Chapter 1: What insights does Charlie Day share about his career journey?
Hi there. This is Will Arnett, host of the Will Arnett Fun Zone podcast.
Hang on, hang on, Will. This week, what? We've talked about this, man. We've been over this like so many times.
Okay. But we are doing it though, right?
We are going to do that. No, we're not. This is SmartList.
Okay.
Fun Zone. I know. Well, what are we doing today? All we need is a super simple welcome to SmartList.
Oh, right.
I could dig deep for this.
Welcome to SmartList. Now, listen, Jason, before we get too deep into the show, we need to talk about the crew caller. And now you've—tell us what—walk us through what happened this morning.
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Chapter 2: How does Charlie Day describe his experience with acting and comedy?
I came downstairs, and Scotty had the heat on on the first floor of Los Angeles, and the heat, and I was sweating by the time I got to the bottom of it.
Sean, you come down the stairs of your Hollywood house every day like Gloria Swanson, right? That's right, in a flowing house coat. Yeah. Ready for my close-up.
It's so great to see you guys.
It's so great to see you guys too. This is really exciting. I'm excited for you guys to talk to our guest today. Oh, I am excited to listen. Because our guest is somebody... This is a mega talent. This person is a... A person who's been doing it for a long time. This person is not just an actor. This person is a writer.
This person is a skilled musician who started playing violin at the age of three. They can play the piano, accordion, trombone, guitar, harmonica, and has written and improvised music a lot in a show that they've done now for many, many years. This person received an honorary doctorate in performing arts from Merrimack College.
This person, you know, was active at Williamstown Theater Festival back in the day. This person has gone on to a huge career in television in, I guess, the longest-running TV comedy of all time.
This person has... Slow down here. I want to do some guesses here.
Well, this is my guess, and it makes sense because this is my friend, and I'm so happy to have my friend, and I want you guys to start trying to guess. This person has done lots of movies. This person was in the Lego movie with me.
The longest-running comedy.
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Chapter 3: What unique challenges does Charlie face in his acting career?
Just a really poignant... I would have had him on, too. I know.
I think maybe you did ask me. Yeah, definitely. And then you were saying, yeah, gosh, you know, I don't know, we're starting a podcast. And I think you gave me a little bit of a runaround, and I don't like to pressure people. I know you were looking to get paid quite a bit of money for today's spot.
Yeah, I was waiting for you guys to make money so I could start making money, which is cool, because Will cut me a great check for this.
I had to send him over cash, a guy with a rucksack full of cash.
Yeah, and that's a pay cut for me, guys.
Because you're not doing that well, right? You know, that show is not paying you. I've made a lot of bad decisions, though.
You know what I mean? I've made a lot of sketchy calls.
Wait, we had, Charlie, we had McElhaney on, and is it really the longest running sitcom in history?
Yeah. Yeah, well, years. If you don't count episodes, I think you did more episodes of Will & Grace in like two seasons than we've done, but...
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Chapter 4: How did Charlie Day's musical background influence his work?
You know what it is? We've done a lot. We've done a lot of these. I don't know how long we can keep them up.
Nothing adds more zeros than a foot out the door, right? That's true. That's true, yeah. So, Charlie, let's talk a little bit about, because we're talking about Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is a huge, long-running show, longest by years. Could you have imagined, take us back to the day when it actually became a TV show? Because we had Rob on here and we talked about it.
You guys made some videos and stuff and you shot some stuff. Am I remembering that correctly? And you took it to FX?
Yeah, that's basically it. I mean, we were shooting in my apartment, which was on the corner of Western and Franklin there. I think I paid $600 a month for rent.
Quick aside, Jason, last time you were east of Coinga, five.
in the drug days for sure.
Yeah, I think I might have seen you scoring on the corner.
Yeah. There was a pay phone I'd like to hang out at.
Yeah, I might have had to run you down a dime bag or something once.
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Chapter 5: What advice does Charlie give to aspiring actors?
I know. Well, I mean, I'm so glad I'm not cutting half a check to Jon. You know, like, I mean, I'm sure he would have helped a lot. But, you know, it's nice not to have to be paying him anything. But eventually we got kind of bored and we shot a third episode.
Yeah.
And literally you shot it because you were just in this waiting because the agencies are so, you guys are on their timetable.
Well, that and the only thing to do on Western is either move the blind bags or shoot another episode.
It should be noted. Can I just take this? Am I right in saying this? And you guys can agree or disagree with me. The agenting in show business is hilarious because you can't get in touch with your agent first thing in the morning because they're in a staff meeting. Every agent takes lunch at 1 o'clock no matter what. So they're out of the office for two hours.
But they need an hour or so to get there.
They need an hour to get there, so they leave at 12. Sorry, we lost him. He's on his way to a lunch. And then he's back at 3. Then they do the thing. It's like, well, he's not in the office. Why not? Well, because next week is Thanksgiving. Yeah, next week is Thanksgiving.
Not this week.
The fuck are you doing?
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Chapter 6: What does Charlie reveal about his new rom-com project?
Rob's the closer. He's the closer. He's better in the meeting. He's a better salesman.
Now, how are you in meetings? Because I don't think I'm great in meetings. I don't enjoy them. I feel like I'm trapped in an office. I feel like I'm 45 minutes from getting out of these walls. so it better not go bad in the next minute or two because I'm stuck. All those things I start to feel, I start to think about, and then just the walls start getting closer and closer like Star Wars.
How are you? Do you look at it as like an arena, like I'm on stage or this is fun, like let's win? Or are you looking to get out of there? It's tough. It's a tough part of this business.
You know, it depends. They're all very different. You go into a meeting and sometimes you just get cold, I do have that vibe sometimes of like, well, here's the idea, guys. Do you want to buy it or not? Okay.
Yeah, if you have that indifference, what's it called, Will?
It's called sexy. Sexy indifference. Charlie, you know about his sexy indifference, right?
Yeah. It's one of the major terms. But yeah, you're either selling or you're buying. The buyers usually look at you with absolutely no expression because they can. The sellers, us, have to go in there like circus clowns because we're selling. And that's really what we do in this business. And in a good year, you're selling yourself six, seven, eight times and winning.
In other words, you get fired. you know, half a dozen times and rehired half a dozen times if you're killing it. So, I mean, how many people in other industries have to sell themselves or get fired or rehired maybe three, four times over their whole life? I mean, we got to do that all the time. It's tough. It was hard for me.
It is crazy, but then you look at the flip of it, Charlie. So you guys go through this process.
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Chapter 7: How does Charlie balance family life with his career?
You make this thing. You wait. You make this thing. You wait. You're waiting. You have to threaten to leave the agency. Finally, FX buys it. You guys are kind of... a little bit hat in hand. And now all these years later, you're at the position we asked you, like, are you going to do more? Maybe I'll do one more, whatever. Like you have, the tables have turned a little bit.
Not a little bit, a lot. Yeah, I mean, I think the thing is, though, when we were shooting that pilot, I was 27 years old. Right. And I'm 46, and so I feel like, you know, I put in my time with this one.
You look 23, though. I know, it's incredible. How have you lost age since you started? Yeah, it's incredible. Must be a real stress-free set there.
But we all make stuff. We all produce or write or direct or act, whatever. And Charlie, kind of what Jason was talking about, is there a point where you... Like, are you getting to a point where it's bothersome that the grind is getting to you about getting all these no's? Because it seems now to put together a package to sell something, you have to...
really stack the deck high before anybody will even consider. You hear about Meryl Streep getting passed or whoever these big stars go out to pitch these shows and they get passed. Well, if they get passed and I'm stacking these deck and we're getting those, what does it take to keep a production company going?
I like to get everything done independently of a partner. So, you know, like I'd rather, if I'm going to be pitching a movie, I'd rather have the whole thing written.
Right.
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Chapter 8: What humorous anecdotes does Charlie share about his experiences on set?
And say, you know, and. And a director in place and an actor in place. Like here's, we're going.
This is what it is.
So all they do is write the check.
Basically.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, as it should be.
Yeah, but then that means you've got to do a bunch of work for free ahead of time, which is cool if you've got the time and the funds to bank on yourself and work for free for a little while.
Look, at some point you're going to have to do that work anyway. So I'm usually – it depends, right? There's other things I'll pitch and I'll know, okay, I want to get a writer on this and I want to get that person paid. But even then – I'll work with that writer. I'll develop a whole outline.
So that movie is basically ready to go and I'll attach a few people to the movie and then I'll go in and be like, here it is. This is what it is. Here's who's acting in it. Here's the director. Now, please pay this guy.
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