cover of episode "Pedro Pascal"

"Pedro Pascal"

Publish Date: 2023/6/12
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Okay, we're really, really late. We got to start the show. I want to get right into it. But I really want to tell you something about myself that not a lot of people know. But I know you're waiting. I know you're waiting. We should probably get to the show. It's like, it's going to start like any second now. And I can't wait to see who the guest is. I don't know if it's mine or theirs. I don't know because I'm shooting. I'm looking in the mirror right now, you guys. And I look amazing. I look incredible. I'm wearing a baseball hat.

I'm wearing glasses. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay, well get right to it. Get right to it. Get right to it. Get right to it. Get right to it. Welcome to Smartless. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smart. Less.

Will mentioned that he was going to try a couple of new characters today. Oh, yeah, he did. Did he talk about some new characters? Is that what he was saying? Make sure they aren't offensive accents, please. Okay. Oh, this guy's offending you? Yeah.

That's sort of stereotypical what? You don't know anything about that guy's story. You don't know anything about that guy's story. Tell us about him. Tell us about him. I, sorry, he, I'm so in, I love talking about my work as an actor and how I got there. Yeah.

Well, this is a great segue because let me tell you what I want to talk about this morning. Yeah, I agree. It is what I want to talk about too. Listener, Will and I are fresh off the boat from New York. We do travel by water. We don't like to fly. No, Sean, you'll be quiet. Sean, you will be quiet. You'll be quiet. And?

And we're back from New York, and we went and saw Sean's play. We had the pleasure. The Belasco, sorry, the Belasco. We had the honor of seeing Sean in Goodnight Oscar at the Belasco. And let me tell you about Garbage.

You can smell it from a mile away, but when you actually see it... Yeah, trash. When you look at trash. It'll pile up. It does. And the flies give it away. Yeah, the flies... I used to date that all the time. Sean is such a mega-talent. If you're anywhere near... If you're anywhere near...

New York City listener. Do your eyes and ears a favor and your heart, quite frankly, and your tear ducts and your laugh machine and go see Good Night Oscar. Sean, Will and I said it immediately after the standing ovation. No, no, Sean turned around. Sean, Jason was sitting directly in front of me and he turned around and Jason looks at me and he says...

Sean's ruined the podcast. He's ruined the podcast. We can no longer, who are we going to make fun of now? Who can we disrespect? Oh, get ready. And he said, how is Sean, he goes and does this every night. And I said, not every night.

Yeah, not every night. They couldn't make that deal. No, but honestly, in all seriousness... Mondays and Tuesdays, most people on Broadway, they take one night off. I knew Sean was talented. I think we all know Sean is talented. But when you see him play this character that takes pure acting skill...

And then he plays the piano. I knew he was classically trained, but then to see him play seven minutes of Rhapsody in Blue unaccompanied on a big-ass Steinway in the middle of a Broadway stage and bring the entire audience to their feet with wet faces from the crescendo of this play with him playing this piano, really does play it. I mean, it's just...

And this character they played-- I mean, Sean, I'm really, really, really knocked out. - Truly. - Thank you. Absolutely. The most magical night I've ever had in the theater, and I know what a weird sentence that is, but it's true. Well, you've had a few magical nights behind some theaters, but let's-- Behind the theaters. I'm talking about sitting in the chairs. But in the theater. And we-- That's the theater that's right off Van Nuys. Anyway, that's a different story. We'll save that for a different podcast.

But Sean, truly, and Jason, you and I were not alone in that. Everybody in that theater felt it. It was palpable. It was incredible. All of our friends who were there, all of whom are actors, and everybody was going like, this character that he created, an unbelievable... And what about the star wattage that Sean can cram into, not just our dumbasses, that Steven Spielberg is sitting there, and he's a part investor in the playwrights,

He believes in it so much. And boy, was he feeling smart at the end of it. That's really sweet. It was unbelievable. And, and, uh, and, and our buddy Frank Marshall was there. He was just beside himself. What also one of the producers of the play. And then just saying, I mean, I mean, everybody, it was, it was unbelievable. Uh,

Sean. It was incredible. Marty's short. This is my favorite. So I see Marty and Andrea Martin were sitting in front of you, Jay. And so we go to the after party and we're walking over to the table up where we're all sitting. And I go by Marty. Marty's at the bar. And there are probably 40 people between him and me. And he looks and he catches my eye. And across everybody he shouts, why don't you have talent like that? Laughter Laughter

Wait, another great line, though, that Will came up to me at the party afterwards, and the first thing Will Arnett says to me, he goes, hey, I had to get up during the piano part. How did it go? LAUGHTER

Oh, my God. And then you wake up to a nomination from the Outer Critics Circle. I know. Amazing. You guys are so nice. I really appreciate that. Sean, we love you. We love you. Love you too, guys. Now, let me just say something. It meant the world that you guys took the time and effort

to come out to see me and support me. I love you guys. You're my brothers. We always talk about it. But you just made my night. I'm going to see it again. I would have done it every night of the week if we had to. Thanks. That's all the time we have, I think. Okay. Thanks, listener. I can't wait. I'm going to take that bye back. Okay. I can't wait. This is so exciting. This is so exciting. Okay. I'm going to nerd out, guys. Okay. William Shatner. It's Chewbacca. It's Chewbacca.

well close um our guest today i'm so glad we got him here i wasn't sure he available because as they say he's hot hot hot right now in the hollywood that's triple he really is all anyone talks about right now at age 11 he was a texas state swimming champion before throwing in the towel don't worry he still had a speedo on and heading to the golden state and then pursuing an acting career

He's become quite the staple in American culture in the last few years, being in the forefront of some major movie and television franchises. The internet refers to him as the ultimate daddy. But probably most importantly, he did a reading with me of Goodnight Oscar only a few years ago. Please welcome my pal, Pedro Pascal. No way. Pedro. Hello. Good morning. Good morning.

Oh, this is a good guy. How exciting. Here we go. You can just pull over, turn your car off, and enjoy this. No, no, keep it on. It keeps going through the speakers. Pedro Pascal, oh my gosh. No, no, Rasma on this guy. Nope, can't do it. Putting the curtain back on. No, he can't do it. Oh, he had to bail. Oh, no, where'd he go? No, he had to bail. Just kidding. He's getting a call. Where are you, Pedro, right now?

Where am I? I'm in Los Angeles. Oh, you are? Okay, good. City of Angeles. In your house? It looks like an empty interrogation room. It's like I'm in an empty interrogation room in Los Angeles. Dude, what? Can I move the camera around to even make it look even scarier than it really is? Absolutely no care. Wow, you're really in an empty room. I've been abducted. Huh. No. But they let you do a podcast. But they're fans of your podcast. Wow, that's good. Nice.

Now, let me say something. It's true, I'm into daddies. You've seen Scotty, but I'm not hitting on you. I'm just celebrating how cool it is that the internet has collectively referred to you as our daddy and that you embrace it. I've seen you in interviews and stuff. Like, you kind of like that. It's kind of cool. And look, you got the scruff going on. You wear the glasses.

I just want people to like me. Well, just keep talking. This is what the kids call, you've got what the kids call Riz. Do we know what Riz is? No. No, what's Riz? Charisma. Okay.

My kids would say they call it W-Riz. You got that W-Riz. Wild charisma. And they get real embarrassed. I want to talk about Craig Mazin when we get to it. We'll get to Craig Mazin. We're not talking about Craig Mazin. The amazing Mazin. I want to continue talking about Goodnight Oscar. We have to just a little bit. You have to invite me. No, we have to. It's because the opening was recently? Recently?

And the production is directed by Lisa Peterson, right? Correct. That's correct. Incredibly well directed. I did a stage reading for Lisa Peterson 23 years ago at the Taper. That's where I met her. Oh, wow. It was part of the... I can't remember what the label of the theater festival, New Works sort of season that it was. And...

Nothing. We're old. That's my point. Let's move on. Lisa's amazing. Did you like her then? I loved her. It was amazing. I was desperate to get a job in professional theater, no matter where I was, whether it was Los Angeles or New York. Did that one end up going to stage? It did not. If it did, it did not go with me.

So Pedro, you're from Texas, which I did not know. Did you start, were you doing theater in Texas? No. So I was born in Chile. Yeah, in Santiago, Chile. Let's not brag about the research, Sean. No, no, but I want to say this to you. En la escuela secundaria, en la clase de español, me llamaba Santiago porque otro chico, Elegio Juan,

Do you know how to speak Spanish, Sean? I said in Spanish class in high school, my name was Santiago because some other kid picked Juan, which is Sean.

Will, this is a great opportunity for you to launch the Spanish character you're working on. I would like to, but my character is from Bolivia, sadly, so he's not there. He's close by. He's very close by, but I'm so sorry. That's better than the arbitrary Latino accents I have...

By the way, Pedro, I do want to... Sean, Jason, you can go, but now that we're in South America and we're talking about this, Pedro, I got to know you, not personally, but like a lot of people from watching Narcos, I thought you were so fucking great in Narcos. I loved, I loved Narcos, and you were so great in it, and it was like...

I'm sure it was one of those things you've been working for years and then everybody's like, "Hey, look at this guy." And you're like, "Hey, man, I've been around for a long time." Right? Was that kind of-- how'd that happen? And filled with talent for years. It was-- Narcos was a really lucky job. And I think it came on the coattails of the big fight of Oberyn Martell and the Mountain in Game of Thrones and the people over at Netflix realizing that I wasn't living past that episode. And then, um...

Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Sorry, everybody. From 10 years ago. See, I'm not a Game of Thrones fan, so I didn't... I've never watched it. It's not that you're not a fan. You just haven't seen it. It was a splashy guest role of the season, sort of at the height of the game's popularity. So good. The game's... Good God. It's early for me. Not only are we not going to cut that, we're going to double that one. Keep going. Well...

That was really the first thing that... That was the first time I experienced sort of a larger exposure in relation to work in a big way. And that, I would say... And you met David Benioff, and your life's never been the same. Exactly. We'll all be lodged by him. It completely started there for me as far as consistent work. And so because of Game of Thrones, I got Narcos, and then...

It was amazing. We shot the entire thing in Colombia. It was six to seven months a season, and they would have one... It was sort of like... It was so location-based, you know, which is part of the reason I think the show worked as well as it did because the physical landscape of the show was kind of its secret weapon in that where we were shooting was kind of the main character of the show more than these...

larger than life real dangerous human beings and dangerous circumstances what was that like working in colombia you know i'm a soft guy and and and all i'm thinking about is humidity and i'm and i'm smelling a little bit of mildew on the wardrobe um were we in the jungle and was it tough to get dry sometimes we were in the jungle the base of production was in bogota and bogota is 9 000 feet

And so I'm thinking the crispy snacks at Crafty were chewy, right? And so it was tough to get a good crunch out of the chips. You could never... No, no, it was dry. It wasn't humid up in Bogota. Bogota is like 40%.

Four seasons in a day, and humidity isn't part of it. It's kind of gets dry, sunny, rainy, windy, cold. It's generally... It's like Jason's personality, like from Monday to Friday. It's kind of cold, but... Manic. Manic, but sometimes beautiful. Hostile, but gorgeous. And the cocaine is always just around the corner. Yeah, exactly. Careful. Careful.

Jay, I mean, and Jay, what was, and Jay, really what he wants to know is nice hotel and how close is the private airport? You know what I mean? And if he's got that down, then he's happy. I think it's only prop planes going in and out of those high- You guys would love Columbia. Really? And not for the reasons you think. Really? Oh, it's the best. It's the best. It's the best place. I would love to go. I would love to go. I like the yellow soccer uniforms. It's all I'm into. For the books. You would like the beaches and the mountains and the people. We'll be right back.

And now, back to the show. I think it's fascinating. I want these guys to hear this because when I was reading about you, about your parents, the political asylum that they had to seek when you were a kid and going around to Denmark and then like... By the way, before you get into this, I'm going to ask these guys, Pedro, you know this, but we're going to expose these guys. Do you guys know who the dictator was in Chile who was, you know, ostensibly just a puppet of the American without looking it up? Paldunger.

No. Darn, it's ner. Pinochet. Anyway, keep going. That's what I said. Go ahead, Sean. I'm just exposing them, Pedro. He said enough vowels and consonants that you can kind of manipulate in the edit that he said Pinochet. How do you get it all in your head, Will? Will? Yes? How do you get it all in your head? How is he so smart, Sean? Because I don't think about anything else because my brain, I have very little, I have no street smarts. Pinochet. So your parents fled, so you guys fled as... Because they were in opposition to Pinochet.

Yes. Is that true? Yes. No, it's a lie. Uh-oh. No, but you know sometimes they build... That's fascinating. Sometimes stuff on your Wikipedia gets kind of blown out of proportion. What was the deal there? Then I want to know how much you paid for your name because it's the best name in Hollywood. Well, he's going to get to that because his last name was different. Right, he had to change it. Yes, I was born Jose Pedro Balmaceda Pascal.

And, um, and, uh, and, and my parents, they were just very young when they had, uh, my sister and myself, my sister's two and a half years older than me. And, um,

There was a cousin of my mother's that was very, very involved in the opposition movement against the military regime. Its proximity to our family, I wouldn't say that my parents were revolutionaries by any stretch of the imagination, but they were very young. Not actual dissidents or anything? No, they were young liberal college students and ties from my mom's side to...

close ties to the opposition movement just in terms of family. It was a first cousin of my mother's. And my dad was doing his residency at the university hospital, La Catolica it's called. And so there was a gunfight that my parents were not involved in, but somebody was wounded and they brought him to my parents' house so that my father could help tend the wound, hide them for a while. The person that

brought them to our house and, you know, I was four months old at the time. He was taken into custody and tortured and gave names and then they came looking for my parents. No way. And so then my parents had to go into hiding for about six months, as it's been told to me, and they, you know, like some sort of political thriller, you know,

From the early 80s, they found a way to... They saw that there was a change of guard at the Venezuelan embassy where one guy got off the bus, the same bus that the other guy would get onto to switch places. And so there was this window where they could... Get in there. You know, climb over the wall. No fucking way. Physically climb over the wall and then land on...

on the other side of the the wall and and and demand uh asylum and it and it worked well one time jason you told jason told you when you were a kid one time you went to the guard yeah and you didn't have the right pass at warner's and you had to go to the gate four instead of gate one is that true and i thought about going over the wall but i was going to park in the main lot and you had to end up walking over the stage instead of going through gate one i

-I jumped on the back of a golf cart. -This is how Jason got his first job. It was not dissimilar in the guard, and then the pass didn't match up. Then I dropped my headshot, I had to double back for my headshot, and then the golf cart ran over it. Pedro, you know, I remember one of the reasons I know all this stuff. When I was in 1981, and these guys know I'm good on dates, the movie Missing came out with Sissy Spacek, Jack Lemmon, and John Che was in it as well. He's the guy who goes missing.

And my mom took me to see it in the theater. I was probably too young, my mom. -Oh, wow. -And-- But I was probably too young, but she took me anyway, and it had such an impact on me to see how other people were living, and really in a real way, like a real-- So it's always-- I've always-- I haven't paid attention necessarily, but I always knew that that was the reality in that part of the world, especially at that time. And it occurs to me as you're telling this, and you're so good at telling this story, and you're such a--

Yeah, you do have that riz. You're very charismatic. Has it ever occurred to you-- Have you ever thought about sort of writing a story based on that or do-- No? No. Can we write it and would you do it? -It's really fascinating. -I mean, it is fascinating, man. It's-- What an unbelievable story. It's totally unbelievable. I saw Missing myself when I was a kid. It is-- It had such an imprint

in my, you know, brain when I saw it because of how closely I could relate it to my parents' experience in this. Did Oliver Stone direct that? No, it was Costa Gravas. And, you know, my mom was like little and beautiful like Sissy Spacek, you know? Yeah. And I remember, I think about this now in my middle age that how strange it is to

get information in that way through cinema and relate it to a kind of immediate experience of my parents that they aren't sharing with me.

Not that it was this big secret or anything like that, but they just, we just didn't talk about it. Really? Have you been back there since? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been back my whole life. They ended up on the list of pardoned exiles when I was eight years old. Oh, great. And so at that point, my older sister and I, we had already gotten sent back on our own

You know, the late 70s, early 80s, four-year-olds traveling by themselves, you know, in the custody of like a stewardess. I did that. But when I was eight, it was like a huge family reunion because there were very large families on both sides that were left behind. And ever since then, we'd go back my whole life. My younger siblings who were born in the States were actually raised in Chile. So the...

strange circumstance of having been born there, never living there, going there my whole life, it never being home, but it being home and it's just been this ever present. - Do you have a place there now that you go back? - I don't have a place there, but both my siblings and my father do.

But a couple other movies you mentioned that were kind of a big like shifting gears here Peggy Sue got married and raising Arizona you said we're like yeah, and then also your mom wouldn't let you see a certain movie I think my dad my mom didn't care my mom didn't give a shit My dad was really against me seeing The Breakfast Club. Well, really? Yeah, I could see he took me to go see first blood

The big chill. Sure. You know, anything that he was interested in seeing, frankly, it didn't matter if it was rated R or not. Sean's in the breakfast club. Yeah. And the lunch club and the snack club and the dinner club. And we're back. All the sequels.

But yeah, I wasn't allowed to see The Breakfast Club. Wow. Just because it was what? Sent a bad message? Yeah, it was like kids complaining about their parents. It's like, you know, watching that. That's hysterical.

I have a thousand questions if you would like to hear one. Okay. By the way, I guarantee you you don't have a fucking thousand. Try one, Sean. So you came to California. Your dad moved here? Your mom and dad both came? We all came to Orange County in...

-86, 87. -And then you went to-- And then things happened. You went to New York, NYU. I went to-- Yeah, and then at 18, I went to New York, yeah. Yeah, and you were terrible at waiting tables. I was, I really was. I was a bad waiter. And what restaurant do you remember? There's so many. Are you guys--

Oh, this is the 90s. I started so... I lived in New York in the 90s. I worked at... Where's the first place? I started it sort of as a coffee barista person in places that...

Definitely don't exist anymore. And then I got a job at Flamingo East. Do you remember Flamingo East on 2nd Avenue? Yeah. There was a place on 7th and 2nd called Verage. I got a job at Time Cafe. No way. Got fired from Fez Bar. Yes.

All of these sound like dancing clubs. And then I moved up to, Flamingo East had a party. They had different, they had an upstairs space and they would throw parties up there. And every once in a while I got to bartend that. And then- I remember Fred Armisen had his birthday once at Flamingo East, like 20 years ago. Upstairs, yeah. Yeah. And it almost had like a living room. There was like a little back room and stuff. Do you remember that? Yeah. Yeah. It was this beautiful space.

And they fired me. What did you do that was so bad in each of these spots? Yeah, because I read that you got fired over 10 times from different places. In some instances, well, one, I wasn't very good. But what about your work was not good? I didn't have...

The talent to... The talent. I don't know. Yeah, you know, it does. I think it really does take talent to know how to deal with any kind of customer more so than the customers is to deal with management, to be honest with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And to kind of service...

the system of which you are a part of in terms of that environment. And I wasn't smart enough to kind of, you know, keep myself safe and perceived as a reliable, um, I was like, I was always on time and stuff like that, but they didn't like me enough to keep me if I needed to,

cover my shift again because I was gonna go to Buffalo and shoot a Xerox industrial commercial. -Yeah. -And get stuck there. You know, because the acting-- This all sounds like somebody who's got, like, a major drug problem just covering-- You know what I mean? Just going like, "They didn't have the-- They didn't put up with--" And then he tried to tell us he was gonna do a Xerox spot. My inconsistency with the showing up of the thing in the-- -By the way-- -All right. So you're bad at waiting tables. No, I was really innocent. I really was. I was just stupid.

No, you weren't stupid. I don't believe that for a second. But, you know, Pedro, you know that Jason's never, because he grew up in showbiz, this is a true story, he's never had one of those kinds of jobs. And I think that you kind of wish you had. I've always wanted to. Yeah. I've actually always fantasized about waiting tables and bartending, truly. And I always offer you, every time I have a catering gig over here at the house, when I'm having people over, I would say, Jason, come on over. Yeah. And then I end up doing it. You know what's scary is that Jason would have been great. He would have been great.

I do like the idea of each table is like a separate stage and you're trying to figure out what that audience needs from you so that you get the best possible tip. Yeah, that's right. Some tables want to be left alone. Other tables want a little bit more show. Here's what would have tripped you out and that your managers wouldn't have liked because you would have always demanded a hard out. Yeah, yeah. And so you would have...

I'm gone before dessert. My one joke I used to do as a waiter, I'd come by with the food and I'd put it down and the customer would say, oh, that looks wonderful. And I'd point to my shirt and I'd go, thanks, I just got it. And that's a tip. That's an extra 5%. 24 years old, killed every time. So listen, so Pedro...

So, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the thing that Jason was referring to, which I didn't know. You were credited as Pedro Balmaceda. Si. And why Pascal? Oh, literally, it is not your name. I was just... No, it is. It's at the tail end. No, no, no, but I mean... Yes, go ahead, sir. South Americans, we've got a lot of names. Like, José Pedro, I never went by... My dad is José Pedro, and I'm José Pedro, and he's... But he grew up as Pepe, and I grew up as Pedro. Oh.

because it's, Pedro's not a middle name. So Jose Pedro is like a first name, right? And I just grew up as Pedro. And then, and Balmaceda Pascal is what is on your passport, your birth certificate, Pascal being the maiden name. So Balmaceda is my last name. It's my father's name. And I went by, so I went by Pedro Balmaceda and there was a very, very,

reason to change it to Pascal and there was also a very practical reason and they really meet in the same level of importance because one, Balmaceda was impossible for people to pronounce and it just wasn't helping me in terms of auditions and casting and Pascal

very easy to read and say out loud. And it always felt like a part of my identity. And so when my mother passed away,

23 years ago, I made a gradual transition to Pascal. I will say, it is nice, and I will say Pedro Pascal is a star name. That's so funny because I resisted it for such a long time. It was something that I wanted to do, you know,

Before my mother died. Yeah. Hilarious. But I always thought it was kind of silly because of the P and the P and it sounded like maybe I was trying to create, I don't know what I thought was silly about it. I should have gotten to it much sooner than I did actually. Yeah. And now a word from our sponsor. All right, back to the show.

Now, can I ask you, can I fan out and dork out about Mandalorian for just a little bit while these guys hang tight? Here we fucking go. Jesus. Here we go. So...

So, first of all, I want to know, I've seen every episode. I love it. Me and Scotty, my husband. The laser that you had in your belt. There's been a lot of discussion. The safety wasn't turned off and that it came from Glogblort. Is that true? Was it originally from Glogblort? I want Scotty to do a cross in the background in a full Mandalorian accent. Ask him if it was from Glogblort because I read it on Reddit.

Scotty, do you have any questions about Mandalorian? Truly asking. Truly asking, Scotty. Do you have any? Scotty just peeks in. I have so many. So the Mandalorian. So listen, when you have the mask on, can you, I want to know, can you see, is it really you? Do you do voiceover after? What's it like wearing the suit? Do the jets really work? Like, what's happening? Like, tell me all about it. Oh, yeah, it's all real. Yeah, and they're in space, too. Yeah. Stupid ass.

I'm a huge fan. We're in space. We've always been in space. Sure. And it's really the only way it's similar to Narcos in that regard where it's location-based. Sure. Sure. And there isn't really any other way to achieve it other than traveling to galaxies far, far away from our long past, correct? Mm-hmm. And Baby Yoda...

Is real. I keep on having this, like, almost sort of this electric shock that goes through my system if I say that. I don't know why. It's totally fine. But Grogu, the child... Grogu, right. You're supposed to say Grogu, not Baby-Dub. ...is real. But it's really you under the helmet. So I can't see very well in the helmet. There was...

very extended experimental phase where I was in the suit for so much of it and Establishing what could be established in terms of a physical language really drawing so much from guys that were better at it than I was and But how do you do do they Mike you in the in the helmet or do you do voice a mic pack in this? There's a mic pack in

You're in showbiz, right, Sean? On your person. But there's also, it's a good question, Sean. There's a mic pack in the helmet, and it's really kind of up against the harder surfaces of your skull. Do they come mic you in your trailer, or do you just go over to the trolley? Like, what the fuck are you doing?

And is there a snack hole or do you have to take the whole helmet off? By the way, Sean, is it true? You told me once that just talking, the Mandalorian, every time you watch it makes you grow goo. Is that true? I was working on one of those while you beat me. That's good. I grow a lot of goo when I watch the show. Yeah, for sure. No.

No, that's so interesting. I'm fascinated by the show. I love the show. It's hard to see. There are so many ways that you sort of need to do a head tilt for the camera that makes it so that you can't even really look into the eyes of the human or puppet that you're acting with. And in some instances, you feel really...

really cool and it takes care of most of the work and and i have a lot of fun in post because john favreau gives me a lot of opportunity to kind of edit with him and go over things that they got maybe on the day and it's really really surgical technical work that i've never yeah it's like exactly you don't have a lot of sync issues right and not a lot of lip flap matches

Correct. Yeah, because you can just do it. Now, you know what I'm thinking about in that helmet is just odor, you know. Yeah, like your own breath. Multiple episodes and stuff. So do you have like a lavender wipe that you can go in there? Who else wore it before you? Odor, of course. Yeah. Do you put a flower in there or what happens? I was very aware of like my...

Not only that, but sort of the dark plastic of the tea, you know, because you're like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's almost like what your breath smells like, like cakes on, like stays there. Yeah, that's what Jason said. And you're not handing that helmet off to second team for lighting, are you? You don't want them in there. Or sound. They got their own, right? Different helmet, different flower. Ha, ha, ha.

I know you'd be surprised. It's so real, Pedro. It's so real. This is giving Jesus... That would keep him up at night if he was up and his stand-in was wearing it. What do you mean we don't have a second-team helmet like that? It should have just come from the shop. Pedro, what you need to know is what would happen is the whole thing with the helmet, if Jason was doing that, it would go to Bloom, his assistant, and then Amanda, his wife, she'd be deep in on the cleaning of the helmet. There's no way that Jason can have this helmet going to somebody else.

He would hand the problem up to eventually his wife and Zach and Aline and everybody. There'd be emails. Guys, we got to get Jason's helmet situation sorted out before he shows up on set. Meanwhile, Pedro's a normal, nice guy. He shows up. He's like, I'll just roll with it. You know? Yeah. No, you can play. I had three callbacks for Mandalorian, and I think that was the issue. I think ultimately Fabbro says, this guy's a problem. You couldn't come to an agreement on that.

That's understandable. Sedaris is on that show, right? Amy Sedaris. Oh, yes, she is. Yeah, she's great on it. You know, there was an instant with Amy Sedaris specifically, and that was where she made me laugh so hard that I spat into the helmet. And that was a moment where I...

came into a clear understanding of the close proximity that I had to my own, to the things that are in my mouth, my saliva and it's, you know, or like lunch or breakfast. She's the best. I love her. But listen, I want to talk about your new movie too. It's, it's, it's what's it called? Strange way of life. Is that what it is?

Strange Way of Life. Yeah. Strange Way of Life. Extraña Forma de Vida. And it's a 30-minute film. That's it? It's just one film? It's a 30-minute short written and directed by Pedro Almodovar. Wow. Starring Ethan Hawke. And it's gay cowboys who travel across the desert to find each other 25 years apart. Former lovers. Yeah. And one travels across the desert to see him again.

And, um, and it is shot in the same places that Sergio Leone was shooting his spaghetti Westerns in that Southern region of Spain. Oh, wow. That's cool. On the same sets. That's cool. And, uh,

Saint Laurent does the costumes. Wow. And it's me and Ethan, and I'd never worked with Ethan before. I actually listened to him on your podcast. Wasn't he great? He's awesome, isn't he? Yeah, he's so cool. I love him. It was so great to get to hear you guys get to know him because I spent the summer with him, and, you know, I saw...

movies that he was in, starting with like The Explorers. Yeah. And then Dead Poets Society and Reality Bites. And then he published a book and then he was on Broadway and then he was off Broadway and then he directed off Broadway. And then he was like working with friends. And then we were doing, you know, this thing with Pedro Almodovar, whose movies I saw growing up. It was kind of a family favorite. And it just meant a lot in all earnestness. It was...

This moment of sort of being listened to and taken seriously by these two influences was a very surreal experience for me because they, he was my scene partner and this was our director and they wanted to be collaborative and they wanted to, I don't know, all get on the same page at the same level. And I felt so influenced by both of them in my career

upbringing that

As corny as it may sound, I'm like, these guys care what I think. But you know why, Pedro? And I mean this too. You earned that seat there because you're really good at what you do. Yeah. And I hope you see what we all see, which is an incredible talent, incredible artist, and you deserve to be there. And that's why you were there in that scene with those guys. Yeah. Where do we get to see it? Where is it going to come out?

It's going to premiere at Cannes. Gross. He did a previous short with... Jesus, that was such a nice story and then you fucking ruined it with your Cannes bullshit. I've never been. Did you get to keep any of the... Are you going to go? I'm going to try to go. I want to go...

Really badly. He did a previous short with Tilda Swinton. So this is the second of what could be three installments of these 30 minute English language forays because everything he's ever done before is in his native language. Hey Pedro, I'm, no, I'm Modavar. I'm tech avail. Just FYI. I'm just putting it out there to the universe. Did you get to keep any of the St. Laurent cowboy stuff? I bet it's some pretty cool stuff. No? They don't give me nothing.

I asked for the green jacket. If you want to look up the trailer right now, you see me in this kind of like bright green Jimmy Stewart, you know, denim jacket.

Cowboy. They said no, they want to hold on to it for possible reshoots? Jacket. No, they just gave me a flat no. Jason wants to know, was it moldy? Was the jacket moldy? Did he smell anything? Did it breathe right out there? Because I imagine it was pretty hot. It didn't have a wicking quality. And the last thing I want you to do, Paige, only if you want to, on SNL, you were so fucking funny on this internet live. Can you just do a little bit of the voice? Which one? Can you just do a little bit? I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know what she's talking about. It's so fucking... Stop asking me. I'm not comfortable with that. It's really funny. I've been putting on an accent this whole time and now I finally get to talk to myself.

I could listen to that for nine hours. It was a lot of fun talking to you guys. I love you. Bye. Pedro, thank you for joining us, my friend. Pedro, we love you very much. You are a true talent and a friend. Honestly, you're such a fan. Such a huge fan, man. You're so good at what you do. Keep doing it. I really love talking to you guys. Bye, Pedro. We love you. Have a great rest of your day. I'm just going to take the headphones off because I have no idea what is press. That's fine. Just take them off and walk away. Slam the iPad. Yep.

All right. Bye, buddy. Bye, bye, bye. Man, he is great. Yeah, yeah. I'm such a massive fan of The Last of Us. Did you guys watch it? I haven't yet. Did you... Will, did you ever play the game? I did not play the game. No. Yeah. It's so good. I saw the prequel. Uh-oh. The First of Us. Did you not see...

He was. That's so dumb. Of course it's dumb. What do you want from me? This is a dad. This is a great clean dad joke. It's a clean joke. Do you need a headset to play that game? Is that one of those where you got to use Will's headset? You can.

What do you mean wills? Millions of people enjoy themselves. He's such a talented guy. But isn't it amazing that he started out so... He's been doing this forever. So when Game of Thrones hit, when he was like Wonder Woman, all these big things that he's done, it kind of came out of what seemingly... Always the same story all the time, that it seemingly came out of nowhere, but he's been doing this forever. That's what I meant. That was my first... Yeah. Yeah, so that's why he's down to earth and normal because he's like...

You guys are making all the hype. I'm not making all the hype. I'm just working. You know what I mean? I saw him in an interview where they had him strapped to a lie detector and he's just like so comfortable. An interview, I guess it was more like an interview. Anyway, whatever it was, he was at a police station and he was strapped to a lie detector. No, but he was doing it and he was just like... And I was marveling at how comfortable he is in his own skin and how relaxed and normal he is. And that's why I asked that question. It's like...

You can tell he's the guy who's paid his dues and he's been doing it for a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's not like, oh, my God, this is all so crazy. Yeah, he's the greatest. Jason, you got to run. Where are you heading to and where are you going right now? Some charity thing. Are you saving some kids? Yeah, I got to go feed a bunch of folks. Are you going to drive or are you going to ride your... No, he's going to drive and then he's going to probably ship. Oh, he was buying. I was going to say bike. Bike.

Bye. I love you, Sean. Have a great show tonight, you stud. All right. I love you, too. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarv, and Bennett Barbico. Smart. Less.

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