2023: My Director/Producer with Elizabeth Banks

On this week's episode, we're joined by writer, producer, director, actress, and all-around badass Elizabeth frickin' Banks! She talks to us about her experience using a surrogate, what she learned working with Spielberg, and why Cocaine Bear is secretly a revenge film. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I ain't nothing gonna break mass dry.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Ain't nothing gonna slow me down?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Oh no, I got to.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Keep a moving.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
Ain't nothing gonna break a moss trying.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Don't don't drink?

Speaker 4 (00:14):
That's a fire song. What made you think of that?

Speaker 5 (00:18):
Don't don't, don't, don't get doom boom?

Speaker 4 (00:22):
The only song I can fucking hear because I'm back
in the city is the ice cream truck song. Because
I'm back and it's ninety five degrees, It's ninety five degrees, right,
and I don't and all I hear all day long
is did didn't? Did d duck that that I went googled.

(00:44):
I don't want to slow the guy's hustle, right, I'm
not trying to funk with it.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
He doesn't never destroy someone.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Else's I know, but listen, is.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
Making money on your block, man.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Let him make his money. I'm not trying to slow
his role. I'm just trying to say that I did
google how long are you allowed to play ice cream
truck music in Manhattan? And he's allowed three minutes legally,
and then he has to keep moving. He can turn
the song off, but if he's parked, he can't rock
that song for more than three minutes.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
I don't have the heart to tell him, but I
want to, right, you.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Want to go down and be freaking kin po the Weasel.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Listen, if you're listening to this podcast wherever you are
in the world, I want you to imagine there's an
ice cream truck parked outside your house and at full volume,
he's playing Pop Goes the Weasel all fucking day. Goddamn.
At a certain point, you become Nicholson in the Shining
and you're like, I need to break his truck. All right, Joelle,
how is Beyonce? We can talk about that.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm so sorry to the audience. My voice sounds horriendous
because I screamed.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Last night.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
This was on her fucking birthday. It was the fourth
and it was amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
This is ridiculous that you have no voice, because she
screamed so loud.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Every song. Then Diana Ross came out. I thought I
was done after Like before Diana came out, I was
like I could feel it already. I was like, I've
shredded my voice.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Was going to come out.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh, there was rumors, but I hadn't read it before.
I was so locked into like helping my cousin get
ready and getting there on time and everything that. I
didn't read anything about it the day of, so when
she came out completely, I lost my fucking mind. Like
Diana Ross, really, oh my god, I had happy birthday.
It was beyond my birthday. So she led the crowd

(02:35):
and singing happy birthday to me?

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Was your voice?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
No MoU?

Speaker 4 (02:40):
How was Diane? How did Diana Ross sound? Does she
sound good?

Speaker 1 (02:43):
She always she?

Speaker 4 (02:45):
I don't know. You know, some people get older, they
get older.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
And whoever was running sound had two flops that night.
Kendrick Lauren came out, mike wasn't on for about sixteen bars,
and Diana Ross's mike wasn't on until about half way
through her introducing herself essentially, where was it when she
got therehanda good? So fine? Which is our football stadium?

Speaker 1 (03:08):
For those people who don't were those out there same place?
To switch?

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Joel, I saw your outfit. It was very unique. You
looked beautiful.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I saw. I was really following your whole Instagram. I
was invested in the whole. Joel goes to Beyonce's storyline.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Did you cry? Oh my god?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Immediately she said so when she first came out first,
the audience was nuts because everyone knew it was her birthday,
and so she got like maybe a four minute state
like just standing ovation for coming out. And so now
she's crying, and then she gives one of the most
beautiful speeches of all time about how she's just grateful
to be here. She thinks every member of every version
of Destiny's Child, her mother, father. It was like so beautiful,

(03:45):
and then she thanked us, and then she proclaimed the
space a safe space, and then she took off into
Flaws and All, which is one of her best ballads.
It was perfect. It was so perfect. All of her
outfits were topped here. We got every major song because
you know, she doesn't perform everything. So he was there,
I mean, yeah, he was there.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
I did get on stage and say all I need
in my life sick.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
No appearance in either microphone or physically on the stage,
and we know he was an audience.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well that's kind of whack, though.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, why didn't he come on stage?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Why didn't they've done tours together. I think she was like, babe,
it's fine if this one is mine.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
They got they got hits.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
They do have lots of hits.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Did you stay that? You obviously stayed to the end, right,
So you see, Donald and I went to Taylor Swift.
We weren't trying to fuck with leaving with seventy thousand people,
but for the.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Last outfit changed. It was crazy to me. I was
like leaving Beyonce early. What's happening?

Speaker 1 (04:43):
We were there?

Speaker 5 (04:43):
Did she cut it together? Just tell us what happened, like,
how was it put together? Was it just random? Was
it a playlist?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
So she comes out, she's her own opening So k
t Nada technically didn't opening. Usually there's not an opening act,
but he came and spun for like an hour. It
was amazing. I love Kate Tranada. I know it really was.
So then Beyonce is her own opening act. So she
does like some of her top ballads, which are beautiful.
She comes out in like a very standard like gown
and sits on a piano. It's wonderful. Then she leaves

(05:10):
you alone with one of the queerest dance pop, like
almost raver but mostly club music, which was insane because
immediately you could tell who was gay and who wasn't.
The gays were on their feet for like five minutes,
just absolutely dancing in the aisles and like then a
lot of people were like, what's happening? I don't understand.
Then she goes back as she performs the entire album

(05:32):
of Renaissance, the whole thing, front to back, and then
she'll but not never a full song, she'll intermix old classics,
old songs from her past. At one point, she saw
Tia Maori in the crowd and she was like, went
into a verse of Tia song from when she was
in a girl group when she was like ten, which
was crazy. We were like, Beyonce, what are you doing?
Just off the top of the dome, saw in the
crowd and was like, I'm just gonna do a version

(05:53):
of your song for you right now. It's like, what
is happening?

Speaker 1 (05:56):
So that was the whole in a band together.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yes, when she was like twelve, they're very young. Before
they get the TV show, they have two songs, one
of which is kind of a bop. She did the
one that's kind of a bop and it was amazing
because she's plugged in and she cares.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
Could you imagine being in that moment.

Speaker 7 (06:15):
Beyonce looks at you and sings your song?

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Your song. You melt into the floor like amazing, there's
you play it.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So cool that everybody's like what an asshole.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
On the other what if the four of us were
in the crowd and she saw us and she like.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
I know that loves this podcast.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
She listens. She talks about it all the time. Podcast.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, she's an avid listener.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Thank you for listening.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Than someone told me that Governor Whitmer she's the governor
of Michigan. Is that correct? Well, there are politics experts
that she posted a scrubs gift Donald of us.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Sh she was.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
It was about some healthcare achievement in her state, and
she posted a gift of you and I fist bumping.
Nice Daniel, you could look that up. I think it
was on.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Negative stuff I found already.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
No, she was what is it, Daniel, She was bragging
about something positive that happened, posting the chat.

Speaker 7 (07:27):
More Michiganders are going to be able to access the
health care services they need. We're boosting Medicaid reimbursement rates,
investing in our Healthy Mom's Healthy Babies program, and expanding
access to mental health services.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Pounded between you two, that's it's you and me.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
That's what I'm talking about, baby, Yeah, that's what I'm
talking about.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah, I don't have my sound effects machine, so you're
not going to hear.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
That's what I'm talking about. You're going to have to
do what I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, thank you that that that's food. Tang forever, Tang forever. Oh,
for Fox's sake, stop talking about.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
You.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
Honor me, you wanted me, you wanted me, you wanner me.
We have an exciting guest today. What what wooll tank forever?
We have an exciting guest Elizabeth Banks on the program.
We are bringing the guests, we are booking them one
by one, and we also secured yeah, Dane, I don't

(08:28):
have my gear on.

Speaker 7 (08:29):
That out here.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
We also secured another exciting guest for Pete Holmes, the
comedian that I love very much, is going to be
coming on the podcast. Donald, Feel free to reach out
to anyone you know and try and get them on
the podcast. You know Alicia Silverstone, You know Alicia? Yeah,
but should more likely say yes to you than me?

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Bullshit.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I get shy around Alicia to this day.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Really.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
I mean, I'm friendly with her because she did my
short film and I've known her and she's so sweet
to me and I love her, but the the I
had such a crush on her that to this day
when I see her, I get like flustered. I have
to look for my word. I have to look for
my words.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
I love that because that doesn't happen often. Man, with you,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (09:20):
You are the Aerosmith videos. The Aerosmith videos really made
an impact in my life.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
I saw something I saw. I don't know how I
was how it.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
I guess one of my kids was watching YouTube or
something like that, and she and the one where she
jumps off.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
The bridge the finger, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
To Stephen Dwarf, Yeah, that's a good one. Was that.
I was crying when I met you.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Try if I get you you.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
That was that was a fires.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, man, that she was are you kidding me? And
knew what was the other one?

Speaker 6 (10:03):
Crazy? Crazy?

Speaker 5 (10:08):
You could put those two together. It's like the same song.
It's like you could just.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Like they're probably all written by Diane Warren or something,
but they do sound the same. But they were fucking
fire songs.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And in both videos, Alicia Silverstone.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Is she here? Elizabeth banksdown? She just arrived. All right,
let's let her in. You know, we're gonna talk to
this woman has had an extraordinary career. I mean, she
would have had an extraordinary career if we were just
talking about her acting credits. But now she has become
an enormously successful filmmaker, including with the latest movie Cocaine Bear,

(10:47):
which made a zillion dollars, And we just love her.
She was my baby mama. She's just the nicest person
you ever.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
On television on television.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, oh yeah, thanks. I don't, I don't. I don't
have a baby mama yet in real life. But she
was my imagine. I said that casually, like she was
my baby mama. I haven't seen her in years, actually, Donald,
I just saw at t Swift and that's when I
that's when I had the idea, like, wait a minute.

(11:18):
Now that we're, you know, in this holding pattern where
we can't talk episodes, and we also want to have
interesting people that we know on I got to ask
Liz and she said yes immediately. So I'm so happy
that she's here and we'll ask her about everything in
her life because she's got a very interesting life. All Right, Daniel,

(11:39):
allow her in the room. You want to count in?
Oh yeah, Donald counting. Sure, we made about a bunch
of so ga.

Speaker 8 (12:06):
Yea ladies and gentlemen, give it up for a loza with.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
She is there, She is America.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
There is hundreds of wons.

Speaker 6 (12:29):
I love a song and dance over.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
You are even more beautiful today than the day we
met you, when you were my baby mama.

Speaker 6 (12:36):
That's true. I have more money now.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
You do? You really do?

Speaker 6 (12:44):
Have you noticed? Oh, women get prettier when they get richer,
is what I've was what I've noticed.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Well, let me write that down because Donald Donald Donald.
But no, because Donald and I are showing our age, Elizabeth,
and you just don't seem to a well Donald donaldly
obviously a lot less than me. Yeah yeah, because Donald
has flawless skin. But you, I'm not just saying this
to butter you up as our guest on the podcast,
but you. We saw you in person in the T
Swift concert and you looked like you hadn't aged a

(13:13):
day since since I saw you on the TV show Scrubs.
And you pretended not to be impregnated by me.

Speaker 6 (13:19):
Oh, thank you, praise Yeah, it's I'm doing it naturally.
So far. I don't have a I don't have any
doctors yet. I'll collect I'm collecting names for the future.
I haven't done anything to the to the face or
the body yet. I'm not doing I don't know. We'll

(13:41):
see how I feel in the future. But yeah, I'm
just uh, I'm just I'm just trying to get just
trying to keep going, guys.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
You know, just trying to how's the eyesight.

Speaker 6 (13:51):
I'm forty nine. It's not good. Look, I mean, I
got the readers on it.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
Hello, Yeah, but those are very hip audience. She has
very hip readers on. They're kind of like clear ray bands.

Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, there are pink ray bands. Actually the state they're
called catus. I live for them.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
There you go. By the way, this is a DJ
Daniel who's our engineer mixer, And that's Juelle Monique. She's
our producers to me too.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
She knows this already. She listens to the Have.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
You be honest? Have you ever heard the podcast?

Speaker 6 (14:19):
I have I listened. I have listened to a couple
of bits. I go on walks with my dog and
I need things to listen to. You too, are pleasant enough.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
I think you'd find us. I think you'd really laugh
at us because we talk about things that would make
you giggle.

Speaker 6 (14:34):
That's typically true in life with you guys too.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
And also if you listen to the ones we did
of that you were on, we said such loving things
about you. We talked about how talented and hilarious you are.

Speaker 6 (14:45):
I had so much fun making the show with you guys,
and what an awesome job. It also helped that it
was five minutes from my house where I was living
at the time, in LA and you know, I was
trying to have a baby's back then, so I was
like really focused on staying in LA, staying near, you know,
near my sweet husband, who you guys know, yeah, and

(15:07):
you know, and trying to make our babies. I had
to do a lot of IVF and stuff to make
my kids, which is a well known fact in the world,
maybe not to your listeners, but so I was like, literally,
you know, giving myself shots in our fake hospital set
the whole time we were making that show.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
I did not know.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
We didn't know that. We didn't know that.

Speaker 6 (15:28):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
So what ended up happening? Did you have I forgot
if you did you have children? I know you have children.
Did you adopted you do IVF? Do?

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (15:39):
I had to use a gestational surrogate. So my kids
are they're me and my husband. We made baby cakes
and then we baked a baby cake in another lady's oven,
and then and I may and I did that twice.
So I have two kids that are that.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Are so women are firs And sorry for being naive
about this, but I truly don't know women are available
for or for pay to host your baby inside of
them for nine months.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
That's right, you rent the womb.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
And is there I'm sure there's legal precedent, but is
there concern that the woman will ever be like, sorry,
this is mine now.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (16:16):
In fact, when you go first of all, you use agencies.
This is all done above board. You know, in the
state of California.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
You don't do it on the black market.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
There's no, of course, not no. And you know I
was early, you know, I was one of the people.
I did this twelve years ago, now thirteen years ago,
so it's been a long time since I did it.
It was at the time. It's not legal in every state.
I'm not sure how many states is legal in anymore,
but California had really great laws protecting what's called intended

(16:45):
parents when it comes to all this stuff, you go
through an agency. Everybody's well looked after. It's all legal,
and you know, there's lots of paperwork and they'll tell
you when you go that The number one concern is
not that a surrogate is gonna want your baby. The
number one concern is that the parents aren't gonna take

(17:06):
the baby, like the Surgates, Like well, surgates already have
kids because they have to prove that they can do it.
They they're already moms, you know, like they don't want
your freaking kid.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (17:19):
So their biggest concern is like people getting divorced during
the process and then suddenly being like we changed our mind.
It's like then what so the biggest the biggest concern
is is not the way that people think it's going
to be. It's the other way that causes the most problem.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
That would suck. Man.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
You go through it all and then the people get
divorced and you don't get paid, but now you've got
a baby and everything.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
It's like wait, hold on, and it's not man, it's.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Not even your it's not even you just renting your oven. Yeah,
a person to make this movie one day because this
is a great movie.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
Well, I don't know, it's if I can share the
journey a little bit. I do find it helps people
who are going through it.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
I'm sure there's so many people listening who are in
a similar place and are curious about it. And I
truly know nothing about it. So that's that's really interesting
to me. And and so the woman's hired, she gives
birth to the baby, and then there's not you know,
it's not like it's not like she isn't Then she's gone.
You don't have contact with her anymore, does she is
she ever curious to You can have con.

Speaker 6 (18:28):
You can do it. You do whatever you want to do.
You know, you have you make there's not really rules
about that. I think that there's decency and human and
humanity in it, so of course you want to you know,
my kids are being raised Jewish. We had a brisk
they're both boys, so we were lucky that, you know,
eight days after the ceremony, I mean ideas after the birth,
we had a ceremony where we sort of welcome our

(18:49):
children into the world, et cetera. And so their whole
family got to come and sort of like have a
real you know, everybody's family has got to be part
of that, and people do it all different ways, you know,
some people have I had a really beautiful, amazing and
uh full of gratitude experience with my surrogate and with

(19:09):
our surrogate and her husband because he of course is
part of it too, and so that we had a
great experience, you know, and and Kip Kevin touch and
I still send the you know, a photo everyone's while
like it's this tenth birthday, can you believe it? Or
they graduated from middle school? Can you believe it?

Speaker 4 (19:24):
So that's so sweet. Yeah, well, that's good to know
that people have that option. They need it.

Speaker 6 (19:29):
And yeah, and you can also be like it was horrible.
I didn't this was a trauma for me and goodbye,
like you know, whatever you have to do to keep
it well. I don't know. That wasn't my experience, but
I know that there are women who just find the
whole thing to be pretty traumatic and and I honor
that experience as well.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
Right, let's switch, please.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
Let's switch even come up.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
No, no, no, we love it. We thought it was
an awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Second I thought, no, we love it.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
We want to be informative. Second, no, I'm I honestly,
I'm not. This isn't a bullshit joke. I love it
when people come on here and they explain something to
me and Donald and our crew here and or the
audience that they haven't know nothing about. Like you just
told a little, short, three minute story about something I

(20:19):
know nothing about. I find that very interesting and I'm
grateful for you for doing it.

Speaker 6 (20:23):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Thanks, Let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
We'll be right back after these fine words.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
I want to talk about. You have the most incredible
career and the first time I remember, I mean you
really do. I mean, you have a career that is
to be envied because it's not only been so long,
but your segue into directing is just incredible. And I
just want to just go back to the very I
want to go back to I'm trying to be a

(20:56):
good host. I'll stop fucking cock blogging me. I want
to go back to the very beginning. Okay, now, I
first remember seeing you on in Catch Me as you Can.
But was Spider Man your first big thing?

Speaker 6 (21:08):
The thing that, yeah, the thing that actually I wouldn't
say it put me on the map because nobody saw
the movie at the time. But what had American Summer
was my It was. It was the movie that I I,
you know, had to get my Sager. I had to
change my name in SAG for that movie.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Right.

Speaker 6 (21:24):
It was like because I there was an Elizabeth Mitchell.
She's a fabulous actress. She was on Lost for many years.
She's also blonde haired and blue eyed. That's my real name,
Elizabeth Mitchell for all the listeners who don't know. My
real name is Elizabeth Mitchell. And I had to change
my name when we were making because it was getting
too confusing. I was living in New York, so was
Elizabeth the other Elizabeth Mitchell. I was using like three names.

(21:48):
I couldn't give up my first name. And I figured, well,
women changed their last name when they get married. Not
that I was planning to, but some some do you know,
that's something that happens. So okay, let me figure this out.
I got to get a new last name. And all
the guys in what Hot were like, you know, we're
gonna we're gonna put you in the credits, like this
is going to be a cult classic, which is what
we all believed when we made it. And and so

(22:10):
I changed my name for you know, to Elizabeth Banks.
I'm in the credits. We that movie goes to Sundance
and it's a huge Sundance and this is like in
the heyday of Sundance.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
You know, yeah, what year do you remember?

Speaker 6 (22:22):
Two thousand one? Yeah, yeah, two thousand and two thousand
and one, and you know, this is like four or
five years after sex Salize and Videotape and like all
you know where it really became like movies were getting
bought out of it, stars were getting made out.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Of these movies, right, Yeah, Garden State was two thousand
and three there, so it was like it was the
Eye of the Storm exactly.

Speaker 6 (22:45):
So so I get there, I'm in this little movie
that could we the movie. I think it's you know,
it's a big, big hole deal. And I met my
manager there, well, I met managers there, and then I
developed my relationship with my manager there. I got the
audition basically through those connections that I made literally at

(23:08):
dance parties at two o'clock in the morning after midnight
showing of Wade American Summer for Spider Man, and so
then I was auditioning to be Mary Jane Watson in
The New Spider Man with Toby maguire and so like
those kinds of things all happened out of that movie
and through that auditioning process and getting to know the

(23:30):
casting directors, which I'd been working in New York steadily.
I had done all the TV shows in New York
that you could basically do back then, which was Sex
and the City, Third Watch was on, Yeah, and uh,
and of course Law and Order, and I was on
the Law. I was on Law and Order s.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
V U, Law Order and Law and Order SVU.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
Now only s VU.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
They're the same, They're the same universe. They are right,
they are so once you're once you're a victim on
one you can't be a victim on the other.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
You could be a victim like nine times.

Speaker 6 (24:06):
Really I wish I was the murderer so they didn't.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Have Oh, spoiler, spoiler.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
I was very very memorable. Guys, you would love this episode.
I played a porn star on. My husband was Mark.
My husband on the show was Mark Paul Gossler. I
love her, m hm. He also he did gay porn
show and the two of us our dream was. My

(24:34):
character's dream was to go to Vegas to be in
a gang bang so she could get on the Howard
Stern Show show and get and get more money, you know,
make bigger money because we had a sick kid and
blah blah blah. Anyway, we end up, we end up
my husband and I end up conspiring to murder this like, uh,

(24:54):
this producer, this this porn producer for for cash. I
don't actually remember how it all down at the end.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Dan, I'm going to need that link found.

Speaker 6 (25:04):
It's a fan. It's absolutely fantastic. I really couldn't be prouder.
I really played it to the hill. I'm still kind
of friendly with Marishka harget Day off that show. She
gave me some really good advice when I was on
that show.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Yeah, I has a much beloved figure. People. People are
obsessed with her.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Let me ask you a question. When you when you
hit did Marishka ever and you saw her? Was she like,
holy shit, I remember you from fucking.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
Sbu Yeah, when you were the poor star?

Speaker 6 (25:33):
Yes, the answer the answer is yes, yes, how well
I look, I have to give a little Chris her
co star was in what had American Summer?

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Got it?

Speaker 4 (25:46):
That's right, that's right, maloney, maloney. He was on Scrubs too.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
Yeah, maloney, Maloney. Chris Maloney was on was in What
Had American Summer, And so I think she also it's
not like it's not like I lived in a universe
that she had no idea about. I think she she
saw saw me in that as well.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
I have a very similar story with Wesley Snipes.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
Actually I did a guest star in one of his
mini television shows where like you, he had a show
in New York and he was the star of it,
one of the stars of it, and I guest starred
on it. And I wasn't even in a scene with him,
but I remember he walked me and my mom to
the subway station. Like five years later I get I

(26:27):
get this movie sugar Hill, and he remembered me. Or
three years later sugar Hill and he remembered me just
from the walk to the And I think he was trying.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
To bang my mom. To be honest with you, you.

Speaker 8 (26:38):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
That's a good story.

Speaker 6 (26:43):
Blade Blade had sex with Blade.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
You know, my mom was pretty hot when she was younger.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
You know, I'm keeping one hundred, like, and this ain't
me just saying this ain't just me being like in
love with his mama, Like all little boys are. My
mom was fine, man, like that ship would it would
used to be a pain in the ass to like
take the subway home like she would be with kids
and motherfuckers would still be like, hey, hey, duck skin,

(27:16):
hey like your hardcore, can I walk home?

Speaker 1 (27:21):
I remember?

Speaker 5 (27:22):
My mom would be so tired of carrying us. She'd
be like, fucking y'all, can walk me to the end
of this motherfucking to the end of when the turnstile
is there, and then we're gonna say goodbye.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Take my kids.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
And I'd be like walking with some fucking dude, like
who the fuck this motherfucker?

Speaker 4 (27:37):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
But my mom would ever be like so funny.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
Eleven o'clock at night, My pops is at the theater
working at National Black Theater, working, and she's on the
way home with us by herself, and we'll be in
little bitches.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Pick me up, Mama, pick me up, you know what
I mean. And she's like, fuck you too.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
You could take my kids and help me to the
motherfucking you want to really be of service.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
Guy the guy and fine, fine, I'll hold your kids right.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:07):
It's like a like a payment for the harassment is not.
She was.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
All right, so Ebanks. Then you get on an enormous movie,
Spider Man. That must have been a switch from a smaller,
little indie like.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
Yeah, oh yeah, I mean I'd only been I'd only
ever made indies. It was the first time I think
I saw like Dolly track and stuff, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
It was they could afford they could afford Dolly.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
I've been on I've been on a couple of you know,
decent TV shows, but yeah, this was this was really cool.
It was also though, you know what's the most interesting
thing about it for me is because I remember it
so well, is so I played Betty. I ended up
playing Betty Brandon the movies. I did not get the
role of Mary Jeane Watson. That went too and I
was literally, I was literally told she too old. I'm

(29:04):
the same age as Toby maguire. All you need to know.
That's how Hollywood works, everybody. So I so I learned
that lesson real early on. And anyway, I played Betty
Brandt in the movie, which was like a consolation prize,
which was fine, I'll take it. And and I got

(29:28):
to work with JK. Simmons in Spider Man who's the
genius in these really fun what we kind of thought
of as the comic relief of the movie. And uh,
at any rate, I was on set for the end
of I want to say it's I don't know one
or two I forget, and I was watching Sam Raimi

(29:52):
the director, work with Bill Pope, the DP, and they
were setting up a shot and pretty much all the
time the shots were like you knew you came to set,
they knew what was happening. You know, there was not
a lot of room for like farting around. But because
we were just like in the office and it was
a little it was a built set, they could do
whatever they wanted with it. You know, we could move

(30:12):
the camera or whatever. I think they just thought like
it was a little less determined what was gonna happen. Sonday,
I got to watch Sam and Bill Pope decide how
they were gonna set up this one big shot of
j Jonah Jamison getting mad and whatever in the movie
for the very end of the film, I'm letting my
dog out because he's gonna keep going crazy until I

(30:32):
let him out. And in that moment, I thought, so
I watched them do it, and I thought, oh, okay, Well,
if I were setting this shot up, here's how I
would do it. I would push the dada and I
would push in and I would use this and I
would da da da. And it was the first time
that I thought, why am I directing this? Something in

(30:56):
my head like what am I doing? Like, God, this
isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. And then Sam
and Bill Pope set the shot up exactly how I
would have done it.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Wow, And I thought.

Speaker 6 (31:07):
Oh wow that I asked, maybe I know something about something,
you know, Like it was like a seed in me
that was like, oh, well, it can't be that hard.
I figured that out. It's a genius, you know.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
So that's the first moment. That's the first moment. That's
the first moment you remember being like, hmm, maybe I'll
direct one day.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
It was the first moment that I really remember thinking
that there were that there were not really obstacles to
doing it for me, do you know what I mean.
I think a lot of people think that they're well,
I don't know how the camera works, or I don't
know about light, I don't know what the gaffer does.
It's like you go on a couple of sets and like,

(31:46):
you know, and if you if you're a if you're
a storyteller and you have a visual sense, because it's
a visual medium, and I remind people of that. That's
the problem I find with directors who don't understand you're
telling the story in pictures. You know, there's people too
that like have these scripts and they're they're so set
on the the script and the words, and the words

(32:08):
matter the most. And I'm always like, then, write novels,
because that is not number one thing when you get
to a movie set. You know the words, you have
to have the story, and you have to have the characters,
but then you have to collaborate with everybody to figure
out how to bring it to life in pictures. And anyway,
I think that was the first time that I really
remember thinking that I that I was like, oh my gosh,

(32:31):
I'm I came up with something that Sam Raimi and
Bill Pope came up with and that just made me
really excited, like just set a little fire inside me.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's really like what you incredibly like what you just
said that it's about telling stories and pictures. A lot
of people try to tell stories with words, and it
really does the process for me at least that's just
for me, you know.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
And also as an actor, when you get on a
set and the and the director doesn't know anything about
the camera, really, I find that frustrating because we've all,
as actor, has been on a set where sometimes they
lean towards being able to really direct actors well in acting.
Sometimes they lean towards being more of a techie guy
who knows how to the camera stuff in a in

(33:16):
a really incredible way. Then there's then there's people who
are the ideal who can do both. They're gonna move
the camera in a cool way, They're gonna they're gonna
have a sense of the tech stuff, but also aren't
unable to come to you and have an intelligent conversation
about what you should be feeling as an actor.

Speaker 6 (33:30):
That's right, Yeah, Well, and who trusts you? Like I
remember on the set of Catch Me If You Can,
Which is funny that you mentioned that movie too, The
thing I learned on that sit.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
With Spielberg, Yeah, the thing I learned from Stevie.

Speaker 6 (33:45):
Can you learned that I learned from Steven Spielberg? Well, besides,
you know, he was so relaxed, he sat in video Village.
He was so generous with that. I mean, why why
do I get to go stand next to Steven Spielberg
and sit in video Village? I just did it, guys.
It was a real real I was not you know,

(34:08):
I'm was somebody who's like, I don't know, I won
the job. I have a right to be here, so
I'm gonna come over and stand with the director of
the scene.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (34:15):
That seemed natural to me, and so he was obviously
so generous with that too, because not every director wants
actors in video village, right, But he was. He was cool,
and we had these a couple of really incredible conversations.
But the main thing I noticed about him was he
was so relaxed. A couple things. He was so relaxed

(34:36):
in Video Village because he is literally working with the
best of the best of the best. He has total
trust in every department, right. He knows that. You know,
I'm sure there's never enough time and money to make anything,
no matter who you are, how big of a director
you're are. But he was real relaxed making that movie,
Like I trust I trust my DP, I trust my

(34:57):
set designer, I trust my locations matter trust. You know,
every I trust costumes, I trust makeup, so everybody. There
was just this wonderful communal sense of like everyone working
in the same direction. And he clearly gave everybody their
own sense of power over their departments, which not every
director does, right, So that was something that I really

(35:18):
saw him do, which I thought was amazing. And then
the other thing is that he is editing while he goes,
and not everybody is that. So he was very open
to allowing actors to kind of flow and like maybe
the end of the scene isn't the last word, and
you kind of go a little over, you build up
a little bit, or you know, there's you could you

(35:39):
could play inside of things. He was not rigid about
it at all. But he also would be like, I'm
never gonna I'm gonna cut out here, I'm never gonna
get that. Well, let's just like and very clear about
it with the actors, not like you did a bad job,
I don't like your improv just like that's just the end.
This scene ends here, so naturally, so why I'm not
going to need that and you just and it actually

(36:02):
gave you a real sense of like he's crafting the movie.
The whole time, And as a director, I found that
to be really interesting to watch somebody who's like, oh,
I know, no, no, I know exactly the ride that
I want to take the audience on.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Yeah, this is where it ends, I think when you
get to directing for myself too, especially when you're not
on that kind of Spielberg pace, when you're on when
I'm usually on, which is a single camera comedy pace
or an indie pace, you have to be thinking like,
all right, I'm going to have to cut shots for time.
What am I really going to use totally? And you

(36:37):
have to be shooting like that, being like, I can't
do six takes of this, master, I'm gonna be in
it for two seconds. I gotta just get all right,
two takes is fine. Good that I gotta get into
the meat of this because I'm running out of fucking time,
you know. So I learned that myself from watching directors
and watching particularly where most of my education was, which
was which was Scrubs. You know we did it was

(36:58):
it was watching all of those great actors who directed Scrubs,
who figured out how they could execute making an episode
of Scrubs in five days, which is such a which
was such good training for making indie movies, as you know,
really for.

Speaker 6 (37:10):
Making anything, because it's about what's essential. I mean, Spielberg
was doing that on just on a larger scale. Right,
He's going like, I know what's essential to tell the story.
He's got more planning and more storyboarding and more time
and more, you know, and all the best apartment heads
and everybody's ideas have already been sort of intermixed by
the time he's there. Whereas you know that on indie
films you're kind of having to sometimes you have a

(37:33):
grand plan, but it's all once it goes sideways. There's
no extra money to like have the extra hour of
the day. So now you've got to go like, okay, wait, wait,
I had a plan. I wanted all these beautiful things,
but what is essential to tell the story? And that's
a great exercise to do. And you, I know you
do commercials too, and I find that's even sometimes even
more demanding. It it's such a different storytelling structure, right,

(37:59):
like yeah, in thirty seconds or forty forty five seconds,
fifteen seconds, like I got to introduce this idea of
the audience, I got to surprise them in some way
so that they didn't see it coming. So it's memorable.
And then I got to wrap it up with like,
and I gotta sell the whole time.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Well, and you have to and you have to do
what the advertisers want you to do.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
So plan is you're trying to make it so that
your plan is actually their plan. Their plan checked them
into thinking this is your plan.

Speaker 6 (38:29):
We're doing it totally.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah, tell us a little about it. Did you have
to audition with Leonardo DiCaprio for that movie or did
you just do it on your own?

Speaker 6 (38:39):
No, I just did it on my own. I still
remember that audition though, because I remember what was Debzay,
who I use as my casting director on a lot
of things I love, and she cast Seabiscuit as well,
So catch me if you can. That audition. I just
remember we were supposed to be dancing or whatever, and
I did like I'm going to do it in this
little box right here.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
I was.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
I went like, oh my god, and then I sort
of like threw myself like out of the frame, like
I like wiped I like wiped frame at the end
with like while I was like giddaly laughing and being
danced off my feet or whatever. And I remember doing that,
and I think that's what got me the job.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
What did you mean her laugh?

Speaker 6 (39:20):
I mean I think we I have a I have
a I have a pretty good laugh. I have a
laugh that you know people remember, And I think that's
probably what got it for me, Right, was like like,
I you know, you giggle box, like like you know,
like Leonardo DiCaprio and something. It's not hard to imagine, right,

(39:41):
Leonardo DiCaprio when you're twenty five years old.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
Listen, I think every dude on the planet it was
either Brad Pitton fight Club or Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
You wanted to be one of the motherfuckers.

Speaker 6 (39:55):
Right, Yeah, totally, Yeah, that was that.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 6 (39:59):
No?

Speaker 4 (39:59):
Both for me was both. I remember I went to
see Titanic with my dad. I was a struggling actor.
I was barely getting any work and we came out
Titanic and it was so incredible and Leo was so incredible,
and my dad turning me, went huh, he's about your age,
isn't he.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, Leo was the humbling experience for a lot of us. Man.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Yeah, man, I was like I was like, I felt
so low because I was just not getting any work
at the time, and I was like, yeah, yeah, dad,
Leo was about mining.

Speaker 6 (40:31):
Well, you guys, he's been working since he was like
eight or something.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
You know, I know, I know. It was so wait,
what was that?

Speaker 6 (40:38):
Like?

Speaker 4 (40:38):
I think our audience would like to know what it
was like when you are all of a sudden across
from Leo in a in a scene. Was that was
that intimidating for you? Are you able to just go
okay because you were so green at the time relatively
were you. Were you able to just be like give
yourself a pep talk and go okay. It's just anybody
liked how how did that feel?

Speaker 6 (41:00):
Yeah? I mean a little a little bit. It was.
It was again, it's the well I got here, so
I must have done something right. So like, don't you know,
I think women in Hollywood have to give away so
much power all the time. We have to like really defer,
especially when we're young and pretty and trying to get jobs.

(41:21):
But you have to walk this fine line of like,
I'm giving away a bunch of my power, but I
also want to like have confidence and own this and
be here for a reason, And I walked that line
a lot as a younger female actor. And but but
I mostly aired on the side of like super overconfidence, honestly,
you know, and just like I'm here for a reason.

(41:44):
We're fellow actors. You're my this, you're my you know,
scene mate, so and and also like I want to
be great in the scene and so and I want
my partner to be great. Like I really think about
it as as a partnership in those moments, you know,
like I'm here, I need you to look good. So
I look good. Let's all look good. Like let's bring
our a game. There's no part and around. You don't

(42:06):
show up and be like I don't know what should
I do? Oh my god, You're like, okay, I'm this character.
I'm here to do it.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
Good for you. I gotta say I love what you're saying.
And I felt that myself when I'm acting opposite someone
who's intimidating or or I'm directing them, and I have
to give myself a pep talk, like, dude, no one's
gonna give a fuck in a year that you were nervous.
You need to show the fuck up. I'm literally saying
that to myself. I did this movie with de Niro

(42:35):
where I that fucking unfortunately still doesn't come out, but
I had a big scene where I'm screaming at him
and I slap him and I'm just fucking going at
de Niro, and I had to give myself this pep talk,
like this is a big moment in your life. You're
not going to be a whimp. You were going to
be like you're saying, his partner. And a year from now,
when this comes out, you're gonna want to say to yourself,

(42:57):
be proud that you went toe to toe with a
living legend, and not that you were intimidated or nervous
all that. That's right, But I have to give myself
that pep talk. Still.

Speaker 6 (43:05):
Yeah, we all, yeah, we all do whatever version of
that we have to do when you're working with people
who you freaking worship.

Speaker 8 (43:12):
You know.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
Of course, when you slapped a Nero and you asked
him a bit hurt, was he like a little bit?

Speaker 4 (43:22):
I also, and when that scene with de Niro is
like I want him to be like okay, Like I
want him to have the vibe of like, oh shit, okay,
he came to play. You know, I didn't want so
it was a fake slap. It wasn't like a real slap.
It was you know, it was a comedic slap. Oh yeah,
but yeah it was funny.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
That's I mean, that's really interesting.

Speaker 5 (43:43):
Uh Like it seems like it it really like once
you hit the ground, you really hit the ground running too.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
I mean like it was like boom and then bam
and then all of a sudden it became like when
we were doing scrubs, you said you were trying to
get pregnant. It seemed like five years later you were
executive producing movies.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
You're going too fast. You're going too fast.

Speaker 6 (44:06):
Sorry, no, I was. I was doing that. I was.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
Before we get to you taking a concrete we got
to go to break. I want to take a break
and we come back. We do want to talk about
really for me, the time where you first where I
was like, holy shit, this woman is so funny. I
mean it was four year old virgin. That's when I
was like, this is this is the next level ship.
That's great, and we'll be right back. I've read these

(44:32):
fine words. Breaks here, Elizabethbanks, we just go right into it. Yeah,
So tell us about four year old virgin because to me,
I had, first.

Speaker 5 (44:49):
Of all, you stole the you stole the the trailer.
The trailer was what it was, you know what I mean, Like,
that's what freaking really jumped off, like everybody was on
to see that movie because that line, it's the last
line in the trailer, and it's the funniest line in
the truck.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
Can't you even remember the trailer, dude.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
I haven't, dude.

Speaker 5 (45:07):
That ship was hilarious, Like it's all these funny moments,
funny moments. And he says something about I'm gonna put
I got a bicycle and I'm gonna put it in
my trunk. And the bank goes and she goes, oh,
button around and that's the right and and that's how
and that's how the trailer ended. And I remember being like,
holy shit. I think everybody went to see the movie

(45:29):
because of that.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Donald.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
People come up to me and they're like, back then
and not not so much anymore. Now. It's a lot
of hunger games that is mahogany, But back then it
was a lot of like say the line, say the line,
put the bunk, put the bike in the trunk. And
I was like, I don't, that's not my line. Crowd
says that line, like do the line? Do the bike

(45:53):
in the trunk line, you know, And I was like, Okay,
the whole bike in the trunk line is me going?

Speaker 4 (46:04):
But you were I mean to me, I had seen
you in Sea Biscuit, I'd seen you in Catching If
you Can, But the first time I was like, this
woman is not only so beautiful but fucking hilarious was
for your version. So tell us about that experience, because
that really, to me, must have really launched you to
another stratosphere.

Speaker 6 (46:22):
Well, it definitely reset a lot of things that were
going on in my career, you know. At the you know,
I'm I'm classically trained. I went to drama school school
and I went to act in San Francisco, so you know,
I was like a theater nerd. And and when I
came in and I got catched me If you Can
and See Biscuit, which was, you know, nominated for a

(46:43):
ton of Oscars, and so I was sort of getting
known in the industry as that kind of actress. I
was getting compared a lot to like Laura Lenny and
uh whatever. Anyway, dramatic actresses, you know, and the forty
year old Vergi thing. But I had done what had
American Summer, so like I knew that I was funny,
and I knew there were some people in the industry

(47:05):
that knew I was funny, but no one I wasn't
doing it. And the other thing that was happening to
me is I wasn't getting any freaking rom coms, which
is it's literally why I came into Hollywood. I was like,
that's me. I see myself. I'm Meg Ryan, I'm Julia Roberts, Like,
let's go. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. And
then I didn't get any of those jobs, and I've thought,

(47:27):
oh no, something's gone sideways here. I'm the serious actress.
And then I did this movie Heights with Glenn Close
in New York for merchant Ivory, you know, very fancy
fancy pants stuff. So I was I believe I was
the last person to audition for the role of Beth
in four year Old virgin I went. Steve Carrell was

(47:48):
there because I think he was like also a producer
or something in the movie. He was very involved with
the casting process at the end there, and I only
auditioned one time I went in and there and we
was all improv. I mean I think there was a scene,
but eventually it devolved into improv, like yeah with Steve
kraw So I it devolved into improv with Steve, and

(48:12):
I ended up basically giving him a lap dance and
I was just like hysterically laughing, thinking it was hilarious,
and him being super uncomfortable like I don't understand what's happening,
and me just being like I'm just using you as
a chair or whatever. I don't know why I said,
and you know, and I kind of left there just
honestly being like this was so fun great to meet

(48:34):
all you guys, like, you know, truly just thought it
was really funny. Seth Rogan was a huge well had
American Summer fan, so he knew like that, you know,
like she he liked my cred. But I don't know
the judge. I don't know if jud really knew or whatever.
But yeah, next thing I knew was I was Beth
and they were like, will you masturbate in a bathtub?

Speaker 4 (48:56):
And I was like, yues, So I remember you're just
thinking you were so fearless. That's the thought that came
to my mind. When I saw in the movie was like,
you had such courage. I could tell you were riffing.
I could tell a lot of that stuff wasn't written.
And I was just so impressed by how funny you were,
how free you were, how you're going toe to toe
with Corel, who's a genius at that genre.

Speaker 6 (49:17):
Yeah, you know, totally a genius. Yeah, yeah, Honestly I
approached that with just like this is a lark, this
is fun.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
You know.

Speaker 6 (49:24):
They shut down that movie like day three. Mary parent
was one of the producers, and she kind of came
a side and she's like, so we're not shooting. We're
on hold for a few hours. I remember because the
early dailies, so we shot three days. And you remember
the guys they I think that what they had, what
we had already shot, was the stuff in the store
where they all worked. They all worked at like a

(49:45):
best buy type place, and they were wearing gray shirts.
And I was there. I did the little bit with
my like you know, thong hanging out and whatever, and
I guess the word came back like this doesn't look
like a comedy, Like he looks like he's a he
seemed like he's a serial killer and they're all wearing
gray shirts and they should be wearing red shirts or

(50:05):
something like. It was all about like the costuming is wrong,
the tone is off. We don't know what this movie is.
And you have to remember too, that Judge shoots forever.
He this is when we were still using film, and
he would shoot out a full mag right, so like
a thousand feet of film per scene, so much footage
of just riffing, riffing, riffing, and you know, we would
build on improv and if he likes that, he had

(50:26):
little He had assistants who would write down like things.
So if you were like and then I'm gonna climb
that mountain over you and then you you know, and
he'd called cut ten minutes later and he'd be like, Okay,
what do we like And this assistant wuld be like,
you like to think about the mountain, like, okay, remember
the mountain thing, so a little more of the mountain,
but maybe do this on the other reverse. Whenever I went, okay, great,
so now we're gonna build the mountain bit or whatever. Right,

(50:47):
And that's how we remembered like what to what we
were saying, you know, like how we built jokes over
the course of it.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
So I can imagine just the luxury, just some mean
pause for the audience. That is very rare to have,
the luxury, especially back in the days when people were
actually shooting film because it's so expensive. And I think
Judd like has the records in Hollywood for a mount
of film shot on anything, because she I've heard that
would let the camera roll and roll and roll and

(51:14):
let everyone just improv and improv and I'm hearing this
for the first time, and then he would notate, Oh,
go back to that improv and build on that, right, yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Yeah, yeah, And so it was really fun, but so
the whole So my point really is just like the
set was so free, there was no you had to
keep going. You didn't have a choice as an actor.
It was like, you know, you know, you go until
they call cut. Well, if they don't call cut for
ten minutes, you got to stay in character and stay
in the scene and stay in the moment and come

(51:43):
up with some shit to say the whole time, you know,
and just keep going.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
And you're in a scene with some of the funniest
fucking people.

Speaker 6 (51:49):
Yes, yes, they're genius, is not everybody is good at
this right.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
No, we know that you two are.

Speaker 6 (52:00):
Very fucking good at it, so good at it. No,
you guys are really good at it, and and you
know it's really fun. Donald knows that I've directed Donald
a little bit too, Like I like this vibe, but
I'm also someone who I don't want to go ten
minutes every I don't want to be in the editing
room the whole time.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Right, right, you cut a lot of my ship out
of Pitch Perfect. I'm just going to put it out there.
You cut a lot of my ship out of it.

Speaker 6 (52:28):
Donald, I had to cut a lot of all the
old guys stuff out of that thing. Also, he was
supposed to come back and be a trouble hanger like again, and.

Speaker 5 (52:36):
Again, I'm still upset about that I was available. The
show that I was on wouldn't released me for the
fifth day, is what happened.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
If it was four days, I was good to go.
But if it was five days, they were like.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
He Donald was supposed to be in the scene with
the trouble Hangers with like, yeah, all of the football players.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
You know and everything.

Speaker 6 (52:58):
Yeah, in with with the Green Bay Packers and the
whole thing.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Yeah, I wasn't supposed to do to beat box anymore.
I was supposed to say all that stuff is.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
A natural, perfect pivot to pitch perfect because this was
another you don't want to games. That's after I'm following
her the order of her epic career. Okay, you mind
going to order?

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Okay, bad Dog.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
In twenty twelve, you produced what has become what became
a giant phenomenon which pitched perfect. How did what? This
was your? You didn't direct the first one, did you?

Speaker 6 (53:36):
No? I did not. Jason Moore directed the first movie.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
And you directed the second one. I did, yeah, and
then direct the third.

Speaker 6 (53:42):
One or no, no, I did not know.

Speaker 5 (53:45):
But this was your baby, right, we all of a
sudden became like a secret spy and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Well, by the time you get to three Donald, someone
has to become a spy. Elizabeth Banks, how did that
come about? Because that's your first big producing credit, and gosh,
what a fucking phenomenon that was. I can still hear
the cup song in my head. Yeah, how did that happen?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Didn't you write on that too?

Speaker 6 (54:12):
I did?

Speaker 8 (54:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (54:13):
I yes, I did, yes, of course, But like the
the main thing that happened was my husband Max. You
guys know, well he he heard he heard about and
then read the book Proposal for Pitch Perfect, which was
a book written by Mickey Rapkin, this you know, friend
of ours for forever now who went to Cornell and

(54:35):
sang a cappella and did like a behind the scenes
of that. He was a writer at the time for
either GQ or Esquire I can't remember which. I think GQ,
and so you know, he was a he was an
established magazine writer and he decided to like write this
book and it was really funny. I had a lot
of the funny bits in it, and and one of
the main storylines in it was about this group from

(54:57):
the University of Oregon who was who were the first
all female group to win or go to the finals
of the i ccas the Ikas, which is the big
competition in America. So that became sort of like the
seed of the whole thing. And then I was working
on thirty Rock at the time, and I knew Kay Cannon.

(55:18):
She was a young writer on the show. I had
made a movie with her then husband, Jason Sedeikis, So
we were all kind of like friendly in New York
and she called me about another movie idea that she
wanted to do. I think it was called the z
List or something, and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that sounds fun. Yeah maybe. But we have this book

(55:38):
called pitch Perfect. Would you want to you know, work
on a treatment for it? And the reason that we
needed someone so fast was that we were not the
only people to pitch the book. The book was also
being pitched by these other guys who did acappella who
had a very different take than us, And so we
were only given like two weeks to come up with

(56:00):
the take, and we had to take it out to
We got like three studios, Universal being one of them,
the Weinstein Company interestingly one of them.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
And you know expression wait wait, Pete Holmes taught us
an expression Scandal noted Scandal.

Speaker 6 (56:16):
Noted Scandal noted tm tm. After the scan scy.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
Wel that I stole that from Pete Holmes because on
his podcast, you're allowed to if something like that comes up.
You don't want to go down to my rabbit, all
just go Scandal noted Scandal.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
That's right, it's well done. I'm going to steal that
note too. Oh and so anyway, we had to come
up with this thing like really fast, and so Kate
Kay was came out to La. We sat around our
dining room table. I remember we decided very early on
that the first thing that was going to happen was
that Kay was going to blow a pitch pipe at
the beginning of the pitch and go like and then

(56:51):
we were gonna like match pitch, and we sang in
the pitch. She and I sang in the pitch together,
and we did this whole pitch and I mean, I
have such, you know, great memories of us doing it.
And I remember the guy, you know, Peter Kramer, who
bought it at Universal, to his ever lasting credit, we
had more of a like a Super Bad. We thought

(57:13):
it would be like if Michael Sarah and Christopher min'splas
like went to Dartmouth at the end of that movie
and then got into a cappella and then met up
with it like the Lady acapella singers. We kind of
had that version of the movie like it was always
boys against the girls, but it was not. It was
very evenly waited and and to his credit, he also said, really,

(57:35):
just make it about the girls, like, don't worry about
the guy, like let the guy group be the bad guys,
weighed towards the women, and and then and then that's
how the script was written, like really fast because we
had a great pitch. Then we waited for five years
to make the movie. Well, number one Glee came out.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
Ah, and yeah, wee cock blocked you geek.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
Glee definitely caught block us. Did you ever do it
a little while?

Speaker 1 (58:05):
No?

Speaker 6 (58:05):
I never, I never did. I did not know ex Glee.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
No, but Elizabethanks has been on so many popular television
shows that she could.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
She's been so many popular, so many popular I'm saying
that like the James Gun of It All Man, there's
like so many things.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
That Blanks and one of those people that you could
be like, oh, yeah, of course I did the three
episodes of Glee.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
You're not right, She's right, though we skipped over the
whole James Gun of It All Man, Like James were
like the two that that's the go to. That's I'm
surprised you're not in Guardians? Are you in Guardians?

Speaker 1 (58:43):
You're probably no, I'm not.

Speaker 8 (58:45):
No.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
I we did have a conversation about something very long ago,
but I couldn't do it at the time. I think
I was directing. I think I was doing something I
don't remember.

Speaker 4 (58:54):
Listen, the truth is, The truth is your career is
really a three hour conversation. But I'm trying to give
the audience the hour long version.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
I just like telling stories anyway, because people people love
to hear how things start. Yes, so do I think
people I was thinking people think like, oh, well, now
it exists in the world. That must have been easy,
and like, no, no, no, no, it was so hard.
We had a great script. We had, we've you know,
we've we've attached its director. We pulled out of the theaters.
We he did Avenue Q and he was working on

(59:21):
Book of Mormon and we ended up, you know, and
he just got the sense of humor of this movie.
And we knew he could do the musical numbers which
we knew nothing about, and right and like, how do
you put on this this movie musical? And the casting
process was incredible and we re really wrote to a
lot of the characters. Anna Kendrick auditioned with the cup
song that was not in the script. She auditioned with

(59:43):
that and then and we were.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
Like, ye, Award nominated actress audition for your movie.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
That's crazy.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
She wasn't nominated.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Yes she was.

Speaker 6 (59:52):
I think she was, Yes she was. I think she
had that.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
Okay, well then she still have to prove that she
can sing in a really amazing.

Speaker 6 (59:58):
I mean, she'd been on Broadway, so.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Musical.

Speaker 6 (01:00:02):
And it was not our call. The studio, the studio,
we were like baby producers. They didn't know us. The
studio wanted to approve every single person that we cast
the movie. And you know who are a lot of
great people came through that room who have gone on
to do awesome things that didn't end up in Pitch Perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
Yeah, well, Anna was perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
She was the whole cast was perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
And that she auditioned with the cup song that was
that's so cool that she that she chose that as
her audition song.

Speaker 6 (01:00:30):
Yep. I had worked with her right before on what
to Expect when You're Expecting, and Rebel Wilson plays my
assistant in that movie, and so I knew, like you know,
so there was just like a lot of synergy happening
in the world at that time too.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
We'll be right back after these fine words.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
This segment of Fake Doctor's Real Friends has brought to
you by T Mobile five G Home Internet, protecting you
from exploding bills with a price lock guarantee. Visit t
mobile dot com slash zach to check availability, and we're
back with another letter from T Mobile. This week's letter
comes from Kate d.

Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
Love the podcast in the show so much. I'm rewatching
it again and anytime I mentioned it to my mom,
she has to bring up her Scrubs story. She went
to high school with Bill Lawrence and is convinced he
had a massive crush on her. Her name is Kim
maiden name Robinson, so she's also convinced Bill loosely modeled

(01:01:35):
doctor Kim Briggs Elizabeth Banks character after her. She listened
to a podcast episode he was on to see if
you had mentioned her.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
He did not.

Speaker 7 (01:01:43):
I have to know if Bill remembers my mom and
or based doctor Kim Briggs off of her. I've attached
a current photo of my mom for a reference. Love
you all so much, Katie Dunn.

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
Well, this is the ultimate ask Bill, Joel you got
to get on this. Yeah, I think we're This is
a fascinating story. I think we What could Donald and
I possibly say other than to beg Joel to track
down Bill Lawrence and get him to answer. Well, I
think I think Bill is going to be honest. He's

(01:02:14):
not gonna lie what he's like.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
I named it. I named Doctor Kim after Kimberly Drummond from.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
Let Me See the Woman.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Based off the picture. Do you think it could be?

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Yeah? Sure. By the way Bill wears that outfit, it's
one of those. This is the most the husband in
this picture is wearing the most Connecticut and Bill has
worn this ship. It's like the pink pants you know
the people wear on like Martha's vineyard and light blue shirt.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
Bill has on pants he got on Salmon coming pants
with Penny loafers.

Speaker 4 (01:02:45):
Yeah. I've seen Bill wear that in the Hamptons. That's
some Connecticut ship. Connecticut. So Joel is gonna get Bill
to answer that. Thank you for your question.

Speaker 9 (01:02:56):
Tune in next week for Bill's answer to this question.
Thanks to Mobile. If you're over exploding internet bills, visit
T mobile dot com slash Zach and find out how
new and existing customers get T mobiles price lock guarantee
for home Internet. All right, Donald, for you and for

(01:03:19):
the audience, we will now move to the Hunger Games
chapter Jesus Christ be in more successful franchises.

Speaker 6 (01:03:28):
You guys got to just hang out on scrubs for
years and years and years. I didn't get any I
never have ever gotten us.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
That's a great that's a that's a great answer.

Speaker 6 (01:03:38):
You guys got to like I want.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
These things. These things are happening at the same time, audience,
the Lego franchise, the Hunger Games franchise, the Past Perfect franchise,
all of this at the same time. Are you ever like,
do you look in the mirror and go, fucking hell,
I'm killing it? Or do you not feel it?

Speaker 6 (01:04:00):
No, we just released a little bit and we're not
allowed to really talk about any of our movies right now.
We're on strike, and I would like a fair deal
for all the actors, and and well.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
I'm being careful. We're not We're not we're not plugging anything.
We're just grazing your career.

Speaker 6 (01:04:13):
But I just all that to say, like every time
there's a new thing, there's a new anxiety and a
new worry and a new you know what's gonna happen.
I mean, I will say I now, I've I came
to a point a while ago, and I'm sure you
guys feel this way too, Like you work enough, you
build up an audience and a trust with people. With

(01:04:33):
the audience that I do feel like I'm okay, like
I'll be I'm gonna be here. I can rest easy
that I am actually in Hollywood. This is my job.
They're not firing me tomorrow. Well, who knows? Again again,
who knows. I don't know. Maybe I tweeted something in

(01:04:55):
twenty eleven that I don't don't forgot about.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Don't do that, don't do that. Surely you feel disappointment
when thing. You know, as filmmakers we work so I mean,
as filmmakers and actors, we work so hard on something
and you put everything you have into it and then
in a in an opening weekend, in the case of film,
it either works or it doesn't. It's really I mean,
it's it's that's evolving obviously with streaming and everything. But yeah,

(01:05:21):
in the theatrical experience, if you're still getting a theatrical experience,
uh and up and throughout history and up until current day,
it's like it doesn't matter. It's all it matters is
how did it do that opening weekend? And that and
what did the critics say? And so you know that
is that is shitty.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
It's hard not to get caught up in the hype
of all of the ship that's coming before it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Though.

Speaker 5 (01:05:41):
Man, Like, I've done television shows, I've done movies, and
they've said to you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Yo, this ship is tracking, bro, it is tracking. It's tracking.
Things are happening. Everybody's gonna watch this movie. Everybody's tracking.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
There's so much tracking, and then the shit comes out
and the tracking didn't track the way they right.

Speaker 6 (01:06:02):
Right, So it's fat. I hear everything that you guys
are saying. I subscribe. I really try to subscribe to
a slightly different mentality, which is because I've been burned
too many times now and I just don't want the
roller coaster one. I really try not to read anything.

(01:06:24):
I don't read the critics. I read it about other
people's movies, right, I don't read.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
When you see yes, yes, and no.

Speaker 6 (01:06:37):
I couldn't tell you what any of my movies. I
could not right now reliably tell you what any of
my movies are sitting at. I'm rotten tomatoes. It is
not something that I think, wow. And I also really
have come to the conclusion that for all the reasons
you guys are saying, like the hype machine and the
bubble that you get put in and the tracking, and
and by the way, all the people that are invested

(01:06:59):
in it working or not working, because by the way,
there's all schadenfreude all over the place too. So which
I'm very uninterested in. Is like I've just really trying,
I'm really trying to subscribe to this notion that like
it's just about the process making the thing with the
people that you make it with. And was it were

(01:07:20):
you fully engaged in that process? Did you learn anything?
Did you feel like an artist? Did you feel like
you know something happened, did you make like moments between people?
Were you a good leader, were you a good you know,
whatever your job is, did you you know, did you
play that as well as you could? Or did you
I just try to That's what I focus on because

(01:07:41):
everything else is so out of our fucking control, and
I hate that sense of not having control over it,
so I just give it up. I've really I control
what I can and then everything else I try to
look at I.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
Think that's so amazing, and I try to do that,
but I get very caught up in the machine of it. All.
I feel. It's hard movie. I you know, the critics
were split on it. It was hard for me to
not read negative things. It was so personal to me,
and I was so invested in it, and and I didn't.
I didn't go down the rabbit hole and read it all.

(01:08:13):
But you do. I did, Unlike you read some of
the negative stuff. And I wish, I wish I could be.
I aspired to be more like you with that and
not give a fuck.

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
I have a question, though, did you read anything where
the person totally got it, Like where you read someone
you were like, oh, this was absolutely I communicated this
person exactly they got the movie.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
Oh, absolutely, in fact, And.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
The response is that she I'm sorry. Let me just
say one thing real quick.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
The responses I've seen from people, people that people that
are in the industry, people that are not in the industry,
that are that have dealt with some form of addiction.
The response that he's gotten or depression or anything. The
response that he's gotten from interviews that he's done has
been the type of shit where it's like, dude, you

(01:09:04):
got to feel good about what just happened just now.
That has to feel good. That has to feel good.
Fuck what everybody else is saying, Dude, you're making real connections.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
It's like the fucker that puts out something on Instagram
and gets no likes, but then there's like two to
four thousand comments on the shit you did.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Make an impact.

Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
You've made so many people say oh dude, look or yo,
you fucking or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:09:27):
You know, I was reading something I don't know. One
of some big writer was like, I write a novel
and I think about one person reading it, you know,
I think about one person who like gets moved by
something or I remember, frankly, after four yeld version, honestly,
I was having kind of like a down moment because
not because the movie worked. It was great. I was

(01:09:48):
so happy on one level, and on another level, I
was like, oh my god, my dad works in a factory.
He works in a general electric factory in Schonnecting, New York,
on the third shift, and he is somebody at his
work is like I saw your daughter masturbating a bathtub
to my father, like, that's I like in my mind.
I went to a place where I was like, my
father is like, you know, And then I met a

(01:10:12):
woman and her fourteen year old daughter who said to me,
my daughter was going through cancer treatment at the children's
hospital whenever five months ago and we got to watch
four year old version. She loves this movie. It got
her through a really hard time. So my point is, like,

(01:10:34):
you know, I now choose. That's what I think about
when I think about the four year old virsion. You know,
I think about that conversation with that teenage girl who
was in cancer, Like, what the fuck. I'm an artist
all I'm trying to I don't do it in my closet.
I'm doing it to connect with people out in the world.
And if you tell me that it happened, then I

(01:10:55):
did it. That was the point of the entire exercise. Now,
the studio wants you to connect with as many people
as possible who.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
Buy studios, Like can you do that a billion.

Speaker 6 (01:11:07):
Times on a much larger scale?

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
Right, you know, let's talk about that, because that's a
great segue to Cocaine Bear, which is just was a
fucking phenomenon. I mean, I mean, the movie made so
so much fucking money, was such a huge hit, and
and people loved it, and it was kind of like

(01:11:31):
it came at a time I think when people wanted
something silly and fun, and you know, the comedy at
the box office is really tough these days. It just
doesn't happen that much anymore. But man, did you really
hit the mark with that. And as a director too,
I just felt so as someone who cares about you

(01:11:52):
and loves you, I felt so happy for you because
I was like, when I saw that you directed, I
was like, Oh, that's fun. That's going to do. People
are gonna love that'll do well. And then it was
like a hundred times what I imagine it was going
to do. It just kept going and going and going.

Speaker 6 (01:12:06):
You know, yeah, and it's it's been fun to see
how many people see it at home and people watch
that thing like multiple times, which really delights me. Well,
thank you for saying a lot. I read that movie,
you know, in the Pandemic, and it was the movie
I wanted to see and I wanted to make because
I was also like, holy moly, the world is falling

(01:12:27):
down and you know, where where is this all going?
And how do I And I really felt a lot
of sympathy for the bear and the real story because
apparently Middle Story died and so I honestly was like oh,
I can make a revenge tale for the cocaine bear
like you know. That was really like a big part
of it. But more importantly I this it was tone,

(01:12:50):
How do I make something really funny. I've done that before.
I've made funny things before. I've made things funny. So
I wanted to show I wanted to show something else.
I wanted to learn something else. You know that that
that was really when I read the script. I loved
every character. I wanted to play every character I saw casting.

(01:13:11):
I was like, Okay, I get this movie. I get
who all these people are. I get why this is
gonna be fun. So many of my favorite directors make
movies like this, the multipov you know, the the Cohen
Brothers and the and Quentin Tarantino, and you know this idea,
Sam Raimi, this idea of like gory blood but it's

(01:13:32):
fun and you're having a great time, and you know
everybody's in over the head and everyone's uh a underdog
because I don't care how many guns you bring to
the party. If the bears on cocaine, you're losing.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
That's a great would have been great. That would have
been a great line for the poster.

Speaker 6 (01:13:52):
You know, like you did. If you don't know the
bears on cocaine, you don't have all the information. You
didn't come prepared.

Speaker 4 (01:14:03):
So have they already reached out to you to do
some sort I'm sure they have, But I mean, is
there a way you can make another one?

Speaker 6 (01:14:10):
I'm waiting. Everybody wants to do the Shark one. I
think that's just Jaws. And if you just revealed that
Jaws like ate a little something at the bottom of
the ocean, it would just still be Jaws. I can't
make it better. You know, we're gonna need a bigger boat.

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
We're gonna need.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
They keep making, keep making this movie too man o.

Speaker 4 (01:14:33):
Well, listen, they are going to beg for those of
you who don't know Hollywood, they are going to beg
Elizabethbanks every day for some other animal to ingest.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
You can get a lot of pitches on the animals,
but no animals. Can you do something different? I want
to do something. There was a well, we had a
whole other ending to that movie where basically where stash,
you know, the kid at the end makes it out
with the bag. You know, he's going to New York City,
And we had we I always wanted to shoot a

(01:15:04):
tag where he then gets to New York City. But
the drug dealers who were looking for his drug, like,
Sid's the guys above Sid right, because Sid's there, because
they're gonna come and kill his family. He's got to
get the drugs. So there's always a level above Sid
White in cocaine, Barrett, It's like, who are the who
are the Colombians that are coming right right right? And
I always imagine Stash in New York City like looking

(01:15:28):
at a map like he's never you know, he has
no idea where he's going with the bag in between
his likes, and then the Colombians just come out to
get him. But the but the bag is actually filled.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
With ratst.

Speaker 4 (01:15:42):
Cocaine rat coming soon. You guys heard it here first.

Speaker 6 (01:15:46):
Unleash hell in, Unleash Hell in the subways of New
York City. Maybe that'll happen someday.

Speaker 4 (01:15:54):
What are you singing?

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
We both fell well geek.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
For big Oh, I didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
Sorry, it's at Let's take a break.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
We'll be right back after these fine words.

Speaker 4 (01:16:14):
You're you're such an inspiration. I really mean that to
every person who wants to make it in Hollywood. You've
just you're so impressive. And I think that you know,
when we knew you, you were just not just you

(01:16:35):
were this hilarious actress. I knew you wanted to direct
and produce. But I I think I speak for both
of us when I say, what you've accomplished is just
such an inspiration.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
I saw it coming. I knew this whole time. I
saw it coming.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
And and I just want to lastly say that Donald
att are both available for hire.

Speaker 6 (01:16:54):
Me too.

Speaker 4 (01:16:55):
No, you're too busy. You're you're you're, you're you're you're
too busy. Now you're the that's a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
Actually, what do you prefer to do? I'll ask all
of you.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
I'll that's the to the direction and the direct right,
and uh star.

Speaker 6 (01:17:13):
I feel the most well, I I really like I
I love directing. But it's the hardest, it's by far
the hardest, and it's the longest commitment, and I like
to I hate long commitments. So that stuff. I love acting.
They bring you coffee, they dress you up, they do

(01:17:35):
your makeup. It's a delight, and like you get to
play with your friends. I mean, there's nothing better. I think,
so I I still that's if I can do that.
That's what I'm gonna keep doing. I love making pressure
luck my my my game show. Love that game show
because I love giving away other people's money to people

(01:17:56):
who need it. It's real fun. And then you know,
and I really enjoy writing when I find something that
like clicks. I I think I take the most pride
in writing because I'm not naturally good at it. I
really have to work hard at it. And when I

(01:18:18):
find something that I feel like works or clicks in
or or I can I can be additive. I gets
that makes me really excited.

Speaker 4 (01:18:28):
For me. Writing is by far the hardest and I
dread it. Directing is so stressful, but I think I'm
living my my truest self what I'm doing. I just
love it. I just like I love cameras, I love actors,
and I love and I love choreographing scenes and collaborating
and improv and like being a film director is it's

(01:18:48):
like everything I love in one job. It's so but
it's also makes me so stressed and takes years off
my life. And then like I said, you but that
finally put it out and and people either go or
they don't, and it's it's just it's it's very, very hard.
I do love doing it. Acting to me, once you've
done all that is like you can't believe that this

(01:19:10):
is a job, Like you can't believe that you guys
are all gonna stress about this shit and I just
go back to my trailer and drink coffee. Yeah, like
for real, But I don't have to weigh in on
the fact that we're over budget and the teamsters are
walking off because of some reason, like that's your guys home.

Speaker 6 (01:19:26):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
But you know it's interesting as an actor when you
when I first heard that it was it was amongst
you and your director friends and stuff like that, and
you guys were talking about putting the puzzle together and
stuff and how you know, you know, actors are the
we're the worst also because we come in with this
fucking ego thinking this is all about me, and I'm

(01:19:51):
the one that's supposed to cater to. You said it yourself.
They bring me coffee, they bring me my clothes. So
you walk in think this is my life and this
is how everybody should feel about it. But really, when
you're that person, you are fucking everyone so hard.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
Bye.

Speaker 5 (01:20:09):
By throwing the monkey wrench in there, dude, and so
the one time and it was like it was very
humbling and it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Was also very eye opening.

Speaker 5 (01:20:17):
It was like, you know, Zach was like, you know,
the actors are like the least bit of the worry
when you're when you're doing it, you're like, just fucking
show up and do your fucking lines. I got so
much other I got so much other ship I have
to take care of. And I was like, oh, And
that was the moment when I realized. I was like, oh,
I don't want to be that person that Oh shit, wow,

(01:20:39):
I'm anytime I have my little fucking diva blow up
on my little attitude, I'm I'm really fucking everybody so hard.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
You got him fucking like this.

Speaker 4 (01:20:52):
Is oh, I'm player. You're balancing as a director, You're
balancing so many fucking plays. Then when when an actor
is like, has some bullshit, You're like, what I did
not account for you to get a haircut? Now your
haircut is so fucking my day.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
Why shave your beard? Why shave all right?

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
Banks will wrap it up. We love you, thank you
for doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
Guys.

Speaker 6 (01:21:23):
I'm so glad to find I love you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:21:26):
And if you want to so much.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
You know, banks, you were the first person.

Speaker 5 (01:21:31):
Listen, this is how much I love you so like,
I love you, love you, love you, love you like.

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
I'm not going to cast you, bro, Just send your head.

Speaker 6 (01:21:39):
I already tried.

Speaker 5 (01:21:40):
I tried to try to put me in things. Look,
I love you so much. Look what First of all,
there's a there's an article out where it's me and Casey,
and I got so excited to see you. I think
it's front of in front of some restaurant and I'm
so excited. I'm grabbing you and they're they're clowning me
like Donald fan is on.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
Overly excited to see Elizabeth.

Speaker 5 (01:22:02):
But but then like the other one was the other.
The other thing is we found out we were pregnant
with Rocco. The first person I told I could have
told anyone on the planet. The first and only person
I told was you, and that I sent you. I
sent you the sonogram. It's not I remem and I

(01:22:25):
I like and I don't know why, but it was like, no,
I want to tell Evanks about this.

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
No, I do know why. I do know why.

Speaker 5 (01:22:32):
I do know why because when I started dating Casey,
everybody gave me ship for it. Everybody was like, dude,
fuck it, I can't believe it. You're dating a girl
from the fucking reality show. Everybody gave me ship for it,
and you were like, I don't know. I kind of
like her. She's really awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:22:47):
She seemed really cool to me.

Speaker 5 (01:22:49):
She's really cool. And I was like and and and
I wanted to say, look, you you were right. Look
how far look at look Look how far we've come.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
We're now.

Speaker 6 (01:23:01):
Yeah, yeah, I thought you guys were great. I thought
you guys were like, really great together. And I think
she's awesome. I don't get to see I don't get
to see you guys enough. I mean, I'm going to
see anybody enough. But yeah, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:23:14):
Still just want to I just want to end with
a brief cold read for you just to have in
your head, like just just listen, just to have in
your head as you go forward. There's something up with
that Rat, guys. I don't know what it is, but
he's really hyper.

Speaker 6 (01:23:32):
I'm writing it down. This is recorded right because I'm going.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
To need to show this, but this is this is
my reading. Ready. That Rat has something going on with him.
I don't know what it is, guys.

Speaker 6 (01:23:46):
Might animated. I feel like that animated version.

Speaker 4 (01:23:50):
Smaller, thanks, I could take it down, look more real.

Speaker 6 (01:23:55):
Okay, take the rats really eating your foot?

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
Here we go, this fucking rat. I think he's a
blow ago. You ad you so much.

Speaker 5 (01:24:09):
Stories that show we made about a bunch of dogs
and nurses in the janitor who.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
I said, he's the stories net all should know.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
So gatherer rab you here, our gatherer rab you here,
our swear free show.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Wizar