February 3, 2025 • 16 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur, Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, Puddlers, Welcome to the Buzzler Podcast, The Stoic Sheriff
and Your Puzzle Western. I am your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I'm here with today's guest, the amazing Joseph Gordon Levitt,
who is, of course a brilliant actor, slash writer, slash director,
(00:28):
slash producer. So many slashes.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome, Joe, Thanks man, so many slashes. I'm very flattered.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You are full of slashes and we are just thrilled
to have you, and I have an opening puzzle for
you right off the bat? Can I get?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Okay? I mean that's what I'm here.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
To do, right all right here it is Holden Cawfield,
the hero of this J. D. Sallinger novel, hates movies
and phonies.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yep, I know the answer to this one. That's called
the cat in the rye.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's a cancer in the rye. And that, as you
may remember, was one of the questions that Alex Trebek
asked you on Team Celebrity jefpardy Many.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I was having Jeopardy flashbacks just now. Way, is that
does a trivia question count as a puzzle?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
What I'm meant for here is a cousin. It's like, okay, yeah, okay,
so these will be real puzzles, but I thought I
would show you you've been on Jeopardy. I think the
puzzler is much lower stress, less money, but lower stress.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And I don't have to phrase these in the form
of a question, right exactly, I just get answers.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Okay, that was That was a deep cut man.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That was probably what nineteen ninety seven or something I
was on. This wasn't Famous Person Jeopardy. This was teenager
famous person Jeopardy.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Very good. It was yes.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And and Kirsten Dunst was my fellow contestant and all that.
Neither one of us won because we were both beat
by the kid from The Nanny the Friend Dresser Show.
And I feel terrible that I don't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But he beat it.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Well, you know he has that he always has that aback.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Maybe I do remember his name. I'm just not saying
it because I still resent him beating me.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, that is the final question of this puzzle, is
what is his name?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I will lose.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So we do have a puzzle, not a trivia question,
a puzzle that we've played several times on the show.
It's called dit Lloyd's. And here's how it works. So
I'm going to give you a number, and then I'll
tell you the phrase has numbers and words, and I'll
give you the number and the first letter of the words.
(02:51):
So if I said fifty two W in a Y,
then that's fifty two weeks in a year.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Got it?
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Are you ready for the first one?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'll try.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, five hundred d of s.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Okay, that's kind of an easy one for me, maybe
maybe harder for most people. But that's a movie I
was in called five hundred Days of Summers.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So that's that's a pretty easy one. Do they get harder?
I'm hoping these get harder.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
This one is very hard, Joe. I think you will
be stump on You ready ten T I.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
H A Y.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, that's the I've been in a lot of movies
with numbers in the title.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It's true about you. There, there's another one.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
At least you have my subtle plot to try to
increase numeracy in the world.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Great word, great word. That is well, it's working for me.
I love it.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
It actually means an infinite number of possible movies one
for each number.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Right, that's true. That is true, third R from the s.
It is third knocking the son. Not to mention you
have fifty to fifty, which is one I loved.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
There's another movie, but it didn't work for that puzzle format.
I guess because there's no letters in the right.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
There is a seventy five hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Another one, Yeah, I forgot about that one. Of course,
there's seventy five hundred. I really do have a do
most people have a bunch of movie number.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Tennis outlars, just a very number. Like you see a
script with a number and you're like.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I'm just like, I gotta do it. Yeah, what
else is there? I guess Taylor two cities?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What else is there with numbers in it?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, you were on the seventies show at least one.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I was also on that seventies show.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And wait, here's one that's the meta of all metas numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
My friend David Crumholtz invited me onto that one.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
All right, so we've established that you are the dit
Lloyd King of Hollywood. But I do have some non
Joseph Gordon Levitt movies to give you that and some
of them might be accessible, some might be a little
more challenge. Because you asked the challenge, you.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Said, yeah, I did, I did well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You mean when you were making it extremely easy. So
the bar is not too high yet.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Okay, here we go. Twenty one j S, twenty one JS.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
There's another movie with a number in it that I
was not in.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Twenty one Jump Street.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I guess it was first a TV show, right, but
we all think of the movie.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right, I mean your friend, I know, your friends with
Channing Tatum.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's true, that's true. He is a buddy.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
One f O the CN one soo the CNA.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Okay, wait, I don't know that one one the number one.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right, f oh the c N like F as in Frank, Oh,
the c as in Charlie, n as in Nancy. And
it is a classic. It's going back. Yeah, I went.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
From oh, one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest right exactly
when you said classic.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I guess that was a hint. So I cheated, but yes, no, no,
that's not cheating.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's allowed. Yeah, all right, here's one. It's a semi
classic for W and N S.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I know that one, all right?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That one's got this great opening sequence where all the
only line spoken is get.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
The funeral for weddings in the funeral.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
For f Yes, so the F is for funeral, not for.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
What about this one seven y in T seven y and.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
T seven y and T that's actually taking me in?
What is that?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Why? In as in like the opposite of out seven.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
In t Okay, Oh, seven years in Tibet exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, okay, starring Brad Pitt, who was also so you
know Brad Pitt because you were in a River runs
through it your first big film.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That was my first big film and one of his
first big films.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Actually true, I've forgotten well. I mean, first of all,
it's crazy that that what was that, Like, your first
big film was Robert I guess now you're saying Brad
Pitt wasn't Brad Pitt then.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But still no, that's true.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But Robert Redford was very much Robert Redford who directed
that movie. And for anybody out there who doesn't recognize
the name Robert Redford, he was. He was the Brad
Pitt of his time in like the sixties and seventies,
and then he became this fantastic movie director and The
first theatrical feature film I ever acted in was directed
(07:56):
by Robert Redford, and it was the first time I
ever was directed.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
By an actor, actually, and I think that.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Was a lot to do with inspiring me to ultimately
want to be a director as a young actor, as
a young ten year old actor at that time, seeing
this guy who was an actor being a director, it
felt to me like, Oh, that's that's the path, Like
that's that's why I'm doing this. I'm ultimately learning so
that I can direct a movie and tell my stories.
(08:27):
Because I love acting, I love it so much. But
when you're acting, ultimately what you're doing is helping a
filmmaker tell a story that's in their head.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, And.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Again I do I love acting, but I also have
stories in my head that I want to tell, right.
So I've been really lucky to get to direct some
of the things myself, and which mister Redford was the
first inspiration for that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And by the way, I love that story that you
told on some podcasts about how you were missing and
the cinematographer was getting stressed and he told you not
to miss your mark, meaning the little tape on the floor,
and so you were getting stressed, and then Robert Radford
came over and whispered, in your.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Ear, yeah he did.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
He said something really only an actor can say to
another actor. Speaking as an actor, he said to me,
I never hit my marks, which gave me reassurance as.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
A young actor. And the important thing that he was
The point he was making is not to miss your marks.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
But that acting is about more than just the technical details, right,
and ultimately the technical details have to be secondary to
the truth of you really like being in the moment.
And he could see that I was falling out of that.
I was distracted. I wasn't any longer focused on the
(09:59):
what my character would be really feeling at that time.
Instead I was focused on this technical detail of needing
to stand at the right place on the floor where
the piece tape is. And that's sort of the trick
to acting. And I find actually not to get too
ambitious here. But I think there's a metaphor to that
with the rest of life, that it's some kind of
(10:19):
balance between you have to attend to the practical details.
You can't ignore those or else the whole thing falls apart.
But you also can't let the practical details completely absorb you.
You have to also really just stay in the moment
and keep your eye on kind of what's really important here,
what's the big picture, what's the story we're participating in life?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Is a combination of looking for the green tape on
the floor and looking for the emotional truth inside.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, very nice. All right, I got a couple of more.
How about this one? Five EP? Five EP also a classic.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
I'm distracted because in my industry EP just stands for
executive producer, and now it's hard for me to hear
it as anything else.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
And now there are five of them over your five executive.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Way more than that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, let's see five e P. H.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Let me think of a hit I got again.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's it's five Eagles pooping.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I love that movie. That's five Days of the Condor.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, that's three Days of the Condor pooping.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
It's this one has got the same actor that was
in the other classic one Floor over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh that is a good hint.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh yeah, five easy pieces.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
That was exactly Yeah, that was a very good hint.
All right, Well, you asked for a tough one, so
I'm going to give you this one. But I'm here
to help.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Three B O E M three B O E M
three B O E M three big.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Over executive executive producers.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You are writing the movies b O E M.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
The O is a preposition, right, always like over on right.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I can give you these that's allowed. Three.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
You said other prepositions before you.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Said, well, I just wanted to throw you off.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You're changing the rules on me.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Because you three B outside E M three B outside.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Oh yeah, three three billboards outside of Missouri.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, it is Missouri outside.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'll give it to Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Everyone called it three billboards is whatever?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
You go. Well, not the people in Ebbing, Missouri.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
They didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, is that a hint?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Is that a hint?
Speaker 6 (12:54):
The people in Ebbing, Missouri.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's it's a pretty strong hint. That's very strong.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That was a strong hit.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Wait, I have one more, because you might. I think
you'll know this. Not everyone will, but four hundred bees,
four hundred bees.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, four hundred I know this one. I'm a big
fan of old nineteen sixties French cinema, so four hundred
blows the catanu.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh really, Oh well, I did I threw that in
because I knew you were a fan French movie I
Love You. Went to college and studied.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
French, largely inspired by French movies, It's true, yeah, and
also inspired by just the feeling that if I'm going
to be sitting in a classroom, I want to be
learning something. And sometimes sitting in college classrooms, I didn't
feel like I was learning anything. But as soon as
I started taking classes in French, I was like, no
matter what we're talking about, I'm learning a lot right
(13:51):
now because it's in another language.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
One. I interviewed someone once who said she played video
games like Legend of Zelda and French because why not
learn while you're playing video games? I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah, I used to. I used to.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I don't do this anymore, but I used to keep
my like my email inbox in French when I was
just trying to, you know, immerse myself.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
And you do.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You do learn little things when you do that.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, you did fantastic. Next puzzle is all in French.
We will have you back tomorrow, but you're off to
a roaring start.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And before we wrap up, dough, we have one for
an extra credit for the folks at home. Twenty four
HPP twenty four HPP sounds a little like a disease,
but it's not twenty four.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Oh, I know it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I know that way, but I won't say it. I
won't say it.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's a little bit of a deep cup, but I
think our listeners some of them might know it. All right, Well, everyone,
thank you for coming, and if you like the show,
please check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzler, and
we'll meet you here tomorrow from We're Puzzling Puzzles that
will bubbling and puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Hey puzzlers, It's Greg Plisko, your chief Puzzle Officer, and
I'm here with the extra credit answer.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
From our previous episode, we recapped our week with Zach
Sherwin and I did a little bit of a little
bit of recap of the twenty twenty four year in
New York Times Puzzles, including this little tidbit about the
New York Times Spelling Bee.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
As you know, the Spelling Bee has seven letters each day,
and you have to find a number of words that
are made with those letters, including a word that uses
all of them, known as the pangram. Well, the longest
pangram in the Spelling Bee. In twenty twenty four appeared
on January eighth, and the available letters that day were ailnot,
(15:51):
and Z. And the question I asked you is what
was the sixteen letter pangram made with those words? And
the answer is national is nationalization the longest pangram of
the year. And just so you know, if you play
the spelling bee and you miss a pangram, don't feel bad.
Only forty six people, only forty six out of the
(16:13):
millions of people that play the spelling bee got all
the pangrams last year. Good luck with that and with
all your puzzles, and we'll see you here tomorrow.
Hello, Puddlers, Welcome to the Buzzler Podcast, The Stoic Sheriff
and Your Puzzle Western. I am your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I'm here with today's guest, the amazing Joseph Gordon Levitt,
who is, of course a brilliant actor, slash writer, slash director,
(00:28):
slash producer. So many slashes.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome, Joe, Thanks man, so many slashes. I'm very flattered.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You are full of slashes and we are just thrilled
to have you, and I have an opening puzzle for
you right off the bat? Can I get?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Okay? I mean that's what I'm here.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
To do, right all right here it is Holden Cawfield,
the hero of this J. D. Sallinger novel, hates movies
and phonies.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yep, I know the answer to this one. That's called
the cat in the rye.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
That's a cancer in the rye. And that, as you
may remember, was one of the questions that Alex Trebek
asked you on Team Celebrity jefpardy Many.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I was having Jeopardy flashbacks just now. Way, is that
does a trivia question count as a puzzle?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
What I'm meant for here is a cousin. It's like, okay, yeah, okay,
so these will be real puzzles, but I thought I
would show you you've been on Jeopardy. I think the
puzzler is much lower stress, less money, but lower stress.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
And I don't have to phrase these in the form
of a question, right exactly, I just get answers.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Okay, that was That was a deep cut man.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That was probably what nineteen ninety seven or something I
was on. This wasn't Famous Person Jeopardy. This was teenager
famous person Jeopardy.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Very good. It was yes.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And and Kirsten Dunst was my fellow contestant and all that.
Neither one of us won because we were both beat
by the kid from The Nanny the Friend Dresser Show.
And I feel terrible that I don't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But he beat it.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Well, you know he has that he always has that aback.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Maybe I do remember his name. I'm just not saying
it because I still resent him beating me.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, that is the final question of this puzzle, is
what is his name?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I will lose.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So we do have a puzzle, not a trivia question,
a puzzle that we've played several times on the show.
It's called dit Lloyd's. And here's how it works. So
I'm going to give you a number, and then I'll
tell you the phrase has numbers and words, and I'll
give you the number and the first letter of the words.
(02:51):
So if I said fifty two W in a Y,
then that's fifty two weeks in a year.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Got it?
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Are you ready for the first one?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'll try.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, five hundred d of s.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Okay, that's kind of an easy one for me, maybe
maybe harder for most people. But that's a movie I
was in called five hundred Days of Summers.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So that's that's a pretty easy one. Do they get harder?
I'm hoping these get harder.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
This one is very hard, Joe. I think you will
be stump on You ready ten T I.
Speaker 6 (03:26):
H A Y.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, that's the I've been in a lot of movies
with numbers in the title.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It's true about you. There, there's another one.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
At least you have my subtle plot to try to
increase numeracy in the world.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Great word, great word. That is well, it's working for me.
I love it.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
It actually means an infinite number of possible movies one
for each number.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Right, that's true. That is true, third R from the s.
It is third knocking the son. Not to mention you
have fifty to fifty, which is one I loved.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
There's another movie, but it didn't work for that puzzle format.
I guess because there's no letters in the right.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
There is a seventy five hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Another one, Yeah, I forgot about that one. Of course,
there's seventy five hundred. I really do have a do
most people have a bunch of movie number.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Tennis outlars, just a very number. Like you see a
script with a number and you're like.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I'm just like, I gotta do it. Yeah, what
else is there? I guess Taylor two cities?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What else is there with numbers in it?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, you were on the seventies show at least one.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I was also on that seventies show.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
And wait, here's one that's the meta of all metas numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
My friend David Crumholtz invited me onto that one.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
All right, so we've established that you are the dit
Lloyd King of Hollywood. But I do have some non
Joseph Gordon Levitt movies to give you that and some
of them might be accessible, some might be a little
more challenge. Because you asked the challenge, you.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Said, yeah, I did, I did well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You mean when you were making it extremely easy. So
the bar is not too high yet.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Okay, here we go. Twenty one j S, twenty one JS.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
There's another movie with a number in it that I
was not in.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Twenty one Jump Street.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I guess it was first a TV show, right, but
we all think of the movie.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right, I mean your friend, I know, your friends with
Channing Tatum.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's true, that's true. He is a buddy.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
One f O the CN one soo the CNA.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Okay, wait, I don't know that one one the number one.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Right, f oh the c N like F as in Frank, Oh,
the c as in Charlie, n as in Nancy. And
it is a classic. It's going back. Yeah, I went.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
From oh, one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest right exactly
when you said classic.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I guess that was a hint. So I cheated, but yes, no, no,
that's not cheating.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's allowed. Yeah, all right, here's one. It's a semi
classic for W and N S.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I know that one, all right?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
That one's got this great opening sequence where all the
only line spoken is get.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
The funeral for weddings in the funeral.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
For f Yes, so the F is for funeral, not for.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
What about this one seven y in T seven y and.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
T seven y and T that's actually taking me in?
What is that?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Why? In as in like the opposite of out seven.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
In t Okay, Oh, seven years in Tibet exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, okay, starring Brad Pitt, who was also so you
know Brad Pitt because you were in a River runs
through it your first big film.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
That was my first big film and one of his
first big films.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Actually true, I've forgotten well. I mean, first of all,
it's crazy that that what was that, Like, your first
big film was Robert I guess now you're saying Brad
Pitt wasn't Brad Pitt then.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
But still no, that's true.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But Robert Redford was very much Robert Redford who directed
that movie. And for anybody out there who doesn't recognize
the name Robert Redford, he was. He was the Brad
Pitt of his time in like the sixties and seventies,
and then he became this fantastic movie director and The
first theatrical feature film I ever acted in was directed
(07:56):
by Robert Redford, and it was the first time I
ever was directed.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
By an actor, actually, and I think that.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Was a lot to do with inspiring me to ultimately
want to be a director as a young actor, as
a young ten year old actor at that time, seeing
this guy who was an actor being a director, it
felt to me like, Oh, that's that's the path, Like
that's that's why I'm doing this. I'm ultimately learning so
that I can direct a movie and tell my stories.
(08:27):
Because I love acting, I love it so much. But
when you're acting, ultimately what you're doing is helping a
filmmaker tell a story that's in their head.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, And.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Again I do I love acting, but I also have
stories in my head that I want to tell, right.
So I've been really lucky to get to direct some
of the things myself, and which mister Redford was the
first inspiration for that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And by the way, I love that story that you
told on some podcasts about how you were missing and
the cinematographer was getting stressed and he told you not
to miss your mark, meaning the little tape on the floor,
and so you were getting stressed, and then Robert Radford
came over and whispered, in your.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Ear, yeah he did.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
He said something really only an actor can say to
another actor. Speaking as an actor, he said to me,
I never hit my marks, which gave me reassurance as.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
A young actor. And the important thing that he was
The point he was making is not to miss your marks.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
But that acting is about more than just the technical details, right,
and ultimately the technical details have to be secondary to
the truth of you really like being in the moment.
And he could see that I was falling out of that.
I was distracted. I wasn't any longer focused on the
(09:59):
what my character would be really feeling at that time.
Instead I was focused on this technical detail of needing
to stand at the right place on the floor where
the piece tape is. And that's sort of the trick
to acting. And I find actually not to get too
ambitious here. But I think there's a metaphor to that
with the rest of life, that it's some kind of
(10:19):
balance between you have to attend to the practical details.
You can't ignore those or else the whole thing falls apart.
But you also can't let the practical details completely absorb you.
You have to also really just stay in the moment
and keep your eye on kind of what's really important here,
what's the big picture, what's the story we're participating in life?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Is a combination of looking for the green tape on
the floor and looking for the emotional truth inside.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, very nice. All right, I got a couple of more.
How about this one? Five EP? Five EP also a classic.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
I'm distracted because in my industry EP just stands for
executive producer, and now it's hard for me to hear
it as anything else.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
And now there are five of them over your five executive.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Way more than that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, let's see five e P. H.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Let me think of a hit I got again.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's it's five Eagles pooping.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I love that movie. That's five Days of the Condor.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, that's three Days of the Condor pooping.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
It's this one has got the same actor that was
in the other classic one Floor over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh that is a good hint.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh yeah, five easy pieces.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
That was exactly Yeah, that was a very good hint.
All right, Well, you asked for a tough one, so
I'm going to give you this one. But I'm here
to help.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Three B O E M three B O E M
three B O E M three big.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Over executive executive producers.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You are writing the movies b O E M.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
The O is a preposition, right, always like over on right.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I can give you these that's allowed. Three.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
You said other prepositions before you.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Said, well, I just wanted to throw you off.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You're changing the rules on me.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Because you three B outside E M three B outside.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Oh yeah, three three billboards outside of Missouri.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, it is Missouri outside.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'll give it to Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Everyone called it three billboards is whatever?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
You go. Well, not the people in Ebbing, Missouri.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
They didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, is that a hint?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Is that a hint?
Speaker 6 (12:54):
The people in Ebbing, Missouri.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's it's a pretty strong hint. That's very strong.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That was a strong hit.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Wait, I have one more, because you might. I think
you'll know this. Not everyone will, but four hundred bees,
four hundred bees.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, four hundred I know this one. I'm a big
fan of old nineteen sixties French cinema, so four hundred
blows the catanu.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Oh really, Oh well, I did I threw that in
because I knew you were a fan French movie I
Love You. Went to college and studied.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
French, largely inspired by French movies, It's true, yeah, and
also inspired by just the feeling that if I'm going
to be sitting in a classroom, I want to be
learning something. And sometimes sitting in college classrooms, I didn't
feel like I was learning anything. But as soon as
I started taking classes in French, I was like, no
matter what we're talking about, I'm learning a lot right
(13:51):
now because it's in another language.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
One. I interviewed someone once who said she played video
games like Legend of Zelda and French because why not
learn while you're playing video games? I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, yeah, I used to. I used to.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I don't do this anymore, but I used to keep
my like my email inbox in French when I was
just trying to, you know, immerse myself.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
And you do.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
You do learn little things when you do that.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, you did fantastic. Next puzzle is all in French.
We will have you back tomorrow, but you're off to
a roaring start.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And before we wrap up, dough, we have one for
an extra credit for the folks at home. Twenty four
HPP twenty four HPP sounds a little like a disease,
but it's not twenty four.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Oh, I know it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
I know that way, but I won't say it. I
won't say it.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's a little bit of a deep cup, but I
think our listeners some of them might know it. All right, Well, everyone,
thank you for coming, and if you like the show,
please check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzler, and
we'll meet you here tomorrow from We're Puzzling Puzzles that
will bubbling and puzzlingly.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Hey puzzlers, It's Greg Plisko, your chief Puzzle Officer, and
I'm here with the extra credit answer.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
From our previous episode, we recapped our week with Zach
Sherwin and I did a little bit of a little
bit of recap of the twenty twenty four year in
New York Times Puzzles, including this little tidbit about the
New York Times Spelling Bee.
Speaker 6 (15:30):
As you know, the Spelling Bee has seven letters each day,
and you have to find a number of words that
are made with those letters, including a word that uses
all of them, known as the pangram. Well, the longest
pangram in the Spelling Bee. In twenty twenty four appeared
on January eighth, and the available letters that day were ailnot,
(15:51):
and Z. And the question I asked you is what
was the sixteen letter pangram made with those words? And
the answer is national is nationalization the longest pangram of
the year. And just so you know, if you play
the spelling bee and you miss a pangram, don't feel bad.
Only forty six people, only forty six out of the
(16:13):
millions of people that play the spelling bee got all
the pangrams last year. Good luck with that and with
all your puzzles, and we'll see you here tomorrow.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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