Mother, Mother, there's too many of you crying Oh, brother, brother, brother There's far too many of you dying Oh, what is it good for? Absolutely! Say it again! Ah!
Schools out for summer, Schools out for giver He's an entree Feels like I'm going to lose my mind You just keep on pushing my love Over the borderline You say What can make me feel this way He's an entree Like a fool I went and stayed too long Now I'm back in my love still strong Oh, baby! You right here, science is the limit I'm your He's an entree He's an entree Follow me Everything is alright I'll be the one to tuck you in that night If you wanna leave I can guarantee You won't find nobody else but me Sweet love Sweet love Hear me call the natural name I feel no shame I'm in love Sweet love It'll always be the sway Forget about the rhythm of the night Then send till the morning light Forget about the worries on your mind You can leave them all behind It's my I want you to rock the boat Rock the boat Rock the boat I want you to work the middle I work the middle I work the middle I want you to change positions I want you to stroke it for me Stroke it for me Stroke it for me That's very, very sexual When there's something strange Yeah, in the neighborhood Who can you call? Mmm, something weird And don't look good Who you gonna call? He's an entree Your love is a dumey higher Quit your mind desire And I'll be at your side Forever, ever WOW WOW WOW Yippee-yay WOW Yippee-yay A tonic Oh, okay A tonic Like that old time Like in the way The kind of music just suits the soul Reminiscing by the days of old Cause that old time rock and roll What you want Baby I've got it What you need Oh, you know I've got it All I'm asking Is for a little respect when you come up Baby, baby My papa said the son You're gonna drive me to drinking If you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln Here's one that came out of Detroit Just a few months ago Oopsies, oopsies, oopsies Oopsies, oopsies, oopsies Oopsies, oopsies, oopsies He's an object Yo, you got one shot One opportunity Would you capture it?
Just let it go He's an object He's an object He's an object He's an object You guys, this is a Incredibly surreal experience for me To have come here my whole life Seeing shows, seeing people up here And to come back and to be here And that all you guys came And supported me It's so overwhelming I thank you so much Okay I have many fun surprises this evening The first of which I have never really desired to win an award Like, you know, an Emmy or anything I don't, but I have long fantasized about Winning solely to do a single thing And that single thing I'm going to do tonight I am standing here for one reason I met somebody when I was 11 And up to the point that I met this person I was convinced, oh, there's a version of you That really isn't suitable for this world No one really should be exposed to it And then I met this kid, Aaron Weekly This kid, who, for the first time in my whole life Made me feel like I was Exactly perfect how I was And he gave me All the confidence that I then took Towards the rest of my life I don't meet Aaron Weekly, I am I don't know what I'm doing But I'm not here This person, I connected with On such a level as cellular level as I've said I've never felt closer to a human being I was allowed to be weak around him I was allowed to be brave around him I was allowed to be affectionate with him All the male approval I ever desired I got from him He's the most important person in my life Please put it together for Aaron Weekly I love you That was miserable for him Thank you so much for being a part of that Okay, brought another special guest She is so miniature, but she's so maximum Monica, perfect! So Monica, what you don't understand about the relevance of everyone being here tonight is that they basically committed a mortal sin in Michigan and they're not at Bob Seager So just you guys Thank you I was really relieved to see Bob play some Bob Seager So they got a little bit of a concert Yes, they're be alright We have a couple thank yous We do have a couple thank yous Lazy Boy is a lovely supporter of ours They give us furniture in every city And then we donate it Two Society of St Vincent D'Aphall Okay, thank you Face is going to them Another thank you we want to give is the lovely Kind folks at Chrysler who make the Pacifica the Yes, we love that ride We are tooling around this great nation and three Pacificas and life has never been better We know it's a good car when Dax will drive it here in Detroit in car country Yeah And feel proud of it Yeah, very proud Proud Earlier today I wrapped myself up newton's and Brooklyn ins got behind the wheel and just let it rip Okay, so asking someone to fly here From Los Angeles, it's a long flight Yes So I just want everyone to recognize what a lovely human being this was that he said yeah yeah I'll do that Yeah, you guys probably know him from six feet under You probably know him from 911 Most importantly hopefully you know him as my older brother On parrot hood Adam Braverman AKA Peter Proza Before he sits down because it might get lost It might get lost when he sits down Is anyone here prepared to accept that he is not on steroids? Are you kidding me? Right Look at these fucking pipes Oh my goodness they barely fit in the Pacifica Ha This is my first podcast Ever Welcome You're breaking your podcast arm cherry tonight You said it's my homecoming I was like I can't resist it I wanted it to be special And you're one of the most special people I've ever worked with And I adore you and I'm going to celebrate the shit out of you for the next 90 minutes So I was like fuck up Now you and I met I guess now ten years ago You shot the pilot of parenthood Yeah And I knew you as Nate obviously from six feet under And it was such a specific character right?
Like you smoked weed and you jogged a lot And every girl you met you had sex with Isn't that roughly what your character was? Basically Kind of like Crosby Yeah exactly I had to pass up a time Oh wow Peter pointed that out a couple different times He said I'm a little jealous watching you play Nate on the show But when we met I had met that version of you on TV And then I was meeting you in real life and I was trying to figure out Like who is this guy? You drove a pickup truck? I'm like okay He likes utility Maybe he works on things Maybe he's got a big dog He doesn't want to ride in the cab Could have been any of those things And then you're playing And I'll say this delicately A fucking nerd on the show Like Adam Braverman Only had color shirts and Tucked in tight right?
He just wanted to be the best husband The best father the best son he could be I know is that nerdy? No Nerdy's hot Well I've come to find out it's cool Yeah that's cool and hot Again this is ten years ago I was 32 You were 31 It was a gear shift for sure From six feet hundred parenthood Yeah and then I can only assume it's worse from your side Because you're like this guy's on a reality show Where he dances around naked in front of Jessica Alba That's who I'm about to work with Well I had met your mother Yes or the foe Who everyone here probably knows Before meeting you I had done a movie called We Don't Live Here Anymore Which you probably were selling the DVDs in the lobby Yeah pick one up guys It was in Sundance And so I got to ride to the airport From this woman It's very friendly Very warm It seemed like she was probably an excellent mother Attractive And she said You probably know my son Dax Oh it's so embarrassing Thank you So cute And I said I don't But I said that is a very unusual name And so when I met you Your reputation had preceded you Not by what you'd done by your mother I would prefer that she were the thing that preceded me at all Times for introductions But what's really crazy about that So much of this is going to come full circle Several of the people in this audience were at Sundance For that whole thing I just want to illustrate what kind of person Peter Krause is That was four years before I met you Probably three or four years And he said to me I met your mother Laura You remembered her name What kind of psychopath is this kind That he would remember in that situation Someone you're hopping in a car They're going to drive you somewhere And I thought wow You're a much better person Than I am And that turned out to be true Over the course of the next seven years Yeah, yeah Regularly astounded with your character But okay, we do this pilot together I don't know from your perspective But for me it was a very very special experience Right out of the gates Agreed I think it was the first time I had entered a scenario Where my ego was somewhat manageable In that I was very happy to take a back seat to you Or Craig T. Nelson or Lauren All the shows on the pilot I just, I was Maybe the healthiest mentally I've ever been for a situation Like that Where I was like Oh, I just get to be a part of these people who are really Incredibly talented and I'm shocked I'm even here with you guys Yeah And so what was your kind of Well, I came into it I had done a show for two years Called Dirty Sexy Money Which originally was not called Dirty Sexy Money It was a good show for those of you who saw it But it was originally called The Darling's And it was meant to be a satire of Wealthy American families Loomfield people And the first The first season That had just been cancelled And I got a phone call from Tommy Shalami Who directed the pilot And then also from a woman named Nora O'Brien Who worked at NBC It was a wonderful experience to start We had a great table read And when Craig T. Nelson walked in the room And looked at us all You could just kind of tell Like this was going to be a good time Yeah But during the shooting of the pilot of Parenthood, Nora O'Brien With whom I'd worked previously And she was like the best type of person to be a networked Because her belief was that she worked for the audience She didn't work for NBC, whatever That was her viewpoint And the first time I met her I was doing a mini-series in New Mexico And she came up to me and she said I have an AVM Like Nate She was really not six feet under your character Died ultimately At the end spoiler alert And then I had an animation in his brain Which basically led to an android Like an android Like an android And anyway, Nora had this procedure Where they basically opened her skull And they go in and they kind of Seal this thing off to try and keep it from exploding So while we were filming the pilot There in San Francisco She was shooting baskets And somebody passed her the ball And she wasn't looking at it in the head And Craig was in the middle of telling me some stories About when he was having substance abuse problems They heard them Craig Nelson's coke stories So good, yeah And somebody started screaming medic And we thought that somebody had fallen off a rig Or something like that And somebody screaming Nora And so then Craig and I took off down there And she was lying on the basketball court And unfortunately during the filming of parenthood Nora passed away right in front of us on the basketball court But it was an interesting period in my life Because I had a challenging relationship with my son's mother I was splitting my time between Sonoma and LA And this incident with Nora passing away I was just like what am I doing with my life?
I mean first of all, you know, it was just The shock of seeing my friend Just exit Yeah, that wasn't in that scene So I wasn't working that night but I heard But I had only met her for five seconds at the tablery And I think I was probably just more in a gossipy nature Like oh my god, I heard about you know, and then when I started talking You might realize oh, you have a relationship with this person I need to shift gears and recognize like oh, this is Yeah, it was a very hard moment in the shooting of it, right? We had a couple more days to shoot and I was I couldn't feel the ground beneath me when I was walking and it was just It was unbelievable to me that that happened But just to jump ahead, it was when we came to Re-shoot the pilot with Lauren back in LA So really quick what people might know is that Originally, Nora, tourney, played something Braverman Whatever our names were Sarah, I don't even know my own names Sarah Braverman Sarah Braverman, yeah, your lovely real life girlfriend Replaced Lauren, who we adore, but But Nora after the pilot and she had done an incredible job I thought she was excellent in the pilot, she then got breast cancer Diagnosed so she had to drop out of the show and then Lauren came in and took over the role And we had to re-shoot a third of the pilot or whatever But it was the scene that we shot in the swimming pool You remember this? Oh, yes, yes, yes I mean you had some nice dives off of the high dive I did a triple indie, yeah But it was that particular scene, I had that little click I was like we're going the distance The moment I remember from that pool is when you're shooting generally Especially on that show because there's so many of us And you're wearing a wireless microphone and you have this big battery pack that you have on your Generally on your belt And we were in the swimming pool and Craig T was about to tell me one of his raunchy stories And he goes, well, I got to Thailand Or you might I looked and I was like, oh, Cory, we're in the swimming pool I'm not fucking right That was wonderful Now, you're from down the road Like what's funny is Peter came today and I drove him all around our beautiful suburbs And I'm very, very proud to be from here It's such a great, I don't say that in a pandering way I feel like I was so lucky to be born here and raised here And I'm just driving around showing the lakes and everything And these crazy houses and I took them to Cranbrook And he's like, how could this be a school? I'm like, I don't know either My sister somehow went here and I didn't So you said, well, I guess we never came here because if you're from Minnesota Why would you come here to the exact same thing?
I was like, it's a very solid point Just on the western end of Great Lakes, lakes, pine trees, deciduous trees Low cloud ceiling thunderstorms, nice people Yeah, but I will say no one has ever lived up to the stereotype more than you As far as Minnesota is much better, as much as I'm proud to be from here Much better people in Minnesota by a long shot You live up to that Now, you didn't grow up in St. Paul, right? You grew up kind of out on the outskirts? I was born in Alexandria, Minnesota, which is a quiet lake town up north And then my parents actually moved to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota Oh, serendipitous!
Where I lived until I was almost four years old And then we lived in his cousin Kathy's house in Minneapolis Until we moved to the house which we just sold a year ago 27, 26 here on the street in Roseville, Minnesota Right next to St. Paul, it's an inner ring suburb So it's a middle middle class, lower middle class, you know, working class suburb Yeah, and Dad has a really unique distinction of having been drafted twice Both in World War II and in Korea Yeah, so I can never live up to my dad, my dad grew up in a farm in southern Minnesota In a town called Smiths Mill He grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing until he was 16 And then when he was 18, he was in an army uniform on a troopship Heading to Germany, to occupy Germany, so my dad was lucky he was born in 1927 He just missed having to go over there and face any action He came back, was going to college, and he got drafted again for Korea That seems impossible I feel like you should be wanting done on that That was his lot in life and there's some interesting correspondence Which my cousin Jeff, who lives in Idaho, dug up And one of them was about, because he grew up on a farm and he had a dog and a gun And helped with chores before school and walked to school and all these things That he was not a big fan of the military, even though he had to go in twice He did not think that that was a natural way for a man, as he put it in this letter He was writing back to his parents, you know, this is not a natural way for a man to be Which was kind of fascinating to me to see my dad's regard for, you know, what are we doing? This was not my choice, and you know, I've gone at therapy and like, you know, you're most happy when you are in choice When you're choosing what you're doing in life, and so these two times where my father was basically tapped You know, and said like, all right, go do that Do you have any sense though of what his personality was like and or his mental health prior to going? Well, I mean, I found out some interesting things about my dad before he passed away So he had a couple sisters that passed away in his youth Before he was born, his sister Pearl died at a very young age And after Pearl died, I found out just in the last years of my dad's life that his father had him stay in a crib or a bed In the room with his mom and dad until he was five, which I didn't know until later Wow, because I think my grandfather was like, we're not gonna lose this one Right And then when my dad was 12, his older sister may die at 16 Oh my goodness And he was no stranger to, you know, with the animals on the farms in birth and death and all that stuff And he kind of had a, I don't know, kind of a natural way of looking at the world And I think he was a pretty happy guy, he spoke very romantically about going to the dance hall And he really liked it when they had a live band and they didn't have to play the phonograph And the kids would get together and dance and he worked at a 3-2 joint, but they only could serve 3-2 beer Oh, like Utah, it's the worst Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're trying to get drunk at Utah, not possible You know, after that time, I make the joke sometimes that shortly after I was born, he checked himself into a mental hospital But I don't know what happened during the military years or whatever, but you know, he was a social worker And we were living up in Lake Country and whatever was going on with him, he needed to check out for a little while And that was when I was really, really young Right, so you don't have any memory of that, obviously I just remember my mom taking me into the closet and like showing me his shoes and letting me put my feet in his shoes And things like that, but my mom for a couple years was pretty much alone, you know, my dad, we take the train from up north down into the city And see my dad, and you know, I still have a, it's funny, I have this little leather wallet that he made when he was in the mental hospital And I have it on a shelf in my place up in St.
Elmo, one day the Lord said, what is this, do we have to have this here? I was like, yes, yes we do. You'll be going before that old piece of leather goes on And I explained to her what it was and what it meant to me and she said, okay, we'll leave her right there Stay tuned for more live show after this exciting commercial break You and I have had, we came to find out we have a lot of parallels that I enjoy having with you I don't know if you feel the same, but I do, okay good, and I've talked about them a ton on here And there's a lot of people here, there's someone here that dated my dad, so hello I recognize, yeah, Edie, my favorite girlfriend my dad ever had, Edie We both had really complicated father-son relationships, yes One thing, and this isn't based so much on my dad, but there were a lot of drunks around when I was a kid And there was a lot of step-dads and there was a lot of violence and you learned to really observe where people are at in their temperament At all times, you get kind of really good at reading I think people's temperament and what's ahead And you had that, yeah? Yeah, so my dad, you know, he was pretty volatile and you never knew what it was coming It was not like living at the household where you get, you know, I'm thinking about like Saturday night fever where everyone tripped against his head Like, yeah, I spent a lot of time on my hair, he just keeps hitting his head That was not my dad, I can't remember what it was, but there was some evening there was some bickering at the table All of a sudden my dad stood up with a plate full of spaghetti and it was like it was happening in slow motion But I just remember this plate soaring across the kitchen hitting the cupboard And I remember thinking to myself using words, I thought that's what a plate of spaghetti smashing against a wall of sligh But everybody just shuts down, right?
You know, it's real quiet, he does what he has to do, storms out, we go back to you It's very theatrical, isn't it? Yeah, like I've never acted that way in front of my family But I do fantasize about really just blowing my lid one day Whirling, nervous, style around the kitchen smash and shit, it seems kind of cathartic and liberating, doesn't it? It does, but when you grow up around it and you don't really understand it, you just think, if you're upset enough, that's okay Right, right, so there was a time when we were driving in the car and my sister and I were in the back seat causing a ruckus And when we got home, you know, but I knocked your heads together to knock some sense into you, you know? I mean, I look at each other like, what?
First of all, I don't think that's gonna work. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's happening to me out Similarly, it all happened in slow motion where we're there, we get home and sure enough, dad grabs us And I remember seeing my sister's face just slowly coming out and like, here it comes, it's like, boom And did you think this is what it looks like to smash into my sister's face? Exactly, all of a sudden it got real blurry, you know? It's so funny, just you saying that reminds me of my dad, it's because on a ski trip to Traverse City And for some reason, yeah, Traverse City, Cherry Festival, we love it Someone, you know, someone wasn't driving up to his high standards Yep, and my stepmom, Tammy was driving and he's like, pull up next to this motherfucker, super snowy roads What?
Pull up to this motherfucker, go around this motherfucker My dad was not a small man, he was like 300 pounds, he hung his entire body out the window of the car in the winter on Snowy roads and he's screaming, you stupid fucker, you stupid fucker, stupid fucker Well, Tammy's like almost losing control of the fucking car, and my brother and I are just in the backseat like, yeah, this is how we will one day carry ourselves when we get out of there. Oh, boy. Yeah, there were a few incidents where my, by the way, you love your dad too, I love my dad so much, and like I said, I can't live up We love our dads. His lifetime, and you know, it's just a funny thing growing up with the toughest guy in the room You know, like, he loved his kids, he was a great family man, we were in a Vikings game, this is the old stadium outside There were some college students in front of us who were drinking, and then there was a family next to them And that dad was taking exception to the fact that these college students were drinking and they were getting into a little bicker session And my dad didn't like it because he wanted to watch the game And so all of a sudden my dad stands up and says, and looming, looming over these people, he's like, you all shut the fuck up, rock, kick all your asses That was my dad.
We just kind of looked to mom and she shuts down, you know. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Did you ever feel like, hey, mom, you're going to do something about this? Or not really, you felt like it was beyond above her pay grade.
Well, my mom in public would never do anything because of the social situation, but at home she kind of had his number. She'd withhold oral. Oh, my God. You had to take it there.
You had to take it there. We were all thinking it. You didn't have to say it out loud. She had a couple things that she could do.
She's Norwegian. Right? So proud. Bill, we're done talking about it.
We're done. It's over. She'd do that. And then if she had to pull out the heavy artillery, it would be this.
You're acting like a baby. And then going back to my mother's father supported our family while my dad was in the mental hospital. So there was a certain love and support he felt from her family. And she was a beautiful, beautiful woman who kind and sweet.
I mean, my dad was too, but where he was loud and abrasive, she was just sweet and positive. And she would lie to you if she thought that there might be something that was true that would hurt your feelings. That was her thing. Right.
Better to lie than hurt somebody's feelings. That was my mom. Of course you're tall enough to play center on the battle ball. Exactly.
So, but when she'd call him a baby, he just, it ran and just so hurt, but he had no comeback. Right? Just storm out of the room. It's a pretty judo move because anything you then do, you'll see him even more baby-like.
Exactly. You'll just confirm the theory that was just set down. Yep. And the theory is there's something I know about you that I find very bizarre in a great way, which is while all the kids were choosing to pursue basketball and baseball and football, you were like, you know what my sport is gymnastics.
I didn't know that. Oh my gosh. There was a photo on the set at parenthood of young Peter in, what do we call the outfits that Jim has? Leotard?
I think, right? It's not a leotard. A singlet. A singlet.
Well, that's a wrestling singlet, but I guess we just, I don't know what it was. But you tights and then you had the tank top. Leotard. Yeah.
When you go to buy them, they're identical to the dancing leotards. The next to the leotards. The leotards. The manufacturer on the same line is the leotards.
And labeled leotards. But there was a picture of young Peter Krause in eighth grade, I believe, you're 14. And you had these fucking heavy weaponry guns. Big, big, bulging biceps in eighth grade.
No one had biceps in my school like the ones you had from gymnastics. Well, I got into gymnastics because I wanted to be a pole vultress. I saw pole vulting in the Olympic theater. Even we were in TV.
And my dad was the baseball basketball football guy. So I wanted to do something different than him. And it just so happened that when I was in high school, our high school coach, there were two great coaches, Mark Curley, who's a fantastic pommel horse, Jimnest. And then Fred Keefer, who had gone to the University of Minnesota incredibly strong for a while.
He held the world record in handstand push-ups. And that was the guy who would train us. What was that number? Yeah.
In the hundreds. Oh my goodness. I can't do a single handstand. Amazing guy wrote his bicycle to work in Minnesota even in the winter.
Oh, wow. Taught calculus. And it was the gymnastics coach. When I learned that you were a gymnast, I don't think I thought of it until recently.
But I chose a very specific path, which is I decided in elementary school. I'm just not going to be on the traveling soccer team. I'm not going to date Amy. I'm going to have to pick a different route.
Is Amy here? I imagine Amy. She's an arm-tari. Trevor Robinson's girlfriend was so jealous.
Trevor was a bona fide ten and so was Amy. They were in love forever. They dated like four years of elementary schools. Wow.
Vomitous. But when I got into junior high, I remember making a conscious decision. I'm like, I'm going punk rock. I'm going skateboard.
Fuck all this other stuff. I'm not going to be embraced by the big accepted thing. Did you dye your hair? Did you have a mohawk?
That sort of stuff? What I had, Peter, is what we would call a mullet. Two feet long and back, shaved on the sides, long bangs, and a spike on top. Nice.
Yeah. I feel like a baby crockett hat. It looked like I perpetually had one of those on, but with bangs. Aaron Wieckley would come over in the morning and I would style his hair for him with a can of extra-strong aquanette.
And then like 70 fucking ounce can. Just with a hair dryer. I'm so good at it. Anyways.
But did you have that thing like idea where I was like, I reject you so you can't reject me. I mean, not exactly. Damn it. But I think it was smaller.
So I remember there was a day when I was a sophomore in high school and I was in Joanne Smee-Shek's English class. Peter's fucking memory for people's names is, again, psychopathic. Yeah. And Todd Sather said, hey, everybody, let's turn our chairs around so when she comes back in, we're all facing the other way.
So they all did and I didn't. Savage, prank. I know, I know. Todd was like, dude, what are you doing?
You got to turn around. It'll be hysterical. And I said, Todd, it's a lot funnier if one person doesn't. Ooh.
Nice twist. Yeah. Good punch out. So they were all facing the other way.
And I sat there like I was the star pupil with my hands folded on the desk. And I said, hey, and Miss Misha came in and she had a big laugh. She had a laugh. Yeah.
But I would do little stuff like that maybe. But I was not, didn't have any spiky hair or anything like that. Were you popular for lack of a better term? I guess so.
Or handsome as all get out. So yeah, that one for you. I was the student speaker at our graduation. So that says a lot.
My two best friends from high school, Jeff McGuire was our valedictorian and he went to Harvard. And then my buddy Mike Judy, who was a basketball player, he went to MIT, he was an electrical engineer. And then I went to Gustavus at Ophus College in Minnesota. Yes.
Now a lot of people don't realize that Gustavus goes there. It's got Adolf in the name for crying out loud, right? Unfortunately. I've openly thought out loud about this.
You know, they had these chorus commercials for a while. Do you remember these? Not too long ago. A few years back.
And they were trying to get you nostalgic about the history of chorus. And they're like, Adolf, chorus the third. Came down from the Rockies and decided we must tap these Rockies and create a chorus beer. And I'm like, hmm, Adolf, chorus.
Let's just call him A-chores or go by the middle name. So Gustav Adolf was the king of Sweden. And they thought if they just Latinized his name and built a college, it'd be like, Daxxus Chapardis. Daxxus Chapardis.
Yeah. So you went to this really esteemed college. The Harvard of the Midwest. The Harvard of the Lake Country.
And while you were there, you studied English. Yeah? I did. I started out pre-med.
I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I thought, well, I guess my parents will be happy if I'm a doctor. Yeah. Most of them are.
I worked really hard. I was getting a B-plus and calculus when I dropped it. And the professor said, you got to say, you're getting a B-plus. And I said, I can't stand it.
You know, I'm working so hard. I don't have any time to drink beer and chase girls. Right. But I wound up with an English major.
But I started doing theater. I did one play in high school, but didn't really enjoy it. And then my sophomore year, my buddy Matt Baldwin, said, hey, let's go on for this play. And it was Story Theater by Paul Sills, which he took a bunch of fairy tales.
And they politicized them in the 1960s as anti-war protests. So I got a part he didn't speak to me for a while. And then there were two great professors at that college. And I did American Buffalo.
We did Carol Churchill's Cloud Nine. It was Carol Churchill's Cloud Nine, which sealed the deal for me. And the first act, I play a woman in the 1800s in the second act. I play a gay guy in London.
It's all about gender roles and how we understand who we are. Cynthia Goldie, the theater professor, had us read Kate Millet's sexual politics at the time. I was interested in how we understand who we are, who we think we are, what society wants us to be. And I found that that particular play and that particular experience really led to introspection, also understanding the people around you.
What program are they operating on and do they want to be? Do they not want to be? What struggles are they having with the world that they're in? Well, also, I'm imagining you are probably drawn to, and again, this is this other parallel that I love, is that you and I, we like our secret time.
Go on. Yes. Sunday I flew to New York to do a bunch of press this week. I got to that hotel room.
My first thought was just, no one's looking. It's time to do whatever the fuck I want. And it's just this visceral volcano that starts burbling. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do.
I'm monogamous and sober, but in my mind, I might go watch them, at least by heroin in the park. I might, I don't know. I just, I'm like, ooh, I'm alone. It's, it's so visceral because I was both blessed and cursed with a mother who really loved the shit out of me.
And she had really high hopes for me and I'm grateful for it, but also it came with a burden of I wanted to live up to her hopes for me. And there was just a lot of weight to that. And so I had this weird, dualistic life where in high school I was getting good grades, but then she'd go out of town and we'd throw ragers at the house and, you know, there was two different versions of me. One that was walking the walk and the other that was going batshit as soon as I got out of sight of anyone else.
Yes. Yes. Like what's funny is I got here last night and Peter had already been at the hotel for a while and I called him and I was like, well, I want to make sure he's doing okay. And he's, he's flown all the way here.
I wanted like, if he wants to get a bike to eat or whatever, I knew half when I called him like he's in heaven. He's getting weird in his Brooklyn in sheets. It's fucking Peter crowds of time. He doesn't need me.
I just need to check in and make sure that was happening. And in fact, you were deep in Peter crowds of time, right? So one of the great things about growing up in the Midwest was that you got a basement. That's where you got to hang out.
And you can go down in that basement. And when you're little, you know, you can go down there and you can fantasize and I could get away from my big sister and my little brother and all these things. And so I definitely enjoyed having a fantasy life of my own as a kid in a small three bedroom, one bath house. My brother and I shared a room since the day he was born and the basement was dank moldy basement.
That was my refuge. My grandpa Bob kept the playboys down there. So I found my way down there quite often. And we had a neighbor for a little while because my parents played cards.
They played poker and bridge. My dad was a very good card player. And the neighbors, they'd go back and forth and play cards, but the neighbors were younger. They were kind of hippies.
And there was a closet in that house. And there was pornography in there. Sometimes if I went over to that house and the parents got busy with the neighbors talking, I could go into that room and open that closet and look at that pornography. I taste the pornography.
I feel so, do you feel bad for kids these days that it's like, I'm horny. Boom, I'm watching sex. Fuck that. I was on a treasure hunt.
It was like, where did I hide that playboy? I smuggled in my duffel bag home from Papa Bob's house. I hid it so well, I can't remember. It was a journey.
It was a commitment. You earned it. You fucking earned those. Say it.
Double D. Yeah. Just say it. What was your duality?
What do you think the cause of that was? Well, I have a lot of them, but both my parents have passed away. And it wasn't until they passed away that I understood how much I was still trying to impress them. Right.
That when it's taken away, it didn't matter as much to me how well I was doing in my career or how I could help them or how I could help my siblings or anything like that. It didn't matter as much. So there's been a recalibration the last couple of years. My mother just a little less than two years ago passed away and like, it's been weird.
Yeah. When it's taken away and I know you've lost your father, so you kind of get it. That audience of your parents is really important. Yeah.
In terms of the duality, for me, it was when I was in high school, I had something happen. It was like a shocker opening or something. Suddenly my mind was on fire and I was questioning everything around me. Everything I read, everything anybody said.
I was having a difficult time sleeping. All the constructs, all the definitions that I saw before me. It was like a Salvador Dali painting melting clock faces. It was like, I don't know if I can believe anything.
Yeah. And I was watching everybody go around in their program doing their thing in my mom's and I just went to church every week. And so, you know. I too was kind of obsessed at that age of like, which of these rules are we really supposed to be following?
Like, what is the penalty if I don't do this or if I don't go to college? I was really preoccupied with like, really all these constructs we've got to buy into? I don't know if I'm, when did you start smoking pot? I don't know what you're talking about, Max.
I'm just going to be honest. So the first time I tried pot, I was on a ski trip. And I swear to you, when I came back to my shoe basket, I returned all my rental equipment. I was not at the wrong shoe basket.
I had a relatively new pair of Adidas. Yeah. They were white with blue stripes and they were gone. Oh, oh.
So we didn't have a lot of money. I was terrified to go home without my shoes. You know, I looked around and asked whatever, no shoes. So I'm walking to the bus in the three pairs of socks that I have.
I just put them all on, you know, and like, walk to the bus and I get on this bus and there's this ninth grader there. Ninth grade bus only, get off. And Cindy Mitchell was there and she's like, oh, let him on. He was restoring.
No, no, no, no. Ninth grade bus only, get off. There's a little stone. I'm like, oh, all right.
I get off. I get 200 feet to the next bus. I get on, go home. But that was the first time I tried pot.
And because I think I lost my shoes and had this experience where I had to go home and like tell my dad and I lost my shoes, I didn't smoke pot again until I was in college. Oh, really? Because you were just terrified you'd lose your shoes? Well, I was a jock.
Guys, I'd love to suck on that doobie with you, but I just got these feelas. I don't think it's worth it. Yeah. That was like, I'm like, we eat them.
What's next? We try to get on a bus. They don't let us on. I'll pass.
Um, then in college, my roommate, Corey Peterson, you know, we both took a lot of biology courses and he went up with the bio major, I think. And anyway, he grew some weed up in the skylight of this apartment. We had on Main Street in St. Peter, Minnesota.
And he had pulled them down and they were in the kitchen. We had this really cool railroad style apartment, just one room after the next. And my aunt and uncle would come to see this play and they were there in the kitchen. I was thinking, oh, please, please, please don't see those.
And my parents are there too. And on the way out, my uncle Howard looks and says, hey, those are marijuana plants. And my roommate, Corey, those are false or Ray-leos. Oh, he played the scientific card on him?
Yeah. Yeah. Now, listen, you end up going to NYU and you get a master's degree in acting. And then, guys, I've known Peter now for 10 years and I found out something about him yesterday that just blew my mind.
It was so exciting. You graduate, I'm sure there's many events before that in this, but this motherfucker was on Beverly Hills 90210. What? Right?
Donna Martin graduates. Unfortunately, you weren't in that episode, but. One episode? I did three episodes.
I think so. And he was dating. Who was the 45-year-old on the show? Oh, Andrea something?
Yes, Andrea something. She was just... Wait, wait, wait, wait. You dated her on the show on her life.
On the show. Andrea? Maybe? Can I tell you the best part of who he played?
Yeah. They were in love, but they had a big, big issue. She was very liberal and he was a conservative. Oh, wow.
That is a big issue. And she said, I heard conservatives are bad in bed. Am I getting it right? Well, it's 902 when I was something.
Surprisingly, Dax, I haven't watched this episode quite some time. I recommend it. I was in Newark for six and a half hours yesterday and my plane was delayed and I watched a hell lot of it. I think I watched it four times in a row.
Wow. She's like, well, I heard conservatives are bad in bed and he's like, you want to find out? And he stood up inside the restaurant and they just started making out all sloppy. And then they like finished and she's like, oh, I was wrong or whatever.
It was hot as hell. Yeah. It's really hot. Yeah.
Crossing the aisle. Bringing the country together. That's what we need right now. Exactly.
We need some steamy Democrat, Republican love, make it. That's right. They call that hate party. We're in the peach pit.
I was in the peach pit. Wow. Now, unfortunately, I'm assuming you weren't a gigantic fan of the show like I was because you were in your 20s. Well, I just come from doing a year with Carol Burnett on a little-known show called Carolyn Company back in 1990.
And she is awesome. You loved her. Loved her. Yeah.
And no, you go. I mean, I'm sure there is some, but like not evident. She's a truly lovely human being. I can't say enough nice things about her.
We had a very interesting experience. I don't want to be a downer. I feel like I'm telling a lot of downer stories. That's okay.
We know. The show's often sad, right guys? No. My son was born in Los Angeles.
I was going to pick him up at the hospital and bring him at his mother's home. And when the elevator doors opened as I was going up to get them, Carol Burnett walked out. We hadn't seen each other for a while. She was walking six feet under and she was watching and she was very effusive about the show.
And she asked me what I was doing at the hospital. I said, well, I just had a child. I'm picking up my son. She gave me a big embrace and was gone.
I found out a couple weeks later, she was there visiting her daughter, Carrie, who then passed away. But honestly, I can't tell you Carol Burnett is just a fantastic human being. She's awesome. I had gone from working with her to nine or two and I think they did her next gig.
I'm not quite sure. And from no ego to like a couple of those people were like, well, I'm not hooked to an Ooh. Yeah. They deserved it.
Couldn't agree more. So you do that. That's just exciting for me. I just wanted to mention that.
But you do a street. You're also Monica. Do you know this guys guys guys buckle up. He was on friends.
What? Wait, what? No, I'm wrong. He was not on friends.
Thank you. I think. Psych. Get out of my city.
Go. What a mean thing to do to me. I thought he was on friends. You weren't on friends.
Never. Fuck. Did you read that? Fuck.
Screwed again by Wikipedia. Damn it. You weren't on friends. My chance.
Never mind. I'll find out. Now your big break is six feet under. Prior to that sports night, but yes, six feet under was huge.
Yeah. But I mean that, that gets you three Emmy nominations. That gets your quote up. That's in the biz.
How much money you get paid. Peter and I have this the whole time we were on parenthood. We're both obsessed with our number. You rolled this out on a hike.
This is how it started. And I'm just going to say celebrity X found out that celebrity Y had a bigger number than he did. And it was really bent out of shape about it. So then we started talking about Bernie Madoff and people like that.
What are the things that you attached to in your head about your self-worth? And we came up with my number. My number is in big enough. Yeah.
So we were riffing on that on the trail. But then we started to get into our own version of my number. Oh, yes, it makes you feel good and not feel good. But the shit that you attached to that is nuts.
One of us will be losing the script a bit. We'll be kind of sniffing our own farts. And the other person will just go, my number to kind of bring us back. Like get your head right.
Everything's golden. Yeah. So it's a little safety valve. My number.
How did you come to be on six feet under? I assume you auditioned for that. They saw a bunch of people. We auditioned for both roles, didn't you?
I was in the studio with a lot of different shows. Aaron Sorkin's first series. And I found out it got canceled. And I just bought a house.
That looked like a Taco Bell. Yeah. Well, Josh Molina and I would play a lot of practical jokes on each other. And Josh Tarleton was involved too.
And he had some friends who worked in an architectural magazine. I bought this basically Adobe style home. And he had written in this architectural magazine that I purchased this Taco Bell that looked like it had elephantiasis. And he had like a Taco Bell for really people.
And in the same article he had planted that before performing on sports night that I would warm up in my dressing room by singing along to Live in La Vida Loca. I can totally see it. Oh, yeah. What was your nickname on parenthood when you were dance?
Fever. Fever. Side of that fever. Yeah.
So you initially wanted to play Michael's role, right? Right. So shortly after the sports night went down, I was freaking out about this house. I thought, oh my God, I'm not going to be able to afford this house.
I got this call from Alan Ball saying, you know, come on, I just did for the series for HBO. And he asked me which role I should audition for. And I thought it was kind of trick question in a way because like one of the brothers was gay. One was not.
And at the time I felt very strongly because of the Matthew Shepard that thing had happened in Wyoming. You're familiar with all that? Right. Well, you can't stay out of the weeds, can you?
I can't. It's hard for me. But anyway, you guys remember Matthew Shepard, right? He was terribly killed by a bunch of homes.
Yeah. So at that time they were looking at another person for Nate paired with my David. But Michael C. Hall.
Yeah. What a badass. It is a total bad, so talented. But every now and again, the perfect actor and the perfect role come together.
And I think Michael C. Hall and David Fisher was one of those combinations. Yeah. It was perfect for that.
Yeah. I really, when I look at Francis Conroy, Richard Jenkins, Lauren Ambrose, Michael and myself, it looks like a family. Like I did a good job casting that family. Yes.
And everyone was phenomenal on that. And I'm wondering, as that show picked up steam and it became kind of an awards darlin. And again, you were nominated three times for Emmy. It's amazing.
Do you start having fantasies of grandeur? Like, oh, I'm probably going to be the next Bond. Because that's where my head would go. I mean, I don't know.
We made that whole first season before any of those episodes aired. So we made that whole first season in a vacuum and we were all really into it. And then it aired. And it was weird because it aired.
And I think some of those nominations just have rolled in. Yeah, they did because 9-11 happened in 2001. Oh, boy. Here we go.
I'm very sorry. I'm very sorry. Now that dark is winding road. I think it was in the wake of the Spanish flu that I rested.
I don't know that I did. And then I was having a kid. The beginning of the second season was my son was born. And that kind of shifted focus, right?
Because you were like, I'm not going to now on my limited time off of that show go be in another state or country in a movie. I turned a lot of work down during those periods of time to spend time with my son, which I didn't know. And I look back and like anybody could have been changing this diapers. No, it's true.
It's a bonding. You went the other day. Yeah, they switched a roof. It is absolutely true though.
In terms of that early bonding, it is really important. I guess I just now want to go to the fact that you and I, and you've had a really long successful career. Mine's marginally successful, but I have been doing this now for 16 years. And I got to say, without a doubt, best six years stretch in my life professionally ever.
For however much you guys should know, however much you liked it, it was then doubly as fun making it. It was a nice, most loving place to go to work every day. It was so beautiful. And Peter was our leader.
I don't say this lightly. Peter was our leader. He was the guy who remembered my mom from three years before, which is still mind-blowing. I never heard him talk shit.
Never talk shit about anyone at work. Kind, benevolent. Just patient with directors. He directed.
It was a joy to work with him as a director. It's really easy to evaluate an actor if they're super flashy and they seem really good. It's a more interesting thing to start noticing how other actors are when they're in a scene with a certain actor. And you sucked me into your jet wash and you infected with me with a little bit of your skill and I thank you and I credit you for a huge transition in my acting.
It's corny as that sounds. You're going to be great and we're going to find something that no one even thought of in the writer's room. And I knew it would happen every single time and it was such a beautiful, joyous experience. So I just thank you for that.
You made me so much better. I know you made everyone in that cast better. And that to me is a true, amazing actor that you can convince me it's happening. That's how powerful your force field is.
You have to stop. Thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for those nine words.
I love working with you on that show. We had a lot of fun together. We also had a lot of fun on the scenes where we got to push each other's buttons. And I'll never forget one day, Dax and I are at the recording studio where we're at an atom.
And we were supposed to be going at it. And we were encouraged sometimes to go off script a little bit and have some fun. And Dax was coming at me with a bunch of stuff and I was looking at them and I just thought I'm just going to push this button and see what happens. And you were standing there getting all of you and I looked at you and I said boy you really need attention.
And your face is like... You're dead. You're like oh, oh, it's all. My Achilles, I need endless attention and approval and attention.
But afterwards we were both so psyched as you were saying we're all going to go out there. We're going to do this together. And when I was at NYU, Ron Van Lue, who now teaches at Columbia and he taught at Yale, said this and I think it's one of the most brilliant things about acting and it's part of what goes into me trying to connect with other people when I'm acting. He said what happens between two people is always more interesting than what one person is doing.
And if you can energize that space between you and another actor so you're really listening to each other and you're really affecting each other, the audience forgets they're watching something and you're just in it. And that's what I always try to do and I think that we achieve that a lot on parenthood. That's insane. You pulled me into that bubble so often and really helped me just find my normal voice.
We approach it opposite. Like I do something that you don't do and you do something I don't do. My thing is I have to really think of a real thing that's happened that is comparable to that thing and I replace that right this fake situation with a real one of them through and that's how I do it. And you're the opposite right you commit to the fake world so deeply that then it becomes real.
NYU, the Ron Van Lue thing was you deeply imagine those circumstances and then there's also the physical stuff we did at NYU about opening up your breath and truth Matthews who taught the Alexander technique. I don't think I've ever talked to you about this but like he'd manipulate your body and move it in spirals and things like that and suddenly it'd be on this table pounding your fist in a rage. He would actually unlock and I believe this now because I've gone through it. We store memories and pain and even after different things in our bodies and it can be let loose if the right person and these people were amazing at NYU but he's dead now but true.
Oh boy. Sorry. I know. I know.
We knew he was dead because you brought his name up. Yeah. I'm dead. At this point we know we can predict.
But he, I had out of body experiences where I was floating seeing everything like I would have new memories unlocked, tears like all this kind of stuff. I'd be like oh my god. I'm not really alive. Like right now I'm really alive because he like connected all my nerve endings and everything.
Yeah. The NYU program at that time was amazing. But I just want to tell one funny story we had because we got along I would say perfectly for the whole six years and I've continued to after but we had one dicey moment and it's really interesting and I didn't learn about it. I think I called you like a year ago because I heard a podcast that explained this phenomena and so my group of friends here in Detroit a way we would show affection for each other was to do something to the other person that no one else could get away with.
Like that was a signal. Like we're in this. I just let you do something to me. I would never let anyone do it.
I don't mean sexual. I just wanted to jump in just to preface it that only you and Josh Charles has this happened to me. Not what you're going to talk about but there are times when you're with another actor and you find them so amusing you just start to laugh. And so with Josh on sports night and with you on parenthood there were times when like whatever you were doing I would just start to like start to get the giggles.
Yeah. And we couldn't reel it back in sometimes. So and there's this long also I'll add this fun tradition of all the Bert Reynolds movies when he was with Dom De La Wies when they would crack each other up they'd smack each other in the face. So.
Yeah you know where this is going. So we get to giggling about something and like take three take fourth we can't get it and we're just looking at each other and we're laughing we're laughing and laughing and laughing at our words. Smack Peter in the face. And I immediately see that's not for him.
Oh no. And you didn't say anything then. Pull me aside a few days later. You're like hey so here's the thing.
I don't need you to ever hit me in the face. And I was mortified. I was so fucking embarrassed in my mind I'm like no no that means I love you and you can hit me. Let's hit each other.
We love each other. And I listen to it and I realize oh that's what I was doing I was I was like signaling to you we're beyond the conventional civil whatever we have something deep and we can hit each other. And by the way that's why when I came up here tonight I decided I'm gonna give a little 20% and pick him up off the floor. Crack a couple ribs or his homecoming.
Well Peter Krause would spend one of mine probably just the greatest strokes of good fortune. I've ever had was ages getting on that show and being able to learn from you and just be supported by you and it's just something I've cherished forever. I've been asking you to come on this show for from since day one. You've been pushing me off kindly.
I can be a little shy sometimes. You can be shy. But when you said I'm doing it Detroit it's my homecoming I was like oh yeah. Oh so nice.
Just clearly one of the best examples of a man I've ever had in my life and I look up to you so. Detroit you made my heart so swell tonight. Thank you Peter Krause. Thank you Detroit.
Thank you Bob Mervak. Thank you michiganers we love you so much. Have a great night. And now my favorite part of the show the fact check with my soulmate Monica Padman.
Hang on Facky's. Facky's hang on. Yeah. That didn't work.
Hang on Lucy. Hang on Lucy. Hang on Lucy. Lucy.
Yeah. It's probably early 60s. I don't know. It doesn't matter.
Well it matters. Well it does matter to the folks who wrote Hang on Lucy. I don't even know if it's fucking Lucy now. I've lost all confidence in even bringing up the song.
You're further inquiry. You got me nervous and self conscious and defensive. Yeah. You hear how it depends on you.
Peter Krause. Yeah. You know what's sweet about the Peter Krause experiences that he was in Detroit today early for the show and you Peter and I all hung out. Yeah.
We got shown around Detroit a little bit. It was so fun. We got ourselves some fried chicken. That gusses fried chicken.
Yeah. Whoo. And we ate these deep fried pickles that quite frankly no one could get a handle on. Right?
They're popping out of the. The batter. Yeah. But really she warned you that it was going to be too hot and to wait and you just wouldn't wait.
Well couldn't wait. Well wouldn't wait. Wouldn't wait. Wouldn't wait.
And then it popped right out. It was too hot for your mouth. I pickle bounce and danced all over the table before it landed in my lap. It was a mess.
But worth it. Just a good example of willpower. Yeah. Yeah.
Couldn't wait. Wouldn't wait. That's funny because we switched on that one. Oh we did.
Yeah. It was so fun. Peter is the best. He is.