"RE-RELEASE: Charlie Day"

Hi there, this is Will Arnett,

“host of The Will Arnett Fun Zone podcasting.”

- This week, what we've talked about this man, we've been over this like so many times. - Okay, but we are doing it though, right? We are now doing that over this is smart list. - Okay.

- Fun Zone, I know. - Well, what are we doing today? - All we need is a super simple welcome to smart list. Oh, right, I'm gonna dig deep for this. - Welcome to smart list.

(upbeat music) Now listen, Jason, before we get too deep into the show, we need to talk about the crew, the crew collar, and now tell us what happened this week. - Well, I went ahead and I got showered

and changed prior to our record for my golf engagement, following this record. - Oh, you go. - Yeah, I mean, that's proud to say, but Chuckles over there does it too.

So, yeah, so I put on my collar shirt as you're required to do, and then it's a little chilly here in Los Angeles, so I put on a nice wrap over the top of it, a nice mirror wrap, and the collar on that crew neck

was a little tight. So, it took the collar of my undershirt there and pushed it up and then will was hurting me, calling it a mock turn on neck. So, that sweater's gone, I'm gonna go to a v-neck.

- And well, Sad, we were talking about money for producing the podcast and well said. - What's the budget for mock turn on legs for Jason, for the, I think, can we have a budget? - It's a matter of fact.

- It's a matter of question, first of all, you're allowed to mock a mock turn on neck, and then it's built into the name.

- Okay, but by the way, I will never,

you'll never see me in a mock turn on neck. You'll never see me in a turn on neck for sure, because I've got, probably, you know, they ask you sometimes, you know, what's the one thing you change about your body?

It's probably my non-superhero jawline. I've got sort of like a, sort of a diagonal, a diagonal from the end of my chin to my Adam's apple, as opposed to a 90 to a half. So, if I were a turn on neck,

I then have the turkey goblet hang over, over the edge, the cascades, the skin, the cascades, over the edge of the turtle, I can't have it. - Yeah, no, I can't, I disagree. You both have nice, nice silhouette.

- Go back to the thing though, about being called, it's called an LA. I came down the stairs down, not making this up. I came down stairs, and Scotty had the heat on

on the first floor, Los Angeles, and the heat,

and I was sweating by the time I got to the bottom of it. - You come down the stairs,

“your Hollywood house, everyday like glorious ones, right?”

- That's right. - That's right. - That's right. - And a flowing house coat. - Yeah, ready for my close-up. - It's so great to see you come down here.

- It's so great to see you guys see this. - This is really exciting. I'm excited for you guys to talk to our guest today. - Oh, I'm excited to see this. - Because our guest is somebody,

it's a, this is a mega tunnel. This person is a person who's been doing it for a long time. This person is not just an actor, this person is a writer.

This person is a skilled musician who started playing violin at the age of three. They can play the piano, accordion, trombone, guitar, harmonica, and has written and improvised music a lot in a show that they've done now for many, many years.

This person received an honorary doctorate from performing arts from Merimet College. This person was active at Williams Town Theatre Festival back in the day. This person has gone on to a huge career in television.

And I guess the longest running TV comedy of all time, this person has done here, I wanna feel wanna do something here. - Well, this is my guest and it makes sense 'cause this is my friend and I'm so happy to have my friend. And I want you guys to start trying to guess

this person has done lots of movies. This person was in the Lego movie with me. - This is Charlie Day. - He's running college. - The Lego movie, too.

- Yeah. - That's a big rib. - The longest running chorobosses, chorobobosses, and it's sequel. - Well, it's gonna be tough.

- Yeah, it's true. - It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. - Oh my God, right. - You're screaming at the bottom of the barrel, Matthew. - No, I was trying to wrap the show up.

- So Chuck, what about this is now,

“I think the reason you've taken so long to book on this”

is your shit. - Look, I'm real long time for someone to ask me. - I can't believe Rob McLean, he beat you onto this show. - That's not to say about us.

- Here's my favorite part. Is that Bayman and Chuck Day have been friends for many years,

And I was so happy to steal Charlie as my guest

from Under payment, just a really pointed hat amount too. - I know.

“- I think maybe you did ask me, yeah, definitely.”

And then you were saying, yeah, gosh, you know, I don't know, we're starting a podcast, and I think you gave me a little bit of a run around, and I don't lie on like the pressure people. I know you were looking to get paid quite a bit of money

for 10 years. - Yeah, I was waiting for you guys to make money, so I could start making money, which is cool, 'cause we'll cut me a great check for this. - I had to send them over cash, a guy with a rucksack full of cash.

- Yeah, and that's a big up for me, guys. - There's way not doing that well, right? You know, that show is not paying you. - I've made a lot of bad decisions, though, you know what I mean?

I've made a lot of sketchy calls. - Wait, Charlie, we had McIllhaney on, and is it really the longest running sitcom in history? - Yeah. - Yeah, well, years, if you don't count episodes,

I think you did more episodes of Will and Grace, and like two seasons. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. (laughing) - How many verses it now?

This is something we don't want to gloss over, because this is, you should be, and I'm sure you are. - So proud of how long this show has been on the earth. - Yeah, so cool.

- We're talking, of course, about all of a sudden, you feel we don't. - It's 15 years, we just, we just have 15 years. - 15 years. - And you're about to do another one or two?

- I don't know, at least another one. And we'll see after that. - Look at the way he's positioning right there. - Right, right. - He knows Fox's listening, of course.

- Of course. - Or whatever the hell it is. And he's gonna jam him again. - Yeah, I do know what it is. We've thought a lot, we've thought a lot of these.

I don't know how long we can keep on. - Nothing adds more zeros than a foot out the door, right. I mean, that's true, yeah. - So Charlie, let's talk a little bit about, 'cause we're talking about all of a sudden in Philadelphia,

which is a huge long-running show, longest, by years. Could you have imagined, take us back to the day when it actually became a TV show? 'Cause we had Rob on here, we talked about it. You guys made some videos and stuff

“and you shot some stuff, is that, am I remembering that correctly?”

And you took it to FX?

- Yeah, that's basically it.

I mean, we were shooting in my apartment, which was on the corner of Western and Franklin there. I lived, and I think it paid 600 bucks a month for rent. - Oh, you gotta rob. - Quick aside, quick aside, Jason,

last time you were east of Kwinga. - Five, four, four, three, eight. - Back in the drug days. - Oh yeah, sure. - Yeah, I think I want to see new scoring on the corner.

- Yeah, it was a pay phone I'd like to, I hang out at. - I had to run you down a dye and bag or something, I was in there. - Oh, my God, well, so you're in your apartment.

- Right, and was there a phone call from your agent or manager or something, it said, they bought it? - You know what it was? So we had shot this thing and it was pretty good,

but we knew we'd sort of not hit the nail on the head. And we had nothing really going on, so we read it the whole thing. And when we were doing it so cheaply, we were holding the camera as we had a little boom,

and it was real low ret. And our second goal round was pretty funny. We thought there's something here, and we were all at three arts management at the time. So Nick Frankle and Michael Ronberg took it to WME

and they kind of sat on it for a while. They were like, yeah, maybe we'll hook you up with a big producer. And God, we waited forever for John Fadrow to watch it.

And he just, I guess he never got around to it.

- I think the one that got away. I know, well, I mean, I'm so glad I'm not cutting half a check to John, you know, like, I mean, I'm sure he would help the lot, but you know, it's nice not to have to be paying for anything. But eventually we got kind of bored,

and we shot a third episode. And literally you shot it because you were just in this waiting because the agencies are on their timetable.

“- Well, that and the only thing to do on Western”

is either move and bags or shoot another episode. - And it should be, it should be noted. Can I just take this in my right and saying this? And you guys can agree or disagree with me. The agenting in show business is hilarious

because like you can't get in touch with your agent in the first thing in the morning because they're in a staff meeting. Every agent takes lunch at one o'clock no matter what. So they're out of the office for two hours.

- Two hours. - They need an hour to get there. So they leave it 12, sorry, we lost a reason on his way to a lunch. And then he's back at three.

Then they do the thing is like, well, he's not in the office, why not? Well, because next week is Thanksgiving. - Yeah, next week is Thanksgiving, not this week. - The fuck are you doing?

- And then, and then the month of December. - And then month of December, sorry, it's the holidays. Sure, got it, and then they go. And then obviously Sundance is at the end of January. So nobody's back till February.

It's the most ridiculous racket of all time. - We were getting a lot, yeah. - The end of the day goes like this. Well, the end of the day goes, sorry, we're close.

He's gonna start rolling calls. And then they call, knowing you're not gonna pick up.

and you're having dinner with the kid,

“and you're like, why are you calling me now?”

- Yeah. - Sorry, sorry. - Sorry, sorry, sorry. - No, that's it though. We lost sort of patience with that kind of thing,

and we said that. - Yeah, we're gonna leave you guys, and we're gonna go to a different agency with this. And that sort of prompted them setting a bunch of meetings and Rob went around, 'cause we thought maybe

too much to have all three of us in the meetings of Rob went. And we had an offer from FX to shoot a real pilot with a real budget. - Rob's a closer. - He's a closer.

He's better in the meeting, he's a better salesman. - How are you in meetings? 'Cause I don't think I'm great in meetings. I don't enjoy them, I feel like I'm trapped in an office. I feel like I'm 45 minutes from getting out of these walls,

so we better not go bad in the next minute or two because I'm stuck. All those things I start to feel, I start to think about, and then it just the wall start getting closer and closer like Star Wars.

How are you? Do you look at it as like an arena, like a mon stage, or this is fun, like let's win, or are you looking to get out of there? - It's tough, it's a tough part of this business.

- You know, it depends. They're all very different. You go into a meeting, and you just sometimes you just get cold stairs in a sudden. - Yeah.

- Well, I do have that vibe sometimes of like, well, here's the idea, guys. Do you wanna buy it or not? - Okay. - Yeah, if you have that in the difference,

what's it called, will? - Sex, it's called sexy. - Sex, sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Charlie, you know about his sexy and difference, right?

- Yeah. - It's one of, it's, it's still working on that. - It's your terms, yeah, you are. - But yeah, it's, you know, it's, you're either selling or you're buying.

The buyers usually look at you with absolutely no expression because they can. The sellers us have to go in there like circus clowns because we're selling. And that's really what we do in this business.

And in a good year, you're selling, you know, you're selling yourself six, seven, eight times and winning. Like in other words, you get fired, you know, half a dozen times and rehired half a dozen times if you're killing it.

So, I mean, how many people in other industries have to sell themselves or get fired or rehired? Maybe three, four times over their whole life? I mean, we gotta do that all the time. It's tough, it's, it's hard.

- It is crazy, but then you look at the flip of it, Charlie. So, you guys, you guys go through this process. You make this thing, you wait, you make this thing, you wait,

“you're waiting, you have to threaten to leave the agency.”

Finally, FX buys it. You guys are kind of a little bit hat in hand. And now, all these years later, you're at the position, we asked you right at, like, are you gonna do more of you? Maybe I'll do one more, whatever, like you have the tables

have turned a little bit. - Yeah, well, not a little bit a lot. - Yeah, I mean, I think the thing is though, when we were shooting that pilot, I was 27 years old. - Right.

- And I'm 46 and so I feel like, you know, I put in my time with this one. - It's 23 though.

- I know, it's a incredible age since I started it.

- Yeah, yeah. - That's be a real stress-free set there. - But, but we all make, we all make stuff. We all produce or write or direct or act whenever. And Charlie, kind of what Jason was talking about,

is there a point where you, like, are you getting to a point where it's bothersome that the grind is getting to you about getting all these knows, because it seems now to put together a package to sell something. You have to really stack the deck high before anybody

will even consider you hear about moral streep getting past or on or whoever these big stars go out to pitch these shows and they get past well, if you'd they get past and I'm stacking these deck and we're getting knows, what does it take

to keep a production company going? - I like to get everything done independently of a partner. So, you know, like, I'd rather, if I'm gonna be pitching a movie, I'd rather have the whole thing written.

- Right. - And then a director in place,

in an actor in place, like here's what we're going.

- This is what it is, so all they do is write the check. - Basically, yeah, you know, as it should be. - Yeah, but then that means you got to do a bunch of work for free ahead of time, which is cool. If you've got the time and the funds to bank on yourself

and work for free for a little while, yeah. - Look at some point you're gonna have to do

“that work anyway, so I'm usually, it depends, right?”

There's other things I'll pitch and I'll know, okay, I wanna get a ride around this and I wanna get that person paid, but even then, I'll work with that writer, I'll develop a whole outline. So that movie is basically ready to go

and all attached to a few people to the movie and then I'll go in and be like, here it is, this is what it is, here's who's acting in it, here's the director, now please pay this guy. - I'm willing to show, and you gotta understand,

this guy is, he's so fast and he's so good. He wrote horrible bosses too on a five-hour plane ride from New York to Los Angeles. I'm not exaggerating. He did a complete rewrite page one rewrite on it

and we used most of it and out of reference to our writers that wrote the draft before, I'm exaggerating a little bit

- Well, I don't wanna take credit away from, you know,

the guys who are never doing anything.

“- Well, that's what I'm doing, so he's fast,”

but he is a great deal. - I'm fast riding, I'm real slow at names and we will be right back. - And now back to the show. - Wait, so speaking of names, so you and, I've just seen you have a long time relationship

with Rob McLean. - How did you guys first meet? What was that? - I met Rob on a plane. - So we were both being right now. - Oh, no. - Oh, no. - We're both being flown out to test

for a pilot, for the same role. - No. - And there's one of those things where you're in the airport and you're like, "Oh, this guy's got to be an actor." You know, he's got that look.

And the show is called "Matherhouse" is about college kids or something like that. And I think, I don't know when I said hello, but maybe after the plane landed. - Where were you coming from, from New York?

- From New York, yeah, we both lived in New York and we're flying out. They, you know, they put you up on, like, at the Hilton or something right off the 101 there. - Oh, yeah. - But universal.

- Oh, no way. - So we're both staying there and then-- - Just to find Jason on the side. (laughing) - I used to remember pilots, he's nice to come out there and stay there or the Sheraton or the Interkin

it'll over by Fox, which is where Tony Hilton I stayed for the arrested test. Anyway, keep going. - It was my second time that happened. It happened to me.

I tested for something called Weird Henry and they liked me for Weird Henry. And they flew me out and then they did one sort of, you know, round of notes with the producers and then the studio was like,

this show's not gonna work and they can't the whole thing. And then the same thing happened with Rob. Rob and I both went and tested and I remember thinking like, I got this guy and he doesn't have the charisma.

No, I'm not worried about him. (laughing) - Look at his stupid face.

- Look at his ton of face man, he's never gonna make it

in show business. - He'll never own a football team with Ryan Reynolds. - Yeah. - Yeah. (laughing)

- He was too handsome. I was like, he's still modeling. He's like, you know, you need someone real. And then the same thing happened. They can the whole show while we were out there.

And we just kind of bonded and stayed buddies and, you know, now I can't get rid of him, you know, every year I'm like, well maybe maybe we've done it with the show. He's like, come on, one more, let's go.

- And then so not only can you not get rid of, or would say, then you guys create mythic quest with, wasn't just the two of you, somebody else too. - Yeah, with Megan Gans.

- Megan Gans, yes of course. - Yeah, no, I can't get rid of this guy. And, you know, I go in podcast, I'm just talking about him. - I'm like, wait, I hear him.

He barely talks about me. I'm talking about this him guy constantly. - No, no, he talks about you quite a bit. We just can't repeat it. - Oh, okay.

- And you gotta start in a podcast together too. No, you've got this whole silly podcast. - And now we're talking about the show and people are listening. - But we're not here to plug that.

We're not gonna talk about it. - No, yeah, let's plug all, everything you got. - Okay. - I think what I get, we should really, if we really want to get this cooking,

we should just talk about golf. I mean, let's go. - First of all, well, we were doing horrible bosses. - Yeah. - And I'm a bit of a golf nut, I would say,

oh, Jason, you know, I heard you used to golf and you said, yeah, I don't do it anymore.

“I was like, well, you should come out with me.”

You know, maybe some time and just, you know, does stuff the old sticks in here. If you, you are the most golfing man I know now. - Yeah, it's incredible, right? - And back then, back then,

I was very disciplined. I didn't want to dance with the dragon again. You know, I've got addiction issues. - Yeah, like, yeah, no, no, no. - You are fully addicted to golf.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - To dance with the dragon. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know, that's the thing. And then during COVID, you know,

we'll just threw me a lifeline and he said, listen, buddy, you got to step away from Rachel Maddox, take your PJs off and let's get out there to do something socially distant. Let's play golf.

- And two weeks later, we were in Pebble Beach. - Yeah, you put it right in my arm, yeah. - I love it. I love that you do it. I hope you don't give it up.

- No, no, I don't. Look at me.

I never rest, look at my shirt for Christ's sake.

I'm about half hour from the tea. - Oh, keep it snappy 'cause I know you got a tea today. - Yeah, let's go. - Charlie, I have a show and I know your question is gonna be,

“hey, Charlie, how long and straight are you off the tea?”

Very, he's very consistent with the tea. It's unbelievable. - This guy's a single digit handicap, listeners, anybody is in the golf. This guy, he, he, this guy doesn't shave over 80.

- It's okay. - It's, he's a natural athlete. - He played a lot of baseball when he was coming up. - The most you know about, man, this is surprising. - Wait, so Charlie, speaking of growing up,

so I mentioned in the thing that you play piano and you play all these instruments, what's up with that? - I don't know what the look at Sean Perch's show. - Sean doesn't want to talk about it. - I'll knock the tea, but let's get that harmonic in his mouth, huh?

- Let's do it. - I probably have a line around. - I don't know where the violin thing came. Like, I was, - No, I'm telling you that.

- Well, you had that ready to go. - Yeah, anytime there's a bad joke. - Hey, where's that keyboard? We're gonna introduce, so I'm gonna get your Sean. - Yeah, we're gonna, I know, I too lazy to lift this up

and go in there because they gotta hook it all up. - But wait, Charlie, I'm gonna give you a slide thing.

Do you still play these instruments to you?

- No, I never, but I never played the violin.

That's one of those. - So that was no true.

“- I know, I think I played the violin from like three to three”

in one month, you know, when my parents were like, "Well, this is two years very accurate." - Yeah. - Is there an instrument that you excel at or that you stick with? - Keep it clean.

- I don't, I don't excel at any of them, but I can play a little piano in the little guitar, and I can write like a goofy song that we put on sunny, but don't. - Was that something that your parents, like,

incurred? Were you, did you take piano lessons? - Yeah, yeah, I took piano lessons, maybe till I was 10, and then I switched to the trombone. I used to have a little sweatshirt

'cause I was in the school band. It's a Charlie trombone, so that, like, became, my favorite thing. - You know, the problem with the trombone is if you leave it in the rain, it gets rusty.

You know, it's true, it's true if you leave it in the rain. - Clean it out, yeah. - Well, you keep it clean. You get some kind of brass cleaner, but you keep the Charlie when you write

and produce or direct or whatever you do. Do you think about music when you're doing it? Or is it an afterthought? - It's a big part of how I write something. I'll be just listening to a style of music

and I'll have a nice chat. - Yeah, be listening to the Peshmo and I'll be thinking, I gotta do a movie with Batman, where he wears eye shadow and trench coats.

“- Yeah, you should see me, I got great goth skills.”

- Yeah. - I do love to Peshmo. - We're trying to, I know that it's so little about, so it says that you're born in New York, in the city. - Yeah. - True story.

- True story, 'cause my parents, my parents both met at Columbia, where they were both music getting their doctorate in musicology and then...

- Well, they can wait a second.

- Wow. - So your parents, so you kind of blow, brush through the whole music thing in your own involvement with me. Your parents have degrees in music from Columbia?

- Yeah. - Yeah. - My parents are very smart, smart. As is my sister, she also has her PhD in musicology. - What?

- And what happened here was that, you know, I'm idiot. And I got to get away from this music thing. So, you know, I'm taking Trombone lessons and all my buddies are outside playing baseball. And I eventually, you know,

walked away from it all and gave it up. But then when I got to like, maybe you've seen your in high school or college, I picked up the guitar and I was like, oh, this is maybe, could be cool

or a way to meet a girl. And then I got back into it. But I didn't want to beat, they had no money. And I didn't want to, I didn't want to be a music. - We're just coming after.

- Sure, they're at Columbia. They're both taking, they're both in programs, music programs at Columbia. They meet your born in the city and then what happens?

How long did you live there? - Not long. And then my dad got a job at a college in Rhode Island and my mother's family was from Rhode Island, way back, way way back.

And they went and never left.

They're still there. - And so you grew up in Rhode Island. - I grew up in Rhode Island, yes. - Yeah. How did the acting thing hit you?

Was it like a high school drama thing? - That's a good question. I mean, I did plays like in third and fourth grade and I always enjoyed it. And then I wanted to do the school plays in high school

but I was kind of too nervous to join the group. I thought, "I don't, I don't, I don't." - But with the musical background, what do you think that you can combine the plays and the music and do what we call that,

the theater that's, but it's good. - There's a music-based theater, I don't think there's a term for it. - We'll be an example of something that you might do in six. - Five, six, seven, seven, seven, seven, eight.

- Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. - Bad, bad, bad, bad. - Guys are gonna take that slide with a little wave from the main show. - So then Charlie said, "You finish high school and you say, "I'm gonna go to New York City, and I'm gonna try to become a professional guitar player or actor." - Out. - Yes. I did have that thought. I was like, "Well, do you watch one?" - Which one? I didn't know. I was like, maybe I won a right music or maybe I wanted to do a... - But you know your future, it wasn't in Rhode Island, it was probably in Manhattan. - Yeah.

- Well, first I went to college, Jason. - Where was I? - We hang on, what's college? - Yeah, it's a school after the studio school. - Ball and Terry additional school. - I don't understand it. - Ball? - Yeah, that's a part I couldn't compute when I was... - What trailer was that in on the border a lot? - Yeah, one month of flat tire. - What happened? I went to the voluntary additional school, and they had a theater program, but they also had a baseball team, and I didn't make baseball team, and I thought, "Oh, well, I'll go join the theater club."

“And then I just got hooked, that was like I'd like to in the place, and it seems to... - Was this school in New York?”

- This school was in Northern Massachusetts called Merrimat College, and you could get in if you had a pulse, and they let me in. - My favorite thing in the world is swapping horrible theater stories. Did I tell you guys about the wheelchair? - Yeah, sure.

Oh, no, really quick. This is a horror. I was in sophomore in high school, and I was in charge of changing the scenery, right?

“The buttons that would lift the scenery. So in between we had like, we were doing one act. So in between each act, we had like, you know, 15, 30 seconds to change the big, huge scenery in Pull 'em up.”

And I was in charge of all those hydraulics. So the stage manager points me and she's like, "Go!" And I didn't realize there was a rope hanging on the side that somehow hooked onto the wheelchair, that the guy needed in the next scene. So I raised who and I saw. No, it's where he got this happened. And I raised it and the hook pulled the wheelchair.

So the curtain goes up and the wheelchair is just swinging, hanging in midair, and the guy's first line was, you know, something like,

"I don't know if I'll ever walk again." But he had to, it was, there's awful. - Oh, godly. Back to smartness. Hey, Charlie. So you come down out of the junior college and you come to New York City, and you don't just knock on a door and say, "I'm here, I'd like to be an actor." Do you look in the paper for auditions or an agent or what was your first step? - Yeah, I did all that crap. You know, you get the village voice and you're looking through all those things. I had a really lucky break when I was in college. There was a guy named John Fusman, and he was, like, one of those guys who was, like, 35 and in college.

- I'm just hanging out just outside the school grounds. - Basically. - Basically. - Yeah, and he had to hit me off to a place called the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

And I went there to sort of, you know, empty garbage cans and maybe say one line in a play and just in turn. And they had like a program where you could audition and be part of a non equity group. And after my first summer there, I was still in college. The next year I auditioned and I got to be part of that group. And a bunch of agents go up there. - Yeah, yeah. - After my third year there, I got an agent. But... - Sean, did you ever do that? I'd love to do Williamstown. Did you ever do that? - I would love to know.

But I would love to. But, you know, Charlie was going to ask you, like there's, when we were all young all four of us and other people like us that are actors, there was a definite pass to what you wanted. Right, you got your headshots and then you had your resume on the back and then you would submit them to agents and then agents was it. But now it seems so different. Do you have friend, like, does your sister have friends and be like, "Hey, Charlie, can you help my friend out?" They want to get into the biz and they need that advice.

“I mean, do you ever get people coming to you and what would that advice be? Now for kids, rather than when we were growing up?”

- Really, I don't get too much of that. I don't know if I don't give off a vibe of that I'll help or I'm not sure why, but... - Do you feel, no, let me rephrase that. Do you feel shitty about yourself that nobody wants acting tips from you? - Or career advice. - I had that Sean, you know, when I was a kid, this true story when I was living in New York and I was, I didn't know anybody in New York and... - How my mom knew through so many from, like, Winnipeg, knew the actor, Lynn Kerriu, do you know that guy?

- Sure, Lynn Kerriu. - And so somehow she's like, you should call him and I was like, okay, so I called him poor guy because now I sort of 30 years later I get that flip, which is like, he's like, "Hey, what can I do for you?" - Well, I'm just in New York and I'm going to theater school and, like, okay, I'm ready to be successful. - Yeah, and I get now that position. I even felt it at the time where he's like, "I don't know what you want me to do for you, buddy, but, you know, I've already, I'm worried about my own day-to-day over here."

- And so you do get those calls sometimes from friends of friends and they go, "Hey, our kid is 18 and he's moving to New York and can you call him and give him some advice." And there's really nothing you can say to him. - I actually like it. I actually don't mind it. - Yeah, it's all about timing, but yeah, actually, what do you tell people, you know, because you're getting an agent, like you do have to get into kind of a showcase situation. - Yeah, it's just really tough for everybody. - I think you have to create your own path. You know, gone are the days of relying and waiting and phone calls and agents and all that to do it for you.

“You have to pick up a camera, you have to write the thing, direct the thing, act and put it on YouTube, all that kind of stuff and Instagram is that that's how,”

is every Instagram star wants to be an actor and every actor wants to be like, "Have the most of the time."

- Well, Charlie, you guys were kind of like the first people to really do that in a way that has been not just successful, but also had longevity.

You guys created your own stuff. That was not the norm before you guys did that. - No, that's true, yeah. Although, you know, in some ways doesn't everybody do that, like somebody else.

- No, no, no, no, no, before. Those guys made videos and stuff when they did Santa Samar. - Santa Samar.

- Andy and Akiva and Yorm did that. - Really? - Yeah, they made some videos on Lonely Island, and then they made a pilot called Awesome Town that Phil and Chris, Phil and Chris Miller produced. You ever seen that? It's really, it's really rad. But they did the same thing, which was, but again, there was around the same time that Sunny started. It was back in that. - What was unique about what we did is we did it for television, where, you know, like, there was a lot of that in independent film. If you're the Cohen brothers, you know, you raise money, you do blood sample, and then you, you know, you go do raising Arizona, whatever it is.

And we, I guess we just took that model to television, and we said, well, we'll, you know, we'll do the first one real cheap and down in dirty, and then hopefully someone gives us money to do this more legitimately. - But going back to your question before, I often do promote Williams Town, which for me was like a showcase situation, or if you're really serious about acting, go to grad school, which I'd wish I'd done. Because that place was, was not only boot camp for acting, it was boot camp for, you better show up and shine.

Because in that group, in that non-equity group, it was myself and Katherine Hahn and Sterling Brown.

- Wow. - And, I mean, the competition was so fierce, and Jimmy Simpson, and these people were going to outshine you. And, not, they weren't trying outshine you, but they were going to do their work, and they were going to be, you know, they were going to come to rehearsal and not set. And, just blow it out of the water. So, you had to learn how to, I feel like my first summer there, I did well in some plays, and I thought the next year, I thought everyone would be like, well, he's the man, let's give him everything, and it wasn't that way.

“You know, it was a rude awakening of like, well, you did that, what are you going to do now?”

So, that was such a good boot camp in terms of like, do you work, work hard, make sure you make sure you're not wasting anybody's time? - It's funny you say that I remember having one of my acting teachers years ago, he was saying, like, look, all the process you do, all the work you do, whatever, when you show up and said, no, they don't give a shit. You got a deliver in the moment, and that's it. And, that was the only sort of piece of advice that I've ever given young people, which is just like, you got to be on top of your shit, you got to know your shit, like you said, you got to be ready to deliver in the moment, because that's what matters.

- Yeah, and it's a bit exhausting, right? You put all this work into this, years go by, you develop whatever fame, success, and you kind of think, okay, well, now I can coast, but I don't know. - You know, the phone doesn't really ring, maybe it does for DiCaprio, but for nobody else, like you have to, like, you got to put something together, and you have to, and then when you, when you are in it, you can't stink, right? You got to, you got to shine. - Your son is he too young to know that he wants to do what dad does, or-- - And where mom does, too, both of you guys are actors.

- Yeah. - Yeah, Mary Elizabeth has a great part in Paul Thomas Anderson's film right now.

- Oh, she's graded in it, and that movie is amazing. - Yeah, that guy.

- Paul Thomas Anderson? - Yeah, talk about a guy, I think he thinks you're going to work out for him, I think. - He's going to make it. - He has caught a make it. - Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest director of all time, and go. - And he could make it. - And he could make it. - And he could make it. - How about he's my favorite for sure? - I know, me too. - Yes, the greatest.

- Oh, I got to go see a screening of that movie at his house, which, you know, way. - You know, he has these, maybe it doesn't want me to tell, but he has these film projectors. He's got like this barn that is converted into a screening room. - And for Tracy, the name of the movie is licorice pizza. - licorice pizza. - licorice pizza. - Which is a name of a record store that was all over the valley.

When I was growing up, it's, anyway.

“So he's got this cool. - Well, that's why you're crying.”

[laughter] - So, and your wife, M.E. Mary Elizabeth Ellis, whom I know, she and I did a pilot together years ago, as you know. - Yes, yes. - And she's a tremendously talented actor, and she's in Paul Thomas Anderson's movie, like Ross Pizza. So, you went to a screening at his house, screening barn.

- Yeah, just to kind of, and then to get to hang out with my root-offs. - Who's our pal? - I just didn't want to blow it from my wife. I'm like, "Just keep cool, man, and don't get drunk, and don't act dumb." - Did you stand up with a bunch of notes at the end of it? - How do a couple notes, but he wasn't listening, you know?

That's the problem with these artists. - Yeah. - We were, we were locked. - Pop Charlie Day is for a couple things. That's really going to make this movie pop. - Well, be right back. All right, back to the show.

“Now listen, Charlie, for your new podcast, which is, I think it's becoming really popular, isn't it?”

- Yes. - You guys have guests on, or is it just you three chatting? - Right now, it's just this chatting. I mean, that kind of caught us off guard, you know. This was my gripe with McElhani. About two years ago, I was like, "We should do a sunny podcast.

We should just talk about the show, the fans probably want to hear that."

You know, like, you know, "We're more too late." Then this year, he shows up because, you know, "We should do a sunny podcast." I'm like, "This motherfucker." - Yeah, no, this guy. - Well, here's the difference.

And here's why I've benefited so greatly from a partnership with Rob. When I said it, it was just Galilee Gook talk. And when he said it, he already had the mics and the producer lined up and ready to go. He's an action, he's an action guy.

So it's been good for me to unite with an action guy. - Being on that side of it, to you, and we all know this as actors, promoting and marketing and all that stuff, having to do talk shows. And whatever podcast or whatever the thing is,

“do you have a preference of being a guest or a host?”

- Well, I guess we're not really hosting anyone. So I don't know, I don't know. - Yeah, I mean, you're hosting a podcast, but yeah. - We're really just kind of shooting a shit. - Okay, well, like I've seen no one listen to this.

- But I think that one of the things we're all talking about the same thing, we obviously have, there are a lot of similarities, which is, you talk about, we create our own, whether we do our own thing. And we do a lot of different things.

You've got to, you're doing the podcast. You do your show. You've got this new movie on Amazon, which was, that was a sexy segue. - That was a good segue.

Yeah. I did a rom-com, finally. - So you did a rom-com, yeah. - Yeah, like he has rom. So talk a little bit of, because I want to get into,

you do do a lot of different stuff, and you've got a lot of different gears, which is commendable. And you're, you know, you're a talented guy. So you go and you do a rom-com.

It's the, where you just like, yeah, fuck it, I could do a rom-com.

- I was always dying to do a rom-com,

'cause I actually really enjoy them. - Yeah.

“- And I sort of wanted to have my, you know,”

Tom Hanks moment, or Billy Crystal, or whatever. - Was there a sexy? - No, there's, there's, you know. - Is there a kiss? - Hey, take a kiss.

- Hey, take a kiss. - What are you imagining? Jason, what are you imagining? Talk to what you're imagining. - Well, because some people can go their whole careers,

or a large portion of it, without ever doing a sexy. And then, all of a sudden, the day shows up, and it's like, I've been in this business 30 years, and I've never had to like fake love making.

Did you have to do that? - No, that's a good question. No, I have. - Have you ever had to do that? - Yeah, I have a, I have a very graphic one on,

it's always sunny, where we did a ski episode,

and we were making sort of fun of like 80 ski movies and over the top sex scenes, so, you know. (laughing) - How did that go? - How did that go?

- Yeah, how did it go? - You don't have to say, you don't have to ask him in a whisper, well, I was just saying, walk us through it. (laughing) - I mean, you know, it's always the case with me,

with the sex scenes, I'm always, I was feel bad for the other person. Or I'm like, hey, look, I'm sorry, it's just me, and this, you know, I'm pasty, and-- - Sean, you had to do one?

- Yeah, there's this cult show, which is fantastic, called campus ladies, with Carrie Aisley, and Kristen Susson, and where Forte was on it, and a bunch of funny people were on it. And Jonah Hill, that was Jonah Hill's first show,

and I played somebody who wasn't the brightest who always were a backpack. - How did you get into that, Carrie? - Wow, I just put it back back on it, and then I had to wear no clothes,

except the backpack, and have sex, and literally have intercourse with Kristen Susson. - Oh, okay. - How did that go? - Jason? - Fine. - Oh, sorry, good.

Sean, finished with it. - How was it? - I was at Jason, what about your sex stuff? - I've got a loose connection. Can you guys hear me, okay?

- Yeah, is that what you said in the sex scene? (laughing) - I'm not sure why. - Why are you keeps coming in? (laughing)

- And can you hear me? - Yeah, is it in? Oh, yes, that's the big one. - Hey, Charlie. - Well, you didn't answer Jason,

if you've done a sex scene. - I have, and I don't like them, and it's just, you know, all the cliches are true. You know, you have a, is a very, there's a very difficult line one has to ride,

which is, you know, if you're into it, and you're being passionate convincingly, things start to move, guys. And, and if they don't move, what there's that classic saying at one of the actors said,

"I apologize if I get aroused, and I apologize if I don't get aroused." Or something like that. - Yeah, it's like, it's a, it's a concern. - Well, David, we did this movie called Horrible Bosses.

It was a massive global hit well.

“- Well, you had a little sex scene with Aniston, right?”

- That was the first day.

- That was the first day. - Yeah, that was the first thing we shot. - Oh, wow. - And that was basically my second time meeting, or I met her at the, at the readthroughs.

It was like, okay, well, now take all your clothes off, and we'll take these provocative photos, but I only found it humiliating, you know, because I was like, "Oh, man, "I should go to the gym," or like, I was like,

"I'm so sorry, I'm really pasty and doughy over here." And you're probably not used to an image like this in your sexual scenarios.

where he comes to, we make up at the end of the movie, and I'm in the shower, and I come out, so I've just got the little sock on,

“and then nothing else, and then I got to turn in”

and he and I have to hug while I'm basically.

- No, let's portray see, let's explain what the sock is, go ahead, well. - It's basically that, like it's a sock that you put over, it's the thing you put over your junk, all your meats, and cheese is good covered. - Yeah, it's like, it's a little coin purse that's got a couple of pieces

of fishing wire on both sides that go around you in a, as a call, okay, but it's a nude colored, and it's made out of like pantyhose, and with fishing string on it. - Right, you can imagine, it's just, it's not comfortable,

it's not a good-looking thing, and it's difficult at times to fill out. - Well, and it's, well, that was not an issue, it was more of an issue that, like it was kind of, like you said, like, I'm sorry if I get it aroused, and I'm sorry if I don't, and I just support this

could go either way with Forte, I have no idea. - Which way did it go? - I don't want to, I don't want to say, but I just, well, let me just say this, I love the guy, and you can tell what you've said, Lenin. - Well, that's a piece of something. - So Charlie,

so talking, so you're doing this romance in comedy, you decide, you want to do it, what is the movie? - Well, the movie's called "I Want You Back" and it's with Jenny Slate, and myself. - Oh, make a talent challenge. - Make a talent challenge, make a talent challenge.

She's pretty good. Our producing buddy, John Ricard, produced this movie. - Another mega talent. - Yeah, and we've worked together in horrible bosses and fist fight. And I was talking to John, and I was saying, you know, we should find something to do, and he says,

“he said, "I got these two scripts, and you should look at them."”

And he said, "Well, one's a rom-com, so you probably don't want to do that." I said, "Why would I not want to do that?" - And the rom-com. - The nasty, nasty thing to say. - The nasty thing to say, and I loved it. We put it together, it's a really sweet and funny movie.

By the way, I did have to take my shirt off in it, and I had this sort of conundrum where the character doesn't work out, and then he starts working out in the story. And I thought, "Well, which body do I go with the guy who looks like he's not been working out?" Or the guy that looks like he has been working out.

- And I, what would the guy who has not been working out? - Did you look at the shooting schedule to sort of plan out what kind of shape you'd be in? Because I do that. I mean, for Tracy, these projects, they take at least six weeks to shoot sometimes, 12 or more.

And if you know you got a topless scene on as Will likes to call it, you know, you want to make sure that you're not having a whole lot of soy sauce a few days out, you know? - No, I let that go. I was like, "Now, that's not what the audience wants for me. They don't want me to pop that shirt off and have rippling ads. They'll be disturbed if they see it."

- There's nothing funny about a six pack. - There's nothing funny about it, and this is a comedy. - So, Charlie, any recent vacays, as we call it in the biz, any vacays with the fam? - I went to Hawaii. - Okay.

- I knew that. I knew that. - Oh, yeah, I sent a shot of the beautiful. - You sent that pic in her little chain. - Oh, yeah, I did. I did. That's right. - So, you went to Hawaii, did you go by yourself,

where did you bring your wife to? - No, of course, I brought my wife and child, and I played a bunch of golf, and we hung out in relax, and went to the beach, and I reset. It was good. I was coming right off a bunch of things,

and it was nice to take a break. - Charlie, 2022, what are you most excited about? - Oh, man. I don't know.

I'm always pretty just excited to be doing this.

I mean, I don't know. I'm still great for doing it. - Are you doing it? - Yeah. - I've been polishing up a movie for a good four years that I directed that statement was kind enough to be in. - Yeah, when do we get to see that, Charlie?

- Any minute. I'm right around the corner, but I was going to sell it. I was in the process of selling it to studio, and I was having some conversations with a very talented man, Mr. Guillermo del Toro,

and I had a change of heart, and I took the movie, and I reshot about 20% of it. - Am I still in it? - You're still in it. You made the cut. That's been a maddening long experience,

but I'm really happy with the movie, so hopefully I'll get it out to the world this year. I'm excited about that. I'm excited about this rom-com. I'm excited about maybe getting some golf in with the boys here.

“- Yeah, and Horrible Boss's 3, I think we can announce.”

- Well, now why didn't we do it, you know? - Well, because... - No one wanted it. - Yeah, because Horrible Boss's 2,

just basically, you know, cratered.

- Did it, did it, should the bed? - By today's standards, it's a huge hit. - Oh, that's true. - Yeah. - It didn't do as well as... - Are you made by pandemics standards? - Yeah, that's right. - But the standards,

but the standards, the memories staying home and not going to theaters, it didn't. - Well, I would like the third one, because I really, really like to collect those sets. - Yeah, oh yeah, things do happen in three.

Maybe we just make it for a price, you know?

- About a second one, so they're really not going to want to throw it.

- It's not really a story that needed to hear me out. - Hear me out, show...

“Horrible Boss's 3, but they're too new, showin' right?”

- Right? - No. - Guys who, look at their kind of... - They just go, "Ah, they're happening." - My boss is terrible. - Hey, my boss is bad too.

- Are you a boss or you're an employee? - Exactly. - But the catchphrase is, "My Boss is bad 3." - Yeah. - Same here. - I get it, John.

- I get it. - So Charlie, listen, you're just... - You're such a talent. - You're such a good guy. - You're a theater.

- You're a theater. - You're a theater. - You're a musician. - You're a musician. - You're a great man.

- You're having a little kid. - Your new movie, I want you back. Your rom-com is out and it's on Amazon now. - It's really good. I actually love this movie a lot.

- Charlie, I love you. - Charlie, thank you for being here. - We see you on the golf course, probably the next few days. - Well, you're tean often about 10 minutes. - Yeah, this is already six minutes into my heart out.

- Yeah. - Okay. - He's kind of hurt. - That shows how much he loves you.

He never does this if he's got a heart out for golf.

- I appreciate this six minutes over. - That's good. - You know how personality Jason is about everything. - My range, so I need my range time. - Yeah.

- Well, we can come back. I can come back. - Well, next time you're on the podcast, we'll talk about the time when we were coming down 18 in the guy-handed charge Jason's Tesla.

- Woo! - Well, same that. - You know, I had a two-hour drive ahead of him. - Yeah, you made it well. - You made him give him his, like, 20 back.

- Yeah, don't make it. - Yeah, yeah. - I've been 20 just 'cause I felt bad. He got yelled at so much. - Jason, you don't know this, but Charlie and I both

tip the guy after you took this man. - Are you kidding me? - No. - Yeah, yeah, yes. - Well, we, we don't want that.

- We don't want that. - We don't want that. - We don't want that. - We don't want that. - I mean, you are in zero.

- You are in zero. - At least 20 don't. I should have taken more out of his pocket. - Son of a bitch. - I will say to your credit,

you did preemptively tip the guy and say, "Hey, do you mind taking care of this?" This is a great, and then he didn't do it. - Right, so it's like, well, I'm going to pay you for the valet parking,

but the extra juice for doing me a solid, which you didn't do. - Yeah. - That then means that you no longer need the money for that. - Let me ask you this, if you had shot like even par that day,

like your best round ever. Do you think you wouldn't have cared? - Do you think you wouldn't have given him a ride

“wherever he wanted to go and all the money in that pocket?”

- And that is Jason Babin. Guys, will you write back with the helmet on the surface of the surface? He loves his golf. He loves his golf.

- Charlie. - Thank you. - Joy the rest of your day. - Great to see your face as fellas. Sean, let's hang out some time.

- I'm right here. - Just for you. - Not worth it, Charlie. - No, no. - It's got to be better.

Bring the slide whistle. - Next two weeks, Texas, let's get out. - Okay. I'm busy, but you know what I'll say? - Yeah.

- All right. - All right. - He's about to slow him around up. He's going to do the good out. He's like, you know, why?

Because, yeah, I tell you why I wasn't going to do it. Because Sean penned it. - Yeah. - I was listening to that. I was like, wow, Sean penned it.

That's how I'm doing. - I think I done every, ever since then. - That's right. - And they were still down. - Yeah.

So I'm going to slam down. - Bye. - Oh, look, he really did it. - That's early day is.

He's always a breath of fresh air.

Is it? You feel better?

“- He's like, we could change his middle name to sunny, right?”

So just go Charlie sunny day. - Yes. - Always a sunny day. - Yeah. - And Charlie.

- So Sean, you don't know Charlie. You've never met a person. - I've never met him. I did that one voice over monster's university with him. About, of course, you know, as you know,

when you do animated films, you don't really see the other actor because you're doing it. - Yeah. So I never really met him before. - Right.

- But I'm a huge fan. And I don't know if you've seen monsters university, but he steals the movie. - He's hilarious. Of course, first of all, if you've got,

if you're a fan of comedy or you're a fan of animation or you've got kids, you've seen monsters university. It's a great movie. - Yeah. - He is great in it.

And you are. But he is. But no, it's a great movie. And he is such a, I met him. The first time was through his wife

through Emma Mary Elizabeth, Ellis, who's such a talent. And so cool. And he's a super nice guy. Super real.

And he jumped about being down to earth. He legitimately is. And then he's incredibly talented. - Yeah, I love him. - And prolific writer and just everything.

And he's so funny. He's so natural. - You guys got that. You guys both have very unique voices. - Yes, yeah, he's got a very unique voice.

I don't know if I consider myself too, but he, he does. - Wait, nobody ever bites. Nobody ever bites my, for my theater stories. Because I, huh.

I don't know why. - Don't let me save it for my guests. No one wants to listen to. - Okay. - What's funny is that you don't take from that.

Like, maybe I should start asking.

- I'm telling you what? - You take away is nobody.

“- No, I'm telling you somebody's going to come”

with a really funny theater story.

- I think they're always so funny.

- I like that usually your question about funny theater stories ends up with you telling a funny theater story. (laughing) - I know. It's just a self-satisfaction.

- Jason, you miss John the other day.

“Robert and I kept pimping him out to tell funny stories”

for everybody at dinner. - Funny thing, so he kept funny theater story. And he kept getting up and telling these hilarious. They were legitimately hilarious.

And he got so worked up, he had to go to the hospital.

(laughing) - That's a true story. - It's always a story. - So, all of a sudden, Jen comes to go,

“"Shon just went to the hospital, I'm like, "What?"”

- You know, next time I bring up a theater story, maybe someone will bite, bite, bite, bite, bite, bite. - Oh, bite. - Oh, bite. - Yes, got it.

- Got it. - Yep, not that works that qualifies. Love you guys, bye. - Love you, bite. (upbeat music)

- Smartness is 100% organic. And are tizantly handcrafted by Rob Armjurv, Bennett Barbaco and Michael Grantary. (upbeat music)