Latest / I Am All In with Scott Patterson / Michael Winters from Stars Hollow

Transcript

Michael Winters from Stars Hollow · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am all in again.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, let's.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: I am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast one
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: eleven productions. iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast. One on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: one interview live at Warner Brothers. UH pre interviews with
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Michael Winters, who played the illustrious Taylor Dozie. Michael, it
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: is so good to see a so much for flying
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in for this a big event at Warner Brothers.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Out of town.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: And that's good.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Terrible up there.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: How you doing.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I'm doing good.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: You're looking well.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Thanks, I feel good.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Tell us about getting the role I was.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I had been in town for a few years and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I had sporadic auditions and then I got the audition
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: for this, and I had a script and hadn't been
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: on yet. I had no idea what it was like.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: And I read it and I thought, I don't know
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: whether this is a comedy or if it's a serious thing.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I did not know how to deal with it. And
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the guy who was running the interview was a Rodman Flanders,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: who directed the episode then eventually, and he talked about
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: it in terms of screwball comedies from the thirties that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I knew very well, so that gave me the great
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: clue did the audition. I think I came back one
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: more time and then boom, I was doing it. And
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: it was originally only supposed to be four episodes, and
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I said, that's great, because I'm going back to Seattle
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and do a play, and they said, well, you know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: if there's any more, we'll call you back. In the end,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: it ended up being seven years, plus the four extra
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: movies for Netflix and everything. So it was tiny little
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: seed that grew into a big thing for me. Anyway.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: That's do you remember your first visit to Stars Hollow?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I mean, you know, the first time I'd
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: been on this lot or you know it is where
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: great movies where you go around and the sound stages
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: have plaques on them with movies and TVs that were
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: filmed in those places, you know, great old movies that
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I that I'm a great fan of. And then I
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: think we talked about this once before that. I the
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: first scene I did was a sort of Halloween one,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: an autumn one, and I was trying to decorate the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: town with everything, and you didn't want any decorations on
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: your place, and I got caught by you sneaking pumpkins
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: onto the front steps. I remember that so vividly. And
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: then when I watched the episode again before we talked
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: on your on your show, that wasn't there. That never
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: made it into the Yeah, but that was the whole
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: first thing, was the beginning of our relationship.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when did you start getting recognized as Taylor Dosie
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: out there in the in Pulbium.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It was a while because like the first year, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: think I was only in three episodes the first year.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Then it sort of grew and it was a couple
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: of years before people recognized me on the street. I'm
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: still sort of amazed, because you know, it was a
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: fairly small part, but a very very memorable part of
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: good Time. But now it happens every once in a while.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I was just talking to Ted about it on the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: way over today, that it happens just enough to be
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: nice and not to be noxious, not to take life.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: But it was a while before before people would recognize
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: me because I didn't do much early on, and then
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: you know, it got to be more and then you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: it was just constant there for a while.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Do you remember being directed by Amy, Oh, yeah, tell
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: us about that experience.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean it was she knew it. I mean,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: you know, she'd written that, so she knew. But but
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: and she was the one who she talked about the
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: rom coms to the old, the old screwball comedies with
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: a lot of risk. So I learned a whole new
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: style of sort of working. And I got it right
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: from her because you know, she knew it and she
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: she lived it right, So yeah, she was great.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: How about Dan? Do you remember working with Dan? He
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: directed a few.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Episodes and I did, and he was much quieter. You know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: he was a very you know, quiet internal sort of guy.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: But he knew what he was doing too. It was
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: just a whole different sort of energy, right.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're writing is different to episode per episode. Ye,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: hers is more like this. His is more like this,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He tends to keep it very light, the really
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: stressing the comedy all the way through, and then there's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: always this big moment at the end.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I don't remember we're exactly the episodes I worked with him,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't It wasn't many three or four, right,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: maybe over the whole time.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: What do you remember about working with Lauren Graham.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It was great. We found out within the first hour
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: that I was here that we had the same birthday.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Oh is that right?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we sort of launched into that. And she
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: would always say to me, you know, she had this
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: great job, and she said, oh, I wish I could
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: do what you do. I'd love to go do a play.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: And we used to talk about the theater, you know
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: when we talked, but she was usually so busy. We
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: didn't have a lot of time.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: She had a killer schedule.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah she did, she did. And then after that Gilmore
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Girls was over. Before she went over to the other thing,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the Family thing, she did a show in New York, right,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: she got to do a play. You know.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I always found Gilmore to be very theatrical. You know,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of the means we shot in the diner.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: We're really like these little plays. Yeah, you know, they
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: really were. And a lot of it was staged that way,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a block that way, so I kind of felt like
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I was doing theater anything.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: I felt very much at home. Yeah, I have to say,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: that's what I usually did. And I remember at one point,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: do you remember Dak and Matthews who showed the yeah.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: He's an old friend of mine and we've done a
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: lot of work together. And we both heard from people
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: who worked on Gilmo Girls said we like you guys
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: because you can handle a whole lot of dialogue, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: because we were used to that, right, And so when
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: we do the town meetings, you know, and Liz and
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I would sit up there all day long while they
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: shot the other thing. Then we'd each have one and
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I have these long, complicated speeches, and I thought, oh, yeah, yeah,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: this is so it's it was hard, and you know,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: for that kind of situation, you have to have it.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: You have to have the lines before you go. You
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: don't rehearse anything. Oh no, no, it's just you got
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: to be ready to go. It took me a while
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: to get used to that is. It was very different
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: from what i'd done.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Ye. George Bell was yeah, oh yeah, very very good
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: about fantastics. Oh my gosh.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: It's the only thing I ever worked on in which
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: when the shot was over, they would check with the director,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: They checked with the DP, they checked with the sound guy,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and then they checked with George to see how we
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: had done by the dialogue. So if it wasn't exactly
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: word perfect, right, they'd go back and we'd have to
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: do it again.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: But I remember all those town hall meetings where you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: would just nail everything.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: It did not feel that way.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: You were ninety five percent nailing everything every take.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And they were very complicated.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah they were.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: It was sort of the fun of the writers, I guess.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: But I remember that those days were endless for us
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: because we sat up there, well all the shooting out
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: in the audience, and then there'd be a big one,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: then there'd be a close up and everything.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So it took all day, all day in that night.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Room that was boiling hotep and and then at the
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: end everybody went home and she and I stayed and
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: did the parts, you know where they were looking at us.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: We were always done at eleven or eleventh at night.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: So it's harder to remember. The one thing I remember
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: too about the we did an episode that had the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Livings paintings right right, and I did all the introductions
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: to the paintings, which I did at the end exactly
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the same thing, full of Italian names and all that stuff.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And the night was over essentially, you know, and if
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: everybody left and I got up there to do like
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: four or five of these things in a row and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the direction and I don't I don't want to push you,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: but the sun's going to come up in about five minutes.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: We got to get these done before it was done,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: so I had to rattle those off. Oh my, that
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: was pretty freaky.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Reminds me of those days in New York City when
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I'd stumble out to save the Robot at seven am.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And you know what I mean. Yeah, he'd stumble out
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: of Warner Brothers at seven am, you know, yeah, on
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a Saturday morning and then have to be back Monday. Sure, yeah,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: those were sometimes. Yeah, those town hall meetings. Wow.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: But it was also fun because, uh, Liz and I
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: liked old music. Uh and uh, so we'd we'd spend
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: the time. She'd sing the first line of a song
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: and I would do it from there.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: That went on along. We'd spent that she she wasn't
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: she great on set?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Having Liz and and Sally on at the same time. Yeah, Oh,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: that's like the history of musical theater. It's exactly right.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: And and Liz had known and worked with everybody.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, just amazing the stories, the exactly the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: funny the body story and.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: You know that on the back wall of that of
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: that of her studio were all old photographs of her,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: right from far back in her career. And she was
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: a young guyes.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, she really, you know, she knew everybody, James Dean,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, she had all the stories.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: It's Tony Bennett, she talked about a lot. Yeah, she
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: was great.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she was probably the most cornered actress on
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: set because we wanted the stories. Can you just talk?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Well? And I had all that time with her.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. What a treat, What a treat.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: So you keep in touch with Sally right, uh?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Not anymore? Did for a while, okay, and Liz too.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Uh And then of course it was great when we
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: did the reboot or Netflix and we uh we were
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: all back together again. That's what a lot of that
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: time was was.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: You know, Sally was supposed to do this today, but
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: she's she's she's always in Kansas City doing a play.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: She works all the time. Yeah, on stage though, Yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: she's always doing something.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Well, we did. I remember one thing Liz and I
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: did was she played she did a one woman No,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: it was two or three people actually about Patsy Klein
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: in Hollywood and and I went one day and head
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: lunch and then went to watch her.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Do Oh that's nice to think it was great, that's
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: very nice. What are you working on now anything.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't work much anymore. I mean, I'm sort
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: of retired because after a while I started to lose
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: my balance. You know, my balance wasn't good and so
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I had trouble with that, and and then there was
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the the pandemic. All the theaters just shut down, and
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: so so by the time that was over, I was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: like essentially retired sort of. I've done I've done things
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: up there, but you know, like one show a year.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I know this global fan base would like you
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to make a big comeback as Taylor Dozie. Would you, uh,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: maybe venture to do another iteration of Gilmore.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Girls in New York? Oh that's good, it would be fun. Yeah. Well,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: what's the greatest job in the world. Yeah, And I
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: lived about ten minutes from here. Oh yeah the whole time. Yeah,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: me too, So I had no problem getting here, had
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: a great time and had fun stuff to do. Yeah.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I used to get on Maul Holland and just get
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: here in six minutes.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Just so yeah, and just was around the corner sort of.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Well, it's been a great pleasure catching up with you, Michael.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Great to see you, and we'll see you out there
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: in about an hour's time, I guess, and we're going
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to put on a show for all these fans that
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: are showing up at Warner Brothers.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Michael, Thank you
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmour
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot home.