April 2, 2025 • 59 mins
This week it's S.E.'s teenage crush, Rob Morrow! The Northern Exposure star shares some wild stories from his early years in Hollywood - from Caddyshack, to SNL and Nirvana. He talks about how he landed his most famous role as Dr. Joel Fleischman and how it broke stereotypes at the time. After digging into the rest of Rob's career (including Quiz Show and Billions), the pair talk about balancing family and work life, parenthood, the importance of finding therapy and how they each navigated some of the darker moments of their lives and mental health journeys. The conversation wraps up with a Rob Morrow-themed quiz so stay tuned for that!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I really find that those moments of synchronicity, you can't
write them, but whatever you're doing, whatever you're pursuing, being
aware of those signposts becomes really a positive kind of affirmation.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to off the Cup, my personal anti anxiety antidote.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I need to start by saying, I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
A forty five year old, happily married woman, but I
had two major crushes growing up as a young girl.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
One was Donnie Wohlberg. The other was my next guest.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And he's here and I'm avoiding looking at him as
I say this because it's embarrassing, but I have to
be honest, and I've.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Never told him this. I don't think it is because
of him.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I believe that I truly imagined I would grow up
to marry a nice Jewish doctor. I was convinced of
it when I was first introduced to doctor Joel Fleischmann
as an eleven year old Catholic girl from Boston. Let
me tell you, my world opened up and I really
felt like, oh, this is a kind of man I
(01:04):
had not seen on screen before. I didn't know this
kind of man existed, and I definitely needed him in
my life. I did not marry a nice Jewish doctor.
But I did date a nice Jewish lawyer at one point.
It was the closest I got to Joel Fleischman until
I met the actor who brought him to life.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
And I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He's wonderful, he's smart, he's kind, he's caring, he's a
multi talent and.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Belongs to the best men's club in Hollywood. Rob Morrow,
welcome to off the cup.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Thank you. S See, that's so sweet of you. You
have a little bit of Maggie O'Connell in you. I
think I just occouraged to me. I think you do dying.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I mean, if if it makes it any less awkward.
But my crush was on Joel Fleischmann. Sure we can
still talk and have a normal relationship, right.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes we can, Okay, But you know it's funny my mom,
my mom. You know, when I was becoming an actor,
she you know, she was worried about her son trying
to become an actor, and she was always trying to
push me into different fields. Obviously, doctor was never going
to happen, since I, you know, barely passed a test
from the seventh grade on. But lawyer was the big thing.
(02:14):
She really She kept saying to me, you know, lawyer
is they a lot of them take acting class because
they have to be able to perform in court, you know,
and so they have to be able to and so
that was her where she thought she'd compromise by by
having me be the acting lawyer. But it didn't worry.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I think it all worked out. It all worked out
for the best.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I want to talk about northern exposure and so much more,
but we need to start with your men's group. For
listeners who do not know, go right now to Instagram,
like pause this podcast. Follow Rob Morrow at Official Rob
Morrow and just look at his posts of lunches in La.
He posts these regularly, and there he is with Richard Kind,
(02:55):
Jason Alexander, Brian Cranston, Noah Wiley, Stephen Webber, Alfred Kevin Pollack,
Michael mccannon, Eric McCormick, love Arburton. It is a who's
who of Hollywood, and it has to be Rob the
funnest lunch of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It is, truly. It's such a gift. And I whenever,
you know, whenever we start to schedule them, I'm just
like clear my skin, like I'm literally going to be
in New York next in the end of the month,
and I'm coming back just to come to one of
the meals.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I don't blame you.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
They're so they're really lovely, and it's funny you call
it a men's group because it is that, you know,
yet you know, we go by the Cadsters, which is
the it stands for Character Actors Dining Society. But it
is a men's group and we are we're, you know,
in the in the best way that women's groups. You know,
women are allowed to be more vulnerable and share things
(03:53):
in the way that men traditionally are not, and we do.
We share a lot of deep personal you know, fears
and concerns as well as joy and insights. And the
show anecdotes are endless.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I mean, I can't even imagine.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
They're so priceless.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know, how did you get inducted?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I don't know. I just got asked to come. I
think maybe Spencer Garrett asked me to come to one,
and then I was in. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Spencer Garrett is a friend of mine as well because
his girlfriend is my colleague, Dana Bash.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm about to read a book.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Did you read great?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, yep, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And I was just talking to Dana about the fact
that I was gonna have you on and I'm gonna
try and get Spencer to come on too, but We've
already had Stephen Weber on the pod, so I'm like,
really running, I'm running through this group.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
There you go, You'll get through them all.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I guess it looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It looks amazing. I'm so jealous.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
It's really fun. It's really it's really it's really Uh, Spence.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
How did you get started in the business?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know, I never thought about it. I don't come
from a show biz family at all. It never occurred
to me that I would, you know, it never occurred
to me that that was a way to make a living.
I was a disaster of a student from the third
grade on and really bad, Like I'm not joking that.
I don't think I passed a test From the seventh
(05:24):
grade on. I took a GED at the beginning of
my senior year, which I cheated on and then was
off and pursuing my career. It never occurred to me
in retrospect there was a little bit of writing on
the wall in that I was a bit of a
class clown a bit, you know, I was. We would,
you know, in my neighborhood, the kids would all kind
(05:45):
of play act different TV shows. Lost in Space was one,
or Mannix or Star Trek, and we would dress up
and kind of act out, you know, in a very
kind of rudimentary way. And it didn't occur to me
until I was sitting in the movie theater. I was fifteen.
I was watching the movie Grease, and I just had this.
(06:07):
I can only describe it as an epiphany. It came
up into my realization, not that I was going to
try it, that I was going to be an actor.
It was like and it was basically it was John
Travolta's the sense of fun he was having, and I thought, well,
I can have fun if I get paid to have fun,
(06:30):
you know. And I walked out of the movie theater
and I said to my friend Tony as if I
had always thought it, you know, I'm going to be
an actor. And he was like, oh, I didn't know that,
and I was like, oh yeah, yeah. And that was it.
I had this raisindetra and it saved my life. I
really think I would have been in a lot of
trouble and I ended up working with John a couple
of times, and he told me a lot of actors
(06:52):
have told him that. I don't say he's the reason,
but he was a major catalyst.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And you you're an extra on SNL at age eighteen,
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah? It's an interesting thing again. You know, I just
wrote a memoir and it deals one of the major
themes is kind of synchronicity and these things that happened.
So I'm fifteen in Florida, living with my dad. My
parents are divorced. I want to be an actor now,
so I'm thinking every wh which way I can to
figure out how to do it. I'm acting in the
(07:23):
school plays. I see an ad somewhere for looking for
extras to be caddies in the movie Caddy Shack and
I caddied as a kid. I had I had to
make money starting around thirteen or so. So I caddied
and so I showed up. And because I caddied, they
loved it because I was a real kid, you know.
(07:44):
I wasn't I was, you know. And that's a lot
of caddies are kids within there's usually like a junior
and a senior caddy. And Brian Doyle Murray, Bill's brother
who took you know, who co wrote the movie, took
an instant liking to me because all the Murray brothers
were caddies and I had this into wish you not
to overact, so a lot of extras, often you know,
(08:04):
bad extras. You'll see they'll be like kind of making
expressions about the emotions of a scene, and you know,
obviously they don't want that, and so so they saw
that I could kind of be subtle, and I ended
up cutting school for like six weeks. My dad kicked
me out of the house. I lived with my grandparents,
and I I'm all over that movie. I'm like Waldo,
(08:26):
I'm everywhere, a little kind of chubby version of me.
Everywhere you can see I'm in a lot of times.
I'm in the purple mesh football jersey or gene vest
over the Bushwood Country Club T shirt. I'm there. And
so at the end of that movie, and it was
(08:47):
like I became like the mascot of the set because
I was this real kid. All the other kids had
to go back to school, and you know, they would
all show you know, the camera guys would show me
about the cameras and my lo keif would tell the
lunch ladies that I was the star, and and it
got you know, I got I saw what movie I watched,
(09:09):
Bill Murray, you know, improvise, you know. I remember saying
to the script girl, like, why does it every he
take seem like he's doing something different. She was like,
because he is sweetheart me. And she was like you know,
and rolled her eyes like how hard it was for her.
But at the end of the movie, Brian takes a
call sheet and writes his number on it, and he says, hey, kid,
(09:30):
you know you ever come to New York, give me
a call. So that's fifteen two years later. I'm seventeen.
I moved to New York to pursue the career, and
I called the number. It's like Willie Wonka's gold ticket
in my wallet, Like I appreciate it. I call him
up and I get through to him and it's as SNL.
It's nineteen seventy nine, and he says, I can't tell
(09:53):
if he remembers me or not, but he's like, yeah,
come on up and bring some pot, right, And I
was like, okay, So I didn't know where to get pot,
you know, So I was I went down to Washington
Square Park and I scored some like a couple joints
or one joint or something. And I show up at
SNL and they bring me. I go up to the
eighth floor and he comes out and he says, Oh,
(10:17):
we got a sketch you're going to be in. I
had thought I was just visiting, but he was like, Oh,
we're going to put you in as an extra. And
it happened to be that Rodney Dangerfield was hosting Who's
in Caddyshack? And they put me in this sketch and
I give Brian the joint and I think he was
disappointed because it was just a joint, Like, I think
you hot. And he disappears and I'm an extra in
this jury scene. I'm in one of the jurors in
(10:39):
the back. And cut to thirteen years later. I'm hosting SNL. Yeah,
and you show up on Monday and you have a
kind of lay of the Lamb chat with Lorn. He
tells you what it's going to be like, and I say,
you know, I was on the show and he was
like what it was like? Yeah, And he says, you know, Pam,
get the tape fromteen, So they get the tape and
(11:01):
sure enough I'm there, and that becomes the kind of
heart of my monologue, my opening monologue I made my
first Parents. It was nineteen eighty. I was in a
classic piece called the Substitute Judge.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It was it was me and Gilda, it was Jane Garrett,
Billy Murray.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
What a grateful circle?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, Storry, Yeah, I really find that those moments of synchronicity.
You can't write them, but I do think that whatever
you're doing, whatever you're pursuing, being aware of those signposts
becomes really a positive kind of affirmation. And at a
(11:39):
certain point I started to kind of see them and go, Okay,
this is the right direction. Oh, this is where I
should go. You know, I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So how does the role of Joel Fleischmann in Northern
Exposure come to you?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So I'm ten years in, I I've done one hundred
plays from the works you know little can we curse
on this or no want to? So we're shitty, little
basement plays and you know, off off Broadway things that
like four People. It was where I learned that in
actors equity, there's a rule that if you're if the
(12:25):
if the cast is larger than the audience. You don't
have to do the show. No, that's what there was
then anyway. But we always did them anyway because we
didn't care. You know, we were just getting our miles
on our skis and and uh just you know, I
co founded this theater company, Naked Angels, with all these
great artists you know that are household names now, and
(12:49):
we did all these plays and and then I started
to get on the short lists. You know. I did
one other TV series called Tattgers, which was created by
Bruce Paltrow Winnis Dad and in Tom Fontana, and it
was a it was a bomb. My friend Robbie Bates
called it a hybrid of everything ever bad on television. No,
(13:11):
but it would got you know, it got me working
and learning how to act for the camera, which is
a completely different animal. And so now ten years in,
it's like that Malcolm Gladwell book. You know, it takes
ten years to make a master, so to speak, of
a skill, and the outliers, I think it's called and
at that point, so so I know what I'm doing,
(13:33):
you know, and I'm on a lot of anytime anything
casting in New York, you know, in a certain age range.
I'm going in for it and often at that point
directly for the directors as opposed to being screened. And
they brought me in for Northern exposure, and I remember
reading it and it read like no other TV script
I had read. It read like a movie and it
(13:53):
just fit, you know. I went in and I read
for the two guys who created A Josh Brandon, John
Folsey and at Universal offices on Park in fifty seventh
and it just fit. And you know, like the next
day they were they wanted to make a test deal,
which is a weird thing, you know, actors have to
do where you make a deal before you audition for
(14:14):
seven years of your life. And it becomes very complicated
when the show becomes a hit, because you know, they're
making hundreds and hundreds of millions and you're making the
number you will whatever they gave you take, you know.
And so so I they make this deal. They fly
me out to La I test for. I do a
(14:36):
reading for the people at Universal, the executives there, and
the next day I go to the network for the
what the official test, and I go in and into
this basement at CBS at Television City and you go
into this black box, unadorned theater with a bunch of
executives in seats that you can't really see, and there's
(14:57):
no bedside. No one's like saying anything. They don't do
anything to make you comfortable. You're just kind of there.
And I show up and I walked down the hall
and it's one other guy and like five girls and
one the end. And the other guy was you know, the
opposite of me, waspy, kind of blonde, you know, And
(15:18):
so I thought, okay, it's between me and him. And
then and then shortly thereafter after I read the first time,
it was just me they he didn't stick around, so
I thought, okay, it's mine to win. And then I
went through I read with all the different girls, and
the last one was Jeanine, and uh, we just clicked,
you know, and we got in the elevator after we
(15:38):
took the elevator up, and I said, you know, it's
you and me, and she was like okay. And then
she she told me later she thought I was that
I was hitting on her.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Did you did you want the role really badly?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I don't know about really badly. You know, at that
point you start to inure yourself to those kind of
expectations because and there's so many auditions, which is a
great thing because it kind of takes the onus off
of anyone. It wasn't like I was thinking, Oh, this
is the one I've always been waiting for. I'm ready.
You know. It wasn't like that, but I like that
(16:19):
it was you know, had kind of higher ambitions than
a normal TV show. You know that it had kind
of philosophical, metaphysical, you know, spiritual aesthetic considerations that I
hadn't seen a lot, and so I was. I was
into it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, and it's airing again on Amazon Prime. And let
me tell you, I put on an episode to watch
with my son and it was almost.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Emotional for me, like eight or nine or it was
he's nine. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It was emotional for me to watch this with him
after all of these years because the show really did.
It meant a lot to me, and you know, to
be watching it through his eyes is just a very
cool thing.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
What did he think?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
He thought it was weird?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yes, you know, because kids are used to like very
different programming now, you know, with streamers and you know.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The kinds of shows that that they watched like the
Flora's Lava and you know, weird stuff. He thought it was.
He was he thought it was weird.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It was a weird show, but he it made him
want to go to Alaska, which is great. I've been
many times and can't wait, can't wait to take him.
But it was just an episode. We're going to keep
watching it together because there's just so much to grow
into on that show. Did you have your daughter watch it?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
My daughter's watching it now, she's watched She watched it occasionally,
but you know, there were a lot of years where
she didn't if I was in it, she didn't care,
which is I think normal. But now that now that
Amazon it came up on her things, you would like
actually watching it.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
And now it's cool.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And really digging it. And it's what I love about it.
Is like because when I was writing the book, I
went back and watched all the episodes which I hadn't seen,
including the I don't know if it's seven or eight
after I left, which I had never seen. And I'm
amazed how well the show holds up even aesthetically. Most
show period shows, the aesthetics are the thing, the giveaway,
(18:23):
But because everyone's in plaid and genes and parkers and
pickup trucks, and the themes are universal. It really holds
up and the social media bombardment I get daily from people,
you know, fifteen year olds watching it and eighty year
olds watching it's it's really heartening.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Well, I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's such a gem of a show, and it really
did put this new for me, this new kind of
guy up there on screen.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It was it was different.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Doctor Flashman was a different kind of male figure, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And he's kind of like, you know, arguably i mean,
one of the first Jewish protagonists and uh, you know
that's that was a cool thing.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But without being like a Woody Allen character, without being
sort of like an you know, a stereotype or a
cartoon of of that kind of character.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
He was so real and I mean, you they were.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Very conscious of that. They wanted to not be that stereotype.
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
That was well, it really worked. This character jumped off
the screen.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
This character was so real and obviously that's a you know,
credit to you and your tremendous talent, but just the
character development was so so good and thoughtful in that show.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, well, thank you. It was you know, there was.
It was so rich. They gave me so much to do.
And as I said, you know, I was ready. I was.
I have confident about few things in life, but I
was confident about acting. I knew I had so much
experience that I was good to go. And I just
(20:10):
hit the ground running. And you know, you talk about timing,
it was just great timing and.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You were ready for it. It was you were ready
for that moment.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I was ready for that moment. Yeah, And it was
really fun and exhausting. I mean, it was brutal those
first two seasons because we were super low budget for
a TV and we were shooting seven day episodes including Saturdays,
you know, and it was and I was in every scene,
(20:40):
you know, and I'd be like, I'd shoot thirteen hours
and I'd go home and I'd look at the next seven, eight,
ten pages. I had to learn, you know, with all
this medical jargon that I didn't even know how to pronounce,
let alone knew what it meant, you know, and I'd
have to sit there and figure it out, and then
you know, pass out on my bed with these medical encyclopedias.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, let's talk about Janine Turner I know Janine because
of politics, oh yeah, I mean she got into.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
She got into politics.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We we were for one moment we were kind of
in the same place, and then we went kind of
separate ways, just politically. But she was lovely. Was she
political when you guys were working together.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Not as much as she became. I mean, I think
the you know, it was somewhat bred in the bone
where she came from and that world. So but she
she became more so after the show.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, yeah, she did. So the show ends. You leave
the show, right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I left the show after one hundred and one or
five episodes, I can remember one, I think one hundred
and one or because it was time, you know, it
was time, it was I did one hundred episodes. You know.
It was like, you know, the thrill for me is
the creation of something. And I often say, you know,
(22:06):
Shakespeare couldn't write one hundred great episodes. It's like and
when I look at Northern Exposure, I think, you know,
and again I have a you know, particular experience, but
I'd say there were ten or twelve great episodes and
the rest were good, and so it was time for
me to explore, to move on.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, well, I gotta say, Quiz Show is a
perfect film. I've seen it dozens of times. That's not
an exaggeration because it's so rewatchable. And it stars you
and Ray Fines, and I mean an absolutely incredible performance
from Jonathan Turtureau, and I mean Mira Sorvino, David Paymer,
(22:50):
directed by Robert Redford. I mean, this is like stars colliding.
How did that role come to you?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know, first it was like I think it. I
think of it like I'm playing in the minor leagues
and I get called up to the majors, to the
All Star game, to pitch to pitch, you know, it's like,
it's fun. The script came to me with a package
from my agents, you know, with these videotape of Dick
goodwhen doing an interview.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And the real Dick good one because you're playing a real.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Person, the real Dick Goodwin, Richard Goodwin, and an excerpt
from the book he wrote, Remembering America, which was what
the movie was based on. And I read the script
and it was really fat. It was like one hundred
and fifty pages, which is long, and I was fascinated.
You know, it's just a fascinating yarn.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And it's funny because I was old. I was I
wasn't born or when these or maybe I was just born,
you know, I was too young to remember it. But
yet somehow it's it seeped into the culture. So I
was aware of these scandals. I don't know why, but
I just they just seemed very very familiar, because it
was somehow in the Zeitgeiser something. And I looked at
(24:02):
this tape, this video of Dick, and I started to
a very particular way of talking with his voice back
in his throat, you know, with this Boston you know
Brookline accent, and and I just zeroed right in on it.
And I had to do I was in Seattle, so
I had to do a tape of some scenes and
(24:23):
we sent him off and and then I got this
call like weeks later saying, you know, somehow Robert Redford
knew that I was going to be in New York however,
and he wants me to come in and read with
for him. And so I was like, you know, those
kind of things. I've had a lot of those kind
of experiences where to me it was almost I already
(24:46):
won by getting to go meet and work act for him.
You know, it was already a win, so it didn't matter.
I mean, it mattered that if I got it, but
I was I already felt like cool, if that's all
I get, I'm lucky, Like I get to go and
and referenced one of those guys that I I metabolized
his performances before I even was aware of it. You know,
(25:09):
at that acting what acting was, and his stillness and
his intelligence and those those gazes of his you know,
they became a part of me. And there I was
going to meet him and then act with him or
act because because so I go up to his office
and we go into his conference room and we chat
(25:29):
and we're just hit it off right away. You know,
I don't know why, you know, he just he just
I felt really comfortable around him. And we chatted and
then we started to rebrought in Bonnie Timmerman, the casting director,
and we started to read and then at one point
he says, let me read with him. And so I'm
acting with Robert Redford, which was so trippy because he's
(25:51):
like doing these Robert Redford faces at me, and I'm like,
I started laughing at one point, and he's like, what
the what are you laughing at? And I said, well,
you're you know, making these Robert Redford, there are you?
And I think he said something like, well, who should
who should I Whose face should I be? Paul Newman
(26:12):
something like that, and he told me that Paul Newman.
That's that's when he because then he told me that
Paul Newman what he was talking to him about playing
the rafe's father. Oh yeah, the brilliant Paul Scholfield.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh what a great job. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I mean, everyone is so good in that film, so good.
It is a good story. And I did not know
that story because I was young.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
But it's one of.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Those movies that like for a generation, Like there's a
generation that only got to know about Apollo thirteen from
the movie Apollo thirteen. And I think a generation who
only knows of these quiz show scandals this era through
this movie, this brilliant, brilliant movie. I don't know if
people know that Goodwin, the real life person you played,
became the husband of Doris Kern's one.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And I went and stayed with them up in Massachusetts,
and uh, you know, and they just regaled me with
stories and Dick became a real friend for some years
after and check this out. So we go. They do
a premiere in d C. And I don't know why,
but I was the only actor there, Bob and me
(27:23):
and and that's it and uh. And it's a big premiere.
So all the you know, DC movers and shakers were there.
And Dick calls me up in the hotel and he goes,
you know, we're there on you know, on the studio's dime.
And he's like, you want to go, you want to
go roam around? You want to go to the White House.
And I was like yeah. He's like okay. So we
(27:46):
go get the car takes us to the White House
and we're going up to the West Wing and I'm
sitting in the back and my girlfriend with me and
Dick and me and I'm drinking a soda and we
go over up speed bump and it goes all in
the mind. Sure as we're pulling up to the West
Wing and I'm like the ah. And my girlfriend was
(28:10):
a costume supervisor, so she was like take it off,
turn it backward and put it on. And I had
my suit so it didn't. So we go into the
White House and we're supposed to go say hi to
Bill Clinton, and he's too busy, go figure and uh
so they so they bring us up and we go
hang out with Al Gore in his office and he
and Dick hold court and and we you know, Al
(28:32):
knew a lot about New Redford from the environmental causes
and we talk a lot. After this, Dick says, you
want you want to go? I want to go check
out the I'm going to show you the Robert Kennedy
memorial at Arlington I think it is. And uh we
go there and it's it's this little oval with the
inscriptions of some of the famous speeches in the you know,
(28:54):
in the marble, and he's we're looking at the Tiny
Ripples of Hope speech and he goes, I wrote that. Yeah.
So he went on, I know, and I was like, well,
he went on to become from the Christian scandals. He
became an aid and speech writer for JFK and Bobby
(29:15):
and I was really good friends with him, and and
wrote somebody you know, it's credited with creating the phrase
the great Society. I think he's got these credited with
a lot of big speeches.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
We had Josh mangoit's on the on the podcast, and
his dad was r f K's like body man or
press secretary. I think press secretary. He was his press secretary.
So we've talked a lot about r f K on this.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yes, they must have been they must have known each other.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, I'll have to ask him.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Tell me about mother. I'm a big Albert Brooks fan.
Tell me about that and how that came to be.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
We just did. They called me up to do a
I guess it's some anniversary. So they did it. They
put out a Criterion, put out a new version, and
they interviewed a bunch of us, which I just they
just sent it to me. Well, Albert I was a
fan of you know, I mean everyone was. Yes, I
think since Modern Romance was the one that first got
(30:29):
my attention.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And unsurprisingly broadcast news for me was like, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Right, of course, I mean he was. It is one
of the great movies. I referenced it all the time,
but it wasn't his movie, you know, his the thing
that you know, there's there were so idiosyncratic and unusual
and personal and and charming, you know, And so they
call comes in. I think they they flew me out
(30:57):
from New York. They were, so they were very interested,
but they wanted me to audition. At that point, I
wasn't really auditioning a lot, but but I was like
for Albert happily. And so I fly out and they
gave me a couple of scenes to learn. I go
to Paramount. I go into his little office. It's just
me and him. He's behind his desk and I'm in
the chair opposite. You know, it's like a meeting your
(31:19):
accountant or something. And I put my sides on the
on his desk and you know, getting ready to do it.
And we we I get through maybe like five six
lines and he just goes, I want you to do
the movie. That was it. Yeah, it was like he
just I think he just wanted to see that I
was normal, you know, and I wasn't going to you know,
(31:40):
And that was it. And so and it was so
much fun. He had a great situation there. They gave
him a fortune to make these little movies. So you'd
work six seven hours, you know, on one scene, and
that would be the day. And you know, my whole
thing was I just wanted to and I wanted to
(32:00):
improv with him, so and he was he would indulge me.
He'd make me do what was on the page, but
then we would spend you know, we'd do a couple
of takes of just messing around, and that was the
most fun because he's so fast and so funny. And
I'm sure there's a lot of outtakes of me cracking
up somewhere.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Well, I'd love to see those.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I just watched Defending My Life his his doc.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
It's so good. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
That's the Rob ryaner one. It is so good.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, it's so good. So so then you go back
to TV.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
After Mother I did it, I did it, or I
did a movie called Last Dance with Sharon Stone. You do,
I do Maze, I do some bunch of theater. I
do a play in London on the West End, which
was an incredible experience. I start developing more material, you know,
I had made a short film when I was doing
(32:56):
Northern as director and that kind of got my app
tight wet for directing and creating stories. And then I
made Maze and then ended up back on a show
called street Time for Showtime, which we did about thirty
three episodes, and I thought it was great. I think
it was ahead of its time and It starred Terrence
(33:20):
Howard and me and Scott Cohen and Erica Alexander, and
it was about the world of parole, those on it
and those who enforce it. And I just loved it.
I loved everything about it, the way we made it.
And it's one of these things that it was like
Northern until very recently, it's sitting on a shelf at Sony.
It's never seen the light of days since it aired.
(33:42):
I think what happens is the music rights become so
complicated that they just rather not.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah inexpensive, yeah, yeah, yeah, you do numbers.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Then I do a couple of years after that, I
do numbers, and then I'm on that for six years. Yeah,
which was a lot of fun. And you know, it
can get a little It's not my thing, you know, procedurals.
It's not really where I live, you know. But I
had never played a you know, the kind of alpha
hero guy, you know, the guy that comes in and
(34:14):
shoots it up. And I'm not a gun guy at all.
But but I was a kid and I used to
play cowboys and Indians and all that stuff. So that
part of me was really excited by the idea of
busting down doors and you know, and and saving the
day and getting the girl and yeah, and I remember
they they used to, you know, we have all these
(34:37):
FBI tech you know, advisors on the set, and you know,
we'd kind of come into a scene where we'd you know,
bust it up and they, you know, we'd have these
these uh right, these automatic rifles, and they the guys
would be like, look, it's not like in the movies.
You know. It's like you take your moment and you
just you know, and I'd be like, Okay, I got it.
(34:58):
They roll the camera. I'd be like because it was
just so much fun.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I'm sure. And then you get billions huge hit show.
Did you did you know it was?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Was it a hit show already when you got the
role or did you get the role before it?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I think it hadn't aired yet, because I was. I
was on every season of that show. Yeah, just sometimes
as much as five times, sometimes as little as two.
But I think it hadn't even aired yet.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Did you sense that it was going to be so big?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
No? I mean you never do. You don't allow you
can't allow yourself those thoughts. You know. It's like I
remember when I got Northern exposure. I didn't. All I
knew was that they weren't shooting a pilot. They were
shooting eight episodes, and so I had eight episodes of employment,
you know, and that was all I could think about.
And it was this billion's never occurred to me, you know,
(35:58):
what would happen. I knew that it was really an
interesting world that hadn't quite been explored yet. And I
met Brian on his podcast. He invited me on his podcast,
and then shortly thereafter asked me to come do that.
And I've done a couple of things with them. I
did the one about Uber, right, and I think I'll
probably do some more stuff with them. They're they're great guys.
(36:20):
And that was such a fun gig because you know,
I didn't have the pressure of carrying the show, and
it wasn't a big commitment or anything. And it would
just kind of fly me into New York, you know,
a couple of times a year, put me up really nice.
I'd shoot like on a Monday and then the next Monday,
so I'd have a week in New York to do
whatever I want.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
But I think which is when we met, probably right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
And you know, and then it was mostly most of
my stuff was just with Giamatti. So it was just
like so much fun. I would just sit there and
do these really well written, intricate, charming scenes with Paul
and spend the day hanging out with him.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Oh so cool.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I feel like guys don't get asked this a lot,
So I'm going to ask you, how do you balance
your family and your work life.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well, you know, when my daughter was younger, my wife
took the brunt of it, for sure, So there's that,
you know. But I got married late. I was like
thirty eight, you know. We didn't have our daughter until
she's twenty three, you know, So I was, you know,
what does that make me? You know, late forties, I guess, no,
(37:32):
early forties, mid forties, And so I was it wasn't
hard for me to sacrifice, you know, you know, I mean,
I mean, and I can tell you're a great parent
and you and your husband because I see all your
Instagram pictures and stuff, and it looks like a great
your son's having a great time and ye're taking great
care of them. And but I think you know you're
(37:52):
younger than me, but but you have to sacrifice so much, Yeah,
to be involved with your family. But if I had
done it, if I'd been a minute younger, I probably
would have messed it up, you know, because I had
other stuff I had to deal, you know, sow my own,
so to speak. But by the time we were you know,
raising two, it was I didn't I didn't care about
(38:14):
missing out on something. So I was happy to be there.
And and and I love being a father. I just
love it. I just I just I love her and
I love you know. As soon as she was born,
it was like instant perspective. It was like, Okay, now
I know what, I know what's important. Up till then
it was like, well this could be important or that
(38:35):
could be important. But no, it's like the one thing
is I got to make sure this creature, you know,
thrives and and uh so it was uh and and
and then on top, just to finish your question, I
got really lucky with the early years. I mean the
show Street Time we all moved to she was an infant,
so we moved to Toronto. We were together, you know,
(38:58):
and so there was weekends and days off, and then
numbers was six years in LA when she was you know,
really young, and so I was home every night. Yeah,
that's the hardest part I think for for actors as
being away and we we we've been lucky that way.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Let's talk about mental health. Tell me about Donnie Hathaway.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, you know, that was There's a group that I
work with called the Tribe with this This wonderful man
named Kevin Waks runs it, and we do these benefits
a couple of times a year. You know. I'm a
musician and I go and do songs with them, and
we do these big concerts and we get a lot
of kind of big artists to come in and perform.
(39:42):
And Kevin had stumbled upon the notion that of the
nine eight eight hotline, yeah, which I had never heard of.
I didn't even know it existed, nor did he the
suicide line. Yeah, that is, there's a suicide hotline just
like nine to one one, but it's nine eight eight.
And the statistics of it are, you know, astonishing that
(40:04):
the success rate they have of getting people talking them
off the ledge so to speak, when they know about
it is really great. And so he put together this benefit.
You know, Donnie Hathaway, I guess killed himself. There's some
controversy around it. And we did a benefit recently for
the nine nine eight hotline and awareness and different foundations
(40:26):
that deal with suicide prevention. I had one ideation when
I was nineteen, and that was it. I mean, I've
certainly had my share of depression, but I don't suffer
from the kind of you know, that kind of oppressive
depression that a lot of people have. I get depressed,
but it goes, and it comes and goes. But I
(40:46):
did have one ideation, and so I can relate a
little bit, and you know, I just I just you know,
life is such a gift, and so I understand how
hard it is for people. I really get it. But
there's something so beautiful about the way that people can
(41:09):
come to other people's aids and support them and nurture them.
There was this girl I can't remember her name who
got up at this benefit we did a couple of
weeks ago, and she was like twenty three. She had
tried to kill herself at twelve, and I think again
at nineteen, and now she was on the other side
of it, and she was a survivor and a beautiful soul,
(41:31):
and she had found the value of life unto itself.
Ill regardless of what is accomplished, and it was such
a beautiful thing to see. So I just did a
little small part. I just helped out. And basically that's
my rule with charities in general. I just if I
can do it, I say yes. And so but you know,
(41:53):
mental health is I'm so glad that we live in
a time where it's discussed. That's why one of your questions,
you know that it's like that that we we can
address these things because it's it's complicated, the chemistry and
our brains and the and the and the environments we
live in and now with social media and and and
(42:13):
all of the you know, difficult things that are going
on in the world. Very I feel like for my
daughter's age, they've been beaten down into a kind of
low grade cynicism. That said, I'm optimistic because I do.
I do. I do see a lot of kids that
I do see leadership coming, you know. But but mental
(42:36):
health is is, uh, we live in a great time,
you can. You know, I've been in therapy my entire life,
in and out. I'm in a new one now that
I really like, and it's it's unusual, but it it
it saved me because it gave me a safe harbor,
and I get you know a lot of people say it.
Redford used to call it navel gazing, you know, and
(42:58):
and I say in my book, naval gaze has its place,
you know, I am. I'm really pro all of these
programs and any way to make you make you conscious
of your issues. And once your conscious potential is open,
it's just like ninety eight. Once you know that's there, Okay,
there's something you can do and vitally, just just before,
(43:19):
we don't want to speak abs susiever, but that John
bon Jovie story killed me.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Did you know that he was already saved someone?
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Do you see the video? It's amazing, it's amazing, and
I just fell in love with him. I already liked him,
but then I was like, oh my god, as if.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
We couldn't love him more?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I know, I know, well, listen, therapy saved my life twice.
I also had an attempt when I was in my teens,
and therapy saved me then and then coming back in
my forties, had a nervous breakdown, you know, dealing with anxiety.
(43:56):
I didn't know that I was dealing with anxiety. I
was just living my life. Life, and I thought actually
doing a pretty good job. I was not, and therapy
saved me yet again. And I'd recommend it for everybody.
I don't know a person who wouldn't benefit, yeah, from
a really good therapy session. But but I mean certainly
(44:17):
if you're feeling lost, or anxious, or worried or sad,
depressed down all the things.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
Yeah, really, it really is a life saver talking right.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Because it's subjective and it's ideally it's it's objective, and
I'm glad you found ways to deal with that because
you know, it's it's a it's a beautiful thing. And
look at you. You're thriving and you have a great life,
and think of the alternative, you know, if you if
you didn't, and the you know, the there's so many
upsides to the interconnected social media world we live in.
(44:53):
There's so many downsides, but there's a lot of upsides,
and one of them is that everyone's kind of reachable
or all if people are reachable. Yeah, you can be
in the middle of nowhere, you know, in a little town, suffering,
and there's you can reach out to someone in you know,
another state, another country and help us there.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
And you can listen to a podcast where really successful
people like yourself, and this is a theme of this podcast,
are talking about mental health and talking about getting help
and talking about struggles or challenges, and that can mean
so much to someone who thinks, wait a second, I've
(45:33):
seen her on the news, I've seen him in the
movies that they're so successful. Anxiety and depression, mental health
do not care that you're successful or wealthy or whatever.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
So it really is impactful to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Absolutely, I'm glad you.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I'm glad you are, and thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Okay, we're going to finish with the lightning round.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
In quiz show, as you mentioned, your character is from Brookline, Mass.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I am a mass whole myself.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
How would you rate your Boston accent in that film?
Speaker 1 (46:27):
I rated ten out of ten, you know. Yet it's
so funny, because again I write about this in the book,
I get a lot of social media people will come
on and say, oh, but that accent was terrible. He
was awful, you know. And I think that what they
don't realize is because they don't know that Dick spoke
in this way. Like if you watch a tape of Dick,
I sound like him, and it's that that thing in
(46:48):
the back of his throat. And I think people thought
that that was the accent, but the accent. I had
this great guy, this guy named Tim Monnick, who's like
the dialect coach to the stars. And Redford could have
fired me, could have we could have replaced all the dialogue.
You know, we knew it worked. So again, so ten
out of ten.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
I also give it a ten thank you because it
was in addition to being Dick Goodwin's voice, it was
a specific kind of Boston accent. It wasn't the modern
day Boston accent that people think about the Wahlbergs. It
wasn't the Kennedy Brahman accent. It was a Jewish nineteen
fifties accent. And you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Thank you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
You mentioned Rodney Dangerfield was the host of that SNL
episode you were on. Who was the band Nirvana? No,
the first one you did.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Oh that was when I hosted oh oh, the Jay
Giles band.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You got it, okay, And you just said the musical
guest on the episode you hosted was Nirvana.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
That must have been I.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Could do ten minutes on that man, you know, that
was I don't know if you have time, but I
have an amazed all right, So the band shows up
the end of the week, it's like Friday, you know,
they were that's it, and you know, the whole vibe
is rock and roll to begin with, but when Nirvana
shows up, it's really rock and roll. They don't adhere
to schedules. They're you know, like most bands, they're three,
(48:09):
four or five hours late. And I had a The
host has a dressing room. It's a small room, and
right next to that is the band's dressing room. To
this day, it's the same layout. And yet I'm one
guy in my little room. They're ten people with their
managers and girlfriends. And I knew them because we all
(48:31):
lived in Seattle. When I was doing Northern and they
were coming up, they were in Seattle, so I would
see them at events and stuff when we kind of
hung out a little bit, and my god, so I
wanted to go in and say hi, and I walk.
I opened the door and they're all like, you know,
there's just a small room with a couch and a
(48:52):
you know, makeup desk and a bathroom and that's about it.
And you know, in every corner is some you know,
girlfriend or manager, you know, just leaning out. And on
the couch is Courtney and and Dave Grohl and Chris
Novlsek and Courtney's pregnant, and Kurt was out cold on
(49:13):
the floor right just out cold, right in front of
the door. And so in order to shake everyone's hand,
I had to step over. Kurt took like, go shake
Dave's hand, step over his head to say shake this
one's hand. Stepped over his feet to shake this one's hand.
And they they went on on the show. And the
(49:36):
first song they did, you know, Kurt looked like he
didn't know where he was, like he just was after
at the end, he just was kind of like And
the second song they did after it, they trashed the
set all of the who like but it was unrelenting.
You can watch it if you watch the episode. It's
(49:57):
it's on line and they just ripped the place apart.
They you know, Groll is picking up his drum and
throwing it at Chris Novlsek, who's throwing his base at him.
And and Kurt's in the on on in front of
these big amps with his fender, ripping off the fabric
on the and the and it's and it's everything's feedback,
(50:21):
feeding back, and and and for the life of me,
I'm thinking, why are they not cutting away? I think
they were all in shock, and you know they they
watched you watched this for almost a minute. And and
then after that, Lauren says, you know they they he says,
they'll never be allowed back on the show. And of course,
like a year later, they're back on the show. But
(50:43):
so the code of what makes this interesting to me
is that about five years ago, four years ago, my
friend Gina Gershan, I'm in New York for a weekend
and I have nothing to do, and she's like, what
are you doing Saturday night? And I say, I got
no plans. And she says, oh, I'm going to go
up and the Foo Fighters are on SNL. You want
(51:05):
to go watch it? And I was like, yeah, sure.
So we go up to the show and afterward we
go back going to the same dressing room now they
were in, you know whatever billion years before, and it's
the same setup, except now the manager's got guts and
gray hair, and you know, and the girlfriends or wives,
(51:27):
and it's the same setup. I'm standing in the exact
spot where I was stepping over Kurt's body. And I'm
talking to Dave Grohl, who is, you know, the sweetest
rock star ever, and I'm like, he says to me,
what do you remember from that night? And I said,
I told him that story and he said, well, that
that was the night that we all had come to
(51:49):
terms with the fact that Kurt had a real problem.
It was at that night that we were like, we
are in trouble and this is going to not end well.
And he killed himself like a year later. Oh, but
he said, that's when we were like we got to
do something. And uh so it was just an interesting
story for me.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
I was there for it, wow, because it was.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
So sad, you know.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I just felt he was such a sweet soul, you know,
and so talented and it was so sad.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
I mean, it was just on the floor. Like it
was so shocking for me to walk in there and
just be like, oh this boys, there's something wrong.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Yeah, yeah, and there was.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:28):
Well, thank you for sharing. That was a great story. Okay,
name three real life characters you've played.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Uh well, I guess I mean so ones that I
haven't well, Isaac Geldhart, Willie Lowman, did you say real
life or just character real life real life character people.
John Wilkes Booth, Richard Goodwin yep, god, I played this
doctor in this Als movie, but I can't remember his name.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
What about a lawyer?
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Oh, Garry Shack, there you go.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
What's your favorite place to film?
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Well, I would say my favorite place is in winter scapes.
You know, I love I love winter, I love skiing,
so you know, and there's I call them naar scenes
no acting required because when you're in this, when you're
in a beautiful, you know, landscape that's you know, white
and everything, you don't have to You're just there. You know,
you don't you don't try, I have to try hard.
(53:28):
So I would say that or New York City is
pretty great. The thing about New York City is itn'ts
as you know, like it just informs your energy and
so when you're shooting, that informs your your the work
you're doing. And I just I love when, you know,
movie companies take over the world when they're shooting. They
(53:48):
own everything, the light that, the traffic lights, that the
cops everything, and so you know, it's just so much
fun to be able to like own a city for
a moment.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
You know ye, what's your favorite band or musical artist?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
M well, so many, I want to say. I guess
the Stones are pretty high up there. The Eagles are
pretty high up there. John Mayer is pretty high up there.
Billie Eilish is pretty high up there. I have a
really eclectic music taste. I listen to everything, you know.
(54:25):
I'm digging Coldplay's news. I love Coldplay. I'm going to
see Billy Joe with my daughter on Saturday. Amazing my
favorite artist, you know, I guess i'd go. I'd go.
I'd have to go backward and say, like, you know,
Beethoven if I had, if you made me reduce it,
I'd say Beethoven and uh uh django Reinhardt. But I
(54:54):
just there's a caveat because you're making me reduce it.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
I don't know, right, okay, because they're all derivative, right
of some you gotta go back.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
This is a really tough question. Who's the best actor
at your men's lunches?
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Wow? You know I want to My first person came
to mind was Cranston. He is so damn good and
and not only is he good, but when he talks
about acting, it's I just learned from him, and I'm
so inspired. He wrote a book and he I tell
all the young actors to read this book because he
talks about it. He talks about acting in such cojing
(55:33):
specific ways that I just he's he he really understands
it in a deep intuitive way, and and he articulates it.
And so if I had to say, I mean no,
I mean, look, we got Fred Malina in there, and
and Jason and and and and never is Weber is underrated.
(55:56):
Weber is I think, such a underrated actor. He's un rated.
He's he can do anything kind. I mean, they're all.
Eric McCormick is a master.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
Kevin Pollock I love to.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Pollock is a genius. Uh noah, I mean Danny Burns
scenes in the groups. He's a New York actor. But
if you made me reduce it like you did with
the music, I'd say I say, I'd say Brian, and
they probably they'd probably all agree.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
I think that's an uncontroversial opinion.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, Okay, this last question, it's the most important to
me spiritually culturally.
Speaker 3 (56:34):
When is iced coffee season.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Summer?
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Okay, wow, it's a year round, is the correct answer.
But you're allowed to have that wrong opinion.
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Well, first of all, I've stopped. I haven't had caffeine
in seven months. But it was it was almost like
Pavlovian for me. Comes I don't drink ice coffee. I
ever drank ice coffee in the winter, but come summer
it would just automatically start to happen like I just yeah,
I did it all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
Well, growing up in Massachusetts with Dunk dunkin Donuts around
every corner, it's part of my religion is even in the.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Winter, even in freezing, crazy Boston cold.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Yes, rob, because I don't it's not precious. I don't
need to sip it. I don't want to take a
long time. I want it in my.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
Mind to get it down. It goes down old. I see. Yes,
well so you so I haven't been done it in
six seven months, no caffeine, and I was for espressos
before noon before that.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
Okay, all right, Well next time you have an iced coffee,
think of me.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
I'm not gonna I'm done.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
You're never going back.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
No, I love it.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
I don't even know what life would what what is
life like without coffee?
Speaker 1 (57:49):
It's like so easy. I don't even miss it. I
don't miss it and I sleep better.
Speaker 3 (57:55):
I'm sure that's true.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I I do limit myself to one a day, so
I'm I'm not like amped up on coffee. But but
the taste of coffee is so important to me, you.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
Know, it's it was the habitual thing that that that
was that. I just I love not being beholden to
my coffee. I get it.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Well.
Speaker 3 (58:18):
Sad to see you gory, tough to lose a good one.
There's more for you, Rob Morrel, Thank you so much
for doing this. It was a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
You're so sweet, Sie. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (58:33):
Next week.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
On Off the Cup, I talked to actor and screenwriter
Jonathan Check from that thing you do.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
It wasn't a box office success and that and Tom
has been very vocal about the critics. Yeah he has
what he said. He said, I'm like Tom and you
were they didn't really see the magic in it at
the time.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
Off the Cup is a production of iHeart Podcasts as
part of the Reason Show Network.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
If you want more, check out the other Reason.
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Choice podcasts Spolitics with Jamel Hill and Native Land pod.
For Off the Cup, I am your host, se cup
Editing and sound design by Derek Clements.
Speaker 3 (59:11):
Our executive producers are me.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Se Cup, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Rate and review wherever you get
Speaker 2 (59:18):
Your podcasts, Follow or subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday,
I really find that those moments of synchronicity, you can't
write them, but whatever you're doing, whatever you're pursuing, being
aware of those signposts becomes really a positive kind of affirmation.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to off the Cup, my personal anti anxiety antidote.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I need to start by saying, I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
A forty five year old, happily married woman, but I
had two major crushes growing up as a young girl.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
One was Donnie Wohlberg. The other was my next guest.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And he's here and I'm avoiding looking at him as
I say this because it's embarrassing, but I have to
be honest, and I've.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Never told him this. I don't think it is because
of him.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I believe that I truly imagined I would grow up
to marry a nice Jewish doctor. I was convinced of
it when I was first introduced to doctor Joel Fleischmann
as an eleven year old Catholic girl from Boston. Let
me tell you, my world opened up and I really
felt like, oh, this is a kind of man I
(01:04):
had not seen on screen before. I didn't know this
kind of man existed, and I definitely needed him in
my life. I did not marry a nice Jewish doctor.
But I did date a nice Jewish lawyer at one point.
It was the closest I got to Joel Fleischman until
I met the actor who brought him to life.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
And I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He's wonderful, he's smart, he's kind, he's caring, he's a
multi talent and.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Belongs to the best men's club in Hollywood. Rob Morrow,
welcome to off the cup.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Thank you. S See, that's so sweet of you. You
have a little bit of Maggie O'Connell in you. I
think I just occouraged to me. I think you do dying.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I mean, if if it makes it any less awkward.
But my crush was on Joel Fleischmann. Sure we can
still talk and have a normal relationship, right.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes we can, Okay, But you know it's funny my mom,
my mom. You know, when I was becoming an actor,
she you know, she was worried about her son trying
to become an actor, and she was always trying to
push me into different fields. Obviously, doctor was never going
to happen, since I, you know, barely passed a test
from the seventh grade on. But lawyer was the big thing.
(02:14):
She really She kept saying to me, you know, lawyer
is they a lot of them take acting class because
they have to be able to perform in court, you know,
and so they have to be able to and so
that was her where she thought she'd compromise by by
having me be the acting lawyer. But it didn't worry.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I think it all worked out. It all worked out
for the best.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I want to talk about northern exposure and so much more,
but we need to start with your men's group. For
listeners who do not know, go right now to Instagram,
like pause this podcast. Follow Rob Morrow at Official Rob
Morrow and just look at his posts of lunches in La.
He posts these regularly, and there he is with Richard Kind,
(02:55):
Jason Alexander, Brian Cranston, Noah Wiley, Stephen Webber, Alfred Kevin Pollack,
Michael mccannon, Eric McCormick, love Arburton. It is a who's
who of Hollywood, and it has to be Rob the
funnest lunch of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It is, truly. It's such a gift. And I whenever,
you know, whenever we start to schedule them, I'm just
like clear my skin, like I'm literally going to be
in New York next in the end of the month,
and I'm coming back just to come to one of
the meals.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I don't blame you.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
They're so they're really lovely, and it's funny you call
it a men's group because it is that, you know,
yet you know, we go by the Cadsters, which is
the it stands for Character Actors Dining Society. But it
is a men's group and we are we're, you know,
in the in the best way that women's groups. You know,
women are allowed to be more vulnerable and share things
(03:53):
in the way that men traditionally are not, and we do.
We share a lot of deep personal you know, fears
and concerns as well as joy and insights. And the
show anecdotes are endless.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I mean, I can't even imagine.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
They're so priceless.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know, how did you get inducted?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I don't know. I just got asked to come. I
think maybe Spencer Garrett asked me to come to one,
and then I was in. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Spencer Garrett is a friend of mine as well because
his girlfriend is my colleague, Dana Bash.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, I'm about to read a book.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Did you read great?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, yep, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And I was just talking to Dana about the fact
that I was gonna have you on and I'm gonna
try and get Spencer to come on too, but We've
already had Stephen Weber on the pod, so I'm like,
really running, I'm running through this group.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
There you go, You'll get through them all.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I guess it looks amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
It looks amazing. I'm so jealous.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
It's really fun. It's really it's really it's really Uh, Spence.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
How did you get started in the business?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know, I never thought about it. I don't come
from a show biz family at all. It never occurred
to me that I would, you know, it never occurred
to me that that was a way to make a living.
I was a disaster of a student from the third
grade on and really bad, Like I'm not joking that.
I don't think I passed a test From the seventh
(05:24):
grade on. I took a GED at the beginning of
my senior year, which I cheated on and then was
off and pursuing my career. It never occurred to me
in retrospect there was a little bit of writing on
the wall in that I was a bit of a
class clown a bit, you know, I was. We would,
you know, in my neighborhood, the kids would all kind
(05:45):
of play act different TV shows. Lost in Space was one,
or Mannix or Star Trek, and we would dress up
and kind of act out, you know, in a very
kind of rudimentary way. And it didn't occur to me
until I was sitting in the movie theater. I was fifteen.
I was watching the movie Grease, and I just had this.
(06:07):
I can only describe it as an epiphany. It came
up into my realization, not that I was going to
try it, that I was going to be an actor.
It was like and it was basically it was John
Travolta's the sense of fun he was having, and I thought, well,
I can have fun if I get paid to have fun,
(06:30):
you know. And I walked out of the movie theater
and I said to my friend Tony as if I
had always thought it, you know, I'm going to be
an actor. And he was like, oh, I didn't know that,
and I was like, oh yeah, yeah. And that was it.
I had this raisindetra and it saved my life. I
really think I would have been in a lot of
trouble and I ended up working with John a couple
of times, and he told me a lot of actors
(06:52):
have told him that. I don't say he's the reason,
but he was a major catalyst.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And you you're an extra on SNL at age eighteen,
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah? It's an interesting thing again. You know, I just
wrote a memoir and it deals one of the major
themes is kind of synchronicity and these things that happened.
So I'm fifteen in Florida, living with my dad. My
parents are divorced. I want to be an actor now,
so I'm thinking every wh which way I can to
figure out how to do it. I'm acting in the
(07:23):
school plays. I see an ad somewhere for looking for
extras to be caddies in the movie Caddy Shack and
I caddied as a kid. I had I had to
make money starting around thirteen or so. So I caddied
and so I showed up. And because I caddied, they
loved it because I was a real kid, you know.
(07:44):
I wasn't I was, you know. And that's a lot
of caddies are kids within there's usually like a junior
and a senior caddy. And Brian Doyle Murray, Bill's brother
who took you know, who co wrote the movie, took
an instant liking to me because all the Murray brothers
were caddies and I had this into wish you not
to overact, so a lot of extras, often you know,
(08:04):
bad extras. You'll see they'll be like kind of making
expressions about the emotions of a scene, and you know,
obviously they don't want that, and so so they saw
that I could kind of be subtle, and I ended
up cutting school for like six weeks. My dad kicked
me out of the house. I lived with my grandparents,
and I I'm all over that movie. I'm like Waldo,
(08:26):
I'm everywhere, a little kind of chubby version of me.
Everywhere you can see I'm in a lot of times.
I'm in the purple mesh football jersey or gene vest
over the Bushwood Country Club T shirt. I'm there. And
so at the end of that movie, and it was
(08:47):
like I became like the mascot of the set because
I was this real kid. All the other kids had
to go back to school, and you know, they would
all show you know, the camera guys would show me
about the cameras and my lo keif would tell the
lunch ladies that I was the star, and and it
got you know, I got I saw what movie I watched,
(09:09):
Bill Murray, you know, improvise, you know. I remember saying
to the script girl, like, why does it every he
take seem like he's doing something different. She was like,
because he is sweetheart me. And she was like you know,
and rolled her eyes like how hard it was for her.
But at the end of the movie, Brian takes a
call sheet and writes his number on it, and he says, hey, kid,
(09:30):
you know you ever come to New York, give me
a call. So that's fifteen two years later. I'm seventeen.
I moved to New York to pursue the career, and
I called the number. It's like Willie Wonka's gold ticket
in my wallet, Like I appreciate it. I call him
up and I get through to him and it's as SNL.
It's nineteen seventy nine, and he says, I can't tell
(09:53):
if he remembers me or not, but he's like, yeah,
come on up and bring some pot, right, And I
was like, okay, So I didn't know where to get pot,
you know, So I was I went down to Washington
Square Park and I scored some like a couple joints
or one joint or something. And I show up at
SNL and they bring me. I go up to the
eighth floor and he comes out and he says, Oh,
(10:17):
we got a sketch you're going to be in. I
had thought I was just visiting, but he was like, Oh,
we're going to put you in as an extra. And
it happened to be that Rodney Dangerfield was hosting Who's
in Caddyshack? And they put me in this sketch and
I give Brian the joint and I think he was
disappointed because it was just a joint, Like, I think
you hot. And he disappears and I'm an extra in
this jury scene. I'm in one of the jurors in
(10:39):
the back. And cut to thirteen years later. I'm hosting SNL. Yeah,
and you show up on Monday and you have a
kind of lay of the Lamb chat with Lorn. He
tells you what it's going to be like, and I say,
you know, I was on the show and he was
like what it was like? Yeah, And he says, you know, Pam,
get the tape fromteen, So they get the tape and
(11:01):
sure enough I'm there, and that becomes the kind of
heart of my monologue, my opening monologue I made my
first Parents. It was nineteen eighty. I was in a
classic piece called the Substitute Judge.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It was it was me and Gilda, it was Jane Garrett,
Billy Murray.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
What a grateful circle?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, Storry, Yeah, I really find that those moments of synchronicity.
You can't write them, but I do think that whatever
you're doing, whatever you're pursuing, being aware of those signposts
becomes really a positive kind of affirmation. And at a
(11:39):
certain point I started to kind of see them and go, Okay,
this is the right direction. Oh, this is where I
should go. You know, I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So how does the role of Joel Fleischmann in Northern
Exposure come to you?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So I'm ten years in, I I've done one hundred
plays from the works you know little can we curse
on this or no want to? So we're shitty, little
basement plays and you know, off off Broadway things that
like four People. It was where I learned that in
actors equity, there's a rule that if you're if the
(12:25):
if the cast is larger than the audience. You don't
have to do the show. No, that's what there was
then anyway. But we always did them anyway because we
didn't care. You know, we were just getting our miles
on our skis and and uh just you know, I
co founded this theater company, Naked Angels, with all these
great artists you know that are household names now, and
(12:49):
we did all these plays and and then I started
to get on the short lists. You know. I did
one other TV series called Tattgers, which was created by
Bruce Paltrow Winnis Dad and in Tom Fontana, and it
was a it was a bomb. My friend Robbie Bates
called it a hybrid of everything ever bad on television. No,
(13:11):
but it would got you know, it got me working
and learning how to act for the camera, which is
a completely different animal. And so now ten years in,
it's like that Malcolm Gladwell book. You know, it takes
ten years to make a master, so to speak, of
a skill, and the outliers, I think it's called and
at that point, so so I know what I'm doing,
(13:33):
you know, and I'm on a lot of anytime anything
casting in New York, you know, in a certain age range.
I'm going in for it and often at that point
directly for the directors as opposed to being screened. And
they brought me in for Northern exposure, and I remember
reading it and it read like no other TV script
I had read. It read like a movie and it
(13:53):
just fit, you know. I went in and I read
for the two guys who created A Josh Brandon, John
Folsey and at Universal offices on Park in fifty seventh
and it just fit. And you know, like the next
day they were they wanted to make a test deal,
which is a weird thing, you know, actors have to
do where you make a deal before you audition for
(14:14):
seven years of your life. And it becomes very complicated
when the show becomes a hit, because you know, they're
making hundreds and hundreds of millions and you're making the
number you will whatever they gave you take, you know.
And so so I they make this deal. They fly
me out to La I test for. I do a
(14:36):
reading for the people at Universal, the executives there, and
the next day I go to the network for the
what the official test, and I go in and into
this basement at CBS at Television City and you go
into this black box, unadorned theater with a bunch of
executives in seats that you can't really see, and there's
(14:57):
no bedside. No one's like saying anything. They don't do
anything to make you comfortable. You're just kind of there.
And I show up and I walked down the hall
and it's one other guy and like five girls and
one the end. And the other guy was you know, the
opposite of me, waspy, kind of blonde, you know, And
(15:18):
so I thought, okay, it's between me and him. And
then and then shortly thereafter after I read the first time,
it was just me they he didn't stick around, so
I thought, okay, it's mine to win. And then I
went through I read with all the different girls, and
the last one was Jeanine, and uh, we just clicked,
you know, and we got in the elevator after we
(15:38):
took the elevator up, and I said, you know, it's
you and me, and she was like okay. And then
she she told me later she thought I was that
I was hitting on her.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Did you did you want the role really badly?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I don't know about really badly. You know, at that
point you start to inure yourself to those kind of
expectations because and there's so many auditions, which is a
great thing because it kind of takes the onus off
of anyone. It wasn't like I was thinking, Oh, this
is the one I've always been waiting for. I'm ready.
You know. It wasn't like that, but I like that
(16:19):
it was you know, had kind of higher ambitions than
a normal TV show. You know that it had kind
of philosophical, metaphysical, you know, spiritual aesthetic considerations that I
hadn't seen a lot, and so I was. I was
into it.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, and it's airing again on Amazon Prime. And let
me tell you, I put on an episode to watch
with my son and it was almost.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Emotional for me, like eight or nine or it was
he's nine. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It was emotional for me to watch this with him
after all of these years because the show really did.
It meant a lot to me, and you know, to
be watching it through his eyes is just a very
cool thing.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
What did he think?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
He thought it was weird?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yes, you know, because kids are used to like very
different programming now, you know, with streamers and you know.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The kinds of shows that that they watched like the
Flora's Lava and you know, weird stuff. He thought it was.
He was he thought it was weird.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
It was a weird show, but he it made him
want to go to Alaska, which is great. I've been
many times and can't wait, can't wait to take him.
But it was just an episode. We're going to keep
watching it together because there's just so much to grow
into on that show. Did you have your daughter watch it?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
My daughter's watching it now, she's watched She watched it occasionally,
but you know, there were a lot of years where
she didn't if I was in it, she didn't care,
which is I think normal. But now that now that
Amazon it came up on her things, you would like
actually watching it.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
And now it's cool.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And really digging it. And it's what I love about it.
Is like because when I was writing the book, I
went back and watched all the episodes which I hadn't seen,
including the I don't know if it's seven or eight
after I left, which I had never seen. And I'm
amazed how well the show holds up even aesthetically. Most
show period shows, the aesthetics are the thing, the giveaway,
(18:23):
But because everyone's in plaid and genes and parkers and
pickup trucks, and the themes are universal. It really holds
up and the social media bombardment I get daily from people,
you know, fifteen year olds watching it and eighty year
olds watching it's it's really heartening.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Well, I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's such a gem of a show, and it really
did put this new for me, this new kind of
guy up there on screen.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It was it was different.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Doctor Flashman was a different kind of male figure, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And he's kind of like, you know, arguably i mean,
one of the first Jewish protagonists and uh, you know
that's that was a cool thing.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
But without being like a Woody Allen character, without being
sort of like an you know, a stereotype or a
cartoon of of that kind of character.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
He was so real and I mean, you they were.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Very conscious of that. They wanted to not be that stereotype.
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
That was well, it really worked. This character jumped off
the screen.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
This character was so real and obviously that's a you know,
credit to you and your tremendous talent, but just the
character development was so so good and thoughtful in that show.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, well, thank you. It was you know, there was.
It was so rich. They gave me so much to do.
And as I said, you know, I was ready. I was.
I have confident about few things in life, but I
was confident about acting. I knew I had so much
experience that I was good to go. And I just
(20:10):
hit the ground running. And you know, you talk about timing,
it was just great timing and.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
You were ready for it. It was you were ready
for that moment.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I was ready for that moment. Yeah, And it was
really fun and exhausting. I mean, it was brutal those
first two seasons because we were super low budget for
a TV and we were shooting seven day episodes including Saturdays,
you know, and it was and I was in every scene,
(20:40):
you know, and I'd be like, I'd shoot thirteen hours
and I'd go home and I'd look at the next seven, eight,
ten pages. I had to learn, you know, with all
this medical jargon that I didn't even know how to pronounce,
let alone knew what it meant, you know, and I'd
have to sit there and figure it out, and then
you know, pass out on my bed with these medical encyclopedias.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, let's talk about Janine Turner I know Janine because
of politics, oh yeah, I mean she got into.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
She got into politics.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We we were for one moment we were kind of
in the same place, and then we went kind of
separate ways, just politically. But she was lovely. Was she
political when you guys were working together.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Not as much as she became. I mean, I think
the you know, it was somewhat bred in the bone
where she came from and that world. So but she
she became more so after the show.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, yeah, she did. So the show ends. You leave
the show, right.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I left the show after one hundred and one or
five episodes, I can remember one, I think one hundred
and one or because it was time, you know, it
was time, it was I did one hundred episodes. You know.
It was like, you know, the thrill for me is
the creation of something. And I often say, you know,
(22:06):
Shakespeare couldn't write one hundred great episodes. It's like and
when I look at Northern Exposure, I think, you know,
and again I have a you know, particular experience, but
I'd say there were ten or twelve great episodes and
the rest were good, and so it was time for
me to explore, to move on.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, well, I gotta say, Quiz Show is a
perfect film. I've seen it dozens of times. That's not
an exaggeration because it's so rewatchable. And it stars you
and Ray Fines, and I mean an absolutely incredible performance
from Jonathan Turtureau, and I mean Mira Sorvino, David Paymer,
(22:50):
directed by Robert Redford. I mean, this is like stars colliding.
How did that role come to you?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know, first it was like I think it. I
think of it like I'm playing in the minor leagues
and I get called up to the majors, to the
All Star game, to pitch to pitch, you know, it's like,
it's fun. The script came to me with a package
from my agents, you know, with these videotape of Dick
goodwhen doing an interview.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And the real Dick good one because you're playing a real.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Person, the real Dick Goodwin, Richard Goodwin, and an excerpt
from the book he wrote, Remembering America, which was what
the movie was based on. And I read the script
and it was really fat. It was like one hundred
and fifty pages, which is long, and I was fascinated.
You know, it's just a fascinating yarn.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And it's funny because I was old. I was I
wasn't born or when these or maybe I was just born,
you know, I was too young to remember it. But
yet somehow it's it seeped into the culture. So I
was aware of these scandals. I don't know why, but
I just they just seemed very very familiar, because it
was somehow in the Zeitgeiser something. And I looked at
(24:02):
this tape, this video of Dick, and I started to
a very particular way of talking with his voice back
in his throat, you know, with this Boston you know
Brookline accent, and and I just zeroed right in on it.
And I had to do I was in Seattle, so
I had to do a tape of some scenes and
(24:23):
we sent him off and and then I got this
call like weeks later saying, you know, somehow Robert Redford
knew that I was going to be in New York however,
and he wants me to come in and read with
for him. And so I was like, you know, those
kind of things. I've had a lot of those kind
of experiences where to me it was almost I already
(24:46):
won by getting to go meet and work act for him.
You know, it was already a win, so it didn't matter.
I mean, it mattered that if I got it, but
I was I already felt like cool, if that's all
I get, I'm lucky, Like I get to go and
and referenced one of those guys that I I metabolized
his performances before I even was aware of it. You know,
(25:09):
at that acting what acting was, and his stillness and
his intelligence and those those gazes of his you know,
they became a part of me. And there I was
going to meet him and then act with him or
act because because so I go up to his office
and we go into his conference room and we chat
(25:29):
and we're just hit it off right away. You know,
I don't know why, you know, he just he just
I felt really comfortable around him. And we chatted and
then we started to rebrought in Bonnie Timmerman, the casting director,
and we started to read and then at one point
he says, let me read with him. And so I'm
acting with Robert Redford, which was so trippy because he's
(25:51):
like doing these Robert Redford faces at me, and I'm like,
I started laughing at one point, and he's like, what
the what are you laughing at? And I said, well,
you're you know, making these Robert Redford, there are you?
And I think he said something like, well, who should
who should I Whose face should I be? Paul Newman
(26:12):
something like that, and he told me that Paul Newman.
That's that's when he because then he told me that
Paul Newman what he was talking to him about playing
the rafe's father. Oh yeah, the brilliant Paul Scholfield.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Oh what a great job. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I mean, everyone is so good in that film, so good.
It is a good story. And I did not know
that story because I was young.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
But it's one of.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Those movies that like for a generation, Like there's a
generation that only got to know about Apollo thirteen from
the movie Apollo thirteen. And I think a generation who
only knows of these quiz show scandals this era through
this movie, this brilliant, brilliant movie. I don't know if
people know that Goodwin, the real life person you played,
became the husband of Doris Kern's one.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
And I went and stayed with them up in Massachusetts,
and uh, you know, and they just regaled me with
stories and Dick became a real friend for some years
after and check this out. So we go. They do
a premiere in d C. And I don't know why,
but I was the only actor there, Bob and me
(27:23):
and and that's it and uh. And it's a big premiere.
So all the you know, DC movers and shakers were there.
And Dick calls me up in the hotel and he goes,
you know, we're there on you know, on the studio's dime.
And he's like, you want to go, you want to
go roam around? You want to go to the White House.
And I was like yeah. He's like okay. So we
(27:46):
go get the car takes us to the White House
and we're going up to the West Wing and I'm
sitting in the back and my girlfriend with me and
Dick and me and I'm drinking a soda and we
go over up speed bump and it goes all in
the mind. Sure as we're pulling up to the West
Wing and I'm like the ah. And my girlfriend was
(28:10):
a costume supervisor, so she was like take it off,
turn it backward and put it on. And I had
my suit so it didn't. So we go into the
White House and we're supposed to go say hi to
Bill Clinton, and he's too busy, go figure and uh
so they so they bring us up and we go
hang out with Al Gore in his office and he
and Dick hold court and and we you know, Al
(28:32):
knew a lot about New Redford from the environmental causes
and we talk a lot. After this, Dick says, you
want you want to go? I want to go check
out the I'm going to show you the Robert Kennedy
memorial at Arlington I think it is. And uh we
go there and it's it's this little oval with the
inscriptions of some of the famous speeches in the you know,
(28:54):
in the marble, and he's we're looking at the Tiny
Ripples of Hope speech and he goes, I wrote that. Yeah.
So he went on, I know, and I was like, well,
he went on to become from the Christian scandals. He
became an aid and speech writer for JFK and Bobby
(29:15):
and I was really good friends with him, and and
wrote somebody you know, it's credited with creating the phrase
the great Society. I think he's got these credited with
a lot of big speeches.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
We had Josh mangoit's on the on the podcast, and
his dad was r f K's like body man or
press secretary. I think press secretary. He was his press secretary.
So we've talked a lot about r f K on this.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yes, they must have been they must have known each other.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, I'll have to ask him.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Tell me about mother. I'm a big Albert Brooks fan.
Tell me about that and how that came to be.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
We just did. They called me up to do a
I guess it's some anniversary. So they did it. They
put out a Criterion, put out a new version, and
they interviewed a bunch of us, which I just they
just sent it to me. Well, Albert I was a
fan of you know, I mean everyone was. Yes, I
think since Modern Romance was the one that first got
(30:29):
my attention.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And unsurprisingly broadcast news for me was like, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Right, of course, I mean he was. It is one
of the great movies. I referenced it all the time,
but it wasn't his movie, you know, his the thing
that you know, there's there were so idiosyncratic and unusual
and personal and and charming, you know, And so they
call comes in. I think they they flew me out
(30:57):
from New York. They were, so they were very interested,
but they wanted me to audition. At that point, I
wasn't really auditioning a lot, but but I was like
for Albert happily. And so I fly out and they
gave me a couple of scenes to learn. I go
to Paramount. I go into his little office. It's just
me and him. He's behind his desk and I'm in
the chair opposite. You know, it's like a meeting your
(31:19):
accountant or something. And I put my sides on the
on his desk and you know, getting ready to do it.
And we we I get through maybe like five six
lines and he just goes, I want you to do
the movie. That was it. Yeah, it was like he
just I think he just wanted to see that I
was normal, you know, and I wasn't going to you know,
(31:40):
And that was it. And so and it was so
much fun. He had a great situation there. They gave
him a fortune to make these little movies. So you'd
work six seven hours, you know, on one scene, and
that would be the day. And you know, my whole
thing was I just wanted to and I wanted to
(32:00):
improv with him, so and he was he would indulge me.
He'd make me do what was on the page, but
then we would spend you know, we'd do a couple
of takes of just messing around, and that was the
most fun because he's so fast and so funny. And
I'm sure there's a lot of outtakes of me cracking
up somewhere.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Well, I'd love to see those.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I just watched Defending My Life his his doc.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
It's so good. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
That's the Rob ryaner one. It is so good.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, it's so good. So so then you go back
to TV.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
After Mother I did it, I did it, or I
did a movie called Last Dance with Sharon Stone. You do,
I do Maze, I do some bunch of theater. I
do a play in London on the West End, which
was an incredible experience. I start developing more material, you know,
I had made a short film when I was doing
(32:56):
Northern as director and that kind of got my app
tight wet for directing and creating stories. And then I
made Maze and then ended up back on a show
called street Time for Showtime, which we did about thirty
three episodes, and I thought it was great. I think
it was ahead of its time and It starred Terrence
(33:20):
Howard and me and Scott Cohen and Erica Alexander, and
it was about the world of parole, those on it
and those who enforce it. And I just loved it.
I loved everything about it, the way we made it.
And it's one of these things that it was like
Northern until very recently, it's sitting on a shelf at Sony.
It's never seen the light of days since it aired.
(33:42):
I think what happens is the music rights become so
complicated that they just rather not.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah inexpensive, yeah, yeah, yeah, you do numbers.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Then I do a couple of years after that, I
do numbers, and then I'm on that for six years. Yeah,
which was a lot of fun. And you know, it
can get a little It's not my thing, you know, procedurals.
It's not really where I live, you know. But I
had never played a you know, the kind of alpha
hero guy, you know, the guy that comes in and
(34:14):
shoots it up. And I'm not a gun guy at all.
But but I was a kid and I used to
play cowboys and Indians and all that stuff. So that
part of me was really excited by the idea of
busting down doors and you know, and and saving the
day and getting the girl and yeah, and I remember
they they used to, you know, we have all these
(34:37):
FBI tech you know, advisors on the set, and you know,
we'd kind of come into a scene where we'd you know,
bust it up and they, you know, we'd have these
these uh right, these automatic rifles, and they the guys
would be like, look, it's not like in the movies.
You know. It's like you take your moment and you
just you know, and I'd be like, Okay, I got it.
(34:58):
They roll the camera. I'd be like because it was
just so much fun.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
I'm sure. And then you get billions huge hit show.
Did you did you know it was?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Was it a hit show already when you got the
role or did you get the role before it?
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I think it hadn't aired yet, because I was. I
was on every season of that show. Yeah, just sometimes
as much as five times, sometimes as little as two.
But I think it hadn't even aired yet.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Did you sense that it was going to be so big?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
No? I mean you never do. You don't allow you
can't allow yourself those thoughts. You know. It's like I
remember when I got Northern exposure. I didn't. All I
knew was that they weren't shooting a pilot. They were
shooting eight episodes, and so I had eight episodes of employment,
you know, and that was all I could think about.
And it was this billion's never occurred to me, you know,
(35:58):
what would happen. I knew that it was really an
interesting world that hadn't quite been explored yet. And I
met Brian on his podcast. He invited me on his podcast,
and then shortly thereafter asked me to come do that.
And I've done a couple of things with them. I
did the one about Uber, right, and I think I'll
probably do some more stuff with them. They're they're great guys.
(36:20):
And that was such a fun gig because you know,
I didn't have the pressure of carrying the show, and
it wasn't a big commitment or anything. And it would
just kind of fly me into New York, you know,
a couple of times a year, put me up really nice.
I'd shoot like on a Monday and then the next Monday,
so I'd have a week in New York to do
whatever I want.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
But I think which is when we met, probably right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
And you know, and then it was mostly most of
my stuff was just with Giamatti. So it was just
like so much fun. I would just sit there and
do these really well written, intricate, charming scenes with Paul
and spend the day hanging out with him.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Oh so cool.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I feel like guys don't get asked this a lot,
So I'm going to ask you, how do you balance
your family and your work life.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Well, you know, when my daughter was younger, my wife
took the brunt of it, for sure, So there's that,
you know. But I got married late. I was like
thirty eight, you know. We didn't have our daughter until
she's twenty three, you know, So I was, you know,
what does that make me? You know, late forties, I guess, no,
(37:32):
early forties, mid forties, And so I was it wasn't
hard for me to sacrifice, you know, you know, I mean,
I mean, and I can tell you're a great parent
and you and your husband because I see all your
Instagram pictures and stuff, and it looks like a great
your son's having a great time and ye're taking great
care of them. And but I think you know you're
(37:52):
younger than me, but but you have to sacrifice so much, Yeah,
to be involved with your family. But if I had
done it, if I'd been a minute younger, I probably
would have messed it up, you know, because I had
other stuff I had to deal, you know, sow my own,
so to speak. But by the time we were you know,
raising two, it was I didn't I didn't care about
(38:14):
missing out on something. So I was happy to be there.
And and and I love being a father. I just
love it. I just I just I love her and
I love you know. As soon as she was born,
it was like instant perspective. It was like, Okay, now
I know what, I know what's important. Up till then
it was like, well this could be important or that
(38:35):
could be important. But no, it's like the one thing
is I got to make sure this creature, you know,
thrives and and uh so it was uh and and
and then on top, just to finish your question, I
got really lucky with the early years. I mean the
show Street Time we all moved to she was an infant,
so we moved to Toronto. We were together, you know,
(38:58):
and so there was weekends and days off, and then
numbers was six years in LA when she was you know,
really young, and so I was home every night. Yeah,
that's the hardest part I think for for actors as
being away and we we we've been lucky that way.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Let's talk about mental health. Tell me about Donnie Hathaway.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, you know, that was There's a group that I
work with called the Tribe with this This wonderful man
named Kevin Waks runs it, and we do these benefits
a couple of times a year. You know. I'm a
musician and I go and do songs with them, and
we do these big concerts and we get a lot
of kind of big artists to come in and perform.
(39:42):
And Kevin had stumbled upon the notion that of the
nine eight eight hotline, yeah, which I had never heard of.
I didn't even know it existed, nor did he the
suicide line. Yeah, that is, there's a suicide hotline just
like nine to one one, but it's nine eight eight.
And the statistics of it are, you know, astonishing that
(40:04):
the success rate they have of getting people talking them
off the ledge so to speak, when they know about
it is really great. And so he put together this benefit.
You know, Donnie Hathaway, I guess killed himself. There's some
controversy around it. And we did a benefit recently for
the nine nine eight hotline and awareness and different foundations
(40:26):
that deal with suicide prevention. I had one ideation when
I was nineteen, and that was it. I mean, I've
certainly had my share of depression, but I don't suffer
from the kind of you know, that kind of oppressive
depression that a lot of people have. I get depressed,
but it goes, and it comes and goes. But I
(40:46):
did have one ideation, and so I can relate a
little bit, and you know, I just I just you know,
life is such a gift, and so I understand how
hard it is for people. I really get it. But
there's something so beautiful about the way that people can
(41:09):
come to other people's aids and support them and nurture them.
There was this girl I can't remember her name who
got up at this benefit we did a couple of
weeks ago, and she was like twenty three. She had
tried to kill herself at twelve, and I think again
at nineteen, and now she was on the other side
of it, and she was a survivor and a beautiful soul,
(41:31):
and she had found the value of life unto itself.
Ill regardless of what is accomplished, and it was such
a beautiful thing to see. So I just did a
little small part. I just helped out. And basically that's
my rule with charities in general. I just if I
can do it, I say yes. And so but you know,
(41:53):
mental health is I'm so glad that we live in
a time where it's discussed. That's why one of your questions,
you know that it's like that that we we can
address these things because it's it's complicated, the chemistry and
our brains and the and the and the environments we
live in and now with social media and and and
(42:13):
all of the you know, difficult things that are going
on in the world. Very I feel like for my
daughter's age, they've been beaten down into a kind of
low grade cynicism. That said, I'm optimistic because I do.
I do. I do see a lot of kids that
I do see leadership coming, you know. But but mental
(42:36):
health is is, uh, we live in a great time,
you can. You know, I've been in therapy my entire life,
in and out. I'm in a new one now that
I really like, and it's it's unusual, but it it
it saved me because it gave me a safe harbor,
and I get you know a lot of people say it.
Redford used to call it navel gazing, you know, and
(42:58):
and I say in my book, naval gaze has its place,
you know, I am. I'm really pro all of these
programs and any way to make you make you conscious
of your issues. And once your conscious potential is open,
it's just like ninety eight. Once you know that's there, Okay,
there's something you can do and vitally, just just before,
(43:19):
we don't want to speak abs susiever, but that John
bon Jovie story killed me.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Did you know that he was already saved someone?
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Do you see the video? It's amazing, it's amazing, and
I just fell in love with him. I already liked him,
but then I was like, oh my god, as if.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
We couldn't love him more?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I know, I know, well, listen, therapy saved my life twice.
I also had an attempt when I was in my teens,
and therapy saved me then and then coming back in
my forties, had a nervous breakdown, you know, dealing with anxiety.
(43:56):
I didn't know that I was dealing with anxiety. I
was just living my life. Life, and I thought actually
doing a pretty good job. I was not, and therapy
saved me yet again. And I'd recommend it for everybody.
I don't know a person who wouldn't benefit, yeah, from
a really good therapy session. But but I mean certainly
(44:17):
if you're feeling lost, or anxious, or worried or sad,
depressed down all the things.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
Yeah, really, it really is a life saver talking right.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Because it's subjective and it's ideally it's it's objective, and
I'm glad you found ways to deal with that because
you know, it's it's a it's a beautiful thing. And
look at you. You're thriving and you have a great life,
and think of the alternative, you know, if you if
you didn't, and the you know, the there's so many
upsides to the interconnected social media world we live in.
(44:53):
There's so many downsides, but there's a lot of upsides,
and one of them is that everyone's kind of reachable
or all if people are reachable. Yeah, you can be
in the middle of nowhere, you know, in a little town, suffering,
and there's you can reach out to someone in you know,
another state, another country and help us there.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
And you can listen to a podcast where really successful
people like yourself, and this is a theme of this podcast,
are talking about mental health and talking about getting help
and talking about struggles or challenges, and that can mean
so much to someone who thinks, wait a second, I've
(45:33):
seen her on the news, I've seen him in the
movies that they're so successful. Anxiety and depression, mental health
do not care that you're successful or wealthy or whatever.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
So it really is impactful to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Absolutely, I'm glad you.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I'm glad you are, and thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Okay, we're going to finish with the lightning round.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
In quiz show, as you mentioned, your character is from Brookline, Mass.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
I am a mass whole myself.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
How would you rate your Boston accent in that film?
Speaker 1 (46:27):
I rated ten out of ten, you know. Yet it's
so funny, because again I write about this in the book,
I get a lot of social media people will come
on and say, oh, but that accent was terrible. He
was awful, you know. And I think that what they
don't realize is because they don't know that Dick spoke
in this way. Like if you watch a tape of Dick,
I sound like him, and it's that that thing in
(46:48):
the back of his throat. And I think people thought
that that was the accent, but the accent. I had
this great guy, this guy named Tim Monnick, who's like
the dialect coach to the stars. And Redford could have
fired me, could have we could have replaced all the dialogue.
You know, we knew it worked. So again, so ten
out of ten.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
I also give it a ten thank you because it
was in addition to being Dick Goodwin's voice, it was
a specific kind of Boston accent. It wasn't the modern
day Boston accent that people think about the Wahlbergs. It
wasn't the Kennedy Brahman accent. It was a Jewish nineteen
fifties accent. And you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Thank you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
You mentioned Rodney Dangerfield was the host of that SNL
episode you were on. Who was the band Nirvana? No,
the first one you did.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Oh that was when I hosted oh oh, the Jay
Giles band.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
You got it, okay, And you just said the musical
guest on the episode you hosted was Nirvana.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
That must have been I.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Could do ten minutes on that man, you know, that
was I don't know if you have time, but I
have an amazed all right, So the band shows up
the end of the week, it's like Friday, you know,
they were that's it, and you know, the whole vibe
is rock and roll to begin with, but when Nirvana
shows up, it's really rock and roll. They don't adhere
to schedules. They're you know, like most bands, they're three,
(48:09):
four or five hours late. And I had a The
host has a dressing room. It's a small room, and
right next to that is the band's dressing room. To
this day, it's the same layout. And yet I'm one
guy in my little room. They're ten people with their
managers and girlfriends. And I knew them because we all
(48:31):
lived in Seattle. When I was doing Northern and they
were coming up, they were in Seattle, so I would
see them at events and stuff when we kind of
hung out a little bit, and my god, so I
wanted to go in and say hi, and I walk.
I opened the door and they're all like, you know,
there's just a small room with a couch and a
(48:52):
you know, makeup desk and a bathroom and that's about it.
And you know, in every corner is some you know,
girlfriend or manager, you know, just leaning out. And on
the couch is Courtney and and Dave Grohl and Chris
Novlsek and Courtney's pregnant, and Kurt was out cold on
(49:13):
the floor right just out cold, right in front of
the door. And so in order to shake everyone's hand,
I had to step over. Kurt took like, go shake
Dave's hand, step over his head to say shake this
one's hand. Stepped over his feet to shake this one's hand.
And they they went on on the show. And the
(49:36):
first song they did, you know, Kurt looked like he
didn't know where he was, like he just was after
at the end, he just was kind of like And
the second song they did after it, they trashed the
set all of the who like but it was unrelenting.
You can watch it if you watch the episode. It's
(49:57):
it's on line and they just ripped the place apart.
They you know, Groll is picking up his drum and
throwing it at Chris Novlsek, who's throwing his base at him.
And and Kurt's in the on on in front of
these big amps with his fender, ripping off the fabric
on the and the and it's and it's everything's feedback,
(50:21):
feeding back, and and and for the life of me,
I'm thinking, why are they not cutting away? I think
they were all in shock, and you know they they
watched you watched this for almost a minute. And and
then after that, Lauren says, you know they they he says,
they'll never be allowed back on the show. And of course,
like a year later, they're back on the show. But
(50:43):
so the code of what makes this interesting to me
is that about five years ago, four years ago, my
friend Gina Gershan, I'm in New York for a weekend
and I have nothing to do, and she's like, what
are you doing Saturday night? And I say, I got
no plans. And she says, oh, I'm going to go
up and the Foo Fighters are on SNL. You want
(51:05):
to go watch it? And I was like, yeah, sure.
So we go up to the show and afterward we
go back going to the same dressing room now they
were in, you know whatever billion years before, and it's
the same setup, except now the manager's got guts and
gray hair, and you know, and the girlfriends or wives,
(51:27):
and it's the same setup. I'm standing in the exact
spot where I was stepping over Kurt's body. And I'm
talking to Dave Grohl, who is, you know, the sweetest
rock star ever, and I'm like, he says to me,
what do you remember from that night? And I said,
I told him that story and he said, well, that
that was the night that we all had come to
(51:49):
terms with the fact that Kurt had a real problem.
It was at that night that we were like, we
are in trouble and this is going to not end well.
And he killed himself like a year later. Oh, but
he said, that's when we were like we got to
do something. And uh so it was just an interesting
story for me.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
I was there for it, wow, because it was.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
So sad, you know.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
I just felt he was such a sweet soul, you know,
and so talented and it was so sad.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
I mean, it was just on the floor. Like it
was so shocking for me to walk in there and
just be like, oh this boys, there's something wrong.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Yeah, yeah, and there was.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:28):
Well, thank you for sharing. That was a great story. Okay,
name three real life characters you've played.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Uh well, I guess I mean so ones that I
haven't well, Isaac Geldhart, Willie Lowman, did you say real
life or just character real life real life character people.
John Wilkes Booth, Richard Goodwin yep, god, I played this
doctor in this Als movie, but I can't remember his name.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
What about a lawyer?
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Oh, Garry Shack, there you go.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
What's your favorite place to film?
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Well, I would say my favorite place is in winter scapes.
You know, I love I love winter, I love skiing,
so you know, and there's I call them naar scenes
no acting required because when you're in this, when you're
in a beautiful, you know, landscape that's you know, white
and everything, you don't have to You're just there. You know,
you don't you don't try, I have to try hard.
(53:28):
So I would say that or New York City is
pretty great. The thing about New York City is itn'ts
as you know, like it just informs your energy and
so when you're shooting, that informs your your the work
you're doing. And I just I love when, you know,
movie companies take over the world when they're shooting. They
(53:48):
own everything, the light that, the traffic lights, that the
cops everything, and so you know, it's just so much
fun to be able to like own a city for
a moment.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
You know ye, what's your favorite band or musical artist?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
M well, so many, I want to say. I guess
the Stones are pretty high up there. The Eagles are
pretty high up there. John Mayer is pretty high up there.
Billie Eilish is pretty high up there. I have a
really eclectic music taste. I listen to everything, you know.
(54:25):
I'm digging Coldplay's news. I love Coldplay. I'm going to
see Billy Joe with my daughter on Saturday. Amazing my
favorite artist, you know, I guess i'd go. I'd go.
I'd have to go backward and say, like, you know,
Beethoven if I had, if you made me reduce it,
I'd say Beethoven and uh uh django Reinhardt. But I
(54:54):
just there's a caveat because you're making me reduce it.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
I don't know, right, okay, because they're all derivative, right
of some you gotta go back.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
This is a really tough question. Who's the best actor
at your men's lunches?
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Wow? You know I want to My first person came
to mind was Cranston. He is so damn good and
and not only is he good, but when he talks
about acting, it's I just learned from him, and I'm
so inspired. He wrote a book and he I tell
all the young actors to read this book because he
talks about it. He talks about acting in such cojing
(55:33):
specific ways that I just he's he he really understands
it in a deep intuitive way, and and he articulates it.
And so if I had to say, I mean no,
I mean, look, we got Fred Malina in there, and
and Jason and and and and never is Weber is underrated.
(55:56):
Weber is I think, such a underrated actor. He's un rated.
He's he can do anything kind. I mean, they're all.
Eric McCormick is a master.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
Kevin Pollock I love to.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Pollock is a genius. Uh noah, I mean Danny Burns
scenes in the groups. He's a New York actor. But
if you made me reduce it like you did with
the music, I'd say I say, I'd say Brian, and
they probably they'd probably all agree.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
I think that's an uncontroversial opinion.
Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, Okay, this last question, it's the most important to
me spiritually culturally.
Speaker 3 (56:34):
When is iced coffee season.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Summer?
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Okay, wow, it's a year round, is the correct answer.
But you're allowed to have that wrong opinion.
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Well, first of all, I've stopped. I haven't had caffeine
in seven months. But it was it was almost like
Pavlovian for me. Comes I don't drink ice coffee. I
ever drank ice coffee in the winter, but come summer
it would just automatically start to happen like I just yeah,
I did it all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
Well, growing up in Massachusetts with Dunk dunkin Donuts around
every corner, it's part of my religion is even in the.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Winter, even in freezing, crazy Boston cold.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Yes, rob, because I don't it's not precious. I don't
need to sip it. I don't want to take a
long time. I want it in my.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
Mind to get it down. It goes down old. I see. Yes,
well so you so I haven't been done it in
six seven months, no caffeine, and I was for espressos
before noon before that.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
Okay, all right, Well next time you have an iced coffee,
think of me.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
I'm not gonna I'm done.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
You're never going back.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
No, I love it.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
I don't even know what life would what what is
life like without coffee?
Speaker 1 (57:49):
It's like so easy. I don't even miss it. I
don't miss it and I sleep better.
Speaker 3 (57:55):
I'm sure that's true.
Speaker 2 (57:56):
I I do limit myself to one a day, so
I'm I'm not like amped up on coffee. But but
the taste of coffee is so important to me, you.
Speaker 1 (58:06):
Know, it's it was the habitual thing that that that
was that. I just I love not being beholden to
my coffee. I get it.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Well.
Speaker 3 (58:18):
Sad to see you gory, tough to lose a good one.
There's more for you, Rob Morrel, Thank you so much
for doing this. It was a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
You're so sweet, Sie. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (58:33):
Next week.
Speaker 2 (58:33):
On Off the Cup, I talked to actor and screenwriter
Jonathan Check from that thing you do.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
It wasn't a box office success and that and Tom
has been very vocal about the critics. Yeah he has
what he said. He said, I'm like Tom and you
were they didn't really see the magic in it at
the time.
Speaker 2 (58:56):
Off the Cup is a production of iHeart Podcasts as
part of the Reason Show Network.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
If you want more, check out the other Reason.
Speaker 2 (59:02):
Choice podcasts Spolitics with Jamel Hill and Native Land pod.
For Off the Cup, I am your host, se cup
Editing and sound design by Derek Clements.
Speaker 3 (59:11):
Our executive producers are me.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Se Cup, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Rate and review wherever you get
Speaker 2 (59:18):
Your podcasts, Follow or subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday,
Host
S.E. Cupp
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