Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to this edition of Amy and TJ. Today,
Speaker 1: we are talking to one of the biggest stars of
Speaker 1: one of the biggest and all time greatest whose series.
Speaker 1: And it's one of the only shows that TJ and
Speaker 1: I don't watch together.
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 3: Uh, you know what? I don't know?
Speaker 4: And I am so curious to hear what he thinks
Speaker 4: about this, because, for whatever reason, it just naturally I
Speaker 4: didn't gravitate towards this show. I respect it, I loved
Speaker 4: the actors in it. Not Why did I not?
Speaker 3: I really don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's because men are pretty dang evil. Most
Speaker 1: of the men are like, ridiculously evil in this series.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you how that could be intimidating to men.
Speaker 4: I didn't know the plot of the show until recently.
Speaker 4: You broke it all down for me, and I said, oh,
Speaker 4: that's it.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth moss Is is this star this show? Of course,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Second Tale. And you've watched a
Speaker 1: lot of things that she's in.
Speaker 2: You like her, you love her. You watch things when
Speaker 2: you see an actor or an actress that you respect,
Speaker 2: but you never I don't know we're drawn into this.
Speaker 4: But you've gotten me on board now and I can't
Speaker 4: wait to watch. But we're talking to one of the
Speaker 4: few good guys on the show.
Speaker 2: You this this is fun.
Speaker 1: Actually, So this is the final season for any fan
Speaker 1: out there, you know, this season six, the final season
Speaker 1: of The Handmaid's Tale. I've watched every single episode religiously.
Speaker 1: And our next guest was started on season two and
Speaker 1: he was a recurring character. But you know what, it's
Speaker 1: got to be such a huge compliment when you're a
Speaker 1: you're a recurring character, and you're so good that people
Speaker 1: want more that you then become a main character seasons four,
Speaker 1: five and now season six.
Speaker 2: So I think maybe people can piece together.
Speaker 1: We want to welcome the amazing and talented Sam Jager
Speaker 1: aka Mark, one of the good guys of The Handmaid's Tale,
Speaker 1: to the podcast.
Speaker 2: Thanks for being with me.
Speaker 4: And let's say congratulate. That's a hell of a compliment. Really,
Speaker 4: she explained, that's a hell of a compliment, an incredible setup.
Speaker 5: Can you set me up for every interview I do
Speaker 5: for the rest.
Speaker 6: Of my life unless you hide girl, I'd be happy
Speaker 6: to but no huge fan and seriously, I was actually
Speaker 6: so curious as an actor and even maybe as a
Speaker 6: human when you're on a show that truly is about,
Speaker 6: perhaps even a cautionary tale of what evil and power
Speaker 6: and misogyny can do to a society, to.
Speaker 1: Play literally one of the only guys who isn't evil
Speaker 1: or a rapist, or you name any horrible thing you
Speaker 1: can think of about what the worst thing a man
Speaker 1: could do, and you're one of the good guys.
Speaker 2: What's that feel like?
Speaker 5: You know what's so funny is I'm still like, for
Speaker 5: the first few seasons I was on this, people were
Speaker 5: still like, I don't know about this Mark guy.
Speaker 3: What's his.
Speaker 5: And I think because they've been so maybe scarred for
Speaker 5: so many horrific antagonists on our show being white men,
Speaker 5: I think they were like, oh man, this guy's going
Speaker 5: to turn on everybody. And while he is very political,
Speaker 5: I think that's what you know. They people don't know
Speaker 5: where he stood for a long time, and hopefully by
Speaker 5: this final season they know that Mark is truly a
Speaker 5: guy who's trying to save what's left a democracy in
Speaker 5: this horrific landscape.
Speaker 4: So you said, people are still trying to figure it out,
Speaker 4: But what was the turn? Is there anything you would
Speaker 4: point to as a turning point or maybe even an
Speaker 4: episode people really reacted to.
Speaker 3: What was the turning point?
Speaker 4: Do you think where maybe the writers the producer saw
Speaker 4: more in you or was it always expected that you
Speaker 4: were going to take on a larger role.
Speaker 5: I think I think they just kept bringing me back
Speaker 5: because they liked the chemistry I had with Yvonne, and
Speaker 5: it was an interesting side that we didn't get to
Speaker 5: see from her. You know, her character, Serena plays this
Speaker 5: kind of matriarch within Gilead, which is this you know,
Speaker 5: government that's religiously you know, kind of centered that has
Speaker 5: taken over the United States and now most of North America.
Speaker 5: And so it's one of those storylines that they thought, oh,
Speaker 5: we can see a little more humanity in this woman
Speaker 5: who seems so evil and evil.
Speaker 1: It's about you, said, matriarch. I was thinking self righteous,
Speaker 1: b I d H. And it's true your character made
Speaker 1: us feel something for her because you saw a number
Speaker 1: of goodness in her right.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, when I first got this this role,
Speaker 5: I looked back at the only scene that had a
Speaker 5: flashback of her, and it showed her before Gilead, and yes,
Speaker 5: she was kind of self righteous, but she was also
Speaker 5: this powerful feminine in a way and I thought, that's
Speaker 5: that's the woman this character is going to fall in
Speaker 5: love with and try to hold on to who that
Speaker 5: is and still hope for that. And one of the
Speaker 5: things I think Handmaid's Tale has gotten better about is
Speaker 5: the first seasons and throughout it is it can be.
Speaker 5: I don't want to say it's hard to watch, because
Speaker 5: it's a pretty riveting show, but it's it's visceral, and
Speaker 5: it's it's you know, it's pretty gripping and graphic and engaging.
Speaker 5: And so I think one of the things that they,
Speaker 5: you know, that we liked in this early, you know,
Speaker 5: early on was Mark comes in and he's got this
Speaker 5: this compassion and this humanity and this this hope that
Speaker 5: our show I think needed, you know. And here we
Speaker 5: are in the final season and we're you know, kind
Speaker 5: of congratulating and rewarding our fame for sticking with us
Speaker 5: this long because it is.
Speaker 1: It's Sam, because I hadn't thought about that at all,
Speaker 1: but you did offer, like that hope that all men
Speaker 1: aren't terrible.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are a couple like Luke. The character
Speaker 2: of Luke.
Speaker 1: Is it is it a good guy Nick, even though
Speaker 1: he is with Gilliad, is also a good guy.
Speaker 2: So there are a few of you, but so far,
Speaker 2: so few and far between. Yeah, I would say a
Speaker 2: single character on the show is evil.
Speaker 1: But I hadn't thought about how you were able to
Speaker 1: bring out a warmth to the character of Serena that
Speaker 1: you know, she was the woman that everyone loved to
Speaker 1: hate for the first couple of seasons because she was
Speaker 1: just so terrible and so awful. Uh, but you actually
Speaker 1: were Are you one of the few? I guess You've
Speaker 1: got the love story with Nick and Elizabeth Moss's character
Speaker 1: uh in June, but you're kind of the only other
Speaker 1: love story really in the entire series, I suppose.
Speaker 5: So, yes, yes, And you know what's interesting is the show.
Speaker 5: What I loved about that dynamic. The show is written
Speaker 5: that these two characters are so protected and so diplomatic
Speaker 5: and love to be the smartest person in every room,
Speaker 5: and I think that's what they're kind of drawn to
Speaker 5: about each other. And so it's kind of almost like
Speaker 5: Victorian writing. You know that these two you can get
Speaker 5: a sense that there's an attraction there, but they don't
Speaker 5: come out and say it. And we kind of keep
Speaker 5: that going throughout our series, which is I think what
Speaker 5: makes it even more intriguing because it's not like Luke
Speaker 5: and June or June and you know that we can
Speaker 5: see them, you know, kind of navigate one another.
Speaker 4: You'll use words what, riveting, captivating, visceral to describe the show.
Speaker 4: And I'm again I've admitted here I haven't gone through
Speaker 4: the seasons like you have. What is the what is
Speaker 4: the upside the takeaway from the show. Does it leave
Speaker 4: people at some point at the end of the seasons
Speaker 4: with some message or some feeling of hope, Because I'll
Speaker 4: admit Sam so much of what she's explained to me
Speaker 4: like whoa, that's heavy.
Speaker 2: It's fear, it's cautionary, like.
Speaker 5: Why would watch this? Yeah? Yeah, you know, I think
Speaker 5: one thing I love and one thing I keep trying
Speaker 5: to get across as we, you know, share this last
Speaker 5: season with fans is the show I think was vilified
Speaker 5: early on as this sort of anti right wing or
Speaker 5: anti conservative show, and at its core, it's really people
Speaker 5: trying to be compassionate understanding. It's a diverse cast, and
Speaker 5: it does show kind of a cautionary tale for what
Speaker 5: happens when we try to corral people in a democratic society,
Speaker 5: and so there are a lot of parallels with what's
Speaker 5: going on nowadays. But the underlining thing for me growing
Speaker 5: up in you know, I went to church. I sang
Speaker 5: in the church choir from like sixth grade until I
Speaker 5: graduated high school. So that was a part of, you know,
Speaker 5: my upbringing in Ohio. And the thing about the main characters, Serena,
Speaker 5: although she's very you know, I've spoken about her very
Speaker 5: rigid view of faith and God, June is always seeking
Speaker 5: God and trusting and hoping, and that's her faith in
Speaker 5: a higher power. And that's one of the things I
Speaker 5: think has gotten lost over the years and one of
Speaker 5: the things that for me, you know, I keep coming
Speaker 5: back to. It's not trying to look down at people.
Speaker 5: It's trying to say, this is if you were in
Speaker 5: this scenario. And this is the great thing about TV.
Speaker 5: You can't do this in film is show nuance. In film,
Speaker 5: it's either this guy's a bad guy and that guy's
Speaker 5: a good guy. But we get to see how people
Speaker 5: who are you know, who are fallible, still tried to
Speaker 5: make amends. And that's one thing I love exploring with
Speaker 5: our show that I feel like our show does better
Speaker 5: than almost any other show.
Speaker 4: Thank you saying that was a bunch much better sales
Speaker 4: job than she gave me, and to me, thank you
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 3: Now, okay, but.
Speaker 1: That really was a beautiful way to describe the arc
Speaker 1: of the show as well. I mean, the first season
Speaker 1: is just like but then honestly, you came in second
Speaker 1: the second season, and I feel like that did bring
Speaker 1: in some.
Speaker 4: Of the art. Did you hear how she did it
Speaker 4: the first season was that's usually her sales. To me, man,
Speaker 4: that's a sales bitch.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you would have had to have watched the first season,
Speaker 1: I would imagine, at least after or at least before
Speaker 1: signing on. What did you think of the first season
Speaker 1: compared to the others when you jumped in.
Speaker 5: I was just so taken, first of all, because it's
Speaker 5: so stylistically dynamic compared to any other show, you know,
Speaker 5: And a lot of times you'll see characters in the
Speaker 5: like the bottom corner of a frame and then there's
Speaker 5: a giant window behind them or a giant wall, and
Speaker 5: it's just the way it shows all people kind of
Speaker 5: kind of confined by even the frame we're watching them,
Speaker 5: and so everything is really just almost set up like
Speaker 5: a painting and so I think that can be That's
Speaker 5: the first thing that I noticed about our show. But
Speaker 5: I just feel like they they updated a book that
Speaker 5: was written, you know, when I was a kid, and
Speaker 5: it made it present day. It made it, it made
Speaker 5: it more urgent. It made it also feel like this
Speaker 5: could happen to us at any moment. And so I
Speaker 5: think that's one of the things that's that's hard for
Speaker 5: people because they keep coming back to, oh this could
Speaker 5: you know, this could happen? Or is this happening? And
Speaker 5: that's always a conversation with our show, and that's also
Speaker 5: you know, the fun thing about our show is that's
Speaker 5: a conversation or our writers have with the audience, you know, because.
Speaker 2: It's so true.
Speaker 1: That's what all of us when we're talking after we watch,
Speaker 1: like could that happen here?
Speaker 2: Oh my god?
Speaker 1: And for people who don't know specifically who your character is,
Speaker 1: you are a representative of the US government that's in
Speaker 1: exile because this Gilead, this community has taken over all
Speaker 1: of the United States, where women are property, they have
Speaker 1: no rights, and that's a very broad stroke there, but
Speaker 1: you are representing what the US used to be. How
Speaker 1: do you engage in those conversations, because, especially in today's
Speaker 1: political climate, but certainly even when this show began, that's
Speaker 1: got to be something that people come up and talk
Speaker 1: to you about all the time.
Speaker 2: How do you handle that?
Speaker 5: Right? Well, you know, I got into I got into
Speaker 5: acting because I love, you know, I love understanding people
Speaker 5: that aren't like me. You know, I grew up. My
Speaker 5: siblings all do something different. They're all in service, you know,
Speaker 5: one's a nurse, one with a guidance counselor and works
Speaker 5: with a church, and ones in an officer. And I'm
Speaker 5: always referencing, you know, I always pull from those stories.
Speaker 5: And my job is to empathize with people that I
Speaker 5: wouldn't normally empathize with. And you know, if the great
Speaker 5: thing about being an actor is I have to try
Speaker 5: and figure out what compels the other side to make
Speaker 5: the choices they do. So while I don't often agree,
Speaker 5: I do understand where things are coming from. As hard
Speaker 5: as it is, it's my job, and I think hopefully
Speaker 5: one of the things that we do on our show
Speaker 5: is try to offer that conversation with people and show
Speaker 5: what it's like for people that don't look like like
Speaker 5: us or have the same you know, religious identity is
Speaker 5: us what it's like on the other side of the fence.
Speaker 4: I'm curious how that happened your your siblings, right, nurse, guidance,
Speaker 4: counselor officer, I mean literally out there saving the world.
Speaker 4: Really tell me I explain those dynamics. Clearly your parents
Speaker 4: are doing something extremely right. But how do they all
Speaker 4: up end up there? And here you are.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm the baby of the family.
Speaker 4: Ah, so you could, you could do.
Speaker 6: Whatever you want.
Speaker 5: And I was also ignored, you know. I know my
Speaker 5: parents just love and we're fascinated and continue to be
Speaker 5: fascinated by what makes their children tick. That it's not
Speaker 5: just me that it's you know, although I have kind
Speaker 5: of an extraordinary path. They love what my sisters do,
Speaker 5: when my brother does, and they support and have an
Speaker 5: interest in that. And that's one thing that I try
Speaker 5: to carry out with my children. I try to figure
Speaker 5: out what they love about living and nurture that. And
Speaker 5: so I'm grateful to my parents. You know, I almost
Speaker 5: I grew up thinking, you know, when I was a
Speaker 5: young actor starting off, I thought, man, you know what,
Speaker 5: I'm not tortured enough. All these great actors have all
Speaker 5: this background where they had horrific, you know, childhoods with
Speaker 5: abusive parents, and I kind of need that. And now
Speaker 5: all these years later, I'm like, no, I don't have
Speaker 5: any baggage. I get to come to something and not
Speaker 5: feel like I need to protect some aspect of my
Speaker 5: personality to perform, right, you know.
Speaker 3: That's good parenting.
Speaker 4: Right, And even on a show, Sam, you're on a
Speaker 4: show that every guy is bad and you're still the
Speaker 4: good guy.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you can un in and you know
Speaker 1: exactly right, that's awesome that you're meant to play your
Speaker 1: entire life? What is what's when you have a show
Speaker 1: that heavy and that dark? What is it like when
Speaker 1: the cameras aren't rolling among the cast?
Speaker 2: Do you do you? Is it? Is it? Do you
Speaker 2: break the tension with laughter? And and uh frivilty?
Speaker 1: Like? What is it like behind the scenes in between
Speaker 1: all of the acting?
Speaker 5: So fun? I mean, people on our show not only
Speaker 5: are have all of us directed. So we come to it.
Speaker 5: We come to it like what's the best way other story?
Speaker 5: You know, we get we get out of you know,
Speaker 5: we try to get as much ego out of the
Speaker 5: way as possible. We're protective of our characters and where
Speaker 5: their journey is. But we also trust the writing at
Speaker 5: this point, and we just show up and uh, everybody works,
Speaker 5: you know, everybody is good work, and they come in
Speaker 5: ready to ready to play. And on a you know,
Speaker 5: on a show that's so serious, I feel like, boy,
Speaker 5: I don't know if we'd survive if we were really
Speaker 5: heavy handed Courtard so no.
Speaker 2: Med acting going on behind this?
Speaker 5: Oh thank goodness, Oh my god.
Speaker 2: I mean I was wondering, you know, I mean, how
Speaker 2: you handle that? Because that is some heavy stuff.
Speaker 5: You know, it's so funny. I love I actually love
Speaker 5: a lot of method acting and actor but I've worked
Speaker 5: with one or two and it's so much work, not
Speaker 5: just for them, but I was a method actor and
Speaker 5: I saw we were doing this scene and I saw
Speaker 5: one of the camera crew say his name as his
Speaker 5: actual name, and I saw ooh, and he got up
Speaker 5: and walked around the room and I saw him like
Speaker 5: whisper in the camera guy's ear to you know, to
Speaker 5: say his character's name.
Speaker 7: And he was like, oh, I'm so sorry, sorry of course,
Speaker 7: And I just thought, man, this is way too much
Speaker 7: work for everybody else. How about you just show up
Speaker 7: and pretend because you're already like there's if you're gonna
Speaker 7: be that method, just what you're going to walk into
Speaker 7: a room and be like what are.
Speaker 5: These cameras doing in here? Like just if you're gonna
Speaker 5: be method, then just to be like, what what am
Speaker 5: I on a stage? I'm in I'm in seventeenth century England? Guys,
Speaker 5: just get over yourselves.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, all right, that is I.
Speaker 2: Take don't take yourself so seriously, right.
Speaker 5: No, because you have to be exponentially better at acting
Speaker 5: to have people be like, yeah, I'll work with that
Speaker 5: guy again. But he's like, I mean, you got to
Speaker 5: be like Daniel day Lewis, where it's just like, okay,
Speaker 5: he's unbelievable. So we can put up with that because
Speaker 5: the product is amazed.
Speaker 2: It's so funny, you all time favorite actor.
Speaker 1: So yes, and I knew he was a method actor,
Speaker 1: but to your point, yes, he's kind of earned the
Speaker 1: right to be that because it's just that good.
Speaker 5: And I think also a generous and kind spirit as well.
Speaker 5: So I don't you know, you know, they're not all
Speaker 5: you know, it's like Gilead, they're not all bad on
Speaker 5: the hand.
Speaker 4: Fail see, he has done such a better job of
Speaker 4: pitching this show. Well, he's got me very curious about
Speaker 4: the show. Can I pick it up in his seasons
Speaker 4: and be okay? Or I need some backstory season.
Speaker 1: Two I can tell you, and you know how I
Speaker 1: love to talk. Oh yeah, fill in the blanks for
Speaker 1: you during a quiet moment.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you want. I mean it needs
Speaker 5: to be. It sounds like it needs to be your show.
Speaker 5: You need to find a way to make it, make it.
Speaker 3: Makes a good point. Okay, help us with that?
Speaker 4: All right there, I assume you have to get the Yeah,
Speaker 4: plenty of fans out there, plenty of folks probably come
Speaker 4: up to you on the street. Do you what is
Speaker 4: the divide between your male and female viewership? It was
Speaker 4: hard to find it online, But what's your understanding of
Speaker 4: the number? Is the percentage of female viewership versus male?
Speaker 5: I'm sure it's female driven, but I think it's a
Speaker 5: show that couples like to watch to get some couples.
Speaker 2: Other couple, sam great, yes.
Speaker 5: Other couples. Yeah, can't can't do it. But yeah, I
Speaker 5: actually don't know the numbers. I mean that's yeah.
Speaker 1: I wish more women come up to you than men, obviously,
Speaker 1: probably just because they think you're cute. But would you
Speaker 1: say that's a fair statement.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't even say that that. No, I don't get
Speaker 5: I don't. I'm pretty daft when it comes to people
Speaker 5: hitting on me. So I I've always been just and
Speaker 5: even as a celebrity, I walk around and when people
Speaker 5: like smile at me, I just assume they're being overly nice,
Speaker 5: not because they recognize me from something or you know.
Speaker 5: But as for the as for the fans who come up,
Speaker 5: I would say it's I would say it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2: Really, whoa, that's why?
Speaker 1: Now do you get recognized more for The Handmaid's Tale?
Speaker 2: Maybe because it's recent or from Parenthood.
Speaker 5: That's still probably fifty to fifty you know, a little
Speaker 5: more for Handmaid's Tale in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: But that makes sense that are you surprised by just
Speaker 1: the still kind of rabid fan base that Parenthood still has.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm reading people are constantly asking you if
Speaker 1: you'd be participating in a reboot or a sequel or
Speaker 1: people want more. I mean that show ended ten years ago, correct.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it remains relevant because people keep having babies,
Speaker 5: so we're always trying to you know, figure out. You know,
Speaker 5: we want something that feels like am I insane? Or
Speaker 5: is this job absolutely ludicrous? Because every time my wife
Speaker 5: and I had a kid, it's like two years in
Speaker 5: we're like, wait, how have we survived as a species?
Speaker 5: Like this is so moments of this are so unbearable
Speaker 5: that I don't know how our species was able to
Speaker 5: be like, hey, let's do this again, but without fail.
Speaker 5: We always forget because babies are adorable and because we
Speaker 5: get the value eventually that we're just like, yeah, let's
Speaker 5: keep having kids.
Speaker 2: You know, I know, I saw a survey. I think
Speaker 2: it was ten. We're all parents here.
Speaker 1: Mine are much older now, twenty two and almost nineteen
Speaker 1: actually this weekend. But I saw a survey that said
Speaker 1: people I think they surveyed people in their fifties and
Speaker 1: said people who were happy, what their happy quotion was,
Speaker 1: And resoundingly, people who didn't have kids were happier. No, and.
Speaker 5: I've read those I've read those studies as well. But
Speaker 5: my submission is this, Yes, they're happier, but if you
Speaker 5: have a child, your heart basically you know that the
Speaker 5: DNA DNA of being a parent is I'm going to
Speaker 5: give bring somebody into the world, and basically my heart
Speaker 5: is going to go walking around on the outside and
Speaker 5: just knowing that there's always in trepidation, a caution and
Speaker 5: a worry that goes along with being a parent, which
Speaker 5: I think accounts for you know, you know, i'd you know,
Speaker 5: and I'll I'll happily trade that for the joy that,
Speaker 5: you know, the bittersweet joy that these boys bring me.
Speaker 5: I mean, oh my gosh, sometimes they're just talking to me.
Speaker 5: I got, I got, I got three sons and a
Speaker 5: step daughter, and my boys even at every age. You know,
Speaker 5: if you have the right perspective as a parent, you're
Speaker 5: just like my teenager says things that are so adorably teenage,
Speaker 5: you know, like only a teenager could say that, and
Speaker 5: so you know he's got to relish whatever stage they're at,
Speaker 5: because it is fleeting for sure.
Speaker 3: What are the ages there in the house.
Speaker 5: So I've got quite a gap. We've got an eight
Speaker 5: year old boy, a ten year old boy, and a
Speaker 5: fourteen year old boy. And then my stepdaughter is thirty, so,
Speaker 5: oh my goodness, and the poor thing. She has two
Speaker 5: brothers on her dad's side as well, so she has
Speaker 5: five five brothers.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, you get all those numbing the numbers
Speaker 4: together still eight ten, fourteen and thirty thirty, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's a gap. Is a thirty year old upstairs in
Speaker 3: the house too?
Speaker 5: And no, thankfully she's in he's in DC with her husband,
Speaker 5: and I don't worry about her, you know, putting her
Speaker 5: clothes on in the morning and you know the water,
Speaker 5: So that's great.
Speaker 1: I do love how you put that that the worry
Speaker 1: that does it does weigh on you. And then also
Speaker 1: the guilt for me. Maybe I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: just moms, but it's like that constantly. But those moments,
Speaker 1: I would also say they're happier because sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: know what you don't know, so they don't know what
Speaker 1: they're missing.
Speaker 2: Is a is a one way to look at it.
Speaker 3: To all those folks that don't have kids, Yes, but.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're laughing at me because they don't know what
Speaker 2: I'm missing.
Speaker 3: Yes, single fifty, no kids, that sounds.
Speaker 1: Awesome, free existence with a much bigger bank account.
Speaker 4: No, do you really think there's a fifty year old
Speaker 4: single folks run around going yay, I'm so glad I
Speaker 4: never got married.
Speaker 3: I'm glad I never had kids. Oh yeah, they look great.
Speaker 4: Okay, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So all right, So what I know you said, You've
Speaker 1: you've got some directing on your resume.
Speaker 2: So what's next?
Speaker 1: Where do you uh, where do you want to take
Speaker 1: your career? Handmaid's Tale the last episode.
Speaker 2: We haven't seen it yet. We're very excited about it.
Speaker 2: But what's next?
Speaker 1: And how did it feel to say goodbye to this
Speaker 1: juggernaut of a show.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I mean I chose a nomadic career, so
Speaker 5: trying to figure out what's next is always you know,
Speaker 5: trying to make peace with being momentarily unemployed is part
Speaker 5: of the battle and just and just accepting. You know,
Speaker 5: this is a rare time I get to be home
Speaker 5: with my kids after traveling to Toronto for years. So
Speaker 5: you know, I'm I'm I'm writing another project that's a
Speaker 5: film noir set in Los Angeles, and and that's a
Speaker 5: that's just kind of my you know, part of one
Speaker 5: of my favorite kind of genres of film. I realized,
Speaker 5: and this is weird, speaking of like, you know, terrible
Speaker 5: men in our you know, in our I realized earlier
Speaker 5: on that all of my favorite films are the same film,
Speaker 5: which is about some guys trying to save a woman
Speaker 5: that should not be saved, and they're all film noir,
Speaker 5: like the conversation by Coppola or Vertigo or in a
Speaker 5: town where you're just like, I know where you're headed,
Speaker 5: but just don't Yeah, just don't know that that direction.
Speaker 5: So film noir for me has always been just so
Speaker 5: fascinating and I don't know what it says about me
Speaker 5: that I'm you.
Speaker 3: Know, you'll say that's exactly his role in.
Speaker 1: You literally just described your character's role with who was
Speaker 1: trying to save a woman?
Speaker 2: You just described.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I don't know. Maybe this is good that
Speaker 5: I didn't put these two together until after I've done
Speaker 5: shooting this whole series. I mean, maybe I gone into
Speaker 5: every scene like, guys, we can't my character wouldn't say this,
Speaker 5: or I can't go down this road. I'm glad. Oh,
Speaker 5: I'm glad we're doing this interview now. Yeah. Oh, And
Speaker 5: you know, finishing up the show was was so wonderful.
Speaker 5: I got to be especially these last two episodes, I
Speaker 5: feel like are great television and I'm so excited for
Speaker 5: the fans to watch. But I got to be a
Speaker 5: part of some scenes that are one of some of
Speaker 5: the most important of our series, and they're goodbyes that
Speaker 5: not just with my but other characters. And you know,
Speaker 5: I just it was I'm so grateful to be working
Speaker 5: with these people. You know, to work on anything period
Speaker 5: as a miracle as an actor, but to work with
Speaker 5: people you admire that you know are good people out
Speaker 5: in the world, that's so rare.
Speaker 1: I love just hearing your enthusiasm for this lifelong career
Speaker 1: you've had and your gratitude for it. And I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to watch the last couple of episodes. I think
Speaker 1: the last one drops May twenty seven for anyone who
Speaker 1: wants to know. But I also I think t J
Speaker 1: and I can pass along sometimes what it's like to
Speaker 1: have even unexpected momentary lapses in employment.
Speaker 2: We experienced that a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: And the cool thing is it breeds creative new doors.
Speaker 1: You know, things that you weren't even expecting could happen
Speaker 1: or what happened to and you find yourself in the
Speaker 1: position that you never thought. So I think sometimes those
Speaker 1: moments are the greatest ones of our careers because you
Speaker 1: get to go into a new direction that you might not.
Speaker 2: Have even anticipated.
Speaker 4: What we could have used as counsel two years ago.
Speaker 5: So you guys, I've landed in the right spot, I think.
Speaker 2: Well, we know you will too.
Speaker 1: We cannot wait to see what else you have in
Speaker 1: store for us, because we will be consuming it. Sam Jager,
Speaker 1: it was such a pleasure speaking to you. It was
Speaker 1: so lovely to get to know you as a person
Speaker 1: and to know you're almost exactly like your character, which
Speaker 1: is kind of cool.
Speaker 5: A good guy guy, well, who should not rescue women
Speaker 5: that don't need rescue.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations on all your success and we can't see
Speaker 1: can't wait to see what you do next.
Speaker 5: Thank you. Thanks for having me bank carry that