Happy Sad Confused - Chris Messina

Episode Date: April 21, 2014

On the eve of the premiere of his directing debut, “Alex of Venice,” at the Tribeca Film Festival, Chris Messina pays Josh a visit to talk about his impressive dance moves, acting, and of course, “The Mindy Project.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please play responsibly. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Happy Sad Confused. I'm Josh Harrow, it's your listening to my very own podcast. Thanks for tuning in. This is another episode I'm really excited about. We're in the middle of the Tribeca Film Festival here in New York City, which is always awesome because New York is my hometown. I like New York.

I like film festivals. I like cool actors. So why not let all three merge for a couple weeks in the middle of April? And that's what's happening right now As I record this is the first weekend of Tribeca The last episode If you guys didn't catch it was with Patrick Stewart If you have not listened to that

Please do because that dude is the coolest man on the planet And it's a really fun podcast But this one is awesome too And I know there's so many fans of this guy out there And that's partially why I booked him And another reason is I'm just a fan as well Chris Messina is an actor Who you might know by name

You might not If you watch the Mindy Project, you definitely know him. He's a significant part of that. He is the male lead on that show. I feel like every woman in my life is in love with Christmasina. And I get it. He's a good-looking dude. He's a nice guy.

What you see is what you get. He's a smart dude. And he's been knocking around film and TV for years now. And I was just really thrilled to bring him into the studio over at MTV into my office to chat about his directing debut. It's a movie called Alex Venice. It's screening at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. I'm sure it's going to get picked up and it's going to be available somewhere in a theater or on demand because it's a good piece of work.

And he's in the film with a great cast that we talk about in this podcast, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who's always awesome, Don Johnson and many more people. Chris is just a cool guy. You'll get that vibe right off from the bat. We talk about a lot of his career, his background. He's a New Yorker like myself. And just, you'll get a sense of his sense of humor, and I think you'll really enjoy this. I certainly did.

So without any further ado, here he is. Chris Messina, as always, hit me up on Twitter, Joshua Horowitz. Watch all of our interviews on MTVNews.com. My after-hour stuff is over on afterhours.mtv.com. If you want to see the lighter, sillier side of me. But for now, here is our latest edition of Happy Say I Confused with Chris Messina. Whether you know it or not, Chris, you were in the middle of the podcast already. Okay, that's fine.

It's happening. Thanks, man. That's great to be here. Looking around this office, it's so many cool things you have. It's a lot of sensory input. I want you to just, you know, absorb and take it all in. I like it. I like this one of Ruffalo and is that Cooper there?

This is Ruffalo and who is, oh, Robert Dine Jr. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's not a flattering look through either of them. No. It's a face mashup. And who is that Bradley Cooper? This is Brad the Cooper, and can you figure out who this is?

This is a lovely young actress that has won an Oscar recently. Oh, that's him and Jennifer Lawrence. Yeah, so this was, when we were announcing movie award nominations a couple years ago, this was like a silly game we were playing to, like, see if you could figure out who the nominees were based on these face matchups. Is Will Ferrell match-fits to me? Yep, that's Galvanakis. Oh, my God.

Horrifying. That's amazing. One day your face will be masked up with an actor on my wall, Chris. If I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky. I was saying congrats. Obviously, we're in New York right now. Tribeca Film Festival has just started as we tape this,

and you're a big part of it. Your directorial debut, so congratulations. Thanks, man. I appreciate. It's nice to be here. I've been here. We talked, I think, once here or twice here for other... I was here with this movie Fairhaven. Yep.

And Monogamy. I think we talked with Rashida. Yeah. And then, and Giant Mechanical Man with Janet Fisher. So it's nice, you know, it's an honor to be back as a director. It's so cool. I mean, is this something. that that has been on the list

for a while to direct a feature? Yeah, I felt, you know, I directed when I was living in New York, I directed a lot of really off-off, Broadway Black Box Theater productions, and I always wanted to do a movie. I kind of been telling my friends and family

how good of a director I would be for years, you know, as you watch movies and go, why do they do that? Why did they cut to that? Why did they use that actor? I don't understand. why is there so much cutting and then when it's your turn to do it you're like oh shit

I've talked such a big game and now now I'm nervous as hell and I'm making all these mistakes well you're nervous on set because that's the one place I would feel like you wouldn't be like you know that space yeah I know I wasn't nervous I was nervous I was nervous while

prepping it because it's like a especially for these small movies I'm not sure what it would feel like to do a big big one but for the small one 21 days it's like a train that takes off and you and you you can't slow it down right it's like a bullet train but and there were a few times on set that I was I was nervous as we had the move so quickly did we get everything we needed right and then when I was in editing I became extremely nervous because that was my footage now and although some of it was fantastic and

and the performances are great and I was really proud of it There were also things that I totally screwed up and now had the fix. Right. So I guess had I not talked so much shit about being such a great director before I had done it, I wouldn't have been maybe as nervous. But it was an amazing experience. The movie we should mention is Alex of Venice, and you've got this awesome cast that I want to talk about too

because anyone that's seen Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who's had this great career going, where she, you know, like yourself, has, like, kind of dabbled in different kinds of movies, and, frankly, the best work she's done has been in the independent realm. Yeah, smashed. She's amazing.

That's how I found her, yeah, smashed. And she's great in this one, too. You mentioned, though, like, it's interesting, because I noticed when I was watching the movie, like you start with some rather long takes, too, some, like some extended shots. Like, it's not a very cutty movie. You're kind of letting the scenes play out,

and I would think that comes from an actor's point of view, too, where you probably, I would guess, you enjoy scenes where you can let it breathe and actually react, etc. It's funny because as an actor as an actor, I get scared of those kind of scenes

because you sometimes feel like because you're not going to get, you might not get a chance at a close-up or a bunch of takes that you have to do it right, which there is never any right.

or wrong but you want to be good and so sometimes as an actor like a lot of times on the newsroom we'll do these walk and talks and all this dialogue and you know they might not cover it and so you start to sweat and get nervous and you don't want to be the one to screw it up exactly but as a viewer as an audience member I really enjoy when I don't see a lot of cutting because as soon as it starts cutting all around I become aware of all the tricks and all the kind of the director trying to hide things or, you know, or just the filmmaking. Yeah, you can lose yourself more in, like,

a scene that just goes on, it's two people talking, and you're not as aware of the camera and the cutting and music, et cetera. It's, you know, some of my favorite films, like, you know, a lot of Woody Allen stuff or whatever, it's just, the camera just keeps following the people, and he doesn't cut. I kind of get a kick out of watching films with people, and they haven't cut yet, you know, they haven't cut yet. but so anyway yeah I tried to I tried to do that at times I was really happy that I did that

and at times again in the editing room that's what you got right you know so we're give me a little background first because I mean as you said we've talked a few times but never really frankly at the length we're doing today and that's part of what's fun about this podcast is I get to actually get to know the people I've been talking to for years so did you grow up in in New York are you a New Yorker in the city or where are you Long Island North Port, Long Island. I grew up there, I went to, my mom was a dance teacher. And so in the third grade, I started taking dancing class,

and I was very, I was very into it. I wanted to become Boryshnikov. I was super, super into it. I got beat up most of, throughout junior high, I think, very much, because the kids didn't quite understand that I wore tights and ballet shoes. Was that something that you were considering? considering really making a go of it? Yeah, I really wanted to.

I knew that I couldn't do it from Long Island, although there was a great dance school that I had gone to there. I would come on the weekends and take classes here in the city with some real master teachers. And I wanted to go to LaGuardia High School and be in fame. Sure. You wanted to live forever. Yes, exactly.

And my parents denied me. that and at the time I was like you know, why are you doing you're ruining my life? You don't know what you're doing! Yeah, as I like burned my ballet shoes in front of them and where and so I stayed in my town and went

to Northport High School where I discovered this class called Living Theater was an English elective by this great teacher, John Gavilluck, and he kind of changed my life. We would do these improv shows in a black box theater,

in our high school sex drugs and rock and roll it was cool to be an actor i i did very very bad in school so this was a place that um kind of gave me a home yeah um girls for the first time were interested in me uh you know whatever the football players were like hey man nice nice job that was it was good and so i i started to kind of have an identity through through these kind of improvs that we were doing. I went to Mary Mount Manhattan College here in Manhattan for a semester. I dropped out and then really

I just found my way to a bunch of different acting, schools and classes and started doing plays. Really did tons and tons of theater here. I actually did a play. I see Jessica Chastain and you're all the last play I did which was unfortunately

about eight years ago was with Jessica Chastain and Michelle Williams at Williamstown. We did the Cherry Orchard, which is in my movie. That's right, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's when you, when you worked with Chastain, could everybody sense that this was somebody that had...

She was amazing, but she was right out of Juilliard. I mean, I think it was one of her first gigs out of Juilliard, and she was incredible. I remember walking to the first day of rehearsal, and I don't know if you've ever been up to Williamstown to that festival. It's gorgeous grounds, and, you know, you kind of walking on this path, to a little like barn like rehearsal and I remember seeing her and thinking how gorgeous she was and and then we got to the table read and we read and she was ready to do the role that

day yeah I remember thinking that she was my scene partner my character was Drafimov and I was in love with Anya played by Jessica so it was a magical summer in the play had a major effect I mean, therefore, made it into the film. That's some of the most pointed stuff in the film, frankly, is Don Johnson is in your film and plays an actor who is past his prime, and you see him sort of like in some really heartbreaking audition scenes. That's got to, I mean, I know you didn't write the film,

but it's got to also come out of your own experiences just going through that process. It feels like those scenes in particular felt really true. Thank you for saying it. Yeah, it's funny. had the cherry orchard and theater and an actor in the movie

definitely gave me it definitely grounded me because it was always something I understood and knew about and knew how we should tackle it and handle it. I was afraid when the Jessica Goldberg who really

cracked that character who were a couple writers on the film and she she's the one that invented Roger and said he should be an actor and then we talked about him doing auditioning for a play and then having it be the cherry worship but I was worried because sometimes actors in films it pulls me out of the movie

and I'm being an actor I want to get away from this world and go into the real world and play real people right so I kept on maybe he's a musician maybe he's something else but I'm really happy we kept him an actor

And those days on set where we were doing his stuff is where I felt the most at home. Yeah. We should mention the cast. I mean, I already mentioned Mary Elizabeth once that you're obviously in it as well. I don't know what it says about you that you've cast yourself as this kind of. Narcissistic and, yeah. You know how we describe it. He's in it, then he's out of it.

He comes back a little bit. Oh, yeah, the most dependable guy. Yeah, when I was, Lynette Howell and Jamie Patrickoff gave me the script and they said, do you want to play this role and direct this film? At that time when they gave me the script, it was a lot of characters, and it was really, it was about Venice and a bunch of people in Venice, California. And what was interesting to me was this family.

So we, Katie and Justin, the writers, we kind of dug it apart and took it apart and looked at what was really important, and the family we concentrated it on. At that point, the movie could have been about, character could have been about our son Dakota it could have been and it really moved to be Alex's story which is played by Mary Elizabeth but I was on the fence about doing it because I wanted to I wanted to concentrate on being a director I knew

that it would be difficult I also didn't want people to think that I was directing to to act right and but I want to keep directing and at some point I like to direct myself in a bigger role. So I wanted to dip my toe and feel it out. I was lucky enough to work with Ben Affleck on Argo and watch him do that in such a big way. And that was really inspiring to me and I learned a lot from it. So there was one point maybe two or three weeks out of going into a shooting where I was like maybe I should cast somebody else, you know, but I hung in there and I'm glad I did because

it was a, it was a, it's a very unique experience to direct and act and kind of jump back and forth. I know a lot of people do it, but, um, but it's, it's different, you know. What I did, which I'm, um, I'm really, um, I'm proud that I did it and I think I'd do it again. Because it was such a, um, a fast film and we didn't have playback, you know, Affleck could, he could, we would do a take for Argo and then a lot of times, not every take, but a lot of times he could go back to the monitor, or play it back, and he would watch it, and he's such a smart guy, and he'd be like, oh, I need to do this or do that differently. And he'd give us direction, we'd go back and do it,

and then we'd shoot, and then we'd go back again and look at play it. We didn't have that luxury, so sometimes people would tape it on their iPhone. But I also had a good friend of mine as a great actor that I've known for years, Matt Del Negron. He took 21 days out of his life. He's also, he plays Derek Luke's lawyer, Frank, in the movie and small part that he did me a favor, but he was my director, so when I was

on screen, he was directing me, and I trust him very much, and if you showed up that day on set, you would go Matt Del Negris directing the movie, so he really saved my ass, yeah. It's curious that, again, like, given your background, like this is a film that has a very specific setting, obviously, Venice, California,

you're, I identify you with New York, maybe because I've just talked to you here a bunch of them, because you grew up in the area, you also, you know, obviously worked with Nora a couple of times. You got a chance to work with Woody. I mean, are those particular moments when you got to work with, like, those two iconic filmmakers and so identified with New York particularly special, given your background? Yeah, yeah, it's those times where, and it sounds corny when you're like, you know,

pinch me, how did I end up here? You know, you're in Barcelona with Woody Allen or, you know, you know, you're in Barcelona, You know, we were, it's Silver Cup with Nora and Stanley and Merrill and Amy. And you feel very, you know, you feel lucky. I barely finished high school and I was constantly in trouble and I dropped out of college. And there were so many times as an actor where I didn't think I would ever work again. Those times might happen again. But I certainly remember them very clearly wondering what else could I do.

So when you're lucky enough to be on those sets with those people, yeah, you cherish it. And the great thing about those things is you carry them, I'm sure all the actors here that you've talked to along the years will have said something of the sort to you. They inform everything you do. and so those filmmakers were with me every day on Alex of Venice which was an amazing thing you know you're also in New York doing double duty

you've been shooting the finale of Mindy project yesterday Mindy and I which was fun because we're always we shoot on Universal and we're on the back lot a lot and we have fake New York City which they do a great job of making it look as real as they can but it was really special to be here yesterday and we all we you know there's nothing

like filming in new york the energy is incredible but we also film in a bubble so it was nice to be shooting on the street and have people go hey we like the show i watch the show and and and have people come up to mindy and and and tell her you know what what she means to them and and that kind of stuff because because we're in a bubble what you know i don't and i don't read i stopped reading a lot of the stuff because, as you know, you read something nice and you feel really good and two seconds later you read something terrible. Not necessarily about, yeah, Mindy

but about me and my acting or whatever and then you can't ever forget how bad that person thought you were. You should read some stuff though because particularly thanks to, I mean, your career's always been great but there's something weird about like a sitcom in particular and something like what Mindy does and as you know

people graft onto like romantic relationships on and off relationships and um and and people really dig your character and like that's nice you mentioned the the dancing uh background that strikes me that has mom and the dance teachers that they weigh in on your dancing last year on the show because that got a lot of attention that was fun yeah i was one of the things where you regret that you said that to the writer's room like you know what else can you do chris i was like well i dance a little And then they used it. And when I read it in the script, I was, oh, shit, I'm going to have to do this now. And then you realize that.

You've become a meme. Do you know that? You've made us. And I said, and then, but it's such a gift that Mindy and the rest of the writers give you when a character, you know, choreographs a dance for someone he loves is a very fresh, unique take on a romantic gift. So it was a real treat. No, my, yeah, my mom was very proud that I danced and, yeah, it's fun to dance. I still, I don't do it anymore. I always think about maybe one day we could sit here and talk about it if I ever get to make it.

But I always think about, and not that I feel like I can dance like him, but I always would love to make a, like a small biopic, a slice of life, just one moment in Gene Kelly's life and try to emulate some of those. dance moods. That'd be amazing. Yeah. That's crazy. Is the, have you enjoyed sort of the arc of that relationship on the show and kind of like I've heard you reference like back when I was a kid where some were comparable ages, you know, cheers and Sam and Diane was like the one, or moonlighting

I remember. Yeah. Those relationships were you kind of like were rooting for them but you didn't want them to get together you weren't sure. Yeah. I've enjoyed it. You know, I've learned a lot. The first season was, I think, hard for me because you know, and I've said this, in other interviews, and I've said it to Mindy, I had Al Pacino on my wall.

I worship the films of the 70s. And if you told me, you know, just a couple years ago that you'll be on a Fox sitcom. I wouldn't believe it. And not because I ever thought I was better than that, but I didn't think I had that skill. It wasn't something I honed. It wasn't something I even watched as a kid, really.

Sure. So the first season I was, like, scared you know and and felt like I had landed on Mars and then I started to really appreciate comedy and how hard it is and and I really started to appreciate you know everybody's writing and and that the fact that you get to take a character over this long period of time right all these things started to mean something more to me and I started to feel more comfortable there and so I really enjoyed it you know as a fundamentally it's really nice as an actor to have a job

right and to go to work like a human being right because most of us just don't know where the next job's going to be so to go to work every day with a group of people that you really care about to know the sound guys and what's going on in their life and and and feel comfortable around them and it's a home away from home that's really something special. Yeah. And then to be around a group of really intelligent, funny writers and actors who have taught me a lot about comedy,

again, talking about Nora and Woody and taking these things. I took that on to Alex of Venice, and I'll take that on for the rest of my career. I'll always remember what Mindy Kaling and those guys taught me, you know. Is there a short list of whether it's the other New York filmmaking icons, like I think of, you know, Scorsese and Spike, and, like, that you're trying to,

that you've come close to working with either of those guys or others? I auditioned for Scuris. The addition for him, for the departed. I got in the room with him. He was lovely. Obviously, I didn't get the role. That was the closest I've come to him. Yeah, I mean, he's a dream of mine.

Him, Coppola, I was lucky to do a reading of Coppola's new movie, and right before I shot Alex at Venice, and most of my meeting with him before he put me in the reading was questions about directing. And he's amazing. He's amazing. And he's like, he's like a, I like Scorsese, a teacher. So he was, once I started asking him questions, he wasn't like, get the fuck out of my office.

He was very much into helping me. And he told me to do silent takes, which I did. He said, that's been sense on that in recent films. Yeah, so explain that what that is. Well, I don't know if I was doing it the way they wanted me to do it or the way they do it. But what I did is we would do the scene. And then, and I had said before we started the actors, I heard this thing from Coppola and I want to do it. And it was silent takes where he said a lot of times the, a lot of times it's not the performances, but it's the writing sometimes when you're in editing and you crave more silences and you're looking for reaction shots or something to cut to, just a look.

Sure. So do the scene in silent. so it would be me and you a camera on you and a camera on me and we just be silent with each other sometimes it would lead to absolutely nothing boredom sometimes it would lead to like uncomfortable laughter

or sometimes an actor would be moved and something would happen and a lot of times I used that in the film so I was really lucky to get that tidbit but he's definitely one Scorsese Paul Thomas Anderson is always somebody

I got him to come see monogamy and I've never heard from him again so I'm not sure if he's a good okay I'll take that he's a busy guy but I love him and his work and there's so many I have Spike Jones

is so incredible and you know there's a lot of I just I love I'm such a I'm more of a fan I think than any of this stuff really you know

I'm pretty and this isn't to look for a compliment anyway but I feel sometimes I'm good sometimes I'm okay but most times I'm just really excited to be there

and for me to work you know I worked with Sam Mendes I worked with Nora I worked with Woody I was with you know David Gordon Green and Noah Baumbach and just to be on those sets

even sometimes for two or three days not much time not big roles just fun to see how everybody works absolutely well it's funny because it's like comparable like obviously we have much different kind of jobs but people always ask me about you know I'm in a very privileged position where I get to talk to you get to work with the people that you grew up admiring I get to talk to them and work with them in a sense and and people ask me about like you know keeping it cool or getting nervous and and I kind of always say I do get nervous but I don't

want to lose the nervousness I want to still have that kind of like that the reason why I'm doing this in the first place is I love this stuff but it's interesting from your perspective because I would think you also need to let it go because at the end that you need to like work with them as equals you can't like yeah that was interesting with bechino with bechino because I was you know there's a scene in the movie where we're going toe to toe arguing and screaming at each other and yeah it's hard you know it's hard to turn from like tell me about the godfather to I hate you dad right you know so yeah there there is there is something that you have to I don't know what it is or exactly how to do it but

there is something that you have to go. He's an actor. I'm an actor. We're going to just struggle to figure this scene out and to let it go. And then every now and then, literally doing that scene with him, every now and then, hopefully mostly on his coverage, where I was like, holy shit, he's so fucking good. Look at him, man.

I can't believe I'm doing a scene about it. In my other side of the brain, like, shut up and get in the scene. Right. But, yeah, it's fun. It's fun. You know. You don't want to let go of like the love of it and just enjoying the moment. Yeah.

Like you're going to, you know, 20 years later, think back why don't I just soak that up a little more? Yeah. Yeah, I was even nervous. I was nervous with Don. You know, I grew up watching Miami Vice. And he was, I had to really convince him to do the film. And he's had a lot of experience. And he's a great actor.

And I think he's fantastic in the film. And he really lets himself be really vulnerable and stuff. but I had to really convince him to do it. Yeah. I think he's undervalued as an actor because, I mean, he's popped up in different roles in recent years, and you think of him, you know, and then he did, like, the Nash Bridges thing,

which is its own, whatever it was. But he always, there's something really authentic and true about what he brings to. Yeah, he works, you know, he works very hard on the film. He was very dedicated, and, you know, I think it was a very different experience for him being so low budget and being so fast,

that and he brought a lot to it and a lot of care yeah a lot of care yeah what so what is the I mean you talk about the lifestyle right now being it's a nice luxury non-paying people get to be in a in a show that's as beloved right now as many project then you obviously finding time to work in other films and direct your own stuff but like is there an ideal kind of lifestyle like five or ten years like from now yeah like I mean are you hoping that directing has progressed then and you're kind of like routinized it yeah years I mean I hope that we could sit down a couple of years from now and although like I'm leaving here we shot Mindy we're going to do a bunch of press for the film screen the film and then I go back and shoot on newsroom and all that is tremendous but

I do feel and I feel extremely lucky so I hope you don't take this as complaining it's more I do feel like it would be nice in the future to to have the work just have it not completely overlap each other because it's exhausting that you kind of keep switching your mind around so you know you're one thing when you're talking about the film or one thing when you're getting ready to you know shoot the film in an entirely different headset when you're getting ready to prepare for newsrooms you know and then Mindy and it's all great exercises they're different muscles but the overlap is a bit exhausting and I do I do uh think that everything kind of suffers when they're all on top of each other.

So I hope that I could sit down with you, I don't know, five years from now, and have the work be there, but have the time to refill the well. Totally. And I hope as a director that I could, I hope people would still let me direct after this and that I can, you know, direct myself in bigger parts and try to, I think it would be really challenging that, you know, I have a couple ideas for things. films where they would be just alone they would have been hard as an actor and then it'd be nice to also take on the challenge of then directing myself doing that so and maybe I'll be sitting

here telling you that was a really dumb idea but but but I'd like to do that I'd like to have a company where where I um direct a bunch of stuff and and and you know I think Affleck's got a he's got I I mean, it's amazing. That's, like, the high end of, like, what that model is. It's a real high end of it. I mean, that would be, you know, the ultimate. I mean, he's got these great movies that he's getting ready and, you know, working on to direct and getting the work with Fincher and Terrence Malick. I know.

I think it's to be Batman, too. Yeah, I think it gets to be Batman and kicks him ass. So, you know, that's, you know, definitely a role model. In our remaining minutes, we always end with a few random questions from a very sketchy. Indiana Jones hat. Okay. You want to take your hand in and take it? I love this. I really love being here.

Thanks, buddy. You're great at what you do. Go on. Oh, then worst nightmare I ever had was... Do you have me recurring or is there one in particular? The worst nightmare I ever had came true. Is it the actor's nightmare where you don't know any of your lines? And just last season on the newsroom, that actually came true.

I was prepping the film. I had just finished the Mindy Project. I asked the newsroom when they asked me to do the finale. Yes, but write me light. Yes, they said, and about three days out, I was in a helicopter getting some shots of California with my DP, and a new script came in. And I had a huge speech in the bullpen to the entire cast.

And I swear to God, with no exaggeration, for about 50 takes I couldn't get my lines So what are you saying Are you just apologizing profusely to everybody? Sweating apologizing The hair and makeup is At some point

They remind me It's broadcast news It's that sledding things Exactly I am a pile of water They're rubbing calming Like hand stuff

You know Moistrate around my hands They're blowing in your ear It's okay Yeah Jane Fonda kept looking at me And going I fucking love you

I fucking love you. And I kept apologizing, and Sam Worson said the greatest thing, he's like, this is what the work looks like. Nice. And it caught me down for about two or three seconds, and then I went back to sweating. But it was, so my worst nightmare came true. At least it's done. Yeah.

At least you can't, you know, one or two more? Yeah, please. Okay. The sweat just blended with the tears. Yes, exactly. The last gross thing I ate was at Lego lamb with my kids. The food was terrible. It was a plethora of bad things.

Nothing good at Legoland. So surprising. Theme parks are known for their high-quality things. Great theme park. Kids loved it. We had a lot of fun. They were very nice to us. We bought a lot of Legos.

Spent way too much money. But the food wasn't great. Movies pretty good. Did he take the kids? The movie's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I like the movie.

And they love the movie. They're super into Batman Legos right now. How can you not be? Yeah. Me too. Yeah. Oh, let's see. How about one more?

Yeah. If it's a good one. It's a bad one. And then one skip it? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.

It's a long. The next technology, technic... It's a newsroom moment. Yeah. Technological breakthrough. Technological breakthrough I want to see is... Oh, boy.

That's an interesting question for me. Are you a techie guy? Are you into... Because I am and I'm not. I'm not at all. I enjoy the... I enjoy the... I enjoy...

You know, when I'm lost, hitting my iPhone and having it escort me to where I'm going, I enjoy taking a picture and being able to change the filter with it. You're not a simple pleasure. And being like, hey, I can make myself look like a photographer right now. But I don't want to know, I don't want people to know what I'm doing, where I am. You know, a lot of the guys on my show, they all tweet. And I know that it's great because you can promote things. And they're writers, and they can tell funny jokes and all that stuff.

And I know Instagram is fun. You take a picture and say, you know, you and I are hanging out together at MTV. But I don't know. I think if anything that's going to break through right now with technology is, you know, and not to sound just. Go let it someone that Let's like to go back

In the dark ages No I would guess that I would Want it to be something That you know You know Made a cure for diseases And

You know Had people Have longer and healthier lives Wait you're saying you want Like a cure for cancer Instead of like another Instagram filter Yes yes

I would like that I got enough Instagram Whatever Chris Priorities dude Well I really do appreciate You coming by today It's always good to see I love being here

You're great at what you do, and you always make me feel comfortable, and you know so much about films and your love from films. It really does come out, so it's always a joy of your talk. Thanks, man. So, Vincent, Tribeca, catch it, and hopefully soon after in a theater you're here. Thanks, man. This message comes from BetterHelp. Can you think of a time when you didn't feel like you could be yourself, like you were hiding behind a mask? BetterHelp online therapy is convenient, flexible, and can help you learn to be your authentic self so you can stop hiding.

Because masks should be for Halloween fun, not for your emotions. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelphelp.com. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences, decades, or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia

and D.B. Cooper. And of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, killers of the flower moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge. Find Infamous America, wherever you get your podcasts.