Speaker 1: Yeah, and I did some I did some soaps. I
Speaker 1: got this recurring on a soap and cash my little checks,
Speaker 1: and I would just look at the stack of cash
Speaker 1: in my cupboard, you know, I put it up. I
Speaker 1: just opened the door and look at it, like, look.
Speaker 2: At that, Look at that cash.
Speaker 1: There must be a thousand dollars there.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's just like right, so stupid, but so wonderful, you know.
Speaker 1: And just the fact that I kept going kind of
Speaker 1: always shocks me. I was so dumb, I didn't know
Speaker 1: to quit.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Garrett Dillant, and I was a little stoned for
Speaker 1: this entire interview.
Speaker 4: Hi everybody, it's Brian Baumgartner here, the host of your
Speaker 4: absolute favorite podcast, I'm sure of it, Off the Beat.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 4: Is well from his own self introduction a second ago,
Speaker 4: you could probably already tell this is a fun one.
Speaker 4: You are in for a real treat with today's guest,
Speaker 4: Garrett Dilla Hunt. Now, I am not high, but we
Speaker 4: do have a lot of other stuff in common. We
Speaker 4: both started in the theater, we both knew Rain Wilson
Speaker 4: as a stage actor. We both guest starred on Criminal Minds,
Speaker 4: and we both appeared in a music video together where
Speaker 4: we did a choreographed dance. This is all true, and honestly,
Speaker 4: all of it was pretty good, so you should go
Speaker 4: check it out. Garrett does, however, have a number of
Speaker 4: other credits that well that I do not. He is
Speaker 4: in one of my all time favorite movies Academy Award
Speaker 4: winner No Country for Old Men, and one of my
Speaker 4: favorite television shows, dead Wood, not to mention the fact
Speaker 4: that he was in Fear of the Walking Dead dead
Speaker 4: to me, Dawn of the Dead, The Dead Don't Hurt.
Speaker 3: Yes, we're sending a theme here, Okay, Well, here we go.
Speaker 4: There are some not dead titles to Raising Hope, The
Speaker 4: Mindy Project, Hand of God, and a brand new series
Speaker 4: called Ghosts of Beirut, which I am very excited about. Now,
Speaker 4: Garrett is going to regale us with tales from his
Speaker 4: college days in Seattle, his theater days in New York,
Speaker 4: and his current days in Hollywood. Sit back and enjoy
Speaker 4: this conversation with the fantastic Garrett Dilla Hunt.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeakano, Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak. I could get every mon lift over from
Speaker 1: the ninety four.
Speaker 3: What's up, carrot? Hey man, how are you? I'm good.
Speaker 1: It's been a long long time.
Speaker 4: It's been a long time. Now do you remember the
Speaker 4: last time we saw each other?
Speaker 1: Was it that music video?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: The music video? Okay, no, I don't think so. Actually,
Speaker 4: so this came to me. I think you were in it.
Speaker 4: If you weren't in it, disregard, but hand of God.
Speaker 4: Yeah I was in Hand of God.
Speaker 1: Of course you were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, but well, thank you. That's really what
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: We didn't have any scenes together.
Speaker 4: Well now, wait a second, so maybe now, maybe you
Speaker 4: weren't in it. And if you weren't, then that because
Speaker 4: I was trying to think, I was like, we had
Speaker 4: to have been together at some point, but I was
Speaker 4: all with Ron. But then there was a weird sex dream.
Speaker 4: Were you in the sex dream? And it was God,
Speaker 4: you weren't in the set? You weren't in the sex dream? Well,
Speaker 4: because I was so distracted, because it was one of
Speaker 4: these things where I was, this is going off the
Speaker 4: rails already, But because I was like, and I tried
Speaker 4: to search to find out if you were there, because
Speaker 4: I was it was in the show with Ron the
Speaker 4: whole time. Except this one weird sex dream and I
Speaker 4: was meeting everyone else kind of for the first time,
Speaker 4: and it was like in between Dana Delaney's legs and
Speaker 4: it was me and not Ron, and we were and
Speaker 4: I was just trying to stay very focused.
Speaker 1: Its good? Was it always that way? Why is it
Speaker 1: always the first day?
Speaker 3: Nice to you, Hi, Dana? How are you?
Speaker 4: It's so this is I apologize for what's about to
Speaker 4: happen here for the next four hours.
Speaker 3: I apologize that was not me.
Speaker 1: I would definitely remember.
Speaker 4: That you weren't in it, Okay, well that was the
Speaker 4: thing is it was a screaming rewatch. No, I know,
Speaker 4: we hand of God everyone Ron Perlman, Yes, I loved
Speaker 4: that show. It was it was it was gone too
Speaker 4: soon as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: You fit right in. I I remember because I saw
Speaker 1: the episodes. We didn't have any scenes.
Speaker 4: I think we had no No, we had together all right,
Speaker 4: Well here you go failed. Yes, there was a music
Speaker 4: video though. That was that was Ingrid Michaelson.
Speaker 1: Ingrid Michaelson. Who's so talented, isn't.
Speaker 3: She so talented?
Speaker 4: And what's funny actually is that I ended up in
Speaker 4: bed in a weird pajama silk thing in that too.
Speaker 3: With with the.
Speaker 1: On something here, pedal pedals all over me.
Speaker 4: That's another one. Ingrid Michael music video good to see
Speaker 4: You again. I in going back and doing a little
Speaker 4: dive into you. I didn't realize how many similarities we have.
Speaker 4: We'll talk about that in a minute. But you grew
Speaker 4: up in Washington, I know, born in California. What were
Speaker 4: your earliest influences? What were you watching as a kid.
Speaker 4: What were some of your your favorite shows?
Speaker 1: I really loved Alias Smith and Jones.
Speaker 3: Okay, that one.
Speaker 1: It was a Western with Hannibal Hayes and Kid Curry,
Speaker 1: the two most successful outlaws the West has ever known.
Speaker 1: Out of all the trains and banks they robbed, they
Speaker 1: never shot anyone. I know, right.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 1: I loved like six Million Dollar Man and Incredible Hulk,
Speaker 1: Bill Dixby and Luke Can the Wolf Boy. Do you
Speaker 1: remember any of these?
Speaker 3: I don't, none of you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is these are unexpected hits like yeah.
Speaker 1: Well now rewart taste, I think, Yeah, when did.
Speaker 4: You When did you first begin thinking about yourself as
Speaker 4: a as a performer or an actor? I mean, I
Speaker 4: know you went to UWU studied journalism. Were you interested
Speaker 4: in the arts prior?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, like a lot of us, pretty shy,
Speaker 1: you know, particularly in those days, you know, really shy.
Speaker 1: And I never never would have thought i'd be an actor.
Speaker 1: I couldn't conceive of getting up in front of people
Speaker 1: and doing anything. But I wanted to be a writer,
Speaker 1: you know, so that was artistic. And I like to draw,
Speaker 1: but my pursuits were more solitary, I think, originally interesting,
Speaker 1: but yeah, and I didn't This is always the weird
Speaker 1: part of these interviews. When I was a senior in
Speaker 1: high school, my older brother was killed in a drunk
Speaker 1: driving accident, which totally threw me for a loop and
Speaker 1: sent me into college in a very you know, fucked up,
Speaker 1: you know, as you can imagine. And everybody has tragedy
Speaker 1: of one sort or another, but I was. I was
Speaker 1: really lost and drifting and I didn't know. I did
Speaker 1: journalism because that's what the plan was, because I was
Speaker 1: a star on the school newspaper in high school and thought, well,
Speaker 1: this is what I'll do. And I really stumbled into
Speaker 1: an acting class. Basically it was a I thought I
Speaker 1: should write some plays, So what's that about? And everyone
Speaker 1: had said you should take an acting class so you
Speaker 1: know what you're writing for, and which was a terrifying prospect.
Speaker 1: But I just thought I'd take this one class and
Speaker 1: get out. And that was my last year of college
Speaker 1: at you dubbed there, and I just loved it. I
Speaker 1: just was like, oh, I'm sure it was therapeutic, you know,
Speaker 1: I was. I could not I could be someone else,
Speaker 1: someone else tell me really smart things to say that
Speaker 1: I never could have thought of. You know, you have
Speaker 1: this idea about yourself it's sort of worthless or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was just I just I just dove in. I did.
Speaker 1: I was doing so many things at want because I
Speaker 1: just I just want to I just want to be
Speaker 1: somebody else. Then I just loved it. I finally found
Speaker 1: something I could do. I felt like, and uh and
Speaker 1: and give me a scape. But it established some habits.
Speaker 1: I'm still kind of doing that. I still kind of
Speaker 1: go from one thing to another and maybe should be
Speaker 1: a little pick here, you know, but I don't know. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that was my first inklings.
Speaker 4: Well that I mean that that one. That's surprising to
Speaker 4: me that it was, that it was so late. I mean,
Speaker 4: I certainly share with you and and it's it's even
Speaker 4: hard for my mom to understand that that that that
Speaker 4: attention isn't something that I want or ever really wanted that,
Speaker 4: you know, for me, it's when you begin to transform
Speaker 4: into that character or.
Speaker 1: I don't know's I know you feel you feel cheesy
Speaker 1: talking about it, but it's true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but but for you for it to have happened
Speaker 4: so late is very surprising. Did you then begin taking
Speaker 4: other classes? I know eventually you landed in the mattress
Speaker 4: program at NYU. Was that immediately after school or how
Speaker 4: did that come about?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 1: I kind of got out of school and thought like, oh,
Speaker 1: now what and I just kind of acted around Seattle
Speaker 1: for a year and then and then I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: I was doing tons of plays whatever I could do,
Speaker 1: and sleeping and stairwells. He didn't care. You didn't care
Speaker 1: when you're young, you know what I mean? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: could sleep anyway, you know, But I just got I
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm doing. I need some training, And
Speaker 1: so me and a bunch of other people there were
Speaker 1: these things called the leagues. Back then, it was a
Speaker 1: certain it was just a collection of schools like Yale
Speaker 1: and Juilliard and n Y U and a lot of
Speaker 1: others that kind of comprised this supposed superior actor training.
Speaker 1: But there was tons of schools across the country, and
Speaker 1: they held auditions in three places at that time. Now
Speaker 1: it's everywhere, or you can probably zoom it in, but
Speaker 1: you had to get to Chicago, New York, or San
Speaker 1: Francisco to audition, and there'd be a ton of schools there.
Speaker 1: I was a security guard at a bank, like the
Speaker 1: night shift at a bank, which would keep me free
Speaker 1: to audition or do stuff.
Speaker 6: During the day.
Speaker 1: And that's where I honed all my monologues from my audition,
Speaker 1: powder blue security guard uniform in an empty conference room, right,
Speaker 1: practicing as a monologue. What a dork, but what what
Speaker 1: flun Anyway, carpooled some tiny dots in with a bunch
Speaker 1: of friends of mine who were also auditioning down to
Speaker 1: San Francisco and slept in somebody's hallway. And I didn't
Speaker 1: have any money for the application fees, which seemed exorbitant
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, seventy five bucks or something
Speaker 1: just to apply, you know, and it was you know,
Speaker 1: it limited your choices. So I just had to crash.
Speaker 1: I just had to crash. Everybody. I just went up
Speaker 1: to the desk and this is my name. I don't
Speaker 1: have the money for the fee. Do you have an
Speaker 1: empty slot? You know? And a lot of them let
Speaker 1: you in. You know. Julliard did not Yale.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't playing by the rules, you know, So I understand.
Speaker 1: But YU did and act and UC San Diego. There's
Speaker 1: a place called the Denver Center, real good places. And
Speaker 1: Rain Wilson had left UDUB just before I did to
Speaker 1: go to n YU, so that was maybe in my
Speaker 1: brain a little bit too. He was a kind of
Speaker 1: wonder kind at the undergrad program there got all the
Speaker 1: juicy parts.
Speaker 3: Did you know him?
Speaker 1: And then you know him? I knew him a little bit.
Speaker 1: I mean I knew from around we were. My roommate
Speaker 1: was another great guy named Matt Ross, who was mainly
Speaker 1: directing now he does. But those two were great and
Speaker 1: got cast and everything, and I was, like I said,
Speaker 1: just starting. So I'd see them at callbacks and stuff
Speaker 1: and think, well, they're going to get it. Or I
Speaker 1: would always say something stupid or do something really naive
Speaker 1: and stupid. So I felt like he liked to me
Speaker 1: very much, just like, oh god, you know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a good dude, good friend.
Speaker 4: Well, by the way, you always expect that he's he's
Speaker 4: not gonna like you very much. I mean that is
Speaker 4: sort of par for the course, even after Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: just his face, his smug face, the.
Speaker 1: Asshole solving the world's problems. Yeah, exactly, smart.
Speaker 3: Bad about myself.
Speaker 1: Let's start a boozeline, you and me. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so then I chose en by You just because I'd
Speaker 1: never I got into NYU and a couple others, and
Speaker 1: I'd never been east of Montana. That was my logic.
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the east. I went to NYU,
Speaker 1: and thank god I did.
Speaker 3: What did that experience give you?
Speaker 1: I think it was just a safe place to land.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd gone from my small town to Seattle
Speaker 1: and the size of that city was mind boggling to me,
Speaker 1: and it seemed so confusing. And then it went from
Speaker 1: there to New York, which you know, I was I
Speaker 1: was like John Voyden midnight cowboy there. I just was
Speaker 1: so out of place and like dressed like an alien
Speaker 1: found you know, human clothing from nineteen seventy nine. It
Speaker 1: was just it was, you know, amazing. You know when
Speaker 1: there was a group of people waiting for me that
Speaker 1: would helped me out, and it was a good experience
Speaker 1: for me. I think being very inexperienced helped, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I wasn't coming in with any real
Speaker 1: barriers at the breakthrough or anything like that. But I
Speaker 1: don't think it's for everybody, conservatory training, but it was
Speaker 1: good for me.
Speaker 4: Were you focused at that time on the business at
Speaker 4: all or for you was it just about Was it
Speaker 4: about learning the craft?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I wasn't really aware of the business that much.
Speaker 3: Mhm.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, you know, I wish I was. I wish, But
Speaker 1: to this day, I'm not great at it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But I'm also not afraid of it,
Speaker 1: you know, which I think was the more important factor
Speaker 1: of that, you know, because it's it's a part of it.
Speaker 1: If you're not if you're not going to play a
Speaker 1: little bit, then you're just wasting your time. You're just
Speaker 1: going to be sad, you know, right. So I was,
Speaker 1: I was not. It took a while. I just I
Speaker 1: just was going to do plays and that that that
Speaker 1: that's all I need.
Speaker 4: So that's that's sort of our first similarity. I mean,
Speaker 4: I started and for you know, seven years out of
Speaker 4: out of college, for me, I was I was a
Speaker 4: theater actor, and that's where I thought my life was.
Speaker 4: That's that was all I saw and really wanted to be.
Speaker 4: I know, you, it's a great life.
Speaker 1: If you could get just a little better pay, be
Speaker 1: a great life.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: What is it for you about live performance? What do
Speaker 4: you like about you say it's a great life.
Speaker 1: It is. I mean, I haven't done it play in
Speaker 1: a while, It's been maybe six years or so, neither.
Speaker 1: But I feel very fortunate in the things I've gotten
Speaker 1: to do on film and TV, Brian. I feel like
Speaker 1: an actor, you know, I feel challenged, you know most
Speaker 1: of the time, you know, and that's I am aware
Speaker 1: that that's that's a huge stroke of luck. And I
Speaker 1: feel very fortunate to get to play interesting characters because
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, I have a lot of very
Speaker 1: talented friends that get stuck playing one thing or repeating
Speaker 1: that thing over and over or whatever. I think to
Speaker 1: theater trained people, that's we always knew, that's what it was.
Speaker 1: We're going to play a bunch of people. And that
Speaker 1: was the interesting part to stand in all these different
Speaker 1: shoes and learn and culture and grow your empathy. So
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound I say all that to
Speaker 1: say like I don't. I don't want to come across
Speaker 1: as like I'm I fancy myself as some amazing theater guy.
Speaker 6: You know, I.
Speaker 1: It's a mistress. I haven't visited in a while, and
Speaker 1: it's I feel guilty about it, but I sure loved it.
Speaker 1: When I was exclusively doing that, it gave me. It
Speaker 1: gave me everything I'm doing now right, And I think
Speaker 1: I loved I loved I loved the work. I love.
Speaker 1: I love having time to really get in there with
Speaker 1: a bunch of like minded folks and and spend some
Speaker 1: weeks figuring out exactly what's going on here, and then
Speaker 1: how to tell it the best. I think I really
Speaker 1: love that process. And then and then that the fact
Speaker 1: that every night is different. You know that the audience
Speaker 1: is an actual factor in the way this is gonna
Speaker 1: gonna work tonight. You know what I mean? It's different
Speaker 1: every every night, just a little bit can knot get
Speaker 1: way off course or to a whole new exciting place
Speaker 1: that you didn't expect.
Speaker 4: Isn't that interesting? Because You're You're exactly right, every night
Speaker 4: is different. Yet on the face of it, you're doing
Speaker 4: the same thing everything right, and yes, and now you're
Speaker 4: exploring a character or a story.
Speaker 3: For as short as a week to you know.
Speaker 4: Three or four months on a film or you know,
Speaker 4: years and years. But still every day you're doing something,
Speaker 4: you're doing something different. But you're right, it is about
Speaker 4: the immediacy and the feedback that you're getting from a
Speaker 4: particular audience at a particular time.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it's certainly an important part in the
Speaker 1: equation anyway. I know if it's the biggest, but it's big.
Speaker 1: It's great to be in places where there's just moments
Speaker 1: of inspiration, isn't it? You know what I mean? When
Speaker 1: when everybody's present, it's miraculous that anything gets made with
Speaker 1: all those egos in one room or so many people
Speaker 1: and entities to satisfy, and you still come up, you
Speaker 1: come up with the show. You're like, hey, we did it,
Speaker 1: we did it. It's miraculous.
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 4: When you began transitioning to film and television, was this
Speaker 4: an abrupt shift? I heard or you have have been
Speaker 4: quoted as saying that you did theater until you got hungry,
Speaker 4: literally hungry. And that's when I was scared it auditioning
Speaker 4: for film and television?
Speaker 3: Now, is that true?
Speaker 1: Kind of you know? It was. I remember the day
Speaker 1: I lived in this great little apartment on seventy first
Speaker 1: in Columbus. I mean, the walls built to the side
Speaker 1: of the bathtub comprised one you know, it was like
Speaker 1: three hundred square foot place. I mean, but I loved
Speaker 1: it so much. It was so cheap, and it allowed
Speaker 1: me to travel around the country and do theater whatever else.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't have to find a sub letter necessary, right,
Speaker 1: but I was. I was hungry that day, and I
Speaker 1: was like, the cupboard was kind of bear and I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, I'm going to make for dinner tonight.
Speaker 1: And I was and I went outside, like where am
Speaker 1: I going to get some dinner? And I passed a
Speaker 1: classmate of mine, someone who graduated sometime after I did,
Speaker 1: and he was just like, man, dude, I saw you
Speaker 1: the bentioned doing the New York Times. That was such
Speaker 1: a great review or what you know, whatever thing I
Speaker 1: had been doing, right, like, you're doing so good. You're
Speaker 1: working NonStop, and and in my head I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I'm doing good, Oh my god, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, he's I don't know where
Speaker 1: dinner's coming from, and you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: it just it skewed me a little bit. And I
Speaker 1: just was like, I deserve I deserve to be paid something,
Speaker 1: a livable wage, you know what I mean. I'm not
Speaker 1: here and cancer, but you know I'm working hard for you,
Speaker 1: and I don't know. It just made me wish i'd
Speaker 1: branched out earlier before. There's no reason I couldn't if
Speaker 1: no one was saying not to. I just didn't know
Speaker 1: how to do it or what I was doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I did some I did some soaps. I got
Speaker 1: this recurring on a soap and cash my little checks
Speaker 1: and I would just look at the stack of cash
Speaker 1: in my cupboard, you know, I put it up. I
Speaker 1: just opened the door and look at it, like, look
Speaker 1: at that, Look at that cash. There must be a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's just like right, so stupid, but so wonderful, you know.
Speaker 1: And just the fact that I kept going kind of
Speaker 1: always shocks me. I was so dumb. I didn't know
Speaker 1: to quit. But I really enjoyed being on a set.
Speaker 1: And then Deadwood made me have fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to talk about dead.
Speaker 4: What I first want to ask you just and this
Speaker 4: is this is just for my own personal edification. I
Speaker 4: feel like character based procedural show NYPD. Early in your career,
Speaker 4: you were cast on NYPD Blue, And just want to
Speaker 4: ask you, was this a show that you were a
Speaker 4: fan of yourself, and just a little bit about your
Speaker 4: experience on that show because it was so early for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think I got my SAG card on that or
Speaker 1: that or that was the one job I did where
Speaker 1: you didn't have to join yet, you know. That was
Speaker 1: my first one, not too far out of school, So
Speaker 1: the early nineties. I guess I don't remember a ton
Speaker 1: about the experience. I remember because Jimmy Smith's was in
Speaker 1: it at that time, and I think Dennis Franz was still.
Speaker 3: There, right, yeah, yeah, he would have been, yeah.
Speaker 1: Because I think he was there in this conversation. But
Speaker 1: I remember Jimmy Smith's, you know, I was just I
Speaker 1: just marveled at how much work they were doing, you know,
Speaker 1: I just had my little scene to do. It was
Speaker 1: this I think some art dealer who was fencing some
Speaker 1: stolen paintings, and I remember his name was Bryce Cooper
Speaker 1: Smith and I had a horrible vest but it was
Speaker 1: diferent times Brian judgment when you dig that up. But
Speaker 1: I just remember him. He's doing this scene, He's learning
Speaker 1: the next episode while we're doing that, like he was,
Speaker 1: he was his head was spinning, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think that was his actual problem with Milch, was that
Speaker 1: he didn't get the material in time. So it was
Speaker 1: always just breakneck speed. But it was daunting to me,
Speaker 1: but also kind of I wanted. I wanted to feel
Speaker 1: that challenge.
Speaker 4: In two thousand and four, you just mentioned it one
Speaker 4: of my favorite series of all time. Dead would your
Speaker 4: role I want to talk about Francis Walcott just terrifying.
Speaker 4: But you did play a different character in season one?
Speaker 4: So was this just they They just wanted you back,
Speaker 4: and they decided that they didn't care that you had
Speaker 4: appeared as a different character in season one?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 1: David Rutt writes about that in his book, I wish
Speaker 1: I could. I wish I'd thought to queue that up. Well,
Speaker 1: but uh yeah, I don't. I don't know why he
Speaker 1: did unless they're I don't know. I'll talk as if
Speaker 1: it was me in that moment, because I was sad
Speaker 1: to leave. I really was enjoying myself on that show.
Speaker 1: It still to this day the kind of experience on
Speaker 1: set that I try to replicate, and apparently a lot
Speaker 1: of my former cast mates do the same thing, which
Speaker 1: is stupid. We're just trying to make everything dead with
Speaker 1: you know. They because because David comes out before we
Speaker 1: shoot anything, comes out of the writer's room and he
Speaker 1: sort of sets the scene in the most poetic, beautiful
Speaker 1: manner you've ever heard, and it was so motivating to
Speaker 1: us all because he just he just reminded us that
Speaker 1: this was sort of a spiritual experience and I didn't
Speaker 1: expect to get so kind of cheesy an actory today.
Speaker 1: It's really not how I usually do things, but it's
Speaker 1: like it was wonderful, you know, and it was I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever worked with someone who was so
Speaker 1: who was so good at sort of incorporating everyone else
Speaker 1: around them, if if that makes sense. He because he's
Speaker 1: written this incredible stuff that's in n Iambic Pentamin. It's
Speaker 1: blank verse a lot of the time, you know, and
Speaker 1: you wouldn't think that someone that could write this brilliantly
Speaker 1: would be open to it, but it's it's what informed
Speaker 1: everything and he would see you do something, he'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: now this time say this, like, if you're going to
Speaker 1: do that, which I liked, let's add this dialogue to it,
Speaker 1: which would then inspire you know, Joe behind the camera
Speaker 1: to change the shot, well, if he's going to do that.
Speaker 1: It was just this whirlwind of creativity where everybody was
Speaker 1: completely involved, and we'd go when we weren't working, just
Speaker 1: to watch. I haven't experienced that before or since.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Did you feel like the fact that it was set
Speaker 4: as a western well affected the work for you? I mean,
Speaker 4: I've heard tell that the practical the practical environment was
Speaker 4: very difficult for all of you, but it feels like
Speaker 4: it was so rife with creativity that that just became
Speaker 4: an obstacle to overcome.
Speaker 3: But it was still exciting to be there. Is that
Speaker 3: Is that accurate? I think?
Speaker 1: I mean we were at the Melody Ranch in New Hall,
Speaker 1: which isn't far from la and it's a set, but
Speaker 1: it's built real intelligently, you know, because you're in your trailer,
Speaker 1: you get on your costume, and Jennie Bryant was the
Speaker 1: costume designer and she does have to work for you anyway,
Speaker 1: like you put on I put on a wall cotton
Speaker 1: at a completely different posture. You know, I didn't think right.
Speaker 1: But then you walk around a corner and you can't
Speaker 1: see anything but a western town with some incredibly dedicated
Speaker 1: background performers who've invented whole life stories for themselves, and
Speaker 1: you know, giving up semesters of law school to be
Speaker 1: there for the season.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. We had like Deadwood Checke's you know,
Speaker 1: from day one, and they gave us so much atmosphere
Speaker 1: in life, so it was really easy to click into
Speaker 1: the world, I think, and and the fact that it
Speaker 1: was so elevated it really pushed us to be on
Speaker 1: our game. It's have you Have you had the good
Speaker 1: fortune to shoot on film? Like anything, you must say yes.
Speaker 3: But it's been a long time.
Speaker 1: It's been a while. I've had a few experiences with
Speaker 1: it and it's I really miss it, and I miss
Speaker 1: it because of what it does to It does to
Speaker 1: everybody that I mean, you walk on, it's a completely
Speaker 1: different atmosphere because everybody's primed, everybody's ready. We have to
Speaker 1: be ready, you know, because this is going to roll
Speaker 1: and it's going to cost a lot of money. There's
Speaker 1: no stopping and backing up and going oh my bad, whoops,
Speaker 1: this is back up and we'll do this, you know,
Speaker 1: like we've gotten used to digitally. It's made us a
Speaker 1: little lazy. But that was the atmosphere every day on Deadwook,
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody really wanted to not be the
Speaker 1: weak link and to support support everybody else. And I
Speaker 1: don't know, it was it was a good time.
Speaker 3: That's so I haven't thought about that in so long though.
Speaker 4: Shooting on film immediately ups the ante and the meetings
Speaker 4: for you're exactly right, because there's no farting around because
Speaker 4: you were literally just costing money.
Speaker 1: If you're far around, you know your stuff. Yeah, are
Speaker 1: you ready to shoot this? You know they've rehearsed it
Speaker 1: to death. You know, the stunts are like, you know,
Speaker 1: queue it up. It was amazing on Looper. Looper shot
Speaker 1: on film, and I'm nervous anyway every time I for
Speaker 1: some reason, I can own a television set just fine,
Speaker 1: and then I get on a movie set and I'm
Speaker 1: just like, oh, never been here before. But I'm with
Speaker 1: Emily and you know, Joseph Gordon Levitt and I have
Speaker 1: a gun. On Joseph and it's this big scene and
Speaker 1: I'm immediately thinking, like, where's everyone so tense? You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's because it's on film, You're like everyone's it's
Speaker 1: like we're about to start a play, you know, like
Speaker 1: time to go, and it's time to be one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And I and I went up. I went completely up,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at down my gun, at Joseph, and
Speaker 1: Joseph's acting and then I can see him realize I've
Speaker 1: gone up, you know what I mean, So then he's
Speaker 1: trying to help. It was so awful then just caught.
Speaker 1: Immediately Ryan comes out, you know, like you know, we're good,
Speaker 1: and it was so humiliating, but the boy you felt alive,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, You're it's exactly right. You've
Speaker 1: got to I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you think the legacy of dead Wood is?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I really want to to read David's book.
Speaker 1: It's called Life's Work. I think you'll find it really inspiring.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, it was a golden era
Speaker 1: of television, wasn't it. I mean the Wire and Sopranos,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if I know what the legacy
Speaker 1: of it would be, you know, but it sure as
Speaker 1: a benchmark in my career, and I guess I'm glad
Speaker 1: it came so early. You know, it's something that you
Speaker 1: wanted to feel again, it was there was beauty in
Speaker 1: something that's so articulate, and the audience was not condescended
Speaker 1: to you know, and we could they could handle the language,
Speaker 1: and you could tell a story that just moving man's
Speaker 1: making order out of chaos located in the town of Deadwood.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 1: I mean the office must have been kind of that way, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never been on the show that's gone
Speaker 1: that long, that maintained excellence for so long. I mean
Speaker 1: that last day must have been insane for you guys.
Speaker 3: Yes it was. I mean that was ten years.
Speaker 4: That's you know, as I I mean, it's so stupid
Speaker 4: to say this, but to me, it does kind of
Speaker 4: put it into perspective. It's like high school and college
Speaker 4: and then a couple more years, like just in terms
Speaker 4: of just the length of time, and also.
Speaker 1: I mean that's the start of my entire career.
Speaker 4: Right and also just as you how you grow as
Speaker 4: a person for your life and changes and all of that. Yeah, No,
Speaker 4: absolutely is it.
Speaker 1: Hard to move on from something like that, like it,
Speaker 1: I've never experienced it, so I'm genuinely curious and like,
Speaker 1: I struggle when I have a good experience on one thing,
Speaker 1: and how will I ever equal that? And what was
Speaker 1: the biggest hurdle for you?
Speaker 3: I'm sure Deadwood was was similar? Well, I think that, you.
Speaker 4: Know, the last oh, let's call it five years, right,
Speaker 4: so kind of from after the writers strike of two
Speaker 4: thousand and seven eight, which was kind of in the
Speaker 4: middle early middle of our run. You know, we were
Speaker 4: doing essentially thirty episodes a year, so there was you know,
Speaker 4: when it was over, it was like trying to re
Speaker 4: enter what other life?
Speaker 3: What other life is?
Speaker 4: Just the rhythm of life became so different and obviously,
Speaker 4: you know, in a lot of ways, not for the
Speaker 4: better because you're like, oh wait, what what how am.
Speaker 3: I filling my time now?
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, just the relationships that we had in
Speaker 4: the amount of time that we spent together.
Speaker 3: I mean it's like such a cliche, but.
Speaker 4: That you know, spending way more time with these people
Speaker 4: than your family.
Speaker 3: For ten years.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you're a company, Yeah, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: every little nuance. I mean, it's why it's such a
Speaker 1: rich experience watching it.
Speaker 4: Well, and I think Deadwood is very much the same,
Speaker 4: which I'm sure is partly in your brain why you're
Speaker 4: bringing it up. You're all sort of immersed in that
Speaker 4: world which is so specific, with such rich characters and
Speaker 4: interactions that because it takes place just like the Office
Speaker 4: is a controlled environment, is you know, essentially with all
Speaker 4: within this small town and the potential for you to
Speaker 4: have interactions with multiple people just by walking in one
Speaker 4: storefront or whatever. Right, Yeah, yeah, Mindy Kaling, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: mean the Mindy Project.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a force of nature that woman is. Huh,
Speaker 1: what a fortunate I mean, did you have I have
Speaker 1: no idea what it must have been like on the office,
Speaker 1: and I'm so jealous of that experience, But did you
Speaker 1: have any inkling of what was laying and weight laying
Speaker 1: in wait inside that mind? You know?
Speaker 3: I think it was all there.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, you saw she was a baby, she wrote,
Speaker 2: she wrote, I mean what she was? Was she twenty five?
Speaker 2: I don't I mean she wrote the first Dundee's episode
Speaker 2: that we did, like the beginning, and I don't know
Speaker 2: she wasn't old.
Speaker 3: Let me just I'll spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: She was. She was a wonder kid from the jump.
Speaker 4: Yes, she was just Yes, and she I mean she
Speaker 4: ended up over the seven eight years writing some of
Speaker 4: the best episodes. I mean, I mean the Dundees, the
Speaker 4: injury aka Michael burns his foot on a George Foreman grill,
Speaker 4: that was hers, you know it.
Speaker 3: Uh, she's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes, she's a lot of respect for her. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not a lazy person, but oh
Speaker 1: my god, when I'm around her, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: standing still, I'm earth bound. And you know, she's just
Speaker 1: a whirlwind of creativity. It's it's amazing, It is amazing.
Speaker 1: I love her. If you're listening, I love you, and
Speaker 1: I wish she returned my calls quicker.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well there's that.
Speaker 4: I have to ask one more question about that, because
Speaker 4: you you brought it up. It's it's funny because when
Speaker 4: I was thinking about Francis Walcott, I was thinking about
Speaker 4: your posture and physicality. How important for you is physicality
Speaker 4: when you're when you're working on a role or when
Speaker 4: you create a role. How important is physicality for you?
Speaker 1: Well, it's I'm trying to think now, if it's most
Speaker 1: of the time. It's kind of the way infamy, and
Speaker 1: it might be I didn't think it was, but I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking, like do I well, I guess that one.
Speaker 1: I kind of did that. Even on Deadwood, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be shorter as Jack McCall than Keith was. Keith
Speaker 1: Caring is about my height, so I was always slouching
Speaker 1: down with that. And then I don't know if you
Speaker 1: put these limits on yourself. I'm sure you do. We
Speaker 1: all do. But I for the longest time thought no
Speaker 1: one was going to buy me in a suit. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but I was, no one's gonna buy it.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm from a trucker's family and I
Speaker 1: work in the orchards, and I kind of I don't
Speaker 1: own a suit. You know, no one's gonna buy it.
Speaker 1: It's just the dumbest thing. And then Jennie Bryant puts
Speaker 1: me in a two sides it's too small, you know,
Speaker 1: duster for Wolcott, and I'm just suddenly like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: tall and upright. And it was such a big help,
Speaker 1: you know. It's such a big help. And I think
Speaker 1: sometimes opens the door to everything. Do you feel the
Speaker 1: same way, is that where you're staying totally.
Speaker 4: For me, shoes are very important. Yeah, and it makes
Speaker 4: me feel bad when I'm doing something.
Speaker 3: Like very small.
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't even know how to say that,
Speaker 4: but like where I'm like, dude, nobody cares about your shoes.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. When I'm like talking.
Speaker 4: Having caught a conversation with with the with the with
Speaker 4: the wardrobe person on the show I was just working on,
Speaker 4: I was like, man, I don't want to be that guy,
Speaker 4: but it is for me, it is it is important,
Speaker 4: it is important.
Speaker 1: It is Yeah. I'm kind of glad to hear you
Speaker 1: say that because I only recently have I been able
Speaker 1: to like swap out into more comfy shoes if I'm
Speaker 1: off camera. But for the longest time, I'm just like
Speaker 1: I have to I don't.
Speaker 3: Have to have run I know. I know me too.
Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong. I will go through on some
Speaker 4: flip flops these days, I mean occasionally off camera.
Speaker 1: Only well they didn't they things changed with those feet.
Speaker 3: Yes they do. I bring this.
Speaker 4: Very small blip on my IMDb page and you have
Speaker 4: it as well. To me, the hardest job I have
Speaker 4: ever had was on Criminal Minds. Yes, and I saw you. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because it's a show that's run that ran for one
Speaker 4: hundred years, right and by the way, I mean no
Speaker 4: disrespect for all the regulars that are there, but in
Speaker 4: my mind, the lead of every episode is the guest star.
Speaker 4: And so you are walking in to a show that
Speaker 4: is that pre exit that it pre exists, and everybody
Speaker 4: knows everybody, and they've been working together for twenty seven
Speaker 4: years and now.
Speaker 1: Here here's some pressure and here's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're now the lead this week.
Speaker 4: I found it just like mind just it was just
Speaker 4: a mind bend for me.
Speaker 3: Did you have that too? Ye?
Speaker 1: No, you don't care, No, no, not at all.
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 1: I was having a completely different experience though, because I
Speaker 1: mean I needed a paycheck at the time, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: And so I walk I walk in there like we're
Speaker 1: gonna give you two episodes, and I'm just playing a
Speaker 1: guy laying in a bed like I never leave the bed.
Speaker 1: He's completely paralyzed. You know, there's a breathing machine for him.
Speaker 1: But he's the mastermind manipulating is you know, less less
Speaker 1: intelligent brother to do these horrible crimes like okay, all right,
Speaker 1: No one will see this. I'm embarrassed maybe or I
Speaker 1: think I should be, but I'm I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: want to work, you know, I need to work. I
Speaker 1: love to work and work off. And I showed up
Speaker 1: in one of the regulars. Like she just was simultaneously
Speaker 1: so you know, flattering and also just humiliating because she
Speaker 1: she just went crazy. She was this massive fan. I
Speaker 1: didn't know, you know, she just was like, why are
Speaker 1: you doing this show? Why are you here?
Speaker 6: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: Oh my god?
Speaker 6: Like so I was.
Speaker 1: I was simultaneously like super flattered and like really embarrassed,
Speaker 1: like because I'm like, I just need to need a paycheck, man,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Why am I?
Speaker 3: Oh that's so funny, that's so good.
Speaker 1: And then I think I'm in and out and you know,
Speaker 1: no one will know or something. But that's everyone. Everyone
Speaker 1: watches that show. Like everyone you've experienced that, like ten
Speaker 1: years at the office. But like, oh, I loved you
Speaker 1: on Criminal Minds all the time. Well no, but no,
Speaker 1: thank god.
Speaker 4: I get it all the time, man. I mean I
Speaker 4: don't know what channel it's on, but it's still playing. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because I get it. I get it a couple of
Speaker 4: times a month. It is always surprising to me. Yeah, well,
Speaker 4: your job was much easier. I found it. I found
Speaker 4: it so difficult, and I love it, and I'm always
Speaker 4: so when someone comes up and mentions it, I'm I, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, it does make me feel good because I
Speaker 4: was very self conscious for a long time about it.
Speaker 3: It's just like, I think I was terrible.
Speaker 1: How often does that happen to you too? Is that happened?
Speaker 1: Snakrd A bit like when I think I did my worst.
Speaker 1: Other people think that was the best thing I've ever
Speaker 1: seen you do, or you see it and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was actually pretty good.
Speaker 6: I have no taste.
Speaker 4: You're in one of my favorite television shows of all
Speaker 4: time and also, no joke, my favorite movies.
Speaker 3: Of all time with the Coen Brothers.
Speaker 4: Talk to me a little bit about that, and also
Speaker 4: just the huge success obviously at the Academy Awards No
Speaker 4: Country for Old Men.
Speaker 3: Your experience working on that and how it came about.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how long ago that was, and I think
Speaker 1: it was after it was after Jesse James and I
Speaker 1: only bring it up because Roger Deacon shot both of
Speaker 1: those movies. Okay, I went from one to the other
Speaker 1: and I got to be there with him for two
Speaker 1: movie experiences. So that was fantastic that I was company
Speaker 1: with the DP already, but it took a while to
Speaker 1: get that gig. I was a big fan of Cormack
Speaker 1: McCarthy's stuff. I found him in college and just ate
Speaker 1: him up, like a lot of dudes did, I think.
Speaker 1: But he was just an amazing writer, and I vowed
Speaker 1: I'd be in every Cormtt McCarthy movie ever made. I failed,
Speaker 1: but I got an auditioned for that one for Llewellyn
Speaker 1: Llewellyn Moss, who eventually was played by Josh Brolin, but
Speaker 1: Josh wasn't the original choice. I think this is I'm
Speaker 1: not breaking some story here, you know. I think Josh
Speaker 1: talks about it. But I think they went to Heath
Speaker 1: Ledger first and I had auditioned for him. Heath said no.
Speaker 1: Then they had another round of auditions. I auditioned again
Speaker 1: for Lluellen Moss. I think they went to Joaquin Phoenix
Speaker 1: at some point, and so there's a story out there
Speaker 1: that it was more times than it was, but I
Speaker 1: think I think three times I auditioned for the boys
Speaker 1: for llewell and Moss and I kind of always imagined
Speaker 1: that character being kind of longer and lankier and coyote ish.
Speaker 1: But look, at some point, you know, you got to
Speaker 1: have someone more famous if we want to get this
Speaker 1: movie made. And and also I think Josh was so
Speaker 1: fucking perfect in it. He was just great. I thought
Speaker 1: he was a worthy adversary for Sugar. But I think
Speaker 1: they liked me enough to at least see me those times.
Speaker 1: I really liked them, even though I was really nervous
Speaker 1: every time I went to their offices. And then they
Speaker 1: had how about this guy? Would you read this guy?
Speaker 1: And auditioned again for a different part. I guess it's
Speaker 1: just an audition story that I took ten minutes to tell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I auditioned.
Speaker 3: No, but that's no. But that's interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've gotten a lot of jobs like that,
Speaker 1: like we want you in this somewhere, we don't know where,
Speaker 1: but we'll be it and not I think back on it,
Speaker 1: those are some of my best experiences. So I got
Speaker 1: I got Wendell, and then we went to New Mexico
Speaker 1: and shot the thing and it was just a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I can't tell you who does what still?
Speaker 1: When the two are working with you. They were always together,
Speaker 1: at least when they dealt with me, and they'd walk
Speaker 1: up sort of kick rocks a little bit and like, well,
Speaker 1: what'd you think of that? I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That was pretty good, Like, yeah, that's pretty good. Do
Speaker 1: you want to go again?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, let's go good. And then they'd walk off.
Speaker 1: Then we go again. And sometimes I'm in scenes with
Speaker 1: Tommy and he's also a director, so he'd be help him.
Speaker 1: Like once off camera he goes like this, I'm on horseback,
Speaker 1: and so I knew my feet were out too far.
Speaker 1: He wanted me to put my toes in. I kind
Speaker 1: of had three directors there, but I didn't care. I
Speaker 1: liked him. Well, Tommy is the handful. I'm glad he
Speaker 1: liked me.
Speaker 3: That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I watched it again recently on a plane. I apologized
Speaker 4: to the Colen brothers in advance for watching it on
Speaker 4: a plane. I feel like they're just and Roger because
Speaker 4: every every shot is framed so well, but the movie
Speaker 4: holds up incredibly, incredibly well, not edited strangely. On this plane,
Speaker 4: I'm glad there wasn't a child sitting next to me.
Speaker 4: So in twenty ten you start raising hope. How was
Speaker 4: it for you working on a comedy on television? I mean,
Speaker 4: how was that did you? Were you nervous about that?
Speaker 4: Did you just consider it another job?
Speaker 1: Well? I wanted to do a comedy. Actually, my first
Speaker 1: jobs were all comedies I did. At the same time
Speaker 1: I was doing Deadwood, I was doing a minute with
Speaker 1: Stan Hooper, which was this half hour with Norm McDonald's Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: I loved it. And the pilots I got when I
Speaker 1: first decided to do pilot seasons, and I got like
Speaker 1: three pilots my first time ever out, and I just thought,
Speaker 1: why what have I been waiting for it? Look, this
Speaker 1: will fund the entire year of theater for me if
Speaker 1: I do. So, I didn't feel like anything new to me,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I might have lost track about
Speaker 1: how many you know, awful people I've been playing or
Speaker 1: scary people or whatever, just dramas. And so I said,
Speaker 1: I think we just finished Last House on the Left,
Speaker 1: and I was like, can we do some comedy please,
Speaker 1: you know, let's find a comedy. And you know, it
Speaker 1: took some hoop jumping, because by that point you're the
Speaker 1: drama guy. Or the murdering drama, and I thought I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't understand that. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh sure, I'm happy to audition, of course. And Martha
Speaker 1: was already cast. Martha Plimpton and Lucas Neff were already cast,
Speaker 1: and I went and read with them, and yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's actually the most like me of any part
Speaker 1: I played.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of I'm not the brightest bulb, and
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm goofy. I like to I love I
Speaker 1: love that stuff. I love a goofy childhood. So it is.
Speaker 3: Chloris Leachman.
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, Lucas Neth, Martha Plumpton, you got a
Speaker 4: nomination for Critics' Choice Awards.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: The story I mean, having having your son adopt the
Speaker 4: you know, or you take over as the father of
Speaker 4: a serial killer mom who's been put to death. I mean,
Speaker 4: this is this sounds like dark stuff on the surface,
Speaker 4: but incredibly funny. I find it so interesting that you
Speaker 4: think that that character is is most like you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was just very comfortable. And Greg had had a
Speaker 1: hard time talking to David Milch. You know, we both
Speaker 1: were too sort of awkward socially awkward people, and so
Speaker 1: the conversation was awful, you know, but I loved him,
Speaker 1: you know, and I wanted him to know. And Greg
Speaker 1: was different. We just Greg Garcia, I know, you know
Speaker 1: who that is, And yeah, he's a We just had
Speaker 1: the same sense of humor and we just would riff
Speaker 1: on ideas with each other all day. I just loved
Speaker 1: working with him, and I wanted to do well for him,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: And Martha's a fucking gift from God. You know, She's
Speaker 1: like a food source in a scene with you, I
Speaker 1: loved it.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 4: You also, around this time, right after this, you join
Speaker 4: a long running historic franchise, Fear of the Walking Dead.
Speaker 3: Did you get scared on set? Or do you just
Speaker 3: the zombies come on?
Speaker 1: You know, I mean we're seeing how the sausage is made,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, we see him smoking and
Speaker 1: on their cell phones, you know, between takes. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not super scary for us, but we
Speaker 1: want to make it scary obviously.
Speaker 4: Yeah, did you enjoy that world, the zombie world, because
Speaker 4: this is the departure for you as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a I got a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: boxes and comic books in there. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: always loved sci fi. I love sci fi and Westerns.
Speaker 1: I just think he can tell any story without offending anyone.
Speaker 1: You know, you can locate any theme and those genres.
Speaker 1: So I was a fan of the walking Toed comic books,
Speaker 1: you know, and.
Speaker 3: You were you were a comic book.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, They're like storyboards, aren't they. And they taught
Speaker 1: me a lot about about framing and you know, expressiveness physically,
Speaker 1: you know, because just it's always at the most heightened
Speaker 1: moment of every scene they draw in those boxes. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, and then there was a moment I was
Speaker 1: talking about with Scott Gimble about being Meagan on the
Speaker 1: on the on the shows. He was looking at several people,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, and it couldn't work it out. And
Speaker 1: it was during the Hand of God and Hand of
Speaker 1: God came back and Jeffrey Dean Morgan ended up playing
Speaker 1: that part as he probably always would have. But that
Speaker 1: started a relationship with me and Scott. And so when
Speaker 1: then they were kind of rebooting Fear in the fourth season,
Speaker 1: they brought in a bunch of new people and and
Speaker 1: he had a role for me. This sort of gunslinging,
Speaker 1: click draw artist cowboys.
Speaker 3: So it's still a cowboy.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter what the genre is, it's still it's
Speaker 4: still a cowboy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm from I'm from Washington State, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's not like.
Speaker 4: Not Texas, No Ghosts of Bear Root. I'm very excited.
Speaker 4: I'm very excited about this show. Have you seen it yet?
Speaker 4: It's about it's coming out folks here in the second
Speaker 4: May nineteenth.
Speaker 1: May nineteenth streaming. I think yeah, twenty first on air.
Speaker 3: The story is so interesting.
Speaker 4: Talk to me about playing a real person and how
Speaker 4: many of the people who who knew him were.
Speaker 3: You able to communicate with or did you not want.
Speaker 1: To do that? Yeah, that's that's funny that you ask
Speaker 1: about that. Have you played have you had to play
Speaker 1: characters that are biographical? You've done biographical kind of work.
Speaker 4: I have done biographical but old Yeah, nobody would be around.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, my guy's not around either, but certainly
Speaker 1: people who knew him were. But I think it's it's
Speaker 1: really daunting, especially at least at least the way I
Speaker 1: work and the way I get jobs. I don't have
Speaker 1: generally months in advance to prepare yes, And I rely
Speaker 1: a lot on sort of on set inspiration anyway, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm open to that. But when I play someone and
Speaker 1: it seems like there's been a ton of them all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know, I feel a real onus
Speaker 1: to represent them well for the sake of the people
Speaker 1: that are that are living and knew them, and especially
Speaker 1: the ones that talk to me. You know. I did
Speaker 1: talk to one person who knew him, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's been a long time for her since she saw him,
Speaker 1: but she remembers those days and I really enjoyed talking
Speaker 1: to her, getting to know her a little bit, and
Speaker 1: then she helped me get to know this guy who
Speaker 1: I do not look like. You know, I don't know
Speaker 1: what he sounded like. You know, he was a spy.
Speaker 1: There's there's no tape on him, you know, other than
Speaker 1: other than a horrifying tape at the end, you know,
Speaker 1: So I don't know what he sounded like for sure.
Speaker 1: I don't know what his rhythms were, and I'm relying
Speaker 1: on the script, so a lot of it feels out
Speaker 1: of my hands. I don't know if that's how it
Speaker 1: felt for you, But I'm just like I'm doing this
Speaker 1: with a full heart. I don't I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: insult your guy, but you know, this is this is
Speaker 1: what it feels like to me. If this is a
Speaker 1: situation and you tell me this is what he's like.
Speaker 1: I think it was something like this, and that detective
Speaker 1: work is fun, but I'd rather, I think, play someone
Speaker 1: that I can create from the boots up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's very interesting. I didn't think about that
Speaker 4: when I was reading about this project. The fact that
Speaker 4: he was a spy. It was in the CIA, so
Speaker 4: there is yeah, there isn't that. There isn't a whole
Speaker 4: ton of knowledge. I mean that was his job was
Speaker 4: to stay private.
Speaker 1: You didn't have a family, didn't have children, you know,
Speaker 1: so we're relying on co workers. Oh, he was always
Speaker 1: dressed well, he was special Forces, he was he was
Speaker 1: kind of a hammer. He's a blunt instrument. But it's fun.
Speaker 1: In fact, Chlorus Leachman said that to me once. I
Speaker 1: asked her, how are you still so excited about this?
Speaker 1: Because she had stories, man, she had amazing stories, And
Speaker 1: she said, I just I just love it. I feel
Speaker 1: like a detective come on a set and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: that's who she is, and you pick up a little
Speaker 1: piece and then another piece. She's ninety, you know, and
Speaker 1: she's still excited about it. And I'm struggling with being jaded.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like it was so inspiring because that is fun.
Speaker 1: It is fun to figure it out, isn't it?
Speaker 3: It is fun?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And by the way, she doesn't get any if you're
Speaker 4: if you're needing a pick me up at any time,
Speaker 4: just get yourself a dose of Chlorus Leachman.
Speaker 3: There's no there's no question about that. Well.
Speaker 4: You also have, by the way, uh, golfing buddy of mine,
Speaker 4: Michael Panya and you a million miles away about the
Speaker 4: first Latino in space.
Speaker 3: When is that coming out?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not sure when it's coming out.
Speaker 4: But okay, thanks for the specific, specific answer. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I don't think they know.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, there you go.
Speaker 1: We just did the A dr for it, so I
Speaker 1: know they're in their final stages, you know, and are
Speaker 1: very excited about it. It's a great director, and I
Speaker 1: like Michael a lot. I'm jealous at your is golfing
Speaker 1: buddy that must that is a funny round of golf man,
Speaker 1: is a that is a lot of laughing.
Speaker 3: It's always it's always fun.
Speaker 4: I well, congratulations and good luck when that comes out.
Speaker 4: But uh, Ghost of be Rout. Guys, this is a
Speaker 4: four part story. Talk to me a little bit about
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, is it immod.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a hard name to say, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad I never had to say.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, it's well, it's about.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the no country for old men in
Speaker 1: terms of.
Speaker 3: Terrorists in the CIA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's about this decade long search
Speaker 1: for the in mad Moutinier, the ghost. He had all
Speaker 1: these nicknames, but he was just bedeviling the CIA and
Speaker 1: Mosad with these hits, and he kind of reinvented terrorism.
Speaker 1: It was something we'd never seen before, the suicide bombers,
Speaker 1: you know, driving truckloads of bombs. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: I was a kid in the early eighties. I mean
Speaker 1: I was in high school in the early ladies, and
Speaker 1: I remember these stories like another day. It just seemed
Speaker 1: there was this new kind of chaos, there was a
Speaker 1: new fear, you know, that we're still dealing with today.
Speaker 1: And Greg Barker, who's much smarter than I am, who
Speaker 1: wrote this script, he's done this thing where it's it's
Speaker 1: almost like like there's real journalists interspersed in here giving
Speaker 1: interviews about what's going on and introducing it to characters,
Speaker 1: and it's it's I think it's pretty well done, and
Speaker 1: it's and I know it's very tense. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: the whole thing, but it spans forty years almost the
Speaker 1: new terrorism.
Speaker 3: Well, a political thriller. No Country for Old Men. Uh take.
Speaker 4: That is the new law. That's you got me with that? No,
Speaker 4: I find it. I find it fascinating. Good luck with
Speaker 4: that and with everything else. You know, Look, I just
Speaker 4: admire your work so much, truly, and I'm half jealous
Speaker 4: of the dramas that you've gotten to work on.
Speaker 3: So I mean, you could take that too. You can
Speaker 3: take that to the bank.
Speaker 1: That's awful kind of It's it's so nice talking to you, man.
Speaker 1: This is a really fun conversation. I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you, Garrett Dilla Hunt. Go back watch
Speaker 4: his Criminal Minds episode.
Speaker 3: We've got a lot.
Speaker 4: We've got a lot here to go back and check
Speaker 4: out find his vest in NYPD Blue. Garrett, thank you
Speaker 4: so much, and I hope to see you soon a
Speaker 4: music video.
Speaker 1: Sure you time Machine Ingrid Michael's and me and Brian
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 4: Sheets time Machine, we sang, we dance. I have rose
Speaker 4: petals on me, Garrett, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: Well, it looks like I've got some homework to do.
Speaker 5: I have.
Speaker 4: I have to go rewatch the music video because that
Speaker 4: was that was a fun time, but long ago. I
Speaker 4: must find Garrett in that vest on NYPD Blue And
Speaker 4: we all need to start watching Ghosts of Beirut streaming
Speaker 4: now on Showtime. And you know, I think it might
Speaker 4: even be time to watch Deadwood again, because well that's
Speaker 4: a great show. Thank you Garrett for well for your
Speaker 4: incredible body of work, and also for taking the time
Speaker 4: to talk to me. Listeners, you have some homework too.
Speaker 4: You need to go interact with our Instagram page, leave
Speaker 4: us a review, make sure you come back next week
Speaker 4: for another episode.
Speaker 3: Oh and one more thing, this is very important, Okay,
Speaker 3: have a great week off.
Speaker 4: The Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 4: alongside our executive producer Lang Lead. Our senior producer is
Speaker 4: Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 4: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 4: our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 4: performed by the one Only creep Rid