"Charlie Day"

for you right now. You're improving your boosting your brain. Hi there. This is Will Arnett, host of the Will Arnett Fun Zone Podcast.

Hang on. This week, what we've talked about this, man? We've been over this so many times. OK.

But we are doing it, though, right? No, we're not. This is smartless. OK.

Fun Zone. What are we doing today? All we need is a super simple welcome to smartless. Oh, right.

Dig deep for this. Welcome to smartless. Now, listen, Jason, before we get too deep into the show, we need to talk about the crew collar. Now, you've...

Tell us what. Hey, walk us through what happened this week? I went ahead and I got showered and changed prior to our record for my golf engagement following this record. Oh, you go.

Yeah. I'm not proud to say, but Chuckles over there does it too. So I put on my collared shirt as you're required to do, and then it's a little chilly here in Los Angeles. I put on a nice wrap over the top of it, a nice cashmere wrap.

And the collar on that crew neck was a little tight. So it took the collar of my undershirt there and pushed it up, and then Will was hurting me, calling it a mock turn on it. So that's what it's going to go to a V-neck. And Will said we were talking about money for producing the podcast.

And Will said... What's the budget for a mock turn on it? It's a fair question. First of all, you're allowed to mock a mock turn on it.

It's built into the name. Hey, but by the way, you'll never see me in a mock turn on it. You'll never see me in a turn on it for sure because I've got... Probably, you know, they ask you sometimes, you know, what's the one thing you change about your body?

It's probably my non-superhero jawline. I've got sort of like a diagonal from the end of my chin to my Adam's apple. I swear a turtleneck. I then have the turkey goblet hang over over the edge.

The caskades, the skin, the caskades over the edge of the... I can't have it. Yeah, no, I get it. I disagree.

You both have nice silhouettes. Go back to the thing, though, about being cold. It's cold in LA. I came down the stairs, and I'm not making this up.

I came down the stairs, and Scotty had the heat on on the first floor in Los Angeles, and the heat. And I was sweating by the time I got to the front of my house. Sean, you come down the stairs, your Hollywood house. Every day, like, glorious once in right.

That's right. And a flowing houseboat. Yeah. Ready for my close-up?

It's so great to see you guys. It's really, really... Oh, I'm excited to see you guys. Because our guest is somebody...

This is a megatel. This person is a person who's been doing it for a long time. This person is not just an actor, this person is a writer. This person is a skilled musician who started playing violin at the age of three.

They can play the piano, accordion, trombone, guitar, harmonica. And has written and improvised music a lot in a show that they've done now for many, many years. This person received an honorary doctorate in performing arts from Merrimack College. This person was active at Williamstown Theatre Festival back in the day.

This person has gone on to a huge career in television. I guess the longest running TV comedy of all time. This person has... It's the kind of thing down here.

I want to do something else here. Well, this is my guest and it makes sense because this is my friend and I'm so happy to have my friend. And I want you guys to start trying to guess. This person has done lots of movies.

This person was in the Lego movie with me. It's a long-running comedy. The Lego movie too. Yeah.

That's the biggest running comedy. Horrible Bosses and it's sequel. It's gonna be Chondé. It's Chondé.

It's Chondé. Oh my God. Right. It's right in the bottom of the barrel, Matt.

No, I was trying to wrap the show up. So Chuck. Yeah, man. What about...

This is... Now, I think the reason you've taken so long to book on this is... It took a real long time for someone to ask me. I can't believe Rob McElhaney beat you on to this show.

What does that say about us? Here's my favorite part. Is that Beyman and Chuck Day have been friends for many years. They've done a few movies together and I was so happy to steal Charlie as my guest from under Beyman.

Just a really pointed... I wonder how to mount it. I know. I think maybe you did ask me.

Yeah, definitely. And then you were saying, yeah, guys, you know, I don't know. We're starting a podcast and I think it gave me a little bit of a run around and I don't like pressure people. I know you were looking to get paid quite a bit of money for today.

I was waiting for you guys to make money so I could start making money, which is cool because we'll cut me a great check for this. I had to send him over cash, a guy with a rucksack full of cash. Yeah, and that's a pay cut for me, guys. But you're not doing that well, right?

You know, that show is not paying you. I made a lot of bad decisions, though. You know what I mean? I made a lot of sketchy calls.

Wait, Charlie, we had McElhaney on it and is it really the longest running sitcom in history? Yeah. Yeah, well, years. If you don't count episodes, I think you did more episodes of Will and Grace in like two seasons.

I know. How many years is it now? This is something we don't want to gloss over because this is, you should be, and I'm sure you are, so proud of how long this show has been on the show. Yeah, it's okay.

We're talking, of course, about all the Sunny Philadelphia. It's 15 years. We just have 15 years. You're about to do another one or two?

I don't know, at least another one. And we'll see after that. Look at the way he's positioning right there. He knows Fox is listening.

Of course. Of course. Or whatever the hell it is. He's going to jam him again.

You know what it is? We've done a lot. We've done a lot of these. I don't know how long we can keep nothing ads more zeros than a foot out the door, right?

That's true. That's true. So Charlie, let's talk a little bit about it because we're talking about all of Sunny in Philadelphia, which is a huge long running show, longest by years. Could you have imagined, take us back to the day when it actually became a TV show?

Because we had Rob on here. We talked about it. You guys made some videos and stuff and you shot some stuff. Am I remembering that correctly and you took it to FX?

Yeah, that's basically it. I mean, we were shooting in my apartment, which was on the corner of Western and Franklin there. I lived in the Bay of 600 bucks a month for rent. You got to go.

Quick aside, Jason, last time you were east of Coinga. Five. Four. I was in the drug days for sure.

Yeah, I think I had a senior scoring on the corner. Yeah. It was a payphone I'd like to. I had to run you down a dime bag or something like that.

I'm not sure what it was. Oh my God. So you're in your apartment. Was there a phone call from your agent or bandage or something that said they bought it?

You know what it was? So we had shot this thing and it was pretty good, but we knew we'd sort of not hit the nail in the head. And we had nothing really going on. So we redid the whole thing.

We were doing it so cheaply. We were holding the cameras. We had a little boom. It was real low-ret.

And our second go around was pretty funny. We thought, are there something here? And we were all at Free Arts Management at the time. So like Nick Frankel and Michael Rotenberg took it to WME and they kind of sat on it for a while.

They were like, yeah, maybe we'll hook you up with a big producer. And we waited forever for John Favreau to watch it. And he just, I guess he never got around to it. The one that got away.

I know. Well, I mean, I'm so glad I'm not cutting half a check to John. I mean, I'm sure he would have helped a lot, but it's not to have to be paying anything. But eventually we got kind of bored and we shot a third episode.

And literally you shot it because you were just in this waiting because the agencies are on their timetable. Yeah. Well, that and the only thing to do on Western is either move to find bags or shoot another episode. And it's out of need.

It should be noted. Can I just take this? Am I right in saying this? And you guys can agree or disagree with me.

The agent thing in show business is hilarious because like you can't get in touch with your agent in the first thing in the morning because they're in a staff meeting. Every agent takes lunch at one o'clock no matter what. So they're out of the office for two hours. They need an hour or so.

They need an hour to get there. So they leave at 12. Sorry. He lost his way to a lunch.

Then he's back at three. Then they do the thing. They're not in the office. Why not?

Well, because next week is Thanksgiving. Yeah. Next week is Thanksgiving. Not this week.

How the fuck are you doing? And then the month of December. And then the month of December, sorry, it's the holidays. Sure.

And then they go. And then obviously Sundance is at the end of January. So nobody's back till February. It's the most ridiculous racket of all time.

We were getting a lot of it. Yeah. The end of the day goes like this. Well, the end of the day goes, sorry.

We're close. He's going to start rolling calls and then they call knowing you're not going to pick up. Yeah. Or they call you at seven o' o'clock and you're having dinner with the kid.

Well, basically, no, that's it though. We lost sort of patience with that kind of thing. And we said that we're going to leave you guys and we're going to go to a different agency with this. And that sort of prompted them setting a bunch of meetings and Rob went around because we thought maybe too much to have all three of us in the meeting.

So Rob went and we had an offer from FX to shoot a real pilot with a real budget. Rob's a closer. He's a closer. He's better in the meeting.

He's a better salesman. Now, how are you in meetings? Because I don't think I'm great in meetings. I don't enjoy them.

I feel like I'm trapped in an office. I feel like I'm 45 minutes from getting out of these walls. So we better not go bad in the next minute or two because I'm stuck. Like all those things I start to feel, I start to think about it.

And then it's just the walls start getting closer and closer like Star Wars. How are you? Do you look at it as like an arena? Like I'm on stage or this is fun?

Like let's win or are you looking to get out of there? It's tough. It's a tough part of this business. You know, it depends.

They're all very different. You go into a meeting and sometimes you just get cold stares. Yeah. I do have that vibe sometimes of like, well, here's the idea guys.

Do you want to buy it or not? Okay. Yeah. If you have that indifference, what's it's called?

Sexy. Yeah. It's one of the major terms. Yeah.

But yeah, it's, you know, it's, it's, you're either selling or you're buying the buyers usually look at you with absolutely no expression because they can. The sellers, us have to go in there like, you know, circus clowns because we're selling. And that's really what we do in this business. And in a good year, you're selling, you know, you're selling yourself six, seven, eight times and winning.

Like in other words, you get fired, you know, half a dozen times and rehired half a dozen times if you're killing it. So I mean, how many people in other industries have to sell themselves or get fired or rehired maybe three, four times over their whole life? I mean, we got to do that all the time. It's tough.

It's, it's, it's. It is crazy. But then you look at the flip a bit, Charlie. So you guys, you guys go through this process.

You make this thing your weight, you make this thing your weight, you're waiting, you have to threaten to leave the agency. You finally have to buy it. You guys are kind of a little bit hat in hand. And now all these years later, you're at the position we asked you, like, are you going to do more?

You're like, maybe I'll do one more. Whatever. Like you have the tables have turned a little bit. Yeah.

Well, I'm a little bit a lot. Yeah. I mean, I think the thing is though, when we were shooting that pilot, I was 27 years old and I'm a real stress reset there. But we all make stuff.

We all produce or write or direct or act whatever. And Charlie, kind of what Jason was talking about, is there a point where you like, are you getting to a point where it's bothersome that the grind is getting to you about getting all these nodes? Because it seems now to put together a package to sell something, you have to really stack the deck high before anybody will even say, you hear about Meryl Streep getting past or on or whoever these big stars go out to pitch these shows and they get past, well, if you get past and I'm stacking the deck and we're getting those, what does it take to keep a production company going? I like to get everything done independently of a partner.

So, you know, like I'd rather, if I'm going to be pitching a movie, I'd rather have the whole thing written and say, you know, and a director in place and an actor in place. Like, here's what we're going. This is what it is. So all they do is write the check.

Basically. Yeah. Yeah. You know, as it should be.

Yeah. But then that means you got to do a bunch of work for free ahead of time, which is cool if you've got the time and the funds to bank on yourself and work for free for a little while. Yeah. Look, at some point, you're going to have to do that work anyway.

So I'm usually, it depends, right? There's other things I'll pitch and I'll know, okay, I want to get a ride around this and I want to get that person paid. But even then I'll work with that writer. I'll develop a whole outline.

So that movie is basically ready to go and I'll attach a few people to the movie and then I'll go and be like, here it is. This is what it is. Here's who's acting in it. Here's the director.

No, please pay this guy. And you understand this guy is he's so fast and he's so good. He wrote horrible bosses to on a five hour plane ride from New York to Los Angeles. I'm not exaggerating.

He did a complete rewrite page one rewrite on it and we use most of it and in the difference to our writers that wrote the draft before I'm exaggerating a little bit and but Charlie is a great deal of credit for that. I appreciate that. I don't want to take credit away from from you know, the guys who bought up to him. He's just he's fast but he is.

I'm fast writing. I'm real slow in names. And we will be right back. Smartlyce is brought to you in partnership with Airbnb.

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How did you guys first meet? What was that? I met Rob on a plane. So we were both being flown out to test for a pilot for the same role.

And it's one of those things where you're in the airport and you're like, oh, this guy's got to be an actor. He's got that look. And the show is called Matterhouse. It's about college kids or something like that.

And I don't know when I said hello but maybe after the plane landed. Where were you coming from from New York? From New York. Yeah, we both lived in New York and we're flying out.

They put you up on the Hilton or something right off the 101 there by Universal. We're both staying there. And then used to find Jason on the side. I used to remember pilot season I used to come out there and stay there or the Sheraton or the Intercontinental over by Fox which is where Tony Hale and I stayed for the Arrested Test.

Anyway, keep going. It was my second time that happened. It happened to me. I tested for something called Weird Henry and they liked me for Weird Henry.

And they flew me out and then they did one sort of round of notes with the producers. And then the studio was like, this show's not going to work in the can the whole thing. And then the same thing happened with Rob. Rob and I both went and tested.

And I remember thinking like, I got this guy. He doesn't have the charisma. I'm not worried about him. Look at his stupid face.

Look at his dumb face, man. He's never going to make it a show business. He'll never own a football team with Ryan Reynolds. He was too handsome.

I was like, he's too mottly. He needs someone real. And then same thing happened. They can the whole show while we were out there.

And we just kind of bonded and stayed buddies. And now I can't get rid of him. You know, every year I'm like, well, maybe we've done it with the show. He's like, come on, one more.

Let's go. And then so not only can you not get rid of him always. Then you guys create Mythic Quest with, it wasn't just the two of you, somebody else too. Yeah, with Megan Gance.

Megan Gance, yes, of course. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can't get rid of this guy.

I'm like, I hear him. He barely talks about me. I'm talking about this guy constantly. No, no, he talks about you quite a bit.

We just can't repeat it. Oh, okay. You guys started a podcast together too. You know, you've got this always silly podcast.

And now we're talking about the show and people are listening. We're not here to plug that. We're not going to talk about it. No, let's plug all everything you got.

I think we should really, if we really want to get this cooking, we should just talk about golf. I mean, first of all, when we were doing horrible bosses and I'm a bit of a golf nut, I would say, oh, Jason, you know, I heard you used to golf and you said, yeah, I don't do it anymore. You should come out with me, you know, maybe sometime and just, you know, dust off the old sticks and hit. You are the most golfing man I know now.

It's incredible. Back then, back then, I was very disappointed. I didn't want to dance with the dragon again. You know, I've got addiction issues.

You are fully addicted. You're dancing with the dragon. No, that's a saying. And then during COVID, you know, we'll just through your life line, he said, listen, buddy, you got to step away from Rachel Maddow, take your PJs off and let's get out there, do something socially distantly.

Let's play golf. And two weeks later, we were in Pebble Beach. No joke. Yeah, put it right in my arm.

I love it. I love that you do it. No, no, I don't. Look at me.

I'm dressed. Look at my arm. I'm from half hour from the tee. Oh, keep it snap because I know you got a tee.

Yeah, let's go. Charlie, I know your question is going to be, hey, Charlie, how long and straight are you off the tee? Very consistent. It's unbelievable.

This guy's a single digit handicap listener. Anybody who's into golf, this guy doesn't shoot over 80. Okay. He's a natural athlete.

He played a lot of baseball when he was kind of. This is the most you know about me. This is surprising. Wait, so Charlie, speaking of growing up, so I mentioned in the thing that you play piano and you play all these instruments, what's up with that?

Look at Sean Perk up. Sean doesn't want to talk about all of the tee, but let's get that harmonica in his mouth. Let's do it. I probably have one line around.

I don't know where the violin thing came. I was like, oh, I'm going to have that ready to go. Yeah. Anytime there's a bad joke.

Hey, where's that keyboard we're going to introduce? I know we're going to do it. I know I'm too lazy to lift this up and go in there because I got to hook it up. But wait, Charlie, do you still play violin?

Do you still play these instruments? No, I never played the violin. That's one of those. That was no true.

I think I played the violin from like three to three in one month. I don't know where my parents were like, well, this is too young. It's very accurate. Is there an instrument that you excel at or that you stick with?

Keep it clean. I don't excel at any of them. But I can play a little piano and a little guitar. I can write a goofy song that we put on Sonny.

But was that something that your parents incurred? Did you take piano lessons? Yes. I took piano lessons maybe until I was ten and then I switched to the trombone.

I used to have a little sweatshirt because I was in the school band. It's a Charlie trombone. So that became my name. The problem with the trombone is if you leave it in the rain, it gets rusty.

It's true. It's true if you leave it in the rain. Clean it up now. Well, you keep it clean.

You get some kind of brass cleaner or something. Charlie, when you write and produce or direct or whatever you do, do you think about music? When you're doing it or is it an afterthought? It's a big part of how I write something.

I'll be just listening to a style of music and I'll have an idea. I'll be listening to the peshmo. I'll be thinking I got to do a movie with Bateman where he wears eyeshadow and trench coats. Yeah, I got great golf skills.

Yeah. I do love to peshmo. I know it's so little about, so it says that you're born in New York, in the city. True story?

True story. My parents both met at Columbia where they were both music getting their doctors and musicology. Wait a second. So your parents, so you kind of blew, brushed through the whole music thing and you're own involved with me.

Your parents have degrees in music from Columbia? Yeah. My parents are very smart. As is my sister.

She also has her PhD in musicology. What happened here was that, you know, I'm an idiot and I was like, I got to get away from this music thing. So, you know, I'm taking trombone lessons and all my buddies are outside playing baseball and I eventually, you know, walked away from it all and gave it up. But then when I got to like maybe a senior in high school or college, I picked up the guitar and I was like, oh, this is maybe could be cool or a way to meet a girl.

And then I got back into it. But I didn't want to be, they had no money and I didn't want to, I didn't want to be a music person. Right. He's coming after.

They're both taking, they're both in programs, music programs at Columbia. They meet, you're born in the city and then what happens? How long did you live there? Not long.

And then my dad got a job at a college in Rhode Island and my mother's family was from Rhode Island way back, way back. And they went and never left. So you grew up in Rhode Island? I grew up in Rhode Island.

Yeah. How did the acting thing hit you? Was it like a high school drama thing? That's a good question.

I mean, I did plays like a third and fourth grade and I always enjoyed it. And then I wanted to do the school plays in high school, but I was kind of too nervous to join the group. I thought, I don't, I don't, I don't. But with the musical background, what do you think that you can combine the plays and the music and do what, what do we call that, the theater that's, but it's got.

There's a music based theater out there. I don't think there's a term for it. Sean, is there a, what would be an example of something that you might do on your list? Five, six, seven, eight.

You guys are going to have to take that slide with us a little. I mean, so then Charlie, so then you finish high school and you say, um, I'm going to go to New York City and I'm going to try to become a professional guitar player or after. Yes, I did have that thought. I was like, well, which one?

I didn't know. I was like, maybe I want to write music or maybe I wanted to. But you knew your future wasn't in Rhode Island. It was probably in Manhattan.

Yeah. Well, first I went to college. Jason, where was I? Hang on.

What's college? It's a school after the studio school. Voluntary additional school. I don't understand it.

That's a part I couldn't compute. What trailer was that in the motor lot? Yeah, one with a flat tire. It happened.

I went to the Voluntary additional school and they had a theater program, but they also had a baseball team and I didn't make a baseball team and I thought, oh, well, I'll go join the theater club. And then I just got hooked. I was like, I liked doing the plays and it seems like it was a school in New York. This school was in Northern Massachusetts called Merrimack College and you could get in if you had a pulse and they let me in and my favorite thing in the world is swapping horrible theater stories.

Did I tell you guys about that wheelchair? Sorry. You got to go. Let's go.

Okay. Oh, no, no, no. It's going to look really quick. This was a horror.

I was a sophomore in high school and I was in charge of changing the scenery, the buttons that would lift the scenery so in between we had like, we were doing one act, so in between each act, we had like, you know, 15, 30 seconds to change the big huge scenery and pull them up and I was in charge of all the hydraulics. So the stage manager points me and she's like, go. And I didn't realize there was a rope hanging on the side that somehow hooked onto the wheelchair that the guy needed in the next scene. This is a long time ago.

I've raised. No, I sort of got this happen and I raised it and the hook pulled the wheelchair. So the curtain goes up and the wheelchair is just swinging, hanging in midair. And the guy's first line was, you know, something like, I don't know if I'll ever walk again, but he had to, it was awful.

Oh, godly. Back to smart list. Hey, Charles. So you come down out of the junior college and you come to New York City and you don't just knock on a door and say, I'm here, I'd like to be an actor.

Do you look in the paper for auditions or an agent or what was your first step? Yeah, I did all that crap. You know, you get the village voice and you're looking through all those things. I had a really lucky break when I was in college.

I was in college. There was a guy named John Fusman and he was one of those guys who was like 35 and in college. And just hanging out just outside the school grounds. Basically.

Yeah. And he had tipped me off to a place called the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Sure. And I went there to sort of, you know, empty garbage cans and maybe say one line in a play and just intern.

And they had like a program where you could audition and be part of a non-equity group. And after my first summer there, I was still in college. The next year I auditioned and I got to be part of that group. And a bunch of agents go up there.

Yeah. And then I got an agent. Sean, did you ever do that? I'd love to do Williamstown.

Did you ever do that? I would love to know. But I would love to. But you know, Charlie's going to ask you, like there's, when we were all young, all four of us and other people like us that are actors, there was a definite path to what you wanted, right?

You got your headshots and then you had your resume on the back and then you would submit them to agents and agents. But now it seems so different. Do you have friends, like, does your sister have friends? I'm like, hey, Charlie, can you help my friend out?

They want to get in the biz and they need advice. I mean, do you ever get people coming to you and what would that advice be now for kids rather than when we were growing up? Really, I don't get too much of that. I don't know if I don't give off a vibe of that.

I'll help her. I'm not sure why. Do you feel, let me rephrase that. Do you feel shitty about yourself that nobody wants acting tips from you?

Or career advice? I had that, Sean, you know, when I was a kid, this is just right, when I was living in New York and I didn't know anybody in New York and somehow my mom knew, somebody from Winnipeg knew the actor Len Carrey, you know, that guy, Len Carrey. And so, somehow she's like, you should call him. And I was like, okay.

So I called him poor guy. Because now I sort of, 30 years later, I get that flip, which is like, hey, what can I do for you? I'm like, well, I'm just in New York and I'm going to theater school and like, okay. I'm ready to be successful.

Yeah. And like, I get now in that position. I even felt it at the time where he's like, I don't know what you want me to do for you, buddy. But, you know, I'm worried about my own day to day over here.

And so you do get those calls sometimes from friends and friends and they go, hey, our kid is 18 and he's moving to New York and can you call him and give him some advice? And there's really nothing you can say to anybody. I actually like it. I actually don't mind it.

Yeah. And I think that's the only way to do that is to get a little bit more comfortable. You know, because getting an agent, like you do have to get into kind of a showcase situation where you're talking about everybody. I think you have to create your own path.

You know, gone are the days of relying and waiting on phone calls and agents and all that to do for you. You have to pick up a camera, write the thing, direct the thing, put it on YouTube, all that kind of stuff. And Instagram is that's how, is every Instagram star wants to be an actor and every actor wants to be like the most powerful. Well, Charlie, you guys were kind of like the first people to really do that in a way that has been not just successful but also had longevity.

You guys created your own stuff. That was not the norm before you guys did that. No, that's true. Yeah.

Although, you know, in some ways, doesn't everybody do that? Like somebody else. I guess the Lonely Island guys did that too. Yeah.

But they were already part of an infrastructure there at Saturday Night Live. No, no, no, no, no, no, those guys made videos and stuff. Andy, Andy, Andy and Akiva and Norm did that. Yeah, they made some videos on Lonely Island and they made a pilot called Awesome Town that Phil and Chris Miller produced.

You ever seen that? It's really rad. But they did the same thing, which was, but again, it was around the same time that Sonny started. It was back in that.

What was unique about what we did is we did it for television. There was a lot of that in independent film. You're the Coen brothers. You raise money.

You do blood simple and then you go do Raising Arizona, whatever it is. And I guess we just took that model to television and we said, well, we'll do the first one real cheap and down dirty. And then hopefully someone gives us money to do this more legitimately. But going back to your question before, I often do promote Williams Town, which for me was like a showcase situation.

Or if you're really serious about acting, go to grad school, which I wish I'd done. But because that place was not only boot camp for acting, it was boot camp for, you better show up and shine. Because in that group, in that non-equity group, it was Rock band band. That was the first song that I heard from my paintings from Blahud.

And it was really cool. But one of the many friends that I had traditionally done at the moment, that I loved being a country, I didn't feel like I was always trying, you know, just like, you know, I'm really smart. I never found myself, and Catherine Han and Sterling Brown and the competition was so fierce and Jimmy Simpson and these people were gonna outshine you. They were trying to outshine you, but they were gonna do their work, and they were gonna come to rehearsal on that set.

And just blow it out of the water. So you had to learn how to, I feel like my first woman there I did well in some plays and I thought that next year I thought everyone would be like, well, he's the man, let's get him everything. make sure you're not wasting anybody's time. It's funny you said that I remember having one of my acting teachers years ago, he was saying like, look, all the process you do, all the work you do, whatever, when you show up and said, no, they don't give a shit.

You got to deliver in the moment. And that's it. And that was the only sort of piece of advice that I've ever given young people, which is just like, you got to, you got to be on top of your shit. You got to know your shit.

Like you said, you got to be ready to deliver in the moment because that's what matters. Yeah. It's an exhausting, right? You do put all this work into this years go by you, you develop whatever fame success and you kind of think, okay, well, now I can coast, but the phone doesn't really ring.

Maybe it does for DiCaprio, but for nobody else, like you have to like, you got to put something together and you have to, and then when you, when you are in it, you can't stink, right? You got to, you got to shine. Your son, is he too young to know that he wants to do what dad does? Yeah, where mom does too.

Both of you guys are actors. Yeah. Yeah. Mary Elizabeth has a great part in Paul Thomas Anderson's film right now.

Oh, she's great at it. That movie is amazing. That guy. Paul Thomas Anderson.

Yeah. Talk about a guy. I think you think you're going to work out for him, I think. He's going to make it.

He has got to make it. Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest director of all time and go and how about he's my favorite for sure. I know me too. He's the greatest.

I got to go see a screening of that movie at his house, which, you know, he has these, maybe his one, but he has like these film projectors. He's got like this barn that he's converted into a screening room. And for Tracy, the name of the movie is liquor pizza, which is a name of a record store that was all over the valley when I was growing up. Anyway, so he's got this cool.

That's why you're crying. So and your wife, Amy, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, whom I know, she and I did a pilot together years ago as you know. Yes, yes. And she's a tremendously talented actor and she's in Paul Thomas Anderson's with the liquor pizza.

So you went to a screening at his screen burning. Yeah, just to kind of get to hang out with my Rudolph. So that was a who's our pal. I just didn't want to blow it for my wife.

I'm like, just keep cool, man. Don't get drunk and don't act on. Did you stand up with a bunch of notes at the end of it? A couple notes, but he wasn't listening.

You know, that's the problem with these artists. We were we were locked. Charlie Day is for a couple of things. Let's really make this movie pop.

We'll be right back. All right. Back to the show. Now listen, Charlie, for your new podcast, which is I think is becoming really popular, isn't it?

You guys have have guests on or is it just do three chatting? Right now, it's just a chatting. I mean, that kind of caught us off guard, you know. This was Mike Reipidmack on honey.

About two years ago, I was like, we should do a sunny podcast. We should just talk about the show. The fans probably want to hear that. And he's like, ah, everybody's doing podcasts.

You know, like, you know, we're too late. Then this year he shows up, he goes, you know, we should do a sunny podcast. Oh boy. I'm like, this motherfucker.

I'm like, yeah, I know this guy. But here's the difference. And here's why I've benefited so greatly from a partnership with Rob. When I said it, it was just gobbledygook talk.

And when he said it, he already had the mics and the producer lined up and ready to go. He's an action. He's an action guy. And we all know this as actors promoting and marketing and all that stuff, having to do talk shows and whatever podcast or whatever.

The thing is, do you have a preference of being a guest or a host? Well, I guess we're not really hosting anyone. So I don't know. I mean, you're hosting a podcast, but yeah, we're really just kind of shooting a show.

Okay. Well, I think that one of the things we're all talking about the same thing, we obviously have a lot of similarities, which is talking about we create our own whether we do our own thing. And we do a lot of different things. You've got a, you're doing a podcast.

You do your show. You've got this new movie on Amazon, which was that was a sexy segue. That was a good segue. Yeah.

I did a rom com. Finally, yeah. Some come. Yeah.

Something is wrong. So, so talk a little bit about because I want to get into you do do a lot of different stuff and you've got a lot of different gears, which is commendable. And you're you're a talented guy. So you go and you do a rom com.

What was the where you just like, yeah, fuck it. I could do a rom com. I was always dying to do a rom com because I actually really enjoy them. And I sort of wanted to have my, you know, Tom Hanks moment or Billy Crystal or whatever.

And was there a sex scene? No, there's, you know, is there a case? Hey, cool. I want to know.

What are you imagining? Jason, what are you imagining? Talk to what you're imagining? Well, because some people can go their whole careers or a large portion of it without ever doing a sex scene.

And then all of a sudden the day shows up and it's like, I've been in this business 30 years and I've never had to like fake love making. Did you have to do that? No, that's a good question. No, I have.

Have you ever had to do that? Yeah, I have a, I have a very graphic one on It's Always Sunny where we did a ski episode and we were making sort of fun of like 80 ski movies and over the top sex scenes. So, you know, how'd that go? How'd that go?

Yeah. It was fine. You know, you don't have to ask him in a whisper wheel. Yeah.

Walk us through it. I mean, you know, it's always the case with me with the sex scenes. I'm always, I always feel bad for the other person. You know, I'm like, hey, like, I'm sorry.

It's just me and this, you know, my pasty and Sean, you had to do one? Yeah, there's this cult show, which is fantastic called Campus Ladies with Carrie Asley and Kristen Sussen and Forte was on it. A bunch of funny people were on it and Jonah Hill. That was Jonah Hill's first show.

And I played somebody who wasn't the brightest who always wore a backpack. How'd you get into that character? Well, I just put it back back. I had to wear no clothes except the backpack and have sex with and literally have intercourse with Kristen Sussen.

Oh, oh, okay. Jason, oh, sorry, go ahead. I was it in Jason. What about your sex stuff?

I've got a loose connection. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Is that what you said in the sex scene?

Yeah. I'm not. Why are you keeps coming out? And can you hear me?

Yeah. Is it in? Yes, that's the big. Hey, Charlie.