Chapter 1: What are Noah Hawley's early influences and background in writing?
Hey, I'm Sean. And I'm Will. And I'm Jason. Hey, Will. Do you like golf? Oh, I love golf. Let's talk about golf. Ah, I hit a Ford. I hit it out of the park today on my Niner.
Well, that's awesome. That's better than I can. You guys, it's time to talk. We have to do a Smart List episode.
Ah, Sean, shut the fuck up. Ah, yeah, what do you know?
Welcome to Smart List. Smart. Shawnee, are those glasses new? Yeah, what do you think?
Yeah, they're not bad.
Let's go higher.
Really? No, you don't like them?
Well... Do you not like them seriously? I just put them on like five minutes ago. Lean closer to your camera.
Do you like them? Oh, not that close. Yeah, another good. What do you think, honestly? You look great in everything. You know, I was noticing you on Kimmel last night. Me too. You look great on Kimmel. I was thinking the same thing. All right, everybody. Are you working with a new stylist or something, Sean? I am, actually. Are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 2: How does Noah Hawley describe his transition from writing to directing?
You are a great guest. You know, I don't know how you guys feel about talk shows and stuff. Like, I get so nervous. I... I talk fast.
Well, you know what's bad? A guest that talks slow isn't nervous.
Yeah.
So wait, Will, are you still in New York?
I am, yeah. Wow. And it's still press for the movie? Still doing press for the movie, yeah. Still, like, just kind of getting going, really. Yeah. Yeah. Busy, busy, busy.
Yeah, because it comes out. Well, I don't know when this episode is. December 19th is when the movie comes out.
December 19th. Yeah. Yeah, is this thing on. I can't wait for everybody to see you in it. It's so exciting.
And what about you? You're in it, too, mister.
And, Sean, you're in it, too. Sure. Sure.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Noah face while adapting iconic films into television series?
How do you guys get through the late afternoon? Okay, Sean, I've already explained your strategy. Will, how do you do it?
You know, I just do stuff, you know, whatever. Schnitzy LaRue.
Or do you guys go to like an espresso at a certain time every day?
No, I do. What are you waving at?
There's a fly in here. Dock on it.
Like an old gramp?
Like the guy from Up?
He's really coming apart. He's an old man. He's grumbling about the time. He's waving at a fly.
I've had a real high-protein shake with spirulina and everything in it. I should be vibrating right now, but no. I'm supplementing it with this ice green tea, and I'm still sluggish.
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Chapter 4: How does Noah Hawley balance family life with his creative work?
It's a thong.
That doubles into a t-shirt.
Yeah, go ahead, Jason. Do you have something you want to add?
Today we got a big brain, okay? He's not one of your fancy-dancy celebs that are going to clue you into the life of the rich and famous, okay? No, Sean will. Today we've got someone who's given you some of the best television available over the last 20 years.
This is a writer, producer, director, and often all three on the projects that he gives us, giving us the kind of specific and singular experience that we look for on television nowadays. He's got the nominations, the awards. He's got the education, the credentials. He's also got the looks, the taste, the kids, the wife. The wind at his back.
And he's going to tell us how he keeps it all together while bringing us top entertainment with shows like Bones, Legion, and the massive hit Fargo, and the new and spectacular Alien Earth. Folks, Noah Hawley. Bring it out here, Noah. Take it easy, Sean. Don't attack him just yet.
This is exciting for me. Good afternoon, Noah. Good afternoon. I'm not nervous, and I'm going to speak very slowly.
Good, good, good.
Okay.
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Chapter 5: What unique storytelling techniques does Noah use in his projects?
Do you guys know him at all? How do you guys know each other? Just through mixers, you know, get togethers. Mixers.
Yeah.
Someone set us up once.
Jason described you, and I don't know if Jason's like, not one of your celebrity, like he was, that felt like a real shot across your bow, if I'm being honest.
It's good, I mean. He's not one of these, like these, you know, tabloid celebs, you know, that sometimes we're looking up the book on this show. That's you. I've never been on a tabloid. Unless I'm caught in the background of one of Jen's shots, you know?
I will say, you know, living in Austin, you know, I'll go to LA sometimes and I'll think, oh, right, I'm somebody. Sure. But at the same time... The second you leave, you're nobody. Right. Well, but no, sometimes there, I feel like it's the only place I've ever been where you can feel like nobody also, right? It has that status game that is very specific.
But talk about that though. Like you are – for a lot of the people listening to this and maybe only Tracy will be like, well, this Noah Hawley. Who is this fellow? For most people, they know exactly who you are and you're enormously well-known and very, very powerful in this industry. But – Is there a part, let's put it this way. I've got a writer friend of mine who likes to also act.
And- Is this you? No. Okay. He's an enormous writer, but couldn't give a shit about the writing. Just wants to act. Oh, really? Do you see the kind of weight and power in the writing that you should and deserve? Because he doesn't. Like, he doesn't get that, like, he's already got the gold medal there by being an incredibly successful writer. That's so hard to do.
No, I'm very... Look, I love all the parts of the job. I like to sit in a room and write a novel and the phone doesn't ring and I like the writer's room element of it. I love to get on set and direct and the team support of it all.
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Chapter 6: How does Noah approach the theme of childhood in his work?
You see the aura. I appreciate that. He can come over and tell my wife how powerful I am.
Now, what about that? How old are your kids?
13 and 18.
Okay. Now, so they're old enough to give it up. That's exactly the same age as mine. Do your kids give it up? Do they get what you do? Do they like what you do?
Yeah, I think so. You know, I don't know how it is with you, but probably one more than the other. You know, I think, you know, my son loves to... He's the 13-year-old. He loves to come to set, give me a headset. I'm going to sit on the camera rig, you know. Oh, that's cool. He's, you know, I call him the mayor of childhood, you know.
And then my daughter's a little more retiring, a little, you know, less... I don't know. She appreciates it in a different way, I think. I think he's like, where's my director's chair?
Right, right, right. Is either one of them interested in the industry?
Early, too early to tell, I feel like, yeah. I mean, my son did ask me on Alien Earth. He's like, is there any role? Like, could I do anything in there? And so I did put him in the show, just in a sort of improv. He plays the young Alex Lothar character. And, you know, I wasn't going to write a scene, but I wanted that kind of,
feeling of that the kind of maliki feeling of of the childhood thing and i was like i can't hire a day player to be his dad and then i got he's never acted before and so you know i'm always the guy who's like maximum creativity maximum efficiency i was like the easiest thing to do is if i just get down on the floor and i play the dad and i'm there with him and you did that I did, I did.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Noah share about the creative process in Hollywood?
And it's really cool. I love, I love it so much.
It starts before the original alien, correct?
Yes, it's a couple of years before. And after the Prometheus and the covenant, right? In between? Yeah, I think that's accurate.
You know, I felt like I wanted... I mean, Sean, don't mess up your microphone here, okay? Put some plastic over it. One of us is an expert on Alien, but I don't think it's me.
Okay, okay, yeah. Because, Sean, according to your timeline, actually... It's the glasses. I got the new glasses, so they make me alien smart. No, but yeah, did you feel the weight of it, and how did it come to you, and how did you create it?
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I've now had this opportunity a couple of times, right, to take a classic film and turn it into a TV show. And, you know, for me, it's never about going back and re-watching the film, right? It's about thinking about, well, how does that film live in my imagination? And what are the feelings that it brings up?
and how can I create those same feelings in an audience by telling them a different story, you know? The thing with an alien movie is it's a two-hour survival story, but a TV show has to be the opposite, right? You have to invest in 10 or 30 or 50 hours about characters who don't die, right? And so, well, what is it if it's not a two-hour survival story?
And so there needs to be, you know, even if you have... 60% of the best action in horror, you still have 40% of what are we talking about, right? What's the show about and everything. So that's where it started for me. And it came down to this one moment in...
in Ridley's movie where, you know, the monster's out and Sigourney's in the communication room and the computer is telling her that the crew is expendable and she leans back and Ian Holm is there and you realize he's an android. Right.
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Chapter 8: What future projects does Noah Hawley have in the pipeline?
Right. Unless we introduce these new creatures, right?
Right, right, right.
Unless we go, all right, well, it's an eyeball with tentacles and how does it reproduce and what does it eat? And I don't like that, you know?
Wait, wait, wait, wait. So how do you, this is a great point. This is about my mom. This is- One eye. No, Sean, I'm not gonna reach for the low hanging fruit, even though it's still a fruit. That's the thing about low-hanging fruit. No, is that when you come up with a creature like that, like what are the things that it's got the tentacles and stuff, what is that process?
Are you guys in the writer's room going like, are people pitching like, no, no, no, he's got eight tentacles because one of them, no, no, no, hang on a second. And like how do you write that?
No, it's really interesting. You know, the writer's room, You know, I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the writer's room. I had to figure out how to use it for myself. And what I figured out about it is it's a really good way to help me think out loud, you know? So I don't tend to let the room... tell the story, I tend to go in there and I go, here's where we are.
And then if I can't be in the room tomorrow, I'll say, all right, well, you know, it's like, let's say assimilation is a big theme in this story. Why don't you talk tomorrow about how that theme plays into all the characters? And then I'll come back and we'll talk about that and then we'll keep moving. forward, so.
Sure, but okay, so then let's say you have an idea for a specific creature. Yeah. And are you talking with the folks, with like some of the design folks and the people about that as you're coming up with it? And are they talking to you about limitations or they're like, Well, we don't know if we can have it suck its own eyeball out. Eyeball out. Family programming.
Jason was immediately like, can they do that?
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