Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Interrupted by Matt Jones on NewsRadio 840 WHAS. Now, here's Matt Jones.
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Interrupted by Matt Jones. I'm the normal producer of the show, Billy Rutledge, and today we have a bit of a throwback for you. Native Kentuckian and actor Steve Zahn just released a new movie with his daughter, Audrey, who co-wrote the script. The movie is titled She Dances and premiered worldwide in theaters in Lexington on March 26th.
It's now in theaters everywhere. But Matt interviewed Steve Zahn for his Matt Jones podcast back in 2020. We're going to replay that interview for you today as Steve talks about his career and living in Kentucky. So sit back, relax, and listen to another episode of Interrupted by Matt Jones.
All right. Welcome, everyone, to episode 85 of the Matt Jones Podcast, where we are joined for the first time by high-quality actor of international acclaim who immediately has his phone ring, Steve Zahn, who lives somewhere between Lexington and Georgetown. Steve, how are you? I'm good. Sorry about that. That's okay.
You're a busy guy. I'm not. That's why I leave the phone on. You hope somebody calls.
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Chapter 2: What new movie did Steve Zahn release with his daughter?
I understand. That was my father-in-law. I was like, well, whatever.
I have to tell you, when I announced on Twitter that you were going to be on, probably the biggest reaction I've had to you coming on since we announced that Katina Powell, the woman in the UofL basketball scandal, you were the biggest reaction since I announced we were having Katina Powell. That should make you feel good.
Yeah, it does. It's awesome.
Thanks, Pete. I want to start. We'll talk like acting stuff later. I want to start with just a humanity question. You know, for six months, we've all been kind of dealing with this weird thing where we're stuck in our houses, etc. What's that been like for you during the whole COVID thing?
Well, It's odd, like it's odd for everybody, but not odd for everybody. I mean, for some people, you know, there was this pause and then they went on with their lives and went to their jobs. They just have to wear masks and be conscious of whatever. In my world, we're shut down.
Is that still the case? Like still nothing's getting made?
No, it's starting to come back now. Now all the guilds and stuff got together and they figured out the safest way of going about doing things. But it's still trickling in. It's still experimental. Some of the shows that have been around for a long time and that are on you know, um, on sets, you know, on lots in LA, they're shooting a lot of stuff up in Canada and things like that.
But, but it's been weird because when I come home, I love being home. Right. And when I'm home, it's, I'm not working. So it's a sanctuary and I, and it makes me happy, but I I'm always aware of possibly having to leave in two weeks. So it's been very strange to be here for six months and, and know that that's not going to happen.
Will there be a period of time? I was sort of wondering if like six months, a year from now, we're going to have a time where nothing comes out for a long period of time. Do you think that happens?
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Chapter 3: How has COVID-19 affected Steve Zahn's acting career?
I mean, if you're like really ugly, but you have like pretty eyes, this is your time, man.
You've been waiting for this. I understand. It's like, oh, thank God.
I was made for this time. Well, let me ask you a question. I've always wondered this because you're in like, I looked at your IMDB to get ready for this. You've been in 81 things over the course of your 30 year career, at least maybe more than that, but 81 on IMDB. And that's a lot of stuff.
and you've told me before that like sometimes you'll get something and just do it a few weeks later or whatever. So how, how does it work? Like how many things do you get offered? Do you, how much, what percentage of stuff do you take? Like how does an actor like you, how does your life work in terms of figuring out when you're going to be working on something?
Well, you know, for me now it's, it's like I mostly get offers, you know, so you don't have to try out. That's what you're saying. Yeah.
right but that doesn't sometimes it's better to audition you know for for people because when you just get offered something you show up and then your anxieties and your and your you know that of performing then then you go oh man i better prove that i'm the guy that they wanted in the first place right whereas if i audition they know they're like oh that was great you're yeah you're right um
But, you know, obviously, but sometimes I'll say, you know, some people say, there was something just recently and they're like, hey, would you read for this? And I said, and I read the script and the part and I was like, yeah. I mean, it's kind of like if you have a pro football team, right?
you're, you're, you're the dolphins and you needed a wide receiver and you, you, you zoom with that person. You go like, Hey, we're really, we need, we need to, you know, we need a new wide receiver. Okay. Could you go in the backyard and throw some balls to you and you could like catch them and, you know, do some moves and stuff. And your response would be, Yeah. Yeah. I can do that.
I mean, you can also watch the, you know, I played all the games I played.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of being an actor during a pandemic?
Yes.
I had a really good game. You can watch that.
So it's kind of like that.
You know what I'm saying? I understand. That makes sense. But like, so how much do you, like how many things do you get offered vis-a-vis how many you do?
Oh, I get offered a lot more than I do.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes during normal times I would get offers, you know, in busy times of season, like now is a busy time, right? Fall, you know, this, when you go off and work, um, that's where I always miss dub season. But, um, that would be like a couple of weeks sometimes, you know, that kind of thing. Or it might be more than that. It's so weird. I mean, it's so fickle.
I mean, sometimes you go through, you'll go through three months and you don't hear anything. You're like, hello? Anybody there?
Isn't there any like? So the only way that I can sort of relate at all is in the sports media world, you have agents who will pitch you to people. And sometimes like the biggest people don't need someone to pitch them, but somebody like me needs someone to pitch them. So you have agents who will sort of read everything and think this would be good for Steve.
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Chapter 5: How did Steve Zahn get his start in acting?
No, it's just, you know, I don't know. I don't, I don't, You mean something. You just become a part of someone's subconscious. And it's fun for me. It's a game for me to try to guess as they're walking up to me, oh, what are they going to refer to?
Yeah. So my age, if you're with a 40-year-old, what do you get most? Like Saving Silverman?
Yeah, it'd be Saving Silverman or Out of Sight or That Thing You Knew or movies that you watched when you were watching movies.
Okay, I intentionally didn't read the story because I wanted to hear it from you. But as I was kind of researching for this, I saw a headline that said, Steve Zahn nearly died on the set of that thing you do. What does that mean?
Oh, that was crazy, man. There was this big jib, which is a big crane that holds the camera when you have those huge shots, you know, and it's on a track and it's huge, right? And this was monstrous. Some of them are small. This one was big. And it takes, you know, a couple of guys to push it. And anyway, they were setting that up and I was playing guitar and
was in costume and i was at the sound booth and i had that my headphones on and i was i was playing to play that you know before we shot and there wasn't it was kind of the beginning of the day and i looked up and i saw these like fluorescent bulbs falling from the ceiling and it was like an auditorium i was like that's how high this thing was and i was like Wow, man, what is that? That's crazy.
It was like a dream. And then I heard something. I look up, and there's a dude, one of the crew guys, and the whole thing is coming right at me, falling. And I, out of the way, and it went into the sound booth, the sound card, and it just missed me. And if he didn't yell, it would crush me. And I went, and I was in shock. And then I was bleeding because I bit my lip. I was like reacting to it.
I was like, and I was like bleeding all over the place. And the only thing I could think of is I didn't want to get my costume.
That was your biggest worry, yeah.
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Chapter 6: What was Steve Zahn's experience on soap operas?
And they like have some sort of revelatory moment. Did you just like keep right back on what you were doing or did it have any effect on you?
No, no. I don't, I don't see ghosts. I don't, I don't feel anything. Yeah, I'm not that guy.
Are you a religious person at all?
Yeah, I mean, I grew up, my dad was a Lutheran minister. Oh, really? I grew up in the church. Yeah. Yeah. I've been Minnesota. Um, I grew up on campuses. My dad was a campus chaplain, um, until I was in high school. And that's when he had his first congregation, like, you know, a church, uh, before that, it was just like growing up on universities, which was really cool.
And during the seventies and, you know, sixties, seventies, it was fun. And, uh, So yeah, I grew up involved in the church. It was a real active church. My dad was an amazing minister, like a real literary guy who, he's just starting to send me his sermons that he wrote longhand. He never repeated anything.
And he refers to, I'm reading them now and I'm like, golly, man, he's just, you know, his references are to like, like World War I poetry. He was a really fascinating guy, a real positive guy too. He was one of the first guys talking about the earth, being stewards of the earth. Anyway, so yeah.
Not a hellfire and brimstone preacher, but more positive. No, no, no, no. Clayton & Kroon was founded on a simple idea. All leather goods should last a lifetime. They make everything from bags, belts, wallets, and much more. And the best part, they're doing it right here in Kentucky.
You can check them out at ClaytonAndKroon.com, C-R-U-M-E.com, or visit one of their retail stores in Louisville, Charleston, and now open in Nashville, Clayton & Kroon Quality Goods, built to last. So, you know, you ended up starting in acting and I read the beginning, which is you were at a play, I think of Biloxi Blues or something. And you saw that and you said, well, I can do that.
And people got you involved after that. But I was looking at your first, seemed like acting, acting gig. And was it on a soap opera? Is that right?
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Chapter 7: How does Steve Zahn feel about living in Kentucky?
Yeah.
She knew, she goes, look, I'm going to try to get you in with these soap operas. And if you get like, they're called under five, meaning under five lines. And if you get a gig on a soap like that, and you maybe can recur like once a month or whatever, it'll pay your rent. Like it will be great. Just one day's work. So I went in and I got a job on all my children.
And it was like, all my children, yeah, Walt, Willie, and I just revisited this, actually. I just, it's crazy. And so, and I hated it. I absolutely hated it.
Because you've been doing theater and now all of a sudden you're on a soap opera.
It was stupid. And it was just, I didn't, it was crazy to me. I just didn't get it. It was just like, you would go in, you'd go into makeup and they put like six layers of just like, you look like you were dead. It was crazy. And then you'd go in and you'd do this like weird blocking rehearsal and then you'd have lunch and you'd shoot at like four o'clock in the afternoon. You'd be there all day.
and and it's it's really an exercise in just memory can you memorize your lines if you're a soap actor you just get a script every day and it's like hey i got them but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's good you know so i don't know how they do it and they still have some i am shocked that there are still soap operas but there's a couple left like days of our lives and i think young and the rest is still going yeah i know it's it's and i i kind of was hinted hey uh they want you as a regular
you know maybe you could you know what do you think huh and i was like absolutely not no no this is good uh but i was i you know it saved my butt really did it really so you could make you could make a month's rent in new york city for doing one day of a soap opera is just like an extra remember my rent was you know 500 bucks You know? Yeah.
But still, I mean that 500 bucks for just staying in there. Now that place is, you know, 2,500 a month, but, um, but yeah, yeah, you could, you could, you know, that's back in New York when those are the days when you could wash dishes and live in the city, you know?
Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What upcoming projects does Steve Zahn have?
Do you play golf?
Not really.
I was about to say, I'll play golf with you.
I'll play golf with you, but I love playing golf, but I golf like once every like four years.
That's fine. That's a good amount. I've got friends that bad, so it's perfect.
I mean, I really enjoy it, but it takes too long.
Well, I always say this about radio, like radio and television. there are certain people that are really good at it, but what gives you that first chance to show you're really good is oftentimes just luck. Is that, do you, is that like that with acting?
Yeah, it is. I mean, it's, you know, my, you know, my daughter is about to get into this world and, and I say just prepare yourself so that When you go in that room, it doesn't matter what school you go to. It doesn't matter what your dad's name is. It doesn't matter how many shows you were in. It matters what you do in the room.
All that other stuff might be interesting for about 10 seconds, but that's it. And you got to be so good that they can't ignore you. And that's it.
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