Speaker 1: As I was walking out of the room, I just
Speaker 1: just because I didn't know anything about horses and I
Speaker 1: wasn't a dancer, and I had lied, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't want to lie, and so I stopped and I
Speaker 1: turned around and said, uh so, Mrs Parks, Uh you
Speaker 1: know about those horses. I really, but I can learn.
Speaker 1: I can learn. I like horses. But you know, he says,
Speaker 1: he's and I saw the frustration. He says, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: and that's it. Oh and you know that about the dancing. Hello, friends,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Off the Beat. I'm your host, Brian
Speaker 1: baum Gartner. Now you don't have to ask me who
Speaker 1: are you gonna call, because you just heard that. I
Speaker 1: am calling the incredible Ernie Hudson for today's episode. And listen.
Speaker 1: If I had ghosts, I surely would be calling his
Speaker 1: character Winston Zeta Moore as well. That's right. You may
Speaker 1: know Ernie from Ghostbusters, you know, just one of the
Speaker 1: most iconic franchises of my lifetime. Or perhaps you're more
Speaker 1: familiar with him as Warden Leo Glenn from one of
Speaker 1: my favorite television shows, oz or Elsie Duncan from the
Speaker 1: Family Business or one of the other two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty plus projects that Ernie has acted in. No big deal.
Speaker 1: He's what they call prolific. Ernie has been gracing screens
Speaker 1: big and small for almost five decades, and I was
Speaker 1: absolutely thrilled to sit down and talk to him about
Speaker 1: his life. Let me tell you he has some stories
Speaker 1: to share. Okay, here's a couple of spoilers. He is
Speaker 1: path somehow includes the Marines, becoming a reserve deputy sheriff,
Speaker 1: and working with several of my favorite directors from the office.
Speaker 1: With that said, I'm gonna let you sit back and
Speaker 1: enjoy our conversation. Please give a warm off the beat.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Ernie Hudson, Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every month,
Speaker 1: left over from the night before. What's up, Ernie? Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up? What's up? Are you doing? I'm great? How
Speaker 1: are you doing? Fine? Man? Good to see you, Good
Speaker 1: to see you. Thanks so much for talking to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good to talk to you. Man. How's it going. I'm good.
Speaker 1: I uh, We're going to discuss this a little later.
Speaker 1: We've actually worked on the same project together. I don't
Speaker 1: even know if my producers know this, but we never
Speaker 1: appeared together. So there's there's a there's a there's a spoiler. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, okay, but I want to start back first
Speaker 1: you first off, what so what was the project? Do
Speaker 1: you don't remember? I was gonna tell I was gonna
Speaker 1: tell you later, but okay, okay, okay, yeah, I'll tell
Speaker 1: I'll tell you later. Okay. Uh. You you grew up
Speaker 1: in Michigan? That yeah, now is that like in the
Speaker 1: uper or we're we're in Michigan. You know, I grew
Speaker 1: up in Michigan. I didn't think there was anything north
Speaker 1: of say, Grand Rabbits, but Bears. So it took I
Speaker 1: realized that people actually lived there. Gone from southwestern Michigan,
Speaker 1: right along the coast, directly across the lake from Chicago. Okay,
Speaker 1: so yeah, Betton Harbor, what about you? Are you from Michigan,
Speaker 1: I'm from I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. But I was I
Speaker 1: was just there. I was just I was actually in
Speaker 1: Grand Rapids for the first time. Yeah. Yeah, Grand says um.
Speaker 1: It's a city, It's a city of bold of Michigan.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably the healthiest city I've worked in
Speaker 1: Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula, you know from time to time,
Speaker 1: so I've actually been there, but it was not until
Speaker 1: much month later on when you were growing up. Were
Speaker 1: you interested in writing stories? Yeah? Yeah, with the writing,
Speaker 1: I was interested in the writing. Um that was where
Speaker 1: I thought my career was going to go and telling
Speaker 1: I love telling stories, so the writing was a big
Speaker 1: part of it. And when I got into college, that
Speaker 1: was what I really wanted to focus on, even though
Speaker 1: right away I started acting. I joined some groups and
Speaker 1: whenever we were short of cast member, I've would step in,
Speaker 1: you know, so and as it actually because I didn't
Speaker 1: take it so serious. The acting was fun. It was
Speaker 1: never it was never a job. You know, writing became
Speaker 1: a job. And then uh, then I went to Yale
Speaker 1: and they just totally destroyed my writing. So I haven't
Speaker 1: written anything worth anything since. But really, yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: was not It was I was talking to a young
Speaker 1: lady who I was a classmate at Yale, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I really didn't It wasn't a good move. But the acting,
Speaker 1: again was fun and I didn't have to think about it,
Speaker 1: and I still don't think about it too much. So
Speaker 1: that's what I do well. That's that's healthy. Before before
Speaker 1: we hear how Yale screwed you up though you you
Speaker 1: attended Wayne State and you became a resident playwright at
Speaker 1: Concept East, which I'm told is the oldest black theater
Speaker 1: in in the country. It was for a long time.
Speaker 1: I'm name is sure if they're still there. The city
Speaker 1: has gone through so many changes, but for the longest
Speaker 1: time and had been there, you know, just in the community,
Speaker 1: really doing some great work. And Ron Milner, who you know,
Speaker 1: did some things on Broadway and became a wealth established
Speaker 1: Woody King who had the new Federal that if they
Speaker 1: all came out of Concept East Theater, and so that
Speaker 1: was kind of my introduction. But I was there thinking
Speaker 1: of myself as a writer. Okay, but you you performed some.
Speaker 1: I performed a lot. That's what I basically I realized
Speaker 1: that's always been you know, I don't know, I think
Speaker 1: I felt actors weren't as um legitimate or high on
Speaker 1: the totem pole is something. Being a writer seemed more
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, just more something. Acting did
Speaker 1: not seem like it was something that you could just say,
Speaker 1: I'm an actor and that would be enough, you know,
Speaker 1: you mean I'm an act a producer, I'm an actor director,
Speaker 1: I'm an actor hyphen something, but just being an actor,
Speaker 1: which it's what my life has turned into. This is
Speaker 1: all I do. It's all I know how to do.
Speaker 1: As you're as you're writing now, are they is concept?
Speaker 1: Are they doing original works that you're helping to write? Well?
Speaker 1: Are you talking about during the time? Yeah, original works? Um,
Speaker 1: we would. We had a lot of workshop stuff, so
Speaker 1: these are your plays we put on like it was
Speaker 1: really community theater, grassroots. Yeah. And so I was writing
Speaker 1: and they were doing little pieces, you know, little plays,
Speaker 1: had a couple of I was at Wayne State. Wayne
Speaker 1: State did some plays that I had written. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was sort of where I was, you know, when I
Speaker 1: was thinking of myself. But but I all always it
Speaker 1: was never appeared when I wasn't acting. And when you
Speaker 1: went to Yale that was primarily to pursue writing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got into the playwriting program that were I think
Speaker 1: only there was six in the program and I made
Speaker 1: an exception and brought me in. So I was the
Speaker 1: number seven and it was I think only like a
Speaker 1: at Yale School drama maybe a hundred thirty five students.
Speaker 1: It's really small, very small, very small, and uh but
Speaker 1: even then, I think that I got cast into play
Speaker 1: the first week I was there. So the acting just
Speaker 1: always kept trying to inform me that this is what
Speaker 1: you need to be going. One of, if not your
Speaker 1: first theatrical meaning film releases, was the co starring role
Speaker 1: in Leadbelly. Yeah, and that's stretching it sat co starring,
Speaker 1: But yeah, yes, I was in the field. You were
Speaker 1: in the film. How did that come about? Now? At
Speaker 1: this point are you are you solely focused on acting
Speaker 1: or how do you how do you get connected with
Speaker 1: Gordon Parks? No, I was. I was at my first
Speaker 1: year at Yale. A friend who I worked with doing
Speaker 1: a lot of community theater in Detroit, where I got
Speaker 1: my equity card. He was in l A and he
Speaker 1: was doing a play. And when we took the summer break,
Speaker 1: I went to Minnesota, where my family was, I got
Speaker 1: a call he was doing a play one of me,
Speaker 1: and and so I came out to l A. Was
Speaker 1: doing the play and trying to just see what I
Speaker 1: could get going, which is absolutely nothing. And then I
Speaker 1: had a devastating meeting with an agent in Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: who told me that I would never work in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: go back to Detroit. So set of really strange circumstances
Speaker 1: kind of came together. A girl I had met at
Speaker 1: a party. I was so devastated with this agent. I
Speaker 1: mean I really was close to tears. I wasn't, actually,
Speaker 1: I was so upset and so frustrated. I went to her,
Speaker 1: went to see her, and we sat and and drank,
Speaker 1: and I went home that night. Her dad came over
Speaker 1: and I left my resume there and her dad was
Speaker 1: Gordon Parks. The resume just by accident. But you know,
Speaker 1: I sat the resume that I tried to give to
Speaker 1: the agent on her piano, not consciously doing it. And
Speaker 1: when he came over to dinner, he saw my resume
Speaker 1: and photo and he was doing a movie called Lead Belly,
Speaker 1: and so he, the studio of Paramount, tried to reach
Speaker 1: out to me. Took him days because I was saying
Speaker 1: at my brother's house and my niece would answer the
Speaker 1: phone and hang up, but eventually I got the call.
Speaker 1: And anyway, so that's kind of how things were meant
Speaker 1: to happen. Apparently. So when I would have been going
Speaker 1: back to my second year Yale, I went to Texas
Speaker 1: to shoot lead belly. There was a choice between school
Speaker 1: or work or work, and uh, you know, most of
Speaker 1: the friends who pursued the whole academic course to the end,
Speaker 1: they ended up teaching. And I knew. I knew that much.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be I didn't want to teach.
Speaker 1: So that's, uh, that's how I got into and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: Gordon Parks was amazing. I was in down in Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas before it became Austin, Texas, and yeah, I just
Speaker 1: had a great time. Did did his daughter? Was she
Speaker 1: talking you up? Or how? I mean like he just
Speaker 1: saw it and he saw the photo on her piano.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I just I get a
Speaker 1: call and I was so depressed. I was so depressed
Speaker 1: because this agent had just just took away all the confidence.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just really I was thinking my
Speaker 1: brother's house that really wasn't room for me of you know,
Speaker 1: then we neat dinner, that little girl would say I
Speaker 1: was eating all the food up, So then I didn't
Speaker 1: want to eat the food anymore. My sister in law
Speaker 1: took my clothes to the laundry Matt and forgot and
Speaker 1: left him, and so I really was no clothes basically um.
Speaker 1: And so when I went to see this agent, I
Speaker 1: borrowed my brother's He had a kind of a blue
Speaker 1: jeans jacket and pants. But my brother is about forty
Speaker 1: pounds lighted than I am, so they really didn't fit.
Speaker 1: And I went in to see this agent. I borrowed
Speaker 1: his car to go see the agent, and I parked
Speaker 1: in a in a parking space that they charged, and
Speaker 1: those days nobody charged them parking. I didn't think they
Speaker 1: would charge. When I came out, I was so devastated.
Speaker 1: And then they asked me for the money for the
Speaker 1: parking and I had no money, and I just it
Speaker 1: just all kind of that's when I went to see her.
Speaker 1: So anyway, yeah, and he just saw the picture and
Speaker 1: they called uh. And I finally got the call and
Speaker 1: they said can you be here? And I said, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: can come. But I had no car, so so I
Speaker 1: went ran down the street to a friends, the friend
Speaker 1: who invited me to do the play who's directing, And
Speaker 1: I just took his keys. I didn't you know, I said, dude,
Speaker 1: I gotta take a car. I just grab the keys,
Speaker 1: jumped in his car, drove up to Paramount, went in
Speaker 1: to see him, and you know, I had this this
Speaker 1: audition and then he said, he said, I'm gonna ask you.
Speaker 1: Uh he said, this is really it's about Honey lead better.
Speaker 1: Lead Belly is, you know, his life. It's really important.
Speaker 1: That is a race with a team of horses, and
Speaker 1: I need someone who, you know, is familiar with horses.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been around horses? And I said, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know horses. I grew up with horses. He says, okay, so,
Speaker 1: but there's also there's a big dance. There's a big challenge.
Speaker 1: Lead Belly challenges Archie to this dance. And so you
Speaker 1: really you're able to have to do this dance? Are
Speaker 1: you a dancer? And I said, oh, yeah, yeah I can.
Speaker 1: I can dance. I can dance. And then as I
Speaker 1: was walking out of the room, I just because I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about horses and I was and a dancer,
Speaker 1: and I had lied, and I just didn't want to lie,
Speaker 1: and so I stopped and I turned around and said,
Speaker 1: uh so, Mrs Parks, uh you know about those horses.
Speaker 1: I really, but I can learn. I can learn. I
Speaker 1: like horses. But you know, he says, he's and I
Speaker 1: saw the frustration he says, okay, okay, And I said, oh,
Speaker 1: and you know that about the dancing, But I can learn,
Speaker 1: he said, just just waiting the hallway. So that I said,
Speaker 1: in the hallway. And then the producer came up to
Speaker 1: meeting and he said, Ernie um Gordon, he really liked
Speaker 1: you and I he wants you to be in the movie.
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you what. We're gonna pay you six
Speaker 1: hundred and five dollars a week. How does that sound?
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, yeah, sure, that'd be great. Well,
Speaker 1: the minimum was six hundred four dollars. So I signed
Speaker 1: a contract for absolutely the least of my bigger baby,
Speaker 1: but I got the job. You know, what was it
Speaker 1: like being on set, like you know, a movie set
Speaker 1: down there on location, first significant work. What how was
Speaker 1: that experience for you? It was, well, it was great.
Speaker 1: My brother who he passed through a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: but he did a lot of films and a lot
Speaker 1: of films together, he came down with me for a period.
Speaker 1: The people were right. Austin was small. It wasn't Austin
Speaker 1: the way it is now. I just found, you know,
Speaker 1: the people truly amazing. I said to my brother, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, wow, man, it's like the people here, which
Speaker 1: when we were mostly around, you know, except for the
Speaker 1: cast white areas because we're shooting out in the country.
Speaker 1: I said, that's so nice, man, I mean, it's like
Speaker 1: everybody's really, like, really cool. And he looked at me
Speaker 1: and said, try being me. So so you're in the movie.
Speaker 1: You're one of the actors, but I'm not. Oh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a whole different ball game with me. Uh but
Speaker 1: which is usually his his complaint over the years. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. The problem was I also that dance was
Speaker 1: so exhausting and so strenuous and and and I realized
Speaker 1: that I really had to work on it and it
Speaker 1: in it. They had another dancer who they brought in.
Speaker 1: I thought they were going to take my part away.
Speaker 1: Xavier came in and he was amazing, and then I thought,
Speaker 1: oh my god, they're gonna but they he was sort
Speaker 1: of my backup in case I couldn't do but I
Speaker 1: and that's when I thought, no, I'm doing this dance.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta do this dance. But Roger Mosley,
Speaker 1: who was starring and who passed away recently in front
Speaker 1: of the producers and Gordon he came and saw me
Speaker 1: dancing in one of the rehearsals and said, oh, I
Speaker 1: guess it's not true what they say about all black
Speaker 1: people can dance. So I was always that insecure, like
Speaker 1: I gotta get this, and I got huh. I didn't
Speaker 1: need my double and did all the dancing. I drove
Speaker 1: those horses like never before I did it. But it
Speaker 1: was great. Um, yeah it was you know, I was
Speaker 1: making a movie and Gordon was amazing. He was a
Speaker 1: friend up until he passed away. He always called me
Speaker 1: the character's name, though he never called me Yarning. I
Speaker 1: was always Archie and he he called Sydney Portier and
Speaker 1: asked Sydney Portia to see me because Sydney was doing
Speaker 1: the project. But that didn't work out quite as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was great. It was great. I was
Speaker 1: in the movies. Finally, when you when you finished that,
Speaker 1: how easy was it for you to continue to get work? Oh?
Speaker 1: It was. It was rough because like that, Gordon had
Speaker 1: called Sydney. Sidney had agreed to see me, but it
Speaker 1: was taking too long. I'm like, when is it gonna
Speaker 1: see me? So I called I left messages. Sydney was
Speaker 1: over at twentieth century, and so I just decided I'm
Speaker 1: just going to go there. So so I went to
Speaker 1: his office as he was coming out to go play
Speaker 1: golf or play tennis or something, and I so I said, Mr, Party,
Speaker 1: I'm Ernie Hudson going in parks to colways. And he
Speaker 1: was so annoyed that he never worked with me. But
Speaker 1: I got I did a couple of TV things. I
Speaker 1: got a pilot. Not that I was a regular, but
Speaker 1: I got it was it was shooting, um serious. I
Speaker 1: worked a bit, but at that point my marriage was
Speaker 1: sort of in trouble, ending even in trouble a long time.
Speaker 1: I just didn't realize it. And so I left l
Speaker 1: A after that year and went to Minnesota to try
Speaker 1: to pull my family together. And life goes on, but
Speaker 1: you know, I tend to run on. So if I'm
Speaker 1: running on with answers, just you know, it was just
Speaker 1: it was one of those times when you don't know
Speaker 1: what's coming next, but you just know that you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're holding on and you're not gonna let go.
Speaker 1: You did get a number of shows and movies here
Speaker 1: and there. Incredible Hulk, Yeah, Jukes of Hazard. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was After I did some work that year, I went
Speaker 1: to Minnesota and tried to pull my marriage, you get
Speaker 1: the marriage totally. I realized that that everybody knew the
Speaker 1: marriage is ended except me, you know. But finally that
Speaker 1: was over. Did The Great White Hope in Minnesota some
Speaker 1: plays there which were life changing for me. And when
Speaker 1: I came back to l A the next year, I
Speaker 1: went right to work. You went right and I never
Speaker 1: stopped working yet. Where Where did you work? Did you
Speaker 1: work at the Guthrie in Minnesota? No? No? I Um,
Speaker 1: I didn't work at the three. I did, uh, the
Speaker 1: Great White Hope at the Theater in the Round. The
Speaker 1: play opened and it was life changing. I mean I was,
Speaker 1: you know, starring in it. It was the first you know,
Speaker 1: it was. I was turning thirty. I've been acting for
Speaker 1: it seemed like ten years. I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I have to add the years up, but a long time.
Speaker 1: And I've been trying so hard, and I just felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, my marriage is ending. I had no money,
Speaker 1: stuck in Minnesota, I didn't have bus fare to get
Speaker 1: back to l A. And so I did this play
Speaker 1: and for me, The Gray White Hope was a chance
Speaker 1: to just take everything I'd ever learned and poured into
Speaker 1: this character. It was a great character when I was
Speaker 1: I've never had a character like that in movies, but
Speaker 1: I just I worked on it like it was. I
Speaker 1: needed that affirmation. And the play opened huge and it
Speaker 1: was a sellout and the press everything was just it
Speaker 1: built my ego. So when I came out to l A,
Speaker 1: I was sort of riding that wave, you know, and
Speaker 1: uh and it it sort of carried. But I needed that.
Speaker 1: So in Minnesota gave me that. I'll always be appreciative
Speaker 1: Minnesota because just now, at the same time, I was
Speaker 1: doing The Great White Hope the University of Minnesota that
Speaker 1: taken some classes at but they did a production of
Speaker 1: a play that I wrote, so that the writing was
Speaker 1: still kind of happening a bit, at least in my mind.
Speaker 1: But so the time I spent in Minnesota was really very,
Speaker 1: very good. But I came out to l A. And
Speaker 1: like I said, I went right to work on TV
Speaker 1: a lot of TV shows, and uh, never really kind
Speaker 1: of stopped working. Isn't it Isn't it amazing. I don't
Speaker 1: know that I've talked to anybody about this, but it
Speaker 1: can it could be something significant like your role in
Speaker 1: the Great White Hope or something sometimes very small. That
Speaker 1: that confidence, how much that helps you as you start
Speaker 1: going out and audition. It's amazing, right, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's um And you know, in times I realized
Speaker 1: it was also physical because I used to think his kids,
Speaker 1: you have to look a certain way of these guys
Speaker 1: because they look this way. Then they got that or
Speaker 1: But it's really it's not that. It's it's all about
Speaker 1: what you carry with you. It's all about that inner
Speaker 1: thing and that's what people buy, you know, And when
Speaker 1: you're stressing in your worried or you don't think you're
Speaker 1: you know, I, I don't know. That's something that we
Speaker 1: find it. You know, it's always there, but we have
Speaker 1: to find that the courage to to allow ourselves to
Speaker 1: be maybe a little selfish, a little arrogant, little competent. Right,
Speaker 1: you know, I believed with all my heart that I'm
Speaker 1: the best. There is nobody better, I mean, you know, right,
Speaker 1: And it makes a huge difference, it does. Uh, these
Speaker 1: roles you're booking Dukes of Hazard, a team incredible whole
Speaker 1: high Cliff manner. Are you are you? Are you happy
Speaker 1: with the roles? That you're getting. Are you excited to
Speaker 1: be working? Oh? Yeah, I was just I mean, I
Speaker 1: was really excited to be working. I was I'm in
Speaker 1: the game now, but and I assume that it's going
Speaker 1: to build to get that that role that's going to transform,
Speaker 1: and now I'm I'm on top of the game. And
Speaker 1: that was always elusive. You know, I was working, working, working.
Speaker 1: Even now at this fifty years later, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of go, yeah, but that role I need. Uh,
Speaker 1: I haven't had that role. I haven't had that that
Speaker 1: that what the great White Hope. I just was able
Speaker 1: to every time I did the show and went home,
Speaker 1: I was exhausted. I bought everything I knew to the work.
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to usual that. I get stuff
Speaker 1: like we don't need all what you got, We just
Speaker 1: need you to do this and then get out of
Speaker 1: the way so the other guy can do his thing.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm not asked for all of me
Speaker 1: and and I'd love to it kind of like Jamie
Speaker 1: Fox when he did Ray, I just felt like, Okay,
Speaker 1: everything that Jamie Fox had went into that role. I
Speaker 1: haven't had that yet, and so and I've been looking
Speaker 1: for it. I assumed though that that would come next,
Speaker 1: and it's sort of never never, kind of did you know,
Speaker 1: roles changed? You know, early on it was kind of
Speaker 1: the because of physicality, you know, you know, they're heavy,
Speaker 1: you know, and then I became best friends and then
Speaker 1: it became you know, so the work. I was never
Speaker 1: locked into a thing because honestly, I was always looking
Speaker 1: for adjusting whatever I needed to do to get the roles.
Speaker 1: So if I needed to be funny, if I needed
Speaker 1: to be whatever I needed to do to get the role,
Speaker 1: and uh, I have friends who there. It was a
Speaker 1: little bit more limited, but they worked because they sold
Speaker 1: this this thing that they do and people love that,
Speaker 1: you know. But I I was always like, no, got it.
Speaker 1: And that was a single dad, so they had a
Speaker 1: lot to do with with it too. So yeah, in
Speaker 1: eight to eight three, moving into you, well, you made
Speaker 1: Ivan Reitmann and you get cast, as Winston's said, are
Speaker 1: more in Ghostbusters. Tell me about your casting story. How
Speaker 1: did how did it come about? Well, the I Henry
Speaker 1: Winkler was doing a television series he was producing at
Speaker 1: ABC called The Ryan's Ryan's Four. It was about four
Speaker 1: doctors and I got the audition and I wanted man
Speaker 1: to play a doctor on TV. That was like that,
Speaker 1: I just had to have this role. I went in
Speaker 1: and I killed it, and they but they said they
Speaker 1: ABC really liked me, and the producers really liked me,
Speaker 1: but Henry was not so love me. So they wanted
Speaker 1: me to go back and auditioned for Henry. And so
Speaker 1: I went back in and as I was walking into
Speaker 1: the room and they called me and Henry was leaving,
Speaker 1: so and I was like, man, so and I went in.
Speaker 1: I did the little dance came out. I got a
Speaker 1: call from the agent later on saying bad news. You
Speaker 1: didn't get Ryan's four. And I was like, but you
Speaker 1: got this movie called Adventures in the Creep Zone shooting
Speaker 1: in Vancouver, and I'm like Adventures in the Creep Zone
Speaker 1: that I was really depressed. Well, Adventures in the Creep
Speaker 1: Zone was a movie that Ivan Rightman would be producing
Speaker 1: and with Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwall. So I did
Speaker 1: that movie, got a chance to work with Ivan. But
Speaker 1: the character in that movie was Washington, who was a
Speaker 1: guy who was sort of bigger than life. My head
Speaker 1: was shaved, I talked in the lower register. He was
Speaker 1: just sort of one of those kind of bombassaing big guys,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think Ivan saw me that way.
Speaker 1: And so the first time I heard a ghost by
Speaker 1: because it was a year after I had worked with
Speaker 1: him on Space Center and I was visiting a friend
Speaker 1: at Sea Signai Hospital and I have been ripe. I
Speaker 1: just happened to be there, got on the elevator and
Speaker 1: we're riding down and need you know, pleasant tries and
Speaker 1: then he said, oh, I'm I'm doing this movie Ghostbusters
Speaker 1: with a Billy and Danny, but there's nothing in it
Speaker 1: for you do when they're really fast. And said, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's uh, it's cool. And then I found out
Speaker 1: that there was a role that were casting looking at
Speaker 1: Black So but I think at one point they saw everybody,
Speaker 1: but I've been they've refused to see me. So it
Speaker 1: took me probably it feels like three months. It might
Speaker 1: have been two months. I don't know, but it took
Speaker 1: me a long time to finally my agent was able
Speaker 1: to get an audition. And that was because I even
Speaker 1: saw you in a certain way, I think so he
Speaker 1: saw me in a certain way. The character I've played
Speaker 1: in that movie would not work in ghost Busses because
Speaker 1: he was just you know, like I said, and it
Speaker 1: was he was over the top and that's what he
Speaker 1: that's that was the character, you know. So but I
Speaker 1: went in and auditioned, and I thought, I, Um, Harold
Speaker 1: Ramos was in the room ivan his producers, and I
Speaker 1: killed it. I mean I got the script. At first.
Speaker 1: I got the script and I thought, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is so amazing. If I get this role, I
Speaker 1: gotta get this role. Except I was a single dad.
Speaker 1: The rent was due. I needed his job. I just
Speaker 1: went in and then I got the feedback that they
Speaker 1: liked me a lot. They wanted me to come in
Speaker 1: and screen tests. I'm thinking, but they had a camera
Speaker 1: in the room at the time, but okay, So I
Speaker 1: went back in and then they said, well, they really
Speaker 1: liked me and they wanted to come again. I think
Speaker 1: I did like six auditions and they still weren't satisfied.
Speaker 1: They said they were going to New York they were
Speaker 1: gonna see some because there and so this is going on,
Speaker 1: like it just felt like forever. I made the mistake
Speaker 1: of calling um the casting director because I just needed
Speaker 1: to know, and I said, uh, I'm I'm going to Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to leave town in case this
Speaker 1: was going to happen. So what's going on? And she said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I will let you know. Well, when they
Speaker 1: went to negotiate, they said, oh, Ernie wants a job
Speaker 1: because he's been calling casting director and so we don't
Speaker 1: have to pay him anybody because he's so desperate. And
Speaker 1: they didn't and so, uh but you know, it worked out,
Speaker 1: but it was it was a struggle getting the job.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Ghostbusters was a probably the biggest learning experience
Speaker 1: I've had, and all my fifty five plus whatever years
Speaker 1: I've been doing this, it was while it was it
Speaker 1: was a struggle because it wasn't anything that I thought.
Speaker 1: You know, at first I got the movie, but you're
Speaker 1: not making that much money. I mean, I'm just lucky.
Speaker 1: But the role was so amazing that I I get
Speaker 1: this role. Man, I know, I'm gonna just I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take Hollywood. And then I before we start chewing, they
Speaker 1: changed the role and they took all the meat out
Speaker 1: of it, and suddenly I'm coming in halfway through the
Speaker 1: movie and it's like, that's not what I signed up.
Speaker 1: I took no money because it's such a great role.
Speaker 1: But now it's not a great role and so and
Speaker 1: and then I do the movie and then uh, in
Speaker 1: the movie, get ready, I'm not on the promotion, I'm
Speaker 1: not on these three guys, and I'm not in it.
Speaker 1: And so all the things are going to happen in
Speaker 1: Hollywood didn't happen. And and I'm stuck in an apartment.
Speaker 1: And now the movie is so huge that fans are
Speaker 1: coming to my door. Go on and on and on.
Speaker 1: So it was but all of it was me having
Speaker 1: to go, how do I how and why I adjust?
Speaker 1: And I think that is what has helped me to sustain.
Speaker 1: How do I not be angry about this? But how
Speaker 1: do I what's going on? And how do I make
Speaker 1: peace with? And Harold Ramos was very helpful that way.
Speaker 1: Harold carried himself in a way that I thought, no
Speaker 1: matter what happens on the set, Harold is always you know,
Speaker 1: he just knows how to navigate. And I would watch
Speaker 1: him a lot, and I think I learned a lot.
Speaker 1: Just you know, you can't lose it. When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, you make me mad, I'll do this. You
Speaker 1: can't do that and not have a career. But you
Speaker 1: can't not do it and hate yourself. You gotta find
Speaker 1: a way to still feel good about who you are
Speaker 1: and still allow life to happen the way it happens.
Speaker 1: And that's what Ghostbusters taught me. Yeah, Harold directed a
Speaker 1: number of episodes of the Office, and I was lucky
Speaker 1: enough to get to know him a little bit. What
Speaker 1: a what a kind yea even killed That's it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I never thought about it that way, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: he directed some probably our most complicated episode out of
Speaker 1: two hundred and six never never unflappable. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he um. I always sort of credit him. I mean,
Speaker 1: not taking any away from my environment, but whenever things
Speaker 1: would just get a little bit crazy a little bit,
Speaker 1: and that's all, Harold was always the one that pulled
Speaker 1: all the pieces back together, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: He just had a way and and I always considered him.
Speaker 1: I mean we never really what we did hang out
Speaker 1: a little bit, but I just really I was able
Speaker 1: to tell him later on at the Austin Film Festival,
Speaker 1: they asked me to present him with an award, but
Speaker 1: he just it meant a lot to me at that time.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're young, you get advice from friends
Speaker 1: and it's not the best advice you get upset, and
Speaker 1: he said, man, you ought to do this, said you
Speaker 1: do something stupid. And then but it was nice having
Speaker 1: someone kind of it wasn't a mentor, but just my
Speaker 1: wife and I had been together for a number of
Speaker 1: years since before I came out of l A and
Speaker 1: we and I had been married once. It was awful.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to marry again, and we were together,
Speaker 1: but I was kind of not committed. And it was
Speaker 1: actually Harold who was getting married at the time. But
Speaker 1: I realized that she was. They were there was the closest,
Speaker 1: there was a friendship, and that was what really mattered.
Speaker 1: You know. I think sometimes in Hollywood, you think you
Speaker 1: got to marry this kind of person, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: she wasn't the right color, she wasn't the right whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, even though she's my best friend and we
Speaker 1: have this very special bond, but it's not it's not
Speaker 1: what I need to do what I And then I
Speaker 1: think it was Harold that not for anything he said,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, yeah, that, I mean, I want someone
Speaker 1: I'm going to spend my life with and not someone
Speaker 1: who looks a certain way or is approved by whoever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh and I know, I don't think I ever
Speaker 1: said this to my wife, but I know that is
Speaker 1: what made me go. You know what, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't need anybody's approval to love who I love and
Speaker 1: UH always and I still together now what he six
Speaker 1: whatever years. But to make that final step, it was
Speaker 1: just seeing Harold his relationship with his UH with his
Speaker 1: wife was very very special. So I learned a lot
Speaker 1: in so many ways. Yeah, well, I mean it's a
Speaker 1: huge obviously. I mean it's just it's almost reductive to
Speaker 1: talk about how huge the movie was. The opening weekend
Speaker 1: set box office records at the time, it's sat there
Speaker 1: for weeks being at the top. Is it? Is it
Speaker 1: a blessing or a curse for you? You know some
Speaker 1: things that's him, like curses end up being blessings. So
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was. All I know is
Speaker 1: at the time, once again I was a single dad.
Speaker 1: I need to work, and I thought, okay, this is
Speaker 1: going to open up my MOVI. And I've done some
Speaker 1: movies before. I did a movie with John Candy called
Speaker 1: Going was a Going Deserved. I think it was Going deserved.
Speaker 1: I've done a few films before, but I thought Ghostbuster
Speaker 1: was going to open the door because it's what I
Speaker 1: always been told. Have been a big blockbuster movie, it
Speaker 1: means other things with a major studio. So I didn't
Speaker 1: make the money that I thought movie stars make. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm living in a neighborhood. There's no gates,
Speaker 1: there's no kind of protection here, and suddenly I can't
Speaker 1: get a movie. I cannot not get a movie. I
Speaker 1: can't even get an interview. I even Colombia, who produced
Speaker 1: the movie, who would invite me to come to their parties.
Speaker 1: We're doing movie they were doing sold the story with
Speaker 1: most of the black cast. I couldn't get an audition.
Speaker 1: It was like everything froze up. And that was like
Speaker 1: I didn't understand why it was. It wasn't until they
Speaker 1: three years later, Nick Noley was doing a movie called Weeds,
Speaker 1: and I finally got an audition and I went in
Speaker 1: and I just had I had to have this role,
Speaker 1: and I got the role. And then I did I
Speaker 1: think six or seven movies back to back, and then
Speaker 1: Ghostbusters too happened and the same thing happened. Everything shut down.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I don't know if producers thought
Speaker 1: that somehow, I don't know what why. I can't explain why,
Speaker 1: but it did not. And that's when I went to
Speaker 1: do a lot of TV show, you know, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't getting filmed, which is what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Did you well, but let's hope for Ghostbusters too. They
Speaker 1: paid you a little bit more. They paid me a
Speaker 1: little bit more, but I think I got it. I
Speaker 1: think they paid me about as much as those guys
Speaker 1: per Diem was, you know, I mean, those guys each
Speaker 1: got timper scent of the box office gross. Okay, so
Speaker 1: so we we won't even go there. But they did
Speaker 1: pay me more, and it was certainly more fun. Winston
Speaker 1: was established. But I will say, and I ain't ad
Speaker 1: at nobody, don't get me wrong here, but I will
Speaker 1: say that the character's cut out of half of the movie. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm like, where's Winston that? I mean, I opened the
Speaker 1: movie and then I disappear, and so none of that
Speaker 1: ever made sense. It still doesn't make sense. Fans are
Speaker 1: okay with it, but I never really understand. But you know,
Speaker 1: now it's a different time. Jason Reitman has sort of
Speaker 1: taken over the Helm and ghost buses. You know, they're
Speaker 1: moving forward with it. I went to UM. I got
Speaker 1: invited to Chicago. They had a thirty year reunion release
Speaker 1: of the movie, and so I got invited to Chicago,
Speaker 1: go to the theater and introduced the movie and the
Speaker 1: whole thing. And I get to Chicago and I said,
Speaker 1: and it's the three guys on the I'm like, come
Speaker 1: on thirty years later, guys, really, this is true. I
Speaker 1: did that Today Show and Al Roker, who's a big
Speaker 1: fan of the movie, and so they did the interview
Speaker 1: and then he said, Ernie, we have some gifts for you.
Speaker 1: And they gave me a little bag of Ghostbuster stuff
Speaker 1: which was two dolls, which wasn't one of mine. And
Speaker 1: then I got a T shirt. This is true. I'm
Speaker 1: on the Today's Show. They give me a T shirt
Speaker 1: and it's four guys on the T shirt, but it's
Speaker 1: Danny Ackroyd. Twice I'm not on the T shirt. I go,
Speaker 1: this has to be delivered. I mean, somebody had to
Speaker 1: look at and I don't know. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to react on national TV. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: say something, if I don't say something. So I didn't
Speaker 1: say anything, but I'm like, so, anyway, some Ghostbusters person
Speaker 1: and I don't know, but it's uh, it's been interesting,
Speaker 1: to say the least. But the fans are amazing. They've
Speaker 1: always been very kind. I remember having a discussion with
Speaker 1: one of the executive producers and Ivan, and the executive
Speaker 1: producers said, you know, the fans they think Once is
Speaker 1: just one of the Ghostbusters, Like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: That's what I thought too. But I love the franchise.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy. I've been um. And then I remember
Speaker 1: I've been saying Once that. He says, you know, Ernie,
Speaker 1: you worked, you work more than all the other guys,
Speaker 1: and I go, yeah, because I had to make up
Speaker 1: trying to catch up with that tender said Ghostbusters answer
Speaker 1: the call, directed by Paul fig I was in that
Speaker 1: so I will tell I will tell you the story.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this story. Very few people have heard
Speaker 1: this story. I don't think I've ever told the story
Speaker 1: before publicly. But I hope I don't get in trouble.
Speaker 1: Alison Jones, who was casting director of the Office, and
Speaker 1: Paul fig who directed a lot of episodes of the Office.
Speaker 1: I get a call. It's about seven o'clock at night
Speaker 1: and from Alison Jones direct I think directly to me.
Speaker 1: We were friends, and she said, so there's this a
Speaker 1: little part. It's gonna be something bigger. It happens at
Speaker 1: the absolute climax of the movie. Paul said he needs
Speaker 1: you in the movie and I said, okay, okay, you
Speaker 1: know there's and she goes, there's not much there. Who
Speaker 1: wants to m probably wants to do all this stuff
Speaker 1: on set. He needs you to come to Boston tomorrow
Speaker 1: the first flight of the day. And I'm like, what
Speaker 1: wait tomorrow, Like both are and I said okay, And
Speaker 1: I said how long will I be there? And she said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. So like, yeah, this is one moment.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is one moment in the movie. And
Speaker 1: so I fly, I fly to like five thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning, I'm getting up, I fly to Boston. I'm there,
Speaker 1: and it is the climax of the movie. You got
Speaker 1: them swinging around, ghosts coming up, all the ladies are there, everything,
Speaker 1: And basically what happens is I come out in my bathrobe,
Speaker 1: dead pan a joke, get killed by a ghost and
Speaker 1: that's it. But because it was that there were all
Speaker 1: of these elements, we shot the same scene for like
Speaker 1: two and a half weeks. That kept getting interrupt it
Speaker 1: by Rain. I think I was there about a month,
Speaker 1: and um, and I was, I was. I was cut
Speaker 1: from the movie. Now I'm back in. I think cut,
Speaker 1: but I was cut. That's my Ghostbusters experience as well.
Speaker 1: So well, if you were there for a month, you
Speaker 1: made a whole lot more than I did, because they
Speaker 1: were like, we want you in the movie and uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, guys, uh, you make it seem like
Speaker 1: I'm asking you to be in the movie. But so,
Speaker 1: but you're You're not a Ghostbuster, You're the uncle. Did that?
Speaker 1: I'm like, really, because that makes any sense to me.
Speaker 1: But I love all the person Let me say I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the movie, and I love all the ladies. They're
Speaker 1: all incredibly funny. I think there was a lot funnier
Speaker 1: if they weren't trying to be a version of us.
Speaker 1: But that's another story. But but yeah, I did not
Speaker 1: understand what I was doing and they were. The offer
Speaker 1: was so ridiculous. I though, heart, I'm not jumping up
Speaker 1: and down to necessarily go to work for you, so
Speaker 1: you gotta at least make it interesting. But but I
Speaker 1: love Paul, and you know, I drew working with him.
Speaker 1: I've never worked with him before and now after after life,
Speaker 1: this is it's all. It's just coming back and this
Speaker 1: is this franchise is coming, okay, and you're happy about
Speaker 1: I'm very happy. But well, I mean in the the
Speaker 1: end of the movie, you know, they do the credits,
Speaker 1: and so Winston has now done very well in life,
Speaker 1: and so I think he's connected. We have the scene
Speaker 1: and I said something about you know the ghostbus is
Speaker 1: My boy said, yeah, we just we were talking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you're a businessman, but you know you'll always be
Speaker 1: a ghostbuster. Okay, So I I threw that line in
Speaker 1: at the end, So so hopefully I'll always be a ghostbuster.
Speaker 1: And uh, I know they're they're Jason is writing in
Speaker 1: the new script. I understand Sony has approved it. This understanding.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I hope if there is, uh,
Speaker 1: I'll be in it and they'll be happy to have
Speaker 1: me enough to where it shows up in my bank account.
Speaker 1: But well we'll see. I never you know this, I
Speaker 1: never take anything for granted or soon. I'm just very
Speaker 1: happy to still be you know, able to you know,
Speaker 1: hang out and talk to you guys like you man.
Speaker 1: I love me. I love your work. You know, just
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I'm a fan. So well, this is a blessing.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm such a big fan of yours.
Speaker 1: I have to ask you about one of my favorite shows.
Speaker 1: I don't know what this says about me. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk to me earlier about well that you're a
Speaker 1: bit of a chameleon in a way, and that that
Speaker 1: your performance is not based on a persona that you
Speaker 1: have created that people want to see over and over,
Speaker 1: but it's about the character. And I have to mention.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's a little bit of time after Ghostbusters,
Speaker 1: but you're getting cast in oz Oh. Yeah, as as
Speaker 1: Warden Leo Glenn. Were you excited about that opportunity, being
Speaker 1: able to do something different? Yeah? Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: had to take what excites me. When people come to
Speaker 1: me and say we love your work, we're doing this
Speaker 1: and we like to have you come and work and
Speaker 1: played with us, that means so much. When I got
Speaker 1: to go on audition and and I don't even want
Speaker 1: to not actually, at this stage in my life, I
Speaker 1: don't do it anymore us Like you know what, guys, honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm unless it was a role that was so amazing
Speaker 1: So Tom Fontana was the senior writer producer on St Elsewhere,
Speaker 1: you know, the series. Denzel was on it, and uh
Speaker 1: it ran for a while. I did a half season
Speaker 1: during the summer that the Second Ghostbus was on, and
Speaker 1: we would talk a while. But I got a call
Speaker 1: from him saying he was doing this series Odd to
Speaker 1: Place in a Prison and he said, you know, we
Speaker 1: always talked about working together. I didn't remember that, but
Speaker 1: I said, oh yeah, and he said, you know, and
Speaker 1: so I'm doing this and uh, you know, would you
Speaker 1: like to come? And I'm like, yeah, you know, the
Speaker 1: fact that he cared enough to invite me that meant
Speaker 1: so much. And I love the character. But I was
Speaker 1: amazed at the the actor of the cast, the people.
Speaker 1: I still I just they showed up, and you know,
Speaker 1: when you're working with a group of people and they
Speaker 1: show up, you have to show up. I mean, and
Speaker 1: I love that. That's how they should casting. Never cast
Speaker 1: as something as they'll cast down. I think the actor
Speaker 1: is kind of weakn so didn't anybody else It's but
Speaker 1: it's it was just a great cast and I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful to have been a part of it. And in fact,
Speaker 1: I just worked with Tom Fontana and that whole production
Speaker 1: crew on a serious call sitting on the hill with
Speaker 1: Eldess Hodge and Kevin Bacon, and it was so much
Speaker 1: fun to go and see those guys again. Your son
Speaker 1: appeared in OZ with you. Yes, yeah, yeah, my son
Speaker 1: who did some acting for a while. He's now sometimes
Speaker 1: he produces things, but he's in the business educative he
Speaker 1: does I don't wait that, but he uh, he's only
Speaker 1: dabbles a bit. But he was in the one of
Speaker 1: the seasons of OZ and it was Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: I think he had a great time. You know. It
Speaker 1: kind of reminded me in this. At the end of
Speaker 1: that season, he gets killed, and so my character has
Speaker 1: to go in and look at the body. And I
Speaker 1: remember when he's a little kid, he would say, Dad,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're going to die in a movie,
Speaker 1: tell me, because I don't want to see that. I don't,
Speaker 1: you know, I just I don't want to see you
Speaker 1: die in a movie. And so then it was kind
Speaker 1: of reverse since I'm going in there and I'm kind
Speaker 1: of looking at him like he was dead, and it
Speaker 1: was so weird, but but he was. He was wonderful
Speaker 1: on the on the series and yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: was cool. Yeah, So I have to ask you about this.
Speaker 1: I heard you a warden in OZ, a senior deputy
Speaker 1: officer in ten eight Officers on Duty, a detective later
Speaker 1: on in Desperate Housewives. You actually became a real life
Speaker 1: reserve deputy sheriff in San Bernardino County. How did this
Speaker 1: come about? Come about? What was what was this about? Well?
Speaker 1: I was asked to do a Ghostbuster after the first Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1: I would go to schools and and and talk to kids,
Speaker 1: you know, and make the monitary Ghostbuster. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a nice time to do. I got in by to
Speaker 1: a school in Pasadena. I agree to go. They put
Speaker 1: me up by the hotel, spend the night, got up
Speaker 1: that morning, did the little thing. Checked out of the hotel.
Speaker 1: The staff comes over. They want me to sign autographs,
Speaker 1: which is and I'm I'm feeling pretty good about, you know,
Speaker 1: this nice thing that I did. I walked out, go
Speaker 1: into the garage and I walcome to the garage, I'm
Speaker 1: grabbed leave from behind these guys. They throw me to
Speaker 1: the ground. This guy got a chokehold on me. I'm
Speaker 1: looking around trying to figure out what's going on. Something saying,
Speaker 1: don't fight back. I'm looking at these boots and now
Speaker 1: it's about fourteen cops and I'm on the ground and
Speaker 1: I I just kind of and then I hit their
Speaker 1: talking and the guy says, holy sh it, that's the guy.
Speaker 1: That's the guy, you know, the guy that's the Ghostbuster guy.
Speaker 1: And the guy who's holding me sort of jerks my
Speaker 1: head around and looked at me in the face and
Speaker 1: he said, oh man, this is oh oh. Man said
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about that. So then they stammed me up,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, go on. So they dust me off
Speaker 1: and they're talking, but I'm trying to make sense out
Speaker 1: of this. I'm insulted. I feel like I should have
Speaker 1: I should have thought up, but I couldn't the police
Speaker 1: and then they said, I said what why did you?
Speaker 1: They said, well, oh man, he said, you know there
Speaker 1: was a robbery. This kid robbed a store. At that
Speaker 1: point of damn, fifty years old. This kid robs the thing.
Speaker 1: And I fit the description? How did I fit the descriptions?
Speaker 1: Walked through the door. So they said, do you mind
Speaker 1: if we get an autograph? And I'm like no, I
Speaker 1: So I get in my current and I'm just I
Speaker 1: I hate myself because I didn't. It's just it was
Speaker 1: just anyway. I was living in up in the mountains
Speaker 1: Lake Carolhead and a friend of mine who was part
Speaker 1: of the police department, they ran a special community thing
Speaker 1: and and I told him the stories earn. He said,
Speaker 1: you know what you need. You need to get a badge.
Speaker 1: He says, why don't you join become a deputy? Sure, whatever,
Speaker 1: and and well, in fact, we'll make you a sergeant.
Speaker 1: So I got a sergeant's badge from the San Berdino Department.
Speaker 1: You have to go and take the training and qualifying
Speaker 1: all that. So I did, but I did it primarily
Speaker 1: so I would have me a sheriff's badge. If I
Speaker 1: ever got to stop, I can stage check my shield
Speaker 1: and it got me out of h I bought a
Speaker 1: new Porsche once, and I literally was driving this porch
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifteen miles an hour on a stretch
Speaker 1: on the one on one freeway, and I thought, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this thing is fast. I looked back and
Speaker 1: I see these lights, and I go, uh. And then
Speaker 1: the first thought was he can't catch me. I can
Speaker 1: all run it. I'm in a new Porsche. And then
Speaker 1: I thought nah. So I pulled over and he pulls
Speaker 1: up and he's pissed. I mean, he's really, he's just really.
Speaker 1: So he comes up and uh, he said, your license,
Speaker 1: and I would have it. So when I opened my wallet,
Speaker 1: you see the badge with my license and he looks
Speaker 1: at it and he says, I guess I'm working in
Speaker 1: the wrong department and he walks away. So I was
Speaker 1: in Australia. I did a wrong you turn. I showed
Speaker 1: the bad but then I started getting fans who would
Speaker 1: say this happened. They came in my home, they got
Speaker 1: the wrong place, they beat all these horror stories and
Speaker 1: so eventually I just gave a badge back and said,
Speaker 1: you know what, guys, I can't I can't represent because
Speaker 1: it's just too much going on, and so I don't
Speaker 1: have anymore. But that's my that's the honest that's the
Speaker 1: honest story. I did Steve Harvey Show once and I
Speaker 1: was telling you I was in a shift her from
Speaker 1: I said, yes, I said, but I took the training.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot. He said, what do you learn?
Speaker 1: How to how they can kick your ass some wars?
Speaker 1: So anyway, that's that's why. Well, I mean, look your
Speaker 1: Your career has been truly unbelievable. I mean, you're you're
Speaker 1: still now fifty years later, acting in shows Bones, Law
Speaker 1: and Order, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Modern Family.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about becoming Lily Tomlin's love
Speaker 1: interest in Grace and Frankie. I heard you were a
Speaker 1: fan of hers and of Jane Fonda, Is that right?
Speaker 1: You know what, when I first started this business, they
Speaker 1: were already established. Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda, She's always been established.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's especially asked me. They said
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be Jane Fonda's love interest, and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: there's a little trips age wise. I think, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I got Barbararella that poster in my mind. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can I can work with that. And then they said, no,
Speaker 1: we want you to be Lily Tomlin's love interest. Now
Speaker 1: all I can see of Lily Tomas that big rocking chair.
Speaker 1: You know. So, but when I met Lily, she's so lovely,
Speaker 1: and I just but I've been a fan of theirs.
Speaker 1: I had worked with Sam Waterson for on Law and
Speaker 1: Order and done a season of that. But but I
Speaker 1: just love Lily, and they're all amazing people. It was
Speaker 1: just just a pleasure. Lily so amazing, and she has
Speaker 1: a spirit that reminds me of my grandmother who raised me.
Speaker 1: There was something about her integrity, age, it's about and
Speaker 1: yet she's so down to earth. But when you say
Speaker 1: to a woman, you remind me of my grandmother. Not
Speaker 1: the best thing, but she just she's an amazing person,
Speaker 1: wonderful actress. I just it was a real blessing too.
Speaker 1: And that's what I loved about that show. Was a
Speaker 1: lot of times they'll want me to be you know,
Speaker 1: he mentioned the detective things, So I gotta be tough.
Speaker 1: I gotta be something that doesn't feel natural, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like I love telling stories, but
Speaker 1: it has to be true to the character for me
Speaker 1: to be able to play a character that was that
Speaker 1: I didn't have to be the bad guy or the
Speaker 1: just he was just a guy who liked this kind
Speaker 1: of quirky woman. And it opened a door to a
Speaker 1: whole new kind of fan base. I mean, older women
Speaker 1: suddenly started asking for photographs with the Ghostbuster kids. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking the time to talk
Speaker 1: to me. I have long admired your work and thank
Speaker 1: you consider it. It's such a pleasure. I wish you
Speaker 1: nothing but the best moving forward. I know you've got
Speaker 1: Quantum Leap out, You've got You're just you you. You
Speaker 1: don't stop working, Ernie, and I love it. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, man, I you know, well, it's it's mutual. Man.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, appreciate the work you're doing. I
Speaker 1: heard about your record setting cameos, but that's like, how
Speaker 1: did he do that that? You know, everybody's got to
Speaker 1: be good at something. Everybody's got to be good at something.
Speaker 1: But but no, I appreciate you man, good luck. I
Speaker 1: wish we'd have more time to sort of hang out,
Speaker 1: like I said, you schedule but no worries. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you taking the time Quintum Leap. I should again
Speaker 1: mentioned that it's on NBC Monday nights, Family Businesses on
Speaker 1: BT Plus Fun. What a fun character that is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's yeah. So it's all good. Take good care and
Speaker 1: I'm always around mess we get a chance, we'll talk
Speaker 1: to you, so look forward to it. Thanks Ernie, all right,
Speaker 1: thank you, all right, by Ernie. It was so great
Speaker 1: talking to you and getting to know you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on the podcast. I could have talked to
Speaker 1: you all day. I am in awe of your career
Speaker 1: and just promised me this. Okay, the next movie that
Speaker 1: we're in together, let's actually appear in some scenes together. Okay, listeners,
Speaker 1: thank you for stopping by. It is always a pleasure
Speaker 1: getting to spend some time with you. Come back next week.
Speaker 1: I promise I'll do my best to interview effectively an
Speaker 1: amazing guest. Now, can you guess who it's going to be?
Speaker 1: Because I'll never tell, but I'll see you soon. Off
Speaker 1: the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 1: alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are Diego Tapia,
Speaker 1: Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer
Speaker 1: is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Sammy Cats.
Speaker 1: Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
Speaker 1: friend Creed Bratton m M