WEBVTT - Jake McDorman 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:06.000 I think John Alan McDorman as I've gotten older sounds stronger, 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.559 because in my mind when I think of Jake, maybe 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.680 it's because it has no roots in my actual name anywhere. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:14.560 But I'm like, that's not a real name. I was 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.240 talking to a co star at one point and I 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.200 was like, I don't know Jake McDorman. This is like 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.040 not too long ago either, like four years ago. So 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.400 I'm deep into the Jake. This is like a conversation 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.000 I had, you know, twenty years ago. But she was like, no, 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.520 Jake mcdormand's great, that's good. I was like, she's like, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:32.440 what's your what's your legal name? I was like John 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.120 Allen McDorman and she was like, oh, I take it back, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.120 that's way better. She was like, Jake McDorman wins, like 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:46.440 maybe a people's choice. John Allen McDorman wins Academy. I 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:56.240 was like, I'm fucking I know Jake. John Allen McDormand. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.920 The fourth rode into Hollywood on a big white horse. 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.399 He said, I'm an actor. I'm here to stay. I'm 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:11.040 gonna be a big star someday. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.080 Hi everybody, and welcome back to I would call an 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.440 entrancing and poetic episode of Off the Beat. Just like 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.479 every week, it's me your host, Brian Baumgartner. Now, how 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:30.520 can I possibly follow a self introduction like that? Well 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.000 with a poem of my own of course, So let's 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:41.800 see poem introduction beginning now. Jake McDorman a versatile star 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.320 from drama to comedy. He's traveled so far. He came 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.720 to la as just a teen to see his face 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.200 on the big screen. He was first cast in Quintuplets 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.880 and later in Greek landing Gig after Gig on an 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.200 epic streak. He's in Murphy Around Dope, Sick and if 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:07.200 that wasn't enough, Limitless, shameless and the right stuff, American Sniper, 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:12.560 what we do in the Shadows. Jake captivates wherever he goes. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.920 Now you can watch him in Missus Davis and Class 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.800 of Nine and see for yourself his work is divine. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.680 You know that this episode won't be a bore man 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:31.560 with my awesome guest, the great Jake McDorman, Hold your 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:40.240 applause till the end. Here he is Jake McDorman. Bubble 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:47.920 and Squeak, I love it, Bubble and Squeakna, Bubble and Squeak, 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:52.399 I could get every moleft over from the ninety before. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:06.280 What's up, Jake, Brian, It's so good to meet you. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.640 It's very nice to meet you. How's it going. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.000 It's going pretty well, man, going pretty well? Can you 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.480 hear me? Okay, I'm so embarrassed. I was just doing 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.040 a tech setup. I've gotten no better at this in 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.400 the three years we've been doing. I'm a shit millennial. 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.920 Listen. I mean the fact that I can manage it. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.880 I'm sure you're fine. Let's just let's put it that way. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:29.720 I'll go with that. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.640 I'm seeing you all over my TV left and right. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.080 We're going to talk about that in a minute, some 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.120 of my favorite shows of last year. But you grew 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.040 up in Dallas? Is that right? 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.800 I did? Yeah? Yeah? Did I see that you're from? 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:44.720 Are you from Georgia? 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.040 I am from Georgia. But hail to the Red and 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:53.800 the Blue, the Mustangs of SMU. I spent my formative 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:54.560 years there. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.400 Dude, my dad went there. Really yeah, I think I 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.080 have that I but yeah, yeah, I definitely would go. 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.680 This was like a big deal for I have other 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.960 people that were born in like eighty five, eighty six 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.680 whose dads when we were little, would take us to 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.160 play racquetball. I think it was just like a big 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.800 deal for dads born in the fifties that like racquetball 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.560 in the eighties and their thirties probably like you know, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.920 coked up and drunk on whiskey, was throwing a battle 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.360 around a closed room. But like I'd go to SMU 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.280 with my dad to play racquetball forever. Yeah, it was 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.839 my acci. 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:37.480 Dad's where I started playing racquetball. Oh shit, man. In college. Yeah, 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.680 we In fact, I think I took like racquetball one 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.520 oh one. And that's not a that's not a course. 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:45.000 That's not a course. 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.120 When wait, when were you at SMU? Do you know 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.920 when you were there playing racquetball? 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:56.120 Well, yeah, you would have been young ish. I was 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:57.600 their early nineties. 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.760 Right, I'm telling you. I think we were we probably, 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.560 I mean I was too young to be playing racketball. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.800 I think my dad was not great at racketball, and 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.599 it gave him a huge vote of self confidence to 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.239 just eviscerate a ten year old ketball. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.479 I mean I also, as you know then, the basketball 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.200 courts were right out there. Yeah, so, I mean I 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.520 was trying to hustle people on the basketball courts as 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.960 much as possible, but then eventually it got shoved into 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.760 one of those rooms, the racquetball rooms. But yes, I 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.599 had a great, great time in Dallas, and it sounds 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.440 like you did too. You started well, first off, when 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.000 did you start getting interested in acting or performing? 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.640 You know, I was really reluctant. It started in I'm 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.000 no longer spiritual or really religious or religious, but it 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.599 started in the church I went to, which if you 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.040 went to SMU and you spent some time, you know 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.080 in Dallas, you know that they can mega church like, yeah, 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.040 none other. You know, everything's bigger in Texas, Stephen Jesus. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.320 So like I went to one of those huge, huge 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.360 megachurches that had these like children's choirs that would put 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.240 on you know, bi annual big musicals and stuff. And 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.359 my mom was really, i think, just based on you 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.359 know the kind of kid I was, which was you know, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.080 imaginative and running around and playing with action figures, probably 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.160 too old, thought that I'd really like it. And I 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:27.000 reluctantly kind of joined that, and then in doing that, 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.400 really got bit by it and I thought it was fun. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.800 So like technically I started in a version of a theater. 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.800 But like you know, for for instance, Betty Gilpin on 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.640 Missus Davis, she's like a proper theater actor. So like 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.760 anytime I say like, oh, yeah, I got my start 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.040 in theater, because technically I was on a big stage 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.560 in front of a thousand people, right, I should be like, oh, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:51.720 what did you put up? Like what was the play? 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.719 And I was like, it's called the Amazing Scripture of 0:06:54.760 --> 0:07:01.320 Memory Maze, small production. So like definitely can't you know, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.880 sit toe to toe with anyone who actually carved their 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:09.560 teeth on theater. But that was the first I think, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.200 that feeling of kind of overcoming the nerves of something 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.320 like that, right, and then getting out, you know, with 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:16.960 a plan with your You had this plan that you'd 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:18.760 rehearsed with your cast, and you go execute it. 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.760 And in that moment of being in front of all 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:23.840 those people under the pressure, all you have is each other, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.240 and the kind of unique bond that creates between all 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.840 of you just became really intoxicating. And I just I 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:31.800 just knew pretty quickly I wanted to do that. I 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.280 wanted to chase that feeling kind of forever. And I 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.160 don't even think I knew at the time that that's like, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.440 because I also love TV and movies, Like I grew 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.000 up watching movies and TV. I didn't quite equate those 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.960 two as being the same thing. Okay, that was in 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:46.120 a box over there, and this was this weird thing 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.920 I was doing over here, and it took a while 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.240 for those to like overlap, and I'm right, yeah. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.840 But I mean, look, let's be honest. It doesn't matter 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.120 how quote unquote serious the theater that you're doing. I mean, 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:03.480 having experiences on stage in front of people, that's kind 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.600 of step one. I mean yeah, I mean I think. 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.000 It should be. I think you're lucky it is right 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.480 like that. I feel really grateful it came in that order, 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.040 Like I not, there's there's probably a million different ways 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.760 to crack it. But like I've thought about this a 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.120 lot that, like, I'm glad I got that feeling first 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.720 before I was like ooh, I want to be you 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.840 know Harrison Ford, Like how do I reverse engineer that? 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.400 From a place of like vanity gushing, you know, I mean, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.760 like he's so cool, I want to be that cool. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.720 It really came from a place of just that feeling 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.280 and the like connection that you have when you do 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:42.760 theater was like terrifying and exciting, and then bonus, it's 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.439 also you know the root of all these performances you've 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:46.720 been enjoying forever. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.840 Right, so you have this feeling that you want to chase. 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.720 You start studying at the acting studio and is it 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:56.360 Nancy Charitier? 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.640 She is one of I had two like acting gurus. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.120 Excuse me. I had two like acting gurus in Dallas 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.800 that like together were like the yin and yang of 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.600 me actually believing maybe I could make a go of it. 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.640 So Nancy was second, but very amazed that you know 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.319 by name. And then uh, the there's the Dallas Young 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.520 Actors Studios Linda Sito and then uh, I think the 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.800 class was called React with Nancy Chardier. And the first 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.000 one my dad. I don't know if you do. You 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.320 remember little Miss Sunshine, Greg Kinnear's character and little Miss Sunshine. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.160 He'd go around and do these kind of ten steps 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.480 to success. My dad's gonna kill me if you ever 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:39.640 listens to this. Thank god. He's a complete fucking ludite 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.520 and has no idea how to listen to this podcast. 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.680 I love you, dad, but uh, you know. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:52.520 To your phone click podcast podcast. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:53.840 Brian, he's not gonna hear these instructions. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:54.480 You can't find it. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.200 But anyway, he would give this seminar every Monday night 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.920 the church, and these people who were in career transition, 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.320 you know, leading one job or seeking another job, or 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.560 had been you know, let go from their own job 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.160 would come and listen to seminar. And an agent from 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.720 a Dallas agency like came up and approached him because 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.559 about his voice. You're like, you're interested in voiceover work, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.439 and God bless him. He was like, no, not really, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.600 but my son is an actor. So got me a 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.520 meeting like that way with a local agent. And then 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.880 she was like, sure, we'll take a meeting with him. 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:30.840 We'll see what he's all about. We'll have him read 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.440 a scene. I must have been like twelve years old 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:38.640 and had just dyed my hair like hydrogen peroxide eminem 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.200 yellow like the day before, and like walked in there 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.400 with like orange pants from Abercrombie. It's just the worst, 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:47.840 kind of just the worst. I can't even imagine what 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:52.079 they thought. And they were like, yeah, no, you should 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.040 go to class. You should definitely go to class. So 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.520 they sent me to those two places and I went 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.520 to the first one for a long time, and it 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.960 really was the first time I learned anything about just 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.440 how to do it. It also put me in a 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.560 kind of tribe of people that also wanted to do this. 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.720 That was a huge part of it. You know, you 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.400 moved to LA and you forget you know, how weird 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.440 of idea this is. In some parts of the country 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.080 or certainly some parts of the world. You know, right La, 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.480 everybody is there's a homogeny to like wanting to do 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.520 something in the entertainment industry, and there it was very 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.920 rare to meet someone who else who someone else who 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.160 wanted to do this. So even putting me in a 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.200 class full of people who like nerd it out about 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.360 the same shit that I did, and like, you know, 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.079 loved the same kind of movies and TV that I did, 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.920 was great. And so yeah, that that class and then 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.440 and then I met Nancy, and Nancy was the people 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.200 in Nancy's class were doing the La thing, were like 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:54.839 breaking their families in half and sending them to the 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.719 oak Woods, which sounds insane, but at the time it 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.199 was like, oh, I'm breaking my family. Definitely, what's next? 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.520 You guys are to hold on tight we're going to 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.439 the oak Woods. So yeah, that was like the beginning 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:13.040 of starting to actually have conversations about like, okay, we're 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.360 doing this in Dallas. It wasn't an overnight decision. There's 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.280 now like five years of moving in this direction and 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.080 getting representation locally and then meeting other parents who have 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.880 like kind of done the pilot season thing, which I 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.640 don't even know if that's a thing anymore, but it 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.920 certainly was, you know, when you and I were coming up, 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.680 and so eventually I wore them down to let me 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:35.480 try it for like a few months. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.240 Now. For those of you who don't know the oak Woods, 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.040 I don't know if we've talked about this, this is 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:42.320 a legendary place. 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.400 Oh my god, it needs to be an HBO series. 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.599 It really does. The oak Woods is an apartment complex 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:56.600 kind of directly adjacent to both Universal and Warner Brothers 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:02.720 kind in this up in the hill, which sounds very romantic, 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.439 but it's not. At that time at least, it was 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.319 like a commune for people who would come out for 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.240 pilot season for as you said, like a month, two months, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.160 three months, and like commune together, like yeah together, yeah, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:19.360 do auditions, right. 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.920 Do auditions for like three months to give people an 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.280 idea of the size of this compound. There was a 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.880 North Clubhouse, a South Clubhouse, three entrances from different streets 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.000 and buildings, three stories for every letter of the alphabet. 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.880 So it's massive. You don't need to leave. In fact, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.360 there was people who had been there since Oakwood opened. 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:40.719 I remember Lou had some guy named Lou had his 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.840 ninetieth birthday at South Clubhouse, right, So it's like old 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.920 Hollywood kind of, you know, a group of people that 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:48.839 lived there and like never left. They went to the 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.280 salon there, and they would like go to the pool 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.000 and all this stuff. There was a convenience store that 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.280 we used to get beer and cigarettes from when we 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.199 were way too young. Like I mean, it was it 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:03.840 was overrun with musicians touring, elderly people that had been 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.920 there since the sixties, child actors and stage moms and securities. 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:13.040 It's like the villages, yes, for it's like the villages 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.520 for young people who are trying to be musicians and 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.560 actors really and their families. 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.520 Yeah, that's the perfect that is the perfect analogy. It 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.360 is exactly the villages. It's a democratic. 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:29.640 Probably mostly Yeah, were you and So how old were 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.040 you when you finally went out. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.560 To the So we couldn't stay in the oak Woods 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.320 because those were fancy, but my girlfriend at the time 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.360 lived there, and I spent all my time there. I 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.640 mean it was like even even if you you know, 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.200 didn't live there and you were an actor that you know, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:45.720 was out there auditioning for past season, you just have 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:47.880 your mom drop you off there for like the day 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.160 and you'd run around with nothing to do with a 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.440 bunch of actor kids. That was when I was sixteen, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.600 So twenty and three, twenty years ago. Wow, this is 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.080 twenty years as of this spring. Yeah. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.880 Well you know what's crazy is I actually landed in 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.240 La the exact time you did two three. 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:07.960 So you must have seen me at the raquetball courts. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.920 I'm gonna follow Zach. I'm gonna creepy way, not in 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:13.640 a creepy way. 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.000 Well, let's hold not. Yeah, I'm going to travel around 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.160 the country and eventually, when when, when Jake is on 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:22.640 the move, that I am too. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.080 This is a long play. I'm proud of you here. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.920 Yeah, now we're finally meeting twenty years later. It's been 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:34.720 going on forty years. Not quite Uh, your name. By 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.160 the way, I have to mention your name is John. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.240 I heard a story about your name becoming Jake. Tell it. 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.320 Oh, I'm so curious. It's this is the story you've heard? 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.320 Uh So, my name is John Alan McDormand the force. 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:55.000 My dad. This is the third. I'm his only son. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.760 He had two daughters before I was born and a 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.440 third after I was born. And I think just the 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:05.400 weight of continuing the progeny made him name me on 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.400 paper John the Fourth. But he didn't want to name 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:15.400 me John, so uh he there was I've heard it. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.400 I've actually heard a couple of versions of this between 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.440 my parents, depending on how drunk they are. The story 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:22.960 that's kind of where it comes from, is that, like 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.800 I guess in the eighties, saying you got that right, 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.040 Jake was a saying and he was like, and you know, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.960 Jake from Chinatown. So when I cry as a baby, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.280 he'd tell me, relax, Jake, it's just Chinatown. When I'm 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.120 butchering Jacknickilson's. 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.920 Line, No, that was pretty close story. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:41.280 I heard. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:43.480 Relaxed, Jake, it's Chinatown. 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:44.080 Yeah. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.880 Yeah, And then it stuck and now I'm an actor 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.520 and everyone thinks it's a stage name. It just has. 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.360 It's been a pain in the ass at airports and 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.160 security gates, at Warner Brothers and anywhere else and explaining 0:16:58.200 --> 0:16:59.640 it to people where I'm like, oh, well, my real 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.240 name is John, that's what's on my license, and they're like, oh, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.680 so you're you go by Jake as a stage name, Like, no, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.400 my dad just thought he'd fuck with me eternally by 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.480 me going as Jake my whole life. I think, So, 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.120 you've got a great name, Brian Baumgardner, that's a that's 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.480 a that's a cool name. Oh it sounds cool, man. 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.879 It could be like, yeah, I'm jealous. I think John 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:27.399 Alan McDorman, as i've gotten older, sounds stronger because in 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.920 my mind when I think of Jake, maybe it's because 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.720 it has no roots and my actual name anywhere, But 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:35.800 I'm like, that's not a real name. I was talking 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.480 to a co star at one point and I was like, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.520 I don't know Jake McDorman. This is like not too 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:43.440 long ago either, like four years ago. So I'm deep 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.680 into the Jake. This isn't like a conversation I had, 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:48.840 you know, twenty years ago. But she was like, no, 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.480 Jake mcdormand's great, that's good. I was like, she's like, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.400 what's your what's your legal name? I was like John 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.040 Allan McDorman and she was like, oh, I take it back, 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.040 that's way better. She was like, Jake Dorman wins like 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:06.800 maybe a people's choice. John Allen McDorman wins a cab. 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:12.480 I was like, I fucking I know. So. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.160 Yeah, so you one of your first roles, you get 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.440 cast on Run of the House. Now was this during 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.760 a time you were just visiting this was my first 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.639 pilot season, your first pilot season, you get cast? 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:24.440 Yeah. 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:26.680 I was had the fear of God that I would 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.320 not get something, and you know, have to kind of 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.399 face all the decisions that I had made about like 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.399 pulling myself out of school, because you know, the different 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.840 the levels of commitment that go into a pilot season 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:40.800 when you're in the middle of like public school system. 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.159 Like I wasn't some savant. I wasn't some Ronan pharaoh 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.240 that graduated early like and could go run off to you, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:49.080 you know, a good college. At some point it was 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.240 very much like, all right, you're just ending your education, 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.600 and like it was there was there was some you know, 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.600 I had gotten like a homeschool program that a lot 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.440 of child actors were going to a lot of headshots 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:08.720 on that wall. And there was even another like accredited 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.840 diploma that you could test out of school so that 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.000 a studio could hire you without having to hire an 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.800 onset tutor. But like that that was the goal marketability, 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.520 not education. It was like, get get this out of 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.960 the way, you want to be hireable, right. So I 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.800 had made those decisions quick because like before we even 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:29.600 hit the ground running for a first pilot season, like 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.000 did the get rid of the education and be like, 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.440 you know, completely no strings attached. So I was really really, 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.720 really really hyper aware that if this didn't work out, 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.720 at least work out enough to send the signal that 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.680 we should try it, you know, continue, that I was 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.639 going to have to like go back to school with 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:52.200 all my friends with my head held low and rejoin 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.080 a grade beneath them now, right, So yeah, I think 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.720 I tested for a handful that first year. Didn't get 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.119 any of the things I tested for, which was like 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.159 really devastating at the time. I didn't I didn't have 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.600 any gauge for how good or well I was doing 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.800 other than like get something or you're going home, So 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.399 callbacks or you know, any of the other Bellweathers that like, 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:17.720 you know, oh it's going well, just didn't compute. I 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.320 didn't know what to you know, invest that kind of 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.480 hope in. So I got this this co star on pilot. 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.800 This is back when CW was actually WB with the 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.159 Singing Frog yep, and it went for a season. They 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.119 brought me back for one episode after the pilot. But 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.320 that was enough. That was enough for my agents that 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.560 had like kind of they were doing like a dry 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.080 run with me, be like, well, sign you proper sing 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.320 with my manager at the time, and the signals send 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:44.560 the signal to my folks that like I can I 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:46.600 can maybe do this. It was great. 0:20:46.800 --> 0:21:09.119 It was a sitcom yeah, live audience fun. Ye, your 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:13.240 first main role you get cast on Quintuplets. Do you 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.000 feel like at that point your life is transitioning into 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.480 a totally new direction, Like do you feel the weight 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.520 of it? Is it a big deal for you? 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:27.000 Oh? Yeah, oh yeah definitely. That was also I was 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:30.560 able to pay my parents back with that, and I 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.359 think that was when, you know, because that would have 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.200 required I was seventeen when I did Quintuplets and it 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:37.840 was going to go for a full season. Yeah, I 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:39.600 don't know when we got our back nine again for 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:43.960 people listening, you know, the pilot to first Order to 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.280 back nine might be weird now, but it shows back 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.520 then did like twenty two full episode seasons. And once 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.159 it was clear that that was going to happen, you know, 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:54.720 my family had to stop because it's me and my 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:56.919 mom out here and my dad and my sister in Texas, 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.840 and that split just was untenable. So I got emancipated 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:04.760 and I was turning turning eighteen soon just to legally 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.280