WEBVTT - Eddie Marsan and David Arquette Transcend Typecasting 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:05.480 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Hear the Thing 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:11.559 from My Heart Radio. My guests today are actors from 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.840 two very different backgrounds. David Arquette was born into a 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.360 family of entertainers. His four siblings became actors. His mother 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.159 and father were actors. His grandfather, Cliff Arquette, was a 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:29.360 famous comedian. Even his great grandparents were vaudeville performers. Acting 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.120 is in his blood, but he's also a die hard 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.320 fan of wrestling, which is the subject of his new 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:41.320 aptly titled documentary You Can't Kill David Arquette. But first, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:46.040 I'm talking with actor Eddie Marsan during the pandemic I 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:51.080 binged the Showtime series Ray Donovan. Marsan plays Ray's brother Terry, 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:56.040 a former boxer with Parkinson's disease. Within a terrific cast 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.440 that stars Liev Schreiber and John Voyd, Eddie Marson stands 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:05.080 out beautifully. These days, Marsam is an in demand actor 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.039 who has worked with the likes of Scorsese, Gonzalez Inobtu 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.679 and Mike Lee. But growing up in working class London, 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.840 becoming an actor was a long shot. Even now, despite 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.280 a long successful career. He struggles with typecasting in the UK. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.200 When I spend time in America, I think it's race 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.600 and class, and I think it's the same in the UK, 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.280 probably more race in the US. Idriss is a friend 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:33.000 of mine and he had to come over to the 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.840 US and do the Wire to reinvent himself. And I 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.400 needed to come over to do Ray Donovan to kind 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.440 of get diversity in my career. Even now in the UK, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.680 I still struggle to get diversity. They still defined me 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.840 by class. I had a really interesting conversation with Wendell Pierce, 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.880 is a really good friend of mine. He was asking 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.040 me what I was doing over and doing Ray Donovan, 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:58.800 and I said, well, when do I I never wanted 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.840 to be defined as a work class actor, and he said, 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.280 that's very interesting. Eddie said, because as a black African 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.760 American actor, I couldn't help but be defined because of 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.120 the color of my skin. He said, And what my 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.400 advice to you, Eddie is, don't seek not to be 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.040 defined as a working class actor. Seek to change their 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.600 definition of what it means to be a working class actor. 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.280 And that suddenly opened my mind because I was always 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.960 trying to escape it and now I kind of think 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.800 we're now embrace it, you know, And Terry was a 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.600 great embrace of that because Terry when you were quite often, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.400 because writers write working class actors, they make because working 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:40.480 class blue color people speak a colloquial language, they make 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.040 them sound dumb. And what was great about Ray Donovan 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.560 They were inarticulate characters, but they were very articulate in 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.800 a in a weird way. Terry was a great character 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.760 because really he was the mother of the family. He 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.880 basically represents an Irish Catholic wife who can never divorce 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:04.880 John Boyd even though he's abut so as an access Yeah, yeah, 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.200 that's what it is. Yeah, it is a class system 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.240 in the UK and and but the US has much 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.400 more much still still, how do they find you to 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.480 do the Raynavent? Sure? What were you doing that you 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.919 thought spark their interest in here? I think Leev put 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.919 the call out to see if I could audition, and 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.400 I auditioned for that. And I love boxing anyway. I 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.639 used to dance when I was younger, so I physically 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.800 quite capable. You're dancing, you like boxing, and you were 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.000 born where bethnal Green. You're the James Cagney of bethnal 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:39.000 Green were learning Yeah, yeah, I never thought that. Boxing 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:42.200 and the beginning of two thousand four I did two movies. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.680 I did Vera Drake for Mike Lee and I did 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.800 twenty one Grahams for Alejandro Gonzalez and The Routu, and 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.880 both of those movies got Oscar attention. I didn't get 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.840 Oscar attention. My parts weren't big enough, but I played 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.040 that kind of part where in Vera Drake I played 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.200 a working class London ex soldier, and I played a 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.240 born again Christian preacher for Bernicia do Toro in twenty 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.200 one Grahams. And on both sides of the Atlantic suddenly 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.520 people thought this guy is a good character actor. There 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:15.440 was an American actor who said to me, Eddie, you're 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.280 a doughnut actor. He said, in America, he said, quite 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.680 often studios picked young stars who can't act yet. And 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.679 he said, if you imagine a donut, the center as vacuous, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.440 there's nothing there, but you got surrounded with something that's substantial. 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.480 He said, you've got a lot of money, you're gonna 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.400 be a donut actor. Our version of that was you'd 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:38.800 play the hackman role. We called it. Yeah, you were 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:40.920 hired to do the Gene Hackman role, which was they 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.560 had the young star who sold all the tickets and 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.680 brought in all the young audience, and then they had 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.960 to have someone play the Admiral of the Shippers, but 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.119 who could really act. Yeah. Yeah, So that's in a sense, 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:52.800 that's what I did, and that's what I've been doing 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.000 for the last twenty years, popping up and being there 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.320 and having great parts and just being really I love 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.839 being an act her and I loved at what was 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.000 media like entertainment like movies and TV. For you growing 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.279 up in bethnal Green, Hoskins was a big When Hoskins 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.080 came on the scene, he sounded like my father and 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:14.200 that was the first time I thought, that's my old man. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:16.680 He literally sounded like him, and that was a big 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.479 thing for me. There was a driver, my dad was 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.279 a truck driver, Yeah, and he looked a bit like 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.680 Hoskins as well, very similar kind of man. But I 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.880 remember when I was younger watching on the waterfront and 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.720 being captivated by Rod Steiger. I always kind of knew 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.760 loved character actors, always did love John Robert de Vao, 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.280 love love Steiger, and and then I was fascinated by 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:42.919 character actors who became diverse, like John Hurt in A 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.719 Naked Civil Servant where he played Quent and Crisp, this 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.599 gay man in the fourties. And even as a child, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.360 I was absolutely fascinated by actors, but I had no 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.760 means of which to pursue it. There was no drama 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.039 school for me until when well, I served an apprenticeship 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.599 as a printer, and and how will read? Then I 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.480 was sixteen to twenty out of school. Yeah, yeah, I 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.400 left school at fifteen, no qualifications. And then I was 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.080 in the club. I was dancing in the club and 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.000 somebody asked me to be an extra in a movie. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:14.080 And I went on this movie set and I saw 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.640 an actor doing a scene and I thought I can 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.279 do that, and I had no idea how to do it. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.719 And then and then it went from there, really And 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:23.840 what was the first job I got paid for? Oh? 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.560 I was in a pantomime in a in a place 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.239 called Chipping Norton, and I was a clown throwing suits 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.400 of kids and a little fucker's throw him back and 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.080 the stage show. Yeah, yeah, the first was the first 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.560 movie or TV part you got? I did a movie 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.760 called Gangs to Number One with Paul Bettany. He was 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.120 Gangs to Number one and I was the coward. And 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:45.760 I always Paul always said to me, and if you 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:47.320 can't be Gangs to number one, don't be Gangs to 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.200 number two. Be the cow Yeah. Yeah. When you talk 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.520 about the working class, you know, when I was first 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.040 working in this business, in the back of my mind, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.800 the things that were memorable were, you know Robert Newton, 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.880 because I love Robert Newton. Yeah, oh god, I know 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.400 every every line, every facial gesture from Oliver Twist. And 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.240 so speaking of Robert Newton and Dickens that you have 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.000 a magwitch in your life, that the Pip that is 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.960 Eddie Marsen. You had a benefactor? I did, I did. 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:25.040 I had an Eastern bookmaker called Mr Bennett. Yeah, who 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.560 was Mr Bennett? Can you say? He used to run 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.520 a men's worth store, but he used to run a 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.640 book But he was a bookmaker at the dog track. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.760 And I used to work for him. What did you 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:36.640 do for him? I used to I still so close 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.800 to him. I used to sell smarter and stuff I 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.000 wasn't interested in the betting side. Used to run a 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.520 clothing store. But he was a big bookmaker and he 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.240 said to me, what do you really want to do? 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:47.680 And I said, I want to be an actor. And 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:49.960 he said, well, if you get to get to drama school, 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.440 I'll pay, and he did. And the funny thing is, 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.840 I'm a terrible malaprop. I get words wrong all the time. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.720 So when my first couple of weeks of drama school, 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.320 a really strong Cockney accent and I walked in and 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.400 he was there with his wife and I said, he said, 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.440 how's it going. I said, well, they said I've got 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.600 so with my voice, and they want me to see 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:14.440 a chiropodist because I never and he said his wife 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.640 said that you mean speech therapist and Mr Bennett said no, 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:25.040 because he keeps putting his foot in it. But this guy, 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.960 so this wasn't about the guy want you to clean 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.120 his guns, or drop this bag of money off at 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:31.960 the train station, put it in the locker for me. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.000 None of that. Now, he was a really sweet He 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.560 was a sweet man because he was a bookmaker. If 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.160 you went into a pub with him, all the local 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:40.920 villains would know him, and he won't have to buy 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:42.720 a drink because they probably a while within money at 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.720 one point or another. I just love any story about 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.560 mentorship and people who have benefactors, someone who helps you, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:50.840 you know what I mean. I mean if someone because 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.079 this business is so tough now, so you tell me 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.800 this guy. I love that Mr Bennett. Do we all 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.240 wish we had a Mr Bennett? Would have? Is he is? 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.600 He passed away. He's gone, he passed away. I was 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:08.240 working with Ethan Hawk on a movie and it was 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.120 it was a TV think of Moby Dick. And I 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.079 had a week off and I went to see him, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.199 and my wife told me that he's not gonna lie. 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:16.719 You won't be able to get back to see him. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.280 So I had to go and see him one morning 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.800 and I told him how much I loved him. You 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.679 did get to see him before he passed. I held 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.280 his hand and I said I said to him, I 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.080 owe you everything. I said, I owe you my career, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:33.360 my happiness, my childhood, the mortgage, the debt, the stress. Everything. 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.840 He was Yeah, but Ethan was very good. Ethan took 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:41.320 me at the other end of the ship and just 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.120 sat with me while I cried, and gave me a pride. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.400 Make sure everyone just left me alone. He's very sweet. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:55.880 Actor Eddie Marsan. Another actor who outgrew typecasting is John Deturo. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.720 He says, despite his success, there was a moment not 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.199 long ago when he considered a career change. I had 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.680 a sort of crisis, maybe eight, nine, ten years ago 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.760 and told my doctor, I said, you know, I'm done 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:11.960 with this business. I've got to do something really important, 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.079 like what you do. I said, I want to go 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.480 to medical school. I was like fifty years old. And 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.400 he was like, John, you're crazy. He was like, you know, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.640 you know how long medical schools? You know? And he 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.840 said what you do is there's a value to what 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:27.440 you do, when I was like, no, there's not, you know, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:31.200 And he talked me out of it. Here more of 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.400 my conversation with John Tuturo at Here's the Thing dot Org. 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.840 After the Break, Eddie Marsan talks about playing Terry in 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:54.080 the Showtime series Ray Donovan. I'm Alec Baldwin and you 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.079 were listening to Here's the Thing. The Showtime series Ray 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.720 Donovan is heavy. It's about a troubled family living with 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:06.079 the legacy of sexual abuse, and Eddie Marsan worked hard 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:11.600 to realistically portray the progression of his characters Parkinson's disease. 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.840 It got very dark at times. There was a darkness 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.360 in the piece because the thing about Ray Donovan is 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.600 what people didn't realize is it's Trojan Horse television. You 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:24.960 kind of think it's going to be about Hollywood and 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:29.160 and actually it's about three Irish brothers who were sexually 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.040 abused and can't articulated. So quite often as an actor, 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.680 you would hold all this darkness about the history of 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.720 being abused by priests in Boston and you couldn't express it. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.600 So so that was tough. And for me, We've created 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.480 this story that Terry knew that his brothers were being 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.720 abused by the priests, but the priest was given his 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.480 mother solace and so if he told his mother, she 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.440 would die. So we had to allow the priests to 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.840 abuse his brothers. And he was caught between a rock 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:58.960 and a half place. And that was what the shaik was. 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.760 The shaiksa belize somebody caught between a rock and a 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.560 half place. Morally mainlyev used to get drained by it 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.320 because it was unsaid. It had to be so authentic 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.320 because it was unsaid, and so we had to hold 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.640 it within us. You started shooting the show where in California. 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.000 In California we started in two thousand and twelve. Did 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.520 you live in California? I used to go and live 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:28.920 in Culver City. Yeah. Yeah. From season six and seven onwards, 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.240 we went over to New York without the first time 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.600 You've lived any length of time in the US. No, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:35.880 I've been working in the US. I mean what I 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.800 did was I made a very conscious choice that it 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.679 was a real big strain on my marriage and my 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.480 family life doing this show. But I knew we had 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.880 to do it. So I decided that I could work 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.120 and have family, but I couldn't work have family and 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:53.400 have a social life. So I couldn't go go out 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.920 in the evening. I would literally work. As soon as 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.920 I wrapped, I'd fly home every weekend. I flew home. 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.720 Now everyone in Los Angeles to London, Yeah, every weekend. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.880 You know. Yeah, yeah, And I've made that choice, and 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:10.920 it was the best thing I've did. And your wife 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.120 was grateful, Oh yeah, and God come home. And we'd 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.760 have some days because of the schedule, you'd have three 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.360 or four days at home, and some days you'd have 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.520 one day at home. But it was just to be 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.000 there for the kids just to be a presence. You 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.640 just broke my heart. You have to make that choice. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.320 And actually it wasn't bad for me. I'm not a 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.040 big social animal anyway, and I love the work and 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.439 I have so much fun at work on set. That 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.360 was your social life, that was my social life. What 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.719 was it like for you in the I know that 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.160 in film there's one director you start and finish with, 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.360 and and TV there's many directors. What did directors? Will 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.240 use Ray Donov as an example, and we'll also talk 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.439 about britt directors. What did the American directors on Ray 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.000 Donovan have to offer you? Were they helpful? Yeah? Very 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.400 much so. We had the show runner, Dave Hollander talk 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:03.080 me about the rhythm of multi season, multi episodic dramas. 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.520 He he taught me how to to set up something 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.880 in one season you'll pay off two seasons later, so 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.560 you don't have to pay off everything straight away. You've 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.679 got loads of time. And the other thing I learned 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.680 was that you don't have to play characters who are sympathetic. 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.280 You just have to play characters that are empathetic because 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.600 time restrictions meant that within a two hour drama, a 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:33.280 character had to be sympathetic over multiple seasons, multiple years 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.600 a character and only needed to be empathetic. You could 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:38.520 do the worst thing a character could do as long 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.680 as he audaers thought. If I was in that situation, 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:43.680 I would do the same thing. Then you've done your job. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.400 So I began to understand the rhythm of it and 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.920 to trust it and don't force it. Also, I've never 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.280 been a big showy actor. Anyway, when I work with 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.560 Mike Lee, I learned so much from Mike Lee because 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.160 as an actor, you always there's always a voice in 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.520 your head which either wants to be clever or be true, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.400 And with Mike Lee, the answer will always be true. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.000 From that point, artist that would you know, don't show off? 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.320 Mike would always say, you've got to dig a hole 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.240 and sit in it. Well, it's interesting you look at 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.480 his filmography. He hasn't made that many films. In seventy 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:22.120 one his first movie Bleak Moments, High Hopes Come, and 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.120 he's made six films since two thousand two. Yeah, and 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.040 what did you I mean you made three films with him? 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.160 How would you describe working with him? Well, his work 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.680 is all about creating the character. There's no script you 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.520 create the character and the story develops out of the character. 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.160 And what I found with Ray Donovan because you had 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.360 a writer's room and the writers would come on set 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.920 and they would be informed by my performances, Terry and me, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.760 so they would begin to write Terry based on our 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.000 own discussion. So all the characters on Ray Donovan were 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.120 analistic creation of all the writers and the actors and 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:02.000 the crew together because um, there was so much that 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:03.720 you were given to them and they were given to you, 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.200 And it was very much like likely is he the 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.080 only director you've worked with more than once? No. I 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.960 worked with David Leach and who's does a lot of 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.560 superhero movies, and he always pulls me in to play 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.880 this villainous part, and quite often he shoots me from 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.120 behind because when the plot doesn't make sense, I can 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.000 go and do a d R and say some stuff 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.480 that no one sees. My lips move. You've done a 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.760 lot of players. I used to. I haven't done place 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.160 for twenty years. We haven't. Do you ever miss it? 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.200 I do? But I never used to get offered good plays. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.960 It was interesting what you're saying about class. When I 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.960 went over to do Ray Donovan. We were doing a 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.560 second season and it was already quite successful, and I 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.760 was doing nice films on American TV, and I was 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.880 playing more Diversity in America. And then my agent called me. 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.280 He said, the BBC are doing Richard the Third, and 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.240 I played Richard the Third. I toward Europe Richard the 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.600 Third years ago, and she said they're going to offer 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.680 your part. I don't know what, and I felt, great, okay, 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.640 this is fantastic. And they cooled and it was to 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.160 play a thief with two lines, and and and there. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.720 I am going to work with leev and John Voights 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.439 and and dash My Hawk and and working with all 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.000 these great writers. But in the UK I was a 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.760 thief with two lines. But you should be grateful for 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.560 the privilege of doing Richard the Third exactly. Don't you 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.280 don't get too big now, don't get too hearty. No. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.280 I found that Stafford Clark and other Brits I've worked with. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.960 It was really, I mean, just the Steaks and the 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.040 uh Tony Walton. We did equest together and oh my god, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.400 just the rigor. I said to somebody. They said, what's 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.800 the task for you? Now? I said, to remember that 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.920 every job is a chance for me to still to learn. Yeah, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.359 someone said to me, what's change in your acting? I 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.160 was that guy that was standing there on the set 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.920 with that director, sobbing from the opening line, Oh God, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.760 how can you do this to us, lady, this clinic. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.359 You know, we need the money in Jesus Christ. And 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.000 I'm like fucking going up coming to pieces. It's totally wrong. 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.479 And someone said, I said, how's that changed? I said, well, 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.840 that accessing that reservoir of emotion, which is still relatively easy. 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:09.919 I guess I think you either have a knack for 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.000 that or you don't. I said, everything is technical to me, 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:17.040 it's so technical line pause, pause, like music, be b 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.240 I often think of myself as a session musician, And 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.919 I was going to ask you that. Explain why, Because 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.000 you're creating notes, and you're working in collaboration with other 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.439 other actors, So sometimes you have to play the baseline. 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.399 They're the lead guitar and you have to play the 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.080 baseline for them, and and and and and it gives 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.320 you a feeling of the collaboration element of the art 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.520 and fitting in and fitting in and working like music. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.520 I see people, I'm here to play a part by 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.320 the part that fits into everything that what everybody is doing. 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.800 When you went home, did people recognize you? Do people 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.359 watch Ray Darnovan in the UK? They do? It is 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.920 not as big in the UK. Why do you think, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.920 just not on a big format. I mean, the people 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.679 who watch it are obsessed with it. But in the 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.920 in the U S it's it's massive in the US. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.400 You know, the feelings that people get from Ray Donovan, 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:07.320 I've never had it before because I've always been an 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.600 actor who disappears into thinks and you know, I've always 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:12.800 been the outer to focus, best friend, and suddenly for 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.199 people to love Terry, they get very disappointed when they 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.480 find out I'm not as charismatic as Terry, as decent 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:25.479 as Terry. No, Terry is decent and brave. Well. Of course, 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:27.960 there was a lot written about the fact that they 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:32.040 ended season seven very unceremoniously. No season eight. Was everybody 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.280 very taken aback by that, Yeah, very surprised. I don't 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.520 know what the decision was. I don't know why it was. 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.560 I think there was an outline for season eight. They 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.760 were going to finish the show. They had a storyline, 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.120 and I think there's always talk of coming back and 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.280 finishing it in something like a four hour or like 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.119 a two part Yeah, there's something like that. They got 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.760 that they're not done. Yeah, I won't surprise me if 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.040 it happened. I thought, I don't want to say this 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.199 is a spoiler. Or so you folcus out there listening, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:04.280 if you are going to watch Ray Donovan, you can 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.840 turn your volume down now while I say that. One 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.280 of the most audacious sequences in the TV show I've 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.560 ever seen was when everybody thought Mick was dead and 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.640 he's not. Yeah, yeah, He's like, oh God, I blew 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.400 out the back of the bus and Jesus and he lives. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.240 And you knew he was gonna live. You knew he 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.040 was gonna come back. But when he does come back, 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.800 you're like, oh fuck, this guy's the cock wroks that 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.800 won't die. One of the joys of Ray Donovan was 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.639 to watch John act. When you get him talking about 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.480 New York in the sixties and seventies and being a 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.119 young actor and he gave al Pacino a thousand dollars 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.320 to do a play, to put on a play, and 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.800 he talks about Bobby de Voo and all these all 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.160 these actors that he knew, and for an actor, that's 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.879 just it's just manna from heaven to to listen to 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:59.160 those stories. You're not mute about your politics, No, no, no, 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:04.399 Why as that? Well? When I grew up, my parents 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.880 had a very very difficult marriage. I come from an 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.399 area full of immigrants, lots of black Caribbean families, and 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.200 I kind of took refuge in a Caribbean family's house. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:18.919 They kind of adopted me in a sense. So I 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:24.960 always felt safer amongst immigrants than I did amongst the 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:29.960 blue color white working class. And and that those people 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.359 that showed intolerance or bigotry, which is an element of 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:37.400 the white working class, I was always more threatened by 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:39.640 them than I was, and I felt safe with them. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.919 And I was always more encouraged and inspired and and 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:49.520 nurtured by immigrants. So whenever I hear racism of any 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:53.760 kind or bigotry, it touches a trauma within me. And 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:55.400 so I have to come out and say I don't 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.840 like populism. I don't like anybody who sees things in 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.240 a very binary way. I don't trust it. I think 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:06.159 I might might you know, my economics, I think we 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:08.479 have to have a certain distribution of wealth because I 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.960 believe in a meritocracy, and in order for for capitalism 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:15.440 to be a meritocracy, someone like me has to pay 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.080 more taxes for someone like me to achieve their potential. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.800 I don't trust populism to me. Was that guy in 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:25.760 the corner of the bar who can manage the England 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.400 soccer team, run the country, but never leaves the bar. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:31.160 So you're obviously you wanted to stay. You didn't want 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.200 to leave. You were against brexit. Oh yeah. The reason 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.720 I wanted to stay within the European Union because I 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.399 think that it's brought prosperity in peace to Europe in 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:43.919 the last fifty years, and that's a great thing. I 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.119 think it's great for workers rights. I think I also 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:53.120 distrust referendums because if a politician lies, you can vote 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.000 them out with a referendum. They lie and it's done. 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:01.560 There is a populist xenophobia that has been prominent in 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.280 America with Trump and prominent in Britain with Brexit. Very similar. 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.960 It's very Any of your kids show any inclination. My 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:14.359 twelve year old son just did a movie. Um, yeah, 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.600 they're doing a movie about Roll Dahl and he plays 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.920 a young boy in roll those writing room who kind 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.360 of inspires him to write. And my daughter at sixteen, 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.119 she's just on a movie. But they spent their lives 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.119 on film sets. They have a very healthy attitude. You 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:33.800 didn't shield them from that. They were there, I mean 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.280 because their mum's a makeup artists. I mean, my wife 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:38.960 was much more successful than I was when we got married. 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:41.560 I always say I married her for a money and 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:44.840 so she was really so I would take my kids 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.640 to go and see mommy and they would go into 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:50.480 the makeup room and and on Ray Donovan, they used 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:51.920 to come and the crew used to give him a 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:54.000 radio mike, and they used to run around and give 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.000 everybody coffees and things. So they've got a very healthy 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:00.399 attitude towards it. You have a bunch of projects and 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:02.400 assuming that you're in a pipeline that there's a maybe 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.080 a COVID clouded pipeline. Yeah, I've got a film coming 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:10.560 out with Sean Penn directed flag Day. Yeah, flag Day. Yeah. 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.000 What kind of care are you play? I play an 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:14.680 insurance guy. Come at the end, I got a big 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:16.520 speech at the end. While it was a big speech, 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:17.520 I don't know if it's going to be a big 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:19.720 speech by the time the film comes out, but I 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:21.840 come out in the end, and what kind of the 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:25.080 piece as a drama about a young girl and a 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.080 dysfunctional relationship with her father in the seventies, and he 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.480 kind of comes in and out of her life and 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:34.520 Sean plays the father, his daughter plays the girl. She's 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:36.760 fantastic in it. It's a it's a great movie. What 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:38.480 was he like, what did he have to offer you 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:41.240 as a director? Well, first work with him in a 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:45.360 movie called The Professor and Madman in Dublin about four 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:49.000 years ago, and what I found with Sean. I thought 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:52.440 Sean was very similar to Spielberg in a strange way, 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:56.639 because what what Spielberg does is Spielberg dances with a camera. 0:24:56.840 --> 0:24:59.760 You know, he kind of visually complements what you're doing. 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:04.040 And Sewn as an actor who's always aware of of 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:07.280 every moment, every note, every bat and when you were 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:09.880 being directed by him, you knew you were with somebody 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:12.520 who was whether where the camera was an instrument that 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:17.680 was complimenting you, and he was fantastic directing it. So 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.960 the chasm between the leading man and the character man 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.439 who is as well defined, And I always wonder to 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:25.719 say to somebody like you, who's as gifted as you are, 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:29.120 and you're truly a gifted actor, if I said to you, 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:33.720 you're gonna make seven eight figure salaries a year and 0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:36.000 you'll never get to play those juicy roles where you're 0:25:36.000 --> 0:25:37.680 going to be the number one on the call sheet 0:25:37.960 --> 0:25:40.400 at this point in your career, would you set aside 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:45.480 or the nutritious juicy roles you've played to become rich 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:47.600 and famous, or do you like things exactly as they 0:25:47.600 --> 0:25:50.359 are now? I'd like to play some leading roles. I 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:53.520 always in that My analogy is that a movie is 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:57.000 like a ghost train ride, and the central character is 0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:00.600 a neutral character, so that they the audience sit on 0:26:00.640 --> 0:26:02.679 the train and go on the ghost train ride, go 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.600 on the ups and downs, but the central character is 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:09.160 quite neutral, quite bland. And me I played the guy 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:11.960 who goes boo. I do about six or seven movies 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:14.320 a year, and I'd like to do one or two 0:26:14.359 --> 0:26:17.560 movies a year and and really get into So I'd 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:20.159 like a career like yours are like Sean, where you 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:22.680 end up playing great character roles, but they are the 0:26:22.760 --> 0:26:26.119 leading part. Are you're going to direct films. Yeah, I 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:27.920 was going to direct. My mother died a couple of 0:26:28.000 --> 0:26:29.960 years ago. I was about to direct a film for 0:26:29.960 --> 0:26:34.440 for BBC Films, but my mother passed away and when 0:26:34.480 --> 0:26:36.480 she was ill, we had to I had to stop. 0:26:36.520 --> 0:26:39.800 And because of that, I'm writing things. I have a 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:44.399 fascinating with American politics. What I love about America is 0:26:44.400 --> 0:26:47.960 it's an idea and it's an idea that people are 0:26:48.000 --> 0:26:52.800 trying to implement as as best as possible. Yeah. Yeah, 0:26:52.960 --> 0:26:57.600 but it's like anything, it exposes people's shortcomings. Some people 0:26:57.720 --> 0:27:03.040 think it supports their bigotry, and other people it inspires generosity, 0:27:03.560 --> 0:27:06.080 and I think that's fascinating. I want to tell you 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:10.159 again that I watched seasons five, six, and seven of 0:27:10.280 --> 0:27:12.480 Ray Donovan. It's on showtime anytime for people that are 0:27:12.520 --> 0:27:16.280 out there, all seven seasons. Eddie Marson, I mean you 0:27:17.040 --> 0:27:19.800 you really you ripped my heart out. Thank you were 0:27:19.960 --> 0:27:23.320 ripped my heart out. I mean the it's the sweet 0:27:23.359 --> 0:27:26.560 and the sour, it's those extremes. It's the dignity and 0:27:26.640 --> 0:27:30.520 the malevolence, but the whole range is there. Not many 0:27:30.520 --> 0:27:33.000 people get that, and that's what you did on that show. 0:27:33.040 --> 0:27:35.240 You got everything out of that part you possibly can. 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:37.760 You were great in that fucking show. Great, Thank you 0:27:37.840 --> 0:27:47.359 very much, Actor Eddie Marson. David Arquette has seen some 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:52.280 turbulent times, a very public marriage and divorce, rehab, a 0:27:52.320 --> 0:27:56.080 heart attack, and a career that's stalled in part because 0:27:56.119 --> 0:27:59.800 he won a pro wrestling championship two decades ago. But 0:28:00.040 --> 0:28:03.280 David Arquette comes from a long line of performers, and 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:07.119 he knows how to reinvent himself. My dad was a 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:10.239 big improvisational actor, and we did a bunch of that 0:28:10.400 --> 0:28:14.720 growing up. That was built into sort of our playtime. 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:18.240 But I wasn't really serious into it until high school. 0:28:18.400 --> 0:28:23.120 Where school Fairfax in Los Angeles? Where were you living 0:28:23.160 --> 0:28:25.480 one part of town. We lived right down the street 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:30.199 from Paramount Studios, right in Hollywood, But back then it 0:28:30.280 --> 0:28:34.080 was pretty crazy area at the time, punk rock and 0:28:34.440 --> 0:28:38.800 roller skating and you know, just all this bizarre world. 0:28:39.600 --> 0:28:42.400 Then I got into break dancing and graffiti and I 0:28:42.480 --> 0:28:44.880 was kind of like all into that world. And then 0:28:44.920 --> 0:28:46.800 they were doing a school play. They couldn't find the 0:28:46.880 --> 0:28:51.680 lead and they approached me, and then I met my teacher, Bendibaldo, 0:28:51.800 --> 0:28:54.680 who had a real impact on my life. Helped me 0:28:54.760 --> 0:28:58.880 focus on just acting and like getting into acting. And 0:28:58.920 --> 0:29:01.120 where were your sisters at that point in your family? 0:29:01.120 --> 0:29:03.560 At the point were they all dabbling in it? Like 0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:07.479 in my family literally because I'm the oldest, My brothers 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:11.040 were sitting around in the den of our house and 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:13.720 I was doing a soap opera, you know, and they 0:29:13.720 --> 0:29:16.040 were sitting there, stoned out of their mind and say, now, 0:29:16.080 --> 0:29:18.280 if ship Head here can get on TV, why can't 0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:21.080 we get on TV? You know, there was really the 0:29:21.200 --> 0:29:25.200 such contempt for me that launched their careers. Who was 0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:27.360 the first one to jump in the pool of your 0:29:27.520 --> 0:29:32.960 famous siblings? Rosanna really broke down the door for this generation. 0:29:33.240 --> 0:29:36.920 I mean, my great grandfather was cliff ar Ket Charlie Weaver, 0:29:37.600 --> 0:29:40.440 and then my father and my mother was also an actress. 0:29:40.800 --> 0:29:44.080 But then this generation, it was Rosanna. She ran out 0:29:44.120 --> 0:29:47.520 to Hollywood and stayed with the family that we were 0:29:47.560 --> 0:29:51.240 friends with when she was like fifteen or sixteen. Patricia 0:29:51.280 --> 0:29:54.800 then got into it, so they were both working actresses 0:29:55.360 --> 0:29:58.160 when I was in high school. And this fascinates me, 0:29:58.320 --> 0:30:01.600 this whole family thing, because you walt to such distinctive personalities. 0:30:01.800 --> 0:30:04.600 Did you have a similar goal? I don't know, there 0:30:04.640 --> 0:30:08.480 was eleven years difference between me and Rosanna, So when 0:30:08.480 --> 0:30:11.760 I was a teenager, she was a woman like starting 0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:15.000 her career, and I always remember like seeing some of 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:17.760 her early work and being really impressed by it, like 0:30:18.200 --> 0:30:22.440 the Executioner Song and Big Blue and After Hours. I mean, 0:30:22.480 --> 0:30:24.640 she was doing such incredible work and I was just 0:30:24.720 --> 0:30:28.880 in awe of her talent. We all have this improvisational 0:30:29.200 --> 0:30:32.640 bass because my dad was a working actor like forty 0:30:32.720 --> 0:30:36.160 five years, so he'd do industrial films and commercials, and 0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:39.280 I was still on the Walton's and just kind of 0:30:39.320 --> 0:30:42.880 paying the bills. So there was also a real kind 0:30:42.880 --> 0:30:47.880 of blue collar element to acting for me. I still 0:30:47.960 --> 0:30:50.720 kind of hold that even though I love theater, I 0:30:50.840 --> 0:30:53.480 fell in love with theater. I've been able to do 0:30:53.560 --> 0:31:00.960 a couple really beautiful plays and a couple of real stinkers. Well, 0:31:01.000 --> 0:31:05.040 what's one you enjoyed and where? Describe where were My 0:31:05.120 --> 0:31:08.320 favorite play was at the Geffen. It was called The 0:31:08.400 --> 0:31:11.360 Female of the Species and that Benning was the lead 0:31:11.400 --> 0:31:14.440 in it, and I learned so much just watching her. 0:31:15.440 --> 0:31:19.040 But Net Benning, who has that rare distinction of someone 0:31:19.480 --> 0:31:22.200 who became a movie star based on the performance in 0:31:22.240 --> 0:31:26.560 a play, she did them, the play Coastal Disturbances, the 0:31:26.640 --> 0:31:30.680 Tina how Play on Broadway with Tim Daley. I've always 0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:32.760 found it if I need something to kind of get 0:31:32.840 --> 0:31:35.040 my mind right, like to get my feelings right of it, 0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:37.160 what am I doing and why? Because movies and TV 0:31:37.240 --> 0:31:39.760 has been so daunting for me. I go to a 0:31:39.840 --> 0:31:41.440 play and all of a sudden, then I I just 0:31:41.560 --> 0:31:43.840 feel better, like if we were doing a revival. It 0:31:43.880 --> 0:31:45.680 was a famous piece of material, and it was a 0:31:45.720 --> 0:31:48.520 process that I was much more familiar with. It was 0:31:48.640 --> 0:31:51.240 movie making just seem like, man, you gotta be lucky. 0:31:51.480 --> 0:31:55.920 You know, you need a lot of luck in this business. Definitely, 0:31:56.160 --> 0:31:57.760 When did the luck come for you? When did you 0:31:57.760 --> 0:32:00.400 first feel lucky? I did a film called On His 0:32:00.480 --> 0:32:04.440 Way Back that was sort of my first indie film, Darling, 0:32:04.520 --> 0:32:07.440 that went to festivals and people sort of appreciated it, 0:32:07.760 --> 0:32:09.960 and I think from there, I did a film called 0:32:10.080 --> 0:32:13.560 Dream with the Fishes. I really loved that experience. Who 0:32:13.600 --> 0:32:18.360 was the director, Finn Taylor, really amazing writer director. She 0:32:18.520 --> 0:32:20.640 was brilliant. It's one of my favorite films that I've 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:23.560 done because it's based on a true story and just 0:32:23.680 --> 0:32:27.000 really had a lot of hard and really beautiful music 0:32:27.040 --> 0:32:29.600 in it, and I got to work with this actor 0:32:29.640 --> 0:32:33.040 Brad Hunt, that I've still dear friends with. And then 0:32:34.080 --> 0:32:36.400 what happens in terms of you make a movie that 0:32:36.440 --> 0:32:39.600 makes a huge amount of money correct they scream and 0:32:39.640 --> 0:32:42.400 that movie makes bags of money, and then what happens 0:32:42.440 --> 0:32:44.640 do you all of a sudden you decide now I 0:32:44.680 --> 0:32:47.680 need to do different movies. I could select sort of 0:32:48.160 --> 0:32:50.400 more films that I wanted to do. I had met 0:32:50.440 --> 0:32:54.840 Courtney Cox, my ex wife, on Scream that had been 0:32:55.120 --> 0:32:58.360 become a big focus of my life, just my relationship. 0:32:58.960 --> 0:33:01.880 And then I did a couple uh studio movies, but 0:33:01.920 --> 0:33:04.920 they're kind of It was funny. I was watching this 0:33:05.440 --> 0:33:10.040 documentary on the casting director of of Midnight Cowboy, and 0:33:10.080 --> 0:33:15.960 I'm all captivated by this beautiful story of this incredible 0:33:16.080 --> 0:33:22.400 artistic casting director and she cast one of my favorite films. Yeah, 0:33:22.480 --> 0:33:24.560 and I'm watching it and I'm like loving it. And 0:33:24.600 --> 0:33:27.560 then she was like, then the studio made me start 0:33:27.640 --> 0:33:31.320 casting crap. And it's like the show picture of me 0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:37.680 c spot run the movie. I had done a kid's movie, 0:33:37.840 --> 0:33:41.440 you know, So I was like, oh, it was like 0:33:41.480 --> 0:33:44.960 this gut punch. I know, people are really selective about 0:33:45.000 --> 0:33:49.640 what they do and the protective of their careers. And 0:33:49.720 --> 0:33:53.920 I'm getting that more now, but I never really was. 0:33:54.040 --> 0:33:56.120 I'd always do like a kids movie if I wanted 0:33:56.160 --> 0:33:59.000 to do a kid's movie, or or horror film, or 0:33:59.280 --> 0:34:02.080 I do a fun like I did this movie Eight 0:34:02.160 --> 0:34:05.680 Legged Freaks, which was like a throwback to the sixties 0:34:05.760 --> 0:34:09.200 kind of creature features like I love all that stuff. 0:34:09.239 --> 0:34:13.120 So I never saw it as selling out or you 0:34:13.160 --> 0:34:17.160 weren't calculating enough. Now you know you made the mistake 0:34:17.239 --> 0:34:19.680 of doing what you wanted to do right right, as 0:34:19.719 --> 0:34:22.080 opposed what they wanted you to do, you know now 0:34:22.120 --> 0:34:23.960 at the same time, because I don't want to dwell 0:34:24.000 --> 0:34:26.440 on this too much, but I just find the counterpoint interesting. 0:34:26.920 --> 0:34:29.239 When you met Courtney on Scream, she was on the 0:34:29.280 --> 0:34:32.680 TV show already or no, yeah, she she was on Friends. 0:34:32.680 --> 0:34:34.719 They were in like their first or second year, so 0:34:34.760 --> 0:34:36.480 it was very early on. And then she when she 0:34:36.560 --> 0:34:39.080 comes out the other end of that tunnel. She's one 0:34:39.120 --> 0:34:41.239 of the most famous women and she's part of one 0:34:41.239 --> 0:34:44.200 of the most famous TV shows in history. You were 0:34:44.239 --> 0:34:47.720 married to her for how long thirteen years or twelve 0:34:47.760 --> 0:34:49.759 years or something, so that run of that show, you 0:34:49.760 --> 0:34:52.239 were pretty much the run of the show. Yeah, through 0:34:52.280 --> 0:34:54.560 the run of the show. We have a sixteen year 0:34:54.600 --> 0:34:57.040 old daughter together now, but yeah, through the run of 0:34:57.080 --> 0:34:59.319 the show. You know, when you were with someone in 0:34:59.400 --> 0:35:04.640 that acting relationship, I became her husband a lot, you know. 0:35:05.360 --> 0:35:08.040 You know, you become second fiddle to a certain degree, 0:35:08.400 --> 0:35:12.280 or like there's an effect on your career in a sense, 0:35:12.400 --> 0:35:14.920 or you even just in any relationship. You just have 0:35:14.960 --> 0:35:19.640 to start making choices. Like I remember I was up 0:35:19.640 --> 0:35:22.800 for a role with High Fidelity, but I had already 0:35:22.840 --> 0:35:25.960 committed to me and Courtney doing this film together called 0:35:26.239 --> 0:35:29.800 The Shrink Is In, And Stephen Fears called me in 0:35:29.840 --> 0:35:32.240 the office. He said, come on, you gotta do this movie. 0:35:33.080 --> 0:35:34.960 You know, I know you have the film with your wife, 0:35:34.960 --> 0:35:41.440 but marriage is temporary. Movies are forever. Yeah, right, I 0:35:41.440 --> 0:35:43.279 had guys call me up. I had guys call me 0:35:43.320 --> 0:35:44.600 up and they said they were like, we can always 0:35:44.640 --> 0:35:47.000 get you another wife out, Like, I mean, you know, 0:35:47.120 --> 0:35:49.440 let's get serious. Did you get that sense from her 0:35:49.600 --> 0:35:51.799 that the goose that lays the golden egg and you 0:35:51.800 --> 0:35:54.200 have to really really protect that there were risks that 0:35:54.239 --> 0:35:57.799 she couldn't take in her career. Yeah, for sure. I 0:35:57.840 --> 0:36:01.120 definitely had to watch my self. I was a bit 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:04.680 of a wild character anyway. But when we had our daughter, Coco, 0:36:04.760 --> 0:36:08.840 I remember the paparazzi at this point in Los Angeles 0:36:08.920 --> 0:36:12.280 had just gone crazy. They were like gangsters with cameras 0:36:12.360 --> 0:36:15.640 and they would like provoke fights with me, and I'd 0:36:15.680 --> 0:36:19.239 be like screaming, like I got this protective instinct of 0:36:19.360 --> 0:36:22.720 my child. It was like, you know, you know about 0:36:22.840 --> 0:36:25.560 I wouldn't know anything about that, David, I have no 0:36:25.640 --> 0:36:29.840 idea what you're talking about. Paparazzi threatening your wife, your child, 0:36:30.280 --> 0:36:33.080 and you become really really activated over that. I have 0:36:33.200 --> 0:36:35.879 no idea what you're talking about. I know. It's so 0:36:36.360 --> 0:36:40.560 it's gets so crazy. It was a weird time because 0:36:40.600 --> 0:36:43.040 we were she was like the darling and and all 0:36:43.080 --> 0:36:46.200 that stuff, and you start going to all the parties 0:36:46.239 --> 0:36:49.680 and you start meeting all the big people and all 0:36:49.719 --> 0:36:51.600 the stuff. And then we got a divorce and I 0:36:51.719 --> 0:36:55.760 just kind of like really took it hard. I started drinking, 0:36:56.520 --> 0:37:01.680 just heartbroken. That was a tough time just to sort 0:37:01.680 --> 0:37:04.920 of bounce comes apart. When there's no kids, obviously, it's 0:37:04.920 --> 0:37:08.120 a it's different when those kids involved. You know. When 0:37:08.160 --> 0:37:11.640 I got divorced and have my daughter Ireland. It was 0:37:11.719 --> 0:37:14.640 fucking agony, man, it was fucking agony, you know, just 0:37:14.680 --> 0:37:17.600 to be another statistic, you know. Now, let me ask 0:37:17.600 --> 0:37:23.560 you this, your sister who was born your brother Roberts, right, 0:37:24.000 --> 0:37:28.040 if I read correctly, Alexis didn't emerge till she was 0:37:28.080 --> 0:37:32.520 really in her thirties correct well, within the family, she did. 0:37:32.800 --> 0:37:35.760 She came out in her late teens, nineteen or something, 0:37:36.040 --> 0:37:38.440 and my mom was really liberal and she had a 0:37:38.440 --> 0:37:41.480 really hard time with it. That was really a weird 0:37:41.520 --> 0:37:45.200 time because we're like, Mom, you're like the most open minded. 0:37:46.560 --> 0:37:48.440 She had a hard time because she knew it was 0:37:48.520 --> 0:37:51.879 just gonna be a hard life for Alexis. But then 0:37:51.960 --> 0:37:54.200 she did the wedding singer and she was boy George 0:37:54.200 --> 0:37:57.040 and that, so she kind of did certain roles where 0:37:57.080 --> 0:38:00.200 she showed that side, but she didn't really come out 0:38:00.440 --> 0:38:04.520 like publicly until she was ready to say, I only 0:38:04.560 --> 0:38:08.200 want to do you know, either female or transgender parts, 0:38:09.400 --> 0:38:13.840 And that's where she kind of came out publicly early 0:38:13.880 --> 0:38:17.600 two thousand's two four that yeah, I was reading about 0:38:17.600 --> 0:38:19.799 her and said she was born in sixty nine, so 0:38:19.880 --> 0:38:22.120 that makes her like thirty five years old. So she 0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:25.400 was living with that and and and keeping that close 0:38:25.680 --> 0:38:29.000 until she was thirty five years old. Oh, when she 0:38:29.080 --> 0:38:31.920 was thirty five, that's when she became a woman. But 0:38:32.000 --> 0:38:34.120 then at the end of her life then she wanted 0:38:34.280 --> 0:38:37.720 us to refer to her as our brother again before 0:38:37.760 --> 0:38:40.320 she died. So it's like this confusic thing where I 0:38:40.360 --> 0:38:43.759 say my brother and my sister. But towards the end, 0:38:43.760 --> 0:38:47.600 Alexis was like the female side of her, or her 0:38:47.800 --> 0:38:50.880 wanting to be a female she realized was connected a 0:38:50.880 --> 0:38:54.759 lot to sexuality. So at the end she wanted to 0:38:54.760 --> 0:39:01.960 be referred more to as our brother. David Arquette follow 0:39:02.080 --> 0:39:05.120 Here's the Thing on the I Heart Radio app, Apple 0:39:05.200 --> 0:39:09.200 Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. While you're there, 0:39:09.400 --> 0:39:13.800 leave us a review. When we return, David talks about 0:39:13.840 --> 0:39:15.759 why he wanted to get back in the ring for 0:39:15.840 --> 0:39:29.160 his new documentary You Can't Kill David Arquette. I'm Alec 0:39:29.200 --> 0:39:32.880 Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing. David Arquette is 0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:37.200 a long time real deal fan of professional wrestling. In 0:39:37.280 --> 0:39:40.160 the year two thousand, he won the w c W 0:39:40.400 --> 0:39:44.800 World Heavyweight Championship, a title he held for twelve days. 0:39:45.560 --> 0:39:49.440 An achievement that was mocked by wrestling fans and Hollywood alike. 0:39:50.080 --> 0:39:54.040 His career stalled, he let himself go, and then he 0:39:54.120 --> 0:39:57.400 decided to get back in the ring. It's all captured 0:39:57.400 --> 0:40:01.400 in a documentary released last year whose idea was the 0:40:01.400 --> 0:40:07.600 movie you Can't Kill David Arquette. You can't. And by 0:40:07.600 --> 0:40:10.279 the time I was done watching the movie, I mean, 0:40:10.320 --> 0:40:12.400 I thought, that's a cute title. That's a fun title. 0:40:12.719 --> 0:40:15.319 This is his middle aged crisis. You know he's up there. 0:40:15.560 --> 0:40:19.080 It was like my third middles his third When it 0:40:19.120 --> 0:40:22.000 came around to his third midlife crisis, he decided to 0:40:22.040 --> 0:40:25.319 film it. That's genius. So you do this movie. And 0:40:25.400 --> 0:40:27.640 I watched and by the end, I was like, Wow, 0:40:28.480 --> 0:40:31.520 that's a very apt title, because you can't kill David 0:40:31.640 --> 0:40:37.080 ar cat When did this wrestling thing begin? And why? 0:40:37.280 --> 0:40:42.680 What's the funk were you thinking? Well? I did a 0:40:42.719 --> 0:40:45.640 movie called Ready to Rumble years ago. It was one 0:40:45.680 --> 0:40:48.640 of those like three studio films I did that kind 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:51.919 of didn't get received very well, and it didn't even 0:40:51.920 --> 0:40:54.439 get received very well by the wrestling community at the time. 0:40:54.440 --> 0:40:57.120 It's a really over the top comedy, but it's since 0:40:57.200 --> 0:41:00.560 kind of grown some cult status. So I did this 0:41:00.600 --> 0:41:03.640 movie Ready to Rumble. It was through Warner Brothers. Warner 0:41:03.640 --> 0:41:06.799 Brothers at the time owned w c W, which was 0:41:06.920 --> 0:41:10.279 like the competiting brand to w w E, the two 0:41:10.440 --> 0:41:14.680 largest wrestling companies, and to promote the film, I went 0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:18.080 on and I did some like appearance and got involved 0:41:18.120 --> 0:41:20.799 because Diamond Dallas paid a big wrestler at the time, 0:41:21.080 --> 0:41:23.480 and he's also the star of the film Ready to Rumble, 0:41:23.520 --> 0:41:26.319 and we'd become friends through the process. So I came 0:41:26.320 --> 0:41:29.000 and I did some in ring thing and it got 0:41:29.000 --> 0:41:32.520 a really good reaction from the crowd. So they brought 0:41:32.600 --> 0:41:35.440 me back to do a second thing and they said 0:41:35.600 --> 0:41:39.120 we're going to make you the champion. That was wrestling fans, 0:41:39.160 --> 0:41:44.319 So I was like, no, that's all. Yeah. And since 0:41:44.360 --> 0:41:46.439 I was a kid. For since I was a kid, 0:41:46.480 --> 0:41:49.680 I always loved it. I'd go to the matches throughout 0:41:49.719 --> 0:41:52.560 the years and I saw Andre the Giant as a 0:41:52.640 --> 0:41:54.960 kid and it just kind of blew my mind. I 0:41:55.000 --> 0:41:58.040 just love it because my family goes back to Vaudeville. 0:41:58.680 --> 0:42:01.040 There's such a like a circule, this kind of connection. 0:42:01.120 --> 0:42:04.080 I love clowns. I love you know, the circus world. 0:42:04.560 --> 0:42:07.400 You know wrestling was kind of connected to that, and this, 0:42:07.840 --> 0:42:10.240 you know sport that I believe for a long time 0:42:10.320 --> 0:42:13.320 was a normal sport where it's not sort of predetermined 0:42:13.360 --> 0:42:16.840 like it is. So it was like an opportunity. And 0:42:16.880 --> 0:42:19.040 all these guys that I was fans of, Hulk Hogan 0:42:19.120 --> 0:42:22.120 and Macho Man were all at this company, and so 0:42:22.160 --> 0:42:24.000 I was like, Oh, that would be amazing, and they 0:42:24.000 --> 0:42:25.719 said we're gonna make you the champion. I was like, 0:42:25.760 --> 0:42:29.080 that's a terrible idea. Domdal's page said, well, listen if 0:42:29.080 --> 0:42:31.319 you if you don't do it, then it's over. There's 0:42:31.360 --> 0:42:34.719 no more promotion to ready to rumble, there's no more wrestling, 0:42:35.000 --> 0:42:37.360 like that's it. And I said, well, what if I 0:42:37.400 --> 0:42:39.120 do it? They say, you get to come with us 0:42:39.120 --> 0:42:42.280 for the next two weeks, travel with all this whole show, 0:42:42.719 --> 0:42:45.200 and you know, you're the champion for two weeks and 0:42:45.239 --> 0:42:48.000 then you'll lose it at the pay per view. I'd 0:42:48.120 --> 0:42:51.640 rather be champion for two weeks than not at all. Exactly, 0:42:52.080 --> 0:42:54.919 That's what I thought. I thought, Oh, be the fan 0:42:55.040 --> 0:42:57.200 that finally became a champion. But the fact that I 0:42:57.239 --> 0:43:00.600 was a comedic actor from Hollywood, the they saw it. 0:43:00.719 --> 0:43:05.040 Married to some girl on sitcom. They didn't go for it, 0:43:05.080 --> 0:43:08.040 and they've projected me. They hated me for twenty years. 0:43:08.080 --> 0:43:11.040 They'd spit on me and yelled the most horrible things 0:43:11.560 --> 0:43:13.680 and like trying to pick fights with me and all 0:43:13.719 --> 0:43:17.000 this stuff. And then the internet, Who's day? The fans 0:43:17.560 --> 0:43:22.239 fans wrestling fans and it was second. So you were 0:43:22.239 --> 0:43:24.799 the champion for two weeks and they rejected you could 0:43:24.800 --> 0:43:27.360 then though you were a Hollywood poser. Yeah, you're a 0:43:27.400 --> 0:43:30.400 Hollywood got to like get drunk with Rick Flair in 0:43:30.440 --> 0:43:34.000 a ball married to her. It was a huge baggage 0:43:34.040 --> 0:43:36.319 for you. Yeah, you need to be married to a 0:43:36.400 --> 0:43:38.600 woman with like scars on her face and everything. But 0:43:38.920 --> 0:43:40.680 so you're married to her and they think you're a 0:43:40.680 --> 0:43:43.160 Hollywood poser. You do this for two weeks, But do 0:43:43.200 --> 0:43:45.239 you find that all of a sudden you want to 0:43:45.239 --> 0:43:47.759 get into the wrestling thing for real because you're sick 0:43:47.800 --> 0:43:51.439 of people thinking that you haven't got what it takes. Yeah. 0:43:51.480 --> 0:43:53.640 I mean when we were younger, we used to scrap 0:43:53.680 --> 0:43:57.200 all the time, get into little rumbles and fights and 0:43:57.280 --> 0:43:59.920 all this stuff. You know, But was it your pride 0:44:00.040 --> 0:44:03.360 the triggered you? Yeah, it was. I I hated that 0:44:03.400 --> 0:44:06.680 they were like, I was a wooss you know what 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:10.400 I mean? They just treated me like this, like little 0:44:10.920 --> 0:44:15.120 punk being bullied. I was constantly being bullied for like 0:44:15.680 --> 0:44:19.759 and I was like, shut up, I'm gonna prove my show. 0:44:19.920 --> 0:44:24.000 You show you? Yeah? I did? And how does that beginning? 0:44:24.000 --> 0:44:25.839 Who do you go to? Sit there and go I 0:44:25.920 --> 0:44:27.759 really really want to get into this. Who do you 0:44:27.800 --> 0:44:30.200 tell that to? It built up for years and then 0:44:30.239 --> 0:44:32.480 I had two stints put in my heart. I had 0:44:32.520 --> 0:44:34.759 a really bad reaction to a stress test. I thought 0:44:34.760 --> 0:44:37.120 it was having no hard attack. And when I came 0:44:37.160 --> 0:44:39.880 out of it, I told my wife I've been really 0:44:39.920 --> 0:44:44.919 thinking about wrestling. She was like, what are you talking. Yeah. 0:44:45.040 --> 0:44:48.799 My current Christina, who's incredible. She produced the film You 0:44:48.880 --> 0:44:52.920 Cannot Kill David or Catch was McClarty. McClarty and she 0:44:53.000 --> 0:44:56.160 was a correspondent for E. Yeah. She went to n 0:44:56.280 --> 0:44:59.000 I U as a journalist and then did local news 0:44:59.080 --> 0:45:02.799 and then then E and we had met sort of 0:45:03.360 --> 0:45:07.080 at an eighties boat party. She's just such a badass, 0:45:07.160 --> 0:45:10.080 Like the skill set that she got from being a 0:45:10.160 --> 0:45:15.120 journalist goes right into being a producer. So incredibly well. 0:45:15.560 --> 0:45:18.160 And her her uncle was like a chief of staff 0:45:18.200 --> 0:45:20.759 to Clinton his first term, so she just could really 0:45:20.800 --> 0:45:23.719 get stuff done. Two stents in your heart, You I 0:45:23.760 --> 0:45:26.840 want to begin my wrestling career, Well, it was what 0:45:26.920 --> 0:45:31.040 did your wife? I literally was watching my life and seeing, 0:45:31.120 --> 0:45:34.919 like my friends, my family, my children, well kids, Well, 0:45:34.960 --> 0:45:36.920 this is a life if I if I don't make 0:45:36.960 --> 0:45:40.919 it through. And I didn't have like many regrets necessarily, 0:45:41.480 --> 0:45:43.959 But then I was thinking about wrestling. It was so 0:45:44.040 --> 0:45:46.759 strange to me that it was such a high on 0:45:46.800 --> 0:45:51.759 the list of like things that still were kind of 0:45:51.800 --> 0:45:54.960 gnawing at me. So I told her everyone wanted to 0:45:55.000 --> 0:45:57.399 return to wrestling. I also knew I had to lose 0:45:57.400 --> 0:45:59.920 a bunch of weight and get in shape, and I 0:46:00.120 --> 0:46:02.759 just thought if I were to do this process, it 0:46:02.760 --> 0:46:06.600 would be fun to film it so that I could 0:46:06.640 --> 0:46:11.080 give wrestling fans a glimpse of the experience I had 0:46:11.160 --> 0:46:15.360 when I first wrestled. So the film covers the period 0:46:15.640 --> 0:46:19.719 of your launching of your legit wrestling career. Yeah this 0:46:19.800 --> 0:46:23.960 is twenty years later. Now twenty years later, two stants later, 0:46:25.040 --> 0:46:29.400 divorce later, You're gonna launch her wrestling career And Christina 0:46:29.480 --> 0:46:31.520 doesn't sit there and call her a divorced Lawyer. She 0:46:31.520 --> 0:46:34.239 seems like she really got it together. What was her response? 0:46:35.080 --> 0:46:37.920 She thought it was crazy she did. It's all in 0:46:37.920 --> 0:46:40.440 the in the film. You know, there's also like this 0:46:40.520 --> 0:46:44.680 whole undertone was like my love for Randy Kaufman. Uh, 0:46:44.840 --> 0:46:48.040 he always loved wrestling. He actually went to Memphis and 0:46:48.080 --> 0:46:51.520 like wrestled for a year or two. Randy Piper was 0:46:51.600 --> 0:46:55.440 one who slapped him. That was Jerry Lawler, JR. Lawler, 0:46:55.760 --> 0:46:58.799 j Lawler and he also I've wrestled Jerry Lawler in 0:46:58.840 --> 0:47:00.880 the in the Doctor Ventary, I got of the do 0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:04.879 a pile driver just like Andy, but it literally messed 0:47:04.920 --> 0:47:07.399 my neck up to this day. It's it's so much 0:47:07.440 --> 0:47:12.719 more dangerous and painful and like how physically challenging than 0:47:12.800 --> 0:47:16.000 anything I've ever done before. I never knew like how 0:47:17.040 --> 0:47:21.000 how real it is, Like it is more there's more 0:47:21.080 --> 0:47:25.000 contact than you think. So my view of it, I mean, 0:47:25.000 --> 0:47:26.919 my sense of it is I think most people share 0:47:26.960 --> 0:47:30.160 this is that it's an extraordinary amount of physical conditioning. 0:47:30.000 --> 0:47:32.560 These guys and these women who do this look great. 0:47:32.600 --> 0:47:35.840 They're all athletic and ripped up and strong and powerful 0:47:35.880 --> 0:47:40.319 and muscled up and everything, and there's just enough reality 0:47:40.360 --> 0:47:42.560 and just enough violence to make it look real. But 0:47:42.600 --> 0:47:46.680 it's all choreography, and I mean there is some spontaneity, 0:47:46.760 --> 0:47:50.160 but it's all worked out for the safety of those involved. 0:47:50.320 --> 0:47:52.200 You don't take somebody and smash their face through the 0:47:52.800 --> 0:47:56.759 glass table, you know, sometimes people do. Actually, you know, 0:47:56.920 --> 0:48:00.319 it is all like worked out. But what you learned 0:48:00.400 --> 0:48:03.359 very quickly that people in the ring sometimes have other 0:48:03.640 --> 0:48:07.120 things going on in their life. There's something called a receipt, 0:48:07.200 --> 0:48:09.839 Like if somebody hits you with something, you can get 0:48:09.840 --> 0:48:13.279 a receipt to hit them back at some point. A 0:48:13.280 --> 0:48:15.520 lot of stuff happens in the wrestling ring. That's not 0:48:15.560 --> 0:48:18.440 when you work with like super pros, like the real pros. 0:48:18.600 --> 0:48:21.120 You could get in a ring with them and everything smooth, 0:48:21.239 --> 0:48:25.000 and you know, it looks like they're killing you. It's beautiful. Yeah, 0:48:25.160 --> 0:48:26.759 what was the most painful thing that happened to you 0:48:26.800 --> 0:48:29.480 in the ring? We had this death match where I 0:48:29.520 --> 0:48:31.600 got stabbed in the neck with a light tube and 0:48:31.640 --> 0:48:35.200 that was pretty in those painful Yeah, that's the film, 0:48:35.400 --> 0:48:38.400 but that actually wasn't the most painful. I think the 0:48:38.440 --> 0:48:41.959 pile Driver by Jerry Lawler or um I got put 0:48:42.000 --> 0:48:45.160 through a table through my back out against Bully Ray. 0:48:45.640 --> 0:48:48.320 Those were some of the most painful. You hit the 0:48:48.960 --> 0:48:51.719 mat so hard all the time. I got this kind 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:55.160 of reoccurring whiplash is pretty much what it is. One 0:48:55.160 --> 0:48:57.480 of my muscles that connects my shoulder to my neck 0:48:57.600 --> 0:49:01.320 just has never been the same. But the really interesting 0:49:01.400 --> 0:49:05.080 thing is you learn a lot about acting like it 0:49:05.200 --> 0:49:07.960 has to be real, Like you have to tap into 0:49:07.960 --> 0:49:12.520 these emotions that you could tell a story without making 0:49:12.560 --> 0:49:16.040 a sound. You have to show that you're scared or 0:49:16.120 --> 0:49:22.239 like now you're filled with ancor yeah, and and it's 0:49:22.280 --> 0:49:24.000 all in your eyes and it's all in this thing. 0:49:24.160 --> 0:49:26.560 But it's also when you get into a wrestling room, 0:49:26.560 --> 0:49:29.920 time speeds up. You'll do something and think like I'm 0:49:29.960 --> 0:49:33.319 gonna stop to the corner like an upset little kid, 0:49:34.360 --> 0:49:36.279 and I'll watch it back and I like, run to 0:49:36.320 --> 0:49:38.640 the corner. I was like, wait a second, I thought 0:49:38.640 --> 0:49:42.520 I took so much time doing that, But when you 0:49:43.080 --> 0:49:46.920 watch it back, it's so much quicker. So it teaches 0:49:46.960 --> 0:49:49.920 you to really be in the moment. There's this connection 0:49:50.000 --> 0:49:53.120 with an audience that you don't even have enough play. 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:56.520 It does like then move into this, Oh, you're doing 0:49:56.560 --> 0:50:01.520 a sport, You're combining. Like I was in my therapist 0:50:01.640 --> 0:50:04.520 office and I was like, oh, because my least favorite 0:50:04.520 --> 0:50:07.800 thing in the world is war and violence towards others, 0:50:07.880 --> 0:50:12.520 and I don't want to hurt anyone. So I was like, wow, 0:50:12.560 --> 0:50:16.200 that's my least favorite thing, and here I am simulating violence. 0:50:16.840 --> 0:50:19.040 Did this work that you put in for the film, 0:50:19.080 --> 0:50:21.520 the wrestling thing and coming back twenty years later, did 0:50:21.520 --> 0:50:24.640 that rekindle your love of acting as well? It did? Yeah, 0:50:25.080 --> 0:50:27.680 it did. It grounded me for one. It made me 0:50:27.760 --> 0:50:32.600 really just grateful for life. There's something that I've always 0:50:32.640 --> 0:50:35.560 tried to do is sort of stay in touch with people, 0:50:36.280 --> 0:50:38.080 you know what I mean, not get all caught up 0:50:38.080 --> 0:50:42.759 in Hollywood and that world. I like people. I like 0:50:42.920 --> 0:50:47.000 really interesting characters that you'll meet in the world. So 0:50:47.120 --> 0:50:48.799 you find a lot of them in the rest of 0:50:48.800 --> 0:50:50.840 the world, and you see a lot of like human 0:50:50.960 --> 0:50:53.200 nature in the rest of the world. And yeah, it 0:50:53.400 --> 0:50:56.839 keeps you grounded. What did your sisters say about there? 0:50:57.400 --> 0:50:59.840 They here in the film very fleetingly. What did they 0:51:00.000 --> 0:51:02.239 think about you getting light tube smashed in your face 0:51:02.239 --> 0:51:05.080 and all the stuff? Yeah, that wasn't Everyone was really 0:51:05.160 --> 0:51:07.920 upset about that. My wife was like, I just feel 0:51:07.960 --> 0:51:09.840 like you want to die, and I was like, I 0:51:09.920 --> 0:51:13.400 don't want to die, but I've definitely been beating myself up. 0:51:13.560 --> 0:51:18.040 I don't want to die, but I'm thinking about it. Mulligan, Honest, 0:51:18.400 --> 0:51:23.560 there's definitely a sado mastochistic element to deathmatch wrestling. People 0:51:23.560 --> 0:51:27.000 are doing it for some reason. They're beating themselves up there, 0:51:27.120 --> 0:51:30.880 numbing themselves, They're kind of experiencing this. It's also this 0:51:30.960 --> 0:51:33.959 connection with these fans that are watching it and they're 0:51:34.000 --> 0:51:38.359 like blood hungry, like they freak out. There's like when 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:41.080 I went into that room, they hated me, like they 0:51:41.120 --> 0:51:44.160 literally did not like me, and then when I was 0:51:45.200 --> 0:51:47.319 leaving they were cheering me. So I kind of want 0:51:47.360 --> 0:51:49.880 them over in that moment. So here's this image I 0:51:49.920 --> 0:51:51.759 have of you because I've seen other people like this. 0:51:52.840 --> 0:51:55.359 I've seen people in the forty years that I've been 0:51:55.400 --> 0:51:58.720 working as an actor since nine, I've seen people where 0:51:58.760 --> 0:52:01.200 like the path you can take, and of course there 0:52:01.239 --> 0:52:04.600 are diverse paths, they're not all the same, but you 0:52:04.719 --> 0:52:08.320 achieve a certain place in the business where you can relax. 0:52:08.400 --> 0:52:09.879 You know there's work there if you want. It isn't 0:52:09.880 --> 0:52:12.040 always what you want to do, but one for them 0:52:12.120 --> 0:52:14.240 one for you. You can make a little indie movie. 0:52:14.280 --> 0:52:16.520 It's a clever part. Now do you think that's true 0:52:16.520 --> 0:52:17.799 of you? Do you think there was a point where 0:52:17.800 --> 0:52:19.880 you just sat there and said, fuck this, man, I 0:52:19.920 --> 0:52:24.279 just can't. I can't be what they want me to be. Yeah, 0:52:24.440 --> 0:52:28.040 I don't. There's a lot about the business that doesn't 0:52:28.080 --> 0:52:31.200 appeal to me. And I just I'm horrible at auditions, 0:52:31.320 --> 0:52:34.120 So just doing auditions. But I've done a bunch of 0:52:34.160 --> 0:52:38.719 like little scrappy films just to like help first time 0:52:38.760 --> 0:52:41.960 directors and this and that. Like you know, I've been 0:52:42.000 --> 0:52:44.040 acting for thirty years, and I mean that's set just 0:52:44.640 --> 0:52:48.920 super ultra low budget, just to still stay sort of 0:52:48.960 --> 0:52:51.960 connected to it all. It's a long journey, you know. 0:52:52.520 --> 0:52:55.040 And you're starting out and come to l A and 0:52:55.080 --> 0:52:58.640 you your grandfather is this famous actor, and your sisters 0:52:58.719 --> 0:53:02.560 become famous, and then you marry the prom queen and 0:53:02.600 --> 0:53:04.520 you go through everything you've gone through and look where 0:53:04.560 --> 0:53:08.360 you are now you're married. Your wife saidal yeah, you 0:53:08.440 --> 0:53:10.560 have a lot to be grateful for. You got two 0:53:10.560 --> 0:53:14.520 little kids. You're still alive, even in spite of your 0:53:14.520 --> 0:53:18.000 best efforts, You're still alive. Yeah, And I get to 0:53:18.040 --> 0:53:21.919 have an interview with one of my heroes. You really 0:53:21.960 --> 0:53:25.000 are incredible actor. I've always been a huge fan. Listen. 0:53:25.000 --> 0:53:27.040 I hope you have a lot of great things coming 0:53:27.120 --> 0:53:28.720 up for you, man, because I think that you're really 0:53:28.800 --> 0:53:30.680 You're just so original, you know what I mean, You're 0:53:30.719 --> 0:53:35.520 so I watch you in that movie, and I hope 0:53:35.520 --> 0:53:37.440 people watch this movie. They've got to see this movie. 0:53:37.719 --> 0:53:41.080 You can't kill David Arquette. It is really, really, really 0:53:41.120 --> 0:53:43.239 a lot of fun to painful. There's a lot of 0:53:44.200 --> 0:53:47.920 it's funny. I appreciate it. Thank you. That'st of luck 0:53:47.960 --> 0:53:55.200 to you, buddy, to my thanks to actors Eddie Marston 0:53:55.600 --> 0:54:01.160 and David Arquette. We're produced by Kathleen Ruth, Carrie Donohue 0:54:01.239 --> 0:54:05.600 and Zach McNeese. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Thanks to 0:54:05.719 --> 0:54:10.120 Sarah every and Justin Wright. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the 0:54:10.160 --> 0:54:12.920 Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.