May 16, 2022 • 51 mins
Welcome back to our show! You know are next guess from his incredible ladder pull-ups on Arrow and as Cece's drunk DJ boyfriend. He's Stephen Amell! After exiting his long-running Arrow series on the CW, Amell has been producing films and starring in a new sports series centered on boxing. Plus, he'll share his recollections of his brief time on the New Girl set. If you'd like to ask us a question, please email us at welcometoourshowpodcast@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @welcometoourshowpod.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Ring ring ring ring. May I please speak with Zoe Oh, Hello,
lamar Let's Patch and Hannah. God. I forgot what it
was like working with you guys. Thank you so much
(00:29):
for doing our show. Steven, thanks for having me. I'm appreciative.
This is fun, very fun. We've we've gotten to see
some of your early performances. I mean, welcome to our show. Hey,
thank you very much. Thanks for having Yes, We're so
happy to have you here. It's so funny because I'm like, looking,
you're a resume, and I'm like, and when you were
(00:52):
on our show, like I was probably clueless, but like
I didn't know like all your prior work, and then
you've done like eight billion things since we did do Girl.
You are a very busy man. It's either like eight
billion things or three things for a very very long time. Well,
(01:16):
it's impressive. Thank you. And this professional wrestling stuff, yeah,
I mean that happened in where someone that was a
fan of Arrow and his character that he was playing
in wrestling was supposed to be like a super villain,
pitched an angle for me to make an appearance at
(01:37):
Monday at raw at Nasau Coliseum in in Long Island,
New York and I'm like, well, yeah, of course, because
I grew up watching wrestling all the time. It was
my it was my thing. I see a bunch of
I see a bunch of guitars behind you right now,
like it was. It was wrestling magazines for me. It's
wrestling there. Okay. So I ended up I ended up
(01:58):
doing that, and then an arrow was coming to an end,
heels was starting up, and there just seemed to be
a natural, natural fit. So I jumped right into that. Yeah,
but you literally jumped into wrestling like you've actually wrestled
people in real life. Not Yeah, yeah, I have. I've
been I've been watching it forever, and you know, he's
staying in shape and you do stunts and you think
(02:20):
that you think that you can just do it. But
now that I'm actually playing a wrestler on the show
and I've actually done some training. There were just a
couple of really good quote unquote celebrity appearances at the
most recent WrestleMania. Um Logan Paul did one, Pat McAfee
did one, Johnny Knoxville did one, and he was he
(02:44):
was great. But you think that he's just gonna be
getting to you know what kicked out of him, but
he actually had a really good match. And now I'm
jealous because now I actually have some Now I actually
have some chops, and I want to get I want
to get back in the ring, but I risk divorce
if it happens. So she's scared you're gonna get really
hurt you doesn't want you to get brain damage. I
think that, well, it's the last time that I did
(03:06):
a singles match, because you have all of this adrenaline
that's that's pumping through your veins. And I did this
one move where I jumped from one side of the
ring to the other and I landed on my left side,
and I don't feel anything at the time, but then
in the dressing room afterwards, I kept looking underneath my
left hip like someone had put something there and I
(03:26):
had fractured. I had fractured my hip. It's wrestling, is
not It's not for the faint of heart. And your
wife's like, um, now I have to bring new soup
all day every day and do everything for you. So things.
Actually what I had to do was go right back
to work because I didn't ask permission to do this
wrestling match, so I couldn't very well come back and
(03:47):
say here's why I hurt myself. But now it's more like, hey,
you've done it, and um, please don't do it again.
But but now I actually don't have to do it
a little bit more safely. So we'll see, I'll sort
of have to ask I didn't have to ask production permission.
I will have to ask her permission. That's that's right.
And you have your priorities straight, right, got it? You
(04:09):
got it right? So you're so funny on New Girl?
By the way, Thank you? Fun stuff? God, do people
like ever remember to be good? I'm so happy because
well I'm not surprised, but I was just like, I mean,
you've like have such a massive career as Arrow and everything.
(04:30):
I'm like, like, do they remember sweet Kyle from New Girl?
I mean I mean no, I didn't mean sweet like
he's actually I just meant the sweetness of life that
(04:50):
you will obviously as you guys, as you guys know
with with Netflix, and I mean I think was this
the was it the was it the first season? Yes? Right,
so people people get back into it. But what actually
happens more often is people will go back and start
(05:11):
rewatching it, and I'll get these random text messages from
people that I've known for a long time, and they'll
be like your Kyle, A New Girl, no way, and
then they typically and then nothing will happen for a
little while, and then I'll get another text saying you
just pissed your pants, and then nothing will happen for
(05:31):
a little while again, and then I get another text
back saying I love brown people, all in caps. And
it's like it happens. It happens all the time. It's
a real testament to your show. I mean, there are people.
Believe me when I tell you, there are people right
now that have never seen it that are about to
start like a you know, a COVID quarantine or or
(05:55):
like our home, you know, with the flu, like anahaz
right now, and and they're going to pop on in
Netflix and they're gonna, you know, ripped through your entire show.
It's really cool. Um, let's let's just start all the
way back at the very beginning. And wants to get
into it. I really do the people's like New Girl
(06:16):
like origin stories. Oh yeah, So let's start at the
very beginning. You're from Canada, You're taking a way back. Well,
all the best people are Canadian. We have a we
have a bunch of good ones. We have a we
have a bunch of good ones. You go through the
you go through the O G SNL cast members and
a lot of the funniest comedians that that we've ever had.
(06:38):
Carry my boyfriend there you go. Of course there is
non Canadian here. Well, you're the one that I'm looking
the view that I'm looking at right now. We're literally
above you. You are you are about uh So, I
(07:00):
always want to know people's New Girl origin story. So
do you remember when did you come in an audition
for it? Like talk to talk us through from the beginning. Okay,
So this was a real interesting This was a really
really interesting time for me because I had so it
was two thousand eleven, and I had a pretty successful
(07:21):
two thousand and ten, but that was my first year
acting in the United States, and I had had like
a good pilot season. I had gotten a couple of tests,
and then I had gotten a couple I started to
book guest star jobs, none of them recurring, and then
in two thousand eleven, I became a regular on On
(07:42):
Hung on HBO, and that series came out in the
fall of two thousand eleven, right around the time that
I was doing Your Show, so I had a little
a little bit of buzz from that, but we didn't
know if it was going to come back. So HBO
was very and it ended up not coming back, which
was for tuoit is for me, but in the less
and HBO was very generous and they they gave me
(08:03):
the opportunity to go out and keep auditioning and and
I did something over the sudd I think it did
an episode of CSI over the summer, and then I
did a recurring arc on nine O, two and O,
which because of the casting director, ended up being a
really important job for me. And then I was offered
a part on Private Practice, And around that time I
(08:28):
went in and auditioned for for Your show and getting
that part. I can't remember what the sides where. I
can't remember the audition very much other than I only
did it one time and you know, felt pretty you know,
felt pretty confident about how it went. It was really
important for me because I had I had not done
(08:49):
any comedy up until that point, and to get the
job was great. And I just remember my agency calling
me up and saying, you've got it and feeling, um,
I didn't know. I didn't know Hannah or Max or
Jake or Lamourne, but I knew you Zoe. And I
(09:09):
remember being really intimidated before my first day of work,
which was a Monday morning. And I'll never forget this.
I you know, I'm a guest star. They had me
come in at like six o'clock in the morning on
a Monday, and I feel like we were shooting a party.
It wasn't my part. It wasn't my first scene where
(09:30):
you first meet me. It was it was more party
towards the end of the episode. And so the Sunday
night before, knowing that I got to get up real early,
I sit down just to try to relax, and I
turned on the World Series and while trying to relax,
Zoe walks out and starts singing the national anthem and
I'm like, oh, like, oh my god, this is so
(09:53):
this was like right after oh my god, that was it.
We all flew to the World Series. You did, and
then you all flew helping next the next morning. It
was gain. I just looked it up right now to
make sure that I wasn't having a favorite. It was
Game four of the two thousand eleven World Series and
it was the Cardinals against the Texas Rangers. And not
only did you sing the national anthem, but they did
(10:15):
the thing that Fox does where they randomly showed you
guys sprinkled in the stands there to promote the show.
And so but you, I mean, you guys were you
guys were very gracious. I remember the first scene. I
feel like the first scene might have been when it
was like a photo shoot. I think it was the
(10:35):
most intimidating scene ever. Let me tell you about it. Okay, alright,
you guys met and you have to make out right.
It was exactly that was the next episode they send
us to the World Series. Excuse my voice, I have
the flu. So they send us to the World Series,
which is like drinking food. We're having like this great
(10:56):
time out. And then Monday morning, at like seven am,
they're like, Hannah, you have to be in a bikini
to be an after in some weird ad that they
had created that I was modeling in right, the after
girl after picture of it. And then they were like,
and this guy's gonna play your boyfriend Kyle. We cast
(11:18):
him um and they show me a picture of you,
and I'm sitting there like with like half a pizza
in my mouth, and I just remember being like, I
should put this down if I'm going to be in
a bikini in the morning. And then they were like
and it was it was the list, you know, like
(11:39):
what they had to schedule for that Monday. I was like, really,
I have to behave this weekend. But I remember they
were like, it has to be a gross kiss. Do
you remember this, Steven, Like, it has to be gross
because it has me right in front of Max and
break his heart because he's going to give you a gift, right,
And I was like, it was just like the weirdest thing.
(12:01):
It's always weird to meet somebody for the very first
time and be like this is not a normal network
comedy kiss where you're like thank you very much. Um,
we met about naked and this very awkward, over the
top kiss and everybody was exhausted from the world series.
(12:22):
That's right, Yeah, it was great. Hello. I have to say,
one thing that I noticed about this character Kyle and you, Stephen,
is that, um, you are such a nice guy, and
but what I love is you like really get what
(12:44):
makes Kyle like an asshole and you can you play
those things really seamlessly as an actor, which is what
makes Kyle so funny. And Kyle is not aware. Steven's aware.
You know, I appreciate that. I think back, you know,
back in in two thousand eleven, and this was this
(13:05):
was the case for a large portion of my early
part of my career. It wasn't until I really spent
some time on set and was in more of a
leadership position that I really got to know what everyone does,
what the director of photography does, what the second ad
d does, what the director does, the diconomy between a
series regular and someone that's just coming in as a
(13:27):
guest star, which I wasn't set up to recur for
the from my understanding, But back then I didn't know anything.
It was just point me in the direction and I
was just, I think, lucky enough that I was comfortable
enough to take direction. So I don't I certainly don't
want to take all the credit. I don't take the
credit for being relaxed enough to do it. But I
(13:49):
don't know my asshole from my elbow. When I'm on set.
I'm just trying. I'm just trying to I'm just trying
to do a good job and you guys, but you
guys also had that really cool and I've I've to
experience this to it. It's amazing you guys had that
really cool we're on a hit show glow about you
that those early days. And I don't know how the
(14:11):
dynamic changed over the years, um, but I mean, obviously
the fact that you guys are still friends and doing
something like this suggests that it went pretty well. But
you had that, you had that glow of wow, we've
just found something and now it is something about you.
I remember it was so fun. I just I remember
the first time you and I Steven had like a
real conversation, and it was we were shooting that Christmas party,
(14:36):
so there's a lot of waiting around because there was
you know, like a lot of set up and extra
is going around the party and everything. And we'd only
had that one encounter before, which felt, um just for
me as a girl, awkward in my own body, not
because of you, just because of me. And so I
was like, here, we are fully closed. This is nice.
Now we can actually like chat and have a conversation.
(14:58):
And you're Canadian and I was Canadian, and it was
my first time really on a set like this too.
And I remember and for me, you were like this
big HBO star in my mind coming off of hung
and so I was like intimidated. That was in my mind.
I was just like, oh my gosh, there's like this
big actor here. And I remember talking to you because, um,
(15:22):
you were so kind and so generous, talking about the
industry and about the ups and downs of it. And
I don't know if you remember sharing this with me,
but I remember you telling telling me about it happened
that summer I think with Katherine Bigelow and the hurt Locker. Right,
(15:46):
I don't remember this story. What was the story? I
thought there was a story that you were telling me
that you thought you were up for it or you
were going to get it, or something was happening around
the hurt Locker and it had gotten and it had disappeared.
I mean, there was there were a variety of stories.
(16:06):
I'm sure. I'm sure we told a story like that
right before. Um, you know, I gosh, it was. I
came close on so many things, a lot of movies. Um.
I have been flown to you know, I've been flown
to to New Zealand to audition for the lead in Spartacus,
(16:29):
and just so many things that were within my grasp.
And I mean actors have had those stories, but it
was probably around the time that you lose a job,
or you don't lose it, you never had it, but
you get really, really, really close, and there's the hurt
that accompanies it, because you've got to believe that you're
(16:51):
right for the job, otherwise I don't think you stand
a chance of getting it. But then there's the secondary
layer of hurt, which is when you start seeing the
the trailer for it or the advertising for it and
it just wallops you. It's like you go through that
whole thing again. So we're probably having one of those conversations.
(17:12):
I feel like that happens like right before you hit
a big job. You're getting close on a lot of
others where it's like, oh my god, I was like
this close and I love you know, I was like
the second choice for it. And then a lot of
times jobs that I've had that have been big jobs
for me, I was their fourth choice or something, and
(17:34):
it's like now it used to be like that kind
of insults me, and now I'm like, yes, I'm the one,
Like I'm glad all those people turn that down. If
you can design that stuff is happening in the universe
for you, you know, well it is. I mean, as
I was mentioning earlier that I had a wonderful time
(17:54):
on Hung and if it gets renewed for a fourth
season and the ratings the third were the best that
they have been of the three, then I'm not available
to audition for Arrow and everything that's sliding door. Everything
about my career is different. Maybe it's better and maybe
it's worse, but it's certainly it's certainly different. So you'd think, wow,
(18:15):
your first series regular, that show got canceled after your
first season on the show. That must be an awful thing.
Not really, Yeah, you never know. You never know that
you don't know what's coming around the corner. That's what
you and I were talking about as we were standing
there on set, which was basically I don't know if
it was like maybe it was awards season for Hurt Locker,
so you're talking about that secondary layer of hurt was
(18:38):
already the twins for you or something. Well, there was
also there was another there was another Katherine Bigelowle movie
going on at that time, and I don't know if
it was necessarily hurt Locker, but there was something that
I really thought I was right for and that I
had moved to the to another level for. And it's
just you never sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to things.
When I went in an audition for your show, I
(18:59):
thought it was a good addition, but I had no
experience with comedy auditions at all. I went to this guy,
Chad McCord, who was an audition coach, not an acting coach,
although he does coach acting. But he was coaching me
on auditions and and where like how to walk into
the room, where to find the joke in a comic
in a guest star comedy half hour comedy audition. And
(19:21):
he was right. I mean he he coached me to
do the audition right. And so so yeah, I always
say that there's I wish there was. I genuinely do
wish there was like a handbook or a coaching school
that's not just about acting here in l A, which is,
let's say you book that whatever it is one line
to line on the show. You've never been on a
(19:44):
set before. I just remember that feeling when they're just
like all right, so we're gonna do a blocking rehearsal.
Everybody get on their marks. It's a whole another language.
And then you're watching everybody just without even registering it,
do it because they know the language, and you're, Yeah,
you need like a pamphlet on set etiquette, because you
can't even focus on acting. You can't even focus on
(20:07):
the thing you did in that weird room with the
casting director. It's not voices being on set. Yeah. Well,
I mean, one of the things I always think about,
especially about being a guest star, is you are at
at at at best, you are a cog in the machine.
You're certainly not the engine by any stretch of the imagination.
(20:29):
And it's your responsibility to show up on time, to
know your stuff, to understand what it means to hit
a mark, to understand what blocking means, to just to
to not to not fall asleep in your wardrobe and
wrinkle it, like all of these things that you never
that you never think about. And I and ironically, I mean,
(20:50):
obviously you can't, you can't go there and be atrocious,
But it's almost as though your performance is like seventh
on the checklist, which is an odd thing. And but well,
if you're not there to do the performance, like because
you're late, then this doesn't matter. But if you're just
so in your head, because here's the thing, it could
take one thing to bump you. Right. Let's say you
(21:12):
don't know about hitting a mark, or you don't know
about the marks that go one, number one, number two,
number three, number four, and you miss one, and then
you get called out because you know the eight is
trying to race for time to get before lunch. And
now you're so in your head. I just I could.
I've over the years on New Girl, you would see
somebody who was there very first and you're reaching them drown. Yeah,
(21:36):
and everything's good, except it's it's all held together by
spit and hope and string, and they drop and they're
doing a speech and they drop one word right, and
then all of a sudden, there's a whole there. It
just all falls apart. I've seen it. I've seen it happen,
(21:56):
and and you just want to grab that person and
hug them and say, hey, we're not going to run
out of film. We don't even we don't even capture
this on film anymore. If you make a mistake, go
back to the beginning. Start again. Nobody cares, so you
just want to put in a good day of work.
But you can't say that if I had if we
shot that first scene where you're doing that bikini shoot
(22:18):
and I had accidentally, you know, bit your lip or
something like that, and our kiss and you've been not
gracious about it, then I would have been we would
have that would have been the last thing we would
have seen him, Kyle. I would have fallen apart. I was.
I was actually saying this in another interview, but it's
so true. I just think like getting in your head
(22:39):
is like the biggest enemy of an actor. Like the
thing when you start to think I'm doing a bad job,
that's when you have to like get on another topic
because that is the topic you should not be on
in your head as an actor on set or on stage.
Just move on. If you mess up, move on. The
(23:01):
next one will be better, you know. Um, It's just
it's just massively distructive to start thinking I'm bad. Welcome
to you went on and became, you know, the start
(23:24):
of your hugely successful show. Is there a way that
you approached being number one on the call sheet when
you had so many people coming and going off of
your show. It's a great question. What I tried to
as best I could as an acting partner be whatever
you needed me to be, because I had so much
(23:46):
work on my plate. The way that I would prepare
would be to just know the script from front to back,
from top to bottom almost no, almost no everyone's lines.
Not memorize them per se, but just I've got a
really good capacity for knowing where we are in the story,
what's happened, and what's important from a continuity standpoint, to
(24:06):
the point where I would have crew members come up
to me and say, when you stop a blocking for
a scene because of a continuity problem, it's really annoying.
But principally it's annoying because you're almost always right and so,
but when it came to acting, it's like, well, what
kind of scene partner are you? I worked with people
that were that that learned their lines word for word,
(24:31):
word perfect. If you gave them a revision before we
started shooting, and I mean like the night before or
the day of, it would really shape them. I'd work
with people that worked more like me, which is more
not improvisational. But I'm never a word perfect. I like
to be about nine percent of the way there, so
I can find the rest ten percent to find the
(24:52):
final ten percent. GI there it is. But no, I
just try to be almost like, um, you know, almost
like it's okay, hey, it's my house, but you're my guest,
and and I'm I'm serving the meal, and there's a
(25:13):
bunch of different stuff for you to choose from. Choose
what you want and not what you're having type of thing.
That's awesome. Yeah, I mean that's an amazing I guest
on your show. Yeah, But it's also an interesting conscious choice,
right because I think there are a lot of actors
that are like you, who are so generous in a
scene and we'll never let you fall or fail, and
(25:33):
if you're going a certain way, we'll go along with you.
We know those people we've worked with, and I always
have just assumed, oh, that's just how they are, and
I'm so lucky to have worked with them. But that's
such an interesting and lovely, you know, insight, to know
that you actually make that as a choice, You're choosing
to be that type of actor, you know what I'm
(25:53):
trying to say. That's wonderful. Thank you. The The only
I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say issue, but the only
problem that you were into sometimes in that position is
that you're gonna be having plenty of exchanges with people
that are that are in my head and then out
of my head because onto the next thing, and it
(26:15):
stays with them, right, So sometimes I'll say something or
you know, I ran into a situation where I was
I kind of made a flippant joke when when we
were not even blocking a scene, but we were just
putting the scene on its feet. We were just saying
the words, and I made a joke while someone else
was speaking, and um, just because again it was the
(26:39):
beginning of the day and we were an hour and
a half away from shooting, and um, that actor pulled
me aside afterwards and said, this is a really big
moment for me and I've really prepared and that I
didn't appreciate what you just did. And I was very
taken aback, like wow, I certainly didn't mean any offense,
and I apologized and I always tried to even conscious
(27:00):
of that going forward. But it it left me thinking,
and this is an answer that I'll never know the
answer to this, but it left me thinking, how many
other times have I done that? Like how many times
have I How many times have I thought that in
exchange with someone or a scene or something went well
and that other person because of because of what it
(27:24):
meant to them relative to what it meant to me,
not that it was, not not that I'm not that
it's more significant, or or that I'm you know, don't
care about every scene. But it's just different. It's just different.
It's so funny you're talking about this. I have that
same thing because again you are so when you are
the lead on a show, you are just busy and
you were having to focus on a million things at
(27:46):
once and think about the overall series and like also
how what where the writings going? Like where your characters going?
Like you know, working with a million different people, everyone
has different senses of humor. Everyone we're differently. Some people
love rehearsal, some people hate rehearsal. Some people um love
it when you tease them. Some people hate it when
(28:07):
you tease them. You don't know what you're walking into,
and you know, sometimes you just do something that someone
doesn't like or rubs them the wrong way, or they
they perceive as intentionally unkind, but really it was just
a joke to you or you thought they would you know, Yeah,
(28:28):
I mean it's so it's those it's those things where
I find it such a gift. If somebody comes up
and says, hey, that hurt my feelings and they can
be direct about it, because sometimes you just don't know,
and you're like, thank you for giving me the opportunity
to a apologize and be like, do better next time.
A hundred a hundred. I think this happened the instant
(28:51):
that I'm talking about. It happened six or seven seasons
into Arrow. It's like six or seven seasons, and it
was it was, it was such a gift and I
was I'm able to carry it forward. Um, but there's
no handbook for this it, you know. I I gripped
very very very tightly for the first couple of seasons
(29:14):
on Arrow and was short tempered, never to anyone, and
never disrespectful to anyone, but I just my my fuse
would would get short and I would focus on things
that weren't as important, be it someone's cell phone ringing
or buzzing for that matter, or someone walking in the background.
(29:35):
And then I had the great fortune to go between
season three and season four to film for two months
in Manhattan where nobody cares. Not that people aren't professional,
but you're out there on the street and people are
yelling your name, and you know, a million different things
are happening. And it wasn't until I had that experience
(29:58):
that I realized what a what a your rated, cultivated,
safe environment they had created for me on Arrow and
I went back and had this real newfound appreciation for
the whole thing. Yeah, it's interesting too, because it's very
few people I realized that we've talked to can share
in the experience of being on a show for many,
(30:19):
many years and loving that show and loving the character
they played and having that tight hold and then having
to say goodbye yah would be over. Yeah, So I'm
I don't actually know the story. Did you guys? How
did how did it all come to an end? Did
you guys decide that it was time? Well? Well, no, no, no,
(30:43):
it wasn't so much that I think that the way
that our process was, like I'm sure you got a
sense of it being on set, like the first season
we had, it was an intense process and god, it
was fun. I mean it was so much fun. We
had the best time and I loved every second of it.
(31:04):
But we were working like eighty hour weeks for probably
like the first four years, um, and then it definitely
got better. But I think that the process of making
this show was like kind of arduous, and it was
just a bit you know. We all had seven year contracts,
(31:24):
and I think that it had kind of run its
course after seven years. I think we could have gone longer,
but we would have had to have changed the process,
and like would it have been the same show? Like
who knows? Um? But we were all having kids, you know,
we all buy basically almost everybody had kids by the life.
(31:50):
I had a newborn and a two year old the
last season, and I was just like I was brain dead,
but I was actually, you know, this is this guy
that leads me. I was just thinking about this when
you were talking about like sometimes like the first few
seasons of Arrow, you were like feeling like you're a
little short tempered, Like were you having to like also
be training a lot, like remember the video super Hero
(32:15):
That is like so much work in addition to being
a great actor and like learning all your lines and
knowing your script and your story and like being number
one on the call she all that stuff, and then
also having to like eat like an athlete, and an
athlete like that makes you you're tired and cranky and
you're having to shoot, you know, all the time too.
That's a lot. Yeah, that process, I built up a
(32:37):
little resent and through that process, and it was in
a lot of ways it was of my own making
insofar as in those first couple of seasons when you're
just running on adrenaline and you can and you can
work until two o'clock in the morning and then get
up at seven am and go to the gym, and
you can you can change your diet and this this
(33:00):
was when this was two thousand and twelve, when you
had to go to the deep recesses of the help
food store to find gluten free stuff. Now it's now,
it's everywhere. But I I never relied on the production
to build the infrastructure that would allow me to maintain that.
I simply did it myself for the first couple of years.
(33:23):
And then when that when that newness wears off and
that adrenaline wears off and you look around and you
feel like you don't have a support system, that that
that created a little bit of a tough cross us.
How did arrow end for you? Well, it's so in
(33:46):
season six, I had a I had a six year
deal and then added a seventh year and during season six,
right around right around January, which isn't the halfway a
point of our season, but we would start in July
and by January we'll be at episode of fourteen or
fifteen out of And I called up Greg Borlante and
(34:13):
I said, I think that's it, Greg being the big
boss of our show. And I said I think that's
it at the end of seven and he said, please, no,
this is the worst phone call ever. Take some time
and think about it. And I took some time and
I thought about it, and he I called him back
up because he said, once I make these calls to
(34:34):
Peter Roth at w at w B and Mark Petuin's
at the c W, I mean, it's going to set
things in motion that you can't necessarily be undone. Not
that it was going to be contentious. It was actually
quite lovely. But I thought about it and he said,
just one caveat. He said, think about an eighth year.
(34:55):
I said no, and he said, think about a trunk
a tod eighth year where you come and do ten episodes,
and you know, from a from a bargaining standpoint and
from a restructuring of your deal standpoint, it was like,
am I going to work until April often for X?
Or am I going to work until November of nineteen
(35:17):
for X? And it was smart and it was yeah second,
but it was it was good. It was good. It
it um You know that the the last season was
because we got to end it in our terms, was
this real long goodbye and it was only ten episodes
(35:40):
so that we really had a chance to think through it,
whereas in previous seasons we have our north star of
where we want to get to at the end, but
there's always a little filler that has to go into
a twenty three or twenty three episode season. But it
was really emotionally, emotionally challenging. I was during I've been
(36:00):
on the hamster wheel for a long time. I wasn't
as healthy um mentally and emotionally and physically um as
I as I could have been. Just again, it's those
first couple of seasons, getting back to the beginning of
this where you have that adrenaline and you can just
(36:22):
go and go and go and go and go and
it just that candle started to burn down and I
could I could never bring I could never bring it
back up. So your dreaming, how did you ended up
with a hundred and seventy episodes show? It's very different
(36:45):
because it was funny. I remember I was envious of
people who had like shows on you know, streamers or
UM like yeah, who had where they could do UM
episodes longer than twenty two thirty five, which like our
shows had to be like exactly the same length every
time and there was like no breathing room in the
(37:09):
cut for like certain types of comedic moments that we
couldn't play. And then I was really jealous of people
that did like san episodes of season because I was like,
we had to do so many. But it's like it
is a grind when you're doing episodes of season, Boy
are you tired? And you're like, that's a lot of
(37:31):
That is a lot of episodes. Like to play a
character for like eight seasons or seven seasons for that long,
I mean hundreds of episode. I mean it's like, especially
when that's that's physically demanding. Okay, as your Canadian sister,
I have to speak to you like just like out
of a place of like, my heart is hurting because
(37:53):
if you talk about that and you're your flame getting
lower and lower and lower because you're just getting burnt
out from doing this really physically exhausting job, an emotionally
exhausting job. Bro, your next show, you could have been
like a couch potato hanging out. How are you doing?
You exigned it for a show where you're being a
professional and sister, and I thought you were going to
(38:15):
say how many bags of Hawkins cheesy you have to eat? No,
I'm just genuinely concerned because you chose another physically demanding show. Well,
the couple of things they're one. To go back to
season seven and season eight and to actually look at
my physical appearance relative to now is actually a little jarring,
(38:35):
Like it's it's tough for me to go back and
look at it, just because everything was everything was getting
everything was getting burnt out. And yeah, I definitely wanted
to I definitely wanted to play a lawyer right on
a half hour can But but to what Zoe was
saying earlier, we are for this first season and for
(38:57):
the second season, we're eight episodes. I can do it.
I do still have I do. I am still in
that window of physicality, and I would like to also
get into two features and and and and use that
physicality as well. But that reminds me of the Arrow Pilot.
(39:18):
The Arrow Pilot we shot for three weeks and I
had a month to prepare, and you can, you can,
you can empty you can, you can empty the tank
on something like that because you know on the b
side of it you get to fill it back up.
And that's led to for for me having time off
(39:38):
now and and being a little bit more in charge
of my schedule. I can do what I want to
do on a job and I can really really really
go for it, which I get to do on heels.
But then I know that there's there's three weeks on
a beach waiting for me, or as as is the
case now, there's in l a where I get to
(40:01):
walk my kid to school and then take her to
activities afterwards and do all that sort of stuff. Okay,
that makes me feel so much better because it's just like,
oh my gosh, I was like, we need to have
an off camera call you and I welcome to I've
(40:26):
an important question and I think you're going to agree. Okay, Okay,
you're a superhero, Stephen. What superhero would Hannah and I?
Which superheroes would we be if we were superheroes? And
oh boy, and you can make up one. I don't know.
(40:48):
I feel like both of you guys should exist somewhere
in that new Doctor Strange multiverse of madness. We're there,
We're there. I can see I can see both of you.
I can see both of you with a third eye
right in the middle of your forehead and like eleven
fingers on each hand and something weird like that. I
(41:10):
don't know too much about that universe, but that's that's
that's that's my gut reaction. That's thank you, Stephen. You
validated us. Thank you. Maybe we're like sisters were super Yes,
that would be so cool. Um. We have this story,
Stevid where they when we audition or I auditioned for
this show to be with Zoe. Um, they wanted me
(41:32):
to get a very very dramatic haircut because I also
had bangs and long hair, because they thought that people
would confuse. They were like, um, wait, she has brown
hair and bangs, and I'm like, we're very different. We
think it's fine. We think people will figure sure people
will figure it out. It's okay to have two people.
That's like the short sightedness of like casting like not
(41:54):
from a like, not from like from a very analytical
place like brown hair and bangs can have to know
what they do. Hey, can I tell you a fun
New Girls story. The second episode that I was in,
we um the Valentine's Day episode. That episode we started
(42:19):
that morning hand, and we started it in Westwood on location, okay,
and your production was really really lovely and gave me
dispensation to do this and worked with the other production
because I was working on Private Practice at the time.
And I came in that morning and I shot a
scene with you, and then I got in my old
(42:40):
car and drove to the studios just right by Warner
Brothers were Private Practice, shot shot a scene, and then
I got back in my car, drove back and shot
the scene where I was high on mushrooms and we
were on the playground that night. I got one day
that is very that would never happen anymore. I don't
(43:03):
think even in twenty nineteen, maybe now with COVID restrictions
like you were the last that was I felt that
for me very much was like a this. I mean
this it was I mean it's too like it's two
guest star rules, which I thought we're both very important
(43:23):
and I think are, but I mean to me, it
was like I've arrived a little bit moment like this
is really cool that I get to do this. I
don't think a lot of people get to say that
they've done something like that. I can remember that scene
when you're on the swing, um, because we were you
were like funny because you were like, you have your
hands and it's really funny thing and you swung into
(43:45):
frame that was so that was very funny. I just
remember though that because we were the you know, the
show that was like the King and Queen of alts
jokes Love the Alt Choke and you, basically, as I'm
standing there, are on this swing going back and forth,
and they're just um conveying shouting all lines to you,
(44:08):
which are basically things that are all slightly racist or
offensive towards me. Because I'm standing there and I just
remember being like, this is the one because I spend
enough time with you now chatting You're the nicest, kindest,
sweetest human and I'm like, this is the funniest scenario
(44:29):
where you have this really lovely man honest swing having
to shout the weirdest stuff. Um, where I get to
just stand here and roll my eyes. I drive, I
drive past that park every once in a while when
I'm in l a At. I can't. I can't. I
can't remember. I just I just I would just know
to see it. Yeah it's hombie Park, I'm pretty sure.
(44:51):
And but let's also remember that I'm yelling these vaguely
racists and they're getting more and more. They're getting more
and more in Sydney as more and more altar coming.
Let's also remember we're in a public park. Yes, and
I'm having to yell these things. And yeah, well I
knew we were protected. We're very protected. It was making
(45:15):
earlier in the episode that when you got really drunk
you yell racist things. They were prepared. The joke was
built in. That's right. That's why we knew there had
to be an end to Kyle Um. Speaking of which,
we're coming to the end of this podcast, and we
have a little thing that we like to do. It's
(45:35):
called Nick's Spaka. All right, ze let him know what
it is. Welcome back to the segment where we crawl
into the back of Nick's closet. Do you want to
go there? I don't know. We'll out the memories um
that the cast and crew of New Girl have kept
hidden for years. Steven mL, what's your favorite memory from
(45:57):
your time working on New Girl us? My favorite time
from working on a New Girl was the scene where
I pee my pants just because, to the best of
my memory, almost everybody was there. Um, I think Ryan
Quanton Quentin. Yeah, I was guest starring on the show
(46:21):
and I was a really big fan of his and
I just remember just thinking how cool, just cool it
was in general, and hearing you guys talk about the
world series game that was really that was such a
funny for an attic scene. And then we had Mel
(46:42):
Stevens I think played the ex girlfriend. Another makeout, yeah, aggressive,
another aggressive, sloppy makeout two episodes. Listen. That scene lived
on my having to audition because it's been busy. I
(47:02):
would love to get in there and fight for stuff again.
I think that that that day may be coming soon,
but that scene lived on my on my on my
reel for a long time. Didn't you also carry me
out at some point? Yeah? I probably. I think that
I think that possibly I should have watched the episodes
(47:22):
in prep for this, but I think, and you know what,
you can cut this out. If this is not if
this never happened, I have a fever right now, so
I could Was it Stephen or was it Max? Max
carried me out, but I do I thought there was
a moment where Stephen carries me out as maybe I'm wrong,
maybe I'm completely wrong, But all that to say it
(47:45):
was that Max did carry me out in the scene,
and um, I remember him putting a lot, a lot
of extra into it when he carried me out, and
I don't know I been part of it was because
you were also standing there and then Max was straying
to um step it up. Yeah, you had no trouble.
But my favorite Max memory is I went to the
(48:10):
I went to the Golden Globes in because WB wanted
me to go and because Arrow was a new thing
and I didn't want to go because I wasn't uh
nominated or involved in it at all, And that that
led to a really really awkward trip down the red
carpet because nobody wanted to talk to me, and the
(48:30):
only person I spoke to the entire way down there
was popping by and saying hey to Max who was there, like, hey, buddy,
he was doing an interview, and I kept you couldn't
should have come and hang out at the New Girl table?
I should? I should have. I was at I was
at the table with the entire cast of the Big
Bank Theory, and they wanted nothing to do with we
were you could have come over hung out with us.
I think we were also with the people from Game
(48:52):
of Thrones. It was cool, Oh cool, Yeah that showed up.
Did that showed up? You know? I don't know. I
should check back. I don't know if it was a
big success or not. One question because you I said
at the beginning, and I didn't know this. You two
knew each other prior to New Girl. No, no, no.
(49:14):
I think he was just saying he knew, he knew,
I knew it. Heard lots of rumors things Stephen where
I say Zoe knows everybody, she knows everyone that didn't
wouldn't surprise me. I'm doing a lot of people now.
I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I wanted to
see you guys, and because I liked the podcast and
all that stuff, but also I'm doing it for Full
(49:37):
Street cred with with My with My with my daughter,
who is one of the biggest ELF fans of all.
She's she's eight and she's also she's also into singing
and instruments and stuff like that. So her so your
part where you singing that is one of her face
Well tell her hello for me. I will. It was
(49:58):
so nice on to Steven. Thank you for taking the time. Um,
and we're so excited to see all the things you
do next. I mean, I like your resume is quite long. Um,
it seems like it's just getting longer. Yeah, take care
of yourself on the heels. Yeah, Um, all right, bye,
(50:24):
bye you guys. Bye. You've been listening to Welcome to
Our Show, a New Girl recap podcast. Welcome to Our
Show is a production of I Heart Radio, hosted by
Zoey Deschanel, Lamour and Morris and Hannah Simone. Our executive
producers Joel Monique. Our engineer and editor is Daniel Goodman.
(50:44):
The Welcome to Our Show theme song was written by
Zoey Deschanel, performed and produced by Zoey Deschanel and Pierre
de Reader. Follow us on Instagram and Welcome to Our
Show pot. If you have a question you'd like us
to answer, you can email us at Welcome to our
Show podcast at gmail dot com. Don't forget to rate, subscribe,
and share far and wide. Thanks for listening. We'll hear
you next week. M
Ring ring ring ring. May I please speak with Zoe Oh, Hello,
lamar Let's Patch and Hannah. God. I forgot what it
was like working with you guys. Thank you so much
(00:29):
for doing our show. Steven, thanks for having me. I'm appreciative.
This is fun, very fun. We've we've gotten to see
some of your early performances. I mean, welcome to our show. Hey,
thank you very much. Thanks for having Yes, We're so
happy to have you here. It's so funny because I'm like, looking,
you're a resume, and I'm like, and when you were
(00:52):
on our show, like I was probably clueless, but like
I didn't know like all your prior work, and then
you've done like eight billion things since we did do Girl.
You are a very busy man. It's either like eight
billion things or three things for a very very long time. Well,
(01:16):
it's impressive. Thank you. And this professional wrestling stuff, yeah,
I mean that happened in where someone that was a
fan of Arrow and his character that he was playing
in wrestling was supposed to be like a super villain,
pitched an angle for me to make an appearance at
(01:37):
Monday at raw at Nasau Coliseum in in Long Island,
New York and I'm like, well, yeah, of course, because
I grew up watching wrestling all the time. It was
my it was my thing. I see a bunch of
I see a bunch of guitars behind you right now,
like it was. It was wrestling magazines for me. It's
wrestling there. Okay. So I ended up I ended up
(01:58):
doing that, and then an arrow was coming to an end,
heels was starting up, and there just seemed to be
a natural, natural fit. So I jumped right into that. Yeah,
but you literally jumped into wrestling like you've actually wrestled
people in real life. Not Yeah, yeah, I have. I've
been I've been watching it forever, and you know, he's
staying in shape and you do stunts and you think
(02:20):
that you think that you can just do it. But
now that I'm actually playing a wrestler on the show
and I've actually done some training. There were just a
couple of really good quote unquote celebrity appearances at the
most recent WrestleMania. Um Logan Paul did one, Pat McAfee
did one, Johnny Knoxville did one, and he was he
(02:44):
was great. But you think that he's just gonna be
getting to you know what kicked out of him, but
he actually had a really good match. And now I'm
jealous because now I actually have some Now I actually
have some chops, and I want to get I want
to get back in the ring, but I risk divorce
if it happens. So she's scared you're gonna get really
hurt you doesn't want you to get brain damage. I
think that, well, it's the last time that I did
(03:06):
a singles match, because you have all of this adrenaline
that's that's pumping through your veins. And I did this
one move where I jumped from one side of the
ring to the other and I landed on my left side,
and I don't feel anything at the time, but then
in the dressing room afterwards, I kept looking underneath my
left hip like someone had put something there and I
(03:26):
had fractured. I had fractured my hip. It's wrestling, is
not It's not for the faint of heart. And your
wife's like, um, now I have to bring new soup
all day every day and do everything for you. So things.
Actually what I had to do was go right back
to work because I didn't ask permission to do this
wrestling match, so I couldn't very well come back and
(03:47):
say here's why I hurt myself. But now it's more like, hey,
you've done it, and um, please don't do it again.
But but now I actually don't have to do it
a little bit more safely. So we'll see, I'll sort
of have to ask I didn't have to ask production permission.
I will have to ask her permission. That's that's right.
And you have your priorities straight, right, got it? You
(04:09):
got it right? So you're so funny on New Girl?
By the way, Thank you? Fun stuff? God, do people
like ever remember to be good? I'm so happy because
well I'm not surprised, but I was just like, I mean,
you've like have such a massive career as Arrow and everything.
(04:30):
I'm like, like, do they remember sweet Kyle from New Girl?
I mean I mean no, I didn't mean sweet like
he's actually I just meant the sweetness of life that
(04:50):
you will obviously as you guys, as you guys know
with with Netflix, and I mean I think was this
the was it the was it the first season? Yes? Right,
so people people get back into it. But what actually
happens more often is people will go back and start
(05:11):
rewatching it, and I'll get these random text messages from
people that I've known for a long time, and they'll
be like your Kyle, A New Girl, no way, and
then they typically and then nothing will happen for a
little while, and then I'll get another text saying you
just pissed your pants, and then nothing will happen for
(05:31):
a little while again, and then I get another text
back saying I love brown people, all in caps. And
it's like it happens. It happens all the time. It's
a real testament to your show. I mean, there are people.
Believe me when I tell you, there are people right
now that have never seen it that are about to
start like a you know, a COVID quarantine or or
(05:55):
like our home, you know, with the flu, like anahaz
right now, and and they're going to pop on in
Netflix and they're gonna, you know, ripped through your entire show.
It's really cool. Um, let's let's just start all the
way back at the very beginning. And wants to get
into it. I really do the people's like New Girl
(06:16):
like origin stories. Oh yeah, So let's start at the
very beginning. You're from Canada, You're taking a way back. Well,
all the best people are Canadian. We have a we
have a bunch of good ones. We have a we
have a bunch of good ones. You go through the
you go through the O G SNL cast members and
a lot of the funniest comedians that that we've ever had.
(06:38):
Carry my boyfriend there you go. Of course there is
non Canadian here. Well, you're the one that I'm looking
the view that I'm looking at right now. We're literally
above you. You are you are about uh So, I
(07:00):
always want to know people's New Girl origin story. So
do you remember when did you come in an audition
for it? Like talk to talk us through from the beginning. Okay,
So this was a real interesting This was a really
really interesting time for me because I had so it
was two thousand eleven, and I had a pretty successful
(07:21):
two thousand and ten, but that was my first year
acting in the United States, and I had had like
a good pilot season. I had gotten a couple of tests,
and then I had gotten a couple I started to
book guest star jobs, none of them recurring, and then
in two thousand eleven, I became a regular on On
(07:42):
Hung on HBO, and that series came out in the
fall of two thousand eleven, right around the time that
I was doing Your Show, so I had a little
a little bit of buzz from that, but we didn't
know if it was going to come back. So HBO
was very and it ended up not coming back, which
was for tuoit is for me, but in the less
and HBO was very generous and they they gave me
(08:03):
the opportunity to go out and keep auditioning and and
I did something over the sudd I think it did
an episode of CSI over the summer, and then I
did a recurring arc on nine O, two and O,
which because of the casting director, ended up being a
really important job for me. And then I was offered
a part on Private Practice, And around that time I
(08:28):
went in and auditioned for for Your show and getting
that part. I can't remember what the sides where. I
can't remember the audition very much other than I only
did it one time and you know, felt pretty you know,
felt pretty confident about how it went. It was really
important for me because I had I had not done
(08:49):
any comedy up until that point, and to get the
job was great. And I just remember my agency calling
me up and saying, you've got it and feeling, um,
I didn't know. I didn't know Hannah or Max or
Jake or Lamourne, but I knew you Zoe. And I
(09:09):
remember being really intimidated before my first day of work,
which was a Monday morning. And I'll never forget this.
I you know, I'm a guest star. They had me
come in at like six o'clock in the morning on
a Monday, and I feel like we were shooting a party.
It wasn't my part. It wasn't my first scene where
(09:30):
you first meet me. It was it was more party
towards the end of the episode. And so the Sunday
night before, knowing that I got to get up real early,
I sit down just to try to relax, and I
turned on the World Series and while trying to relax,
Zoe walks out and starts singing the national anthem and
I'm like, oh, like, oh my god, this is so
(09:53):
this was like right after oh my god, that was it.
We all flew to the World Series. You did, and
then you all flew helping next the next morning. It
was gain. I just looked it up right now to
make sure that I wasn't having a favorite. It was
Game four of the two thousand eleven World Series and
it was the Cardinals against the Texas Rangers. And not
only did you sing the national anthem, but they did
(10:15):
the thing that Fox does where they randomly showed you
guys sprinkled in the stands there to promote the show.
And so but you, I mean, you guys were you
guys were very gracious. I remember the first scene. I
feel like the first scene might have been when it
was like a photo shoot. I think it was the
(10:35):
most intimidating scene ever. Let me tell you about it. Okay, alright,
you guys met and you have to make out right.
It was exactly that was the next episode they send
us to the World Series. Excuse my voice, I have
the flu. So they send us to the World Series,
which is like drinking food. We're having like this great
(10:56):
time out. And then Monday morning, at like seven am,
they're like, Hannah, you have to be in a bikini
to be an after in some weird ad that they
had created that I was modeling in right, the after
girl after picture of it. And then they were like,
and this guy's gonna play your boyfriend Kyle. We cast
(11:18):
him um and they show me a picture of you,
and I'm sitting there like with like half a pizza
in my mouth, and I just remember being like, I
should put this down if I'm going to be in
a bikini in the morning. And then they were like
and it was it was the list, you know, like
(11:39):
what they had to schedule for that Monday. I was like, really,
I have to behave this weekend. But I remember they
were like, it has to be a gross kiss. Do
you remember this, Steven, Like, it has to be gross
because it has me right in front of Max and
break his heart because he's going to give you a gift, right,
And I was like, it was just like the weirdest thing.
(12:01):
It's always weird to meet somebody for the very first
time and be like this is not a normal network
comedy kiss where you're like thank you very much. Um,
we met about naked and this very awkward, over the
top kiss and everybody was exhausted from the world series.
(12:22):
That's right, Yeah, it was great. Hello. I have to say,
one thing that I noticed about this character Kyle and you, Stephen,
is that, um, you are such a nice guy, and
but what I love is you like really get what
(12:44):
makes Kyle like an asshole and you can you play
those things really seamlessly as an actor, which is what
makes Kyle so funny. And Kyle is not aware. Steven's aware.
You know, I appreciate that. I think back, you know,
back in in two thousand eleven, and this was this
(13:05):
was the case for a large portion of my early
part of my career. It wasn't until I really spent
some time on set and was in more of a
leadership position that I really got to know what everyone does,
what the director of photography does, what the second ad
d does, what the director does, the diconomy between a
series regular and someone that's just coming in as a
(13:27):
guest star, which I wasn't set up to recur for
the from my understanding, But back then I didn't know anything.
It was just point me in the direction and I
was just, I think, lucky enough that I was comfortable
enough to take direction. So I don't I certainly don't
want to take all the credit. I don't take the
credit for being relaxed enough to do it. But I
(13:49):
don't know my asshole from my elbow. When I'm on set.
I'm just trying. I'm just trying to I'm just trying
to do a good job and you guys, but you
guys also had that really cool and I've I've to
experience this to it. It's amazing you guys had that
really cool we're on a hit show glow about you
that those early days. And I don't know how the
(14:11):
dynamic changed over the years, um, but I mean, obviously
the fact that you guys are still friends and doing
something like this suggests that it went pretty well. But
you had that, you had that glow of wow, we've
just found something and now it is something about you.
I remember it was so fun. I just I remember
the first time you and I Steven had like a
real conversation, and it was we were shooting that Christmas party,
(14:36):
so there's a lot of waiting around because there was
you know, like a lot of set up and extra
is going around the party and everything. And we'd only
had that one encounter before, which felt, um just for
me as a girl, awkward in my own body, not
because of you, just because of me. And so I
was like, here, we are fully closed. This is nice.
Now we can actually like chat and have a conversation.
(14:58):
And you're Canadian and I was Canadian, and it was
my first time really on a set like this too.
And I remember and for me, you were like this
big HBO star in my mind coming off of hung
and so I was like intimidated. That was in my mind.
I was just like, oh my gosh, there's like this
big actor here. And I remember talking to you because, um,
(15:22):
you were so kind and so generous, talking about the
industry and about the ups and downs of it. And
I don't know if you remember sharing this with me,
but I remember you telling telling me about it happened
that summer I think with Katherine Bigelow and the hurt Locker. Right,
(15:46):
I don't remember this story. What was the story? I
thought there was a story that you were telling me
that you thought you were up for it or you
were going to get it, or something was happening around
the hurt Locker and it had gotten and it had disappeared.
I mean, there was there were a variety of stories.
(16:06):
I'm sure. I'm sure we told a story like that
right before. Um, you know, I gosh, it was. I
came close on so many things, a lot of movies. Um.
I have been flown to you know, I've been flown
to to New Zealand to audition for the lead in Spartacus,
(16:29):
and just so many things that were within my grasp.
And I mean actors have had those stories, but it
was probably around the time that you lose a job,
or you don't lose it, you never had it, but
you get really, really, really close, and there's the hurt
that accompanies it, because you've got to believe that you're
(16:51):
right for the job, otherwise I don't think you stand
a chance of getting it. But then there's the secondary
layer of hurt, which is when you start seeing the
the trailer for it or the advertising for it and
it just wallops you. It's like you go through that
whole thing again. So we're probably having one of those conversations.
(17:12):
I feel like that happens like right before you hit
a big job. You're getting close on a lot of
others where it's like, oh my god, I was like
this close and I love you know, I was like
the second choice for it. And then a lot of
times jobs that I've had that have been big jobs
for me, I was their fourth choice or something, and
(17:34):
it's like now it used to be like that kind
of insults me, and now I'm like, yes, I'm the one,
Like I'm glad all those people turn that down. If
you can design that stuff is happening in the universe
for you, you know, well it is. I mean, as
I was mentioning earlier that I had a wonderful time
(17:54):
on Hung and if it gets renewed for a fourth
season and the ratings the third were the best that
they have been of the three, then I'm not available
to audition for Arrow and everything that's sliding door. Everything
about my career is different. Maybe it's better and maybe
it's worse, but it's certainly it's certainly different. So you'd think, wow,
(18:15):
your first series regular, that show got canceled after your
first season on the show. That must be an awful thing.
Not really, Yeah, you never know. You never know that
you don't know what's coming around the corner. That's what
you and I were talking about as we were standing
there on set, which was basically I don't know if
it was like maybe it was awards season for Hurt Locker,
so you're talking about that secondary layer of hurt was
(18:38):
already the twins for you or something. Well, there was
also there was another there was another Katherine Bigelowle movie
going on at that time, and I don't know if
it was necessarily hurt Locker, but there was something that
I really thought I was right for and that I
had moved to the to another level for. And it's
just you never sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to things.
When I went in an audition for your show, I
(18:59):
thought it was a good addition, but I had no
experience with comedy auditions at all. I went to this guy,
Chad McCord, who was an audition coach, not an acting coach,
although he does coach acting. But he was coaching me
on auditions and and where like how to walk into
the room, where to find the joke in a comic
in a guest star comedy half hour comedy audition. And
(19:21):
he was right. I mean he he coached me to
do the audition right. And so so yeah, I always
say that there's I wish there was. I genuinely do
wish there was like a handbook or a coaching school
that's not just about acting here in l A, which is,
let's say you book that whatever it is one line
to line on the show. You've never been on a
(19:44):
set before. I just remember that feeling when they're just
like all right, so we're gonna do a blocking rehearsal.
Everybody get on their marks. It's a whole another language.
And then you're watching everybody just without even registering it,
do it because they know the language, and you're, Yeah,
you need like a pamphlet on set etiquette, because you
can't even focus on acting. You can't even focus on
(20:07):
the thing you did in that weird room with the
casting director. It's not voices being on set. Yeah. Well,
I mean, one of the things I always think about,
especially about being a guest star, is you are at
at at at best, you are a cog in the machine.
You're certainly not the engine by any stretch of the imagination.
(20:29):
And it's your responsibility to show up on time, to
know your stuff, to understand what it means to hit
a mark, to understand what blocking means, to just to
to not to not fall asleep in your wardrobe and
wrinkle it, like all of these things that you never
that you never think about. And I and ironically, I mean,
(20:50):
obviously you can't, you can't go there and be atrocious,
But it's almost as though your performance is like seventh
on the checklist, which is an odd thing. And but well,
if you're not there to do the performance, like because
you're late, then this doesn't matter. But if you're just
so in your head, because here's the thing, it could
take one thing to bump you. Right. Let's say you
(21:12):
don't know about hitting a mark, or you don't know
about the marks that go one, number one, number two,
number three, number four, and you miss one, and then
you get called out because you know the eight is
trying to race for time to get before lunch. And
now you're so in your head. I just I could.
I've over the years on New Girl, you would see
somebody who was there very first and you're reaching them drown. Yeah,
(21:36):
and everything's good, except it's it's all held together by
spit and hope and string, and they drop and they're
doing a speech and they drop one word right, and
then all of a sudden, there's a whole there. It
just all falls apart. I've seen it. I've seen it happen,
(21:56):
and and you just want to grab that person and
hug them and say, hey, we're not going to run
out of film. We don't even we don't even capture
this on film anymore. If you make a mistake, go
back to the beginning. Start again. Nobody cares, so you
just want to put in a good day of work.
But you can't say that if I had if we
shot that first scene where you're doing that bikini shoot
(22:18):
and I had accidentally, you know, bit your lip or
something like that, and our kiss and you've been not
gracious about it, then I would have been we would
have that would have been the last thing we would
have seen him, Kyle. I would have fallen apart. I was.
I was actually saying this in another interview, but it's
so true. I just think like getting in your head
(22:39):
is like the biggest enemy of an actor. Like the
thing when you start to think I'm doing a bad job,
that's when you have to like get on another topic
because that is the topic you should not be on
in your head as an actor on set or on stage.
Just move on. If you mess up, move on. The
(23:01):
next one will be better, you know. Um, It's just
it's just massively distructive to start thinking I'm bad. Welcome
to you went on and became, you know, the start
(23:24):
of your hugely successful show. Is there a way that
you approached being number one on the call sheet when
you had so many people coming and going off of
your show. It's a great question. What I tried to
as best I could as an acting partner be whatever
you needed me to be, because I had so much
(23:46):
work on my plate. The way that I would prepare
would be to just know the script from front to back,
from top to bottom almost no, almost no everyone's lines.
Not memorize them per se, but just I've got a
really good capacity for knowing where we are in the story,
what's happened, and what's important from a continuity standpoint, to
(24:06):
the point where I would have crew members come up
to me and say, when you stop a blocking for
a scene because of a continuity problem, it's really annoying.
But principally it's annoying because you're almost always right and so,
but when it came to acting, it's like, well, what
kind of scene partner are you? I worked with people
that were that that learned their lines word for word,
(24:31):
word perfect. If you gave them a revision before we
started shooting, and I mean like the night before or
the day of, it would really shape them. I'd work
with people that worked more like me, which is more
not improvisational. But I'm never a word perfect. I like
to be about nine percent of the way there, so
I can find the rest ten percent to find the
(24:52):
final ten percent. GI there it is. But no, I
just try to be almost like, um, you know, almost
like it's okay, hey, it's my house, but you're my guest,
and and I'm I'm serving the meal, and there's a
(25:13):
bunch of different stuff for you to choose from. Choose
what you want and not what you're having type of thing.
That's awesome. Yeah, I mean that's an amazing I guest
on your show. Yeah, But it's also an interesting conscious choice,
right because I think there are a lot of actors
that are like you, who are so generous in a
scene and we'll never let you fall or fail, and
(25:33):
if you're going a certain way, we'll go along with you.
We know those people we've worked with, and I always
have just assumed, oh, that's just how they are, and
I'm so lucky to have worked with them. But that's
such an interesting and lovely, you know, insight, to know
that you actually make that as a choice, You're choosing
to be that type of actor, you know what I'm
(25:53):
trying to say. That's wonderful. Thank you. The The only
I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say issue, but the only
problem that you were into sometimes in that position is
that you're gonna be having plenty of exchanges with people
that are that are in my head and then out
of my head because onto the next thing, and it
(26:15):
stays with them, right, So sometimes I'll say something or
you know, I ran into a situation where I was
I kind of made a flippant joke when when we
were not even blocking a scene, but we were just
putting the scene on its feet. We were just saying
the words, and I made a joke while someone else
was speaking, and um, just because again it was the
(26:39):
beginning of the day and we were an hour and
a half away from shooting, and um, that actor pulled
me aside afterwards and said, this is a really big
moment for me and I've really prepared and that I
didn't appreciate what you just did. And I was very
taken aback, like wow, I certainly didn't mean any offense,
and I apologized and I always tried to even conscious
(27:00):
of that going forward. But it it left me thinking,
and this is an answer that I'll never know the
answer to this, but it left me thinking, how many
other times have I done that? Like how many times
have I How many times have I thought that in
exchange with someone or a scene or something went well
and that other person because of because of what it
(27:24):
meant to them relative to what it meant to me,
not that it was, not not that I'm not that
it's more significant, or or that I'm you know, don't
care about every scene. But it's just different. It's just different.
It's so funny you're talking about this. I have that
same thing because again you are so when you are
the lead on a show, you are just busy and
you were having to focus on a million things at
(27:46):
once and think about the overall series and like also
how what where the writings going? Like where your characters going?
Like you know, working with a million different people, everyone
has different senses of humor. Everyone we're differently. Some people
love rehearsal, some people hate rehearsal. Some people um love
it when you tease them. Some people hate it when
(28:07):
you tease them. You don't know what you're walking into,
and you know, sometimes you just do something that someone
doesn't like or rubs them the wrong way, or they
they perceive as intentionally unkind, but really it was just
a joke to you or you thought they would you know, Yeah,
(28:28):
I mean it's so it's those it's those things where
I find it such a gift. If somebody comes up
and says, hey, that hurt my feelings and they can
be direct about it, because sometimes you just don't know,
and you're like, thank you for giving me the opportunity
to a apologize and be like, do better next time.
A hundred a hundred. I think this happened the instant
(28:51):
that I'm talking about. It happened six or seven seasons
into Arrow. It's like six or seven seasons, and it
was it was, it was such a gift and I
was I'm able to carry it forward. Um, but there's
no handbook for this it, you know. I I gripped
very very very tightly for the first couple of seasons
(29:14):
on Arrow and was short tempered, never to anyone, and
never disrespectful to anyone, but I just my my fuse
would would get short and I would focus on things
that weren't as important, be it someone's cell phone ringing
or buzzing for that matter, or someone walking in the background.
(29:35):
And then I had the great fortune to go between
season three and season four to film for two months
in Manhattan where nobody cares. Not that people aren't professional,
but you're out there on the street and people are
yelling your name, and you know, a million different things
are happening. And it wasn't until I had that experience
(29:58):
that I realized what a what a your rated, cultivated,
safe environment they had created for me on Arrow and
I went back and had this real newfound appreciation for
the whole thing. Yeah, it's interesting too, because it's very
few people I realized that we've talked to can share
in the experience of being on a show for many,
(30:19):
many years and loving that show and loving the character
they played and having that tight hold and then having
to say goodbye yah would be over. Yeah, So I'm
I don't actually know the story. Did you guys? How
did how did it all come to an end? Did
you guys decide that it was time? Well? Well, no, no, no,
(30:43):
it wasn't so much that I think that the way
that our process was, like I'm sure you got a
sense of it being on set, like the first season
we had, it was an intense process and god, it
was fun. I mean it was so much fun. We
had the best time and I loved every second of it.
(31:04):
But we were working like eighty hour weeks for probably
like the first four years, um, and then it definitely
got better. But I think that the process of making
this show was like kind of arduous, and it was
just a bit you know. We all had seven year contracts,
(31:24):
and I think that it had kind of run its
course after seven years. I think we could have gone longer,
but we would have had to have changed the process,
and like would it have been the same show? Like
who knows? Um? But we were all having kids, you know,
we all buy basically almost everybody had kids by the life.
(31:50):
I had a newborn and a two year old the
last season, and I was just like I was brain dead,
but I was actually, you know, this is this guy
that leads me. I was just thinking about this when
you were talking about like sometimes like the first few
seasons of Arrow, you were like feeling like you're a
little short tempered, Like were you having to like also
be training a lot, like remember the video super Hero
(32:15):
That is like so much work in addition to being
a great actor and like learning all your lines and
knowing your script and your story and like being number
one on the call she all that stuff, and then
also having to like eat like an athlete, and an
athlete like that makes you you're tired and cranky and
you're having to shoot, you know, all the time too.
That's a lot. Yeah, that process, I built up a
(32:37):
little resent and through that process, and it was in
a lot of ways it was of my own making
insofar as in those first couple of seasons when you're
just running on adrenaline and you can and you can
work until two o'clock in the morning and then get
up at seven am and go to the gym, and
you can you can change your diet and this this
(33:00):
was when this was two thousand and twelve, when you
had to go to the deep recesses of the help
food store to find gluten free stuff. Now it's now,
it's everywhere. But I I never relied on the production
to build the infrastructure that would allow me to maintain that.
I simply did it myself for the first couple of years.
(33:23):
And then when that when that newness wears off and
that adrenaline wears off and you look around and you
feel like you don't have a support system, that that
that created a little bit of a tough cross us.
How did arrow end for you? Well, it's so in
(33:46):
season six, I had a I had a six year
deal and then added a seventh year and during season six,
right around right around January, which isn't the halfway a
point of our season, but we would start in July
and by January we'll be at episode of fourteen or
fifteen out of And I called up Greg Borlante and
(34:13):
I said, I think that's it, Greg being the big
boss of our show. And I said I think that's
it at the end of seven and he said, please, no,
this is the worst phone call ever. Take some time
and think about it. And I took some time and
I thought about it, and he I called him back
up because he said, once I make these calls to
(34:34):
Peter Roth at w at w B and Mark Petuin's
at the c W, I mean, it's going to set
things in motion that you can't necessarily be undone. Not
that it was going to be contentious. It was actually
quite lovely. But I thought about it and he said,
just one caveat. He said, think about an eighth year.
(34:55):
I said no, and he said, think about a trunk
a tod eighth year where you come and do ten episodes,
and you know, from a from a bargaining standpoint and
from a restructuring of your deal standpoint, it was like,
am I going to work until April often for X?
Or am I going to work until November of nineteen
(35:17):
for X? And it was smart and it was yeah second,
but it was it was good. It was good. It
it um You know that the the last season was
because we got to end it in our terms, was
this real long goodbye and it was only ten episodes
(35:40):
so that we really had a chance to think through it,
whereas in previous seasons we have our north star of
where we want to get to at the end, but
there's always a little filler that has to go into
a twenty three or twenty three episode season. But it
was really emotionally, emotionally challenging. I was during I've been
(36:00):
on the hamster wheel for a long time. I wasn't
as healthy um mentally and emotionally and physically um as
I as I could have been. Just again, it's those
first couple of seasons, getting back to the beginning of
this where you have that adrenaline and you can just
(36:22):
go and go and go and go and go and
it just that candle started to burn down and I
could I could never bring I could never bring it
back up. So your dreaming, how did you ended up
with a hundred and seventy episodes show? It's very different
(36:45):
because it was funny. I remember I was envious of
people who had like shows on you know, streamers or
UM like yeah, who had where they could do UM
episodes longer than twenty two thirty five, which like our
shows had to be like exactly the same length every
time and there was like no breathing room in the
(37:09):
cut for like certain types of comedic moments that we
couldn't play. And then I was really jealous of people
that did like san episodes of season because I was like,
we had to do so many. But it's like it
is a grind when you're doing episodes of season, Boy
are you tired? And you're like, that's a lot of
(37:31):
That is a lot of episodes. Like to play a
character for like eight seasons or seven seasons for that long,
I mean hundreds of episode. I mean it's like, especially
when that's that's physically demanding. Okay, as your Canadian sister,
I have to speak to you like just like out
of a place of like, my heart is hurting because
(37:53):
if you talk about that and you're your flame getting
lower and lower and lower because you're just getting burnt
out from doing this really physically exhausting job, an emotionally
exhausting job. Bro, your next show, you could have been
like a couch potato hanging out. How are you doing?
You exigned it for a show where you're being a
professional and sister, and I thought you were going to
(38:15):
say how many bags of Hawkins cheesy you have to eat? No,
I'm just genuinely concerned because you chose another physically demanding show. Well,
the couple of things they're one. To go back to
season seven and season eight and to actually look at
my physical appearance relative to now is actually a little jarring,
(38:35):
Like it's it's tough for me to go back and
look at it, just because everything was everything was getting
everything was getting burnt out. And yeah, I definitely wanted
to I definitely wanted to play a lawyer right on
a half hour can But but to what Zoe was
saying earlier, we are for this first season and for
(38:57):
the second season, we're eight episodes. I can do it.
I do still have I do. I am still in
that window of physicality, and I would like to also
get into two features and and and and use that
physicality as well. But that reminds me of the Arrow Pilot.
(39:18):
The Arrow Pilot we shot for three weeks and I
had a month to prepare, and you can, you can,
you can empty you can, you can empty the tank
on something like that because you know on the b
side of it you get to fill it back up.
And that's led to for for me having time off
(39:38):
now and and being a little bit more in charge
of my schedule. I can do what I want to
do on a job and I can really really really
go for it, which I get to do on heels.
But then I know that there's there's three weeks on
a beach waiting for me, or as as is the
case now, there's in l a where I get to
(40:01):
walk my kid to school and then take her to
activities afterwards and do all that sort of stuff. Okay,
that makes me feel so much better because it's just like,
oh my gosh, I was like, we need to have
an off camera call you and I welcome to I've
(40:26):
an important question and I think you're going to agree. Okay, Okay,
you're a superhero, Stephen. What superhero would Hannah and I?
Which superheroes would we be if we were superheroes? And
oh boy, and you can make up one. I don't know.
(40:48):
I feel like both of you guys should exist somewhere
in that new Doctor Strange multiverse of madness. We're there,
We're there. I can see I can see both of you.
I can see both of you with a third eye
right in the middle of your forehead and like eleven
fingers on each hand and something weird like that. I
(41:10):
don't know too much about that universe, but that's that's
that's that's my gut reaction. That's thank you, Stephen. You
validated us. Thank you. Maybe we're like sisters were super Yes,
that would be so cool. Um. We have this story,
Stevid where they when we audition or I auditioned for
this show to be with Zoe. Um, they wanted me
(41:32):
to get a very very dramatic haircut because I also
had bangs and long hair, because they thought that people
would confuse. They were like, um, wait, she has brown
hair and bangs, and I'm like, we're very different. We
think it's fine. We think people will figure sure people
will figure it out. It's okay to have two people.
That's like the short sightedness of like casting like not
(41:54):
from a like, not from like from a very analytical
place like brown hair and bangs can have to know
what they do. Hey, can I tell you a fun
New Girls story. The second episode that I was in,
we um the Valentine's Day episode. That episode we started
(42:19):
that morning hand, and we started it in Westwood on location, okay,
and your production was really really lovely and gave me
dispensation to do this and worked with the other production
because I was working on Private Practice at the time.
And I came in that morning and I shot a
scene with you, and then I got in my old
(42:40):
car and drove to the studios just right by Warner
Brothers were Private Practice, shot shot a scene, and then
I got back in my car, drove back and shot
the scene where I was high on mushrooms and we
were on the playground that night. I got one day
that is very that would never happen anymore. I don't
(43:03):
think even in twenty nineteen, maybe now with COVID restrictions
like you were the last that was I felt that
for me very much was like a this. I mean
this it was I mean it's too like it's two
guest star rules, which I thought we're both very important
(43:23):
and I think are, but I mean to me, it
was like I've arrived a little bit moment like this
is really cool that I get to do this. I
don't think a lot of people get to say that
they've done something like that. I can remember that scene
when you're on the swing, um, because we were you
were like funny because you were like, you have your
hands and it's really funny thing and you swung into
(43:45):
frame that was so that was very funny. I just
remember though that because we were the you know, the
show that was like the King and Queen of alts
jokes Love the Alt Choke and you, basically, as I'm
standing there, are on this swing going back and forth,
and they're just um conveying shouting all lines to you,
(44:08):
which are basically things that are all slightly racist or
offensive towards me. Because I'm standing there and I just
remember being like, this is the one because I spend
enough time with you now chatting You're the nicest, kindest,
sweetest human and I'm like, this is the funniest scenario
(44:29):
where you have this really lovely man honest swing having
to shout the weirdest stuff. Um, where I get to
just stand here and roll my eyes. I drive, I
drive past that park every once in a while when
I'm in l a At. I can't. I can't. I
can't remember. I just I just I would just know
to see it. Yeah it's hombie Park, I'm pretty sure.
(44:51):
And but let's also remember that I'm yelling these vaguely
racists and they're getting more and more. They're getting more
and more in Sydney as more and more altar coming.
Let's also remember we're in a public park. Yes, and
I'm having to yell these things. And yeah, well I
knew we were protected. We're very protected. It was making
(45:15):
earlier in the episode that when you got really drunk
you yell racist things. They were prepared. The joke was
built in. That's right. That's why we knew there had
to be an end to Kyle Um. Speaking of which,
we're coming to the end of this podcast, and we
have a little thing that we like to do. It's
(45:35):
called Nick's Spaka. All right, ze let him know what
it is. Welcome back to the segment where we crawl
into the back of Nick's closet. Do you want to
go there? I don't know. We'll out the memories um
that the cast and crew of New Girl have kept
hidden for years. Steven mL, what's your favorite memory from
(45:57):
your time working on New Girl us? My favorite time
from working on a New Girl was the scene where
I pee my pants just because, to the best of
my memory, almost everybody was there. Um, I think Ryan
Quanton Quentin. Yeah, I was guest starring on the show
(46:21):
and I was a really big fan of his and
I just remember just thinking how cool, just cool it
was in general, and hearing you guys talk about the
world series game that was really that was such a
funny for an attic scene. And then we had Mel
(46:42):
Stevens I think played the ex girlfriend. Another makeout, yeah, aggressive,
another aggressive, sloppy makeout two episodes. Listen. That scene lived
on my having to audition because it's been busy. I
(47:02):
would love to get in there and fight for stuff again.
I think that that that day may be coming soon,
but that scene lived on my on my on my
reel for a long time. Didn't you also carry me
out at some point? Yeah? I probably. I think that
I think that possibly I should have watched the episodes
(47:22):
in prep for this, but I think, and you know what,
you can cut this out. If this is not if
this never happened, I have a fever right now, so
I could Was it Stephen or was it Max? Max
carried me out, but I do I thought there was
a moment where Stephen carries me out as maybe I'm wrong,
maybe I'm completely wrong, But all that to say it
(47:45):
was that Max did carry me out in the scene,
and um, I remember him putting a lot, a lot
of extra into it when he carried me out, and
I don't know I been part of it was because
you were also standing there and then Max was straying
to um step it up. Yeah, you had no trouble.
But my favorite Max memory is I went to the
(48:10):
I went to the Golden Globes in because WB wanted
me to go and because Arrow was a new thing
and I didn't want to go because I wasn't uh
nominated or involved in it at all, And that that
led to a really really awkward trip down the red
carpet because nobody wanted to talk to me, and the
(48:30):
only person I spoke to the entire way down there
was popping by and saying hey to Max who was there, like, hey, buddy,
he was doing an interview, and I kept you couldn't
should have come and hang out at the New Girl table?
I should? I should have. I was at I was
at the table with the entire cast of the Big
Bank Theory, and they wanted nothing to do with we
were you could have come over hung out with us.
I think we were also with the people from Game
(48:52):
of Thrones. It was cool, Oh cool, Yeah that showed up.
Did that showed up? You know? I don't know. I
should check back. I don't know if it was a
big success or not. One question because you I said
at the beginning, and I didn't know this. You two
knew each other prior to New Girl. No, no, no.
(49:14):
I think he was just saying he knew, he knew,
I knew it. Heard lots of rumors things Stephen where
I say Zoe knows everybody, she knows everyone that didn't
wouldn't surprise me. I'm doing a lot of people now.
I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I wanted to
see you guys, and because I liked the podcast and
all that stuff, but also I'm doing it for Full
(49:37):
Street cred with with My with My with my daughter,
who is one of the biggest ELF fans of all.
She's she's eight and she's also she's also into singing
and instruments and stuff like that. So her so your
part where you singing that is one of her face
Well tell her hello for me. I will. It was
(49:58):
so nice on to Steven. Thank you for taking the time. Um,
and we're so excited to see all the things you
do next. I mean, I like your resume is quite long. Um,
it seems like it's just getting longer. Yeah, take care
of yourself on the heels. Yeah, Um, all right, bye,
(50:24):
bye you guys. Bye. You've been listening to Welcome to
Our Show, a New Girl recap podcast. Welcome to Our
Show is a production of I Heart Radio, hosted by
Zoey Deschanel, Lamour and Morris and Hannah Simone. Our executive
producers Joel Monique. Our engineer and editor is Daniel Goodman.
(50:44):
The Welcome to Our Show theme song was written by
Zoey Deschanel, performed and produced by Zoey Deschanel and Pierre
de Reader. Follow us on Instagram and Welcome to Our
Show pot. If you have a question you'd like us
to answer, you can email us at Welcome to our
Show podcast at gmail dot com. Don't forget to rate, subscribe,
and share far and wide. Thanks for listening. We'll hear
you next week. M
Hosts And Creators
Lamorne Morris
Hannah Simone
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