Happy Sad Confused - Josh Duhamel

Episode Date: March 2, 2015

Josh Duhamel is an amazingly talented actor and all around great guy. Josh joins Josh to talk about the time he put on a full body gimp outfit, his new show Battle Creek, his good ol’ modeling days, battling against the likes of Ashton Kutcher, auditioning for Guardians of the Galaxy, and much more fun stuff. 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 contact ConX Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Hello there, and welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. I am Josh Harrow. It's your host for, what's my weekly podcast, my little interview show, my jamboree, where I talk to actors and filmmakers and all-around cool people. And that certainly fits the bill for this week's guest, Mr. Josh Duhmel. Josh Dumel, you know, of course, from the Transformers films, and if you were a soap fan back in the day, you probably knew him, and he has carved out a really cool eclectic career. Also happens to be married to Fergie, one of the most popular pop singers of our time. And to add insult to injury, he's, like, genetically blessed beyond belief.

He's like the best-looking dude on the planet. it. He's super nice, funny, self-deprecating, and just an all-around good dude. So if that doesn't annoy you, and believe me, it should on its surface, get over it because I did, and I have. Over the years, I've talked to Josh a bunch, and he's just a good guy. He really is. And he is super self-aware of sort of like his image to the point where a few years back, and we talk about this a little bit in the conversation, he was game enough to come on my little after-hours show for MTV and make fun of himself to such a degree that he put on a giant full-body leather gimp outfit alongside Julianne Huff to promote a movie. So if that doesn't tell you this guy

is game and awesome, I don't know what will. Beyond all that, Josh is promoting a really cool new show from Vince Gilligan. I mean, come on, guys. Creator of, of course, Breaking Bad. Vince Gilligan and David Shore, the guy that brought you house, have a new show that just premiered. It's on Sunday nights at 10 called Battle Creek. It's a cop show, but it's, as you might expect from Vince Gilligan, a little bit quirky, a little bit off, a little bit different, and definitely worth your time. As is this conversation, because Josh, as I said, is awesome.

So enjoy our conversation. We hit upon a lot of fun stuff, including his good old modeling days, battling against the likes of Ashton Coucher, auditioning for Guardians of the Galaxy, and a lot more fun stuff. As always, hit me up on Twitter. Joshua Horowitz is my Twitter handle. Go over to Wolfpop.com. Check out all the fun shows over there.

And in the meantime, enjoy this episode of Happy Second Fused with Mr. Josh Dumell. It's a Joshua Palooza, two Joshes for one price. Enjoy it. What are you doing, dude? I'm doing great, Josh. Some bad traffic today. Yeah, I miss one. I missed my first one.

I saw. I was watching. I was waiting for you. All I got was stupid Dean. It's not your fault. Is it your fault? It was totally my fault. I was sound asleep.

Stop it, really? Forgot to set my alarm, forgot to turn my phone. off silent. It happens. You're human. And I happen to wake up and just look at my phone. I saw that she's calling me. And I'm like, hey.

Where are you? I'm in bed. You were supposed to be here at 7.30. It was already like 8.15. It happens. The show doesn't need you promoting it. I don't even know why you're here. Exactly.

I mean, this has a far wider reach than CBS this morning anyway. This is true. This is true. Please, Charlie Rose can. and just go to help by all I'm concerned. Yeah. He was my first job out of college, actually. Really?

Four years. Four hard years working for Mr. Rose. Was he tough? He seems like it could be easy. No, he's not easy. Really? Yeah. No, he's okay.

He's all right. But yeah. It's good to see you, my friend. It's good to see you, too. Is that James Franco's brother in that movie with Vince Vaughn that I'm seeing? Yes. Yeah, unfinished business or something, right? Yeah, Dave.

He's just like, James a little bit. it like smaller. It's funny in those in those trailers. Dave's very funny. Have you seen the movie? No, I haven't seen the movie. I don't see movies anymore.

I'm too busy. Really? I don't believe that. I see movies. I see a lot of nice. And I saw your show, by the way. Oh, thank you. I am dedicated to this profession.

I take the shit seriously. I guess you are. Do your homework. Yeah, congrats on the show. You've got anything to put my gum in. My hand. How about, like, a card. Sure.

There you go. That's disgusting. That's a really, that's quite a color of gum for me to you. Is that your preferred flavor? What is that? It was in my bag. You just put whatever's in your bag in your mouth? That's how you roll.

Thank you for coming and thank you for coming back. This is the first time I've seen you back here at MTV since I put you in a gift costume. So clearly you have a short memory or you're just a glutton for punishment. I think it's the latter. I'm definitely a glutton for punishment. I was like, really, are we really? He's not going to make me get in that rubber suit again. You're such a good sport.

Oh, man. Anybody who says they don't have regrets in life is full of shit. I like that. I feel like we shouldn't give any context. We should just talk about it. Like, yeah. He put on a gift costume for me. Gim costume.

That's the sweet Valentine's Day. It was, what, three years ago? Yeah, two or three years ago for Safe Haven. You and Julianne. It was fun. Okay, so let's talk, let's get the business at hand out of the way because it is a good show and it's a cool pedigory you've got behind at Battle Creek. Thank you. Back on TV.

And I know part of its quality of life, Right? Part of it's also the guys behind it. Talk to me a little bit about what drew you back. I think it's both of those things. It was originally I got a call that Vince Gilligan and David Shore wanted to talk about a show. And I was like, do you guys have the right number? And so, of course, you know, you want to, Vince is, and Breaking Bad is one of my favorite shows of all time. And David Shore, I wasn't as familiar with at the time. I'd seen House, but I hadn't seen as much of it as I had Breaking Bad. Right. But, you know, just an amazingly talented writer, too. And he brought together a great staff of writers for this. And I think I'm most proud of the fact that they've found a way to kind of reinvent the police, you know, the network, network police dramas.

Which is tough. We've seen it. It feels like we've seen it all. We have. And they've been wildly successful. So I don't really, you know, blame them for continuing that same formula. But this is some of that. But it's also, it's got a tongue-in-churchable.

cheek sort of aspect to it that I really liked. And it's about the characters and it's about these sort of resourceful rag-tag, eclectic group of detectives that live in Battle Creek that have had to get by with very little for a long time. And my character comes in with all the government resources you could ever need. And so that causes friction. And before I started this show, I didn't realize what a rift there was between the government agencies and local law enforcement. Sure. Neither one of them feels like they get respect from the other. And, you know, while they work together, it's not always amicable. Isn't that funny?

Like, there's like a hierarchy in literally every profession of, like, the people that hate each other. Like, even on my side of things, it's like the guys that write for websites hate the folks that work for, like, a national media thing. And I'm sure, like, I don't know if it was hate, but I'm sure back in the soap days, there was a feeling of, like, we're at this level and those guys get to do that cooler stuff over there. It's just inherent, I think. it's like the high school mentality. It is. They don't understand the amount of work and the amount of talent that's on a soap. Yeah.

You know, because they don't, they get, nobody respects the soles. But, you know, the reality is that they're really talented people who are, who are digesting and regurgitating massive amounts of dialogue every day. And so, yeah, you're right. I think that anywhere you look, there's always that sort of friction between different sides and whatever you're doing. You see someone like Julianne Moore win the Oscar.

Do you go into like the soap actor alum chat room be like, we did it, guys? Yeah, so you see. Yeah, so I'm not big fraternity. There you go. So after, I mean, you've obviously done a few series in your career.

Like after each one are you kind of like, that's it? Like I'm like I'm kind of done. Like, I mean, was, did it, does it take some distance to say like, yeah, I want to jump in because, you know, an hour long, as you well know, an hour long,

ain't that cushy like three camera, a sitcom lifestyle. Those are long hours. Very, very long hours. And I knew that going in. And I also didn't really have any expectations of what I was going to do next. So you think my whole mantra for my career is just to what, I just want to find the best material and find people that are going to make me better.

And this was that situation. And I'm really glad that I did it. You know, I really hope that people catch on to this because it's a, it's a fun show. And, and yeah. Have you shot the first run of it or in the middle of it right now? We shot the first 13 episodes, and depending on how well it does, we'll either come back or that'll be it. Does it feel like even in the course of those 13, like you're finding, I mean, you start with a Vince Gilgan script from way back, right, which is great, source material. But do you find that like in the course of those 13, you're like, okay, we're really figuring it out by episode four or five, like what the character dynamics are, et cetera?

Yeah, the material was good from the beginning, which helps, but you still don't find your footing until episode four, five. So thank God we did have, you know, the stories were there. It was on the page. So once we as the actors really start understanding who these people are and what we can get away with and, you know, what the real vibe of the show is, it really starts to soar. So, you know, as the season goes on, I think that it just gets better and better.

I mean, do you have more or less like, I mean, do you accumulate more self-confidence as the years go by when you're like, I mean, you've you've been the guy on a TV show several times now and you've been the guy in some big movies? You were, you know, you kind of came to acting relatively late. Like, did it, did you find like there was confidence from the beginning or did it take you a while to kind of feel like I belong here, I belong with these guys on the set? No, it has taken me a long time because I didn't come about this in a traditional way, which, you know, I'm sure most would say that it was you know as a kid coming out of North Dakota I was so intimidated by everything you know it was like what I what am I doing here yeah you know I don't belong I feel like I'm pulling off the biggest scam in the history of entertainment right like these people are hiring me they don't know that I suck so you know it takes a while to sort of get over that and trust that you are good enough and you are there you you do belong yeah You know, and that's the biggest hurdle I think I had to get over was just trusting that I was good enough. So when you were a kid, is acting just, is it just not even a frame of reference?

Like, this is not even a career option for somebody where in North Dakota and women and my family? Is it just something that never even occurred to you to get into showbiz? Or was it like a secret kind of dream that you kind of have to? Well, I think it was a secret dream that you have. I think a lot of people have these, you know, these ideas of how cool would it be to be, you know, in a movie. and I remember I'd reenact some stuff that I'd seen and I'd just, you know, on my own and I'd be like, I could do that, I could do that.

And then the reality is that, you know, when you're actually sitting in that casting room going, I can't do this. I can't do this. It's so different in my bedroom. I can't stop sweating and my heart's racing so fast that I'm going to have a panic, you know, so the reality of it is that you have to just,

if you're going to do it, you've got to do it. And once I got over the fact that they weren't laughing at me when I walked out of the room that they really were wanting to hire me that's when I really got my confidence and I started to get work as trusting that you know people were rooting for me not against me was um okay so let me clarify sequence of events because we know there was modeling I know there was an aspiration to become a dentist yeah well was this simultaneous I think the modeling thing is a little bit overblown I how much do you hate when someone accepts up the modeling scale one to ten it's well it's not my it's it's not my it's it's

hey, it's part of my, it's a chapter in my life. It was a very short chapter. I think that people think that I did it for years and I was successful at it. I sucked at it, first of all. I was never comfortable doing it. And I only did it for about a year and a half. And I remember I kept hammering my agency on the commercial side to send me out for commercial auditions. I can do it.

They're like, no, no, no, that's for actors. And I just remember having like, you don't respect me at all. Right. And so I really started working. I'm not a piece of meat. You're objectifying me. But, you know, I also see it as, it was an opportunity for me to get my foot in the door. Sure.

You know, so I don't completely disregard it. It was something that, you know, helped me in some way get from point A to point B, even if it was a small step. But you did. You won some award. What was it like some kind of like... Are you talking about modeling? Yeah. So, so this is fantastic.

This is like real-life Zoolander shit. I went, I was, I had just started, I was in Sacramento, I had a girlfriend, I was working at a warehouse, and this agent introduced me to this guy who said, hey, you know what, would you like to come to New York? And I'd never been to New York. We'll sponsor you to go to compete in this IMTA, which is the international model and talent association. You don't tell me, obviously, I know what that is, Josh. Don't insult my intelligence. You've been a competitor for years. I'm in the under 5-9 category.

That's what I'm in. So I went to this thing and he's just amazed by New York City. I just remember going, wow, I just paid $8 for a bag of chips. I don't have any money left. This is awesome. And so I went to this thing and, you know, there's kids from these little agencies all over the country. You know, by kids, I mean teenagers to mid-20s. That was mid-20s at the time, who are there with their little agencies competing to try to meet agents from New York or all over the world.

And they have a competition where you do your fashion, you walk down the runway, and then you do your underwear thing. And then you do like a photo thing where you do like your own photo shoot. And it's a competition. It's like a male pageant. And as the week went on, the buzz became that it was between me, this kid, I can't remember his name. and this kid named Chris Coocher, who is now Ashton Coochard. And that was the buzz.

I was like, oh my God, I have a chance to win this thing. This is a movie. You know this is like, there's like 2,000 people here. And I'm like in the running for this. It was a buzz. It was like, oh, it was just, it was amazing. It was so excited. Because like in the early preliminary competitions, you both were doing well.

Yeah, you know, it was. You really nailed the underwear. And my underwear, I mean, on my turn, It was all about my turn at the front of the catwalk. I just really jutted my ass out there and they seemed to really respond. And so we get to the last day where they're announcing, it's like a passion, like third runner-up from Spokane, Washington, Tom Thompson, second runner-up from, you know, Knoxville, Tennessee, it's so-and-so, second runner-up, so-and-so from so-and-so. and then it's me and Ashton I'm sweating

you can imagine and they say first runner up Chris Coochard Cedar Rapids Iowa and I literally like burst into tears

and they were raising me up you got your tiara you got a t-r-a-a-the-hole thing raising me up and I just thought that this was this I was off and running I was going to be a huge star what was the prize Four years later, nothing.

Nothing. I didn't get any agencies from anywhere. Ashton, meanwhile, had gone on to do this Calvin Klein campaign. He went on to do that 70s show. Within, like, months, the guy just skyrocketed. So you must have been full of rage and resentment for the last next couple years. Yeah, and I'm still bitter. I still don't like the dude.

No, I love Ashton. He's a great guy. But, yeah, that was kind of the way it went. And, you know, all these years later, we laugh about it because we were just so into it. it was like yeah like so you were into you have to be into it otherwise you're going to hate yourself during it right like i mean you have to have some level of self-awareness but you don't want to you know i mean like i don't know you got to understand where i was coming from too i was like not that long ago working construction you know out in a field digging ditches like pulling out old

gas tanks out of the ground and replacing them and it was just a and now you're buying eight dollar picture you know i was in new york city i was like wow this is the greatest thing ever So then was it after that or before that that you were going to school for for dentistry? Well, I got my undergrad degree before I left for California. Actually, that's not entirely true because I got all the way out. I was one credit short when I left Minor State University and moved to California. And the reason for that was that if I needed to go improve my G, I had like a 3-4 and I needed to be like a 3-7 or 3-8 to even have a chance to get in. My DAT scores were good enough, which is like the MCAT.

but I needed a better and I needed like retake organic chemistry and I think another one I had to retake so I did it on purpose and the only one that I hadn't taken was this introduction to art and it wasn't until 12 years later that I did a correspondence class

that got my degree. That was important to you to go back and I put a lot of work into it. You know you take all the microbiologies and organic cams and statistics and all these classes that were just grueling I might as well finish it. Yeah, might as well get a certificate.

Yeah. So when you look at other people's teeth. Are you judging me? Are you judging people? You've got a nice set. No, you got a pretty nice set. I got a little buck teeth action. No, you don't look at me. I don't like the way you're looking at me. Just open up a little bit. Hey. Hey. Those are perfectly passable. You don't look English. Let's put it that way. Wait, does this, does this broadcast in England? No. Okay, great. Only in England. I am the toast of London. Okay. So then you have

four years of misery watching Ashton Kutcher rise through the ranks and what's the breakthrough? Is it the soap? Is that the... It was, I did a... My very first job

was just before all my children it was a... It was an adaptation of Dorian Gray's the picture of Dorian Gray. Or not Oscar Wilde's the picture of Dorian Gray. It was...

Did you say Dorian Gray's picture of Dorian Gray? Yeah. Do you wrote it? He wrote it. Yes, he wrote it. It's beautiful and he wrote it. Yeah. So it was...

that was the first thing. It was a student film that actually helped get me the job on all my children because they thought, oh my God, this guy's doing movies. Meanwhile, it was like... Barely.

Yeah, it wasn't... It was me running around in a loincloth. So once you get all my children, is it kind of quick? Like, is it immediately like you're getting attention in that world? Yeah, yeah, because I had to get...

I mean, my whole career has just been about, like, I got nothing to lose. you know, I went into that thinking, I'm not going to do any, because my mom watched soaps my whole life. And I knew, I knew what I didn't want to do. And I knew what they were going to expect of me. So I just tried to, you know, bust out of that mold as soon as I could. And they really responded to it. And they were great to me there. They started writing for the character. I ended up winning an Emmy my second year, which was, again, huge, huge. Your trophy wall is

impressive, dude. I know. Mail model of the year. year and a daytime Emmy. Do you know where they are? Are they side by side? I don't know where my male model the year of trophy is. I wish I still had it. I don't know where it went.

But that would be, that would be placed prominently. Right. Right next to my... Ashton probably broke in and stole it. Yeah. He's so resentful. He's still better,

bitter about it. So does that... That's interesting what you say, like there were certain things you didn't want to do and you knew you didn't want to play into certain kind of stereotypes, I assume.

Like, what are you talking about there that you were wearing? Well, I wanted him to be this irreverence sort of, A character where, you know, it wasn't all melodramatic. I wanted to be funny and sort of unpredictable. And the character really was for, you know, as far as I knew how to do it at the time, I was still very green, but I really sort of didn't care.

I was just going to do it because it was either this. Dental school was already water under the bridge. That wasn't happening. So I didn't know what else I was going to do. So I had to be good at this. And I still carry that same mentality today. It's like, I'm still taking classes. I'm still trying to, you know, become good enough to the point where they can never, you know, I can always work.

Well, and it strikes me. I mean, back, it's a silly way to you being willing to put on a game costume for a bit that I conjured up. Like, you do play against sort of expectations in a great way and you're willing to kind of like put yourself out there, which I think has really done you very well. Well, yeah, I don't try not to take any of this too seriously. Yeah. You know, it's, it, it, I'm very blessed to be, you know, doing what I do. And, and I have fun doing it. Yeah.

And, you know, against my publicists, better wishes, I've done some things that they probably wish I hadn't. And maybe it's hurt me along the way in some ways. But whatever, yeah. So, um, let's talk a little bit, well, the few things I want to talk about. I definitely want to talk about the Transformers movies because Michael Bay is an insane maniac in the best possible way. Was that a huge moment to kind of get into that scale of film and to even, you know, not like maybe the juiciest role, but you get to do on a little bit and you get to be in

that kind of franchise. That's a big moment. Yeah, it was a huge moment. And it was something that I didn't even realize it was going to be as big as it was. I remember when I was meeting at Michael Bay's offices with his producing partners, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. who do a lot of his other movies. And I was meeting on The Hitcher. And I remember Michael Bay stuck his head in,

and he's like, hey, I just wanted to say hi, man. And it's like, oh, hey, Michael Bay. How are you? He was using the full name. And he says, I'm just working on this movie, The Transformers, or I was like, like from the cartoon from me, that sounds awful. You said that?

Sounds awful. No, I didn't say that, but I was thinking it. And so he goes, come over. and check out what we're doing. So I went over there and he showed me some of the artwork that they were doing for it and I got it. They were completely reinventing this, this cartoon that I watched as a kid. And, you know, so a couple months after that, he brought me in to read for it and I ended up getting the part and it was a huge blessing for my career because you're right, maybe it wasn't the most juicy role, but it was still a part of a franchise. It was hugely international. And, and,

opened me up to different things. What do you learn from being on a set like that and seeing someone like that work? Because I mean, I mean, I visited the last one, the Wahlberg one, and I felt like it was a badge of honor that, like, that Michael at one point yelled at me to get out of the way of one of his shots. Like I was like, okay, yeah, he's Josh, I need you to move.

I need you to move. Come on, come on. He's so quick. He knows what he wants. He does that. Just, let's just preface it with this. He knew exactly who you were. And he knew that you would find some amusement in that.

Oh, yeah. Michael's actually a good guy. And part of that whole reputation of being a screamer is he enjoys that. And he doesn't really take things out seriously. But he loves, he's like a big kid. Yeah. He's like a big kid with a big sandbox with all the toys. And he loves to be in control of all these different toys.

And he gets to create his visions. And he's incredibly talented at it. And I just felt, you know, in those movies, it's really hard to find your space to fit in and do it. Like, you know, you have to be ready to go in an instant. And whatever's on the page, you usually don't say. He's constantly throwing new lines at you and you have to be ready to sort of roll with it. You know, I wish I had been a little bit more versed in, you know, impromptu like that. I thought Shai did an amazing job of keeping up.

and yeah so it was just it was more about you know just being a tiny cog in a giant machine and you just got to be able to go and you're called um scale of 1 to 10 how crazy is terese though he's a crazy man again crazy in the best sense of the way he's maniac though he is he's a maniac but so much but so much fun this dude i mean i'll never forget we had the best time traveling all over the world doing press for those movies. I remember at the time he had this song, this single that he was trying to promote. He was going to use this international press tour.

I remember he was talking, we're going international, baby. We're going international. So he had like piles of this single that he had, which is actually, I remember it was a really good song. And it never caught on, but it was really good. And he would take it everywhere. He'd go to clubs at night.

You know, after work, he'd go to clubs at night, and he would do his, you know, DJ and promote his, song you know the next morning he was dead tired and wasn't worth anything right i was like dude are we here to promote the movie or you're single but i remember he was also going to shoot his music video right while we're doing this so he was using this trip as his he's a calculator man he knows what he's and you ever you ever heard of the harry juku in Tokyo i haven't the harry juku is a district in in in Tokyo that is the most fashion forward place you will ever see i mean it was crazy you can go to You can go to Milan.

You can go anywhere in New York, anywhere around the world. And this place is more fashion forward than that. Wow. And these kids, it's all about tennis shoes and shoes and, like, pushing the boundaries. And I remember there's people, like thousands of people walking down the streets. And I see this tall black man. He's like the only one. You know, it's a bunch of Japanese people.

It's a god to them. It's just standing in the middle of the street with a camera on him, just standing there. It's completely still. And I was like, Tyrese And he didn't know that I was It was like a random

coincidence that I saw him there I was like What are you doing? He's like He was shooting a motion Like a what do you call it One time lapse video

Of him standing still With everybody shooting Oh man He didn't care man Zen In the middle of that Video in the middle of the street In the Harijuko of Tokyo

He's gonna take over our planet Yeah We're just living in Tyrese's world I borrowed time Yeah He's a interesting interesting cat. So what, you know, we talk about you kind of being flexible and kind of like, you know, going with the flow, but like, do you feel like you're calculated about your

career at this point? Do you like, do you say to Team Dumel, I want to go in this direction. I'm looking for this kind of thing. Put me in a superhero costume. Anything like that? Yes and no. I mean, I, obviously, there's certain things that I won't do anymore. I feel like I've done. Pornography. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done with the Bukaki films. Those are over.

Thank you for elevating my disgustingness to do a whole other level. As the publicist just shakes her head. Yeah, so there's things that I did that I'm not going to do just because, not because I didn't have a great time doing it, but I just, you know, you've done it. I do this for, I'm actually a very creative person. I love to, and I love doing this. I love to do different things.

And so, you know, specifically, what do I want to do? I never really know until I read it. Yeah. You know, you don't, I don't want to say I want to do that because I could do that and it couldn't be the best version of that. I'd rather do the best version of whatever is there. Right. Given your genetic gifts, I'm guessing you've been on a superhero audition.

I have been. I have been. How did that go? Is that bizarre when you have to kind of like? I auditioned for, oh, here's a good one. This was not that far ago, not that long ago. I was shooting this movie with Hillary Swank called You're Not You. And it's a very heavy movie about this girl who's suffering from ALS.

And we had just finished this scene where I'm her husband who knows she's about to die and I have this breakdown. I've been keeping up this front that I'm strong for, but I really go break down. That was it, yeah. And that was the last scene of the day because I had to rush out to go audition for Guardians of the Galaxy. So I remember going like literally, my eyes were all swollen and red, and I was just in a depressed state. I've been thinking about, you know, this poor woman of Luke Erick's disease for all day. And it was just the whole set was like this somber kind of place. And then I have to go in and try to audition for the point.

And it was just not my best audition. You know, I wasn't really ready for it because I was so focused on the other thing. So, yeah, you know, there's, there's, but am I really looking to do a superhero movie? Not really. Yeah. Unless it's, I actually really did like that movie. That's a great movie. Would you prefer that Axel ends up being an actor, a singer, or a star athlete?

An actor, a singer, or a star athlete? Sports still the first true, like, is that your obsession? I really love sports. Yeah. But as I'm a little bit older now, I think that sports are great as a kid because you learn competitiveness, you learn teamwork, you learn how to work with, you learn how to win and lose, all those things I think are important. But to become a professional athlete, it's just such a short-lived thing. You know, these guys who are 33, 34 years old are considered old, where that's got to be a tough pill to swallow. And we see it time and again, like what happens after is pretty, it's.

nine times out of ten, but it doesn't end well. Yeah. And also, if you're really good going through, you get this false sense of reality that everything is sort of handed to you and you're, and you don't have to work as hard. Where in my case, I had a lot of, I took a lot of hard knocks in sports. So as hard as I was and as depressing as it was, my world, I felt was just falling apart when things didn't go my way in sports. Right. I actually learned a lot from that in retrospect.

So, you know, I don't know if I want him to be an actor or a singer. I mean, if he wants to do what he can, ultimately, I just really want him to get his education and whatever he's really passionate about to go after that and just be great at it. You're kind of like one of my favorite little family units. I saw you about a year ago at South Bar. Oh, that was fun. That was great. You were on set.

Yeah. And there was Fergie with a baby accent. Pushing him around in the past year. It was like the most idyllic Norman Rockwell thing I'd ever seen. You guys are just so. normal it's insane she's a great mom that woman she is a great mother do you do marvel like when you see her over the course of the years like performing is that like alien to you like is that is that the same person you know at home is it's just the different side that you also respect and love

and just i uh you know i love watching her perform she's just she's truly gifted at what she does she's top 1% of like the people that own the stage and and you know i think people are really going to see how good she can be in this next album. It's really, really good. And she's really putting everything she's got into it. She's, you know, she's in the studio right now. But yeah, I love to watch her up there, but at the same time, I really just want her to be, I'm happy that she's happy recording because for a long time she wasn't. She didn't want to, she wasn't even sure she was going to go do music anymore because there was such a grind for 10 years with the peas out there, you know, all over the world performing that she just

did, she had such a bad taste in her mouth. But now she's back into it and she's, she's reinvigorated and is loving it again and writing and scheduling it out. So she gets her family time, but she still goes in and works hard three or four days a week. The, um, I'm curious, back on the sports thing. I'm just curious what, so what are your sports like a rank them for me? What are the ones that you actually? Football's my favorite. Okay. For sure. I don't know. I love watching golf. Basketball this time of the year

starts to get good with college basketball. I'm really starting to like soccer. Okay. Baseball I really like during the postseason. Okay. And I'm also, yeah, I am a baseball. I'm actually starting a baseball movie in a week and a half. Are you really?

Do you remember, are you baseball fan? Yeah. Big time. Do you remember Bill Space Van Lee? Oh, yeah. I'm playing. Quite a character. Oh, yeah.

I'm playing him. a movie that starts March 8th. Amazing. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Crazy cat. Yeah. People don't talk about him anymore, but when I was growing up, he was, it was like

the tail end or yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was, I think his last year was 82 or 83 with the expos. And he disagreed with the management, letting go one of his favorite players. So he just left one across the street and drank beer while he watched the game on the TV and then realized in like the seventh inning, they're probably going to need him. Right. So he ran back over and said, all right, I'm ready. And they're like, fuck you, you're out of here.

Wait, can I say that? Yeah, it's all good. You're done. And he was like, okay, well, you know what? I'll find out. Because he was still a really effective pitcher. Sure. But he essentially got blackballed from the league

because he was so outspoken and progressive in his thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's on the cover of high times. I remember during, while he was playing, which doesn't go over well with MLB execs. Yeah. So it's a really cool script. And I'm excited to do it.

I got a lot of work to do in the next week and a half. but it would be fun. What do you, when you look at your career, are there, is there a performance or at least experience on set that you kind of idealized in terms of like that was, that was as good as it's going to get or as good as it's gotten so far in terms of just like the kind of environment I want to be a part of the kind of filmmaker

I work with, actor I play against? Like what he's trying to get back to? Well, you know, it's every, every movie is like an invent. Every job is like an adventure. That's part of why I love it so much, is it never really gets dull. You're always sort of trying to do something fresh and new and do the best job you can.

You know, this is it. This is my Oscar moment. It hasn't quite come yet, but, you know. Well, and I would think also from each one you can take away, I mean, you're like, you know, you're working with James Kahn for a few years. I mean, like, that's a wealth of knowledge you can tap into for years. Yeah.

That was a great experience. I actually ran into James Lejeure last night, They played Mike Cannon on the show, randomly ran into him at the hotel. And, you know, that was a great experience because it was five years, and we all really loved each other. And we really, we all still talk. Everybody still gets along. Nice. But, you know, Transformers was great because it was just, you saw things on a movie set that you just don't see.

I mean, you just don't see jets flying over the top with helicopters, you know, flying. Yeah, it's the highest level of that kind of. It's insane. But then there's movies like Lost in the Sun that I just finished. You saw when you're out there with us. And Scenic Route, those two movies really stand out because they were really about the bare bones. The bare bones were just making a movie. And everybody was all hands on deck.

And everybody was there for the right reasons. And I'm really proud of those two movies. Before I release you out into the wild, I've got an Indiana Jones fedora with some random questions. Just because they're 100 And there doesn't mean You have to answer each one of them But if you care to, dip your hand in And let's see what fate has in store for you

Calm down, you've already Let me just dig down in here Is this his actual hat? Yes, I ran away from Harrison Ford He's still trying to find me In 20 years, I will be God, 20 years I'm going to be 62 years ago

Bringing the mood down That right there is scary My dad is just over 62. In 20 years, I see myself doing a lot of the same things I'm doing now, really. I mean, I just want to keep working, keep finding projects that inspire me. And, you know, my kid will be, you know, almost 22 years old, you know. That's great. And it's going to be, and hopefully we have another one.

And that is really what is exciting to me is watching this little dude grow up. Because it's the best thing ever. Well, not to mention, you're also going to be celebrating the 21st season of Battle Creek. Yeah, congratulations, by the way. Wow, I really like the show, but... It's like by the Manzas. It just goes on. Yeah, I think we're really reinvigorating the show this year, Josh.

Oh, man. Am I supposed to do another one of these? Yeah, keep going, a few of them. One was the last time I cried. The last time I cried... was this morning, as a matter of fact. Yeah, I was scheduled to be on the CBS morning show and slept right through it. You did not cry because of that.

You just said, oh, fuck them. I did. I'm a movie star. I don't need this. Last time I cried. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Do you find that like, does having a kid raise some emotions out of you that, like,

you didn't know we're there? Does that suddenly? Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. but mostly good things you know sometimes I just can't believe that we even made this little guy

yeah you literally you know at first that's normal I mean holy shit we made this little thing he's ours forever he's not going anywhere he's gonna be living with us for 18 years at least if not longer

so that was you know that was probably the most emotional thing I'd say in a while for me you determine your own ending let's do more There we go. Were you ever grounded and for what?

Nice guy, Joshy Dumail. Never. I got in trouble plenty as a kid. The main thing was not letting my mother find out. She was very loose with us. We had quite a bit of independence as a kid, which got me into some trouble. I remember, yes, I was grounded, but my room was. in the basement with a window right there at ground level, I could just sneak right out and go

do whatever I wanted. So, yeah, it wasn't until I got older and had to sort of instill my own discipline. Right. Even though she was very, she was very structured and very disciplined, but. Well, and you were, you're the oldest, right? I was the oldest. So did you kind of feel like you, because I'm the youngest, so I can just do anything. It doesn't matter. Did you feel like you played into that stereotype of being kind of a little bit more responsible or no? Yeah, I did. But I was also sort of a hippocel. and not necessarily following my own advice. Right.

You know, I was, I was, you know, I just, I just, I was a bit of a wild child. Yeah. Did anybody call you as a fellow Josh? Does anybody, did family or anything ever call you Joshy? Joshy? Yeah. Yeah, there's a few people that call me Joshy. I can't remember who it is right now.

You know. My wife certainly doesn't, no. Don't want to know what she calls you? Is it a suitable for her? She calls me JD, believe it? it or not. Okay, yeah. That's cool. All right. Let's do one more. Okay. Let's just, hey, you know, let's just go through the whole hat. You've got nowhere to be. French fries or onion rings. That's the most important question of the day, dude. I'd say onion rings. Depends.

They've got to be kind of crispy. Yeah, I can support that. On that very important note, onion rings and Battle Creek. These are the two things to take away today. Congratulations on the show. It's looking great, man. I know it'll be success. You're going to make like that, that house money, that Hugh Laurie money. That guy is like worth a gazillion dollars. Is you really? That was like the most successful show like ever. How many years did they go? Eight or nine?

Something like that. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. I mean, you know, we really, we'd love for the show to go for several years. Right. Not 21, but somewhere in between. Not 21.

But, you know, as long as we're all having fun doing it, so all I really care about. I just don't want to be there in eight years going, oh, my God, shoot me now. I don't think we will because it's a fun cast. You got a good group behind you. And this billee project sounds amazing. I can't wait to see it, man. Always a pleasure. Thanks for stopping.

Thank you, Josh. Thanks, buddy. No Kim Costume this time. No, thank you. That'll be next time, though. Okay. That's the show, guys. I'm Josh Harowitz.

This has been happy, say I confused. Hope you've enjoyed the show. Hit me up on Twitter. Joshua Harowitz. Go over to Wolfpop.com. Check out all the amazing shows over there. And most importantly, check back in next week for another edition of happy, sad, confused?

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