Speaker 1: Pushkin Hey having us lave listeners. Of all the shows
Speaker 1: we did in our past season, the one I keep
Speaker 1: getting your emails and comments about was our episode entitled
Speaker 1: why Nostalgia Ain't So Rosy. I didn't realize just how
Speaker 1: much nostalgia in the importance of thinking about the past
Speaker 1: would hit a nerve with our listeners. So in honor
Speaker 1: of how much you all loved our episode with Rob Blow,
Speaker 1: I'm sharing one of my own favorite episodes from Rob
Speaker 1: Blow's podcast, Literally with Rob Blow, where he chats with
Speaker 1: another one of my favorite eighties stars, Molly Ringwald Think
Speaker 1: sixteen Candles in the Breakfast Club. This episode is a
Speaker 1: fantastic look back at how starting as a young actor
Speaker 1: informs your life as you age. Molly and Rob look
Speaker 1: back on their time in the eighties, catch up on
Speaker 1: what they're doing now, and have fun the whole time.
Speaker 1: Take a listen, and then go find Literally wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. I hope their conversation gives you a
Speaker 1: happy dose of nostalgia, and not to worry. The Happiness
Speaker 1: Lab will be back with more episodes soon. Hello, Hi,
Speaker 1: nice to see you again. You know that you were
Speaker 1: voted Idol of the millennium or something, and I was
Speaker 1: number two. Wow, that's pretty impressive. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: that's an accomplishment of some kind when you're firmly in
Speaker 1: middle age. Welcome to literally with me, Rob Low. Today
Speaker 1: we are kicking off season two. I've had so much
Speaker 1: fun making this podcast. I hope you enjoyed season one
Speaker 1: as much as I did. And season two is shaping
Speaker 1: up to be even more fun. And we're starting it
Speaker 1: off with a little celebration of the eighties, so little throwback.
Speaker 1: We're getting in the time machine, and if you're going
Speaker 1: to talk eighties, you gotta go with the number one icon.
Speaker 1: Molly Ringwald. She is our first guest of the second season,
Speaker 1: and man, we're gonna get into it. But there's also
Speaker 1: more good news. We're going to do this thing called
Speaker 1: the hashtag Sacks Challenge on social media. So it's a
Speaker 1: big week and we're celebrating anyway. But let's stay on track.
Speaker 1: Molly Ringwald, she's pretty in pink. She was on the
Speaker 1: cover of Time magazine before I was Okay, I've never
Speaker 1: been on the cover of Time magazine, but I digress.
Speaker 1: Let's get down with Molly Ringwald. It can't be that
Speaker 1: the last time we saw each other was when we
Speaker 1: worked together? Can it? Because I was a bazillion years ago,
Speaker 1: I think that was actually the last time we saw
Speaker 1: each other. Oh my god. For those of you who
Speaker 1: don't know, we did the Stand Together, the Great Stephen
Speaker 1: King miniseries. I loved that miniseries. Did you get as
Speaker 1: much as I did? I loved it? I did, I
Speaker 1: really did. I know that they just did a new
Speaker 1: one which seemed like a sort of odd timing either
Speaker 1: really great time in a really terrible time, right, But yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't see that one. But yeah, I really did
Speaker 1: like the one that we did together. I thought it
Speaker 1: was special in a good way. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: was really special about it, as Stephen King was there
Speaker 1: all the time and he adapted it and super nice guy, right,
Speaker 1: super nice guy. And I remember going to a lot
Speaker 1: of we shot it all in Utah, and I remember
Speaker 1: going to a lot of Utah jazz games with Stephen King.
Speaker 1: And there's this great moment we were walking through a
Speaker 1: parking garage and as we're just kind of silent and
Speaker 1: we kind of got couldn't find a car for a minute,
Speaker 1: and he was like parking garages are scary. I want
Speaker 1: to write I want to write it about a parking garage.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, when Stephen King is scared
Speaker 1: in a parking garage, it's scary, and I'm sure he
Speaker 1: did write it, like in a day. Speaking of writing,
Speaker 1: I went back and reread a lot of your writing.
Speaker 1: I love your writing so much. Thank you, really, I
Speaker 1: really really do. I was trying to think of why,
Speaker 1: like what it is that I respond to in your style?
Speaker 1: And I think you have a tremendous clarity and insight
Speaker 1: and you but you don't write in a showy way,
Speaker 1: and yet it's totally evocative. And it's like, there's a
Speaker 1: great quote I have on my desk that Da Vinci
Speaker 1: said is um, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I've taken
Speaker 1: to collecting really good quotes, UM. And I think you
Speaker 1: kind of write in that, in that, in that style. UM.
Speaker 1: Have you who's your favorite? Do you have a favorite? UM?
Speaker 1: Like celebrity memoir Mine was the David Niven books. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever read those, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've read a lot of celebrity memoir books.
Speaker 1: I think I I when I read it's mostly um,
Speaker 1: it's mostly fiction. I think that's kind of what's what's
Speaker 1: always you know, kind of drawn me in. Um. I
Speaker 1: think Louise Brooks, though, I think I was always um,
Speaker 1: you know, I whenever I read a celebrity uh you know, biography,
Speaker 1: it's usually somebody that I'm you know, sort of interested
Speaker 1: in for for some reason, you know, maybe thinking about
Speaker 1: playing her in a movie or I don't know. Um.
Speaker 1: So the last one that I really remember loving was
Speaker 1: was Lulu in Hollywood. I really like the ones where
Speaker 1: where it's pretty clear that the person is writing it themselves,
Speaker 1: or or if they're ghost written, it's it's so um
Speaker 1: well ghost written that that it doesn't take you out
Speaker 1: of it. But I think, you know, there's a few
Speaker 1: that that really write, like I think Mea writes her
Speaker 1: own Julie Andrews. I read hers, Hers is pretty great. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: I have so much admiration for writers. Um, it's such
Speaker 1: a in my experience, it's such a sort of difficult
Speaker 1: and torturous thing to do, as opposed to acting, which
Speaker 1: you know, I've been doing since the day I was born,
Speaker 1: so it's it's a little easier, but Uh, but writing
Speaker 1: is I don't know, I just have so much respect
Speaker 1: for writers. Um, so when somebody manages to do it well,
Speaker 1: it's um inspiring. Was the first time that people were
Speaker 1: aware of your writing was when you wrote about John
Speaker 1: Hughes after he passed. Do you think the New Yorker
Speaker 1: piece probably please? It was for me, I know, you know,
Speaker 1: getting published in the New Yorker for for any anyone,
Speaker 1: it's sort of like the pinnacle. I mean, it's if
Speaker 1: you if you want to be published anywhere. Um. It
Speaker 1: sort of was like it's it's like a stamp. You know, Okay,
Speaker 1: this person's an actual writer. They're not, you know, a dilettante.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've been writing for years. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I'd been writing sort of like you know, book reviews
Speaker 1: and profiles. You know. I had a friend who is
Speaker 1: a writer, uh named Dave Daily. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've read his book it's about he kind of wrote
Speaker 1: the book on jerrymandering called yeah, called rat Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's what they that's what they call it. So
Speaker 1: he before he was writing full time, he was an
Speaker 1: editor and a publisher, and he was one of those
Speaker 1: people that just I don't know, kind of encouraged me
Speaker 1: to write at a time when I didn't think that
Speaker 1: I necessarily could or that, let's put it this way,
Speaker 1: I didn't think that anyone would accept me as a
Speaker 1: writer because I sort of grew up in this time,
Speaker 1: as did you. But I'm a woman where you're only
Speaker 1: supposed to do one thing, you know, and if you
Speaker 1: do anything else, then no one's going to take you seriously,
Speaker 1: and you know, and so I liked to saying and
Speaker 1: I like to write, but I thought, no one's going
Speaker 1: to take me seriously as a writer. And my friend
Speaker 1: Dave was just relentless with here, I want you to
Speaker 1: you know. He knew that I liked, for instance, the
Speaker 1: Magnetic Fields, and he would say, I want you to write,
Speaker 1: Are you interested in doing a profile? And Stephen Merritt,
Speaker 1: you know or whatever, and so he would just he
Speaker 1: was the person that kind of really encouraged me into
Speaker 1: sort of kept me writing. And then um, and then
Speaker 1: I just got better, I think, because I don't think anybody, well,
Speaker 1: maybe some people start as a good writer, but I
Speaker 1: think it took me many years to really get better
Speaker 1: and to really kind of call myself a writer. My
Speaker 1: writing journey began with ghost flack of a better term,
Speaker 1: ghostwriting screenplays that I would end up in, Like it'ld
Speaker 1: be a script i'd be in and I'm like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. I don't, don't. And then and then
Speaker 1: you kind of like at lunch and your trailer scribbling
Speaker 1: out different speeches and what have you. And I did
Speaker 1: that a lot, and yeah, that's it got sort of
Speaker 1: started me. DoD you ever do any ghost writing or
Speaker 1: like body and Fender work on any of your movies? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely did. I mean I in the John Hughes
Speaker 1: movies that I did, Um, you know, so much of
Speaker 1: that was was improvised. I mean, the scripts are really
Speaker 1: great to start out with, but he was really open
Speaker 1: to um, to improv and you know, just making shit
Speaker 1: up and um, you know. But but I don't think
Speaker 1: everybody was like him. I've worked with a lot of
Speaker 1: people who are really precious about their writing and m
Speaker 1: make it really difficult to change even one word, and
Speaker 1: so after a while you sort of, you know, throw
Speaker 1: up your hands a little bit. Yeah. But in my
Speaker 1: in my experience is the best writers are actually the
Speaker 1: ones that are the most open to what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I don't know, is that has I been your experience
Speaker 1: or I mean I would say that, and then and
Speaker 1: then I think of Aaron Sorkin, who is a great writer,
Speaker 1: and you are not changing jack shit. Well. I was
Speaker 1: talking to Brad Whitford actually the other day, who was
Speaker 1: who you worked with in West Wing, And I said
Speaker 1: to him what I just said to you, and then
Speaker 1: he brought up Aaron Sorkin. And my response to that is,
Speaker 1: Aaron Sorkin is in his own you have like Shakespeare
Speaker 1: ever here, and I, you know, I honestly think you
Speaker 1: have Aaron Sorkin over here, So he doesn't count. We
Speaker 1: just like take him out of the equation exactly when
Speaker 1: he's listening. Aaron, You're you're, You're in your You've made it.
Speaker 1: You're in the same breath as Shakespeare. Um. I you
Speaker 1: know it's funny, is um? When people talk about the
Speaker 1: brat Pack, they always assume, first of all, maybe you
Speaker 1: and I had done more movies than we did together.
Speaker 1: We never did. We'd never worked together at all until
Speaker 1: the nineties. And then I never was in a John
Speaker 1: Hughes movie. John Hughes was not calling my number for
Speaker 1: and I've been thinking about it for a while. I
Speaker 1: was like, why is it? Because I auditioned for Breakfast Club?
Speaker 1: Did you yeah? II part for Um Bender, for the
Speaker 1: part that Judd Nelson played. Okay, did you did you get? Like?
Speaker 1: Did you go the distance or did you just do
Speaker 1: one audition? I don't think. I barely made it out
Speaker 1: of my interview with John I and the only my
Speaker 1: only memory was the script was great. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: It was great. You were like, oh, this is going
Speaker 1: to be great. And I just remember um the Bender
Speaker 1: character in the script where a cowboy hat and the
Speaker 1: John never forget his I promise you, because it's not
Speaker 1: something I would just like make up And like, why
Speaker 1: do I remember that? A cowboy? I'm telling you, Molly.
Speaker 1: In the original draft, Bender was wearing a cowboy And
Speaker 1: then of course when I saw Judd with his you know,
Speaker 1: literally that is Judd Nelson's actual outfit with the untied shoes.
Speaker 1: That man never tied a shoelace into his life. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what John did. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know this, but he he asked me to do the
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club just as sixteen Candles was ending, because he
Speaker 1: had actually already cast it with local Chicago actors. In fact,
Speaker 1: Joan Cusack was going to play Allison and John I
Speaker 1: think was going to play Bender. And then the studio
Speaker 1: wanted to do Sixteen Candles first because it was much
Speaker 1: more I don't know, like I mean, even though it
Speaker 1: was a female lead, it was kind of more of
Speaker 1: the teen movies that everyone was used to in terms
Speaker 1: of like big parties and you know, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So so then he offered me a part at the
Speaker 1: end of that and I remember reading it on a plane.
Speaker 1: He wanted me to play Allison at first, and I
Speaker 1: lobbied for the role of Claire, who was called Kathy
Speaker 1: at the time. I like lobbied hard. I was like, please,
Speaker 1: you know, no one would ever think of me and
Speaker 1: this Broadway. They only think of me as the weird
Speaker 1: girl and you know, the introvert and all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and so and so then I did it. But by
Speaker 1: the time that we got to I think this was
Speaker 1: I think we filmed in February and he had offered
Speaker 1: it to me at the end of summer. By the
Speaker 1: time we actually got to rehearsal, he called me up
Speaker 1: and he's like, are you excited and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's a really different script. And he's like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean, And I said, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just like so different than the one that I read,
Speaker 1: and he was like huh. And then the next day
Speaker 1: he brought in a stack of Breakfast Club scripts that
Speaker 1: he had written, and he just handed them out to
Speaker 1: all of us and and said, okay, pick your favorite,
Speaker 1: pick your favorite part. And these speeches just got put
Speaker 1: back in and characters were cut because he was he
Speaker 1: was trying to appease the studio, you know. So he
Speaker 1: had like a n like a nude teacher swimming, and
Speaker 1: he you know, had this and that. But you know,
Speaker 1: he always maintained that his scripts really never got a
Speaker 1: lot better and rewrites. He didn't like to rewrite because
Speaker 1: he felt like they just didn't get better. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never experienced that before where a writer director was like,
Speaker 1: pick your favorite parts. By the way, if you take
Speaker 1: nothing away else, it all away from this conversation, just
Speaker 1: know that the way to appease a studio is nude
Speaker 1: teachers swimming. That's back in the day. That's what they want,
Speaker 1: that's what they're looking for. Yeah. I used to um,
Speaker 1: I always knew that on page seventy two. I had
Speaker 1: the page seventy two rule. On page seventy two, invariably
Speaker 1: that would be when the character they wanted me to
Speaker 1: play would be nude. It was always on page seventy two, always,
Speaker 1: and what did you do? Did you did you do it?
Speaker 1: Did you turn it down? Did you have a body double? What?
Speaker 1: Sometimes I did it, sometimes I turned it down, But
Speaker 1: it was always on page I think every script written
Speaker 1: in the eighties, if you can get it on microfiche
Speaker 1: at the live my favorite word, um, on page seventy two.
Speaker 1: You'll see the characters having something steamy. Just had to
Speaker 1: do it, like, you know, nude teachers swim that's what
Speaker 1: they do and the you know that's what they do
Speaker 1: up at school. Come on, yeah, evidently nude tea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: teachers like to hang out on a Saturday and just
Speaker 1: swim nude in the school pool. Like any teacher's going
Speaker 1: to want to be at a school where they work
Speaker 1: on a Saturday. It made absolutely no sense. But but
Speaker 1: the other part is somebody has to be watching. Of course, Oh,
Speaker 1: of course, of course, of course. Yeah. I got to
Speaker 1: make it as creepy as possible, Like if you swim
Speaker 1: nude and nobody watches did it really? Did you really
Speaker 1: swim nude? Did it? Did it happen? Did it happen?
Speaker 1: That's really the question. Um. Yeah, So I auditioned for
Speaker 1: John and it's listen, it's not like John only made
Speaker 1: one or two movies that I would have been right for.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's fucking get real for a minute. I
Speaker 1: could have been in a lot of John Hughes movies. Nope,
Speaker 1: no ringy dingy thing, no phone CALLI no incoming phone call.
Speaker 1: He was not having what I was selling. And I've
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: it is. And here's what I think it is. Here's
Speaker 1: my philosophy. And I know you have many philosophies on
Speaker 1: John and and I've and just from a fifty thousand
Speaker 1: foot view, I think you're spot on. But I think
Speaker 1: would would you think would be unfair to say that
Speaker 1: John had a little bit of Spengali in him? Oh? Yeah, currently, yeah,
Speaker 1: Well I was a lot of things, but I was
Speaker 1: definitely not the kind of person that you went ooh,
Speaker 1: that's a guy who needs his Spengali. I think I
Speaker 1: think you were I think you were probably too good
Speaker 1: looking for him. I think he was, you know, he was,
Speaker 1: he was very uh, he was very intimidated by you know,
Speaker 1: very good looking guys. And I mean, you're still a
Speaker 1: good looking guy, but at the at the time, I mean, no,
Speaker 1: you're a great looking guy. I mean, let's be let's
Speaker 1: be real here. But at the time, I think you
Speaker 1: were like Apollo, and I think and he was super
Speaker 1: intimidated by that. God you with a cowboy hat. I
Speaker 1: couldn't taken the curse off of it. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I want to know, did you go to the audition
Speaker 1: with a cowboy hat? No? Oh, here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing. It was a straw cowboy hat.
Speaker 1: Not just any cowboy hat. I was thinking straw. I guess,
Speaker 1: I guess it's kind of a Midwestern thing. I guess
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, No, straw cowboy hats are definitely like
Speaker 1: rural Indiana, rural Illinois. For sure, you can get you
Speaker 1: can get away with it. Um. But no, I'm not
Speaker 1: a hat guy. I've never been able to pull off
Speaker 1: a hat. And I knew that if I did put
Speaker 1: on the hat, there's no way I was getting the
Speaker 1: part that's so what was he like In the adition,
Speaker 1: I'm I actually never auditioned for John. Yeah, so I'm
Speaker 1: always curious to know what that experience was like for
Speaker 1: for other people. I mean, really, I think the only
Speaker 1: it was he was unremarkable. The only thing I the
Speaker 1: only reason I remember it is because I knew it
Speaker 1: was going to be. It was a very a movie
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to be in and it was really going
Speaker 1: to be good. And you know, like you've said before,
Speaker 1: is um, you know, this was a breakfast cup. To
Speaker 1: this day I show it. I mean it is for me,
Speaker 1: the movie of the eighties. It stands up. I mean
Speaker 1: there's stuff in it clearly that's very, very dated, which
Speaker 1: you've written eloquently about, but it's like revolutionary, like along
Speaker 1: with fast Times. Along fast Times, it were doing high
Speaker 1: like they're real movies. Yeah, and you know, we weren't
Speaker 1: offered movies like that. They weren't making movies like that.
Speaker 1: So um, to be in a you know, a real movie, um,
Speaker 1: was was an exciting thing. Although it was not to be.
Speaker 1: And I blame the fucking cowboy head. Hang on, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna let my dogs in because they're gonna win.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let them in. What kind of dogs you
Speaker 1: got there over there? Oh? I have a few, I
Speaker 1: have five, I have three dogs. I have I have
Speaker 1: a little tiny dog. Oh. Yes, this is Millie Ringwald.
Speaker 1: Millie Ringwald, Millie Ringwald. Yeah, that's the greatest. Has her
Speaker 1: own Instagram. I mean, come on, like this, this needs
Speaker 1: in their own Instagram. She needs her own Time magazine cover. Yeah,
Speaker 1: yes she does. Why don't you do that? She's sweet?
Speaker 1: She's sweet. I remember, by the way, I remembered that.
Speaker 1: That's what the tagline was. Yeah, yeah, can you forget?
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't crazy about that. When I saw that,
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, there, there you are. There, there's
Speaker 1: your there. Now you're going to be typecast pretty much
Speaker 1: for the next forty years. How did that when they
Speaker 1: tell you're going to be on the cover of Time magazine?
Speaker 1: And how old were you? Eighteen? I was, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was eighteen? What's that like? I got? I got the
Speaker 1: cover of Bop magazine. That's where my career was. I
Speaker 1: didn't understand that it was as big of a deal
Speaker 1: as it was. It was. It was actually Warren Beatty,
Speaker 1: who I'm still friends with, who was the one to
Speaker 1: tell me that it was a really, really big deal,
Speaker 1: because I was, like, you know, I was really psyched
Speaker 1: about seventeen magazine. I mean, I was a kid and
Speaker 1: some Time magazine. I just didn't I wasn't reading Time
Speaker 1: Magazine at the time. I didn't really care all that
Speaker 1: much about it, but I knew that everybody else really
Speaker 1: cared about it. And of course now I realized that
Speaker 1: it was it was a big deal today now that
Speaker 1: no one cares about Time magazine or any of the magazine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's true. But I still feel like it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's an honor. Like I remember going to
Speaker 1: a party in the nineties where everyone who was ever
Speaker 1: on the cover of Time was in. I did too,
Speaker 1: with the exception of three people. And see if you
Speaker 1: can guess who those three people were who were not invited. Okay,
Speaker 1: what time? What you need to know? What year was?
Speaker 1: This was like ninety, these late late nineties. Momr Gadaffi, Um,
Speaker 1: he well, I don't know if he was invited. But no,
Speaker 1: that's not one of the three Monica Lewinski, Yes, ding
Speaker 1: bing bing bing bing ding ding ding and two more.
Speaker 1: Hang on, hang on now, hang on now, Um, okay,
Speaker 1: who are the other two? Who are the other two?
Speaker 1: Ken Star? Yes? And O J. Simpson? Yeah, J couldn't
Speaker 1: make it. Yeah, those are the and everybody else. I
Speaker 1: mean I invited my friend Victoria and it was one
Speaker 1: of these experiences. I mean, I'm sure you've had these
Speaker 1: experiences where you're just like, wow, anybody that I would
Speaker 1: ever want to meet is in this room, and you know,
Speaker 1: and who who is it? Like? Who do I really
Speaker 1: want to talk to or have a conversation with? And
Speaker 1: so my friend, I'm pretty shy, but my friends who
Speaker 1: I invited is not at all. I mean, she will
Speaker 1: meet and talk to anyone. And I always like to
Speaker 1: be around people like that because it makes me a
Speaker 1: lot more outgoing. And and she said, let's pick two
Speaker 1: people each and go and meet them and talk to them.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay. So my two people were Anita
Speaker 1: Hill and Tony Morrison, and her two people were Bill
Speaker 1: Gates and Gorbachoff. I mean, I mean, it's, by the way,
Speaker 1: that sounds like an actual dream. Yeah, So I'm a
Speaker 1: Unita Hill. And then I talked to gorba It sounds
Speaker 1: like a dream. Yeah. It was pretty cool, And and
Speaker 1: everybody and everybody seemed really excited to be there and
Speaker 1: you know, and happy to be social. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: you know, it felt kind of exciting. Yeah. So, I
Speaker 1: mean when I think about Time Magazine and what that means,
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was. I felt pretty proud
Speaker 1: to be you know, because I've never gotten award, been
Speaker 1: nominated for anything. I think I was nominated for one thing,
Speaker 1: like Best Newcomberer at the Golden Globe Awards, but lost
Speaker 1: out to Sandel Berkman, who was in that movie red Sonia. Yeah, Redna,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Red Sonia beat beat me.
Speaker 1: I've lost to a long line of luminaries. Believe me,
Speaker 1: tell me. Because I'm a huge Warren Baby fan and
Speaker 1: know him a little bit, but not not like you do,
Speaker 1: not like a lot of of my friends do. And
Speaker 1: he's I mean, he's one of my idols. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: who I kind of you know, um thought like he
Speaker 1: was it. I did have one great, one amazing evening
Speaker 1: at his house where he screened aat Burt Reynolds's double feature.
Speaker 1: He had just won the Oscar for Red's you just
Speaker 1: won It, and the notion that he had to really
Speaker 1: do a deep dive on Burt Reynolds's Verra kind of
Speaker 1: made me laugh. Yeah, I wonder what he was doing.
Speaker 1: I mean, he must have been researching something. I just
Speaker 1: remember him turning to me in the screening room. I
Speaker 1: mean he insisted that I, yeah, I was with my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: He was with his his girlfriend of the moment, and
Speaker 1: he insisted that I sit next to him and that
Speaker 1: in halfway through the movie turned to me and he m, yes,
Speaker 1: I see, yes, you see he's he's using so many
Speaker 1: long lenses, and I remember going, WHOA, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: how does he know what lens? Yeah, he's pretty he's
Speaker 1: pretty amazing to talk to, and not just about his
Speaker 1: his technological prowess and his understanding of films, but he
Speaker 1: pretty much has met everyone everyone, not just met, but
Speaker 1: has had a conversation or a story about everyone. And
Speaker 1: I really wish that he would he would write, you know,
Speaker 1: his his memoir, because I mean, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of the stories, but I've I've never written them down,
Speaker 1: and I just I think it's just so interesting and fascinating.
Speaker 1: And there's just not that many people, you know, in
Speaker 1: our business that are that are left that have that
Speaker 1: kind of um you know, sort of access to like
Speaker 1: old Hollywood, old theater, you know. And and also I
Speaker 1: mean he had a you know, an experience with Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 1: You know, like, it's just that story is amazing, the
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe story. Yeah, it's it's just and I'll butcher,
Speaker 1: I don't really I've heard it apocryphy bunch. But Okay.
Speaker 1: I was going through your credits credits credits, and were
Speaker 1: you in the short film of Sling Blade? I was, what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was interesting. I was. I was living in France
Speaker 1: at the time and kind of, you know, I would
Speaker 1: say I put my career firmly on the back burner. Um,
Speaker 1: but stuff was still sent to my parents house and um.
Speaker 1: And it was my mom who called me up in
Speaker 1: Paris and she was like, you know, there's the script
Speaker 1: that I got that I just, you know, I think
Speaker 1: is really interesting. And it was this short film called
Speaker 1: some folks call it a sling Blade, and I came
Speaker 1: back to shoot it. It was not directed by Billy Bob,
Speaker 1: it was it was directed by a man who has
Speaker 1: since died named George Hickenlooper. Did you know him? Oh,
Speaker 1: I know the name. I didn't know he was involved
Speaker 1: in that. Yeah. Um, so he directed it and UM
Speaker 1: and Billy Bob was in it, and I played the
Speaker 1: reporter who um, who comes to interview him at the hospital. UM.
Speaker 1: And it was really interesting because at when when we
Speaker 1: met before, UM at a diner or something, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of I kind of do this
Speaker 1: this character. UM, I don't know, do you do you
Speaker 1: want me to just you know, wait, do you want
Speaker 1: me to do it now or do you want to wait?
Speaker 1: And I was like, you know, save it, save it.
Speaker 1: I want I want to see it the like the
Speaker 1: first time. So the first time that I ever saw
Speaker 1: him do it, the camera was on me. No, And
Speaker 1: that was like completely offense. I mean I was not
Speaker 1: acting in that. I was just amazed. I mean he
Speaker 1: was amazing. He completely transformed and Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was extraordinary. I was really happy to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. I was not so happy that he didn't
Speaker 1: call me back to to be a part of the movie.
Speaker 1: I sort of was really bummed out about that. But
Speaker 1: I guess the movie really didn't focus on that. It
Speaker 1: really focused on him outside of the hospital. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't even remember the reporter being in the movie. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think it was, but um yeah,
Speaker 1: that was really really something that character people forget, And um,
Speaker 1: I know Billy a little bit. In fact, Billy is
Speaker 1: the person who told me I should write He's. He
Speaker 1: was my guy that was like, you should be writing,
Speaker 1: and so I'm indebted to him and I've always been
Speaker 1: a huge fan. But he told me the story He's
Speaker 1: And I can't do a Billy Bob Thornton impersonation. I
Speaker 1: used to be able to, but it's been too long,
Speaker 1: but I wish I could because it helps the story.
Speaker 1: But he said he was sitting in some like honeywagon
Speaker 1: on some awful movie that he hated and waiting to
Speaker 1: act and just like, is this is this my life?
Speaker 1: Is this? I'm like the seventh lead in a shitty
Speaker 1: movie up in fucking some freezing Canadian town in the
Speaker 1: middle of the winter, and he's looking at himself in
Speaker 1: the mirror and he just made that face, he made
Speaker 1: the Carl sling blade face yea, and then did it
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, And he started just fucking around like just
Speaker 1: entertaining because he was bored, just entertaining himself. And that
Speaker 1: was the origin of Carl, and that was the origin
Speaker 1: of sling Blade and then he told me he wrote
Speaker 1: a short and I said, wait, it was a short,
Speaker 1: and then to see that you were in it. It's
Speaker 1: definitely one of my cooler credits, like that one, and
Speaker 1: like Jean Luke Gadar, I kind of like put that
Speaker 1: and we're he with Cassavetti's I sort of I put
Speaker 1: all of those sort of at the top of the list. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: do you still talk to him? I haven't seen him
Speaker 1: in a long time. I talked to him um a
Speaker 1: lot when he was because my my um my best
Speaker 1: friend was who passed away a few years ago, was
Speaker 1: Bill Paxton. And Bill and he were really really good
Speaker 1: buddies and did numerous movies together. Um. One False Move
Speaker 1: Um is a great Sam Rami movie. So that was
Speaker 1: sort of my you know, intersection with with with Billy
Speaker 1: Bob Um God, I love him and that I can't
Speaker 1: believe I'm so jealous. Who else was in the movie?
Speaker 1: Was it just my my My? I feel like it
Speaker 1: was like shot in a black box with a dangling
Speaker 1: light and it's just you and Billy. That's what I
Speaker 1: feel like. It was, like, Yeah, No, it was. It
Speaker 1: was another really fantastic actor who I think might have
Speaker 1: been in the um the actual movie. UM, and I'm
Speaker 1: blanking on his name and it's JT. Walsh. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that was him. About what he was, he was
Speaker 1: another patient. Yeah, he's insane yet he's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he he He's died since then, but he was. He
Speaker 1: was amazing. Susanne Cryer played the do you know Susanne Cryer? Um?
Speaker 1: That was her first job. She never she came out
Speaker 1: of Yale drama and had never even been on film before.
Speaker 1: And I remember, you know, telling her like what Marx
Speaker 1: were and kind of like, you know, favored the camera
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, and and you know, and
Speaker 1: then of course she went on to have a great career.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of who else was in it,
Speaker 1: Billy Bob oh, oh, you know who was in it
Speaker 1: is Jefferson May's. Oh, Jefferson May's great actress. Yeah, great actor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a really cool project. Do you
Speaker 1: ever feel because you've been acting as you were literally
Speaker 1: you're not kidding like like a baby, right yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so that stuff like favorite of the camera, what marks
Speaker 1: are It's so in your DNA. Yeah, like it's just
Speaker 1: it's like it's in your dan. You don't even think
Speaker 1: about have thought about it in years, And then you
Speaker 1: work with somebody who's brand brand, brand new, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: bless them. Ye listen, if you can't see the camera,
Speaker 1: the camera can't see you. Yeah, do you have to
Speaker 1: do that with Emilio Stevas you did, didn't you? You You
Speaker 1: had to be like Amelio? These are marks. I know
Speaker 1: your papa didn't have them in the jungle and he
Speaker 1: was making Apocalypse. Now this is a library set. No,
Speaker 1: Amelio had done a few things before, um, you know,
Speaker 1: before we did Breakfast Club, right, he did Repo Man,
Speaker 1: he did it well. Of course, the Outsiders, he did
Speaker 1: a few stuff. Yeah. Just I mean all of those people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm trying to think. So Ali, I did
Speaker 1: two movies with Amelio, I did two movies with um Judd,
Speaker 1: I did one movie with That's sort that's that's the
Speaker 1: main group of the Breakfast Club, right. Yeah. Well Michael Hall,
Speaker 1: Michael Oh never worked with him. I loved him. He
Speaker 1: was so good in those movies and still is. He's
Speaker 1: an amazasing actor. Yeah, he really is. He Uh, he's
Speaker 1: so funny, so smart. I don't know if you've been
Speaker 1: watching um, the bo Burnham inside of course, Um, there's something.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm kind of obsessed and um you know
Speaker 1: now I think I've watched it like five times all
Speaker 1: the way through, just because I'm so I'm so intrigued
Speaker 1: to know how he how he did it, basically, like
Speaker 1: I want to like take it apart like a watch
Speaker 1: and put it back together again. Um. But there's something
Speaker 1: in bo Burnham that reminds me a lot of Anthony
Speaker 1: Michael Hall. I don't know, it's like just how incredibly
Speaker 1: smart and sharp. And also when I knew Michael, he
Speaker 1: was really tall, like he grew just overnight too. You know,
Speaker 1: I think he's way over six feet and he's kind
Speaker 1: of gangly, and you know, loved George Carla, and there's
Speaker 1: there's just something in the two of them that I
Speaker 1: that I think is really similar. Um, but I haven't
Speaker 1: I haven't seen him for years. I m I visited.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what set it was. Which one of
Speaker 1: your your movies was Joan cusack In. She was in
Speaker 1: sixteen Candles. She played the neck brace girl. Right, that's
Speaker 1: yes and is Michael Schaufflin in that Yes, of course,
Speaker 1: he yes, he's the guy, Michael. Yeah, Michael Chaufflin is
Speaker 1: the guy. I visited that set. Didn't meet you, but
Speaker 1: I was there one day. I was really in Chicago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was doing class. Oh yeah, and John Cusack was
Speaker 1: in class. That's right, right, Andrew Andrew McCarthy, that's right.
Speaker 1: So I came and I remember meeting everybody, and then
Speaker 1: my girlfriend at the time was going off to do
Speaker 1: a movie with Michael Schaufflinglin later, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that handsome little bastard. It was very jealous of Michael Chaufflin.
Speaker 1: And Michael Chafflin's just like disappeared. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean just completely from from public eye anyway. He
Speaker 1: just tapped out, he said, I've had enough, I'm taking
Speaker 1: my winnings and leaving the casino of Hollywood. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: and and I think he's the last time I heard
Speaker 1: he's like a carpenter. I don't I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's just like an urban legend or what. But no,
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's Daniel day Lewis. No, he's a Taylor,
Speaker 1: isn't he all that? Yes, isn't he a Taylor Or
Speaker 1: is he a cobbler? Maybe he's a cobbler. I think
Speaker 1: it's a cobbler. Maybe he's making cobbler Daniel day Lewis's
Speaker 1: fruit Cobbler insane? Um tell, Okay, I'm obsessed with the
Speaker 1: pickup artist because here's what I remember about the pickup artist. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was another one that like, as a young actor,
Speaker 1: everybody's like, ooh, the pickup artist, like James Toback, oh
Speaker 1: edgy James Toback and and Warren Batty was like he
Speaker 1: was like under his auspices and everybody wanted to be
Speaker 1: in it, and it was all very mysterios So and
Speaker 1: you know, I just picture these meetings at the Warren's
Speaker 1: Mulholland spaceship house, and I just it's it's become this
Speaker 1: like mythical movie to me. And and then there was
Speaker 1: there there's the urban legend that he that Tobac is
Speaker 1: such an inveterate gambler that he chose the locations to
Speaker 1: be close to the off track betting sites. Have you
Speaker 1: heard that one? I yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was did wait, did you did you do any
Speaker 1: of the I know that Warren had a lot of
Speaker 1: readings at his house, sort of like trying out different people.
Speaker 1: Did you ever do any of those? No? Again, you know, Warren,
Speaker 1: like John Hughes, was not was not calling my number. Um,
Speaker 1: And I don't know what it means. I'm very disappointed
Speaker 1: that my hero was not. I know, but he's always
Speaker 1: said nice things about you. Oh I love hearing that.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Warren fan. What can I say, just
Speaker 1: that he's he's the man. But I was very Now
Speaker 1: I remember why I remember it so much because I
Speaker 1: was in therapy over it that I never got to go.
Speaker 1: You know, that was a cool house, though. You you
Speaker 1: went to the spaceship house, right, right, Okay, so my
Speaker 1: memory of it, okay, this is great because I've never
Speaker 1: this is oh, thank you, because my memory of it
Speaker 1: is it's a fucking spaceship And and when I went
Speaker 1: there was no furniture, or very little furniture except the
Speaker 1: oscar was on the mantel for Red's and he he
Speaker 1: and he said, yeah, I'm sorry. I just haven't had
Speaker 1: a chance to really furnish of him. I've been away
Speaker 1: shooting for a couple of years. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I think maybe you went to the Spaceship
Speaker 1: House before I did, because by the time I went
Speaker 1: there there there was some furniture, not a lot, it
Speaker 1: was not it was a pretty sparse house. But I
Speaker 1: remember this big, huge grand piano. Yes, I think that
Speaker 1: was then because Warren plays piano. Actually he did piano
Speaker 1: bar before, you know, while he was you know, supporting
Speaker 1: himself as a as an up and coming actor. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I remember, uh, you know, the next time
Speaker 1: I was there, there was just a Degau statue that
Speaker 1: was just sort of capfully placed on the piano, like
Speaker 1: what you got the de Ga? I got the Oscar.
Speaker 1: That's that's that was his move. Just Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: y way were you were you always the feet? Like
Speaker 1: so who did you read with? Who are the different
Speaker 1: people that you came up and read with up there
Speaker 1: at the Spaceship House. Um, I never read with anyone,
Speaker 1: but I knew that that readings were happened, Like I
Speaker 1: really wanted to do it because I just really wanted
Speaker 1: to work with Warren. Um. Yeah, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: I would have loved to have, you know, been in
Speaker 1: a movie that Warren directed, and Warren kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: Toback was a director, but you know, Warren was involved,
Speaker 1: so he was he was directing everyone, um all the time. Um.
Speaker 1: But I remember he would call me and say, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you hey, Hey, what do you think? Uh,
Speaker 1: what do you think of Demi Moore? What do you
Speaker 1: think of you know, Susie Amos, what do you think
Speaker 1: of it? He would he would ask me what I
Speaker 1: thought of all these other actresses, and it was driving
Speaker 1: me crazy. I was like, just cast me. I want
Speaker 1: to be in it, you know. But he was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this part is big enough for you,
Speaker 1: you know, because this is after pretty and Pink and
Speaker 1: you know everything. But I liked I actually really liked
Speaker 1: the idea of playing supporting roles coming out of those movies.
Speaker 1: You know. I really wanted to kind of not feel
Speaker 1: like a movie was sitting on my shoulders. Um. So
Speaker 1: I like that idea, and I liked the script. I
Speaker 1: thought the script was funny. And you know, of course
Speaker 1: it would never get made today, one of them would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, it's I mean, it's hard when you go
Speaker 1: through them your your resume, When when one goes through
Speaker 1: one's resume, it's I mean Breakfast Club. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: that ever getting made. It certainly wouldn't get made as
Speaker 1: a movie to be in the movie theater, if if
Speaker 1: barely at all. I mean, it'd be made for absolutely
Speaker 1: a shoe string and it would be, you know, a
Speaker 1: sundance movie, if you're if You're lucky. Yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: I kind of missed that. I have to say, I
Speaker 1: miss I miss movies that aren't spectacles. I mean, I
Speaker 1: enjoy going to spectacles too. I just went to see
Speaker 1: The Black Widow with you know, with my kids, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not a big superhero kind of movie,
Speaker 1: but you know, I enjoyed it. But the part that
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the most was the relationship with the acting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the acting and the and the relationship between Scarlett Johanson's
Speaker 1: character and Florence Pugh. Um yeah, I thought they were amazing.
Speaker 1: And I thought that the reason why it's a good
Speaker 1: movie is because you are invested in these people. You know,
Speaker 1: I think you'd be great in a Marvel movie. I
Speaker 1: as a Marvel mastermind. I want you. I see you
Speaker 1: as a mastermind though. Yeah yeah yeah, with that fear
Speaker 1: with his hand, that vibe. Yeah, I would actually love that.
Speaker 1: I would love to play a super villain by way,
Speaker 1: just the notion of you your name, like, and guess
Speaker 1: who's playing. Um, I don't know, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: give me a super villain name? What's it like? A
Speaker 1: just let's make up your own. Well. I always thought,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not a Marvel property. I think it's DC.
Speaker 1: But I thought if I ever did a super villain,
Speaker 1: I would want to play Bookworm. Oh great, there you go.
Speaker 1: I mean how cool would that be. I think it'd
Speaker 1: be super fucking hip. Yeah, well, let's put it out there,
Speaker 1: rob Let's put it out there in the universe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you be Bookworm. I want to be Green Hornet. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: I believe I could be green, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: it could happen. You know, they're gonna run out of
Speaker 1: actors at some point at some point. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: feel like it would just be it would be such
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to get in shape, you know, like
Speaker 1: I really want to be put on that. It's like
Speaker 1: Marvel Marvel diet, Like I just see you know, yes, right,
Speaker 1: and take those those whatever they're doing to look like that,
Speaker 1: you know, I want some of that. I say that
Speaker 1: same thing all the time ago. The whole point of
Speaker 1: being is Marvel is to have, you know, doctor feel good.
Speaker 1: He probably carries a Marvel doctor bag that has the
Speaker 1: Marvel logo on it, and he shows up to he
Speaker 1: shows up to every actor who's twenty pounds overweight, who
Speaker 1: just signed to play the you know, the green Henchman
Speaker 1: or where the fucking character it is, and opens up
Speaker 1: that bag and the next thing you know, you're on
Speaker 1: drugs and you are just shredded. Yeah, you don't know
Speaker 1: what hit you. That's what I want, That's what I want.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's quite something. Do you think there's like
Speaker 1: a special floor at the Marvel building where they have
Speaker 1: like actors on treadmills, like where they do animal experimentation,
Speaker 1: except it's on actors, and they're like, have you seen
Speaker 1: Kamo Johnny? Look at him, He's went from a from
Speaker 1: a thirty six ense waist to a twenty eight inch waist,
Speaker 1: got a tortoshell abs. Yeah, I'm sure they are all ripped.
Speaker 1: I mean they just they all look better than they
Speaker 1: will ever look in their entire lives. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like if if that could happen, I would
Speaker 1: definitely be up for a superhero movie. Do you know that?
Speaker 1: I never you know who the first person who ever
Speaker 1: got me to work out was? Who? Okay, let me
Speaker 1: know it. This is a good game, Okay, this is oh. Oh,
Speaker 1: I know who it is. I know who it is.
Speaker 1: I know absolutely who it is. Aili. It's Amelia totally.
Speaker 1: I knew it. I fucking knew it. I knew it.
Speaker 1: I never even I don't even think I understood the
Speaker 1: concept of working out. I mean it was like you
Speaker 1: had pe at school, you you know, maybe took a
Speaker 1: couple tennis classes, you know, but like working out. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, he hooks me up with this guy,
Speaker 1: Jackson Susa God to get out. I swear he came
Speaker 1: from my house in his fai parents house in the street. No,
Speaker 1: it was in the back of it because I was
Speaker 1: still living with my parents when I, you know, I
Speaker 1: was doing the movies. Um, and I remember, and I
Speaker 1: was pretty skinny. I mean I was just like very
Speaker 1: naturally a skinny kid. But I remember him pinching me
Speaker 1: and telling me up, you know what that is? That's
Speaker 1: that's subcontanious fat like what what? Yeah? I never never
Speaker 1: even I'm not sure I knew what subcontainious meant um
Speaker 1: and never ever was called fat in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, but by yeah, Jackson Susa. But that that
Speaker 1: was the first time I ever worked out with a trainer,
Speaker 1: Thanks Ameilio. He was my trainer to Jackson Susa. And
Speaker 1: he'd show up in a van and sometimes we would
Speaker 1: find a street literally a cul de sac and pull
Speaker 1: over and he put all his shit out in the
Speaker 1: street and we work out in the middle of the street.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, And that was an Emilio. Emilio used to
Speaker 1: wake me up. I'd be asleep and I'd wake up
Speaker 1: an Amili be standing over my bed and he'd have
Speaker 1: he would be fully dressed in his dolphin shorts and
Speaker 1: his tank tops and he would hold my running shoes
Speaker 1: in front of my face and wake me up in
Speaker 1: the morning. You go, because he always said, wake up,
Speaker 1: it's your worst nightmare an actor in running shoes and
Speaker 1: that's what he said. And then I would have to
Speaker 1: go run with him from point doomed trank Us and back. Wow.
Speaker 1: Do are you still friends with Amelia? I haven't seen
Speaker 1: him in a long, long, long, long long time, because
Speaker 1: he's I think he's like living in Ohio part time
Speaker 1: and stuff, and then he's shooting up in Canada's Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see Martin a lot. We did the West Wing
Speaker 1: reunion and he's, you know, just the best. And and
Speaker 1: every once in a while I'll get a really funny
Speaker 1: phone call from Charlie m and I had McCard Andrew
Speaker 1: on the podcast a few weeks ago. He was so great.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen or spoken to Andrew in so many years.
Speaker 1: And his book's amazing. If you haven't read it, it's
Speaker 1: quite great. I haven't read it yet, he U. He
Speaker 1: very nicely sent me all of the you know, sections
Speaker 1: that I was in, which you know, he didn't he
Speaker 1: didn't have to, but I thought that was really nice
Speaker 1: of him, and he was very respectful. And you know, um,
Speaker 1: he's a really good writer. I mean he's he's another
Speaker 1: one who's been sort of writing for years and getting
Speaker 1: progressively better, and um, yeah, he's a he's a good guy.
Speaker 1: His son played my son in his first movie, which
Speaker 1: was weird because it was like I would have these
Speaker 1: moments where I would look across and I would just
Speaker 1: see Andrew's eyes, like they don't really look a lot
Speaker 1: of like, but they have two same eyes and they're
Speaker 1: both a total pain in the ass. So like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm like back in time. Oh well, it
Speaker 1: was my youngest son, Um is an actor and started
Speaker 1: his first movie this summer, big independent movie, well independent
Speaker 1: big it is independent movie. And his dad was played
Speaker 1: by Andrew. Oh my god. And so it really feels
Speaker 1: like the like the matrix is about to break. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I agree. My daughter Matilda has just started acting, just
Speaker 1: did her first self tape and oh my god, and
Speaker 1: it's so it's so funny because I feel like I've
Speaker 1: gotten to the point now where you know, rejection doesn't
Speaker 1: sting as much as it always did, because I, you know,
Speaker 1: I've had incredible success. But like any actor, you you know,
Speaker 1: you go through there's always somebody else that they want,
Speaker 1: you know, no matter how much you do, there's always
Speaker 1: that that sting of rejection. But I finally have gotten
Speaker 1: to a place where I get a lot of my
Speaker 1: creative you know, juju from somewhere else, and so I
Speaker 1: don't really need it as much. Um. And then now
Speaker 1: that my daughter's doing it, I feel rejections so much more,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, oh my god, now I have
Speaker 1: to start all over again feeling all of this stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's way worse when it's your kid. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you feel that way, but I mean I
Speaker 1: feel that way. Like how could anybody not just think,
Speaker 1: you know, is and she's really good? I was really
Speaker 1: That was another thing I was really nervous about, is
Speaker 1: what if I have a an actor kid and they
Speaker 1: just suck you know what? Am I gonna what am
Speaker 1: I gonna say? Yeah, that's that's a real issue. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. I freaks me out as all of
Speaker 1: the self tapes because when we were when we were
Speaker 1: in there was no self tape. I remember when it
Speaker 1: was a big deal for them to have a camera
Speaker 1: in the audition, Like they had to tell your agents
Speaker 1: they were going to do it, you had to agree
Speaker 1: to it. It was super frowned on. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: you would always say, you know, she'll she'll do the meeting,
Speaker 1: she'll do the reading, but she won't do the self tape,
Speaker 1: or you know, or she'll meet with you, but she
Speaker 1: won't read. I mean, yeah, there's all these rules about
Speaker 1: it and the self tape. They would always say, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's just for blah blah blah, it's just to see
Speaker 1: the chemistry, or it's just for this, nothing's ever going
Speaker 1: to happen with it. But of course, like they're all
Speaker 1: on YouTube now, or you know, I just got, I
Speaker 1: just got. I had to sign off to have a
Speaker 1: self tape that I did, or not a self tape,
Speaker 1: but you know, a videotape because they're releasing the the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes for Labyrinth, which I auditioned for back
Speaker 1: in the day that Jennifer Connolly got, and I was
Speaker 1: part of me was really annoyed just because they told us,
Speaker 1: you know, that these weren't going to go anywhere, and
Speaker 1: then the other part of me is like, ah, fuck it,
Speaker 1: I don't care. The outsiders auditions are out there a lot,
Speaker 1: and they're they're so nut, they're so mental. My favorite
Speaker 1: one is Kate Capshaw. Wow, and it's like so incongruent.
Speaker 1: You're like, wait, that's Steven Spielberg's wife, and and they're
Speaker 1: like and how old are you? And she good answer? Yeah,
Speaker 1: those old auditions things are so crazy. I love Matilda Matilda.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's so good. Maybe she and Johnny
Speaker 1: can do a movie together. Yeah, how old is your son?
Speaker 1: He's twenty five? Okay? And did you do the thing
Speaker 1: where you didn't let him act for a long time
Speaker 1: or were you always yea? Yeah, it's the it's the
Speaker 1: Gwyneth Paltrow rule. I call it. What's that? So? I'm
Speaker 1: very friendly with the Paltrow family and have been since
Speaker 1: Gwyneth was probably fifteen, and it was like patently obvious
Speaker 1: that she was a sensation in waiting. It wasn't even
Speaker 1: up for debate. Yeah, and you know, people throwing movie
Speaker 1: roles at her modeling contracts. She's like a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old gold doesn't She's like whatever, yea and I would.
Speaker 1: And then when she find she finally did you know,
Speaker 1: work and won the Oscar so early. I remember at
Speaker 1: the party talking to her dad, Bruce Paltrow, who created
Speaker 1: many great television ship series, and I had young kids
Speaker 1: and I was fearful that they wanted to be in
Speaker 1: the business. And I said, Bruce, what did you do
Speaker 1: with one of like how did you handle it? And
Speaker 1: he said, we just had one rule. She had to
Speaker 1: go to college, and she did not act until she
Speaker 1: was at least eighteen. And now, by the way, Gwyneth
Speaker 1: immediately dropped out of college. But that was that was
Speaker 1: the rule. I had with my boys too. The Paltrow rule. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's good. I wish I had known the Paltrow
Speaker 1: rule because I have been I have been suffering for years.
Speaker 1: Why won't you let me? Why won't you you know?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, look, you can you can act, you
Speaker 1: can learn to act. I got her teachers. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I could teach somebody else's kid how
Speaker 1: to act or or I could teach them to be
Speaker 1: a better actor. You can't do that with your own kid,
Speaker 1: or at least I can't. So I got her with
Speaker 1: a really good teacher. And I'm like, you know, you're
Speaker 1: just you just need to have a really big toolbox
Speaker 1: because you know, maybe more doors will open for you.
Speaker 1: But people maybe might be a little bit more critical
Speaker 1: than they will with the average you know person. Um.
Speaker 1: But I wish I would have known the Paltrow role
Speaker 1: because that would have made my life a lot easier.
Speaker 1: But it's hard though, Like if they get like a
Speaker 1: somebody comes to them with something that's really great, You're like,
Speaker 1: m there's something I want to ask you. Actually, please
Speaker 1: turn the tables. Are you still married to the mother
Speaker 1: of your children? Cheryl? Yes, Cheryl and I celebrated our
Speaker 1: thirtieth wedding anniversary last week. Congratulations, thank you. Um, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure people have asked you this before, but
Speaker 1: what do you what do you attribute to the longevity
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, especially in Hollywood, that's not
Speaker 1: that's not so easy to ye to be with the
Speaker 1: same person for for you know, forever, I always say
Speaker 1: the same thing. It's that I believe it's Alfred Hitchcock.
Speaker 1: It might have been another director, it might have been
Speaker 1: Billy Wilder. But when they asked them, what do you
Speaker 1: attribute the keys to a hit movie? And he said, casting?
Speaker 1: And I think that's what it is with the marriage.
Speaker 1: It's it's casting and you know, picking the right person,
Speaker 1: you know, And I really believe that that battle is
Speaker 1: won and lost right there, and you know from you know,
Speaker 1: for me, Cheryl is and it was and is my
Speaker 1: best friend, right and um, so no matter what, we
Speaker 1: started from that place and and the rest of it
Speaker 1: all followed. And so no matter what, that's the basis
Speaker 1: when everything ebbs and flows. And look, you know, there's
Speaker 1: good days and there's bad days in any long term relationship.
Speaker 1: But if the baseline is best friendship, like like when
Speaker 1: something good or bad happens, it's the first person you
Speaker 1: want to talk to about or if you have I
Speaker 1: remember I had one the ability to bring somebody on
Speaker 1: a press tour around the world on a movie Andybody,
Speaker 1: when I was single, anybody, and and and there are
Speaker 1: times when I brought male friends and my best buddies.
Speaker 1: And when I met char I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring Cheryl and and that's sort of one. I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you have one seat on a worldwide tour and
Speaker 1: you want that person to be with you, Oh, I
Speaker 1: really love that. I'm I'm going on um next February.
Speaker 1: It will be twenty one years with my husband no Yea,
Speaker 1: who also, as you could see, was also my IT guy.
Speaker 1: I love that. But yeah, I feel the same way.
Speaker 1: You know. I really feel like if I was going
Speaker 1: around the world, he would be the person I would
Speaker 1: want to to go around the world with. And he's
Speaker 1: he's the one I want to talk to at the
Speaker 1: end of the day and you know, wake up to
Speaker 1: in the morning. And that really has never gone away.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I feel really grateful for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm I'm happy for you that that is
Speaker 1: good and you know, people listening is like, that's a
Speaker 1: really good litmus test. You know if if the you know,
Speaker 1: if it isn't that person, you maybe want to rethink
Speaker 1: it because the rest of it comes goes whatever, but
Speaker 1: that never goes away. Yeah. And also somebody that can
Speaker 1: make me laugh. I mean he makes me laugh like crazy,
Speaker 1: and that that's always been really important for me. That's
Speaker 1: actually something that I realized about you because I didn't
Speaker 1: really know you. I mean I feel like we had
Speaker 1: all these people in common, but I didn't know you
Speaker 1: until we did stand together, and I remember sort of like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, he's so funny. Like I just thought
Speaker 1: of you as this like good looking guy and then
Speaker 1: you just made me laugh so so much. Do you
Speaker 1: remember that scene that we had to do where it
Speaker 1: was like the camera we all we had to respond
Speaker 1: to something and the camera was like moving in really
Speaker 1: fast and we had to be like, oh do you
Speaker 1: remember that day? Yes? I do, you know. I think
Speaker 1: we shot it for a hundred years. I mean we
Speaker 1: literally show it was like it was a six month
Speaker 1: shoot in Utah. Six months, yeah, six months, So um,
Speaker 1: I had never We're talking about acting and acting learning
Speaker 1: acting acting coaches. I was pretty much self taught and
Speaker 1: started working from such a young age. I learned on
Speaker 1: the job. But my wife, as is her want, we'll
Speaker 1: say things to me like, you know, this is a
Speaker 1: really good part, honey, thank you. Maybe you should get
Speaker 1: an acting coach, thank you. I think. So when I
Speaker 1: got the stand, I'm playing the character who you know,
Speaker 1: can't talk, can't hear, and so she's like, this is
Speaker 1: really an opportunity. So I went and I studied with
Speaker 1: Roy London. Now Roy London, if you don't he was
Speaker 1: the man in Los Angeles, Yeah, the guy, the guy,
Speaker 1: and so he had I think Brad Pitt when he
Speaker 1: was blew up with thumb and Louise was a big
Speaker 1: Roy London. Sharon Stone from the Jump was Roy London,
Speaker 1: Gary Shandling. And so I met with Royce. You know,
Speaker 1: he says, send me the scripts and then we'll come
Speaker 1: talk about them. I sent him the scripts. He reads
Speaker 1: all the scripts. I come and sit with him and
Speaker 1: he says, so tell me what you're thinking. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. He's he's deaf, and you
Speaker 1: know I'm deaf in one year as well. I can
Speaker 1: barely I can't hear at all on one side of
Speaker 1: my head, so I mean, it might be an interesting
Speaker 1: thing where I get a device and you know, like
Speaker 1: a T T Titanus whatever, the tinitis device and put
Speaker 1: it in my ear so I could put a white
Speaker 1: noise in it, so then I don't hear, and he goes,
Speaker 1: let me just please, let me just let me just
Speaker 1: ask you, why would why would you want to do that?
Speaker 1: I said, what do you mean because he's deaf, and
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I understand that, but you're playing the
Speaker 1: parting you're not deaf. Yeah, he goes, why would you
Speaker 1: ever want to add another level of falsehood to your performance?
Speaker 1: Because I'm thinking about like people who are blind so
Speaker 1: they put a fucking mask on and stagger around their
Speaker 1: house for eight weeks, all that shit you hear about
Speaker 1: all the time from actors. And Roy's thing was that's
Speaker 1: exactly what you do, not do. And his thing and
Speaker 1: this is the most counterintuitive, bizarre thing, and by the way,
Speaker 1: I don't use it all the times, but he was like,
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is you here, So what
Speaker 1: you have to do is figure out why your character
Speaker 1: hears and chooses to let people think he doesn't and
Speaker 1: he goes, and of course you must not ever tell
Speaker 1: anyone Molly Ringwald this, this has been so fun. This
Speaker 1: makes my heart just swell and be happy. It's really
Speaker 1: really great to see you again, talk to you. I'm
Speaker 1: so glad. Congratulations on living your best life. As the
Speaker 1: kids say today, Thank you you too, and I hope
Speaker 1: that we get a chance to work together again, maybe
Speaker 1: in a Marvel movie. And I'll see you at the
Speaker 1: at the Marvel the super Secret Marvel Gem. I will
Speaker 1: be in the treadmill next. You hooked up to an
Speaker 1: ivy right, Thanks Molly, thank you. Well that was fun.
Speaker 1: She's so thoughtful and smart and it's always good to
Speaker 1: see somebody who's been there, done that and is living
Speaker 1: a great life and loving their life and in a
Speaker 1: great place and just legitimately makes my heart happy. I
Speaker 1: hope you had as much fun as I did. Okay,
Speaker 1: so before we wrap up for the week, I know
Speaker 1: you're ready, I know I am. It is time, Yes,
Speaker 1: it is for the lowdown line. Hello, you've reached literally
Speaker 1: and our lowdown line where you can get the lowdown
Speaker 1: on all things about me. Roblow three two three five
Speaker 1: seven zero four five five one so have at it.
Speaker 1: Here's the beep, Hey, proub, this is a Dakota here
Speaker 1: in Nebraska. I was wondering if you actually link the
Speaker 1: Atkins products kind of looking heavily into that, you know,
Speaker 1: low carb, high protein, low sugar. Two. Also, I want
Speaker 1: to know how things are going with nine one loan Star.
Speaker 1: Can't wait for the new season. So yeah, I just
Speaker 1: Dakota in Nebraska is great. It could have been Nebraska
Speaker 1: and Dakota just as easily. So thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Not only do I love the Atkins stuff. Like one
Speaker 1: of the things when when I was talking about getting
Speaker 1: into business with Atkins, because I've been eating the Atkins
Speaker 1: way for for years and what Frankie wasn't even where
Speaker 1: they had products at first was when they sent me
Speaker 1: the protein shakes and they were so like literally like milkshakes,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this has to be bullshit. It
Speaker 1: has to be like these protein bars are so yummy,
Speaker 1: they can't possibly be as good for you and have
Speaker 1: the ingredients that they have, and they do. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a big believer in low carb life. It's
Speaker 1: made a real, real difference for me. And same with
Speaker 1: low sugar, although that's that's hard to beat. That's a
Speaker 1: struggle that I one step forward, two steps back, nine
Speaker 1: one one lone star. Thank you for watching. We finished
Speaker 1: the year as I think the number two rated show
Speaker 1: in all of television, two or three in all of TV.
Speaker 1: So we will be back for a third season and
Speaker 1: we will be back, premiering in January of this coming year.
Speaker 1: We will not be back in the fall. We're going
Speaker 1: to be in January on Monday nights, same place on Fox,
Speaker 1: and really really super good stories coming up. I'm really
Speaker 1: really excited about about year three and I love doing
Speaker 1: it and I love that people are loving it as
Speaker 1: much as they are. Thanks for calling. We'll be back
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Speaker 1: Thanks so much. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe,
Speaker 1: Produced and engineered by me Rob Scholty. Our coordinating producer
Speaker 1: is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Rob
Speaker 1: Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna
Speaker 1: solataro fore Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Our
Speaker 1: talent bookers are Gina Batista Paula Davis and Britt Kahn
Speaker 1: and music is by Devin Torrey Bryant. Make sure to
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