Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin. And here's the thing. A few
Speaker 1: months back I attempted to catch up with Chris Rock.
Speaker 1: His dressing room in Broadway shown Field Theater was five
Speaker 1: floors up, no elevator. Chris's show The Motherfucker with the
Speaker 1: Hat was about a group of dysfunctional friends and lovers
Speaker 1: where every relationship had gone bad, really bad. Drugs, booze, cheating,
Speaker 1: No one was loyal to anyone. Chris played a recovering
Speaker 1: alcoholic who, at first glance seems to be a good guy,
Speaker 1: but after a few minutes it was clear he was
Speaker 1: the most self serving of the bunch. Oh man, you
Speaker 1: do a great man. You want to press that this
Speaker 1: is something beautiful. Come and stay with me and Vicky
Speaker 1: Man get on a nutritional beverage program. Man. Before this
Speaker 1: past spring, Chris might have been the last person you'd
Speaker 1: expect to see starring in a Broadway show. I mean,
Speaker 1: Chris can sell out Madison Square Garden. P s they
Speaker 1: have an elevator. Yet there he us between performances in
Speaker 1: his attic dressing room at the show Felt Theater. I
Speaker 1: wanted my acting to grow. Do you have obviously a
Speaker 1: huge following Black and white in your concerts, and yet
Speaker 1: when you go out in this audience, how black is
Speaker 1: the audience? Well, I mean put away. In the old days,
Speaker 1: they used to have signs up whites only, whites only.
Speaker 1: Now they have a new thing. It's called prices. You know,
Speaker 1: some nights it's darker than other nights. I buy tickets
Speaker 1: every night when this play is over. I spent almost
Speaker 1: a whole weekly paycheck on tickets as gifts for friends
Speaker 1: otherwise couldn't come see the show. Otherwise, could not afford
Speaker 1: to see this show. I tour and I'm normally you know,
Speaker 1: at the garden or whatever, like sixty thousand seats to
Speaker 1: give away what I'm normally on tour, and people have
Speaker 1: gotten used to this. My man takes care of us,
Speaker 1: and you know I don't. I can't take that away
Speaker 1: from friends and family. You haven't done a lot of theater. Correct,
Speaker 1: This is the first play I've ever done. This is
Speaker 1: the first play you've ever done. I didn't do a
Speaker 1: play in high school. I didn't go to high school.
Speaker 1: So so not only your Broadway debut, but your first
Speaker 1: play period. You're with a pretty cool group of people experience,
Speaker 1: you know what, and they have held me up. No
Speaker 1: one ever got frustrated at what I didn't know. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a bunch of little things that people take
Speaker 1: for grant. I have no idea. You're never supposed to
Speaker 1: walk straight at somebody supposed to looke. Just all these
Speaker 1: weird little thing And my favorite is that you don't
Speaker 1: give information to the person. So if you're standing here
Speaker 1: telling them something, you tell it out. You sit there
Speaker 1: and open, open, open to the audience as much as possible.
Speaker 1: All that open, open, open, open, open stuff. Yes, even today,
Speaker 1: I'm working on it. The Chris Rock that I know
Speaker 1: from your live shows, I don't see much of him
Speaker 1: in this show because that Chris Rock is like marauding
Speaker 1: the stage and as complete control over the audience. This
Speaker 1: is a different Chris I see in the play. I'm
Speaker 1: really trying to act here. You know. Have you enjoyed it?
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it a lot, A lot. A lot. Is
Speaker 1: the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life.
Speaker 1: I always tell people it's like having the Empire State
Speaker 1: Building shoved up your ass, one brick at a time,
Speaker 1: and to learn they can't believe there's ever gonna be
Speaker 1: a day when you know what's been the surprise about
Speaker 1: doing this for you? Honestly, I'm surprised I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm surprised that I'm not bored with it already.
Speaker 1: Are you afraid of that? I'm really that That's what's
Speaker 1: the that's the biggest fear, to actually be stuck doing anything.
Speaker 1: Does this change for you night by night day? You
Speaker 1: know what's weird? I'm figuring out how to make it
Speaker 1: change now. So I'm actually figuring out how to add
Speaker 1: lib every night without saying words, how to work eats,
Speaker 1: seeing a little different in each line, and try to
Speaker 1: find laughs and places that I didn't find one the
Speaker 1: night before. So yes, it's to answer your question, it
Speaker 1: changes every night. Well what I love about this plant?
Speaker 1: By the way, everybody has loved someone and not too
Speaker 1: far into the relationship, you say to yourself, not only
Speaker 1: is this probably wrong, this is definitely wrong, but you
Speaker 1: can't get out of it. How does this play resonate
Speaker 1: with you in your personal life? I've been every person
Speaker 1: in this place, not a person, everything, everything, and it's
Speaker 1: the one who sucked the other person in response to
Speaker 1: the betrayal, the revenge fuck every person. It's the kind
Speaker 1: of play you can't watch without putting yourself in it.
Speaker 1: When you write your material for stand up, how do
Speaker 1: the people in your life react to how you fill
Speaker 1: at them on stage? If you you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: like a lawyer in a sense. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: almost like a legal document. It's a word. It like
Speaker 1: it's all our wives and all our you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It's like like if you if I gave
Speaker 1: you the transcript, he'd be like, he hasn't talked about anybody.
Speaker 1: It would it would all hold up in court. But
Speaker 1: you do. But you never have anybody in your life. No, No,
Speaker 1: everybody's uncomfortable. I remember I read a quote Tarantino said,
Speaker 1: if people in your life aren't uncomfortable, you're not really writing,
Speaker 1: You're not really hitting it. You know, somebody better be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Did you grow up in a situation that was remotely
Speaker 1: like this? And then emotionally and most turbulence, My parents
Speaker 1: plase way, My mother cursed a lot, screamed a lot.
Speaker 1: You know my father, my mother beat us with a
Speaker 1: curtain rod. Yeah, well we got beatings with curtain rods
Speaker 1: and brooms and brushings and hangars or whatever. But me
Speaker 1: and my father. It's weird. My father, his temper towards
Speaker 1: my mother was always controlled well else he could lose it.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it was he wanted to protect that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, first of all, I mean
Speaker 1: guys from that era did not view women as their equals.
Speaker 1: They did and they were loving and blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, but they did not view women as their equals.
Speaker 1: Therefore they could actually deal with the woman's emotional whatever
Speaker 1: swings way easier than a guy in my age, because
Speaker 1: I view a woman as my equal. So if I'm
Speaker 1: with a woman and she starts crying, I look at
Speaker 1: her like I'm with you when you start crying, don't
Speaker 1: go female on me. I'm like something, I look at
Speaker 1: her life. I would look at a guy that gets emotional. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought, if we were equal, then you can't play
Speaker 1: that car don't the female. So I'll just say my
Speaker 1: father and my grandfather's both but we're really delicate with
Speaker 1: their wives. You know, not a child, but close to
Speaker 1: a child. That's different for you. My wife's my equal,
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, any budding of heads is
Speaker 1: because I I want I'm dealing with you the same
Speaker 1: way I would deal with myself, or I deal with
Speaker 1: any guy, and we're both wrong. What are you gonna
Speaker 1: do when this is over? Do you know how much sure?
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna direct a movie? That's what I'm feeling.
Speaker 1: So this is the time in your life and you
Speaker 1: do all the things you told yourself you'd never do.
Speaker 1: Play on Broadway, direct a movie? Why do you want
Speaker 1: to direct a movie? I don't know? Is your Warren
Speaker 1: Babby face that? Yeah, I don't know. I put this away.
Speaker 1: If I can get a great director to direct me,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. But yeah, once you get to the seilers,
Speaker 1: you might as well do it yourself. That's what I say.
Speaker 1: How picky are you about the films you do? Because
Speaker 1: you don't do a lot of films? Um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean I turned out a lot, but I don't
Speaker 1: have a list of great films I've turned. You turned down.
Speaker 1: Regardless of whether they're great or not. Do you turn
Speaker 1: them down? Because for you, you always have the stand
Speaker 1: up thing in your pocket and the concert thing in
Speaker 1: your pocket. You're not in any hurry to go out
Speaker 1: and make a living. Most movies suck, man, early suck
Speaker 1: see I'm I'm messed up because I like to see
Speaker 1: something I haven't seen or haven't seen what a black
Speaker 1: person black people in film is still at its really
Speaker 1: at its infant stage. And why do you think that
Speaker 1: I don't know? You know what, here's the thing. You know,
Speaker 1: you hand a studio person of script, and sometimes the
Speaker 1: studio people are good at a time. When you hand
Speaker 1: somebody a script, they pick a person in the movie
Speaker 1: that they identify with. So if you hand a woman
Speaker 1: of script, if the woman's got nine lives in the movie,
Speaker 1: the first person who gives your notes about is the woman.
Speaker 1: And if you hand the boss the script, he's gonna
Speaker 1: give you notes about the main character. And if you
Speaker 1: hand his assistant the script is gonna give you notes
Speaker 1: about some other everybody figures out who they are in
Speaker 1: the movie. Now, when you had somebody a black script,
Speaker 1: they don't relate to anybody. Even it's a very good point,
Speaker 1: I'm serious, even when it's and when you have any
Speaker 1: secontive who does relate to a black person's script, what
Speaker 1: does that mean to you? You You struck gold Well, it's
Speaker 1: it's never really happened. They just they're making a product.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, That's what I've experienced. And when
Speaker 1: you do that, because I mean, there's no black studios
Speaker 1: or whatever, so you end up you always end up
Speaker 1: with just a person trying to make a piece of product.
Speaker 1: They might as well, they might still be making an
Speaker 1: eye paths kind of in the state of State chip business.
Speaker 1: But you seem to me, because you're so smart and
Speaker 1: so clever, that you have as much of a white
Speaker 1: audience as you do with black audies, don't you think
Speaker 1: so in spite of the fact your stand up can
Speaker 1: be pretty tough on white people. Yeah, but I always
Speaker 1: say my stand ups like Chinese food and what's Chinese food? Well,
Speaker 1: Chinese food is one of the most popular foods in
Speaker 1: all of America, and they don't put American ship on
Speaker 1: their menus. People really want Chinese food. They don't put
Speaker 1: ripe fries and cheese grilled cheese on the menu of
Speaker 1: the most popular Restauranese food of people. So I'm just
Speaker 1: saying when people see people come to Christ's restaurant, think
Speaker 1: Christmas menu, they want Christmas menue. It's the guy that
Speaker 1: tries to cross over that gets less white people, I find.
Speaker 1: Do you think the appeal to you with a black
Speaker 1: audience is how much you have fun with white et commentary?
Speaker 1: Do think your black audience expects you to do that
Speaker 1: when they come see you? They expect me to do it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What am I trying to say? First of all, all
Speaker 1: the materials run by run through black. It's actually it's
Speaker 1: run through black pission. Actually first is run through Jews.
Speaker 1: I always work out the material in the West Palm Beach.
Speaker 1: Out here. I go to West Palm Beach and guess
Speaker 1: what they show up. I play a little club, so
Speaker 1: I figured, I'm in front of these people, they're a
Speaker 1: little older. If I can get them to laugh at
Speaker 1: this one. I came in front of the black people,
Speaker 1: They're gonna go zirk. And then I get in front
Speaker 1: of the black people, make some adjustments here and there.
Speaker 1: And this is all before I put like the garden
Speaker 1: or something on sale. So it's these two very different groups.
Speaker 1: So working out in front of more from my conversation
Speaker 1: with Chris Rock is coming up in a minute. I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. This
Speaker 1: is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I'm talking with Chris Rock backstage at the Shaunfeld Theater
Speaker 1: on Street. I'm sixty six man, which means you started
Speaker 1: and you started. I started probably five seven years before
Speaker 1: I got on S and O. But I always I
Speaker 1: haven't been you know, I haven't been poor day since
Speaker 1: I met Laura Michaels. I never A lot of his
Speaker 1: stuff sticks with me. What thing he said to me
Speaker 1: is like everybody loses their first money. Now, if you're talented,
Speaker 1: you'll make some. You said, that's right. He knows more
Speaker 1: about Let's take a moment to talk about the wisdom
Speaker 1: of Lord and Michael. He's always there to remind you
Speaker 1: how you can lose perspective about this business, at least
Speaker 1: in my case. He's very good. But how much of
Speaker 1: things changed in your mind? And not just for you,
Speaker 1: but for you specifically, but in the business. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you. I find a business a lot smaller way,
Speaker 1: less movies, less, I mean less stuff that relates to me,
Speaker 1: you know what, Less stuff that relates to me. I'll
Speaker 1: say that for the young people. You know, this whole
Speaker 1: reality thing, I'm not going to dismiss it. You know,
Speaker 1: it sound like I'm some old person talking about rap music.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna last, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I don't get it. Do you
Speaker 1: think you'd make it today if you came in today. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Me and SANEA, Well, that's our little tests with each other.
Speaker 1: We kinda we assessed the stand ups. Yeah, we've still
Speaker 1: got it. I still got it. Yeah. I keep the
Speaker 1: wait off a little bit, you know. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do. Bon Jovi still doing it. Still doing it, man.
Speaker 1: Just look hot. Just try to look hot to somebody.
Speaker 1: You don't have to lie. You still got you. Still
Speaker 1: Look how many kids you have done to nine? Get
Speaker 1: Ready nine and get Ready by seven? So what are
Speaker 1: you worried about raising your kids in this world? I
Speaker 1: care that they're good with money. I don't even care
Speaker 1: if they're assholes. When I say good with money, I
Speaker 1: just mean you've got two dollars and you spend one
Speaker 1: and you put a dollar. But I don't mean that
Speaker 1: they run Microsoft or they flip money and buy a house.
Speaker 1: I just mean does that come from your childhood? Yes,
Speaker 1: it comes from my childhood. I just mean can they
Speaker 1: handle their own? That's it? Because to get out it's
Speaker 1: a tough hole. To get out of, and it's a
Speaker 1: weird hole for a pretty woman to get out of,
Speaker 1: and they end up in relationships with guys they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have relationship with. There's a great line that Anthony Quinn
Speaker 1: has in Lawrence Arabian where he says, I am a
Speaker 1: river to my people. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of that. Now. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You can only help. Like, I got
Speaker 1: some family right now, guy whatever, losing his house, whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help him move into wherever he's gonna move into.
Speaker 1: I'm not buying his house because he's never gonna be
Speaker 1: able to fold the house. So yeah, I my I'm
Speaker 1: a river. But it's a little river. It's a little
Speaker 1: river because when you turn down somebody and they know
Speaker 1: you have the money, this is one thing to go.
Speaker 1: These kids are kicking my ass or whatever and you
Speaker 1: don't have the money. They know you have the money.
Speaker 1: It's so it's almost like a woman. It's like I
Speaker 1: know you have vagina and you have sex, you just
Speaker 1: don't want to have it with me. I remember I
Speaker 1: used to do a movie and they say to mean
Speaker 1: in whatever way, what would come back was, uh, we
Speaker 1: don't have the money. For that, And what they really
Speaker 1: were saying was, we don't have the money for that
Speaker 1: for you, For you, we don't we have the exactly
Speaker 1: for Leo, we're gonna sell our houses because remember, for you,
Speaker 1: we don't have the money. And that's what you're saying
Speaker 1: to people in your life is I don't have the
Speaker 1: money for you. I don't have the money for you.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be the reason I'm doing some
Speaker 1: bad kung fu movie. I got one last question for you.
Speaker 1: When you're home and you really want to relax, what
Speaker 1: do you like to watch? Like, what's entertainment to you?
Speaker 1: You know it's probably Woody just about any Woody. It's
Speaker 1: me like, yeah, me too. I'm gonna go do his
Speaker 1: new movie. I'm going I am a lucky baskets, so
Speaker 1: lucky you don't want. One of the reasons I'm doing
Speaker 1: this play is like maybe what do you come? Maybe
Speaker 1: you come? Maybe any Woody? Just about man? Mean, what
Speaker 1: is this way? The average great filmmaker Great has about
Speaker 1: four good movies. R wood he has about twelve like great,
Speaker 1: and then he probably has about ten more really good finger.
Speaker 1: I even like the new Ones hey Man match Point,
Speaker 1: it's a fine motion picture Vicky Christina. I can't. I'm happy.
Speaker 1: So that's the dream, is to be in a Woody
Speaker 1: that is really, really, honestly, and this is how I'm
Speaker 1: fair this world is. I love the guy, and here
Speaker 1: I am. I don't have one temph to telling you,
Speaker 1: and I'm off to Rome. I'm off to Rome. I
Speaker 1: want to rub this in watch me even further. I'm
Speaker 1: off to Rome to make a movie with Woody. And
Speaker 1: You'll be here sweating your balls off in this steam room.
Speaker 1: It's like the scene in the play Today where you
Speaker 1: say to him you were looking at a picture of
Speaker 1: her while I was tapping on the real You're gonna
Speaker 1: be watching Woody and I'm gonna be tapping on the
Speaker 1: real thing. I'll think we're both going to be happy.
Speaker 1: It's not too late, of course, it's not too it
Speaker 1: are you crazy? The entire time we were in Chris's
Speaker 1: dressing room, a Woody Allen movie played on a TV
Speaker 1: off to the side, muted. Are you're going to work
Speaker 1: with Woody Fastard? Dude? I just want to hang on
Speaker 1: a set. I just wanted, like what happens come to Roman.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, Chris, what are you doing? Here. What
Speaker 1: do you know, Chris, When do you guys are in
Speaker 1: the fall. We'll make it. Chris did eventually make it
Speaker 1: to Rome, and he did have dinner with Woody Allen.
Speaker 1: Best of all time. He never called me though. Huh,
Speaker 1: this is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: Four four