Spencer Garrett: That guy from EVERYTHING

This week, S.E. sits down — in person! In LA — with a real LA guy who you'll surely know from that thing — Spencer Garrett! Spencer and S.E. get into his childhood growing up in Los Angeles, with a family that was riding the highs and lows of their various roles in "the business." Close listeners of Off the Cupp will enjoy hearing the backstory of something that has come up with many guests — the Character Actors Dining Society — a group of character actors (including Spencer, former guests Rob Morrow and Steven Weber, and so many more) who get together in support and in admiration of one another. They also talk about how Spencer met his wife and S.E.'s friend and colleague, Dana Bash, and how they each manage their respective, quickly evolving, often struggling, industries. Before a fun lightning round, S.E. gets the dirt on some of the more infamous Hollywood conspiracy theories — how much is true?!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I feel like I'm just getting good. I love that
I feel like I'm just finding my.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Groove as an actor. I really do.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome to off the cop my personal anti anxiety antidote.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
I am coming to you.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
From Los Angeles, which is also always a good anti
anxiety antidote for me, because even when I have to
work out here, which is, you know, frequent, it's such
a nice change of pace from New York and DC,
And honestly, other than the traffic, I am just way
more chill out here. Maybe it's because I was born

(00:38):
in California. I was born in Oceanside, so maybe the
vibes are somewhere in my DNA. Anyway, I have the
great pleasure of talking to a friend, the partner of
a very good friend in CNN colleague, and a bona
fide Hollywood guy born and raised.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
In LA He's been in so many TV shows and movies.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Once you actually run through his resume, you'll realize you've
just seen and everything, most recently storing in the Netflix
dramedy The Residence.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
It's Spencer Garrett se cup How I'm fantastic doing this
in person at long.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Run, nice, I know a delight you know.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's it's so fun because I know you're lovely better half.
Dana bash much better half colleague of mine, and she
is everyone's favorite. And I know a bunch of your
friends like Rob Morrow and Stephen Webber, we've had them
on on off the cup. But this is the first
time we've really gotten to sit down and talk about you. Yeah,
because every time I run into you guys at like
a DC event, it's work, it's politics.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
It's the news. We can just sit down and talk
about I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Carrying Danna's jacket or something.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm the I'm the plus one a lot, which is
fine by me.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You know, it's a good plus one to be.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
But this is so great. I love just being here.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
And welcome to Welcome to glamorous Hollywood. Heard of Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
On Cosmo Street, we are literally like right off Hollywood Boulevard.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I think I get a little contact Hi walking through
wanting the building.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
I did too. It's a weird. This is a weird
part of town.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
But it's weird you think.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
I mean, I grew up in la and to think
that just mere blocks from here, I mean there's Musso
and Franks, which is around the corner which is one
of my favorite restaurants. Oldest restaurant in la I think.
But this, at one point, Hollywood Boulevard was. It was
very glamorous. It was a glamorous place to be. It's
sort of come back a little bit, but it's a
it's a bit, it's a bit grotty. It's a bit sketchy.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
My son was with me and we were walking down
here and he goes, this looks sketchy.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, said it is.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
And I like your judgment.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I like your it's a good word wise of the
opening scene of a Pretty Woman. Yeah for that, guys,
who what's your dream? Yes, we'll go to Hollywood. It's
still a little bit of that, but so good.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
That's a movie you were.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Not in, right, I was not in Pretty Far. I
wish I was a pretty woman. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Because let's just start with.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
The list, and this the list.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
The list of shows and films you've been in, and
we'll start with films.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
But this is just some This isn't all okay.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Air Force one, House of Sand and Fog, Thank you
for Smoking, Charlie Wilson's War twenty one, Yes Man, trans
iron Man three, Once upon a Time in Hollywood Bombshell
playing my friend Ron Hannity.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
We'll get into that, oh many more.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Then there's TV Dallas twenty one, Jump Street Star, Trek Murder,
she wrote Family Matters, JAG News Radio, Judging Amy, Law
and Order, The West Wing, CSI, NCIS twenty four, Criminal Minds,
Gray's Anatomy, Madman, House of Cards, Bosh Madam, Secretary Chicago
PD Spencer.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Every time I turn on my TV, there you are.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
I'm a million years old. I literally feel a million, not.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Even because your career has just been so good. You've
worked so much, been so lucky. See, isn't that the
goal of every working actor to.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Sure sure working, just to keep going, just to keep working,
stay stay in the ball game. Yeah, and I've been.
I feel just like the luckiest middle aged white guy
in the world right now. Well I love hearing that
in this business, in a business that is kind of
really on shaky ground right now.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
But yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been really fortunate.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
To stay working at it since really I kind of
moved out here in say ninety one ninety two from
New York and kind of jumped in the pool full
bore for the film and TV stuff and been lucky
enough to kind of stay going. I mean, it's it's
a roller coaster ride, it's peaks and valleys.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
But my business too, you know, like, and I'm sure
you've heard this from Dana, and just because you have
eyes and can see, you.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Know, we're up, we're down. We've got a show, we
don't have a show.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
You know, sometimes you're the hot new thing, then you're
not the hot new thing.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
As a woman, we feel it even more sure, you
know acutely. So I get it. I really do get
your journey. I get it, but it's just it's I'm
also so grateful to still be working.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
And you just said the word journey, so you really
are in California, know, yeah, oh my god, let's talk
about my journey.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Let's talk about the journey. We're going to talk about
a lot.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
And we've talked about your character actor's lunch on this
on this before.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's actually a dinner. It's actually we've had a couple
of we've had a couple of lunches. No, but it's
it's the uh, not to correct it, but it's the
kids the character actors Dining Society, which was a great
group of people and we usually.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Ribald Dinners and.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
I can't wait, I can't wait fun.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
But before we get to that, talk about being a
character actor and what is it about you that makes
you so right for so many different parts, periods, genres
like talk about being a character actor.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I think the word character actor is kind of misinterpreted.
People don't really know how to I mean growing up.
You think of growing up. I grew up my third
generation actor. My grandparents were actors, my mom, my aunt,
and uncle, and I grew up so to me coming
up and watching films and TV as a little kid
and seeing like Walter Brennan and so these older character

(05:52):
actors or Wilfred Brimley. You think that's a character actor,
But I think it's I'm an actor. I'm an actor
who plays characters, right, I mean I played Sean Hannity
for I played Bob Woodward, I played Tom Delay.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I've played all of these.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
So I'm like, I'm a guy who's lucky enough to
get employed in different gigs playing different characters.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
What is it? How would you define it? Because you know,
one of my favorite actors is Gary Oldman. I would
call him a character actor. He's also I mean one
of the greatest actors ever.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
He's a he's I mean, he's he's an alien to me.
I mean, somebody like Gary Oldman, who I've never Oddly,
we were both in Air Force one, so that he
was on the plane, I was in the White House.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I've never met him.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
In fact, I saw him having lunch one day at
a cafe and I was walking by, and I was
so sheepish about even just introducing myself. Hi, I was
in Air Force one twenty five years ago with you.
I just I just kept on walking. But he's somebody
who's to me, is just on another is not like
Daniel da Lewis. There's something about them that just the
way he's able to transform fully and completely into characters,

(06:56):
that it's just that I just I aspire to.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, I mean he's incredible, But is it the disappearing
into a character like what makes someone a quote unquote
character actor.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
I think that's the that's the goal.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
I mean, that's what That's what you try to do,
is you want to be able to inhabit the person
as fully as you can and give it your own
special sauce and give it your own kind of I
mean when I played Hannity. I was kind of doing
an impersonation of Sean Hannity, but I wanted to give
it my own sort of spenserness as much as I could.
But yeah, I think you're when you're tasked with playing

(07:31):
real life characters, which I've somehow managed to. I mean,
I was cast I was I was cast as as
Joe McCarthy. Of all people, I look nothing like John McCarthy.
So I thought, all right, how am I gonna How
am I going to do this? And I just did
a lot of research and as much as I could
to kind of step into the shoes of that guy
and and give it my own kind of personal spin.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
As much as I was able to.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
But and without judging them, without judging I am as
probably is far politically from Sean Hannity. So you have
to leave your judgment at the door and just go
in and do the job and play the role that
you're for any real person, a real person, but for
any character like the FBI guy in in the residence

(08:15):
that I just played. That to me was a character,
and we were all kind of given free license to
just create these these characters that Paul William Davies, the
writer tasked us to work on, and so so that's
just to me, it's just thrilling.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
It's just playing in a sandbox.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
And sometimes you're in like a little indie film sandbox,
and sometimes you're in a big giant, you know, a.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Big budget dollar yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
And but either one, you still have a job to do.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
So you talked about recognizing Gary Oldman, and you know
that happens in this town. You're always seeing people. How
often do you get recognized? I imagine someone's coming up
to you every freaking day.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Oh, I mean fair fair amount. In airports a lot.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, I get in an airports and people come in,
but I'm it's it's usually like, well, let's starts, which
is interesting, which I love because I love being I
had did a couple of episodes of Star Trek of
Next Generation and Voyager early on in my career, and
one of the episodes turned out to be sort of
a well known, kind of an iconic episode, and so

(09:15):
the Star Trek fans will come up to me and say,
you were Simon Tarsis, you were the Romulan and episode
blah blah blah, and.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
They know everything about Base.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
They have a massive fan base, which I didn't really
appreciate when I did the show. When I was a kid,
I wasn't I wasn't a Star Trek fan when I
did the show. I didn't realize until later, when I
started doing the conventions how much how deeply that particular
character in that episode that I was in impacted the
deep fans of the show. So I love, I love
and appreciate it now more with the hindsight.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
But is that what you think you're most recognized?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Not necessarily. I mean I got recognized the other day
for Once upon a time in Hollywood for that scene.
I sort of joke, I joke to Dana and my friend,
is that my tombstone is going to say, here lies
that guy from.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
That thing, that I'm that guy from that thing? Aren't
you that? Aren't you that? Like on an airplane or
an airport or in a restaurant? Were you? Weren't you?
Did I were you? Did? We go to high school together?

Speaker 4 (10:14):
No?

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Where do I know you from?

Speaker 1 (10:16):
And then they'll finally kind of piece it together and
I'll either and they'll either know or I'll say I'm
an actor.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
You know, Well, that's yeah, that's so funny because Sometimes
I'll be out and about and someone will be like
looking at me, and they'll come and be.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Like, we did I go to school with you? How
do you decide? Because I don't want to be like, no,
I'm on television.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
You know that guy.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
I don't know how you know me.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Maybe it's from back home yet I don't I know
where I went to high school and you weren't there,
but you know, like, how do you?

Speaker 4 (10:44):
How do you do that?

Speaker 1 (10:45):
I listen, I'm I'm I'm like I say, I just
feel so lucky to be just in the conversation and
in the ballgame that if someone says, are you are you?
Are you an actor? I'll say, yes, I'm an actor.
I don't want to go well, don't you know who
I am? Of course you know me. I'm if I'm
if somebody wants to take a picture or whatever, terrific.

(11:08):
I'm just if I made you happy, if I made
you smile by watching something that I was in a
rerun of something or something that was I'm just so
happy that you know that I was able to.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, so talk about Kats, talk about this amazing group.
Like I said, We've talked about it on off the
cup before because it is a collection of some of
everyone's favorite, isn't it wild actors of all time? I
mean Noah Wiley, Eric McCormick, LeVar Burton.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Kevin Pollock, Alfred Molina.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Like I mean Ann's Fishburne, Jason Alexander, just a Paul
mccrane who you know from a you are and just
wondering Cranston, Bryan Cranston. It really started with uh So,
Alfred Molina is an old pal. We've all kind of
at various points over the decades have worked with each other.
And Alfred and I did production of the line in

(12:01):
winter twenty five years ago, maybe more, And then I
was an acting student of his. He was teaching a
Shakespeare intensive and I studied with him, and so we
became friendly. Through that, there was a period where we
were constantly bumping into one another, and he said, you know,
we got to actually make this.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Let's do something. Let's have a cocktail.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
So, speaking of Musso's, we were talking about Chris and
Franks earlier, which is kind of our local hangout here,
and so he said, let's let's have a martini. So
he said, do you mind if I invite Stephen Weber
and I said no. He said, do you know Weber?
And I said, I've known Weber since nineteen eighty five.
Weber called me and said, hey, I heard you're meeting
Fred for a drink? Can I bring McCormick. And then
it literally was like the telephone game. And then we

(12:39):
had Titus Wellever on board. So there were six of
us having dinner one night and we kind of looked
around at each other.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
And went, God, damn, this is a this is an August.
This is cool, bru, this is really cool. And we're
all we're all fans of each other.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, we all really admire one another as men, as humans,
as dads, as actors. But this particular group, on this
particular evening kind of started something where we said, all right,
let's let's give it. We never never intending it to
turn into six years down the road, so we said,

(13:14):
we came up with the CADS, the Character Actors Dining Society.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
How do you get inducted into this?

Speaker 1 (13:19):
It's it's sort of the first one was that group
of six, and then I think a few weeks later
I was at a party at Kevin Pollock's house and
Pollack pulled me aside, He's like, Okay, I want to
be a CAD. Yes, well, for God's sake, you are
absolutely cad. And Richard Kind was there. So Richard Kind

(13:40):
is kind of the he's kind of the New York
the New York based cad. Richard Kind and Danny Burstein,
a wonderful, wonderful Broadway actor, wonderful actor, and so those
two guys on the East Coast, and so whenever they're
in Los Angeles, but whenever we it's sort of really
become this the text chain that has gone on for

(14:00):
six years, and it's everything from who knows a great dentist?
To can someone help me self? Tape an audition? It's
a it's a support group. It's a group of guys
that really genuinely love each other. And then if there
it's not always twelve of us for dinner, because we're
not always in the same place at the same time.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Some of us are away working. Brian is away in
Canada working.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Eric recently moved back to his home country in Canada.
So whenever there's an empty chair, we will pull in
sort of a guest cat, a Christopher McDonald or Xander
Berkeley or whoever so it's uh, it's just we pull
in Hey, let's hey, Uh, let's call so and so
there in town. You know, I'm trying to think of,

(14:42):
trying to think of the most I think probably Chris McDonald.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
We just act as we love.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
We just want to We just want to hang out
and tell stories and laugh and particularly in these very
strange times, just to make each other laugh and yeah,
and have a have a cocktail or not a cocktail,
and and just share. There's something about that shared experience
of having food together. Yeah, and it's been a community
of brothers.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Well, yeah, I'm talking about your business because I'm also
in a competitive business and you can't trust everybody, and
it's important to have friends in your industry who know
exactly what you've gone through, right, all the ups and downs,
the weirdness, all the people we don't like, the people
we do like.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
The danger zones.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
To have a safe space absolutely gossip and trade secrets
and talk about stuff is so important.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
No, it's true.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
And for me, Michael Norry is another wonderful example of it,
as he's one of our group and the Cads and
Michael's up in his he's up in his seventies. He's
been around for a while, and you know, we've all
been through it. We've all we've all written we've.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
All written the roller coaster, and each one of us.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
What I love about it is each one of us
has become kind of a touchstone in.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
A way or a resource.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
And then I was lucky enough two summers ago Jason Alexander,
who I really didn't know that well before before, he
came on board the group and he offered me a
role in a play that he was directing in New York.
And suddenly I am I was not if you look
at my resume that you read through there that that
I was like, Oh my god, I was life flashing

(16:15):
before my eyes.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
But there's not a lot of comedy on there.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
And Jason called me and he said, you know, I've
seen you play a lot of kind of uh I
call him pricks and suits. You've played a lot of like,
you know, a lot of senators and congressmen and lawyers,
and yeah, he said, but I've never seen you really
do like big broad comedy. And he said, I'm directing
a play at the Bay Street Theater in Sagharbor, A
in a couple of months and he said, read the
play and if you love it, and it's really out there,

(16:41):
but I need to know that you're capable of going there.
And I read it and I said yes, And I
literally embarked on this master class of learning how to
do comedy really in a very specific way with.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
One of the with one of the greats.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
So I'm always learning and growing, and so I got
to learn at the feet of one of the masters.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
And I know you are a Seinfeld fan.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Huge Seinfeld fan, but also I mean I loved Love
Valor Compassion. That's a credible play and then movie that
he was in, and I mean, he's wonderful, and yeah,
the big fan.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Let me ask you when you're young.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
I knew you grew up in the industry, you had
industry relatives and stuff, But what was like, what was
your vision for your future?

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Like if you had had a vision.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Board at like twenty, what would have been the things
on your vision board?

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Wow, that's interesting because I know a couple of actors
that actually had vision boards. Okay, and I think I well,
I'll say the name of one who's actually an actor
friend of mine who's done quite well. It's an actor
named Neil McDonough, and we were young kids in our twenties,
and Neil had a board, just a whiteboard in his apartment,
in his crappy little apartment in West Hollywood, and at

(18:08):
one it was you know, star in an action movie,
work with Steven Spielberg.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Uh, literally and specifically a couple of months there would
be a check mark.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Wow, that's very specific.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's very specific, and I kind of, I think in retrospect,
I kind of looked at that and that's silly. But
then he was. He literally was doing the things. I
didn't have those. I didn't have those kinds of goals.
I was just I think I was just kind.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Of pay the bills, be happy.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well, yeah, pay the bills, be happy, and and and
continue to grow as as as an actor. I wish
that I had. I mean, I'm glad you brought it up.
I wish i'd done that. I wish i'd set higher
goals for myself specifically or been or been more specific
about about it.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
But your goals, Yeah, I like you. Yeah, I wanted
to do.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
I want to do because I came out here, I
came out to LA before i'd really made my bones
doing me, my mom said, out and started out in
the theater. My grandparents ran a theater on a showboat
on the Mississippi River in Saint Louis.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
So those are my origins.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
And I kind of I'm kind of doing a reverse,
a reverse thing. I'm trying to do as much theater
now as I can. So I didn't start out doing
a lot of theater. I came out here and jumped
into film and TV world, and so now every chance
I get to go back to New York and do
a play or whatever.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
So but yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
If I look back and say what was on my
vision board, it would be to do a lot of
theater and get as much of a base of training
as I could before.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Check check. So now I'm doing it. I'm just checking
the boxes the other way.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
What's the best part of being an actor and what's
the worst.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Oh, the best part of it?

Speaker 1 (19:44):
I mean getting to work with other actors that you
love and admire. I got really kind of lucky early on.
It's funny I just did It's the I think about
to be the thirtieth anniversary of Air Force One, which
I kind of think of as my first big boy
up movie. Not a vice President this way, well, boyd
the press not yet.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Recovery teamlet very soon.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
That's a big movie.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's a big movie. But I had done like that.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'd done about forty TV and film gigs before then,
but nothing on that scale. And then all of a sudden,
that's when I kind of mark the sort of water
mark of when I got invited to sit at the
grown ups table. And so all of a sudden you're
in and I'm sitting next to Glenn Close, who ten
years earlier I'd seen in Barnum on Broadway and had

(20:30):
a huge crush on, and Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford
and all these people. So the best part of being
an actor is getting to work with people that you
are fans of and that you admire and getting to
learn from them, which I still do every job I get.
I'll tell you say, every time I pull onto a lot,
whether it's the Warner Brothers lot and you see that

(20:52):
big water tower or Paramount and you see the blue sky,
every time I pull onto a lot, I get little goosebumps.
I think, God, I get to act today, I still
have that same and the day that I lose that
vibe right will be it's time to hang it up.
But I still I still get goosebumps. I still feel
how lucky I am to be able to do this.

(21:13):
I really genuinely do.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
How is that? Because you know I have a moment.
The first time I.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Was asked to be on Hannity's show on Fox News,
this was like the big the big time. I had
been doing daytime day side like CNN here Dayside, Fox Dayside,
and this is before I was signed, so you go anywhere.
When I got the call to do Hannity ten pm,
Fox News Primetime, I remember they sent a car. I mean,
you know, living downtown Manhattan, they.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Send the car.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
When they send the car, you know, sure.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
I'm in the car. I'm going.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I remember there's a little bottle of water in the car.
I get free water, yes too, and a car.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Your name on a card outside the car. And I
remember telling myself, don't get jaded.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
This is incredible and even if this is as best
as you get to do in this business. Okay, but
I did. But I did get jaded.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh you did, okay, one hundred one hundred percent like jaded,
angry let down.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
But also you know what I can I.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Ask you in what sense, Like why, Like, what was it?
What was it about that.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
People people turning on you, people not.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Being the best here, that you wanting to help you,
people coming for you. Obviously, you know there's the viewers
and people who tell you how much they hate you
and stuff. But also just in the industry, you know,
from sexual harassment to sexual assault to the competitiveness, it's

(22:46):
not been all great. So I'm sad about getting jaded,
but I want to admit it, like I'm not going
to put a spin that, like, and I'm just still
lucky to be here.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
How do you maintain that? Because I feel like that's
a it's such a gift.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
But it's a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
But I also think that the world that you live in,
and also the Dana lives in as well. I mean,
you willingly open yourself up to the slings and arrows
of outragious isn't easy. Yeah, But I mean it's you
talk about your looks or you're oh, Spencer's he's gained
weight or he's lost weight or whatever.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
That's a different thing.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
But when you were talking about when you're talking about
politics and opinions, Yeah, you know, everybody's an expert it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Everybody.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Everybody is an expert on geopolitics and economy and everything.
So it's I think it's a different you've you are.
You live in a world where it's it's easier for
people to poke holes and and that sucks, but that's
the nature of the beast. But yeah, I think it's
I think it's different in my business too. I just
try to I just try to keep my head down

(23:53):
and just keep swimming. I really, I really do. I
mean yeah, and and try not to reach your d MS.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Well, yeah, you have to be like intentional about how
much of that you let in, right, how much critics, fans,
other actors like you have to be intentional about what, Okay,
what am I going to let to get through here?
What's going to be helpful to me and what's going
to be harmful to me? I mean, I have to
do that all the time. Talk about how you met Dana.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Well, we met in two thousand and seven. I went
to Washington, d C. I lived in DC out of college.
I lived there for three years. I worked for NPR.
I have a great love for that city, and so
I had an experience there out of college. In my
early twenties, and I loved the town so and I
also love politics, as you probably know. Yes, so I've

(24:42):
been a political junkie my whole life. And in two
thousand and seven I acted in and produced a little
indie film that we shot in sixteen days in DC,
gorilla style around La Noah Wiley was in it, Xander Berkeley,
Sarah Clark. Terrific little cast we put together for no money.
And there was a couple that I was introduced to,

(25:03):
Jack and Susannah Quinn huh, who was sort of like,
if you didn't know the Quinns in DC, then you
weren't You know you were? And somehow and I befriended
them and they just became pals, like right off the bat.
That's two thousand and seven. Cut to five years later.
Six years later, I was in Baltimore doing House of Cards. Yes,

(25:25):
up the road in Baltimore, and I had a couple
of days off and I called the Quinns and I said,
I said, I'm bored up here. What are you guys doing?
They said, why did you come down for lunch? And
by the way, do you want to meet somebody? And
I said sure?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
And so were they setting you up. They were setting
me up. They were setting me up.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
I don't think they told her that she was being
set up, but I knew I was being set.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Up, and so they told her.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
They told her to google me, okay, And so they
said to Susannah said to Dana, why don't you come
over for lunch?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
And Danna said, have you met me?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
I don't do lunch like I'm She's never not going
a million miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
So she swung by.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
She showed up with her son, and I walked in.
I think she thought that she was coming for like
a luncheon, and it was just me and so Dana
and Susannah said, Dana Spencer, Spencer, Dana, I'll be in
the kitchen.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
And the kind of left of us less alone, and
and so a couple of days later she called me.
There's a there's a kind of a there's a sort
of dispute about how this went down. But I got
a phone call and it said, uh. I answered my
phone and I hadn't plugged her number into my phone.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
And she said, hey, it's Dana, And I said, oh hey.
She said yeah, are you going to ask me out
or what?

Speaker 1 (26:37):
I love that, and and I said, well, yeah, I
was trying to be cool. I was trying to of course,
you know, you know swingers the three day rule, So
I was trying. I was trying to do the three
day be nonchalant.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
But your money, baby, your money.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Your money, and you didn't I didn't even know it.
And so I so I got in a car, came
down to DC. We went out to dinner, and uh,
twelve years later, it works, still works.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, you know, I find our town well DC in LA.
I find our towns similar in that, you know, they're

(27:21):
dominated by one industry. Not that LA doesn't do more
than entertainment and DC doesn't do more than politics. They do,
but these businesses loom large over these cities, and escaping from.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Politics is hard in a town like DC.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
I lived there for a long time, yeah, two and
really hard to escape it. And I used to lament
like I'd go out with my husband, who was also
in politics. We'd meet up with friends were also in politics.
I was the only one that was like, let's talk
about movies. They wanted to talk about like the cr
and the budget, and I'm like, come on, was it
the same year?

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Like you can't escape. You can't escape.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I mean I I like talking about acting and then
forgive me for using this word, but the craft your life.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
I like talking, so I like and when when.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
We're with a bunch of actors and you get together,
you talk about acting.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
Sytimes.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yes, I mean it is a company town, but we try.
We try to when we have the dinners. Sometimes we
try to leave the shop talk away and talk about
other stuff.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
But you like talk, so you don't need an escape.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
I don't. I don't really need an escape.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
But when I when I go to DC uh, there
is kind of a house rule where when Danna leaves
the bureau, she clocks out, and it's like.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Love that for her.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
And when I'm I tend to be the one that's
always been. Can you believe what so and so said?
Blah blah blah. But she's nine and she's like, you
know what, I just want to watch missus masl yeah
and have a glass of wine and just.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
I get it.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, I love that for her and I'm glad that
she does that. There's a lot of it, just like
Bosta no politics.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Yah, yeah, Bosta exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
We talked about this a little bit another crossover between
our industries. My industry is in trouble changing rapidly, so
is yours. What's going on in Hollywood and the end
entertainment business that people who aren't in it need to
know about this like rapidly changing well industry.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I mean, I've been teaching for a long time and
one of my earliest and a pretty well known acting teacher,
was a man named Sanford Meisner. And Sandy Meisner said
to me, at twenty one years old, before I embarked
on this ride with him, he said, don't do this
unless you absolutely feel in your blood and your bones
that you have to, because it's really hard. And I'd

(29:30):
seen my mother's fortunes rise and fall, and you know,
I knew. I grew up around it, and so I
knew I'd seen people at the top of their game
and at the top of the heap, and then suddenly,
you know, ride in high in April, shot down in
May Frank Sinatra. Yeah, And I knew that it was
going to be a rough road, And so I tell
my students now the same thing. Listen, it's rough out there,

(29:53):
and it's rougher by the day. The ground is shifting
under our feet constantly. Now there's a lot of runaway
production and things are being moving to Canada and out
to Atlanta, and so it's it's more difficult to get
and find and sustain work.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
And then add strikes, AD strikes, ad streaming, the changing
you know, landscape of how people.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Are watching me.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
The last strike which was fighting for residuals for streaming,
which we got a little bit of headway, but not much.
And network television is kind of dying on the vine,
which is very strange to see as a guy that
kind of made my bones doing a lot of episodic television.
Last Friday, I mean, NBC canceled seven shows, I think,
in one day, after one season. And so it's so

(30:40):
I tell my students to answer your question. I tell
I tell students or kids or anybody that comes up
to me that guy from that thing who's been in
that thing for a long time asking me for advice.
I mean, if you are passionate about it, and you
really really need to do it, then by all means
do it. But just be prepared for and and keep

(31:01):
keep yourself occupied with other.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Things that don't have anything to do with the business.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Keep yourself occupied with things that feed your soul and
nourish your your heart and your spirit that aren't involved
in God. I need this job, you know, do things
that make you fulfilled in other ways have nothing to
do with the business, because the business is I mean,
we're trying to bring they're trying to pass a tax
instead of build, to bring filming here, to keep filming here,

(31:28):
stay in La. I'm a huge proponent of that. And
so there was a meeting last week at Sagafra with
Mayor Bass and some elected officials, and they're really trying
to push this thing through because it's it's kind of
a you see the tumbleweeds out there right now.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, well I hear that because I develop as well,
and so you know, I just hear that, and it's
really scary.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
It feels to me, despite.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
The death of network television, that TV is making some
really great Oh.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
I mean, it's a golden age. Is it's a golden age.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
But but it's uh, I mean, I went to the
Grove last week to see a Friends movie that was
playing only in theaters and it's it's one of three
movies when you go to a multiplex you see you're
lucky if there's three or four movies on the on
the marquee there because there's just not enough stuff being
I mean, I love going to the movies. I love

(32:19):
sitting in the movies with the popcorn and the coke
and s and that whole that shared experience in the dark,
and that's kind of moving away. And I love I
love scrolling through my Apple TV and my Hulu and
finding what's on, and there's amazing stuff being made. But
I do I do miss, I do fear that movies,

(32:40):
the the the act of going to movies in the cinema,
not to use an already farty word, but the you know,
the cinema is kind of is kind of moving away
from us. So that's something that's a new terrain to
navigate as well, because a gorgeous, gorgeous works that are
that are cinematic, that are being done on television.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yes, well it's true.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
But I remember when hop Gun Maverick was coming out,
someone I had read that they originally wanted to release
that as a streamer, and Tom Cruise said, I make
movies for the cinema, right, are there any movie stars left?

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Tom Cruise?

Speaker 4 (33:17):
Cruise?

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Right? I was just thinking about the other day.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
I mean, he's the last of the He's really the
last of the old time movie stars, isn't he. And
it's I mean, it's extraordinary that the reception that he
got in in Can with that movie with the Final
Right Missiles, the Final Mission Impossible movie.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
I mean, he's not an art film.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
He's been a great I mean, he's really been a
great ambassador for the business.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, it feels like for a really long time.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
So, I mean he's kind of he's kind of the
Mission Impossible movies and.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
All the action stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Notwithstanding, I think people forget what a terrific actor he is.
And I and now that Mission Impossible is over. I
don't know him, but if I the first thing that
I would say to him is I want to see
you do another role like Magnolia.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
You always say that, Well, totally last thing he's ever done.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Well, we all got to see him in a different light.
That was such a fun, weird, great movie.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, or even Travick Thunder, Tramic Thunder exactly.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
He's a wonderful actor opening.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
These weird doors. Yeah, and he has it.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Seemed like he had so much fun with those roles too,
So like I love it, but I also love like
a Jerry Maguire, Like you can also just play a
normal guy, a prick in a suit, you know, quo
to quote you.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
But I would watch him in anything.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
I think that's almost people feel about him.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I mean, try to think about who's who are who
are the movie stars that are left?

Speaker 4 (34:33):
That's what I mean, is it Brad Pitt Brad.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Pitt Lee, I mean Brad Leo. Sure.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
I mean in my and when I first started out,
there was nobody.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
There was nobody bigger than Harrison Ford.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
Oh totally right.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
And look at him at eighty three, no TV, doing TV,
but doing doing at.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
At a high level.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Oh yeah, the high ranking and eighteen eighty three and
still terrific. And that to me is still inspiring because
I think as I get into I.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Mean I.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Started out probably like I say, I started out in
my mid twenties and grinded away and then really didn't
get into another gear career wise until my lates.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I was an overnight success at like forty five.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
But that's so inspiring.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I mean, well yeah, but I mean, and it's interesting
because I was listening to you talk about the business
with Rob Morrow a great interview with Rob, and he's great,
he's and he's also just a sweet, sweet soul, and
he's got a great take on life and he's navigated
the business really beautifully.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
And it's an inspiration to me.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
And if I had had success earlier in my career,
in my twenties or even early thirties, like great success
on the level that Rob had, or any a lot
of these other folks that I'm lucky enough to break
bread with, I don't know that I would have handled
it as well as a lot of these other guys.
I just don't know that I had the emotional tool. Yeah,

(36:00):
it took me. It took me into my forties to
really find. So the nice successes, the nice the nice
w's that I'm putting up on the board now in
my fifties are I think I'm able to.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Figure it out better?

Speaker 1 (36:14):
And uh And then even meeting Dana at fifty, I
call her my first grown up.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
It was she was my first grown yea.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, well, I think that's really inspiring. I just came
from doing a podcast called Oldish Yeah with Brian Austin
Green and Randy Spelling, like right before I came here,
and I was a guest on there.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah, but we talked a lot about age.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Brian's not fifty, is he?

Speaker 4 (36:39):
Brian is fifty?

Speaker 2 (36:40):
Stop it really?

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, I don't even want to talk about it because
he looks so good and my husband's in the next room.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
Like I don't even want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
It, but like, no, I mean to think of but
just to think of the kids from one in their fifties.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
I mean, it's just right. Time flies, man, it does.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
And you know, sometimes you hit an existential.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
When you get older.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Yeah, and you're thinking about your career, your identity, your value.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
What do I want for the second half of my life?
You know?

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Do I want to keep doing what I'm doing? Do
I want to keep growing? Do I want to completely change?
It's a daunting thing to get older in an industry
like mine is, and I'm sure like yours.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
It is daunting.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
I mean, I think about where I'm going to be
ten years down the road, yeah, right, fifteen years down
the road. I want to be in that in that
Harrison Ford. Yeah, aging gracefully, yes, hopefully nicely, still with
all my but also working, working with all my parts
and tax right, but yeah, it's a it's a it
is a business that traditionally does not look kindly on aging.

(37:48):
And so I've been involved for a long time with
the Motion Picture Television Fund and would also notice the
actor's home and they take you know, their motto is
taking care of her own and they do a great
job of like taking care of the older people in
the industry, not just actors but grips and writers and
directors and stuff. And yeah, getting I mean getting older
in this business is tough. And I had some great

(38:10):
examples of it in my mother watching her age gracefully.
She had great success in the sixties and seventies, and
then all of a sudden, you're forty and you're past.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Your cell by date.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
Oh I know.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
So it's it's tricky. But I'm sure you know in
your business as well.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
But you know, get you, yeah, I mean, you hit
forty as a woman and you know, basically told to
Lee like shown the door in a lot of cases, Dannis.
So I want to say lucky, but she also deserves
to be exactly where she is. But she and I
can name dozens of women who've just kind of like

(38:47):
been shown the door and not working again. And what
what changed with us nothing. I'm still I might be
better at my job in my forties than I was
in my twenties. Of course I am.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
But you know this, just are and you are well, of.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
Course you are because you've learned so much.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
And I'm saying, and you are.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
And Dana is I mean, I watching watching her such
a great example to me. But also this is now
we're going on twelve years, but I knew who she
was when we met. Yes, watching her navigate her success
and grow and uh and do it with such grace
and kindness the way she does it is it is
it is an object lesson.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
For me as well.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
And and just also just aging, aging gracefully, aging gracefully
and and trying to and trying to do it with
with grace and not let the uh not let the trolls,
yeah get to you.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
You know I've I've never told Dana this because I'll
be I'd be too embarrassed. So I'll tell you the story.
You know, I come to CNA.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
I came from ms I had had a show at MSNBC,
and I'd been on Fox and stuff, so I wasn't
like a total unknown when I came to CNN and
I came to see an in Every Fox and which,
but what I came to CNN for the new Crossfire reboot.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
So I came with Cutter.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
And with Cutter, Van Jones and New Gingrich anyway.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
A combo platter.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yes, but you know, you come to a new network.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
I had done a lot of CNN, so it's not
it wasn't totally strange to me. But you come to
a new network that could go one of two ways.
Everyone's really excited that you're there, or no one's excited
that you're there.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
I was lucky.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Most people were excited, you know, to have us there
and and and work together. But what you need as
a young woman coming into a new network is another woman,
a senior woman, just senior and status not necessarily age,
to like give you the head nod so that everyone
around takes you seriously. And between Candy, Ellie and Dana

(41:08):
and Gloria, these three women globo who were globos who
were senior in stature to me, giving me the impromater,
like I take this girl seriously, the rest of you
should was such a gift.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
She doesn't.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
I'm sure know that she did that because she I'm sure, well,
I hope she does, because I couldn't tell this to
her face without crying. But as a woman, that really
made such a huge difference for me, and I think
about it all the time as new women come into
my business and my space and giving them that encouragement
but just even support. It's not even like she took

(41:46):
me under her wing. I didn't need that. I was established,
I knew what I was doing. I needed the like
I've vetted this woman. I needed that and she did that,
did that without anyone.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
I can't tell you how many other people and many
other women have said that to me or just but
just kind of everybody that she works with at CNN
is it's it's just really lovely to know that the
person that you are a partner with.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Is the way you see the way and is regarded
in that same light.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
And it's funny because she talked about when she and
I first met, she talked a lot about Candy Crowley,
and I think even to this day, when you watch
Andy Cohen's show, he has a he's got like a
doll of Candy Crowley on his thing, like a Candy
cut out right. And I was a huge Candy Crowley fan.
Growing up watching her on CNN doing State of the

(42:41):
Union exactly, and so watching that progression from you know Dana,
you know, yeah, Candy to Dana carrying on that tradition.
It's a big mantle to carry and she does it really,
really well.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
And going back to I think, just going back to
talking about how people regard you as you get older,
and circling back to the beginning of our conversation, I
want to I feel like I'm just getting good.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I feel like I'm just finding my groove as an actor.
I really do, and I'm not saying that. I really
feel like I'm I'm with every gig, every whether it's
suits La, which I did a couple of months ago,
something as silly as that, or something as wonderful as
working with Tarantino, whatever it is, it's a new chance

(43:27):
to get better as an actor.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And so now at.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Sixty one, I feel like, boy By, I'm just getting
the hang of this. I feel like I'm really I
feel like I'm really getting the hang.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Of this now.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
His acting thing so amazing, and it really makes me
feel like so by the time I'm a few years
from now, I can say because Sandy Meiser said it
takes twenty years to become an actor. And when I
was twenty one, and I heard that, and he said
that to me in our little one on one interview,
and I went, twenty years, Jesus, I don't have twenty years.
I want to get going, man, And then he would,
and then he said that to all. When I was

(43:59):
in class with him, he said that to the whole class,
and everybody sort of collectively groaned, Wow.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Twenty years to become an actor. But it's true.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
And so me, it's taken twenty twenty five years to
be able to call yourself an actor, which is a
big responsibility. Yeah, and it's one that I don't take lightly,
coming from grandparents who did it and toiled in those fields,
to a mother who raised me as a single mother
doing whatever guest spots episodic television movies, watching her trying

(44:31):
to raise a kid as an actor in this business.
She was first woman president of the Screen Actors Guild,
so she was a.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Tough a tough cookie.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
And watching the attacks on her as a woman in
a male dominated business and watching her navigate that stuff
with grace.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
So I've had a lot of great role models. Yeah,
so I'm happy to say on off the cup with
you that I'm an actor.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yeah, I feel like I feel like I can kind
of finally call myself an actor.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
I mean, you definitely can't. But I tell what you're saying,
I get it. I love that.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Okay, I want to do a lightning round. But first,
the last question before we get to the lightning round.
Kind of a bunch of conspiracy theories about Hollywood?

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, you've heard them all? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (45:12):
Or any of them true? What's a true conspiracy theory?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
A true conspiracy theory? Any of them true about Hollywood?

Speaker 4 (45:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
Give me it? For instance, give me like, give me,
give me a little carrot here.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
You know, there are conspiracy theories around in scientology, around
a gay cabal, velvet mafia. There you go, the velvet,
you know, political conspiracy theories.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
You know, I mean, truth to anything or is it all?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
I mean?

Speaker 1 (45:43):
I know I have several people that I know that
are that are in the scientology world, God bless them.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Are they influential in Hollywood?

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, Well, I mean, you know, mister Cruz, for example,
I I have I have to uh, I have to
separate myself from my disdain for that.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
I have total disdain for that cult.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
I mean literally I have I have friends I think
Dana might rank among them. I have literally friends that
won't go to Tom Cruise movies with me because of
that association. And I just leave that. I leave that
at the door and just just you know, my popcorn
and go for the ride. But yeah, people are people
are kind of turned off by it. But yeah, there's

(46:29):
a there's a little bit of a cabal in there.
So that's uh, that is a true conspiracy theory. There's
a little bit, there's a lot of influence there. It
gives me the willies though, David Misscabbage and that whole
that's there's some dark ship.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
There for sure, Harry.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
And you know, I've watched a lot of documentaries and
you know.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
In front of Leah remedy is a do you know,
I'm friends.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
With someone who's very good friends with Lea and has
helped like helped her, you know, kind of message this
and she.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Still had I mean, she's gotten a lot of ship,
she got a lot of black balling trying to you know,
in the industry or speaking out. So uh, that's courage
that's that's that's massive courage to me.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Yeah, I walked by the building just down the story.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
It's that's one of many, one of many. It's not
the building. There are many buildings. There's the Scientology Celebrity Center,
which is around the corner from here that I think
there's a there's a lot of property. And then further
down in East Hollywood in the Los Fila's area on
Sunset there's there's a big giant blue building and they
walk around in their little uniforms at one point. I

(47:32):
think there's a part of the ethos of Scientology was
that they were told that it's smoking was good for them,
so you would see them walking around in their uniforms
like smoking.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
It's a it's bizarre. It's so creepy to me.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
And the Paul Thomas Anderson movie The Master really kind
of nailed it, like it really got it right. Like
the the I mean, l Ron Hubbard was that, well,
there's a conspiracy is it true that he was that
someone dared him on a bet that he couldn't create
a religion start a religion out of whole cloth, and

(48:06):
and he did. It's all based on malarkey. I mean
it's bananas bano. Yes, so my hat's off to mister Cruz.
Thank you for helping to save the industry.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
But I just don't.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
I don't want to. I'm not going to come to
your mixer. I love it.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Okay, Lightning Round a TV show you'd like to do,
but haven't.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
The currently or one that I wish that I were on.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
No, let's make it current so we can manifest it.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Oh boy, I loved Yellowstone. I was really really got
into Yellowstone.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
I love that. I love that world.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
A cowboy hat, yeah, I do.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
I could do a cowboy hat.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
I could see it.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah yeah. I got.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
One of my earliest gigs was a show that you
never heard of called Guns of Paradise, starring Lee Horseley
and so and I did a couple of early TV
shows where I was on horses, and at my audition
the cast and director said can you ride? And I said,
are you kidding? I'm like twenty four to twenty five
years old?

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Can I ride? Are you kidding me? I grew up
on a farm in Montana.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
I grew up roping dogies and I know, I mean,
I'm mister cowboy.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
And I got the gig.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
And then I went, oh shit, I've got to learn
how to ride a horse really quick. And I went
to the Sunset Ranch in Beechwood Canyon and I took
horseback riding lessons so I would look like I knew
what the hell I was doing. Ye, and I and
the first take of a shot, I'm racing down a
hill with two hundred extras on horseback behind me, and
I'm like this. You can't your listeners can't see it,

(49:38):
but I say, hanging on for dear life. My hat
flew off, and the director, Harry Harris, was his grizzled
old veteran. He pulled me aside. He said, you son
of a bitch, and I said, what is it, Harry?
He said, you told me that you were, like, you know,
a cowboy.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Cowboy?

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Oh he knew, and he kind of winked at me.
He's like, you got the gig though.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Didn't you?

Speaker 1 (49:58):
And I said, yeah, I'm here, And he said, you
might want to take horseback riding off your resume for
a while.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
So, yeah, now I know how to ride horses.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
I wish I were on Yellowstone something like that, a
Western eighteen eighty three manifest Yeah, I love that World.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
I love.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
I Actually I really like Kevin Costners the Horizon series,
So yeah, i'd love to.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
I'd love to do something like that. Let's manifest that
a concert you'd like to go to?

Speaker 1 (50:21):
But haven't I mean driving down here, Bob Dylan and
Willie Nelson playing together. I mean Willie's ninety one, I
think Dylan, but they're playing at the Hollywood Bowl next
month that I've never seen either of them live, So
I've got on my way home.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
I literally I'm going to go to.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
The box office at the Hollywood Bowl and see if
I can. I'll sit in the nosebleed seats. But I've
always wanted to. I've always wanted to see Dylan. I'm
a well I've seen Bruce a bunch. He's on tour
in Europe right now, and i'd love to. I'd love
to teleport myself over there and see him one last
time because I don't how much longer he's going to
be read bet Yeah, but Dylan and Dylan and.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Willie, Okay.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
I had a chance to Nina Simone when she was
still alive and Nina Simone was playing This is twenty
years ago.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
She was playing at the Wiltern Theaters. She was playing
a concert and.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
There was ah there were picketers outside, there were ayazzi
and teamsters picketers, there were picketing the theater and there
was something going on. And I was with my girlfriend
at the time, and we were driving by the theater.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
And I said, we can't go. She says why. I said,
I'm a union guy. I can't. I can't cross the line.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
And I and I and I've always thought, gosh, what if?
Because and she passed away shortly thereafter and I never
got to see it.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
But can't cross the picket line across the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
A vacation spot you'd like to go but haven't yet?

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Wow, I'm a Prague is high on my list.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Well, yeah, I don't think of it as vacation, ye,
but you'd like I've always wanted to go to Prague, Fiji, Bali,
Far New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, I've got a lot of them.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
I've got I've got a I've got a bucket list
of about of about ten.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
But you've got lots of time.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
I got lots of time. What about you? What's what
have you been? Have you been to all of those places?

Speaker 3 (52:06):
What's what's I love travel travel me too.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
Yeah, that's like when I retire.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Basically, I just I'm just continuing to act so I
can afford to.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
Go the places. Same.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I mean, I came out here for work, but I
brought my family because let's turn it into a trip.
I love taking trips. Yeah, there's lots of I want
to go to Japan really bad, me too, super into
like Japanese food.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
My son's into you know, like Nintendo.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
You like sushi loves really and ramen love.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
Yeah, so like that's that's our network. Our next maybe
big trip. That's a big trip.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
And he's got a surfing lesson tomorrow is surfing. That's
exciting California.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
This is the first time because they're.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
Gonna end up moving out here. I think you're gonna
end up.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
My husband was like, are we raising a California good? Like, well,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Well, there's no serving in Connecticut, so none. Nope, it
just gives you an excuse to come out here more.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Exactly. What's the best movie about journalism?

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Wow, I mean it sounds it sounds cliche. Yeah, and
I watched The Post. I watched The Post the other
night too, which I was great. I really really liked
The Post. I hadn't seen it since it came out.
That's tremendous movie, and it's and Danna teases me about this.
I literally I All the President's meant for me is like,

(53:23):
if it's on television, it's a remote drop.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
But I have probably watched that.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Movie as much as, if not more than The Sting
or any of my favorite movies.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
And I canon it's cannon.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
But also like, so I watched The poste No, I
got to give this one that a try, and I
watch a terrific film. And then as soon as The
Post was done, because the Post ends, the last scene
in the Post, yes, ends with the security guard at
the Watergate Hotel looking at the tape on the door
and then yeah, you see, you know Nixon saying, you know,
we're gonna we gotta keep those Washington postcards. And I thought,

(53:55):
all right, it's eleven thirty at night. I just finished
watching The Post. Watch and so I went and watched
All the President.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
So good.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
It's good, so good. The Paper is great, The Paper,
his girl, Friday, his girlfriend. I know that movie, Yeah, classic,
you know, classic screwball comedy. Great, great movie about journalism
is the condor I love as a as a journalism movie.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Yeah, newspaper, that's well, it's the front, it's a front.
But he like works as a newspaper.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Well, he doesn't work in a newspaper, Redford.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
He works for He works for the CIA, Yes, secretly,
but he is a it's not a newspaper.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
He's a. It's a library. He's a.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
He's a he reads books for a living, and he's
deciphering different hidden codes in the book.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Right, you're right, you're right, you're right.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
But it's a great seventies.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
It's a great movie.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
It's a great movie.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
I love Shattered Glass. That is, yes, plastic movie. Billy Ray,
who's a politics so good, terrific director who I've gotten
to work with a couple of times.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
Billy, it's a good movie.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
It is a very good movie.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, Shattered Glass and also stayed a place to rific film. Yeah, Spotlight, Spotlights,
Spotlight and really good, which was written by the same
Liz Hannah and Josh Singer who wrote The Post which
I saw the others Hannah wrote Spotlight.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
And Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
I mean there's just just so many terrific movies. I
mean bombshell.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Oh absolutely, I love that movie. Yeah, you know so
Kate McKinnon was in that movie. Ye, ky McKinnon, she's
so talented. Spoofed me on SNL when I was working
at MSNBC.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Did she Yeah, which is like did she send you up?

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:33):
A couple of times.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Dana's there's what I forget who Heidi Gardner I think
played Dana and said, Hi, my name is Dana Bash.
It's Dana for some reason, because because Dana gets like
Dana of course, you know.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Oh it's such a but I ran into Kate like
the Monday after she had.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Done a massive, massive actor crush on on her. Me too,
and Nana's talented.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Maybe even like a real crush, but I mean I
ran into her like the monday after she had done it,
and she is like, Hi, are we okay?

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Good? Good? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Good okay. Last question, it's the most important question. To me.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
We ask it every time. Yeah, when is iced coffee season?

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Any anytime?

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Okay, that's the correct answer. Yeah, what is the correction answer,
Spencer Garrett?

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Now everyone gets that right, No season? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
I knew you'd get it. I knew you'd get it.
Spencer Garrett, this was so fun. Yeah, this, thank you
for going. Oh I know I could talk to you.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
For that after me. I know you're the day.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
You're it for the day. Coming up next week.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
On Off the Cup, I sit down with the host
of the More Stories podcast, Jay Moore.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Stand up. I control all the variables.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
I know before you know how great this is gonna be,
even if it's a second by second Yeah, podcasting. From
the moment I say welcome to the More Stories podcast,
I have terror that I'm going to run out of
things to ask.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Off the Cup is a production of iHeart Podcasts as
part of the Reason Choice Network.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
If you want more, check out the other.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Reason 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. Our executive producers
are me Se Cup, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Rate and review wherever you get

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Your podcasts, Follow or subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday.