April 1, 2024 • 68 mins
From 'The Craft' with Christine Taylor, to 'The Boys' with Winona Ryder, to 'Scream' with Neve Campbell...Skeet was undoubtedly a 90s heartthrob with the acting chops of a veteran thespian. He talks about how it all started with a bit part in 'Weekend at Bernie's" and acting classes taught by legends like William H. Macy and David Mamet. Plus- find out which co-star from his latest project 'Parish' was one of his teachers back in college! And the spoiler he let slip out that could have been a major movie No-No!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Dude the Nineties Called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to Hey Dude the Nineties Called podcast.
I am one of your co hosts, David.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hi, David, I'm Christine, your other co host. I know
who you are, and I know who you are. We
have a great show. But we should also talk about
our YouTube, right should we?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Should we?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Because we have a great guest Who's who's in the
waiting room?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you brought that up.
I think it's dropping today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
By the time you're listening to this, you'll already be
able to access it. Yes, like a at least a
few episodes maybe under sure we.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Have to talk to iHeart about I think they're dropping
three episodes per week. But all of our podcast episodes
are on video, and they're going to be dropped onto
iHeartMedia's brand new YouTube channel, which I think is going
to be phenomenal because.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yes, people have been asking us, is where can we
see the video? Because a lot of times we our
guests will hold up a picture or they'll reference what
they're they look like or they're wearing, and this you're
gonna you'll obviously see us in zoom box form because
that's how we do this because we live in different
we live on different coasts.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Right, But you were very helpful with the iHeart team
on a very colorful, eclectic Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know it had to be on the brand, it
had to be.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You did a great job our.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yellow our hey dude the nineties called yellow and turquoise
and pink.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yea, Iheart's going to make it look really cool and fun.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And yeah, I have to say my new best friend
is Joey McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Oh my god, did you reject him?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I didn't text him yet.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
No, it's been a it's been like a crazy busy
week for me. But I I thought of that today
actually because I was like, I really want to. I
always I try when we have our guests numbers, which
we sort of like.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I never want to specifically, Yeah, yeah, we want to
invite them to a new kids show they're touring this summer.
So I texted him.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You said you were going to text him to thank
you for the interview, So I did, And then we've
been going back and.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Forth and he's sending me new music.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh that's so good.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I want to see your movie. I sent him something
that I directed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And you're really new besties. I love this.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
He's just such a sweetheart of a guy, and his
new music is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I yeah, I really, I'm going now that you said that,
I'm actually going to send him a text and thank
him and just tell him because I've gotten so much,
even just from friends of mine who I don't even
think listen to the podcast, but they were giant New
Kids fans. Really, Oh my god, You've fulfilled all of
my childhood dreams. He is amazing. He is such a sweetheart.
(02:58):
I thought he had the best sense of humor. So
I will I will send a message because I won't
I won't infringe on your BFF status with him, but.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I with him.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But I also because he's such a musical theater guy too,
I gotta I gotta get my musical theater info from
him of when he's coming back to Broadway and all
of this.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Last week's episode was amazing. But we have you talk
about one of your co stars today. I know we've
got Skeet Ulrich. I always so like I think it's Ulrich, right,
But I can't Rich Ulrich. That's what I've always said,
but some people say Ulrich, So I don't know. But anyway,
he's in the waiting room. We did a movie together
(03:44):
a million years ago, that is The Craft, and a
lot of people that at nineties con talk to me
about how obsessed they were with the Craft, and so
I want to talk to him a little bit about that,
but I want to hear everything from him.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So why don't we let him in? Many good ones,
all right, So why don't we let them in?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yep, it's welcome, Skeet Ulrich, My god, look at you.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Look at you. You don't ever.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Age neither do you look at you? Oh my god.
Have you guys met David and Skeet? Have you guys
ever met or worked together?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Skeet Oldridge, thank you for being on the show. By
the way, this is like a thrill.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Our kids went to the same elementary school, and my
wife rarely gets excited about our guests, you know, like
last week, I'm like, seriously, you don't know new kids
on the block, like where were you? But she says,
when I said Skeet's name, she was like, oh my god. Yeah,
So our kids went to the same school.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Your kids were they there at the same time.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was I have a fourteen year I have two
kids in college, but it was my fourteen year old daughter,
Chelsea that went.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I think to the same schools as your kid, Christine.
This is like this little neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I know it. I know it exactly. I used to
live right there, so I know exactly where it is.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah. Yeah, we lived near each other too for a
brief amount of time.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yes, I was going to say, do you I think
your twins came to a birthday party. I think it
was like Ella's maybe second birthday. I was just thinking
about that. We were that that you know, we all
remember that stage where like the babies, the sort of
young kids and they don't really have friends yet, like
(05:31):
they have a few kids that they play with in
but you're like, oh, we're going to do a birthday,
Like let's just invite our friends.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
With kids.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
And people we know because they're just going to do
their thing. But yeah, that was that was a really
we found pictures of that party so fun. I mean,
it was a crazy I just remember it was like
all these people then was working with and people that
I did, and you guys were in the neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So yeah, and that.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Was such a lush property you got, I said that
spread on that corner. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, that was such a great neighborhood. That was such
a this was up in the Hollywood Hills, David. It
was sort of like it then became a little bit
of like the tour buses kind of made their rounds eventually,
Like when we first moved in, there was a much
more quiet place, and then it just kind of became like,
I'll never forget Jerry Stiller coming to I think it
(06:24):
might have been that birthday party and like ringing our
doorbell outside in one of the tour buses pulled up
and he started chatting and and I was like, Jerry,
don't engage, come on, come on, we're going to the kids.
And he was just answering questions, and you know they've
got the megaphones lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Thank you for coming and talking to us.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Thanks for having me. It's so cool. I haven't done
many podcasts, to be honest, maybe two.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are you serious? Yeah, we're so honored.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Are you a listener though? Do you listen to podcasts?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I don't. I think that's why, you know, I'm so
old school. Like I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm saying almost same, Like I started to listen a
little more when we talked about doing this together, but
I'm the same. Like Ben is a podcast nut, Like
he listens, he knows, it's how he gets his news.
He's like literally like so dialed into like every different
genre of podcasts, and I am just sort of like, Oh,
(07:31):
I get in my car and I still listen to music.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I listen to the radio exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You know what I love about it. And I've been
listening to podcasts for a long time. And that's why
I came to Christine with this. It's like, you know,
you watch someone on a late night talk show or
you know, or a morning show and they have these
like planned little jokes and interviews, and this is like,
you know, we get you know, Christine, We've we've gotten
to know things about people that we had no idea,
(07:59):
like some of some of some of the interviews that
we didn't really know about the people become the most
fascinating interviews, right Yeah, yeah, yeah, certainly.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
A long you know, much longer form and ability to
you know, to connect in a way that you can't
really in those shows. Yeah, I mean I'm down. I
just I just am you know, old, so.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
You don't look old man.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah, I don't know. I had lived in this house
like nineteen years and it's been amazing. I built furniture.
I've always kind of built furniture. And now it's planting season.
I have gardens, terraced gardens, so I plant all kinds
of different fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And look at you, Oh my god, that's amazing. And
by the way, when you live in California, like you
have to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Absolutely, it's the only citrus in your yard.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
It's insane. Well maybe not the only place, but certainly you.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Know where you can have it year round. Yes, and
that's just part of the plantings, like you can literally
pick fruit from the trees. All right. So, but you're
not from California originally.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah. No. I was born in Virginia, in the mountains
of Virginia and then kind of raised all over until
I was about ten, and then I was in North
Carolina for until I went to n Yu. Okay, all right,
I did yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Christina and I were this close, but we suld we
didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
We ended up yes, we ended up doing that TV
show and then just not going that's our story.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't sit here today if it
wasn't for my experience there. To be honest, I was,
you know, I was a very Southern let's say, you know,
kid out of a NASCAR family who had no you know,
nobody had paved the way for the arts. I mean,
I arguably building engines as an art in itself, but
(10:12):
I mean performing arts. No one had been in that avenue.
So it was just thank god I got in that program.
And it was Mammot and William H. Macy who taught it,
and they had a you know, Mammutt had this thing
where this was pre Internet, where you had to answer
ten questions and it took two to three weeks for
(10:33):
me to even find a modicum of what those answers
may be. They were so obscure. And this is going
to the library every day after I was at UNCW
as a marine biology student and dying to get out,
and so I did all that, you know, two three
weeks of work, and then you go up and do
an interview. And their whole point is that if you
have the willpower to answer those questions or to even
(10:55):
try to you have the willpower for him to teach
you how to act, and he took sixteen kids.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Was this the Atlantic Theater Company? Okay? Because my son
or you know, our son just did a summer program
at TISH last summer and he did the Atlantic. No,
he did it at TISH. Yeah, wow, but they gave
them the book to read. They I don't think they
had answered the ten questions for this four week summer.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
But yeah, I think that was only then. I don't
pay anymore. From what I hear with TISH. They assign
you a studio, you can't.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Really pick choose exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I had to audition to get an NYU. They would
have laughed me out of that, to be honest. So
I get.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
My message to.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Everybody is if you have a dream and you set
your heart to it, in your mind to it, you
can do things you can't even fathom.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Wait, can we just back up one second? Are you
saying that David Mammott and William H. Macy were two
of your teachers.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
They taught acting at that time? Yeah? Incredible, Yeah, and
you know wildly My now co stars Jean Carlo Esposito
guest taught at that time my class.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Wait, so you remember him coming in?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
God, yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He's so incredible, And we're I want to hear all
about the new show too, but we're going to get
to that.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
He you know, he was doing a play at Atlantic
that he won the Obie for and he was mesmerizing,
and then you know, I guess he you know, because
he was in the theater all the time. He guest
taught a couple of classes here and there, and he
was just I mean, he's a force. Oh of course.
So I've been aware of him since ninety one when
(12:42):
that play was and.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
It's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did you ever I don't want to get off on
the tangent, but did you ever do a mammot play?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I haven't done a mammot play? Okay, oddly yeah, yeah,
that may not have gone well even trying to do
a scene in front.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Of like real quickly.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I did Glengarry Glenn Ross at a theater in West
Hollywood with an amazing cast Ian Gomez put it together. Anyway,
It's like if you the rapid fire dialogue, if somebody
messes up the it's like a domino.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You know, my gosh, what do we do now. It
was the scariest thing I've ever done.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But I mean, I can't imagine learning acting at that
age from from from David Mammott.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
How incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I mean he had you know, there were there were
they set us up in such a great way in
the theater training that Lizhimmelstein was our speech teacher. She's
almost thanked that every Oscar. You know, she's a dialect
coach for Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, you know, Sam Rock,
will you name it? She's like, but she was, you know,
(13:56):
a theatrical voice teacher at the time.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
It sounds like it was worth the ice of tuition.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was definitely worth it. Yeah. And I oh my
stepdad a you know, a thank you, big thank you,
which I give to him almost daily. He's like, all right,
I've heard it enough, shut up.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Oh no, the gratitude man, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
But that's amazing for you to figure out, like to
go from you know, growing up the way you did,
ending up in college, you know, going into the science
and then what what made you pivot? Did you see
plays or were you always just interested in film and television? Like,
what what made you make that decision for yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I think a couple of things, you know. I I
I remember as a freshman, you know, I wound up somebody,
a PA, came into the dorm and I happened to
be coming in at the same time, and they were
looking for extras for weekend at Bernie's, which I was
in Wilmington, North Carolina. What do you mean? What does
(14:59):
this do? What do you do? And I was like
gold because I didn't really have much money, you know,
fifty was a lot, and of course, so I was
like all right, and uh and and then I got
kind of interested in it. You know, I was in
those party scenes at that house and shit, oh wait, so.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
You were in Weekend Bernice.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Isn't it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now? Such a classic? Such a classic, that movie classic.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
And then I, you know, I did a couple other things.
But I in the same time, in terms of school,
I realized I was like cheating on my botany tests
and stuff like that, and like I was like, maybe
this isn't for me, and I started. I had always
kind of built things, so I took a scene design
set design class and part of that was building sets
(15:53):
for that theater. And uh. In doing that, and you know,
watching the plays and striking the sets. I'd slowly it
hit me. I remember standing on stage. They said they
have this big griscenium theater there and and I remember
standing on the edge and it was empty and we
had struck the set and it I went, oh, they
(16:16):
have to listen. And it was like the first time.
And then the power of metaphor you know, of of
you know, all those things I was never able to
tell anybody. And I had a pretty chaotic childhood and
life at that point, and I was like, man, I
can I can use those words to say and no
one will know what I'm really saying.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But I get to express it, right, I get to
just put it out there.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Power of subtext and what we do and I think,
you know, that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
No, But also what you studied, MYU.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That Meser technique is like, you know, taking things from
your own life and using it for your character.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, if that magic, as as as.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
If that's what Quinn did all summer, Yeah, I have
to do it. As if mom, I have to do it.
As he's going to die when I tell him this, like,
oh my god, wild when it clicked for him too.
I remember when it clicked, it was like the aha
moment of like, oh my god, I so get this now.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah. Yeah, But at the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Beginning he was just overthinking, you know what I mean.
It was like trying to do it so technically that
it was like, no, let's just like forget. He'd a
great teacher too, but not Mamut or Macy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
But I mean, I mean once in a lifetime obviously,
But there are people equally as good. I'm sure they're not.
You know, it's they're just such. I think all of
it has value, you know, like some people learn by
doing and being on set and being under the pressure
of that, and some people learn in a different way.
So it's you know, there is no right or wrong,
(17:56):
and I think you ultimately learned that as a performers,
even in scenes and lines and everything, there's no right
or wrong, you.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Know, right, it is what it's what works for you,
What is the truest for you. Yeah, so you go
through four years, you went all four years? I went
three three, okay, and then right to.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
La No.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I you know, I had been on I did a
little play. You know, we did plays obviously at school
and stuff, and and uh, you know, a friend of
a friend came and she was like a casting assistant.
Two what's it was it Julian Taylor. That was the
(18:50):
big one at that I can't remember that, Juliet Juliette Taylor.
It was like so she was like an assistant to her.
And this woman's name is Aleen Kashishian, who is an
one of the most incredible managers on the planet and
as and anyway, she asked me to come audition, and
then she had was slowly pivoting into ic M to
(19:11):
become an agent. And then it just sort of, you know,
evolved that we had wound up with a working relationship
and and I got an audition for like an after
school special that I got and that that I.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Was going to say right there, right there, Welcome to
the nineties.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
And and that parlayed that director wound up directing the
first film I did. She well, she had had it
lined up and went on A rider was in it
and Lucas Haas and uh and John.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
C Riley and which what was that?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It was called Boys, Yes, yea. And I went down
to you know, to do she asked me me to
you know, I didn't really have a part in it.
She was like, you know, there's I really like, you know,
working with you and this and that, and like, you know,
maybe come down to Baltimore where we're shooting. You can
you know, do the table read and I want you
(20:12):
to play this one you know cop who has like
you know, three or four lines or something. And I
was like sure, great, And they were trying to make
a deal with I can't remember who it was, Bigo
or Brad or somebody, somebody big for this one part.
So they had he wasn't that had not been done
and by the time the table read happened, so they said,
well you read this part and I was like yeah,
(20:33):
and Wenona and I like sparked in the read through
and all this stuff, and the end of the read
through they asked me to play that part, which was
much more substantial.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And this was all Juliett Taylor advocating for you was not.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Juliette Taylor at all. That was all related that sort
of went away. I mean, that was Billy Bathgate. Was
that audition?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Oh yes, right, and it did obviously.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I didn't get it. Lauren Dean did, but but but yeah,
that was you know, this was many months after that
and doing an after school special and then sort of
rolling into this, you know, director's next project, and right
and things just happened, and I was so horrible and
so nervous.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
But I know, but people saw something in you, whether
it was Juliet or that director in the after school special,
like we you know, as actors, you always need some
sort of like mentors.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
To like, yeah, to give you that push.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean we've talked to so many actors about that
that they can look back and they can pinpoint one
or two people that made all the difference for them.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, in the early days, absolutely, I think there were
you know, there were several. I mean it seemed like
every teacher in that program had something to offer that
was just like, oh wow, and you know I was
so green and untrained and that they they almost really
favored that. Not as a as a teacher's that kind
(22:00):
of thing, but because I didn't have any tricks, I
didn't have anything to unlearn, you know, such a sponge
for it. And but in terms of work stuff, I
don't know, you know, it just you know, it seemed
like if you came out of New York theater at
that time, when you got to La. You were instantly
put on a pedestal and you know, given some chances
(22:24):
that others may not be given.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right, there's a respect.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure there still is. I mean
it's you know, but but yeah, what a time.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So what year was Boys?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Boys must have been. I graduated in ninety three, so
we must have shot it in ninety four ninety Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, So Winona at that point was huge, right, And
so how was that experience? Like, like you said, you
were you know, you've done the after school special and
you've done it your weekend at Bernie is that? But like,
how did that feel stepping into this role with this
huge movie star who was, like you know, I mean
(23:08):
literally the biggest.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
She was at that time, every movie was.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It was terrifying. I mean, you know, she's so charming
and beautiful and like, you know, and she had this
thing that honestly, I don't know that I've seen it since,
and I've worked with a lot of great actresses, yourself included,
who like there was this light that went on when
(23:34):
they said rolling and I and it just something sparks
inside of her when it's that moment. And and it
was and like the first take I had with her,
I got lost. It like happened, and I and I
had the first line, and I was like.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
You were watching her her performance, and it was supposed to.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Be the opposite where I'm like this pro baseball player,
She's this small town girl. You know, I wind up
getting her drunk and we're popping pills and then I,
you know, I crashed the car into this lake and
I die and she lives, and that becomes the you know,
the secret she's hiding all the way whatever. But it
was the opposite. I was the one sort of like
(24:20):
she would have should have been looking at me the
way I was looking at her. But I don't know's
it was just I mean it was really you know,
it was I was very nervous and and you know,
I mean I got through it and it is what
it is, but it was it was not easy. You know.
We had another scene like that first day, and you know,
(24:42):
we shot her side and then we turned around and like,
you know, it's in the car and and I look
over and she's just eating a sandwich.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And I'm like, like, so chill, just like doing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's that's how we all learned, Like you know, obviously
you had great teachers at NYU, but you get on
set and there are directors and other actors that you
just you absorb their their experience.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a big learning moment.
And then I don't think I worked for like somewhere
between six months and twelve months, and you know, maybe
a little longer to do my to get my next project.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And what was that the craft night after that?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
It was it was Bruce Beresford who won an oscar
for Tender Mercies. It was Sharon Stone's dead Man Walking
called Last Dance. She was on death Row. I played
her brother, Oh my gosh right and Randy Blade, and
I mean it was really, you know, an interesting piece
(25:54):
and and there was a lot of emotional requirements for
it because there's my sister being dragged the electric chair
and all that shit, and it was quite the experience.
But then during filming that, we were in Nashville at
that point, and Robin Tunney, who I had known from
New York, got in touch with me and was like,
you know, there's this script I think you'd be great for,
(26:17):
you know, and they want to meet you, and it
was crazy. Then all of a sudden I was on
a plane and to LA and I get there, they
picked me up. They take me right to Doug Wick's house.
The producer Robbin's there, and I'm like, oh my god,
this is what like auditioning out here is, Like you
go to this mansion and.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Sit on a couch and.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
Chest and like everybody's on your team and and.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Then that obviously happened, but like, yeah, that was my What.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Is it you're talking about the craft that you guys
did together?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, all right, you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Got to tell me about that, because I.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
How was that experience?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah? Well I wanted to hear that, Like I had
no idea that was how it went for you? Like
I was going to ask you if it was something
you had auditioned for a million times or what how
that happened to.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Sort of Robin's you know, inclination and intuition and her
you know, kind of putting it together and giving me
a shot and it worked out, you know. I mean
I had to audition with Robin in front of the
producer and Andy was there as well. Yeah yeah, so
you know, but what an entre like I didn't have
to think about it. Now, It's like for parish. You know,
(27:34):
my daughter and I made a tape in my kitchen.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
You know anything, Oh wow, you know, like, who knows
if anyone's ever even gonna see this?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right? I know, isn't it crazy?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Now?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
I know?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I feel like my memory of the craft because I
had just done the Brady Bunch movie and I auditioned
for Robin's part. Yeah, I just remember day one. I
don't even know. I mean it was it was at
that school that we shot at. And I don't know
that you and I had a scene together, but I
met you because our trailers were right next to each
(28:08):
other and you had and I don't even know if
you remember this, a VHS copy of the movie Swimming
with Sharks, like you had just gotten like a screener
of it or something, and you were like and I
don't know what your connection to it was at all,
but I just remember you saying, like, I got this
movie that I'm going to watch, like, do you want
(28:28):
to like come in like? And I remember us watching
that movie together while we were like killing time, and
I know, like that was the first time I met you.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I would not remember that now, I will never forget it.
I had just auditioned for Kevin and I wound up
doing Out by No Alligator right after that.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Right, that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
That's it's a Kevin Spacey movie where Frank Whalley plays
the assistant.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean classic colleague.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah yeah, and you had your vhs, your vhs again
dating us exactly. Oh my gosh, yeah, no, the Craft
who knew, Like I remember Andy saying to me like
that were there's this part. She's horrible. But we loved
(29:22):
doing the Brady Bunch. I would love for you to
play it. She's an awful human being. She is every
bad thing you could imagine. And I was like I will,
like I would do anything to be in this movie
like it just and it was so much fun the
limited time that I was there. And I gotta tell you,
and I know for a fact because David and I
(29:43):
just did the our first convention, like sign it like
nineties con last week, the amount of Craft posters and
I saw your name tattooed on a girl's arm that
I had to sign a piece of paper for that
was going like right next to rape, She'll truse on
her arm that she is the entire cast. Yes, And
(30:06):
I kept thinking to myself, she's really like in twenty
years going to be so bummed that she just has
all of Man.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
It's wild though, because we do them for Scream, you know,
we go to these conventions. Yes, I mean they are
still rabid for both. And yeah, you see that a lot.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Christine. Some girl had a picture of you with your
hair phone.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, she came, Yeah she took She was horrified. Yes, no,
thank god, no, oh my god. The yes, when the
spell gets cast on me and the hair starts coming out,
she screenshoted something on her TV and blew it up.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So because that's not a.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Picture that circulated often, So that was she totally. She
told me that you took a picture of it with
your phone to use.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
That I did to show you what is this?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yes, no, it's it was. It was sad at that point.
It was like she had really got you know, the
character that I played was awful and but that was
a blast. And so did that was that sort of
for you? Like did that change? Did that change things?
Because I feel like the craft was it became more
of a cult following, But it wasn't like a massive
(31:24):
box office success opened number one. Was it was?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It it opened number one. I don't know. I can't
tell you much past that, but we were shooting Scream
when it opened, Nev and I and so we got
to celebrated. Opening number one is crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
So you went right into Scream Alligator, and then.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I did my first lead, which was Chris Walkin and
I and Bridget Fonda and Elmore Leonard script that Paul
Schrader directed called Touch, and I played the Second Coming
of Christ in Modern Day La, this dark comedy.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Well you said Bombfire of the Vanities, No, not Bombfire
of the van Touch, Touch.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
How was working with Chris?
Speaker 3 (32:13):
It was odd? I mean it was amazing. I mean
he's incredible, and you know, I had so many wild, fun,
cool moments and stories. And after the first couple of days,
Paul Schrader came to me and he was like, you
got to stop imitating him and takes. I was like,
I am. He's like, yeah, He's like, come watch and
(32:36):
I was like, no.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It's so tempting to imitate him though.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, but we had a great time. I'll never forget,
like I had to be one time and I was
leaving set and his trailer was closest and I knocked
on his I was like, Chris can I, he's your
bathroom and come in. And I go in and he's
sitting at the vanity with an uncut, unscaled fish like
(33:03):
and I was like, what what what are you doing?
He's like lunch?
Speaker 4 (33:10):
What an eccentric man?
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh my goodness, Oh god there too.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Yeah, yeah, fish and trailerble was.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
And then I left, you know, once we finished that,
then I did scream all.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right, So that had to have been completely life changing.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
That's the one that was, you know, it was wild.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I had, you know, it was just such an interesting
like time and I had, you know, doing Kevin Spacey's
movie Fade. Dunaway played my mom and you know it
was not Dylan who was.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Oh my god, you worked like seriously, can we just
say that, like, thank goodness you didn't get some pilot,
you know for the CW that went for seven years,
Like the people your path is really incredible, the projects
that you got. It was the universe was telling you
you're gonna work with great people.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
It was it was really you know, I you know, yeah,
I feel blessed, I guess is probably the right way
to describe it. Yeah, incredibly lucky to be able to
stand toe to toe with some of the great you
know performers, uh and learn from them, learn from them. Yeah,
(34:25):
and you know that was that was certainly one of them.
And you know, Vigo Mortensen's in that, and Gary Sonise
and Matt Dylon and John Spencer and Faye and I
mean interested on and on the cast, Bill Fickner, just
incredible performers and and and uh and then to you know,
(34:49):
go to touch and the same thing and then scream like.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Was just you know, kids all like, how did that
feel to just be doing something with sort of peers
that was just seemed seemingly seemed like a total blast.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It was incredible. You know, it was my first bad guy,
you know, like I had. I guess arguably Chris Hookers
is not.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
For most of that.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I'm like in this spell and I'm this dough iyed
you know, like you know, lovelorn guy. Yeah, he's not
exactly a hero, but arguably my first real villain. And
I was so excited. And I remember I was doing
I had, you know, press was starting to happen and
(35:37):
stuff like that, and I had an interview with Interview
magazine over the phone and you know, we were talking
about some of those films that were starting to come
out and stuff, and and they were asking what I
was doing next, and I was like, oh my god,
I'm so excited. I'm going to play this serial killer.
And then.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
After that, oh no, you gave away the.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Public.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
I was like, you got to call him.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
The biggest spoiler.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Killed you that would have been shot on so that
they got a you know, and they're like, oh my god, yeah,
obviously we won't run that. You know. That's how excited
I was to like, you know, to play that part
and to get to dive into that sort of menace,
hidden menace. Yeah, extraordinary experience. Like I mean, Cortney was
(36:37):
obviously massive at the time when and still is with
friends and you know, Nev had Party of Five, which
was you know, and and the Craft subsequently coming out
and stuff. So she was but the rest of well,
Drew obviously had had a career already, but most of
us were kind of unknown, like untapped, and like you know,
(36:59):
just and Horror was kind of dead at the time,
and Wes's a couple of movies prior to that had
not done great, and you know, there was in fact
mary Anne Maddalena told me many years later that they had,
like Mer and Max had pulled the plug on it
after they shot all Drew stuff first, and they pulled
(37:19):
the plug on it. We're like, we don't get this.
We're not going to risk this, Like, you know, we
don't what.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Dude, that opening of Scream with Drew getting the means.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
They were just looking at dailies. So Wes and Kathy
Conrad and mary Anne like rushed together and you know,
you're talking to Dave. There's no digital you know, had
this had to begin cut the beginning together in a rush,
and rushed it to New York and they watched it
cut together and they were like, oh, okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Now, but you're right. I mean horror, like as a
horror movie fan growing up, like because I loved the
original Nightmare on Elm Street and those like that. I
just remember when Scream was gone because I auditioned for
that too. Of course, I like was dying to be
in that movie, which role for the Neve part for.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The for the net Park.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
But I remember just thinking like this when I read it,
this is so smart. This is literally the it's because
it's it's a nod to all of them. It's just
brilliantly written and it's going to be huge, and it
literally changed I mean, it brought horror back to the
(38:33):
you know, mainstream.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
It's wild.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know, there's something about Wes's understanding of that, I mean.
And the only reason I say it's like now, God,
almost thirty years later, twenty eight years later, whatever it is,
and the fact that people still line up around the
block every city we go to to have you know,
and it's I'm talking it as span generations now, Like
(38:58):
you know, you you see eight to twelve year olds
who were like screap, you know, dressed up in ghost
face and granted that's been handed down to them, but
there's still it keeps going and it's you know, the
only thing you can sort of think, because when does
that ever happen, is that Wes was onto something. And
you know, the only thing I can surmise from my
(39:20):
experience with him is he knew and he elaborated on
a few times about if you can get people laughing,
you open them up just enough to scare the shit
out of him.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Oh that's so good, It is so good.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
It's so true, you know, because you get them vulnerable
and then boom, and so that mix of comedy and
horror that is scream is you know, I think he
had he had been fine tuning that for a.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
While, and I read something that initially you didn't see
the comedy in it?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Like that he was trying to explain to that person,
was to that journalist, was that I, as an actor,
I put myself in the mindset that this was a
documentary about two killers, so that I could step into
that rawness and sort of you know, and I was
I'm a massive John Cassavetti's fan, so I like sort
(40:14):
of you know, odd angles and wide shots and physical
you know, bodies moving through space. So I wanted I
just was in that mindset. I definitely knew that obviously
the humor inside of it. But Billy is not playing
anything funny exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
No, That's what I was going to say, for you
to play it the way you played it. But then
there's Matt Lillard, who is like.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Jamie Kennedy, right, yeah, I'll be right back, you know,
like yeah, So yeah, that's what I meant by that.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
I was aware of it, but I was more focused
in trying to play Billy so great?
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Can we talk about as good as it gets?
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Because I mean one of one of my favorite movies,
you know, tell us about that experience.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Again going into ridiculous Jim Brooks the cast, I mean Jack,
I mean, come on, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There's you know, we spent I spent seven months on
that movie. I had a bunch of scenes hit the
editing floor. His first cut was five hours long, and
he had to lose a bunch of stuff, which included,
you know, more of a budding relationship between Greg kinnear
and my character, and some stuff at the beginning where
(41:52):
initially I get picked up off the street. They take
me to an art party where I, much like the
character would do, start you know, into the music and
start doing a strict tease in the middle of all
these elite why drinking like art fans. And then then
the original ending was Jack. I mean, you know, they
(42:13):
tracked me down on the streets and they send Jack
out because I had not seen him, I don't know him,
to lure me back to the car and get me arrested.
And his opening line in that scene is I'd like
to purchase a blow job.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
How did that not make it in the movie.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
You know what, here's the wild thing is, Like Jim
was so, you know, upset that this had to happen
this way. He gave me that painting, which is a
whole nother wild story about my fandom of that artist,
and he happened to be the artist who painted it,
and and anyway, I get it to my mom. She's
(43:00):
had it forever. But he gave me, you know, a
VHS of some of the outtakes of some of the
scenes that were cut out, and I had not until
like four months ago, had it digitized, and so I
hadn't watched it. And you watch it now and you're like, man, yeah,
I see that would not have fit at all, like
in what we know of as good as it gets
(43:21):
to be, I was like, yeah, no, you couldn't put
that in there. That wouldn't work.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
You know, Like, but you know, the relationship between you
and Greg Knear while it was, you know, it was
not the lead part of the story. You know, you
guys connecting, and then there's a moment where he looks
at you like you're robbing me, and you have this
moment of guilt and shame, and then your boys beat
the crap out of him. It's so effective. And it's
(43:48):
the parts of the movie that I.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Remember, Wow, yeah, Yeah, it's you know, such an incredible
experience like Jim is just I mean, it's next level
and and it and it's this artistry and this like empathy.
I mean, there are not enough positive adjectives to describe
that man. And and and you know, going all the
(44:12):
way back to Taxi, I had heard and now I
having worked with him fully no, like you can hear
him laughing and couldn't like, yeah, he's off camera and
you know it's it's you know, but he can't help
but laugh. And there's no way to mix it out
of you know, some of the stuff they were doing,
(44:32):
because it happens so much so I mean, and that's
how he was. He was just so like in the
moment with each and every character and just such an
incredible inspiration of a man. And you know, I had
there was a thing that happened in rehearsals that I
thought just summed up the power of Jack Nicholson and
(44:54):
how he works and what he thinks about. But he said, yeah,
I'll put this here, he said, And you know, I've
been thinking about playing old, And I think the key
is to treat every object in the room as if
it's the age you want to be. So this glass
is ninety years old. I want to be careful not
(45:16):
to disturb the dust around it because it might just crumble.
And we're like, and you watch them just sort of
physically age right there. But his attentions outside of himself
and like, and Jim Brook's like, that is genius. Jack, Like,
I mean, you have to tell people about that, And
he's like, well, then they'd know what I was doing.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
Makes his secret sauce instantly that this is.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
A guy who spends twenty four to seven thinking about
how to bring reality to the screen. And that's why
he's Jack Nicholson. You know, it's not by accident. He
is a working actor, like working, working, right, whether he's
working or not, he's working.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I think that's one of his most powerful human performances,
because you know, there's a you know, a few good
men and the shining He plays these you know, over
the top characters, but in as good as it gets,
he plays just a you know, obsessive, compulsive, angry, lonely man.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
It's I think it's one of his best Roles.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, I agree, yes, And I just showed our daughter
terms of endearment, you know, fairly recently. And that's another
one of his best performances. And it's a depth of
Jim Brooks movie.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Like it's so.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Like hearing that is amazing to imagine, and what a
gift to be able to just be and have that experience,
Like I imagine you left a better actor of a better performer.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
I've got a lot to learn, Like I really, I've
got a lot to learn. I mean, that's yeah, that's
one thing about I Mean, I've been blessed to work
with some of the best, But each and every time
you're like, you do learn, but you're like, oh my god,
how do I get right? Get there? Like how do
I get there? And they make you better, you know,
they're like, you know, just the power of the moment,
(47:15):
you know. And I probably one of the highlights of
my career was getting a call from Gary Oldman asking
he asked me to do a movie with him, and
we wound up making that movie and and we had
the most incredible time together. And he's just such a
phenomenal obviously talent. I mean, he has been forever and
(47:38):
and you know, he's just he said this thing to
me near the end. He was like, you know what
I like about working with you? And I was like, what, Please.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Let me report I'll remember it forever.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
And he said no, you know, we were both in
some you know, stressful relationships at the time. And then
he said, no, matter what's going on in your life,
you put the character's emotions first and you adapt to that.
If you're upset, you don't come in and suddenly the
character's upset. You know, you're able to adapt to what's
(48:16):
needed by the character. And I was like, oh my god,
like forever, like.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
An incredible compliment for me. I mean, he's such a master,
so you know.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
And it was the wildest thing because when I met him,
he was doing The Contender and I was living on
a farm in Virginia at the time, and he was
working in Richmond, which was like an hour and a
half drive for me. So he was like, well, come
over to lunch, you know whatever. So I drove over
and he was that curly headed senator with the you know,
the Northeastern accent and all this stuff, and like we
(48:52):
had lunch and whatever. And cut to two months later,
I see him in you know, Utah. He started in Moab,
Utah with us, and and it was a one hundred
and eighty degrees from the guy I met. I couldn't
believe it. It seemed seamless, and I could. I kept thinking, like, wow,
does he like does he have like a a room
(49:13):
in the house that's you know, he has a makeup
artist that lives in that room and like, you know,
try this, and then he's got a wardrobe person over there,
and he like had a closets and closets full of
shit to try and like work it up. It's got
to be. I mean, it's got to be.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Because how else how else?
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Right, I mean, it's just phenomenal his abilities like.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
True, but that kind of compliment coming from him, I
mean that goes back to your n y U days
and your your childhood, which you said you are able
to go into a character and recall some stuff and
apply it.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
And he saw that in you, which is so cool.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
It's wild. I truly like so wild, and I mean
just yeah, he he was just the sweetest, like the
most fun to work with.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, my daughter I showed her who I was interviewing today.
Aside from my wife having a huge crush on you,
but she was like, oh my god, he's on He's
on Riverdale. And I did a show called Sabrina the
Teenage Wish for a number of years and which is
also an archy comic character, and and they, you know,
(50:28):
it was a very like positive version of the show.
They went and tried to remake it as this really dark,
sinister kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
And I believe that's what Riverdale.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Took these really happy, you know, positive characters and turned
it into something very dark.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Right, Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah they did. Yeah, I
don't know, you know that world well enough to know
what was true source material and what was extrapolated upon,
you know, in terms of Roberta.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
I actually listen, I don't want I was a comic
book collector when I was a kid, and I mean
I have Archie comics that are five cents in plastic
wow in my garage. So yeah, I know all the
character you played drug Head's father on the show, who
I don't.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Think was a massive part of the comics. If I'm
not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
He was Archie's best friend, and it was Betty was
his dad.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
I don't was his dad?
Speaker 2 (51:24):
No, No, I remember like, yeah, Veronica's dad was the
rich guy. I don't remember drug hits, But what was
your character and how was that experience?
Speaker 3 (51:36):
Uh? You know, he was a a alcoholic biker gang
leader which called the Serpents. He didn't really give a
damn about his son. And then the evolution was him
becoming you know, a true father and and reform and
(52:00):
becoming sheriff. By season three or four, it was like
it was a wild arc. But you know that first
the first season I thought was so phenomenal and like
so real and like intriguing and kind of a really
interesting murder mystery, and you know, it hit the zeitgeist
(52:22):
in a way nothing I had done really, I mean Scream,
but Scream was a different time. You know, that was
when you'd get in the nineties, you got you knew
you had sort of made it if you had good
box office, and how many garbage bags full of handwritten
fanil would you sort of are? There were no message boards,
(52:43):
there was no social media obviously, any of that thing.
And now all of a sudden, you know, you look
at Riverdale and it was like according to Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram, it was the number one talked about show
for three straight years in the world, and so it
hit this thing and I couldn't help but think like
why why? Like why and my kids were you know,
(53:06):
this was the first job I took outside of LA
from the time they were born until until they were fifteen.
And this was you know, the start of that show.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
And where did you film? Vancouver, Okay?
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Doing like four flights a week, back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. But what I saw was, like,
you know, in that story was or what I felt
was that it really the parents part of that story
and the way they wrote it so amazingly it showed
kids that parents have flaws and they're at that tender
(53:41):
age where they're starting to be able to accept that
or to see, oh like in those relationships that were
in Riverdale with the parents and the kids like oh,
like I recognize that my dad has that issue or
my mom has that issue, or and it really gave
a voice to I think, and again this is all
(54:01):
me surmizing things, but I think that was part of
the allure of it, was this you know, ability for
kids to latch on.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
To that, especially at that age, like what you were saying,
when kids stop sort of idolizing the parent and looking
at everything they know and believe to be what you
know and believe. You're starting to form your own opinions
as a kid and seeing these flawed humans, right, So
that's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (54:28):
Yeah, I think that had a lot. I think it
had something to do with it. And then of course
there's Cole Sprouse, so like, you know, he is the
greatest dude I have to tell and like we've we
have remained good friends and and like it was, I
think the blessing of that show is meeting him, and
I just think the world of him. He's so smart.
(54:49):
He went to NYU for like anthropology and was doing
digs in Africa and had left the business and then decided,
you know, I want to maybe this is for me,
let me try again. But it's just such an incredible, fascinating.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
Man and very very talented. He's so so good and
you know when you see these kid actors and what
they then become and like how people accept them, and
he's really sort of paved his own way, like he's
really really good and.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
He's just got the heart of he's got a heart
of gold. So yeah, but it was an incredible show.
Like I mean, you know it, and you know, it
was a roller coaster of like, you know, sometimes I
mean I was like twelve on the call sheet or something.
So sometimes I'd take these flights up and I'd stand
in the background and I'd fly home and like, you know,
and then I'd fly up and say one word and
(55:42):
come home and like and it just started wearing me
out that like that, you know, I was doing all
this travel and it wasn't really necessarily developing, and I
was in a renegotiation year and was looking to do
other things, and so I left it like after four seasons.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
But yeah, that's an interesting point you bring up that,
you know, it's like the antithesis to the full house,
perfect family kind of show, which you know, I know
people will take comfort in, but it might make them
feel like, oh my god, my life's not like this.
It's an interesting point.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
Point. Skeet.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
Let me ask you something. Have you ever let's just
listen to you talk about You mentioned cassave EDI's like,
have you ever directed? Is that something you know?
Speaker 3 (56:36):
I did? I made a short for my daughter, who
is an actress and you know, and has been most
of growing up on sets. You know, she had no
choice really although completely different direction. That's her twin brother,
and you know, I wanted to show her what, you know,
(56:56):
what it was like and the demands of it, you know,
because she wanted to do it as a kid, and
I never wanted, you know, I was off fored go
doing plays at YadA and plays around you know, at
school and all that stuff, but not the business part
of it, Like I just I don't know. So we
made the short. We won the Williamsburg Film Festival in Brooklyn.
(57:17):
She went, oh wow, it's like it's a long short.
It's like twenty three minutes long. Which we didn't make
it for like the festival circuit or anything, but some
people you know liked and were like, you should submit
it here and do this and that, and it did
really well. It was sort of a musing on. My
daughter used to go up on this roof and do
her homework and you can't really see any houses around
(57:40):
me at all, but when you get on the roof
you can see straight to my neighbor's front door. And
she came down, she was like maybe eleven or something,
and you know, and we're sitting at dinner and I
was like, what would you do if you like, looked
over and saw somebody breaking in the neighbor's house, and
then he looked back and saw you this sort of
(58:02):
idea of like, oh, that's a great kickoff for this
and this and this and this and uh and it
was fun. We shot it in five days for like
five grand and I had friends who had a couple
of red cameras that came over and you know, shot
and a buddy who was a sound mixer, and you know,
and Lenny James, who I had done Jericho with, played
(58:24):
this robber who really becomes the hero of the story.
So I called in a bunch of favors and we
just had a good time. And I shot a very
Cassavetti style, these long lingering wides or Altman style as well,
like and then just flowing in from one space to
the next. And I wish I had much more expensive
(58:46):
toys the entire time. There is there anyway where we
can see this? I could I could personally send it
to you. I mean, okay, on one of my dropbox
things or whatever. I don't know, one of those apps.
Somewhere I'll find it.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
I'd love to see that, man. But there's a new
show we want to talk about.
Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah, it comes out Sunday on AMC.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
And this is the this is Parish, right, this is
the Chion Carlow. Wait, so let's cut to come full circle.
Is this the first time that you have seen or
worked with him since he guest taught in your class?
Speaker 3 (59:26):
On an airplane coming back from albuquer we were both
had been working in Albuquerque and coming back to LA
and and he remembered me, and like it was like
I had been you know, I've been following you and
like you're doing so great and blah blah blah. It's
such a sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
Oh, he was probably doing either breaking bad or better
call Sault.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Right, Yeah, I think it was better call Saul at
that point, I'm not mistaken. And and we wound up
sitting beside each other and talking the entire way back,
and you know, about all kinds of different stuff from
meditation and transcendental meditation and Joe dispensa who he's a
big proponent of and follower of, and he sent me
(01:00:06):
a book about him, and then you know, we sort
of kept loosely in touch but not really and then
this thing came along and I didn't say a word
to him. I never hit him up nothing. I was
just like, you know, I'm going to put myself on
tape and see what happens. And they responded to it.
And then I didn't see him until we were in
New Orleans, you know, in pre production.
Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
But what a great life moment, Like I mean, it's
so amazing to look back to whatever your nineteen year
old self to now and just tell us a little
bit about the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
And it's really fascinating. You know. He plays a man
who a year prior to the story starting, his nineteen
year old was murdered in one of the wards in
New Orleans. And his it's a story about a man
going through grief and great depression and because of that,
and his business is falling a part. He's got like
(01:01:04):
a small you know, black car limousines orted, you know,
car service around New Orleans with like six or eight cars. Small,
but it's it's falling apart. He can't get the loan
to save it. His marriage of forever is falling apart.
They're going to have to sell the house. His daughters
at odds with them, and then one night his old
(01:01:28):
partner where they used to do crimes together he'd left
the crime world twenty years prior, but his partner did
seventeen years in the toughest prison in the US, Angola
for the crimes they had done together, and never routed
him out. Nothing. And he's been out a year and
gets himself in a situation where he could get killed
and comes to his old friend for help, and Jean
(01:01:49):
Carlo's character gets lured back into the criminal.
Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
Rule and oh, my god, this sounds good.
Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
I play that friend who's like a crazy Cajun, which
is the most fun accent on the planet in my mind.
Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
My daughter's at school in New Orleans. She goes to too,
and my wife went to Tulane. We spend a lot
of time there. But yeah, what an interesting place to shoot.
My god, that must be so fun.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
It was. I mean it's, as you know, it's a
dangerous place. And when we were there, I don't know
if it is still, but this was in twenty two.
It was the murder cap and and so we were
where and you just got to be careful where you
go and win.
Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
But to me, it's the food, music culture capital of
the world. Like I look at all the good stuff there,
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
Oh, you're right, I shouldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
I shouldn't label it in that way because you are right.
Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
That is that it is the best food, the nicest people,
the great the architecture. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you know,
you're right. I shouldn't. I shouldn't stick it with that.
Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
No, it is, you know, go on, it can be true.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Both can be true.
Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Where does this? Where is the show air on am AMCLU.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
It's a week at a time. We shot six episodes
and hopefully we'll do more.
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Great a week at a time. You make them wait
like old school.
Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Yeah, I wonder if they'll just wait to binge it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
That's true, That is true, right.
Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Well, people watch the first.
Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
No, people will watch the first and then they'll say,
we're going to save like to be able to write.
Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Probably.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Oh, I can't wait to see it. I can't wait
to see you and the two of you together. And
what a great story.
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Yeah cool, it was a blast. You know. Maybe we'll
talk more about it another time, but it was. It
has a whole set of other stories that we're just
life changing as well. But yeah, yeah, I love that man,
John Carlo. He is truly one of the most talented
but also one of the most gracious, full loving person
(01:04:12):
on the planet.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
He's so good, I mean as of breaking bad and
better call Saul fan. It's like the second he steps
on screen and he's just he's been He's in everything.
He's been around for like you like you're saying, like
he's been around doing this for so long and he
kind of doesn't age either. You feel like he looks
so good. He's been around forever and he still looks
(01:04:36):
the same.
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Swims every morning but work or not, like he swims yoga,
meditation like he is on it.
Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
It's the key, of course, it's a good role, a
good teacher, man, good mentor that you have. But dude,
this was awesome. I mean, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
So much for I am so like this. I want
to give you a hug through the screen. We say
this all the time with friends of ours that we've
had on but next time we're in LA I'd love
to say hi and give you a squeeze.
Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Yeah, thank you guys, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Yeah, your third podcast. It wasn't that bad, right.
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
It's awesome. Yeah, yes, and you guys are amazing, So
thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
And oh the best, You're the best.
Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
Thank you, take care Okay, right, thank you, Bud.
Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
I mean, really, what can you say? What a great guy?
Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
That was amazing to I mean, I like only having
worked with them when we were kids, like literally like
early twenties when we did the Craft and he was
so on the rise. I remember that, you know, and
just knowing him a little bit like I had no
idea the sort of depth of his story, and I
mean his real love of the craft, like not the
(01:05:57):
no pun intended, not the movie the crap, but his
the way he talks about acting and performing and the
way he sees characters. And I mean, and he's just
worked with some of the all time greats.
Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
Yes, I got to say, what an amazing start at
NYU and David Mammoth and Bill Macy are your teachers?
And then the movies that he got one after the other.
I mean, it's it reminded me of like Bonnie Hunt,
you know, who went and auditioned for rain Man and
then just kept working with the greatest people in the industry.
Like some people, I don't know, they have that path
(01:06:35):
where they just do the most amazing quality project after project.
Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Yes, yes, great directors, great actors he worked with, and
what a what a cool career. And I've really I
always love to hear, like even the way you just
talked about being twelve on the call sheet and going
to do Riverdale and like making that commitment at that
time in his life to kind of, you know, leave
town and and try something different, you know, and then
(01:07:03):
after four years realizing like that, okay, that was that
ran its course. But like you know, that sort of
lack of ego of just it doesn't matter if there's
something cool to work on with interesting people. That's that's
a character you haven't played, like, it doesn't matter where
you fall in the call sheet.
Speaker 6 (01:07:22):
Like, I don't know, I think that's pretty great. I
like him watch Riverdale, but I obviously was aware of it.
But my kids, they even Hannah, who's home for spring break.
She's twenty one. She looked at his pictures. She's like,
oh my gosh, the dad on Riverdale.
Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Yeah, exactly, that's what Ello watched that first season. I
remember the season he talked about this murder mystery season
where it was like I just remember that's all Ella taught.
They were so.
Speaker 4 (01:07:48):
Obsessed her friends. Yeah, the biggest thing, Well, you know
who I think was the other dad? I think what
Archie's dad was played by Luke Perry.
Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
Yes it is really yes, Yes, that was so great.
Thanks for listening. Everybody, come on back next week.
Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Yeah, we have a good one next week and I
hope you enjoyed. Skeet Ulrich have a great week.
Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give us
five stars
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
And please follow us on Instagram at hey dude the
nineties called See you next time.
Hey Dude the Nineties Called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to Hey Dude the Nineties Called podcast.
I am one of your co hosts, David.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hi, David, I'm Christine, your other co host. I know
who you are, and I know who you are. We
have a great show. But we should also talk about
our YouTube, right should we?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Should we?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Because we have a great guest Who's who's in the
waiting room?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you brought that up.
I think it's dropping today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
By the time you're listening to this, you'll already be
able to access it. Yes, like a at least a
few episodes maybe under sure we.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Have to talk to iHeart about I think they're dropping
three episodes per week. But all of our podcast episodes
are on video, and they're going to be dropped onto
iHeartMedia's brand new YouTube channel, which I think is going
to be phenomenal because.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yes, people have been asking us, is where can we
see the video? Because a lot of times we our
guests will hold up a picture or they'll reference what
they're they look like or they're wearing, and this you're
gonna you'll obviously see us in zoom box form because
that's how we do this because we live in different
we live on different coasts.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Right, But you were very helpful with the iHeart team
on a very colorful, eclectic Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know it had to be on the brand, it
had to be.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You did a great job our.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yellow our hey dude the nineties called yellow and turquoise
and pink.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yea, Iheart's going to make it look really cool and fun.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And yeah, I have to say my new best friend
is Joey McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Oh my god, did you reject him?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
I didn't text him yet.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
No, it's been a it's been like a crazy busy
week for me. But I I thought of that today
actually because I was like, I really want to. I
always I try when we have our guests numbers, which
we sort of like.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I never want to specifically, Yeah, yeah, we want to
invite them to a new kids show they're touring this summer.
So I texted him.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You said you were going to text him to thank
you for the interview, So I did, And then we've
been going back and.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Forth and he's sending me new music.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Oh that's so good.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I want to see your movie. I sent him something
that I directed.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And you're really new besties. I love this.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
He's just such a sweetheart of a guy, and his
new music is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I yeah, I really, I'm going now that you said that,
I'm actually going to send him a text and thank
him and just tell him because I've gotten so much,
even just from friends of mine who I don't even
think listen to the podcast, but they were giant New
Kids fans. Really, Oh my god, You've fulfilled all of
my childhood dreams. He is amazing. He is such a sweetheart.
(02:58):
I thought he had the best sense of humor. So
I will I will send a message because I won't
I won't infringe on your BFF status with him, but.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
I with him.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
But I also because he's such a musical theater guy too,
I gotta I gotta get my musical theater info from
him of when he's coming back to Broadway and all
of this.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Last week's episode was amazing. But we have you talk
about one of your co stars today. I know we've
got Skeet Ulrich. I always so like I think it's Ulrich, right,
But I can't Rich Ulrich. That's what I've always said,
but some people say Ulrich, So I don't know. But anyway,
he's in the waiting room. We did a movie together
(03:44):
a million years ago, that is The Craft, and a
lot of people that at nineties con talk to me
about how obsessed they were with the Craft, and so
I want to talk to him a little bit about that,
but I want to hear everything from him.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So why don't we let him in? Many good ones,
all right, So why don't we let them in?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yep, it's welcome, Skeet Ulrich, My god, look at you.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Look at you. You don't ever.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Age neither do you look at you? Oh my god.
Have you guys met David and Skeet? Have you guys
ever met or worked together?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Skeet Oldridge, thank you for being on the show. By
the way, this is like a thrill.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Our kids went to the same elementary school, and my
wife rarely gets excited about our guests, you know, like
last week, I'm like, seriously, you don't know new kids
on the block, like where were you? But she says,
when I said Skeet's name, she was like, oh my god. Yeah,
So our kids went to the same school.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Your kids were they there at the same time.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was I have a fourteen year I have two
kids in college, but it was my fourteen year old daughter,
Chelsea that went.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I think to the same schools as your kid, Christine.
This is like this little neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I know it. I know it exactly. I used to
live right there, so I know exactly where it is.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah. Yeah, we lived near each other too for a
brief amount of time.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yes, I was going to say, do you I think
your twins came to a birthday party. I think it
was like Ella's maybe second birthday. I was just thinking
about that. We were that that you know, we all
remember that stage where like the babies, the sort of
young kids and they don't really have friends yet, like
(05:31):
they have a few kids that they play with in
but you're like, oh, we're going to do a birthday,
Like let's just invite our friends.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
With kids.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
And people we know because they're just going to do
their thing. But yeah, that was that was a really
we found pictures of that party so fun. I mean,
it was a crazy I just remember it was like
all these people then was working with and people that
I did, and you guys were in the neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So yeah, and that.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Was such a lush property you got, I said that
spread on that corner. Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, that was such a great neighborhood. That was such
a this was up in the Hollywood Hills, David. It
was sort of like it then became a little bit
of like the tour buses kind of made their rounds eventually,
Like when we first moved in, there was a much
more quiet place, and then it just kind of became like,
I'll never forget Jerry Stiller coming to I think it
(06:24):
might have been that birthday party and like ringing our
doorbell outside in one of the tour buses pulled up
and he started chatting and and I was like, Jerry,
don't engage, come on, come on, we're going to the kids.
And he was just answering questions, and you know they've
got the megaphones lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Thank you for coming and talking to us.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Thanks for having me. It's so cool. I haven't done
many podcasts, to be honest, maybe two.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are you serious? Yeah, we're so honored.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Are you a listener though? Do you listen to podcasts?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I don't. I think that's why, you know, I'm so
old school. Like I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm saying almost same, Like I started to listen a
little more when we talked about doing this together, but
I'm the same. Like Ben is a podcast nut, Like
he listens, he knows, it's how he gets his news.
He's like literally like so dialed into like every different
genre of podcasts, and I am just sort of like, Oh,
(07:31):
I get in my car and I still listen to music.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I listen to the radio exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You know what I love about it. And I've been
listening to podcasts for a long time. And that's why
I came to Christine with this. It's like, you know,
you watch someone on a late night talk show or
you know, or a morning show and they have these
like planned little jokes and interviews, and this is like,
you know, we get you know, Christine, We've we've gotten
to know things about people that we had no idea,
(07:59):
like some of some of some of the interviews that
we didn't really know about the people become the most
fascinating interviews, right Yeah, yeah, yeah, certainly.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
A long you know, much longer form and ability to
you know, to connect in a way that you can't
really in those shows. Yeah, I mean I'm down. I
just I just am you know, old, so.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
You don't look old man.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah, I don't know. I had lived in this house
like nineteen years and it's been amazing. I built furniture.
I've always kind of built furniture. And now it's planting season.
I have gardens, terraced gardens, so I plant all kinds
of different fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And look at you, Oh my god, that's amazing. And
by the way, when you live in California, like you
have to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Absolutely, it's the only citrus in your yard.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
It's insane. Well maybe not the only place, but certainly you.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Know where you can have it year round. Yes, and
that's just part of the plantings, like you can literally
pick fruit from the trees. All right. So, but you're
not from California originally.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah. No. I was born in Virginia, in the mountains
of Virginia and then kind of raised all over until
I was about ten, and then I was in North
Carolina for until I went to n Yu. Okay, all right,
I did yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Christina and I were this close, but we suld we
didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
We ended up yes, we ended up doing that TV
show and then just not going that's our story.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't sit here today if it
wasn't for my experience there. To be honest, I was,
you know, I was a very Southern let's say, you know,
kid out of a NASCAR family who had no you know,
nobody had paved the way for the arts. I mean,
I arguably building engines as an art in itself, but
(10:12):
I mean performing arts. No one had been in that avenue.
So it was just thank god I got in that program.
And it was Mammot and William H. Macy who taught it,
and they had a you know, Mammutt had this thing
where this was pre Internet, where you had to answer
ten questions and it took two to three weeks for
(10:33):
me to even find a modicum of what those answers
may be. They were so obscure. And this is going
to the library every day after I was at UNCW
as a marine biology student and dying to get out,
and so I did all that, you know, two three
weeks of work, and then you go up and do
an interview. And their whole point is that if you
have the willpower to answer those questions or to even
(10:55):
try to you have the willpower for him to teach
you how to act, and he took sixteen kids.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Was this the Atlantic Theater Company? Okay? Because my son
or you know, our son just did a summer program
at TISH last summer and he did the Atlantic. No,
he did it at TISH. Yeah, wow, but they gave
them the book to read. They I don't think they
had answered the ten questions for this four week summer.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
But yeah, I think that was only then. I don't
pay anymore. From what I hear with TISH. They assign
you a studio, you can't.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Really pick choose exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
I had to audition to get an NYU. They would
have laughed me out of that, to be honest. So
I get.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
My message to.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Everybody is if you have a dream and you set
your heart to it, in your mind to it, you
can do things you can't even fathom.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Wait, can we just back up one second? Are you
saying that David Mammott and William H. Macy were two
of your teachers.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
They taught acting at that time? Yeah? Incredible, Yeah, and
you know wildly My now co stars Jean Carlo Esposito
guest taught at that time my class.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Wait, so you remember him coming in?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
God, yeah, he was.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He's so incredible, And we're I want to hear all
about the new show too, but we're going to get
to that.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
He you know, he was doing a play at Atlantic
that he won the Obie for and he was mesmerizing,
and then you know, I guess he you know, because
he was in the theater all the time. He guest
taught a couple of classes here and there, and he
was just I mean, he's a force. Oh of course.
So I've been aware of him since ninety one when
(12:42):
that play was and.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
It's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Did you ever I don't want to get off on
the tangent, but did you ever do a mammot play?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I haven't done a mammot play? Okay, oddly yeah, yeah,
that may not have gone well even trying to do
a scene in front.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Of like real quickly.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I did Glengarry Glenn Ross at a theater in West
Hollywood with an amazing cast Ian Gomez put it together. Anyway,
It's like if you the rapid fire dialogue, if somebody
messes up the it's like a domino.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You know, my gosh, what do we do now. It
was the scariest thing I've ever done.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
But I mean, I can't imagine learning acting at that
age from from from David Mammott.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
How incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I mean he had you know, there were there were
they set us up in such a great way in
the theater training that Lizhimmelstein was our speech teacher. She's
almost thanked that every Oscar. You know, she's a dialect
coach for Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, you know, Sam Rock,
will you name it? She's like, but she was, you know,
(13:56):
a theatrical voice teacher at the time.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
It sounds like it was worth the ice of tuition.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
It was definitely worth it. Yeah. And I oh my
stepdad a you know, a thank you, big thank you,
which I give to him almost daily. He's like, all right,
I've heard it enough, shut up.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Oh no, the gratitude man, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
But that's amazing for you to figure out, like to
go from you know, growing up the way you did,
ending up in college, you know, going into the science
and then what what made you pivot? Did you see
plays or were you always just interested in film and television? Like,
what what made you make that decision for yourself.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I think a couple of things, you know. I I
I remember as a freshman, you know, I wound up somebody,
a PA, came into the dorm and I happened to
be coming in at the same time, and they were
looking for extras for weekend at Bernie's, which I was
in Wilmington, North Carolina. What do you mean? What does
(14:59):
this do? What do you do? And I was like
gold because I didn't really have much money, you know,
fifty was a lot, and of course, so I was
like all right, and uh and and then I got
kind of interested in it. You know, I was in
those party scenes at that house and shit, oh wait, so.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
You were in Weekend Bernice.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Isn't it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now? Such a classic? Such a classic, that movie classic.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
And then I, you know, I did a couple other things.
But I in the same time, in terms of school,
I realized I was like cheating on my botany tests
and stuff like that, and like I was like, maybe
this isn't for me, and I started. I had always
kind of built things, so I took a scene design
set design class and part of that was building sets
(15:53):
for that theater. And uh. In doing that, and you know,
watching the plays and striking the sets. I'd slowly it
hit me. I remember standing on stage. They said they
have this big griscenium theater there and and I remember
standing on the edge and it was empty and we
had struck the set and it I went, oh, they
(16:16):
have to listen. And it was like the first time.
And then the power of metaphor you know, of of
you know, all those things I was never able to
tell anybody. And I had a pretty chaotic childhood and
life at that point, and I was like, man, I
can I can use those words to say and no
one will know what I'm really saying.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But I get to express it, right, I get to
just put it out there.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Power of subtext and what we do and I think,
you know, that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
No, But also what you studied, MYU.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That Meser technique is like, you know, taking things from
your own life and using it for your character.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, if that magic, as as as.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
If that's what Quinn did all summer, Yeah, I have
to do it. As if mom, I have to do it.
As he's going to die when I tell him this, like,
oh my god, wild when it clicked for him too.
I remember when it clicked, it was like the aha
moment of like, oh my god, I so get this now.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah. Yeah, But at the.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Beginning he was just overthinking, you know what I mean.
It was like trying to do it so technically that
it was like, no, let's just like forget. He'd a
great teacher too, but not Mamut or Macy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
But I mean, I mean once in a lifetime obviously,
But there are people equally as good. I'm sure they're not.
You know, it's they're just such. I think all of
it has value, you know, like some people learn by
doing and being on set and being under the pressure
of that, and some people learn in a different way.
So it's you know, there is no right or wrong,
(17:56):
and I think you ultimately learned that as a performers,
even in scenes and lines and everything, there's no right
or wrong, you.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Know, right, it is what it's what works for you,
What is the truest for you. Yeah, so you go
through four years, you went all four years? I went
three three, okay, and then right to.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
La No.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I you know, I had been on I did a
little play. You know, we did plays obviously at school
and stuff, and and uh, you know, a friend of
a friend came and she was like a casting assistant.
Two what's it was it Julian Taylor. That was the
(18:50):
big one at that I can't remember that, Juliet Juliette Taylor.
It was like so she was like an assistant to her.
And this woman's name is Aleen Kashishian, who is an
one of the most incredible managers on the planet and
as and anyway, she asked me to come audition, and
then she had was slowly pivoting into ic M to
(19:11):
become an agent. And then it just sort of, you know,
evolved that we had wound up with a working relationship
and and I got an audition for like an after
school special that I got and that that I.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Was going to say right there, right there, Welcome to
the nineties.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
And and that parlayed that director wound up directing the
first film I did. She well, she had had it
lined up and went on A rider was in it
and Lucas Haas and uh and John.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
C Riley and which what was that?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
It was called Boys, Yes, yea. And I went down
to you know, to do she asked me me to
you know, I didn't really have a part in it.
She was like, you know, there's I really like, you know,
working with you and this and that, and like, you know,
maybe come down to Baltimore where we're shooting. You can
you know, do the table read and I want you
(20:12):
to play this one you know cop who has like
you know, three or four lines or something. And I
was like sure, great, And they were trying to make
a deal with I can't remember who it was, Bigo
or Brad or somebody, somebody big for this one part.
So they had he wasn't that had not been done
and by the time the table read happened, so they said,
well you read this part and I was like yeah,
(20:33):
and Wenona and I like sparked in the read through
and all this stuff, and the end of the read
through they asked me to play that part, which was
much more substantial.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
And this was all Juliett Taylor advocating for you was not.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Juliette Taylor at all. That was all related that sort
of went away. I mean, that was Billy Bathgate. Was
that audition?
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Oh yes, right, and it did obviously.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I didn't get it. Lauren Dean did, but but but yeah,
that was you know, this was many months after that
and doing an after school special and then sort of
rolling into this, you know, director's next project, and right
and things just happened, and I was so horrible and
so nervous.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
But I know, but people saw something in you, whether
it was Juliet or that director in the after school special,
like we you know, as actors, you always need some
sort of like mentors.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
To like, yeah, to give you that push.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean we've talked to so many actors about that
that they can look back and they can pinpoint one
or two people that made all the difference for them.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, in the early days, absolutely, I think there were
you know, there were several. I mean it seemed like
every teacher in that program had something to offer that
was just like, oh wow, and you know I was
so green and untrained and that they they almost really
favored that. Not as a as a teacher's that kind
(22:00):
of thing, but because I didn't have any tricks, I
didn't have anything to unlearn, you know, such a sponge
for it. And but in terms of work stuff, I
don't know, you know, it just you know, it seemed
like if you came out of New York theater at
that time, when you got to La. You were instantly
put on a pedestal and you know, given some chances
(22:24):
that others may not be given.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right, there's a respect.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure there still is. I mean
it's you know, but but yeah, what a time.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So what year was Boys?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Boys must have been. I graduated in ninety three, so
we must have shot it in ninety four ninety Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, So Winona at that point was huge, right, And
so how was that experience? Like, like you said, you
were you know, you've done the after school special and
you've done it your weekend at Bernie is that? But like,
how did that feel stepping into this role with this
huge movie star who was, like you know, I mean
(23:08):
literally the biggest.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
She was at that time, every movie was.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It was terrifying. I mean, you know, she's so charming
and beautiful and like, you know, and she had this
thing that honestly, I don't know that I've seen it since,
and I've worked with a lot of great actresses, yourself included,
who like there was this light that went on when
(23:34):
they said rolling and I and it just something sparks
inside of her when it's that moment. And and it
was and like the first take I had with her,
I got lost. It like happened, and I and I
had the first line, and I was like.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
You were watching her her performance, and it was supposed to.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Be the opposite where I'm like this pro baseball player,
She's this small town girl. You know, I wind up
getting her drunk and we're popping pills and then I,
you know, I crashed the car into this lake and
I die and she lives, and that becomes the you know,
the secret she's hiding all the way whatever. But it
was the opposite. I was the one sort of like
(24:20):
she would have should have been looking at me the
way I was looking at her. But I don't know's
it was just I mean it was really you know,
it was I was very nervous and and you know,
I mean I got through it and it is what
it is, but it was it was not easy. You know.
We had another scene like that first day, and you know,
(24:42):
we shot her side and then we turned around and like,
you know, it's in the car and and I look
over and she's just eating a sandwich.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And I'm like, like, so chill, just like doing.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's that's how we all learned, Like you know, obviously
you had great teachers at NYU, but you get on
set and there are directors and other actors that you
just you absorb their their experience.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a big learning moment.
And then I don't think I worked for like somewhere
between six months and twelve months, and you know, maybe
a little longer to do my to get my next project.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
And what was that the craft night after that?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
It was it was Bruce Beresford who won an oscar
for Tender Mercies. It was Sharon Stone's dead Man Walking
called Last Dance. She was on death Row. I played
her brother, Oh my gosh right and Randy Blade, and
I mean it was really, you know, an interesting piece
(25:54):
and and there was a lot of emotional requirements for
it because there's my sister being dragged the electric chair
and all that shit, and it was quite the experience.
But then during filming that, we were in Nashville at
that point, and Robin Tunney, who I had known from
New York, got in touch with me and was like,
you know, there's this script I think you'd be great for,
(26:17):
you know, and they want to meet you, and it
was crazy. Then all of a sudden I was on
a plane and to LA and I get there, they
picked me up. They take me right to Doug Wick's house.
The producer Robbin's there, and I'm like, oh my god,
this is what like auditioning out here is, Like you
go to this mansion and.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Sit on a couch and.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
Chest and like everybody's on your team and and.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Then that obviously happened, but like, yeah, that was my What.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
Is it you're talking about the craft that you guys
did together?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, all right, you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Got to tell me about that, because I.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
How was that experience?
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah? Well I wanted to hear that, Like I had
no idea that was how it went for you? Like
I was going to ask you if it was something
you had auditioned for a million times or what how
that happened to.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Sort of Robin's you know, inclination and intuition and her
you know, kind of putting it together and giving me
a shot and it worked out, you know. I mean
I had to audition with Robin in front of the
producer and Andy was there as well. Yeah yeah, so
you know, but what an entre like I didn't have
to think about it. Now, It's like for parish. You know,
(27:34):
my daughter and I made a tape in my kitchen.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
You know anything, Oh wow, you know, like, who knows
if anyone's ever even gonna see this?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Right? I know, isn't it crazy?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Now?
Speaker 6 (27:47):
I know?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I feel like my memory of the craft because I
had just done the Brady Bunch movie and I auditioned
for Robin's part. Yeah, I just remember day one. I
don't even know. I mean it was it was at
that school that we shot at. And I don't know
that you and I had a scene together, but I
met you because our trailers were right next to each
(28:08):
other and you had and I don't even know if
you remember this, a VHS copy of the movie Swimming
with Sharks, like you had just gotten like a screener
of it or something, and you were like and I
don't know what your connection to it was at all,
but I just remember you saying, like, I got this
movie that I'm going to watch, like, do you want
(28:28):
to like come in like? And I remember us watching
that movie together while we were like killing time, and
I know, like that was the first time I met you.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I would not remember that now, I will never forget it.
I had just auditioned for Kevin and I wound up
doing Out by No Alligator right after that.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Right, that's what it was.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
That's it's a Kevin Spacey movie where Frank Whalley plays
the assistant.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Yeah, I mean classic colleague.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah yeah, and you had your vhs, your vhs again
dating us exactly. Oh my gosh, yeah, no, the Craft
who knew, Like I remember Andy saying to me like
that were there's this part. She's horrible. But we loved
(29:22):
doing the Brady Bunch. I would love for you to
play it. She's an awful human being. She is every
bad thing you could imagine. And I was like I will,
like I would do anything to be in this movie
like it just and it was so much fun the
limited time that I was there. And I gotta tell you,
and I know for a fact because David and I
(29:43):
just did the our first convention, like sign it like
nineties con last week, the amount of Craft posters and
I saw your name tattooed on a girl's arm that
I had to sign a piece of paper for that
was going like right next to rape, She'll truse on
her arm that she is the entire cast. Yes, And
(30:06):
I kept thinking to myself, she's really like in twenty
years going to be so bummed that she just has
all of Man.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
It's wild though, because we do them for Scream, you know,
we go to these conventions. Yes, I mean they are
still rabid for both. And yeah, you see that a lot.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Christine. Some girl had a picture of you with your
hair phone.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, she came, Yeah she took She was horrified. Yes, no,
thank god, no, oh my god. The yes, when the
spell gets cast on me and the hair starts coming out,
she screenshoted something on her TV and blew it up.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So because that's not a.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Picture that circulated often, So that was she totally. She
told me that you took a picture of it with
your phone to use.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
That I did to show you what is this?
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yes, no, it's it was. It was sad at that point.
It was like she had really got you know, the
character that I played was awful and but that was
a blast. And so did that was that sort of
for you? Like did that change? Did that change things?
Because I feel like the craft was it became more
of a cult following, But it wasn't like a massive
(31:24):
box office success opened number one. Was it was?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It it opened number one. I don't know. I can't
tell you much past that, but we were shooting Scream
when it opened, Nev and I and so we got
to celebrated. Opening number one is crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
So you went right into Scream Alligator, and then.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I did my first lead, which was Chris Walkin and
I and Bridget Fonda and Elmore Leonard script that Paul
Schrader directed called Touch, and I played the Second Coming
of Christ in Modern Day La, this dark comedy.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Well you said Bombfire of the Vanities, No, not Bombfire
of the van Touch, Touch.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
How was working with Chris?
Speaker 3 (32:13):
It was odd? I mean it was amazing. I mean
he's incredible, and you know, I had so many wild, fun,
cool moments and stories. And after the first couple of days,
Paul Schrader came to me and he was like, you
got to stop imitating him and takes. I was like,
I am. He's like, yeah, He's like, come watch and
(32:36):
I was like, no.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It's so tempting to imitate him though.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, but we had a great time. I'll never forget,
like I had to be one time and I was
leaving set and his trailer was closest and I knocked
on his I was like, Chris can I, he's your
bathroom and come in. And I go in and he's
sitting at the vanity with an uncut, unscaled fish like
(33:03):
and I was like, what what what are you doing?
He's like lunch?
Speaker 4 (33:10):
What an eccentric man?
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Oh my goodness, Oh god there too.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Yeah, yeah, fish and trailerble was.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
And then I left, you know, once we finished that,
then I did scream all.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right, So that had to have been completely life changing.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
That's the one that was, you know, it was wild.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I had, you know, it was just such an interesting
like time and I had, you know, doing Kevin Spacey's
movie Fade. Dunaway played my mom and you know it
was not Dylan who was.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Oh my god, you worked like seriously, can we just
say that, like, thank goodness you didn't get some pilot,
you know for the CW that went for seven years,
Like the people your path is really incredible, the projects
that you got. It was the universe was telling you
you're gonna work with great people.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
It was it was really you know, I you know, yeah,
I feel blessed, I guess is probably the right way
to describe it. Yeah, incredibly lucky to be able to
stand toe to toe with some of the great you
know performers, uh and learn from them, learn from them. Yeah,
(34:25):
and you know that was that was certainly one of them.
And you know, Vigo Mortensen's in that, and Gary Sonise
and Matt Dylon and John Spencer and Faye and I
mean interested on and on the cast, Bill Fickner, just
incredible performers and and and uh and then to you know,
(34:49):
go to touch and the same thing and then scream like.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Was just you know, kids all like, how did that
feel to just be doing something with sort of peers
that was just seemed seemingly seemed like a total blast.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
It was incredible. You know, it was my first bad guy,
you know, like I had. I guess arguably Chris Hookers
is not.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
For most of that.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I'm like in this spell and I'm this dough iyed
you know, like you know, lovelorn guy. Yeah, he's not
exactly a hero, but arguably my first real villain. And
I was so excited. And I remember I was doing
I had, you know, press was starting to happen and
(35:37):
stuff like that, and I had an interview with Interview
magazine over the phone and you know, we were talking
about some of those films that were starting to come
out and stuff, and and they were asking what I
was doing next, and I was like, oh my god,
I'm so excited. I'm going to play this serial killer.
And then.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
After that, oh no, you gave away the.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Public.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
I was like, you got to call him.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
The biggest spoiler.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Killed you that would have been shot on so that
they got a you know, and they're like, oh my god, yeah,
obviously we won't run that. You know. That's how excited
I was to like, you know, to play that part
and to get to dive into that sort of menace,
hidden menace. Yeah, extraordinary experience. Like I mean, Cortney was
(36:37):
obviously massive at the time when and still is with
friends and you know, Nev had Party of Five, which
was you know, and and the Craft subsequently coming out
and stuff. So she was but the rest of well,
Drew obviously had had a career already, but most of
us were kind of unknown, like untapped, and like you know,
(36:59):
just and Horror was kind of dead at the time,
and Wes's a couple of movies prior to that had
not done great, and you know, there was in fact
mary Anne Maddalena told me many years later that they had,
like Mer and Max had pulled the plug on it
after they shot all Drew stuff first, and they pulled
(37:19):
the plug on it. We're like, we don't get this.
We're not going to risk this, Like, you know, we
don't what.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Dude, that opening of Scream with Drew getting the means.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
They were just looking at dailies. So Wes and Kathy
Conrad and mary Anne like rushed together and you know,
you're talking to Dave. There's no digital you know, had
this had to begin cut the beginning together in a rush,
and rushed it to New York and they watched it
cut together and they were like, oh, okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Now, but you're right. I mean horror, like as a
horror movie fan growing up, like because I loved the
original Nightmare on Elm Street and those like that. I
just remember when Scream was gone because I auditioned for
that too. Of course, I like was dying to be
in that movie, which role for the Neve part for.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The for the net Park.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
But I remember just thinking like this when I read it,
this is so smart. This is literally the it's because
it's it's a nod to all of them. It's just
brilliantly written and it's going to be huge, and it
literally changed I mean, it brought horror back to the
(38:33):
you know, mainstream.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
It's wild.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You know, there's something about Wes's understanding of that, I mean.
And the only reason I say it's like now, God,
almost thirty years later, twenty eight years later, whatever it is,
and the fact that people still line up around the
block every city we go to to have you know,
and it's I'm talking it as span generations now, Like
(38:58):
you know, you you see eight to twelve year olds
who were like screap, you know, dressed up in ghost
face and granted that's been handed down to them, but
there's still it keeps going and it's you know, the
only thing you can sort of think, because when does
that ever happen, is that Wes was onto something. And
you know, the only thing I can surmise from my
(39:20):
experience with him is he knew and he elaborated on
a few times about if you can get people laughing,
you open them up just enough to scare the shit
out of him.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Oh that's so good, It is so good.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
It's so true, you know, because you get them vulnerable
and then boom, and so that mix of comedy and
horror that is scream is you know, I think he
had he had been fine tuning that for a.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
While, and I read something that initially you didn't see
the comedy in it?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Like that he was trying to explain to that person,
was to that journalist, was that I, as an actor,
I put myself in the mindset that this was a
documentary about two killers, so that I could step into
that rawness and sort of you know, and I was
I'm a massive John Cassavetti's fan, so I like sort
(40:14):
of you know, odd angles and wide shots and physical
you know, bodies moving through space. So I wanted I
just was in that mindset. I definitely knew that obviously
the humor inside of it. But Billy is not playing
anything funny exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
No, That's what I was going to say, for you
to play it the way you played it. But then
there's Matt Lillard, who is like.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Jamie Kennedy, right, yeah, I'll be right back, you know,
like yeah, So yeah, that's what I meant by that.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
I was aware of it, but I was more focused
in trying to play Billy so great?
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Can we talk about as good as it gets?
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Because I mean one of one of my favorite movies,
you know, tell us about that experience.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Again going into ridiculous Jim Brooks the cast, I mean Jack,
I mean, come on, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
There's you know, we spent I spent seven months on
that movie. I had a bunch of scenes hit the
editing floor. His first cut was five hours long, and
he had to lose a bunch of stuff, which included,
you know, more of a budding relationship between Greg kinnear
and my character, and some stuff at the beginning where
(41:52):
initially I get picked up off the street. They take
me to an art party where I, much like the
character would do, start you know, into the music and
start doing a strict tease in the middle of all
these elite why drinking like art fans. And then then
the original ending was Jack. I mean, you know, they
(42:13):
tracked me down on the streets and they send Jack
out because I had not seen him, I don't know him,
to lure me back to the car and get me arrested.
And his opening line in that scene is I'd like
to purchase a blow job.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
How did that not make it in the movie.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
You know what, here's the wild thing is, Like Jim
was so, you know, upset that this had to happen
this way. He gave me that painting, which is a
whole nother wild story about my fandom of that artist,
and he happened to be the artist who painted it,
and and anyway, I get it to my mom. She's
(43:00):
had it forever. But he gave me, you know, a
VHS of some of the outtakes of some of the
scenes that were cut out, and I had not until
like four months ago, had it digitized, and so I
hadn't watched it. And you watch it now and you're like, man, yeah,
I see that would not have fit at all, like
in what we know of as good as it gets
(43:21):
to be, I was like, yeah, no, you couldn't put
that in there. That wouldn't work.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
You know, Like, but you know, the relationship between you
and Greg Knear while it was, you know, it was
not the lead part of the story. You know, you
guys connecting, and then there's a moment where he looks
at you like you're robbing me, and you have this
moment of guilt and shame, and then your boys beat
the crap out of him. It's so effective. And it's
(43:48):
the parts of the movie that I.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Remember, Wow, yeah, Yeah, it's you know, such an incredible
experience like Jim is just I mean, it's next level
and and it and it's this artistry and this like empathy.
I mean, there are not enough positive adjectives to describe
that man. And and and you know, going all the
(44:12):
way back to Taxi, I had heard and now I
having worked with him fully no, like you can hear
him laughing and couldn't like, yeah, he's off camera and
you know it's it's you know, but he can't help
but laugh. And there's no way to mix it out
of you know, some of the stuff they were doing,
(44:32):
because it happens so much so I mean, and that's
how he was. He was just so like in the
moment with each and every character and just such an
incredible inspiration of a man. And you know, I had
there was a thing that happened in rehearsals that I
thought just summed up the power of Jack Nicholson and
(44:54):
how he works and what he thinks about. But he said, yeah,
I'll put this here, he said, And you know, I've
been thinking about playing old, And I think the key
is to treat every object in the room as if
it's the age you want to be. So this glass
is ninety years old. I want to be careful not
(45:16):
to disturb the dust around it because it might just crumble.
And we're like, and you watch them just sort of
physically age right there. But his attentions outside of himself
and like, and Jim Brook's like, that is genius. Jack, Like,
I mean, you have to tell people about that, And
he's like, well, then they'd know what I was doing.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
Makes his secret sauce instantly that this is.
Speaker 3 (45:42):
A guy who spends twenty four to seven thinking about
how to bring reality to the screen. And that's why
he's Jack Nicholson. You know, it's not by accident. He
is a working actor, like working, working, right, whether he's
working or not, he's working.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I think that's one of his most powerful human performances,
because you know, there's a you know, a few good
men and the shining He plays these you know, over
the top characters, but in as good as it gets,
he plays just a you know, obsessive, compulsive, angry, lonely man.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
It's I think it's one of his best Roles.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, I agree, yes, And I just showed our daughter
terms of endearment, you know, fairly recently. And that's another
one of his best performances. And it's a depth of
Jim Brooks movie.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Like it's so.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Like hearing that is amazing to imagine, and what a
gift to be able to just be and have that experience,
Like I imagine you left a better actor of a better performer.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
I've got a lot to learn, Like I really, I've
got a lot to learn. I mean, that's yeah, that's
one thing about I Mean, I've been blessed to work
with some of the best, But each and every time
you're like, you do learn, but you're like, oh my god,
how do I get right? Get there? Like how do
I get there? And they make you better, you know,
they're like, you know, just the power of the moment,
(47:15):
you know. And I probably one of the highlights of
my career was getting a call from Gary Oldman asking
he asked me to do a movie with him, and
we wound up making that movie and and we had
the most incredible time together. And he's just such a
phenomenal obviously talent. I mean, he has been forever and
(47:38):
and you know, he's just he said this thing to
me near the end. He was like, you know what
I like about working with you? And I was like, what, Please.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Let me report I'll remember it forever.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
And he said no, you know, we were both in
some you know, stressful relationships at the time. And then
he said, no, matter what's going on in your life,
you put the character's emotions first and you adapt to that.
If you're upset, you don't come in and suddenly the
character's upset. You know, you're able to adapt to what's
(48:16):
needed by the character. And I was like, oh my god,
like forever, like.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
An incredible compliment for me. I mean, he's such a master,
so you know.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
And it was the wildest thing because when I met him,
he was doing The Contender and I was living on
a farm in Virginia at the time, and he was
working in Richmond, which was like an hour and a
half drive for me. So he was like, well, come
over to lunch, you know whatever. So I drove over
and he was that curly headed senator with the you know,
the Northeastern accent and all this stuff, and like we
(48:52):
had lunch and whatever. And cut to two months later,
I see him in you know, Utah. He started in Moab,
Utah with us, and and it was a one hundred
and eighty degrees from the guy I met. I couldn't
believe it. It seemed seamless, and I could. I kept thinking, like, wow,
does he like does he have like a a room
(49:13):
in the house that's you know, he has a makeup
artist that lives in that room and like, you know,
try this, and then he's got a wardrobe person over there,
and he like had a closets and closets full of
shit to try and like work it up. It's got
to be. I mean, it's got to be.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Because how else how else?
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Right, I mean, it's just phenomenal his abilities like.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
True, but that kind of compliment coming from him, I
mean that goes back to your n y U days
and your your childhood, which you said you are able
to go into a character and recall some stuff and
apply it.
Speaker 4 (49:52):
And he saw that in you, which is so cool.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
It's wild. I truly like so wild, and I mean
just yeah, he he was just the sweetest, like the
most fun to work with.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, my daughter I showed her who I was interviewing today.
Aside from my wife having a huge crush on you,
but she was like, oh my god, he's on He's
on Riverdale. And I did a show called Sabrina the
Teenage Wish for a number of years and which is
also an archy comic character, and and they, you know,
(50:28):
it was a very like positive version of the show.
They went and tried to remake it as this really dark,
sinister kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
And I believe that's what Riverdale.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Took these really happy, you know, positive characters and turned
it into something very dark.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
Right, Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah they did. Yeah, I
don't know, you know that world well enough to know
what was true source material and what was extrapolated upon,
you know, in terms of Roberta.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
I actually listen, I don't want I was a comic
book collector when I was a kid, and I mean
I have Archie comics that are five cents in plastic
wow in my garage. So yeah, I know all the
character you played drug Head's father on the show, who
I don't.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Think was a massive part of the comics. If I'm
not mistaken.
Speaker 4 (51:18):
He was Archie's best friend, and it was Betty was
his dad.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
I don't was his dad?
Speaker 2 (51:24):
No, No, I remember like, yeah, Veronica's dad was the
rich guy. I don't remember drug hits, But what was
your character and how was that experience?
Speaker 3 (51:36):
Uh? You know, he was a a alcoholic biker gang
leader which called the Serpents. He didn't really give a
damn about his son. And then the evolution was him
becoming you know, a true father and and reform and
(52:00):
becoming sheriff. By season three or four, it was like
it was a wild arc. But you know that first
the first season I thought was so phenomenal and like
so real and like intriguing and kind of a really
interesting murder mystery, and you know, it hit the zeitgeist
(52:22):
in a way nothing I had done really, I mean Scream,
but Scream was a different time. You know, that was
when you'd get in the nineties, you got you knew
you had sort of made it if you had good
box office, and how many garbage bags full of handwritten
fanil would you sort of are? There were no message boards,
(52:43):
there was no social media obviously, any of that thing.
And now all of a sudden, you know, you look
at Riverdale and it was like according to Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram, it was the number one talked about show
for three straight years in the world, and so it
hit this thing and I couldn't help but think like
why why? Like why and my kids were you know,
(53:06):
this was the first job I took outside of LA
from the time they were born until until they were fifteen.
And this was you know, the start of that show.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
And where did you film? Vancouver, Okay?
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Doing like four flights a week, back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. But what I saw was, like,
you know, in that story was or what I felt
was that it really the parents part of that story
and the way they wrote it so amazingly it showed
kids that parents have flaws and they're at that tender
(53:41):
age where they're starting to be able to accept that
or to see, oh like in those relationships that were
in Riverdale with the parents and the kids like oh,
like I recognize that my dad has that issue or
my mom has that issue, or and it really gave
a voice to I think, and again this is all
(54:01):
me surmizing things, but I think that was part of
the allure of it, was this you know, ability for
kids to latch on.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
To that, especially at that age, like what you were saying,
when kids stop sort of idolizing the parent and looking
at everything they know and believe to be what you
know and believe. You're starting to form your own opinions
as a kid and seeing these flawed humans, right, So
that's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (54:28):
Yeah, I think that had a lot. I think it
had something to do with it. And then of course
there's Cole Sprouse, so like, you know, he is the
greatest dude I have to tell and like we've we
have remained good friends and and like it was, I
think the blessing of that show is meeting him, and
I just think the world of him. He's so smart.
(54:49):
He went to NYU for like anthropology and was doing
digs in Africa and had left the business and then decided,
you know, I want to maybe this is for me,
let me try again. But it's just such an incredible, fascinating.
Speaker 1 (55:04):
Man and very very talented. He's so so good and
you know when you see these kid actors and what
they then become and like how people accept them, and
he's really sort of paved his own way, like he's
really really good and.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
He's just got the heart of he's got a heart
of gold. So yeah, but it was an incredible show.
Like I mean, you know it, and you know, it
was a roller coaster of like, you know, sometimes I
mean I was like twelve on the call sheet or something.
So sometimes I'd take these flights up and I'd stand
in the background and I'd fly home and like, you know,
and then I'd fly up and say one word and
(55:42):
come home and like and it just started wearing me
out that like that, you know, I was doing all
this travel and it wasn't really necessarily developing, and I
was in a renegotiation year and was looking to do
other things, and so I left it like after four seasons.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
But yeah, that's an interesting point you bring up that,
you know, it's like the antithesis to the full house,
perfect family kind of show, which you know, I know
people will take comfort in, but it might make them
feel like, oh my god, my life's not like this.
It's an interesting point.
Speaker 3 (56:16):
Point. Skeet.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
Let me ask you something. Have you ever let's just
listen to you talk about You mentioned cassave EDI's like,
have you ever directed? Is that something you know?
Speaker 3 (56:36):
I did? I made a short for my daughter, who
is an actress and you know, and has been most
of growing up on sets. You know, she had no
choice really although completely different direction. That's her twin brother,
and you know, I wanted to show her what, you know,
(56:56):
what it was like and the demands of it, you know,
because she wanted to do it as a kid, and
I never wanted, you know, I was off fored go
doing plays at YadA and plays around you know, at
school and all that stuff, but not the business part
of it, Like I just I don't know. So we
made the short. We won the Williamsburg Film Festival in Brooklyn.
(57:17):
She went, oh wow, it's like it's a long short.
It's like twenty three minutes long. Which we didn't make
it for like the festival circuit or anything, but some
people you know liked and were like, you should submit
it here and do this and that, and it did
really well. It was sort of a musing on. My
daughter used to go up on this roof and do
her homework and you can't really see any houses around
(57:40):
me at all, but when you get on the roof
you can see straight to my neighbor's front door. And
she came down, she was like maybe eleven or something,
and you know, and we're sitting at dinner and I
was like, what would you do if you like, looked
over and saw somebody breaking in the neighbor's house, and
then he looked back and saw you this sort of
(58:02):
idea of like, oh, that's a great kickoff for this
and this and this and this and uh and it
was fun. We shot it in five days for like
five grand and I had friends who had a couple
of red cameras that came over and you know, shot
and a buddy who was a sound mixer, and you know,
and Lenny James, who I had done Jericho with, played
(58:24):
this robber who really becomes the hero of the story.
So I called in a bunch of favors and we
just had a good time. And I shot a very
Cassavetti style, these long lingering wides or Altman style as well,
like and then just flowing in from one space to
the next. And I wish I had much more expensive
(58:46):
toys the entire time. There is there anyway where we
can see this? I could I could personally send it
to you. I mean, okay, on one of my dropbox
things or whatever. I don't know, one of those apps.
Somewhere I'll find it.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
I'd love to see that, man. But there's a new
show we want to talk about.
Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah, it comes out Sunday on AMC.
Speaker 1 (59:12):
And this is the this is Parish, right, this is
the Chion Carlow. Wait, so let's cut to come full circle.
Is this the first time that you have seen or
worked with him since he guest taught in your class?
Speaker 3 (59:26):
On an airplane coming back from albuquer we were both
had been working in Albuquerque and coming back to LA
and and he remembered me, and like it was like
I had been you know, I've been following you and
like you're doing so great and blah blah blah. It's
such a sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
Oh, he was probably doing either breaking bad or better
call Sault.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Right, Yeah, I think it was better call Saul at
that point, I'm not mistaken. And and we wound up
sitting beside each other and talking the entire way back,
and you know, about all kinds of different stuff from
meditation and transcendental meditation and Joe dispensa who he's a
big proponent of and follower of, and he sent me
(01:00:06):
a book about him, and then you know, we sort
of kept loosely in touch but not really and then
this thing came along and I didn't say a word
to him. I never hit him up nothing. I was
just like, you know, I'm going to put myself on
tape and see what happens. And they responded to it.
And then I didn't see him until we were in
New Orleans, you know, in pre production.
Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
But what a great life moment, Like I mean, it's
so amazing to look back to whatever your nineteen year
old self to now and just tell us a little
bit about the show.
Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
And it's really fascinating. You know. He plays a man
who a year prior to the story starting, his nineteen
year old was murdered in one of the wards in
New Orleans. And his it's a story about a man
going through grief and great depression and because of that,
and his business is falling a part. He's got like
(01:01:04):
a small you know, black car limousines orted, you know,
car service around New Orleans with like six or eight cars. Small,
but it's it's falling apart. He can't get the loan
to save it. His marriage of forever is falling apart.
They're going to have to sell the house. His daughters
at odds with them, and then one night his old
(01:01:28):
partner where they used to do crimes together he'd left
the crime world twenty years prior, but his partner did
seventeen years in the toughest prison in the US, Angola
for the crimes they had done together, and never routed
him out. Nothing. And he's been out a year and
gets himself in a situation where he could get killed
and comes to his old friend for help, and Jean
(01:01:49):
Carlo's character gets lured back into the criminal.
Speaker 4 (01:01:52):
Rule and oh, my god, this sounds good.
Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
I play that friend who's like a crazy Cajun, which
is the most fun accent on the planet in my mind.
Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
My daughter's at school in New Orleans. She goes to too,
and my wife went to Tulane. We spend a lot
of time there. But yeah, what an interesting place to shoot.
My god, that must be so fun.
Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
It was. I mean it's, as you know, it's a
dangerous place. And when we were there, I don't know
if it is still, but this was in twenty two.
It was the murder cap and and so we were
where and you just got to be careful where you
go and win.
Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
But to me, it's the food, music culture capital of
the world. Like I look at all the good stuff there,
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
Oh, you're right, I shouldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
I shouldn't label it in that way because you are right.
Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
That is that it is the best food, the nicest people,
the great the architecture. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you know,
you're right. I shouldn't. I shouldn't stick it with that.
Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
No, it is, you know, go on, it can be true.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Both can be true.
Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Where does this? Where is the show air on am AMCLU.
Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
It's a week at a time. We shot six episodes
and hopefully we'll do more.
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Great a week at a time. You make them wait
like old school.
Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Yeah, I wonder if they'll just wait to binge it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
That's true, That is true, right.
Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Well, people watch the first.
Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
No, people will watch the first and then they'll say,
we're going to save like to be able to write.
Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Probably.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Oh, I can't wait to see it. I can't wait
to see you and the two of you together. And
what a great story.
Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Yeah cool, it was a blast. You know. Maybe we'll
talk more about it another time, but it was. It
has a whole set of other stories that we're just
life changing as well. But yeah, yeah, I love that man,
John Carlo. He is truly one of the most talented
but also one of the most gracious, full loving person
(01:04:12):
on the planet.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
He's so good, I mean as of breaking bad and
better call Saul fan. It's like the second he steps
on screen and he's just he's been He's in everything.
He's been around for like you like you're saying, like
he's been around doing this for so long and he
kind of doesn't age either. You feel like he looks
so good. He's been around forever and he still looks
(01:04:36):
the same.
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Swims every morning but work or not, like he swims yoga,
meditation like he is on it.
Speaker 2 (01:04:45):
It's the key, of course, it's a good role, a
good teacher, man, good mentor that you have. But dude,
this was awesome. I mean, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
So much for I am so like this. I want
to give you a hug through the screen. We say
this all the time with friends of ours that we've
had on but next time we're in LA I'd love
to say hi and give you a squeeze.
Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Yeah, thank you guys, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Yeah, your third podcast. It wasn't that bad, right.
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
It's awesome. Yeah, yes, and you guys are amazing, So
thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
And oh the best, You're the best.
Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
Thank you, take care Okay, right, thank you, Bud.
Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
I mean, really, what can you say? What a great guy?
Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
That was amazing to I mean, I like only having
worked with them when we were kids, like literally like
early twenties when we did the Craft and he was
so on the rise. I remember that, you know, and
just knowing him a little bit like I had no
idea the sort of depth of his story, and I
mean his real love of the craft, like not the
(01:05:57):
no pun intended, not the movie the crap, but his
the way he talks about acting and performing and the
way he sees characters. And I mean, and he's just
worked with some of the all time greats.
Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
Yes, I got to say, what an amazing start at
NYU and David Mammoth and Bill Macy are your teachers?
And then the movies that he got one after the other.
I mean, it's it reminded me of like Bonnie Hunt,
you know, who went and auditioned for rain Man and
then just kept working with the greatest people in the industry.
Like some people, I don't know, they have that path
(01:06:35):
where they just do the most amazing quality project after project.
Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Yes, yes, great directors, great actors he worked with, and
what a what a cool career. And I've really I
always love to hear, like even the way you just
talked about being twelve on the call sheet and going
to do Riverdale and like making that commitment at that
time in his life to kind of, you know, leave
town and and try something different, you know, and then
(01:07:03):
after four years realizing like that, okay, that was that
ran its course. But like you know, that sort of
lack of ego of just it doesn't matter if there's
something cool to work on with interesting people. That's that's
a character you haven't played, like, it doesn't matter where
you fall in the call sheet.
Speaker 6 (01:07:22):
Like, I don't know, I think that's pretty great. I
like him watch Riverdale, but I obviously was aware of it.
But my kids, they even Hannah, who's home for spring break.
She's twenty one. She looked at his pictures. She's like,
oh my gosh, the dad on Riverdale.
Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Yeah, exactly, that's what Ello watched that first season. I
remember the season he talked about this murder mystery season
where it was like I just remember that's all Ella taught.
They were so.
Speaker 4 (01:07:48):
Obsessed her friends. Yeah, the biggest thing, Well, you know
who I think was the other dad? I think what
Archie's dad was played by Luke Perry.
Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
Yes it is really yes, Yes, that was so great.
Thanks for listening. Everybody, come on back next week.
Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Yeah, we have a good one next week and I
hope you enjoyed. Skeet Ulrich have a great week.
Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give us
five stars
Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
And please follow us on Instagram at hey dude the
nineties called See you next time.
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