: I did. That's right. I had one on that year,
Speaker 2: EV one ninety seven.
Speaker 1: The electric car, and I was like, I remember because
Speaker 1: I said does it go fast? And you said yeah.
Speaker 1: We drove around on the Warner Brothers law and an
Speaker 1: Evy one and it was like shelf a shovel that thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was rievable.
Speaker 1: And then they shut it down.
Speaker 2: They crushed them all they did. They did everything where
Speaker 2: they had them in production available for lease and not sale.
Speaker 2: And keep in mind they'd never sold one. They just
Speaker 2: wanted to lease it so they could control it. Right,
Speaker 2: there's a line in Shakespeare I think to condemn with
Speaker 2: faint praise. That's what they did with that car. They
Speaker 2: had all these ads in the la time, not for
Speaker 2: a long time, but they had full page ads the
Speaker 2: electric car. The Saturn logo is as big as my thumbnail.
Speaker 2: Maybe really you couldn't. Nobody knew where to get it.
Speaker 2: I'd pull a group of people, hundreds or dozens, I'd say,
Speaker 2: how many people know about the electric car? All hands
Speaker 2: would go up the GM electric car? Hands would go up.
Speaker 2: How many people know where to get one? One person?
Speaker 2: Maybe nobody knew where to get it.
Speaker 1: I remember, because I remember I'm saying I would do this.
Speaker 1: I would get an electric car. How did you charge
Speaker 1: the EV one was a deal to charge it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a bit of a minor bit of
Speaker 2: work to charge it properly. You could charge it in
Speaker 2: one hundred ten volt, but that was you know, slow, slow,
Speaker 2: right with that amount of current. But if you had
Speaker 2: a two and forty volt line in your garage many
Speaker 2: people do for an electric dryer or some other.
Speaker 1: Apartment well in Britain as that that's exactly.
Speaker 2: That's the standard voltage exactly right. So it's not not
Speaker 2: that difficult to get an electrician to come in wired
Speaker 2: if you don't have it, because there's you know, three
Speaker 2: wires coming into everybody's home that you know equals two
Speaker 2: and forty volts, so you can do it.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy to me that who should have done
Speaker 1: did you? I mean, I know there was that documentary
Speaker 1: Who Killed the Electric Car? Did you see that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in it, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: I didn't see it.
Speaker 2: So it's a good no, because it's a good documentary.
Speaker 2: Chris Payne did a wonderful job.
Speaker 1: Well Who Killed the Electric Car?
Speaker 2: Then they rightly put the blame at several people's feet.
Speaker 2: You know, there's lots of people that did things that
Speaker 2: made it go away. But Wagoner I think that's his
Speaker 2: correct name, the guy at GM. And they said, what's
Speaker 2: your biggest success while you're there? And he said something
Speaker 2: I don't remember, And he said, what's your biggest failure?
Speaker 2: He said killing the electric car?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Really they knew it was it right in the customer
Speaker 2: being something great. And now every manufacturer has electric cars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, they all have to do it now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's do you drive an electric car? You do?
Speaker 2: I have? Yeah, I've had electric cars since nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: believe it or not quite primitive?
Speaker 1: Then what what did you have to?
Speaker 2: Let me be full disclosure player here we're talking about
Speaker 2: electric you know, electric car its a golf cart with
Speaker 2: a windshow wiping a horn, Electric carts with a t
Speaker 2: a cave, electric cart?
Speaker 1: Do you play?
Speaker 2: I do not play golf. Do anything involving a sphere
Speaker 2: or count me out.
Speaker 1: I don't think if you has been a big sporting man.
Speaker 2: No, I'm a bike rider. I used to ski, but
Speaker 2: now I've kind of slowed down.
Speaker 1: You know, I have to say I fell off a
Speaker 1: horse about three weeks ago. Oh boy, and it hurt,
Speaker 1: but I'm okay. But I'm sixty one now, and I
Speaker 1: think I don't think I'm going to ski again because
Speaker 1: because I like, you get an idea of what it's
Speaker 1: like to come back from a fall, and it's it's
Speaker 1: not like it used to be.
Speaker 2: Man, I know I can't do it anywhere. There's no rolling,
Speaker 2: no tuck and rolling.
Speaker 1: No I can tuck or roll.
Speaker 2: I can't tuck and roll.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like when asked to do a job.
Speaker 1: Now I can sing or dance. I can't sing and dance.
Speaker 2: Let's be to my drumming. Now I can do the
Speaker 2: high hat. I can't do the kick drummer. I can't
Speaker 2: do the drummer. I used to be a drummer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. Yeah, that was Is that how you
Speaker 1: didn't start is that you were an actor? You were
Speaker 1: a kid actor?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a I started at seventeen. I wanted
Speaker 2: from the age of ten, but I had no skills.
Speaker 2: So I was shocked that no one gave me a job.
Speaker 2: I had to real wake me when I'm famous attitude,
Speaker 2: and I never got any work. And I finally trained
Speaker 2: and I got work.
Speaker 1: You would do well, no, because no, it doesn't matter exactly.
Speaker 2: You can reality star and next thing you know, you
Speaker 2: got thirteen on air.
Speaker 1: What was your first gig?
Speaker 2: My Three Sons?
Speaker 1: That's right. I think I asked you that before My
Speaker 1: Three Sons, which is in the you know, it's in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame as an American classic.
Speaker 2: It is. It's a classic. Fred McMurray. Yeah, to get
Speaker 2: a star of that magnitude, you know.
Speaker 1: To do TV back then, Yeah, to get a.
Speaker 2: Movie, start to do television. They had a guarantee he
Speaker 2: would only shoot like one day a week. So we
Speaker 2: do all this stuff with him with Fred McMurray on Friday,
Speaker 2: let's say all different actors came in, all different you know, shots,
Speaker 2: angles and what have you. To do it you're done,
Speaker 2: see you next week.
Speaker 1: See what one day a week?
Speaker 2: One day a week.
Speaker 1: I love that. See that's what I miss about the
Speaker 1: glory days of sitcoms that you know, when we were
Speaker 1: doing the Drew Carey Show, we got it down to
Speaker 1: like two and a half days a week.
Speaker 2: That was such a good show.
Speaker 1: It was a fun show. It's lost media now though,
Speaker 1: It's like you can't find it anywhere.
Speaker 2: Is that true? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think there's something to do with the music rights
Speaker 1: on it or something.
Speaker 2: Damn it all though it was so fine.
Speaker 1: It's I don't know where it is. But is Do
Speaker 1: you hear about Drew Carey during the Right of Strike?
Speaker 1: What he did?
Speaker 2: What did he do?
Speaker 1: He kept an open tab at a restaurant in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I think it's called Scribbles or Scrandles or Sandals or something.
Speaker 1: It's a restaurant like a diner that everybody likes to
Speaker 1: go to and Drew captain open tab so if you
Speaker 1: had a w G A card, you can go in
Speaker 1: and get I love that.
Speaker 2: Guy for so many reasons. Another one, he's amazing. He's
Speaker 2: such a great guy.
Speaker 1: Swingers, that's Swing Swingers restaurant.
Speaker 2: He did, didn't It shouldn't shock me for a moment.
Speaker 2: I think he would do.
Speaker 1: His tab was like seventy grand or something for the strike.
Speaker 1: I mean to just buying tuna melts for every right
Speaker 1: for five months, which is but that's who he is.
Speaker 2: I got to call him up an embarrassing when we're here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the thing is as well. He gets embarrassed with
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. It's weird.
Speaker 2: Good, then my work is done.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. Because you're you're a
Speaker 1: child of show business, right, I mean you're at Begley
Speaker 1: Junior because your dad, Ed Begley was a famous actor too, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big actor angry man during number ten won an
Speaker 2: Oscar for Sweet Bird of Youth, best supporting. I didn't
Speaker 2: want any front Broadway with Paul Muni and inherit the wind,
Speaker 2: big big actor, big time.
Speaker 1: So was he hesitant about you becoming an.
Speaker 2: Eye or he was quite hesitant and rightly so my
Speaker 2: older brother Tom, Tom had been in show business with
Speaker 2: him briefly. I mean going back to you know, like Vaudeville,
Speaker 2: that had a Vaudeville act together father and son. But
Speaker 2: it turned out at some age Tom went, I didn't
Speaker 2: want to do that. You made me do that, and
Speaker 2: I want to be playing stickball with the guys, and
Speaker 2: you had me when you're a stupid act and forget
Speaker 2: about it. And then so he didn't want to do
Speaker 2: it for about five or seven years, and he went,
Speaker 2: now I was wrong the second time. The first time
Speaker 2: was right. Now I was right again. I want to
Speaker 2: be an actor again. My dad would like that ship
Speaker 2: is sail boy. I remember my older brother Tom, who
Speaker 2: I worshiped that ship is sailed. But he occasionally got
Speaker 2: him a job on something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something.
Speaker 1: This is the glory days of television, man. Everything was.
Speaker 1: The whole city was pumping with wark at that time.
Speaker 2: Rod Serling he wrote patterns that my dad was brilliant in,
Speaker 2: and Dick Kylie was in and all these Everett Sloan
Speaker 2: was in just nothing but great writer, sitting limit directing
Speaker 2: these TV shows like Twelve Angry Men. Then it became.
Speaker 2: It became it was a television show, I believe the teleplay,
Speaker 2: and it became a great movie and it's still here.
Speaker 2: Patty Chaievski, that's the golden age of television. But you
Speaker 2: know what I think. I think this is the platinum
Speaker 2: age of television right now.
Speaker 1: I hear you. You were on one of the best
Speaker 1: shows ever made recently, The Better Call Saul.
Speaker 2: No Question and Peter gold come on. Unbelievable doing it
Speaker 2: once with Breaking Bad, Breaking Bad, than to do it again.
Speaker 1: I know. I remember I saw Bob Odenkirk. Got kids
Speaker 1: used to go to the same school, and I know
Speaker 1: Bob a little bit, and you know, one of the nicest,
Speaker 1: easiest men.
Speaker 2: I love Bob so much.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. So I see I see him in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: We were dropping the kids off for the school bus
Speaker 1: or something, and I said, what are you up to?
Speaker 1: Because Breaking Bad had just ended, and he said, well,
Speaker 1: the guys that come back to me and they want
Speaker 1: to take the soul Goodman character and maybe do something
Speaker 1: with it. I said, you're going to do it and
Speaker 1: he went, oh no, I can they do it again?
Speaker 2: That's what I thought.
Speaker 1: I didn't And but man, did they ever? I prefer
Speaker 1: Betcle and I love Breaking Bad. I love to tear
Speaker 1: a better call Saul.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's like which child do you like?
Speaker 2: I like so much. But they really the art direction,
Speaker 2: the cinematography, it's like a feature film. Every single episode
Speaker 2: is like a feature film. And then Vincent Peter know
Speaker 2: how to do it. Every episode they have that thing
Speaker 2: like they had Breaking Bad, that that original visual thing.
Speaker 2: You go, what the hell does that mean? Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: flying through the air and a motor home blows past
Speaker 2: the pants. What could that possibly mean? Yeah, a low
Speaker 2: rider car going on the hydraulics. We spent we spent
Speaker 2: shellcasings down on the ground and the window blown out
Speaker 2: and back. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: And then we learn it's it's I think the visual
Speaker 1: storytelling is unbelievable and it's fantastic. But what also kind
Speaker 1: of struck me with Bear Cole Soul was it seems
Speaker 1: like the they had mailowed ever so slightly in the
Speaker 1: sense that for me it made it because Breaking Bad
Speaker 1: something It's like, I can't I can't watch this. I
Speaker 1: know it's hard, it's just too hard. But they kind
Speaker 1: of dialed it back just a tiny bit for bear cales,
Speaker 1: so that when when the violence of the whole or
Speaker 1: it did happen, you were like, yeah, these guys deserve that,
Speaker 1: you know, and all that. It was amazing though, I
Speaker 1: mean just amazing. Does you have fun doing it?
Speaker 2: I had the best time ever.
Speaker 1: I enjoy the act and then I love it.
Speaker 2: I thought i'd be done by now, but I people still.
Speaker 1: Call, well, you're a great actor, right, I mean, you
Speaker 1: no idea what. I'm not anyone who was on my
Speaker 1: three sons exactly, and everybody knows how punctual you are.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never heard of anyone say.
Speaker 2: You know what. I'm going to say something now, and
Speaker 2: I really believe it's true. Well, first of all, the
Speaker 2: first part we all know is true. I'm not Joaquin Phoenix,
Speaker 2: I'm not Meryl Streep, I'm not Bob de Niro. I
Speaker 2: don't have that level of skill. I just don't know.
Speaker 2: Nothing bad about it, nothing, no judgment. I don't have it.
Speaker 2: But I show up on time, No, I do not.
Speaker 2: I show up early every single day. I never cost
Speaker 2: him any time, and I always there and know my
Speaker 2: lines and I remember that stuff. As it turns out,
Speaker 2: who knew.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. I mean, I think that what kills actors,
Speaker 1: particularly on the way up young actors is attitude. When
Speaker 1: you think that you're so talented that people will look
Speaker 1: beyond your behavior, which that's that's not the case.
Speaker 2: My job is to do my job as an actor,
Speaker 2: be prepared with what I think the character is in
Speaker 2: my lines and all that. But then my job is
Speaker 2: also to make every single department do their job better.
Speaker 2: To help the boom man, the lighting guy, everybody, the
Speaker 2: first assistant with his follow focus, hit that mark so
Speaker 2: we can keep it in focus, all that stuff. That's
Speaker 2: my job to make their job as easy as I can.
Speaker 2: Did you get done my job?
Speaker 1: Did you get that ethos from your father?
Speaker 2: Was that he never ever walked to the set. He
Speaker 2: ran to the set. Mister Begley, we're ready for you.
Speaker 2: Now hold that boy, I'm going in. Now start running
Speaker 2: with his stubby little legs. He just ran his ass
Speaker 2: to the set right there. Knew everybody's name, made everybody's
Speaker 2: job easier.
Speaker 1: People have an odd idea about how Hollywood it is.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's a very I mean, it's very worktown.
Speaker 1: It's work based more than anything else. And this idea
Speaker 1: that you know, those actors are millionaires and they, you know,
Speaker 1: going on straight and you go, well, some actors absolutely
Speaker 1: are millionaires and then make a great deal of money.
Speaker 1: But I think the vast majority of actors in this
Speaker 1: town it's like it's a middle class job exactly.
Speaker 2: The vast majority of people just getn't check to check.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I.
Speaker 2: Learned something as far as cooperating and making everybody's job easier.
Speaker 2: I did a movie called She Doubled with Meryl Streep.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that that's a great movie.
Speaker 2: She would come in with some brilliant idea, like she
Speaker 2: has in every movie she's ever done. What's on the
Speaker 2: page is often wonderful, and she always does something brilliant,
Speaker 2: and Susan Seidelman, the director, would say, mmm, you know what,
Speaker 2: I think you should do something else, and she says
Speaker 2: something and I'm sitting there thinking that's terrible. My god,
Speaker 2: She's going to get now scolded by Meryl Streep. How
Speaker 2: dare you tell me what to do? And how dare
Speaker 2: you come up with a lesser idea? She goes, Okay,
Speaker 2: let me take this sowsier and make it into a
Speaker 2: silk person. Here you are did exactly what she said
Speaker 2: and made it completely fine. Wasn't as good as what
Speaker 2: she did. It was like nearly as good, or maybe
Speaker 2: even as good. But she does You could take a
Speaker 2: bad idea and make it great.
Speaker 1: You ever worked with you, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: say any names, but you've ever worked with an actor
Speaker 1: and you thought, what the hell you doing here? Because
Speaker 1: I'm well, I'm going to preface with saying that I've
Speaker 1: worked with a couple. I'm like, I have to why
Speaker 1: are you doing this job if it's so painful? I know,
Speaker 1: because it's easy, and you know, all you have to
Speaker 1: do is just like you say, be professional about it,
Speaker 1: and everybody's cool. That's what people.
Speaker 2: Want, right If you had a reading, if you auditioned
Speaker 2: some manner and they like what you did, try and
Speaker 2: do that for the first take. I want to do something
Speaker 2: else and do that. You want to do something that's
Speaker 2: occurred to your sense of reading? Fine, ass the director
Speaker 2: if he wants to see that. I just bring in
Speaker 2: like a salad ball with different stuff. If you want
Speaker 2: some of this or that, what do you want on it?
Speaker 2: And you guys pick what you want?
Speaker 1: Will you read for a part if you like it?
Speaker 1: Or is that in the rear view mirror.
Speaker 2: I don't have to read often, but when I have
Speaker 2: the opportunity, I'm happy. To my agents. No, we don't
Speaker 2: want you to read. We don't want I said, dude.
Speaker 2: I like reading. I get to go and play the
Speaker 2: part in the room. Then I get to do it
Speaker 2: again with pay in front of digital camera.
Speaker 1: But I guess you do, see. I always I had
Speaker 1: a different thing about about reading for parts. I always thought, wait,
Speaker 1: so you want me to do the job, and then
Speaker 1: if you don't like it, you fire me. I feel
Speaker 1: right because because once I get as far as landing
Speaker 1: the lines, which you got to really do for the reading,
Speaker 1: then now it's mine. I care about it and now,
Speaker 1: and then I get fired. I found it very difficult.
Speaker 1: And of course everybody gets you know, doesn't get every audition.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen for anyone. But I found it
Speaker 1: very tough. I couldn't take it.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking right now, I haven't had to read in
Speaker 2: a while, but if I had to read for something tomorrow,
Speaker 2: for something good, sometimes I get confused, like a casting directory.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, you read for me last month, I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: but that was different. It was great material. This one
Speaker 2: so great, you know, they don't know that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Then material, I get to go and play it in
Speaker 2: a room, I get to play that part. It's gravy.
Speaker 2: If they want me to do it again in front
Speaker 2: of a digital camera, that's gravy.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about because you and
Speaker 1: I have a similar no, no, a similar story when
Speaker 1: it comes to the old Uh yeah, the old alcohol.
Speaker 2: I had a thirst. I like my gargle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did the wage. Were you when you quit?
Speaker 2: I was thirty years older in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: I was almost the same. Obviously, look at just before
Speaker 1: my thirtieth birthday.
Speaker 2: My daughter got sober at fifteen. I got sober at fifteen. World,
Speaker 2: I'd run.
Speaker 1: The world, you know. I look at that because people
Speaker 1: sometimes say, you know, you know, I spilled more on
Speaker 1: Mortal than you drank and all that. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make you better at it now, that just
Speaker 1: means you drank longer. I'm glad I got sober when
Speaker 1: I did, because I felt like, I think thirty is
Speaker 1: kind of a sweet spot because you've done enough damage
Speaker 1: to really fuck up your life a bit, but usually
Speaker 1: not beyond repair. And I convinced you this is what
Speaker 1: I thought. I convinced myself with a shadow of a doubt,
Speaker 1: that I was, you know, someone who had alcoholism. That's
Speaker 1: what I have, Drew, Carro.
Speaker 2: You were sober.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I was sober three years by the time
Speaker 1: I stuck me.
Speaker 2: Too before sat Els, the same thing three years before
Speaker 2: st elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Because gag for you. Didn't you get like ten Emmys
Speaker 1: for that or something.
Speaker 2: I mean, I got nominated six times. I never won,
Speaker 2: but I got you never won. No'sful. No, It's fine
Speaker 2: to get nominated, really is it is?
Speaker 1: But I mean I always think when you go to
Speaker 1: these awards ceremonies and you think I'm not going to win,
Speaker 1: but you kind of you do.
Speaker 2: What if?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I remember once I want to name me, and
Speaker 1: I was like the first time I want to namey,
Speaker 1: I was like so excited. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: that excited. I totally blew my cool. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is the greatest thing.
Speaker 2: It is the greatest a rush. It is a rush.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love I would know.
Speaker 2: The winning rush, but I know the nominated rush. And
Speaker 2: that's fine. That's enough. That's all I need.
Speaker 1: I think you've I think you've had a few. Can
Speaker 1: You've won stuff, haven't you.
Speaker 2: I was nominated recently too for this show, great show
Speaker 2: done by these wonderful women control all to lead about
Speaker 2: women's health clinic. I got nominated for an Emmy for
Speaker 2: that for best you know, like streaming show or something
Speaker 2: or online only show, whatever they call it. And I
Speaker 2: was literally this is the truth, sitting there thinking, oh, please, God,
Speaker 2: don't let me win. I just don't know. I don't
Speaker 2: feel like talking to a lot of people right now.
Speaker 2: Please God, don't let me win. I was actually praying
Speaker 2: that I did not win. I got my wish.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you didn't.
Speaker 2: When you saw the show, you know why? Yeah? People
Speaker 2: say you tried to act so humble, I said, I'm
Speaker 2: obviously humble. Go see some of my early work. I
Speaker 2: have reason to be humble. I'd a lot to be
Speaker 2: humble about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you'll be in a bit
Speaker 1: tough on yourself. But that's the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: what surprised me, I guess, and I think surprises civilians
Speaker 1: who are not alcoholic, is that I thought, when I
Speaker 1: stopped drinking, i'd get bear you know, mentally, and that
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case for me. I kind of go crazier.
Speaker 1: Was he my behavior? But in my level of this comfort?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Was there a period early on where it worked for
Speaker 2: you drinking? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure too.
Speaker 2: I think it. I literally think it saved my life
Speaker 2: before it almost killed me.
Speaker 1: I totally agree, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: I was such a wreck I needed at sixteen seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 2: all this stuff that happened to me. I went, I
Speaker 2: just need to numb my ass somehow. I'll take anything
Speaker 2: you got, right, they give me heroin. At that young age,
Speaker 2: I probably would have done it.
Speaker 1: Well. You know, you were coming through Hollywood when that
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff was around. Did you run
Speaker 1: into it constantly?
Speaker 2: In fact, it wasn't like if you wired, you're fire
Speaker 2: the way it became, let's say nineteen eighty something. Before that,
Speaker 2: it was like, why is he not doing any of
Speaker 2: my cocaine? Is he a n arc? Is he up tight?
Speaker 2: Shall I be worried about this guy? Who is this
Speaker 2: guy that's not doing any drugs? He won't even smoke
Speaker 2: a joint with me? Get him, get the get him
Speaker 2: off the set. It's crazy it was crazy.
Speaker 1: I don't know about like the rise of mariwa on
Speaker 1: cannabis now, right, Like it's it's like people is like
Speaker 1: a Starbucks you can get I know, I mean I
Speaker 1: kind of like that is the drug. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: taken every drug that was available at the time I
Speaker 1: was taking drugs, right, I've taken heroin, I've taken crack, cocaine,
Speaker 1: I've taken cocaine. I've taken every drug, like a lot
Speaker 1: of the stuff math and stuff like that that wasn't
Speaker 1: there or ecstasy. I was out of the game by
Speaker 1: that time. But I've taken a lot of drugs, and
Speaker 1: the one that gave me the most psychotic reaction, without
Speaker 1: a shadow of a doubt, was cannabis.
Speaker 2: And but high end cannabis, not the kind of cannabis
Speaker 2: day of today, right.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who knows.
Speaker 1: From a store I was buying from a guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I mean, it produced in me
Speaker 1: a psychosis, which I still makes me a little uncomfortable
Speaker 1: to talk about thirty plus years later, thirty two years later, nearly.
Speaker 2: I actually, now that I think of it, for only
Speaker 2: a moment, I had the same reaction most of the
Speaker 2: time when I smoked pot, I got extremely paranoid. Yep, I,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I'm in the post office, the post office.
Speaker 2: What am I doing the DMV.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. No, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: cool thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it shouldn't be scary to be in the DMV.
Speaker 1: No, it shouldn't be wow.
Speaker 2: Well for other reasons.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of weird though, because there is this
Speaker 1: kind of the orthodoxy, because because everything is about media orthodoxy.
Speaker 1: I think, right now, you've got to you got to
Speaker 1: say the right thing, or you're in trouble. Right, And
Speaker 1: the implication is that if you, I feel anyway, if
Speaker 1: you say anything negative about cannabis, that you're somehow you know,
Speaker 1: like slightly to the right of Hitler when it comes to,
Speaker 1: you know, social interaction. I'm like, no, I just don't
Speaker 1: like it at all, and never did.
Speaker 2: I never did either. I I kept doing it. Well.
Speaker 1: I see, I loved that alcohol.
Speaker 2: I loved it too.
Speaker 1: I love this work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you could get it anywhere. Yeah, it was okay
Speaker 2: to drink it. I used to drink it on this
Speaker 2: that in a scene. I would ask the prop man,
Speaker 2: I said, now, don't get don't give me that near
Speaker 2: beer stuff I want. I need it for my character.
Speaker 2: I need real beer. The movie was blue collar, and
Speaker 2: there's a shot in it you can see not that. Well,
Speaker 2: it's a good movie. It's worth seeing. I don't see
Speaker 2: it just for this, of course, just when I was
Speaker 2: walking in my car and I'm clearly really drunk or
Speaker 2: I'm a brilliant actor, or I'm really drunk. It's the latter.
Speaker 1: Well, they're not mutually exclusive conditions. I mean, there's been
Speaker 1: prenny are really good actors who were really drunk while
Speaker 1: they were acting.
Speaker 2: That's why, that's why I drank. Now that you remind me,
Speaker 2: it was your brothers, you know in England that were
Speaker 2: the ones that you know, Burton O'Toole, all those guys,
Speaker 2: you know, all those guys.
Speaker 1: Date or sober though all those guys now they all
Speaker 1: either died of drink or I mean Tony got sober
Speaker 1: and uh.
Speaker 2: Not a few of the others did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it was I remember I talked
Speaker 1: to as a director. I know, do you know Peter Medak.
Speaker 2: Peter Maddock? I know, I love Peter mad Yeah, isn't
Speaker 2: he great? He's a great guy.
Speaker 1: He's a lovely guy. He directed The Ruling Class.
Speaker 2: What a good movie that was?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was Tool was in that movie. He
Speaker 1: was Drake and he said, yeah it was.
Speaker 2: It was insane and Caroline Seymour was in it so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's a crazy film.
Speaker 2: Crazy film.
Speaker 1: But these movies these kind of like, I guess that
Speaker 1: would be the seventies, late sixties, early.
Speaker 2: I think so, I think it's seventies.
Speaker 1: I mean that kind of almost like Easy Riders was
Speaker 1: an easy rat of Raging Bull.
Speaker 2: What aod? Did you read that book? So?
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you Was it accurate? Do you think at
Speaker 1: that time? Because you were?
Speaker 2: But I knew of those movies. I was not on
Speaker 2: those movies. I was not Easy Writer Raging Bull, but
Speaker 2: on a lot of those movies that those same people did.
Speaker 2: I worked with Bob Rafelson, for instance. I worked with
Speaker 2: Paul Schrader and in my book I talk about you
Speaker 2: know what set was like in that book, and believe me,
Speaker 2: it was the wild West.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it kind of I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: a little bit because the biography tell me the title again.
Speaker 2: To the Temple of Tranquility and step on it.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, it's the story of growing well,
Speaker 1: it's your life story, but growing up around those sets,
Speaker 1: it must have been very strange. I don't know anython
Speaker 1: get made. I mean, I don't know how you could
Speaker 1: make a movie with a cell phone, never mind everybody
Speaker 1: being high on cocaine.
Speaker 2: You look at some of these old episodes of I
Speaker 2: don't know, Charlie's Angels. I'm not picking on them specifically,
Speaker 2: but I think it might have been that show, any show,
Speaker 2: And I worked on that show in the seventies, so
Speaker 2: I should probably shut up. But I mean lots of
Speaker 2: shows like that. The writing is so incredibly bizarre, and
Speaker 2: then you find out everybody was high on something. Everybody
Speaker 2: everybody was high on something.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you if you get a show
Speaker 1: like Fantasy Island, right, which runs for years and years
Speaker 1: and years. So Li Sister print money, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: really it is. But that kind of thing doesn't really.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it exists, but it doesn't. It
Speaker 1: exists in kind of like the Netflix thing, Like some
Speaker 1: people make a ton of money, but the actual formula
Speaker 1: of making these big network shows, I think that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of over.
Speaker 2: It is a lot that. Yeah, that formulae.
Speaker 1: Stuff yeah, which is a shame because I kind of
Speaker 1: loved it. But you know, everything changes. The new the
Speaker 1: TV is dr it is better, no doubt about it. Now. Listen,
Speaker 1: you are comedic royalty. It's true because of if for
Speaker 1: nothing else, and there's a large, large body of work,
Speaker 1: but for nothing else, you have a role, into my mind,
Speaker 1: the greatest comedy movie of the last fifty years, which
Speaker 1: is of course Spinal Tap. I agree, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it isn't an amazing piece of work. Were
Speaker 1: you guys aware when you were doing it that you
Speaker 1: had I mean, it looks to me like a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. But having interacted a little bit with to forget,
Speaker 1: he's not what I thought he would be. He's very
Speaker 1: He's quite a serious person, I think, isn't he.
Speaker 2: He is a very serious man about his work and everything.
Speaker 2: And he's because of that he makes brilliant movies.
Speaker 1: He sure does.
Speaker 2: Rob Reiner and the guys, Harry Sheer and Michael McKean,
Speaker 2: all of them. When I did it, I had no
Speaker 2: idea what was going to happen with it all. In fact,
Speaker 2: it was purported to be just like a part of
Speaker 2: the sizzle reel. They're going to do to raise money
Speaker 2: because it was kind of kinescope looking stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: old footage looking stuff where that we're playing there, like
Speaker 2: black and white mop top kind of stuff. And so
Speaker 2: that's what we did. Then about a year later they went,
Speaker 2: you know what, they got the funding to do the movie,
Speaker 2: so they want to use that sizzle reel kind of
Speaker 2: stuff that we shot low res is a feature, it's
Speaker 2: not a bug. So they and we signed contracts to
Speaker 2: allow it to be used in a sag movie. And
Speaker 2: that's my memory of how it happened.
Speaker 1: It's funny, so it was kind of pieced together a
Speaker 1: little bit. So lucky to be in it, but you
Speaker 1: became part of that kind of loose repertory company that
Speaker 1: Christopher Guest put together for you know, A Mighty Wind
Speaker 1: and these movies. So did you do best in the
Speaker 1: show as well? You did best Show.
Speaker 2: And that's how Chris Guest single handily sprung me out
Speaker 2: of movie jail. I was in movie jail in the
Speaker 2: nineties because I'd done a bunch of movies that weren't
Speaker 2: successful box office and got poor reviews. So by nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety it was like, yeah, Ed's fine, but who else
Speaker 2: you got and I wouldn't get. I didn't get a
Speaker 2: lot of studio work. I could go up to Canada
Speaker 2: do a movie with a little girl and a bear.
Speaker 2: I could go Australian movie with a little girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah I did. I went to Florida. I did a
Speaker 1: movie with a token dog. I know what you mean.
Speaker 2: I did Miss Bear True Story, and I did Joey
Speaker 2: in Australia. So that's what I did. But I gotta
Speaker 2: do it though exactly I kept working. I did a
Speaker 2: lot of TV. So don't throw any benefits from me.
Speaker 2: But Chris Guests single handily by putting me invest in
Speaker 2: Show in nineteen ninety nine, I believe was the hear yeah,
Speaker 2: he busted me out of movie jails.
Speaker 1: It's a great movie. It is a great movie. The
Speaker 1: method of working, I mean, there's been a lot talked
Speaker 1: about it. Is it as is it as improvisational? Is
Speaker 1: it fields? Or is it more scripted than people realize?
Speaker 2: It is as improvisational as you could imagine. Really, Chris
Speaker 2: Guest and Eugene Levy, that's who did the first like
Speaker 2: three of them did the you know, Best in Show,
Speaker 2: Guffman Best in Show in a mighty win. Then After that,
Speaker 2: it's been Jim Pittick, the wonderful Jim Pittock too great.
Speaker 1: He was on the Drew Case show as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's fantastic, great guard too. I love him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they would take the time and do the hard
Speaker 2: work of writing the treatment, the twenty five page treatment,
Speaker 2: so Best in Show, for instance, all it has on
Speaker 2: the page is Jerry and Cookie Fleck, which is Eugene
Speaker 2: Levy and Katherine O'Hara. So I can't go wrong. I
Speaker 2: got to just stand there and not break up. Jerry
Speaker 2: and Cookie Fleck try to check in the hotel. The
Speaker 2: credit card doesn't work.
Speaker 1: That's it, right, And that's a great premise for people
Speaker 1: like that to work.
Speaker 2: So from there, it's like, you know the court, it's
Speaker 2: the G minor seventh that you're going to be playing here,
Speaker 2: and just now start riffing. And that's what we do.
Speaker 2: We just play. They give you the chord, chard or
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it of the treatment, and
Speaker 2: then you blow some notes after that.
Speaker 1: Now you talk about it in terms of musicianship, which
Speaker 1: makes perfect sense because all of these guys are all musicians.
Speaker 1: They're all the musicians. Are you? Are you a player?
Speaker 1: To you still play.
Speaker 2: I do not play anymore. My neurological condition dictates otherwise.
Speaker 1: You haven't usological condition. I do.
Speaker 2: I have Parkinson's. I kind of spoiled the last chapter.
Speaker 1: I'm shocked to hear you say it.
Speaker 2: And I'm very happy that you don't know it. I'm
Speaker 2: doing pretty good. This is the way Parkinson's can be
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Your hands are not shaken at all.
Speaker 2: I know I could pass the sobriety checkpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I'm well. Do you feel okay? When did
Speaker 1: that happen?
Speaker 2: I feel okay. It happened in two thousand and four.
Speaker 2: I got it. I didn't even know I had it
Speaker 2: for twelve years. Twenty sixteen, I got diagnosed. And I've
Speaker 2: done all this stuff the AMA kind of neurologists tell
Speaker 2: you to do. Then for extra credit, I did other
Speaker 2: holistic things that have helped too.
Speaker 1: So like, let's let me guess you you you already
Speaker 1: didn't drink alcohol, so you probably stopped eating meat and
Speaker 1: dairy and stuff that vegan.
Speaker 2: I've been a vegan for a while. Yeah, And so
Speaker 2: also I started doing uh, I always did vigorous exercise.
Speaker 2: I upped the and a bit there. I do a
Speaker 2: lot of very useful exercise. I do something called glutathion.
Speaker 2: I do something it's something that's good for people who
Speaker 2: have neurological conditions. It kind of helps ease the uh,
Speaker 2: you know, the nervous system from kind of zopping out
Speaker 2: a little bit, right, And NAD helps to Hyperbaric chamber
Speaker 2: actually helped me to Wow. You go in a hyperbaric
Speaker 2: chamber and you get an oxygen rich infusion there for
Speaker 2: the hour that you're in there. That helps a lot.
Speaker 2: And even and stem cells. There's places you can get
Speaker 2: stem cells and that's helped me too.
Speaker 1: That's kind of I remember when my kids were born.
Speaker 1: They just started with the oldest boy that you could
Speaker 1: get the from the bilical cord. They would take it,
Speaker 1: I store it right stem cells if it was ever
Speaker 1: needed for treatment later on.
Speaker 2: Very smart, that's what they're doing. Stem cell is a
Speaker 2: very good way to go too.
Speaker 1: So what do they do. They just like inject some
Speaker 1: kind of mixture of it into you. It makes you
Speaker 1: feel better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, They give you an ivy with stem cells in
Speaker 2: it for about thirty minutes with some gluecoase, and they
Speaker 2: give you four injections wherever you have a little bit
Speaker 2: of body fat. I have a little bit of body
Speaker 2: fat my abdomen, So they give you four shots there.
Speaker 1: Where I'd get it as well, or my ass.
Speaker 2: I should probably get it there too. Read it around.
Speaker 1: I've got plenty of body fat. But I hope that's
Speaker 1: where it stops. For note, I had no idea. I
Speaker 1: mean for me, that's great, because you don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't come across as anyone who's even remotely infirm
Speaker 1: in any way. You just look like, yo, it's dead.
Speaker 2: Bless you.
Speaker 1: It's the truth.
Speaker 2: I had a similar reaction for people I worked with
Speaker 2: on two separate TV series, and I said, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for being so patient with my Parkinson's and went,
Speaker 2: what the hell are you talking?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's really it's a I'm genuinely shocked
Speaker 1: to hear you. I mean, I had no idea. Let's
Speaker 1: just see. This is why I never read the book
Speaker 1: or see the movie before I talk to someone, because
Speaker 1: I used to say to me when I was doing
Speaker 1: late night the would say you have to see the
Speaker 1: movie before the guest comes on, and I'd be like why,
Speaker 1: They said, well, then you can talk about the movie
Speaker 1: I said, But truly, the idea is that if we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about a movie, that nobody has seen
Speaker 1: this movie. So if the actor who's in the movie
Speaker 1: talks to me about it and I ask questions about
Speaker 1: the movie, I'm asking the questions that other people who
Speaker 1: have not yet seen the movie you're going to ask.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the way to do it?
Speaker 2: Whatever you're doing, this is one of the best interviewers
Speaker 2: I've ever had. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it,
Speaker 2: my friend. I'm enjoying this.
Speaker 1: But I kind of feel like interviews, like everything in life, marriage, family,
Speaker 1: to a degree, you can't really do this, but marriage, relationships, movies, interviews,
Speaker 1: everything is casting. Everything is casting.
Speaker 2: You know that. I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think it is like I've directed one movie and
Speaker 1: I compromised and compromised and compromised on casting. Now I
Speaker 1: directed this movie, I wrote the movie, I'm in the movie,
Speaker 1: and I don't like the movie. Now, how did that happen?
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, because I pushed the name of this movie.
Speaker 1: It's called I'll Be There, and it's now I really
Speaker 1: really want to see You should see the movie because
Speaker 1: it's some people like the movie. I don't like the movie,
Speaker 1: and I've never liked the movie. And the reason why
Speaker 1: I never liked the movie, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that like some of the actors in the movie,
Speaker 1: like I was like very happy to have them, and
Speaker 1: they're good actors, but it wasn't the way I wanted
Speaker 1: it to be. I compromised on a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and in the end, it just didn't. And I think
Speaker 1: the other piece of casting, the greatest mistake I made
Speaker 1: in casting is that I put myself in the movie interesting,
Speaker 1: and that was did you ever do that? Did you
Speaker 1: ever direct?
Speaker 2: I directed a couple of NYPD Blue, but I wasn't
Speaker 2: in any of them. So yeah, I made it just
Speaker 2: nothing but fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet you'd enjoyed it. See, I should never
Speaker 1: have put myself in the movie. First of all, I
Speaker 1: was not as good an actor as anyone else who
Speaker 1: had cast in the movie. They were all much better
Speaker 1: actors than me. I'm sitting there in the you know,
Speaker 1: watching the rushes, which we used to have back then,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm watching the dailies and I'm going,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I suck and they're all good. This
Speaker 1: is terrible. And we try and cut around it, but
Speaker 1: it's it's very definitely. I think good actors, weirdly enough,
Speaker 1: and you have this have an odd lack of vanity
Speaker 1: because people think of actors as being vain, but actually
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a little more complex than that.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're vain at all. I think they're
Speaker 1: wildly insecure. But if you give them something to be,
Speaker 1: they can relax, right, you know what I mean. It's like,
Speaker 1: here's your personality, here's who you are, here's what you think,
Speaker 1: here's how you react. And I think there are certain
Speaker 1: personalities and actor you know, who are good actors that go,
Speaker 1: oh that's great. No, No, I know how to be
Speaker 1: and how to do things.
Speaker 2: I'm one of those people. I love being directed. I
Speaker 2: come in with something sometimes, you know, I have my choice.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good at all,
Speaker 2: and the director says, why don't you try it this way?
Speaker 2: I go, how could I have missed that? That's like
Speaker 2: eighty five times better than what I had in mind?
Speaker 2: How could I not think of that generally the general
Speaker 2: category of something like that. That's so brilliant and not
Speaker 2: at all what I came in with.
Speaker 1: Have you ever worked with someoney, You've thought this guy
Speaker 1: there's no idea what he's doing.
Speaker 2: I think that of myself. On the take one, I think,
Speaker 2: oh god, I know i'm talking.
Speaker 1: About you know, I'm talking about you and secure, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about what am.
Speaker 2: I going to do? I've seen that happen. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: sometimes they cut it together in the editing room and
Speaker 2: you go, you would never know in a million years.
Speaker 2: Know there's a performing something and right now, very very
Speaker 2: famous actor. And he did it one line at a time.
Speaker 2: He somehow just couldn't get his lines two in a row.
Speaker 2: Had to do it one single line at a time.
Speaker 2: And he did it. And I went, this is going
Speaker 2: to be a disaster. They're gonna have to reshoot it.
Speaker 2: Cut it together. It looks fantastic. You never you never know.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, amazing. I remember I did you remember Rod Steiger? Oh?
Speaker 2: I loved I got to know him a tiny bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to know him a little bit. First
Speaker 1: movie I did in Hollywood was a vampire movie, which
Speaker 1: I think was maybe in his last movie. It was
Speaker 1: a movie called man what was it called Modern Vampires?
Speaker 1: I think, and exactly as you would think, you know what,
Speaker 1: I mean, like like a schlock vampire movie. I think
Speaker 1: Ky Elfman directed it, Danny Elfman's brother. Oh wow, And
Speaker 1: it was it was fun and crazy and sort of
Speaker 1: I think it was awful on purpose, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was awful, but it was kind of
Speaker 1: awful on purpose, like right, Bobby Pasta rarely played Dracula.
Speaker 2: By a way.
Speaker 1: I'm laughing, I know, because Bobby Pasarelli was like, he's
Speaker 1: a guy from Brooklyn. How he's doing the creatures of
Speaker 1: the Night, the Sun and all that. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like crazy, you know, Bobby Passli's paying Dragon and Rod
Speaker 1: Steiger was playing Professor van helsing and fucking nuts. But
Speaker 1: I remember sitting with Rod Steiger in a in a
Speaker 1: car one night and I was talking to him, obviously
Speaker 1: about on the Waterfront because you know that scene he
Speaker 1: does with Brando when Brando does the you know, I
Speaker 1: could have been a contender.
Speaker 2: When I am in the.
Speaker 1: Back of the cab and he said he didn't like Brando.
Speaker 1: He said he didn't he didn't get along with Brando,
Speaker 1: said it was terrible actor at work with He didn't
Speaker 1: did enjoy working with him. He said that he would
Speaker 1: never stay for a reverse show. He would never do
Speaker 1: any off camera working, which is mean you got to
Speaker 1: do that, you do that, and he said, and he
Speaker 1: would never do that for the singles in the cab
Speaker 1: show when they're doing you should have taken care of me, Jony,
Speaker 1: I could have been a contender and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. And so I went and I looked at it,
Speaker 1: and it's all in a two show, you know, it's
Speaker 1: all there's both of them in the show all the time.
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting. I was like, right, maybe that's
Speaker 1: what he was doing. Maybe he was forcing, maybe he
Speaker 1: was doing you a favor, because it's an odd thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, Brando clearly was Do you ever meet him?
Speaker 2: I knew him fairly well. Yeah, I got a nice
Speaker 2: chapter about it in the book. Really yes, did.
Speaker 1: You get along very well? Good? Because I've heard terrible stories,
Speaker 1: but I never met, so I don't know.
Speaker 2: But the reason I kept getting asked up there to
Speaker 2: visit him was I knew the ground rules. He never
Speaker 2: ever ever wanted to talk about acting, writing, directing, clamation, puppetry,
Speaker 2: trained seals, anything that was like show business. He wouldn't
Speaker 2: talk about. You'd be done, you'd be out of the rolodex.
Speaker 2: What did you guys talk about drywall, steel pipe, galvanized
Speaker 2: pipe versus copper pipe, you know, panels, wind turbines.
Speaker 1: Oh, he was interested in green stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, electric eels is a power source?
Speaker 1: Is that possible? Come on?
Speaker 2: Not remotely?
Speaker 1: No, I didn't think so.
Speaker 2: So I dissuaded him with that thought. He literally wanted
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: Well, the idea of electric eels as I mean, fuck,
Speaker 1: that would be great though. Imagine how cool it would
Speaker 1: be just fill your car up with eels.
Speaker 2: But he wanted to do them in a motor or something,
Speaker 2: and he thought you could put an anode in a
Speaker 2: catherine in the water and get current. But before that,
Speaker 2: when he called me up this time, I thought, wow,
Speaker 2: this is finally it, this is the big day. Called
Speaker 2: me up and he goes edward ed the bagel. It's
Speaker 2: bran Flake's. You need to get up here as soon
Speaker 2: as possible. I've got a project I want to do
Speaker 2: with you. I've got all the funding in place, I've
Speaker 2: got distribution. Get up here quickly, please, for God's sake,
Speaker 2: we got to talk about this project, project, distribution, funding,
Speaker 2: Let's go. I finally he wants to talk acting and
Speaker 2: it's with me. I normally rude my bike up there.
Speaker 2: I took my car and wants chewing pen to get
Speaker 2: the job, so I raced up there. He wanted to
Speaker 2: talk about elect keels distributing. He had the funding for
Speaker 2: the electric heels, he had the distribution. Here was a
Speaker 2: wonderful project he wanted to do with me, and he
Speaker 2: wanted to use electric heels to power his house.
Speaker 1: It's it's a shamement never gave bus.
Speaker 2: I mean, I thought he was winding me up, but
Speaker 2: he was serious about it.
Speaker 1: You really wanted to use the electric kills.
Speaker 2: I literally thought it was possible.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: He had a vision for my wind turbine, and he went,
Speaker 2: you still have that wind turbine in the desert. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I still have it. How would you like to increase
Speaker 2: the power one hundred percent? Percent? One hundred percent? How
Speaker 2: can you increase it one hundred percent? And he draws
Speaker 2: a picture of like like a corner copy with en cutoff,
Speaker 2: or an ear trumpet or a funnel right in front
Speaker 2: of my wind turbine. I said, do you know how
Speaker 2: big my wind turbine is? Because it's like he had
Speaker 2: a little drawing of it. I said, it's one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty feet, So.
Speaker 1: You have a giant wind turbine.
Speaker 2: I had a wind turbine in the California Desert. I
Speaker 2: was just part of a wind farm. I invested in it.
Speaker 2: So he knew that. And the thing he had in
Speaker 2: front of this funnel would have made that like three
Speaker 2: hundred feet. It would, I said, it would tear down
Speaker 2: the wind turbine. The winds would be so much you
Speaker 2: take every bird in the Pacific Flyway and chop them
Speaker 2: up like a queasin art. But he had all these
Speaker 2: Why is it always no with you? For God's sake,
Speaker 2: everything's always no.
Speaker 1: You should have got in on the electric eels.
Speaker 2: I should have. You got to beat a billionaire. By now,
Speaker 2: I'd be rich by now.
Speaker 1: You'd be rich in that sweet electric iel. Money swimming,
Speaker 1: swimming in it. The idea, because you hear a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff about electric cars and fossil fuel and wind
Speaker 1: turbines and stuff like that, and people the negative is
Speaker 1: always the amount of carbon footprint that it takes to
Speaker 1: get these things to where they are. Or the big
Speaker 1: thing about electric cars is where do all the batteries go?
Speaker 1: And you know, is that real? Is that a real.
Speaker 2: You should always consider those things. But it's been very
Speaker 2: well studied by Union of Concerned Scientists, lots of other
Speaker 2: people who PHG after the name. I looked at it,
Speaker 2: and there's still pollution. There's pollution in the mountain bike,
Speaker 2: there's pollution, pllution. Cape men have made pollution with their fires.
Speaker 2: There's pollution from anything. But the question is how much.
Speaker 2: And it's a tea spoon to a tanker truck. You know,
Speaker 2: from what you make with solar panels, there's energy used
Speaker 2: to create it. But over the life of the solar panels,
Speaker 2: which these days is forty fifty years. You know, they
Speaker 2: don't just last a decade. People go, they'll be gone
Speaker 2: in a decade. They lose power, but very little. They
Speaker 2: lose like a percentage in a year or two another
Speaker 2: percent after that. Well does that too, And anything makes pollution.
Speaker 2: But you know, wind turbine, for example, you need energy
Speaker 2: to make the wind turbine. But over the long life
Speaker 2: of it, mine, for instance, I had thirty years. Three
Speaker 2: decades made me a lot of money, and it also
Speaker 2: made a lot of power. And mine was the old
Speaker 2: the old kind that's only you know, seventy five kilo watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all over Scotland. They're the big giant.
Speaker 2: One, the big, the megaw and a half, they're two meg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're huge. But it's kind of tricky because they're
Speaker 1: not pretty.
Speaker 2: No, they're not.
Speaker 1: They're and I think when you get so many of them,
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to basically with the nature
Speaker 1: of where they are. They have to be in areas
Speaker 1: where it's wind. It just tends to be areas that
Speaker 1: are pretty, you know, but the coastal Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a little tricky. Yeah, this idea to put them
Speaker 1: all out to sea around Britain like.
Speaker 2: They could do that. Yeah, they can do it so
Speaker 2: far away you won't even notice the spect in the distance. Yeah,
Speaker 2: run the cable in.
Speaker 1: Be kind of cool. I think they should do more
Speaker 1: than very committed too. Obviously. You still ride this subway.
Speaker 2: In la and I do. I write it regularly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I've never been on it. I lived here
Speaker 1: for twenty three years. I was never on it.
Speaker 2: It's a wonderful system, is it actually? Oh yeah, it
Speaker 2: takes a lot of people a lot of miles. It's
Speaker 2: a big area they cover. You can take the rail
Speaker 2: of the bus or light rail or something from Pomona
Speaker 2: all the way out to Long Beach and from also
Speaker 2: you can take it out to like Trencas to uh.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a big area that the Metro covers.
Speaker 1: It's so funny because I whenever I'm in Los Ange.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't live here anymore. I haven't left
Speaker 1: here for a couple of years. But the I can't
Speaker 1: imagine not having a car. I need to rent a
Speaker 1: car when I get here. I feel trapped. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I but maybe it's a mindset that needs fixing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some roots are going to be trickier than others.
Speaker 2: If you live somewhere out in the middle of the
Speaker 2: West Valley and you need to get downtown every day
Speaker 2: to get to that Orange Line bus and then you
Speaker 2: get to the subway and make those you know, connections
Speaker 2: can take you a while. They're trying to eliminate that,
Speaker 2: make that more efficient. But but for me, I live
Speaker 2: in Studio City. I hop on that Metro Red line,
Speaker 2: you know, to go downtown or Hollywood. It's just much
Speaker 2: easier than driving. It's quicker, easier, everything about. It's better.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try it. You towed me into it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give it a try. Yeah, is it clean.
Speaker 2: It is. It's now clean again. It was not clean
Speaker 2: for a while because of COVID. You know, some a
Speaker 2: lot of people who have, you know, mental problems and
Speaker 2: drug problems kind of took over the subway stations, what
Speaker 2: have you. We're taking it back. Not for me. I
Speaker 2: have choices. I could get in my electric car and go.
Speaker 2: People have no choice. Working people rely on the subway
Speaker 2: and on the bush line. The bus line is the
Speaker 2: backbone of the system, and you got to keep those
Speaker 2: safe and the rail stations. And we were taking it
Speaker 2: back every day.
Speaker 1: Do you do you get involved in local politics and
Speaker 1: that bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah. My daughter's working at Metro now, so I'm very
Speaker 2: supportive of her.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 2: We did a thing she wrote she writes the Metro
Speaker 2: all the time. She has said she was a baby
Speaker 2: with me. And then she did a thing where she
Speaker 2: wrote it all week, didn't get in her car, her
Speaker 2: electric car once, wrote it all week, and then we
Speaker 2: went to the oscars together on the Metro.
Speaker 1: Ah, that's right, Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: It was very very good. So now she's working at
Speaker 2: Metro trying to help spread the word about what works
Speaker 2: and what needs to be worked on.
Speaker 1: Well the seat now I have O kaid. My youngest
Speaker 1: boy is thirteen, my oldest is in his early twenties.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned earlier that your dog got sober when
Speaker 1: she was fifteen, and I haven't seen anthem like that
Speaker 1: and my kids, but I'd be terrified by that, you know.
Speaker 1: But the idea of I did. I don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, discuss your daughter because that's her business.
Speaker 1: But how did you feel about that? Did you feel
Speaker 1: like because you had gone through it, you were able
Speaker 1: to help her or do you have to stand back
Speaker 1: a bit and let her find her own way to it?
Speaker 2: What was the I did a little bit of each,
Speaker 2: you know. I just said, because there was a morning
Speaker 2: with it, it seemed like things were going off the rails,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to say. She said, do you dad?
Speaker 2: Do you think I Do you think I have a problem?
Speaker 2: And I said, yes, I do. Do you want help? Yes?
Speaker 2: I do, said, She says, okay, then I'm here. And
Speaker 2: I didn't want to make her do anything or be
Speaker 2: a dad in this case, make her do X Y
Speaker 2: or Z.
Speaker 1: A tricky I mean, it's funny because I mean, I
Speaker 1: definitely qualified to get help when I was fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: I didn't get it till I was twenty nine. But
Speaker 1: any anyone that can sin, and I've met people who
Speaker 1: get sober at that age are great, you know, just great.
Speaker 1: And I love the idea that people can get sober
Speaker 1: now when they're young. Used to be quite kind of
Speaker 1: a kind of snobbishness, weird, reverse kind of snobbishness about
Speaker 1: you had to really screw your life up for a
Speaker 1: long period of time before you qualified for sobriety, which
Speaker 1: doesn't seem fair.
Speaker 2: Imagine if that had social media when I was out
Speaker 2: there drinking, I'd never work another day. I would not
Speaker 2: have worked in the seventies eighties. And I think of it.
Speaker 1: I talked I obviously, I have friends who have been
Speaker 1: sover for a long time, and we talked about that,
Speaker 1: that the idea if there had been social media in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. I mean, not because of anything other
Speaker 1: than just like pathetic behavior exactly.
Speaker 2: It was just tragic, it was.
Speaker 1: But I mean, that's the thing about and I've been
Speaker 1: guilty of this as anyone that when talking particularly to
Speaker 1: you know, in show business or doing stand up and stuff.
Speaker 1: You can make the drinking years sound funny, right, but
Speaker 1: they weren't that funny. They were.
Speaker 2: There's some serious stuff connected life connect Yeah. The fact
Speaker 2: that I didn't kill anybody I'm so grateful for because.
Speaker 1: I too when I get busted from my d UI,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh jeez, if i'd hit someone us, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, do you imagine.
Speaker 2: I drank a quarto vote every day, took pills, and
Speaker 2: operated a vehicle.
Speaker 1: Yeah the hell I did that. The pills, did you say?
Speaker 2: I would take thallium to cure the hangover. I would
Speaker 2: occasionally take kayludes, which you're not to take one.
Speaker 1: I never got around to quailudes. That's one dimest I
Speaker 1: said earlier. I took them home, but I didn't take queludes.
Speaker 1: I hear tell. They were They were pretty good, remarkable things.
Speaker 2: They were considered an hypnotic drug, and yeah, I was
Speaker 2: definitely hypnotized by them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the acid, I remember. Cannabis and acid were
Speaker 1: the ones I didn't like. I like the zippy ones
Speaker 1: like cocaine or meth, you know both, or a nice
Speaker 1: solid base note of heroin. You know.
Speaker 2: I did it four times. I snorted it four times,
Speaker 2: and I loved it too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, about how many times I did it? About the
Speaker 1: same amount of times. And I remember thinking, I remember
Speaker 1: lying down, I've don't you remember they used to call
Speaker 1: it speedball, Yeah, cocaine and heroin and staying together. And
Speaker 1: I remember lying down in a shitty apartment in New
Speaker 1: York having done that, and I felt like I was
Speaker 1: upside down and I couldn't shake the feeling of like
Speaker 1: I was hanging by my feet. Oh boy, every time
Speaker 1: I closed my eyes, I felt like I was upside down,
Speaker 1: and I thought, this is not recreational, This is not
Speaker 1: this I'm not having a good time here.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: And it was only another nine years before it gets over.
Speaker 2: I started to realize there was a bad scene for
Speaker 2: me in seventy six. It took me three years to
Speaker 2: finally get it together.
Speaker 1: It takes a while. Yeah, So do you think is
Speaker 1: there's still a time when when you were owed by Hollywood?
Speaker 1: Because I think of you, someone who's lived inside this business,
Speaker 1: in this town for so long, your entire life. Really
Speaker 1: you have been inside it. Does it contain mystery and
Speaker 1: awe for you know? Or is it it's a place
Speaker 1: of work and like you ever meet someone you go
Speaker 1: I can't believe I met You know.
Speaker 2: I still get that reaction when I meet people who
Speaker 2: are fine actors, fine musicians, things like that. I just
Speaker 2: get all the twitter because it's a big deal. People
Speaker 2: that are that on their game, that creative, that talented.
Speaker 2: Just when I first met Joaquin Phoenix, I was like trembling.
Speaker 2: He's such an incredible actor. It just inspires me everything
Speaker 2: I've ever seen him in. So that was a big one.
Speaker 2: Working with Meryl Streep for the first time, you know,
Speaker 2: meeting Jack Nicholson for the first time, working with Bob Hoskins,
Speaker 2: for God's sake, what a talent he was.
Speaker 1: He was, Yeah, I tried to get him to go
Speaker 1: in that to that movie I told you about it.
Speaker 1: I spoke to him in the phone. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I love this old rock star in it. And I
Speaker 1: spoke to the one and I said, will you Ben?
Speaker 1: He went, well, who else is in it?
Speaker 2: Very good? Bob Hoskins.
Speaker 1: I said well, and I said, a bunch of people
Speaker 1: who were in it. He went, yeah, Oh, I'll have
Speaker 1: a think about it. I never heard, never heard again,
Speaker 1: But that's all right.
Speaker 2: I have a bold work of art. Right as you
Speaker 2: enter my home, Bob Hoskins came in years ago for
Speaker 2: the first time, looked at it, went, hey, what happened
Speaker 2: to here? What happened here? Here?
Speaker 1: What's the what's the Is it? Very fan of kind
Speaker 1: of striking modern piece? Is that? What it is?
Speaker 2: Just a bunch of colors, splatter kind of colors and
Speaker 2: what have you. It's not a facer, a vaz or
Speaker 2: a flower or anything like that. It's all right, he
Speaker 2: was great.
Speaker 1: It sounds good. Well, you know what, we're out of time, man.
Speaker 2: Well let's get together and do it again.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy to do it again. And I am
Speaker 1: sad to hear about your diagnosis, but I am delighted
Speaker 1: for you that you had to tell me about it
Speaker 1: because I couldn't. I swear to because you know, Billy
Speaker 1: Corny has Parkinson so now and Billy you can you
Speaker 1: can see it.
Speaker 2: I love that man. You read that wonderful piece about
Speaker 2: him in the Times. I think it was La Times.
Speaker 2: It was a great piece about him, and Pam I
Speaker 2: didn't not wonderful. I'll send it to you, yes, please.
Speaker 2: Billy was Jackie Robinson for me?
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? Yeah? I mean he
Speaker 1: was like there was he was Elvis.
Speaker 2: You know he is Elvis.
Speaker 1: He is Elvis. He's amazing, amazing, And he said that
Speaker 1: did he tell you about that? He was walking through
Speaker 1: the airport and a doctor come over to him and said,
Speaker 1: I think you may have Parkinson's. You should you should
Speaker 1: go and get checked out, just because of the walk.
Speaker 2: Oh that's right. I heard something to that effect. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's right. He didn't know that happened to me. But
Speaker 2: the guy didn't tell me. He told my cousin. Really,
Speaker 2: and so my cousin said, rightly, so for what I
Speaker 2: knew at the time. A neurologist said, does your cousin
Speaker 2: know that he has Parkinson's. My cousin rightly said he
Speaker 2: didn't have Parkinson's. He would have told me that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he could see it and I didn't, and he didn't.
Speaker 1: Want It's amazing.
Speaker 2: He seemed uncomfortable come and say, ed, this guy thinks
Speaker 2: he have Parkinson's. I wouldn't want to do that to him,
Speaker 2: so he didn't do it to me. It's probably just
Speaker 2: as well I didn't learn it till years later.
Speaker 1: That's an amazing thing. I mean, it's but you don't
Speaker 1: have that distinctive walk.
Speaker 2: Now it's very subtle, all very subtle.
Speaker 1: Back, Yeah, well look, continued health to you, to my friend,
Speaker 1: it's great to see you. You are an inspiration and
Speaker 1: a force for good in this time. You are a
Speaker 1: corrective weight and in in the Hollywood scales and powerful one.
Speaker 2: Good to see you now, always, good to see you
Speaker 2: all right,