Happy Sad Confused - Josh Hutcherson

Episode Date: November 14, 2017

Josh Hutcherson only seems to be the most well adjusted child actor turned young adult performer in Hollywood. In fact, as you'll learn in this episode of "Happy Sad Confused", Josh is hiding an abundance of secret traumas, from Tom Hanks mocking his flatulence on the set of "The Polar Express" to having his first kiss be on camera for "Little Manhattan". Thankfully Josh takes it all in stride on this episode of "Happy Sad Confused" which gets a little raunchy thanks to his filthy (and hilarious) new Hulu show, "Future Man". Josh also talks about the moment he thought he'd landed the role of Spider-Man, how he looks back on "The Hunger Games" and why he's sick of Los Angeles.  Josh also stars in the James Franco comedy, "The Disaster Artist", out in theaters in December! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Happy Sad Confused, Josh Hutcherson on Future Man, saying goodbye to the Hunger Games and the disaster artist. Hey guys, I'm Josh Harrow. It's welcome to the show. Welcome to another edition of Happy Say Confused. And yes, two Joshes for the price of one on this podcast this week. Then again, if you're paying anything for the podcast, you're doing it wrong. This is free. It's just for. you guys, I do it for you out of love, out of respect, mostly out of love. Just Me Solo on the

intro this week, Sammy is returning from a work trip overseas. She's fancy that way, but she'll be back on the next one. So as I said, this week is Josh Hutcherson. You of course know him from so many things, including the Hunger Games series, but many, many films beyond that, whether you saw him early on in the Polar Express or Little Manhattan or later on in a great indie like the kids are all right. He has been a real consistently productive and great actor and seems to have an actual good head on his shoulders despite being a child actor and now young adult. He's a great guy that I've gotten to know primarily thanks to all the Hunger Games stuff and it's exciting to see him embark on new adventures, whether it's directing short films and eventually directing a feature

or a crazy bat-shit series like Future Man, which is currently available on Hulu. It's a fun show. It comes from the minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and it is high concept, to say the least. It involves time travel, and it's filthy, and it has STDs. It has a lot of 80s kind of sci-fi references.

It's a fun show. So if you like any of that stuff, you should enjoy Future Man. As I said, it's available now. on Hulu. Also worth noting, Josh is starring in the upcoming The Disaster Artist, which is the new film from James Franco, based on the making of that infamous film, The Room. I'm seeing it literally in a few hours, so I can't speak to the quality of the disaster

artists, except to say that I've heard amazing things about it, and apparently Franco kills it in this film. So that's something to look forward to as well. Other than that, I want to just kind of dive into the conversation this week, not have too much preamble, except to say, thank you guys for your reviews on iTunes. I want to encourage these, because these are important to us on Happy Say Confused to encourage more listeners. And in order to further encourage your reviews, I'm going to read the latest one, because I asked for some on last week's show, and I got a particularly lovely one that popped up on iTunes. So here is a lovely five-star review from Pira Sweden. Happy Second View is definitely one of the best interview pods out there.

Josh is always educated and entertaining when interviewing his guests. And Sammy is a delight, exclamation point. The banter between she and Josh can be better. And if you're looking to laugh uncontrollably, listen to the Michael Shannon episode. It had me rolling around on the floor. Well, while it's embarrassing to read nice things about myself, that is a lovely review up here Sweden

and while I don't agree with your assessment of Sammy it's just going to go straight to her head if she actually listened to this podcast that would go straight to her head but let's be frank Sammy probably won't listen to this but yes that is an encouragement to you guys

go on iTunes please rate review and subscribe to the show and if you review the show you just might hear your review read out on the podcast there's incentive for you okay without any further ado let's go right to the big conversation

session this week, the wonderful, the charming, my second favorite Josh. Wait, is that saying that I'm my own favorite Josh? I guess I should be. I should love myself, right? Okay, well, Josh Hutcherson. Here he is. Well, look, it's Josh Hutcherson. Hey, buddy. Hey, man. It's good to see you, man. You like my introduction? Yeah, it's really professional. It's really professional. It's good to see you, man. Welcome to the podcast. I can't believe it's been, it's, we've had the podcast for a few years and we haven't had you on. Yeah, I actually just did my first podcast like a few days ago. Okay.

So you're no longer version. You know how this works. Yeah, I mean, you talk and then people hear it. But there you go. Well, you're an expert. I really have. I studied up. I went to school for podcasting.

Yeah, there you go. I was just saying congratulations on the show. We're going to talk about a bunch of things. But the new show is Future Man. It is as you hear this, it is available on Hulu. Check it out. finally a show that is as classy as the Josh Hutcherson that I know and love this really fits you to a team the lingerie really really brings out my true colors

it is lovely it is it is um is this uh is this is your first time um masturbating on camera over a video game character i can't remember was that in journey that's been released its first time has been released yeah that was inspired by true life exactly i've masturbated many times on camera just it's not true not many times a handful a nice solid

handful of I was gonna say the last time we spoke was at Comic-Con which was the filthiest conversation at Comic-Con what did we talk about Comic-Con

it was for Future Man you were with your buddies and it was just like I just felt like it felt weird after no I felt good I felt good man but I mean

the sensibility of this show fair to say this this fits you it i think so yeah i mean i've always loved you know raunchy humor comedy type stuff and uh is seth and and their whole team are you know the kings of that world yeah uh so yeah it definitely aligns with my sensibilities as a human what was the elevator pitch or the first like what was like the did you just read a script or does like step and evan come to you with an idea yeah so i did i did a disaster artist where i met set and uh and like a couple weeks after i did that he uh emailed me him and him and Evan Goldberg emailed me and said they're doing this TV show called Future Man and

you know they loved me to do it with them and they want to hop on a call and talk about it and they kind of gave me a rough pitch of the series but as you know it's hard to really encapsulate all that takes place in any conversation right um and then yeah I read I read the pilot script and uh I was like yeah never done TV never done comedy yeah seemed like a good group to do it with it's like the perfect scenario where were you at in terms of like just like what you were thinking about or your priorities it was obviously at least a year or two post The Hungry Am's Madness

But what were you thinking in terms of a career At that point of what you were looking for Not this I need something like Utramatic exists so that's impossible Yeah, no not this I was looking at like Plan G

Yeah maybe even a little further down The alphabet list No it was Yeah I was kind of looking at a lot of like Indie intense indie dramas Sure That's kind of where my sensibilities had been I did a couple

of those with James Franco, which is how I got to the disaster artist, which is how I got to Seth and Evan. But yeah, I was reading these hard-hitting, intense indie psychological dramas. And then this came along. And it was like the kind of this new era of

TV is really amazing and fascinating. And you have a lot more freedoms it feels like to kind of go to crazy places. And just knowing the team behind it and for me looking to do something original and interesting, I'd never even really thought about wanting to do comedy or TV and it just kind of fell

fell into me or I fell into it whichever there was mutual falling there's falling involved yeah it must be freeing though to like shoot a show like this where like um you can kind of like go big and go raunchy and kind of like not were I mean they're obviously there are limits to anything but like barely yeah I mean you guys push it in this one

yeah yeah we really do some prosthetics that really push the limits So does it feel like a different kind of a work that you've ever done? Like, do you feel like this is, wait, is this the same acting that I did and the kids are all right? Or is this totally apples and oranges. I mean, it's not really apples and oranges just because it's acting. And, you know, you're going in and you have your scenes and you're trying to make them seem real. The scenarios and situations that we find ourselves in in the show is definitely different than anything I've done. But no, it wasn't, we did have a lot more freedom and you didn't have to censor yourself.

Yeah. So I kind of felt natural in that way, because I don't, in my everyday life, censor myself. I just did Good Morning America and Kelly and Ryan. It went fine. I just, I just, I just, I have to like, like, 10%. Now we got 150%. Yeah, 10050%. That's, well, that's not, no spoilers.

So, okay, to give a little bit of the premise, and it's a hard show to kind of encapsulate, as you said, because I think I've seen like six or so episodes. Even within those, one of the things I love about the show is it kind of keeps like reinventing or like, there's a lot of plot. There's a lot that happens. Absolutely. That's actually a good point because it was really important for us to be able to release this all at once, all episodes at one time. Because there's a lot of plot that develops and it moves quick. And if you miss something like and you don't watch an episode, you kind of forget about it. But what was the question?

I don't know. Oh, to set up for the answer a little bit the premise. So you're a janitor. Yes. I'm a janitor at a center. that's trying to cure sexual diseases, um, naturally. And, uh, and by night, he is like a big time video gamer and he has this one game that he's been trying to beat that no one has ever beaten.

Right. Um, and when he finally does, it's, it's, it's, it's all the last starfighter. It's like a training simulator sent back from the future to find the one person to save all of humanity. And we start out by trying to stop someone from getting herpes. Right. Which is what, emission cockblock, um, which is where we try to, that's where we start the adventure. where it goes from there.

It's like, the show is great because you'll be like, oh, that's a funny, weird joke, but then that becomes a major plot point. Yeah. So it's kind of just the way it weaves and moves throughout time is really fun. And what's cool about it, too, is because time travel, you know, hopefully having next season and stuff, then you can just go anywhere with it. It's not, it's very nonlinear, so you can have a lot of fun. Well, one of the fun things, when I saw you guys at Comic-Con, like, I referenced,

because, again, like, I grew up with the kind of stuff you're referencing, and, like, this was like my childhood. The last Starfighters before your time, it was my time. I grew up with a last Starfighter. So, and one of the things I love about the show is it kind of like, it owns those references. Yeah.

Like there's like a sound cue, a musical cue that's like totally back to the future. That's like, 100%. Right. Well, yeah, I think what's cool about the show is, is, it's self-aware and, and my character is a sci-fi fan. Right.

Like, if you had two people that just showed up and we're like, yo, you're coming with us to like save all of humanity. Like, this is terminate right thing. Exactly. And you know all the tropes and stuff. And so I think the show does a good job of balancing out accepting those things and using them while not completely just, like, relying 100% on them. So it was a lot of fun to play around with those elements. Had you ever seen The Last Starfighter?

I hadn't seen it before I did the movie. But I've seen, like, Back to the Futures, I've seen The Terminators, but the more obscure stuff, I hadn't. What do you think of the Last Starfighter? Eh. It's cool. You had to be there, man. It's cool. It's like some movies.

movies just don't hold up. Like, you had this grand memory of, like, this movie's so amazing. Right. And you watch it again, and you're like, I get why I liked it when I did. I know. I know. I'm trying to think of a movie like that that I've seen recently. Well, it's funny because I don't know.

You appreciate for different reasons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It hits you at a different time. I mean, well, I mean, like, it's funny because, like, again, back to the future is something that, like, I was probably 10 or something when it came out. But it's become a perennial, even for someone like you that's a bit younger than me. Like you, I assume you saw back to the future when you were a kid. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Every kid? Good. That makes me feel good. I think so. Yeah. I mean, my parents were, you know, they were, you know, subjected you to the 80s crash course. Yeah. This is what you have to do to be my child. 80s were so shitty. Like, if he was like culturally, I mean, we had some fun stuff, some pop. There's some pop. I know. I know. I know. But like, in all honesty, fashion, music. So there's some fun movies. That's not. Hullet on Kurt Russell over here? You don't love that? Yeah. But let's be honest. It's fucking ridiculous. Like, like, Rambo? Like, like, like. Listen, the 80s gave us that. Right, right. Yeah.

Have you seen any of the Rambo movies? No. I've seen, like, clips of them. The best one I would argue, because it goes through a weird kind of like evolution where first blood is like a real movie. First Blood is like a real like a PTSD war veteran. It's almost, it's a drama. Okay.

Don't go with that one. Okay. Go to, go to Rambo, the second one, First Blood Part 2. Okay. Which is like, like, just like that 80 shot into your bloodstream. Okay. mainlining in the 80s culture. Exactly. When I'm going to three, then it gets too far.

Yeah, exactly. That's my words of wisdom for you today. Fair enough. So what did I want to ask more about Future Man? So you've shot all these... Wait, did they all come out at once? Yeah, they're all now... How many episodes are there? There's 13. Oh, amazing. Yeah, and they're all on Hulu streaming right the second.

Without ruining anything, is James Cameron aware of this show? Is he involved in this show in any way? Uh, he is not involved personally, but we do talk. We have an episode that, um, he plays a pretty major part in, uh, his, his, his, the folklore of James Cameron. Okay. Yes. Do you think this is going to help or hurt your chances at the next four Avatar movies? I don't think it looks good.

I didn't write the show. I mean, I produced on it, so I didn't say no, but, you know, but, you know, that's the same meeting. Yeah. Look, man. I'm a worker. I'm a worker. Yeah. I'm a monkey.

They say dance, and I say how long. You do have mocap experience. Yes, I do. That was an early, relatively early one, right? Yeah, it was. Polar Express. It was Polar Express. It was actually the first feature film

completely done in motion capture. That was a big one. Yeah, it was Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks and all that. Again, I'm a big Zemechus head, as you could expect. Oh, yeah, well. Yeah, exactly. So what was, what do you remember of that experience? Was that, I mean, how old were you roughly?

I was 10. Yeah. 10 or 11 when I shot that. It was amazing. It was like my first. big movie and I feel like I learned so much it's about like the technical elements of filmmaking yeah in that experience as an actor and also just like behind the scenes and whatnot um but yeah it was amazing I mean I was you know 10 years old on set with Tom Hanks and the amazing cast and having

Robert Zemeckis directing you I was completely unaware of who Robert Zemeckis was and even Tom Hanks I was like yeah he's like America's dad right whatever that means um so I think I wasn't I wasn't quite like aware enough to why are they putting me this leotard now like what's going on yeah But it was fun. I don't know if I should tell us, but I probably on whatever, fuck it, it's the same time ago. I was like 10 years old, and we're doing this scene where I'm, like, we're skiing on top of a train. And I'm, like, tucked in, like, underneath, like, the hobo character of Tom Hanks. And I guess I farted on Tom Hanks, like, in a crouched position.

And he made sure the entire crew was like, holy shit, this kid! oh my god and i'm like about ready to just implode of self-contin i was like a little husky kid just like it's like the worst thing that could happen is like farting in tom hanks's crotch and uh i did it i figured you know it's like once once you hit that low yeah you're gonna be all right yeah god tom hanks such an asshole he was cool he was cool about it he put me on blast but you know yeah i respected it because i he went for the humor and i was like you passage. Yeah, every, every actor has to fart and Tom makes a crotch at one point. Exactly. Judy Dench, they've all done it. They've all been there.

So, you also, let's talk a little bit about career stuff since we've gone back to Polar Express. So you, one of the big ones then, like there are a couple early moments it seems like that were big for you. That Little Manhattan probably was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. That came probably roughly around the same time. Yeah, I think I was like 11 when I shot that. I can't think of something more mortifying than having to pretend to be in love, like to have like a romance. Like even shooting now, like 40 would be mortifying for me, let alone at 10.

My first kiss ever was on that movie on camera in front of like grips picking their noses and shit off camera. Like it was like it was mortifying. I never. Yeah, if there's a running thing to your early career, it sounds like these mortifying rights of passage. It really humbled me. It stubbed me right down into the earth, man. Like just right down in there.

Feet are planted in the core because of those experiences. It says, yeah, I remember I was 11, and I knew I had the big scene coming up, like, the next day of, like, the kiss. Yeah. And I was terrified. I couldn't even think about it. And I was here with my mom, and my dad flew in for support and surprised me and showed up. And it was like, the father's son, like. Here's how you kiss a lady, son.

Every young man has to kiss a lady on screen one day. It was so embarrassing. Oh, my God. My heart was racing. My face was about to, like, just explode of blood. It would have been quite a moment. Tom Hanks would have definitely called you out. This kid's face just exploded with blood.

It was so red that it was like any moment. I thought I was going to start like sweating blood. I think that's what I thought. That's just like how my mind worked at that age even. I was like, oh, God, am I actually sweating blood? Now I'm wiping it and checking, making sure that it's not blood coming out of my face. Did you have to, was it tough watching it then in the afterwards? Do you remember that was that as traumatic?

Less so. No, no. The trauma really hit hard when the actual kiss had to take place. oh god so where were you at had you guys where were you living at the time of those couple films like you had obviously made the transition in terms of like you're going for this like this is this is what you want to do even at this young age um what was kind of the turning point in terms of when you and your family kind of said yeah we're going to make a go at this i mean me personally it was the moment my parents said yes i could try to go and become an actor that at that point

is like all right this is going to work like there's no way it's not because this is what i want to do and I'm going to do it. But I think, I mean, yeah, at that time, I was living at the Oakwood Apartments in California, where every young actor has to live. It's so funny. I just had, I mean, not the name job, I had Kenneth Brana in here last week,

and he of all people stayed at the Oakwood apartments at one point. Dude, everyone did at some point. It's really crazy. It's the weirdest fucking place, man. They have, like, I remember one story. I was probably about, like, around this time, like 10 or 11, and I made 11, 12, and I had done, like, a few movies and, like, a couple things, and I was, like,

Oakwood. known um because like a lot of young struggling actors who go out there as like child actors to try to make it most of which forced by their horrible parents um and mine were the opposite my mom was like please don't become an actor like it's not going to work even like the other day i was on kimmel and we were backstage and the producer was talking us through the segment and i don't even know how it came up my mom goes well we didn't think it was good we thought it was a phase we didn't think it was actually going to work one two years tops because because my mom's maiden name is fight master right and so we were like i don't know how the hell you didn't give me that name

She was like, well, we didn't think it was actually going to, like, you weren't going to be successful. You could have been the air to Jean-Claude Van Dam with that last name. But, yeah, so I was at the Oakwood apartment. He had there's like free Sunday brunches, which is a bunch of donuts. And like I said, as a husky kid, donuts are like my thing. And so I was down there, like, my mom was like in the apartment. I just went down to get some donuts. And these three moms like cornered me.

And they were like, we're so proud of you, honey. It's amazing what you've been doing. Da-da-da-da-da. And I was like, oh, thanks. I'm going to eat my bearclaw. Are you going to finish that? Yeah, exactly. Cool, cool, cool.

I get your, yeah. And then I was like, oh, thank you. And they're like, so our son, two of our sons have the same audition as you coming up. And we were wondering if you could, like, kind of, you know, show us how you're going to do it. And I was like, I guess, sure. I was part of the Lollipop Guild as well. But, yeah. And I was like, I don't really know the scene.

They're like, we have the sides. We're going to go grab them real quick. I was like, okay, cool. They, like, left. And I took off running back to the apartment. right obviously freaked out and I didn't know how to feel about it but it's a very weird place Oakwood but that's where I was living at that time of my life mirror bed that pulled out yeah it was you know so how are you I mean did you have a like a level head on your shoulders at that age in

terms of like you're going through audition processes and like you know losing a job as an adult is tough like for an actor yeah and like when you're just like a bunch of emotions as a kid are there like how like I feel like I would be like sobbing every other day or like going in these highs and massive lows. You just learn to bury it deep down within your soul. And then one day, it's going to pop out. And I don't know how. I don't know what's going to happen to me.

It's a lot of repression, man. A lot of stuff in that. My 40s are going to suck. Yeah, it's going to, midlife crisis. Woo-wee. Yeah, you know, I... I mean, do you remember that time as, like, fun times or, like, stressful? I remember it was very fun.

I mean, there was, like, a moment when I think I had such a high volume of auditions that I didn't really get super hung up on any specific one. Every now and then there would be like a big one that you really wanted and you got far along and then you know you had the disappointment. I remember there was, I think, a home alone movie. Like there's like a home alone like seven or something. I think that was the third one when they had a new kid. Yeah, it was years later.

Yeah. It was like early 2000s. And I remember I got really far along for that one and we thought was going to happen all these things and it didn't. And I remember that when I like cried my face off. But I think after that I hardened. the last time you cried over missing apart it's been a while really it's been a while

it's been a watch that just even cried you're dead inside I'm dead inside they've taken it all Josh for the set of future men so what do you remember what do you remember it was a thora Zathora oh man that was a fun shoot we shot it was a 93 day shoot

and it was all on the Sony lot like literally 92 of the 93 days were all on lot and so we we built out like our base camp was like there for five months or something And I remember it was just so fun. Like that was such a fun, like high energy set. There was a great, like, cool special effects, practical effects.

Right. We had, um... Favre was trying to kind of create like an ambulance movie, like one of those kind of old school. We had, uh, Winston. What's his name? Yeah, yeah, I did like the, all our puppets and stuff. Um, and, uh, and yeah, it was really fun. I remember Dak Shepard was like an older brother to me and we hung out all the time.

It was great. How were you, you and Kristen? How was the age difference? Was there, like, was it, was it big sister, a little brother kind of thing? Was it? Was there a crush involved? I was for sure I had a crush. I was hardcore crushing.

I was always into older women. From 10, I was like, babe, I know you're 20, but here's the deal. I'm half your age. And also, it was like the coolest first. She's like always been the coolest first of the room. No, I totally had a crush on her, but like she was a big sister. It was like that like fun, like crush thing and I don't know. It was great.

It was really fun. She was super cool, super like indie, creative person, like a really good energy. Even them. Yeah, even then. Yeah, she's always had that. She gave me a turtle for my birthday once. Aw. I was like, how the hell do you give somebody?

gift the last 90 years. This is a big commitment. Yeah. She literally, I was at a bowling eye. I think it's like my 12th birthday, 12th birthday. And she came and she like had her arms behind her back. And she's like really cool. Like Christmas through her like, hey man, happy birthday.

And like, it's a turtle in the palm of her hand. And it's like this Chile. He's like, she's like, it's a Chilean turtle. He's going to live to be 85. And I'm like, thanks. That's a lot of responsibility for a 12 year old. It died. Like, only like a year later.

Did you murder your turtle? Not intention. Well, I don't know. That's the definition of murder, I guess it has to be intentional. It was like, like, turtle slaughter. No, it was, we went out of town, and it was, like, wintertime, and the neighbor was supposed to watch Bob. Right. And, uh...

Really inventive name, but you... Yeah, okay, whatever, man, so it wasn't as cool as Kristen Stewart. She probably thought of a really cool name. But, no, we went out of town, it was, like, wintertime, and he's supposed to have the heating thing on, and the neighbor didn't do it, so I guess Bob froze to death. My condolences, man. Yeah. Again, sir. I mean, then again...

Still sorting through a lot. Yeah. I mean, look, it's less responsible. Exactly. You want to be carefree. Yeah. I don't want a pet's going to outlive me. I mean, maybe if I'm, like, super old and I get a dog and it outlives me.

But I don't want a pet that at 10, I get it, and it's outlives me. You and Bob at 95 sitting next to each other alone and in the rest of the car. It's been a good run, hasn't it, Bob? So, clearly a turning point would seem to be kids are all right. Yeah. Because, I mean, you're in some high-profile films, you know, and the career's going well, but that's a different kind of a movie.

Lisa Choldenko is an amazing filmmaker. The actors you get to work with in that. It's insane. Again, what do you remember of, like, did you glean much from, like, seeing the way Ruffalo and Julianne and Nett Benning were working? Was it a different kind of a experience? Yeah, it definitely was.

I think that that was probably, like, the biggest and first time that I was really sort of star-struck in a way. Not like meeting someone. I'd be like, oh my God, but like having to work with them, you know, because I'd worked a fair amount up until that point. And it had been more, you know, younger family type stuff. And all of a sudden here I was like standing toe to toe with some of the greatest actors that we currently have. Yeah. And so I was very aware of that and trying to be as unaware of that as possible at the same time. But yeah, it was an amazing experience.

We shot the whole thing in 23 days. Crazy. And it was very fast-paced. And thank God, like everyone. was super cool and Lisa was incredible crew was great and the whole cast really gelled nicely and Ruffalo since then every time I see him I'm just like

he's the greatest guy, he's so nice and yeah I think I ran into, I saw an net I was dragging my motorcycle like on Mulholland and I put up next to a car and he just kind glanced over and I was like that's a net and I like knocked in her window and I hadn't seen her in like five years and she just goes

in turn she's like oh my what are you doing on that thing your mom's gonna get like full on with like mom get off of that I'm sorry, I'm sorry. That's awesome. You know, obviously I got to know you and Jennifer and Liam primarily through the 100 games years, which it feels to me. I mean, I mean, just from my vantage point of like, you know, riding on the sidecar alongside you guys for those years, it felt like a blur to me. Like it feels like that really happened quick. Yeah.

What's your perspective on it? It does. It's like weird. I just told me this the other day of somebody, a friend of mine, and just like now having been out of it for a few years, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's. It seems so far away and so not a part of my life, but yet it was such a major piece of what I lived in my experience. I had some of the craziest, funnest, wildest experiences of my life thus far with that whole crew and doing those films and the press tours and everything.

But yeah, it really does kind of feel like a blur. I mean, do you think about them as different film? I mean, obviously, like, if you look at them, they're different films, but like the fact that some of them were shot back to back and most of them were directed by one guy, does it all kind of blend together, or do you think of them as distinct experience? I think the first one feels like a more separate experience. We had Gary Ross, as our director, and that was like we didn't really know what was going to be yet, and we had much smaller budgets and, you know, things like that.

So that makes it feel different. But then the subsequent three, that feels like a big chunk. And also, too, like you have to think we're shooting, and then a couple months after you finish shooting, we're going on the press tour. And after we do that, we're going back into, like, the movies again. So it's kind of like the cycle thing. And that feels like one sort of big chunk. I mean, what would you say to, I don't know, maybe you've had this conversation with other actors that have contemplated kind of getting involved in a franchise in that size.

Like, it's one thing to kind of like prepare yourself and you'd been in the business for a while, but like having kind of run that gauntlet, is there something you'd say to an actor contemplating that kind of an experience? Like, know this going in. This is going to help keep you sane and keep it fun and interesting for you. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if there's anything you can really say to prepare for that. I think that people should absolutely do it. And I think that it was, you know, one of the best experiences of my entire life. I think also we're very lucky in that it was great material and it was great characters and it was an interesting world, interesting story.

And we got a stellar cast involved with it. I mean, obviously, you know, franchises have their downsides, which are extremely long shoots, like very, you know, tedious and long press tours and, like, locked in for, you know, half a decade of your life. Right. So those all sound like negatives. However, there's something to be said for steady work, knowing that, like, next year I will have this movie, which gives you a little more freedom in between to either relax or do something else, take risks. But, yeah, I think the scariest thing for me was getting pigeonholed and boxed in as a character. Sure. You know, like, you look at somebody like Daniel Radcliffe, who started at such a young age as that character,

and that's what, like, he popped for and then did that for such a long time. Yeah. And now he's really getting the clear of that, and he's awesome and doing really cool stuff. But for a while, it took him a little while. It's a little wild. And he has to hustle like 150% Broadway doing all this crazy shit and now he's in a great place.

And so for me, like I definitely was like worried about that. But at the same time I was just super excited to do it. And it was a great character and working with Jen and Liam and Woody and Philip and the incredible cast and everything. It was really no-brainer. How quickly did Jen delete your phone from,

phone number from her phone? I've deleted hers multiple times but somehow she still gets me. Have you seen Mother, by the way? I have seen Mother. crazy right yeah i i don't exactly know how i feel about i saw it twice in theaters okay um and upon the second watching i was like i'm gonna really get more but it kind of made me ask more questions um but i think i think it's a masterfully made movie oh yeah i think jen is i don't know if people

i haven't i haven't read but i hope people are talking a lot about her performance i think it's so subtle and and she didn't have a whole lot to work with she kind of has this one sort of tone she has to play throughout but the subtleties that she finds and i think the movie's yeah fantastic it's Bonkers. Yeah, I'm a big Aaron. I was worried about her. When I saw it, I was like, damn. She went through it. You went to a really heavy place. You're okay? I'm over here, masturbating a little game character. Over here, coming on, people from the futures, they, you know, show up in my bedroom.

What have you been up to? Hope everything's good with you. Where in that sequence, we were talking about auditions and stuff, like your name was in the mix, and I'm sure there are tons of things I've never heard about you in the mix for, but Spider-Man came up. Yeah, yeah. Not for this recent iteration, but for the Andrew Barfield one. Yes. point where like it was reported that you got the role yeah yeah yeah was that a weird day like what what do you remember of like did you actually think you got the role i did not no i had i had

been told that i didn't get it but then when that came out i was like did they change their minds is this i don't want to get excited but this would be really fucking cool right uh and it wasn't very fucking cool so i didn't get it but it's it's kind of crazy because me not doing that meant that i did hunger games oh so that i was trying to get the chronology down yeah i would have because that that was right around the same time that i ended up up getting hung i think it's a little bit beforehand um and i was i was pretty disappointed like i'm i've never been a huge like i'm not a huge comic book or superhero fan but if there's any superhero that i would have been right to play i feel like spider man was him right um and that'd have been really

fun and really cool a cool thing to do but then i ended up doing hunger games and and it was obviously incredible so it's hard to really say is i mean i feel confident in saying that i the the right thing happened or the best thing happened but is it tough to watch like a film like that that you know that you kind of like really want and then it comes out like Do you end up seeing that film? Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, yes and no.

There's definitely times you see something, you're like, damn, oh, I really wish I could have done that. I would have really, like, crushed it, or, you know, I would have had a really good time making that. But for the most part, I don't know, I just enjoy it as much as you can. Yeah. Don't think about it. Yeah.

Like, bury it down inside that well I was talking about. Just stuff it down there with the dead turtle. I got to tell you, Josh, the well is getting pretty fool, man. I have to start building it into, like, a silo. Oh, my curdles. of disappointment. Not kernels, man. They're giant whopping...

They're very big kernels. Yeah, they're big kernels. They popped. So was there a period of... Morning's probably too strong a word, but like adjustment post-hunger games in terms of like you're on this roller coaster, as you said, you're kind of on a schedule.

It's almost like you're in a series that just keeps going. Where like... Was it a come down? Yeah, I would imagine. Like, it's a high that you have to kind of come off. Yeah, it's just a life shift is more than what it was, I mean, more than what it, like a, uh, a come down. I feel like it was, it was something

where you're kind of a part of this machine for such a long time. And then when that finishes, there is sort of like the, I'm free. I'm free. I can do it. I can do anything. I don't need to yeah. I can travel. I can go places. I can say yes or no to other projects. This is amazing. Um, but it didn't, it didn't feel like, I think, if you're looking at it from the external, you'd imagine like, wow, it must be so crazy that's finished. It's, it wasn't quite that crazy. We, you know, we, we hung out quite a bit. And, and obviously, you know, the team kind of, like, see each other every time we can. I don't know. It was, like, it was like, you know, it was a job and it was great. But it's like afterwards, we'd done it for that long. Everybody was

like, like, this was great. Right. I'm happy. I'm not, like, dying for it to end, but I'm kind of happy. It's not continuing. It's like this weird feeling of, like, now to the next stage. Like, that's, like, a phase, like a section of your life. And I would think also one of the goals and good byproducts of something like that is like, you know, when you get associated with a franchise like that, your name, for what it's worth, means something in a financial scale. Like, you know, you're able to kind of produce things potentially, direct things. I know you directed a short, which I watched.

Oh, cool. Good. It's actually one of the other actors in it started in something that I wrote, Austin Lyon. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what's the, it can be a sense of sort of where you're at in terms of like, is that

Is the goal to direct a feature, produce more, what's like, or is it sort of just like dabbling with things, or how serious are you taking that kind of side of it? I'm directing it. I'm taking very seriously. It's something that I've always wanted to do. Since I was a kid, I was always like directing things and writing things and whatnot with my friends. But yeah, it's something that I really want to focus in on. I'm going to make the feature of Ape. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was, we did this thing where we took five feature scripts and made five short films out of them in an effort to fast track financing and kind of we call it a film incubator, so to speak. And, yeah, so directing is something I absolutely love. I always, when I'm working as an actor, I have thoughts and opinions and feelings about scenes and things that I would do differently and ideas. And as an actor, you kind of don't want to speak up so much because you're just like a cog in the machine. Right.

And so to speak in a way. And certain filmmakers probably are more. or less open to that kind of collaborative. Yeah, exactly. And so I've kind of, I'll give my two cents when I'm asked, but as a director, you get to steer the ship and you get to tell the story how you want to tell it. And obviously, I'm very collaborative and I rely on a lot of people, but the same time you get to actually make your own vision come to life. So I definitely am really excited about that. And yeah, I'm just, I'm kind of, I love, I have like a bunch of projects like in development of like true stories or articles that I've found or, you know, different ideas and whatnot.

Some are TV series, some are movies. Nice. So just kind of like feeling all that out. It's tough. It's tough to get things actually made. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's very tough. Yeah. Yeah, please, I've been buried in the MTV bunker for 30,000 years trying to like dabble

some other things. It is. It's tough to move stuff along. It really is. And to find the time for it. But I mean, I'm curious, like, because we've kind of like touched on this. Like your career has, even in, you know, a relatively short period of time, although you've been working for a while.

But, like, you've done the studio. things and the franchise things and you obviously have a love for independent film and like ape speaks to that sensibility more um like in terms of your film tastes nowadays like what do you consume do you kind of like a little bit of everything or you do go more towards one direction or another or what yeah i i i would say that i right now i'm on like a kick of watching older films because i didn't grow up with a very solid film education so you're feeling in the blanks right Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I'm trying to catch up on a lot of that. So I've been like obscure stuff too, like French noir things, like Goddard and stuff like that. Sure. So I've been like trying to catch up on all that decades and decades of film that I have now experienced. It's endless. I know. And now I'm kind of, I really don't, I don't like watching trailers anymore.

Oh, okay. Because I feel like for me, it's like whenever I read a script, I think about what's the trailer going to be. Because I think it's really important that when you, how you're going to pitch a movie. Because if people have a certain. expectation of tropes that they know of different kinds of movies that you represent in the trailer. And if you don't fulfill that, even if it's something great, people come out disappointed. I think mothers are a good example of that, where it's a movie that is very complex and very different than what the trailer was, and you kind of set up with this horror sort of genre thing, but it's so not that. I don't know how the hell you make a trailer for mother. Yeah, you have to sell something safe to get them in the theater.

Like, trust me, this is like, you've seen this before. Exactly. You know what this is. And sometimes it can be great because you get surprised. But a lot of times if you give somebody something different than what they're expecting, like, if you're expecting to have a sip of water, and it's actually a really, really delicious vodka cocktail, if you're expecting water,

you might miss how great the drink is because you're hit with vodka. So, yeah, you know, I, but, what was I saying? So, yeah, but I, I haven't really been watching trailers. I kind of just been going on, like, word of mouth and people, like, something that people are talking about. Right. Whether it's polarizing, whether it's, you know, positive or whatever.

Yeah, but I think, like, for me, I go to the theater's less and less, because I find that there's less and less things that I really want to see in the theater. I saw Blade Runner three times. Oh, nice. I've seen it twice. I think I'm going to get it.

Denise coming in next week. Oh my God. I'm going to see it again this week. I have a lot of questions for him. Good. You can help me out with that. Enemy. Ask about Enemy, too.

I know. Enemy's crazy. That's a crazy movie. But yeah, so I kind of like, I sort of see the theater experience for the bigger blockbuster type stuff. Sure. Unless there's like an indie that I really am like on. I saw a good time that I absolutely loved.

And I was so like, Padson's like the best thing is done by far. He just like took such a hard shift. Oh. Now he's like, yeah, he's the king of the world right now as far as I'm concerned with young actors. Yeah, I need to go back and see the other Saffty Brothers stuff. I've never seen the other stuff. I haven't either. I've heard it's really great that.

Like indie New York films has been like their thing for a while. Yeah, my two, I mean, everyone's talking about these, but my two favorites I think of the year so far are three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Have you heard about this one? I have not heard about this. Martin McDonough film. It's Francis McDormin, Sam Rockwell. Oh, God, yes. You said two greats.

That's amazing. And they're both, like, going to be not made. They're both amazing. It's kind of little Cohn Brothers-y. It's amazing. And Lady Bird, this critic, Gerwig movie, have you heard about this one? I haven't heard about either of these.

It's okay. Thank you. Lady Bird is... Like I said, I've been like watching French noir films, so I've been kind of living in the past here. These are worth actually going to see the theater. They're not, you know, not Blade Runner on the scene, but they're beautiful films.

Lady Bird's Sersher Ronan starring in it. Oh, great, okay. And it's a slice of life kind of coming of age thing. A little Wes Anderson-e, et cetera. All right. It's great. I fucks with that? Yeah.

I fucks with Wes Anderson. That's what's up. So, oh, here's what I want to talk about. I'm seeing disaster arts tonight. Oh, I think you're doing that Q&A tonight. I'm going to see you there, hopefully. I just saw it on Sunday for the first time, at the L.A. premiere. So, okay, I was so late to the party.

On the room, it's not even funny. Me too. I was there. I'm with you. I saw the room like four days ago. Yeah, I saw it, obviously, when James said I had to come to this movie with him. So for those I don't know, the room is this infamously not stellar film, maybe. It was kind of a labor of love. for this guy named Tommy Weizzo who somehow got the money

to make this kind of passion project. His own money. His money. His money, six million dollar budget for the room. It's a crazy step. Alleged. Alleged. Yeah, exactly.

He's shrouded in mystery himself. The room itself is fascinating and they do all these kind of midnight screenings of it. You should check it out. It's kind of like the Rocky Horror Pictures show. They throw spoons at the screen in moments and there's callouts and stuff.

It's an, do not watch it alone at home. No, I'm so happy. It will go right over your head and you'll feel very confused about who you are and what society means. Question a lot about it. But definitely seek it out if you can with a crowd, and there are screenings around,

and I really had a great time with it. And A-24 is doing a whole thing right now where they're releasing, like 600 screens and they're playing the room in. That's awesome. So that's an experience. And then the disaster artist is this movie kind of about the making of the room

directed by James Franco. You're in it alongside Dave Franco and Seth Rogen, Paul Shear, some of my favorite people. Ephron has like a cameo in there. Yeah, I know there are a bunch of cameras. is right it's actually the disaster artist is a book that is written by Greg Sistero who is the best friend

of Tommy Wiseo and it's his experience with Tommy as like their whole journey of making the room it's amazing the things you see in the disaster artist are really the idiosyncrencies of who Tommy Wiseo is and we were at the premiere he's at the premiere with him and we all

went out on stage and James introducing everybody and we all lined up and Tommy was the last guy to get introduced and when Tommy got introduced he comes out he's got sunglasses on, of course, and he high-fives the whole front row of unwanting people. They didn't, they weren't like, hey, Tommy, he just immediately goes over and does

like the whole rock star thing and then walks up and Paul Shear was standing on my left, right next to Franco, and just stands in front of Paul Shear and she was like, oh, okay, I'm just going to move over like, Tommy, he's in his own world, man. It's incredible, yeah, disaster artist. Yes. An amazing experience, I would think. It was so great. I'm so happy I got to see it like with a big

crowd of people. James is phenomenal in the film. Yeah, people are saying, like this is not the kind of movie you hear about for awards but that Franco is like awarding for this. I think so. I think he's fantastic. I think that the heart and like the sadness and the hilarity and the assholian nature

of the character. There's so many levels that it's operating on. Right. It's absolutely gut-busting while also being heartbreaking and beautiful. It's so, it's a very, very unique movie made about a very, very unique movie. And like a lot of like James and Seth and Evan's stuff.

It sounds like it's about like male friendship and And sort of like those kind of odd relationships. Yeah, absolutely. And I have a very interesting character. His name is Philip Holdman in real life. I play Denny. I played Denny from the room. And, you know, just kind of like learning about how Tommy was on set and just with

his actors and like nobody had the script. He wouldn't give the script to anybody because he didn't trust them. They would shoot. They went like, I think, 60 days after like a 40 day scheduled shoot. And just like the conditions were pretty insane. And just this young actor who's, who's like trying to do what he can with what he's given. It was really fun to play.

And Denny in and of itself is a really interesting character. And I had a lot of fun bringing that to life. I'm excited to see it tonight, man. Is, wait, did I hear, are you moving to my neck of the woods? Are you looking for? Potentially, yeah. I don't think right now is quite the right moment, but I, maybe, you know, if people watch Future Man

would get another second season, I want to get a place out here because I... It's a lot riding on this. Yeah, exactly. So please, everybody, God bless it. God fucking watch the show, please. I'm begging you. No, I've always wanted to live in New York.

And I am very much over Los Angeles right now, especially just... You're preaching to the converted. Too much, yeah, okay. I've never lived in L.A. I've lived here my entire life. So, yeah, it's just... First of all, I have, I have, like, reverse seasonal depressive disorder where if it's warm and sunny... I self-diagnosed it, but it's true.

If it's, like, sunny and warm always, I'm very wild. the unhappy. Like, I'm not joking. If I wake up in October and it's like 80 degrees outside and there's on a cloud in the sky, I'm angry. I'm like physically, viscerally pissed off. Yes. If I wake up and it's cold and rainy, I'm like, thank God. The weather is mimicking my internal feeling. Oh, no, you and I, simpatico. I love a good gray day. That's my day. I know we're in the car right now and they were saying, like, I haven't seen the sun in a week. I'm like, oh, I just came. I can't wait for the nuclear winter. Exactly. It's going to be awesome.

It's going to be amazing. So, yeah, long story short, I really need to live here in this city for a time of my life. Make it happen. Yeah. I think I'm going to. You could do some theater? Exactly, yeah. There's so many things.

Yeah, I would. I have very real stage fright. Really? Yeah. Oh, for sure. How does that manifest? Like, award shows, like presenting and that kind of thing? Yeah, like I just did Kimmer-O-Same before.

And I black out. I don't know what I say. I'm not even kidding. And it's probably not good for doing theater either. But I literally am standing in your body Right before you get on stage I can't say Give me that

Give me that No I uh no I uh yeah I literally I'm standing like the wings of the like the set Getting ready to go on Yeah And I just I'm like

I'm like I'm like I'm like Again almost that feeling of being like 11 years old I'm about to kiss the girl I'm like is there blood coming out of my pores I'm not sure And I go out there Tom makes face just like the sentence in front of you You farted on me

What have you fart in front of Kimmel? Oh no But yeah, I get out there And I start talking I do the whole thing And I guess it goes off Without a hitch But afterwards

I literally do not know how it went And I come backstage And like you know All the team is there And like oh it was great That da da all this stuff And I'm like All right

Like I genuinely am like How was it And I'm not asking for validation I genuinely am like I don't know how it was But that doesn't happen Clearly on a film set When they say

When they say rolling action No that doesn't happen I mean, there's, like, times you're more nervous than others, obviously. But, but no, there's, like, something that happens with me when I do something live where I really, like, go somewhere else. Oh, okay. Maybe it's because I'm so there. Right, that's it. I'm so in the moment, man.

Wow. This is really resemble the therapy session. This is insightful, yeah. So that'll be about $300, please. I don't care. Oh, in treatment? In treatment, yes. There you, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's always good to catch up with you, man. Yes, sir. Congratulations on Future Man. It's bad shit crazy, but it's a lot of fun. Honestly, I really dug it. I'm excited to check out the rest of the episodes. Everybody, check it out. Make sure he gets his apartment in New York.

We need him here. A little place. A little box to call my own. A little box to call my own. That's all I'm asking. And I'm sure we'll chat on the next one, man. Good to see you, buddy. Absolutely.

And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't. I should do this by Josh. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences, decades or even hundreds of years after they happened.

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