"Sam Rockwell" 01:08:24

So I was talking to my friend. I was talking to my friend. Hey, good morning. I was talking to my friend. Did you just restart yourself? Still rolling. Just a clean start there. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Smart. Worse. Smart. Worse. Now, Sean says that he got up at four this morning, went back to bed, and that that's his standard routine. I guess I remember you telling us about that, but what do you do when you get up at four that gets you back down? I read. I play games on my computer and anything to...

Kind of get my brain back. So that's something you haven't been able to stop doing. No, for years. You don't sleep through the night. I mean, if I take something I do. Well, what's wrong with that? I just don't want to do it all the time.

You're so worried about the temple that is your body, right? You don't want to put anything nasty inside there. Yeah, nothing to mix with the other crap that's already in my belly. You don't want to screw up the mac and cheese gut by now. Your bamboo shoot healthy body.

Sean, how would you describe your body? I'll go first because somebody asked me to describe Sean's body and right off the top I said pigs in a blanket. How would you...

You know what's so funny? I was watching the Bill Maher show the other night, and some of the guests got on, and Bill said, gosh, you've lost so much weight. And he goes, yeah, there's nothing worse than a skinny guy with a pot belly. And I raised my hand, and Scotty was like, yep. No, I don't see you as that. No, me neither. You guys have both very nice frames. I could get there. You have a very nice proportional frame. It's true. How big do you think you could get, Sean?

I wanted to get so big when I was younger. I wanted to get like... I would go to the gym all the time. I'd drink milkshakes. My oldest brother would take me out for burgers and I would constantly, constantly eat. I just couldn't gain a pound. Well, it was like what... How'd that pan out? Did it give you...

Did you get the look you were looking for? Well, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that was a sign of power, right? Exactly. You were big and huge and sort of a glutton, right? Yeah. Yeah, so if you were thin, what? You had no power? Yeah. You were proletarian. It was a sign of, yeah, if you were kind of bigger, it was a sign of prosperity. Wealth. Right. Prosperity. Well, here's something that happened to me yesterday. I was at the car wash. There you are. Okay.

I threw my stuff. You like to ride through? You like one of those? No, no. I do that with the kids every once in a while. Oh, you do for real? Well, it's fun. Yeah. It's fun. No, this, I, Scotty's like, you got to get it hand washed. That's what I call, by the way, good clean fun. Good clean weekend fun. No, so I. One of the car washes, good clean fun. No, we get the quotes. No, you didn't. Thank you. Go ahead, Sean. Back to Sean. So, I get it hand washed, right? So, I'm sitting there. Oh, look at this. Hold your jokes. Hold your jokes, Will. Proud.

God, look, he's just, oh, we heard hand. Time for a H.J. joke. Fucking clown. Go ahead, Sean. Fuck. So I gave my car away for a hand wash. I come sit down. I'm waiting. And I threw my stuff in the trash, right, when you clean your car up before they wash it. And all of them consist, you know, there's a lot of near full bottles of water.

And so I was sitting there because I didn't think I was going to be thirsty. 20 minutes later, I'm like, God, I'm kind of thirsty. So I go back to the trash and pulled out one of the

Bottled water. And a woman just stared at me like I was, there's something wrong with me. And I was conflicted. I was like, do I care what she thinks? Do I not care what she thinks? And I cared what she thought. So I looked at her. I said, I threw my bottle out prematurely. And she said, she goes, she just got crazier in her eyes. She goes, aren't you afraid it's dirty? I said, no, it wasn't touching anything bad. And so she just glared at me. You're in a conversation. Yeah.

Wait, that was the end of it? That was the whole thing. She just ended up staring at me and I drank it. Would you ever do that? Yeah. Fuck, man. I don't even know where to attack that story. It's just... Every part of it is just open for assassination. I...

Wait, so was your water bottle sling already filled with a bottle? Why didn't you just put that thing right in your little water bottle purse and just go sit down and wait for your car to be done? You've got one of those, right? No, because I threw them out thinking, well, I don't need them. But there was a little water left in them. So then sitting there, I was like, oh, I'm kind of thirsty actually. So I went back into the trash. I love it. You don't want to use a glass bottle that's reusable? How fucking dare you? Or a

a metal one. Oh, Sean, let me just tell you something. I need to get like a water bottle. That is, to me, the height of privilege. Will is opening up a plastic water bottle right now. Okay, the height of privilege. It's a visual joke for our radio audience. It's not fair. Well, anyway, enough about that. Are we getting to the guest? Oh, no, no. You don't want to do another hour on that? Will, what did you get into last night?

Last night I got into nothing much. It was pretty chill. It was kids. It was movie night for the little guys every night. Did you watch the movie with them?

Yeah, but they kind of... Last night we ended up watching the classic Peter Pan. And so what they'll do is they'll go... So we're talking about the little boys, not the big boys. So they'll go, we want to watch Pinocchio. And I'm like, okay, so you put it on, right? We put it on in our room. They come in, they call it movie night, sort of 20 minutes before their bedtime. And then they don't really watch. What they really want to do is they want to be flipped on the bed and thrown into the pillows. Yeah, I get it. Like Denny will actually go, he'll just look at you and go, can you throw me, please?

Oh, yeah, okay. But doesn't it get them all fired up and then they can't go to bed? No, as it turns out, and you can look it up, as it turns out, that kind of activity, getting thrown around and getting sort of squeezed and stuff, it gets a lot of, like, nervous energy out, and they end up falling asleep. Oh, really? Yeah, it's been about... Maybe I need to try that. Yeah, have Scotty throw you around a little. No, hey, Will, will you throw me? I'll throw you, for sure. Yeah.

Hey, what about, have you ever gotten real close to accidentally really hurting one of your kids during doing that? I mean, it's like, and trampolines, by the way, forget it. Yeah. Maple wants one. I'm like, honey, no, you're just going to get better and better and better at it. Meaning you're going to be flipping yourself higher and higher. I'm doing more revolutions and then it doesn't end well. Yeah. It's a, the trampoline. We have one. Uh, we have one, we have a little, we have a little house out on the long island. Next to the bowling alley. And, um,

We have a trampoline. And now, of course, it's endured, I'm going to say six winters. And it's real rusty. You've seen it. It's always covered in debris. And I'm so stupid. The kids are like, we're going out. I'm like, okay. And I'm just waiting. It's just...

It's going to be a moment. There's going to be somebody come back and go my arms backwards. Yeah, I can't. I know. It's just go in the pool, kids. I know. How fun was Sunday? Okay, here, ready? Sunday was super fun. Guys, you may be noticing a pattern with our guests lately. They're a lot cooler than we are. And my guest today is...

It's no exception. We're getting right into the intro. Before becoming an Academy Award winning actor, he made his acting debut alongside his mother in an East Village improv show at age 10. As a teen, he dabbled in breakdancing to impress the girls. Ditto, the breakdancing part. And then he played...

in the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, but I think he's done just a few things since then. We'll have to ask him. It's one of my favorite actors of all time, Sam Rockwell. Oh, Sammy's all healed up. What's up, guys? Woo!

It's all better. I'm so sorry you had to wait a really long time for that. No, that was amazing. That was fantastic. Listener, our guest today had an illness, what, a few weeks ago? I did. I had some sort of neurovirus infection.

or something, whatever makes lots of poop come out of you. Right. And you had to pull the handbrake day off. Yeah. I did. So what he did was. I had a temperature. And he doesn't know that it's a surprise guest situation. So he texted each one of us individually, or at least me, and said, hey, man. I texted Jason, yeah. No, actually, I think it started with just a picture of a thermometer.

And, you know, Sam and Sam, we're going to let you talk in a second. But, listener, you need to know that Sam, one of his things that he's very famous for is sending pictures of really life scarring images. And I thought, what could this? OK, so what could this thermometer be? It must be a rectal thermometer coming from Sam. So I didn't really respond.

And then a couple of days later, he said something like, yeah, listen, man, I'm still sick. I'm not going to be able to make it. I'm like, Hey Sam, I think you meant to send this to somebody else who might be waiting for you to show up somewhere. And he should just know you sent it to the wrong person. He's like, was I not supposed to be on your podcast today? I'm like,

So you were surprised. It didn't matter. Will didn't know and Jason didn't know when you were going to come on, so it's fine. That's right. Still a surprise to all of us. Hey, guys. It's so good to see you, Sam. Thank you for being here today. This is so cool. Good to see you, man. One of my favorites ever. And are you doing the same Jason Bateman thing because of a part? I am. Were you growing all the spatial hair out? Yeah. I am. I'm doing something in April where I sort of look like...

Yeah, me too. April 15th. I got it. Oh, yeah? What if it was the same part? You grow a man's beard. Yeah, what if it was the same part? You grow a man's beard. Mine's...

Well, how long has that been? How long have you gone on that? About six years. No. This is about... You might need some hair and makeup. You might need to go into the trailer. But my guy's supposed to kind of be a real loser and is incapable of... Well, you got that part, but get to the beard. Yeah. I got another month left. Sammy, thanks for being here. Tell me, I want to get into all of it, but I want to know about the breakdancing thing when you...

Yeah. That was bad break dancing. But I remember years ago, I saw you do the splits on Saturday Night Live. I was like, is that really him? Was that really you? Yeah, I did. I tore my hamstring doing it during Fool for Love, actually, eight times a week. Wow. Wow.

- Wow. - We did it. - It was a bit in the play, yeah. Yeah, it's not, you gotta be warmed up. - You did the full-on splits? - You know, it's a cheat. It's a cheat. I don't know if it's the Risky Business or the James Brown, but you're kind of like-- - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - Careful. - You know, it's not quite, yeah, careful. It's not quite the split splits. - Well, have you always been able to kind of do that? You always been a bit of a dancer?

I kind of messed around. I watched, I remember watching James Brown and watching Michael Jackson. I was in the, it was a way to meet girls when I was 12. And I guess I watched Risky Business and tried to imitate that. Now, but then the great limited series that you did with all the, with the Fosse. Fosse Verdon. Yeah. You don't just sort of train for that. You need to be somewhat gifted before you even get there.

consider taking that part on. So you know what you're doing on the dance floor, yeah? Well, thanks, thanks. But that was the first formal training I did, I think, on that thing. How much dancing you doing these days, man? Hey, cool it, bro. I just want to know. Hey, man, we did G-Force, man. Cool it. I know, it's true. Wait, you guys were in G-Force together? Yeah. What a cast, by the way. What a cast, Zach. Galifianakis, Bill Nighy.

- Yeah, Bill Nighy, that's right, that's right. - So Sam, when you were a kid, San Francisco, right? I love San Francisco. - Yeah, yeah. - In the city or just like in the Bay Area? - In the city proper, yeah, moved all the way down there. - Wow, and your parents were both actors too? - Yeah, and my father was a union rep for the supermarket clerks and the printers and,

- We lived everywhere. Fillmore, Tenderloin, Castro. I met Harvey Milk when I was eight years old. - No way. - He was getting into unions and stuff. - That's wild. - Yeah, my dad was a big union guy. Couldn't cross a picket line. - And do you think that San Francisco had more of an artistic community or as much of an artistic community as New York? Or was it different? What's the difference? - It wasn't as cool. I wanted to go to the fame school.

Yeah, I went to sort of a small school of the arts in San Francisco. I went to high school with Margaret Cho, Aisha Tyler. Me and Aisha dated for a while. And we were in a very terrible improvisational troupe called Batwing Lubricant. We performed at the other cafe, which is a famous place.

Wow. So what age are we at now when the acting bug starts to take hold? Well, I was 10. I dabbled with it. And then I was sort of busy getting stoned and trying to meet girls. And I didn't take acting very seriously. And it was kind of a rough school, McAteer. But we had the Soda Kids.

within that, about 500 of them within the 2000. And Juvenile Hall was across the street. So it was like a mixture of kids from the mission. There were rich kids coming in for the School of the Arts. And I was dating a dancer. And it was around, you know, 16. I was kind of dabbling in it. But I didn't take it seriously. And then when did it get serious? Did you move out of there? Did you go to New York? I got a movie when I was 18. And then I moved to New York. And...

I didn't really get, I do like, you know, toothpaste commercials and shit like that. And then I, I studied with William Esper when I was 23. Sure. I did two years with him. And then I met my acting coach there, Terry Knickerbocker. Oh, wow. And studied Meisner. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Now, why was the move to New York instead of Los Angeles? Shorter drive, more opportunity? Yeah, I guess my mom lived there. And so I thought that was the place to go. And I kind of romanticized being a struggling actor because I'd seen my mom do it. And a free place to stay, maybe. And a free place to stay. But I love that story you told in your acceptance speech when you won your Oscar. Sorry, I just hold it because we are going to put applause in. Use mine. For sure.

But dude, so you win an Oscar and you tell that great story about going to the movies with your dad and I loved the way, and I'm just going, I literally just remember it because it was so impactful that your dad would take you out of school and he'd lie to the school saying that you had to do some shit or somebody died. Yeah, that my grandmother passed away. Again. It's pretty.

It's pretty morbid, isn't it? That's so good. That's so great. It's fucking the best, man. Yeah. I was in music camp when I was a kid, and I sent a letter to my mom saying, can you please come pick me up? Please just tell him Grandpa died. Please. Just tell him Grandpa died, and you have to pick me up. She never did.

She never did, yeah. And did you love it? Did you love getting pulled out of school, going to the movies, or did you want to stay in school and hang out with your buddies? No, I loved it. I loved it. The school I was in at the time, I think I was getting beat up a lot. It was kind of a rough school. Yeah, you were like in fight. I read you were in a lot of fights, the white supremacist. Yeah, but I didn't win any of the fights. I was getting my ass kicked. And then...

My dad, yeah, so when my dad took me out, I was like, yeah, let's get the hell out of here, you know. And then, thank God, Grandma was alive. And then we went to the opening day of Rocky. Oh, God. Really? And nobody had heard of it.

My dad took me to all those movies during that time, too. They were so good. All those movies that none of my friends were seeing. But, like, my friends weren't going in to see, like, the Werner Herzog, you know, documentary, you know? Or, like, any movies with subtitles. No. Yeah. I remember my mom would take me, too. I was kind of like her movie pal. I remember her taking me to see, was it Missing? The one with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon? Yeah, and Jack Lemmon. Yeah, about the movie.

people going missing in Chile. I was 11. How old were you when you saw that? 11. Pretty heavy. Sure. Couldn't sleep for months. I saw the deer hunter when I was 10. I saw like a taxi driver when I was 8. Exactly. Right? It got you excited about movies, but it makes you grow up quick. But there's something there. Okay, but there is something there messaging wise, which is like,

You don't want to take your kids to just see something that's got gratuitous violence or language or whatever. But if it's great filmmaking and it's a great story and it's a great, then there's, and it's great art, then there's value in that. The violence needs to be done cinematically. Yeah. But I mean, people enjoy the other thing. I was on a plane once. I saw a guy watch Fast and Furious movies with the sound off.

I'm just saying, so there's something for everybody. Right. That is when you've had the full lobotomy, right? That's when they took it all out. They just scraped it clean. Wait, Sam, so I also read you hurt your hands or something. Was that from fighting? No, it was a car accident.

Yeah. What? Wait, wait. Is that fully extended? Oh, wait. Do it again. Can you not straighten? Oh, yeah. You can straighten them out. Oh, look at that. Wow. What happened? You see it in the green mile for a second. Yeah. It works for that character. So he has a tweaked tip of his, what, the FU finger. Yeah, they were all crushed. Four of them were crushed. What happened? By accident.

I flipped a Jeep Cherokee on Sunset in La Brea. Just fucking got into a squat and you just flipped it? Or you were in it? That's right. I'm fucking strong. Use your legs. I started the roids really early. That'd be so good if you were driving around and you just see Rockwell and you're like, is he flipping a fucking car?

So wait, Sunset and La Brea, that sounds like, so you were upset at the fat burger there on the corner when you were getting you. Yeah. I was, I hit the lead a little, you know, after it rains when it gets kind of oily in LA, the roads, and I hit the, I hit the lead kind of fast. I was trying to impress a girl. Mm.

And she kept going. I took a left turn and I got into a skid and I got out of the skid and it just went. But those models, I think, tended to flip pretty easily. They're tippers. Wait, a model, you're talking about the car or the girl? The Jeep Cherokee. Walk me back. You're trying to impress a girl at the stoplight that you don't know. Yeah. Okay. I'm trying to make, I'm trying to like do like American graffiti kind of hit the leg kind of thing. Sure. But then I took a left.

And I got into a skid and I got out of the skid, but then I hit the curb and I went. Do you miss driving being in New York? No, not at all. No, I drive. I drive in movies. Yeah, that's like a video game. Yeah, that's true. I once had to drive in a movie and the scene was I was driving a car that was going the wrong way on a freeway.

And what they did was they built one of these pods on top of the car where they have a stunt driver up there with a wheel that is steering the car so that he or she can make all the correct turns. They're not relying on an actor to go left, go right in coordination with the cars coming at you going left and right that they've worked out.

It was the most horrific thing I've ever been through where I'm speeding the wrong way. Because you're not in control. Yeah, and I'm not in control, but looking as if I am, I'm turning my wheel, but there's a dude up on top of the roof in a little tiny built pod just a couple of hours earlier. That doesn't sound great to me. That sounds kind of... No, but it worked. If you have control issues...

I kind of want to race cars. Does anybody else want to race cars? Do you really want to race cars? I do kind of want to just try it once. You know, guys, for my birthday, that's what I want. I'm not kidding. Do you really? I can set that up. Yeah, we can go up to Willow Springs. I'm not kidding. Jason fucking won. We've talked about it. Jason's won that thing three times. I know. I want to try it. You've raced cars, Jason?

I mean, in a celebrity race. But then I did have two. What kind of car is that? No, you flipped a car in a real race in the Poconos. Yeah, exactly. Holy shit. It was professional for two races and then got upside down and said, okay, I'm good. Wow. I'll go back to the celeb stuff. Bass Fender's doing that, right? Oh, yeah. But he's doing the real, real, real version. He races like BMWs and shit across Europe. Yeah.

Wow. Sam, I want to get back to you. I don't need to do that. I want to get back to you when you're at the beginning. I do it on Broadway. Sure. Sure. I do it on the boards. I do it on the boards.

I can't wait to just talk theater and all that. Yeah, yeah. Sam, anything ever funny ever happen on stage? Anyone ever forget a line? I've never seen Sean skip over, I want to get to Broadway. I've never seen him go like, we'll get to that. Can we talk about this little show that Sean did at the Tabasco? Oh, the Tabasco. Was he not just spicy as hell in there? Oh. Oscar. You're very nice to come, Sam. It meant a lot to me. It meant a lot. It was... Wait, but seriously...

Listen, I go on about all you guys and like the rest of development. I go on about Ozark identity theft. If Jason hears me say identity theft one more time, he's going to punch me in the face. That was the movie. I was driving the wrong way down the freeway. Was that the movie? Was it really? Yeah. But I mean, I'd seen you in a play before. I didn't realize that you're a fucking assassin. I know. I mean, what the fuck? What was that? And do you think that's why we were all so knocked out? Because we just thought it wasn't going to be good after all.

Like, here we are, boy. We're sitting here. We're going to watch a train wreck. You said, you know, when we went and saw the opening night, and we're all there, and we're sort of fucking like, and Jason, right as this sort of curtain comes down, Jason turns to me, tears in his eyes, and he goes, podcast is over. When it was over? Yeah, no, when the play was over, and he had just like,

gained mountains of respect in Will and I's mind and it was already very high. But to see you do that, the level you did it, and I'm crying and a curtain comes down after the curtain call and I did, I turned to Will, I said, well, the fucking podcast is ruined now. It's ruined. So now you're going to double down on the Bust His Chops. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's nothing... That's very nice. Shut up, Sean. Hey, Sean. Sean.

Sean, can I ask you a question for real? Can I be real now that we're on this subject? Do you have any good theater stories? And we will be right back. All right, back to the show.

You know what? You know what? I'm going to tell you something. And then, Sam, I want one ready, locked and loaded. So get ready because you're off theater. Don't fucking threaten me with a great story. But listen, I just sent Will this thing that stretches out your calf because if you stretch out your calves and your hands, you release your lower back because Will's been having lower back stuff. So I got that during Good Night Oscar because I started getting plantar fasciitis. Like my feet started hurting. And it was so bad during a couple shows.

I was literally shuffling along like I was 95 years old. I was in so much pain doing the show. And two days later, Will, I used that thing I sent you. It was gone. -Sean, so Sean sent me-- -Did you forget the boot? No, it's that thing that kind of rocks, you know, to stretch your calves, right? You put your foot on it and then just-- Yeah, and you sleep in it, right? You sleep in it. No, no, no, you just stand on it. No, you just stand on it and you just kind of see-saw.

My son, Denny, who's almost three and a half, looks like that. Oh, okay, that's something else. Oh, that's advanced. So these guys, I've been having this issue with my hamstring, and then it became like a sort of sciatic nerve thing, and I'm fucking going to see this guy. We're not going to mention Tarek again. This would be four in a row. Tarek is great. Have you seen Duran, the Israeli magician?

No, but you know, Terry, you know, Terry get to watch magic tricks. So I've been going to Tarek. I've been living in his office for the last year. He's got he's got a great elbow. Duran is also great. I don't know Duran. I don't know. Tarek has an unbelievable elbow when he gets it there. Forget it. Yeah. So anyway, so Sean on Sunday night, we're at dinner with our friends and he goes, I'm going to get you this thing, this rocking thing. It comes the next day. Yes. Monday.

I do it yesterday. By yesterday afternoon, I feel infinitely better. Really? That's really good. Dude, it's the fucking, it's unreal. You just got to stretch your hams and your calves, and you're good to go. Yeah, you've been screwed up for a few weeks on that. I have. Indeed, I have. It starts with the feet, yeah. Sam, so hand injuries from the car. Any injuries from Broadway? Yeah, hamstring. Well, I've had tendinosis, two calves from other stuff.

That's about it. Shoulders are creaky. Yeah. How old are you now, Sam? I'm 77. No, I'm 55. Right. So we're all about the same age. You look great. You look fantastic. Thanks. You guys look great. Things start to ache a little bit, right? I don't feel like I deserve the kind of knee kind of tweaking or the hip kind of tweaking because we all stay in pretty good shape. We exercise and stuff. Yeah. But, you know, the car does break down. It does break down. It's really annoying. Yeah.

But so Sam, talk to me about the quote, well-paying 1994 Miller Lite commercial. Oh my God. Right? So that's when, is that when you knew like, okay, I got this big commercial. It pays really well. Maybe I can quit all my other jobs. And what were those other jobs? Well, I worked in a lot of restaurants, bar back, bus boy. I delivered burritos, uh,

Wow. You know, I heard your Ruffalo when he was bartending. It was kind of a similar time around when I was 28, 29. I started working more.

as an actor that started doing movies and stuff. Yeah. But delivering burritos on a bicycle was my last job. No shit. Who do you go furthest back with of the, of the, of the actor buddies that, that, that you still have? Like, do you go back furthest with like Crude Up or, or Mark? Well, yeah, Crude Up and Thoreau and I were at, we're together during 9-11 and, and we knew Phil and, and,

Very happy for Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giamatti. For Tracy, that's Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Seymour Hoffman, yes. We don't really mention, as you probably know, we don't really like to mention Thoreau on this podcast. Yeah, so we'll cut that out. It's funny you should say that. We'll go back, we'll trim that out. He's kind of persona non-G around here, you know? Yeah, well... Uh-oh, does he have a message for us? He told me to give you a message. He said you could ask Arnett this question from...

A listener in New York named Justin T. Will, when you buy button-down shirts, do you take them to someone to remove the top five buttons? Or do you just buy them pre-removed? Also wondering, what's your nighttime, let me get this right, décolluge routine? Love the show, keep up the good work. Oh my God, that is so true. That's rich, coming from a guy that removes his sleeves. Yeah.

I didn't realize you don't usually button. You don't have any buttons. Is that true? Yes, it's true. What do you call it? Is that called a bird Reynolds? You mean like you go like that? Yeah. I do. If I'm wearing a button shirt, yeah. I do a lot of this. Why? Because you think people, like you're doing people a favor. You got to show a little skin.

You've got to give people what they want. This is a world. You have to understand that we are always transmitting and receiving. And so I'm putting out and I'm also receiving. And so I feel from the world they want to get more skinny. Sammy knows what I'm talking about. Oh, my God. Yeah, you got to do it.

All right, Sammy. Lawn dogs. Yes. Talk about skin. Yeah, lots of skin on that. I know, right? Wait, so you received critical acclaim. Yeah. And your performance was, like, incredible. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, I love that movie. Those were the days. I had abs. I've not heard of lawn dogs. Oh, you've got to see it. It's so good. Yeah, I get naked and... I think I've seen it. Boy, I was in good shape back then. Yeah? Is that the thing you think kind of opened the doors for you?

The porn? Yeah, I think so. I think that was one of them. We did Safemen with Paul Giamatti, Ruffalo, Dinklage. I was going to say Safemen, that Hamburg, right? You know Safemen? Yeah, it's a little gem, I think. I knew some of those guys because those guys who produced it, I think they were the same dudes who made my buddy Step's movie that I did. Anyway, great guys. And then Box of Moonlight was those three kind of... Box of Moonlight. Yeah. Helped me get...

And then Galaxy Quest and Green Mile sort of happened at the same time. Okay, so I want to talk about Galaxy Quest. It's one of my favorite movies. Dude, I saw Safeman. I really love Safeman, by the way, and I knew a lot of those dudes. But then when you did fucking Galaxy Quest, Rockwell, you absolutely destroyed. Yeah, incredible. You destroyed it. Incredible. Thanks, guys. I auditioned for the Enrico Colantoni part. Yeah, still waiting to hear it. You're not right for it. I know I'm not right for it. Well, they agreed, but I'm just saying that...

So wait, this is from, so your character Guy Fleegman, right? Yes. He was so, he was so fucking great. Fuck. It was like a pick-me energy. This is from Scotty, okay? Oh boy. Scotty said the whole bit about you not wanting to be sent down first. Yeah.

your character, like whenever they go to a planet. Those characters always die. That was a reference to Star Trek. You probably know this. Star Trek and the red shirts. Yes. Which are expendables. But a lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that. That in Star Trek, whenever Spock and Kirk would come to a planet. That's right. They would always send these guys down first and they would always die. Is that right? I just kind of stole my performance from Bill Paxton in Aliens.

Hey, Sean, just whining out. I just want to see if I can see them make out the Mountain Dew on your desk if it's possible. Wow. The fucking monster energy drink. And the Star Trek cosplay outfit. I mean, yeah.

No, but it was. You know what, though? It is true. That was the first time somebody sort of made that kind of joke on screen. Your fucking delivery, Sammy. It's just un-fucking-real. Dude, every time. We lucked out with that movie. Sam, you're one of those guys, and I talk about this from time to time on the podcast, you're one of those people, it doesn't matter what you're doing.

It never sucks. It could be the worst. You never suck. You could be in the worst movie, the worst play, the worst TV. You're always unbelievable because you're so committed. I fucking love that about you. I know. I love that too. Do you ever feel like, I was going to say the same thing. Do you ever feel like movie to movie, obviously you never know what you got or what you're in or what you have.

Can you feel it by now at this point in your career as you're going day one, week one, month one, month two? You know what? I think I'm in a piece of shit. Or I think this is working. Or I think this is really working. Because I said when I did Goodnight Oscar, we had an invited dress rehearsal.

with a bunch of kids who didn't get any of the references because it takes place in the 50s and it was crickets the whole play i came home to scotty i said i'm in a piece of shit yeah i'm in a piece of shit yeah it's always scary isn't it yeah it's scary yeah and the next night it was yeah what what is yeah you that's a great thing so what is your brum around that like how do you feel well first of all thank you and right back at all three of you guys and uh but but yeah i i think you always think

it's fucking Hamlet, right? I mean, you think it's Citizen Kane. I mean, when you're working on it. And then at a certain point, you realize maybe it's not. And then... Yeah, it starts to take on water. Yeah, yeah. And then you're like, oh, yeah. And then you're like, oh, shit, this could be bad. This could be... I remember Baldwin once saying to me, Alec once says to me, he goes, he goes, you never intend to make...

a bad movie. He goes, you know, you go like, you agree to do something and you're making this movie with people and they go, hey, we're going to go over here. And you go, great. I can't wait. I'm excited to go over here. And then you start making it and all of a sudden you start going the other direction. You go, hey, I thought we were going over there. And they're like, no, no, no, no. We're going over here. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And you can, yeah, sometimes it comes from watching another performance or a decision a director makes or just the general vibe on the set from the crew or whatever, and you can start to smell it.

Right? And you just can't get – there's nothing you can do about it because you're only doing one little piece of it. So does it take away the energy? Like do you start depleting yourself of kind of the same chutzpah you entered in? I don't think you do. You always deliver though. Well, I think if you sign up and you get – I think when you get talked into something – Yeah. And I won't mention any names. But when you get talked into something –

that's when it's bad. You know what I mean? And you try to do a fixer-upper thing on it. Right, but you have, you know, Willie, you said that he fully commits and that's certainly part of why he's so great. But I've seen a lot of

Crappy actors fully commit to a crappy performance. It doesn't fix it I mean he's fully committing to a performance that has that's coming from a guy with great taste Yes, there's somehow that you have the ability to keep one eye on yourself and and and and judge whether you're the choice you're making sucks or not and you're staying away from Sucky choices with the way in which you play characters is that Sean Sean do you make a lot of sucky choices?

In your life? Ignore that, Sam. Ignore it. You know, you want to make God laugh telling your plans, right? So you just never know. You never know. Right. But you have good taste. Did that come from, did you get it from mom or dad or from watching a bunch of great stuff? You know, again, I think it's just more ego, to be frank. I think it's more like just wanting to,

have a big part of it. Right. Have a reason to get up there. Right. And doing something that you're going to want to watch. It doesn't mean that it has to be a lead role. It can be a supporting role. Sure. Yeah, that you're going to want to be a part of. Do you watch your stuff? Are you one of those actors that can't watch? If it's good, if it's good, it's like a home movie. If it comes on...

Seven Psychopaths came on. I love that experience. It was really great. Yeah, I hear Martin McDonough is just about the best guy in the world to work with. He's the best, man. And Chris Walken, I'd done a play with him, and then we did the movie, and Colin and Woody. It was just a really nice time.

We had a great time. Yeah. So it's like, isn't this like a home movie, right? When you see, it's either a bad experience or a good experience, you know? But what about like on set? Will you watch playback to sort of help in calibrating your performance or do you like to stay in the dark? Only if it's like mainly for the canvas or if I'm, a lot of times, just to get maybe a tone and then I stay away from it. Like, and a lot of times I'm noticing if I do look at it, I'm under or I used to be over

But I'm noticing it's actually, I need more. And then I need to contain it. I would say tell the director to bring the camera closer instead of you reaching out, you know? Fucking, if they can't see it, they got to get closer. You stay small. Or bring your own. Or bring your own. Wear one of those GoPros, turn back on yourself. When you say to see the canvas, do you, and to see the canvas and the tone, are those two different things? Like, do you mean sometimes that you actually look at it and go like,

because when you're in it, you don't have a sense of like the bigger picture. And then when you get to see it, you go, oh, okay. Okay. With, in terms of staging and what, what, what effect is. I guess I'm talking about stakes, you know, I'm talking about stakes. Um,

Interesting. You know, Crude Up is one of the people I've gone to beyond my acting coach or my friend Chris Messina, who you know. I'll go to – I've gone to a lot of friends for help. Stanley Tucci, lots of people. But Crude Up is –

Bad. Yes. He's rough, man. Sorry, I cut you off. Yeah. Yeah. He's got to go back to NYU. Yeah. Self-regulated. And he's hard to look at. Hard to look at. He is tough to look at. He is tough to look at. No, were you going to say he's particularly helpful? Yeah, he's very articulate about acting. He can... I went to a...

With American Buffalo, I was like, I was losing my saliva, literally. I couldn't get through the speech. And I went, I said, man, I need your help, man. I gotta, I gotta, I can't get through this fucking thing. And he came over and he really, he really helped me. He really broke it down for me. He's really smart. What was it, sir? What's the key to keeping your mouth nice and lubricated?

Who's this for? Who's that question for? Sorry, Sam, I was looking at you. Okay, okay. Very good question. Okay. Voice warm-ups, Sean, voice warm-ups, right? Very good, very good. Keeping, I mean, they say bite your tongue, but, you know, I do a voice warm-up, 20-minute link later warm-up. Also, isn't it wild when you're doing a

- Pee a lot, drink a little water. - Yes, that's good. When you're doing a live play that you've created this character and this world through weeks of rehearsals, then you get up on your feet. So you created this piece of art.

And you think people will know your choices. Like they think, so for your speech, for example, you're like, well, I can't change it. This is how it's supposed to go. But people don't know that. So you're like, well, I don't want to change. But you're like, hey, buddy, you could take the biggest pause in the world in the middle of a monologue, drink a glass of water. You can add anything. Nobody knows how it's supposed to go. But in your mind, you're like, no, no, I'm compromising.

The role I'm compromising the part and that's the thing I was bump up against I want I want saw John Malkovich do burn this. Oh, yeah Right. So what about that opening opening monologue as who comes in after you know fucking trying to get a parking spot out in front of the goddamn building and he's fixing his hair in the mirror and he stops in the middle of this middle of a sentence not at a punctuation but middle of a sentence for at least a minute while he's fucking with his hair and

And then picks right back up on his monologue another minute or two, you know, talking. I just couldn't believe the balls. You know, I was a young actor watching this. I was like, oh, fuck. That's incredible what this guy does. Incredible. He's one of my favorites. That performance was unbelievable. Yeah. It was unbelievable. So anyway, I added two glasses of water in the scene. I'm like, I think my character should drink water now. Yeah, no, no. Absolutely. I had a six-page monologue. I had the director. I said, can I have like a water fountain? He said, no. Oh.

Oh, really? I said, well, what can I, can I have it? I just put it, get a lifesaver. I was in a park. And so I was like, all right. Now I'll ask you a real hacky question here that there is no answer for, but I'll ask anyway, you prefer doing theater over a camera work? No, I mean, it's totally different. I think it's just the gym and it's really scary and it's like going to the gym and it informs your film work, I think, but it,

It helps, you know, like Chris Walken does that monologue in Pulp Fiction. I think it's because he did Hamlet. He did Rose Tattoo. Yes, but. Stanley Kowalski. But would you not agree that if you do a stage level performance in front of the camera, you'd be doing too much? Oh, yeah, for sure. Definitely. But interesting. Talk about that. Talk about that idea. It's like going to the gym for film work.

Well, it's just obviously you can't scream. You can't do a stage performance, especially the ones I've done because they're big. You know, in front of a camera, that would not work. But I think all you got to do is turn the volume down, I guess. I mean, maybe that's not as simple as it sounds, but...

Was calibrating. Do you enjoy the bigger movement or do you enjoy getting super, super small and letting the camera find the little stuff? I prefer being small even on stage. I don't want to get big on stage, in fact. I think that's the trick of... But I've never done a musical, so I don't know. That's a whole other thing. But I think...

keeping it real and still being loud with your, and still being able to hit the back row with your voice is a trick, you know? Yeah. Phil Hoffman taught me a lot about that. I mean, it sounds name dropping, but he also is somebody who, he directed me in a play and he, he was very, he, you know, but no, but listener doesn't want to hear about process.

Well, I think it's going to be interesting. Sure they do. They'll listen to whatever. They have to listen to whatever the fuck we tell them to listen to. Really? You know what I mean? By the way, the podcast, it's free, and they can not listen. If they want...

Yeah, man. What the fuck? I love hearing you talk about this shit. Yeah, I do too. Well, Phil, you know, Phil was the, he was, you guys know him. Yeah, of course. I'm envious that you guys knew him and I didn't. But tell me about, do you like doing, I love that whenever you're doing like a lead role in a film, I just like, because I'm just, I want more of you at all times. Yeah.

But oftentimes the lead role is not as spicy or as fun as some of the secondary or tertiary roles. What's your, do you have a preference? Yeah, you know, I think that's something, I mean, here we go with the name drop shit, but Clooney, I think. George Clooney. George Clooney. I don't know. Clooney's not a name drop here. Yeah.

But Clooney taught me a lot, you know, because I come in with all these props and all these, I'd be smacking it up. Well, you were the lead in his first film. And I was the lead in the film. And he's like, hey, man, you know, we can't do bows of the clown every scene. You know, we got to like. That was the note? He didn't say that. But I was like, you know, Zero Mostel in there. I mean, by the way, one of the great actors is Zero Mostel. But, you know, he said, you know, too many props and let's just keep it.

You're the lead guy. You've got to keep it simple. And I learned a lot from him about that. It's true because it's a canvas, right? So you're not necessarily the color red all the time. Right. You know, Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, I mean, he's...

you know, they got other people providing those colors. Yeah, you gotta really, you really suss that out when you read the script and you talk about it and you develop it and you show up, you're like, where am I, where do I fit? Yeah. Yeah. And you have to be, sometimes you have to be a blank canvas, right? If you're the lead in a certain way, you have to be able to let other colors, Jason obviously has been a blank canvas to me for so many years. He's been this off-white mayonnaise sort of eggshell color. Well, I think Jason's

in Identity Theft is... There we go. Now, you love Identity Theft. It's fucking amazing. Let's walk through Identity Theft. Identity Thief. Let's show a clip. We'll just show a real quick clip. Let's go to clip. I think it's pretty amazing. By the way, I will say, I will say, I love Identity Theft as well. I've told Jason that before. It's a fucking great...

It's really good, man. But the other one I like a lot even more than what I saw recently and I've told him is Game Night. Have you seen fucking Game Night? I love Game Night. That's a good movie. Jason is... Sammy, have you not seen Game Night? I need to see that. Oh my God. It's so good. It's so funny. Jason is so good at that. Jason is hilarious. And he knows how to play stakes, right? Dude. And still be like, you know... Dude.

I love that movie. That movie holds up to multiple viewings. That's one of my favorites. By the way, Game Night is one of the most, is one of the like last great, I haven't seen a great film comedy since Game Night. Game Night. I'm not even kidding.

Those guys. It's going to be your new identity thief. Sam, you have not seen it yet, right? I haven't seen it, no. So good. It's not bad. It's Rachel McAdams. I've seen Moral Bosses. I've seen the one. Jesse Plemons. You piss in the pond. Oh, yeah. The old magic pond with Ryan. You know who's really funny in that movie? Billy Magnuson. Yeah, that guy's a real talent. He is hot.

hilarious. He is hilarious. And Sharon Horgan's in it, too. Sharon Horgan is amazing. Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights. How great is Kyle? Fucking Sam's with us. Let's talk about all this. Game night. I'm on it. We'll be right back. And now, back to the show.

So wait, Sam, I... You guys haven't said anything about my shirt, my T-shirt. I was trying to read it. I couldn't see it, and I wasn't... Sorry, that's bad frame. I am serious, and don't call me... Wait, he's wearing tan pants, and for a second I thought he was shirt cocking, that he just had a shirt.

Wait, Sam, what does the shirt say? Shirt cocking is a real... It's an airplane shirt. It's airplane. And it says, I'm serious and don't call me Shirley. And don't call me Shirley. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. That's a great T. I mean, they should redo that movie, right? I mean, there's a whole... Not because it needs to be redone, but just because there's a whole new generation or three or four now that haven't seen it. Will's upset. I'm against the reboots. I'm against the reboots altogether. Just haven't watched the old one, right? I watched the old one and it...

Maybe it's not as quick or it doesn't cut as fast, but it's good. It's got value. And then let's do some new stuff. Let's create stuff now that people 20 years will say, let's reboot. You know what I mean? There's so much of the same shit. No, no, no. Let me go on a fucking tirade. Wait, Sam. By the way, guess who Sam worked with a couple of years ago? You guys are going to blow both of your minds. Leslie Nielsen. No, it's a friend of the show. It's one of the great names of the show. It's one of the all-time references of the show. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

that who he comes up on the show all the time. I talk about him all the time. Chappy, Mark Chappell, who wrote, see how they run is Chappy's one of my best pals. And he's my co-writer. And, and must be giving will at least $10,000 every time. Chappy comes up a lot on the, he's a, he's a, he's a recurring on the show. Uh,

And he lives in London. Get the scissors out, guys. Sean, drive the interview. We're not cutting Chappie out. Great script. See how they run. So Moon, when you did Moon, I loved Moon. I mean, it was just you. God bless you. I loved that movie so much. Now Duncan Jones knows how to direct, huh? I know. Go back and talk about... It's okay. You can talk about process. That's why we're here. Okay. I don't want to bore the hell out of... Because I'm fascinated how...

you, what was it like day to day? Did you like the process of being the only person in the movie? Yeah. Tracy, this is a movie where he's the only guy in it and he's stuck on a spaceship. It's stunning. It's incredible. It's a really good movie. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Well, you know, my acting coach, the first thing he says, watch

buddy movies. He said, watch Midnight Cowboy I watched. Midnight Run. I stole a lot from Midnight Cowboy. And then, you know, Rachel Weisz just did a reboot of Dead Ringers, which is fucking amazing what she did. Wow. And I was watching the Jeremy Irons one. That was the best time, the best version of that trick I had seen. And I listened to the DVD commentary. And there's a very noisy camera called the motion control camera that's used for that gag.

to get two people in one frame. And it's a very weird process that I could go into. Give us a little bit. Well, there's a lot about timing. The sound guy would put the previous take, the master, on my iPod. And while I was going to hair and makeup for the other one,

I would listen to it. So the ping pong scene would be a timing thing. So when I went back to the other clone... So you're acting against yourself. Acting against yourself. And so I would listen to the sounds. So like if he dropped the handle of the paddle like that, the other clone would retract because he's coming towards him. So I'd have to listen for that.

And know how many beats you have to wait before you speak. Yeah. And he was saying, Doug was like, don't ad-lib, don't ad-lib. But if you, you could ad-lib if you fit it in the window. Right. Right. The timing, you know, you can change the line, but it'd have to be that time, you know? And, uh. I wonder if today, technologically, it would be, uh, less, uh, antiquated. It's gotta be. Yeah. Tom Hardy did a good job with it too. And, uh.

But it's tricky. It's tricky, and it's a lot of work. And talking about paying attention, you have to pay attention to the scene as it is. But now you've really got to pay attention because you're also trying to pick up on timing and other things. Did it scratch an itch in a way that you didn't

Like, were you, was it satisfying on a certain level? Absolutely. If you're a narcissist and a director, a closeted director, you know, you have control of the scene, obviously, for obvious reasons. And Jeremy Irons talked about contrasting energy. So one twin in Dead Riggers was aggressive and,

And Rachel Weisz did the same thing very well. One was more timid. And so we had to do that. That was the trick was having contrasting energies. And so one was a clown and one was more together. And yeah, you can control the scene. In fact, we'd have two rehearsals. The AD would go, you know, hey, OK, go to Harry Megum. So, Mick, you know, we got to do the other rehearsal. We do the other one.

So you'd rehearse twice, you know, before you went. Oh, wow. You'd rehearse both sides before. Yeah. Wow. And then I had a body double guy who was also an actor. Wow.

And then the other line was coming to you through an ear. Yeah, an earwig. And sometimes you'd be looking at a tennis ball. Sometimes the actor who kind of looks like you from the back. Yeah. You know? So that's a contemplative, sort of melancholy, dramatic movie. Yes. Do you...

Again, another brain-dead question, but do you have a preference about drama versus comedy? Well, it's funny you say that because it was a little too serious. I said we've got to get some jokes in the beginning because it was so dark. It was like Edgar Allan Poe.

And we got some jokes in 'cause we were gonna lose the audience 'cause he gets so depressing. - Yeah, but then there's the risk of setting the wrong tone for that which is going to come. - That's true. - Right, so there's a balance there. I remember I was like, I was a super precious and annoying

overly sensitive about any sort of humor going into Ozark. You know, the writers, these great sort of moments of levity in the first season. Where did you find the compromise eventually? Well, once we established that, you know, this Jason Bateman show is not going to be a comedy, once the audience knew that after the first season, I felt more comfortable about, you know, making it. Did you want, serious question, did you want, after asking them to sort of erase all that,

Did you watch it once you got to post? Were you like, fuck, I wish there was a moment there? Did you miss it a little bit? I don't mean a goofy thing, but at least a little bit of contrast? I was too sort of paranoid about it being taken seriously in the first year that I didn't worry about that. But the second year, I was like, yeah. Anyway, sorry to talk about fucking me again. It's fucking great. Sam, what do we got to do to have you working? The scene where you beat the guy up in the car is fucking disappointing.

What about... You know, you earned that. You earned that. Yeah, you fucking earned it. What about... How do we get you... How do we get you working 12 months a year so I, as a Sam Rockwell fan, can have more to enjoy? That's a great... I mean... Yes. I think I have to... Because you're balancing theater and film. So I got to go to New York to see you sometimes. Yeah.

Right? Which I'm coming. I'm coming this weekend for seven months. So get ready. Okay. We're going to do some hanging. It's a road. We're all waiting. So wait, Sam. What's the... You know, when you... We're talking about all these kind of prep things for roles in different movies. Do you have a thing that you first do when you either walk on a set or prepare for a character? Do you have like a go-to, any kind of superstition thing like we do in theater? No, it all comes out of fear.

trying to memorize the script and panic and, you know, and then you go to a, go see my coach, Tara Knickerbocker, where I go. And sometimes you have time to do research. Sometimes you don't. And you might have the luxury of a few months and then you would do research, like three billboards or something. I did research, but like, you don't always have the time to do that. So you're kind of like...

Just like, all right, I'm an arms dealer. Okay, I'm going to watch Bill Murray and Kingpin. That's it. That's my reason. Yeah, yeah. But are you like Billy? Because Billy talks about it and you guys know. Billy likes to spend time with the dialogue for weeks. Yeah. Right? Did you see the one-man show he did? Jesus Christ. No. It's a lot of dialogue. I missed it. But are you good at learning your lines? Are you quick with that? No.

I need time. Really? I need a lot of time, yeah. Yeah? I need a lot of time. Have you always been terrible? I mean, I tape the monotone. That's a Meisner thing, but I tape them and I run them with a reader, an actor. I think Billy does a similar thing. Billy's smarter than me, though. He knows how to...

He really breaks his shit down. My partner does too, Leslie. Her script is like really organized. Mine looks like a kindergartner wrote on. I'm always fearful that I'm going to, if I really, really work on it and I do a bunch of research and all that stuff, that I'll end up acting.

That all of that is to do the greatest acting job ever as opposed to, but that's my own bullshit. I do put a lot of work into it, but there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a list of techniques and, and, and homework stuff that I used to do when I was a kid and went to acting classes and stuff like that. And I, and I found that I was so proud of the work that I had done that I was hell bent on making sure the audience saw that work.

I understand that. Yeah. I mean, I don't like backstory. That's the thing I don't really care about. Yeah. Interesting. But it's important for some actors. Everyone's got a different thing. I mean, it doesn't work for me. Yeah. You know, I think it depends, you know. Yeah.

It depends if it makes an imprint on you. You know, you can get an ad lib from somebody, a real person. Do you ever get a... I was going to ask Sean to get into sort of the difference with you, Sammy, as well, about then when you're working on stage, then you have sort of the luxury of time to work on that and you understand and you have the facility with the dialogue because you've been working on it for months. But before I get into that, have you ever had the thing where...

I've had a couple times where like a guy, like a member of the crew will go, will like between takes and go, hey, you know what I thought it'd be really funny if you said? And I go, what's that now? Like pitching me a joke or like a different way to say a joke. And I'm like, what up? And then, and it's not bad sometimes. And they go, I just thought it'd be really funny if you said this. I'm like, oh yeah? Okay, man. Well, I thought it'd be really funny if you move the fucking C stand over there. You know what I mean?

But what if it's a good idea, you dick? No, I'm kidding. I'm being a fuck... Actually, it should be... I'm just saying that just to be funny. The truth is, I've actually had some pretty good pitches before from like sound dudes. There was a boom operator that I knew, this guy Tom, who was really fucking funny. Jay, do you remember that dude, Tom? Yeah. And he was super funny and every once in a while, like between takes, he'd go like...

hey, you know what? Blah, blah, blah. And I go, fuck, that's fucking great. And I'd use it. Thank you. Give him a little wink. I know, what if an actor does it? You know, what if another actor does it? And then you're like, man. Fuck, that's a fight. I'm always like best whatever. Yeah. If it works, it works. I never mind that. I never mind like a line reading from a director either because you're always going to make it your own.

No, but you know what? There is that thing, and I will not say who this is, but there are things before where like an actor might say to you like, hey, you know what would be really great? Say this in rehearsal, and they'll say it to the director as you're doing a rehearsal. So at that point, you go like, everybody's kind of waiting for me to do his pitch. That he said out loud to the director. You do it, and then they laugh. See, isn't that amazing? And you're so embarrassed. Yeah.

Well, that brings me to my, my thing about directing is I think I was thinking, Jason, I don't know what you do with, with actors, but I feel like you're really good with actors, but I don't know when, when a director screams a direction across a long distance, you know, over the crew, it's kind of telling the whole crew that, that the rabbit's going to come out of the hat before it does. And then it,

And you're like, hey, man, there's a lot of pressure to take the rabbit out of that. You know what I mean? Right. And then you end up adjusting your reading to make it surprising for the crew when it's not really the reading that would be right for the audience at home. Yeah.

I kind of want a conspiracy with the director. Yeah, whispering. Sam, what do you do when we're not talking about this and you're not doing this? What do you do? What's the hobby? What would our listeners be excited to learn that you do? Kickboxing. Well, somebody, I think maybe Thoreau, just told me potato chips are not a protein, which is alarming. Wow.

When I was during the pandemic, you know, I got into some potato chips. No, you know, I overwork out and then I overeat, blah, blah, blah. You know, I do that. I'm kind of compulsive. What's your exercise of choice? Are you a jogger? Everything. Like I might hit hot yoga or I might...

I got the SoulCycle here, hit the myths, you know, that kind of shit. - Right, and that's all to facilitate your snacking. - All to facilitate, yes. - 'Cause that's why I work out. - A little bit of a little IPA, a little potato chip, some chocolate.

Well, you do a little bit of boxing, right? You do a little bit of that. I've been doing it. Throw got me into like doing the soul cycle of boxing. Oh, yeah. My friend does that. Fight camp, right? Yeah, my friend does that. And by the way, got me in shape. But now my son, what's interesting is my son, my oldest son who's 15, Archie,

Because I started doing that, he got into it because of throw through somebody else. Anyway, now he's fighting with a real guy in a gym every weekend, which is crazy. Oh, he's sparring. Your son's sparring? So he's sparring, and he's really getting into it. He's way better than me. Don't be careful. I know. I'm very excited to see Argyle. Should I be? Yes. Yeah? It's great. I saw the trailer. It looks incredible, and I love Matthew Vaughn. It's really fun. That looks like a blast to shoot a movie like that. A whole movie about a sweater.

Yeah. So it starts with the idea, then the knitting, and then someone wears it? Walk me through it. You just gave away the ending. That's right. No, it's a lot of fun. Do you like doing all the action stuff and the stunts and things like that? Did you get hurt at all? You must have. No, we had an amazing stunt team. He's agile, dude. He's fucking looking at me. He's agile. Yeah, but you've got to do the start of the stunt and the end of the stunt, right? Yeah, you've got to do a little bit of the kung fu fighting, yeah. Yeah? And you had fun with that? I like it. It's fun. I like it. It's fun.

the fake stylized violence. But, you know, I had an amazing stunt double. Every time I would do something, I thought I was going fast and then I'd watch him and then I looked like I was in slow motion. Is this a stunt double you've worked with before? He's amazing. No, he's a prodigy. His name's Greg Talley. He, um...

He's like a Jackie Chan. He's from Northern England. He's a gymnast. He's a double for Spider-Man. He's 26. He was 24 when he did mine, yeah. Wow. Did he get hurt? He did get hurt on another thing, but he's fine. Okay. He's fine, yeah, yeah. Have you ever gotten hurt or hurt somebody doing a scene? No, Tim Roth and I kind of hit each other, kind of clipped each other in a rain machine doing a fight, but...

It was fine. Nothing serious. Was it on holiday or during your shoot? I broke my toe talking to my agent in my house once. You know what I mean? I once sprained my finger getting into a Tesla. Sam, we took up way too much of your time. I want to ask you about Oscar, though. How did you get ready for that? How did you do that?

How did you, what was your research for that? Well, I took a G5 to New York and then, and then it escalated from Teeterboro to the Upper West Side, I think. You really, but you nailed that guy. What, I mean, that's a lot of, that's a lot of behavior, man. That's a lot. It's a whole thing with the imitation. Forget about the piano. It's a long, long story and it took about 20 years. Does it involve scooping up bagels from Zabar's and filling them with peanut butter? What?

It's endless. It's endless, Sean. Call me on it. Side zoom me. All right, all right. We'll side zoom. But really quick, I did put on a few pounds. And I've said this story on here before. And one of the reviews in Chicago where we opened it said, Sean's going to be great on Broadway, but he needs to kill the fat suit and the plastic wig. Both my body and my hair. Yeah.

Yeah, you weren't wearing a wig or a fat suit. Is that right? No, Sean. Oh, Sean. But anyway, thanks for asking, Sam. That's very sweet. I'd like to hear more. But we didn't even get to be handing in Spokane or Billboards, which you won the Oscar for, which I fucking blew my mind. You blew my mind. There's so much to talk about. I will say there are very few people. There are a lot of people. No, sorry. That's not true.

I will say a lot of people are deserving of Oscars all the time, every year. But to see you win an Oscar was so... You deserve ten of them. So fucking cool. I love you guys, man. Because you're so fucking deserving, dude. You're so talented. And really quick, when I was doing... God bless you. You were doing Behanding and Spokane while I was doing Promises Promises. That's right. And I went downstairs to the basement to get my hair cut from a woman named... I think her name's Carmel. Yeah.

And I walked down getting ready for my weekly or two biweekly haircut. And there you are sitting in the chair. And I was like, holy shit, that's fucking Sam Rock. What's he doing here? I'm like, why did he come here to get his haircut? I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I was guffawing. I couldn't believe it. Listener, if you're not in the entertainment industry, you need to know that this guy is

is the guy everybody wants to work with, be friends with. -It's true. -He does constantly the best performances. It's just catnip for actors. And the fact that we're able to even call ourselves friends with him is enormous. So, yeah, you deserve multiple statues. -Yeah. -And I want more. You need to get a Thalberg right now. You need to get a full, like the full, you know what I mean?

Right? We're going to give the smart list, Thalberg. Let's do that. Listen, I love you guys. I love this podcast. I'm a true, true fan. I know the terminology. Anyway, I love you guys. Love you too, Sam. Thanks for being here today. Love you. Can't wait to see you soon. And the beard looks fantastic. Thanks, guys. You look amazing. You look amazing. Thanks for doing this, dude. Dude, thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.

And let's give Thoreau endless shit. Oh, yeah, please. I mean, you can't hurt him more than he hurts himself, you know? Let's be honest. All right, big fat love. All right, big fat love. Thanks, guys. Peace out. Bye, buddy. Peace out. Bye, Sammy. Thank you. Bye.

Oh, Sam the Rock. Shawnee, great, great guy. I love him so much. He's such a good guy, too. He's just the greatest, you know. Well, I sound like a broken record, but I truly do. But, you know, when you go like, like, Willie, when you were saying, you go through all of it when I was researching him and knowing he was coming on today. You go through all of his...

films and his projects, you're like, bam, bam, bam, bam, hit after hit. And if they weren't like a massive hit, he was great. And like you said, he was great in it. It's just, you know, it's the result of dedicating your life like he has to a craft or an art or anything. He's also, it's just like no matter what part he's playing, even if it's, you know, sort of just like, you know, the lead that's kind of just kind of the straight guy where he'll find a way to give that character some quality

quirk something interesting there's there's a little bit of like sparkle to color shades and it's easy to overdo that and overplay a character because it might not be written in the character but he finds the right spots to do it and it's yeah you know i was going to say uh uh i've always sort of used

John Goodman is my example of the person who's amazing in everything he does, no matter what the thing is over time, right? And different volumes, different tones, dramas, comedies, Sam's in that same category and always good. He's in that drama.

comedies, things, and like you say, Jay, like just adds color, has a little something, brings a little sparkle. Like it's the career that you wish I had. Of course. But I want him to be cast in leads, you know, as well as just like the... Well, but it's not as often as they... It should be. He and I have talked about this. Like there's just, there's a, you know, there's a certain kind of sort of like...

sort of like an average type of look and person and presence that studios feel comfortable with putting as the lead. They don't want anybody too definitive or...

Well, that's because they're worried about, because they sort of think, they're always trying to anticipate what they think audiences, and they think about sort of economics. They're like, what is the thing, the prototypical? Or physical types. Yeah, but he can play something completely normal and level, and just at the moments where it's appropriate for the lead. But he's almost like too interesting in a way. And I mean that as a compliment.

Not too weird. He's got so much personality. He's super smart. He's super fucking cool. He's magnetic on screen. We joked about Chappie. You should see how they run. It's a really good movie. He's so interesting in that as this, he's the lead. He's the detective who's got all this shit going on. He's fucking, you're like, fuck, man. This guy's just, he always brings it. Always brings it. By the way, Iron Man 2. We didn't talk about Iron Man 2. Written by, written by?

-The Justin Theroux. -Through. -That's right. -Yeah. That's-- He wrote so hard, that's when the first time the sleeves came off, 'cause he was writing. -Yeah. -And it smoked him off. Yeah, it was. It was a fire, right? It was a fire. It was a wrist fire that worked his way up his arms there. Hey, Will, I don't know what you're doing later, but are you up to throwing me? Sure. Can you just throw me, please?

Sure, man. You want to be careful, though. You don't want to break your arm. And if you do break your arm, you want to break it around the forearm. You don't want to break it up near the bicep. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbico, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjarff.

Smart Less. If you like Smart Less, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.