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Speaker 1: Hi, Brian, Hi Katie. You know, I'm a big admirer

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Speaker 1: of Alec Baldwin. He has had some tremendous highs in

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Speaker 1: his life and some pretty devastating low points as well.

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Speaker 1: He is fascinating because he combines interests in the arts, politics.

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Speaker 1: He's got a really interesting backstory, and he's had this

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Speaker 1: incredible life that's been full of highs and lows, and

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Speaker 1: he understands the media culture probably better than anyone through

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Speaker 1: the mistakes he's made in dealing with the media. We

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Speaker 1: kind of watched Alec, I think, learn on the job

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Speaker 1: and in real time as a public figure and someone

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Speaker 1: you know, he's not just an actor, but just someone

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Speaker 1: who's the quintessential New Yorker. Yeah. Probably no one except

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump has had as many run ins with the

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Speaker 1: tabloid media pack in New York besides Alec Baldwin. And

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Speaker 1: the interview didn't disappoint at all. I mean, as any

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Speaker 1: fan of thirty Rock knows, he's a really funny guy,

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Speaker 1: but he's also very smart and articulate. And we had

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Speaker 1: a conversation that ranged from Donald Trump, of course, to

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Speaker 1: hosting a game show. You asked him some insightful questions

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Speaker 1: about his personal life, the best directors he's ever worked with,

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Speaker 1: his experiences with Tony Hopkins and made us laugh probably

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Speaker 1: more than any guest has. You know, just I just

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Speaker 1: realized by the way that you and I we could

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Speaker 1: have a show together. We could we could be on

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Speaker 1: in the morning, like at seven in the morning, like

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Speaker 1: two hours from seven to nine, and I would be

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Speaker 1: the stars. We'd like talk to people and you could

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Speaker 1: do some news and I could do like some interviews

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Speaker 1: and stuff. We could we could be on the internet. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: g kitty, what is it like to do a two

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Speaker 1: hour morning show from seven to nine every and it's hard?

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Speaker 1: All right? Thank you for being here, and are very psyched, cab.

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Speaker 1: We had so much to talk about. Where do we begin?

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Speaker 1: I guess we have to begin with Donald Trump. I'm

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Speaker 1: in the car coming here and he's doing this press conference,

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Speaker 1: his first press conference, and I'm thinking, this guy hasn't

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Speaker 1: had a press conference and so long. You would have

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Speaker 1: thought he would have rehearsed, you know, we would have

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Speaker 1: thought he would have had one of the greatest press

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Speaker 1: conferences and just efficient and tight and presenting himself the

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Speaker 1: right way. And instead he's on TV right now it's

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Speaker 1: going very strangely. In fact, you were impersonating some of

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Speaker 1: the things he was saying. NBC great organization, yet sure

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Speaker 1: great and don't want to talk to you, and uh

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Speaker 1: it's just uh feed fake news, fake like the Nazis

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Speaker 1: would do that, say that. I, oh, you know, the

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Speaker 1: Nazis said that that Hitler, but he liked to be

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Speaker 1: on Hooker's in the Baktist gotten it's a fact, it's

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Speaker 1: no in fact, everybody knows that. So we're just getting

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Speaker 1: right into it here. I like, I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: wish that people could see Alec because as he's impersonating

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump, he's got that uh sort of perpetual the

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Speaker 1: mask of anxiety. Oh with his lips, he's got the

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Speaker 1: O phase going on. But I think the big question

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Speaker 1: is why should Trump change? Now? You said that, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're surprised that he's not rehearsing, that he's lashing out,

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Speaker 1: that he's saying offensive stuff. I mean, what lesson would

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Speaker 1: he have learned from the campaign that would motivate him

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Speaker 1: to change. That's a very good point, and I don't

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Speaker 1: expect I have no expectation of him changing, but I

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Speaker 1: do believe I truly just you know, being and this

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Speaker 1: is the I can't think of any other way to

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Speaker 1: phrase it. Being a student of human nature as the

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Speaker 1: direct result of what I do for a living and

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Speaker 1: watching people and observing people and thinking what's really the

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Speaker 1: real thing that's going on with them behind the mask

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Speaker 1: they're trying to manage all the time, you know, what

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Speaker 1: are they really thinking and feeling? And they present themselves

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Speaker 1: in public a different way. I fully expected Trump to

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Speaker 1: relax once he won. I fully expected him to say

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Speaker 1: that there were insecurities he had, and there was a

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Speaker 1: defensiveness and there was a pettiness that would have not

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Speaker 1: completely abayed. It would subside to some degree, and he

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Speaker 1: would go on to become more presidential, if you will.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people alec are still having

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Speaker 1: a hard time wrapping their heads around these words, President Trump.

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Speaker 1: So how are you kind of processing it? And what's

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Speaker 1: your attitude with the inauguration just around the corner? I

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Speaker 1: think that, you know, I mean, there's nothing I can

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Speaker 1: say that you know you haven't read or seen before

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Speaker 1: in terms of other people expressing their opinions about this,

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Speaker 1: because it's all people talk about all day long. It's

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Speaker 1: it's pretty much. It's phenomenal. It's pretty much a phenomenon

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen. But I will say briefly that, um uh,

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Speaker 1: you know when other men one in my lifetime that

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Speaker 1: I was not fond of, when Reagan won and even

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Speaker 1: the more kind of uh difficult one in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and the Florida thing and Gore and everything, and he won.

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Speaker 1: But in each of those cases, a few weeks go by,

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Speaker 1: a few months go by, and everybody settles in and

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Speaker 1: they realized that that men, because they were both men, obviously,

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Speaker 1: is not malicious in any way. Now we have a

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Speaker 1: guy who's the president the United States who's a malicious person.

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Speaker 1: He's a malicious person, and I don't think people are

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Speaker 1: going to settle in. I think that the way he

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Speaker 1: behaves and the way people reacting this is going to

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Speaker 1: be this way for the next four years. It's not

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Speaker 1: going to subside at all. What advice would you give

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Speaker 1: members of the media, because I think there is a

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Speaker 1: lot of you know, I think ratings, I mean, alec

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Speaker 1: you know, all about all this stuff. As much as anyone,

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Speaker 1: they can't alienate a huge segment of their audience who

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Speaker 1: want to give Donald Trump a chance who believe in

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Speaker 1: his sort of his approach to governing, and yet they

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Speaker 1: also don't want to normalize what is too many people

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Speaker 1: really repugnant reprehensible behavior. So I think they're kind of

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Speaker 1: caught between a rock and hard place in a way.

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Speaker 1: What what would you say is important in terms of

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Speaker 1: media coverage in the next four years. Well, I mean

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Speaker 1: that's a that's a big question, but I think that, Um.

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Speaker 1: I think that there are two things that are the

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Speaker 1: thing I see most vividly around Trump. One is that

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Speaker 1: all of these men who and some women who diminished

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Speaker 1: him and reduced him during the campaign, and some of

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Speaker 1: them ran against him, have all signed on in in

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Speaker 1: the way that partisan politics in this country demands right now,

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Speaker 1: and because they all know that the only thing worse

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Speaker 1: is that he doesn't win the election, they want the ryan.

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Speaker 1: Everybody is signed on saying O, Trump's okay, Trump's okay,

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Speaker 1: It's all going to be fine. Um. And that worries

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Speaker 1: me because of these appointments. His appointments to me are

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Speaker 1: very very, very frightening. I mean, I'm on the board

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Speaker 1: of directors of People for the American Way, so I'm

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Speaker 1: very concerned about the Court and a couple of vacancies

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Speaker 1: that may come up, certainly a couple or three that

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Speaker 1: will come up over the course of the next eight

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Speaker 1: years if he is re elected. But when I think

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Speaker 1: about Trump, now, what I think about is the word intervention.

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Speaker 1: Is there anyone, I mean, his daughter, even who is

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Speaker 1: close enough to him that a group of people can

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Speaker 1: sit her down and coach her through something. And is

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Speaker 1: she the one that can reach him and say to him,

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Speaker 1: here's a list, very basically, here's three things you need

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Speaker 1: to stop doing, and here's three things you need to

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Speaker 1: start doing. Let's just begin there. I think she tried,

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Speaker 1: didn't she like I mean, she was the one that

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Speaker 1: brought our more in to talk to him at Trump Tower. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there been Robert F. Kennedy, which is interesting. That's a

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Speaker 1: whole another area. Now he's going to lead up the vaccine.

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize Robert F. Kennedy was so anti vaccine.

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Speaker 1: Very lily, that's a good word for vaccine. That's why

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Speaker 1: I But you know, I think I think the Al

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Speaker 1: Gore meeting sort of proved the point for those who

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Speaker 1: are critical of Trump. That is, Ivanka brought Gore in.

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Speaker 1: Gore talked to Trump for like over an hour, and

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Speaker 1: then the next day he announced to A somebody who

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Speaker 1: denies climate change, so I think people who are holding out.

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Speaker 1: He wrote everything into focus for me, and I decided

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Speaker 1: to bring in an assassin to literally take out the

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Speaker 1: e p A. Mr President Elect. I didn't realize you'd

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Speaker 1: be joining us today. How did the whole Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: impersonation gig come your way? Alec? I mean, obviously they

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Speaker 1: knew they had to have somebody once he became the

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Speaker 1: nominee as somebody to play that, and they had all

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Speaker 1: these people in the bullpen that had done it for them,

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Speaker 1: Carrol Hammond, Carol, Taryn Killing left the show, and Tina,

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Speaker 1: I guess, was the one I was told that recommended

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Speaker 1: to Lauren that I do it, And I said this

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Speaker 1: before and it was just such an amazingly weird thing

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Speaker 1: for me, which is I had no idea what I

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Speaker 1: was gonna do. Literally the moment the stage manager had

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Speaker 1: my arm in his hand and leading me to the

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Speaker 1: stage to do the dress rehearsal of the first show

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Speaker 1: eight o'clock that night, I sat in a room and

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Speaker 1: we watched tapes of him and in anything, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm not a comedian, because comedians, to me are people

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Speaker 1: who write their material to be a real comedian to write,

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Speaker 1: and Tracy Morgan and Tina and so what. These are

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Speaker 1: people who have that gift of right. I'm just an

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Speaker 1: actor who says words of other people create. And we'd

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Speaker 1: sit there and whether it was Tony Bennet or Broccino

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Speaker 1: or de Niro or the little things I've done in

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Speaker 1: an ancillary way in my work. That way, there's an

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Speaker 1: element of appreciation for them, which is always important. And

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Speaker 1: with Trump, I don't have that element of appreciation, which

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Speaker 1: makes it difficult. So you wind up saying to yourself

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Speaker 1: that it's not so much the voice, because I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to sound like him that much. I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: you kind of get to a thing that's like a caricature,

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Speaker 1: everything swollen and bloated and and exaggerated. It's the look

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Speaker 1: where the hair is what it is. But to me,

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Speaker 1: the key to doing him was to be a man

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Speaker 1: who paused regularly, almost metronomically, paused to dig for a

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Speaker 1: word and never came up with the better word or

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Speaker 1: a stronger word. So Trump will sit there and go

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Speaker 1: I was talking to the president of Mexico who is

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Speaker 1: just a fantastic person, a great, great person, And like

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Speaker 1: I mean, whenever he pauses, you feel like there's like

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Speaker 1: in some Cone Brothers movie. It's like a bunch of

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Speaker 1: men in a filing room, like in his brain was

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Speaker 1: sweating and breathing heavily trying to find a word. And

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Speaker 1: then look at look at the look at the main nerve,

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Speaker 1: the guy in the big chair. Then we got nothing

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Speaker 1: we got And Trump's like, let me tell you something.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna build a wall here in Mexico and that

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Speaker 1: wall is going to be just a fantastic wall. And

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Speaker 1: you know, it's like he's always pausing to come up

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Speaker 1: with something with some rhetorical flourish or some muscular word,

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Speaker 1: and he never gets it. Never. So I always try

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Speaker 1: to build that into the impersonation where he's like, Melania,

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Speaker 1: you know that I want just to be with some great,

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Speaker 1: great people, you know for dinner. You know, you know

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Speaker 1: what saying we don't want to be to do it

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Speaker 1: seems so labored, right, and then you hear it and

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Speaker 1: you're like, seriously, that's all you got. I wonder if

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Speaker 1: I wonder truly if here is a guy I said

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Speaker 1: to somebody that here's a guy who this is This

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Speaker 1: is just my opinion, and I don't say this to

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Speaker 1: pile up on him or be mean or what have you.

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Speaker 1: This is just the reality which I find fascinating. Here's

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Speaker 1: a guy who, through I guess the kind of odd

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Speaker 1: uh nature of television, convinced a critical massive people, certainly

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Speaker 1: not the majority of voters, as we've learned, but a

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Speaker 1: critical massive people that he was this kind of whip

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Speaker 1: cracking can do executive on this TV show, this reality show.

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Speaker 1: Whereas in New York, where he lives and his home

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Speaker 1: base of his company, Trump is not admired at all.

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Speaker 1: When you see Trump in social circles in New York,

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Speaker 1: he was endured, you know, he was always somebody people

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Speaker 1: would nod to him and say, hey, how are you.

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Speaker 1: Because of New York people at the very least respect

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Speaker 1: other people who make a lot of money, and Trump

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Speaker 1: has purportedly met a lot of money, so they've tipped

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Speaker 1: their hat to him in that guard. But he's not

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Speaker 1: an honored guest anywhere. He's not an invited speaker anywhere

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Speaker 1: he's had a featured guest at some social event or

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Speaker 1: a dinner. He's kind of an outcast in the world

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Speaker 1: he lives in. When you when you got this gig

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Speaker 1: doing Donald Trump for SNL Alec, did you think it

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Speaker 1: was kind of a short term thing. Did you think, well,

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Speaker 1: this will be fun during the campaign and now whole

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Speaker 1: mother of god, I'm stuck doing this. Well, I didn't

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Speaker 1: view it as being stuck in the in the sense

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Speaker 1: that you know, when it came on, and I certainly

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Speaker 1: thought he was gonna lose, And I definitely thought he

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Speaker 1: was gonna lose, but uh, maybe not by much. But

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Speaker 1: I just never never dreamed we would be where we

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Speaker 1: are now. So when he won, there really was a

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Speaker 1: part of me that sat there and thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: I I emailed Steve Higgins, the exact producer who runs

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Speaker 1: a show with Laurence, and I said, what's the schedule

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Speaker 1: for the rest of the season again, I literally have

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Speaker 1: it on my phone. I can show it to you.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, how many more shows are you doing this year?

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Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, I just to go to Paris to

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Speaker 1: do Mission Impossible and may I'm just to go to

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Speaker 1: this place in this place in March. Are you making

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Speaker 1: plans so you can be part of the show from here?

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Speaker 1: I'm do it again. I don't think I'm gonna do

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Speaker 1: it this week. I'm what I'm doing it definitely next week,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to do the one for the inauguration.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I have to say, you're so funny and

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Speaker 1: it's so great watching you. And let's listen. We have

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Speaker 1: a montage of some of your greatest hits as Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump on SNL. Let's take a listen. What gives you

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Speaker 1: the energy for all that? My deep love for America

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Speaker 1: and a really really big handful of uppers that are

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Speaker 1: meant for racehorces. I use a very private, very secure

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Speaker 1: site what one can write whatever they want to. I

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Speaker 1: know one will read it. It's called Twitter. You know,

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Speaker 1: I can't quite say it on live television. Um, but basically, uh,

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Speaker 1: you said you wanted to to grab them by the pussy.

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Speaker 1: I deeply apologize. Are you trying to say apologize? No,

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Speaker 1: I would never do that. What I am doing is

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Speaker 1: Jina huge v China face is completely orange except around

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Speaker 1: the eyes. Words wide sirie. How about kill lisis theory?

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Speaker 1: What's your relationship with Donald Trump personally? Do you have one? No? No,

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Speaker 1: I mean I would meet him in town. And and again,

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Speaker 1: I mean you never want to be uh mean or

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Speaker 1: impolite people like that. I mean, if you don't if

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Speaker 1: you're not a fan of theirs or you're not some

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Speaker 1: supporter of theirs. I never watched The Apprentice. I watched

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Speaker 1: it like once when my brother Stephen was on. But

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Speaker 1: I would never, you know, want to be rude to

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Speaker 1: somebody like that to their face, even if they weren't,

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Speaker 1: you know, somebody wanted to hang out with. So I

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Speaker 1: would bump into him at events from here and there.

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Speaker 1: And but also he also provided the location manager of

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Speaker 1: a movie. I did uh an apartment in his building,

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Speaker 1: the top floor of the International on the old Gulf

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Speaker 1: and Western Building, and he allowed us to shoot a

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Speaker 1: film there, and he stopped by more for shooting. And

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Speaker 1: he's very gregarious and very fun. But I think what

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Speaker 1: he's somebody is who he's uh uh. He wants to

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Speaker 1: be appreciated. Yeah, when we're shooting the movie, he would

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Speaker 1: welcome to go. Isn't this apartment great? Isn't this the

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Speaker 1: most fantastic condominium you leather shot in in your entire

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Speaker 1: Life's go ahead say it. And what I'm gonna say

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Speaker 1: to you is before you speak of me, to say

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Speaker 1: You're welcome. You're welcome. He wants gratitude and he wants

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Speaker 1: recognition for what he does. So you haven't heard from him.

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Speaker 1: He hasn't reached out. I know he's tweeted that SNL

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Speaker 1: you know, has jumped the shark, etcetera appreciated Meryl Streep

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Speaker 1: is overrated, and I thought that was great. Meryl Streep

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Speaker 1: is overrated. I thought you really want to sit down

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Speaker 1: with some advisors, like some acting coaches or something, or

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Speaker 1: some PR people and the goat. Now, Donald, that would

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Speaker 1: be a vivid example of what you shouldn't do. I

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Speaker 1: have to ask you, since you brought it up, what

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Speaker 1: did you think of Meryl streep speech at the Golden Globes. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think that, um, you know, we were at a

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Speaker 1: point now where that kind of thing where somebody in

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Speaker 1: the arts, performers, you know, whether they're actors or musicians

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Speaker 1: or what have you, that piggyback that kind of statement

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Speaker 1: onto an event. We've seen a lot of that, and

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Speaker 1: I think maybe people are kind of bored with that,

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Speaker 1: and they don't they it's kind of predictable to them. However,

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Speaker 1: I do give her my understanding of her. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm a huge I'm completely in love with her, and

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Speaker 1: I worked with her and at a great time and

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Speaker 1: with her. I kind of give her a pass because

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Speaker 1: she I think she was speaking as a woman. I

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Speaker 1: think women are deeply hurt by what's happened and what

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Speaker 1: he said and how he uh sounds like he treats

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Speaker 1: women and views women or the less powerful. I think

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Speaker 1: because she gave the example of the reporter right who

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Speaker 1: had the disability. No, no, no, I I agree that

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Speaker 1: that in her content, she's covering a broader spectrum. But

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Speaker 1: I think what what what drives her as her being

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Speaker 1: a woman where you know, I mean, Trump is someone

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Speaker 1: who has abused power everywhere he's been in his life.

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Speaker 1: I mean everywhere he's gone, he's abused power and people

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Speaker 1: who were less powerful than him. But I do think

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Speaker 1: that what she said was very smart, was very active.

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Speaker 1: But I can see now where you know, there's people

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Speaker 1: in this country they just want to they want to

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Speaker 1: take a deep breath, and they want to right after

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Speaker 1: the inauguration, we have to accept where we are and

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Speaker 1: the task at hand. For people who are political opponents

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Speaker 1: of Trump's, you know, whining about Trump and lampooning Trump

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Speaker 1: and our mouth, our hand over our mouth, aghast, Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, Trump's the president. We've got to get over

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Speaker 1: that now. But you were just to get earlier in

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Speaker 1: the conversation, though, Alec, you were saying, you know, you

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Speaker 1: you went through sort of the stages of grief with

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Speaker 1: other presidential candidates who you didn't agree with, but it

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Speaker 1: was hard to get to that level of acceptance, if

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Speaker 1: you will, the final stage and the Elizabeth Coogler Ross,

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Speaker 1: you know, stages, agree with somebody like Donald Trump because

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Speaker 1: he is a malicious person. So I hear you saying

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Speaker 1: both things exactly. I think it is both things at

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Speaker 1: the same time. I think, well, I think it's people will.

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Speaker 1: The task is to move on and to use this

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Speaker 1: to energize the the the entification, and if you will,

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Speaker 1: the selection of someone to run against him. We need

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Speaker 1: to find that person who's gonna win, and that needs

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Speaker 1: to be job one. Number two. I think while he's

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Speaker 1: in office, he's just not going to enjoy what other

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Speaker 1: people have enjoyed. I mean, I think I think people

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Speaker 1: are going to be the press, and he's invited this

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Speaker 1: quite frankly, the press and the public that are not

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Speaker 1: supportive of him. They're going to keep giving it to

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Speaker 1: him right to the end. Speaking of the end, we

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Speaker 1: gotta take a quick break, um to hear some messages

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we'll be right back. God, you're good.

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Speaker 1: Everybody has been talking about Russia. It's in so many

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Speaker 1: headlines these days, Briant and so. On our next episode,

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Speaker 1: we're going to be speaking with a man named Bill

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Speaker 1: crowd Or. He was once Russia's large as foreign investor.

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Speaker 1: He is now a very strong and vocal anti Putin voice,

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Speaker 1: and we really want to talk to him about the

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Speaker 1: pros and cons of a closer relationship with Russia and

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Speaker 1: get some better understanding about the risk reward ratio of

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Speaker 1: a reset. Very illiterative, aren't I? So what questions do

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Speaker 1: you have about Russia for Mr Browder? Leave us a

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Speaker 1: message by calling nine to nine to four, six three seven. Oh, brother,

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Speaker 1: Bryan is really really smart. No, don't set expectations too

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Speaker 1: high now, he's gonna be crying. Worked with me at

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Speaker 1: CBS UM and he went to Harvard and then Stanford

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Speaker 1: Law School, and for some reason I was interested in media.

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Speaker 1: But he's also like a political chunkie here. Always tell

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Speaker 1: me he was sort of a producer helped me with

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Speaker 1: the Sarah Palin interview. We spent like four days together

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Speaker 1: in my den together coming up with all the questions

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Speaker 1: for Sarah Palin has a photographic memory about all things political.

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Speaker 1: I always tell the story that he got kicked at,

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Speaker 1: that he got grounded in high school for sneaking out

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Speaker 1: of his room to watch c SPAN. That's how big

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Speaker 1: a nerd this guy is. Sad. What I love is

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Speaker 1: the image of you um getting this job where you're

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Speaker 1: on on the mic so to speak with her, where

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Speaker 1: she says to me, where she says to you, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna go and do this podcast, would you like to

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Speaker 1: come with me? And there's this Eve Harrington moment for

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Speaker 1: you where you're like, yeah, I'll come with you. But

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Speaker 1: I don't want to be on the air with you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to be a producer. See, I want

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Speaker 1: to be on the air. Well, that's why I want

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Speaker 1: Brian to to be on the air. I want him

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Speaker 1: to have that voice. Me to a plastic surgeon and

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Speaker 1: in a few months I'll be Yeah, I'm gonna have

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Speaker 1: a face cliff. I said to my wife, said I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna have a face stiff when I'm sixty, which is

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Speaker 1: almost Hey, I just turned sixty. They're timeless. Very well,

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Speaker 1: you're a time but you're a timeless beauty. You're the

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Speaker 1: prompt queen of all of media, and we know that.

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Speaker 1: But my point is, I'm going to be sixty. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be fifty nine in April. So a year after that,

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Speaker 1: I'm sixty and I said to my I want to

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Speaker 1: have a facelift. She said, no, Alec, don't have a facelift,

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Speaker 1: because men, it looks so funny. I said, that's the point.

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Speaker 1: I want people to gasp when they say, what a thing?

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Speaker 1: What has he done? Because that's my favorite do anything

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Speaker 1: for attention? What's my favorite New Yorker cartoon with a

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Speaker 1: guy looks at the woman and the doctors in the

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Speaker 1: office with the woman and he says, he says, I

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Speaker 1: can't make you look younger, but I can make you

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Speaker 1: look like you've had a lot of expensive plastic serion,

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Speaker 1: just like Yes, okay, let's talk a little bit about well,

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Speaker 1: there is one thing you and Donald Trump have in common,

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Speaker 1: which is your proximity or you're the way that you've interacted,

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Speaker 1: if you will, with the New York media, tabloid culture. Um,

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Speaker 1: he to me seems to have utilized it with the

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Speaker 1: notion that all press is good press, and you, to me,

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Speaker 1: has what what expression did you use for Alex relationship

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Speaker 1: with the New York tabloid media? Kind of careful now?

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Speaker 1: Whipsawed by Yeah, a little bit whipsawd by it. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think the only thing I can say to that

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Speaker 1: is when you're provoked by certain people in the media, Um,

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Speaker 1: I definitely did the wrong thing a handful of times,

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Speaker 1: and it seemed like it happened. Uh, you know, Um,

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Speaker 1: a lot of it has been very close succession. When

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Speaker 1: you become that person that is a click bait or

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Speaker 1: cover bait subject for like the New York Post and

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Speaker 1: so forth, that's uh, that's a tough current to paddle

426
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,880
Speaker 1: your way out of, and there are ways to do that.

427
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 1: But I think that I mean, you know, I write

428
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: this in my book, My Memoirs, coming out in in April,

429
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: And in my book I talked about how I walked

430
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 1: down the streets of New York and there was a

431
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 1: guy coming toward me, an elderly couple, and the guy

432
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: was this very distinguished looking guy in a suit and

433
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: a tie and a camel hair coat, this African American guy,

434
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 1: and he took one look at me, saw that it

435
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: was me, and it's like there's that unmistakable glint of recognition,

436
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,080
Speaker 1: and he kind of like shook his head and looked

437
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,359
Speaker 1: down to the ground. Because it wasn't like a week prior,

438
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 1: the New York posted that I called this guy this

439
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: racial epithet. It was a photographer from the post. Now,

440
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,719
Speaker 1: as I said repeatedly, if I was going to use

441
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: a word that was a racial epithet, it wouldn't be

442
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 1: something from a Rod Steiger movie from nineteen sixty nine

443
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:18,680
Speaker 1: and we're down and like so that you make them

444
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: Georgia or something, but from the in the heat of

445
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 1: the night or something. And I and I said, you know,

446
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 1: there are other words. And when I grew up in

447
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 1: my neighborhood, people might have used. But I went to

448
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,160
Speaker 1: have an interview with the d a's office. They called

449
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 1: me in to have a hate crimes investigation, a preliminary investigation,

450
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,160
Speaker 1: and they were contemplating charging me with a hate crime

451
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 1: for saying this to this guy. When we were done,

452
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: I said, well, would be very beginning. I said, well,

453
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: the guy's a photographer. Of paparazzi and a videographer. Is

454
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: there a video tape? And there was this odd moment.

455
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 1: It was this pause that the d A had this

456
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,160
Speaker 1: woman because what she was hoping that I would implicate

457
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 1: myself in spite of the presence of the tape, that

458
00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 1: I'd say that I did something, because they're obviously they're

459
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,960
Speaker 1: wawyers who know that that's a possibility. As a pause,

460
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:04,439
Speaker 1: and she said, yes, there's a tape. I said, well,

461
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,119
Speaker 1: let's play the tape. And we play the tape and no,

462
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 1: at no point in the day do you hear me

463
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: say any of what he accused me of saying. But

464
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,160
Speaker 1: you do hear him say he walks back to the

465
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 1: to the journalist that he's working with in Tandeman says,

466
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 1: she was what happened? What happened? He goes, I think

467
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 1: he called me, and there's a pause, he goes a

468
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: coon or something. And you never hear them on the

469
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 1: tape at all, and you hear everything recorded on the tape.

470
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 1: So I said to the woman from the d a's office,

471
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: I said, are you going to hold a press conference

472
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,600
Speaker 1: and announced that you did not discover And of course

473
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: the answer was no. So the tabloids spatter you with

474
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 1: all this mud, and you get covered with all of

475
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,080
Speaker 1: this mud, and in my profession, it damages your reputation,

476
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,640
Speaker 1: which is really all you have. Significantly. It takes you

477
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:51,639
Speaker 1: a lot of time to wipe all that off of you.

478
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: And I turned to the woman, thinking, you know, one

479
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,880
Speaker 1: statement from you to the press would say, we conducted

480
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 1: this investigation, and so what's the point of this investigation.

481
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,680
Speaker 1: Is it just to we view of a burden or

482
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,679
Speaker 1: are you willing to exonerate me in the process. And

483
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: they did nothing. The d a's office didn't They would

484
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 1: not make a statement. They did nothing. So you are left,

485
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: for the most part, to perform this function for yourself,

486
00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 1: which is very time consuming and very very painful. Now

487
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 1: I learned some profound lessons from getting fired from MSNBC

488
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 1: above the flurry of things right around two thousand thirteen

489
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 1: and two thousand fourteen, which is that the less you

490
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: have the press in your life, the better you want

491
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: to cherry picket and just do every now and then

492
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: you in my business, which is one thing, and I'll

493
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 1: finish with this. One thing people don't understand is the

494
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: fulcrum for the the reison debt for my relationship with

495
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:47,679
Speaker 1: the press is nearly always contractually obligated the people I

496
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:49,640
Speaker 1: work for him me a contract and say you must

497
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: talk to some percentage of these people to promote this project,

498
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: and if you don't, you're in breach of your contract. Otherwise,

499
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 1: I sincerely doubt I would do you know any percent

500
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: of what they asked me to do? Why do you

501
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: think it was so relentless over that period of time, Alec?

502
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: And because I feel like, you know, it became a

503
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 1: weird kind of sport and that do you think they

504
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:19,320
Speaker 1: somehow smelled weakness or vulnerability or your reaction to it

505
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 1: made it more enticing to cover you. I think it

506
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: was one of bury people who they have some who

507
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: they think has some other potential. Meaning that was a

508
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: time when people were coming to me. I mean I

509
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: had some pretty prominent people come to me. And aspect

510
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: a run from mayor in two thousand, UH went to

511
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,239
Speaker 1: Blasio one. I mean I had people. I mean I

512
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 1: was on the cover of New York magazine. They said

513
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: I was going to run for the Senate twenty years

514
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: ago in advance of the campaign. Um, the do you

515
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: think it was to cut you off at the knees. Politically,

516
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: I think it was I think that they want to

517
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 1: damage people who all hope they have a dream, a

518
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: desire to reduce and to null of by all people

519
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,399
Speaker 1: that are their political opposites, whether they're there in the arts,

520
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: whether actually bona fide political figures. I don't think that

521
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: they look at me as somebody who's some virile political candidate,

522
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 1: But I'm somebody who is a loud and persistent, opinionated,

523
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: opinionated yet rock in their shoe in terms of their

524
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,919
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm constantly pissing on the Post, and I mean,

525
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,879
Speaker 1: let's let's put it this way. The Post is nothing

526
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:30,439
Speaker 1: but a mouthpiece for Murdoch. It hemorrhages money. It loses tens,

527
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 1: if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year the Post,

528
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 1: and Murdoch and his family maintained that as a as

529
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 1: a as a a forum for them to launch their

530
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 1: political pi they've kind of backed off. I'm wondering why

531
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: you're kind of poking them in the with a sharp

532
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,119
Speaker 1: stick right now, because I feel like, you know, I

533
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: I read the stuff when you went through this sort

534
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: of phase where you were in there in their target

535
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 1: or and and I was always thinking, it's nice that

536
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: Alec has made his peace with them, or they've made

537
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: his their piece with him, and they're not kind of

538
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 1: I don't think make peace with them. Yeah, I don't

539
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: think you ever do, know, just a question of it.

540
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,239
Speaker 1: They move on to somebody else, and they move on,

541
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 1: and I'm not as as interesting for that those purposes anymore.

542
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 1: You know, they'll give it to they'll give it to

543
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: Merrill for the next couple of months over what she said,

544
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: and they'll they'll identify somebody else who their staff. It's

545
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,119
Speaker 1: like that bullpen you see on TMZ, and they all

546
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: sit around shooting the breeze about what stories that they

547
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: think are the most tabloid worthy, and and that energy

548
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 1: moves on and meanders to other other people. So I mean,

549
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: right now, you know, for me, um, if you could

550
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: write a check to some organization and pay them to

551
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:49,640
Speaker 1: never see your name in the paper again, I would

552
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: be the first in line to write that check. And

553
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: that includes The New York Times. By the way, Well,

554
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,479
Speaker 1: it's interesting a couple of years ago media, really, you've

555
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: got a lot of attention for writing a piece about

556
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: how you were retiring from public life. What did you

557
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 1: mean by that? And have you have you done that

558
00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: since then? I think that that that number one again,

559
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 1: that that idea was to ever think that I could

560
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: have a successful relationship with the media, to talk about

561
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: my work and with any joy or any um uh

562
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 1: kind of collegiality, deal with the media as a necess

563
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: as a necessary element of my work, like I go

564
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: into rooms periodically. I just came from the press conference

565
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles at the t c A. And to

566
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: always be going into these rooms with these people and

567
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 1: dealing with them and hoping that they would have some

568
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: desire to and s and and and subsequently ability to

569
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: interpret even remotely who you really are. I'm that way. No, No,

570
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: you're to get people. You're not malicious. And but my

571
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,959
Speaker 1: point just to finished that The point is that so

572
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: the answer is that was a bit premature for me

573
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: to put it in. I probably should to put it differently,

574
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: which is that is I've tried to minimize that as

575
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: much as possible. I mean, I have been through this

576
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: Trump thing, for example, offered the cover of every magazine

577
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: you could possibly imagine. I've been offered untold hundreds of

578
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars to put the wig on and walk

579
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: in and do you know what speaking fees are in

580
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 1: this business. I've been offered a ton of money, and

581
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: I agreed with Lauren when we started that I wouldn't

582
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: do that. I wouldn't monetize this gig at all. Really,

583
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 1: I just says, that's why we announced on the show,

584
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 1: on the on the on the in the media that

585
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: they pay me the S and L guest fee of

586
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: fourteen dollars a show to do the show. This isn't

587
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 1: about money but a proposed what you're saying, and I

588
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: don't want to dwell on this, which is that, uh

589
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 1: that the idea that I could make it fun and

590
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: I could make it relaxed, to make it easy, and

591
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 1: I'd have my relationship with reporters and things like that

592
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 1: and try to handle it a certain way. That's over.

593
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 1: That's what died, and that is that I can never

594
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 1: trust because the media is so desperate for funds. Now,

595
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: all media sources are so desperate for clickbait and ratings

596
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: that they will go to any lengths. I mean, I

597
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 1: say this to you of old people, and I remember,

598
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 1: I don't I really don't enjoy saying this. It kind

599
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 1: of makes me sad. But like when I had this

600
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: thing where I left this message from my daughter on

601
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,600
Speaker 1: this tape, NBC and their producers in the Today Show

602
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: producers went and got Harvey Levin and put him on

603
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 1: the air before me, and I was doing thirty Rock,

604
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: and everyone in my life was saying to me that

605
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:21,479
Speaker 1: I would get a gift basket that said from your

606
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: NBC family. I thought, oh, my god, I think I

607
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 1: might be in the wrong family if h Mattlauer is

608
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 1: going to interview Harvey Levin before me, and nobody even

609
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 1: contacted me. They put Levin on, and I mean, everybody

610
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 1: knew how to reach me, and I was working for them.

611
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: And when they did that, I never did the Today

612
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: Show ever since then ever, And that was in two

613
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: thousand seven, And I said to my that's ten years ago.

614
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: And I said to myself, not with any anger or

615
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:52,200
Speaker 1: any hatred. I just said to myself, I need to

616
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 1: have less of this in my life. Did you ever

617
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: talk to him out about it? Not? Really. There was

618
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: a quick mention of it because he guessed it on

619
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: thirty Rock, but there really wasn't anything to say because

620
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: certainly Matt didn't make that decision as producers did. It

621
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 1: wasn't really up to Matt So. But but when you

622
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: make that thing, I mean out of anger and frustration.

623
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: I hoped that I would never have to speak to

624
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: the media again. But believe it or not, I certainly

625
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: have reduced it a great deal. And I made exceptions

626
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: for people who have law degrees from Stanford University. But

627
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: we appreciate it. But I called the Stanford rule. So

628
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: can we talk about your upbringing and kind of how

629
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 1: you got into all of this, because I think a

630
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know. You grew up on Long

631
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 1: Island in the nineteen sixties. Your dad was a school teacher,

632
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 1: your mom was a housewife, you were one of six kids,

633
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: money was tight. How did that upbringing affect your choice

634
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: of career and kind of how you've pursued your life.

635
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: So that's really a very important theme in the book

636
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: I wrote, which is that that there were other things

637
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 1: I dreamed of doing. There were other things I wanted

638
00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: to do, and people kind of enticed me into trying this.

639
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 1: In every month or whatever period you want to use

640
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: to calibrate it, that I remained in this business, things

641
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 1: got better. I got a job right out of school,

642
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: out of acting school, I went to Los Angeles, I

643
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: got work. I just kept working. I just kept lightening

644
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: one off the other. I was changed shooting, and I

645
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: was like just working, working, working. Then I got into

646
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: you know, primetime TV. Then I got into supporting roles

647
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: of movies and bigger roles in movies, and they all

648
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,479
Speaker 1: just had this momentum but the entire time, and I

649
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: will say this pertains to inside the body of the

650
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: work I've done. And this is a big part of

651
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: what the book is about, is I never really often

652
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:39,080
Speaker 1: got to do what I wanted to do because my

653
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 1: background left me obsessed with I had to make money

654
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 1: and not be like my dad. So when I worked,

655
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: it was always like I gotta I gotta work, I

656
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 1: gotta keep working. I gotta make as much money as

657
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: I can. I don't want to, you know. My dad

658
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 1: didn't uh you know. He was a school teacher, and

659
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: there were things in his colleagues and other school teachers

660
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: did that they didn't want to do to supplement their income.

661
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 1: I mean the father My father had friends of his

662
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: that were younger men who painted houses in the summer. Well,

663
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,919
Speaker 1: they had floor polishing companies where they sent out men

664
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 1: to banks and clean the floors of hospitals and banks.

665
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 1: My father had friends talking about teachers, teachers who when

666
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 1: the summer would come, they ran travel agencies and they

667
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: went and did they went on cruise ships. So they

668
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,880
Speaker 1: had some crazy supplemental work that they did, and my

669
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: dad didn't do that. He Everything my dad did was

670
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,520
Speaker 1: a paycheck from the school. He coached football, he coached

671
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: rifle ry, he did a lot of different things. Wasn't

672
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: the money or was it the gravy train that was

673
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: so enticing? Or was it the work? Wasn't that enticing?

674
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,200
Speaker 1: It was necessary? Well? That was that was the problem.

675
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 1: Was What was enticing was the work. And what got

676
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 1: in the way was my need to make a living.

677
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: So there were many many opportunities to work and do

678
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 1: things I wanted to do, and you know, different than acting.

679
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,880
Speaker 1: No no jobs within the business. Some some you know,

680
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: monster directors saying come with me to Australia for six

681
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,320
Speaker 1: months and we're gonna make a movie and the sequel

682
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: while we're down there, and you're gonna play the lead

683
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: role in this gigantic blockbuster movie and me turning and going, oh,

684
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,319
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I'm married I just had a baby,

685
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 1: my wife I was married to Kim. My wife's not

686
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,200
Speaker 1: coming to Australia for six months with my daughter. So

687
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: my life getting in the way of that, or or

688
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:23,480
Speaker 1: somebody saying, here's a movie you're gonna do, that's the

689
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: movie you need to be doing it. We don't have

690
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: any money. We don't have any money to bring your

691
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: family come to the Caribbean and we're gonna be shooting

692
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,880
Speaker 1: it on a boat. And it's an extraordinarily interesting project,

693
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 1: but we can't bring your family down. We're gonna pay

694
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:38,359
Speaker 1: you fifty cents to do the movie. And I go, oh,

695
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:40,360
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can't leave my wife. And

696
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: I'm remarried and have have three kids. So everything has been

697
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: family and I'm not complaining. I'm not asking for like

698
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: a medal here. I'm no different than anybody else in

699
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: that way. And then I would turn around and I

700
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: have to do a job to make money, and and

701
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: I would I'd have to supplement that. And so without

702
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 1: beating at the death in a patchwork of decisions, I

703
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 1: had to make countless scores of decisions over the years.

704
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,640
Speaker 1: There's things I might have done that would have made

705
00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: me um more uh what's the word, you know, kind

706
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: of cemented in my career and everything would be a

707
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: lot more of Tom Hanks whatever. Yeah. I don't like

708
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: to compare to other people because they are who they are,

709
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,319
Speaker 1: but I would have had a much more easy time

710
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 1: of things. Now. Having said that, I mean, I think

711
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: your career choices have been so that's interesting and smart

712
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: and had you've done such a variety of things ale

713
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,760
Speaker 1: that I have done everything, you know, and I think,

714
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 1: I mean, I think your life and career have been

715
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 1: far more interesting because of that. But let me ask

716
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:43,360
Speaker 1: you this, and I don't want to just turn it

717
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: on you, but you know, you're probably you know, you're

718
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 1: one of the four or five most famous women in

719
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: the history of the news business. And you did a

720
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,280
Speaker 1: show which was the number one show in the morning,

721
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,399
Speaker 1: and you were like, like people wake up and brush

722
00:36:57,520 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: their teeth. You know, they might as well just had

723
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: a tooth rush with you on it, you know, because

724
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 1: you were so a part of their lives on the

725
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 1: morning show. And when the time came for that to end,

726
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 1: that was your decision for it to end. Im, assuming

727
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: you couldn't kept doing it forever, I could have, right,

728
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 1: and when when you didn't want to do it anymore.

729
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,359
Speaker 1: If you don't mind my asking why, I think for me,

730
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:24,279
Speaker 1: I the show itself had become a little repetitive. Um,

731
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 1: I wanted a new challenge. Uh. I wanted to leave

732
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 1: before people wanted me to leave in a way, I mean,

733
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:36,280
Speaker 1: I think, and I had an opportunity to do something.

734
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to try something new and be challenged.

735
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,439
Speaker 1: And you know, I think, you know, sometimes I wonder

736
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 1: about that. I could have stayed. I could have been

737
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 1: celebrating twenty five years while Matt was celebrating twenty and UM,

738
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: I think for me, it's just I didn't want my

739
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: life to be that one thing and that one thing alone.

740
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: And I think probably motivated by some of the things

741
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 1: that you've been motivated by. I think that people don't

742
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 1: realize it no matter how lucrative the job is, no

743
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 1: matter how famous you are, and there are a few

744
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 1: people who were as famous as successful as you've been. Uh,

745
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: you do you know, twenty years goes by and go

746
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:21,600
Speaker 1: wait a second, you know, I would like to just

747
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 1: do something different. And for me, I mean, the biggest

748
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: thing in my life now that dictates what I do

749
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: is that I met someone and I fell in love

750
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,000
Speaker 1: and I got married, and I'm fifty nine years old.

751
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 1: Pretty soon I have three children three and under. We

752
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 1: have three children in three years. And so when someone

753
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 1: says to me, come to a movie. There were two

754
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 1: examples that I don't want to mention the details and

755
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: offend anybody, but there are two examples of movies like

756
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 1: La La Land. They were like, we we don't really

757
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: want this Ryan Gosling guy. They're gonna have to go

758
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 1: to him. They said, is there anybody you recommend me

759
00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:59,440
Speaker 1: hired now that you're not going to do it? As

760
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:05,280
Speaker 1: I really like Ryan Goslin. He reminds me he's a younger.

761
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 1: I said, you really what you really want to be

762
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: younger me? And that's what whether be Ryan Goslin. Um.

763
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,480
Speaker 1: But um, well, these two films. Somebody came to me

764
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 1: and said do you want to do this film? And

765
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:17,799
Speaker 1: there were both people who I had on a list

766
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:19,839
Speaker 1: of people who if they called me, I wouldn't even

767
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:22,840
Speaker 1: think about it. I would just do it. Two directors,

768
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:27,239
Speaker 1: both men who I really admired so deeply, and in

769
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: both cases I said I can't do it because of

770
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 1: my wife and my kids. One was like, let's go

771
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:32,919
Speaker 1: to the city for five weeks and we can't bring

772
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:35,200
Speaker 1: your family have no money, And I thought, I don't

773
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:36,839
Speaker 1: want to. I don't want my son to wake up

774
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 1: and go because my wife will do that with on FaceTime.

775
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: If I do go away for a day or so,

776
00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: my wife will we will FaceTime. And my son's looking

777
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: at me like, you know, you're not around the corner

778
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 1: in the bedroom or you know, in the bathroom brushing

779
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 1: your teeth, and I just don't want to miss that.

780
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:58,320
Speaker 1: So I've so I say no to a variety of things,

781
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 1: whether it's a money gig or creative gig, and then

782
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 1: I go do match game. What was that match game was?

783
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:08,680
Speaker 1: They came to me and said, would you do ten episodes?

784
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 1: Because I love you, but I saw you on television

785
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 1: doing that and I was like, why on earth is

786
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: Alec doing. I'm gonna tell you real quickly, which is

787
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: that they said, let's do a ten We're gonna do

788
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:21,960
Speaker 1: ten episodes in the summer block and I can put

789
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 1: the money on my charity because I'm always looking for

790
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 1: these cookie ways to fund my charity. Capital one commercials

791
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: Amazon Echo commercial for the Super Bowl all the funds

792
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,360
Speaker 1: go to my charity. Then we did match game and

793
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: it was very successful and they said would you do more?

794
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 1: And my wife said to me, go ahead and do

795
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:41,839
Speaker 1: more and and don't give the money to charity. This

796
00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:46,800
Speaker 1: is the charity. Uh. And it's something that is it

797
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: something that was in my bucket list of things I

798
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:50,799
Speaker 1: wanted to do as an actor. No, but at the

799
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 1: same time it meets full on the criteria of what

800
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: I need. Is that it's in New York. I don't

801
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,240
Speaker 1: have to travel. I can stay home with my family.

802
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 1: And that's a tough, tough part in this career. Is

803
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 1: because I have young kids. Is that I just I

804
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: don't want to travel anymore. I just don't. And what

805
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 1: is your charity? Focus on the arts? Mostly? I mean

806
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: when we we did Capital One and we've made big gifts,

807
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,080
Speaker 1: you a million dollar gifts to n y U, my

808
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 1: Ama Monitor round About Theater too. I think you're a

809
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: big guil and you very graciously came into the show

810
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: with us Guild Hall in East Hampton, Hampton Film Festival,

811
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:31,720
Speaker 1: a lot of smaller people for the American Way, Peter,

812
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 1: some political things, but mostly the arts. Mostly the arts.

813
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 1: But I bet people were equally skeptical about Alec Baldwin

814
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: playing this character on thirty Rock. I mean when I

815
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: first saw that show, I didn't know that you could

816
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: be funny like that. So amazed you say that, No, No,

817
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,600
Speaker 1: I mean truly, it was like a revelation, and you

818
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,719
Speaker 1: were for that whole period. I mean, in my mind,

819
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: at least, by far, the funniest person on television. And

820
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: I still clothes well, no, because most people couldn't execute

821
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: it the way you did. I mean I think I

822
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:07,920
Speaker 1: think that role was really all about how you played

823
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,719
Speaker 1: the part and how dead pan you were. And I

824
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,000
Speaker 1: mean I still think about every time I put on

825
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: a tuxedo, which is not very often. It's after six?

826
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,719
Speaker 1: What am I a farmer? Damn? I wish this event

827
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 1: were tonight. It's not tonight. When is it February? Why

828
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:28,879
Speaker 1: are you wearing a tux It's after six? What am

829
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:31,920
Speaker 1: I a farmer? You know that's turned into a very

830
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 1: popular Jeff? Is that how the kids say a Jeff

831
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 1: or Giff? I think it's either way right now, I

832
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:41,359
Speaker 1: don't know. In fact, we have a question for you,

833
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:45,160
Speaker 1: Alec from one of our listeners in Phoenix, Arizona, Jack

834
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 1: these are prerecorded questions. Hi. My question for Alec Baldwin

835
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,240
Speaker 1: is his character that he played on thirty Rock Jack Donneghie.

836
00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,120
Speaker 1: Does he have a favorite memorable line that sticks out

837
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: to him? Thank you? Right? Um, well you mentioned that

838
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: after six and one of my Farmer. That was one

839
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,319
Speaker 1: of them. When the when Carrie Fisher was on the

840
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 1: Late Carrie Fisher, who we loved, came on and I

841
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,480
Speaker 1: was thanking her. She was a veteran writer there in

842
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 1: the comedy constellation. And when she left my office, I

843
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 1: turned to Tina. I said, don't ever introduced me to

844
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 1: a woman that age again. I don't ever ask me

845
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,239
Speaker 1: to talk to a woman that age again. That was

846
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 1: a good one, Um, but you're laughing. Uh right, I

847
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:36,879
Speaker 1: was Tina's Uh. There was this wonderful actor who played

848
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 1: Tina's agent who was like this preternatural man child. He

849
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:43,759
Speaker 1: was like a little boy in a suit. And I said,

850
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 1: did I said that you and I know a few

851
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 1: things about women, don't we. John whatever his name was,

852
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 1: He goes, I've seen a few bras, but I think

853
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 1: my old time. Um, I mean, I guess the two

854
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 1: scenes that stand out for me most when they came

855
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: to me, this is emblematic of that show. They came

856
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:00,680
Speaker 1: to me and said, you're going to play. We're gonna

857
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 1: do the Patty Duke thing, and you're gonna act opposite

858
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:05,919
Speaker 1: yourself and you're gonna play a gay Mexican soap opera star.

859
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:08,719
Speaker 1: And I said them, I go, come on, come on,

860
00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: you guys, come on. And they said no, no, no,

861
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: You're gonna play they hand a relishimo and be the

862
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,719
Speaker 1: gay Mexican soap opera star. And we did it. I

863
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: shot against myself and at the end, I look at

864
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 1: the guy. I go, I look at the general, the general,

865
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: and I go, you really are super gay. And the

866
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: General goes, okay so, and I just love that he

867
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: goes he's like this mustache. She goes okay so. And

868
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:35,400
Speaker 1: I love when we did hand to release him and

869
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 1: that was like just so absurd. And I guess the

870
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:41,160
Speaker 1: end when we had to finish the show and I

871
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: had this long, weird monologue to tell Tina that I

872
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:49,760
Speaker 1: loved her, and uh the speech that I say, lemon,

873
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:51,880
Speaker 1: there is a word which comes from the old German,

874
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 1: and I go into this long which comes from the

875
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 1: German luba, which means to be pleased, which is from

876
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 1: the lube, was from the verb blue bell, which means

877
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 1: to be pleasing. And I go into this rambling nonsense thing.

878
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: Before I even finished tea, he goes, I love you too, Jack.

879
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 1: And when we shot that scene at the end, it

880
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 1: just was like a knife in me. I couldn't believe

881
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 1: because it was like the best. And even though I

882
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 1: whined and complained, but I was there about certain things.

883
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: It was the best job I'll ever had. It was

884
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: the best. Were you sorry? I mean, why did it

885
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:28,600
Speaker 1: have to end? Well? I think Tina very Tina smart,

886
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: and she's smart and always and not just in writing jokes.

887
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,959
Speaker 1: Tina was the you know, the principal producer of the show,

888
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 1: and she knew that she wanted to go out before

889
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 1: we had gotten down. There was no juice on the

890
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 1: rind anymore. She didn't want to jump the show. And

891
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 1: she had two kids, said two kids, and she wanted to.

892
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: I think I think that to to write and produce

893
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,160
Speaker 1: and star in that show. I mean I always say

894
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:54,799
Speaker 1: the same thing, which is not at all, uh a

895
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 1: critique at all, But I knew we were going to

896
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 1: go off the air when Tina came into rehearsal one

897
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:02,160
Speaker 1: morning and laid down on the couch, which he had

898
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:05,359
Speaker 1: never done in the six years prior. And the second

899
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: season was a short order, was thirteen episodes, and we

900
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:10,759
Speaker 1: came into the seventh season, the final thirteen episodes, and

901
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 1: Tina came in one day and she just lay on

902
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 1: the couch and kind of like moaned softly. She was

903
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 1: so tired. And I looked at some people, I was like,

904
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:21,880
Speaker 1: this is over, We're done. So what's on your what

905
00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:24,839
Speaker 1: is a part of your current poo poo platter of

906
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:29,000
Speaker 1: professional responsibilities right now? Well, I'd like to use the

907
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:33,280
Speaker 1: phrase topas myself more Kati, if you don't mind. Seems

908
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 1: upper East side thing, you'd say, very kind of dated

909
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:41,800
Speaker 1: side of Kawa. Yeah, the side of what's your Manila?

910
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 1: The Well, I'm gonna go to Emilio esteve as his

911
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: new movie called The Public and uh, that's a name

912
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: I haven't heard for a long time. I love Amelio.

913
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 1: He's a great, you, very serious filmmaker. He did this

914
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,080
Speaker 1: wonderful film with his father called The Way which Martin

915
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 1: Sheen crosses the the Great Hike in Spain, and Amelia

916
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:07,440
Speaker 1: did a movie about the staff of the CINCIDENTI Public

917
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:11,440
Speaker 1: Library takes over the library, and I play the hostage negotiator,

918
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 1: which tries to talk about of it because they're threatening

919
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 1: all these budget cuts and they want to broom out

920
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 1: all the homeless people and they want to kind of

921
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 1: fluff up the library all the rich trustees. And I

922
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 1: love Amelia. He's just such a sweet guy and so

923
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:26,839
Speaker 1: into it, because when you make a movie, you want

924
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 1: to be with somebody who's clear. He's very clear. So

925
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 1: I have that my book is coming out. I'm gonna

926
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 1: do a lot of press for that. Was writing a

927
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: book fun for you? Was it? Well? I mean I

928
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:38,880
Speaker 1: don't need to tell you. I mean you've done a

929
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,520
Speaker 1: lot of writing. It's like what you put in and

930
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 1: what you don't put in and what you leave out

931
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 1: and should people would go crazy. I don't know, you know,

932
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 1: just because of all these life experiences I have had,

933
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:55,239
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, my husband dying of cancer or

934
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,880
Speaker 1: these really interesting experiences I've had working at different network.

935
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:03,280
Speaker 1: Um you you, I'm gonna say something that's gonna sound funny,

936
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 1: but and some of it they might be funny, But

937
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:08,280
Speaker 1: it's like there's people who just owe the public a memoir.

938
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people. I don't think I

939
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 1: owe the public and memoir, but you are certainly one

940
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,439
Speaker 1: of the people who owe the public and memoir because

941
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,279
Speaker 1: people love you so much. I kind of get that.

942
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:18,200
Speaker 1: I mean, I kind of get how much people love you.

943
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, but people love you like boundlessly and you

944
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:24,400
Speaker 1: should come. I can't believe you haven't written a book

945
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:32,440
Speaker 1: to invite Alec tell me about Mission Impossible. Well, we're

946
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 1: gonna go off and do the movie. And uh, it's

947
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 1: always the way it is with those guys were with

948
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,720
Speaker 1: some slight exceptions. It's like Tom flies around the world

949
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:41,440
Speaker 1: and saves the world and jumps out of this and

950
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 1: jumps off of this and then I'm in an office.

951
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:46,720
Speaker 1: I go to a set in London. They shoot in London,

952
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:48,799
Speaker 1: the sets, the stages, and I'm honest set with Tom,

953
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:51,160
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I thought, I told you to stop

954
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:52,760
Speaker 1: doing that thing. I don't want you doing that jumping

955
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: off that thing again. Tom goes and jumps off another

956
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:59,080
Speaker 1: thing and blows up another thing that I'm saying, what's

957
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:01,799
Speaker 1: wrong with you that you remember our last conversation where

958
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 1: I told you don't do that again? You know, look,

959
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,120
Speaker 1: whatever the thing is, I'm the head of the CIA

960
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:09,720
Speaker 1: and I work with him now. And what was appealing

961
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 1: about doing this movie for you? You know, I've made

962
00:49:13,239 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 1: so many movies and I haven't made a lot of

963
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:17,520
Speaker 1: movies like that in a while. I spent a lot

964
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 1: of time doing Dirty Rock. I would be in Indie

965
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:25,040
Speaker 1: Land doing movies where budgets are tight and tough compromises,

966
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,759
Speaker 1: I mean really painful compromises are made in order to

967
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:31,000
Speaker 1: try to make the film. And uh, you know, I

968
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 1: went and did It's Complicated with Merrill, which was you know,

969
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:34,920
Speaker 1: they spent a lot of money on that movie. Was

970
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: Nancy Meyers who gets a lot of dough to make

971
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:42,120
Speaker 1: her films, and it's very comfortable. But I haven't made

972
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:43,399
Speaker 1: I hadn't made a lot of those. And when you're

973
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: on the set, it's just remarkable, like what money and

974
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,880
Speaker 1: they wanted on screen. They're all very responsible people, and

975
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 1: there's no one who was more of a thrill to

976
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 1: work with than Tom Oh. He's just unbelievable. He's unbelive.

977
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 1: He is unbelievable. He just is like, let's the days

978
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 1: he wasn't shoting he was on the set because he's

979
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:03,879
Speaker 1: a producer. He'd come up to me and say us yeah,

980
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 1: and he'd even to give me an idea. He'd say

981
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:08,880
Speaker 1: to me, what do you think about this? He's like

982
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: a machine, you know. I said to Michael, what do

983
00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: you do to unwind when this is over? I said,

984
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 1: what do you go? Like? What's your guilty pleasure? What's

985
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 1: the thing you do in between? He said, what's my

986
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:23,920
Speaker 1: guilty pleasure? Because when we're done, he said, I find

987
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: another script? And I started all over again. He's I

988
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 1: just love to shoot. I love to shoot. And I thought,

989
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:32,840
Speaker 1: if I was you, i'd love to shoot too, because

990
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:35,479
Speaker 1: it's pretty good life he has, you know, and he's

991
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,080
Speaker 1: just he's I'm dying to go over there and do

992
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 1: that with him again. I just don't know what I'm

993
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:45,120
Speaker 1: doing yet. Did you like working with Scorsese and The Departed?

994
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:47,240
Speaker 1: Because I thought that was one of your best roles,

995
00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:49,879
Speaker 1: those kinds of films. I mean, you were a guest. Really,

996
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:52,480
Speaker 1: you're not playing a big part, so it's what you

997
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: get to watch. I mean, you do your scenes. When

998
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:56,319
Speaker 1: I did The Aviator, it was really a thrill to

999
00:50:56,320 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 1: watch Leo. I have this bottomless admiration or and then

1000
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:03,719
Speaker 1: to do The Departed with that crowd, and you know,

1001
00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:07,959
Speaker 1: Marty is obviously one of the top examples of people

1002
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:09,920
Speaker 1: who they see the movie, they know what they want,

1003
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,359
Speaker 1: what they don't want. You know. One of the first

1004
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:13,600
Speaker 1: films I ever made was Working Girl with Mike Nichols,

1005
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:16,319
Speaker 1: and he was just a dream in that sense, which

1006
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:17,879
Speaker 1: was you know, he'd say, what do you think of this?

1007
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:20,319
Speaker 1: And you'd have an idea in the rehearsal and he'd say, no,

1008
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that, and he like right away

1009
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:25,440
Speaker 1: it was it was like he knew rather than us

1010
00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:28,480
Speaker 1: kind of masturbating for a day after day of like

1011
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the movie is, he knew

1012
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 1: what the movie was and he knew what he wanted

1013
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:35,280
Speaker 1: you to do, which is a great uh pleasure. You

1014
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 1: You've worked with so many extraordinary people. Is there someone

1015
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:43,120
Speaker 1: you admire the most? I wouldn't say the most, but

1016
00:51:43,160 --> 00:51:45,280
Speaker 1: the person that comes to mind about is Tony Hopkins.

1017
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: When I want to go to the Edge with Tony

1018
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,839
Speaker 1: and he had just come from doing Nixon before that,

1019
00:51:49,960 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 1: and I wrote this in the book, I tell this

1020
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: story like when we were in the Canadian Rockies, which

1021
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:57,320
Speaker 1: was the most beautiful place I've ever been. My sister

1022
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,279
Speaker 1: Beth came to see me, and she comes into the

1023
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,480
Speaker 1: woods uh to see me and greet me. At the

1024
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:04,319
Speaker 1: end of the day, and Tony was lying on the

1025
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:07,120
Speaker 1: ground on an air mattress. They made like a little

1026
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:09,759
Speaker 1: bed for him because he'd hurt his back. And he's

1027
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:12,840
Speaker 1: reading the newspaper. And I said, Tony, I'm sorry to

1028
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:14,520
Speaker 1: interrupted you. Would like to introduce you to my sister,

1029
00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:18,239
Speaker 1: my sister Beth, And Tony puts down the newspaper and

1030
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,840
Speaker 1: he gathers himself up and he stands up very slowly,

1031
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:23,960
Speaker 1: and he raises himself up and he takes my sister's hand.

1032
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 1: He says, Elizabeth, with a great pleasure to meet you,

1033
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:31,640
Speaker 1: and kisses her hand. And my sister, who was married

1034
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:34,399
Speaker 1: had six children. I literally saw her like kind of

1035
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:39,080
Speaker 1: like swoon. She developed it all behind my great pleasure

1036
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:42,360
Speaker 1: to meet you. You are such a good mimic. He

1037
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: was killing me. And my sister was like, oh my god.

1038
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,320
Speaker 1: She was like completely gonna wet her pants because Tony

1039
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:51,839
Speaker 1: Hopkins kissed her hand. And you admire him so much

1040
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:56,560
Speaker 1: because he's so elegant, talented, gracious, so varied. Can you

1041
00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 1: do a kat impression? Much more important? Why can you

1042
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: do a Katie impression? No? No, but but he doesn't mean,

1043
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:04,399
Speaker 1: he doesn't mean Tony Bennett. Do me a good quick

1044
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:07,719
Speaker 1: Tony Bennett thing. Come on. When we did the show,

1045
00:53:07,719 --> 00:53:10,279
Speaker 1: we had begged Danny Bennett to have Tony come on,

1046
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 1: and he finally did come on and uh, and he

1047
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 1: played I played Tony and so funny to say this

1048
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:19,120
Speaker 1: to me. I played Tony Bennett and he played Uh

1049
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,839
Speaker 1: Anthony di Benedetto, who was a Tony Bennett impersonator who

1050
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,879
Speaker 1: I sued, I read, I sued the big Jesus out

1051
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:29,399
Speaker 1: of it, and I said, tell him the name you're

1052
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:31,680
Speaker 1: using your act now. He says, I go by the

1053
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:34,800
Speaker 1: name Phony Bennett. So we said to Danny would he

1054
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: come on with us? And Danny said, yeah, but my

1055
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:39,600
Speaker 1: dad really doesn't quite get it, like what are you

1056
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:41,799
Speaker 1: guys up to? Like he just wants you to say

1057
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: to me, what is it you guys are doing? And

1058
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,200
Speaker 1: I said, well, we obviously make it silly and stupid.

1059
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:47,799
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of stupid thing about him, you know,

1060
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,719
Speaker 1: have having having had his life as a womanizer. You know,

1061
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:53,680
Speaker 1: I met a gal once it had toenails that were

1062
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: like a stack of bob a cute Frido's. He said,

1063
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:02,200
Speaker 1: Lamas silk and tough phone cream for nails was the commercial.

1064
00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:06,359
Speaker 1: And uh and and Danny said, what is the thing?

1065
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:08,160
Speaker 1: And I go, well, underneath it all, there has to

1066
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 1: be something joyful. Im positive, I said, in the positive

1067
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:15,200
Speaker 1: is that Tony reminds us that the business is supposed

1068
00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 1: to be fun. We're supposed to be having fun and

1069
00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:19,719
Speaker 1: not complaining and and and stressing out all the time

1070
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 1: we do the show. The show's over, it's one o'clock.

1071
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:25,840
Speaker 1: He packs up his bags. He's ketting to the elevator.

1072
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:27,800
Speaker 1: Now it's probably closer to one thirty in the morning.

1073
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: Back then he was like eighty years old. And uh.

1074
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:34,799
Speaker 1: He and the cast came out, some of them to

1075
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 1: have their picture taken with him on their phones. And

1076
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:42,760
Speaker 1: Tony turns to them and says, your kids are terrific.

1077
00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:46,239
Speaker 1: This has been a million dollar night. And he said

1078
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,040
Speaker 1: the phrase, this has been a million dollar night. And

1079
00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 1: we always are like, oh my god, he's such I

1080
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:55,359
Speaker 1: love him and I love Danny. I mean, the two

1081
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:57,719
Speaker 1: of them together. Did you see zenn of Bennett? Oh,

1082
00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 1: my people who are listening to this, get that documentaries

1083
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:03,160
Speaker 1: Zen of Bennett. It's such a great one. And you

1084
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:05,360
Speaker 1: had a big role in his recent n idea of

1085
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:09,320
Speaker 1: Birthday at Radio City. Right out, I played Tony Bennett

1086
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:13,239
Speaker 1: and we brought on Phony Bennett again, so so funny.

1087
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:15,839
Speaker 1: Before we leave this podcast, we just got to ask

1088
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:18,279
Speaker 1: about your podcast, which is a huge hit. So we're

1089
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:21,319
Speaker 1: trying to learn from you. How long have you been

1090
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:24,520
Speaker 1: doing it, how long do you want to keep doing it,

1091
00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 1: and what do you think makes it so special. Well,

1092
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:29,080
Speaker 1: in the way that we talked about work that I

1093
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,280
Speaker 1: did that was dictated by my life and my kids

1094
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 1: and so forth. That I came up with the idea

1095
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:35,880
Speaker 1: of doing a radio show. Lisa Burnbach was going to

1096
00:55:35,960 --> 00:55:38,000
Speaker 1: be my co host. Is very witty and funny, great

1097
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,960
Speaker 1: writer Lisa Brenbach and preppy handbook, and we were gonna

1098
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,960
Speaker 1: have a news person and a culture person. That idea,

1099
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,719
Speaker 1: which is a lot of work and a lot of

1100
00:55:47,719 --> 00:55:50,719
Speaker 1: writing and a lot of producing and staffing. These people

1101
00:55:50,760 --> 00:55:52,719
Speaker 1: came to from w n y C and said, don't

1102
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:56,160
Speaker 1: do that. Do this you and Mike and you interview

1103
00:55:56,200 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 1: people into a podcast and you try to access people

1104
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:00,160
Speaker 1: you know in the business who you might have some

1105
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 1: context with it, are famous or successful, I would have

1106
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:05,560
Speaker 1: you or admired. And the only thing that I do

1107
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:09,279
Speaker 1: in my show that is the is it? You know?

1108
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:11,400
Speaker 1: It is a decision I don't want to say technique,

1109
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:14,479
Speaker 1: but is to have a longer format like this where

1110
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:19,640
Speaker 1: people can relax. Rob Mills, who's the head of ABC,

1111
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,799
Speaker 1: who was the guy that's my executive at ABC for

1112
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:24,520
Speaker 1: the match game work that we do. I love him

1113
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 1: and he's one of the biggest reasons that I do

1114
00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:28,920
Speaker 1: match game because I love Rob so much. I'm when

1115
00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:30,759
Speaker 1: I go do match game. We do have fun. It's

1116
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:33,239
Speaker 1: it's silly and dope, I know, And I'm sorry I've

1117
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,880
Speaker 1: disappointed you in doing that. I understand. I'm gonna go

1118
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:38,480
Speaker 1: home right away. I'm gonna start looking up the things

1119
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:40,680
Speaker 1: you've done that you've disappointed me, and I'm gonna email you.

1120
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: See by the way I came across this, what was

1121
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:46,359
Speaker 1: that about Katie? Hello? You know we've all disappointed her

1122
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:48,600
Speaker 1: at various moments in our lives. It's okay, it's a

1123
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:50,400
Speaker 1: sort of growing up. I feel like I feel like

1124
00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:53,920
Speaker 1: I'm her brother, and she's like you that's what you're

1125
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 1: wearing for Halloween. And that's the lamest constume I've ever

1126
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: seen in my life. What do you zoro? What is that?

1127
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:04,040
Speaker 1: Like a little weird mask on? But um, the uh,

1128
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:07,919
Speaker 1: the podcast. The thing is that Rob said, he said,

1129
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:09,680
Speaker 1: what I love about your techniquecause he says, I call

1130
00:57:09,719 --> 00:57:13,040
Speaker 1: it the warm bath interview technique. He said, you just

1131
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:15,720
Speaker 1: get your your subjects to come into that warm bath

1132
00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:18,800
Speaker 1: with you and they relax. Actually twenty minutes go by

1133
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 1: and they start telling you who they really are. It's true.

1134
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:25,880
Speaker 1: But don't you think it's true that there's something more

1135
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:31,280
Speaker 1: intimate about this. There's something more relaxed and revealing as

1136
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:35,440
Speaker 1: a result. But I think, listen, you've interviewed, infinitely, I

1137
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:37,760
Speaker 1: mean to the innth degree, more people than I have

1138
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:40,080
Speaker 1: as a result of all of these different things you've done,

1139
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 1: whether it was with NBC and beyond, and you've interviewed

1140
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: countless more people than I have, mostly in those tighter

1141
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,720
Speaker 1: TV segments of six or seven minutes or so. And

1142
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:52,480
Speaker 1: what I find is that when you interview people, is

1143
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:54,600
Speaker 1: that the length of the podcast and the length of

1144
00:57:54,640 --> 00:57:57,200
Speaker 1: time we have, which of course we cut down, provides

1145
00:57:57,280 --> 00:57:59,320
Speaker 1: us with a chance to let them give it to us.

1146
00:57:59,360 --> 00:58:01,440
Speaker 1: We don't have to try to take it. If they

1147
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: feel you're not predatory, If they feel you're not trying

1148
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:08,520
Speaker 1: to facilitate something with them, and you let them make

1149
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:11,880
Speaker 1: let it be their decision, they will very often tell

1150
00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:14,160
Speaker 1: you the things that they might not have otherwise. Before

1151
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:16,680
Speaker 1: we go, I have to ask you two quick family questions.

1152
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:21,040
Speaker 1: One from your early childhood. You know you're one of six.

1153
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:25,080
Speaker 1: It's you obviously have a close relationship with Beth, who

1154
00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:27,840
Speaker 1: came to visit you on that set. But your brothers,

1155
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 1: you know, particularly Stephen, your politics could not be more

1156
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:35,600
Speaker 1: different than his. It must be a strange dynamic and

1157
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,720
Speaker 1: a family with more than one person in show biz.

1158
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:42,000
Speaker 1: As they say, how has that affected your relationship with

1159
00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:45,439
Speaker 1: your siblings? Alec, I always wondered that about you. Well,

1160
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:49,040
Speaker 1: I think that that by and large, over time, these

1161
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 1: spasms that happen where people act out a certain way

1162
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:55,760
Speaker 1: that one side is an approving of they have like

1163
00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:58,560
Speaker 1: any family, were no different than anybody else. There's some ramification,

1164
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:03,320
Speaker 1: there's some period we were seeking some detant there. You know,

1165
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 1: with my brother Stephen, he is uh and we've had

1166
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 1: this conversation. And I'm not saying this to be you know,

1167
00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:12,960
Speaker 1: mean spirited or whatever. He falls right into that Trump

1168
00:59:13,480 --> 00:59:16,440
Speaker 1: dynamic of a percentage of Trump's support, it's not all

1169
00:59:16,480 --> 00:59:18,600
Speaker 1: of them certainly, which is uneducated. My brother didn't go

1170
00:59:18,640 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: to college. He went right into the business. Uh, he's

1171
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:25,280
Speaker 1: got a lot of anti government sentiments. You know, he

1172
00:59:25,320 --> 00:59:27,840
Speaker 1: doesn't like paying his taxes. I mean it was in

1173
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:30,040
Speaker 1: the paper that he almost got arrested for not paying

1174
00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 1: his state income taxes and so forth. And uh, there's uh,

1175
00:59:35,320 --> 00:59:39,080
Speaker 1: you know, there's a Fox News component to this, a

1176
00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:42,320
Speaker 1: DNA to this about people who need their politics predigested

1177
00:59:42,360 --> 00:59:45,320
Speaker 1: for them, you know, like most people. I know, I

1178
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:47,439
Speaker 1: don't need people to give me. I want to read

1179
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:49,960
Speaker 1: things and get information from the New York Review of

1180
00:59:49,960 --> 00:59:52,000
Speaker 1: Books in the New Yorker and the New York Times,

1181
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:57,120
Speaker 1: but other sources as well. Um, and I don't need

1182
00:59:57,200 --> 01:00:01,840
Speaker 1: that stuff pre chew for me. And the other side

1183
01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:03,640
Speaker 1: seemed to need a lot of that. These people need

1184
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:06,760
Speaker 1: people to articulate their opinions and tell them and kind

1185
01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:10,200
Speaker 1: of shape what they're thinking. Hannity's telling you what you

1186
01:00:10,280 --> 01:00:13,080
Speaker 1: really mean is this, and what you really need is this,

1187
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:15,160
Speaker 1: and my brother was kind of fallen victim to that.

1188
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:18,800
Speaker 1: I think has that created some tension between you or yeah? Yeah, yeah,

1189
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 1: oh yeah, oh sure. I mean I decided he would

1190
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:23,360
Speaker 1: email me and say, you're gonna do that Trump thing?

1191
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:26,200
Speaker 1: He said, I said, yeah, he goes. He said, you're

1192
01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 1: just playing right into Donald's hands. He said. Now, when

1193
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 1: Trump won, there was a kind of a stinging effect

1194
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:34,200
Speaker 1: that had to me, which was, I mean, you know,

1195
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:37,240
Speaker 1: I don't believe that Trump won as a result of

1196
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:39,640
Speaker 1: you know, five or six critical things, and some of

1197
01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:41,440
Speaker 1: it was, you know, we didn't get the best Hillery

1198
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:44,600
Speaker 1: on the campaign trail either, by the way, but the

1199
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 1: and I'm a great admirer. First I just thought that

1200
01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:51,400
Speaker 1: could have gone better. But yeah, there's been some tensions

1201
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:54,000
Speaker 1: about it because I I don't think he understands what

1202
01:00:54,080 --> 01:00:57,160
Speaker 1: he's doing. You know, when I listened to Trump today

1203
01:00:57,320 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 1: in the car on the way here, and again I

1204
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:02,160
Speaker 1: don't say this with any malice. I don't enjoy saying this.

1205
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:04,800
Speaker 1: I think that he has some kind of neurological disorder.

1206
01:01:04,880 --> 01:01:08,080
Speaker 1: I think he has something wrong with him physically, because

1207
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:13,840
Speaker 1: he just is stuck in this kind of flailing rhetorically

1208
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 1: flailing He's like a guy who's drowning. In lifeguards school,

1209
01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 1: they tell you you've got to slap the guy across

1210
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: the face was drowning. I'll still drown you too. Trump

1211
01:01:23,360 --> 01:01:27,640
Speaker 1: is borderline hysterical sometimes, and that's not going to work

1212
01:01:27,760 --> 01:01:29,680
Speaker 1: for us, for someone to be in that in that job.

1213
01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:33,800
Speaker 1: I love that Alec uses words like paripatetic and metronomically.

1214
01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:37,320
Speaker 1: He's an amazing vocabulary. You do. It's awesome and it's

1215
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:39,760
Speaker 1: such a it's such a pleasure to listen to someone

1216
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:42,720
Speaker 1: who is so fascile with the English language. I just

1217
01:01:42,720 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 1: wanted to say that as it very hard to craft

1218
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:48,520
Speaker 1: the words I say in such a way that they

1219
01:01:48,640 --> 01:01:53,320
Speaker 1: sound just so fantastic to the American people. I try

1220
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:55,920
Speaker 1: so hard, I really do. Cut that schmaltz with a

1221
01:01:56,040 --> 01:01:58,680
Speaker 1: big orange knife right there. Yeah, all right, we've got

1222
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:00,880
Speaker 1: to go, but before we you I just have to

1223
01:02:00,920 --> 01:02:04,880
Speaker 1: ask you one final question. Not to sound like cheesy,

1224
01:02:04,880 --> 01:02:07,400
Speaker 1: but I'm so happy that you're in such a great place.

1225
01:02:07,480 --> 01:02:10,960
Speaker 1: I feel like professionally things are going so well for you,

1226
01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 1: with the exception of the match game, that you're doing

1227
01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 1: so many greats highly you know, I don't know, you

1228
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:20,200
Speaker 1: just I feel like you're just in a in a

1229
01:02:20,280 --> 01:02:23,080
Speaker 1: great place, but also in terms of your personal life,

1230
01:02:23,160 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 1: and you know, it's so nice to see you have

1231
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:30,320
Speaker 1: this really second chapter with Hilaria, and I'm curious, what

1232
01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:35,000
Speaker 1: is it about your relationship with Hilaria, about your children,

1233
01:02:35,080 --> 01:02:38,840
Speaker 1: about where you are in life personally that that's working

1234
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,120
Speaker 1: so well for you. Well, before I answer that, let

1235
01:02:41,120 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 1: me say that I have uncovered the match game analogy

1236
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:47,040
Speaker 1: for your career, and then, as as a devoted Today's

1237
01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:50,760
Speaker 1: Show watcher and a worshiper of you personally, when you

1238
01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 1: came down a staircase, I think it was a Halloween

1239
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:55,000
Speaker 1: show when you were dressed as Marilyn Monroe, when you

1240
01:02:55,040 --> 01:02:57,120
Speaker 1: did Diamonds or a Girl's best Friends at a low

1241
01:02:57,200 --> 01:02:59,400
Speaker 1: point and you were busting out of some like lamb

1242
01:02:59,440 --> 01:03:02,959
Speaker 1: a cost to with some chiffon costume, I said, my god,

1243
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:05,760
Speaker 1: where has my Katie gone? What happened to her? She's gone?

1244
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:12,400
Speaker 1: Than thank you for reminding that diamonds are girls, but

1245
01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 1: you can google that, by the way, trying to Oh,

1246
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:18,520
Speaker 1: it's it's, it's it's It was amazing. And so having

1247
01:03:18,560 --> 01:03:21,280
Speaker 1: said that, um, the answer to your question is, you know,

1248
01:03:21,360 --> 01:03:25,360
Speaker 1: my wife is a very self actualized person. She knows

1249
01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:27,920
Speaker 1: who she is and where she is and what she wants.

1250
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,680
Speaker 1: And there's not a lot of self sabotage there. That's

1251
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:37,400
Speaker 1: not a lot of unnecessary, uh you know, psychological. The

1252
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:40,440
Speaker 1: treat is surround with her. She's a very very very

1253
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:44,600
Speaker 1: smart and wise young woman. So I'm lucky, and my

1254
01:03:44,680 --> 01:03:46,760
Speaker 1: kids are very lucky. She's a great mom. You know,

1255
01:03:46,800 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 1: we're on this journey together and I'm just really lucky.

1256
01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:52,840
Speaker 1: I'm so lucky to have met her. She's such a

1257
01:03:53,640 --> 01:03:59,480
Speaker 1: she's such a decent and she does not complicate things unnecessarily.

1258
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 1: No drama, she's not yeah, she's like yeah, you just

1259
01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:05,600
Speaker 1: without even commenting on it. She just her nature is

1260
01:04:05,640 --> 01:04:10,880
Speaker 1: to sidestep the drama very effectively, you know. And she's changed.

1261
01:04:10,880 --> 01:04:16,960
Speaker 1: Her life can be quite cant and mental. But diamonds

1262
01:04:17,040 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 1: a girl's best friend. On that, on those notes, on

1263
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:28,200
Speaker 1: those many notes, Ale, it's so fun having you. Thank

1264
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:32,160
Speaker 1: you really so much for coming by. Um really happy,

1265
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:37,600
Speaker 1: really happy for everything, Catherine Anne. And let the record

1266
01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:44,360
Speaker 1: reflect he was kissing her hand as Tony Hopkins. Yes, yes,

1267
01:04:44,840 --> 01:04:47,720
Speaker 1: close friends call him Tony, Tony, I call him Tone.

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01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:51,760
Speaker 1: You know, if you're close to him, you call him tone. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you hurt me, you cut me into the that's only

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Speaker 1: a Stanford wallgrad could. It's nice to meet you. It's

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Speaker 1: very nice to meet you too. Pleasuring this of pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Alec. As always, we want to thank Gianna

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01:05:06,080 --> 01:05:09,480
Speaker 1: Palmer for producing the show and Jared O'Connell for engineering

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01:05:09,520 --> 01:05:12,520
Speaker 1: and mixing it. Thanks as well to Mark Phillips for

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01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:14,840
Speaker 1: our theme music, which I've been listening to in the

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01:05:14,880 --> 01:05:19,040
Speaker 1: shower not really. Also, remember you can email us at

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01:05:19,120 --> 01:05:21,800
Speaker 1: comments at correct podcast dot com. You can find me

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01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:24,920
Speaker 1: on social media. I'm Katie Couric on Twitter and Instagram

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Speaker 1: and Katie dot correct on Snapchat. I religiously follow Brian Goldsmith,

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01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:32,760
Speaker 1: so Brian tell us your handles so everyone else can

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01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:36,080
Speaker 1: to add Goldsmith be on Twitter. Best of all, you

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01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:39,160
Speaker 1: can rate and review us on iTunes. Don't forget to

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01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:42,919
Speaker 1: subscribe as well. Thanks so much for listening. We've had

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01:05:42,960 --> 01:05:46,040
Speaker 1: fun talking. We hope you've had fun listening to us

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01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:52,920
Speaker 1: and asking great questions, and we'll talk to you next time. Bye,