"Steve Zahn"

- Hi, this is Steve Zahn,

“and I just went through an intense tech setup”

with my mic and my computer, and I'm ready to go. I'm just waiting here, waiting patiently, to be on smartness. Welcome to smartness, smartness.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - All right, surprise, guess. Give us a clap if you're still with us, please. - We are rolling.

- Wow, that's a dude. - That's a dude. - We're gonna go tarps off today, guys. (laughing) - I almost sent you an article last night

so we talked about tarps off. It wasn't even a Canadian article.

- No, I never heard that before.

Is that an old saying? - Yeah. - It is, I never heard that. - Canadian old. - 'Cause when I was in junior high school,

they would do it. - Oh, hang on, let me settle it. (laughing) - They would do shirts and skins, you know? - Like, I would always be afraid to be skins,

'cause I'm happy with my body, still I'm in it. - By the way, it's traumatic for children to be like, "Hey, take your shirts off, dude. "Sit against the guys who get to keep them on." It's like, why is that a thing?

- Yeah, what if you can still do that? Is it in a political way, like not okay? - I don't know. - You, you take your shirt off and you keep yours on. - And the same, right, and the same was showers after.

Like, I remember being 12 years old, guys hit the showers. I'm like, I don't wanna be naked in front of like my, were you always on the shower team? - Yeah.

- Guys, can I be team captain showers? (laughing) - No, but I just-- - What's the sport are you doing this semester? - I'm thinking of showering.

(laughing) - I'm quarterback of the shower team. (laughing) You know though, isn't that so bad? - Yeah, I went to all boys boarding school, dude.

I had to shower every day, like-- - I mean, what is the thinking behind that? That, like, ah, they'll be fine. They'll work it out, they'll just boys, they're, yeah. - And I'm like, no, we all, we're all sensitive.

Anyway, moving on. (laughing) - Well, let's drop us off right there, Sean. (laughing) - So I guess we'll find our way home from here.

(laughing) - No, you know what I mean. - That's awful. - It was awful.

“- I was in camp, I remember I had to take music camp,”

I had to say it's good. - Oh, he's got more. (laughing) - Go off the top. - Off the top of my head with Sean Hayes.

- Yeah, yeah. - Camp stories. (laughing) - I had to take a shower and it was really cold, but I, did I already tell the story?

- Oh, that explains it. - It's a super long line. And there was a line, like a hundred guys in line to take one shower at a time. And by the time I got there,

the water was so cold, it was freezing. And I, you know, you lose your breath when the water's not but like you can't get your breath. And I was like, and everybody was staring at me, taking your shower.

- I don't know, it's just so awesome. - Did your folks get a deal on the camp? (laughing) This is a hundred people for the one shower with the no-hot water?

- Yeah, right. - Music camp is off right here. - Wait a second, that's it. - Yeah, I mean, it's full story.

Just the same as always, like,

like we can start rolling now. Let's start. (laughing) - Sean, you've got a GEPD hat on that is a some sort of a police department that is... - Glenn Allen.

- Glenn Allen. - Got it. - Glenn Allen. - Glenn Allen. - Glenn Allen.

- That's in Chicago suburbs. - That is it. - I'm just looking in the chat. - There I don't know if you guys want to click on it. - Oh, yeah, the chat, there's Jason went to Chicago.

(laughing) - Daisy. - After all this stuff. - Telling off in the Mediterranean. - Hey man, you know, keep it relatable.

- That's okay. - You can Google if anybody wants to know. - You do look good though, JB. - Yeah, you look really good. - No, not really.

- Yeah, that's a bad spot right there. - That's a bad spot has been working out. - Oh, that is. - So that's my shower shot right? - I know, see, you know, embarrassing.

- You're never nude, right?

- I'd remember that show. - Yeah.

“- By the way, I got a bunch of, I think it's,”

I want to give out the correct website, I'm gonna guess at davidcross.com. But I went on david's website for his, you know, it's stand up site where he's got a lot of his performances on there, which is awesome.

And I bought myself a bunch of swag. I've got david cross t-shirts. - That's cool. - No worries. - No worries.

- Yeah, and they threw in a beer cozy. I don't know, like, I don't, I said to picture today bit of, you know, once it arrived at the house, I said, hey man, just wanted you to know, I'm a fan and I've been, I've been buying stuff.

I don't know what site I was on, but it was some sort of a linker somehow I got

I was like, oh, look at all of this stuff. He's got merch, you guys. - That's awesome. - I don't know. If you like to have a cross like I do,

“look at yourself a t-shirt, a lot of david face on.”

- We love ourselves some david cross. - Yeah, yeah, he should come back on the show. - He should. - We're doing a treat now, aren't we? - We're gonna do repeats.

- Well, this one's not. - No, this is a fresh new, fresh new meat. - This is fresh new meat. - And this is heavy hands. - Yeah, you're a loud clap.

- Yeah, yeah. - This guy knows how to clap. - Sure, yeah. - And he probably learned it from all the audience who's clapping for him.

- Of the musicians? - Of the musicians? - He's not a musician, he's a performer. - A magician, he's, he's an, he's an, he's acting as sometimes magic.

- He don't think he's good, but dishes are a podcast. - Yeah. - We'll learn about this. (laughing) - They're, they're an easy-bucking.

- I would, I would describe some of his performances. (laughing) He grew up in Minnesota. There was a time where he thought about joining the Marines before he started pursuing acting.

And then we got to see him in so many amazing show,

movies and stuff over the years. Way back when, all the way to today, movies like reality bites which he was so good. - It does a thing we go through, through independent film and big studio films.

And then he does like crimson tide with Tony Scott. And then he was in that thing you do, which has become like a cult hit. And then he's did a happy Texas, which he was amazing in.

- I remember him in suburban. - You guys, it's Steve's not hot. - Oh, it's Steve's not hot. (cheering) - Steve's not hot.

- Steve's not hot. - I love Steve's not hot. - I love Steve's not hot. - I love Steve's not hot. - I love Steve's not hot.

- I love Steve's not hot. - I love Steve's not hot. - Yeah, I love Steve's not hot. - Of course. - I didn't even get to chase to mention his movie

she dances, which is available now, which I wanted to get into. Steve will ask you about that, but welcome to Smartless Men Huge Fan. - Thank you, I'm so happy to be on this show.

- This is, this is a guest. - This is a guest. - I have a big fan of your Steve. - Big fan. - I'm fan of all you guys.

And I gotta say, like, how is it that in 30 years, I have not been in the same room with any of you. - No, I know. - We're no living.

Where do you and your macaroni art were? - Oh, live. - Hi. - So name of his question? - Macaroni art.

You got a piece of macaroni art. It's the name of his production crew. - Yes, it is. - Is that true? - That's it.

- Yeah. - That's crazy.

“So, you should know there's a painting behind him”

with an elbow macaroni upside down on the shape of a you. Just over his left shoulder. That's it. It's a brick wall, Steve, and so Macaroni paint it. It's a macaroni.

That's name is, come on. - The brick wall is in midway Kentucky. - Wow, well, that's why we haven't seen you for 30 years. - Yeah. (laughing)

- Well, you know, I've always,

I've always kind of lived outside the world. - Yeah, I like that. - I think God, you're still finding your way to our movie screens and TV screens. - Yeah.

- Did you ever live in Los Angeles, Steve? - No, because, you know, back in the day when you actually worked in Los Angeles, I would just, I would rent a place for a long time, and it was great.

- Oakwoods? - Yeah, I would stay at the Oakwoods. - Yeah. - And Marina Del Rey, when I did that thing you do. - Uh-huh.

- Oh, yeah. - But so I was, you know, I was like, well, if I could run a house for an extended period of time and living a different neighborhood all the time, my bye, but I was New York, I was New York.

- You were, okay. - Yeah. And then I met my wife a long time ago, 1990. And we met doing national tour by-by-Burdy. - Oh, wow.

- I met. - We called the college college. - We told her we tuned in and ranking. - No. - We really take it easy.

- You guys are. (laughing) - Which part were you? - Oh, I was New York. - You go, of course you're a New York. - And that was 13 months of the road.

Anyway, we got back and then we had, you know, we had tour money. We thought we were rich. And so we bought a little cabin in Pennsylvania. And then we didn't work.

So we had to give up the apartment, and then live in this cabin. And then we commuted to New York. So really early on. - You got used to not being in the city.

- Yeah, exactly, so. - Well, now, and you're not the kind of fellow that needs to go in there and take a bunch of meetings. People, people know what's going on with Steve's on. They know what they know.

It's like, you make a call. - It's a lot of people. - It's a lot of people. - It's a lot of people. - Any chance Steve's on available.

I don't care where we got to fly him in from. - You just need him. - Yeah. - Now, you know, you're like a special firefighter. You got to go.

“- I will say, Steve, I remember hearing that.”

You were like a special firefighter. - Yeah, let's get him in here. - What are they doing? - He's a problem solved. You solved problems for people.

I am a solve problem problem. - No, but I remember hearing that you lived in like Pennsylvania or something, and I way back when,

'cause I was always such a fan.

And I was like, that's so fucking cool.

- Yeah, we don't have a three of us don't have the balls to live outside.

“- No, I certainly, I'm not too afraid to miss the meeting.”

- I know, yeah. - Oh, you guys are on New York, right? - No, just soft LA. - I'm here, I know. - Oh, I'm full.

- I'll let you look forward to your show. - Sean, he's got both, too. These guys are doing real well, Steve. - Yeah. - No, but I was in New York, I back in the 90.

I, you know, pretty much. - And you thought you were doing good. - Yeah, yeah. - You know what those Steve, it's true when Jason just said, he has to Steve's wherever he is, we'll make it work.

You pop up and like, when you popped up in the white lotus, I was like, oh my God, you're brilliant in that, and then I watched Silo and I was like, is that Steve's not, is that Steve's not

behind the door and so, that was, that was amazing.

And we were saying, you pop up in the most unique places. How do you, do they come to you? Is it something you seek out? You're like, I love that show, because it seems like you're on all the good ones.

- Well, no, Silo, they approached me, Rebecca did. - She actually, Rebecca saw a short that we did. That macaroni aren't dead. We did a series of shorts called on Candid Portrait. And I played this, like, I played this fictional artist,

this photographer that's famous for taking photographs of fireworks, and it was this short that she saw it. She was like, oh my God, he'd be perfect for this part. - Yeah, for my sister, who, for my sister, who doesn't watch it, it's Rebecca Ferguson,

brilliant actors. - Yes, she's amazing, and really cool. Anyway, but why, lotus, that was one of the last times that I had, I went on tape. - Yeah, wow, audition.

- And now, what about that process? It's, do you prefer it to self, do you prefer the self-tapping as opposed to going into a room? - I don't do it that much, I mean, usually I get an offer,

but it's like-- - But it's nice for me, 'cause you don't have to send it into your happy with it. - Exactly.

- I was always afraid I was going to get my pants in the room,

you know? - Yeah. - 'Cause you're in all those diuretics, too. - Yeah, it's just trying to drop water weight, it's constantly, and it just runs,

it runs havoc with the valve. - But you know what, and also, it's like, whenever,

“I remember reading, you know, being in New York”

and going into auditioning, like, three of us, and there was like, 70 guys there. - There it is, yeah. - You know, remember that? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It was there, you know, the room-- - The room-- - The mess was there, and, you know, everybody was there. - They got jammed in and-- - The room-- - The room. - Using the offices, there, to tend to the sleeves.

- But you would go in, and you would read with someone that might not be that great, and so, as the instinct of an actor is to make that moment good, so you might do something completely different to what you planned.

- Right, 'cause the other hand is clapping in a real weird way.

- Yeah, it's just, right anyway. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, that's a great point. - So, hey, well, while I got you there, let me ask you about that.

- Yeah, he's not going anywhere. - Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. - We got you for a little bit, right? - Yeah. - Oh, my god. - But I was just talking to somebody about that,

and I don't want to get into bullshit actor weeds here, but, you know, you are a guy who clearly has many different pitches in his arsenal, and you can throw the ball a bunch of different ways, and I won't torture the metaphor, but if you're working with an actor that is doing something

wildly different than what you assumed the night before, when you were running your lines and making your plan for how you're going to do the scene tomorrow, and you show up on setting that other actors, doing it completely differently than one would assume.

Do you, are you okay with pivoting and taking a different angle on your character, just as you said, to make that scene work? 'Cause a lot of the actors, I find they just, they don't, or they're not able to,

or they don't want to, or... - No, I think, I think for sure. - That's the fun part, isn't it? - I mean, well, not for some, for some, it's just like, what the fuck are they doing?

“You know, I mean, do I tell my director, can I talk to you?”

- I tell young actors, it's all my daughter. It's like, look, just show up early over prepare, and don't be a dick, and over prepare is the main thing. - Right. - It's like, no it's so well that you can act with anybody.

- Yeah, that you can adjust with anybody at any kind of, anything they throw at you, you can adjust, yeah. - And in the end, it's just a show. - I can just just tell, that's true. But wait, but Steve, do you, do you find that you've,

kind of, on that thread, do you find that you've kind of changed the way you approach as you've gotten older? Do you work differently than you did when you were a young actor?

Is it kind of the same thing? - No, not really. - Yeah. - No, I kind of do it, yeah, I'm the same. I get, I still get really nervous, man.

I get scared when I go to a gig, and, you know, I was nervous coming on here. - I mean, you know, I'm nervous right now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an interviewer of the year. - Yeah, yeah.

- Well, Sean, it's like he's snorting a Zanx right now. - Oh, what time, don't you think? - Well, don't you find, do you remember the last time you weren't nervous for a part

'Cause I certainly do, like the few times I've not been nervous,

I just don't think it's any good.

“I think nerves are a good, good opponent.”

- Yeah, I agree. - I agree. I think that's, yeah, for sure. - Yeah, I agree. Let me answer the Macaroni art production company

in Kentucky, is that what you're saying? - Yeah. - Well, there's a Kentucky office. - Oh, there's a Kentucky office. - Oh, yeah.

- Oh, I thought it was the only office. - Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no - Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

- That's the right ball, and you find it easy

to sort of work remotely as it were.

- Yeah, but we have a feature that's out in the zeitgeist now called "She Dance" as we shot it here. And Rick Gomez is my partner, we wrote it, he directed it, I started in it, my daughter stars in it. We shot it all here, and by shooting it here,

we saved so much, gosh, I'm sure. - Yeah, did they have one of those rebates there on that state? - Yeah, we have a 30% and a 35% outside. - And is it above, above, and below the line?

Or is it just below the line? - Just below the line. - So tell try see what below and above the line. - Well, the line is drawn between the above the line is typically the director, the producer, the writer, the actors,

and then below the line is the everybody that works in the crew and post production and all that stuff.

“- Don't quote me on that, I think, I don't know.”

- Look it up. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - God, this is all legally binding on the podcast. (laughing) - Talk to me about Kentucky in general, though,

like, how did you find yourself? How did you move from Pennsylvania down to Kentucky? - I've been coming here since my wife grew up here. - Okay, so I've been coming here since '90, and I love Kentucky, and then we had kids,

and we lived on a farm in New Jersey, West Central, New Jersey, and there's not a lot out there, you know. I mean, we kept saying, like, we're only an hour from them. - Yeah, is that near Somerset?

- It was Delaware Watergap, you know, we're 80 hits Pennsylvania. - Yep. - Yep. - It's like Blair's town area.

- Eastern Pennsylvania is close by the Mariah. - Yeah. The Pocano's Strauss, he go directly directly west from the city, GW straight out. And so we had kids, and it was like,

I don't know if this was great out here for kids. - 'Cause it was too isolating. - Yeah, there was not a lot out there, and so we decided, you know, I said, why don't we move to, you know, outside Lexington,

and my wife, of course, was like, I'm not moving home, I'm like, well, I'm not living in your parents' basement. - Right, right. - We placed, right, right, right.

“- And you went ahead and you did, and the kids love it?”

- Yeah, the kids grew up here. they know nothing other than this place. - And how old are these little angels? - 26 and 24. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh And now, back to the show. What was it like working with your daughter in the film?

It was amazing. Yeah. She's been, she's been acting a while, it was just the first thing. Audrey, Audrey went to a musical theater, a great school called Baldwin Wallace. Sean, you probably know about that, but it's, you know, it's one of those, they didn't

have these schools when, when we were young, it's like very specific to musical theater. She was there two years and then she started working in theater, musical theater. So she's got a great voice, I bet.

She's got a great voice, she's an amazing dancer and even better actor.

Have you guys worked together before? No. And will we work together again? Or is that it was a, did it? And okay.

Bridget Burner. Yeah, no, it was, it was, it was, it was like working on any other movie for me. Yeah. And that's a compliment to her. It's got to be wilder to adjust your rank as, to, to like, dad to then co-worker.

Right? Like, kind of, but I don't know, it was, we worked on it so much.

day.

And so we knew it back and forth, you know.

But you didn't have any moments on set where like, you're cutting, you're like, hey, are you gonna do it like that every time because, you know, we're rolling, we know. Yeah. And now, I mean, see the movie, it's, you know, I'm her dad, so I'm gonna say great things.

But I can't wait, she's, when does that come out, is it, it's, it's been out, it premiered at Tribeca, it's now, you can, you can rent it or buy it on, you know, you're, okay, gotcha. And then it, forget red, buy it. But yeah.

And then, and then it comes out on peacock on the 21st. Gotcha. Wow. Amazing. So Steve, you grew up in, uh, Minnesota.

Yeah. Uh, in the Twin Cities region, I love hearing the train. I was doing it. So, do you hear what's going to be? Do you hear what's going to be?

Is that a great idea? No, it's literally, it's gonna go by and it's, it's like, sound concerned. You don't want it at you? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh boy. Wow.

Hey, Steve, you want to call us back, oh, buddy, because the train, that's cool.

It's really cool. It splits, uh, main street, it's, you know, it goes down the middle one. He's great if we, if we pan the camera and it was just some dude who works for you walking by with the speaker. Yeah.

It's a folk scene. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. I just had to be a lawyer.

I just had to be a lawyer, Bobby. Just perhaps the speaker.

“And what about it growing up in Minnesota, that probably makes you a hockey fan?”

Yeah. Yeah, I did do hockey. I just. I had two friends that played pro. No kidding.

We'll have to know their names. Um, Dennis Vasky and Lance Pitlick. Lance was a defensive man. You know, Lance played for Ottawa, he played for a lot of, a lot of teams. I don't know.

He was our quarterback and football at my high school. And then he went on ahead and then he came up with my son. I know. He's athletes. I can do anything they want.

You know, and they can go out there. He put a golf club in their hands and all sorts of guys were insane, man. They would, they would shoot pucks every day. Yeah. Winner, summer, fall, spring, it didn't matter.

And I was, I was the guy who had the, that we made, you know, golly pads that are like an old couch. Yeah. And I would just suffer in front of, you know, Steve. I used to drive through, I spent all my summers on Lake the woods, that dips into Minnesota

up. Yeah, yeah. Because my whole family's from Winnipeg, Manitoba. So I used to spend a lot of it. And we would drive through Minnesota to get there.

Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. It's beautiful, man. It's beautiful. Country out there.

Did you get back to Minnesota at all? Yeah. Yeah. I was just back. Was in my mom.

“How did you, so then how was it, 20 series area that you grew up?”

I grew up in, I was born a Marshall, I grew up in Mancato, which is a smaller town. South. And then I moved during like junior high school up to the suburbs, you know, suburban kid. And did you.

How did you, because you started acting professionally pretty young like you're like 20s, right? Like early 20s. Yeah. You were getting worse.

I told you when you did reality bites, like you weren't that old. That was, I was, I moved to New York. I'd been in New York for like three years. Mm-hmm. Okay.

And then I got that. Did you audition for that for reality bites? I did. I was doing, I was doing a play with Ethan Hawke at Playwrights Horizons. Oh, nice.

And a play called "Sophistry." Yes. And Sean. And I don't know that. I don't know.

I do. I do. That was a great cast. It was like Anthony Rapp and Callista Flockhart. Wow.

When was that? Dickletessa. Dickletessa. Was the improvisers promises with me? Oh, great.

Dickies. He was one of the greatest guys of all time. I mean, he was like 90 when he was in improvisers promises. I was like, that's correct. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, he was like 90 years old. Yeah. I got that job. Anyway, Ben came to see Ethan in the show because he was, you know, directing him in

reality bites. And then I auditioned and I got the part. That's so cool.

“Was that a, was that a sort of bit of a career changer doing reality bites?”

Yeah. I thought it was going to be much more of a career changer. You know, it's like your first movies. You go do them and you come home and you're like, "Poor." Yeah.

Yeah. You were like, "How's that possible?" Yeah. Right. Well, what's, what's been the opposite in your career do you think?

Like something you thought was just going to be a, not a stanker, but it's, it's success surprised you. I would say, you know, like, I mean, a lot.

I mean, I'm always surprised, I think.

Yeah. You know? And then sometimes I mean, comedies, you laugh your ass off on set and then you go, see it, you're like, "Yeah, it wasn't as funny as it was on the day."

I mean, I'm going to do Will's job here. I mean, I did do it on that. Oh, no. Well, I can't guess what he's thinking about. And then I'm like, "Let's, like, movies."

Let's like, well, I finished and ferv. What about, uh, out of sight? Night train. Out of sight. You know what?

I was, I was really surprised.

When I saw out of sight for the first time, I blew me away.

And I had no clue. I was in that movie. Ah. No.

“I was, I remember Cheatle, sitting in front of me, he was like, "Isn't it great?"”

I'm like, "I didn't see it, man." It was like the premiere. He was like, "You haven't seen it?" Like, "No." He was like, "Oh, man."

And he was like, "He watched me react to the movie." Yeah. It was like, it was really cool. But like Will said, that thing you do, that was pretty, that was a pretty big, career turner.

That was huge. That was me. Yeah. It was all fake. Was that Tom Hanks directed that, right?

Yeah. Tom Hanks? Yeah. Was that his first thing that he directed? Yeah.

Was it? I think he directed maybe an episode of, like, from Earth to the moon. Like that HBO series. And three books and buddies. And maybe.

But yeah, that was crazy because Tom was at the height of the height of the film. Yeah. And everybody that worked on that movie was like phenomenal. Was that I did, I did by Mr. It was, was it singing and dancing? No, it was about a, it was about a 1960s rock band.

It was like a one hit wonder. Yeah. - So, is there any musical performance at all in that? - Yeah, we played a bunch of songs. We were hurt. - And the song, the thing that thing you did.

- That thing you did. - Right, so, same thing you did.

- You've never seen it. - No.

- It's good, it's good. - It's good. - It's good as movies and people come up to me and go, you know, it's like Thanksgiving. My family watches every year kind of thing. - It's had this like, it's had the super long shelf life.

It's funny that movie, right? I mean, it's-- - Yeah.

“- Did you have to fake the music playing,”

or do you know how to do that stuff? - Well, that was crazy 'cause Tom and Gary Getsman had his rehearse for like a month, just as a band. - Yeah. - Because they didn't want to waste time not us screwing up and not being on.

So we had to-- - Seems reasonable. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, when you back in the day on film and what instrument were you playing? - Lead guitar. - Oh, shit, oh, wow. - And did you have prior experience?

- Yeah, but I was just like a, a folkie kind of, you know? - Yeah, yeah. - That acoustic guy. - But you had a rock now. - Actually, Ben's still or bought me my first guitar. - Did he? - Wow.

- Do you hear me on the mic? - Just because. - Oh, really? - Because he, you know, I would sit my trailer all day and he was like, "It was really nice." - It was really nice. - It was really nice.

- We keep calling him in early and not getting to a scene. So let's buy a kid at guitar. - What you do, what you do something with your freaking time, okay? - Yeah, for you sitting in your honey wagon. - Hey, think about it back then, though.

It's like, you tell people now you have all these devices and things to give you a preoccupied back in the day, man. - Yeah. - You're like, I would like, drawn stuff. - Yeah, read books. - Yeah. - Read books. - Yeah, you're like, yeah.

- I took a nap. - I used to be good about reading books, back then. - Oh, oh, Sean's going to train. - Hey, I didn't take more than 15 minutes to find. (laughing)

- That's where Sean's been. - Good job, Sean. - How's that dial-up service? (laughing) - Wait, what do you mean, I'm thinking about, like,

Alice, like, you know, that, you did with Stephen Soderberg. And obviously, Clooney, and then you worked with so many, you worked with so many, you were densel Washington writing in Crimson Tide. I mentioned, Tony Scott, and then I was thinking about--

- I was going to say Werner, what's-- - Richard Lanks later, I've been-- - Rescue done, right? - Yeah. - Yeah, what was it like working with?

I've always wanted to ask--

- What was Dawn's last name? - Well, no, it's not about rescuing a girl named Dawn. - Oh. (laughing) - That's she was in trouble.

- That's true. - He could have been in trouble. - Orton, or, or Don. - Yeah, no. - Don't, Donnie.

- But it was you and Chris, you, right, Chris and Bill,

“rescue Dawn, and what was that process like working with?”

How did that, how did that movie materialize? - I, it was originally a documentary that Ed Werner made, called Little Dieter needs to fly about this real Dieter-Dangler, who was a Navy pilot, his first mission over Vietnam was shot down.

- Sean's got the cutest little Dieter-Dangler. (laughing) - I'm going to post it later, especially when he's getting in line for a cold shower shirt. (laughing)

Anyway, he gets captured, and then he's in this camp, and then so it was a really, you know, I was really heavy movie and we lost all this weight, you know, when I was-- - Did you know? But Werner heard, was that another one you went in,

you read for it, right? - I, I found out that he was doing it,

and we're like, I have to meet, I have to meet him. This is one of my favorite documentaries, and so I met him, I went to his house, up in like the hills, and he, he wanted to know what I wanted to eat, and I was like,

oh, what do I say to press him? You know, I was like, steak, and so I went, he cooked me a steak, he's just doing it, had a skillet, and he was, and he showed me, oh, he was crazy, we had this guy.

“- We did he, too, did he, too, or he watched you as well?”

- Yeah, nothing, no, we shared a steak. - Okay, okay.

- And then, no, wait a second, he shared the same plate.

- I can't remember specifically, but it was very, I mean, was he tarps off her, it was you were on the shirt. (laughing) - See Steve, we bring everything back around,

so you keep your knees bent, okay? (laughing) - Oh my God, yeah. - Wow, wait, so you go up to, I want to know about this. So you go to Werner Herzog's house

that he's probably renting in the hills in California. - Yeah. - You're talking about the movie, then you agree, and you guys, he wants you to come and do the movie, or you read the movie.

- Yeah, no, he, he was like, Steve, I think you were better to play not the lead part, but the other part, you know, I'm like, great, fine, I'll play a fucking anything. I don't care.

- So much, Steve, yeah, yeah, not, yeah. So, and then it went on forever. It was like, you know, when it was independent movies that fell apart and the Christian would call me go, eat, eat tonight, I don't think the movie's happening.

I was like, fuck, and then it'd be like, stop, stop eating, it's back on.

“And, and it put, it was phenomenal, it was amazing.”

It was, I mean, Werner is genius, and he's also the guy on the set where you're like, what's happening? And then, and then, and then, like, a fucking butterfly will fly through and he and the operator

just run off into the woods and you're like, three hours late. Oh, one time I was in my, my coveralls and, yeah, get grazed with a bullet and he was like screaming at hair makeup. More blood, more, it was like, let me do it and he grabs it.

And he puts it all this blood on my face and then his hands are covered in blood, fake blood. And he doesn't know what to do. He just looks at me, and he wipes it off on my costume. No, oh, wow, that's great, that's great.

That's cool. Yeah, it was awesome. And Christian was one of the funniest guys that ever worked with, by the way. Really?

Yeah. Oh, my God. He's so cute. He's so cool. Yeah, me too.

Great and funny. So talented. Would you do any of that? Well, I knew that weight gain weight loss stuff that he does so sort of seamlessly.

I mean, what, what was at the machine at machine at? Yeah, he went down to look like 120 pounds.

“And then you should know Steve, Jason had a picture of Christian”

in the machinist on his wall in front of his treks. Three years, three years. And then he just looked at him. He was running towards it, running towards it. Never worked.

Never worked. Never worked. And then I put up a picture of what was it when he played Dick Cheney. That worked. That worked for me.

You thought it was that it was a mirror. You thought it was a mirror. No, he put on a ton for that, right? And I took a, I just don't think I can do it at this age. Yeah, he, he lost a lot of weight.

We shot the, the end of the movie first.

So he lost all the weight. And then he had like a week. And we're in Thailand. And I remember seeing him on the street. And he was walking up and he had,

he had quarter pounders in his pockets. Ha, no. And there's cargo pants. I swear to God, he was-- What's he?

He was gaining-- Careful, Sean. He's gaining weight in like a week and the main thing. Wow. He's getting all puffy.

It's a lot of stuff. How about that? Yeah, I don't think playing the hamburger. I only did, I lost 40 pounds for that. And you know what?

Oh my God. And you know what was really liberating? I was down to like, you know, whatever junior high weight. And they still had back fat. Yeah.

That's hard stuff to lose, you know? You know, it's, but it was like, oh, great.

This will never go away unless I'm in like a lifeboat.

Right, you know, for a month. I feel like the back fat is, you know, like on the old, like, uh, I love that she shows whatever they put on. Oh, you've got a point of view on back.

Yeah, I'll be giving you a hot take on this. You know, the belts, the little vibrating belts, and the old time, he said, yeah, yeah, yeah. Does that what those are for? They just shake it till it falls off.

Yeah, I don't understand what those were. I never said, what made you think of that? I know exactly the conveyor belt thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

You saw that vibrates, yeah, you're like, yeah. What is it? I have a friend of mine who played, who played professional hockey, who will remain nameless. And, uh, he played for many years.

And, uh, I won't say it. That he versatile. And he talked about being in a fight. - Brennan. - Brennan. True story.

He was in a fight. That's shanning. It's gotta be shanning. Yeah, I know you can't confirm or deny it. But shanning's doing what?

So not shanning, not I'm gonna say not shanning.

And there's a big pile up.

“There's a real donny broke his happening, right?”

Everybody's going at every party. - Parks are coming off. - Tarks are coming off. - Hey, like guys, everybody's dropped the koopers. They're just going out.

- That's true. - Yeah, right? Yeah, just a real tune up going. And there's a big pile. And my friend said he, at one point,

he didn't realize who's grabbing what? And he grabbed, and he realized there was another guy in the pile. And he had his hand on his back fat. And he just grabbed it and twisted it. And he said, "You heard from the bottom of the pile."

- Ah! - Ah! - That's crazy. - I know I got a fat. - They should teach that in self-defense classes.

- Just grab that. - They ended up calling the old, given the nickname back fat after that. - They're doing a little thing. - I just want to go to the truth. - It's a cheap shot.

- It really is. - But Dennis Basque, my friend and played procc, he woke me up. I slept over to his house and he woke me up doing a double titty twister. - Oh, God. - Oh, God. - And he was on a key player. - Painful.

- I don't know what it is. - There's such tough dudes. - We'll be right back. - And now back to the show. - Wait, what sports have you played Steve?

- I've got football. - And baseball. - Oh, you did, yeah. - Full stop. - That's that.

“- Now does that make you a Viking fan or a twin fan?”

- I'm a Vikings fan. - Oh, yeah. - And a twin fan, oh, boy. - Yeah. - So the twins, that's a tough bus to ride on.

- Oh, no, no, really, I mean, they're doing good this year. - Are they? - We had 87 and 91. - Yeah, boy. - We're looking to reach back.

- Uh-huh. - I know, it's pretty far. - Back on these to play in the big baggie, right?

- Wait a second, I'm just remembering.

- Perfect. - Perfect. - 87 you guys beat, is that that old dome stadium and you guys beat Toronto? - It was the great series. - They were probably beating up on Toronto right now.

- No, no, no, in the world series, it was not Toronto. - It was in 87, might have been the giant. - I said, do I mean, was that the cardinals? - Yes, it was.

- Wow, how do you write that on the end? - Yeah, it came for seven. - Yeah, I can see it. - And then you've put another piece of got them in your life. - Well, I thought those Vikings,

are you looking forward to the Vikings are looking good this year? - I don't know, we'll see. - I mean, you didn't get shitty. - I mean, I mean, sorry, I got a second.

Here with the morning zoom crew, go ahead, Sean, you got another card, you got another card, the playing here he comes, go ahead, Sean, it's just the red one, there we go. (laughing)

- Oh, go ahead, will you got a flat, flat, flat, or something, go ahead, anybody? No, all right, we're gonna be right back after these messages. - No, no, no, no, no, no.

- Oh, God, all right, wait, Steve, wait. - You play football, you play football. - Go ahead, yeah. - I was gonna say theater stories, I was gonna get into it 'cause theater sort of theater.

- Wow, I'm gonna ask you a question about football first,

but then get a theater story. - Oh, I was gonna get into it. - Yeah, that theater story. But football, what position did you play and how long did you play?

'Cause I played as a kid, did you? - I played, I played junior high in high school and I was a corner, corner back, and I returned Poncekicks. - Oh wow.

- So you don't mind getting hit, do you? - I do. - You run right into the wall, don't you? - I was scared, shitless. - I actually could not do a,

I couldn't do a fair catch because it couldn't coordinate my hand and then catching the ball. - Oh, really? - So I was a catcher.

- And they thought it was a badass and it was just because I was mentally challenged. I mean, I fucking couldn't time it out. - No, I couldn't, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. - Now, what was going through your head there?

Were you thinking, I can't throw up the arm early enough to get back down into catching position 'cause if I throw up the hand too early, they're not gonna see it, you know, right? 'Cause you gotta throw it up late

so that they're looking at you, right? But then it's too late to get the hand down into a catching position. - Right, like when do you, when do you call for a fair catch and yeah, my calling it too early

and I could, they're not looking at you and they're gonna hit me. - And then we're gonna yell that for that. - Sure, I, I played safety, but I don't know what that means

“anymore, but I remember that was my position”

and I would be so nervous 'cause I'd be in this, I'd be in this one called, the title, you know, shower, you know, when you, would, yeah. (screaming) - You played safety in the shower. (laughing)

(screaming) (laughing) - That was a lovely story, it's gonna be great. (laughing) - Oh my God, I'm proud.

Noronch, just an orange vest in the shower, waiting for your folks to come through like a crossing guard, right? (laughing) - No, no, you're in the line of scrimmages,

“that's what it's called in the line of scrimmages.”

- You know, you're in this, you're in this book. You're in the stance, you're in the stance, ready for the folks, what does that call? You're in the whatever, and I would be so nervous because I was, I would, the guys across from me would be like,

I'm gonna fuck you, I'm gonna fuck you up, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, whenever they're gonna, they're talking shit right before the ball is snap, so you may have been late in the wrong position as a safety.

(laughing) - If you were on the line, yeah, I don't, I don't know what that is. - Oh, that would it is, anyway, I would get so scared because I would be so intimidated that I would take it personally. (laughing)

- What did, did you hear what he said to me? - Totally, yeah, exactly. - That's where they had you start lining up in the shower. - That's right. - I'm gonna tell you.

(laughing) (laughing) - Now Steve, can you, I'd we get to macaroni art as a title of your, of your company there? You are, you come up.

- No, Rick and I were just, you know,

we just wanna make shit basically, and we,

and we were like, hey man, if it's like, we'll just, we'll just do stuff. - Like macaroni art, like like as kids. - Like when you look at the papers, like scale of one

“to 10 to how high were you guys when you came up with this?”

- Yeah, what was a substance? - Six. - Six, okay, good, thank you for the honest answer. - No, but it came quick. - Oh, when did Sam Rockwell run into your life?

- Sam and I have known each other since the early in New York. - Yep. - And then, and then we did a movie together called Safe Men.

- Sure, oh yes. - Which was really, with, with Yamati. - Yeah. - It was a, it was a good, a John Hamburg's first movie, and he wrote it, and he's brilliant.

It's like, it's one of those movies that I get approached every once in a while, so many will come up and say, hey, that plays, that played it on a loop. - In our friend house or whatever. - Well, now you know Jason's directing Sam,

you probably know that as we, as we speak. - Are you directing Sam right now? - Yes, sir. Just finished. - Oh, great.

- She's finished. - Oh, you're done with the actors, David,

“so you have to go back into another stuff, or I was shooting”

with two other actors. And Sam himself is probably gonna be replaced, but it's not that much to be shoot. - This late, this late, this late, this late. - I wanted to get all the way to the end to see

if he's gonna pull it out.

And it's just never got better, but it's not a lot of scenes.

It'll be fine, it'll be good. Steve, what's your availability? - I'm open, I'm good. - Wait, so Steve, back to Mac Roni Art, do you, do you develop things for other people

and other things or just for you guys? - Sure, Steve, you were about to get a script in your inbox. - Just start stuff right now, it's, you know, we got a, we got a, we got like a docky series. We did on a chef, we did Michael,

that's a contownier, and we're doing our own stuff right now. - Every time I think, I keep looking that Art and I keep thinking about my favorite in New York or cartoon of the piece of a rigotony piece of pasta, he's on the phone.

He's like, right, and he's got a face of any, and he says, "Fucily, you crazy bastard, how the hell are you?" (laughing) This is my favorite video of Art and I've all done. - Hey, I was gonna say, I need to get some David Cross merch.

I did a movie with David and it was amazing. - He's the man. - He's the man.

- He's an incredible, funny dude.

- Incredible stand up, too. - Yeah. - Now, when you're not making macaroni art, and you're not doing your million things, you seem to be everywhere, what are you doing?

What are you doing with your time? Like, what's the thing when you're back there that you're doing that's not related to your craft, your art, or your whatever, what are you doing? - I live on a farm, so that keeps, you know,

I work on the farm. - What do we got on the farm? - I got a couple horses, I got some goats. - I really like stuff. I mowed my fields, I've just spent eight days

trimming all my trees. - Do you drink the goat milk or anything? - No, we just point in left. - Point in left, yeah. - They're past, they're pumped, okay.

- And then what, tell me about cutting these trees down. So you're up there, you got yourself like a lift, or something, or do you have yourself a bunch of others? - No, I just extended pole saw, and then I have a hand saw, and that's really all you need.

- That's kind of a gym. And then you got one of those chippers, and you get all that stuff on the ground, and you got, you got to grind it all up? - No, then I have a huge bonfire

that I start, and when the poles are, you know, you got to have a real dry one that's got a lot of wood in it, and then, and then you keep the fire going, basically. It's so hot that you can put anything green on top,

and so I have a side by side, you know,

and I go to the fire and I throw it in, I just keep going. - Jesus, I mean, look at these three of us. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I have never no idea what to do

about getting a call-est just even here. - No, this is the podcast. I put my headphones on and I go all the way. - Really? - Yeah, yeah.

- So you got a bunch of rideable farm equipment out there. That would be fun for me. You got need like those, those handsome green John deer things. - The gators? - I do, I have a, yeah.

- Big tractor, then, I pull a 12-foot bat. - I just got to be fun going down to one of those stores and buy in those things. - Oh, it's nice to go. - It's nice to go.

- They're a little pricey, but yeah. - Yeah, hot down there, you're on your car. - It does. - You know what, you get on a tractor and you mo, you just slow down, it's like forced meditation.

- Are you sipping on a sweet tea? - Oh, sorry. - I don't like this sweet tea, I like just plain tea. - Just plain tea, sorry, it's all right.

“- You got an ear conditioning on those riding moers, by the way?”

- No, open. - I used to have a cab with an AC, but when it breaks, then it's like, you're in hell. 'Cause you can't, can't, can't, can't, when they can. - AC breaks and you can't take the door off.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So, now you got Chad Powers coming, it's Aaron right around now. - It's September 3rd to drops. - Yes, September. - All episodes, season two. - This is what that Glenn Powell got.

- Yeah, piece of Ask Glenn Powell. - Oh, yeah. - I love you, he's got his ear. - He's a great guy. - He's a great guy. - He's a great guy. - Nice guy, he's a good guy. - Nice guy.

- He's gonna look at, he's got talent coming out the ears. - Yep. - He's so fucking good in this show. - Yeah, yeah. - It's, it's, it's, I'm like, dude,

when we've showed up first day, I'm like, my God,

he's in prosthetics, you know, he's like playing this crazy character and it's like, oh, my God, man. You've got a swing hard, this is a big swing, dude. - Yeah. - Like, you can't, you gotta go all in, man.

“- Or else, what do you do? - Right, yeah, you have to.”

- It's a Peyton Manning associated with the show at all. - Yeah, Peyton and Eli, he, Eli did a video that so many people saw where he, he put prosthetics on, he went to Penn State and he, and the only person that knew it was him was the coach, the head coach.

Everybody was, so he's like, you know, that the walk on, try out. And he's just sling in these balls and people you know, you can block your lockheads. - Who's this weird dude, that's like 30, you know.

And so that was the premise that Michael Waldron and Glenn, they pitched it and they said that's the series that, and I read it and I thought, this is the dumbest thing I've ever read. This is crazy. - Yeah, right, right.

- prosthetics, how is this gonna work and it works? - I know, and you got the game from Omaha or still involved their producers on it, I met. - Yeah. - Payton, you have to deal with notes from Payton. - Oh, so nice to you guys.

- This first guy, you know what I mean? - Well, go ahead, let it out, man. - No, you just got incoming from Payton. - And it's just like, you know what I mean? - This fucking guy.

- We love Payton, we love, we love, we love him both. - Yeah, we love all three of 'em, you know. - Oh yeah, and coupe, well, we love, yeah, well, you get wheel going on coupe, boy, and we're all day. If you're a man, if you're a man, coup, or Steve?

- No, the third, oh my God, he is. - No, I haven't.

“- He's an absolute champ of a guy, we love the secret sauce.”

- Oh, you see, good job. - It's a fun show, man, I get to play a coach, I mean, it's like, it's like the things, the check marks that you have is like a 10 year old, like wouldn't it be cool someday to like,

give one of his locker-room speeches? - I wanna be, yeah, I wanna be inspiring and I want my team to run out after me. I could check that off, you know, I wanna be, you know what? - Have they done that?

- Yeah, I did that this season, yeah. - How do you play it? So, I've just think you've done so many different characters. - So many different, like, in so many different levels, is there a character?

- Well, yeah, I mean, please, but I mean, like, we should all be so lucky. - We should all be so lucky to be able to play all these, you know, do all these different things. And it is, there's something that's out there

before we let you go, 'cause we kept you forever, but is there something out there that you're like, I wanna do it, like you were saying, like,

you wanna do it, like you always dream to do it in a coach,

playing a coach, is there a kind of a role out there that you're something that you've always wanted to do that you haven't done yet? - I don't, no, I don't know, I really, I mean, I could say, I would love to go back to the theater.

I'd like to do that, you know? But as far as something specific, I really feel like a, you know, I wanted to be in a warm movie, I wanted to be in a western, I wanted to, I wanted to experience that, I've experienced all those things.

And now it's like, it's a surprise. It's like, do you wanna play this guy that's, like, in silo, that hasn't seen anyone for 40 years, and he's basically 11 years old?

- I was like, that's amazing.

- Oh my God. - Yeah.

“- And then you just did a movie with your daughter,”

like, that's pretty awesome. I mean, you're living on a dream, it's really cool. - Yeah, good for you. - Look how. - Yeah, Steve, listen, man, big, we're just such, we're just such big fans.

- Thank you for showing up for us, I know. - And we're lucky to have you. - And thank you. - You guys are so stoked to be on this, you guys are amazing. - Keep that macaroni are coming.

- Okay. - Yeah, yeah, please. - Okay. - Just send us all some macaroni merch. - Yeah. - Thank you, Steve. Chad Paris comes out September 3rd, drops the new season, and she dances is gonna be available on peacock.

Dude, you got it all going on. The great Steve's on, thank you, Steve. - Thank you, Steve. - Thanks, guys. - Good to see you. - Bye, pal. - See ya.

- Steve's on, right? - Steve's on, the number of characters he's playing. I love to put, I love to put side by side, all his looks, just to be like, "Wow, "look at how different he is in every single one."

- It's just like a mosaic, all of the characters that he's playing. - Yeah, and then when you pull back, those... - It'd be an image of me. - Oh, sorry, Steve's on, sorry. - We don't make one, but yes, yeah, yeah.

- One of those guys every time you turn something, every time he shows up, you're like, "Oh, yeah, man. "Not only am I in good hands, I'm so happy to see him." - So many, yeah, all of that.

“- How exciting would it be to act in a scene with him, too?”

Like the door of his head. - The door of his head.

- The very first day, you're just kind of looking

across from there about to roll, and you're like, "Yeah, wonder what's coming my way?" - Yeah, you're ready. - Right, huh, huh, huh, the nerves. - Talk about nerves. - I get no, not yet.

- I'm saying about it getting ready. Will he looks like you are getting ready to start working? - Yeah. - Then an astronaut coming out. - You got nice astronaut here, cut. - He's looking really good at it. - Have you started

shooting yet? - No, no, we're about a month away. - A month away. - A month away. - Yeah, just over a month until we start. - I mean, it's one of the things I'm all joking aside.

It's one of the things I'm really looking forward to is you're planning that part and watching that series because it's right up my alley, and I can't wait to see you do it. - Yeah, I'm excited.

My character's not an astronaut himself. He's a pilot test pilot, whatever he's in charge of the astronaut program, and it's pretty, it's pretty. - Is there tension there between the astronauts and you like, hey, you can't tell us what's going on.

You never been an astronaut.

Is there any, is there a line like that? - There's a lot of regrets. - There's no line like that. I mean, I don't know, this is, by the way, if you mind if we borrow that? - Yeah, it's fine. - Fine, fine, fine.

- So wait, there's a lot of regret on your characters part 'cause you never, we're gonna watch it. - We're gonna watch it. - We're gonna watch it. - We're gonna watch it again. - You wanted to leave the atmosphere.

- Just watch mine. - You just watch my eyes. - Just watch my eyes.

“- You're gonna tell the story, right there in the windows?”

- Well, I'm a storyteller. - Right there in the windows. - With the eyes, you ready for this, you ready? - Sure, you smoke, it's where? - It's where? - It's where?

- Oh, Sean, he's got more. - Yeah, we're gonna watch it. - Wow, we'll trim that up. - Very nice, very nice, very nice. - Well, I just didn't want the train to pass us. ♪ Bye ♪

- That was great, that was worth it. - That was worth it. - That had to bring it back. ♪ Smart ♪ (upbeat music)

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