Josh Duhamel: Forgetting James Caan was in The Godfather | Forward Progress

Josh Duhamel reminisces on his relationship with legendary actor James Caan and the embarrassing moment when he forgot James starred in the iconic film, The Godfather.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, it's Thursday, which means we're coming at you with a short
feel good story from a past guest.
Hope you enjoyed the clip this week.
Josh Duhamel? James Caan.
What do you think you learned from him?
A lot. I love James Caan.
He's he was, he was a mentor to me.

(00:22):
I mean, I could go on and on. I worked with the guy for five
years. Always miserable, but always in
a great mood. Like that guy who always has to,
even when, when things are really good, he'll find a way to
make it, you know, find it, makeit to make it dramatic or make
it, you know, stir it up a bit. But tremendously helpful.

(00:42):
Always had time for me. Always had time for anybody on
set. He never showed up and was like
aloof. He's always like talking to
people, whether it's the camera guys or the, you know, messing
with somebody over here. He's like Josh, go over here,
tell him the story about that. You know, he's like that guy,
just a absolute legend. And he'd give you notes in

(01:03):
between takes. Yeah, so I, again, this was
early in my career. I was pretty green.
I'd just come off all my children and trying to prove
myself in the primetime world. And you always knew when when
Jimmy didn't like your performance, when he'd be like,
hey, come over here for a minute, kid, will you?
I'm like, oh. God, here we go.

(01:24):
He's like, just relax, just not just you're working, trying too
hard. You know, you got to, you got to
just let the lines come try it again.
Just don't just don't care so much.
Just go, OK. Or he'd give you whatever he'd
he'd like to literally take you aside and give you notes.
Normally you don't do that with actors, but with a guy like
James Caan and a young guy like me, I was like, thank you very
much. I needed it, you know, and I'm

(01:46):
glad that he took the time to doit.
Didn't he give you family advicetoo?
Oh, I remember him saying something like, you can learn a
lot from me, what to do and whatnot to do.
You know, he was a, he was a wild man in the 80s.
He'd probably be the first one to admit, you know, he, he, he'd
let it get away from him a little bit, but never lost that
fire. And I love that about him.

(02:07):
How about when you asked him if he'd ever worked with Brando?
Yeah, that was one of my that was one of my dumbest.
That was one of my dumbest moveswhere we were sitting around
waiting what during during a setup of some sort.
And you know, we're talking about movies.
And I I asked him if he'd ever worked with Brando.

(02:28):
And he's like, why are you kidding me?
I was like, why are you? And he's like, I was in the
Godfather, you dumb ass. I was like, Oh my God, Sonny
Corley, I'm so sorry. Yes, of course, you know, you
know, because I hadn't put the two together that that he
clearly had worked with Brando. One quick favor before you

(02:50):
leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review.
Those go a long way in helping us reach new listeners.
Thanks for your support.