Breaking Bread with Tom Papa - Episode 258 - Kevin Bacon

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

This week Kevin Bacon joins us at the (New York) table! He reflects on the massive success he's had from Animal House to Footloose to JFK. He recalls the jump from waiting tables to being on a private jet with Liza Minnelli! Catch his latest work, The Bondsman now streaming on Prime Video. Enjoy! Go to Wildgrain.com/PAPA or use promo code PAPA to get $30 off your first box PLUS free croissants. -------------------- 0:00:00 Intro Teaser 0:01:00 Patreon 0:02:05 Wild Grain Ad 0:02:57 Welcome & Bread 0:05:19 Eagles 0:08:26 Los Angeles 0:11:55 Being a "New York actor" 0:14:48 Growing up & wanting to be famous 0:18:00 Turning down a tv show 0:20:22 Animal House & Soap Operas 0:22:50 Always thinking about the next thing 0:24:50 Supportive parents 0:26:00 Retirement is not in sight 0:27:20 The Bondsman and Kevin's different gears 0:29:00 Not having a signature "thing" 0:31:10 Wild Grain Ad 033:34 She's Having a Baby & Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 0:38:00 Footloose fame and learning to dance 0:50:13 JFK 0:53:10 Sirens 0:54:17 Carrying the role 0:55:47 Uncomfortable moment 0:57:03 Playing real people 0:58:35 Oliver Stone 1:00:00 Directors 1:02:47 Touring, The Bondman & Writing Songs 1:09:10 Touring 1:10:30 Gratitude for career & family ------------------------- Tom Papa is a celebrated stand-up comedian with over 20 years in the industry. Watch Tom's new special "Home Free" out NOW on Netflix! Radio, Podcasts and more: https://linktr.ee/tompapa/ Website - http://tompapa.com/ Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/tompapa Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tompapa Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/comediantompapa Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/tompapa   #tompapa #breakingbread #comedy #standup #standupcomedy #bread #kevinbacon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So I never had to do one. Was JFK real? Was that guy real? Yeah, not really. He was kind of a combination of a few. Of different agents. Yeah, he was kind of a combination of a few different people. Yeah.

One of which Oliver sent me out one night into New Orleans to, to hang with this guy. Oh, really? And he gave me, and kind of like a tour of the, you know, various, like, leather bars and sex clubs of kind of underground New Orleans. And thankfully, Gary Oldman agreed to come along with me. You weren't alone? I wasn't alone.

No. It's breaking bread. Hey, everybody, exciting news. You know, our Patreon is up. and running. Very cool side project from Breaking Bread with Tom Papa, where bonus stuff is waiting for you. People have already joined. It's really fantastic. You get extra material. You get extended interviews. You get top secret things that I do with, well, I don't want to, I don't want to, I want to say there's nudity, but there's. suggestive right yeah i saw i saw something i was watching hbo and they said um something like

quick partial nudity yeah yeah that kind of thing's going on over at patreon uh it's really fantastic it's a great way to support the podcast and a great way for you to get bonus uh material so go over to uh patreon dot com look up breaking bread with tom papa and you're in and then you're a friend for life Easy peasy. We'll see you over there. This episode of Breaking Bread with Tompapa is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first, bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, pastries, and pastas. It's like it was made for us. Are you ready to bring all your favorite carbs right to your doorstep?

Check out Wild Grain so you can begin building your own box of breads, pastas, and pastries. For a limited time, Wild Grain is offering our listeners $30 off your first. first box plus free croissants in every box when you go to wildgrain.com slash papa to start your subscription. You heard me right, kids. Free quassants in every box and $30 off your first box when you go to wildgrain.com slash papa. That's wildgrain.com slash papa or just use the promo code Papa P-A-P-A at checkout. Well, thanks, man. This is, I would have baked you bread if we were in Los Angeles. Are you a baker? I'm a baker. And, but I had to fly last night.

Are you one of those bakers that does sourdough and keeps the like the mother thing and all that kind of stuff? Yes. It's, my buddy is really super into that. Yeah. And he's great. And he kind of was one of those people that took it up during the pandemic. Uh-huh. And I absolutely love me.

A lot of people have told him that he needs to, you know, whatever. But he doesn't want to do it because he's an actor. like, no, I'm an actor. I don't want a big bread. I'm not a baker. But his brother is amazing. And when their house was threatened, I said, did you grab the mother? Because people like keep that stuff for years, don't it?

Yeah. Yeah. I know. I've got two of them. Oh, do you? And yeah, if I'm on the road for a long time, we've got to call my wife and have her feed it while I'm on the road. Oh, you have to feed it. You have to feed it flour and water to keep it alive.

Oh, wow. And you can slow it down in the refrigerator. You can slow it down, but still, like, if it's over a week and a half, two weeks, she's got to feed it. Wow. She says, not in joy. But I got you some pastries from Vesuvio, which is my favorite bakery in Soho. Thank you. Yeah.

You seem like you've always been naturally able to stay skinny. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I, you know, I. pretty well and work out and stuff. Yeah. But if you did not if you when I've watched your whole career, I was always like, man, that guy could probably eat anything he wants.

You know, I don't know. I don't really I don't think, I don't think about it that much. You don't have to. If you were fat, then you'd think about it and watch you in movies and think son of a bitch. I mean, I

think it's beyond just the weight part of it. It's, to me, it's like I, you know, I just have to feel good and, and, you know, I just feel better when I eat better. Yeah, yeah, I'm that way now, but when I was young eating Doritos, uh, yeah. Congratulations on the Eagles, by the way. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. That was fun. That was fun. Only for Eagles fans, but I mean, it really, it's pretty isolated. Yeah. I mean, it's It's so funny when, you know, people say, that was a terrible game. I'm like, really? I didn't notice.

I was having fun the whole time. Actually, I was alone in the apartment and here in New York. Yeah. My wife, you know, chose to go out to dinner with a friend. Uh-huh. And so I realized that I was going to be all alone watching the game, which is, you know, fine. Not a sad story, but I'm often watching football by myself. Yeah.

And, you know, and there was that really bad call on pretty much the first or second play of the game. It was a pass interference call. Right. And I just was screaming. This is like an idiot. And I thought the neighbor called the cops. And I was like, bro, you got a cop. Come on.

Come on. You're a grown man. It's too important. It means too much. It really does. It's exciting. I was just down in Philly, actually. Were you? Yeah, yeah.

And it's still, people are still talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a real connection with it still? Because you've been New York for so long. No, I've been in New York since I was 17, actually. Right. And so, you know, speaking of sports, weirdly, I'm an Eagles fan and a Knicks fan. Oh, really?

Oh, that's right. What is that? I don't get that. Yeah. And I'm not one of those people that is, like, I, it's fun to follow a team. And if I follow a team for, especially a Philly team, you know, I just like nice stuff to happen to that city because it was so much a part of our family. Yeah.

And yeah, I still have connections. I got two sisters down there and a nephew. It's a good spot. I went to school in central Jersey. So I was a giant fan. So it was Eagle fans and Giant fans meeting and just annoying each other. Right. So this year was especially difficult watching Sequin go over, watching hard knocks and watching them create that deal.

I will say, though, that sorry to interrupt, but I will say that I have been surprised just anecdotally with Giants fans that I've met that have said to me that they're actually happy for Seekwon. Yeah. Not happy about the team or maybe not happy that they let them go. Yeah. But that they were happy for him specifically. Yeah. And it really was kind of like I was rooting for the Eagles during the Super Bowl, which I never did in my life. I mean, I'm not crazy, crazy.

But, you know, it was still a difficult thing to be like, wow, I'm really rooting for the Eagles. Like, it just got to happen. It was very strange. Yeah. Yeah. But he is great. He was amazing. He's so great.

Yeah. So you've lived in, you never did L.A.? Nah. I mean, I, I, I, I. We have a little place there now because after so many years of, you know, if you added it all up, I've spent years and years of my life in L.A. Yeah. Yeah. But my wife was born and raised in Manhattan.

And we were just kind of like East Coast people. And for a long time, I think that we had this silly notion that we kind of defined ourselves as New York. actors, you know, we're New York actors. And we, you know, made a decision that we didn't like L.A. Uh-huh. And, uh, I even wrote a song called City of Fear. And I think that it was like about the fact that, uh, you know, that when you're in L.A., your success or failure in terms of, like, the industry is really much, very much in your face. Yeah. And, and I was so, kind of insecure about that. So I used to say that it's the best place to be if you've just been nominated for an Oscar. You know what I mean? You can't get any better. Or you got a giant, you know,

a poster on Sunset Boulevard, the movie is crushing. You know what I mean? Yeah. But if that's not happening, which is most of the time, it's a place where the industry is so much in your face that I was too insecure to really be able to enjoy it. Yeah. Then, through the years, you know, having spent years of my life in the 80s at the Chateau Marmont or the sunset Marquis. Yeah. And then in rented houses, one rented house after another. My wife was on a TV series for seven years. Right.

And so that was six months of the year that, I mean, I wasn't there all the time with the kids, but we would be there for a lot of time. Yeah. We eventually went, wow, I think we're going to miss it. Uh-huh. And so our kids were out of the house. Actually, both of them live in L.A. now. And we got a little place there.

And now I really, I love it now. Yeah. I think having kids changes it, too. I think when you're scraping and you're single, you're not really, or married, and you're kind of like a drift. Like when I went out there, it was when I had my first daughter. And we could have been living in Wisconsin. You know what I mean?

like we were our tribe we were kind of in there like it it definitely doused a little bit of the show business anxiety yeah kind of thing yeah you just have to you know you just have to get past that then you have to find your you know you have to find your community too you know i think that's another piece of how many kids you got two two daughters and cool 22 and 20 they're people now yeah yeah when you said that they're in l. a that's what that's our debate now. Because we're New Yorkers and we're in L.A. now. And we're watching the girls and seeing which way they're going to go. Because my wife is like, where they go, we go. Because she would come back to New York in a second. But it seems like they're going to split. One really likes L.A.

One really likes New York. They're going to college or no? One's in college and one's a person. One's out now. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll just go back and forth and follow them, I guess. I have to say, though, your story is so cool because it is a New York actor story and just growing up in this area, watching that track has always been so admirable of like starting in New York, doing off-Broadway, doing Broadway, then you start getting your things, but and always kind of coming back. It's- I don't think it really exists anymore though, doesn't it? No, I know. You know, I'm directing my friend in this off-Broadway thing and we're looking for a space,

because we're changing the spot. And the guy who runs it, who's the production, who's like, you know, theater guy forever in New York, he was like, well, you know, it's something,

something off Broadway. He goes, well, not that that, not that off Broadway exists anymore. And it was such a sad thing to hear. Oh, yeah, it's terrible.

Right? Such a sad thing to hear. Yeah. I also don't think there's really, I mean, literally, it's funny to think about, but there was literally a,

you were known as a New York actor and that had a certain kind of cachet when it came to the movie business. You were, you were, you know, trying, at least what I was trying to do and what some of us were trying to do was following the footsteps of, you know, Dustin and, you know, De Niro and Pacino and Merrill

and, you know what I mean? Yeah. John Casal and, you know, that Raoul Julia, you know, these were all the like the people who were kind of defined as having a certain thing that that had a kind of interesting cachet in the in the in the in the film business and and besides just their work it was kind of like what I was you know aspiring to yeah theater was a really big part of that yeah but now I mean if a young person came up to me and said New York or L.A I don't think I would

necessarily recommend that you you have to stay in New York and you know get your it chops. I think it's like New York or L.A. I'd say, you know, TikTok. I know. Sad but true. I know. But there was, I mean, what you're describing and what you went through. I mean, I think just as a craft, like take the business out of it and making it out of it, like the craft, I think the mentality was to be really great and be as good and real as you could be, right? I mean, isn't that the thing that? Totally. Right? I mean, totally. I mean, I started out, you know, I've talked about this before, but I, but what haven't I talked about before? I started out when I was really young with a real desire to be famous.

Yeah. And to make money. When did that hit, by the way? Oh, probably, I mean, like 12, 11, you know, whatever. Where'd that come from? It came, I'll tell you, I think it was a combination of things, you know, looking, I had old. brothers and sisters. So they kind of exposed me to early rock and roll and soul music. And so I was kind of like, I want to be a pop star. Right. You know, I wouldn't buy them, but I would see the

the tiger beat, you know, covers with like, you know, Michael Jackson and, and, you know, Donnie Asman and David Cassidy and Partridge family and all. Like, I was like, this is like, like, this is like the thing that, you know, I want. Yeah. But I also think that from a fundamental way, my father was a famous guy in Philadelphia. Oh, yeah? He was a, he was trained as an architect, but he became a city planner. Okay.

And he, in Philadelphia, was very, very, like, influential in, uh, in the way that the city kind of developed. And he was, he was very ahead of his time in terms of, like, really wanting. to keep the downtowns and cities in general to remain vibrant. Because this was during the 40s and 50s when people were like, we're going to the suburbs. We're getting out of here. This is too, you know.

Running freeway through this. Yeah. Yeah. This is too scary and whatever, you know, white flight, basically. And he was, he loved Philadelphia and became, so he became, you know, pretty famous in Philly. Wow. And so I, and he loved his fame.

That's the other thing. Oh, yeah. Is that he loved it. Like, he would bring home articles and the paper, and people would stop him on the street, and he'd be like, yes, and, you know, he was like, he was really, you know, had a very, very, you know, kind of healthy ego about that kind of stuff.

Like a de facto mayor. Yes, yeah, definitely, yeah. And you could just see him soaking it up. So I think that that kind of fame thing hit me. But what happened was I got to, into acting classes and then came to New York when I was 17 and went to circle and the square. And all of a sudden, that piece of it was almost like undesirable. Like he didn't even want to admit that you wanted to have any kind of fame or success

because you wanted to be down and dirty and working in, you know, what we call toilet bowl theater. You know, you wanted to be, you know, down in the village, you know, scraping away for $90 a week or whatever it was, you know. Screw L.A. Yeah. Screw L.A. Right.

Yeah. And so that was what I, that was the cloth that I was cut from. In fact, I had a, there was a, you know, I don't really often think about pivotal moments in, in, you know, careers. I mean, I've heard people do interviews where they just go. And then that happened. And it does, I think more like, in terms of like little steps, little things happen along the road. But there was a moment when. I was doing a three-line role in a workshop production.

So it was only going to play for two weeks at an off-Broadway play that had come from the actress theater of Louisville, and they were going to workshop it in New York. And I was offered the television series. it must have been of, I don't think it was the diner series, I think it was maybe an animal house series because I had already done Animal House. Okay.

And we met moving to L.A., you know. Yeah. And, of course, when somebody comes to you with any kind of TV thing at that point in your life, I was literally like had just stopped waiting tables or I still wait was waiting tables. Yeah.

You know, that amount of money would be huge. Yeah. And I turned it down because I wanted to do, first off, probably because I was afraid of moving to L.A., but also because I just felt so much more at home in New York, but also because I really liked that play. And even though I only had three lines, there was just something about it that felt like right for me. And that was a pretty big kind of moment for me. Yeah, that's a huge thing. because you're telling yourself, your subconscious is saying,

no, no, no, no, no. This is what we do. We're working. We're growing. Like, we're becoming this thing rather than, oh, you know, I mean, the bad version is, you fly out there, you do the Animal House series,

and you get stuck out there, and you're working at Ralph's, and you're taking anything you can to survive, and all of a sudden your career is this different thing. Totally. And I don't know. I don't know the series, I don't think ever went. I mean, if it did, I don't think it was on for very long.

Yeah, I can't remember. That was a weird era where they always took movies, you tried to make them into a thing. Yeah. It's weird to think, like, how great the odd couple was. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It was so good.

But, I mean, you had real, real actors in it. Yeah. Well, it's where it's worked, it's worked a few times really, really well. I mean, I think about Fargo, you know, that was one of those ones where you go, you're kidding. You're not really going to drive back Fargo into a series. And then it's amazing. You know, yeah.

So, you know, it can work. I mean, I... At what point did you do the soap operas? Was that before Animal House? No, no. That was actually after Animal House. Yeah. Animal House really did nothing from my career.

It really didn't. I thought it would. I mean, I was a waiter. The movie came out. I spent the money. I mean, after I finished the movie, we were in Oregon. I came back.

I spent the money. money in, you know, whatever, three weeks. And I was back waiting tables. When the movie came out, I was a waiter. So the soaps came after that. Yeah. After that, yeah. Did you get some cachet, though, being Animal House?

Not really? Nothing. No. No. Yeah. Nope. I don't, no, I did not actually. I thought maybe it could get me an agent, but that didn't happen.

Oh, wow. And so I. How'd they find you in the first place? Yeah, really weird. there was a casting director named Michael Chinich and he was working on the film and he came to acting school my acting school and they just said listen we're going to cast this movie we need like young assholes do you have any they were like yes right here wait do you see this guy step right up and so they send me over there to meet to meet John Landis and

And Landis told me to make a smarmy face. And I literally didn't know what the word smarmy meant. But there was a certain sound to, what's I called? Anamonapia or somebody. It was like I kind of made a face that I thought would be smarmy. And then he loved it. And he brought me back again. I don't think there were really, I don't know that there were any line.

I mean, I didn't get the script, obviously. until I started shooting, but I don't know that there were any lines for me to say at that point. There wasn't really enough dialogue to do a real scene. And then he brought me back and he said, make the smarmy face again. And then they called me up and I went out there and did the movie. That's amazing. I mean, when you talk about pivotal moments, like, you know, you don't kind of say like this change or whatever. There is, did you have a sense in the early days that things were kind of happening?

happening like it you know doors kind of open and you find yourself in these in these in these spots uh looking back or or in the in the in the moment did you feel like all right shit this is this could happen like this is i mean that's quick right you're you're only in new york a little bit yeah no i mean it didn't feel quick to me uh because time is just different you know yeah yeah but yeah it was quick. It was quick and it was lucky. But, you know, when you, I finished it and it was certainly life-changing being on a set and the feeling of what that meant and looking at the cameras and the gear and the insane thing in the cast and the being, living in a hotel on the road and flying first class for the first time in my life. Actually, I'd never even flown to it. I don't think it'd ever

been to the West Coast. It was my first time to the West Coast. Yeah. All these things were amazing. And then I got back to New York and I was like, okay, I'm broke. I got to go back to the waiting tables. And so it's always been about the next one kind of. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Even when there's, the only time that I reflect on things is when I'm doing this. Right. I don't, I really don't, I really don't look back that much. Yeah. And is that, is that a desire to, keep creating things? Like is that, is it the searching? Is it the journey that prevents you from like,

oh man, I really nailed it? Because you're always kind of thinking what's next. I'm always thinking what's next. And it is the desire to keep creating things. And you know, you're talking about where something, where you get something. And that was for my mother because my mother was somebody who constantly steered us towards creating as opposed to purchasing. She really believed that

you needed to keep you know we had barely had a television you know it was in the basement it was black and white it had the coat bent coat hanger sticking out of it but there was

tons of you know art supplies or musical instruments or a costume box or or you know if you wanted to take a you know some kind of a lesson that was like creative yeah uh they were completely in support of that both of them were really you know um did she do that as well or she was just cult no no she was a nursery school teacher oh yeah yeah yeah but uh but yeah and so i i think i still have that yeah you know also yeah i mean i think it goes a little deeper than that, just like that kind of like hunger to keep, you know, trying.

You know, I'm not, I, there's no part of me that's like pumping the brakes at this point in my life. It's just not, yeah, I, I, maybe I will someday. Yeah. And, and just go, you know, I want to just, I don't know, build a birdhouse, but you know what I mean? I, I'm really, I'm very much focused on what's, what's next. It is a real blessing to be in a position where, uh, retirement isn't even like an idea. It's not. Isn't it? I mean, that's such a... I feel very blessed about that. Yeah.

And it's interesting as an actor because, you know, people have said this before, but the things, the opportunities that you get always have a chance of changing because you're changing because you're getting old. You're getting wrinkles and you get a part with somebody who's got wrinkles. Right. You know, or you get a part of someone who's got gray hair. It's like a... Yeah. It's not that, you know, you know, you're getting a...

you will, it'll just stop, like the creative process will just stop. I mean, I think sometimes about, you know, rock and roll and songwriters. And, you know, sometimes people write their best stuff when they're young. And then it's, it's, you don't hear from them that much anymore in terms of the songwriting. You can still, you know, play and sing and all that kind of stuff. But acting, somebody else is writing it, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Back to me saying that it was such a, your career, such a cool New York story. It is really the craft that I admire. It's like watching your trajectory and what you did. And I watched the first thing of your new show, The Bondsman. And it really was like, holy shit, this guy has so many gears. Like the beginning, just the first 10 minutes. of this show is you're playing this character that I've seen you kind of like poke into but there's a uh you've just you you have another level and you've obviously cultivated this other

gear that you have that is you still have all the humor you still have like the appeal uh but there's like a darkness to it too and like a searching and you're older and it's just like you're going to work you're going to keep creating forever and it's like here's like another I mean when you sorry if I'm going on but when you did a when just in planes just in planes trains and automobiles

when you are when you when you're just that youthful kid and you're giving that little wink over and you're about to run for the taxi like there's a there's a certain character and a certain magic to that that is just so

it's so enduring to see you still be able to hit no but with a totally different, like what you're doing in the bonds, we could be so different from that guy. Yeah. It's just so impressive and I, and I, I'm babbling, but I, it's really because of the craft. Like, there's nothing better than watching somebody who's like,

you obviously enjoys growing and expanding and doing what he's doing. I love the craft. I absolutely love it. Thank you for saying that, by the way. Also, I love the craft, but I also... We like to thank the good people. Quince for sponsoring today's program. If you spend a lot of time cooking at home, it's time to elevate your game. When your cookware actually feels good to use and is thoughtfully made and looks beautiful on your counter, it just makes the whole experience better. That's what I've

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you'd expect. 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Go get it right now. Refresh your every day with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com slash Papa for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. That's Quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E-com slash Papa, P-A-P-A, for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash Papa. How can I say this? That's all I have. Like, I don't have a thing. Like, do you know an actor, I'm not going to use a name because they could possibly think of this as insulting. But there's a lot of actors that just have a thing that they do that's just fucking great. And you just want to see it all the time.

They just want to see them do that. Yeah. Because they just crush it again and again. I don't have a thing. You know, I have to be walking in somebody else's shoes. Right. Like to me, my thing, whoever I am, it's just not that fucking interesting. You know what I mean?

It's not. It's always about who Hub Halloran is. Like if HUB Halloran, if I can make, if I can find a way into Hub Halloran in a specific way, then, yeah, then I can, then I can do my craft. If I can find a specific way into the guy in playing strange in auto reveals. Yeah. The two extremes. Yeah. One has no lines, by the way.

I know. But then I can... Then I have something to hang my hat on. That's why, you know, if I look at a script and it's just kind of like he's just the guy, right? Yeah. I'm kind of lost. Like, I don't really know how to do that. Right.

Whereas I think there's a lot of people that you could hire who were gigantic stars. And you'd say, I know, that's what I'm going to get. I'm going to get. He's going to do the guy. Yeah, yeah. I remember somebody in something, it was a director, somebody said, like having dinner with Al Pacino early on, like just having a meal with him, just having a conversation, he was, he just, being himself, did everything that he ever did in the movies. Like, it was all just happening. You know, it was all, all his moves were just.

Natural to him. Yeah. Right. To your point, and then you bring it in. This episode of Breaking Bread with Tompapa is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, pastries, and pastas. I love the people at Wild Grain.

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uh i was playing some music with and he just had a baby uh-huh and it was a rough uh birth uh-huh and he was describing you know everyone ever ended up being fine but he was describing that feeling and i was like whatever you do, don't see. She's having a baby because you will relive this. You know, there's that Kate Bush song. Yeah. I mean, not to, you know, have myself on the back is really I'm just paying homage to John Hughes. It's amazing, like, direction of that moment and the use of that, of that song.

God. At the end of the movie, anyway. Heart wrenching. Yeah. What happened was when she's having a baby, I did a very, very deep dive with John Hughes. I spent a lot of time with him and with his family and on the weekends. And, you know, in a weird way, not even really, this is just something that he kind of, in a way, kind of demanded of his, of certainty of me. I don't know about what from other people, but that's really what he wanted.

And I guess in retrospect, I realized that, you know, I was playing him. So it was a great ride along in a lot of ways. Yeah. And we made the movie. And when the movie finished, I said, hey, I knew that he was going on to planes, trains and automobiles. And I said, hey, if you got anything for me, just let me know. Right. And what happened was the studio, and in my opinion, this was like a giant fuck-up,

you know, switched the release dates. So they wanted to put planes trains out before, she was. she's having a baby. I don't think that they really liked she's having a baby because I think that it was a little, I think they felt it was a little too serious for John, you know, that it was a little too personal. Yeah. A lot of his stuff had been, you know, just bigger.

Big, right. And, you know, great, great movies. But, you know, just kind of more kind of comedic or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like a cultural moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so they put out, um, uh, uh, playing trans automobile bills before she's having a baby. So I actually did it afterwards, but it came out before. And so he called me up and he said, I got something. Can you come down to, you know, 57th Street or something like that? On a Tuesday and you're going to run up and down the street. I was like, great. I'm in.

It's the coolest. It's such a great moment. Oh, it's so good. She's having a baby. Man, I was, what was that, like the late 80s, early 90s? I guess, yeah. I'm not good with the dates. Yeah. And yeah, I really just, I just love there. There's a neighbor, this is all paraphrasing, but there was a neighbor who's, you're at a barbecue or whatever, and he's commenting about you noodling upstairs. Like, he's trying to figure out what you're doing at your desk upstairs, you're writing. And, and I just loved as someone who was becoming a comedian and a writer, I was just like, that moment of being seen as the oddball, just because you're writing. writing. It really like lingered with me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was a very personal movie to John. Yeah. And I know that the fact that it didn't perform at the box office was very painful for him. It didn't? No, no, it really didn't. Oh, wow. Of his movies, I mean, I don't know if they lost money on it, but I don't, but it was definitely not a hit. Right. And I think that that hurt because I think it was probably the most personal movie that he made. Right. Isn't that the way, though? You do something like, right? And those

things become important and people really hang with them for a long time, but maybe they just didn't score at that moment. Yeah, of course. I mean, that's the, you know, I've, I've made a few of those where, quite a few of those, where they don't really blow up when they come out. Yeah. You know, back in the age of, you know, VCRs, people kind of found them and, you know, appreciated them. How did how how mind bending was the fame of Footloose? Because then I have to imagine like you're, you know, you're doing off Broadway, you're becoming successful, you have these little, these parts. And, you know, like we're talking about like you're an artist and you're finding your way. But you also, as a kid in Philly, you want to be famous and you want to be a pop star.

And essentially that's what Footloose did, right? You were, totally. You could not, you were a pop star. It was a pop star, yeah. Yeah. I didn't like it. You didn't like it as it was happening? Well, you know, I, let's put it this way.

It wasn't, at that point in my life, the pop star thing had gone so by the wayside. Right. I was so wanted to be a quote unquote serious actor. You know, it was that New York thing that we had talked about. Yeah. And I think I was too naive. in the industry to understand that if you embrace the pop stardom, then eventually over time you can turn it into anything that you want.

How old are you when this is happening? I was 24 when I made the movie, so I was maybe about 25, I guess, when it came out. I'm not really sure. you know I I all of a sudden uh like you said there was this giant thing and yeah they're flying me you know around the world to promote it and and you know it's all just uh you know just the it yeah it boy yeah amazing and i think that i i i i wasn't comfortable with it like i it wasn't it wasn't what I was kind of looking for in some kind of way. So I think there was a period of self-sabotage.

Oh, really? You know, I resisted press opportunities. And I made choices that I thought were going to give me more edge, I guess, or something like that. Right. And then eventually, and so it was a lot of, a lot of bombs after that,

where I was, you know, the star, where they put me in, in movies where I was the star. And I wasn't making good choices. I don't think that, the other thing about me is that,

I have been somebody that, for better or for worse, has not really been good at listening to advice or mentorship or trusting that anybody around me would know better than me what some good career decisions were. And I always, from the very beginning, thought, I know exactly, I got this. You know what I mean?

That was just the way I came up or the way I was raised or something. It was like kind of a cockiness. And I really don't think that that's a very good way to go through life. I think the people that have been through things before, and you have people that advise you and you know people are understand an industry better than you do and you know right so so any kind of advice or anything that anybody was good i was like now fuck you i i you know i got this and so uh yeah and the other thing i'd say about that that level of fame is that you may want it and you may have a taste of it but you really don't know until you're actually in it

what that actually feels like. What did it feel like? Like in the moment. Yeah. Like in the beginning when it was like. Like overwhelming and, and, freaky? And a little freaky.

And now I, it's not freaky to me anymore because this is what I do. Every day I wake up and, you know, somebody says, hey, you know, you step out of your partner and six degrees, right, right, you know, can't, hey, you don't, you know, whatever, you know, it's like I don't even. Yeah. It's just, it's not freaky now. because it's my life.

It has been my life for 40 years. Right. So now it's not, it's not freaky. Now it would be freaky not to have that. So it was just, yeah, it was. I mean, it's gotta be so intense. Because I mean, what was, how famous were you before Footloose?

Not famous. Not at all. No, I mean, I'd been like, in An, I was in diner. But diner, again, another one of these movies that has a lot of love for it, but was not a hit when it came out. MGM didn't even really wanna release it last. They just kind of dumped it.

It's so weird how these things happen, isn't it? Yeah. These things are so great that, you know, and you're like, what do you mean it's a wonderful life, didn't crush when it first came out? It's like, right? I didn't even know that. Yeah. It's like these things, but if they're good pieces of work, they linger.

Yeah. So, I mean, I had experienced it. I mean, even when you're on the soaps, I mean, if you're walking around, you know, people will say, you know, hey, Tim, right? You're Tim, right? No, I'm not. I'm Kevin. No, you're Tim. You should be nicer to your mother. Right. So it's kind of like, it's small. Knock around New York kind of fame.

And then all of a sudden you're in the stratosphere. Right. And did you have like a friend or you were your brothers or like was there anybody that was like you could be like holy shit? I mean, he had to have been like some kind of fun involved. Oh, no, there was fun. No, there was definitely fun. I mean, I'm not, I'm not, you know, listen, there's two kinds of actors. Actors that want to be famous and liars. You definitely, there were parts of it that I really liked. It was, but it's also just kind of overwhelming. I mean, I flew out, this is the last time I was at the Oscars. It was in 1984 when the movie came out.

Oh, wow. I was asked to present. and you know somehow I ended up on a private plane that I'd never been on before with Liza Manelli and then Liza

wanted to go to the Oscars with me and when I was there you know as I was coming off stage as I'm coming on stage I'm standing next to Carrie Grant who's telling me not to be nervous because

Johnny Carson is he says Johnny Carson is nervous, too. Johnny Carson is the hose. And I'm coming off stage, and Liza has grabbed Sammy Davis Jr. And Sammy is, you know, clapping for me. I mean, this is the kind of, like, it was. Confusing.

Bananas. Yeah. So, so, so, so, yeah. I mean, you can try to go, well, I got this, but, no, I mean, I didn't. Yeah. It was, it was overwhelming. Yeah. But, man, so great.

I mean, it turned 40 last year. film? Yeah, yeah. Man, oh, man. So joyful. My daughter was doing it in school right before the pandemic. Oh, everyone's daughter's been doing it in school. Everybody. And it's so joyful. I mean, it's really like, they love it. All the kids just love being in it. Like, the energy of that piece is just so great. Yeah, it's cool. And also, you know, it, I mean, it's a, you know, it's a pop movie. But, you know, the themes of, like, pushing back against authority. about, you know, pushing back against religious extremism, you know, saying that you can't do things like dancing and, right.

And, you know, following your own heart. Yeah, there's a lot to it. There's good stuff there. Yeah. I saw you talking about how you didn't really know how much dancing was going to be involved. I really didn't know. I had no idea. I mean, there was a little bit of a dance audition.

Uh-huh. And I don't really remember the dance audition that much. The reason that I know about the dance audition is because I heard Rob Lowe talking about, or maybe he told me about how he probably could have gotten the park, but he tore his ACL or something during the dance audition. Really? He heard himself. During the audition?

During the audition, I think, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, I think it was during the audition. or yeah something like that but uh wow yeah so i and then you i i liked to dance i mean i'm not i was no way was i a trained dancer right there were a couple when i was in acting school they had like movement classes and then you know we had a couple of dance you know teachers as part of our acting school program sure um but i loved to go to studio 54 uh you know uh or or whatever area.

Some of the other clubs I can't even remember in the 70s. Is that where you met Liza? No, no, no, no. I'm talking about when I was a waiter. I was not hanging with them. I was not hanging with Halston. I was, you know, just kind of scraping enough

money together to get in and be able to maybe buy one beer and then just dance all night. I just love it. I love it. That's cool. And so I thought, I literally said, you know, I don't know that you'd necessarily need a choreographer. You just turn the music on.

I'll just dance around. Yeah. And the thing is, is that they, in the script, it never indicated that these were going to be big dance numbers. It really wasn't, if I remember correctly, because I read the script, you know, multiple times. times. And before we started shooting, and I was like, it just says, you know, Ren gets pissed off and dances, you know. That was it. Right. But when I landed to rehearse in, in L.A. at Paramount before we went to Utah to make the movie. Right. I pulled up and they said, they took me to a soundstage and there was an entire soundstage that was just for me to

rehearse the dancing. Oh my God. And the gymnastics and the other stuff, not just me. Also, you know, Chris Penn and the other dancers who were, you know, in the movie. Lori Singer. So, you know, I was like, oh, shit. This is a bigger deal than I thought it was. And it was hard. Yeah. I, you know. Was it a long, like weeks of that? Yeah, probably. I don't know, maybe three weeks, something like that. Jeez. Yeah. Jeez.

Yeah, and then we went out to Utah and, and, and, yeah, I, I, I worked really hard. And of course, you know, famously, I do have doubles. Sure. For a bunch of different things, there was like, there was, they would get a guy, they would get like a guy who could do a certain flip, but then the other guy couldn't do that. So, he'd get another guy who, at one point I was having such a crisis of confidence because you know, in the scene I'm wearing like, you know, pale blue, tight, very tight, jeans and a white tank top and I walk on set and I see like five guys that are all dressed

exactly like that. I'm like, Jesus, what do I, what am I here for? Are they going to send me home? Yeah, are they going to get so a stunt guy to start saying my lines now? But that's, you know, I've learned a lesson with that. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, it really, it's. Is there another one that kind of, that you really now have like, I'm glad I made that. Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, there's a, there's a bunch of them, but I can tell you that, uh, in a very small four day role, one of the things that really, uh, um, changed things for me. Because I, you know,

I was talking about how after footloose, uh, you know, I was not, hitting it out of the park. I mean, they were, you know, a lot of, a lot of movies that just didn't work and weren't performing. Right. And, you know, you're talking about New York and off-Broadway, you know,

an agent that I had at, at the time, said to me, you know, I really think you should go back to your kind of off-Broadway roots when you were playing these character parts. Uh-huh. And the first thing that she, she also represented Oliver Stone,

And the first thing that she sent me on with this new directive was a meeting with Oliver for JFK. And so I did that. And it, you know, we were talking before about how you don't really, I don't really always look at things as being real seminal kind of turning points, but this one really was. It came out and, you know, the movie did really well for stuff. So it was good to be in a hit. but also just... You were different. I was different.

Yeah. You weren't footloose anymore. I wasn't footloose anymore, exactly. And that led to a bunch of other really good gigs. And then I was able to say, okay, well, this is what I do now. I'm a character actor. I really am. I mean, I'm just, as I said, you know, I don't have a thing.

Yeah, but you do have a thing. Like, there is, like, I know what you're saying, like, it's not all that thing and it's the only note that you play, but there's enough of a thing where, like, just from the outside, if I were to read a script, it'd be like, oh, Kevin Bacon could play this. Like, I have in my head what your thing is. You know what I mean? Right. But you, but I do, I do know what you're saying.

Like, you're able to absorb yourself and go into these characters, but it's not just this thing that you do all the time. I feel super, super grateful for the fact that if I do get offered apart, yeah, that they're often really, really different from each other. So that's a, you know, that's a really hard thing to fight for in, in, in our industry. Yeah. You know, to be able to, um, play different kinds of parts is, it's not something that, that Hollywood really wants you to do. Right. Yeah, because it's not a, it's not a brand that they know they can sell. They know they can sell or that's worked before. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That other people have made money off of. Yeah. I mean, this guy that, uh,

I'm doing this, I'm in this mini-series called Sirens that's coming out, Julianne Moore and and others, Megan Fahey, and it's, like, the guy is so completely different than the bondsman. Oh, really? He's like a billionaire. Oh, really? Yes. And he's like a pot smitten. smoking billionaire, you know, who's dealing with anxiety.

And it's just, yeah. It's completely, completely different. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, you know, I've, I, it kind of dropped out of the sky pretty much right after, uh, I had wrapped the bondsman. Mm-hmm. And I was just like, this is, I got to just acknowledge, stop and acknowledge the fact that I, have this opportunity, you know, it's so, I'm just so grateful for that. Yeah. Are you, are you, are you an actor that carries the part for a while? Like, do you, you know, take,

take my work home? Yeah, you have to kind of shake it off or, uh, I was, this is what I would say is that I carry it while I'm doing it. Uh-huh. Um, a little bit. Uh-huh. You know, people don't have to call me by my character name. Yeah. But, you know, if you're, if you're fighting demons all week, you know, you're fighting some demons in your dreams or, you know, a little bit on, on the weekends or, you know, whatever it happens to be. You know, if you have to go, I mean, I guess I would say if you have to go to a dark place

again and again and again. Yeah. You know, with some roles, you know, something like, I don't know, the woodsman or murder in the first, you know, you, yeah, that definitely. gets inside you. But I am very good at the end of the shoot of kissing him goodbye. And I mean, it's funny. You know, people sometimes are known to, you know, keep props or keep wardrobe.

You know, keep things from, I'm like, I don't want anything. Yeah. I got a, I got to say goodbye to this person. And thanks for hanging out with me. but I got to go I got someplace else to go That's yeah There's a power to that I believe

Like if you were to keep These little trinkets It would linger for sure Yeah I guess Yeah I think there is that little bit Magic to that kind of stuff Yeah Yeah

We do a thing on this program Called an uncomfortable moment And You know Obviously I'm a big fan of yours And you are very funny Like you have even in Bondsman, like there's humor to your performance.

But I just want to, you know, it's weird to kind of pitch a movie star something in real time with cameras rolling. Okay. How about Kevin Bacon, the Gallagher story? I would love that. Does he have an interesting story? I don't know. I mean, aside from the fact that he's smashing fruit and stuff. He smashes fruit.

He had a brother. I'm kind of perfect for it. He had a brother that did the. did the act at the same time. Like he'd be in St. Louis and his brother would be as Gallagher doing it somewhere else. That's pretty interesting. That's interesting.

Big pot spoker. Uh-huh. There's probably something there. All right. I'm in it. Man, that's good. If I write it, you'll consider it? Yes, I definitely will.

Listen, I'll consider anything. You should know that about me. I would have to be an idiot to just shut that down right away. Yeah, right off the bat. Right off the bat. No, I'd definitely consider it. It would be pretty cool. You know, it's funny because I rarely have,

it's only been a handful of times that I've played a real person. And at that handful of times, they haven't been any, it hasn't been anybody that anybody would know. So there was, so I never had to do one. Was JFK real? Was that guy real?

Yeah, not really. He was kind of a combination of a few. of different ages. Yeah, he was kind of a combination of a few different people. Yeah. One of which Oliver sent me out one night into New Orleans to hang with this guy. Oh, really? And he gave me kind of like a tour of the, you know, various like leather bars and sex clubs of kind of underground New Orleans.

and and thankfully Gary Oldman agreed to come along with me. You weren't alone. I wasn't alone, no. Jeez. But no, so I've, you know, I, the guy in, uh, Apollo 13, obviously, Jacks Weiger, right. Right. But there's very little to see of him, you know what I mean?

In order to, you know, and, and, and, and, um, yeah, I came from think of another one right now. Right. But, but, but, but, but, yeah. It's, rarely have I, you know, done anybody. Like, yeah, it's a real thing. This is just a funny little side story. I was hosting the other night, the CAS Awards. It's the Sound Awards for all the films of the year.

And, you know, I'm just, I'm hosting it. I'm just bringing these people up for Dune and whatever. And I'm, I have my little notes just so I don't screw up the names, like on this table backstage. And I'm sitting there and I'm just looking at them. And I hear someone behind me. and just kind of cranky. Like the stage manager's like,

so do you, you're going to go up in a go, what? You're going to go up in just a couple of minutes. She's like, do you have anything that, like prepared remarks that you're, eh,

I'm going to talk. I don't know. I'm like, this guy is not pleased. Who is this guy? And I turn around, it's Oliver Stone. Oh,

amazing. Yeah. Yeah, he can get cranky here. Yeah. It was so like, you know, that force. A guy, Tim Maitland, I think his name was.

He was the sound guy that was winning this lifetime achievement and did JFK and the doors and a bunch of stuff with Oliver. Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's... Some of those guys are just like, some of those directors are just like a force of nature, right? They just, they're going to make

these things, even if they're big and complex, they're just going to do it. Yeah. It's a weird. It's a, those people are, seem to be built differently. Directors.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's like you, you have to be, you know, you have to kind of be one of those people that is,

you know, inherently ready to lead, you know, in some kind of way. Right. You can lead, you know, you can be a gentle leader or you can,

you can be a tyrant. Uh-huh. You know, just like life and countries and whatever, you know. Sure, there are, there have been some really big personalities. Paul Verhoeven did a movie I did call Hollow Man, and he was a giant personality. I mean, he just was like a mad scientist. Really? And, you know, a lot of yelling and jumping around and just, it was nuts.

It was nuts. Yeah, it was nuts. I don't see you being that kind of director. I'm not. I'm not really. I mean, I feel like, first off, I look, I look a lot to Clint and Clint's style, which is calm and respectful of the crew and efficient, you know, like not wasting time on a bunch of stuff. And I also feel really strongly that if it's a same.

set where I am either directing or, you know, number one of the call sheet, I'm going to want it to feel good and feel safe. I don't really, you know, love the idea of getting into situations where people are stressed or feel unsafe. Yeah. You know, it's going to be tiring. There's no doubt about it. It's always going to be tired, but I don't want people getting into accidents if they're driving home or, you know what I mean? It's like, or, or, I don't know. Yeah. Like when you see those stories of like Hitchcock when he would completely torture the lead actress to get her to that state. You don't need to do that. She's, she's an actress. She could fake it. I totally, I totally, agree. You don't need to, you don't need to torture actors. I don't, you know, and, you know, you'll

he'll directors talk about and then I did the craziest thing. I went and the movie and you're like, you know, it's like, it's like it's human beings. Yeah, they're human beings. You know, you can, you can, you can, you can make a great movie and get great performances without like, like, making people terrified or traumatized by the experience. Right. So you've got to run around and do some press, I guess is it's April when the bondsman comes out. Yeah, we'll be doing some stuff. Doing some stuff. And what else are you making at the moment?

Right now, I am just, I've got shows with the band. Nice. Are you touring? Yeah, we got some dates coming up. Also, I made, well, for the bondsman, you know, speaking to the band, it's the first time pretty much that I've combined my interest in, music with an acting gig.

Because generally sometimes people will offer me parts to play musicians and stuff and I'm like, I'm happy to do it, but it's not, I don't want to take something because I get a chance to play.

You know what I'm saying? I kind of keep them pretty much separately. In the bondsman, in the case of the bondsman, the character is an ex-musician. He's kind of given up, on it and he had a band with his wife, Jennifer Nettles,

plays Marianne Dice in the movie, in the show. And so I was like, you know, this is an opportunity to write some songs. So not only did I write songs, I wrote songs with Jennifer. And two of them are in the show. And then an arrangement that, she came up with of a traditional song

is also in the show and so we were talking and she said you know maybe we should do a CD or an EP of songs that were from the show but also inspired by the Boston because when I was down there

you know I generally write from my own point of view perspective but it's fun sometimes in this case to write from the character's point of view. Right. So I wrote a few other songs, and she also wrote one, and we wrote some together.

And so it's all songs that are really from the point of view of Hubb Hallor and Marianne. Oh, really? Yeah. So there are songs that are inspired. Yeah. So we just finished recording that, and we're going to release that. Oh, very cool. That's kind of like a, you know, in combination with the show dropping.

That's going to be a weird thing. It's almost... it's almost, I guess it's closer to script writing than it is to songwriting, right? Because you're writing for another character. Like the other thing is kind of an autobiographical. Yeah. It doesn't feel like script writing. I mean, a song is so specific.

You know, it's got a verse and a chorus and a chorus and a bridge and it's under three minutes. And, you know, under four minutes. And it's, you know, it's, I mean, I guess it's, I guess I would say it's a little bit more, like, not so much like scriptwriting, a little bit more like character research in a way. You know, because you're, if the guy was, like, a few of the songs I wrote, I thought of what would be going on in their relationship that was, say, 15 years ago.

Okay? Right. So like when they're first going out together. or when they're first breaking up or whatever that moment was. Like that's the type of kind of backstory work that I would do anyway. So then to take that another step and say, well, I am playing a musician. So let me think about what my character's backstory,

what would be coming out of him at that moment. And the other piece of it is that you're also writing in a specific genre. musical genre that has certain amount of like rules right because it's they're country singers and a specific and a specific kind of country music right and so like adding all those kind of elements to it is just it's just a fun way you know because you can you can write you know all the time or some people write from a hook or some people write from you know only personal stuff but but if you're given like a set of of criteria

right yeah yeah it's got to be contrary it's got to be from Hupp's point of view it's got to you know what I mean it just becomes like a fun challenge yeah yeah it's got it's got to how deep into the project did you start coming up with it because we wrote one

we were we were let's say we wrote we wrote one before we started shooting oh that's cool it was rejected okay But you're doing the, but you're mining this stuff. Yes. And then I think maybe the rest of them were while we were down in Georgia.

And, you know, I would. They stopped rejecting them. Yeah. Yeah. They're rejected a few, but it's okay. I mean, listen, I get it. You know, the songs are cool. It doesn't matter.

I mean, you know, but my brother and I have written countless songs for movies of mine that have just gotten rejected one after another. Right. And one that we actually still do in the show. And it's a cool song. It's called Beneath Perfection. And we wrote it for a movie that I was in called Beneath Perfection. And then they changed the title of the movie to Tremors.

Ah, no way. Really? Yeah. That far back? Yeah. And we still play the song. It's a fun time. We kind of re-imagined it.

You know, I wrote it as kind of like a fokey thing. We imagined it more as a rocker. Yeah. Beneath. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, because the top.

Your brother sounds like John Hyatt. Uh-huh. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's got that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I didn't realize the band had been going all that time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool.

Yeah, we've done probably, I don't know, 11 records or something like that. Amazing. All original stuff. Amazing. Do you like touring with it? I do. I like the, I always like the gig. Uh-huh.

The touring has lost its shine a little bit as you get older, you know what I mean? It's like when you first, you know, go on the road and you're like, oh, I'm on the road. And so now we mostly do kind of like weekend warrior type runs. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we'll go out and do three, four days on a weekend. But the getting there, the sitting around the, you know, lousy hotels, the food, the sound checks, the weight in between the sound check and the show, these are all things that, you know, you can listen to classic rock and they'll talk about how hard it is, you know. And it is.

It can be kind of a drag. But the show is always. fun. Like, I really, really like. And every time I finish a show, I kind of go, oh, right. That's, that's it. That's, that's what's fun. Yeah. No, it's cool. Man, it's a pretty good career there, kid. I'm doing what I can with what I've got. And looking for the next one, you know? I mean, I, I, uh, yeah. It really is very cool. And it, I have to say, I mean, like you said, you didn't, you don't plan it out. it just kind of, it happens and you do the thing, but it is from my little perspective from growing up in New Jersey and seeing what New York actors would do and what that story would be

of waiting tables and then getting your breaks and then being it still in the craft. And it's, uh, you did it. You're a legit movie star. It's got to be pretty, pretty cool. I'm always happy just to have a gig, to have any gig, believe me. It's, uh, and the, and that, and that's just the beginning of the things that I have gratitude for. I mean, you know, I've got a, you know, DeKira and the kids and the rest of my family, you know, I'm, I'm a very, very lucky guy. And I, you know, I'm healthy and, you know, I can still remember some lines. Yeah, when did you get to the part where you start putting the ear thing in? I haven't gotten there yet.

Yeah. I'm not there yet. I've actually, but I have thought to myself, that's got to be so difficult. Yeah. Right? I mean, to be hearing it and then the other actors talk, I can't imagine it, but people make it work. Yeah. Some great actors make it work.

Yeah. It's got to be weird. Well, I really, truly, this was really a treat. This was really great to meet you. Thank you for the baked goods. Yeah, I know. Well, when I, when you come out to L.A., I'll bring you real bread. All right.

And now I'm kind of in competition with your friend who I've never met. John, yeah. He's coming for dinner tonight, but I don't think he's going to bring any break because he lives in L.A. Maybe he will. I don't know. Maybe he put some in his suitcase. I think it's actually kind of a little bit of an albatross for him now because

everybody kind of expects it. It's me too. Really? Yeah. I was on a flight coming from L.A. in the flight attendant came over. and he was like Tom and he recognizes me

from comedy or whatever he's like I just want to apologize for the bread on this flight these are not croissants they call them croissants but it is not and I cannot stand by it Oh that's so funny More people know me for bread now

That's funny That's good Good on you man Yeah no it's pretty cool So thanks again And I'll get to work on The Gallagher story Yes please

And if you have any parts In your family thing you know, I can check my avails. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, God. All right, thanks, man.

We got it, kid.