WEBVTT - Griffin Dunne on Being “Kind of Brave” 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:05.280 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:11.160 Thing from iHeartRadio My guest Today is an actor, producer, director, 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.720 and author of a new memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.840 Griffin Dunn is known for his roles in cult film 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.239 favorites like An American Werewolf in London and Martin Scorsese's 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.680 After Hours. You may have also seen done in popular 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.720 TV series such as This Is Us and Succession. As 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.200 a director, Griffin Dunn's work includes Practical Magic, Fierce People, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.239 and the documentary on his aunt titled Joan Didion The 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.920 Center Will Not Hold. Growing up among famous relatives and 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:48.240 a father in show business, Griffin Dunn had an unconventional childhood. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.640 My father when I was growing up was very different 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.680 than the man he ended up becoming. You know, when 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.800 I was growing up, he was very angry, Irish Catholic 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.560 kind of rage you know, suppressed. He was closeted, which 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.080 was you know, not known at the time, and he 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.160 was also very kind of superficial about how things looked, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.000 and he dictated what we would wear and what we'd 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.080 go to school in. And it was really tough kind 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.680 of being around him, and I had that awful feeling 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.600 as a kid to be a little embarrassed of my dad, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.520 you know, like he wasn't like a manly, manly guy. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.080 And you know, my best friends. I went to a 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.520 school in la and everybody was in show business, all 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.959 the parents and my best friends their father was one 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.520 was Jack Palance, who you know almost killed Shane, and 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.440 the other was Howard Keel who was a lumberjack. And 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.600 then there was my dad, and you know comings exactly. 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.160 You know, I was once so embarrassed that I came 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.760 to school and I said that my dad was in 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.840 jail for robbing a bank. And the lie went through 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.280 the school like small party or something, and the principal 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.440 of the school called my dad and go, oh my god, Nick, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.800 you're out. And he goes, what are you talking about? Well, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.080 I heard you were you were in jail for robbing 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.160 a bank. And he brought me. My dad brought me 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.520 into the you know, into this room, and he said, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.000 is that something you'd like me to do? So when 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.240 it came time, you know, for him, as many couples 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:28.640 do when they break the news to their kids that 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.360 they're going to get a divorce, they plan what they're 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.040 going to say, you know, so they looks like a 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:36.600 mutual decision. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.320 And did your dad say he was going back to prison? 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.040 Now we would have loved that, but he, you know, 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.640 my dad had the first line and he went off script. 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.280 He just burst into tears and went, your mother doesn't 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.200 love me anymore and she's dumped me and she's leaving. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.360 And you know, we were all. I was about ten, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.839 my brother was eight, my sister was six, and we'd 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.919 never really seen adults quite cry before, and it was 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.359 particularly my younger brother and sister. So they burst into 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.400 tears and they were really crying, and my dad was 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.239 really going at it. And I got nothing I got. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.160 I'm dry as a bone, and I just feel awful 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:23.040 thee Yeah, I felt nothing. I felt nothing, and so 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.040 I try to, you know, get a couple of whimpers 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:31.800 going and yeah, and it cleared my eyes and making 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.840 sounds and I'm looking I see my mother. She's crying. 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.760 I'm wow, that's really bad. And then I opened my 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.360 eyes and she's looking at me through her eyes and 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.640 they're just totally dry, and I catch her faking it. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.120 She knows I'm faking it, and a bond happened any 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:53.440 of a beautiful beginning of a beautiful relationship. And when he, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.080 you know, moved out, I became, at a very young 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:57.080 age sort of the man. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:57.240 Of the house. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:58.920 I was eleven. 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.760 Two stings happened with me really well, not so much 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.280 in divorce, but at some point my sister and I 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.320 was Cinderella, Me were the help. 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:07.640 Yeah, my brother. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.920 Spent the whole day every day shooting basketballs, playing with 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.040 football in pools, and my sister and I did the laundry, 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:15.960 rake the leaves, cut the grass, shovel of the snow, 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.920 cooked the meal. Then so you're twelve, and when he leaves, 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.440 where does he go? Does he go far away or 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:21.960 is he nearby? 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.560 He goes to an apartment, you know, real kind of 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:30.080 a Jack Lemon bachelor park in California, and you know, real, 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.240 you know, sad sech kind of a apartment that we're 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.080 supposed to go to on the weekends that we never do. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:40.479 And you know, my mom was like she what she 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.039 became very I would say, she she would over share, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.600 and you know, and she you know, she liked her wine, 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.200 and she let me stay up late. I felt terribly 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.239 grown up. And she'd let me have a little SIPs 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.320 of wine like they do in Europe with the children 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.360 in Europe, and she get a little bombed and just overshare, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.160 and I felt terribly grown up. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:04.560 You know. 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:07.560 My dad would be come home from work. He'd come 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:08.880 home and he'd get on the couch and have the 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.279 New York Times, and he'd read those pithy little blurbs 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.680 about the movies on TV on a million on the 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:16.599 Late Show, and he'd read it and he say, you. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.280 Know, Ball of Fire, that's a great movie. You'd say 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:20.600 to me, let's watch a few minutes. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:21.840 My dad would, oh, you gotta go to bed. It's 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.799 eleven thirty. You gotta go to bed. It's eleven thirty. 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:25.440 I go, let's watch ten minutes of him. Just ten, 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.360 You go, all right, we'll watch tennis. Ten minutes goes by. 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.400 He's fast asleep. He passes out on the couch, and 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.680 I watched all the Bowl of Fire. How Green was 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.680 My Valley? Sorry, wrong number, passage to Marseille. I watch 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.080 all the movies I watched in my life, and. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.840 Like like you, they wanted they were lonely. They want 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:43.400 to compassion. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.039 Absolutely No. That's the other thing that happened too, was 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:50.680 like all the structure went out the window, and my mother, 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.560 you know, was beginning to get sick. She had MS 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.880 and and so we would go to her bedroom and 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.320 we'd eat on TV trays everything, and it would be 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.239 you know, we had a housekeeper that pretty much raised 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.600 me as well. She was Mexican, and we would have 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.240 rice and beans just on the thing. We would eat 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.360 at all different hours. We'd take our tray and we'd 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.520 watch them and we would watch movies till my brother 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:19.200 and sister go to sleep, but she'd let me stay 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.800 up and we would watch. You know, there was one 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:27.120 movie called Suddenly Last Summer that was so terrifying to me, 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.480 you know, and I guess there was like a really 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.160 scary gay theme that was under in cannibalism, and there 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.239 was Catherine Hepburn, you know, on one of those chairs 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.559 that would come down the stairs, and for some reason 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.520 we it would be a million dollar movie, and you know, 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.800 they'd play the movies over and over and over. So 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.360 we would watch this movie. We knew it line by line. 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.200 And then when my mother, you know, advanced further, she 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.960 had to get one of those chairs and we would 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.080 just do Catherine Hepburn imitations. On this chair coming down 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:03.400 the stairs. All those late night movies, you know, really 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.600 were imprinted. They became like the language that we would speak. 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:12.200 My mother just knew every movie, every musical, every She 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.360 wanted to be but she wasn't she She when she 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.920 got pregnant with me, she decided to just become a housewife. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.040 And when she when you say her symptoms of MSS, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.040 her battle with them, I speagan when she was how. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.760 Old, I'd say in her thirties, because. 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:28.720 She done when she was sixty five. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.679 Yeah, down in No Gallas, No Gas. 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:33.400 That's kind of her family's. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:34.640 That's where she went. She returned there. 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:38.040 So your family, your mother's family, that was the railroad 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.000 wheel car enterprise exactly. 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:46.600 Her father was from family that in Chicago, Chicago called, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.240 and they had the Griffin Wheel Company, and the Griffin 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.119 wheels were at one time on all the pullman cars 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.320 in America. So it was quite an empire. Yes, And 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.240 my grandfather really had no interest in taking on that business. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:06.280 He yeah, I know what was he thinking? And he 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.840 went to he was like, you know, like Teddy Roosevelt. 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.760 He had weak lungs and ended up in Arizona when 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.520 he was a kid, and just fell in love with 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.200 the landscape, the air in the desert. So when he could, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.680 he was supposed to be married in a society wedding 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.120 in Chicago, and he literally left her on the altar 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:31.040 and went to Nogalis, where he became a cattle rancher 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.760 and knew nothing about cattle and bred this like a 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.920 very risky kind of cow and was very successful at it. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.120 And my mother grew up on this ranch. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.440 So I'm assuming not to be ghost about this, but 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.960 your mother's family was on all the resources that you 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:49.400 grew up with exactly. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.600 She flirted with being an actress, but she didn't take 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:52.079 it seriously. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.320 She didn't. She didn't and she wasn't. I think she 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:00.520 had tremendous regret about it, you know. And when I later, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.520 when I got kicked out of school and I decided 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.520 to become an actor, we moved to New York and 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:10.280 was the high school dropout. She actually wasn't disappointed. She 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.280 was a little oddly envious, and she was like, kind 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:14.280 of go for it. 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:15.800 That. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.559 Yeah, now your was your mind. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.520 I didn't see the photos of there were Your mother 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:21.320 was a beautiful woman. 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.280 She camera ready, she was so beautiful. She was often 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:28.920 mistaken for Jennifer Jones and for Elizabeth Taylor in a 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.439 place in the sun. That's the look I rememorder. Oh 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.040 my god, you know. And I was as a little boy, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.679 I knew how beautiful she was. I was just in 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.439 awe of her beauty. And in this family, as you said, 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:46.240 all this Griffin Wheel company money kind of withered down. 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.000 She was very comfortable and was able to want she 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.160 married my dad. My dad was able to, you know, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.600 buy a house that he wouldn't normally have been able 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.679 to cry. But you know, the previous generations outside of 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.160 the founder, griff of Griffin who in the team seventies, 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.760 they were all scoundrels and drunks and philanderers, you know, 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.720 and absolutely it just sort of dwindled down. You know 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:15.000 that her grandfather, my mother's grandfather, you know, died with 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.000 his mistress on a on a yacht off Palm Beach, 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:23.160 and his crew loaded his body onto a tender and 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:24.520 checked him into. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.000 The breakers and propped him up in the breakers. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:29.880 They propped him up, and then they called the wife, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.920 missus Griffin, and said, we have terrible news. Your husband 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.120 is dead. And she turned to her lover, who was 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.920 an admiral in the navy, and. 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:39.880 They were the Coronado. 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:44.200 Where were they and Coronado exactly, and she said, my 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:45.040 husband died. 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.400 Ever a split screen scene in the movie this. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.920 Is this is like sturges, you know, and she says, 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.160 my husband died. We can get married, and do you 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.520 want to go to the funeral? And so they get 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.280 married the next day, and then they train, and then 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:01.680 they get on. 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:02.120 A train and. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.040 Then they the Griffin family is so outraged because it's 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.160 front page news in the New York Times. It's all over. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.200 It's called widow for a day. And they derail the 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:15.079 train to go to. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.440 Wisconsin, the train to send him on their way. 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.200 And she got all the money too. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.400 Now, your dad, who I knew of him, met him 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.480 at the screening of The Dock in Southampton years I 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.000 remember the latter day people called him then Nick Dunn. 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.400 The latter day Nick Dunn and his pals was just 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.640 very very warm and sweet and kind. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.760 Yeah, he loved you and he kind of really just 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.880 divested himself of all of angry Well what we'll called 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.480 Mick done. Yes, how about that happened? Anyway, When you 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.360 decide you want to become an actor. How does it begin? 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.800 Meaning you start you go where to become an actor? 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:51.400 Quote unquo. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:55.719 Well, I was sent studied, Well, my parents always sent 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.200 me to these boys' schools. I never went to school 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:03.560 girls from the time, well probably, I mean it was 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.400 just like the thing that you can't have. And you know, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.680 when I went to this boarding school when I was eleven, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:15.560 and we did operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan, and only 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.679 we would wear dresses. I would wear like buttercup, and 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.600 I'd have tennis balls for breast, and we'd wear lipstick 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.880 and wigs. I mean it was pretty, you're too, So 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.760 I didn't really think I wanted to be an actor 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.439 after that. And then and and also you know, as 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.080 I ended up in high school and another school, I 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.960 really wasn't crazy about showbiz. I loved what my aunt 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.319 and uncle were doing that they were journalists. I thought 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.199 maybe I'd like to do that. And this guy taught 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.080 me the drama teacher, a guy named Hunter Frost, just 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:54.000 insisted that I auditioned for Zoos Story by Ed in Colorado. 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.920 I read this play and I understood Jerry and Zoos 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.560 story immediately. I auditioned and I got the part. And 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:06.000 once I did that play and I felt that thing 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.520 from the audience, and I just knew that was what 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.400 I was going to do. So I became kind of 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.560 Joe actor on the campus. And then I was doing 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.840 Iago and Othello. We were in rehearsal and literally kids 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.920 would come watch me, and the principal would watch, sit 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.720 in the back and watch, and I knew he was thinking, 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.240 this kid's going to be great for fundraising in the future. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.440 This would be great. And my best friend at the time, 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.080 we got really heavily into drugs, comes in my room 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.760 the night before the performance with a joint, you know, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.920 or a hash pipe, and he lights it up and 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.679 I take a toke and the a teacher walks in 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.719 and I got kicked out of school and I never 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.240 get to do a Fellow, but it gave me the 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.320 bug to It was just a matter of time. At 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.720 that time, I was seventeen. By the time I was eighteen, 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.240 I was moving to New York. I went to the 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.920 Neighborhood Playhouse. Only did one year there. I had real neighborhood. 0:13:58.160 --> 0:13:58.600 That's a win. 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.679 Yeah, Well, Wyn Hammond was a teacher there. I had 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.319 a guy named Freddy Carramon, who was incredible. So I 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.000 only went there a year. I wasn't asked back a 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.560 second year, and then I studied with with a Hogen, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.280 who I was well out of my league. You know. 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.080 When I went there, I hadn't done anything, and I 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.920 fibbed about what I did on the resume, and I 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:28.240 prepared a monologue from Catcher in the Rye. As soon 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.040 as I saw her, I immediately forgot every word and 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.440 I just made it up. So I took a bus 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:35.800 down here and I changed the thing and I bought 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.440 a doughnut at the whatever occurred to me, and I 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.840 made it sound like Holden Cawfield, and she, darling, that 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.680 was incredible. She could tell I didn't know what the 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.800 fuck I was doing, like you know, yeah, but I 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.040 begged her to let me stay, and then I kind 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.119 of found myself in that class, and she was incredible. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.160 Did you ever study with stell Adler? 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:57.880 No? 0:14:57.920 --> 0:14:58.880 I went to Strasburg. 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.880 I was sent back then and they had Stella Jack 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:07.040 Garfine their own in house ETW Strasburg, and my teachers 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.400 were Marshall Halfret, who. 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.160 I love, and Jeffrey Horne, who is my dear friend. 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.640 Jeff ninety two. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.840 Now, Stella used to do a workshop in Los Angeles 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.720 for one summer, and so I went to audition for 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.920 that is before I went to the playhouse. And I 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.840 was just such an earnest young man, and I thought 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.080 it was auditioning for her, but it was for a 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.200 guy who sounded very much like your teacher. And I 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.520 did Candida the Shaw play and I was acting my 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.560 little heart out, and he had a dog with a 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.160 collar that must have had a million charblays, and he 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.720 would scratch all the way through my thing. And he goes, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.720 I'm not really sure you quite got the stuff for Stella. 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.080 You might have to come back. So I came back. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.120 I did it. I worked so hard, and he said, 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.000 I'm going to take a chance on you. So he 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.880 lets me be with Stella, and I come to Stella 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.360 the first class. She's just this dynamic, strong woman. And 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.520 sometimes she would say she would grab her the hem 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.720 of her shirt and she go, it's gotta come from here, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:12.560 and you think she means her heart, but then she 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.160 pulls down her t shirt and you see her breast 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.000 for like two seconds, and then she pulls them back up, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:24.280 go it's gotta come from there. Sorry, and I'm looking 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.040 at that at the class. Around the class there are 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.600 not many women and the most incredibly handsome men I've 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.960 ever seen in my whole life, right, I mean, no. 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.080 Jaws that come out here, and you know, Josh things. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.960 So he goes, all right, so we will take the 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:47.600 first scene here Vick Ronson and Rock Thurber, you and. 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.200 These guys hospital. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.360 They go, what, let's sell? I goes, so, what scene 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:53.080 you boys going. 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:53.440 To be doing? 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.680 We're gonna do the uh, the shootout scene, the final 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.920 shootout scene from Butch Cassidy in this dance kids I 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.280 did Canada, I did Shaw. So they go and they 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.400 stand behind these they crouch behind these Samsonite chairs. They 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.080 take out their fingers and they go, you ready, Butcher 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.200 ready Sundays And they just do for the whole scene. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:22.359 And she goes, oh, that was wonderful. And so I 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.919 was just the only straight guy in the class. I 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.280 guess I don't know what this is in la. Yeah, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:27.919 of course it is. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:28.280 Yeah. 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.840 My great gift from doing Strasburg was gender rehearsal casting. 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.119 You know, they cast a production of Cuckoo's Nests and 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.840 I was nurse Ratchet as a man but I remember 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.200 that whole idea. So when I teach acting, I got 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:42.480 gender reversal everything. 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.240 Then, Gary, Well, I gotta tell you, you know they My 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:51.760 daughter was in American Buffalo in high school, and to 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.840 do it with an all female cast. It was mind 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:59.640 blowing because you see that those guys are protecting their masculinity. 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.280 They have so much going, you know, to protect in 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:07.400 their manhood, and to see women play that is an 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.800 entirely another dimension. It was incredibly moving. I love when 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:12.560 that happened. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:13.680 In an acting class. I had a guy. 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.479 This was an acting class for non majors at Southampton College. 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.160 And the guy comes in. He's a mailman's a male 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:20.919 man who wanted to take the acting class with may 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.280 probably forty pounds overweight. He's a big barrel of a man. 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.360 So I made him do the children's hour. I made 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.040 him stand there with the guy. I made him stand 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:31.879 on the stage with another guy and go. But I 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:33.520 do love you that way, you know what I mean. 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:35.159 I wanted everybody to try everything. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:40.480 I love that when people have that drive but they've 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:42.800 got a life that has nothing to do with acting. 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.879 Before they decide to become actors, a real life and 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:53.320 that's so fascinating to me how some people get into it. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.320 Was one guy at the Neighborhood Playhouse who went through 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:03.440 the entire medical school head a degree, a doctorate degree 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.959 to be a brain surgeon, a brain surgeon, and he said, no, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.719 I want to go to acting class. Like wow, Okay. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.040 I mean, that's the kind of poll of doing what you. 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:19.720 Love, Actor and director Griffin Dunn. 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:25.560 If you enjoy conversations about complex family relationships, check out 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:30.520 my episode with novelist Erika Jong and her daughter, writer Malyijang. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:30.960 Fast. 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:33.840 On the one hand, you're supposed to look like a 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:39.000 fashion model retouched, and on the other hand, you're supposed 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.400 to claim to a sophistication you don't and cannot have 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.000 at that age. And I think that women who are 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:50.399 fourteen fifteen are in the most difficult position they have 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:52.720 ever been in modern society. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:53.480 What do you think about that? 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.400 I mean, I agree, I think there's a lot of sexuality. 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.680 I think it's not explained to young girls in. 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.879 A way, very confusing, Molly. 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.800 But I think that's a legacy of the feminist movement. 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:05.720 I mean, we said we. 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.760 Wanted a legacy. I'm the feminist movement. 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.159 To hear more of my conversation with Erika Jong and 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.680 Mali Jang fast go to Here's the Thing dot Org. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.440 After the break, Griffin Dunn shares how Tim Burton almost 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:36.480 directed the film After Hours instead of Martin Scorsese. I'm 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.480 Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.480 Griffin Dunn starred in Martin Scorsese's nineteen eighty five film 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.399 After Hours, which has since become a cult classic. In 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.760 addition to his leading role in the film, don was 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.440 also a producer. I was curious about his involvement in 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.160 the project. After what Donn describes as a difficult start 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:00.600 to his act career. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:03.640 I had a very hard time getting the acting job, 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.680 and I really didn't establish myself and start to work 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.040 somewhat regularly until I produced a movie with my partner 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.000 Amy Robinson and a guy named Mark Metcalf, and we 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.760 actually produced a movie with no experience for United artists, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:19.960 and I gave myself a small part in it and 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.320