Latest / Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald / Henry Winkler, Let it Percolate
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: How are you, Donald Faison.
- 0:02Speaker 2: You know I'm gonna be honest with you.
- 0:04Speaker 1: Yes, we don't want you to lie. No one wants lies.
- 0:07Speaker 2: I'm good.
- 0:08Speaker 3: I'm living to dream. I've got a lot of hardware
- 0:13Speaker 3: in my house and I kind of like it.
- 0:17Speaker 1: What's the hardware. Oh, it's animation gear.
- 0:20Speaker 2: I got a shit ton of animation gear. Like, I
- 0:24Speaker 2: got a lot of stuff.
- 0:25Speaker 3: First of all, shout out to the people that like
- 0:26Speaker 3: A Like A Studios and the people at Stupid Buddy
- 0:30Speaker 3: Studios who have been very supportive of my animation and
- 0:33Speaker 3: the things that I want to do with animation, and
- 0:37Speaker 3: Rob Ronning and his team of puppeteered puppet makers and
- 0:40Speaker 3: stuff like that. Thank you to a whole bunch of people,
- 0:44Speaker 3: Brad Schiff, all your mentors, all my mentors, all my buddies.
- 0:49Speaker 3: It's a small community, but it's a very helping community.
- 0:53Speaker 3: And because of this, I now have a junior, a
- 0:57Speaker 3: compact junior motion control rig, and I have something that's
- 1:03Speaker 3: called a jetpack that you put on the back of
- 1:05Speaker 3: puppets that helps with subtle movements. And this is because
- 1:08Speaker 3: of the people at Leika and the people at Stupid
- 1:12Speaker 3: Buddy Studios.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Wow, so you have a real like so the motion
- 1:15Speaker 1: control camera rig is going to allow you you to
- 1:19Speaker 1: move the camera and crane up and down as you're animating.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Correct.
- 1:24Speaker 3: What happens is I program it to do what I
- 1:29Speaker 3: wanted to do before I film. It's a lot of
- 1:33Speaker 3: blocking obviously, but then with animating, instead of having to
- 1:38Speaker 3: worry about with the camera and the focus and all
- 1:40Speaker 3: of that, because that's already pre set. Now I can
- 1:42Speaker 3: now just focus on the animating and.
- 1:46Speaker 2: The story I want to tell.
- 1:47Speaker 1: That's that's amazing, dude. It's like you're a you're an
- 1:52Speaker 1: artist who got a very fancy new instrument. Let's say
- 1:56Speaker 1: you're a guitarist and you've got a very very fancy
- 1:59Speaker 1: new guitar.
- 2:01Speaker 3: You know what, It reminds me of godday you got
- 2:03Speaker 3: your first movie camera, where you were like, I can
- 2:07Speaker 3: freaking make a movie on my own right now.
- 2:09Speaker 1: I know. And I took a lot of pride too,
- 2:11Speaker 1: and a good person. There were there were shots from
- 2:14Speaker 1: my Red Kimodo that were in the movie, yes, and
- 2:17Speaker 1: I was very pleased that it looked as good as
- 2:19Speaker 1: it did. My own camera were some of the shots
- 2:23Speaker 1: were shot from that. If you saw the movie, all
- 2:25Speaker 1: the shots of Florence swimming in the beginning, that was
- 2:28Speaker 1: all just my my red Kimodo, which is a beautiful camera.
- 2:32Speaker 3: Those are some great shots. To really think about it, like, yeah,
- 2:35Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It opens the movie.
- 2:37Speaker 1: It opens the movie.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Yeah, Donald, that's amazing.
- 2:41Speaker 1: I'm going to Europe to visit our friend Josh Raiden.
- 2:44Speaker 2: I like this. These are the things that I don't like.
- 2:47Speaker 1: But you're not coming. Well, you you can't. You never
- 2:50Speaker 1: want to do stuff.
- 2:51Speaker 2: I've got kids, Yeah, you do have kids.
- 2:53Speaker 1: Well, Josh Reiden and I don't have kids. So we're
- 2:56Speaker 1: going to hang out together in Europe.
- 3:00Speaker 2: Where in Europe?
- 3:02Speaker 1: Well, we're first I'm.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Going where can where can the people find you?
- 3:05Speaker 1: Well this will come out long after I'm gone, but
- 3:08Speaker 1: we're starting in Stockholm, where Josh is a regular and
- 3:11Speaker 1: I've been to Stockholm a couple of times and it's
- 3:13Speaker 1: a beautiful city. And and then we're gonna work our
- 3:18Speaker 1: way through. We're going to go to Paris, and then
- 3:21Speaker 1: there's a dot dot dot about what we do next.
- 3:23Speaker 1: But we have some time to play.
- 3:25Speaker 2: Go to go to London.
- 3:28Speaker 1: I may I've been in London the most of all,
- 3:30Speaker 1: so I'm trying to get outside of my box. I
- 3:34Speaker 1: got this new Do you see this G Shock watch
- 3:36Speaker 1: I got? Isn't that cool?
- 3:40Speaker 2: Is that from our shot shock spots around?
- 3:43Speaker 4: No?
- 3:43Speaker 1: I wish they did. I I have some fancy watches,
- 3:46Speaker 1: and people told me don't wear fancy watches, uh traveling
- 3:51Speaker 1: because you'll get your arm cut off. So wait, well,
- 3:55Speaker 1: you know if you have a fancy, nice watch, you're
- 3:58Speaker 1: you're sort of a target for being robbed obviously, So.
- 4:03Speaker 2: You think they're gonna rob you just because you're Zach Raft?
- 4:05Speaker 1: No, No, just because if I was wearing a nice
- 4:07Speaker 1: watch like a dummy walking around the wrong place at
- 4:10Speaker 1: the wrong time, I could be have my arm cut off.
- 4:13Speaker 1: So I want to keep my hands.
- 4:16Speaker 2: Got it.
- 4:16Speaker 1: So my friend, who's a big watch guy, said, oh,
- 4:18Speaker 1: just go get a cool G shock and let me
- 4:20Speaker 1: tell you something. G Shock is not a sponsor of
- 4:22Speaker 1: this podcast, but they should because look how cool this
- 4:25Speaker 1: thing is.
- 4:26Speaker 2: It's pretty nice. It's pretty nice g Shock watch. Goddamn,
- 4:33Speaker 2: what's going on?
- 4:34Speaker 1: Joel?
- 4:34Speaker 2: How are you living Man? I'm great.
- 4:38Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry.
- 4:41Speaker 2: Took a breath to say it, and everything next hel
- 4:44Speaker 2: Joel living Man?
- 4:48Speaker 1: Yeah, I followed Joel on Instagram. It looks like she's
- 4:50Speaker 1: living her best life from the Instagram fields things. But
- 4:53Speaker 1: I guess that's true for everyone, right, we all post
- 4:55Speaker 1: like the best shot. Yeah, I I don't.
- 5:00Speaker 2: I don't.
- 5:00Speaker 3: I don't appreciate the person that's just like, I'm gonna
- 5:04Speaker 3: post all my bullshit on Instagram.
- 5:06Speaker 2: I appreciate the person that's like, I'm gonna fake it.
- 5:09Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
- 5:11Speaker 1: You don't wann't want to see negativity, You're gonna mute negativity.
- 5:14Speaker 1: I like to see you. Show me something made me.
- 5:16Speaker 2: Laugh, show me, make me happy, inspire me.
- 5:20Speaker 1: I sent Donald the funniest fucking meme, which I'm not
- 5:25Speaker 1: even gonna talk about this on the on the podcast.
- 5:28Speaker 1: It's too it's too x rated even for us. But
- 5:30Speaker 1: that ship is funny. Boy.
- 5:32Speaker 2: You send me a couple that have been like, oh ship.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I'm talking about the one, the one, the one that
- 5:38Speaker 1: was related to kind of lingis Oh my god, h
- 5:51Speaker 1: listen Donald. I send Donald so many memes and he
- 5:54Speaker 1: doesn't reply to motest. But once in a while I
- 5:56Speaker 1: got an L O L and I feel like I
- 5:58Speaker 1: want a prize. You get a ha ha yeah, ha
- 6:02Speaker 1: ha ha ha and also if you put a bee
- 6:04Speaker 1: before it, baha ha ha ha, it's even harder. I
- 6:10Speaker 1: am sorry. They didn't pick up a Shoka ah Sosca.
- 6:14Speaker 2: Did they cancel Ahska too, didn't they?
- 6:17Speaker 4: No?
- 6:18Speaker 5: Acolyte canceled the Accolte.
- 6:20Speaker 2: Oh, we'll get a second season.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Get that right for me. I may have fucked that up.
- 6:25Speaker 2: No, that's fine, don't worry about it. You could say
- 6:27Speaker 2: that ship. I don't want to.
- 6:29Speaker 1: I don't want to make mistakes. But uh, they canceled
- 6:33Speaker 1: the Acolyte the Acolyte, Okay, but they didn't know.
- 6:37Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest with you now that it's gone,
- 6:39Speaker 3: Thank goodness, they canceled that ship.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Well, I guess all. I guess all the mega fans
- 6:43Speaker 1: agreed with you, Donald because they they it's.
- 6:45Speaker 3: Not about it's listen. I'm gonna just say one thing.
- 6:47Speaker 3: They were stepping into waters that were just a little
- 6:50Speaker 3: too deep. They were stepping into the lore of Darth's
- 6:53Speaker 3: plagus the Wise. And if you're gonna do that, you
- 6:56Speaker 3: have to really really I don't want to hear the
- 6:59Speaker 3: I don't want to hear about his apprentice. I want
- 7:01Speaker 3: to hear about the You.
- 7:03Speaker 5: Know you're a sexy ass apprentice. That's crazy, Donald eighty
- 7:06Speaker 5: five the reason.
- 7:08Speaker 6: Taking off his don't.
- 7:11Speaker 2: This listen? Listen?
- 7:15Speaker 3: There was one episode of that show that was worth
- 7:18Speaker 3: watching everything else. I'm sorry it was very slow paced.
- 7:22Speaker 3: You could have tied all of that into one episode.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Many issues.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know what, I've been watching that I
- 7:30Speaker 1: we had Tony hal On and I I went back
- 7:33Speaker 1: and I started watching the final season of VIEP because
- 7:36Speaker 1: I don't think i'd seen it, And man, that is
- 7:38Speaker 1: the funniest show ever. Like that is the funniest ever.
- 7:43Speaker 1: I will tell you that. I can't think of a
- 7:45Speaker 1: half hour common you that has more laugh out loud
- 7:48Speaker 1: humor per minute than VEEP. It's just it's insane, the amount.
- 7:53Speaker 1: It's just all it is set up joke, set up joke,
- 7:55Speaker 1: joke joke joke, set up joke, I setup joke.
- 7:58Speaker 2: It's like, my question, my question is this by season?
- 8:02Speaker 2: Are you saying this? Are you saying as a whole
- 8:05Speaker 2: in general? I'm saying because there are certain seasons of
- 8:08Speaker 2: the Office that are fucking lights out compared on Televison.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Now, yeah, they're both, they're both. We're talking about you know,
- 8:18Speaker 1: we're talking about rarefied air. We're talking about some of
- 8:20Speaker 1: the funniest shows of our of our lives. I think
- 8:23Speaker 1: Veep is one of the funniest comedies I've seen in
- 8:26Speaker 1: my adult life. Half hour comedies. Yeah, the cast is
- 8:29Speaker 1: just unbelievable, and they get away with saying the most horrid,
- 8:34Speaker 1: crazy shit because everyone's a bad person. They're all such
- 8:39Speaker 1: horrible people that they have license to say the most inappropriate,
- 8:44Speaker 1: insane shit. It's brilliant writing. And Tony Hale is so funny.
- 8:49Speaker 2: My god, the one that says the least.
- 8:52Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like, he's like the only nice person and
- 8:55Speaker 1: he's the only angel. Well, I'm so thrilled we have
- 9:00Speaker 1: Henry Winkler on today. I mean, this is a big honor.
- 9:04Speaker 1: I mean, Donald and I Donald and I grew up
- 9:07Speaker 1: at the time when this, when you know, Happy Days
- 9:11Speaker 1: was a really important show. I mean, I can't speak
- 9:14Speaker 1: for you, Don, but in my life, it was a
- 9:15Speaker 1: really important show. And then I and then the fact
- 9:19Speaker 1: that he has had gone on to have so much
- 9:21Speaker 1: other success and other things makes me just so happy
- 9:23Speaker 1: for him. He's known as like literally being the nicest
- 9:26Speaker 1: guy in Hollywood.
- 9:27Speaker 3: Dude, He's one of my mentors and he probably doesn't
- 9:29Speaker 3: even know he's one of my mentors. That's how amazing
- 9:32Speaker 3: Henry Winkler is, you know what I mean, like one
- 9:34Speaker 3: of my first Like listen, you know me, Zach.
- 9:37Speaker 2: You know how I take a lot of things.
- 9:43Speaker 3: I don't take a lot of things serious things that
- 9:46Speaker 3: I should take really seriously.
- 9:48Speaker 2: I fucking kind of like, hey, you know, it is
- 9:51Speaker 2: what it is, right, It's just how I am.
- 9:53Speaker 3: Yes, and I did that, and we're going to talk
- 9:56Speaker 3: about this with him, obviously, But I did that when
- 9:59Speaker 3: I was shooting and clueless. They were like, yo, Henry
- 10:02Speaker 3: Wikelers coming in to direct for the week. Everybody, this
- 10:06Speaker 3: is a great time. You're gonna have a It's going
- 10:07Speaker 3: to be amazing. And I went out that night and
- 10:10Speaker 3: partied at a club until like four o'clock in the morning,
- 10:13Speaker 3: and and missed my call time by like an hour
- 10:17Speaker 3: and walked to and and they called me. They woke
- 10:20Speaker 3: me up with a phone call and I run to
- 10:22Speaker 3: you know, I get my car, I drive to Paramount,
- 10:25Speaker 3: jump out of my car, put on all of this,
- 10:27Speaker 3: all my clothes, put my makeup on, you know you
- 10:29Speaker 3: and deep ship when the makeup artists ain't saying shit
- 10:32Speaker 3: to you, and the make it close just looking at.
- 10:33Speaker 2: You like mm hmm, you dumb ass motherfucker.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Right right to be associated with your right.
- 10:42Speaker 3: You know, you're in deep ship. So I get all
- 10:44Speaker 3: my shit on and I run the set and Henry
- 10:47Speaker 3: b lines right towards me, and I'm.
- 10:49Speaker 1: Like he was directing the episode, directing the.
- 10:52Speaker 2: Episode, and I'm like, oh shit, here we go.
- 10:54Speaker 3: And I'm like, first of all, I get very combative
- 10:58Speaker 3: when when people try to fucking authority, you know, when
- 11:01Speaker 3: people are.
- 11:02Speaker 2: I hate authority. So you never noticed that, right, So
- 11:06Speaker 2: when anybody tries to fucking you know, puff up, I
- 11:08Speaker 2: puff back. That's just how I am.
- 11:10Speaker 3: Right, So he comes up to me and I'm ready
- 11:14Speaker 3: to puff back and he hits me with the kind
- 11:16Speaker 3: of shit.
- 11:16Speaker 2: Ever, we're not gonna do this here. We're not going
- 11:19Speaker 2: to have an argument. You're late.
- 11:20Speaker 3: We need to get to work and we need to
- 11:22Speaker 3: catch up. So whatever it is that you've got going on,
- 11:25Speaker 3: let's put that behind us. Let's get on set, and
- 11:28Speaker 3: let's give it our best.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Oh my god, And I'm like, oh shit, like he
- 11:33Speaker 2: just completely diffused me everything.
- 11:35Speaker 3: Like I'm ready to fucking fight the Fonds and this
- 11:37Speaker 3: motherfuckers like chill, chill.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Let's fucking right.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Yeah, so we do the shit.
- 11:43Speaker 3: He not only is pitching me jokes, he not only
- 11:46Speaker 3: is giving me different rhythms on how to act, he's
- 11:49Speaker 3: also freaking talking to me like I'm like, I'm a
- 11:52Speaker 3: human being, like instead of just you know, a lot
- 11:55Speaker 3: of these actors, a lot of directors see actors a
- 11:59Speaker 3: certain way.
- 12:00Speaker 1: He was talking and you were young. You know you're
- 12:03Speaker 1: saying he was talking to you like a peer, not
- 12:05Speaker 1: a kid.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Not a kid, right, all right?
- 12:09Speaker 3: And so from that moment on, he and I have
- 12:12Speaker 3: had a relationship that I said that I look at
- 12:15Speaker 3: it as a mentorship.
- 12:17Speaker 4: Uh.
- 12:17Speaker 2: He might not see it that way, but he's done
- 12:19Speaker 2: so much for my life. We'll leave it at that.
- 12:22Speaker 1: All right. Well, I'll tell you let's bring him in.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Henry Winklers here everybody time.
- 12:28Speaker 2: Do you want to kind of stamp.
- 12:30Speaker 6: Six seven stories? I'm not sure we made about a
- 12:36Speaker 6: bunch of talks and nurses. I said, he's a story.
- 12:45Speaker 5: So YadA ra here, yeada here, Oh there they.
- 12:55Speaker 1: Are, Oh my, oh my goodness, Henry Winkler. I'm it's
- 13:02Speaker 1: so I don't know that we've ever met in person.
- 13:04Speaker 1: But my name is Zach and I'm a massive fan
- 13:07Speaker 1: of yours.
- 13:08Speaker 4: Zach. We met at a an affair for children's hi.
- 13:17Speaker 2: V Yes, at the Elizabeth Glazer p Ads.
- 13:21Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, you were with You came with me
- 13:23Speaker 3: actually that year, and we've had Wilder with us and
- 13:27Speaker 3: I introduced you.
- 13:27Speaker 1: Oh, yes, that's right. Well, we've just been talking because
- 13:31Speaker 1: we do a little pre thing before the show, Henry,
- 13:35Speaker 1: and we've both been talking about how much you and
- 13:39Speaker 1: your career have meant to us. Wow, and in lots
- 13:42Speaker 1: of different ways which we'll go into, but from the bottom,
- 13:45Speaker 1: from my most sincere heart, it's an honor to have
- 13:49Speaker 1: you on the show and to you Wow.
- 13:52Speaker 4: What a that's a great way to start.
- 13:54Speaker 2: Well, it's the truth. It is the truth you have.
- 13:58Speaker 2: I mean, you've known me.
- 14:00Speaker 3: I was twenty three years old when I was fresh
- 14:03Speaker 3: and knew in this industry and almost directed me and
- 14:09Speaker 3: and and you know, ever since I can remember, I've
- 14:16Speaker 3: being in Hollywood, being in Los Angeles, you have been
- 14:19Speaker 3: like the example of what it means to be a
- 14:24Speaker 3: good person and a nice person and a you know,
- 14:28Speaker 3: a smart person in Hollywood.
- 14:29Speaker 4: So funny because I'm changing tomorrow. I've decided I've.
- 14:35Speaker 1: Had it, Henry, Henry, you do have a reputation. I
- 14:40Speaker 1: got to say, I just did another person's podcast today
- 14:43Speaker 1: and I said, I have the honor of interviewing Henry
- 14:45Speaker 1: Winkler later, and they said, you know, it's the rumors
- 14:48Speaker 1: about him being the nicest person in the world are true.
- 14:51Speaker 1: So you have you do have this reputation of being
- 14:53Speaker 1: one of the nicest people in Hollywood.
- 14:55Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know what I have to say, I've
- 14:57Speaker 4: thought about that. I mean, I don't don't know that
- 15:00Speaker 4: I'm nice. What I think I am as grateful. I
- 15:05Speaker 4: think I just am so grateful that I get to
- 15:09Speaker 4: do what I do, that I get to have this family,
- 15:15Speaker 4: this life. That is amazing. That's what it is. And
- 15:21Speaker 4: I have gratitude.
- 15:22Speaker 1: Do you have to work on that or I mean,
- 15:25Speaker 1: or it comes naturally to you.
- 15:29Speaker 4: I know it because it's there. I mean, I thought
- 15:34Speaker 4: about it and then I looked and I thought, oh,
- 15:37Speaker 4: there it is. And it's always been there. You know.
- 15:40Speaker 4: I wrote a memoir.
- 15:42Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us the title of it.
- 15:44Speaker 4: It's called Being Henry. I kept it very simple, and
- 15:49Speaker 4: there's a picture of me so you can't miss it.
- 15:54Speaker 4: And as I have to say that in a few
- 15:57Speaker 4: months it comes out in paperback.
- 16:00Speaker 1: And everybody, and you mean the audiobook, by any chance,
- 16:02Speaker 1: I did.
- 16:03Speaker 4: Now I'm so dyslexic that most actors, what do they
- 16:08Speaker 4: take like a day and a half to read a
- 16:11Speaker 4: big talk a book. They allowed me not one hundred hours. Wow,
- 16:18Speaker 4: they gave me one hundred hours.
- 16:20Speaker 2: So you guys are really go through it and do
- 16:22Speaker 2: it in your voice and everything.
- 16:23Speaker 4: You're not to go back over it because I left
- 16:26Speaker 4: words out right?
- 16:28Speaker 2: That's fine? Is that common with most actors? There are
- 16:32Speaker 2: a lot of us out there with dyslexia, Like I
- 16:34Speaker 2: have dyslexia bad too.
- 16:36Speaker 4: Well. One out of six children on the earth have
- 16:40Speaker 4: some sort of learning challenge. You know. What is so
- 16:44Speaker 4: extraordinary to me is that the the man who is
- 16:52Speaker 4: running for vice president, mister Wallas, has a son who
- 16:56Speaker 4: is learning challenge, who is nonverbal, and people attacked him
- 17:04Speaker 4: for getting so emotional about his dad. Yeah, that's insane.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Yeah, that was upsetting. I mean yeah, I saw that too.
- 17:13Speaker 1: That was really horrible. When did you realize you were
- 17:18Speaker 1: a dyslexic? How did how did you figure it out?
- 17:21Speaker 4: My step son Jed, who came into my life when
- 17:24Speaker 4: he was four in the third grade. He could not
- 17:28Speaker 4: write a report on the Hoping Nation. We took him
- 17:34Speaker 4: to visit the Hope in Arizona because he was studying
- 17:37Speaker 4: Native Americans in school. And he's so verbal, he's so funny,
- 17:44Speaker 4: and I said, well, come on, you go back in
- 17:48Speaker 4: your room and do it. And we finally had him
- 17:50Speaker 4: tested and everything they said about him was true about me.
- 17:55Speaker 2: Wow.
- 17:55Speaker 1: So how old were you thirty one?
- 17:58Speaker 3: Wow?
- 17:59Speaker 4: So until already one? I thought I was just stupid. Wow.
- 18:06Speaker 1: And when you were learning scripts, when you were auditioning
- 18:09Speaker 1: back in the seventies, was that extra hard for you
- 18:13Speaker 1: to memorize into into to learn reading.
- 18:17Speaker 4: Around the table? When you know, when we have our
- 18:19Speaker 4: first reading, the entire crew can hear what is going
- 18:24Speaker 4: to happen that week. I would stumble. I would mess
- 18:30Speaker 4: other actors up with their timing because I never gave
- 18:33Speaker 4: them their cue. Memorizing was easy. So what I couldn't
- 18:39Speaker 4: do reading wise, I could do in memorizing.
- 18:45Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. I worked with an actor recently who's dyslexic,
- 18:49Speaker 1: and he said, oh, at the table reads, I have
- 18:50Speaker 1: to be off book I have to memorize it otherwise
- 18:52Speaker 1: I'll mess up all my jokes. And I and and
- 18:55Speaker 1: I get so nervous. So he was memorizing it for
- 18:57Speaker 1: the table read, so he was battling that too.
- 19:00Speaker 4: I had to.
- 19:00Speaker 2: I had to. I actually had to tell on the
- 19:02Speaker 2: last project I worked on.
- 19:04Speaker 3: I had to tell them Listen, I have a really
- 19:06Speaker 3: hard time putting words together when I read them. Uh So,
- 19:11Speaker 3: table reads, you know, either get me the script early
- 19:15Speaker 3: or or I'm gonna I'm gonna mess it up a lot.
- 19:18Speaker 3: I'm gonna mess up a lot. You know, I'm gonna
- 19:20Speaker 3: have to go back. And you know, for the most
- 19:22Speaker 3: part they did. But when it was right away, oof,
- 19:26Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's really it would be really hard.
- 19:28Speaker 3: It's it's embarrassing, but it's also it's like, well, shit,
- 19:31Speaker 3: it's my it's my thing. And you know, some days,
- 19:34Speaker 3: I have days like everybody else. Some days you have
- 19:36Speaker 3: days where it works and you're and you're able to
- 19:39Speaker 3: focus on the on it. But then there's days where
- 19:41Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I'm killing everybody right now and they
- 19:44Speaker 3: think I'm illiterate, and really it's something.
- 19:48Speaker 4: Yeah, But then all of a sudden your performance speaks
- 19:51Speaker 4: for itself, right right, you know that you I think
- 19:55Speaker 4: that and you didn't ask me, but I will just
- 19:59Speaker 4: mention it. I think you should just let that go
- 20:02Speaker 4: because it just doesn't matter.
- 20:04Speaker 1: Right.
- 20:05Speaker 6: We're you know it.
- 20:07Speaker 4: People have got different problems, and you have overcome yours
- 20:14Speaker 4: in that you are an improvosure. You've got great energy
- 20:19Speaker 4: on the screen, the two of you together, even when
- 20:23Speaker 4: it's not necessarily an entertainment but a commercial. You guys
- 20:29Speaker 4: are connected at the hip. It's funny, it's watchable over
- 20:34Speaker 4: and over and over again. That comes from spirit, and
- 20:38Speaker 4: that's what you have to be grateful for.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for saying it's true.
- 20:43Speaker 3: It's true, but it means it means a lot coming
- 20:45Speaker 3: from I almost changed my plan.
- 20:48Speaker 2: You are I wish you would have.
- 20:52Speaker 1: We'll still take you. We can get your special deal.
- 20:54Speaker 2: We listen, we can work on this.
- 20:56Speaker 1: Listen. Most people come up to Donald and I and
- 20:58Speaker 1: ask us details about the about the team of the plans,
- 21:01Speaker 1: and we don't know what that. We don't know. We
- 21:03Speaker 1: just say we're in the commercials you know, for you,
- 21:04Speaker 1: but for you, Henry, we'll go figure out what best plan,
- 21:07Speaker 1: what we can do.
- 21:09Speaker 4: You know. I did a commercial last year for I
- 21:15Speaker 4: Care because my father in law had uh uh geographic atrophy,
- 21:22Speaker 4: and so I did this just saying, go to the
- 21:25Speaker 4: go to the doctor and check your eyes. And Dick
- 21:29Speaker 4: Van Dyke, out of the glue, called me up. He said,
- 21:32Speaker 4: I have this. Do you know any more than I do?
- 21:39Speaker 4: I said, oh my god, I wish I did.
- 21:42Speaker 1: No, Donald, I've had this thing. I walk around New
- 21:45Speaker 1: York City and people, you know, most people are like,
- 21:47Speaker 1: you know, if they say something you know, they say,
- 21:50Speaker 1: you know, whenever they compliment you for a thing they like.
- 21:53Speaker 1: But occasionally people be like, thhose commercials are so funny
- 21:56Speaker 1: with you and Donald and I go, oh, thank you.
- 21:57Speaker 1: They go, Now tell me, like the monthly is it?
- 21:59Speaker 2: Really?
- 22:00Speaker 1: I don't know what the monthly is.
- 22:04Speaker 2: I honestly don't know what.
- 22:05Speaker 1: Plan is best for you.
- 22:09Speaker 2: Let's take a break.
- 22:10Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these fine words, Henry, I
- 22:20Speaker 1: wanted to tell you because you're talking about your book
- 22:22Speaker 1: and your audiobook, which you know, with people like you
- 22:25Speaker 1: who are such wonderful performers and have such distinct voices,
- 22:29Speaker 1: it made me think of one of the best audiobooks
- 22:31Speaker 1: I ever heard of. My Whole life, which is Gary
- 22:34Speaker 1: Marshall's book My Happy Days in Hollywood, which if you
- 22:39Speaker 1: love entertainment and you gotta don't read this book, listen
- 22:43Speaker 1: to it. Because Gary had such for those of you
- 22:46Speaker 1: who don't know what he was, creator of so many
- 22:48Speaker 1: beloved TV shows, including Happy Days, and a director with
- 22:53Speaker 1: an enormous career including Pretty Women and many others. But
- 22:56Speaker 1: Gary had such a charactery voice and him telling his
- 23:01Speaker 1: stories and his voice is wonderful and I and I
- 23:06Speaker 1: just wanted to just segue into that in the Happy
- 23:08Speaker 1: Days via that, because I'll tell you.
- 23:10Speaker 4: I'll tell you something. I could not wear leather in
- 23:14Speaker 4: the beginning. I had to wear cloth because ABC thought
- 23:18Speaker 4: for sure I was going to be associated with crime.
- 23:22Speaker 3: In the beginning, you look like you worked at a
- 23:25Speaker 3: like at a mechanic shop and everything like that.
- 23:27Speaker 2: You always had the was it blue, But the.
- 23:32Speaker 4: Jacket was a McGregor golf jacket, and it was very
- 23:37Speaker 4: hard to be cool in cloth. So Gary went to
- 23:42Speaker 4: ABC and he said, you know, he could be height.
- 23:48Speaker 4: If he's riding his bike, he should fall over, he
- 23:51Speaker 4: could get a scratch. And so ABC said, when he's
- 23:57Speaker 4: with his bike, he can wearther and then there was
- 24:03Speaker 4: no cell phone at that time. He went down to
- 24:06Speaker 4: the lobby of ABC, he said, he called the writer's room.
- 24:11Speaker 4: He said, okay, never write another scene without Phonsie's bike again.
- 24:22Speaker 4: That's how the leather got in there.
- 24:24Speaker 1: It's amazing. And I'm telling you, if you listened to
- 24:26Speaker 1: this book, there are so many stories like that from
- 24:29Speaker 1: all these shows. And he had he had, he had
- 24:31Speaker 1: happy Days going on on one set, and he had
- 24:33Speaker 1: more co and Mindy going on another stage. He had,
- 24:36Speaker 1: he had h Leverne Shirley, and he's running between all
- 24:40Speaker 1: of them, running all of these massive hits. And he
- 24:43Speaker 1: and his anecdotes are are so telling you.
- 24:47Speaker 4: When when, uh, when Robin came to audition. Now it's Wednesday.
- 24:53Speaker 4: We start Monday morning at ten o'clock on the sound stage.
- 24:57Speaker 4: That is, at nine o'clock we read ten o'clock. We're
- 25:00Speaker 4: on the sound stage. Nobody wanted to play this alien
- 25:05Speaker 4: from out of Space Wednesday. Now we're shooting on Friday.
- 25:10Speaker 4: Wednesday comes finally a young, very shy, very quiet man
- 25:16Speaker 4: comes with the casting director and you and then this
- 25:25Speaker 4: human being picked up the script. When he opened his mouth,
- 25:31Speaker 4: it was like a volcano went off on stage nineteen
- 25:37Speaker 4: at Paramount, and I knew, get out of his way,
- 25:41Speaker 4: ye know my lines, and don't try to stand toe
- 25:46Speaker 4: to toe with this genius that is now standing in
- 25:49Speaker 4: front of me. Wow.
- 25:51Speaker 1: And was that Robin Williams first thing? Was that his
- 25:54Speaker 1: first time?
- 25:55Speaker 2: I think it was.
- 25:56Speaker 4: Maybe he made appearances before that.
- 25:59Speaker 1: Joell can look at us, but I think it.
- 26:01Speaker 4: Might have been his first. He did comedy clubs.
- 26:04Speaker 1: Right now, first TV appearance probably yeah, But oh my lord.
- 26:09Speaker 1: We always like to ask our guests, how did you
- 26:11Speaker 1: get the part?
- 26:12Speaker 2: What was your explorer?
- 26:13Speaker 3: How did you get how did you get into the industry?
- 26:16Speaker 3: And then how did you get the part the industry?
- 26:20Speaker 4: The first thing I did was I was in a
- 26:22Speaker 4: repertory company at my drama school in New Haven, Yale
- 26:26Speaker 4: Repertory Theater. And then I would do a play at
- 26:31Speaker 4: night with the company, and you would rehearse another play
- 26:35Speaker 4: during the day. I made one hundred and seventy five
- 26:38Speaker 4: dollars a week. I was in heaven. Then I went
- 26:43Speaker 4: to New York. I tried out for commercials and then
- 26:47Speaker 4: I made enough money. I had just made Lords of
- 26:50Speaker 4: Flatbush with sly stallone. I made two thousand dollars for
- 26:55Speaker 4: twelve months work, but I had enough money for a
- 26:59Speaker 4: ticket to California for one month. In that month, the
- 27:06Speaker 4: first thing I got was the Mary Tyler Moore show,
- 27:10Speaker 4: which was the Friends of that time. I got a scene.
- 27:16Speaker 4: I had eight lines. And then the next week, my
- 27:20Speaker 4: second week, I auditioned at Paramount. The room of actors
- 27:26Speaker 4: waiting had all been on television. I had seen them
- 27:31Speaker 4: all and me, Oh my goodness, it was my turn.
- 27:38Speaker 4: I walked in and something went off in my brain
- 27:43Speaker 4: and I changed my voice and I did the eight
- 27:49Speaker 4: lines through the script up in the air, saunted out
- 27:53Speaker 4: of the room. And when my money ran out, when
- 27:56Speaker 4: I had to fly back to New York, the producers
- 27:59Speaker 4: called and said, would you like to play this part?
- 28:01Speaker 1: Oh my god? And I said, okay, what did you
- 28:05Speaker 1: do to your voice? Because what was cool? You had
- 28:09Speaker 1: to you had to figure out, like what's cool or
- 28:11Speaker 1: like universally.
- 28:12Speaker 2: I didn't.
- 28:13Speaker 4: I didn't figure anything out. I went from being henry
- 28:17Speaker 4: nervous a short jew two, hey, look don't look at
- 28:23Speaker 4: me like that, and all of a sudden, and then
- 28:29Speaker 4: I threw the script up in the air. I walked
- 28:32Speaker 4: out of that room, and Gary Marshall said, I think
- 28:37Speaker 4: I saw something in this young man, and he gave.
- 28:41Speaker 1: Me the part I read that you weren't at all
- 28:43Speaker 1: with Gary pictured for the part.
- 28:46Speaker 4: No, they wanted a tall Italian. They got a very
- 28:49Speaker 4: short jew from New York. And people, you know, I'm
- 28:57Speaker 4: even to this day when I try all around the country,
- 29:01Speaker 4: around the world, people say to me, oh my god,
- 29:05Speaker 4: I thought you were much taller.
- 29:08Speaker 1: Yeah, did they shoot you in such a way that,
- 29:10Speaker 1: you know.
- 29:11Speaker 3: Just the energy, the energy was that's the most powerful,
- 29:15Speaker 3: and like we have jokes about it or at at work,
- 29:18Speaker 3: Zach and I, like we had a stand in uh
- 29:23Speaker 3: named Deontay and we called him Black Phonzie because he
- 29:26Speaker 3: just had the gift to gab with the ladies and
- 29:29Speaker 3: he knew how to work the work, the crew and
- 29:31Speaker 3: he knew all of it.
- 29:32Speaker 2: He knew everything it was like. And we called him
- 29:35Speaker 2: Black Phronsie because he was he just was so cool.
- 29:38Speaker 6: You know what I mean.
- 29:39Speaker 1: Ladies loved them, all the ladies, well.
- 29:41Speaker 2: The ladies loved him. But he also he had to
- 29:43Speaker 2: end with every department. He was my standing.
- 29:46Speaker 3: He had to end with every department, so every department
- 29:49Speaker 3: knew him. And he knew everyone, and he was just
- 29:52Speaker 3: he was just a cool guy on set, you know
- 29:54Speaker 3: what I mean.
- 29:55Speaker 4: It was just great.
- 29:56Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I make the joke I have a friend
- 29:58Speaker 1: who's h who is very promiscuous, and I say, he's
- 30:04Speaker 1: got to move cities now, because I remember there being
- 30:06Speaker 1: an episode where Phronsie had been with every woman in
- 30:09Speaker 1: Milwaukee and he had to move, didn't he have to?
- 30:16Speaker 1: I just remember so joke about that. So I always
- 30:19Speaker 1: say that my friend, like, he's going to change cities
- 30:21Speaker 1: because he's like Phonsie, he's already dated every girl in
- 30:23Speaker 1: the city. Henry, this show was enormous. I mean, this
- 30:29Speaker 1: show wasn't just on the air nowadays. Obviously it goes
- 30:32Speaker 1: without saying there's so much more content. But what was
- 30:36Speaker 1: life like for you when you were on this show.
- 30:38Speaker 1: I read a Beatle came up to you.
- 30:42Speaker 4: Beatles came I met every Beatle except for George. I
- 30:49Speaker 4: was walking on the street in New York City with
- 30:53Speaker 4: my wife and coming the other direction was Paul McCartney,
- 31:00Speaker 4: and he went the phones and we stood talking. A
- 31:09Speaker 4: woman came out of a store gave us each a rose.
- 31:12Speaker 4: Another woman came up and said, hey, do you mind
- 31:15Speaker 4: if I just stand here, he said, we're in the
- 31:17Speaker 4: middle of a conversation. No. Then he gave me a
- 31:22Speaker 4: phone number and he said, let's get in touch, and I,
- 31:29Speaker 4: like an asshole, call that number every ten minutes for
- 31:34Speaker 4: twenty four hours as what I a as you should
- 31:38Speaker 4: never answered. So if he is listening, I would just
- 31:42Speaker 4: like to say, I'm a really good guy. Could you
- 31:47Speaker 4: call me back because i'd I'd love to have lunch.
- 31:52Speaker 1: That's so funny. Well, I just mean it must have
- 31:54Speaker 1: been such your crazy existence, because you know the level
- 31:58Speaker 1: of success that not only the show had, but your character.
- 32:01Speaker 1: I mean, they wanted to change the name of the
- 32:03Speaker 1: show to Fonsi's Happy Days. You broke out on such
- 32:07Speaker 1: a level it must have been.
- 32:09Speaker 4: But I asked them, I said, look, do me a favor.
- 32:13Speaker 4: If I have any juice whatsoever, Please do not do
- 32:17Speaker 4: that because it would be such a slap in the
- 32:21Speaker 4: face for everybody else. I was part of an ensemble,
- 32:27Speaker 4: the Fawns. Without that family, without those boys, I don't
- 32:33Speaker 4: know where he would be. And it is Happy Days.
- 32:38Speaker 4: If it's not broken, don't fix.
- 32:40Speaker 1: It, don't fix Was that hard for Ron?
- 32:42Speaker 2: Howard?
- 32:42Speaker 1: Do you think like has he ever shared with you that.
- 32:45Speaker 1: Obviously he broke out to but I wonder what was
- 32:48Speaker 1: that difficult for him.
- 32:49Speaker 4: I think that he was signed on as the star
- 32:53Speaker 4: of the show and we had a drive home in
- 32:58Speaker 4: his VW Origional Little Bug. We drove home from set.
- 33:05Speaker 4: We were doing one of those two part openings, and
- 33:09Speaker 4: I said, okay, Ron, we've got to talk about this,
- 33:12Speaker 4: and he said, look, it hurt my feelings, but you
- 33:15Speaker 4: did not do anything. You didn't have You don't have
- 33:19Speaker 4: an attitude. It's good for the show. You didn't try to,
- 33:24Speaker 4: you know, to outshine anybody. Yeah, so you know it's
- 33:30Speaker 4: the ying and the yang of that. But that was
- 33:34Speaker 4: the only time we ever talked about it. And he
- 33:37Speaker 4: is still my like my brother.
- 33:41Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 33:41Speaker 3: Yeah, Because right after that, you got he directed a movie,
- 33:44Speaker 3: his first directorial debut.
- 33:45Speaker 2: He made you the star of the movie.
- 33:47Speaker 4: He came to me and he said, look, Warner Brothers
- 33:50Speaker 4: will fund the movie. They're going to give me six
- 33:53Speaker 4: million dollars. But they asked, would you be in the
- 33:57Speaker 4: movie and you can play either role. And I thought, well,
- 34:02Speaker 4: I was Flambuoyant for ten years. I'm going to play
- 34:05Speaker 4: Richie and so I chose the character of Chuck, and
- 34:10Speaker 4: he was incredibly He was twenty five.
- 34:15Speaker 2: Were you at the time? He was, No, I was.
- 34:19Speaker 4: I was. He was eighteen when I met him, and
- 34:21Speaker 4: I was twenty seven, okay, so nineteen twenty twenty one,
- 34:26Speaker 4: twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, thirty three. I was
- 34:29Speaker 4: about ten years older than he was, and he was
- 34:33Speaker 4: twenty five years old. And he said, are they going
- 34:37Speaker 4: to listen to me? The crew has been doing this
- 34:40Speaker 4: longer than I've been alive. I said, Ron, I promise you.
- 34:46Speaker 4: And he has such power as a person that when
- 34:51Speaker 4: he would stop and say, let me think about that,
- 34:55Speaker 4: everybody waited for Ron to tell us what to do.
- 35:02Speaker 1: You know, I read for him when I was a
- 35:03Speaker 1: kid for Parenthood. I read for the part that went
- 35:07Speaker 1: to Joaquin Phoenix.
- 35:09Speaker 4: Woh wow.
- 35:09Speaker 1: And I have this great memory you just reminded me
- 35:12Speaker 1: of And this never happened ever in another audition, he
- 35:15Speaker 1: was so sensitive. I was, I must have been thirteen fourteen,
- 35:19Speaker 1: and I think he knew that having anybody else in
- 35:22Speaker 1: the room would be intimidating. And I didn't know who
- 35:25Speaker 1: he was, or at least the young me didn't put
- 35:28Speaker 1: it all together. Right, you know, he was the guy
- 35:31Speaker 1: from Happy Days whatever. But the point was that he
- 35:33Speaker 1: didn't have anyone else in the room, and he and
- 35:34Speaker 1: I sat next to each other and we just read
- 35:36Speaker 1: the scene, just me and him. There was nobody else
- 35:38Speaker 1: in the room. And I always had such a like
- 35:42Speaker 1: a lovely memory of that going. What a sensitive man
- 35:44Speaker 1: to take all the intimidation out for the young kid.
- 35:48Speaker 4: And it was very wise. He was, even at eighteen
- 35:52Speaker 4: when I first met him, just an incredibly thoughtful, wise
- 35:58Speaker 4: human being. I was.
- 36:01Speaker 3: I was, you know, you have goals in life and
- 36:04Speaker 3: everything like that. And one of my goals was to
- 36:07Speaker 3: work with Ron Howard in some way, right, and I
- 36:11Speaker 3: think Felicity. When I got Felicity, that was Imagine Entertainment. Yes,
- 36:16Speaker 3: that's his company, right, yes, yes, And I remember when
- 36:21Speaker 3: I saw that.
- 36:21Speaker 2: I was like, I did it. I did it?
- 36:25Speaker 4: Yes.
- 36:26Speaker 2: Yeah. My name is Ron Howard's name is right next
- 36:29Speaker 2: to each other. These are goals in life, you know
- 36:34Speaker 2: what I mean.
- 36:35Speaker 4: My goal is to get back on Broadway.
- 36:38Speaker 1: Oh you got you should be you can make that
- 36:41Speaker 1: dream and.
- 36:43Speaker 4: Not so easy, not so easy. I did three plays.
- 36:47Speaker 4: The first one closed in one night, the second one
- 36:52Speaker 4: ran for nine months. The third one closed in seven nights,
- 36:58Speaker 4: So now I need to do it one more time
- 37:01Speaker 4: to make that third one.
- 37:03Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I hear you. I've done a bunch of
- 37:07Speaker 1: I've not only on one Broadway show, but off Broadway ones.
- 37:10Speaker 1: And the Broadway thing is so tough because you know,
- 37:15Speaker 1: the critics can literally shut it down. Really when people do,
- 37:20Speaker 1: when people go, how does what is Henry Mina closed
- 37:22Speaker 1: in one night? What happens is if you get trashed
- 37:24Speaker 1: by the critics in New York, they just people aren't
- 37:26Speaker 1: gonna buy tickets, so it's just closes. The New York
- 37:28Speaker 1: Times whatever the New York Times says.
- 37:30Speaker 4: Yeah, that in London.
- 37:31Speaker 1: In London, Henry, I don't if you've ever had that experience,
- 37:34Speaker 1: But there's a little bit more. It's a fun experience
- 37:38Speaker 1: that uh to do a show there. And also it's
- 37:39Speaker 1: a little more spread out in terms of not one
- 37:42Speaker 1: paper controlling your entire fate.
- 37:45Speaker 4: Yeah. Right. In England, I did what is called pantomime
- 37:50Speaker 4: at Christmas. You put on this play with music and
- 37:56Speaker 4: I did Peter Pan. I played Captain Hook. Yeah, and
- 38:00Speaker 4: I did it in seven cities and it's been going
- 38:04Speaker 4: since seventeen fifty six. Let's say, and this particular form,
- 38:11Speaker 4: and the audience knows to yell at you and to
- 38:16Speaker 4: yell at Peter and go he's behind you. And I
- 38:21Speaker 4: would walk down to the lip of the stage and
- 38:23Speaker 4: I would say, if you warn him one more time,
- 38:27Speaker 4: I'm coming to your house and taking all your presents.
- 38:36Speaker 1: I would love to see you on stage, Henry.
- 38:38Speaker 2: So I hope you do that.
- 38:40Speaker 1: We can tell us about segueing into directing, because that's
- 38:43Speaker 1: what you did, and it's something I can relate to
- 38:45Speaker 1: myself that I've been doing a lot of. And did
- 38:50Speaker 1: you do you feel that you've been educated on doing
- 38:54Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, obviously sitcom directing is a unique style,
- 38:57Speaker 1: but was that an education for you?
- 38:59Speaker 4: It was? And not only that. Everything I learned about
- 39:02Speaker 4: being a professional on the set, in front or behind
- 39:06Speaker 4: the camera, I learned from Gary Marshall and from Jerry
- 39:11Speaker 4: rest Is Soul Paris. Jerry Paris directed I don't know
- 39:16Speaker 4: two hundred and forty episodes of Happy Days. He was unbelievable.
- 39:22Speaker 4: He was also the dentist on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- 39:27Speaker 4: He was the next door neighbor, brilliant man. So this
- 39:33Speaker 4: is the way I see my directing career years ago.
- 39:38Speaker 4: You would get a lawnmower and you would pull it
- 39:43Speaker 4: in order to start it. You would pull the cord
- 39:46Speaker 4: and it would just about turnover who I was that lawnmower.
- 39:55Speaker 4: My directing career never really turned over. I directed commercials.
- 40:02Speaker 4: I directed half an hour.
- 40:04Speaker 1: Yeah. Donald told a story about you directing him and clueless,
- 40:09Speaker 1: and you were kind to him even though he was
- 40:12Speaker 1: tardy one day.
- 40:13Speaker 2: I was so tardy. It was the first day you
- 40:15Speaker 2: were there and I was so tardy.
- 40:18Speaker 4: That was the beginning of my directing. Yeah.
- 40:21Speaker 3: Yeah, Well you put me in my first of all,
- 40:22Speaker 3: you put me in my place one. But you did
- 40:25Speaker 3: it in such a good way that you know to
- 40:29Speaker 3: this day, you know. I mean, dude, you've just done
- 40:33Speaker 3: like there have been a lot of things for me
- 40:35Speaker 3: that you've done when I didn't have friends.
- 40:37Speaker 2: You introduced me to your daughter, you know what I mean. Like,
- 40:39Speaker 2: there's so many things that's just great about you. Henry.
- 40:43Speaker 3: You are an amazing person, and I think you're an
- 40:46Speaker 3: amazing director also, And I.
- 40:49Speaker 4: You're the only one.
- 40:51Speaker 6: No, I'm not, No, I'm not.
- 40:53Speaker 3: I'm sure every actor that you've ever worked with is
- 40:55Speaker 3: like you. No, he's a fucking amazing director. Uh listen,
- 40:59Speaker 3: I hope you get another the chance to direct as
- 41:01Speaker 3: well too. Then if that's the case, because you listen, man,
- 41:04Speaker 3: nobody to this day, nobody has been.
- 41:07Speaker 2: Able to get through them to me the way you've
- 41:11Speaker 2: been able to get through to me.
- 41:12Speaker 4: Wow.
- 41:13Speaker 3: And and it was on a show that you know
- 41:15Speaker 3: was it was a kids show, but it was an
- 41:18Speaker 3: adult show. But you came in and you gave it
- 41:21Speaker 3: such life. And you're directing Tim Conway at the same time,
- 41:24Speaker 3: as as as as all I did.
- 41:27Speaker 4: With Tim Conway was point the camera in the right direction.
- 41:31Speaker 4: I mean, you know when you watch on either YouTube
- 41:34Speaker 4: or TikTok when they come up with those Harvey Korman Ye,
- 41:38Speaker 4: Tim Conway bits. I wish that I had half that
- 41:46Speaker 4: imagination when Tim Conway was the dentist. Yes, and he
- 41:52Speaker 4: kept on injecting himself from Milva game.
- 41:55Speaker 2: Yes.
- 41:55Speaker 1: And you haven't seen this, audience. You have to just
- 41:58Speaker 1: Tim Conway. You have to see the sketch from the
- 42:01Speaker 1: cawber Neet Show.
- 42:02Speaker 4: But it really is no joke. It is one of
- 42:04Speaker 4: the funniest things ever done anywhere.
- 42:08Speaker 1: Now I have to ask him, this is a bit
- 42:11Speaker 1: of a segue off Donald mentioning your children. I know
- 42:13Speaker 1: both of your children too, and they love you so much.
- 42:19Speaker 1: What is your secret to parenthooding? I mean, I've spoken,
- 42:22Speaker 1: I know Max a bit, and he just speaks about
- 42:25Speaker 1: you so lovingly. And you have any tips for parents
- 42:29Speaker 1: out there? How do you get your kids to love
- 42:30Speaker 1: you as much as you do?
- 42:32Speaker 4: Here is my overall tip. A heard child is a
- 42:38Speaker 4: powerful child. I grew up with two Germans who did
- 42:47Speaker 4: not see me. They didn't know why I wanted to
- 42:51Speaker 4: do what I do. They didn't care about what I
- 42:54Speaker 4: wanted to do. I did not have an opinion, and
- 42:58Speaker 4: I swore to my wife that I would be a
- 43:00Speaker 4: different parent. And when when your child comes three, they're
- 43:06Speaker 4: three years old, four years old, you're late, you can't
- 43:10Speaker 4: find your keys, you're going to a meeting. You go,
- 43:12Speaker 4: oh my god, I got dad, I Dad, and you
- 43:18Speaker 4: just stand there. I like green. Okay, I'm so glad
- 43:25Speaker 4: you said that, because we're going to discuss every shade
- 43:27Speaker 4: of green when I come back. I'm telling you it
- 43:31Speaker 4: took thirty seconds, forty five seconds. You know later you're
- 43:36Speaker 4: not more on time, and that child goes We're gonna
- 43:41Speaker 4: we're gonna talk about green. I'm telling you that is
- 43:46Speaker 4: the great umbrella. And then you know, see, if your
- 43:55Speaker 4: child has a problem, you don't know what it is,
- 43:59Speaker 4: you don't know the name, but you know there's something
- 44:02Speaker 4: going on, respect the problem and look for making that
- 44:10Speaker 4: child more comfortable. Chuse the child knows they've got a problem.
- 44:16Speaker 1: M Well, that's really that's really good advice. It's funny.
- 44:21Speaker 1: I know Max from your son because we both were
- 44:25Speaker 1: working out of the same office once and and he
- 44:28Speaker 1: was just the way he you know, I told him
- 44:30Speaker 1: how much I was a fan of yours and the
- 44:32Speaker 1: way he beams when he talks about you, and he's
- 44:35Speaker 1: a wonderful filmmaker himself, and I just it was just
- 44:39Speaker 1: so sweet that and I thought to myself, what I
- 44:41Speaker 1: wanted to just bring it up to you, because you know,
- 44:44Speaker 1: so many people have issues with their parents, and they
- 44:47Speaker 1: may love their parents, but their parents drive them crazy.
- 44:49Speaker 1: And I was just it was just notable to me
- 44:52Speaker 1: how how how enamored and in love and crazy about
- 44:55Speaker 1: you he was.
- 44:55Speaker 4: Well, I've got I've got three incredible children. My step
- 45:00Speaker 4: son came into my life when he was four, Zoe
- 45:05Speaker 4: and Max came along after that. Zoe just had an
- 45:09Speaker 4: event here in our front lawn for her charity called
- 45:13Speaker 4: this Is About Humanity. She was thirty seven sitting on
- 45:17Speaker 4: her couch watching children being separated from their parents. Said,
- 45:22Speaker 4: oh my goodness, those could be my children. With two
- 45:26Speaker 4: of the ladies started this organization. They've raised over two
- 45:31Speaker 4: million dollars with no overhead. Max said to me at
- 45:36Speaker 4: ten and sos Stacey, I'm going to be a director.
- 45:39Speaker 4: I took him to see Bottle Rocket by Wes Anderson.
- 45:44Speaker 4: I said, I'm going to do that. He just hired
- 45:48Speaker 4: me this past January. He's doing the American Horror Stories
- 45:56Speaker 4: and on the set he was the executive producer direct.
- 46:01Speaker 4: On the set, I asked for a cup of coffee
- 46:04Speaker 4: and the crew brought me a paper cup of coffee
- 46:08Speaker 4: and on it wrote Daddy Winkler, Oh my heart out of.
- 46:14Speaker 1: My body kewlling Kwelling as we said, not so sweet.
- 46:20Speaker 1: And he's really doing well. He's got a lot of
- 46:22Speaker 1: great projects and I'm so happy for him.
- 46:26Speaker 4: Let me just say he directed. I haven't met him,
- 46:29Speaker 4: but he directed hoavi Ar bard Dem and then Hoaviar
- 46:34Speaker 4: bard Dem just invited he and his wife to dinner.
- 46:38Speaker 4: I said, could I drive? Could I just the limo driver?
- 46:44Speaker 4: I'll wear a hat and everything.
- 46:47Speaker 1: That's funny.
- 46:48Speaker 2: Let's take a break.
- 46:49Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these fine words. All right,
- 46:58Speaker 1: because we have you for a limited time, we're going
- 47:00Speaker 1: to jump to arrested development. Yes I want to Yeah,
- 47:05Speaker 1: you go ahead.
- 47:06Speaker 2: You can say what you want to do you okay,
- 47:12Speaker 2: all right, but just let me just say one thing.
- 47:14Speaker 3: In between arrested development and the directing and uh, what
- 47:20Speaker 3: were you were raising family? You were you were being
- 47:23Speaker 3: a dad at home for that time. What made you
- 47:27Speaker 3: all of a sudden say you know what? Because when
- 47:30Speaker 3: we had you on Clueless, you didn't want to do
- 47:32Speaker 3: You didn't want to act on the show at all.
- 47:34Speaker 2: You were like no, no, no.
- 47:35Speaker 3: Even though they convinced you towards the end, like you're
- 47:37Speaker 3: in like a in the credits, you didn't want to
- 47:40Speaker 3: act in the show.
- 47:41Speaker 2: What convinced you to get back into acting again?
- 47:43Speaker 4: Somebody asked, really, I'm that Sandler.
- 47:47Speaker 1: You did a bunch of Sandler movies.
- 47:48Speaker 4: I did a Sandler movie. It was hard for me
- 47:51Speaker 4: to get an acting job. That's how I started writing
- 47:56Speaker 4: children's books. We just wrote our fortieth Oh my god,
- 48:01Speaker 4: children's books that fade out in October Detectives Duck of
- 48:06Speaker 4: volume two.
- 48:08Speaker 1: You write those?
- 48:10Speaker 2: You write it with Lynn.
- 48:11Speaker 4: Oliver, with my partner Lynn. We've written every book together
- 48:15Speaker 4: and it's amazing. I am. I thought I was stupid.
- 48:21Speaker 4: I can't read, And with Lynn I have written forty
- 48:26Speaker 4: children's Now, Wow.
- 48:28Speaker 2: That's amazing. That is amazing.
- 48:31Speaker 1: No, so oh gosh, I can interview you forever. But
- 48:34Speaker 1: my question is because Donald and I have faced this.
- 48:36Speaker 1: You know, we were on a popular show. Yeah, we're
- 48:39Speaker 1: neither one of us on the level of being Phonsie,
- 48:41Speaker 1: but but we definitely got known for being a type
- 48:44Speaker 1: you bet, which is don't get me wrong. The first
- 48:47Speaker 1: thought is, of course, we are so lucky, we are
- 48:49Speaker 1: so grateful, but you it is hard to I'm still
- 48:51Speaker 1: working on branching. I'm doing a tiny yarc on this
- 48:54Speaker 1: show called Bad Monkey, where I'm actually doing something one
- 48:56Speaker 1: hundred and eighty degrees from JD and people are based
- 49:00Speaker 1: on Yeah, and it's so refreshing to get that opportunity.
- 49:05Speaker 1: And so I know I can imagine what you felt
- 49:08Speaker 1: because you were on lunchboxes. I mean, you were so
- 49:11Speaker 1: known as that guy do you.
- 49:13Speaker 4: Know Actually, when I had an office at Paramount, and
- 49:20Speaker 4: I sat in my office at my desk, and I
- 49:25Speaker 4: literally had psychic pain because I had no plan. B.
- 49:32Speaker 2: I had just.
- 49:33Speaker 4: Lived my imagination. Yeah, and now I can't get hired.
- 49:40Speaker 4: I had no idea what to do. And I realized
- 49:45Speaker 4: it is a great life lesson when you don't know
- 49:48Speaker 4: what to do. Just sit for a minute and let
- 49:53Speaker 4: it percolate, and all of a sudden it will come.
- 49:57Speaker 4: My lawyer, Skip Brittenham the Third said I know what
- 50:01Speaker 4: you're going to do. You're going to produce. I said,
- 50:03Speaker 4: I can't produce.
- 50:03Speaker 2: I know nothing.
- 50:05Speaker 4: He said, you'll learn. And the first show that I
- 50:10Speaker 4: heard all these ideas, I said, oh I like that idea.
- 50:14Speaker 4: I want to see that idea. The first show I
- 50:16Speaker 4: ever produced with a man named John Rich who's no
- 50:20Speaker 4: longer with us, was mcgiver.
- 50:23Speaker 1: Oh my god, I forgot you produced mcguiver. Wow. Yeah,
- 50:28Speaker 1: that was a big hit.
- 50:29Speaker 4: It was a huge hit.
- 50:30Speaker 2: It was such it's such a big hit that they
- 50:34Speaker 2: remade it.
- 50:36Speaker 1: He made it as a comedy, but.
- 50:37Speaker 3: No, they remade mcgiver as a television show too. Television show.
- 50:44Speaker 2: On Saturnight Live with macgoover right right.
- 50:47Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking you're right, I'm thinking mcgoober. But wow, wait,
- 50:50Speaker 1: sowet Sorry, Henry. The first thing you produced was mcgiver.
- 50:55Speaker 4: Yes, that was the first show. The second show was
- 51:00Speaker 4: the next hit that I was able to produce with
- 51:03Speaker 4: Anne Daniel was Sightings because I love the paranormal. I
- 51:10Speaker 4: just love that whole. I really think there's got to
- 51:14Speaker 4: be a whole other level that we're not privy to. Yeah,
- 51:20Speaker 4: but I agree with you, yeah, yeah, absolutely, But.
- 51:24Speaker 2: Do you say okay? So God, I'm sorry I cut you.
- 51:26Speaker 4: No, no, no. The second show was an amazingly funny
- 51:31Speaker 4: half hour comedy called Mister Sunshine, starring Jeff Tambour as
- 51:37Speaker 4: a blind English professor, and it was I mean, I
- 51:44Speaker 4: cannot even begin to tell you the writers that we got.
- 51:49Speaker 4: But that only lasted thirteen.
- 51:51Speaker 1: Episodes, so you never know, Yeah, you never know, You
- 51:54Speaker 1: never know. I mean, I I Donald and I have
- 51:56Speaker 1: both been on ten episode shows.
- 52:00Speaker 3: I've been on, Yeah, I've been on I've been on
- 52:01Speaker 3: an episode. Listen, I've been on the shows that only
- 52:05Speaker 3: lasted thirteen episodes.
- 52:08Speaker 2: And that was it.
- 52:09Speaker 1: Yeah, well mine, I think I beat you, Alex, think
- 52:11Speaker 1: only went ten.
- 52:12Speaker 2: No, you did more than that. You guys did like twelve.
- 52:15Speaker 1: No, we did ten, I think, but it was fun
- 52:17Speaker 1: more lasted.
- 52:18Speaker 3: I will say this, thank goodness that Hollywood at least
- 52:21Speaker 3: lets the thirteen still air because I remember, or you.
- 52:25Speaker 2: Get paid for the thirteen? Ouse I remember, you get canceled.
- 52:29Speaker 2: That's a rat.
- 52:30Speaker 4: Oh, Donald, I was. I did a show that I
- 52:35Speaker 4: turned down twice and it was written by Mark somebody Mark,
- 52:44Speaker 4: it'll come to me. He was in Gary Goldberg's camp,
- 52:49Speaker 4: you know, family ties, and he came to me with
- 52:53Speaker 4: this idea of a Rush Limbaugh with a gay daughter.
- 52:58Speaker 4: But it was in the eighties, and I said, no,
- 53:02Speaker 4: it's too controversial, but it is so funny. I've got
- 53:06Speaker 4: to say yes. And we sold it to NBC. Somebody
- 53:11Speaker 4: an NBC must have looked at it after it was
- 53:14Speaker 4: bought and said, not on my network. Now we're back
- 53:18Speaker 4: in the world. We sell it to Fox. They don't
- 53:22Speaker 4: want the gay daughter. So now it is David Schwimmer,
- 53:26Speaker 4: who is my son, who goes to college to be
- 53:30Speaker 4: a lawyer, comes back. He wants to be a chef.
- 53:34Speaker 1: Has nothing to do with the original, have nothing to
- 53:36Speaker 1: do with the gay or anything.
- 53:38Speaker 4: This is the life lesson when you're doing something and
- 53:43Speaker 4: it gets bastardized to where you don't recognize it anymore.
- 53:48Speaker 4: Go home.
- 53:49Speaker 1: Yeah, I got used reminding me the funniest story from
- 53:51Speaker 1: the movie The TV Set. Have you ever seen that? No, Well, listeners,
- 53:56Speaker 1: and Henry, I want you to see this when we
- 53:58Speaker 1: call the TV Set. It's about the making of a pilot.
- 54:02Speaker 1: And it's so funny Henry because there's so many inside
- 54:05Speaker 1: jokes you'll you'll laugh at him. And David d'coveney plays
- 54:09Speaker 1: I think he's the showrunner of the of the of
- 54:12Speaker 1: the the creator of the show. And Sigourney Weaver plays
- 54:15Speaker 1: the studio head and she says, look, we want to
- 54:19Speaker 1: do the show, but we want to get rid of
- 54:21Speaker 1: the the suicide in the in the pilot, and David
- 54:26Speaker 1: du coveny says, the suicide is the whole reason I
- 54:28Speaker 1: wrote the show. The suicide is is the was the
- 54:30Speaker 1: raison deetra for for the whole pilot, and it's the
- 54:33Speaker 1: It's the whole reason that I'm sitting here in front
- 54:35Speaker 1: of you when the show is getting made is because
- 54:37Speaker 1: that started me. Because of this and and and I
- 54:39Speaker 1: wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the suicide. And
- 54:41Speaker 1: there's a long pause and Sigourney Weaver goes, but what
- 54:45Speaker 1: if it wasn't? And to me, as somebody's in this industry,
- 54:56Speaker 1: it like summed up everything about the struggle of getting
- 54:59Speaker 1: stuff made.
- 55:00Speaker 4: Oh my god, it's so true. I was offered a
- 55:04Speaker 4: show very funny, and I lost my wife, my daughter,
- 55:09Speaker 4: her mother, and the network said, it's so funny, we
- 55:15Speaker 4: really want to do it, but our audience doesn't like grief.
- 55:23Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 55:24Speaker 4: Wait what our audience does not do well with grief?
- 55:30Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all that's on television right now. Wait.
- 55:35Speaker 3: Wait, I don't understand what analytics. What analytics are they're
- 55:39Speaker 3: looking at at the time, I.
- 55:41Speaker 1: Don't know had another funny Well, I don't know. I've
- 55:45Speaker 1: just been doing pilots and stuff. You see the dial
- 55:47Speaker 1: testing and everything. It's so it's such a trippy, weird thing.
- 55:51Speaker 1: But wait, I want to leave time to talk. We
- 55:52Speaker 1: got to leave time to talk about two more mega hits.
- 55:55Speaker 1: So you basically got a cameo on Arrested Development and
- 55:59Speaker 1: then did ended up doing thirty two episodes. I mean,
- 56:02Speaker 1: did they how did they?
- 56:03Speaker 2: Did?
- 56:03Speaker 1: They just love the character and love what you were
- 56:05Speaker 1: doing so much.
- 56:06Speaker 4: That is exactly right. I just did what my instinct
- 56:10Speaker 4: told me to do, and Mitch Hurwitz kept writing me
- 56:14Speaker 4: and he is I have literally worked with such brilliant
- 56:22Speaker 4: human beings.
- 56:23Speaker 1: Yeah, you really have some of the greatest.
- 56:25Speaker 4: Am greatest handler. Yeah, Mitch Hurwitz, John Shure, uh, and
- 56:33Speaker 4: then Bill Hater and Alec.
- 56:35Speaker 1: Burg, Alec Berg. Yeah, yeah, you've really worked with You
- 56:38Speaker 1: really have worked with some of the most legendary showrunners
- 56:41Speaker 1: of all time.
- 56:43Speaker 4: And then let's not forget Children's Hospital with that whole bunch.
- 56:49Speaker 2: In the same set of scrubs.
- 56:51Speaker 1: You guys, Oh my god, when what was your was arrested,
- 56:56Speaker 1: you know, I did a cameo, I did a little
- 56:58Speaker 1: thing on arrested, and I had so much fun. It
- 57:01Speaker 1: felt like there was a lot of room for you
- 57:03Speaker 1: guys to play around, right. It was that the environment
- 57:05Speaker 1: that you could do.
- 57:06Speaker 4: Some know what in structure comes freedom and you could
- 57:10Speaker 4: play around. But when they heard that you were going
- 57:15Speaker 4: too far adrift, they would put you right back.
- 57:19Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 57:19Speaker 1: I had a thing where I was riffing with David
- 57:21Speaker 1: Cross because we were both never nudes and we were
- 57:25Speaker 1: both standing there in tattered jean shorts. Short shorts and
- 57:30Speaker 1: David Cross. I just he was riffing the most insane,
- 57:33Speaker 1: hilarious stuffs, none of which ended up in the show,
- 57:36Speaker 1: by the way, I mean a tiny fraction of but
- 57:39Speaker 1: I remember laughing so hard at this insane stuff he
- 57:42Speaker 1: was saying, which I would have loved if it was
- 57:45Speaker 1: in the show. But I'm sure Mitch was like, all right,
- 57:46Speaker 1: let's trim all that back.
- 57:48Speaker 4: Yeah. No, Mitch was very very clear about his vision,
- 57:54Speaker 4: and I mean that is the beginning and the end
- 57:57Speaker 4: of a great showrunner. Yes, when they've got the vision
- 58:01Speaker 4: and in that structure, you get to be free.
- 58:05Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we've had that with Bill Lawrence. And I
- 58:08Speaker 1: have to tell you, I'm I'm directing Shrinking now.
- 58:10Speaker 4: And Mark Lawrence. Thank you Mark Lawrence versus the man
- 58:15Speaker 4: who created the show. I did Monty about Rush Limbaugh
- 58:21Speaker 4: and his gay daughter.
- 58:22Speaker 1: Oh got it. I just wanted to say that we
- 58:26Speaker 1: had that with Bill as actors. And it's funny when
- 58:29Speaker 1: I'm directing. I just directed Shrinking and I'm turning in
- 58:32Speaker 1: my cut and I'm sitting there with Bill and you
- 58:34Speaker 1: know it's his baby. You know, I'm I'm I'm directing it.
- 58:38Speaker 1: But we have this little battle sometimes over over what's
- 58:42Speaker 1: going to end up in the show and what's not
- 58:43Speaker 1: going to end up in the show. But you're right.
- 58:46Speaker 1: The brilliance of a great show runner is is someone
- 58:48Speaker 1: like a Mitch Herwitz or or a Bill Lawrence or
- 58:50Speaker 1: a Gary Marshall, who goes, I hear you, I see
- 58:53Speaker 1: what your contribution was. I I love it, but it's
- 58:59Speaker 1: here's my vision, and here's what it's going to be.
- 59:01Speaker 1: Because for me, I would let for example, I would
- 59:03Speaker 1: let my episode go long. Bill has a very clear vision.
- 59:07Speaker 1: He does not like half hour comedies that go too long.
- 59:10Speaker 1: So he's cutting things that I'm going, why are you
- 59:12Speaker 1: cutting that? It's it's funny, it's nice. He's like, it's
- 59:15Speaker 1: too long. Shows too long. And that's just a little
- 59:18Speaker 1: minuscule example of like that. This is his baby, this
- 59:21Speaker 1: is his vision. This is why he's brilliant at what
- 59:23Speaker 1: he does.
- 59:24Speaker 4: You know. Yeah, but you know what everybody else benefits
- 59:29Speaker 4: from somebody having a real point of view. Yes, everybody,
- 59:34Speaker 4: every member of the cast, the crew, the writer's everybody.
- 59:39Speaker 4: It is essential. Yeah, you know, because I listen, I
- 59:44Speaker 4: think I am so funny, I am so great. Oh
- 59:48Speaker 4: my god, I just improvised, and then you realize, maybe
- 59:52Speaker 4: I should just go back to the script and shut up.
- 59:55Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you, Yeah that Yeah.
- 59:58Speaker 3: When that's when you real that, when you realize you've
- 1:00:01Speaker 3: gone too far, it's it's it's a little embarrassing.
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: And sometimes you're laughing. Sometimes sometimes you're just cracking up
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: because it's new, and you know what, and you realize, like, hey,
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: we laughed hard at the table, read it that joke,
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: and now we're all just used to it, so it's
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: not new, and now we think we're hilarious because we've
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: improvised five other things. But you know what, really the
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: best joke is the one that they wrote.
- 1:00:24Speaker 3: The one that started with but weally said, so much
- 1:00:27Speaker 3: time just now fucking around, guys, let's just go back
- 1:00:30Speaker 3: to what was there.
- 1:00:31Speaker 4: But Donald, I have to say, I'm gonna I can't
- 1:00:33Speaker 4: let what you just said go. Okay, you can't be embarrassed.
- 1:00:38Speaker 4: And I'll tell you why. If you don't try, if
- 1:00:43Speaker 4: you don't put it out there, you'll never know. Yeah,
- 1:00:48Speaker 4: it might be amazing, but you can't know that unless
- 1:00:54Speaker 4: you try it.
- 1:00:54Speaker 2: It doesn't work.
- 1:00:55Speaker 6: Hey, you go on.
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: I think that's the best advice for actors that are listening, Like,
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: the biggest thing of acting is getting back to when
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: you were a kid and didn't have this embarrassment voice
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: in your head. It's getting back to being a little
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: kid who's silly and crazy and doesn't have that filter
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: because they don't want to be judged. I mean, that's
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: that's the best thing an acting class can give you.
- 1:01:18Speaker 4: I'm telling you you cannot be embarrassed. There's no room
- 1:01:22Speaker 4: for it, and there's no purpose for it. You've got
- 1:01:26Speaker 4: to try your imagination and then if it doesn't work,
- 1:01:30Speaker 4: I tried.
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: This is the perfect segue. Because I'm such a good
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: podcast host doing.
- 1:01:37Speaker 3: Pretty well today, I'm not gonna lie the conversation between
- 1:01:40Speaker 3: you two.
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: Watch this one, Donald, watch this segue. You sound very
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: much to me right now, Henry like an acting teacher,
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: Which brings me to one of the finest uh pieces
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: of television I think in at least the last two decades,
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: Barry h you are so phenomenal on the show. You've
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: got an I mean sitting behind you for it.
- 1:02:04Speaker 4: Thank you?
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: How did that come about? How did you get it?
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: How did you become part of this universe?
- 1:02:09Speaker 4: Three things? I got a call that Bill Hayter and
- 1:02:15Speaker 4: HBO would like to meet you. I thought, oh my goodness,
- 1:02:19Speaker 4: I'd never worked for HBO and I watched Bill Hayter
- 1:02:22Speaker 4: every Saturday night on Saturday Night Live. This is amazing.
- 1:02:26Speaker 4: They said, you're on a short list. I said, is
- 1:02:30Speaker 4: Dustin Hoffman on that list? Because if he is, I'm
- 1:02:37Speaker 4: not going in. They said no, they sent me the script.
- 1:02:42Speaker 4: Max was here. I gave him the script. He's now
- 1:02:46Speaker 4: directing me from my audition.
- 1:02:49Speaker 2: Amazing. I go in.
- 1:02:52Speaker 4: Things go, I meet Bill, I meet Alec. They asked
- 1:02:56Speaker 4: me to be in it, and I'm telling you it
- 1:03:00Speaker 4: was all I did was try and fill the vision
- 1:03:05Speaker 4: of those two guys, and it was, oh my, what
- 1:03:11Speaker 4: a journey. And I have to tell you I love
- 1:03:16Speaker 4: teaching and I only do it once a year. At
- 1:03:19Speaker 4: the Vulture Festival, which will be in November. They hold
- 1:03:24Speaker 4: a Vulture right here in La the Vulture Festival, and
- 1:03:28Speaker 4: I go and I hold an acting class and people come.
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: They know, they do know what I'm saying. It's funny
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: that you know. Obviously you're playing such a such a character,
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: and I loved you on the show. But there's there's
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: moments where I as I get talked to you where
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: I see your personality and especially when you when you're
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: giving life advice come out of it. Did they know
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: anything about you when they created this character or did
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: It's probably, like I'm guessing with Donald and I were.
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: It's almost like Bill began to morph and shape the
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: character around.
- 1:03:59Speaker 4: I think that's true. They morphed and shaped the character.
- 1:04:04Speaker 4: I was supposed to be just a hard ass asshole,
- 1:04:09Speaker 4: and they went, oh, yeah, he could be, you know,
- 1:04:13Speaker 4: like a human a little bit. Yeah, And so yes,
- 1:04:17Speaker 4: they they had a vision and in that vision they
- 1:04:22Speaker 4: wrote to me, yeah, and then let me tell you
- 1:04:26Speaker 4: toward the end, it got so dark on this comedy
- 1:04:30Speaker 4: that I had to buy a miner's hat with a
- 1:04:33Speaker 4: lamp so I could see where we were going.
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: It was so brilliant. If you haven't watched Barry, please
- 1:04:41Speaker 1: watch Barry, especially if you're a Scrubs fan. I really
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: think that you'll like it. I think Bill Hayter did
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: something I love so much, which is and I think
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: that we aspired to do on Scrubs, which was take
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: the take, single camera comedy, directing to a to a
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: higher level. And man, did he raise the bar on
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: on on direction of a half hour comedy.
- 1:05:06Speaker 4: But I'll tell you something again. You know you can't
- 1:05:10Speaker 4: throw the word around, but there is brilliance in that
- 1:05:14Speaker 4: young man.
- 1:05:15Speaker 2: Yeah that is Oh, it's it's so clear. Is so clear? Man? Yeah?
- 1:05:21Speaker 2: That that that that I'm gonna say.
- 1:05:23Speaker 3: Bill Hayter is a very very just character work. All
- 1:05:28Speaker 3: of that stuff. He's just very unique man.
- 1:05:30Speaker 2: And then the fact that he can turn shows like
- 1:05:33Speaker 2: that are kind of dramatic to me. But when you
- 1:05:36Speaker 2: can turn a drama into a drama y and start
- 1:05:40Speaker 2: winning comedy.
- 1:05:41Speaker 3: Awards, I think you really really you know, you're touching
- 1:05:45Speaker 3: something like that's hard to do. Leaning into the joke
- 1:05:49Speaker 3: is easy freaking telling a joke and people getting it
- 1:05:53Speaker 3: in the style that you're trying to tell it. Also,
- 1:05:55Speaker 3: telling a joke in a different style is like to
- 1:05:59Speaker 3: be I don't know, man, I could be loud and
- 1:06:01Speaker 3: get laughs.
- 1:06:02Speaker 2: It's kind of hard for me to be soft and
- 1:06:04Speaker 2: quiet and be like this and talk natural and and
- 1:06:08Speaker 2: and get a laugh.
- 1:06:09Speaker 3: There's it's just there's so many there's so many levels
- 1:06:13Speaker 3: to it. And this was one of those shows where
- 1:06:14Speaker 3: ye what.
- 1:06:15Speaker 4: It is Donald, you have you trust, you see the
- 1:06:19Speaker 4: person in front of you, you see the two people
- 1:06:22Speaker 4: in front of you, and then you just trust and
- 1:06:25Speaker 4: you give yourself over to the process. Halfway through the
- 1:06:31Speaker 4: fourth year, because there are only four seasons, Bill said, hey,
- 1:06:36Speaker 4: I want to know how it ends, and I'm not
- 1:06:39Speaker 4: going to tell you because there might be somebody in
- 1:06:41Speaker 4: your audience who hasn't do it. But I went in
- 1:06:45Speaker 4: the corner and shook for a while.
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: All I mean I had to tell you just from
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: your performance was just magical. The leading lady, Sarah Goldberg
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: has there's a few times where he does she does
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: a monologue as a woner that ever cuts off of
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: her face. I think Bill did it a few times
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: and it's just unbelievable her performance and just really really
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: just an incredible, incredible.
- 1:07:11Speaker 4: Yeah, she's on industry now that show industry.
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to check that out.
- 1:07:16Speaker 4: Caring about that is a hard show.
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: I want to check that out.
- 1:07:20Speaker 2: Now.
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: Let's just end on. Uh you post pictures of your fishing?
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: Are you're an avid? You're an avid fisherman?
- 1:07:26Speaker 4: Uh? I love it more than I continue.
- 1:07:29Speaker 1: Really, which style do you do?
- 1:07:31Speaker 2: We do well?
- 1:07:32Speaker 4: I've done a lot deep sea fishing. I vomit. Bass
- 1:07:38Speaker 4: fishing is you catch it, you wheel it in. Trout
- 1:07:43Speaker 4: fishing is like zen. It's like a washing machine for
- 1:07:48Speaker 4: your brain. You have to be in tune with the fish.
- 1:07:52Speaker 4: You cannot worry about one other thing that is happening
- 1:07:57Speaker 4: to you in the world. And my wife is a
- 1:08:00Speaker 4: great fisher person. I don't show pictures of my wife's fish.
- 1:08:04Speaker 4: Christ there usually bigger.
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: How did you learn? How did you get into it?
- 1:08:11Speaker 4: Skip Brittenham the Third took me and Stacy down the
- 1:08:18Speaker 4: Smith River in Montana with an outfit where you float
- 1:08:24Speaker 4: all day, you sleep out under the stars, and for
- 1:08:28Speaker 4: five days you fish.
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: Wow.
- 1:08:31Speaker 4: And I didn't catch much, but no pun intended. I
- 1:08:35Speaker 4: was hooked. And so since the middle eighties, Stacy and
- 1:08:40Speaker 4: I have gone every year to fly fish for trout. Yeah. You.
- 1:08:46Speaker 3: Sam Jenkins talked a lot about fly fishing. He really
- 1:08:49Speaker 3: enjoyed fly fishing. He really enjoys fly fishing. Oh, oh
- 1:08:52Speaker 3: my god, he might talk about it.
- 1:08:54Speaker 4: Jimmy Kimmel is a big fisherman. Michael Keaton is a
- 1:08:58Speaker 4: big fisherman.
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: And this is fly fishing.
- 1:09:01Speaker 4: This is fly fishing exclusively.
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: I only know it from the movie A River runs
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: through it.
- 1:09:07Speaker 4: You are in that place, You are hearing that water,
- 1:09:12Speaker 4: you are catching those fish. You take a picture, you
- 1:09:15Speaker 4: put it back, you catch him next year.
- 1:09:18Speaker 2: Oh that's so sweet, and you could also feel like
- 1:09:21Speaker 2: your Brad Pitt.
- 1:09:22Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, well you know from the face down.
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: Well, Henry, we want to thank you so much.
- 1:09:30Speaker 6: There must be.
- 1:09:32Speaker 4: There must be men on this planet that are just
- 1:09:38Speaker 4: so ugly they don't leave home. Because Brad got all
- 1:09:41Speaker 4: the good looking.
- 1:09:43Speaker 2: He's just so handsome man. We got to meet him.
- 1:09:48Speaker 1: I got lost in his eyes recently.
- 1:09:49Speaker 2: And I found myself when we're leaving, like, have a hug.
- 1:09:53Speaker 4: I mean I did with Brad. I'm so sorry to
- 1:09:58Speaker 4: interrupt you, but we're I had an award show. There's
- 1:10:01Speaker 4: Brad Pitt in this long flowing cashmere coat and I
- 1:10:06Speaker 4: said to him everything that is it, don't move. I
- 1:10:09Speaker 4: just have to get my wife. And I got my
- 1:10:12Speaker 4: wife and took a picture of those two together.
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: It's funny. We were walking. Donald and I were walking
- 1:10:19Speaker 1: at F one in Vegas, and I told him we're
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: going to meet Brad Pitt. Act cool, and he goes,
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: how much take a selfie? I go, don't take a selfie.
- 1:10:28Speaker 1: He goes, I can't take a selfie.
- 1:10:29Speaker 4: I go do not.
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: We're supposed to act cool. We're supposed to act like
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: we always hang out with David Fincher and Brad Pitt. Anyway, Henry,
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on. We really do
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: appreciate it. Wow, I really I want him to be
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: my father. I kept thinking of my dad and that
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: was my dad the whole time.
- 1:10:54Speaker 2: Wow, he's a great man. What a man.
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: My dad was increble man. But didn't didn't didn't he
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: wasn't He like the father that you want in your life.
- 1:11:02Speaker 1: I mean, he's the most Look I.
- 1:11:04Speaker 2: Kept telling y'all in the beginning. He's like a mentor
- 1:11:06Speaker 2: to me.
- 1:11:06Speaker 3: And I don't think he knows it everything I said
- 1:11:09Speaker 3: with every insecurity, I had everything.
- 1:11:13Speaker 2: Donald, hold up, let's go back.
- 1:11:14Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love it.
- 1:11:17Speaker 2: Let's let's address this. I love him, you know what
- 1:11:20Speaker 2: I mean, Like, he's just such a great person.
- 1:11:22Speaker 3: He's just he's one of those people that you know
- 1:11:25Speaker 3: and and and you know, we don't know what what
- 1:11:28Speaker 3: what dwells deep dark in his heart, but there's got
- 1:11:31Speaker 3: to be so much love.
- 1:11:33Speaker 1: But he seems to have it all, you know, he
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: seems to have it all because he's and when I
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: say have it all, I don't mean the career success,
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: although he's had that. I just mean he seems so
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: fulfilled in his life with his family and with his
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: fishing and his children's books. He just seems like like
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: he seems what I aspire to be, which is like
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: present and joyful and yeah, your career will have highs
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: and lows and and things will happen. But he's got
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: the love of this family and him he and his
- 1:12:03Speaker 1: wife go fishing together. I mean, it just seems like
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: the dreamiest person.
- 1:12:07Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, it seems like he's living the dream. Yeah.
- 1:12:11Speaker 3: But he also said something that was really important though.
- 1:12:13Speaker 3: It's because he's grateful.
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: Yep. That's when he started the whole gracious. Yeah, we
- 1:12:18Speaker 1: need to work on that, you and me.
- 1:12:20Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, gracious do we try.
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: I do it every night I go to bed. I
- 1:12:24Speaker 1: I do have the ritual of saying that. I learned
- 1:12:28Speaker 1: saying one, am I grateful for that happened today. I've
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: been doing. I've been doing okay at that. It's just
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: that when bad, when annoying things happen, or things that
- 1:12:38Speaker 1: are frustrating, or I get depressed about something, I I
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: He's right. It's the best thing to do is switch
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: to gratitude and switch to how lucky we are.
- 1:12:46Speaker 2: Because we forget, because we forget.
- 1:12:49Speaker 1: And that's everybody, everybody listening, we all, we all. I'm
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: sure everybody listening can relate that we have so much
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: to be grateful for. And I'm grateful for you. Joelle
- 1:12:59Speaker 1: and DJ Daniel.
- 1:13:01Speaker 2: He called Joel, Joel and Daniel DJ all right, DJ
- 1:13:05Speaker 2: DJ Joel.
- 1:13:09Speaker 1: The audience I'm not watching on YouTube didn't see that.
- 1:13:12Speaker 1: He did that whole interview with a ball or Emmy
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: sitting right beside him for Barry.
- 1:13:16Speaker 2: That's how you do it.
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: Yeah. By the way, if I ever win an Emmy,
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: it's gonna go right in the grammy.
- 1:13:21Speaker 2: Why don't you freaking put the grammy.
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: Up so the grammy doesn't feel Does he feel?
- 1:13:26Speaker 4: What? Well?
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: Doesn't feel relevant?
- 1:13:28Speaker 2: What fucker? You got part of the ego?
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: I did get the one, you got the you got
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: the I got the girl, you.
- 1:13:36Speaker 2: Got the.
- 1:13:42Speaker 6: Stories. I'm not so we made about a bunch of
- 1:13:47Speaker 6: dogs and nurses, he said, he's the stories.
- 1:13:56Speaker 4: So gather.
- 1:13:58Speaker 6: Yead air hops. But we watch always acted
- 1:14:04Speaker 4: M h