Speaker 1: Hello everybody, This is Craig Ferguson letting you know that
Speaker 1: my Fancy Rascal Tour continues throughout the fall of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. For a full list of dates and tickets,
Speaker 1: please go to my website, the Craig Ferguson show dot
Speaker 1: com slash tour. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name
Speaker 1: of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interest in
Speaker 1: people about what brings them happiness. Here's d Drich Bader,
Speaker 1: a great actor who's been in everything you've ever liked.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding. Wasn't it this Enjoy when ddrig when I, Yes,
Speaker 2: I know it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's not about me, it's about you. It's about you,
Speaker 1: and I'm just I will say no, it is because
Speaker 1: I want to tell you. I want to start with
Speaker 1: this because when we were working together on the Drew
Speaker 1: Carey Show and you were paying oswood Lee Harvey, which
Speaker 1: is still maybe the best name for a characters.
Speaker 2: I think it's great. You gotta laugh every time, Well,
Speaker 2: because it's funny.
Speaker 1: It's stupid and funny and stupid and funny gets funnier
Speaker 1: the longer you say. But oswood Lee Harvey, which is
Speaker 1: on a par with count Al. You card as a
Speaker 1: stupid name, but you were playing that fairly early on
Speaker 1: in the run. Now, I'm gonna say, because you were
Speaker 1: the only person that I had heard of when I
Speaker 1: started that show, because you had done The Beverly Hillbillies.
Speaker 1: You played Jethrow in the Beverly Hillbillies and you were
Speaker 1: really good at it.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. And that was a hit movie, wasn't it. No,
Speaker 2: that was a bomb. Otherwise I wouldn't have been on
Speaker 2: the Drew carry be a major movie star, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean you you can be a movie star and
Speaker 1: being a boat. You are a movie star. You're in everything.
Speaker 2: No, it didn't make enough money to be attractive to
Speaker 2: hire me. Success breeds success, and only people only want
Speaker 2: to be associated with success.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that might explain my life a little bit.
Speaker 1: My friends, so people, I see, that's why I have
Speaker 1: no friends.
Speaker 2: But you you only one i'd heard of. And I remember.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when we did the full Monty episode
Speaker 1: of the Drew Carey Show, Yes, of course, and we
Speaker 1: all got naked, yes, And then we went to Las
Speaker 1: Vegas and Tim Allen's plane, Yes, and everyone got trash.
Speaker 2: I got incredibly dry.
Speaker 1: You were the drunkest. I like, remember I'm saying this
Speaker 1: and I'm Scottish. You're one of the drunkest people I've
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 2: The fact that I could stand was. I was amazed
Speaker 2: at how drunk you were.
Speaker 1: But you were like walking around being loud with very
Speaker 1: scary eyes. You were very scary dancing. And then you
Speaker 1: threw a plastic bottle.
Speaker 2: I was remembering that this morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you threw a bottle off the like the top
Speaker 1: floor of a hotel and it landed on the swimming
Speaker 1: three stories up.
Speaker 2: It was normal.
Speaker 1: I was like that And I remember saying, Kathy, because
Speaker 1: the only other person I was like that could have
Speaker 1: killed someone. Cathy, She said, I know, and then we
Speaker 1: agreed we were the lamest people in Lesson Hagis. I
Speaker 1: was so dumb.
Speaker 2: Well, you totally took care of me. By the way,
Speaker 2: There's no way I would have made it into a
Speaker 2: hotel room. I was scared. We slept together, were well,
Speaker 2: I was. There wasn't a lot of sleep in there.
Speaker 1: Nobody slapped at I think I slapped a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's a couple of hours. Yeah, but I mean,
Speaker 1: how did you guys do that?
Speaker 2: Give him the fight.
Speaker 3: No one was on cocaine as far as I knew,
Speaker 3: Or where are you guys on cocaine?
Speaker 1: Oh no, No, Sow wasn't into drugs, just booze. No,
Speaker 1: he was just a booth and as much of a
Speaker 1: boozer really. No, he was kind of a lightweight. But
Speaker 1: Ryan Styles is the Keith Richards of the unbelievable.
Speaker 2: He has a hollow leg. Yeah, he and my problem
Speaker 2: that drank. Oh yeah, my problem was that time and
Speaker 2: every time you did see me drunk was when I
Speaker 2: tried to keep up with Brian. I'm not blaming. I
Speaker 2: take responsibility for how much I drank totally, but I see,
Speaker 2: I remember you being drunk that much. But every time,
Speaker 2: every time you were drunk, because you're saying it's that
Speaker 2: I was trying to keep up with them. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: as the kind of a guy thing. And once you
Speaker 2: get into it, then you're like and then he's just
Speaker 2: pooring and he's fun, as you know, he's really very
Speaker 2: very fun.
Speaker 1: But here's this trick when he gets drunk and even
Speaker 1: when he's not drunk, doesn't move that much of you know,
Speaker 1: it's he just kind of.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, stands that's totally his trick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is his trick. Is he doesn't try and
Speaker 1: move his legs. No, he doesn't or even face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he just like says funny things a little bit and
Speaker 1: it's hilarious and it gets funnier and he's very improvy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's very good at that. Yeah, he's very good. Did
Speaker 1: you do that improv who's laying?
Speaker 2: Is it? Anyway? I never did, but I will say, yeah,
Speaker 2: the funniest comedic improvisation that I have ever seen, and
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot, right, was when we had the
Speaker 2: final Drew Carey show dinner and you were invited. We
Speaker 2: had it on last at some fancy restaurant. Oh got
Speaker 2: like a private there was a private room room. And
Speaker 2: it was at the end of the ninth season, which
Speaker 2: you were not on. I was on that I was
Speaker 2: making Saving Grace. You were amazing that you showed up.
Speaker 2: But at that point the cast had gotten so fractious.
Speaker 2: Only Ryan and I were speaking to each other. I
Speaker 2: think Kathy and I were those ye. No, no, no, But
Speaker 2: I mean as far as everybody that was there, we
Speaker 2: were still talking to Kathy, but there was a lot
Speaker 2: of acromy ten. It was like family at that point.
Speaker 2: It was like family, that's my point. And Craig, you
Speaker 2: were so funny. There was something about the awkwardness of
Speaker 2: the situation. You literally were the funniest person. Don't see
Speaker 2: it speaks about this, My wife speaks about this all
Speaker 2: the time, really as being the funniest comedy set anyone
Speaker 2: who's ever done, because there was something about the awkwardness
Speaker 2: of it that sparked you. And everything we said that
Speaker 2: was passive aggressive to each other you picked up on
Speaker 2: and made a joke out of and it was hilarious.
Speaker 2: It was like you were trying to make things better.
Speaker 3: That's exactly like my family life when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: You were just trying to make things better.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to make things better. I swear
Speaker 1: to God. Through congression is the Scottish thing. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it is like, Oh, and the interesting thing is I
Speaker 1: also don't remember my childhood and I was sober.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right that most of your childhood.
Speaker 1: Well not all of it, but a fair amount of
Speaker 1: my childhood. Your childhood is very different though. You're like,
Speaker 1: you're d C right, you're like government family and with
Speaker 1: your father spy or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I can say that now, Yeah, he
Speaker 2: was in the CIA, and he was in the CIA, right, yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: and he was chief of Sabbath Center Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 2: He ended up being Assistant Secretary of State during the
Speaker 2: Clint administration.
Speaker 3: So was he like, did he do black holes and
Speaker 3: stuff like that?
Speaker 2: Was he you know, away from you know him, he
Speaker 2: did go away from home. All of the stuff that
Speaker 2: he did in the field was before I was born.
Speaker 2: But then he always kept a hand in and he
Speaker 2: oddly enough, he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
Speaker 2: better known as the Church Committee, and really went after
Speaker 2: the CIA, And because he was in the CIA at
Speaker 2: one point, he was able to use his contacts for
Speaker 2: those that were within the CIA who were upset with
Speaker 2: the way the agency was going.
Speaker 1: So the implication being that there is some corruption and
Speaker 1: the intelligence community, because should they find that hard to
Speaker 1: believe that anywhere that humans have power, that there would
Speaker 1: be any kind of form of corruption is unbelieving.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think his greatest claim to fame, The
Speaker 2: thing that was brought up in his obituary was that
Speaker 2: he was the person that supplied Senator Fulbright, the Senator
Speaker 2: from Arkansas, with the information about the Gulf of Tonkin,
Speaker 2: which made Robert McNamara retire that it was a lie. Wow.
Speaker 2: That was in his obituary.
Speaker 1: So that, I mean, that's a very impressive resume and
Speaker 1: a very kind of specific world.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I was always.
Speaker 1: Kind of intrigued, is how you Why you weren't drawn
Speaker 1: into that? It feels like like the gravitational pill of
Speaker 1: that kind of thing would be very strong, were you
Speaker 1: tempted at that point.
Speaker 2: I just never never tempted. I think because I saw
Speaker 2: how the sausage was made. The thing that it did
Speaker 2: prepare me for in Hollywood was something that you had
Speaker 2: alluded to earlier in this podcast, which is the cyclical
Speaker 2: nature of a career, right, the shifting sands. My dad
Speaker 2: like to call it the magic hat. So if you
Speaker 2: have the magic hat on, everybody loves you, but it's
Speaker 2: not you. It's the hat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's very Hollywood. That's all it really is
Speaker 1: as well. But I mean your career is I mean,
Speaker 1: you have had a stellar career, Thank you. I was
Speaker 1: quite jealous as I watched you.
Speaker 2: How is that even possible? You're you were on great shows.
Speaker 1: You're on Beep, which is an amazing show, bo Jack,
Speaker 1: which is like Salminal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's it's like rewriting them. That's truly a game. Yeah,
Speaker 2: is it something I would say Better Things was also
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw it, but Better Things
Speaker 2: is also a good show.
Speaker 1: I didn't see better Better Things is a very solid,
Speaker 1: beautiful show. So the kind of thing that there's always
Speaker 1: been a great depth to your work, which I don't
Speaker 1: think you were used. And I feel this a little
Speaker 1: bit a couple of actors. Actually, I didn't see that
Speaker 1: you get used that way in the Drew Carey Show
Speaker 1: when you were playing Oswood Lee Harvey. It was a
Speaker 1: very it was a fun show, but it was kind
Speaker 1: of too dimensional in many ways.
Speaker 2: Well it was entirely two Yeah, we were like hothouse flowers.
Speaker 2: We weren't real people. We were just vehicles for jokes.
Speaker 2: That said, I totally enjoyed it. Yeah, me too, Well,
Speaker 2: not totally, but a lot of it. I think I
Speaker 2: enjoyed it more than you did. I think you probably did.
Speaker 3: I think that it's funny I remember, and I.
Speaker 2: Don't think it was because of the size of the part.
Speaker 2: You had a good part, and you were you were
Speaker 2: a rock solid performer, like you fucking kicked ass every
Speaker 2: week and it like rock star every week. So I
Speaker 2: don't think it was the size of the part. I
Speaker 2: think it's because you were more ambitious than me.
Speaker 1: Definitely I was. I don't think I still suffer from that,
Speaker 1: but I did. I did have at that time. Yes, definitely,
Speaker 1: And from my perspective, I'm not no.
Speaker 2: I think no. I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think that I was looking at you guys, and
Speaker 1: I felt like you were all doing better than me,
Speaker 1: which is what ambitious people always think, like everybody's doing
Speaker 1: better than me.
Speaker 2: And that's such true.
Speaker 3: It's like a fucking stupid yeah.
Speaker 1: And then like after I had gotten maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: I was about eighteen months and doing the Late night
Speaker 1: Show and I ran and I think it was Jerry,
Speaker 1: the director. Jerry used to do the show, and he said, wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: if ever a guy you know, it was him. And
Speaker 1: Drew said, if ever a guy needed a show with
Speaker 1: his name on it, it's you, Craig, and I went, really,
Speaker 1: So I'm standing next to Drew Carrey from the fucking
Speaker 1: Dru Show for nine years.
Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, it's different.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: You didn't suffer from that ambition to did you not
Speaker 1: feel that, Like, I mean, you were coming off like
Speaker 1: the Beverly Hillbillies, big giant movie.
Speaker 2: Did you not feel was your.
Speaker 3: Ambition not burning hall at that point?
Speaker 2: Well, I was disappointed by the reaction of the Beverly Hillbillies.
Speaker 2: I thought I was going to be a movie star
Speaker 2: for a brief time, and then I dipped back into
Speaker 2: television frankly because I ran out of money. And then
Speaker 2: I only did the Drew Carey Show because I was
Speaker 2: trying to drive. I never told you this story. No,
Speaker 2: I don't know this story. So the Drew Carey Show
Speaker 2: was my second pilot of the season. I was on
Speaker 2: the revamping of Margaret Chow's show, but then about I
Speaker 2: didn't believe in the show. About halfway through the show,
Speaker 2: my agent like came and said I have to go,
Speaker 2: and I was with the Drew care Show Margaret, and
Speaker 2: then I said, how do I get off this show?
Speaker 2: And he goes, you're halfway through the pilot. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is really a mistake. Everybody knows it, you know,
Speaker 2: and and he goes, okay, well, so you know we're
Speaker 2: going too second position something. So I was like, okay, great,
Speaker 2: and I tested for a pilot called Partners. Tate Donovan
Speaker 2: did it and John cry got my part. Okay, but anyway,
Speaker 2: they low balled me over at Sony I'm working for
Speaker 2: right now. Actually unlucky Hank, you know totally I'm working
Speaker 2: for that too. Sony's great. Yeah, I love to be
Speaker 2: my favorite people. Yeah yeah, but they totally low balled me.
Speaker 2: And so I called my agen and I was like,
Speaker 2: that's I mean, our quote is there. I mean, they
Speaker 2: just have the quote and they're not coming back. And
Speaker 2: he goes, well, you know, you gotta get something else
Speaker 2: and we'll just fight them off and use it as
Speaker 2: a bargaining tea. Yeah. So he goes, there's a show
Speaker 2: a stand up if you order Drew Carry and I
Speaker 2: was like, no, no, and he goes, well, he did
Speaker 2: well on this other stand up show and I don't
Speaker 2: watch that stand up show. Yeah, and it was such
Speaker 2: a TV snap if you remember. Like, I'm much better
Speaker 2: now that I have a kids. And it's like, you.
Speaker 1: Are one of the people that I would say grew
Speaker 1: the fuck up since I met them. I mean you, honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean you were never you were always a very
Speaker 1: nice man, but no, you were but like you grew up.
Speaker 1: It's so patantly obviously when you had your kids, you're like,
Speaker 1: oh no, wait a minute, ye resay.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so I went on the Drew Carey Show
Speaker 2: pilot and they wanted to test me, so we put
Speaker 2: him against one another, and Sony did come up to
Speaker 2: my quote, and so did the Drew Carry Show. But
Speaker 2: and I just showed up for the test and I
Speaker 2: did it like blah blah blah, because my test for
Speaker 2: the Sony thing was the same day. So I just
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, yeah, this is the morning thing. And
Speaker 2: then I'm going to go like some people would have
Speaker 2: a cup of coffee and a ship, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to test for a show.
Speaker 1: But the Drew Carrey show was kind of like a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee and the ship was the whole idea,
Speaker 1: the process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the circle of so. And then I went
Speaker 2: off to the Sony thing. And then I didn't get
Speaker 2: this sonything, and I got the Drew Carry Show. And
Speaker 2: my agent called me to tell me I got the
Speaker 2: Drew Carry Show and I yelled at him. I was like,
Speaker 2: what have you done us? That's crazy? And then the
Speaker 2: show was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nine years nice fucking years. I didn't do the
Speaker 1: last year. I didn't do the first year either. You
Speaker 1: didn't do the first year. Yeah, I joined after that.
Speaker 1: I was gonna maybe in for like three episodes or something.
Speaker 2: The first year wasn't good. And I hope I'm not
Speaker 2: crushing fans of the show, but I really didn't like
Speaker 2: the show. I actually tried to get off the show.
Speaker 2: In my defense, I had done seven pilots before the
Speaker 2: Drew Carrey Show, so I thought, I'll just get another
Speaker 2: show and I'll be back, Okay. Yeah, So yeah, they
Speaker 2: didn't let me off, and I wasn't crazy. I love
Speaker 2: Drew and I loved Ryan, and Kathy was great, but
Speaker 2: I didn't love the scripts. I didn't love my part.
Speaker 2: And I thought, this is to speak to what you
Speaker 2: were saying about the ambition. I thought, like, I'm a
Speaker 2: second banana on a show. I should be the first banana,
Speaker 2: and I should get off the show. Bruce didn't let
Speaker 2: me off the show, and I'm very grateful for that
Speaker 2: because the showrunner. Yeah, the second year off the show
Speaker 2: was so much better, and that was trapped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also I had arrived and.
Speaker 2: And I'm not joking about that. It actually made the
Speaker 2: show happen because you were a great antagonist to him.
Speaker 2: What it made his work? Sheer fucking hell, you're right,
Speaker 2: there's more sticks to throw the protagonist. The voiceover thing.
Speaker 2: It's nothing against Kevin Pollack. He's a great actor. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's great. So but he was a voice. Yeah, we
Speaker 2: saw him at the end of the first year. It
Speaker 2: was a dumb gimmick. Well he was.
Speaker 1: If anyone doesn't know, he was Drew's voice. He was
Speaker 1: Drew's boss in the first year of the show, but
Speaker 1: you never really saw him. It was just on a
Speaker 1: kind of like speakerphone, that's right. And then he turned
Speaker 1: up for the last episode. But at that time, and
Speaker 1: Kevin said this to me himself, he said, I was
Speaker 1: too expensive at the time.
Speaker 2: They couldn't afford me. So I was doing a lot
Speaker 2: of movies. Yeah, yeah, it was a legit movie start
Speaker 2: at the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they offered mister Wick to Hugh Laurie as well.
Speaker 1: No kid, Yeah, I believe so. I think you said no.
Speaker 1: I wow, I'm better than that.
Speaker 2: That would have been a mistake. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think he'd been pretty good. I don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: he's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think that that wouldn't have worked. I
Speaker 2: think that you were I think personality wise.
Speaker 1: I think for me, the Drew Carey Show was that
Speaker 1: its best in that second third fourth.
Speaker 2: Those were the good years. Yeah, when we were like doing.
Speaker 1: The live episodes and doing the like big musical numbers
Speaker 1: and all that.
Speaker 2: And also the episode that you were talking about, the
Speaker 2: full Monty episode, that's a that's an excellent it's a
Speaker 2: great episode. Yeah, it's really that scene when we're all
Speaker 2: on the couch and you come in and you talk
Speaker 2: about your addiction to the ponies and Oswald thinks that
Speaker 2: you sleep with ponies. It's very good.
Speaker 1: It's memory John Carol Lynch and Drew dancing to the
Speaker 1: Heart music to Windy as well. It's like, and but
Speaker 1: these you look at John Carroll Lynch as well, that
Speaker 1: guy who's going on to like direct these serious movies,
Speaker 1: and he's like big, and you've done that too. You
Speaker 1: you carved a legitimate career after after the after the show,
Speaker 1: I think, thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, it's true.
Speaker 1: I mean, but none of us were part of that
Speaker 1: kind of whose lying improv world.
Speaker 2: I mean, Ryan did it. It was kind of Ryan and
Speaker 2: Drew really or who's like, really Ryan, Yeah, Well, Drew
Speaker 2: was funny because he.
Speaker 1: Laughed, and it was funny because he laughed, and he
Speaker 1: liked being around everybody doing it, and he's genuinely fun guys.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's a nice guy. But Ryan's the improv genius.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, he's a genius. Yeah, he's truly incredible. No,
Speaker 2: they asked me to do the show a number of times.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they asked you.
Speaker 1: No, I don't really. I don't think they ever did,
Speaker 1: or maybe they asked me to do it once. I
Speaker 1: don't know sure.
Speaker 2: I like, because I'm school teach I to go. They
Speaker 2: never asked me and they left it. But I don't
Speaker 2: think they did. Levett and they probably in.
Speaker 1: The dark, but I think they probably did ask me,
Speaker 1: and I would be shocked.
Speaker 2: If you didn't. I don't know. I was.
Speaker 1: I was never that comfortable, and weirdly enough for what
Speaker 1: I did later on. I was very uncomfortable with improv,
Speaker 1: very un comfortable with that group improv. I always felt
Speaker 1: I can't really do It's a different beast it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, did you like? Did you like the experience
Speaker 1: of doing it? One of my favorite parts about acting
Speaker 1: is knowing what I'm going to say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't that great? I love it? Yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: know what I'm gonna say right now. Yeah, And so
Speaker 2: it's a little unnerving.
Speaker 3: But if you get to practice what you're going to
Speaker 3: say a high voice to it.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is gradation actually say. Seeing what you're actually
Speaker 2: saying as opposed to what you're saying all of that,
Speaker 2: all text analysis, all that kind of stuff you can
Speaker 2: really dive into that doesn't happen in life. And like
Speaker 2: we just blurted out.
Speaker 1: I think I think I just realized why you've done
Speaker 1: so well as an actor Because you say words like
Speaker 1: text analysis and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh God, he's a fucking real actor for good.
Speaker 2: He's a proper actor that does things.
Speaker 1: This is an official invitation to the Fancy Rascal Stand
Speaker 1: up Show. I Craig Ferguson will be performing this fall
Speaker 1: in your region. You can buy tickets and check out
Speaker 1: the full list of dates that the Craig Ferguson Show
Speaker 1: dot com slash dour see you there or not?
Speaker 2: I've trained you you had? Did you train? Yes? Where
Speaker 2: did you go on train? I went to North Carolina
Speaker 2: School of the Arts that's in Winston sale Mor. That's
Speaker 2: pretty fancy, isn't it. It's fancy dancy. Yeah, it fancy?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: So did you come to Hollywood straight after that or
Speaker 1: did you go in to a theater.
Speaker 2: I was going to go into theater, and then I
Speaker 2: got a pilot in between my sophomore and junior year,
Speaker 2: a Western. We were on vacation in Santa Fe met
Speaker 2: a casting director to dinner party. Short story, long story short.
Speaker 2: I got cast in this pilot and then in western
Speaker 2: in a Western, my fucking dream. It was really fastern,
Speaker 2: Honest to god. I was going to be a stage
Speaker 2: actor before that time, but it was so much fun
Speaker 2: to dress up like a cowboy. Yeah, And that was
Speaker 2: Sag and a lot of my friends that had graduated,
Speaker 2: who I thought were much more talented than myself, that
Speaker 2: were in New York and trying to be stage actors.
Speaker 2: They're having a very hard time and.
Speaker 3: It's very difficult, this stage world.
Speaker 2: So it is. My father's idea was that I move
Speaker 2: out here because I'm already Sag, go like solon to
Speaker 2: a five year plan and then move to New York
Speaker 2: if it doesn't work out. And I thought that was
Speaker 2: a pretty good idea. So I did that.
Speaker 1: So your dad, who's this very interesting government figure, was
Speaker 1: cool with your going on the show. But his idea,
Speaker 1: it was his idea for me to drop out of
Speaker 1: North Carolina School of the Arts and just get started.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 3: He was kind of out the box thinker then, wasn't he.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think he knew me. Yeah, and he
Speaker 2: knew that I was going to be on I mean,
Speaker 2: you know his thing when you know, when he brought
Speaker 2: up the idea, he said, you know, you got a
Speaker 2: job at a dinner party. I think he'll be okay.
Speaker 2: And then he paid my rent for the first two years,
Speaker 2: which really really helped that does how So, Yeah, because
Speaker 2: I didn't need to get a straight job, I worked
Speaker 2: enough where I could feed myself. This is after the
Speaker 2: first three or four months when I tried to make
Speaker 2: it completely on my own and I had trouble at
Speaker 2: the beginning. I got a job in two weeks, my
Speaker 2: second pilot. But I went through the money really really
Speaker 2: fast because I thought I was made. I thought I
Speaker 2: picked my dues. It's been two weeks. Yeah, you know that.
Speaker 2: That's a common thing.
Speaker 1: Though we used to say, like the best time to
Speaker 1: buy a house in La Is just after the TV
Speaker 1: season starts and shows get start getting canceled, and.
Speaker 3: The actors who thought that they were going to be Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I just burnt through it. Yeah. And you know,
Speaker 2: I bought every type of thing that you could put
Speaker 2: into your body, and as you know, like you run
Speaker 2: out of money really quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But you were never like a druggie around weed and
Speaker 3: a lot of booze.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I never even saw you with much in the way
Speaker 1: we not like the way weed is now, Like the
Speaker 1: entire you didn't smells like weed.
Speaker 2: All the time. I know, Well, I just shot in Vancouver.
Speaker 2: The Vancouver is so much weed. Like I smelled cigarette smoke,
Speaker 2: and I was like, what the hell is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's weird. It's like it's like a flashback when
Speaker 1: you smelled just tobacco. Yeah, I know. I mean New
Speaker 1: York smells like we. Most of la smells like we. Chicago, Denver. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's just like you can get high
Speaker 1: just going there. So complained and you're like.
Speaker 2: The reason that you didn't see it is that I quit.
Speaker 2: I had told Dulcie when we first real life, to
Speaker 2: my wife of twenty six years.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, you guys get married when
Speaker 1: we were doing Drew Carey right right, and yeah, between the.
Speaker 2: First second and in the third season, Yeah, she wanted
Speaker 2: me to quit. And that was basically like if we
Speaker 2: go forward, because I smoked a lot, she just like
Speaker 2: put her. It was basically like, she's a very sensible person. Yeah.
Speaker 1: El see, I always very one of those I mean, look,
Speaker 1: you're married her, you know better than me. Yeah, But
Speaker 1: she always seemed to me with someone who had their
Speaker 1: shit together. It was kind of like an impressive Yeah, organized.
Speaker 2: More than anyone else has helped me with my career
Speaker 2: because of just not just being encouraging but also pushing
Speaker 2: me in a way and disciplining me. See.
Speaker 1: I think that that is very important in her career
Speaker 1: because I was much more scatter show and much more
Speaker 1: ambitious until I met Megan, who we've been together eighteen
Speaker 1: years and and you knew me before that, And all
Speaker 1: I could think of was the success must be it
Speaker 1: must be success, and success is a big hit and money.
Speaker 1: It's not creative fulfillment. It's not there's no other side.
Speaker 1: It's a two dimensional thing, and so one or a zero.
Speaker 1: And I understand that though yeah, I think for.
Speaker 2: Young people, I think it's okay. And also it's it's
Speaker 2: what Hollywood tells you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was somebody I talked to. I think it
Speaker 1: was Peter Medak. Do you know the director Peter Meadow,
Speaker 1: I know his name, Peter. He directed a lot of
Speaker 1: episodes of The Wire. Yeah, but he made he made
Speaker 1: a couple of great movies, a movie about the craze,
Speaker 1: and he made a movie called The Ruling Class with
Speaker 1: Peter o'tool back in the Day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great movie, rantastic. I think that's his
Speaker 2: first movie.
Speaker 3: D Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he talks talks like you know, it's sort of
Speaker 1: for my purposes. He talks like a you know, an
Speaker 1: old Nazi from nineteen fifties movie.
Speaker 3: He doesn't talk like this at all, but that sort
Speaker 3: of version of this.
Speaker 2: Okay, He's like, well, you know, see it's the singer's crierk.
Speaker 1: You know, the movie Twister makes one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars, So movie Fanny and Alexander.
Speaker 3: Makes I don't know what fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: Therefore, the movie Twister is a better movie than Fanny
Speaker 1: and Alexander. Yes, oh no, of course the outside is
Speaker 1: no and.
Speaker 2: You get that. I like guys like that.
Speaker 1: I like guys like that who who kind of see
Speaker 1: And I think that that comes with agent experience and
Speaker 1: wearing the hat and not wearing the hat.
Speaker 2: So that's right. Yeah, do you've messed? Yeah, if you
Speaker 2: have a career where you have worn the hat and
Speaker 2: then you don't wear the hat and then somebody gives
Speaker 2: you the hat again, Yeah, and that's when you're really
Speaker 2: appreciative of the that's next to have a bag.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think of it. It's kind of like the
Speaker 1: Sean Connery zar Doors. Yeah, we bring it up all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, but Zarch, But that's like Sean Connery. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yet he's in a MANKINI one point he must
Speaker 1: have been thinking, what the fucker will the fucking MANKINI
Speaker 1: fucking jobs?
Speaker 2: Now. I know that some people love.
Speaker 1: The movie Outdoors, but I don't think Sean loved it.
Speaker 1: We were talking about Sean Connery the other day. We
Speaker 1: were right, because when did you me?
Speaker 2: I met him at an awards saying he was getting
Speaker 2: a Lifetime award. This is during the right before The
Speaker 2: Hillbillies came out, and I had a publicist because it
Speaker 2: felt like I should understand and so I went to
Speaker 2: a bunch of parties and one of them was this
Speaker 2: award that he was given and f Maria Brown told
Speaker 2: the story about the director of Name of the Rose,
Speaker 2: who was supposedly very abusive to basically everybody and the
Speaker 2: crew and the actors and really just awful and would
Speaker 2: lose his shit continually, which is really a terrible thing
Speaker 2: for him. That terrible thing. You're the one who's supposed
Speaker 2: to be in control. That's the you're not allowed that
Speaker 2: he really shouldn't. But anyway, Connery said nothing through the
Speaker 2: entire time to this guy. He just did his job
Speaker 2: and he talked to the actor. He was fine, but
Speaker 2: he just did his job. He didn't say anything to
Speaker 2: the director. And then the director took a big stick
Speaker 2: and was about to hit a horse that he wasn't
Speaker 2: doing what he wanted the horse to do right, and
Speaker 2: Connery grabbed his wrist and pushed it down, and you
Speaker 2: could tell that the director really was like fighting. But
Speaker 2: Connor is a big fella, mister universe. Yeah, so he's
Speaker 2: holding him down. He goes not the horse fu line
Speaker 2: you just yeah, okay, just.
Speaker 1: I was telling you my wife we had only been
Speaker 1: dating a short period of time and I had to
Speaker 1: give an award to showing at something call he would
Speaker 1: do all the time. He was getting him every week,
Speaker 1: and I was giving him this award. I gave him
Speaker 1: the award and then we get introduced afterwards, and Megan's
Speaker 1: wearing a dress and went over and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he said, gets very nice to me. Yes, thanks for
Speaker 1: the alt that was very pleasuant. What you shad?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: And I said, thank you very much showing This is
Speaker 1: my wife Megan, and he's it very nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: Megan and her tit's blush, not even physically. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know that tits could blush. She she just went
Speaker 1: oh and they lit up like it was fucking Halloween.
Speaker 4: Like I didn't even know these things could do that. Well,
Speaker 4: they don't do it for you, but that Sean Tom.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, he could make the
Speaker 4: women sweat blush. Yeah, that's that's that's quite a sky.
Speaker 2: He was fucking great. Yeah for me, he was.
Speaker 1: He and Belly Cornley were kind of like the Jackie
Speaker 1: Robinson thank you?
Speaker 2: Do you know? What I mean?
Speaker 3: For you was, what did you watch when you were
Speaker 3: a kid and you go want I want a piece
Speaker 3: of that. I want I want to be able to
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 2: My origin story, yeah, is that we were living in Paris.
Speaker 2: My dad was a European matress. We were living in Paris.
Speaker 2: We were he was a European representative for the Ford Foundation.
Speaker 2: This is shortly after he brought down Robert mcnamura. He
Speaker 2: was told to basically get out of town.
Speaker 3: Right, not like and you know, have the hat, but
Speaker 3: you better get the fuck out of him for a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you really lost the hat. Yeah it's rolled down
Speaker 2: the street. You're not gonna get that hat. Ended up
Speaker 2: being fine, but yes, that we he was definitely out.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I basically just learned English. I was little,
Speaker 2: and then there was French, right, and so I was
Speaker 2: really deeply alienated by the whole thing and kind of
Speaker 2: a troubled little kid, little loner, weird kid. At this point,
Speaker 2: I am about three and a half four, three and
Speaker 2: a half four, okay, And my mom paid for my
Speaker 2: siblings to take me to the movies. And I very
Speaker 2: quickly figured out that that was the deal, because my
Speaker 2: sister would bring all over Stone friends and they would,
Speaker 2: you know, we would go see Fred Astaire movies. Which
Speaker 2: I totally love. But I really loved Charlie Chaplin. How interesting,
Speaker 2: and there was something about the combination of the path
Speaker 2: I was the physical comedy and just the warmth that
Speaker 2: I really love the sweetness. Now a lot of people
Speaker 2: think it's too treauily. Buster Keaton is probably for the
Speaker 2: hardcore fans, and I'm a huge fan. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: The hardcore fan. He's just comedy. It's it's very little sentiment.
Speaker 2: But for me, I love the sentiment. Yeah, it was
Speaker 2: a little kid, you know. And the first one I
Speaker 2: saw it was the kid. So I was like, this
Speaker 2: guy this is and I could hang with this guy.
Speaker 2: He hangs out with kids, and I wreaked up my
Speaker 2: little I worked up a little Charlie Chaplin act in
Speaker 2: my room in our apartment, and then I guess about
Speaker 2: a year later, we went to the theater. My fake auntie,
Speaker 2: Auntie Shure took me and I was my fake you know,
Speaker 2: my mommy, But anyway, she took me. This one theater
Speaker 2: that I loved the most because there was a live
Speaker 2: musical accompaniment. The guy improvised music to whatever was playing.
Speaker 2: And it was my favorite because it was just like
Speaker 2: being in the theater in the original.
Speaker 1: It's weird because it I mean, this sounds like you
Speaker 1: grew up in the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 2: It is like, this is what nineteen seventies, seventy yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: seventies someone around there anyway, So the film burned, got
Speaker 2: caught and burned. He went on fire, yeah, and and
Speaker 2: everybody booed, and the lights came back, and I ran
Speaker 2: in between the audience and the screen because nobody boos
Speaker 2: Charlie Chaplin. Like, I just wasn't going to allow that
Speaker 2: to happen. So I jumped in between and I did
Speaker 2: my little Charlie Chaplin. The organ player played, and you
Speaker 2: did it for the audience. Did it for the audience
Speaker 2: and the French audience. That's good, they love you. I
Speaker 2: got a standing ovation. Jesus, that is so great.
Speaker 1: Now, I think we have to make a movie of
Speaker 1: your life because that is such a good origin story.
Speaker 2: Don't you think it's crazy?
Speaker 3: It's lovely?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. Yeah. Do you actually have memory of it?
Speaker 2: I mean, I you know, there's so many questions about
Speaker 2: recovered memory. I actually did recover this memory by watching Chaplain,
Speaker 2: the biopic with Robert Downey junior. There is a scene
Speaker 2: in it where his mother, who's played by Charlie Chaplin's
Speaker 2: actual daughter Geraldine Chaplin in the movie, plays her own grandmother,
Speaker 2: grandmother who has a nervous breakdown on stage when Chaplain
Speaker 2: himself is about three or four. That's right, she was
Speaker 2: very ill, she was, And anyway, she had a nervous
Speaker 2: breakdown on stage and everybody started a boo, and he thought,
Speaker 2: no one is going to boo my mother. So he
Speaker 2: jumped on stage and started doing a panamime act because
Speaker 2: he had no act. It was the only thing that
Speaker 2: he can think of. And I was sitting in the
Speaker 2: theater and I was like, she for freak.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, that's amazing, And your family remember it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy, Yeah, but typical of my family. Like
Speaker 2: I called my mom. I was crying. I called my
Speaker 2: mom and I just want to check something because I
Speaker 2: had this incredibly powerful experience. It was like an epiphany
Speaker 2: for me, and I just want to double check and
Speaker 2: make sure that it actually happened and that I wasn't
Speaker 2: making it up. And she went, oh, yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: And I go, did you ever think about telling me
Speaker 2: that you know that? And yeah, Auntie, Sure she took
Speaker 2: you and I go, yeah, that's right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: I thought that.
Speaker 1: Do you know the story about Chaplain and Michael Kay
Speaker 1: and Michael Kain told me the story, which is what
Speaker 1: they were both from the area the Elephant and Castle
Speaker 1: in London, like a very poor slum area in London,
Speaker 1: and in the nineteen late nineteen sixties or seventies they
Speaker 1: were knocking down it must have been in the seventies, actually,
Speaker 1: they were knocking down the Elephant and Castle.
Speaker 2: The area in London.
Speaker 1: It was called that because it was it was in
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages. It was called Lanflon de Castile, but
Speaker 1: the Londoners couldn't pronounce that elephant castle.
Speaker 2: Oh that's hilarious. And it was a big children. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they were knocking down this area and Michael, who
Speaker 1: grew up there, was walking around it and you know,
Speaker 1: he thought, I'll go and see it before they knock
Speaker 1: it down.
Speaker 2: So very early in the morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one sunday's walking around the Elephant Castle. It's all
Speaker 1: kind of deserted and stuff. And he comes around the
Speaker 1: corner and fucking Charlie Chaplin is there, old man. And
Speaker 1: he said, mister Chaplin, what are you doing yet? I
Speaker 1: can't do Charlie, Charlie chutlerman. But and then you came up,
Speaker 1: but he said, well, I thought i'd come around to
Speaker 1: look at the old neighborhood before they knocked it down.
Speaker 1: In the two of them, it's there's something wonderful about
Speaker 1: that two huge, huge, my god, and from obviously very
Speaker 1: different eras.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but still, but then walking around together sharing a childhood.
Speaker 2: That's really fascinating both of these people.
Speaker 1: And this is kind of where I want to lead
Speaker 1: you a little bit, is that both of these people,
Speaker 1: for me, I never met Chaplin. I presume you didn't either,
Speaker 1: But I've met and spent time with Michael Kaine, who
Speaker 1: is a fucking diamond of a human being.
Speaker 2: He's just amazing. I'm really delighted to hear that.
Speaker 1: And what's great about is that he's one of the
Speaker 1: few people I've met that retains the mystique. I know
Speaker 1: how films are made, I've made them, you've made him.
Speaker 1: Moving on him, I know how the sausage is made,
Speaker 1: but he keeps the glamour. I wondered for you, is
Speaker 1: there still an area of this business because you've I mean,
Speaker 1: you've really proved yourself in this game. Is there still
Speaker 1: any kind of like, you know, the feeling you used
Speaker 1: to get when you would see the star's handprints that
Speaker 1: used to I used to kind of get that, and
Speaker 1: I don't anymore. I'm like, Yeah, it's the guy Pin's
Speaker 1: end in concrete than matter. You hear stories about people.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone who still does it for you?
Speaker 2: Did I get starstruck or that I'm.
Speaker 1: Just any starstruck or just retains the mystique who kind
Speaker 1: of still has the glamour on either personally or but
Speaker 1: I'm thinking more personally like interacting with people. No, No,
Speaker 1: it's funny, that isn't it. No, I have yet to
Speaker 1: see the glamour of this business. I too totally worshiped
Speaker 1: it from an outsider's perspective, right. I used to go
Speaker 1: to Men's Chinese when I had a particularly intense audition.
Speaker 1: Before I would go, and I would stand in Jimmy
Speaker 1: Stewart's shoe prints at Men's Chinese and just look up
Speaker 1: at this Guy'say, show me the magic, to show me
Speaker 1: the magic? Yeah, because he was my favorite of the
Speaker 1: speaking actors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is so cold talking that a little catcho
Speaker 2: on never but I have yet to see glamor. I mean,
Speaker 2: one moment I think was fairly ground glamorous in early
Speaker 2: screenings of Miscongeniality Too. I went to with AlSi I
Speaker 2: should say, we went to a theater way out in
Speaker 2: like Glendale or something. I can't quite remember right now,
Speaker 2: but anyway, we went up to where the projectors were,
Speaker 2: right because that's where Sandy was. And there was Sandra
Speaker 2: Bullock in the middle of the room on her phone,
Speaker 2: looking amazing and like a star, waiting for the lights
Speaker 2: to go down so she could join the audience. And
Speaker 2: I think that was the one moment where I was like,
Speaker 2: that's actually pretty cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny that I it does go away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there's just a lot of desperate people trying
Speaker 2: to work.
Speaker 1: I just went you know, what did it to me
Speaker 1: was late night because every night you met everybody, giant
Speaker 1: star comes out. Not every night, but a lot of times.
Speaker 1: Giant stars come in. Giant stars come in, Giant stars
Speaker 1: come in, and the douche to mens ratio is the
Speaker 1: same as anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 2: World.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just like, oh yeah, some guys douches, some
Speaker 1: guys mention and that's just the way it is. But
Speaker 1: there are people for me still who kind of transcend
Speaker 1: it a little bit. Okay, who's that Well Robin Williams
Speaker 1: did that for me a little bit. Even although we
Speaker 1: became friendly, there was still like there's it seemed to
Speaker 1: me he had a magic.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's genius. Maybe that's what it is. It's not really.
Speaker 3: About glamour and show business, but it's about.
Speaker 2: The next level of real talent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or when you see somebody doing a thing like
Speaker 1: every now and again, I would see that I could
Speaker 1: even do. I could do and I'm not saying I
Speaker 1: could even do it with you, but I can do
Speaker 1: it with you. Like there were times when I would,
Speaker 1: like when I was watching BoJack, when you turned up
Speaker 1: in BoJack as the agent, Yeah, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's fucking gorgeous.
Speaker 2: And it was great. It was good. I mean that
Speaker 2: show for me, I'm such a fan of that shows.
Speaker 1: A really great show. It's a very dark, strange, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't think there's been a darker comedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, who was it you were working with
Speaker 2: on that? Bob the creator of the show, and I
Speaker 2: did a show together called Save Me Right that was
Speaker 2: a total piece of shit, okay, and he knew it
Speaker 2: at the time, and I knew it at the time,
Speaker 2: but he couldn't say anything. But I just talked about
Speaker 2: it all the time.
Speaker 1: So he appreciated that, yeah, and couldn't wait to get
Speaker 1: you into it when he had his own show.
Speaker 2: Then he brought me in and he was like, your
Speaker 2: candor was so like refreshing that there was somebody who
Speaker 2: knew that they were on a piece of shit while
Speaker 2: they were in it.
Speaker 1: And it was one of those shows, BoJack, I thought
Speaker 1: that you lived in terror of your name turning up
Speaker 1: in it.
Speaker 2: Has he skewered everybody? Yeah? Mine dead? Oh really? Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was watching it one day.
Speaker 1: I was like, I think it's like it's deep into
Speaker 1: the season with BoJack's way the face and the reporters
Speaker 1: are looking for Bojacks huh And they go to an
Speaker 1: a meeting Yeah, and they say have you seen any
Speaker 1: celebrities and a meeting some I thought, Craig.
Speaker 4: And then the reports that trying to be thranked by
Speaker 4: Association are you?
Speaker 2: And I was like that was good that yeah for Acially,
Speaker 2: since you're not anonymous, you're recovering and you're pretty clear
Speaker 2: about it. But the AA.
Speaker 1: Thing is anonymous. I don't, I can't, and you wouldn't,
Speaker 1: of course.
Speaker 2: But what I mean is that he picked the one
Speaker 2: like he was in recovery.
Speaker 1: He was up, and then there was a there was
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people left that as well. He
Speaker 1: just ran less than a fucking dishbag. Fucking celebrities that
Speaker 1: have gotten sober included, and I kind of loved it.
Speaker 1: But as as a skewing, it wasn't bad. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a skewing at all. Okay, I think if you're an actor,
Speaker 1: the way you're an acte, which I admire greatly, is
Speaker 1: that I don't see you being you everywhere.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think of me anywhere. I hope not.
Speaker 2: I'm really trying to be somebody else every time. I
Speaker 2: work really hard at that, in breaking up my own
Speaker 2: rhythms and tried to pick up the rhythm of the
Speaker 2: with the writing. I really work hard on that. I mean,
Speaker 2: That's why I mean, some people don't even know I'm
Speaker 2: in Napoleon Dynamite because yeah, god those pants. Everybody else.
Speaker 2: My one regret in show business is that I the
Speaker 2: greatest I picked. I'm out of a lineup. Jerusha, who
Speaker 2: was also the co writer but was the wife of
Speaker 2: Jared the director, was also the costume director. Right, that's
Speaker 2: a small thing. Right, She saw me three different pairs
Speaker 2: of pants and I was like, no, they are amazing.
Speaker 1: So, but is that a thing that you do when
Speaker 1: it comes to like publicity because you're you're happy you
Speaker 1: sat here and this is you.
Speaker 2: I know you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I haven't seen you do a ton of
Speaker 1: like you did my talk show, but I see I
Speaker 1: haven't seen you do a ton of them.
Speaker 2: Do you do in purpose?
Speaker 1: Are you not so into I mean, it's strange to
Speaker 1: say this as an actor, but I'm not so into
Speaker 1: talking about myself.
Speaker 2: I'd not rather talk about a specific project. And if
Speaker 2: I do that, then Twitter has kind of changed this,
Speaker 2: Like I feel like I you're quite president on that. Also,
Speaker 2: it is a side of me, It's the it's the
Speaker 2: funnier side, the kind of goofy your side. But sometimes
Speaker 2: I open up about the things that I'm actually feeling.
Speaker 2: But most of the time I try to be light
Speaker 2: and airy. I try to be a positive force, right,
Speaker 2: And in Twitter that's particularly difficult because it's a it's
Speaker 2: a dark place. It is it is a dark place
Speaker 2: it used to be. It was funny.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Josh Robert Thompson recently about who's
Speaker 1: the guy who did the robot and the Late night show?
Speaker 1: Who was fucking genius? Yeah, and he was. We were
Speaker 1: talking about how early on Twitter was was kind of great.
Speaker 1: It was fun, it was light, and it went very
Speaker 1: dark and I think probably was the politics of twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen and that that kind of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think appreciated that a little bit. But I
Speaker 2: think as you were alluding to earlier, it's it's the ratio,
Speaker 2: and you know, you get a lot of responses from
Speaker 2: being negative, and so tend to, yeah, be more negative,
Speaker 2: I think, just to get the attention. They equate negative
Speaker 2: attention and positive attention.
Speaker 1: Has been the same way. Yeah, I don't do that, No, No,
Speaker 1: it's so strong. Negative attention is deeply stressed.
Speaker 2: Well because we're performers, right, so there's a part of
Speaker 2: us that wants the audience to lat we want that love, right.
Speaker 1: That's also that if they don't like you, and you're
Speaker 1: out of business exactly.
Speaker 2: And it's also like if we were to stand on
Speaker 2: sedge and people were to literally boo and we got
Speaker 2: the same feeling out of that. That would be strength,
Speaker 2: that would be that would be good.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Oh bless you all for coming
Speaker 4: hang him throw cabbages exactly.
Speaker 1: Obviously this is if it was a visual medium, I
Speaker 1: would have thrown a cabbage.
Speaker 2: Gbages of course.
Speaker 1: What about directing, Oh, sometimes I think about it, but
Speaker 1: other times I'm just so satisfied with what I do.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I'd like you to think about
Speaker 1: it more than really, yeah, because you have a very
Speaker 1: good personality for it. I mean even talking about it, Like,
Speaker 1: first of all, you're positive, and you also you see
Speaker 1: things and you do things like text analysis, which a
Speaker 1: lot of fucking directors could do well doing that. But
Speaker 1: I think also you have this thing I'm going to
Speaker 1: do a massive name him drop fantastic.
Speaker 2: All right. So I was.
Speaker 1: Directing this movie, yeah, and I did a very bad
Speaker 1: job on it. But I was talking to h Warren
Speaker 1: Beatty before I At lunch we wore in Beatty boom, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there he goes. And at lunch we wore and Beaty
Speaker 1: because somebody had set us up lunch so he could
Speaker 1: help me. Because I was in the movie and I
Speaker 1: was directing the movie and so he was I said,
Speaker 1: I need to talk to guys. He's supposed to be
Speaker 1: astonishingly bright. He's amazing and clever. Man, that's what's on
Speaker 1: every waitress that serves.
Speaker 2: That's fucking ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: I don't think he even knows he's doing it.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, you look fabulous, that this is
Speaker 1: the greatest omelet I've ever seen. I was like, I forgot,
Speaker 1: but shameless, unbelievable, Like I don't even know, I conscious,
Speaker 1: I don't even know.
Speaker 2: I don't think he is hitting on these people. I
Speaker 2: think he's just so.
Speaker 1: Kind of just as warmingly anyway, whatever it is. But
Speaker 1: he he was talking about directing. The number one thing
Speaker 1: he said, don't try and impress anyone. The less you say,
Speaker 1: the more they're going to be impressed. That's interesting, he said,
Speaker 1: because they turn everybody turns up when the movie set,
Speaker 1: and they've all got a call sheet. And on that
Speaker 1: call sheet is written bold type right at the top director.
Speaker 3: And then your name. So they're already impressed. All that's
Speaker 3: going to happen is you're going to disappoint.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, and I think that you I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have said this about you.
Speaker 3: When we were doing the Drew Carrey, I was out
Speaker 3: of control. You weren't out of control.
Speaker 2: You were younger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were a nice guy. And I don't
Speaker 1: I will, you know, I don't want to hold with
Speaker 1: any idea that there's anything wrong.
Speaker 2: It was none wrong with you.
Speaker 1: But you clearly are a human being who's made a transit,
Speaker 1: who grew up. And I think that you have stories
Speaker 1: to tell. And even when you when you told the
Speaker 1: story of you as a little kid in Paris, that's fine.
Speaker 3: Better visual we think about it, thank you. I will
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: Well, so when you're making your movie, I would like
Speaker 1: to be angry Parishian these keyd my movement there.
Speaker 2: I think it would be fine. I think I could
Speaker 2: do it. I could throw a mustache. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But just acting, then, you don't you don't see it
Speaker 1: as a well, that's the wrong thing, is I don't
Speaker 1: mean just acting you Oh, I know what you're saying, right, Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, I mean I find my job very complex and
Speaker 2: it never gets easy in a way where I kind
Speaker 2: of stop thinking about it. I find every day interesting.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm on this new show called Lucky
Speaker 2: Hank And with Bob Bob bobble Kirk and an incredible cast, right,
Speaker 2: And we did one episode, episode five, where we're all together.
Speaker 2: It's a bottle episode. For those people that aren't in
Speaker 2: show business, it's basically when the show the studio tells
Speaker 2: you that we have no more money, and so they
Speaker 2: do an episode where everybody's caught together. Right. The snow
Speaker 2: dead episodes not in episode or something. You'll see it
Speaker 2: on TV shows all the time. In show business, they're
Speaker 2: called bottle episodes. That's just the short thing. So the
Speaker 2: writers of Lucky Hank, who were exceptionally good, had all
Speaker 2: of these characters out in the show in the first
Speaker 2: four episodes, and they were kind of like just a
Speaker 2: lot of strings, and you didn't know if Hank was
Speaker 2: the thing that pulled it together or why they were
Speaker 2: necessarily connected. And in this one episode, they just pulled
Speaker 2: the string and they realized that it's been there the
Speaker 2: entire time, and it pulls everyone together with them. And
Speaker 2: there's a scene where it's twelve pages at a table
Speaker 2: and it's a loss of time, very long time. It's
Speaker 2: like twenty five minutes, yeah, and so we're just sitting there, yeah,
Speaker 2: talking and it reinvigorated my sense of my profession and
Speaker 2: the beauty of it in one day. It was so
Speaker 2: beautiful to see all these actors in our act and
Speaker 2: create something new every single take, to push each other
Speaker 2: but also push the reality of what we're making get
Speaker 2: deeper and deeper every take. And one of the things
Speaker 2: that drives me completely bonkers about those that don't take
Speaker 2: our mutual profession seriously is when they're off camera and
Speaker 2: they stop acting. It drives me completely bonkers, like I
Speaker 2: would prefer you not to be there and I can
Speaker 2: act to tape. And I have asked for this before,
Speaker 2: because actors will just like, you know, they're just going
Speaker 2: to the longer or whatever.
Speaker 1: The camera's on someone cameras on the other actor.
Speaker 2: They're sitting off camera and for looks basically so that
Speaker 2: your look looks like but they're they're not acting, and
Speaker 2: they barely know their lines or they don't know their
Speaker 2: lines and they're just reading it. It's so distracting to
Speaker 2: me that I would prefer to have a piece of
Speaker 2: tape and I have the script supervisor read, and I
Speaker 2: will look at something that it's like, you're the best
Speaker 2: actor ever. I will make you look good at us
Speaker 2: to God, but don't be here right now because you're
Speaker 2: not doing it right. And this ensemble with Bob as
Speaker 2: the lead, every single take was great, even when it
Speaker 2: was coverage of like you know, just one person had
Speaker 2: two cameras on them and there was their close up
Speaker 2: and there are ten actors in the scene. Everybody acted
Speaker 2: their heart out. Bob was crying off camera. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: that's just a waste of fee shows. He had already
Speaker 2: done his close up, but somehow he tapped into something
Speaker 2: and he just kept going it, just kept tapping into
Speaker 2: it right, and he was just one hundred percent there
Speaker 2: and everyone was right there. It felt magical.
Speaker 1: But that's part of the attraction, like at the very
Speaker 1: beginning for a lot of people, I think is the
Speaker 1: collegiate band brothers fields of what it's like to be
Speaker 1: in an ensemble cast.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: When you and I were talking going back to those
Speaker 1: early days of the Drew Carey Show, that second season,
Speaker 1: third fourth season run about that period, maybe the episode
Speaker 1: twenty five Persuit of one hundred, there was a time
Speaker 1: when I think we were in that space.
Speaker 2: I completely agree with it, and that I think we
Speaker 2: lost it probably about mid fifth season, and then we
Speaker 2: were just doing a job. But for those it's like
Speaker 2: the rock and roll movies when they, you know, the
Speaker 2: band gets together and they have their peak hits and
Speaker 2: they're really great, and then they just keep playing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they keep playing and they're playing in the then
Speaker 2: the inevitable happened. The drum is always gonna But when
Speaker 2: it's good, it's really beautiful. You're like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: rock and roll. This is really good. If one person
Speaker 2: is off, the band is off. But when they're all together,
Speaker 2: it all clicks. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's beautiful. And I think that that's kind of odd.
Speaker 1: Even as a viewer when you watch shows, you can
Speaker 1: see like there are shows that just come out of
Speaker 1: the gay and they're amazing, and then you know, season ten,
Speaker 1: they're like, now, really when they introduced was it the
Speaker 1: Simpsons did the dog with sunglasses on theboard, Like, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: But I think that there is a kind of lie.
Speaker 1: Carrie Fisher used to say this, and I think it
Speaker 1: was a brilliant thing to say, amongst many brilliant things.
Speaker 1: That smart, she was wonderful. Did you know I knew
Speaker 1: a little bit, Yeah, she was.
Speaker 2: She was very for me.
Speaker 1: When the Late Night Show started. I had just written
Speaker 1: a book and she read it, and.
Speaker 2: She American on purpose. No before that.
Speaker 1: It was a novel I wrote called Between the Bridge
Speaker 1: and the River and it was a kind of magical
Speaker 1: realist thing and it's never going to make any money
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but I really wanted to write it,
Speaker 1: and she read it and she was very positive about
Speaker 1: it and really kind of introduced me in a way
Speaker 1: to Hollywood that hadn't been before. She was just amazingly supportive. Wow,
Speaker 1: she did that for tons of people. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: Like she had this kind of like artists colony at
Speaker 1: our house, and you would go up and you'd meet,
Speaker 1: like I meant, the weirdest people. I'm like about Courtney
Speaker 1: Love up there, and you mean, like not the Corney
Speaker 1: lovel but she has a little weird I think I
Speaker 1: would say that she was.
Speaker 2: Here, but I don't think that's a big surprise. No,
Speaker 2: it's no. But but I just met a lot of
Speaker 2: a wild array of different people and lovely.
Speaker 1: But she said, when I put on that metal bikini
Speaker 1: when I was twenty four, I didn't realize I was
Speaker 1: making a pact.
Speaker 3: With the universe to look like that for the rest
Speaker 3: of my life.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I you know, it was like, it's a moment
Speaker 1: in time. Why can't you let it be that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know.
Speaker 1: And I think that with a sitcom when it all
Speaker 1: comes together, or a movie that all comes together. That
Speaker 1: that's why, you know, when people talk about AI AM like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't frighten me because, you know, because it's still
Speaker 1: got there's too much a for the eye, tomor you
Speaker 1: know what I'm fucking mean, it's like, why is it
Speaker 1: you know, like.
Speaker 2: Papa been around a very long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that you know, this is going to
Speaker 1: be funny because the robot says it's funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good fucking luck robot. Whitney Balier says, the jazz
Speaker 2: is the sound of surprise, and that's fucking great. I
Speaker 2: would say the comedy.
Speaker 1: Is that, And Robin Williams used to say that good
Speaker 1: comedy was jazz.
Speaker 2: No, there we go. It's good, Dick, You're a joy.
Speaker 2: It is beautiful to talk to you. More Powerty.
Speaker 3: I'm really looking forward to seeing Lucky Hank.
Speaker 2: Thank you, well done, Thank you