Interview with Dana Wheeler Nicholson (Fletch)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (00:00):
Hey, this is Dana Wheeler Nicholson,
and I'm very flattered thatyou've chosen to listen to me on
the Fletchcast, but I'm alsovery married.
You're trying to hit on me,aren't you?
Take it away, guys.

Speaker (00:13):
Broadcasting live and around the world from Cabana One
, the only podcast that's allball bearings, your ultimate
source for everything, fletch.
Thank you, doc, you ever servetime.
Laker Jim and his beatreporters will stop at nothing

(00:36):
to make sure Fletch livesforever.
Forever.
They don't shower much.
This is Fletchcast.

Laker Jim (00:54):
Thank , S ammy.
Welcome everybody of FletchCast.
I'm your host, Laker Jim,joining me today, with Bob and
assignment my lone co-host, aman who just spent $3,000 on
Scrub Brush the one and onlyJake.
Jake.
We have a really exciting showtoday.

Jake (01:08):
I can't wait for this show .
I tell you what we've been.
This is something we've beentalking about for a long, long
time.
Initially I was going to takethat $3,000, go buy myself some
nice new tennis whites, but thepaperwork had already been
signed, so I guess we're justgoing to have to see how
everything plays out.
But yeah, I'm really excited totalk to Dana about Fletch.

Laker Jim (01:29):
Absolutely.
She's someone we talked abouton our very first conversation
before we started the podcast,and I said listen, jake, you
both live in Austin.
She's got to pump her own gas.
Eventually, have your head on aswivel, let's find her, let's
get her on the show.
And today's the day.

Jake (01:43):
Yeah, I would assume, in a town this small of Austin, that
sooner or later I would runinto her.
But I thought maybe sooner orlater I might run into her and
check out why.
On H-E-V.
But that's okay.
We finally got her and I thinkit's going to be a great
interview.
And you're right, this issomeone that was at the top of
our Mount Rushmore as far asinterviews when we started this
podcast.
Obviously, Chevy and Dana weredefinitely too, along with Tim

(02:08):
as well, and obviously we'll betalking to Chevy a little bit
later on in the season, but I'mexcited.

Laker Jim (02:14):
Yeah, absolutely, dana will be calling in any
minute now.
You've got your boyd aviationmug.
I've got my boyd aviation shirt.
We're ready, but I got to admitI'm a little nervous.
It'll be fine, just thatnatural.
I was afraid you were going tosay that, yup, and there she is.

Jake (02:32):
All right, go ahead.

Laker Jim (02:35):
In-N-Out Burger.
Can I take your order please?

Hi y'all .

Jeff Smith, Clue the Movie (02:38):
How are you?

Laker Jim (02:39):
We are doing fantastic.
Fletch Fans joining us on theshow.
The former, mrs Stanwyk.
Dana Wheeler- Nicholson.
Dana.
Welcome to Fletchcast.

Thank you so much for having me.
It's very exciting to relivethis amazing funny film.

Jake (02:56):
No, thank you very much.
We really appreciate it.

Laker Jim (02:59):
Now, this is something that FletchFans have
been clamoring about for quite awhile, so I'm glad we could
finally make it happen.

Yeah, you know, I don't mean to be coy
about doing this.
I just am pretty shy and so Ijust tend to not do anything
like this.
You know, that's my bed, I know.
Anyway, thanks for having me.
It's nice to be here.

Laker Jim (03:18):
And knowing that there are not really any
interviews with you out there,it truly is an honor to be able
to talk to you today.
Thank you, I appreciate that.

Boyd Aviation, haha

Laker Jim (03:29):
Of course.
Are you crazy?
Both just wanted to support thefamily business.
Plus, we'd like to get them onas a sponsor.
All right, let's get started.
Talk a little about how you gotinto the business yes, how you
got the acting role.
I know you were in your early20s at the time.

I was in art school my whole life.
I'm from New York City and Iwas a very internal child and
drew and read and that'sbasically all I did and rode
horses and I was.
I was in art school.
I was at Parsons School ofDesign in New York.
I was in my foundation yearsand I took an acting class in

(04:09):
New York because I was so shyand this you hear this a lot
from actors that they're so shyand they're so kind of.
You know, I've learned moreabout what that's about in my
later years, but I just feltlike I needed to be around
people and not just in a studiopainting and drawing by myself.

(04:29):
And my life was difficult atthat time.
I was a teenager and my familylife was hard and I just started
taking an acting class at astudio in New York called HB
Studios, which was HerbertBerghoff, who was a great
theater method guy and I lovedit, and he the teacher that I

(04:53):
had at the time at the studiowas extremely supportive and
said you should really thinkabout doing this, getting into a
real school.
And so I changed colleges and Iended up at ended up at a
college in New York called SarahLawrence College where they had
a great theater department.
So I started trying to talk infront of people and do plays and

(05:17):
I very quickly got scooped upby a professional situation and
very quickly got an agent.
And that's a story in and ofitself and because this sort of
thing I don't think happensanymore the exact story.
But I ended up getting an agentreally quickly while I was

(05:38):
still in school and then reallyquickly getting cast in movies
and stuff.
So I just kind of went fromthere.
I left school.
I've never finished school,sadly, and you know, had a big
splash and getting Fletch washappened very quickly too.
I think I was 23 years old, Ihadn't even finished school.

Laker Jim (06:01):
Now your your last name, wheeler Nicholson.
I mean as a, as a preteenwatching Fletch and prior to the
internet or being able to lookanything up.
I just assumed you were maybean ex of Jack Nicholson or you
know, but the hyphenated WheelerNicholson name actually has a
lot of history behind it.

Yes, it does.
So my grandfather was calledthe major Malcolm Wheeler
Nicholson and he founded DCComics, is the accredited
founder.
It's a complicated story butbasically he created DC Comics
but was bought out, shoved out,sort of pushed out very, very

(06:43):
early on.
So he doesn't.
The only recognition is by realcomic book fans aficionados and
he, you know it is it's, it'shis legacy, but he was bought
out very, very early.
So our family doesn't have muchto do with any of it Hasn't

(07:05):
really ever, except for certainbiographers and things coming to
us.
And he was inducted into thecomic book Hall of Fame at Comic
Con a few years ago, severalyears ago.
So that was really great.
And my dad is still alive.
His only remaining son is myfather, who's 95.
And he's actually writing abiography, or co-writing or I

(07:28):
guess, with a comic bookhistorian and journalist, about
my grandfather.

Laker Jim (07:32):
Right now, as we speak, we're getting his stories
finally recorded and hopefullyyou know putting this biography
so yeah, and it would seem likecommon sense to turn that
biography into a movie because,number one, comic book movies
are the only ones making anymoney these days, your husband
being a filmmaker, you being anactress, and your family having

(07:52):
a story, and it being the storyof somebody who founded
something and then got screwed,seems like the perfect recipe of
what people are looking forthese days.

Yeah, very much so, and it's very
Tesla, I mean, it's veryAmerican you know story where
someone sort of stumbles intobecause of their creative head
brain, the way it works.
He was, you know.
Now I know what his you knowmental thing brain was like.
But yeah, he, his story, iskind of a typical American story

(08:28):
.
In those days, everything so new, you know, everything in this
culture was so new, and the onlything that existed at the time
were comic strips.
There were no books and artistsweren't being paid as so, in in,
in a way, he was sort of doinga startup, what would be the

(08:48):
equivalent of a startup today,and he, you know, had to scrap
around for money and he was, youknow, historically it's always
like he never paid people andyou know things like that that
you think, well, yes, okay, I'msure there was some lousy
business sense.
Obviously, because he got boughtout so early by people who
really knew a lot better and hada longer game in mind, which he

(09:13):
did not have.
He had no business sense.
He had no sense of what he waseven doing.
He was trying to feed fivechildren and had a very fancy
wife who was not okay with theway he was just sort of like.
He was like an inventor and hewas a military man and he was
used to sort of moving aroundand there was a lot happening at

(09:38):
the time that didn't reallylend to his particular the way
his mind worked and he was justcreating something that didn't
exist and scrapping around and Ithink DC has done very well.
Have you heard?

Jake (09:57):
of them?
Yes, so was that your initialgoal?
Was he influential on you tomaybe go like the art track?
You said that's what you wereinitially and obviously so.
That was that your initial goal.
Career is something like that.

Yeah, I was always out of my siblings
and family.
I seem to be the only one whoreally pursued anything creative
.
It was definitely my brain isonly creative.
I don't have, you know, I haveexecutive function disorders and
ADHD and all these things thatshowed up, as you know, things

(10:35):
later that I could name and Icould say, oh, that's why I
can't do anything sensible.
But yeah, I mean, I've alwaysonly wanted to make things and
create things and I only act.
I sing, I work with you knowdrawing, and I started out

(10:56):
wanting to design costumes forfilm and TV and that was my end
fashion, like I was reallyinterested.
That's what I went to Parsonsfor was to end up designing
clothing, specifically costuming.
At the time I thought theaterand film and ballet.
You know that was my idea as akid.

Laker Jim (11:20):
You mentioned going after Fletcher 23, probably 22
at the time.
Yeah, I was listening to aninterview that Michael Richie
did right before he died andthey were talking about screen
testing and they weren'tnecessarily talking about
Fletcher, but it made him bringup the role your role of Gail
Stanwyck and how that was animportant role to be screen
tested.
So let's take a listen toMichael Richie talk about it and

(11:41):
then I'd love to hear yourcomments afterwards about your
experience.

Jeff Smith, Clue the Movie P (11:45):
Is the screen test part of the
process to for you with anycasting?
Have you ever done that?

Michael Ritchie (11:52):
Oh sure you can't avoid it.
I mean it's for the major starsupport roles.
Fletcher certainly Fletcher'swife, not wife Tim Addison's
wife, fletcher's girlfriend inthe movie was a part that had to
be screen tested.
I don't do it that often.
I try to avoid it becauseinevitably if you do a screen

(12:16):
test the person gets shot down.
Screen tests have terribletrack records, really.
Oh yeah, just because it isn'tthe finished film.
It's not that even if thesupporting actor is there, he's
not giving the supporting actorperformance, something looks
wrong and it makes people edgyand then they don't approve.
And it's never for you.

(12:36):
Screen test is never for youpersonally, it's always for the
studio.

Laker Jim (12:40):
Wow.
So if it doesn't work, how didyou overcome the odds and get
the role?

Well, from what I can remember, my
memory is so I was cast in amovie at the time called Into
the Night that John Landis wasdirecting.
I got cast in New York just ina regular audition.
It was a movie starring JeffGoldblum who at the time was

(13:05):
trying out a leading man thing.
It was a big deal.
But I was also cast in a littlemovie called Mrs Soful, which
wasa period piece, starring MelGibson and Diane Keaton and
Matthew Maudine, directed byJillian Anderson.
So I had a small, I had asupporting role in that.

(13:26):
It was a beautiful movie, Iloved it.
But it got pushed because of aweather situation.
There was no snow.
The whole movie took place insnow, waiting, waiting, waiting.
So it started to bump into Iknow this sounds like a long
story, but it leads back.
It bumped into the timing ofInto the Night, where I had the

(13:46):
lead in that film and I wascoming out of nowhere.
I had just come out of school.
So I had to choose betweenstaying in the lead and into the
night and staying in thesupporting part in Mrs Soful.
And I chose to stay in MrsSoful, which was like my agents

(14:09):
went fucking batshit.
They were like what are youdoing?
And this is the lead in strongland is blah, blah, blah.
And I at the time I was like 22.
I was like so what?
You know?
I like this one better, I likethe park better.
I get to have a Polish accentand wear period costumes, which
was my thing, you know, and itwas Mel Gibson, I mean, oh my

(14:30):
God.
So I stayed in the smaller part.
All that to say is that Landislost his mind.
He, you know, after he had hisyou know meltdown about it.
He said, well, oh, who should Icast?
And I was like I've heard ofthis wonderful actress named
Michelle Pfeiffer I don't knowif you've heard of her.
She seems like she'd be greatcut to.
And that leads to they werecasting.

(14:53):
They were starting to cast forFletch and Landis's offices were
right in Universal with theFletch people, with Alan
Griezman and Sean Daniel and allthem, and so they were cast.
They were casting around and itwas like every actress in town
wanted to be opposite Chevy anddo this big movie.

(15:14):
And Landis bothered them andharassed them and harangued them
and kept.
You know, said Dana WheelerNicholson, you've got to look at
her, you've got to look at her.
And they were like who he was,like I cast her in my movie.
She turned me down, you knowlike that.
And so they met with me and youknow we hit it off.

(15:37):
I don't remember a screen test,which is so weird.
I remember getting flown backout there.
I was back in New York.
I remember getting flown backout there and actually meeting
everybody in a room at Universaland meeting Chevy in a room and
connecting with him personally.

(15:59):
And I don't actually remember ascreen test, so that's, I'd
have to really look at it toremember it.
I just remember laughing a lotin that room with Chevy and
feeling extremely in the moment.
I had no, I was so young that Ihad no problem just being in
the moment and, you know, beingcompletely present and

(16:23):
responding to him completelynaturally from my you know I
adored him and he made me laughso hard.
That was my memory and my DonnaKaren shoulder pad situation
which I picked out.

Jake (16:39):
I remember that, I remember polka dots.

There were 80s polka dots involved in
very big hair, so that's mymemory.
I'd have to be checked, factchecked on that.

Laker Jim (16:52):
Did you well.
Unfortunately Michael's notwith us to fact check, but now
it was.
It's something where you readlines with Chevy, or was it just
informal meetingery?

I feel like it was both.
I feel like we were in the room, I feel like there was, there
were scenes, but it was mostlyimprov, you know, which is how
it ended up.
I think they wanted to see if Icould hang with him you know, if
I bounce back with him, becausehe was like, you know, he was

(17:22):
like Muhammad Ali at the time,you know, comedy wise, and I
think they wanted somebody whocould, you know, be in the
moment with him and respond tohim, naturally, and not be all
worried about their accuracystuff.

Laker Jim (17:40):
Now we heard some name actresses and even some
A-listers were vying for thispart.
Do you remember who you mighthave been up against?

Farrah Fawcett.
Wow, freakin Farrah Fawcett.
I mean everybody in town andshe was at the time she was like
wanting to do a whole thing andshe became.
You know, she was a fantasticactress.
Obviously wasn't quite knownfor that at the time, but she
was crossing over into veryserious stuff.

Laker Jim (18:08):
Definitely Can you remember anybody else.

That's the only person I remember, but
they told me everybody I mean itwas everybody at the time and I
remembered her.
I guess she wasn't like A-listat the time necessarily in that
milieu, Definitely in TV andstuff, but there were other
actresses at the time that weregiant stars, who everybody
wanted this part and I wasabsolutely nobody, you know,

(18:34):
obviously.
So it was big, it was bigripple sort of apparently went
through.
You know that this girl,whoever she was, with the polka
dots, you know so when you gotthe role.

Jake (18:48):
so how did you approach it ?
Did you know?
Obviously she's a character inthe book.
Did you know anything about thebooks?
Did you read the book?
Did you just get notes from youknow Michael Ritchie and the
producers?
How did that work out?

I was not aware of the books and they
and Michael definitely presentedthe books to me.
I don't remember specificallyreading them but I at the time I
think I was just more focusedon because he said he wasn't
very concerned about me, he wasjust playing, you know, directly

(19:24):
from the book Because it wasChevy, there was going to be so
much that was sort of inventedand so on, and so what they were
focused on was her beingsomeone who was very privileged,
very moneyed, very protected,and so the betrayal that she has

(19:51):
with her husband and herattraction to the Fletch
character.
You know it had to read.
It had to read like this young,wealthy woman would actually be
attracted to someone like thischaracter.
That's sort of what we wereworking on, you know.

(20:11):
Did you ever?

Jake (20:13):
meet Gregory McDonald.
I didn't even know.
I know he was on the set a fewtimes he was.

He was on the set and we met and I was
again very shy so I'm sure Ididn't, you know, present in any
real interesting way for him.
But yeah, he was on the set andwe met.
He was thrilled, I think.
I think there's, you know, moredocumentation than he was not,
but he seemed very happy withwhat was going on Well.

Jake (20:40):
Actually, I knew Greg.
We were actually friends foryears, oh did he like it?
He loved it.
He always spoke very highly ofyou.

Laker Jim (20:47):
Oh cool, I'm sure I know it was a different time in
the early 80s, but not untilrecently I really thought about
a 23 year old and Chevy at thetime was 41.
So really pairing you togetherwas an odd gap of age and even
Matheson was 37 or 38 at thetime.
But for some reason it just, itjust worked.

(21:08):
It didn't seem odd at all.

Well, that's because I'm so goddamn
mature.

Jake (21:14):
He pulled it off, he really did.

And I had good hair?
No, I mean, I think that wassort of part of it.
Is that, even though I mean I'mobviously very young in the
movie?
But at the time, like I thinkabout and I do not mistake me
when I compare myself to but Ilook at old movies and you think
about Lauren Bacall or somebodywho was 19 when she did to have

(21:38):
and have not and met HumphreyBogart.
You know, I think it's gotsomething to do with and again,
I'm not selling myself in thisway, but I think it has
something to do with when beingsomeone I was born and raised in
New York City.
It was the 70s.
When I grew up.
It was a tough town at the time.
My family life was tough.

(22:00):
I was extremely independent.
I was pretty mature for my age.
I came from a background whereyoung people were treated like
adults, meaning we took care ofourselves and we had jobs and we
were allowed to drink wine atdinner.

(22:21):
We weren't as infantilized oras young people seem to be today
.
Listen to me right now.
Oh my God, I sound like grandma.
But you know, I think there'sbeen this move toward 23 year
olds seem really young now and Ijust didn't seem that young

(22:47):
because I didn't feel that young.
I felt like a grown-up.
I was treated like a grown-upmy whole life and so I don't
know, maybe that's somethingthey were looking for was
someone who wasn't trying.
I also don't have the kind ofvanity where I was concerned

(23:08):
about how I looked or how itread.
I was just trying to play thatthis woman would be married to
this sort of older man, thatmaybe that led to her being so
betrayed because she is youngand she's in this protected
bubble with her daddy, and so Idon't know, I was really young,

(23:33):
but I didn't feel that way.
I didn't behave that way.

Laker Jim (23:38):
Something we always joke about on the podcast is
that people in the 80s appearedolder than they really are, Like
George Went, for example.
In the movie Fat Sam seemedlike he was like 48, 49 years
old.
George Went was in his early30s.

He was, like always, a grown-up.

Jeff Smith, Clue the Mov (23:56):
Always .

He was always that guy, probably at
birth, yeah, but that's right.
So the hair and makeup at thetime.
I'm sorry people out there butit aged you.
The stuff that I had in my hairwas so matronly.
Everything was really reallymatronly and kind of the big
hair and big shoulders andnothing sort of streamlined.

(24:22):
It was a weird time for fashionand for that stuff and it
definitely aged all of us, allthe actresses at that time, and
we all look so much older thanwe were.

Laker Jim (24:34):
You brought up your co-host your hair.
That thing was a force to bereckoned with.
Did you wear it like that atthe time, or was that
specifically for Fletch?

I was so horrified.
I remember I will never forgetthis sitting in hair and makeup
because I was like a hippie kidfrom New York.
My hair was like long andblonde and curly always, but
they did this thing.

(25:03):
I remember it in hair andmakeup, looking at myself, and I
was so new, I was so young, Ijust thought I couldn't say
anything and I just had to do it.
And I remember, specificallyafter that movie, thinking I
will never keep my mouth shutagain about and it's going to
live in perpetuity, this hairand this is nothing against

(25:24):
anybody.
My God, it was 1983 or whatever.
That was what was happeninghair-wise.
It wasn't happening for mepersonally and I had to really
convince myself that thischaracter would be having this
hair.
It was also the first time Ihad colored my hair, which I'd
never done.
They wanted it.

(25:45):
I forget my hair was quitelight and I think they wanted I
can't remember it was eitherthey wanted it lighter or darker
, I don't remember.
It was the first time I didthat.
It was the first time I did aperm.
It was all very 80s.
The whole thing was like a big80s mashup, hair-wise Too funny.

Laker Jim (26:04):
All right, take us back to the first day on set.
Now, is that something whereyou kind of just thrown to the
wolves, or do you have a chanceto rehearse with Chevy?
How does day one, first scene,how does that work?

Jake (26:16):
Yeah, and do you remember what your first few scenes were
that you shot?

Memory says it was the stuff in the
mansion with Alan in the library.
I remember starting with thatstuff, so it felt like an easy
start, meaning it was in a house.
We were there, I think, acouple of days at least.

(26:46):
The scenes were pretty fun andstraightforward.
It was the discovery of thebetrayal, obviously, and Alan
revealing who he is.
So there was real acting.
That was happening foreverybody.
Tim really wanted to play thisguy, his struggle at that moment

(27:07):
, and to come off verymanipulative and a bad guy.
Really, chevy was reallyworking.
There was acting going on andit was really fun.
I remember we were shooting in aplace in Beverly Hills or in
Bel Air, beautiful home in BelAir.
I was landing on Mars for me.

(27:28):
I didn't know where I was.
It was so beautiful.
It was so Hollywood.
I had a car rented.
I was living at the ChateauMarmont in a bungalow where John
Belushi had died, next door.
Moments before I felt like I'dlanded in.
Were you nervous?
I mean I had done two smallerparts.

(27:51):
I had done a part in a moviecalled the Little Drummer Girl
with George Roy Hill as thedirector.
That's where I really learnedhow to even get on your mark and
where cameras were.
So I had a little bit, and MrsSoful too, which was a
complicated shoot.
So I had a little bit of chops,just a tiny, tiny bit of chops.

(28:17):
I could pretend I kind of knewwhat was happening and Michael
Ritchie and Chevy were so kindand supportive and helped me,
even when I was a dummy.
So I felt like I think that wasthe beginning or maybe it's

(28:39):
when I woke up out of my stuporof being doing this thing.
I mean, I was in such acomplete altered reality.
So that's my memory.
I could be wrong.

Laker Jim (28:53):
No, I think you're right, because when we talked to
Tim Matheson, he mentioned thathis first scenes were also
filmed at the Hearst Mansion.

Yeah , that's what I thought.

Laker Jim (29:02):
Hearst had bought for his mistress, marion Davies,
and he just could not get overhow gorgeous the house was and
how extravagant it was, howbeautiful the library is and
just that people lived like that.

We were all just like what, and to me it
was possible that people livedlike this.
I'd seen it in movies, but Idon't think I'd ever walked
around.
Not even, like my dad, rodehorses.
He was a fox hunter.
We were in this very waspybackdrop in New York and Long

(29:37):
Island Not that we were fancy,it was just his sport of choice
and so we were around east coaststuff, but nothing like this.
I mean old waspy east coast.
People's places are crumblingand there's no food in the
fridge.
So this was quite something.

(30:00):
This house Wow.

Laker Jim (30:01):
Now you bring up horses.
The Hearst Mansion is also theGodfather House, and that's
where the horse's head was leftin the bed in the famous scene
in the Godfather.

Oh really, I didn't know that.
That's a great little bit ofnews.

Jake (30:17):
Joe Don Baker was in that scene too.
Recall working with him.

Yeah, I guess he'd just come out of
walking tall.
He was a deal.
I feel like they had really,you know, they really got a big.
It was big get getting Joe DonBaker.
He was extremely serious, sortof intimidating, which was good
for the part.
I remember thinking he didn'treally.

(30:47):
He was extremely serious interms of, like you know,
approaching the scene and whathad to happen.
He kind of was a little bitlike commandeering you know,
rightfully so.
I remember he would really sortof change it up a lot, and so

(31:11):
did Tim and I think so did I.
I was never very consistent ingeneral I never am, which is
annoying for everybody else.
So I remember feeling like Iliked watching him because he
really did shift around hischaracter and what he was up to.
So but yeah, he was kind of inhis own world.

(31:35):
He wasn't super personable orchatty or anything, and again I
was like this girl who cares,you know, lady, but I could be
wrong about that too.
That could be my, just myimpression.
Everybody was very respectfulof him and tiptoe around him a
bit.

Laker Jim (31:52):
Yeah, that seems to add up from other things we've
heard about him.
Yeah, I want to talk a littlebit about the improv.
Yes a lot of people creditMichael Rich's being the perfect
director for Fletch because hehad the ability to rain Chevy in
and shoot stuff by the scriptand then allowed Chevy to kind
of do his own thing for a fewtakes.
Is that something you were madeaware of or something you kind

(32:16):
of just had to learn on the fly?

So, yes, all of that to me tracks.
Again, I was so new that I wasvery and I was clocking
everything and Michael includedme.
He treated me like a co workerand an equal in a way obviously
not only in the way that hewould.

(32:39):
He wasn't secretive.
There wasn't any like let'stiptoe around the movie star
stuff.
He was.
He was in his own world withChevy, for sure, but it was very
clear that he was walking thatline Because on the day we'd all
be walking that line and awarethat Chevy had his agenda and

(33:03):
the way he liked to work and theway he was used to working and
the reason he got cast wasbecause he works that way.
So that was a B.
There was a story and and adirector who was trying to tell
a story and make that track, andso, yes, I feel like that's
exactly right that Michael wasin this constant sort of walking

(33:27):
that line with Chevy and theyworked it out like they really
did.
Obviously they did because it'sevident in the movie, chevy was
uncontainable In a great way.
He's, he's a genius.
And so Michael wasn't trying to, I don't think, contain him as

(33:51):
much, as just sort of guidethings so that he could get the
choice of having the story.
A lot of times he ended upthrowing out that stuff and what
you see in the movies, chevyjust being a genius, and those
are the things that Michael wastalented enough, I think,
obviously, to know when he hadgold, and at the time with Chevy

(34:14):
, it was just a lot of gold, youknow how often did the actors
on the set break character andjust start dying laughing and
ruin the take on a Chevy improvevery?
day, every minute of every day,like everything he said to me
was not ripped and you know whenhe, when he was off camera and

(34:35):
my close ups, he was justthrowing things out there and
you're seeing me just respond tohim, you know, and his improv
stuff, and then it made me haveto, you know, jump in there,
which was why I think I got cast, was that I loved it and I

(34:55):
loved him.
You know, I just loved him.

Jake (34:58):
Hey, let's talk about the cabana scene, which is probably
the most famous scene thatyou're in.
Do you remember rehearsing that, or was it?
Was it a lot more improv was?
Was it more of a script?
Do you recall?

Yeah, again we were at the Riviera
tennis club in Brentwood, whichwas also incredibly fancy and
and again I wasn't a stranger toyou know, clubs or anything,
but this again it was at a levelthat was like you know, next
level for me.
So we were in these cabanasagain for a few days.
I know that I think most of therehearsing was for me because I

(35:43):
was fucking things up.
It seemed to me a lot, I don'tknow, I couldn't hit Mark's.
There's this one moment where Ithink, where I have to jump
into frame and say something tohim, like he's going, he's going
out the window and I come intoframe and I'm like, whatever I

(36:05):
say, I could not hit that mark.
And it's like 500 takes for meto just land in there and say
this.
And then finally it was likeone of the camera guys jumped in
and did it and then, like thewardrobe girl jumped in and they
would everybody like doing myshot because I couldn't do it,
and they're all like, see, it'sreally easy, and that it seemed

(36:26):
to me and the tennis stuff wasincredibly real because I
couldn't hit the ball and it wasall just really real.
But I don't remember Chevy usrehearsing.
It was mostly just like openthe door, save a thing, close
the door.
I don't feel like he was reallythat interested in rehearsing

(36:50):
that stuff a lot and that's justwhere we're sitting and kind of
blocking.
It seemed like more thananything, because a lot of that
stuff is just improv.
There's the information we haveto get across, obviously the
story of about you know, myhusband has done this and he's

(37:11):
not, he's a bad guy and me kindof like wait, what?
So we had to get story stuffacross, obviously.
But in between all that was allthe stuff that you see that
gets quoted endlessly, which wasall Chevy, I mean just all him
in the moment.
He that shot where he walks inand says can I borrow your towel

(37:31):
?
I don't know if you've heardthat line before.
He just said that as he walkedin the door.
That's like that was the takeand you know, I had to kind of
hold it together sort of.
Yet know, this character iscompletely charmed by this guy,
you know, and that was the thingwas that I found him so

(37:55):
charming and so I don't remembera ton of rehearsal except a lot
of blocking.
Also, something really weirdhappened which I remembered kind
of recently, when I knew I wasgoing to talk to you guys and I
was kind of trying to thinkabout things, I had a really
weird thing happen, which wassomeone put a note in my the

(38:21):
bathrobe that I was using.
On that because I was in atowel, so that was kind of, you
know, had tape and stuff Betweentakes, I would put this
bathrobe on and someone slippeda note in the pocket.
That was kind of stalkery andweird.
It was like a you know, I loveyou, you're my some creepy note

(38:45):
was in my wardrobe towel thathad been sitting on my chair and
it was extremely shocking andscary and I immediately, like,
showed it to Heron Makeup, whoare your, you know, robert
Duvall and the godfather.

Laker Jim (39:02):
Oh, consigliari yeah.

That's your hair make up, isn't that?
And so I went straight to themand I was, like you know, again,
a kid.
I didn't know what washappening.
And they alerted, you know,producers and it was kind of
this very weird thing.
And so then I was scaredbecause someone on set it was
presumably someone on set orsomeone who had gotten into my
trailer.
It was all really scary and Ijust remembered this, and so I

(39:28):
remember that day, whichever daythat was I was extremely
uptight and I was frightened andI didn't know, you know.
So that was kind of in thebackground.
So I remember thinking at thetime it was the day he was
telling me about who Alan wasand I remember just thinking

(39:49):
just let that come through.
You know this scary, you knowalternate reality, feeling so
protected and then having thissuper creepy thing pop into your
pocket.
You know, I just tried to letit live in a sequence, so I
never found out what happenedwith that.

Laker Jim (40:11):
Man, that is kind of scary.
You think it was under Hill?
Yeah, I do.

I definitely do, you know.
Obviously he was a criminal.

Jake (40:21):
That was that was actually leading to.
My next question was so?
Another famous character is TedUnderhill, and that was a play
by William Trailer.
You know banging at your door,at your cabana door.
Do you remember how was he asan actor?
Do you remember muchassociation with him?

No, because he was sort of outside
in his I don't know where theyhad him.
I was in the fancy cabana withall the you know fancy stuff and
we didn't interact that much.
I think we, you know, had aquick rehearsal about blocking
again the door has to open andclose his thing and I had to be

(41:00):
in the right place and receivethe information and grab the
bill and you know that stuff.
But I don't, I don't rememberhaving talks with him
particularly and I could just benot remembering well enough.
But obviously he was a wellcharacter guy and a teacher and

(41:22):
I wasn't that aware of him atthe time.
I became aware of him later.
You know more about people Iknew took acting class from him
and so on.

Jake (41:31):
Do you remember any scenes that you shot that didn't make
the movie, or pretty mucheverything you shot was that.

That's a really good question.
I really don't.
I don't recall, I don'tremember.
I think there were things thatwere cut in scenes that did make
it that I was such a novicewhen I saw the movie I was like
hey, where's that ball?
But I don't know that I couldremember that.

(41:58):
If I were to be reminded, thatwould be great All right.

Laker Jim (42:01):
Maybe this will jog your memory when Fletch first
sees you.
He's in the mansion looking outthe window with binoculars and
you're sunbathing.
There are some photos of Chevyout there with you.
Now, was that maybe a fantasyin his head as he was looking
through the binoculars?
Or was that just promotionalshots that you guys took outside
?

That was promotional.
That was a vantage of the factthat we were poolside, I was in
a bathing suit and we were atthis mansion, at this beautiful
place.
So, yeah, the photographer cameout and took pictures.
It wasn't in the movie.
I don't think that he evercomes out there.

(42:43):
That was yeah, he's looking outthe window.
Yeah, no, that was justpromotional.

Laker Jim (42:48):
Okay, okay, that makes sense.
How about this shot?
Look at.
Take a look at this shot thatwe found Now.
It's Chevy in his Mr Poonoutfit, minus the glasses and
the bandage on the nose.
You are in a striped jacketoutfit with very big shoulder
pads.
Any reason why you two would betogether while you're dressed

(43:11):
like this?
Was this some sort of a sceneor anything?

Did I request double shoulder pads?
Let me think about that.

Jake (43:21):
They're significant.
They're definitely significant.

I might have said I might need another
set.
It was a very shoulder.
Paddy time in a woman's life.
Let's see, do I remember?
I don't remember that, sorry.

Jake (43:37):
Hey, so tell us about the Rio shoot.
You went down there and youwere down there a long time and
you guys, the weather was bad.
Tell us all about that.

That was wild.
That was wild.
We flew to Rio to get this oneshot, which that's so back in
the day.
When does that happen really?
Yeah, we all flew down.
We got stuck for weather.
We were in the hotel and AlanGriezmann had just married or
was going to marry Sally Field.

(44:08):
She was down there too.
We had a lot of time on ourhands but we had to stay in the
hotel for will notifies.
If the cloud cover would move,they'd bring us out and start
shooting.
We couldn't really go out or doanything.
We're kind of in the hotel.
Chevy was climbing the walls.

(44:29):
He was going out of his mind.
He was just like a child in apadded room.
He was in my room quite a lotgoofing around.
He was calling my friends backin New York, prank calling them.
We'd be up at ridiculous hours.
I was dating Tim Hutton at thetime and he was prank calling

(44:53):
Tim and my girlfriends.
It was just so silly.
I would just be reading a voguein my room waiting for my will
notify and he'd be calling everytwo seconds like what are you
doing, dave?
I'm still reading a vogue, chev, just still reading the
magazine Two minutes later whatare you doing?
Dave.

(45:13):
I'm now ordering room service.
I thought maybe I'd give myselfa pedicure.
What are you doing, chev?
He would just come over andstart prank calling people.
He did this thing.
That was hilarious.
He probably did it every fiveminutes.
He would fill a giant pitcherof water.

(45:33):
Have you heard this?
This was his favorite thing.
He would fill a giant pitcherof water, then call somebody
like my girlfriend, dolly orsomething, and start chatting.
As he was chatting, he'd bepouring the water into the
toilet as if he was taking themost giant piss on earth during

(45:56):
the phone call and just seeingif anybody would break and be
like what's happening right now.
It was just he, just this joke.
He just did it like to 10people and I would just sit in
my room laughing my head off.
There was quite a lot ofpartying In those days.
That's what we did.
We partied quite a lot.

(46:17):
We were entertained by thelocal Rio glitterade.
We went to parties and wereentertained in people's homes
and things like that.
I went to clubs and Sally Fieldand I got kicked out of a club
there for dancing together.
They thought we were lesbiansor something, I don't know.
I was like it's Sally Field,she can dance wherever she wants

(46:40):
people.
They were having none of it.
We got tossed out of place.
I guess they're very Catholicthere, I've heard.
I don't know anything.

Laker Jim (46:50):
You guys were too hot for Rio.

Jake (46:52):
Yeah, really, which is rare, it's real, I mean, come on
.

I don't know what it was.
Maybe it was something else.
We just assumed it was a girlon girl thing.
Maybe it was something else.

Laker Jim (47:03):
Alright, I think we all need a minute after that
girl on girl scenario.
Um, were you guys able to shootany of the original scripted
ending, which was much more thanyou guys walking on the beach?
I know that was kind of likelet's get something and go.
Yeah.
Um, but the original scriptedending you are guys are kind of

(47:25):
poolside, playfully meet eachother again, the same way you
met earlier with uh, I haven'tseen you since the wedding, kind
of thing, Right, and was any ofthat shot, even if you didn't
finish it?
Was it any of it shot?

Yeah, we couldn't do any of that.
That was disappointing and itfelt on the fly and we did our
best, but, um, you know, I thinkthey were in a constant state
of just trying to get something.
The weather was not cooperatingand you know we could have shot
it in Malibu.
You know, frankly, where theweather was quite nice.
So we heard the entire timefrom the studio, I think it's

(48:00):
like you know, um, malibu's nice, um.
So, yeah, that wasdisappointing, but you know,
again, michael worked it out.

Laker Jim (48:11):
Was there ever any rumblings of you returning for a
sequel, especially because theywent away from the books and
Flex lives?
Never.

Um no never.

Laker Jim (48:23):
Even though your character pops up in one of the
sequels or the book sequels,which actually wasn't a real
yeah, you see, in the bookFletch doesn't go to Rio with
Gale, he goes by himself andthen she follows him there and
that's how the second bookstarts Right.
And, um, they actually tried todo that in the ending of the of
the original script that youguys in shoot but she chases

(48:44):
them down there.
Yeah, yeah, that's how it,that's how it's originally goes
down.
See that's good.

Jake (48:50):
Yeah, she ends up.
Her character ends up workingin a fish restaurant outside of
Rio and Mary's a local.
That's how her character ends.

See, wouldn't that have been.
That would have been fun to see.

Laker Jim (49:03):
One more little side fact about your character In the
book.
Her name was Joan Collins andit was Collins aviation, yeah.

Dana Wheeler-Nichol (49:11):
Interesting .
I don't remember that yet.
I wonder they had to change it.

Laker Jim (49:15):
Anyway, that's the arc of how they could have gone
with your character.

Yeah, no , no, no.
No one ever ever spoke to meagain.
I don't know if it was me orwhat.

Laker Jim (49:23):
Do you have some time for some voicemails?
Yeah, awesome.
Yeah, we asked some fans tocall in with some questions.
Now I'll give you a heads up.
Sure, I'll give you a littlecall.
That just asked you to borrowyour towel.
Yes, we'll spare you listeningto all that.
I'll give you a little sample.

And can I borrow your towel for a
second?
My car just hit a water bubble.

Michael Ritchie (49:47):
Dana, you're never going to believe this, but
my car just hit a water bubble.

Okay , here's my question, dana, can
I borrow your towel for a sec?

Jake (49:57):
Does anyone have a towel I can borrow Repeat?
Does anyone have a towel I canborrow?
Dana?
God bless them.

I mean really, if I had a nickel for
every time I hear that line, I'dbe a rich woman.

Jake (50:08):
You are a rich woman.

Well, we're on strike, so I beg to
differ.

Laker Jim (50:17):
All right, let's do a couple of these calls.

I'm ready.
Hey, laker, jim, this is JeffCollin from Fullerton,
california, and I have aquestion for Dana
Wheeler-Nickelson.
Dana, it's a non-fletchquestion, by the way, so my
apology, dana.
You were in a movie in 2003called the Battle of Shaker
Heights, which was a part of theTV series Project Greenlight, a

(50:42):
series that I was obsessed withand watched over and over and
over again, and I was justwondering what it was like
making the movie the Battle ofShaker Heights, while Project
Greenlight was also filming theTV show, and in the TV show, the
directors of the Battle ofShaker Heights, kyle and Ephraim
, weren't necessarily depictedas awesome.

(51:05):
So I was wondering what wasyour experience working with
Kyle and Ephraim and the writer,erica Beatty and Chris Moore
and Affleck and Damon?
I told you I watched the showmany, many, many, many times.
So yeah, battle of ShakerHeights, thanks.

Hi, jeff .
Wow, what a great question.
Okay, so, hi, nice to meet youfirst of all, and thanks so much
for this question.
Way to see if I have any memorysynapses left.
So, yes, the Battle of ShakerHeights, so Project Greenlight

(51:47):
was an HBO thing that Matt Damonand Ben Affleck created, and at
the time it was quitegroundbreaking.
It preceded reality TV by aminute and, yes, we were
shooting a movie.
It had been a competition.
They went through the wholething of choosing the script, so

(52:10):
it was all pretty experimentalin a way and, yes, the directors
were extremely green, ha ha,and it was, let me put it this
way, at that time I had gottenvery interested in for several

(52:33):
years at that time, in doingindie movies, basically mostly
out of New York, and worked witha lot of first time directors
and I loved it, and I lovedbeing part of a movie when it
was somebody who had reallynever done it and new scripts,
and it was always.
It always felt like a realcrapshoot, which I liked, and so

(52:59):
this project was reallyinteresting to me.
Obviously, the actors in itwere wonderful.
I don't know if you've heard ofShia LeBeouf, but he was with
my son or not.
My son he was, I forget.
Anyway, it was reallyfascinating because, like you

(53:20):
say, there was a camera crewfilming, us filming.
And for me this was verydifficult.
As I've mentioned, I'mextremely shy, I don't.
I don't like to talk aboutmyself, I didn't know how to.
I pretty much tried to stay outof their way.

(53:42):
I didn't like to be interviewedor paid any attention to, so
that I wasn't a great fit inthat way.
I was shocked at the time withhow camera savvy everybody was
Hair makeup, young actors,everybody like snapped into

(54:02):
their personas when the cameraswere on them.
This camera crew and I just wasvery, very taken aback by that.
I remember there was a day thatwe were shooting and Ben came,
ben Affleck came to the set withhis then girlfriend, jennifer

(54:22):
Lopez, and it was a big, youknow, oh my God.
And we were shooting a scenewhere it was like a dinner table
scene and you know it wasn'tthe greatest script I'm sorry,
it wasn't, and it was.
We were getting stuck andsomething wasn't working and I
don't know, I felt shitty thatday.
I felt like I was a terribleactress and I, you know, went

(54:46):
home just thinking, oh God, thisis going to be on the show.
It's going to be.
They're going to be talkingabout what a terrible actress I
am and that sort of stuff washard to be.
Boning it and stinking up theplace when there was a camera
crew, you know, filming you withBen Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

(55:06):
watching from behind the camera.
It was, it wasn't.
It didn't make me feelparticularly great, but the
project itself was fantastic andyou know, obviously reality TV
has become a part of our culture.
It's sort of like mygrandfather starting comic books

(55:27):
and now obviously that's donevery well in this culture.
So it feels like it was amoment culturally that was
really happening and those guysare very, very, they have, you
know, they're thinking they'revery prescient that way.
I think they're right nowcreating some kind of
alternative studio system as wespeak.
I mean.
So that was really the drivingthing behind this whole thing.

(55:51):
But, yeah, the directors Ithink they were in over their
heads.
The script was, you know, itwas okay, we had fun, but for me
it was difficult to manage thereality of the cameras when it
aired and there was actually anepisode where they're talking

(56:12):
about the scene that I felt likeI stumped up the place.
Ben Affleck is actually oncamera and says the actress was
so good that she made it soundlike.
It's there on film, where heactually points out that I got
through it and was good.
I remember watching it with afriend of mine and just being
like, oh, thank.
God, oh, thank God, Because Ireally did feel like it was

(56:37):
pretty stinky.

Laker Jim (56:38):
Thanks for your call, jeff.
I actually recognize the voice.
That was Jeff Smith, co-host ofClue Movie Podcast with Brad
Gilmour Another great movie from1985.
Podcast check out.

Remember that that's cool All right Next
call.

Tom from the UK (56:54):
Hello Dana and my mates from Fletchcast.
This is Tom from the UK, theUnited Kingdom, and I was just
wondering if you were aware howbig Fletch has become
internationally over the pastfour decades.
Anyway, love the show.
Thanks for keeping Fletch alivefor fans around the world.

Hi Tom, thank you so much for your kind
words, and I am vaguely aware ofthings outside of my little
world in Montana.
Yeah, no, of course I'm awareof it and I'm thrilled about it
endlessly and it's brought menothing but fun and laughter and

(57:30):
great memories, and I reallyappreciate everything that's
come because of this film.

Laker Jim (57:38):
All right, I think we have time for one more call.
Let's take a listen.

Greg Mottola (57:44):
Hey Dana, this is Greg Metola.
I don't know if you remember me, but am I correct in saying I
used to see you at Moomba, thedefunct New York City nightclub?
It doesn't have much to do withFletch, just wondering if maybe
you have a great story fromthere and, like everyone else, I
loved you in Fletch.

My God, greg, of course I remember you.
Are you crazy?
You must be crazy.
Yes, hi, greg, it's been such along time and so great to hear
your voice.
Yes, moomba.
So thank you for listening, forcheering me on, and thank you
for sending me this bizarre.
Let's just okay, let me rewind.

(58:24):
So I don't know if you've heardy'all, but actors are on strike
because everybody has to have aside hustle.
I have several over many years.
One of them is that I sing veryseriously and often have bands
and sing out, and at that timeso I was in New York I had left

(58:47):
LA in a dead run again with myhair on fire, like I'm never
doing this again.
I hate this.
Ah, I'm gonna finally startsinging for real.
And so, once again, I fired allmy agents and went back to New
York and I started singing.
And I started singing at Joe'sPub in New York and I put a
great band together.

(59:08):
It's a long story it's actuallya great story, and I was in a
condition of starting somethingnew.
I didn't have a lot of savings.
I'd been working just gig togig, just long periods where I
wasn't working.
I'm not particularly a selfpromoter.

(59:28):
I didn't ever figure out thebusiness really.
I bumped around and sometimesgot work, and so when I wanted
to start singing for real, I hadto pay musicians and I had to
not wait for jobs and I had tonot wait for what existed I
don't know if you've heard of inthe olden days.
We had residuals.

Laker Jim (59:48):
I remember that.

And we could exist in between jobs, so,
but I just couldn't wait around.
I had to pay people and theywere really great musicians and
expected to be paid and I wantedto pay them well, and so I took
a job, a job job running a VIProom of a friend of mine's

(01:00:09):
nightclub in New York calledMoomba, and it had a moment of
being this incredible spot whereeverybody came and I ran the
VIP room and I think everybodyjust assumed I was an owner of
the place and my friends whoowned it never disputed it.
People would be like I loveyour club and I'd be like thanks

(01:00:29):
so much, thank you so much.
Michael Keaton and Greg Metola.
And.
Robert De Niro and Sean Penn andwhoever the hell was in there,
Benicio del Toro.
Everybody came to that placeand I was sort of running it.
And so I needed money.
I had to pay people and that ishow I started singing seriously

(01:00:53):
in New York.
I could get great musiciansbecause I could pay them and I
was hustling.
That's it, and the Moomba storyis a story in and of itself.
I think we're all too drunk towrite it, but remember anything
Some day somebody's gonna tellthat story for real.

(01:01:15):
My friend who ran therestaurant part of it is a
wonderful woman called LoriMolleste and she has restaurants
in LA now and she said theQ-tip reached out to her
recently to see if we would theMoomba management would like
throw a party for him orsomething.
It was such a spot.
It was like Q-tip and you knowRussell Simmons and like

(01:01:37):
everybody came into that place.
It was like, wow, it was greatfun, Too much fun.
But I started by singing stuffreally seriously because of it.

Laker Jim (01:01:49):
So I was very grateful about that hustle and
Greg is such a jazz enthusiastthat it must have just been a
really crazy experience and itmust have just been a really
cool scene there in New YorkCity at that time.

Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (01:02:01):
Oh yeah, I mean I was playing with
musicians, my piano I got aresidency at a jazz club right
then called Deanna's thatdoesn't exist anymore on the
Lower East Side, on RibbingtonStreet, and that was my first
residency, and then Joe's Pub.
I had a residency there forlike two years and, like, my

(01:02:24):
piano player was a guy whoplayed with Billy Holiday, I
mean, this old, oldAfrican-American dude who just
like took me to school, likeevery time we played he would
just teach me how to sing by hisplaying.
It was a great time.
It was a great time and I wasrunning this fabulous nightclub

(01:02:44):
and it was really it was fun.

Jake (01:02:47):
What was the years?
When was this?
What was the years on this?

Late 90s .
I think I was out of there by9-11.
I had already quit by 9-11easily.

Jake (01:02:58):
Did you have the opportunity to see Confesclutch?
Have you seen it yet?

Yeah, I saw it on a plane recently.
I was very excited to see it,especially because of Greg
Metola, who I love and loved it.
I loved the tone, I loved thatit was a little darker and I
loved it.
And you know John Hamm andMarsha Gay Hardin I mean, wow, I

(01:03:23):
didn't know the girl, did I?
Who was the girl?
I forget.
Anyway, I wasn't beingfacetious there, I really didn't
remember.

Jake (01:03:32):
I'm not that fat.

Who were the women, I don't really
remember who did it with me.
No, I loved it, I thought itwas great, I wanted more.
I want, you know, I and I.
It was such a weird story abouthow it kind of got buried.
I guess I read because I wasinterested to know about it and

(01:03:55):
then it was this weird story,right, you guys must know more
than I.

Laker Jim (01:03:58):
Yeah, the studio basically decided they weren't
going to put any money intoadvertising.
They had Metola 20 million tomake it.
It came out in 400 theaters.

Jake (01:04:07):
Yeah, and it went right on demand.
That's so weird, but thereviews were fantastic too.
You know, the reviews wereoverwhelmingly positive.

Well, you know, as we know, these
movies find their audiences andin this day and age, they can
become.
You know what they are meant tobe, regardless of studios.
Should we talk about thestudios at all or no?
No, it's a different show.

Laker Jim (01:04:32):
Well, greg was in the middle of writing the sequel,
so then we hit the writer strike.
They were punching it out.

Michael Ritchie (01:04:37):
They hit the writer strike.

Laker Jim (01:04:38):
So he still thinks it'll be a bit of an uphill
battle.
But keep your fingers crossed.
Hopefully we'll see it soon,Maybe next year yeah.

Oh, I hope so.
I hope so.
I just want you know like Iwant Greg Metola to work forever
, so I hope he does.
I hope that works.
I really do.
It's a great idea.
It's a great thing to pick upJohn Hamm is, you know, the
perfect iteration of thischaracter in this day?

Laker Jim (01:05:09):
and age and I know you mentioned you don't remember
reading them, but John Hamm'sportrayal of Fletch is a little
closer to the book version thanChet and they thought it was
better to do that version thanattempt to do Chevy's version.

Agreed.
Yeah, he's wonderful.
The whole thing is a great ideaand I'm going to send yes beams
to Greg.

Laker Jim (01:05:32):
Now, if John Hamm's Fletch returns to Rio, would you
consider?

Jake (01:05:35):
well, you have to be.

Laker Jim (01:05:36):
Joan, because you have to be the book character.
Could you return as Joan in afuture movie?

Oh for sure I could be like, for
instance, just the old, you knowthe old prospector, beachcomber
lady, you know half mermaid,half jazz singer, who's had the
life that everybody wants tohear about.
She's like a fountain ofknowledge.
Maybe she gives Fletch a lot ofinformation out of her
intuition.

(01:06:01):
Yeah, I'm just riffing here,I'm just spitballing here.
Hey, they still make Aquanut,Can you talk?

Jake (01:06:07):
about the hairspray.
Yeah, I mean, so you could poopyour hair back up again.
I mean, yeah, absolutely.
Oh, that would be great.

Yeah, that would be great.
That's a great idea.
No, but I'm all for playing theold prospector, which is sort
of, you know, an unsung part inmovies.
Namdaar Hills, yeah.

Laker Jim (01:06:28):
Can we talk a little about Seinfeld, just really
quick.

Oh sure you can talk about it if you
want.
I'm in Montana, it's not likeI'm busy.

Laker Jim (01:06:34):
OK, so you have no hard out.
That's good.
Yeah, the thing about Seinfeldwhich is amazing is and we
talked to Rick Overton too, whofans will hear later on this
season, but he had a role inSeinfeld.
He played the Drake.
Right, he played the Drake andwhen you think about him he's a
memorable character, but he'snot on screen very long Same
with you but yet when you thinkabout your episodes, you think

(01:06:56):
about the guest stars.
Talk to us a little about theSeinfeld process, of what makes
the guest stars so memorable.

Yes, again, it was a very coveted
audition for Jerry and I thinkhe just wanted to laugh.
He wanted somebody who he wouldlaugh at and he's an easy laugh
.
So, trust me, it was notnecessarily that I was so
goddamn funny.
He is a really easy laugh,which is a great quality in a

(01:07:26):
comedian.
It was very clear even justgoing into an audition that the
system of the show, the worldthat they were in, was very,
very specific tonally and inevery other way.

(01:07:50):
You had to either kind of fitin or you didn't.
And I think it mostly becameclear in table reads, which was
new to me.
Sitcom was new to me.
I'd done a little maybe I can'tremember which came when, but
it might have been the firsttime I did a sitcom and I was
not used to the sort of tableread with all the producers and

(01:08:13):
everybody there.
That was stressful becausepeople literally would get fired
after a table read when you'renot really fully in a character
yet you haven't even read withyour actors and you're not
particularly maybe funny at atable, you're really like me,

(01:08:34):
but everybody's on their game.
At the table read I was like,oh god, I don't even know what
I'm doing yet, and that to mewas a big introduction to how a
sitcom works.
Especially that machine wasvery well-oiled at that point.
It was a very successful show.
Larry David was there running.

Jeff Smith, Clue the Movie (01:08:54):
And .

Brad.
So it was intimidating, exceptthat everything I had to do was
with Jerry.
So he was fantastic.
He just, you know, he thought Iwas funny.
He let me do my thing.
I was the straight man,obviously, but that was the

(01:09:18):
thing about that show.
Ok, back to your question,right?
So they were so good, themachine was so well-oiled that
the way that they put you in ascene was memorable.
That is how it worked.
They got their guest stars tocarry the episode along

(01:09:41):
story-wise, so you had to.
You know, that was themsticking you in driving the
story.
I don't think it had much to dowith me in the end, you know.

Laker Jim (01:09:51):
And how can we forget you wanting Jerry to use a
toothbrush?
But is Seinfeld something yourecognize when fans see you on
the streets?

Oh, yes, that and Sex in the City and
the big shows where yourcharacters are.
You're asked to do things thatare, you know, extreme things,
extremely funny things,extremely extreme characters,
and you get cast for that reasonthat you're able to do that

(01:10:18):
right.

Jake (01:10:19):
Being here in Round Rock.
They shot a lot of Friday NightLights here, you know, in this
area.
Talk about that, because Iguess it was good for you too,
because it was so close, it wasright here in town.

Yeah, I was living in Austin.
We had just moved down there.
My husband is a filmmaker, agreat filmmaker, indie filmmaker
.
He got hired by UT to run apart of their film department.
So we moved down there and Ibooked Friday Night Lights kind
of quickly and yeah, it was shotall real locations.

(01:10:50):
There were no sets, it was allin and around Austin and it was
incredible.
It was an incredible time,Beautiful time Again.
A lot of improv, a lot of actorsthe young actors a lot of them
had never really worked beforeto speak of.
Everybody was improving.
You know, I think maybe JessePlemons was the only one of the

(01:11:14):
kids who had a real child career, kind of Maybe Amy anyway, yeah
, the kids were all pretty newto it and we were all new to the
way they shot it, which was alot of improv three cameras,
cameras that were moving aroundat all times catching behavioral

(01:11:38):
things that other shows justdidn't do, and we all got really
spoiled by that kind oftechnique.
In the end we really were letloose as actors.
It was beautiful, it was areally great time.
Great acting came out of it.

Laker Jim (01:11:57):
Now you mentioned you no longer live in Round Rock.
Can we bring up the irony ofyou now living in Utah?
I mean, utah is not exactly thecare for boredom.

I know right when we did the movie.

Jake (01:12:12):
I remember it's Provo right that he goes to.

And I remember thinking at the time
like where the fuck is Provo?
Where's Utah?
I'm from New York City, man.
I was born and raised in NewYork City.
I don't know anything about themiddle of the country at that
point.
It's like California and NewYork and Europe.
Everything for me was like Idon't even know where Jersey is

(01:12:38):
at the time.
So, yeah, provo was like Marsor something.
And now, yeah, I'm in Utah,which is very Big fan of the
Mormon Tabernacle.
Yeah, my husband, like I say, isa filmmaker and got hired there

(01:12:58):
at the university to teach inthe film department, as did I.
I'm teaching acting.

Jake (01:13:02):
Do you enjoy?
It?

I do enjoy it.
I'm going to get what the kidscall it canceled for my dream of
consciousness way of teachingand bringing up subjects that
the children get all triggeredabout now.
So I'm waiting for the cancelculture to kick me out, but

(01:13:24):
that's OK, I don't mind.

Laker Jim (01:13:26):
I got other things to do.
I know we've got to wrap thisup, but I wanted to ask you what
quotes or scenes from Fletchstill make you laugh after all
this time.

So there's that scene.
I don't know why this makes melaugh so hard.
So he's in the house.
He's in the house where there'sa mattress, and one actor who's
there, I'm going to forgetcomes in with the gun it's
Salyan's brother, I guess andChevy goes across the room and

(01:14:00):
his head gets stuck in the lampfor a second.
Yeah, and that makes me laughstill too.
That moment to me is like himin his spot, in his what's the
word I'm thinking of.
I said spot, what was that?
What?
That is Chevy in his element,just using lamps and things for

(01:14:27):
comedy.
It still makes me laugh.
Let me think All of his stuff,like the Rosen, rosen and Rosen
Penis and all that stuff.
He was just divine.
He was just wonderful and funnyin that movie when he's driving
a car and the kid is like, ah,you know, he's lying to him

(01:14:53):
about who he is, he's driving amillion miles an hour and that
kid's face and like mock speedwith his weird overbite.

Jake (01:15:00):
Yes, His braces.

Oh his braces.
Oh my god.
He's so freaked out.
That was hilarious.
There's a lot I laugh at still.

Laker Jim (01:15:12):
Well, dana, this has been a lot of fun.
I know Fletch fans listening athome.
They got what they were lookingfor.
It was well worth the wait andhour plus of you talking about
Fletch.
It doesn't get any better.

Well, that is so sweet.
Thank you all so much, andplease give my love to Greg
Matola and Tim Debbie andeverybody.
I really keep hoping that maybewe'll do a Fletch signing
convention thing together.

Laker Jim (01:15:38):
FletchCon, that would be great.
Yeah, that would be All right.
So if we put this together,you'll be a guest, of course.
I mean, we might have to workon that.

That's so great.

Laker Jim (01:15:48):
Well, that about wraps up this episode of
Fletchcast.
We're Jake and Dana, I'm LakerJim.
We're going to go catch theother, joan Collins, on the last
10 minutes of Dynasty See you.

Jake (01:15:59):
Thank you so much.

Jeff Smith, Clue the Movie (01:16:00):
Bye .

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Interview with Dana Wheeler Nicholson (Fletch)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

All Episodes

Interview with Dana Wheeler Nicholson (Fletch)

Dateline NBC