Jeff Goldblum

This is uniquely tippity-toppity. That's how it relates to the second one. This is the crest. This is the summit of podcastry. Thank you. Podcastry? We are the summit of podcastry, sir. And so I... But I was... Oh. And I said, nothing's right. The microphone isn't right. I have a pen. I have nothing. There's nothing right. And how long am I going to do this? I said, didn't know.

She said, oh, another, you know, a couple of hours. Well, that's altogether, that's five hours. That's two. So this is like a steady job. This is like a full-time job, right? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Well, okay. I was not happy about it. Well, I'll tell you what.

Yes, yes. And then finally, I said there was a guy with great big bushy eyebrows. Let's see if I'm prescient at all. No, no.

No kidding. And I said, what's your name? Yes. Well, I want to learn everybody's name first and last. He said, last. He was kind of taken aback by that. And then I said, yes. And there was a big crew around. And I said, yes, I think I should learn everybody's name. In fact, I think if it were up to me, we'd all be wearing name tags. They seem to be happy about that. That's about all of that.

That's that drink.

I aspire to presence. Yes, I'd like to be. I'd like to be here and now. That would be great. Yes. And you, you've devoted your life to the technology of the here and now, I believe. Isn't that also correct?

You do, so don't deny it. Okay. By the way, here, let me mention something. You know, there is such a thing as, you go to, I don't know whether you go to therapists and you've talked about dreams or interested in dreams, but there's a thing called dream work. This may be of no interest to you, but there's a thing that occurs to me.

Yes, Bridge Over the River Kwai. That was my last... Just as he blows up the bridge.

There's a thing called dream work whereby this may not seem like it has any relevance to anything or makes any sense. But there are those who think, and I did it once with a good teacher, Sandra Seacat, who That Laura Dern turned me on to. Whom Laura Dern turned me on to. You go to bed before the night of a... Before you need an answer to something. You say, dear inner self. You write a letter.

Please give me an answer to something about this character that I'm playing or my life or aspect of this relationship. And you have a dream. And then you go to this dream coach. And you go, well, here's what it is. I wrote it down. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the play or... And they go, well... Not at first, but how about this?

Exactly. Now, all together, let's whistle the song that is... Ready?

And they open you up to consider the possibilities of how your subconscious may be informing your activities and your questions.

Exactly. Yeah. So maybe they're related. Maybe they are related. Yeah. And you get fertile material in your dream life or not. You know, I don't know about this. I'm not advocating for one. I don't know how I feel about it. If you tell me dreams are just a kind of a weird, you know, you know, discharge of your, you know, nocturnal, you know.

Right. Yes. Yes, exactly. And if we were not on air and I were more given to the ribald- Or ribald. Or ribald. I don't know. What do you think? Well, he said genuine. Yeah, genuine.

Well, I don't know. So, well, my point is that I'm not going to continue into something, the whole thing that I just thought of. I'd love it if you would. Yeah, yeah.

That's it.

No, I shouldn't. Well, you know. Yes, yes. When I was young, you know, 12, 13, I think it happened. Yes. Yeah.

Anyway, that's all I'll say.

You cannot whistle?

By the way. By the way, I'm such big fans of yours. I've been watching a lot of, not just for my conscientious research purposes, but just for my own entertainment. Often I go to YouTube and see, I've seen hours and hours and hours of your content. Foolishness.

Everything. Oh, that's nice. I love to think of you out there watching. I really am. So I know a lot about you.

Yeah, now that you brought it up, you all look great, you know, just great.

I like your glasses.

You know why I like- Last we had a conversation, I think I introduced you to these- You did.

How'd you get them? Did you go to see- I went with Sona.

You went to Jerome, to that studio?

Oh, yeah. I'm sure he greeted you and met you and showed you everything.

I remember the day.

I'm a 36. I'm a 36. Is it really? You said you were a 30...

And how about the hat maker in the back?

Why? Just because. Wow. And then you learned later that it was from that movie. That's funny. That's funny. Hey, do you know this song? You reminded me of the song. We're on the upward trail. We're on the upward trail. Singing, singing, everybody singing as we go. That would have been a more legit version of the marching song.

Yeah, that's right. Do you know who I ran into there once? I was with Emily. We went there to pick up a pair of jeans or a hat or something. And it was just us and Bob Dylan. Oh, my God. Yes, because he got his hats from that guy. Oh. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I kept, I had important business. I was talking about hat and he came in and before I could say anything to him, he left.

But I think Emily, I don't know if she said anything. You didn't go up to him? No, no. I wish I had.

If you had told me that that wasn't a true story, but that was a dream you had last night, it would be just as credible.

No, it's some green tea that they made for me here. But I know how you despise iced drinks.

For God's sake. My name is Jeff Goldblum, and I feel being here with you now as if I'm revealing myself to myself. And I feel utterly drenched and purged. It's okay. Now, that's from a kind of an homage to a movie line also. That's not my originality and my unconventionality.

Very erotic. Yeah. Well, this little packet that we're in, don't you love this? Is this the first date? This is the first time, yeah. Well, I love this blue velvet purse that we're in. It's like a sex panic room.

Have you ever been in a sex panic?

A sex whisperer. Yes, a sex whisperer. Sex bomb, sex bomb. Who did that song? Sex bomb. It wasn't bomb, but it was bomb. Oh, yeah. Sex bomb.

No, it was a big hit in Europe, particularly during these couple of years that I remember. Sex bomb.

You only remember a couple of years?

No, during these couple of, when it was a hit, he's looking it up. When it was a hit, I was in Europe making a movie and it was on all the time, but I don't think it made its way across the pond.

And there was a video. I'll give you a clue. That same singer, it's not unusual. Oh, Tom Jones? Tom Jones, exactly. What James Bond? Thunderball. Do you know that Johnny Cash did a rejected Thunderball theme song? I did not know that. Unsolicited sent it to them and they went, we never asked for this. It was not that song. It was his own song.

He did it in that Johnny Cash way. Yeah, he first sang that song. Look sharp. Feel sharp. Yes. Be sharp. Ring a burning fire.

I'm stuck on band-aids. Because band-aids stuck on me.

I don't know that jingle.

Oh, that. But I think the Oscar Mayer thing was, I'd like to be an Oscar Mayer wiener. Oh, I'd like to be an Oscar Mayer wiener. I'd like to be an Oscar Mayer wiener.

Now all the kids would be in love with me. I fell into a burning ring of fire.

But he did do the Thunderball. This is how we got started. Dropping mental breadcrumbs. He did send in the Thunderball. He did.

I love that. I love that Thunderball. I was right at the right age for that because I'd consumed Dr. No from Rush With Love. Goldfinger. I was so ready for Thunderball.

Fantastic. When he peaked, when he went to the summit of the Alps, after Thunderball, I think, nothing against Sean Connery, those movies, it started to... He was phoning it in a bit. With her, yeah. And by the time he got to Jill St. John and- Diamonds Are Forever. Diamonds Are Forever. Yeah, you know, not my favorite. Can I just say, I've never been happier in my life right now.

Diurnal. Oh, is that the daytime? That's the opposite. The diurnal? I believe so. Di-diurnal, di-diurnal, diurnal, diurnal, diurnal. I believe I know that song. Johnny Cash first sent that in.

He submitted all my... Bar Mitzvah Salah. You know what makes it perfect? You know what makes it perfect? I fell into a burning ring of... It's becoming more Elvis.

I never said I was the perfect... Oh my God.

That's very nice. That's very encouraging. Thank you. Yeah, we played the Disney concert hall.

Oh, my God. A couple of nights ago. Wow.

Do you think that's – and this is a compliment, by the way. Thank you so much. I like – well, I aspire to it. I'm a humble student of jazz and of the technology of presence in all its various ramifications in the podcast world, in the jazz world, in the musical world, in everything. Oh, I had thought, by the way, aren't there – hasn't anybody sung songs, a snippet of a song about friendship?

as you're still looking for friends. By the way, how many friends do you need? You've been looking for... How long have you been looking for friends now? How many have you found by this time?

Yeah, but I feel that we are. You know, sometimes plants... They have to graft. They have to graft into each other is what you're saying.

I think we have.

Yes, we need to very, very much. Yeah. But think of, do you know any songs about friendship?

Oh, Jeff Altman.

Oh. Anyway, fall is here, hear the yell. You sing like a nightingale. I love your voice. You really like my voice? When you're not doing that, you have a beautiful, authentic, conversational, delightful voice.

Try to take all the vibrato out of it.

No, but you were just singing. So sing that, whatever you want to sing, like the other voice, that's it.

You've got a friend.

Very moving. Very beautiful. Boy, you should do a whole album of songs that way. I'd love to hear you do that. He can't do it.

Yeah, I love Amy Mann.

Well, who knows where it will be consumed or how it should be presented. But just for your own, just for, you know, just do it. I'd love to hear, just for me. Yeah, me too. And for Sona and for us, I'd love to hear you do it. And you don't have to jettison your... comedic force of nature.

You could be surprising and do one like that and one like that and one like that, but that's a very useful part of your toolbox, in my opinion, and a very enjoyable one.

Yep. I did. I did. Uh, yeah, around 10, you know, we started to go to children's theater and, and I was like, what are they doing? Who is that? What are they doing backstage? And I'd be very excited, you know, to go. And then around ninth and 10th grades, I went to this summer session of Carnegie Mellon university and took real lessons. And, um, and, uh, you know, Oh no.

But before that, yes, I went to chat a music day camp around, uh, fifth grade and was in this show. And my dad had said, if you ever find something you love to do, that maybe is a key to your vocational choice wisely. And that night they said, so how'd you like that? And I was like, Yeah, I liked it. But I kept it secret because there was no, you know, I kept it secret. I wanted to be an actor.

And certainly in school, I was a well-behaved, good boy. And nobody would have thought that I would do anything like that, except that I played piano here and there. So that was it. Yeah. And he was a doctor. But I must say, I don't know. What kind of doctor, by the way? Internal medicine, kind of a family doctor. Got it.

But, you know, people, his patients loved him, and he would always kind of keep up on his studies and this and that. You know, he liked medicine. But early on, supposedly, the story goes he, when he wanted to decide what he was going to do, he was either going to be a doctor or an actor. He had the idea to be an actor.

And then he stuck his head in the back of a class and thought to himself, this is out of my league, whatever that meant. So he was a doctor. But so he was a little bit tickled when I. Of course.

you know, not such a big deal, not even a big deal now, but he got to see me start to, cause I think started to happen quickly. He died like in 83, but around the time I did the big chill, but he saw a few movies before that and some plays. And I remember I did a play called city sugar, where I was the lead.

13 episodes as well.

Stephen Jay Cannell, dude, who had done Rockford Files and many other things. And what's the greatest American hero? Well, believe it or not, I'm walking on air.

William Catt. Johnny Cash first sent that in.

Well, it was like 1980, I think. So you were born in – I was 16, 17.

Really? How did you wind up there? What happened?

Well, he also sold drugs.

So downtown, no kidding. And you just happened upon us shooting. No kidding.

Wow, yeah.

Well, still, one is struck by that when you go to, you know, some movie and that's, you know, all the little things going on. Hey, I love James Coburn. You know, I saw the first run of Iron Man Flint. Oh, my God. In like Flint. Oh, we're back. Yeah. Remember how the telephone rang in Lee J. Cobb's office? I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Watch this. Hello. My name is Jeff Goldblum. G-O-L-D-B-L-U-M. And I'm reading for some of the first name. Oh, yes. First name. I did it. First name. Last name. Empty something. Yeah. And then pause. Here comes. That's enough of that. And I feel. And then it says here, parenthesis, however I feel. Well. Yeah. Madness. Madness. Madness. Hey, that's the last line of what movie?

Derek Flint, Derek Flint. And then Austin Power had kind of borrowed some things like that, kind of went from there.

Let me guess. After that, I think after that, he did a movie called The President's Analyst. You know, it could have been that. Oh, yeah. You know, I remember him talking about it on talk shows. I used to love talk shows when I was in Pittsburgh. I used to tune in to, in summer, stay home all day and watch the Mike Douglas show. Go from Mike Douglas to, you know, Dinah Shore and Merv Griffin.

And he used to come on. Remember, he was kind of a... counter-cultural hippie actor then. And he used to come on with a turtleneck, you know, or in a medallion or something like that. And his act, he used to come on, not just talk, he wanted to play the gong. And he used to bring onto Carson a big, big gong and go, you know, that, that was his act, you know.

Okay, well, I'm not- I don't know it, but Blake Edwards, boy. Well, guess what?

It's like that scene from Notting Hill when, you know, Julia Roberts comes in.

There you go. We're getting closer and closer to her references.

Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. How about the movie 10? She's in the movie 10, of course, too. But Sound of Music I saw when it first came out. You know, it was a big deal around that year. And I showed it to our kids now. We showed Sound of Music. We haven't shown them many movies. They've never been to a movie theater, but I think I'm going to take them to see Jurassic World.

Seven, almost seven, and just turned five.

Right, right. Oh, yeah. Go to a movie theater. I'm about to do. I'm involved in this cycle of publicity for Jurassic Park Dominion. And one of the things we're encouraging people to do, genuinely on my part, is to go out and see it in the movies, you know, of course. And I made a list because of that. I thought, oh, what are the best times I've ever had in movie theaters in my life?

Because it's a, you know, that's a way to talk about it. And so I started to remember, and with the help of my sister, too, all the movies I saw, importantly, when I was a kid. And she said, oh, remember this one? And it's been a nostalgia blast, you know. These are the movies that really blew you away. Yes. These are the ones we remember.

She and I used to go to, they used to drop us off to the Leona Theater, this big, beautiful jewel box of a three-tiered movie palace. In Pittsburgh? In Pittsburgh. West Homestead, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Not downtown. It's a little suburb, but they had this movie theater. And we'd go for, you know, 25 cents, 50 cents or something, whatever tickets were.

Get popcorn with butter and salt and hot dogs.

Let's hear it. Okay. We saw, see if any of these mean anything to you. The Absent-Minded Professor.

You know, Fred McMurray, Flubber, all that stuff. That made a big impression on me. The Blob. Oh, the original. Which I've seen recently. Steve McQueen, very good. His first movie, you know. Who was, of course, you'll know who was in all of these movies, which we saw, you know, we saw whatever they, that came to there.

But during this period, the 60s, you know, early 60s, The Bell Boy, Cinderfella, Disorderly Orderly, Visitor Small, Planet, Geisha Boy. Of course, The Nutty Professor. Delinquent Rockabye Baby Nutty Professor. Yeah. Loved it. Then I got the chance to meet him. Did you ever meet Jerry? I did. I got to meet him. I got to interview him. That's so interesting. Well, we could talk all about that.

Well, did you meet Jerry Lewis? Yes, I did. I was going to play his son in that last movie that he did, Augie Rose. Augie Rose? Oh, no, no. Max Rose. Max Rose. And so I went to Vegas. I was almost going to do it before I got something else and couldn't. And so I hung out with him in his office in Las Vegas. How was he? Amazing. We could talk for hours. amazing.

He'd made a big, he was big in my childhood and during this period. So I was thrilled to meet him. And he was, you know, as you know him at that stage and great, you know, great and complicated and very complicated.

Yeah. Right. But those movies, when we were seeing those movies, big deal. Do you know what this movie is? The Sterile Cuckoo? No. Liza Minnelli's first movie. She plays a kind of a nerdy girl. The Sterile Cuckoo. Sterile Cuckoo is coming.

Nobody wants, sterility is never something that draws the masses.

The sterile cuckoo. That cuckoo's not having children. How about this movie? Who knows this? I don't think you will. Georgie Girl.

Walking down the street so fancy free was played by Lynn Redgrave, whom I worked with later, believe it or not. Oh, well, Bridge on the River Kwai. We saw the first viewing of the man who shot Liberty Valance.

I love that. Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte. How about, you know, Betty Davis and Joan Crawford together? Gaypuree, P-U-R-E-E, an animated movie about, in an impressionistic style, French impressions about cats. And I think Robert Goulet did a voice, you know. Great. Dr. No from Russia with Love, Goldfinger. Fantastic. Iron Man, Flint. I have Pink Panther, the first Pink Panther.

We went to a movie theater, and there was Peter Sellers, never seen before as Clouseau, Blake Edwards. Unbelievable. I remember the day we saw that. Those movies changed my life. Bobby D and I went. My best friend went to that theater to see Psycho. First time run of Psycho. Unbelievable. I just spent some time with Jamie Lee Curtis in CinemaCon.

Byrds was another movie we saw first run. Loved that day that we saw that. But then we went, oh, I had a crush on this girl. And we went, I went on a field trip hoping to kind of be near her. I had not made any headway. And we saw Hard Day's Night.

Stephanie Ignatz.

In ninth grade. In ninth grade. No, Stephanie. And she was going, so I was going to tag along, too.

Here, last line of the movie. Madness. Madness. Tell me the movie. Oh, my God. I know that movie. I know that movie. Is it an older movie?

You know, I am. We have her here today.

Look out. She's deranged. Some 10 or 15 years after this period, we got in touch and we saw each other. She went out to California and, you know, I saw her.

Speaking of Norman Bates, threw a hole in your office wall.

He's got them all over this building.

Yes, sir. So who else is with you in this? Is it Laura Dern? Laura Dern, of course. The great Laura Dern, the great Sam Neill. So the three of us from the first movie are back together for the first time since then. Right. And we're reunited and have something to do with in this story with Bryce Dallas Howard's character and Chris Pratt's character. But also B.D. Wong is back from the first one.

And Omar.

Yeah, isn't that great? And Omar Sy from most recently. And Daniela Pineda and Justice Smith. And wait a minute, wait a minute. And new characters, Dewanda Wise, Mamadou Ache, and Campbell Scott are in this. Yeah, Isabel's sermon comes back.

I know. It's a dreamy life that I've had. I can't believe it. I'm very grateful. And it's amazing that I get a chance to be in some movies and some movies with people, like I've said, that I saw early on. It is amazing.

Amazing. Vincent Price. We saw some Vincent Price movies. Then he was in The Fly, the first Fly, which I saw back then. Oh, that's right. I think I saw him in a Ralph's later. Oh, my God. You saw Vincent Price at a Ralph's? I do believe so. I think I went up to him. Yes, yes. He was, you know, picking out melons or something from Turkey. Yeah, he was a good chef, you know.

She would never. She would never.

I was so crazy about it. I hadn't met anybody famous or who was in movies when I was a kid. And the first couple of brushes I had. Who did I first? We went on a vacation. And who was staying at this hotel was Darren McGavin.

Oh, my God. He's great. Of the Night Stalker. Yes. I was like, do you think we'll see him at breakfast? I never went up to him, but I was just, when are we going to see him again? He's the dad.

Unbelievable. So, yeah, I'm back in this movie now. Yeah.

I love that. I was just trying to remember where we got off that. But next on my list was Diary of a Madman, Vincent Price, and Tomb of Lygia. He was a big deal to us. You know, some of those Roger Cormier. I was a teenage Frankenstein. I was a teenage werewolf. Two horrible movies, but interesting. Eegah. Did anyone ever do I Was a Teenage Teenager? I'm just curious.

That's a good idea.

I remember when TV shows would come out, what you were talking about, you know, the new lineup. Boy, I loved Friday nights when Wild Wild West would come on. Yes, huge. Oh, boy. Robert Conrad and Ross Martin, who played— Yep, Ross Martin. Artemis Gordon. Artemis Gordon. King Kong versus— We left that open for you, so maybe you didn't take it. Really? Why?

How about Gigo? Nobody knows the movie Gigo.

Jackie Gleason. Jackie Gleason. He plays a mute dead, kind of a village idiot. Oh, it's great. The first movie I ever cried at.

You'll know this one. Jason and the Argonauts. Yes, of course. All that Ray Harryhausen stop motion stuff. Yeah. Magical day, magical day. Vertigo did see the first run of Vertigo.

Maybe my favorite Hitchcock movie, speaking of Hitchcock. You know Vertigo? I don't. It's not my favorite. Really? Yeah. I'm sorry. Bernard Herrmann does the score. Wonderful music from that. But why don't you like Vertigo?

Oh, that's yesteryear. Yeah, that's interesting. Farley Granger. Farley Granger was in that. I met Farley Granger.

He's the gangster of love. He's got to be guilty. Oh God. That's true. That's true. Stand by that. What were we talking about? Oh, yeah. What were we talking about? Whose name? You were listing. Oh, Farley Granger.

Yeah. You know who introduced me to Farley Granger? Shelly Winters, whom I met on this movie called Next Stop Grinch Village that Paul Mazursky directed in 1975. I came out here, and we were kind of palsy. Shelly Winters. Lovely woman.

Wow.

I know that one. Oh, that's fantastic. Yes. But she was also in Lolita. She's great in Lolita.

She's great in Place in the Sun with Montgomery Cleveland and Liz Taylor. Spectacular. Hey, did you ever meet Liz Taylor? I did not meet Liz Taylor, no. I knew Liz Taylor. Oh, really?

What was she like? Spectacular. Spectacular.

No. Right. Who were we talking about? Oh, so Shelley Winters, who was in Place in the Sun. Yeah. And also, what did she win the Oscar for as supporting actress, as they were called in those days? What did she win for?

Very good. Patch of Blue. Oh, okay. Patch of Blue with Elizabeth Hartman and Sidney Poitier.

I'm putting that down because I- You can go.

Do you want me to validate that? Very good. Yeah, I'm adding Patch of Blue because I'd forgotten it because we saw Lilies of the Field and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, all in the Sidney Poitier category. In any case, so Shelley Winters took me to Musso and Frank's for the first time.

Me and her and Farley Granger. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yep. Wow. She said, get the sand dabs. Sand dabs. They're known for their sand dabs. Nobody else serves sand dabs. You know the fish sand dabs? What is a sand dab? At Musso Frank's, you can get the sand dabs still.

A fish. Kind of a fish. It's not a fish that you get. It's been fried often. The fried sand dab's kind of a soul, a variation of soul, I do believe.

Totally amazing. Splendor in the Grass. Even before Bonnie and Clyde, my parents and I went to – we were in New York City. And I think we went to Radio City Music Hall, saw the Rockettes, and saw Splendor in the Grass. Right. with him and I think maybe Natalie Wood. Wow. Yeah, amazing.

43 million, I believe, is the viewership. In Hawaii alone.

Yeah, I read 43 million.

I appreciate you saying that. Because that's what they've sent me. That's what I'm representing. You know, I represent a lovely company of investors and people.

No, emotionally. Emotionally, they're invested. Colin Trevorrow, the director. Steven Spielberg is still at the top of the pyramid. Yes, godfathering this all the way through.

Wow. There we go. That was just what today was. There we go.

Yeah. I got to. We should do it. We have many more hours of fun to have.

It exploded. Well, me too. I've been looking forward to this terrifically. And these are my favorite. These are peak experiences for me. And people come up to me on the street anecdotally and say, you and Conan, you and Conan, you and Conan.

They do. Well, I think so too.

And you're singing authentically a lot. I like that. And I just saw a documentary about or some kind of thing about talk show, the history of talk shows and the current. Did you see this one? There are many of them. I don't watch those. I love them all. And this one particularly said, here's why amongst the current crop in the last few decades, Conan O'Brien reigns supreme.

He's cracked the code and why he's at the pinnacle of what this needs to be right now, et cetera, et cetera. Are you uncomfortable? I'm not uncomfortable. I just don't believe that that exists.

This guy makes a very good case for exactly why. It's a very erudite.

Well, it's true. It's true. It's true. Well, Jeff. And you all together. I mean, I'm really struck with all of you. Oh, come on.

There should be a perfume, not Obsession, but Movesession.

I'm wearing the new, I'm obsessed.

Is it, what's, how do you say, what's that vowel exactly? Is it? Gore. Gore, like gore, like gore. Gorley. Gorley.

Well, you two, you three have made me very, very happy for many hours and will continue to be. You have delighted us and you're coming back. I want to. I want to, along with, you know, I've seen every single Schlansky. Oh my God. Every single Schlansky. Boo, boo.

You're never funnier when he's driving you mad. It's just great.

I could go on.

Conan Christopher O'Brien. Oh, my God. Yes, you are the finest man. That's overlooked.

You're better. I'm taking you to a sizzler. We're going there. Let's go.

Langostinos.

You did Music Man at one point, didn't you?

Genuine.

Trumpet, yes. Well, you know very well. You were in that movie, yeah.

Yes, we do. A frisson. You know what that means. I don't. I think it's French, and it means we're in constant...

You're moving like a lascivious snake. Yes. Bring it out.

You just reminded me. Do you remember your dreams? I had a dream last night. I wrote down some of it, but I didn't remember until just this moment this thing about the tongue. Somebody last night in my dream had a tongue that was very, very long, and it came out completely. They, he, I don't know.

It was a detachable, long tongue. Yes. Okay. You know, apropos of nothing. Well, first of all. Of interest to nobody, but you just, but that's true. And I have, I forgot that. What the hell am I doing with that? Yes, yes. I wrote these down madly as I, before I forgot them this morning.

We're still rolling. But really, this has been real. You can't use this. No, we can't. But give us a hint on that movie. Okay, I'll give you a hint. A lesser cast member, Jack Hawkins. Probably don't even know who that is.

Yeah. It's very strange. Yeah, it is. You can't read that. My dad was a doctor like your dad was. Yeah, it's like Sanskrit. It's crazy. I inherited his thing. No, but that's what I wrote down. That's right. Should we hear it? Yeah, should we hear the dream? Yeah, you can. But I did just remember that, no kidding, that tongue part of it. That was also last night.

There's nothing funny about these, but it may open a portal into our subconscious, all of us.

So Robert Altman, you remember him. Yeah, the great director, Robert Altman. I worked with him a few times. Name dropper? Well, I know, I know.

In any case, he was, he appeared in my dream. We were kind of in a hospital situation or something. And he appeared all of a sudden, to my astonishment and delight, alive. He's now dead, lo these several years. But he was alive, young and radiant with his, I think they were his sons. And they were kind of sneaking him in and out of this thing. And I said, look at you.

Because he'd, I guess, I intuited right, I inferred right away, he had faked his death. Oh. For some reason, he seemed sly and delighted. And it was now our secret. And he said, yes, be prepared for me to stay at your house. Something like that. And then they left. That was the dream. That was one sequence. That's that sequence. The second sequence was, listen to this.

I was in some kind of strange but heavy equipment pod that was delivering us up there. A mountain of the outside of to view the mountain. And it was the Alps. I think it was the Alps of some kind. It's the Swiss Alps. You're in some kind of craft viewing the Alps. Yes. And each of us in a separate pod. My wife, Emily, was in a pod a little bit away from me.

And we were all experiencing this separately. But we could see a wonderful view of these mountains as they got higher and higher. And it was like the highest peak on earth. As we got further, we saw these old castles. kind of, you know, places. And that was amazing and wonderful. Then we got higher and higher until finally it kind of leveled out and we knew we were at the top of the world.

And then, and it was amazing and everybody was kind of, oh, you know, in awe. And then before it started down the other side, like a roller coaster, we were like that. And then it started and it was, I

harrowing you know ride that seemed like that I kind of retreated inside an inner compartment in this pod in kind of a bathroom and then I said I'm missing it I thought to myself I'm missing it so I went back up and kind of got some of it that was it and then it was over we all I missed my wife I missed the group and I seemed to be by myself left behind somehow couldn't find them so I was like left behind that's the second part of the dream okay kind of

No, no, Jack Hawkins. There are those who know very well Jack Hawkins and already know this movie. I'll give you a giveaway clue. Bill Holden, William Holden. Oh, uh... Stalag 17? No, good, no, pretty good guess. It's kind of a war picture. He does not deliver the last line, by the way.

What's the last one? The last one, this may make sense of the whole thing. I was doing kind of a talk show or a podcast of some kind. It's not curious to think that I was already-

I'm glad we're talking about this because things always change. And it was an issue the other night. I'm 50-50 with you. I know exactly what both of you are saying. I want to be sensitive. It's very true what you're saying, Jason, but it's also true what you're saying, Will. And I always think, oh, boy, they know I'm here. You know, I should go back, da-da-da-da-da-da.

But oftentimes, I want to go back. But the other night, and this is a three-hour version of The Seagull, and they do eight shows a week. And, you know, and yes, I can well imagine they don't. And so when I, as I guess is the way to do it, you know, contact the nearest person with a bag who looked like, you know, an usher, or da-da-da-da, or a man... The house manager comes up. I said, is it okay?

How can we? Will it be okay if? Would it be, you know, I don't want to bother anybody, but what if we want to go back, et cetera, et cetera. At first, there seemed to be, in this case, and it was uncommon. I hadn't encountered it before. They said, here's what they did. They were like, hmm, already making hmm faces, et cetera, et cetera. So I made it clear right away.

I got the picture and I said, okay, I get it. Well, I whatever works, you know, if it would be nice for us to go back, we're available, but please, I don't want to bother anybody, or if that's not cool, I want to help serve them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, by the end, she said yes, sent him back, and she was very nice.

I was very aware of the time I went, oh my gosh, I was blubbering, but also excusing myself quickly. I said, here, this is Emily, my wife, and oh, so great, and goodbye, goodbye, go home, and da-da-da-da-da-da. And that was it. But so it was a whole, yeah. So I'm glad we're having this conversation.

Yes, I might and I will. And here I go. I love him. Here's what happened. What happened? It was 1986-ish, I think. Yes. This script came to me. I was immediately struck by it. Did I? There wasn't a... I met him... was there a reading? I don't think so. We met, and da-da-da-da, and they offered it to me. And then, yeah. And it was great. He was wonderful.

It was the most proactive I'd been creatively at that point. I worked on it like I always do conscientiously, but I was very passionate about it. I wanted to make it work. I had a big feeling about it. And he, as you've probably heard, even though he makes those wild movies, is a very,

buttoned-up, kind of sweet, Canadian, civil, polite, delightful, smart, intellectual artist who marches to his own drum, of course. And that movie, I'd seen all his other movies. The one prior to that was the one with Chris Walken, Dead Zone, which I liked a lot.

That's good. I'd like to see that. So it was great. So we rehearsed and then, and you know, Chris Wallace, who won the Oscar for the special effects makeup, had, and David and I got together and did these camera, these elaborate camera tests, which they had.

designs and it was five hours finally in makeup but he was great and we went from scene to scene and actually i had a kind we were i had a vigorous conversation with him about the ending there was an ending uh which had me painted me retro retroactively retro in a kind of villainous, even though I try to kill her at the end and meld all three of us. And then she goes with this guy, John Getz.

She kind of goes, gets with him finally. And by that time I had so kind of, I was such an advocate and a passionate protector of my character. I was possessive and I didn't want her to wind up with him. Wow. And I said, you know, wait a minute, wait a minute. Couldn't it be that, et cetera, et cetera. I had some dumb idiot conversations. Who was I to talk to him about that?

But as it turns out, it kind of wound up ending kind of like that with her, you know, killing me. Oh, that's cool. We don't have that aftermath where, you know, the bad guy's gone and she's now with this other guy. So I was happy about that. But it was a very, you know, arduous but lovely, passionate experience, et cetera, et cetera. I could tell you much about it.

It really left a... It's a great film.

Yes. Yes, it was stepping stone to one thing led to another. And luckily, because I was, like my teacher Sandy Meisner said, it takes 20 years to even call yourself an actor. And luckily I had right away miraculously good some parts, but small parts that led to bigger parts. And I felt like I was learning.

And, you know, I guess career-wise, even though that hasn't been my focus, you know, from the start, one thing did lead to another. So, yeah, there was, well, Nashville. I worked with Altman and I did that movie in Nashville. Nashville, California split, yeah.

That was nice to be in, in California split, but then Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman, fantastic, and that was, I did a movie in 76 before that with Joan Micklin Silver that I got some attention for, and that led to some other things. Actually, Lawrence Keston saw that, and I think that's what led him

to be attracted to putting me in the big chill, which led to, yeah, now we're up to the fly and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. We're up to.

Nice, Jason.

Good question. It was a wild, you know, adventure of the heart. When I was 10 years old, the seed was sort of planted. I got the bug. I was in this camp. I was a part of this drama. And my dad had already said, if you find something you love to do, that might be a vocational lighthouse and compass. Something clicked in me after this kind of thing when I was 10.

And I thought to myself and kept secret to myself, this is what I want to do.

You know, it was Chatham in Pittsburgh, where I'm from, music day camp it was called. It wasn't sleepover. It was six weeks. And they had, I loved this group of people that was different and more my family than... And then the kids I'd gone to school with, and I seemed to excel at art and piano and badminton and softball and arts and crafts. And they had this acting little moment in the day.

And at the end of the six weeks, they cast me in this Gilbert and Sullivan takeoff thing where I sang and I was the lead in that. And I kind of rehearsed, you know, with my mom and da-da-da-da. And I leaped on stage, which was my first entrance, and that was it. And I got some laughs, and it was fun, it was exhilarating. And it was after that that they said, hey, how'd you like that?

And I went, I like that. I like that. That drug.

Well, here's what happened, briefly. Between 9th and 10th and 10th and 11th grades in Pittsburgh, there was a six-week offering at Carnegie Mellon University in art, and I'd had some flair for that, and then music, da-da-da-da. And my mom was taking me through the brochure, and she said, you want to go to this thing? I said, yeah. She said, well, they have this acting thing. I said...

Maybe this, the acting thing, maybe I'll do that. Really? Yes. Well, I did that and I was, by the end of that, and I did it for two years running, I was deeply in love with that campus and acting and, you know, just, that's when I started to write on the shower door every morning, please God, let me be an actor. Da-da-da-da-da-da. And then I tried out for that school. They turned me down.

I gave a bad audition to get into the school. It's very competitive. But one of the teachers there, Mordecai Loner, said, oh, I used to teach with Sandy Meisner. I took with him. Then I taught with him. You know, I'll help you on audition if you want to go to New York and audition for NYU. Wow. Check in with Sandy Meisner. I did. Sandy Meisner, I lied about my age.

You weren't supposed to be 17, but I said I was a year older than I was. I got in, and that's what happened. I went to the neighborhood playhouse in 1970 when I graduated high school, and at 17, just turning 18 that fall, started that course. I love you.

No college. Good for you. Being in that college six weeks, that was it.

Well done. Well, that's good. But this was a fancy two-year program if you really wanted to be an actor. And they used to, Sandy Meisner and other people that imitated him, have a jaundiced eye, make kind of comments about the college programs. He did at the time, going, that's not where you learn to act. We from the group theater...

know what we're doing, and they require you to be a little more cerebral and academic, and this is a real studio, and I'm gonna teach you the real thing. And he was that real thing, and I was imbued with that.

He had to blunt them. He had to blunt them. Here's what happened. That's a nice red drink you're drinking there, Jason. Thank you. It's just red wine that's spoiled. Really? Really? No, it's electrolytes. I like a nice—oh, I see. It's like a Gatorade. I like a nice mocktail these days.

All these restaurants have on the menu, you know, ooh, they're good. They're really good.

But the answer to your question, oh, yes. So I lucked into, like I say, a couple of jobs, two gentlemen of Verona. The first thing I did on stage at the Delacorte was a big hit. Raul Julia was in it. Galt McDermott wrote the music. I was in the chorus. I just kind of lucked into that. And then it went to Broadway.

I stopped the second year with Sandy Meisner, did this year on Broadway as one of the chorus members and understudied one of the bigger parts and then went back and finished that second year work with Bill Esper, who people may know.

So I did that and then auditioned for a play, El Grande de Coca-Cola, got that, and then Altman saw me in that, and I auditioned for my first movie, which was Death Wish, and I started to work right away, in other words.

And I was even supporting myself and all that, except when I came to California four years later after doing Nashville and a couple other things, and kind of moved down here and got an agent, Abby Greshler, there was a moment when I was paying rent and my money was getting low and I thought, geez, I looked in the trade papers and they said, hey, are you an out-of-work actor?

You want to make a little money? Come and do this thing. So I joined this boiler room operation, which I guess is illegal at 50%. six in the morning, you go to Hollywood and you go to this place and you call correction institutions on the East Coast and you say, hi, I'm Bob and we have a government surplus program just went bust and we have a surplus of magic markers and pens and pencils.

Can I send you, do you use the green or the red or the blue? Can I send you a gross of the, you know, and you get them to commit to that is my least favorite thing. And Maybe not coincidentally, after a week of that was only my straight job ever. After a week of that, I got this illness. I wound up in the hospital. I'm just too sensitive for that kind of regular work.

And after that, I went back to supporting myself, luckily, and ever since, without. That's amazing.

Yes. I didn't get that at first. Wow, that's very good. You guys are sharp as tacks.

Look, I know. These are all the things I want to talk to you about, but I wrote down several things.

Well, several things, you know, that overlap with us, connections that we have. And I have not only Will and Gretchen, but cats and dogs. Really? Okay. Watch this. So here it is. I have Sean Hayes. Hey, I like that. I like just free associating anyway. Anyway, now here's our connections. Oh, my God. Well, Will and Grace, cats and dogs. Hey, well, of course, you portrayed Jerry Lewis.

And I was supposed to play his son in that last movie he did, Max Rose. Oh, wow. Which Kevin Pollak finally did because I had a scheduling thing. But Jerry and I... hung out in order to bond at his office in Las Vegas for a day. And that was fascinating because I had grown up with his, I kind of adored him early on. Yeah, yeah, same.

So it was about the duo and they're getting together and they're breaking up. I'm so fascinated. I've read a lot about that.

I love that. No, I didn't remember that until he just told me. I want to talk about that comedy, too. I want to talk about Jerry. I want to talk about Dean. But how about talking about you guys? How about the trios? How about, which brings me to the Three Stooges, of course, and, well, there's the Marx Brothers. Yeah, yeah. And how about applause? Bravo. I loved it. I loved it.

Bravo. I love that.

I was transported. Oh, my God. Now, wait, the Three Stooges, I loved when I was a kid. I saw all of their things on television. But listen to this. I saw them live. Oh, wow. They came to a place called the Holiday House in 1960. It must have been, you know, two or five or something. And I saw Moe and Larry and Curly Joe at that time. Yes.

And they came into the audience, I remember, and my sister, two years younger than me, was like five or six or seven. Moe, who had big bags at that point, did something to her kind of aggressive. She burst into tears as he kind of retreated.

Different Moe, different Moe, different Moe. Hey, promises, promises. Jerry Orbach was the original.

Well, Oscar Levant, listen to this, though. My grandmother, Anna Katz, claims she dated Oscar Levant, who's also in Pittsburgh, on one occasion. Now, I don't know if that meant he flirted with her, if they had some encounter. I don't know what that means. But anyway, that's our connection.

I didn't, but I'll use it.

Will Arnett. Arrested Development. Well, I love, I saw every episode of Arrested Development. Oh, bravo!

Yeah, exactly.

So, but I saw it. But I loved all your, every character in it, of course, Liza Minnelli, I knew a little bit. Oh, sure. And Charlize Theron, fantastic. But the magician, the magic in that, and I know you've talked about magic before. I did magic in that movie Nashville. Sure. And in it. Wicked, I do a little magic. So we could talk about magic. You are magic.

Yeah. I know. Well, Robert Altman told me to learn some. I had this guy in New York taught me a bag full of tricks. I brought it to Nashville and we used a bunch of them. The only thing that I've kept up my sleeve are these rope tricks. Oh, boy. Yes, which I've pulled out too many times, and I know that, and then I know one card trick. That's all I know, but the rope tricks I can do.

So, Jeff, I'm pitching that as a halftime show at the Super Bowl. I think those close-up magic would go over well.

I never thought they'd come in metal ships. I don't know. I'm not making that up. I have no idea. That's really good. By the way, that's really good. I'm doing a caricature of my own, you know, if I'm butchering.

But it was at that moment that Phil Kaufman said, oh, yeah, that's good. I like the way you did that. And I kind of thought to myself, hmm, check, note to self. I think... That's something. That's something I can build upon. It's so cool. Something like that. Anyway, so there we go. Horton, here's a who. Oh, yes. I love it.

My kids and Legos. Now, Ozark, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know, I did this series recently, Chaos. I played Zeus. And you know who played my wife? Janet McTeer.

She's wonderful. She's incredible. She's incredible. And you know who I know a little bit? I have not seen her since. When she was like... what, 12, 13, 14, something like that, I think, or 15. This girl came backstage. I think this is how it happened, to see me in the Pillow Man. I did this thing at the Booth Theater with people you know. I enjoyed doing that.

So she came back, I think then, said, oh, I like what you do. You know, I want to be an actress. Maybe, could we talk sometime? And you'll tell, you know, I have a script. We could, you know, read something. And you'll tell me. I said, sure. She seemed like an interesting and smart, Girl, that was Julie Garner. Oh, wow.

And I have not seen her since. I haven't seen her to congratulate her on everything that's gone on. She's interesting, isn't she?

Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, and then, of course, hey, we did the switch, you and I, Dr. Bateman.

Best friends.

And Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who directed me in some of these Apartments.com commercials. I adore them. Is that right? No kidding. By the way, I love those commercials.

You know... I fit into the more solitary category. Yeah, really? Yeah.

Well, I like time alone. I have my homework. I'm a good boy, and I'm conscientious, and I play the piano for an hour every morning, and I work out, and I like to work on my things. I don't stay up late in order to hang out or all of that stuff. So, you know, there's that. You can be friends with us. Yeah, exactly. You're hard workers, obviously. But I adore people.

And, you know, like I said, I can imagine being pals with you. And I have a good friend, Gary. And Ed Begley Jr. is a good friend.

I don't know if I'm a humble student, but I do like the jazz. You know, I started off getting the chops playing Czerny and, you know, John Thompson and stuff. Oh, Czerny, sorry, yeah. And this and that, and then discovered the fake books, or now called the real books, and jazz, and I fell in love with that, and that's what happened.

And then 30 years ago, now I put it in some movies, the fly character plays the piano, and in our stories, I play the piano. Yes, that's right. And in plays, I put it in a couple of plays. And then 30 years ago, Peter Weller said, hey, you know, we did this movie by Corbinza. He said, let's get together and play a little bit.

And then a couple of people told Miles Davis, who he knows, and said, oh, you and Jeff should go out and play a gig. And you'll get better and enjoy it. And that's what we started to do. So 30 years ago, I've had this group. Peter Weller kind of went off and did wonderful things. But I've kept this group.

Love Fred Weller. I saw him in a play. I saw him on stage, but how about speaking of the movie game? So, Naked Lunch takes us to Judy Davis. I've never met her, but I adore her. She's great, yeah. I'm a big fan of hers. Which takes us to Husbands and Wives, which takes us to Sidney Pollack or many other people, so...

Separate. They went on parallel tracks. Like I said, at 10, I had my heart set on being an actor in my life as a career. Have you ever turned down a big movie because you're like, I can't, I have a gig? Nope. No, I have not. As a matter of fact, I have gigs coming up. We have our fourth album on deck and coming out April 25th.

And around that, and so in support of that, we're going to these places to play. We're going to play the Palladium in London. We're going to be in Toronto at Massey Hall, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Let's get a plug in here. April 25th. By the time people hear this, it may be too late, but we will have been at the Palladium, and my two boys, who play the piano, and I work with them. They have a great teacher, but I work with them, are going to come on stage. It's a surprise. Nobody knows yet. They're going to come on stage with me and play something. I hope that's not abusive.

I hope they have a good experience. Yes. I think it's great. Anyway, we'll be there. Then Luxembourg, we go. And then on the 26th, April. Then May 25th, Atlanta, Symphony Hall. May 27th to the 31st, we'll be at the Carlisle, the Cafe Carlisle in New York City. I love that. You've been to Carlisle. Of course. I played there before.

You're mixing me up with Bob Dylan or something. I don't know. No, no. I've never played at the Troubadour.

I've been all over the L.A., yes, and I did a play at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go down the block from my play. Wow, really? Believe it or not. Yes, it was a cabaret theater.

All right. I know you do. Well, I did the Mooney Shapiro songbook, which there were five of us. Judy... Garland. Gary Beach was in it. Gary Beach? Yeah, Gary Beach, of course. He was there, just five of us, singing and dancing. We were at the Morosco Theater, and we were rehearsed for four weeks. We previewed for two weeks. Opening night seemed to go well. The reviews came out.

They weren't so great for the play. I got nice reviews, and then Stuart Ostro called me up and said, so we're not going to be doing it anymore. What? What do you mean? Well, Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, we're off tomorrow, Monday. No, no, no, that's all. We didn't sell enough advance tickets and the reviews didn't go. Oh, geez. So it closed opening night.

So that's the kind of... I don't know how funny that story is, but...

I don't know if it begs for it, but here's mine. Here's all I know.

Well, it's always fluid, as you know, and that's always clarifying itself as the days and the weeks go on. But now, as I have this family, which I adore, and these two little boys, you know, it's not just for any reason that I'm going to go off to, you know, the ends of the earth for a year, or do all sorts of things. So it has to be special.

And my own criteria, you know, when I was, when Sandy, I took to heart what Sandy Meisner said, and it takes 20 years of constant work and then a lifetime of continual work if you get opportunities to keep growing. And that's a good, worthwhile way to spend your life.

I took that to heart. But I went through a couple of decades where I worked a lot and wanted to work and wanted to work more and exercise myself and test myself and find out what I had in me and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now, yes, I have as big an appetite as ever for the creative experience, so-called. But I don't have to work every day. I don't feel ashamed if I'm not working every day.

That's okay. And so I want to do special things, special, special things, whatever that... Means.

Yes, it's less urgent, although in another way, more urgent, because as we know, time is running out, and I still feel like I'm doing my best work. I feel at the top of my form, I'm injury-free, and I feel like I'm enjoying it more than ever, I'm freer than ever, and can do my best work. So I feel like grand things could be ahead.

Well, you're intuitive. You're a good therapist. You're a good friend.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of that. We could talk about all of that at length. But yeah, I'm in the same ballpark. That's right.

That's a follow-up. Well, I like this long form. This long form is great to me. I mean, I like the six, seven minutes you spend on these talk shows. And, you know, that's another kind of thing which would be fun to talk about. But I like these. I like listening to them. It's more of a conversation. Yeah, I love it too.

It is, you know, oh, a quarter of eight. The kids are already, I know. I said hello, but they're now in bed.

Quarter of eight. Yeah, look at that. Wow. Sorry. Anyway, hey, you know who sings on our new album is Scarlett Johansson and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. They have...

That's cool. Half are instrumentals and half are singers, and they sing. How about that? That's incredible.

No, no, we've already shot it. We shot them all at once, but they're editing it and scoring it and special effects-ing it.

The wardrobe was fantastic. You know, he won an Oscar for that. Yeah, that was great. But John M. Chu is a delightful director and a very, very masterful director. And that cast and Jonathan Bailey, whom I saw here in Richard II the night before the Seagull show, by the way. He was terrific. And Ariana and Cynthia. It was a magical and great, great experience.

I loved that show when I first saw it with Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth. Yeah. I cried my eyes out at that, and so I loved playing that. Joel Grey played the part originally on stage, you know. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Well, you are so fun. This is a great honor. I hope we see each other often and immediately.

But I know now comes the part of the show, I'll say my farewells. And now, nobody's sung this song because you always say nice things afterwards. You have a little recap and a debriefing.

That's a good thing. And then, of course, do you know that song from Oliver? You know any songs from Oliver, Sean?

Who will buy this? Something, something, something. Who will buy this? Okay.

Okay, well, now you've given us so good. You've given us an out. And, of course, I sung on one of those albums. I sang, Little man, you're crying. I know why you're blue, which is a version of a, what you sing to your kids when they go to bed, a lullaby. Oh! There's another one. Save it, save it, save it, save it, save it. He's waving goodbye.

We love you. I love you so, so much. Goodbye. I'll see you soon.

I'm so happy to be here. I love you all so much. By the way, where are you? You know where I am? In our apartment in Florence, Italy. Oh, wow.

Jeffrey's doing very well.

Yes. You do? Yes, we do. It's a couple of floors. It's very, very nice. But I want to be relatable. No, we've been living here for, you know, the last couple of years, a few years. Our two kids, seven and nine, two boys are going to school here. Lisee Frances. My wife is from Toronto. She speaks French to them. They speak now three languages because they speak Italian. Will is from Toronto.

I know he is. I have much to ask. I'm so interested in you guys. I adore you. I adore this show. And just your little tete-a-tete-a-tete before I came on. My coffee chat. Yeah, your coffee chat. I love so much, and I love this show. But you know what I love? It reminded me is people making each other laugh.

If I have my druthers, I oftentimes, if I really need a lift, I'll go on YouTube and see the blooper reels for, you know, I have my favorites, you know, Julie Louis-Dreyfus on Seinfeld. I love the way she laughs. Larry David, I love the way he laughs. Ricky Gervais, all these people have been on your show, of course.

I love it. Hey, how about, and then I sometimes, because my algorithm knows I like it, I guess, I see bloopers from 1930s. And so you see, you know, Barbara Stanwyck and Humphrey Bogart, you know, forgetting, Betty Davis forgetting their lines. I've seen that. And swearing. Isn't that interesting?

No, me neither.

Yeah. It's kind of interesting. I mean, I love behind the scenes of all kinds. One of my little obsessions is to go on now, the device, and you can see interviews with everybody about the craft and directors and actors and these podcasts. We have to talk about that if we were really at dinner and we could talk for a few hours.

You know, I feel like I have so much to talk to you guys about that we need to be pithy on all these issues.

But, you know, I would like to talk about the history of talk shows and the new podcast phenomenon of which you guys are now the kings of the hill. And the form which allows us to know you and to know all your guests. So thank you for that. Because I know there are people I like particularly on your show that I now know better than... than ever. I just saw a play. We just came back.

Sorry if I'm too, you know, self-starting and chatty, but I'm excited. We love it, yeah. We just came back from a little weekend trip, leaving the kids here with their helper, with good people, and we saw two plays, and we went to a, in London, a gallery and saw, you know, Goya and the- Go ahead. Yeah, I know. No, they're good. They did a very good job.

But my point is that Cate Blanchett we saw in The Seagull.

I'm doing the Barbican right after her. oh, I want to hear all about that, and I want to talk about theater, I want to talk about Oscar Levin, but The Barbican, I'd never heard of, I'd never been in. It's a very beautiful theater, and it was one of the, I mean, The Seagull, I'd seen my parents who liked it. Yeah, I want to see that.

Well, my parents who took us to see art films when I was a teenager in the mid-60s, et cetera, I then, only this last weekend, remembered that I saw a movie made by Sidney Lumet of The Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave, et cetera, and a lot of people that I want to go and revisit. Anyway, we saw this play. Take me with you. Oh, my gosh. Emma Corrin was Nina in it.

She was the mother, if you know the play. And at the end, we went back to see the actors, all of whom. It's a lovely cast, and I'm always, it's one of my favorite things about a theater experience, going back, even though I love this three-hour... But I went back, everybody was lovely. I met Emma Carr and da-da-da-da. And then Kate herself allowed us to come back. She couldn't have been lovelier.

I've crossed paths with her. We've been in a couple of movies, never had scenes together, but I saw her in another play. Anyway, for the second time, I went back, the first time was after she did Blanche Dubois in Streetcar Named Desired. I wish I saw it. Bam. But I went back this time, and I just burst. I blubbered. I burst into the deepest tears.

Yes. That was really lo mein. I want to talk about food to you guys, too. I love lo mein. I love all manner of food. We have to talk about that. But, and then my other, the point that I was really getting at is that we tuned in to your show, because I'm doing all my research.

I, you know, heard about your show, but it's mostly since I've had this assignment in the last couple of weeks that I've been immersed in it. I've seen, I've heard many, many things. I've, hours and hours and hours, including her story.

And so the point is, I learned more about her, and I felt like it was the best interview, and the way you guys do it, it allows us not only to know you, but your guests in a very beautiful way.

Bruce Robinson.

For years, I have heard about that film, and I saw the first 15 minutes. It wasn't because of the movie. I took an exit ramp, and I haven't gone, so I've never seen it, really. And I know people highly esteem that, like you do, I know.

Boy, what a reaction. What? Me and you? I thought you were talking to your confreres. No.

Let's go to the movies. Let's do many things. You know, you're my favorite. You're my best friends now, you know.