WEBVTT - Andrew McCarthy 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.920 Andrew McCarthy has been on a long journey. At twenty two, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.879 he was a rising young movie star with the requisite 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.280 good looks and talent. You know what love is. Love 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.599 is an illusion created by lawyer types like yourself to 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.360 perpetuate another illusion called marriage, to create a reality divorce 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.000 and the the illusionary for divorce ars. After playing a sullen 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.200 writer in sat Almo's Fire, he woke up one morning 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.800 to discover he and his co stars were members of 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.920 something New York magazine called the Brat Pack of Sucks. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:35.800 It was news to him, and like it or not, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.200 from then on he was permanently linked to that cynical 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:44.199 symbol of eighties self indulgence. Fortunately for us, this was 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.760 only one stop on Andrew McCarthy's journey. McCarthy discovered the 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.800 traveling the world was the perfect antidote to the fame 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.040 and exposure that came with his acting career. He has 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.520 spent much of the last decade writing about his experiences 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.960 in distant and exot lands. He has a book out 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.360 called The Longest Way Home, One Man's Quest for the 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:10.360 Courage to settle down. Many people travel to escape and disconnect, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.640 but Andrew McCarthy, who turns fifty later this month, credits 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.080 his solo adventures with ushering him into adulthood. Well I'm 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.520 known from my youth. Yeah, no, not your best movies, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.200 but I mean you're most well known movies where this 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.200 spade of movies you did when you were a young, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.360 young leading man. What's it like for you to turn fifty? Well, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.119 it's on that level. It's a weird thing because though 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.840 that success in those movies of being a boy, to 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:42.479 find my adulthood. So it's a weird thing to outgrow youth. 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:48.200 And so if you outgrow the success that came with youth, 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.640 what do you carry forward? So it's an interesting dilemma 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.680 or position. So, I mean, on a personal level, it's 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.720 hard to separate those two things because I'm so much 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.840 an outgood as you are. Suppose you, but you carry 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.440 forward in a more sort of current way. But I'm 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.600 such a result of that kind of early fame. For me, 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.040 I went and did TV, And for you, I would 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.800 say that was there for you too. You took this 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.959 other path. What led you to do that? What led 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.240 you to do what you're doing now in terms of 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.200 its relationship to your acting career, it was a total 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.680 accidental thing. I had no intention of becoming a travel 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.400 writer or you didn't know not. So this wasn't a 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.440 case where you were sitting there and as there's been 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.440 no plan ever at any point. Okay, So when I 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.320 was a young actor, I stumbled into these movies and 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.440 suddenly I'm in the brad Pack and suddenly I'm this 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.440 kind of an actor, which I'm like, well, wait, that's 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:42.720 not the kind of actor I wanted to be. But 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:44.240 those were the movies I was in suddenly, and so 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.080 that was my career trajectory, which is interesting because there 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.000 was no hands on the wheel then. Really, I was 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.080 just reacting to situations. So when I didn't get well, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:03:00.880 that was describe how you felt back then. Fame, money, success, movies, 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.240 which are the most intoxicating of a well, movies are 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.080 much more intoxicating and much more um like royalty than 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.520 television is. You know, it's you know, it's it's a movie, 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.320 and movies people relate to differently when you're in movies 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.200 than they do when you're on television. There's a certain 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.040 familiarity on television that people assume, but in movies you're 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.200 there is an awe that people have. I think it's 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.280 dissipated now to some degree because everything is so water 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.880 down and interchangeable. But when we started, particularly you know, 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.240 you did TV when your career was over, and now 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.040 that's not the case at all. So describe how you 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.920 felt when you were I mean, it was a wondrous, wonderful, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.360 uh confusing time, I think, But again, I didn't have 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.520 any real consciousness of like, okay, I just did a 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:40.480 movie about a mannequin, Now let me do one about 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.440 a drug addict. I mean, it was just like that 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:48.080 was what came next. I had a certain desperate quality 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.160 of what you just have to keep going. And and 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.360 those movies, you have to remember, we're not that successful 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:55.400 at the time, and did weren't respected and sort of 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.880 iconic the where they've become now, only later because I 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.440 think of the cr and people were able to suddenly 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.280 take those movies home, whereas a generation before they couldn't. 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.440 I think that's what made those movies so successful because 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.200 suddenly young people who were the people who are renting 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.680 movies when vhs came to the four in the mid eighties, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.160 could take us home and watch us ten fifteen times 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.440 and take ownership in a certain way that was never 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.400 possible before. So then you're you're locked in that moment 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:22.320 in time. Did you feel that those films were a 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.440 genre of film while you were making them, they were 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:31.600 less um substantive, substantive than some other movies. Yeah, I mean, 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:33.440 although now you look back and you know they're still 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.560 you know, if you said, we would have been still 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:41.320 talking about Pretty in Pink years later, yeah, compared it's crazy, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.040 but they did, you know, they did capture something about 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.840 They took seriously that dilemma of being very self centered 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.880 and young. That was wonderfully important. What was the most 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.279 because you are a very bright guy, and you've always 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.719 seen like a very bright guy on film and very 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.400 thoughtful when you go back and you look it from 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.479 your perspective now you're older, what were the most rewarding 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.080 parts of your career when you were making films, you know, 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.599 when you were younger. Well, I worked with Claude Chevroll 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.440 and a couple of films and France, and that was 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.560 a real powerful experience. I I well, I'd like to 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.200 know your opinion, but I haven't worked for him. Any 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.240 good directors. There are very few good directors, you know, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:24.640 And so that was one he was. He just had 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.800 a vision. He had his own vision. He wasn't interested 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.359 in other people's ideas of what his films should be like. 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.400 He had real passion and vision, and he had a 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.680 unique point of view on what film was and what 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.760 his relationship to it was and what he wanted to 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.680 create on screen and what he wanted me to be 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:41.840 doing in his film. He had a real that sort 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.160 of French or tour kind of this is my film, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:45.520 this is what I want you to do. I'm like, 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:46.839 why do you want me to do it that? Because 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.200 because I prefer And I'm like, okay, you know, And 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.560 he had such and he had such appreciation for me. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.359 I felt quite appreciated by him. So that allowed me 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.680 to trust him, and he trusted me and enjoyed me. 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:00.520 You know, I think a lot of he is afraid 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.480 of actors, so they don't enjoy them, and they don't 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.800 enjoy the process you know that doctors go through. So 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.200 that becomes his adversarial or the best sort of business 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.640 like relationship. Very tense, yeah, but one of my favorite 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.120 moments recently was. I went back and I downloaded on 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.839 my computer the Stanley Kubrick documentary Life and Pictures, and 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.440 there's this wonderful moment and when Matthew Modine says they're 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.600 getting to that part of Kubrick's career where he did 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.159 Full Metal Jacket, and Matthew talks about how you know, 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.119 he was walking around angsting over what does Stanley want? 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.960 What does Stanley want? And he said that Kubrick pulled 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:39.640 up in a car with people like on the way 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.039 to the seting goes, what are you doing, Matthew, And 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.640 he goes, Matthew Modine says, I'm trying to figure out 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.680 what you want. I can't get a grip on what 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.040 it is you want. And he said that Stanley him 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.000 He goes, oh God, no, why don't want you to 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.120 do that? He goes, It's very simple. I want you 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.920 to have a good time. I want you to enjoy yourself. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.240 But that's giving him such great respect and is doing 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.160 that on the actors that suddenly the active relaxes, and 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.400 when an actors relaxed, they can do which is which 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.160 is an art that I think many directors now a 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.960 don't have the ability to do and be. I feel 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:16.920 almost resentful that they have to do it, Like the 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.480 biggest directors I've ever worked with, like Mike Nichols, who 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.480 I had a very small role with, But Nichols was 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.240 someone who win that brief time I had with him 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.720 in the movie Working Girl. What I always will love 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.440 was him taking that moment to go, hey, it's gonna 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.000 be okay. Just relax. I picked you for a reason, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.240 and you're going to do this thing for me, and 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.400 the great ones and the good ones want to do 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.000 whatever it takes to open that channel of communication with 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.040 you so we can get the job done, because we're 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.920 not gonna get it done if you and I aren't 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.200 communicating well. They don't need to exert their power and 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.920 demonstrate that they're in charge in any way. They simply are, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:49.760 and then they want to bring out the best in 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.520 you for their own purposes. Other than Chibral, who did 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.880 you like? I like most of them, you know. I 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.119 like talking Ted Koch. I thought Ted was kind of crazy. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.000 We did Weekend of Bernies together. Ted was kind of 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.000 crazy and screaming in a madman, But I really I 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.920 got that. I enjoyed that he liked me, you know, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.080 so he'd be screaming and then he just turned and 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.320 wink at me, and I've got you know, I was 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.320 on the inside then. You know, when you feel like 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.240 you're inside and a partner to a director, you will 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.080 do what they want you to do if they make 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.440 you understand, if they empower you to that, and you know, 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.000 I feel like you're in the process. You know. I 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.120 find many directors just stand behind the box because they 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.080 don't really understand actors. They just want them to get 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.320 it done so they can move on and get their 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.480 next shot. And that's just like the hell with you. 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.360 Go stand on your box. I'll get it. Yeah. Now, 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.040 what about actors? And you've worked with a gallery of 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.280 very well known people, and what were some of them 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.640 that you really it was a joy for you in 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.800 a positive experience to work alongside them. I really liked 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.520 working with John Malkovich. Uh. I just did a very 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.520 small thing with him in a movie called Maholan Falls. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.800 But I liked watching the way he worked. He had 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:59.440 no ownership of anything. He just did completely different things 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.600 in each tape. That was fantastic when you do that thing, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.079 but it was no good technically, and you did something 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.319 else the next time, because that's some movies. It doesn't matter, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.760 it's the movies. It doesn't matter how Brando esc but 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.480 he had no But that's what's a wonderful thing about 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.000 movie acting. Good movie acting, there's no ownership of the 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.640 moment's passing right by, and you sort of catch it 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.400 as it's flying past. I mean, that's why I think 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.120 good movie actors. I like the ones that don't rehearse. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:25.760 I love to hear some theater, but in the movies, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:27.120 I never wanted her. So I want to get right 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.640 to the point and then okay, yeah, yeah, Now it's 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.400 roll so that when you jump, there's not look in 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.079 the eye. It's that discovery on camera. I don't want 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.240 to be recreating on cameras. I'll tell you that. What's 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.200 happened to me, and it's only gotten worse as the 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.000 result of doing this television show is that I become 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.800 so technical. That's an asset inis certain way. I know 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:50.520 lots of actors that are afraid of the technical part 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.240 of movie making, and I think the more an actor 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.120 knows about the technical part of movie making them more. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.000 But yeah, and when did you start directing ten years ago? 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.960 And why uh, Because I worked with so many bad ones. 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.160 I tell you I just became the older an honest 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.800 answer somewhere. But the older I've gotten more interested I 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:11.800 am in the whole story, and the less interested I 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:13.880 am in you know how my hair is? You know 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.040 I'm less. I'm happy to watch someone else do it 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.080 is my faith theory. Now I am Mike. I'm interested 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.320 in producing. Like I'll say that. People say, don't you 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.280 want to beat it? And I go, no, not really, no, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.400 See I'm not sure I have no interest in producing. 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.000 But the I like the director. I like the idea 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.760 of the whole story and being responsible for that and 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:33.559 keeping all that in my head. And I like a 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.679 great company together. By the way, too cynical actors, one 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.040 who has no decided to direct, the other desire to douce. 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.360 I could produce your films. Is it cynical? Is it just? Uh? Season? 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.120 But yeah, that's the nice word. But I like the 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.160 idea of directing is being something that I'm doing and 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.800 applying all the things that I know and have learned. 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.360 Where is acting? It's still very much me focus, and 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.040 I the older I get, I find self consciousness still 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.720 shrouds me at times, and with directing there's none of that. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.000 I'm never nervous or anxious when I directing. I never 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.200 have any kind of a sense of internal sort of 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:05.920 doubts and failings. I'm like, well, this is what I 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:06.920 have to do. I have to get this shot, have 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:08.360 to get that. I have to make sure, you know. 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:10.360 So it's it's a skill that I'm applying, and I've 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.040 worked with a hundred directors, so I know what works 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.679 what doesn't. I know as an actor, when I'm behaving 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.040 in a certain way, it usually means this. So when 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:18.760 I see an actor behaving that way, I just go 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.040 and go, oh, he doesn't know his lines. Okay, listen, John, 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:22.960 I'm just gonna do the first the first line from 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.720 the setup, and then suddenly he's charming again, you know, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.280 because you know, I have all those active defenses, so 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:30.760 I know them when I see them. How are you 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.520 directing women? That's an art? I think, Well, directing women 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.360 is a different thing because it's you know, but largely 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.480 it's flirt and appreciate flirt and appreciate what a sexist thing? 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.880 Have you to say? Well, any time people is feel 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.439 um sexually attractive, they relax, and guys too. If I 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.280 forward with a particular guy and he likes it too, 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:50.760 but the other guys that guys, I don't for it 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:53.040 with guys. I just sort of guys more than the women. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:58.640 It's less dangerous us a god your hands. But I 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:00.440 say that too, but then they laugh, and never lacked 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.079 when people laugh. If people laugh, they relax and they 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.320 like you then and then they go, okay. And what 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.360 you did I try and do is I forget who 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.800 taught it to me? Is that I remember Robert Redford 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:11.440 taught it to me. I did. I worked Sundayance a 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:15.559 million years ago, and he noticed detail of behavior right away. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.520 And so when I saw that he noticed my detail 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.720 of behavior, I knew he was paying attention. When I 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.480 act as director to an actor, I will I will 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.160 notice their details, and so then they know he's watching, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.280 so then they show up. Brando had that great thing, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:29.560 and he used to say, you know, and if I 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.280 work with a new director the first day, I'll do 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.120 the real deal and they'll sort of fake it, and 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:35.880 if he can't tell the difference, I write the movie off. 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.320 But I mean that was small on Brando. He said 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:43.480 those kind of he was he was a ninja. But 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.440 he also said that great thing that acting is really 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.800 just ultimately this childish kind of behavior that, um, you know, 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.400 I think I have somewhat of an agreement with that 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.920 to a certain way. There's a certain shame I feel. 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.080 If I'm directing and I am auditioning a middle aged 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.040 man and he comes in and reads his scene for me, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.360 I just feel so embarrassment for them. I just feel 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:07.920 I hate the hat in hand feeling that actors go through. 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.760 I hate it. I hate being it when I have 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.600 to do it. I hate that hat in hand feeling, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.240 and I hate when people have to do it for me. 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.439 I just I've recently been doing a lot of press 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.080 for this book, and so I see a lot of 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:20.720 clips of me when I'm very young. They throw them 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.199 up on the TV, and I see that young, youthful, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:29.640 wide eyed passion for it and loving it and loving 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.560 it and the acting maybe dubious, but I mean that 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.440 you couldn't deny or look away from the thrill that 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.079 I'm getting to do this and we're doing it together 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.360 and it's so good. And that was what was attractive 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.640 about what I had to offer when I was a kid. 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.880 Is your passion for acting less Well, it's waxed and 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.200 waned over the years, for sure, and I found you know, 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.920 it's a complicated question for me to answer because if 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:53.840 I were as successful as I might have wanted to 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.840 be as time has gone on, would it have waned? 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.240 I don't know? Or is it just a mask for disappointment. 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.640 But on the other hand, um, when you say if 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.439 you were successful as you wanted, but you were very successful, yes, no, 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:07.920 I was very successful in my jilin and then as 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:09.520 time has gone on, I've been I haven't gotten the 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.440 opportunity to do movies and certain things that I would 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.800 have wanted to do. So then my interest is Wayne. 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.559 But would it have Wayne had I been doing those? 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.280 And the question is did you want to? Which came Well, 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.560 that's all that's a that's a bigger question, you know, 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.400 and part of part of me did not. You know, 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.120 you're not doing that because it's a party that didn't 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:30.040 want And that's been very uh, that's been something I've 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.840 been slow to accept, you know. And but it's a 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.480 good valid point, you know. But again, I was in 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.240 the theater the other day in Ireland. I was just 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:42.800 there and I watched this Tom Murphy play and I'm like, God, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.520 I'd like to be playing the part that guy is playing. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.120 I haven't felt that in years, and I was thrilled 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.680 to feel that again, to feel that, like I, he's 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.600 very good, but I could do that part. And I 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.520 rarely feel that, you know, to feel that kind of 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.880 jazz again. Because so my core and at essence and 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.120 initially what I am and how I locate myself was 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.960 as an actor who someone you really liked directing? Well, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.840 I mean I have only directed up theater stuff. I 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:07.680 directed Dana Delaney in a Plan, which I thought she 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.880 was a delight, you know. She's I like a nimble 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.840 sort of actor, you know, and I like one that 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.360 actually is interested in direct Yeah. And when I do TV, 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.240 I do a lot of that show Gossip Girl, and 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.400 I particularly like Ed Westwick. I thought he was really 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.200 interested in input and I would suggest things to him 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:27.720 and he would just take that idea and do the 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.240 idea and then go, oh and then I'll do this, 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.520 and I that's exactly take what I they offer you 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.680 and now just make it and bring you know, don't 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.920 just do what I tell you. Now take it, you know, 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:37.560 And then create your own thing with it. And I 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.160 like that feeling. You just sort of offer a nudgement 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.000 direction then off they go and they discover it, and 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.080 you're like, I'm a genius, you know. And I just 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.960 like working with the crew, particularly too. I like to 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.320 create more than almost more than any actors working with 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.560 the crew, because if you can engage a crew, they're 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.960 suddenly leaning forward and they're coming to me with ideas. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:56.840 It was like the craft service dude suddenly come and go. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.280 You know, it's really cool when he does that. I'm like, 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:01.240 so a good idea. I'm glad I thought of that. 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.359 You know, good ideas wherever they come from, you know, absolutely, 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.440 And that was something chevrole taught me because he would 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.280 love an idea from anybody, and he co opted and 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:24.920 took it as his own. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.480 listening to here's the thing. I'm talking with actor Andrew 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.120 McCarthy about what motivated him to leave comfort and safety 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.840 behind and to chronicle his solo travels in his new 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:39.320 memoir The Longest Way Home, One man's quest for the 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.520 courage to settle down. What's your relationship been to travel 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.320 since you were young. Did your family travel a lot? Now? 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:47.760 We went I grew up in Jersey. We went down 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.440 the Jersey shore for one week. He structured tax shelters 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.600 and all sorts of various mysterious things, like a bad 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.360 capital guy. I think he's fired that um. But we 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.520 did not travel. Travel came into my life later. But 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.520 when I discovered travel, it was the same thing that 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.720 happened to me when I discovered acting. I discovered acting 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:09.800 when I was think fifteen. I was in I was 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.800 the artful dodger in Oliver in high school. And that 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.240 changed my life in the way that that Tennessee Williams 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.159 line I misquoting A room that would have always been 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:19.680 half in the dark was suddenly in the light. That 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:21.560 kind of that was my experience when I first acted, 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.680 was like, oh my god, there I am wow, and 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.640 I've it was done. There was never a discussion would 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:29.960 I be an actor? There was no thought, there was 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:31.959 no nothing that that was what was happening to me. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:34.800 And that's what happened. And I had no idea how 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:36.480 it would happen. I just sort of knew that it 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.200 would happen. And then I'd go to college sort of 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:39.879 and then i'd be in the movies, and that's what happened. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.280 There was no plan after that, but that's where I 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.040 got into trouble. But and when I began to travel, 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.440 it was a similar sensation of not travel for work, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.440 which is an entirely different insulated experience of getting picked 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:55.840 off going on, and that's never enjoying or experience I 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.560 always did. I loved being away, you know, in locations 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:00.600 and things, but I mean travel to he was not 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.639 vacation and not to sort of work. Traveled to me 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:04.199 is sort of something you go do alone and you 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.080 go off into the world and you make yourself vulnerable 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.720 into the world. It's not going to the spot. Well. 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:11.800 I the first time I traveled to change my life 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.800 in the same way that acting did. I walked across 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.280 the Camino to Santiago in Spain. It's five miles across 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:18.679 the north of Spain, and I was like, I'd never 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.919 hiped that, never backpacked. I read a book about it, 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.240 and suddenly I went and did it, and something just 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:25.679 told me to do that, and so I went and 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:27.840 did it, and that changed my life. That sort of 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:34.720 I've located with myself. Those three was twenty years ago. Yeah, 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.040 And so that changed my life doing that, and I 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.199 felt myself again, if in a full way, in the 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.679 way that I had stopped, felt less and less in 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.679 diminishing returns in acting. And what happened to you on 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.000 that trip, Well, I just sort of had one of 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:52.440