WEBVTT - Alec Baldwin in the Hot Seat 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.800 Hi, here's the thing, listeners. I'm not Alec Baldwin. I'm 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.360 in a sale from the Death, Sex and Money podcast. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.080 Our show is about the things we think about a 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.480 lot and need to talk about more. And I recently 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.000 interviewed Alec on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.439 about all this big stuff money, sex and death. These 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.320 are things he is remarkably honest about in his new 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.440 memoir called Nevertheless. And because you're here's the thing, listener, 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.800 I know you like revealing interviews, so we thought you'd 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.520 like to hear one where instead of asking the questions, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:46.040 Alec Baldwin is the one answering them. Okay. What I 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.200 wanted to do was run out me first and introduce you. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.360 I am in control here, okay, and then I would 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.280 run out and you'd introduce me. So I want to 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:01.160 start with how you start your memoir money. You say 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.360 early on that the reason you wrote this book was 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.840 because you got paid for it, and you say the 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.040 mercenary force is strong in this one. So I want 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.920 to ask you about money. Uh. Is the making of 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.560 money for you? Is the thrill in getting the big 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.039 paycheck and spending it at this point? Or is it 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:26.240 watching it accumulate to feel safe. You know, I completely 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.240 forgot that this is an episode of death, sex, and money. 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.840 We're taping this for your show. Um, well, it's interesting 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:34.640 you say that I never really thought about that, because 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:39.039 I don't. I literally have. Ah, this is gonna sound 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.240 silly and maybe maybe some people are too young here 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.240 to get this analogy. But um, like in Bugs Bunny cartoons, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.480 Bugs Bunny, sometimes we'll be sleep walking on a construction 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.760 site and he'd be walking along like these girders and 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:54.760 he's about to walk off the edge, and another girder 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.720 would come into place, and he'd walk on that and 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.320 always be rescued at the last moment. And that's kind 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:08.080 of my financial planning strategy. Things get really bad and 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.880 then a big girder of money comes in and I 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.280 walk on that for a while. There's these planks of 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.160 money keep coming in to float me to where I'm 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:18.600 go before I die. But I never really think about that. 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:20.880 I have as really, I really believe a lot in 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:26.520 providence financially. Yeah, I don't know. I think moments of 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.440 a financial planner, I think I actually appreciate how honest 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.920 you are about money being part of what motivates you 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:33.760 because you grew up not with a lot of it, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.480 So it makes sense that creating a sense of security 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.200 not only for yourself but your for your family is 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.000 something that you've thought about as you've made career choices. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.919 I think the people who go into business and uh 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.960 succeeding uh being measured at least in one part on 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:58.440 money and income. Um, people in investment banking obviously, things 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.000 that are all very near and dear to us New Yorkers. Um. Uh. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.400 The you know, the business simon you you tend not 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:09.040 to think about that, and then all of a sudden 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.200 one day you are thinking about that. Because there's tremendous 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.760 opportunities there for people who succeed in film and television. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.400 But I think that when I got out of my 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:19.960 house when I was a kid and I went to school, 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.000 I thought, I just want to succeed at whatever I do. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.280 Like if I went into acting for like a year 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.519 or two and I was still waiting tables, I probably 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.320 wouldn't have done it. I wasn't going to walk around 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.239 for like a decade, you know, with a copy of 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.760 Allman Gilead wedged in my pocket and like, you know, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.320 hanging out dressed in all black clothes at Nick sorely 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.120 Is all night long. You know I wasn't doing that. Yeah, 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.400 well you actually you you recall a conversation that you 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.280 had with the professor at George Washington when you're at 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.600 that stage of life, You've gone one year to college 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.760 at George Washington, thinking that law and policy is part 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.680 of your future. You transfer, you're thinking about transferring to 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.480 n y U. And he says to you, you're right, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.920 it's interesting that you're not talking about any dreams you have. 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.400 You're just talking about how you're going to make it. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.360 That that was what was driving in He was. He 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.040 was a very intense guy, very clever guy, and you know, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.160 smart guy, I think, very caring of his students. You older. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.560 You know, I was in my early twenties. He was 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.080 probably close to sixty, but like around my age now 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.720 and um he um. From my own benefit to kind 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.080 of throw a cold glass of water on me, you know, 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.279 to to think about how I was going into this. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.479 I was giving up going to law school and this 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.560 kind of traditional track I was on to go into 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.599 this more non traditional track and rather late in the game. 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.839 And he was like, well, where's the artistic spirit, you know, 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:51.400 where's the passion for it from an artistic standpoint? And 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.440 I don't think I had that, really, you don't, No, No, 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:56.560 I think I think I went to I went to 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.360 n y U for people. Again, these are references. People 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:00.960 here might be too to get, but I never forget 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.000 the guy that was auditioning me then was a guy, 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.720 uh named Fred Gorelick. And I came in, and of 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:12.919 course I've later find out I've done unfortunately for poor Fred, 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.080 I probably done the nine hundredth rendition of Long Day's Journey, 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.279 and tonight I've done Edmund from Long Day's Journey. I 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.520 get in and I'll never forget Fred. It was this 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.400 very colorful guy. He looks at me, he goes, you 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:30.880 remind me of a young aljo Ray? Is that? Because 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:32.839 my voice is going to rasp me? Did you remind 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.080 me of the very young Aljoe Ray? He said? And 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.440 I thought, my god, is that a compliment? I thought? 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.120 Is that supposed to close the deal? Here? Yeah? So 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.440 I go to the school and uh, I had tremendous 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.400 doubts about that. I really I didn't really think it 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.280 was what I wanted to do. I was gonna try. 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.279 I would never be young enough again to try that. 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.360 So I did it. And then as soon as I 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:57.039 got out of that first year, I had to go 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:01.000 another year or one semester was all my credit student transfer. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.200 But I got work right away, and then I just 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.279 kept working, and the more I would work in the business, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.720 the more I would um. For simplicity's sake, I'll say, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.280 get into that, Udhahagan, think about respect for acting, because 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.880 in the beginning, it wasn't that I had a cynicism 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:19.839 about it or a lack of respect for it. I 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.599 just didn't take it seriously enough. And then after I 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.800 did this soap opera for like two years and absorbed 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.200 all the things from those people about their experiences outside 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:30.960 of the television show, because all of them were like 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:33.920 running off to go to the macarter to do King 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.680 John and everything. And I'm doing a soap opera where 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:41.800 you know, every day we go to work the script unavoidably, 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:43.840 so it was just treacle every day, you know what 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.799 I mean, every day You're like, Greta, I love you, Greta. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.200 I love you so much, Greta. I wish there was 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:52.279 enough time and the day to tell you Greta, how 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.359 much I love you, and like the next day, the 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.000 same thing once, one more time to find a point 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.000 on this how much I love you? And it was 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:02.640 like you just want to go blow your brains out, 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.200 And and all the casts of many of them veteran 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.400 theater actors, they take their break and I see, what 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:10.440 are you gonna do? And they go, I'm going to 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.440 go to King John the Macarter, I'm gonna go to 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.120 uh light up the Sky at the paper Mill Playhouse, 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:18.840 And they're all the Westport Playhouse, and they were all 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.880 really intense theater actors. And by the time I came 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.360 out of that process with them, I had completely changed. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.960 I think. Really. You write with a lot of fondness 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.160 about David O'Brien, who was your co star on The Doctors, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.200 and I love these scenes you you recall of running 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.680 around the mid fifties of Manhattan as a young man, 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.400 having from Long Island to then Washington, and then you're 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.360 running around town with this band of gay men, a 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:52.160 very handsome young man yourself, and then yeah, back then, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:57.440 but it made me, it made me kind of wonder 0:07:57.560 --> 0:07:59.880 like you had a lot of different role models for 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:06.040 masculinity looked like on Long Island in Washington. Then David 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.400 O'Brien becomes this very important role model for you as 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.640 what what a man who's a performer is like? What 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.040 did you learn about masculinity from those guys when you're 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.840 drinking in bars in Manhattan at that stage of your career. 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.880 That's so great. David played my father on the show, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.720 and I knew he what his nature was the first 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.800 day because the first day I come on, they were 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.000 very merciless there. They want you to know your lines, 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:29.800 and they wanted to They wanted to do what they 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.760 call live tape, which is don't stop because we don't 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.839 want to do the editing because the editing costs money. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.000 We want you to play the scene straight through. Don't 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.680 don't cut, try to get through it, try to remember 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.920 your lines, don't know exactly like we're doing it live. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.160 Even though we weren't live that we could cut. They 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.160 tried to avoid that for cost. And I come in 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.600 my very first day and I don't remember my lines. 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.599 I can't remember any of my lines. I'm terrified. I'm mortified. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.240 And there was a guy named Don Stewart, and I 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.000 believe I've been told that if you listen to the 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.280 broadcast of the first time I was on the show, 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.040 because we have cute cards back then, actual cute cards 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.160 next to the camera with the sky Don Stewart, you 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.320 can hear in the background Don Stewart tapping my cute 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.880 card where the line is I'm supposed to say, so, 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.319 David O'Brien plays my phone, is like, so, Bill, we 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.200 haven't seen you such a long time. Where have you been? 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:28.640 And I go, oh, you know, uh, And I go, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.480 We'll go to the card. And David would save me, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.439 he'd save my line. I bet you was spending a 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.440 lot of time. But your grandmother's house in Newport, what's 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.280 your new part is? You've been a new part for 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:43.319 a while. And I see I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.560 I was in Newport. I was. I was working at 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:50.920 the bank for grand my Grandma's bank. I was Grandma's back, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.200 you know. And then I realized how caring and how 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.040 kind he was, and I became really good friends with him. 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.120 And he was from an old you know, David was 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:01.920 in the original company of Boys in the band. He 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:07.840 was from a pre aids, pre eight s gay culture 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.959 in New York. His his his friends were all, as 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.320 I say in the book, they were executive gay. Uh, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:22.599 they were ceo gay. And we go to these restaurants. Uh, 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:27.880 I go, as I was David's date, and um, he 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:32.320 taught me many things, but he taught me that I 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.760 think what I don't think he meant to teach me. 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.840 But what I say in the book is that under 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.040 any given circumstances, I could have been gay. I say 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.120 that in the book I was in love with him 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.240 as anybody ever met my life. I never slept with him. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.079 I never slept with a guy in my life. But 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:48.560 I look a him and I go, was it? My 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.000 hang up? Like, did I what's the what's the membrane 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:53.959 you passed through by which one minute you have a 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.320 certain set of values in terms of sexuality, and you 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.280 meet somebody that you care about as much as any 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.760 woman I've ever been with. To my A, well what 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.840 do I do now? You know? I say in the book, 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:07.839 I took a woman I was dating to his house 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.440 on fire. So she was just velcro to the corner 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.840 and didn't say a word, and he and I were 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:19.000 like you you you, And she said, they're like eating 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.280 you know, macadamia nuts and doing her nails, and I'm like, 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.760 okay over there, okay, and uh, I mean I loved him. 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:28.800 I loved him. He was a great guy. And uh 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.840 but he taught me to he taught he was the 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:34.679 beginning of me learning the one for them, one for 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.600 you school of acting, which has embraced the commercial and 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:42.400 great embrace those opportunities. But then when you can, you 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.319 run off and do these other things for your soul, 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.120 you know. So you began acting one year at n 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:48.840 y U one and a half years, as you say, 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.000 you you joined the doctors. You go to Hollywood, quickly 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.840 find success. And during this time of becoming an actor 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.320 with a job, I'm not slanding. You also have a 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:04.640 cocaine haby it you write with some detail, yes, slip 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:11.559 my mind. When did you first do cocaine? M h 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.959 is your show Cold Drug stands, Sex and Money. The 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.199 I guess here in New York with the people from 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.760 the soap there was people who were you know, one 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:25.320 day you're down to the bathroom in a bar in 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.160 New York it's the eighties and you're doing cocaine and 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.439 you're and you're like, oh, that's cool. And then and 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.320 then of course the money thing, you know, like, yeah, 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:33.920 I look at it everything in terms of a value 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.280 of you know, what I could afford, and I didn't 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.480 want to um waste money. I thought, God, I money 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.680 is so elusive in my family and my bloodline. Uh 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.840 that I Uh, I would sit there and somebody would 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.240 I'd say, we know. I mean literally, you know, I'm 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.760 like a Woody Allen character in my own life. You know, 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:54.920 I'm like in the bathroom, I'm like, I used to 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.160 how much does this stuff? Course, you know you're doing 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.800 the cocaine. How much you look the portions you by, 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.520 which size like a little baggy, and how much is that? 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.079 And the woman's like saying to me, you know, they 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.280 tell you how much it costs, and you're like, oh god, no, 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.400 I'm not doing that. You know that's something it was 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.280 cost prohibitive, And then when you make more money, it's 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:20.880 not cost prohibits. Thank you. You write about an overdose, 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.640 the cocaine overdose while you were working, you're alone in 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.960 a hotel room, you think you're gonna die. Did you 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.960 stop using cocaine because you were ashamed or because you 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.320 thought you might die? Well? I didn't. I didn't, Uh. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.520 I stopped. Then in the fall of two nineteen, Uh 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:52.480 oops typo um the nine four I stopped and then 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.120 uh and then I go and uh do it again. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.520 And people had said, you know that in these different 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.280 twelve programs, that if you give up one thing, then 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.079 you'll pick up other things. And sure enough of my 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.720 drinking increased, and uh, but not that it was that 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:10.920 that was too crazy. But I never foreget one time 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:12.960 I was at my friend's house with my dear friends 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.000 and they're all snorting cocaine and they knew what happened 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:17.719 to me, how sick I was, and they were all 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:19.000 talking and it was like one of those E. F. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:22.240 Hutton commercials, But like all of a sudden, everybody stops 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.120 talking when the cocaine mirror is in front of me 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.000 because they want to see if this person that's overdosed 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.240 is you're actually gonna So there was going blah blah blah, 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:34.120 blah blah blah. So I didn't go back and do 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.040 that until one more time in the February of five, 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.680 and it just made me sick. It maybe I was 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:47.240 very sick because I uh, I think, as as often 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.960 the case for many people, success was far more scary 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.200 for me than failure. Failure was what I was accustomed to. 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.160 We're not succeeding was what I mean, growing up under 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.760 very very uh ordinary means and stuff for than going 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:03.240 to l A and UH and trying to figure that out. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.160 My dad had died. There was no old Brian there 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:07.520 for me. I write in the book that one of 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.560 the strongest themes of the book is my need to 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.640 find someone to replace my dad and to mentor me. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:17.040 And I did this thing. I mean as loquacious as 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.160 I can be at times. I played this game once 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:22.240 with two famous men that were two huge executives at 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.120 a studio. And I'm not that smart, but on one occasion, 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:27.680 I thought, I'm gonna sit and have lunch with him, 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.920 and I'm not going to say a word. I'm gonna 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.160 read all about them. Was before the internet. I'm gonna 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.880 find out about their careers. And I sat and at 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.000 lunch with one particular guy, and we talked for an 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.920 hour and a half at a restaurant in Beverly Hills. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.480 And he's spoken an unbroken monologue for an hour and 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:44.840 a half. We just couldn't believe how much I was 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.000 really acted. It's the best acting I've ever done in 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.400 my life. And then what and then you do what 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.800 after that? Oh? Really? Oh my god? Then you did that? 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.000 Oh my god. And I kind of meant because he 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.080 was a very fascinating guy. And the lunch is over 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.000 and he calls up my agent. He goes, I love him. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.560 He's fantastic, you know. And I realized getting out there, 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.720 like it's it's like this much about how talented you are, 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.120 and this much about how much they like you. They 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.600 want to like you, and they want to work with 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:14.200 people they like. So I started to kind of get 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.720 into that idea and then eventually I just checked that 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:22.680 as I don't care if they like me. Coming up, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.080 Alec tells me about choosing to be a very public 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:31.040 celebrity while also being addicted to solitude. You know, Ray 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.520 Charles is blind, but he learned how to play the piano. 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:40.200 Sometimes people are the Ray Charles of uh, you know, agoraphobia. 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.840 You know, we're being in public. They find a way 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:44.520 to handle it and deal with it, but doesn't take 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.480 away the fact that they aren't necessarily that comfortable in 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.880 front of people and talking about themselves. So but they 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:55.680 find a way to get around him. More of my 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.680 conversation with Alec Baldwin about his new memoir Nevertheless coming 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:12.680 up after the break. I'm in a sale from the Death, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.880 Sex and Money podcast talking today with Here's the Thing 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.119 host Alec Baldwin. As a college student, Alec transferred from 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.160 George Washington University to go to n y us Tish 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.520 School of the Arts. After a year there, Alec got 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.359 work as an actor and dropped out. But more than 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.880 a decade later, when he was in his late thirties, 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.080 he finished his degree. I read all of the books 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.840 just done Oslavski and Strasburg, and I watched all of 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.520 the films of al Paccino, and I interviewed al for 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:46.679 nine hours off and on. I mean, I would be 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.960 like literally out, We'll be doing be talking, and we'd 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.159 beginning into this great thing, and he was doing me, 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.120 this big favorite body, letting me interview him. And uh 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:55.920 like about an hour and a half ago by going 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.880 I'm gonna go to the grocery store, Aleck, I'm gonna 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.359 I'm down to the grocery store right now. You wait here, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:09.280 I'll be right back an hour and I'm sitting there 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.200 writing and I had two questions and I interviewed Al 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.040 about the applicability of method acting to someone with a 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.080 career in theater and film, and Pacina was the only 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:22.800 one that really mattered because he kept going back to 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.960 the theater throughout his career and still does. He just 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.440 finished doing a show in l a And I interviewed 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:29.280 Al and it was just one of the most amazing 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.359 experiences of my life. Do you remember one thing you 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:37.680 learned from those interviews that sticks with you. Al does 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.159 not like to talk about acting, which was very frustrating. 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.640 We were writing a paper Bad Acting, and uh, we're 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.440 in his house once. I mean, there's so many anecdotes 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.879 about that. But one time I say to him, I 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.280 said to him, I look at the line of people's work, like, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:58.119 what's the kind of uh course they're on? And I said, now, 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.600 in this period, right this year, you did the movie 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:06.440 Author Author with Tuesday Weld, this romantic comedy and in 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.200 the title song of the movie, the lyrics they sing 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.280 are and in the end it's just it's just all 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.360 cookies and milk and a smile. I said. And then 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:23.040 after that, you do Cruise in the homosexual crime movie 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:26.480 a detective movie with Billy Fakin, which was this big 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.400 disaster for everybody involved. And I said, you know your 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.400 have your you know your this really violent movie. I said, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.040 what's that like for you as an actor when you 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.080 pivot between these different things? And he literally sits here 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.160 and goes, that does sound good, though, doesn't it? Alec, 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.879 it's just cookies and milk and a smile. That doesn't 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:53.440 sound too bad, doesn't And I'm like, yeah, it sounds great. 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.960 But then you go from that you see two people 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.040 like murdering each other in these gay clubs in Manhattan. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.160 I said, you do a scene with Richard Cox and 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.560 he is going down on you in in uh A 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:09.800 Riverside Park and I said, you're a method actors, said, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:11.760 what's that life? You shooting that scene? He goes, all 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.080 I remember was was cold. It was so cold there. 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:19.000 We're there in the park and it was so damn 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.439 cold out there. And he would never answer my question 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.320 acting look to reveal to me. I wouldn't answer one question. 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:29.760 And but then you talked about the theater, and he 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.400 talked about the theater. He would articulate about that quite 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.000 a bit. Oh that's interesting, So I want to ask 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:40.080 you about acting. It was so damn cold out there. 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:45.000 I saw all I remember. I am curious because you 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.960 have been both a professional actor and a professional celebrity 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.919 for most of your adult life, and so you have 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:56.040 been acting in roles and being the persona of Alec 0:20:56.080 --> 0:21:01.080 Baldwin when you are preparing, like I was thinking this weekend. 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.360 So last night you're preparing to go on Saturday Night 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.320 Live as Bill O'Reilly and as President Donald Trump, and 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.480 then tonight you're preparing to open up your personal life 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.520 to all of these people who are here tonight. Don't 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:18.680 you like, is there a similar way that you prepare 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:25.280 or they totally different? I think it's a um that 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.320 don't be good to answer the questions without the bike, 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:42.840 but the the I think, uh uh, well, I mean, 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:44.280 you know, you go along and you and you have 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.080 a career, and of course you want a career like 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:48.840 many people I admire where the only way you could 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.800 access them is to buy a ticket, and they have 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:54.639 certain things in the business they don't want to do. 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:58.520 You know, Daniel day Lewis is very elusive and he's 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.520 not doing Jimmy that one, you know. I mean, I 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.760 mean you can almost wonder what that conversation is like 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:06.520 where people are like, you know, so we've got this 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:08.680 idea with Daniel is going to come on the show, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.280 right and he and Jim you gonna have like a 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.040