Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin talks new podcast, new movie and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario Lopez. It's round Mario Lopez joining
me down on zoom. Three time Any winner in eight
times SAG winner, my man, Alec Baldwin, Welcome to the show, Alec.
I've been I've been good. I've been out here on
Long Island with my kids for the summer, our usual summer,
but this year they went to camp. They go to
camp right down the street at this camp, and uh,

(00:23):
I must say, I don't know what to do with
myself for like six hours of the day with I
don't have my kids to chase around my household day.
So that must be a nice having a good song,
having a good summer, a nice little time out for
you and Lattia. Get the kids go and you and
you got a lot of them. Congratulations another baby girl
on the way you are. You're unbelievable, my friend. I

(00:46):
tell people, I tell people. All I have to do
now is bend down and put my mouth near my
wife's stomach and yell baby if we have another baby, exactly,
yell the word baby. Obviously, you believe the more the merrier.
How is that dynamic because are also close at age?
You know, we had two and then three. We thought, okay,

(01:06):
you know, uh that is what it is. But I think,
uh you do look back and say which one would
I give back? You know what I mean? Like like
we're like where we ended up is the will of
God and we're happy. We're happy that win things are that.
It's a lot of responsibility. But we know we love
kids and we love our kids. Yeah, no, I love
kids too. Are working on four, so we got a
way to catch up. Ways, how old are yours? Eleven?

(01:30):
Eight and three? Oh my god, we're from eight to three? Correct? Correct?
We want somebody's yacht and you had too many classes
of champagne happened there? You know, we had a we
had a little bad luck there for a little bit
and then it just sort it just sort of and
then it just sort of happened. So yeah, we were
trying to go back to back, but you know, sometime
mother nature has other plans, and uh, it is what

(01:52):
it is. But we got really lucky and you know,
feel blass. They're all healthy right now. But yeah, we're
we're we're of the same mindset. We we love It's
it's all cauty, but it's funky. That's the best kind um,
but we're here to talk about your new podcast, and
my wife and I had the pleasure of joining you
and your wife, which we had a really good time.
But this one is Ben Steele, American and I love history.
I'm a huge fan of history, but I'm not necessarily

(02:13):
familiar with this story. So who was Ben Steele? Well,
originally I found a book called Tears in the Darkness
and the team, the husband and wife writing team of
Michael and Elizabeth Norman, who I believe even now still
today are historians. They teach history at n y U.
They wrote this book about Ben called Tears in the

(02:34):
Darkness and the history of the Batan Death March, the
war in the Philippines. And I tried to option that
book a while ago to make it into a film,
and then Angelina Jolie got that film Unbroken, made from
that woman Laura Hillebrand who had that huge bestseller of
Sea Biscuit, and they did that was kind of a
Pacific war drama, and Angelina Jolie directed the film and

(02:56):
that kind of shut us down. We didn't make our film,
so sile goes By and I re upped the podcast rights.
I found my partner Jan Thompson, who's a professor at
a college in the Midwest, and she had recorded hundreds
of hours with men and women there were survivors of
that were that that that lived, who are still alive,

(03:17):
veterans of World War two and the Pacific. So we
took her tapes and she had interviewed Ben for hours
and we made it into a podcast about Ben who
grew up in Montana during the Depression, real hard scrabble
life and like a lot of guys that we have
them on tape talking about how they were dreaming of
going to Europe and fighting Hitler and they were very patriotic.

(03:38):
And then they find out when they're once they've enlisted
that they're going to the Philippines. They were not going
to Europe, and so they go to the Philippines and
Pearl Harbor happens. They get captured, the Americans lose the war.
Uh MacArthur leaves and abandons Corregador, and everybody kind of
writes off these men. I mean not, you know, they

(03:59):
did it reluctantly. But these men are captured and they're
marched up the Batan Peninsula. They get to a place
called camp O'Donnell, which was a U. S. Facility that
they shared with their Philippine allies, and the story goes
on and on and on about Ben's unbelievable. I mean,
you can't believe this guy and these other men survived
this treatment. I mean, after after he survives camp O'donnald,

(04:22):
they realized, for example, that to go on a work
detail to build roads in the jungle of the Philippines
where railroad tracks or whatever, h they they're going to
get better food. So they sign up for the work
detail and half those guys die from the conditions, malaria, everything.
So then Ben gets put in the in the in
the in the hold of what they called the slave
ship and ship to Japan and they take the U. S.

(04:45):
Prisoners Award to Japan to work in coal mines and
working farming. I mean he was in prison for god,
it was over three years, I think. I think the
day camp was like days or something. Men was in
prison prisoner of the Japanese for so long. Any lived
and while he was there, he would take charcoal from
the fires that they would make, and he started to draw,

(05:08):
and men that were architects, army architects and engineers showed
him perspectives on how to draw. And the point is
when he came home from the war finally and went
home to Montana, he became one of the foremost landscape
artists in his community and taught art and he lived
to be ninety. I think it was I think he
died right before. Ben had a hell of a life,

(05:30):
in a full one at that. I love those kind
of stories. And you hear those kind of stories, and
not only are the inspiring, you think, oh my god,
this this generation too. And I'm sounding like the old guy.
Get off my line, but you have no right to
complain when you hear these sort of stories and and
and the things that people go through and that build
such character in strength and really puts things in perspective. Right,
we closed the show. It's eight episodes, and we go

(05:53):
through episode eight when finally the American prisoners are freed,
and then Ben goes home and the epilogue as him
has been at home and he uh gets married, He
divorces his first wife and gets married again. He's got
I think he's got three daughters and uh uh, I
should have my fact sheet in front of me here
for your interview. But but the point is is that. Um,

(06:16):
he closes the show and says, you know, he says,
nothing can ever bother me again. I don't complaining about anything.
I beg what he's been through because because the circumstances there,
the the ten Death March itself and camp O'Donnell alone,
it just was you can't even believe these guys. No,
that's no, that's incredible. That's we're very proud of it.

(06:36):
We've got a great response from veterans. Well, congratulations on it. Yeah,
and that's the ultimate tip of the hat from other
veterans there. And that's not the only podcast you have.
There's also here's the thing, my show, my regular yea
for those not for me, who have you been talking
to uh lately on well, I mean we have uh
uh we lately post and I can read it to you. Uh.

(06:58):
The I've been doing this show for quite a while.
We have three episodes in the camp and uh, let
me grab my thing here. I can tell you the
list of the last several shows we've done right now.
We've got a few. Uh. The the one we posted
now uh was with David Sedaris, the writer David she

(07:20):
Then then we do uh we did Jimmy Burrows, who
directed all the Will and Gray shows, that that show
with Jimmy was really really funny when you get somebody
on there who has a perspective about the business and
I's had so much success. You know, Jimmy Burrows has
a life that is so rich. His father was Abe Burrows,

(07:40):
who wrote Guys and Dolls, the musical, and he wrote
how to Succeed in Business without really trying. He was
a legendary Broadway writer and writer of musicals. And Jimmy
tells his story. I mean, you just absolutely uh can't
believe his job. Abla Boreale Jr. Who's the drummer from McCartney.
You know, I see people out there and I go, wow,

(08:01):
I bet you their stories interesting. And La Boreal's father
was a famous jazz musician, and the Boreal played with
Staying and Clapton. And I said, what was it like
for you when McCartney called you twenty years ago? He said,
I want you to come and be my drummer, And
he said it's the greatest gig in the world. I
find people who were out there and I go, I
bet you people in the audience would love to hear
your story. Yeah, it's fascinating I've learning about people. Just

(08:24):
the other day, I was I was interviewing Sigourney Weaver,
and I didn't realize you really yes, and her father.
I didn't I really just learned was speaking to her
is the creator of the Today Show, the original executive Ruth.
I didn't know that. Yeah, you knew that. Yeah, I
know I knew that about her. Yeah, yeah was his
first name? Again, Pat Weaver got it? I think, so
I can't remember to take that Weaver. He was a

(08:45):
big eg second. But we have so many people that
the range, like the Tim Dillon, the comedian, you know,
writers on the Vicky Ward, the journalist who covered the
Gilain Maxwell trial. I mean, we picked people from a wide,
constant relation of jobs, but there are people on there
who are favorites of mine, Like I really really wanted
to interview Carly Simon, and I'm a raging fan of

(09:08):
Carly Simon. I love Carly Simon and as a person,
she's such a bright and elegant woman. And she came
on and you couldn't believe how much she knows about music,
all kinds of music, folk music, and I mean she
was really that was probably one of my favorite interviews
I've ever done. Do you have a strategy in getting
insightful answers from your guests or you just basically start
off in a conversation and see where it goes. Well,

(09:30):
I've tried to think of two things. One is you're
talking to people, for example, like streisand if you're talking
to streisand you've talked to somebody who has either been
interviewed a million times or it's turned down a million
interviews because she doesn't want to be probably both probably
but probably probably a few decades of both, and you
look at them and you think, I always think about,
what's the billiard break question? In my mind, what's the
question I asked that opens up all the other questions

(09:52):
kind of get in. I'm gonna steal that in salleging again,
I'm gonna steal that analogy. What's the billiard called the
billiard break? It's what's the question that was up the
whole table. And then the second thing is, uh, don't push.
Sometimes in the beginning, when I first started, I was
kind of steering them, and what I realized was don't push,
and they wind up giving it to you on their own.
If they think they're giving you the story and they

(10:15):
think they're giving you the insight or the self disclosure.
Letterman did my show, and I was so terrified of
him because he's such a clever guy. And we're talking,
like twenty minutes into the show, he started to talk
about how, you know, the business was making him sick.
I mean, it's all he did was work. He didn't
have a family, he didn't have any kids in the
beginning when he first started, and he really was very

(10:36):
you know, not sappy, but he was really very very
open about how his whole life was just nothing but work.
And he turned around one day and said, this isn't
working for me. I need to slow down. You know.
That's awesome, you know, and kudos because there's so many,
as you know, so many actors that are just good
at that. And obviously you're accomplished, talented actor, but it's

(10:57):
a whole another skill set to be comfortable in your
olds again, to talk to other people, to interview and
and to be able to relate. So that that's very
impressive there. Um, speaking of acting, you got a movie
called ninety seven Minutes that I believe is in the works.
Anything you tell us about that. Well, I do. I
always think that there are genres of films, especially at
my age now, where there are genres of films where

(11:19):
you say to yourself they're due for another another cycle.
So for example, storm chase or films. If you said
to me, come to a storm chase or film, I
might go, I don't know how what I feel about, uh,
you know, movie like Twister and things like that. But
the director was a good guy, uh, a really good guy.
Wrote the script, good script, good crew, good cast, and

(11:42):
we went to go do this, uh this film, and uh,
I think people are gonna be ready for a storm
Chaser film when this comes out. It's a really good movie.
It's really good looking forward to checking that out. And
obviously you're consumed with the kids, um and the family there.
But when you do get a little time off out
like how do you like doing wine? What do you do? Well?

(12:02):
Unwinding For me now, the only time I have my
wife to myself is to go to dinner when we
once we get our kids to bed, so the routine
is always pretty much the same, which is too. My
wife and I uh feed bathe and put our kids
to that every night and then we're in a restaurant
either in New York round here by like eight thirty

(12:22):
and it's the only time I have my wife to
myself because when my kids are home, they ripped my
wife Limb from Limb. They've never you know, and as
you're a father, you realised. I'll be in a room
with my kids and I'm doing really well. They love me.
We're having a great engagement, every great, everything's perfect until
my wife walks out and then boom, and then I'm invisible.
I'm invisible exactly, I'm gone. I've learned not to take

(12:42):
it personal. That's just trying. I'm still working on that.
I'm still working on it. Well. Thank you so much
for your time. Always great to see you. Uh God
bless and and the best of the family. And listen.
Ben Steel American is on I Heart Radio or wherever
you get your podcast. Be sure to check that out.
I'll thanks so much for having out today YouTube. Buddy.
Thank you so much. Mario. You gotta hope to see

(13:03):
a person soon, okay, Buddy, l A, I hope. Okay,
take care, work on with Mario Lopez