Hey, this is Bill Simmons. I'm the CEO of the Ringer. I host the podcast called the Bill Simmons podcast. I host the rewatchables podcast, which I hope you're listening to.
If you listen to this podcast, you probably listen to the rewatchables. That's coming back this week. Be ready for that. Hey, I interviewed Greg Kneer for my podcast and my podcast was so stacked that we ran a piece of it on that.
And then we decided to run the whole thing here. So we talked to him about his whole preacting career and then what happened as soon as he went to Hollywood to start making movies. We made Sabrina and then a whole bunch of other ones after that. If you want to hear Sean Fennissi, he's coming back.
I think later in the week with at least one interview and we're doing the Oscars. Pretty much every Tuesday and a whole bunch of other stuff. This feed is going to be very active over the next four to five months, almost entirely pot toasted by Sean. But sometimes we'll run some other interviews here.
So here it is right now me and Greg Kneer. But before we start, don't forget to check out the Ringer.com and the Ringer. Podcast network. All right.
Here it is. Me and Greg Kneer. All right, Greg Kneer is here. This is your first time on the BS podcast.
It is. It's happening right now live. You used to do this. You used to interview people way, way back when I did later.
Very. Oh my God. Later is in my salad golden years. Way before that I was doing it on like borderline public access.
Cable without even a C in the word cable doing it for a thing called movie time and just trying to what was movie time. I remember before he was he was called movie time and it was on. I don't know some satellite dish and it was like literally like going back to college for me. You know, I kind of came out of school and caught out here and crashed on a couch.
Just like this one that I'm sitting in for, you know, a few months, but I got this gig doing this kind of low budget cable channel and we would fill the hours with just interviews and show behind the scenes interviews and, you know, run trailers, anything we could to fill time. Was that what you wanted to do even in college? You were like, I'm going to be a host. Did you want to be like Letterman?
You know, honestly, no, I really, I don't know. I didn't have a strong, clear drive specifically of what I wanted to do. I mean, I did I was in broadcast journalism at Arizona and I started as a drama major. So I definitely ended up in the right zone.
But I honestly didn't know what the I didn't know anybody in this business. Yeah. So it always seemed so far removed. You know, the idea of actually ending up in it is it was just seen preposterous to me that you could actually get a gig out here.
So so I just never anticipated it. But it's funny, Justin Bateman, as I was reminded the other day, played a big part in my career. Wow. Yes.
Yes. She was dating a friend of mine who was a sound mixer and she had gone to like this MTV, you know, used to do those Super Bowl events. I mean, this is way back in the 80s. Yeah.
And she was there doing, you know, helping out with one of those things and doing her things. She was on family ties and she told this guy who who worked at MTV, she was like, yeah, you should talk to my friend's friend, Greg Keneer at some point. And so I ended up getting a chance to audition for MTV via her. Those are big days for MTV.
They're huge. And I went into this, you know, sat on the stairs where JJ Johnson sat and Mark Goodman, who liked the Quinn, the whole gang. And I basically did a terrible audition. Good God.
It's I still have it. Yeah. It's awful. And I didn't get the job out of it, but I did get a nice tape out of it.
And that tape said MTV audition. So when this fledgling cable channel was starting up called movie time, they were like, Oh, this guy might be legit. It's got an MTV audition that he didn't get the job for. I don't remember the movie time thing.
And I feel like I have a really good memory and I love pop culture, but man, yeah, I'll get you. I was like, but now now that you said that, I'm like, Oh, yeah, he wasn't always because I remember when they became E and I was like, E, that's going to be their name. That's right. And literally before he was E, it was this movie time channel for three years.
And just one day they came in and they changed the sets. They changed the name. They changed the hosts. I was fired by E and I left and did some other stuff for like a year and a half.
And then came back for talk soup. So that was all much later down the road. And you started talk soup and then you told them someday there's going to be this family named the Kardashians and they're going to blow up the man. Keep your eye.
Just watch this family. I know they're little girls now, but they're going to save your channel. Yes. Yes.
Exactly. I saw it in my crystal soup bowl. Talk soup was, I mean, it's funny now because it's basically the internet. Right.
We're talking 1991. I think so. 91, 91, well, no, 92. I think we went on the air with a 92 January first and I was on it.
92, 93, 94. And what was like the prototype for that? Did you have one? There wasn't a prototype.
Honestly, they brought me in. I had just, I don't know, I had done some other couple of other things and I, they had been running periodically clips of like Sally, Jesse, Raphael or Geraldo or, you know, Ricky Lake, they just periodically run a clip. And so I went in with the guys of creating a show once a day that would just run a number of these clips rather than just run one. They'd run, you know, a number of them.
There was no idea of what the show was going to be. There was no prototype. In fact, they thought it was going to be like a serious reverend look back. Oh, the highlights from Jersey.
And we all got in there and I don't think they knew we were on the air for like two years, but we just kind of started running. I remember watching in college, I graduated in college 92, but we were like, this is great. What is this? I just make it fun.
All these terrible shows. I love this. And it's so funny. I mean, even now people know that show, they know the history of it.
I didn't know that people knew it. It just, there was no internet. So there was no, you couldn't like see how your Twitter response was or there was no way to gauge it. We started to get a rating.
I think we at one point, my producer, Eileen Graham came in and said, we got a one this weekend, which in that world on E at that time was unbelievable. And they were, you know, we got a lot of mail as well. So I started to realize towards not until like the third year, you know, before I left that people were actually seeing it out there, but I didn't know we had an audience. I just thought we were just kind of in a little echo chambers, running around.
I remember that. And then Comedy Central, whatever it was called back then was running the SNL reruns. Right. And those were like the two kind of, oh, this is great.
I'll just kill some time and watch the show. But, you know, going backwards, like the, I'm going to say it's like 87, 88. Those, the crazy talk shows started to take off. The more down to junior, maybe that was even 86, but when he's just yelling at Nazis and it's like, what is going on?
And those shows were like massively successful. And then that kind of led into the early 90s when nobody was really making fun of them publicly, but everyone was making fun of them who watched them. Yeah. And then it tapped into that.
But I really feel like I was like a pre-internet, you know, the internet comes in. Message boards start coming in 93, 94, 95, and then the internet. People stuck an email, but this was kind of existing pre all of that. It's so true.
Yeah. And Morton, Danny, Junior, you're so right. I just remember him, like, you know, he's a cigarette in his mouth. And it would always invariably kick somebody off.
Get out of here. It's such a pole in here. You know, it's great. It's amazing that I interrupted it at one of those shows.
Yeah, I probably should have. That could have happened. That could have happened. Actually, he would have, you know, he would have fed in that.
I think I'm trying to think some of the crazier ones. My Morton, Johnny, Junior, that's a Richard Bay. Yeah. Was Montau Williams on that then?
Yeah, he was on that. Yes, he was. I feel like I'm missing like a really good one. And it's Jenny Jones.
Jenny Jones was Wendy Williams. I was not back then though. No, no, no. So you had all these people and they were just watching these shows, cutting VCR tapes, VHS tapes.
That's right. And you were trying to figure out which ones and then you're screening it. I mean, it'd be so much easier to do it now. The other way.
It would be much easier to do it. It's almost like the internet saved us. No, it was it was crazy how convoluted it was. I just got in the morning and we basically taped the show, but we did it sort of live.
We once we started, we just didn't stop and we just let it go, whatever it was. It'd drive me crazy if we stopped. And we had a technical issue here and there, but not a lot. And in the morning, I'd go in and I'd, there's this nice guy like line up and say, well, here's what we got.
And we'd sit there and he'd show me, you know, probably 12 or 13 different potential nominees. Yeah. We only had time for about nine or 10. And we'd just kind of say, okay, let's do this, this, this, this.
We kind of thought, hey, why don't we do like we had like different gags and stupid things that we'd come up with on the fly and then, and then, you know, then we'd both sit down and do the show. I feel like that show, Dennis Miller, and we can update. It was it was the first kind of not changing people. Yeah, people kind of wisest.
Yeah, which is basically where we ended up with the internet, which is people being wise, but anything, but it was, you're not blaming me for all this. Sorry. No, I think I think you should take credit. I think this is great.
But I remember when you left, it was like devastating. And then you were in this great situation where everyone who followed, you're like, yeah, but he's not great. Canary is like, they could have followed you with Eddie Murphy in 1984. Well, you know, but Greg.
So you do that later show, right? As the kind of, I mean, that was basically now we have podcasts. But back then, we had these kind of long form interview shows that people were doing that really kept going all through the 90s. And then I think in the 2000s started a flame out as a gimmick, but, that for two years, they still do later.
You may still do them, but it's now you have to like make them, it's kind of of catch the viewers eye a little bit for sure. You can't just be like, hey, two people are talking. Exactly. Three cameras.
I know. I know. Well, listen, I took over that show from Bob Costas. Yeah, he loved that show.
And he was quite good at it. And by the way, they did it without an audience, which was always my big regret. I got over to the NBC and they were like, oh, we got to put you in front of an audience and have you walk out? And I was just, it felt completely wrong.
Oh, you don't want to do that? I didn't, I didn't like, I didn't like walking. I even tried to say, why don't I just sit here? I'll just sit here and we'll just start to show, you know, we can have the audience, but anything with the walk out, we had the whole walk out.
You know, I just, I don't know. Just the whole thing felt like it felt very, even for me at that time, it just felt like a formula that had been, you know, had been done to Duff and we weren't going to do it as well. But the idea of having a one on one interview with somebody and kind of talking to them, you know, rather than moving them down the couch after seven minutes, that appeal to me. Yeah.
On some nights, it depended who the guest was. Yes. The booking every day is. Well, we, a lot of times we just pilfer whoever, you know, Jay Leno had down at the end of the the other stage.
We just grab whoever literally grabbed him. Yeah. Stop. Yeah.
And then you left to become an actor. Yeah. Which I remember being like just flabbergasted by and say, what? You know, it's going to act.
I thought this guy was going to be like a, like a letterman type. Now he's going to be movies. Makes no sense. And you that was something you always wanted to do.
I had, I did, I did have great interest in acting. A really good friend of mine always was like, you want to be an actor? And I was like, no, no, I don't. But I guess I kind of did.
The truth is, again, I just didn't think it was, it was something that was like really possible to make happen. And, you know, even my first movie, I mean, which was, which I did a couple of little things, but I mean, just kind of like a day gig here or there. But the first thing was Sabrina with, you know, that Sidney Pollock directed. And he, that's a big ass movie.
It was a big, huge movie. That was like a big deal though. It was being remade. It was kind of an iconic movie that meant a lot to a lot of people.
And he had me come in and meet with him a couple of times. Eventually, you know, they put me on videotape and, you know, I ended up getting the gig. But I, you know, I was not searching for that. He literally, somebody, Lindsey Durran, he used to work for Sydney, dropped off a tape of me, I think on TalkSoup and just said after he had tried to get thousands of other people to play this role, who passed for different reasons.
He, he at least entertained it. And I went and I think, you know, we had a good connection. He's from Indiana. I'm from Indiana originally.
Maybe that helped. I don't know. But, you know, that was my first Harrison Ford, you know, kind of had his second apex, the double apex that Harrison Ford, the 80s apex and then like in the just an unbelievable runner early nineties. Right.
That point here is like the most bankable A-Listar and Hollywood. Sure. I mean, he just, I think I'm trying to think what he had come off of. Was it?
He'd done like Clearing Price and Danger, Presumed Innocent. The Fugitive. Right. It was a murder's role.
Witness. I remember how great it was. Oh my God. Yeah.
Um, yeah, he's, he's, he's 20 year run is kind of unassailable. So I had never met Harrison through the whole process. So the big elephant in the room when I'm like trying out for this, just the thing that you just don't want to ever, ever think about is the fact that you haven't really acted in a movie and now you're going to do it with Harrison Ford. It was just too much.
I think I just compartmentalized it and kind of said, I'm not going to acknowledge this. Eventually, I did have to meet him. Yeah. And that was in, I guess, in New York, we met it, you know, I don't know.
So it's in his office in New York and he says, you want to go grab some lunch? And so he went down the street and got, got a little lunch and of course you walk in a restaurant and it's, yeah, look at me, man. Yeah. Uh, it was pretty cool.
And you're right. He was kind of at that, you know, great apex and was, I remember the lunch specifically at one point, this is a very straight forward lunch talking about a little bit about the movie, you know, uh, I don't know, baseball game, random stuff. And then at some point, uh, uh, we got the movie thing and he's talking about, well, when we were doing this, I think it's, I think, and he mentions Star Wars. And, and I got to do the, of course, the joke that we all want to do, which is, I say, no, I haven't seen that.
What does that one about? So, uh, yeah. That was the time. Yeah.
He, uh, I think I got half of us, maybe a quarter of a smile out of him. I worked. Sabrina, I didn't do really well, but people were like mad about it. Like it had like a weird reaction.
Yeah. I mean, it, uh, you know, I think you were good in it, but they, they didn't understand why I got remade, but they people saw it anyway. Yeah. They didn't realize that tons of movies were about to be remade.
Yeah. There's 20 years. Yeah. Um, yeah.
No, I think it was controversial a little bit that it was being remade, but, and then some people didn't get some people did. I mean, even now, I mean, I saw what my kids saw it, uh, and I watched it my kids a few years ago and remember thinking it's, it's kind of a, you know, I like the film, but it's, yeah, it does have a strange, a slightly, you know, strange vibe to it, but I, but I do, I did like it and I did think it was a worthy remake. I mean, I really, I really, uh, uh, I don't remember the box office that I don't think it did tremendous. I think it was cause Audrey Heparin was so iconic in that role.
Sure. But now it's like truly warm on the show. You know, I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, it's like kind of a down if you do, you know, do this thing anyway.
So I think it was a hard one. Wasn't like to watch that with your daughters. Yeah. But they see dad in a movie that's gonna be weird.
Yeah. They don't like to watch dad in movies. I can tell you that's, that's the general take question. I have experienced is that it's strange for them and they haven't seen me in a lot of stuff, you know, um, so I don't, I'm not, I'm not pushing me around the house.
So, uh, it's, it's, we're at a nice neutral place where hopefully never see what I feel, but they're not that keen on watching it. Yeah. Hopefully we'll never see autofocus. Just never, never watch it.
It doesn't happen. So when you hooked up with Nicholson a couple of years later, yeah, and he was another guy, you know, one of the all timers. Yes. And that was a really big movie for him because he had, you know, he hadn't had kind of a movie where I was like, Oh my God, Jack Nicholson's amazing in a few years and I became kind of the signature middle aged Jack Nicholson movie.
Man, I just remember reading the script and thinking, Oh my gosh, this is really an incredible scrap. This is just going to be an incredible movie. I'm never going to get it. And Jack playing this role is going to be one of the great things to watch at some point when I pay my eight dollars, like everyone else to get a movie theater and watch him and, you know, whoever got to play my role in this movie, because, uh, you know, you just knew that he was going to crush it and he does.
It's such a well acted, well written movie. Yeah. It's weird. Some parts of it has an age well, you know, because I think you think because the words of his kids, I guess don't don't age well.
Well, well, they're age well culturally. Yeah. That like he's, you know, he's gay bashing him for the first hour plus of the movie. Right.
And when you watch it now under the current lens, you're like, Oh, man, come on, dude. Right. But in the moment it was kind of like, Oh, he's, he's a crank, but we know he's going to come around, but then you see it in the 2018 lens and it's seen it in a while. That's a probably a fair point, but, uh, I don't know.
I just, I mean, I'm interested to see it with that idea in mind. I think it's different. I, we talk about this. We do a podcast called the rewatch was about going backwards and legislating content.
It's like, look, it was 1997 or 1996, whatever it was. It was just like it was that's the way it was. And he's so good in that movie. I still, the one thing with that, him and Helen, getting together, the age difference, it is a tiny bit of a leap of faith.
But then you think like, well, I take a leap of faith in every movie. So this is like a very tiny one. I mean, in this town, I live here and you're like looking at that and worried about the age difference. I mean, I don't, I don't see it myself.
I was always very comfortable with it, but yeah, there's a little bit of a span there, but I feel like I've seen that enough. Would you learn from Nicholson? Were you studying him? Were you watching like a little weird things?
He did front row seat, baby. It was great. Yeah. I don't know.
I can't tell you specifically what I learned. I mean, hard working and took the role incredibly seriously and it was never easy. It was never easy for him. You know, Jim Brooks did a wonderful job with the movie and everyone cared a lot.
And nothing was taken for granted, not one moment. You know, everybody was constantly trying to make whatever it was better. And it's amazing because the script really is great and yet you get in and we would start with a scene and I remember thinking, this is horrible. This is never going to work.
And then, you know, it was just trying to find it and it would get better and get honed and Jim has an incredible ear and it would just get better. Big sports man that Jim Brooks, see him at a lot of clipper games. He's like a die-hard torture clipper fan. It's amazing.
He hasn't written the Clipper Sports movie like the world needs. He'd be the perfect person to write it. That would be he would do. Well, he didn't have any had one sports movie.
All right. And Reese. Yeah. She was a softball player.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need the Clipper's movie. Yeah, I need the Clipper's movie. So that movie went that movie cleaned up with the Oscars and you get nominated.
It was one of those movies. It's just like, oh, that next person's going up. We were the big movie that was was Titanic too. A lot of people don't remember that that was the other movie that was in the category, which was good year.
Little feature like motion picture that people remember. Yeah. It was supposed to be a bus. It was supposed to be a bomb.
They spent so much money. It's going to be the biggest bomb in Hollywood history. It is funny. Anytime that happens half the time the movie ends up big, really good.
Right. And then the other time it really is a disaster. Yeah. When you start to hear the buzz about, oh my god, this is go.
Jesus. That it's like, oh, yeah, this is actually pretty good. Any buzz is good, boss, baby. When we go to Glitterbad, it's like, maybe that's the message out of that.
The autofocus with Bob Crane is one of the most disturbing, darkest, fascinating cable movies that comes on when you're flipping channels. And it's like, oh, yeah, this movie, Bob Crane, it's kind of hard to explain. I'm in my late 40s. Like the guy from Hogan Heroes, Hogan's Heroes.
Like that was like everybody knew who that was, or Mr. Brady, or I don't know, the dad from My Three Sons. And there were like these 20 people that were just in your life, and you just assumed they were perfectly normal. And he was not normal.
He was the opposite. And when that stuff started to come out, it was absolutely flabbergasting. It's like, really? Bob Crane?
I know. I remember hearing about it in high school that some story, I think he had been, maybe it was after he was murdered and had been murdered recently. So there was a little buzz. I was in high school in Greece, by the way.
So I mean, I'm in a parking lot in Greece having this conversation, but somehow the Bob Crane, maybe. Yeah, I understand he was, he had kind of a crazy, he liked the girls, something. Like the ladies. Yeah, he liked the ladies.
They didn't ever hear much more than that. I mean, it was a tiny blip that registered for me back at that time. And then the poll story went away for many, many years. Like with everybody, I think.
And only when Paul Schrader, something in the script was like, Oh, yeah. It's a really good movie. Yeah. Paul Schrader, by the way.
You know, another legend. Yeah, I mean, it basically seems like his buddy killed him, but yeah, he didn't get ever convicted for it, right? Nobody researched it better than Schrader. And he said, there's no question if he had sat on that jury, he would have voted to conduct it.
At the end of the day, they had botched the case badly enough, the Scottsdale Police Department, that of course they had to let go of some key evidence. But there was all there and very, very clear. Yeah, one of the things that's cool about that movie is it was that era where you became famous for the one thing. And then after that, you're just kind of chasing the fame that came with that one thing.
But each year becomes further and further away from thing. It goes deep into this weird post-Hogan's hero's career, where he's just working in nightclubs, it's like patching things together and it's just getting darker and darker. Yeah, it was a really well-written script. And I had the benefit of Willam DeFalle playing.
That was super creepy. It was so awesome. And I was such a fan of his. So that was just an added bonus.
But yeah, it gets pretty far out there. And there was an element of the movie that seemed slightly, it was funny to me. Because it's not really something you should laugh at. I mean, I definitely think this man had a problem and we have an addiction that obviously.
But I think sex addiction now is something that is probably in the public consciousness a little bit more and you can have a sober conversation about it. But when I saw this thing, I mean, I don't remember what year we made it, but it just seemed like he what? Sex addiction and how Bob was creeping around outside of being in Hogan's heroes, this kind of charming role that he plays, that he had this dark energy that was driving him. And there were moments within the script that had some really funny beats in it that I liked.
But ultimately, it's a drama and it is dark and it does kind of tip over into a different place. But there's just it's a lot of different colors in that movie. And I enjoyed it. You made Little Miss Sunshine in 06.
Does a movie like that get made now? And if it gets made, what's the budget? I mean, it was considered kind of a low budget indie when you made it. And now it's like, I love that movie.
I wonder who's making that movie now. I talked to Matt Damon was on the part of a month ago and he was talking about how hard it was. It was to get the Casey Affleck movie that made them in Chester by the Sea. And he was saying like the 15 million to 70 million movies just disappearing.
Unless somebody with a lot of clout gets behind it. I think Little Miss Sunshine is a good example. I don't know if that movie happens in 2018. It almost didn't happen when it happened because we I remember Abigail Breslin who plays Olive kept getting older and Johnathan Dayton and Valerie, the directors, they were like, we gotta make this movie.
Oh, there was like a time limit on well, they just were in love with her as Olive and she kept getting older from when they originally kind of were out trying to, they were very close. They were on the one yard line a couple of times and then it slipped away. And they just couldn't get the financing for it. And finally, one of the producers who at that point had just been a producer on it, just said, he was a wealthy guy and he just said, screw it, I'll write a check.
And he wrote a check for $7 million to make a movie. And that's how it got made. It wasn't sold. It didn't get any, it wasn't financially solvent in the sense that it didn't raise any money as a project.
So he just said, I'll do it. And that turned out pretty well for him. I was going to say that was a nice check. But listen, that doesn't happen very often for good reason because there's a thousand stories of losing your money and any kind of movie investment for everyone that hits, but that one hit and it hit big.
And I don't know if it would be made under normal circumstances. I mean, listen, the script was, it was good. I remember reading it the first time when it was brought to me and thinking, yeah, yeah, that'd be fun. I didn't knock me out of it.
As good as it gets was like, I thought, wow, this is, by the way, as good as it was originally called, old friends, they changed the name. But yeah, and I love old friends. I told you, I said, I think you're crazy, man. You want to change the name?
And it was right. But that script was, it seemed really ready. It was just a thousand percent there for me when I read it. And Luma Sunshine, I thought it was really good.
I didn't think it was a bad script, but I don't remember being knocked over by it until we got in and finally we're going to make the movie now. And we started doing some rehearsals and we all started to, you know, do it. Did a couple of read throughs of the script and all of a sudden it hit me. I was like, wow, this thing is so great.
And every moment of it kind of works and the development of the story works. And then I realized how well it had been cast with everyone. So, but it was a bit of a slow burn for me to kind of, I'm slow anyway. Yeah.
I was going to say that was a good example of, I think you need to get lucky, especially the movie like that. And in that movie, it's perfectly cast. Yeah. Like even if you go, I don't know, there's maybe five key people in it.
Even if you go four for five, I think it really hurts the movie. Like you really had to go a strong five for five with the five parts. And the little girl is great. And then all on down the line, it's just like, yeah, Paul Dano, who I just did the Tonight Show this week and I ran into him like he was on the show too.
And we were just, I hadn't seen him for a long time and we were just kind of ruminating. He's like, yeah, he's had a big career now. Oh my gosh. He's doing guitar from the movie though.
From that movie, you'd be like, that guy's going to be something. Yeah. Right. He was, he was so good.
And I didn't know him when we, you know, we did the film and I was like, okay, this kid, I was the same for Abigail. I mean, really everybody was, you know, doing great stuff. So, Jonah Hill was here two weeks ago. He was talking about his kind of class.
Paul Dano's in it and like that part, everyone wanted that part. Yeah. It's pretty funny. I was like the concept of acting classes.
Yeah. Where it's just like the same. Damon talked about that and last month about like his class was, you know, obviously, Affleck, McConaughey and all those people, but also like Ed Norton, Ed Norton got the Primal Field, Fear part, right. Ever else wanted that part.
But then he got him back with the with the copalo, the Jombressa movie. He got that over Ed Norton. Yeah. Um, when you did, actually you did stuck on you with Damon.
I did. I did. I saw Matt not too long ago to UFC fight and we were, we were kind of reliving our anguish of having three or four hours of a prosthetic. Yeah.
Because now you just do that with all CGI. You probably would never be attached. I know. Yeah.
Maybe. I mean, they had, they, they did it with a big giant piece of, of silicone that was literally taped, you know, kind of stuck to our body and the guy after they put it on. And this was whenever you saw us like, well, there's a scene where we're in our swimming suit. So you have to see the whole connection and, and, but it was a, you know, it was a couple weeks where we had to put that thing on and it would take like five, six hours.
I mean, we would get there at five o'clock in the morning. We couldn't shoot till lunch. And then I remember getting this thing on and, and I'm like walking with Matt and then the guy comes up and he says, now listen, guys, it's important. I just want you to know this.
Everything's fine. You guys will be fine. But if one of you were to fall or trip and get separated, this could rip your flesh off. So try to be really careful when you're walking together.
Oh my God. And, and I remember thinking, okay, okay, don't trip, don't trip. But we, you know, it was a fun, great fun to do that film and we did have hours and hours. That doesn't sound fun.
That sounds not fun at all. That part was not fun. But we shot Miami. I mean, only the Fairly Brothers would shoot Miami for Los Angeles.
Don't ask me why. Yeah. You know, Matt's tremendous, you know, guy and we had a lot of, we just had a lot of laughs doing that movie. Matt will tell you today.
He'll say that he says that is the most fun he's ever had on any, any movie. And I think I would say the same thing just in terms of like, just going to work. Those guys were fun to work with the environment. It's crazy.
Plus we were just, it was such a nutty idea to begin with. So it was fun. The, you agree to do a movie like that. And he's like, oh yeah, there's going to be some prosthetics.
And then you're on the set and it's six hours. Yeah. Well, there's got to be some one where you go. Oh man, really?
Right. Yeah. I heard like Jim Carrey like almost went bonkers and like the Grinch or something. He had it because it was like eight hours a day or something.
Oh yeah. And it's just, and I get it. I mean, it just, listen, fortunately, usually if we were, if it was just Matt and I, we've just, they put a shirt over us and we'd have a piece of Velcro holding us together or an elastic band or something. That was the majority of it.
So, so the prosthetic thing was the pain point that we had to hit for a couple of weeks. But aside from that, basically we throw a shirt on and I, you know, we'd have to rub bodies throughout the day. CGI now. I'm telling you guys can be in just separate cities and do it.
Yeah. Well, I smell the sea. Well, stuck on you too. That's back.
Stuck on too. How's the cards? What's your role? What's your job?
What's your profile in this movie? Job. I mean, TV show. Yes.
It is a, it is a, well, listen, it's a kind of a great, it's a great show, man. And they have a tool it. Show, we say they had to read to it. So I was cast along with a Diane Lane, his brother and sister, Bill and that shepherd who are showing up to.
We were in Washington, sort of that fifth estate just kind of quietly doing our bidding from very stealthily, but using our influence and our money to try and change policy. We certainly have a problem with Claire Hale, who is ascended to the presidency. Robin Ridesker. Kevin Spacey will be the sort of, you know, he's the former president now and he will basically be running a foundation and all sorts of things span out of that.
Got there, shot a couple of days, like a day, just a camera test and then a couple of scenes. And then I was shooting a movie in Memphis. I went back to Memphis and then I got a, you know, call, I don't know, two days later to turn on CNN and the court, the bottom dropped out of this whole thing and it went, everything went a little crazy. So credit Robin for, you know, is one of the producers, along with the producers for, you know, keeping this thing on the tracks.
I think the easy move would have been to walk away from it all. I mean, you know, she didn't, she didn't have to keep this thing going. Right. She could have run in the other direction.
I think he'd be a little vulnerable, right? I mean, that's the, you know, he's such a significant part of the show. And, you know, this happens, maybe the move is just to walk away. And I think she, you know, she made the decision that she wanted to stay and that the show was, you know, worth finding and ending for.
And the writers, you know, Frank and Melissa had the, you know, very tough work ahead of them because they had to then totally rewrite and kind of reconfigure the season out. And they did a really good job in doing that. And we, you know, so we're just there wreaking havoc and we want Claire's head on a platter. There you go.
Did you think about backing out after the something or no? No, I just didn't think it was going to happen. I just assumed that this was, when I heard, I was like, well, that's done. That's just not possibly happening.
And then, and then a little time went by and I was just told to, hey, standby, the producers are trying to, you know, maybe keep this together. And then Netflix, I know, ended up taking care of the crew, which was really cool. I thought, you know, they took care of that crew in Baltimore for quite a, you know, some period of time while they reconfigured what it is we were going to do. And that can't be overstated because I think there's a lot of production companies that we just say, hey, tough luck.
Well, you know, we may, we may come back. We may not. If you got to go find another job, good luck. Yeah.
So that was kind of cool. And you came back as you just wanted to be married to Diane Lane for the TV season. No, I, I, I, I don't even get to be married to my sister. Oh, she's your sister?
She's my sister. Now, my story is I'm in love with her. That's my backstory. But I don't know if that's what the producers had in mind, but yeah, she's lovely and great and was great fun to work with her.
And she's such talent. I knew her socially over the years, but we'd never worked together. So this was, this was terrific. She's awesome.
I agree. I'm a huge Diane Lane fan. Me too. Right there with you.
I'm always up for Diane Lane and stuff. I wish you did more stuff. So you have three daughters. How are the daughters?
They're 15, 12 and nine. I have a 13. Oh, you do. We can talk kid.
It gets complicated. 12, huh? I'm actually, I'm having a pretty good experience, but there's little comes and goes. Yeah, little snippets.
I'm like, oh, now I understand what other people were trying to learn. What's it like to have three? Well, with three, you say with one, it comes and goes. Well, just assume that if it, if it, if it comes and goes periodically and you have three, just the law of averages, it's always coming and it's always going.
But, you know, I, I don't know anything different. I mean, they're, they're really great girls. I will say I might be slightly biased in that assessment, but it's fully from the heart. I love them like mad and they're, you know, they're all, they're all different.
Very, you know, you always hear that. Well, can you believe how different they all are? And that's true. They're all very different, but.
But one of them is going to be trouble. Love averages. That there's three. That's probably true.
It's true. One of them is a candidate to sneak out of the house after everybody falls asleep. I got one earmarked. It's getting.
Yeah, I ended up with a daughter that a son who's two and a half years younger. And he's have him, have him marked. Yeah. Yeah.
Watching his every move. I just turned 11. Very careful with it. Yeah.
Did you get a male dog at least have have somebody to talk to? I do. I think he's a male dog. I think he's a male dog.
I feel outnumbered with all those ladies in the house. I do. And by the way, this dog gets so much love that I don't get. I mean, this dog is beyond spoiled and loved and adored in the, in the family dynamic.
But, but yeah, got a dog. Would you let him go in a show business? I certainly, oh man, I just want like, I don't know about you, but I, my greatest wish would be that they would be passionate about something, you know, that they'll they'll have a thing that they want to do. And if that show business fine, you know, I don't care, you know, really, I don't care what it is, but I want them to be.
I think that that's, that's the great advantage you can have in your, in your, in your life and your work is, is just a, an interest and some sort of passion for what it is that you do. And so, if that led to show business with, you know, which is fraught with complications that have all been talked about, I don't think I would try to talk them out of it. I think I'd just encourage it and hope for the best. And I think, you know, show business is like, it's not just one thing.
I think people envision everybody ends up as an actor or a director or, you know, it's a, it's a million different facets. There's so many different things in it that like any industry, it's, it's, it's not at all one thing. So, so, you know, bring it on. I think that's good parental advice.
You just laid out there. Yeah. But kids follow the passion. I'm going to write a book.
My daughter just started playing volleyball randomly for her school and she loves it. She's like, I want to keep playing like great. Knock yourself out. She just, she's always been soccer since like age four.
She's still going to play soccer, but she's like, really like volleyball. I'm like, awesome. And how do you know she likes volleyball? How did she know she liked volleyball?
She played it when like fourth grade fifth grade and then came back for the eighth grade team to just be with her friends and she's like, I want to keep doing this. That's great. All right. Cool.
We're in LA. Quick volleyball, whatever you want. But yeah, I remember, I remember my, my youngest daughter, we were at a Halloween party and she's probably six and there was this kind of this, one of those inflatable sort of kickboxing things out there or something, you know, like one of those, it's sort of a practice bag. Yeah.
And she just out of nowhere, just did this massive roundhouse kick on this thing. And I was like, huh. And later said to her, you have any interest in, you know, never doing something with that? Maybe the karate classes and stuff.
And you know, she was like, yeah, I'd like to do that. I'd like to try karate. And she's been done it since then for, you know, I don't know, like, you know, eight years and she's working on her second degree black belt and she loves it. And it's just a thing that she, I, you didn't see coming.
It was just this thing. All of a sudden she's like, yeah, that would be cool. And so, I kind of feel the same way about, you know, any advice I do give them is that you kind of have to let their, let them lead the way, you know, they know what they want to do. Well, good luck with House cards.
When does it drop? Drops November 2nd. Oh, so that's today. We're taping this on a Friday.
Yeah, it's running next week. Oh, yeah. It's on Netflix. It's officially on Netflix.
It drops. That's what we all say. You probably would know what's our new logo. Do they rate, they must be done the logo, right?
It used to be spacey. Well, it's, yeah, it's Robin. It's by the way, it's a tour de force and it's really Robin's thing. I mean, in that, in that show, I mean, she, she carries it.
And it's so cool. I think to see her, she's, of course, you know, she's devious and horrible in certain respects, but as the president, but she's, she's really kind of owns the role in a fantastic way. So it's good stuff. We had her.
We did the Andre the giant documentary, last spring for HBO and she was in Princess Bride. So it's this documentary. It's Andre, it's all these wrestlers. And then all of a sudden, I don't know where like an hour in like Robin Right just comes in.
It's like this white light shining. It's just one of the most beautiful actions ever. And then it's like, I had to back to the wrestlers back to you under the giant hokehoke. But she just kind of passes through for two minutes is Robin Right.
One of the greats. How did he get cast for this? I have to see this. I've not seen Andre the giant.
It's a documentary. I'm going to watch that. I haven't seen it. Yeah.
Oh, it's great. You love it. I will. I will love it.
I really love that movie. And I kind of like, you know, I don't, I'm not a huge wrestling fan. But the cool thing about how we did this is you don't have to be wrestling. Was he like a whole coven type?
He was right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. You like it. It's on HBO. I'm gonna be on demand, which I have.