Speaker 1: I had directed one project that started out I did
Speaker 1: this at Circle Rep Lab, Okay, and it started out
Speaker 1: where all the actors were there was. I brought in
Speaker 1: I think maybe three hundred pounds of peat moss into
Speaker 1: this sphere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the.
Speaker 1: Show started where the actors were lying under the peat
Speaker 1: moss with just like just their faces, you know, and
Speaker 1: hope it and the audience had to kind of navigate
Speaker 1: through that. They were guided somewhat, you know. And then
Speaker 1: at some point, you know, this crazy music starts happening
Speaker 1: and they're like vibrating kind of coming out of the soil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's like, gosh, we are very I
Speaker 2: mine was sand coming out of sand. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: This is a different coming out of being born out
Speaker 2: of sand. And I was I was, I was the
Speaker 2: I was the bad guy in that. And at the
Speaker 2: at the end, like the wicked Witch, I descended and
Speaker 2: melted down into the sand at the very end of
Speaker 2: the show. Yep, all the elements, all the elements.
Speaker 1: Got to find this material.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Hi, I'm.
Speaker 1: Josh Pie and I'm sitting in a chair.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody. I am excited to have you back here
Speaker 2: with me on another edition. Of Off the Beat. I am,
Speaker 2: of course, your host Brian Baumgartner on the show today,
Speaker 2: we have that guy, you know.
Speaker 1: The one.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's been on all your favorite shows and
Speaker 2: movies and was the original Well Rafael in Teenage Mutant,
Speaker 2: Ninja Turtles, he was on Law and Order, The Sopranos,
Speaker 2: a beautiful mind, joker. He's worked with just about every
Speaker 2: actor out there, and he's been in the business for
Speaker 2: over thirty years. I know you know him, of course,
Speaker 2: I am talking about my guest today, Josh Eyes. Josh
Speaker 2: will be the first to tell you that he has
Speaker 2: made a very long and very successful career of being
Speaker 2: that guy, not quite in the limelight, but always a
Speaker 2: strong supporting role in really fantastic projects. When you see
Speaker 2: that face, you know it is going to be great,
Speaker 2: even if you can't exactly think of his name. His
Speaker 2: most recent project Man in Full, which is out for
Speaker 2: you right now on Netflix. Now. I'm pretty sure this
Speaker 2: conversation will help you remember him once and for all.
Speaker 2: He's smart, he is charming, he is so very very talented.
Speaker 2: He's that guy and so much more. He is Josh Pies,
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Bubble and squeak on.
Speaker 1: Bubble and squeak.
Speaker 2: I cook get every mole lift over from the nine before.
Speaker 2: Hi Josh, Hi, Hi Josh. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, nice to meet you and.
Speaker 2: Very nice to meet you as well. Thank you for
Speaker 2: joining me today. I'm going to get the elephant out
Speaker 2: of the way right now. I'm wearing my very small
Speaker 2: kids headphones right now. They have stickers on them. I
Speaker 2: left my headphones on a plane this last weekend.
Speaker 1: Wow, and are you going to be able to get
Speaker 1: them back?
Speaker 2: Or I think they're I think they were pretty nice,
Speaker 2: so I think they're gone. I'm assuming they're gone. I
Speaker 2: bought some new ones and could not make them work
Speaker 2: here today, So there you go. I've got some.
Speaker 1: Hey, I think they look great on you. I think
Speaker 1: it should be your new look.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's I think I think they're pinching
Speaker 2: my head a little bit. So there's a way to
Speaker 2: excuse anything stupid that comes out of my mouth. They
Speaker 2: will just leave it at that. Uh, it's very nice
Speaker 2: to meet you. What a career that you've had, and uh,
Speaker 2: I've been a fan of yours for a very long time. Likewise,
Speaker 2: like well, that's that's very kind. But now I know
Speaker 2: more about you, having dive doven doved into uh, into
Speaker 2: your life dove in. I understand you very interesting childhood,
Speaker 2: some some parents that were well it's it seems quite different.
Speaker 2: But you grew up there in New York.
Speaker 1: City, in Alphabet City.
Speaker 2: Out in in New York City, in Alphabet City.
Speaker 1: In alphabet city, you know what Alphabet city.
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, of course, yes, But.
Speaker 1: I mean were we out buying heroin? You know? You
Speaker 1: know thirty years ago you were in my neighborhood, you know.
Speaker 2: A little more gentrified now though to be to.
Speaker 1: Be clear, it's totally gentrified now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but that.
Speaker 1: You know, back then, it was just the police just
Speaker 1: kind of cordoned off the you know from First Avenue East, uh,
Speaker 1: and they just they knew it was completely out of control.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just a it was a drug world.
Speaker 1: It was violent and it was also full of creative people,
Speaker 1: so it was a great mix. And if you lived there,
Speaker 1: you were protected. But anybody coming in, no taxis wouldn't
Speaker 1: go past, you know, Avenue A.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I this is about you, but I do have
Speaker 2: to bring up your dad is about you? Well, it's
Speaker 2: always here's the thing. It's always about me, So I
Speaker 2: just pretend it's about other people to really get my own,
Speaker 2: my own attenda across. Uh, your dad, as a physicist,
Speaker 2: survived the Holocaust in the Netherlands, worked with Albert Einstein
Speaker 2: and and ended up writing his biography. He I understand,
Speaker 2: ended up on the Upper east Side. So you had
Speaker 2: this life in New York in part of the time
Speaker 2: in Alphabet City and and part of the time on
Speaker 2: the Upper east Side. Yes, what do you think that
Speaker 2: that gave you as a child, that sort of diverse
Speaker 2: experience even in one city.
Speaker 1: I mean, it gave me a very broad view of life.
Speaker 1: You know. It was the Upper East Side was very
Speaker 1: at that time, it was really the posh neighborhood and
Speaker 1: you know, very affluent, and you know, in Alphabet City
Speaker 1: it was poverty, you know, and struggle and people thriving
Speaker 1: on struggle like they felt, yeah, I'm struggling.
Speaker 2: It's I'm a badass, right, like a badge. Ward is
Speaker 2: a badge, Yeah.
Speaker 1: To a certain extent. Yeah, And so it just gave
Speaker 1: me this incredibly broad spectrum. It was like the perfect
Speaker 1: childhood for an actor, just to be immersed in these
Speaker 1: two different cultures. And seeing how these different people survived
Speaker 1: and lived and thrived and created. Yeah, I mean, there
Speaker 1: was going to be more to that sentence, but it just.
Speaker 2: Then it's stuck. No, but it's I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: we're obviously going to talk about where you ended up
Speaker 2: and what you're doing now, but at the time it's
Speaker 2: clearly like rich character study material. I mean, these two
Speaker 2: worlds at the time as a child, are you acknowledging
Speaker 2: that or just observing? Is there anything within yourself even
Speaker 2: at that young age where you're you begin studying, for
Speaker 2: lack of a better phrase, the human condition or by
Speaker 2: by by the different people that you're encountering.
Speaker 1: I think on some level I was, and on also
Speaker 1: on some level in Alphabet city, like you had, I
Speaker 1: had to be able to assess who people were on
Speaker 1: the street and who is dangerous and who was cool
Speaker 1: and who you know, So it there was a certain
Speaker 1: survival strategy in my ability to read people quickly and
Speaker 1: get where they were at. And I think I think
Speaker 1: on some level I was a little anthropologist, you know,
Speaker 1: because the worlds were so diverse, So I think I
Speaker 1: think I was. I think I had a bit of
Speaker 1: awareness of how unusual.
Speaker 2: This was Yeah, do you feel like Alphabet City and
Speaker 2: the people there. I mean you talk about needing to identify,
Speaker 2: I know exactly what you mean. You walk into a
Speaker 2: situation and it's like, okay, there, this is good, this
Speaker 2: is safe, this is maybe not. Was there a feeling
Speaker 2: of community there? Like was there a safeness if you
Speaker 2: were there and you belonged there that you felt protected
Speaker 2: in a way.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, just beauty, a full community and it was.
Speaker 1: There was some racial tension, but there was not a
Speaker 1: lot of racial tension relative to the mix of different
Speaker 1: people that were there because we were all in it together.
Speaker 1: And you know, there was one guy and he always
Speaker 1: he would say, you know, he would say, I've got
Speaker 1: eyes in the back of my head for you. I'm
Speaker 1: looking out for you. You know, I got your back.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And he was an American Indian man named Reno Thunder
Speaker 1: who was an actor no longer around. And you know,
Speaker 1: and I also got to see like, for example, just
Speaker 1: with Reno, like this very dynamic, powerful man. And he
Speaker 1: got evicted from his apartment and he's he ended up
Speaker 1: living in Tompkins Square Park, do you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So it was just like so intense to see that
Speaker 1: level of struggle and that level of how uncertain things were.
Speaker 1: I mean, everything really is uncertain, but you know, we
Speaker 1: strive to live in the illusion that it's not as
Speaker 1: uncertain as it is. But that was a very uncertain environment,
Speaker 1: which also was I think challenging as a kid. You
Speaker 1: know that it was like somebody just took acid and
Speaker 1: jumped out the window of an abandoned building. You know,
Speaker 1: somebody just got got killed on the street, or somebody
Speaker 1: is making this amazing art. You know, they found a
Speaker 1: piano and they're taking all the piano parts and they're
Speaker 1: making this amazing sculpture, you know, and you know, so
Speaker 1: it's just like everything was out, nothing was in everything,
Speaker 1: Like people just expressed themselves fully on the street. Again.
Speaker 1: Kind of great childhood for an actor, just to be
Speaker 1: exposed to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask you, and you sort
Speaker 2: of answered my question before I asked it that you know,
Speaker 2: it's known as being incredibly diverse, dangerous, but also sort
Speaker 2: of bohemian and artistic. Do you feel like that was
Speaker 2: nurtured by you?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I mean my mom was a painter and
Speaker 1: a poet, you know, and she always you know, told
Speaker 1: me like being an artist is the ultimate thing you
Speaker 1: can be and just create, make something, make something every day,
Speaker 1: whether it's a little drawing or a poem or something.
Speaker 1: And we had performances in our performance art in our
Speaker 1: living room where people would gather and there would be
Speaker 1: music and people would get up and improvise something. And
Speaker 1: there was there was this one cab driver, this guy
Speaker 1: named Billy, and he would always pull in, he'd park
Speaker 1: his cab outside and he'd come in and he he
Speaker 1: would bring a bowler hat and he would do like
Speaker 1: waiting for Geodo, Like he would take his hat off
Speaker 1: and do one part and at that point, like because
Speaker 1: he always did the same thing, like people would just
Speaker 1: kind of check out and be like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go get some wine right.
Speaker 2: Now, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But it was just like full of full of characters,
Speaker 1: full of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think that everybody, depending on who
Speaker 2: you're with, right is at times playing versions of themselves. Right.
Speaker 2: You behave in a certain way depending on who you're with,
Speaker 2: whether it's your grandparents or you know, your your buddies
Speaker 2: on the street and Alphabet City or whatever. It seems
Speaker 2: to me looking at your career later on and again
Speaker 2: the teaching that you have done. That it seems like
Speaker 2: you potentially attended your own master class as a young
Speaker 2: age being there in Alphabet City, and then you go
Speaker 2: to your dad's on the Upper East Side and you're
Speaker 2: encountering I imagine, a whole different sort of cast of
Speaker 2: characters which forces you to very specifically probably behave and
Speaker 2: act in a totally different way. Not that you're being
Speaker 2: not yourself, but as I like to say, a different
Speaker 2: version of yourself. Do you feel like that training early
Speaker 2: on was real?
Speaker 1: Well, I definitely, I definitely did that.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: My mom was very unstructured, free flowing whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't have to be home at any particular time,
Speaker 1: and my dad was very structured, and so I had
Speaker 1: to fall in line with you know, with that structure.
Speaker 1: And then you know, and then just being around these
Speaker 1: theoretical physicists, you know, was fascinating, you know.
Speaker 2: Different, different than Billy the cab driver.
Speaker 1: Different, a little different. Yeah, and so many of these
Speaker 1: these physicists, you know, like my dad for example, like
Speaker 1: absolutely brilliant, but in certain like he got a toaster oven,
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, and I and it was so complex,
Speaker 1: like I had to go over. You know, you first
Speaker 1: you put this setting, then you open the door, then
Speaker 1: you put the bread in close it, then you press
Speaker 1: the button and he would write that down like it
Speaker 1: was so like, and so many of them were so
Speaker 1: their brains were so amazing in these certain areas. In
Speaker 1: other areas, it's all the focus went one right into
Speaker 1: one area. And what interesting with physicists is they would
Speaker 1: always compete with jokes, which was always interesting. They would
Speaker 1: always try to, you know, tell a better joke, whether
Speaker 1: they were actually funny, they were somewhat funny, but they
Speaker 1: were very drawn.
Speaker 2: Out, okay, like joke stories, joke stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's interesting. I know you went to Syracuse. You studied
Speaker 2: acting and directing there. Something that I like to talk
Speaker 2: to everybody about, is there a moment for you where
Speaker 2: because look, you're performing in first your mom's living room,
Speaker 2: then you start to develop a taste. Were you solid
Speaker 2: in what your path was going to be before you
Speaker 2: went to Syracuse? Did you go there with that in mind?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I was. I was pretty I was pretty solid
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of knew it. I knew it, and
Speaker 1: you know, there were certain experiences that I had at Syracuse.
Speaker 1: That woke parts of me up. You know, there was
Speaker 1: a familiar with this dude, Jersey Gretowski, who is of
Speaker 1: course Polish. Yeah, you know. And I had a teacher
Speaker 1: that had just come back who was working with him,
Speaker 1: and and you know, she introduced us to this physical
Speaker 1: work of like pushing yourself beyond your mind, basic like
Speaker 1: getting so tuned into your body and your impulses that
Speaker 1: the you know, the mind ceased to be the dominant force.
Speaker 1: And that was that was like a real awakening for me.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is what I want. I want,
Speaker 1: I want to how can I make how can I
Speaker 1: live in this arena? So like that like that that
Speaker 1: sunk things in on another level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's fascinating to me again because you called
Speaker 2: me out and said it's about me, but about me.
Speaker 2: I had a very similar experience and ended up starting
Speaker 2: a theater company when I graduated from college, and our
Speaker 2: first original work was we called it the Ki Kurtowski
Speaker 2: Experience and it was a company created work that was
Speaker 2: literally that like like working your body, very physical for
Speaker 2: those of you who don't know. And then ended up
Speaker 2: working in sort of totally a different way for a
Speaker 2: long period of time with some folks from the Chocolate
Speaker 2: Cox School, which was physical but in a different, more
Speaker 2: comedy based way. So yeah, no, I know what you mean.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, okay, here's you know, a loud guy
Speaker 2: with good instincts, and now it's like, oh, look at
Speaker 2: the world that actually exists here, and then I have
Speaker 2: to explore Yeah, yeah for me as well.
Speaker 1: Do you have footage of that? Do you have any
Speaker 1: footage of that?
Speaker 2: You know what? I have not thought about that in
Speaker 2: so long.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna think it's time to bring out, you know, the.
Speaker 2: Experience Grotowski experiment. And then there was a a colon
Speaker 2: and then there was something else and as you were talking,
Speaker 2: I couldn't. I can't. I can't remember at the moment
Speaker 2: what it is, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna find out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's uh.
Speaker 1: Don't very similar paths because I was I was so
Speaker 1: deep into all of that and creating directing. I had
Speaker 1: directed one project that started out I did this at
Speaker 1: Circle Rep Lab, okay, and it started out where all
Speaker 1: the actors were there was I brought in I think
Speaker 1: maybe three hundred pounds of peat moss into this sphere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the show started where the actors were lying under
Speaker 1: the peat moss, just like just their faces, you know,
Speaker 1: and hope it and the audience had to kind of
Speaker 1: navigate through that. They were guided somewhat, you know. And
Speaker 1: then at some point, you know, this crazy music starts
Speaker 1: happening and they're like vibrating, kind of coming out of
Speaker 1: the soil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's like, gosh, we are I mine
Speaker 2: was sand coming out of sand. Oh my god. This
Speaker 2: is a different coming out of being born out of sand.
Speaker 2: And I was I was, I was the I was
Speaker 2: the bad guy in that. And at the at the end,
Speaker 2: like the wicked witch, I descended and melted down into
Speaker 2: the sand. And at the very end of the show. Yep,
Speaker 2: all the elements, all the elements.
Speaker 1: Uh so got to find this material.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, all right, that that last one I
Speaker 2: I have. I definitely have that somewhere. Look, the shows
Speaker 2: that you have been in and played in in some
Speaker 2: cases significant recurring roles. You have a decade's long career,
Speaker 2: and yet you you seem to, based on what I've read,
Speaker 2: consider yourself that guy. Uh even on on on your Instagram, bio,
Speaker 2: your your reps, so you know, called you a face
Speaker 2: you recognize, but when a story still left to be told?
Speaker 2: What does what does that mean to you?
Speaker 1: Mm? It mean let's see, let's figure this out. Help me.
Speaker 1: I mean a face to be recognized. Yeah, I have
Speaker 1: a certain you know. People are like oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah you you hey, I know, I know you and
Speaker 1: and like some people are like almost like come up quietly,
Speaker 1: like I really I know you are I know, like
Speaker 1: it's you know, like it's a big secret, the story
Speaker 1: to be told. I don't know.
Speaker 2: You know, do you enjoy being that guy? Do you
Speaker 2: do you enjoy that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do. It's sometimes I'll have the situation where,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll go into a store and they'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: we went to camp together, and I was like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I never went to camp. And it's like no, no,
Speaker 1: I know you from oh you've been in the store before.
Speaker 1: No no. And then it's like and this happens all
Speaker 1: the time, and then and then that eventually I'll go
Speaker 1: like I'm an actor and they'll be like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it, you know, and this is just regular
Speaker 1: you know. And then there's people that they know me
Speaker 1: and they know how they know me. You know, they
Speaker 1: know me from Ray Donovan or you know what, Law
Speaker 1: and Order or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2: I want to attempt to tell at least a part
Speaker 2: of your story for those of you who don't know.
Speaker 2: Josh started out doing spots on television in well, just
Speaker 2: little shows like Cosby's Show, Murphy Brown. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: working on iconic and at the time, humongous shows that
Speaker 2: truly like everyone is watching, and not just everybody is
Speaker 2: watching like today, everyone is watching at exactly the same
Speaker 2: time on eight o'clock on a Thursday or whatever. So
Speaker 2: you're starting there, and you're starting I'm sure to get
Speaker 2: recognized for this work because everybody is watching it, and
Speaker 2: then pretty quickly you get like an enormous break. You're
Speaker 2: cast as one of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. At
Speaker 2: the time, does this feel like a big break for you?
Speaker 2: Wh your face is not seen? So it's a weird
Speaker 2: like thing, right, It.
Speaker 1: Was so weird? Yeah, it was. It was so immersive
Speaker 1: and it was almost similar to Gretowski work because Christ
Speaker 1: is so physical and so absolutely engaging. I mean just
Speaker 1: the cost of you know, costume was seventy pounds. None
Speaker 1: of the little dots, you know, right, the body is
Speaker 1: like you're fucking carrying this dude, you know, seventy pounds.
Speaker 2: And you're the only actor who did the voice and
Speaker 2: strapped on and got in there. I mean, you love
Speaker 2: Gratowski the physical stuff. Did were you happy with this
Speaker 2: choice that you made this choice at the time, or
Speaker 2: did you begin to regret that choice?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I'm not somebody that just in the
Speaker 1: act of filming it, like, I'm not somebody that experiences claustrophobia,
Speaker 1: Like it's not something, it's not a concern. But I
Speaker 1: experienced major claustrophobia. You know, like you are completely sealed in,
Speaker 1: your head is glued on, and you're it's hard to breathe,
Speaker 1: it's hard to see, you know, and your body just
Speaker 1: gets hotter and hotter.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: We would lose five pounds from morning till lunch. You know,
Speaker 1: they had just impressed air. So it was just, you know,
Speaker 1: there were times where it was like this is insane.
Speaker 1: But it also helped to create that character Raphael, you know,
Speaker 1: who was like full of angst and rage and you know,
Speaker 1: so it's like it was perfect. It couldn't have been
Speaker 1: a better preparation. And it was. It was weird because
Speaker 1: when it came out, you know, there was I remember
Speaker 1: one day I was with Leif Tilden, who played Donatello.
Speaker 1: We were hanging out on the beach and this kid
Speaker 1: had a teenage hutant ninja turtle towel and he was
Speaker 1: running around all around the beach and was going, I'm
Speaker 1: an ninja turtle, I'm an inja turtle. And we stopped
Speaker 1: him and said, hey, I'm Raphael, and this is Donna Tllo,
Speaker 1: you know, and his face crumbled, you know, and he
Speaker 1: ran to his mother like you know, he was you know,
Speaker 1: seeing two petal files or something, you know, And yeah,
Speaker 1: it was bizarre. It was a bizarre experience because it
Speaker 1: was the hit movie of that year, huge, huge, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it continues to you know, the impact that it's
Speaker 1: had on people. People reach out to me all the
Speaker 1: time like, oh that was my childhood and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So it was it was very bizarre to yeah, to
Speaker 1: be in that and to not be recognized. And it also,
Speaker 1: you know, there was something about also being in where
Speaker 1: I grew up, in that neighborhood that I also had
Speaker 1: to be invisible at times. I had to kind of
Speaker 1: maneuver my way through without being seen. So it was
Speaker 1: like kind of an interesting dynamic playing out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I imagine crazy. I mean, I guess tend
Speaker 2: to an enormous animated role that is created and becomes
Speaker 2: the big thing. But you also having the physicality giving
Speaker 2: you know, having you doing the physicality, really creating that
Speaker 2: character and how people view it as well, and still
Speaker 2: not being seen. That that's very it's very interesting and
Speaker 2: kind of like doesn't exist anymore, particularly with all of
Speaker 2: the as you say, the dots all over.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they wanted they wanted to keep us.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to destroy the illusion. You know, although
Speaker 1: I can't do Kathy and Regis, you know, I did.
Speaker 2: Things like that, right, but they they wanted your anonymity specifically,
Speaker 2: I mean to a large degree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, especially in the first three or four months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then they started to open it up a bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah. For a long time, you played on a series,
Speaker 2: and again it's not overstating it to say, you know,
Speaker 2: millions and millions and millions of people watching as appointment
Speaker 2: television Law and or both Law and Order and Law
Speaker 2: and Order SVU, which undoubtedly took away a lot of
Speaker 2: your anonymity, especially in New York City. You know, I
Speaker 2: had the experience to work on SVU. Not a more
Speaker 2: professional set and environment is possible, particularly for hour long
Speaker 2: network television than what exists on those sets. And you know,
Speaker 2: as sort of a huge, huge recurring role on this
Speaker 2: big show, you're spending a lot of time there. Talk
Speaker 2: to me about your experience on set and if that
Speaker 2: gave you anything in terms of of confidence or that
Speaker 2: you learned something that you were able to take moving
Speaker 2: forward because of how well that show was operated.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I mean it was especially you know, I
Speaker 1: was in it, you know, the Mothership as they call it,
Speaker 1: the original like from the first season, and it was
Speaker 1: especially in the first season like it was testosterone. It
Speaker 1: was like you're gonna walk here, We're gonna turn here,
Speaker 1: the camera's gonna come here, turn here on this line,
Speaker 1: and let's let's go. Let's go. You know that it
Speaker 1: simmered down, you know, as you know I went there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's how you know, that's how it started. I
Speaker 1: mean for me, I you know, for a long time,
Speaker 1: I played the medical examiner. Yeah, and I came up
Speaker 1: with this notion which helped, you know, which helped make
Speaker 1: it more live for me that I was I was
Speaker 1: solving the case and these detectives were idiots, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that kind of gave me a
Speaker 1: certain and almost like a resentment towards them that they
Speaker 1: were getting the accolades for solving the case. And somehow
Speaker 1: just making that little choice it made it a very
Speaker 1: active It turned something on creatively for me because I
Speaker 1: had to say so much technical jargon, right, but it
Speaker 1: gave it gave me an angle in which to have
Speaker 1: fun with this character and with these guys.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that, And it's so clear in your work.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, it is so clear that that there
Speaker 2: is as opposed to let's just call it a more tradition,
Speaker 2: an old procedural show and performance, that there's a life there.
Speaker 2: I feel like a lot on the mother Ship. There
Speaker 2: were a lot of guys on the mother Ship who
Speaker 2: had clearly took some sort of perspective week to week
Speaker 2: that played out in some way that gave that show life. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I always try to find something that turns
Speaker 1: me on creatively so that I don't act basically, so
Speaker 1: that I don't get caught up in how to say
Speaker 1: a line, because you know, if we get too caught
Speaker 1: up in that's it's dead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in looking over your career, I always anytime I
Speaker 2: see the Sopranos, it stands out to me. I saw you,
Speaker 2: and I'm watching it again. By the way, right now,
Speaker 2: I haven't quite gotten to your.
Speaker 1: Done that yet, but I'm I know that's coming. So
Speaker 1: you haven't watched now, I haven't watched. I haven't watched.
Speaker 1: You know. I watched it when it was sure, you know,
Speaker 1: when it was unfolding, and then every now and then
Speaker 1: I'll catch you know, and I'm like, God, this is
Speaker 1: it's going to be such a treat. How consistently are
Speaker 1: you watching it?
Speaker 2: Well, they suckered me in. It hasn't been that long
Speaker 2: since I watched it the last time. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: not like I've seen it fourteen times, but I I
Speaker 2: I don't. It was like Max had just some you know,
Speaker 2: DVD like image and it says twenty fifth anniversary or
Speaker 2: thirty I don't even remember. And I just saw that
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, yeah, let's give that another watch.
Speaker 2: And I just started it and now I'm like in
Speaker 2: season four and but that a number of other shows,
Speaker 2: both in New York and elsewhere, they you've had tremendous
Speaker 2: I imagine experiences. Anything stand out from your guest star
Speaker 2: stints on shows like Damages, Sex and the City, The Sopranos,
Speaker 2: star Trek, Anything stand out for you in terms of
Speaker 2: a show that changed something for you, that potentially you
Speaker 2: found even after working on all of these other things
Speaker 2: for a period of time, or that was particularly memorable
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: I mean, on so many levels. I feel like every
Speaker 1: show I go into these shows looking to learn and
Speaker 1: just kind of fascinated by how other people work. I
Speaker 1: mean when you said Damages, you know, I had this
Speaker 1: great thing with Ted Danson, scenes with him, and it
Speaker 1: was just what I strive for in my self and
Speaker 1: what I am so excited when I am exposed to
Speaker 1: it in other actors is the dance of going into
Speaker 1: the unknown. Like we know our lines, but it's like
Speaker 1: going into the unknown and like how is it gonna
Speaker 1: How is this take going to play out? It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: the energy's going here now, it's going here, right, And
Speaker 1: that's you know, so many of those shows that you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, the actors were so so game to play.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you like a horrible experience I had on
Speaker 1: Law and Order if you want to hear all experience.
Speaker 1: So I was directed. I was actually directing one of
Speaker 1: these crazy plays at the time while I was recurring
Speaker 1: on that. And they called and they said, oh, we
Speaker 1: have a new episode.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think they called on a Wednesday and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: we have a new episode. It's you're on Friday and so,
Speaker 1: and I was in the middle of directing this play
Speaker 1: and it was like, okay, great, So you know, I
Speaker 1: get the script. I don't have time to read the
Speaker 1: whole script. I go, I find my part, learn, learn
Speaker 1: those lines, go wait in the I'm in my dressing
Speaker 1: room and then and somebody comes in and goes like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to do this scene first, And it was
Speaker 1: what do you mean, wait, what do you mean this
Speaker 1: scene first? And it's like there's another scene, you know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the and I'm like, and I
Speaker 1: just you know, and it was so much jargon, you know,
Speaker 1: it was so much technical you know, and it's in, well,
Speaker 1: there's a corpse on the table. And so I'm in
Speaker 1: there doing that scene and it was like on a Friday,
Speaker 1: and the crew was like they want to go home right,
Speaker 1: just you know, bobbling the lines and Jerry Orbach is like,
Speaker 1: you know, who would become a friend. But he's like
Speaker 1: this is insane, you know, and he starts to get
Speaker 1: learn my lines, you know, and I get to a
Speaker 1: place and I you know, I don't know what the
Speaker 1: and he kind of you know, ruins the take and
Speaker 1: he says it's this, you know. Anyway, that was that
Speaker 1: was that was a nightmare. I'm just having a little
Speaker 1: PTSD on that one right now. But I mean Sex
Speaker 1: and the City. It was just it felt like there
Speaker 1: was such a nurturing of like it just felt like
Speaker 1: highly creative, like people were on all those shows were
Speaker 1: it felt like there was experimentation and yeah, they were
Speaker 1: just very creative. Okay, I got nothing else on that.
Speaker 2: No, but that makes sense, which which leads me to
Speaker 2: something that I'm sure people don't know about you. You are, well,
Speaker 2: dare I say, a master teacher. You have been working
Speaker 2: and coaching actors for a long long time, and throughout
Speaker 2: your career you've developed and honed a method of acting
Speaker 2: called committed impulse. Tell me tell me about that.
Speaker 1: I mean that how how that emerged was after I
Speaker 1: went to Syracuse. You know, I was exposed to this
Speaker 1: Grotowski work and you know, nothing against Syracuse, but it
Speaker 1: was like very Stanislavsky, very heady stuff. Yes, and it
Speaker 1: made sense, but it didn't. It didn't work for me.
Speaker 1: And so I went on a journey like training with
Speaker 1: people like directors and you know, from all over the
Speaker 1: world that were doing very physical, very impulsive training. And
Speaker 1: then after that Circle rep, this off Broadway theater company
Speaker 1: that had had their own space, They said, why don't
Speaker 1: I train people in what I've learned? And the deal
Speaker 1: was I would train them, I would direct them in
Speaker 1: something that we created together, but every three months we
Speaker 1: would show the work that we were doing to an audience,
Speaker 1: like an open rehearsal. And from doing that, people started
Speaker 1: asking me to teach. And I was like, I'm not
Speaker 1: a teacher. I don't know what teaching is, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and then NYU asked me to teach, and I was
Speaker 1: like okay. And so, you know, so I just started
Speaker 1: teaching and experimenting and saw that what really stops people
Speaker 1: creatively is two things, and one is the thoughts in
Speaker 1: their heads, the crap that cycles through basically, I suck,
Speaker 1: this isn't going well? What do they think of me?
Speaker 1: All that mental chatter and that stops people creatively and
Speaker 1: also body sensations fear, anxiety, nervousness that also hampers people's creativity.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to, but it tends to. And so
Speaker 1: I began experimenting, like, how how do we how can
Speaker 1: I help actors break through this? And so part of
Speaker 1: the work is to instead of, you know, the common
Speaker 1: kind of self help notion that's out there is if
Speaker 1: you're nervous, like how can you find a way to
Speaker 1: get rid of it? And how can you manage it?
Speaker 1: And so on? And what I've been experimenting with is,
Speaker 1: instead of trying to manage it or alter it or
Speaker 1: get rid of it, is how can you increase your
Speaker 1: tolerance for your full range of body experience and just
Speaker 1: to assume that everything you're experiencing is built into your
Speaker 1: DNA and to broaden this the range of which you
Speaker 1: can allow yourself to stay present while whatever is happening
Speaker 1: is happening. And that I've found that as soon as
Speaker 1: somebody is feeling something that they don't like, say nervousness
Speaker 1: or fear, they suppress it however they to you know,
Speaker 1: however consciously or unconsciously, they do it. And as soon
Speaker 1: as we suppress this energy in our body, our mind
Speaker 1: goes off and so our mind gets really active. And
Speaker 1: so it's really allowing all this energy to travel through
Speaker 1: the body, and that if you fully connect to whatever's there,
Speaker 1: it really shifts in seven to twelve seconds. And so
Speaker 1: if you can stay on the train, stay on the
Speaker 1: train of experience, it will it will shift. If you
Speaker 1: try to manage it or get rid of it, it's
Speaker 1: like trapping a little squirrel in a cage and you're
Speaker 1: just like stuck with it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of one of it. And then
Speaker 1: I came up with these four access points to presence,
Speaker 1: you know, which very simply is staying in your body,
Speaker 1: connecting with your immediate environment, keeping your breath going. And
Speaker 1: then as soon as you're aware that your mind has
Speaker 1: got you, you say I'm back. And so in my
Speaker 1: class a lot, you know, people are like, I'm back,
Speaker 1: I'm back. Well, i'm back, you know, so fascinating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's that's that's part of it. And then there's
Speaker 1: these tools called inner atomics, which are ways of altering
Speaker 1: the energetic patterns in the body to stimulate your creativity
Speaker 1: and create behavior and create character so that it's all
Speaker 1: very organic.
Speaker 2: Do you feel to create a character physically? Do you
Speaker 2: do you like to start from zero? Are you trying
Speaker 2: to get your students to a place of neutrality right?
Speaker 2: I mean there's at least if you look at I
Speaker 2: don't know, Alexander technique or something where you're trying to
Speaker 2: make sure everything is flowing, that we're at a place
Speaker 2: of sort of neutrality that you work from there. Are
Speaker 2: you Are you thinking more in terms of a person's
Speaker 2: own I mean place of neutrial?
Speaker 1: I mean I would say it's more starting exactly where
Speaker 1: you are, okay, yeah, and not to make relaxation better
Speaker 1: than a little sense of fear. You know, like starting
Speaker 1: with wherever that being is and if they happen to
Speaker 1: be relaxed, that's awesome. But if they're not relaxed, then
Speaker 1: you have to create with what's there, and then it's
Speaker 1: you know, all the tools to creating character. Like I know,
Speaker 1: for me, when I first started out, it was like,
Speaker 1: how can I create something to hide behind? And that
Speaker 1: gen rated a lot of off off, off, off, Broadway
Speaker 1: working in basements if I was lucky, and then you know,
Speaker 1: when I fet realized, like, oh I have how can
Speaker 1: I reveal myself in the character. That's when I started
Speaker 1: getting work.
Speaker 2: Who are your favorite actors to watch today in film
Speaker 2: or television?
Speaker 1: Where I mean walking Phoenix is okay?
Speaker 2: That gosh, I love it when we're obviously you had
Speaker 2: the opportunity which I just watched on a plane that
Speaker 2: I lost my headphones on, and that I've been watching
Speaker 2: The Sopranos. I did take a break knowing the Joker
Speaker 2: too is coming out to watch Joker and your performance
Speaker 2: in that, and you know, in reading about you and
Speaker 2: then hearing you just talk to me, there's there are
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say none, but there are very
Speaker 2: few actors working at such a high level that I
Speaker 2: feel like live and express in their body like Joaquin does. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And every take that we did, like he came in,
Speaker 1: he was different than the previous take, which led me
Speaker 1: to be different, you know, which is the that's the
Speaker 1: bravery of actors to be able to, you know, step
Speaker 1: into the unknown fully committed and let and letting, letting,
Speaker 1: trusting that it's going to unfold. Perfectly.
Speaker 2: Did you talk about it at all? Or just let
Speaker 2: it happened?
Speaker 1: We just let it happen. Like he was, he was
Speaker 1: in the zone, and that set was so concentrated like
Speaker 1: he was, so he was so in this that it
Speaker 1: created absolute concentration, you know, as you know, like typically
Speaker 1: as soon as the director calls cut, like there's chaos,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's like what are you doing later? You know,
Speaker 1: and like and then there's like you know, and then
Speaker 1: some lights get adjusted, and then there's this other period
Speaker 1: of time where it's like what's happening, Like why aren't
Speaker 1: we filming? You know, and it's like this it's like
Speaker 1: every wait a minute, everything set up, you know what
Speaker 1: we get.
Speaker 2: What are we doing? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But with this, it like it was quiet, it was concentrated,
Speaker 1: it was focused. I've never heard anybody say this is
Speaker 1: how we're it needs to be. It was just that
Speaker 1: level of concentration and commitment to the work extending from
Speaker 1: Joaquin outward. It just generated this amazing focus so that
Speaker 1: we could let things unfold, let that magic happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love to hear that, and partly why I
Speaker 2: love to hear it, and look, let's I mean I'm
Speaker 2: certainly not going to say that Joker is a barrel
Speaker 2: of laughs. Incredibly dark and brooding, difficult, one might say,
Speaker 2: but also very playful, very mischievous and light in a
Speaker 2: way at times that is, by the way unexpected, which
Speaker 2: of course draws you in more and more. And to
Speaker 2: hear that the set was well, not reference earlier like
Speaker 2: your dad, very organized, very on point, very orderly, not
Speaker 2: a lot of shenan agains or you know, unnecessary lapses
Speaker 2: or breaks, just on point. But by creating that structure,
Speaker 2: and I saw in your performance as well some ability
Speaker 2: to play, and I just yeah, I love to hear that.
Speaker 1: Well it it invited it. You know, it was like
Speaker 1: there was concentrations so that when the camera was rolling,
Speaker 1: it could it could, it could drift and float and
Speaker 1: pound and shift. You know, it created that. That's you know,
Speaker 1: that structure. If you take it to my dad, it's
Speaker 1: like that structure allowed like the creativity of my mother's
Speaker 1: side to then you know, flourish.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It's just like an interesting way to look at it.
Speaker 2: Speaking of dark and brooding, that's what you call a
Speaker 2: professional transition, uh Ray Donovan Stu Feldman, uh I loved
Speaker 2: that show not as much playfulness there, at least from
Speaker 2: from Ray. I'm gonna be honest, not much much more,
Speaker 2: much more dark and brooding. Weirdly, when you consider the
Speaker 2: subject matter, did that show change for you? You being perceived
Speaker 2: as that guy? I mean you must have gotten specifically
Speaker 2: recognized for your work there as that show took off
Speaker 2: in popularity deservedly.
Speaker 1: So Yeah, that that definitely bumped things up for me
Speaker 1: in terms of being recognized. I mean I had so
Speaker 1: much fun, you know with this character, you know, Stu
Speaker 1: Feldman of Just you know, it's like a guy who
Speaker 1: has all this power but but no security within himself
Speaker 1: and just create which create this behavior, this crazy behavior,
Speaker 1: and trying to and also this kind of infatuation with Ray.
Speaker 1: You know that it's like almost want you know, he
Speaker 1: wants to be Ray, Like he sees how confident Ray
Speaker 1: is right and and you know, and he's trying to
Speaker 1: emulate him and has this kind of man crush on him,
Speaker 1: right and just you know, and just to play with
Speaker 1: just on the pilot. The director said, how did he
Speaker 1: phrase it? It was something like like he said, like
Speaker 1: what this guy is like wearing like a nervous suit,
Speaker 1: you know, and he can't sit still, like he doesn't
Speaker 1: even know how to suppress like this nervous energy that
Speaker 1: comes out of all these parts of his body, you know,
Speaker 1: And that just kind of opened again, Like that was
Speaker 1: something that opened the door for me creatively of this
Speaker 1: guy that's he's he would like to be still and
Speaker 1: focused like Ray, but like everything but everything is just
Speaker 1: like twitching, you know, like there's just so much nervous energy.
Speaker 1: You know that he's trying to trying to focus.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That I had so much fun on that show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so much fun.
Speaker 2: I love that idea of him wanting to be Ray,
Speaker 2: except except just absolutely like a butterfly as opposed to
Speaker 2: you know, a still strong person. And it's like I want,
Speaker 2: I want to be that. I'm that, right, I'm that,
Speaker 2: but just never like never being.
Speaker 1: It has all the power and all the money, you know,
Speaker 1: and run runs the studio, you know, a movie studio,
Speaker 1: but none of it read, none of it appeals whatever
Speaker 1: his childhood wound is, you.
Speaker 2: Know, right.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 2: In recent years, more unbelievable projects like to Drop Out, Missus, Fletcher,
Speaker 2: Motherless Brooklyn, and now a new show, A Man in Full,
Speaker 2: just released on Netflix with the brilliant Jeff Daniels and
Speaker 2: Diane Lane. Tell me about your experience working on that project,
Speaker 2: again based on a very popular best selling book, so
Speaker 2: the story is out there a little bit. Did you
Speaker 2: find that a challenge? And yeah, how is it like
Speaker 2: working with those two actors?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, working with Jeff was I really
Speaker 1: didn't like Sometimes knowing someone's work, you can kind of
Speaker 1: get an idea like, oh, I bet this guy is
Speaker 1: like this, you know. And with Jeff, I was like,
Speaker 1: because I'd never met him before we started filming, and
Speaker 1: I was like, is this guy gonna be an asshole
Speaker 1: or like a sweetheart? Like he just couldn't tell, but
Speaker 1: such a sweetheart like such such so committed and interested
Speaker 1: in acting and the craft. So that was awesome. And
Speaker 1: on the very first day he said, he went like, Josh,
Speaker 1: I'm going big. I'm going big on this one, you know.
Speaker 1: And his character is like enormous, right, and my character
Speaker 1: is like, you know, has in some way more power
Speaker 1: and has the money that he wants he wants me
Speaker 1: to bail him out. And it's like he's going big
Speaker 1: and I'm like a submarine, like just going really low
Speaker 1: and just holding the power and kind of emerging with
Speaker 1: power when I need to kind of the opposite of
Speaker 1: Stu Feldman in in some way. And so it was
Speaker 1: just it was just a blast. It was challenging, and
Speaker 1: it was you know, the Tommy SCHLAMI like a couple
Speaker 1: of days before we start, who was one of the directors,
Speaker 1: Regina King was the other director, and Tommy he said,
Speaker 1: get this book. Get this book, tough Jews. And he said, like,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, your character is definitely a Jew,
Speaker 1: but he like, let's make this guy a badass, not
Speaker 1: a funny Jew, not the Schlemiel whatever, right, but like
Speaker 1: a warrior, you know, a gangster. And and so that
Speaker 1: was very you know that that was that was a
Speaker 1: great also a great note to kind of inspire, how
Speaker 1: can I have more power than Jeff's character even though
Speaker 1: Jeff is enormous and be like under the surface. So
Speaker 1: that was kind of the dance that I was playing with.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if we've told your whole story,
Speaker 2: but I've found a runner through this entire conversation from
Speaker 2: your time at Law and Order and a decision that
Speaker 2: you made through Stuf Feldman through this show in some ways,
Speaker 2: the Joker as well. You have found a lot of
Speaker 2: tactics and actions to play characters of high status, which
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean they always win, but the character themselves
Speaker 2: has status. But you've found you've had an amazing ability
Speaker 2: to take what you might even consider to be a
Speaker 2: very similar character type, but using that high status in
Speaker 2: different ways has enabled you to become a chameleon throughout
Speaker 2: all of those things. I don't know, this is just
Speaker 2: occurring to me right now. This wasn't this wasn't pre planned.
Speaker 2: I find that. I found find that fascinating and a
Speaker 2: great lesson for other actors to take that. Like, what
Speaker 2: does high status mean? Well, you have money? I mean
Speaker 2: literally the two roles you were just talking about right here,
Speaker 2: yet taking different tactics based on the characters that you're
Speaker 2: playing with, So what your given circumstances are, uh, and
Speaker 2: using that status in different ways to either increase them
Speaker 2: or sort of undercut them with something else. I find
Speaker 2: that very interesting. Mm hmm true.
Speaker 1: Was yeah, true? Wow, Wow, this is this is uh,
Speaker 1: this is your You're unveiling the.
Speaker 2: Story I'm trying And it wasn't even intentional. I'm just
Speaker 2: listening to you.
Speaker 1: I never really thought of it that way, but it's true. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I also just like I don't know, like I
Speaker 1: don't know. It was maybe like six months ago, and
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I do play these powerful guys.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you know, and.
Speaker 1: It's not intentional, it's not right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'm also working on this show raising Kanaan playing
Speaker 1: this kind of music producer, roughly basing the character on
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin. Have you read his book, by the way,
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin's book, The Creative Act.
Speaker 2: I have not so recommend it.
Speaker 1: I think you would love it.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, Yeah, great book.
Speaker 1: But again, like another high powered dude.
Speaker 2: I hear you're publishing a book next year. Are you
Speaker 2: writing it?
Speaker 1: Well, Penguin is It's not it's not. I'm I have
Speaker 1: to hand it in in September, okay, And it's coming
Speaker 1: out September twenty twenty five, and the working title is
Speaker 1: Lose Your Mind The Path to Creative Invincibility. I like that,
Speaker 1: thank you. In a very unplanned way, somebody started pitching
Speaker 1: me to some publishers, and the book is kind of
Speaker 1: taking what I've been teaching, this committed impulse work and tape,
Speaker 1: but not making it actor specific. It's like taking this
Speaker 1: work for the general public, which is really exciting. So
Speaker 1: much of what you know, we as actors go through
Speaker 1: and are challenged with its kind of remarkable and it's
Speaker 1: it's a much higher level of challenges than maybe people
Speaker 1: have in other careers. But we all go through the
Speaker 1: same stuff and kind of using the experience of being
Speaker 1: an actor and the universality of that of because we
Speaker 1: all have audiences. We all you know, when we put
Speaker 1: ourselves further out into the world, you know, as actors
Speaker 1: say in an audition or walking on set. You know,
Speaker 1: we all everybody has the equivalent of that of putting
Speaker 1: themselves even if it's in a meeting with one other person,
Speaker 1: and the same kind of things emerge. And so just
Speaker 1: trying to connect the dots of what I of learned
Speaker 1: and making it available to the general public, and it's
Speaker 1: it's very exciting. I just feel like I'm getting a
Speaker 1: piece of my life's work out there.
Speaker 2: I love that. Uh. And it is true having being
Speaker 2: able to apply teachings principles of acting. Yeah, it can
Speaker 2: help throughout all all all facets of your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because what we have, we've had to we've had
Speaker 1: to learn how to you know, deal with so much,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's I mean actings like a spiritual
Speaker 1: practice on so many levels, I think, you know, because
Speaker 1: we have to can't get caught up in rejection and
Speaker 1: got to just keep opening our hearts no matter what
Speaker 1: and open the channel and move forward, going forward. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Last thing, you just shot a new film, The Friend,
Speaker 2: with Naomi Watts and Bill Murray. Uh, good experience. When
Speaker 2: is this When is this out?
Speaker 1: It's an endie so who knows, probably a year and
Speaker 1: just you know, most of my stuff was with Naomi
Speaker 1: Watts and and this amazing dog, this enormous great Dane
Speaker 1: who is central to the story.
Speaker 2: Was are you being truthful? Was it really a great dog?
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a great Dane and a great dog. And
Speaker 1: there's an article this week in the New Yorker about
Speaker 1: that dog and and the and the guy that came
Speaker 1: on to train him. Oh yeah, in this week's New Yorker.
Speaker 2: I just I just worked with a pug.
Speaker 1: Oh really? I was that?
Speaker 2: It wasn't that he no, yeah, no, smart.
Speaker 1: Well, like seventy percent of the time he did what
Speaker 1: he was told and then thirty percent of the time
Speaker 1: is like I'm not gonna do that. No, no, that's okay.
Speaker 1: That's okay. I'm gonna go who's got snacks? Anybody got snacks?
Speaker 2: By the way, that just sounds like me, So he
Speaker 2: and I would get along really, really really well. Uh, Josh,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for coming and chatting with me.
Speaker 1: Such a pleasure. Thank you, Brian, No.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed it. Come back again anytime, and uh, look,
Speaker 2: I'll figure out more things about you. Okay, great problem.
Speaker 1: Please I want to know. I want to know about me.
Speaker 2: Good luck on the book and you and I will
Speaker 2: I will see you on a screen very very soon.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 2: Thanks man, Josh, Thank you so much, such a pleasure
Speaker 2: to get to know you. Had so much fun talking
Speaker 2: shop with you today, a master class in acting and beyond.
Speaker 2: Good luck with your new book. Listeners, go watch Man
Speaker 2: in full on Netflix and see The Friend when it
Speaker 2: comes out whenever that may be. Go check out all
Speaker 2: of his work. He really is fantastic and you'll remember
Speaker 2: he's Josh Piez, not just that guy anymore. I'll see
Speaker 2: you next week and until then, have a great one. Off.
Speaker 2: The Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 2: alongside our executive producer Ling Lee. Our Senior produce is
Speaker 2: Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and
Speaker 2: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and
Speaker 2: our intern is Ali Amir Sahim. Our theme song Bubble
Speaker 2: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bragg,