Happy Sad Confused - Keegan-Michael Key & Jordan Peele, Eric Bana

Episode Date: May 2, 2016

Key and Peele sit down with Josh to talk about Keanu, and then Josh speaks with Eric Bana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Hey guys, and welcome to happy, sad, confused. I'm Josh Horowitz. Welcome to a jam-packed. Happy said-confused this week. Yeah, talk faster.

That's Sammy. That's not me doing a voice. Yeah, I should talk fast because we got a lot of content to get to guys. No, an embarrassment of riches this week on Happy, Sad, Confused. So we'll keep the intros relatively brief on the docket today. a little bit later on in the podcast we're going to have the wonderful actor

the dashing leading man that is Eric Banna you know him of course from flat clock down and he was the Hulk come on he was the first movie Hulk yeah well not the first movie I said movie

oh yeah movie Hulk and for my money actually I defend that Angley movie I know that's a controversial statement but anyway Eric Banna is coming up a little later he's talking all about special correspondence the delightful new film from Ricky Jervase that is currently on Netflix. Check it out.

But first up, we need to talk about very excited. This was an honor. Always the thrill to have these guys in here. Key and Peel stopped by, Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peel stopped by the office to talk about Keanu, their new, very, very funny new film. Sammy's excited. I am. For me, Kean Peel is like, that's the future. They're going to.

They're, I mean, they're already. They're the past, present and future. But in terms of, like, movies? Yeah. Keanu's a really good start. Jordan has directed his own film that doesn't involve Keegan. Actually, that's a straight on horror film with Allison Williams on it. So we talk a bit about that, but we talk a lot about, it's a really, I really enjoyed the conversation because it's certainly funny.

It can't not be funny if those guys are involved, but it's actually kind of a smart conversation. Not for me. Certainly not me. But from them discussing the ins and outs of comedy and their approach. to filmmaking they're brilliant they're legit super smart dudes i was in the elevator was it special was it a big moment yeah it was like oh because she'd make a joke about the buttons or something no no i was just like instead i just like that's a horrible horrible thing to do in an elevator it's overwhelming they're great they're great and keanu's now in theaters you guys should check it out

It's kind of like a throwback action comedy From the 80s and 90s We talk a lot about the films that influenced it And it was super cool I also discovered in my research We allude to this a little bit But Jordan got here a bit early And we were chit-chatting

That he, I think I mentioned this to you Sammy We went to the same school growing up Did I tell you this? Like a middle school Middle school, yes Were you in the same grade? I'm three years older than him But conceivably, I mean I don't remember him

He doesn't remember me But yes PS-87 and IS-44 We went to two schools together What? Yeah, crazy. It's so weird. You guys weren't friends. And he grew up like two blocks away from me.

Really? Yeah, bizarre. Another Upper West Sider, guys. So no wonder he's a comedic genius. So many great things come from the Upper West Side. Of people you went to schools with. Exactly. Corey Stoll, Adrienne, and Jordan Peel.

You guys should all get together and do something. Some horrible band. It sounds like the worst super group ever. Okay, since there's a lot to get to, Let's go right to the very funny, very smart conversation with Key and Peel. Go check out Keanu, guys. This is going to be so fun. Oh, it's going to be good.

You're all so lucky. This is great. Enjoy. We joined the podcast already in progress. We see Jordan is playing my Birdman action figures. You know, I was expecting there be a cape, but I see no cape. It kind of fell apart. Oh, I see.

I see. The wings, right? The wings, yeah. He used to make noises, but to name drop, Michael Keaton was on the podcast, and he was the one that actually broke my Birdman action. He fiddled with the Birdman action figure. And I wonder, Josh, if some of that is subconscious self-destruction. Yeah.

The part of Michael. Well, yeah, he may be critical of himself. Oh, now he's moved on to the Michael Shannon, Zod action figure. Zod, that's Zod. Squeeze his legs, Jordan. It'll make you happy. Oh, my gosh. Help me again.

What's in, what are in Zod's hands? That scene does not occur in the film, I believe. leave, but he is, he's holding giant green, I don't know, how do you describe like, puddle sticks? Like, no, no, they're not pugil sticks. They're like a, you're right, his default is

to have them above his head, which is interesting because he leads himself defenseless anytime he goes to strike. Right, yeah. But on the other hand, he's always working out, he's always like toning up. It's as if you're punching into granite, and he's kryptonian. Right, right, right. So if we were to try to attack him, it would be to no avail. For those just joining us, we're in the middle

of our toy assessments. Do you guys have action figures? Are there Keanu action figures my the one thing I have in the in my office which is now in storage since we've moved out of the key people office I all I have right now up is my little um my darrell from the Walking Dead uh um not bobblehead it's one of those giant like the fun co thing like a fun co yeah like a vinyl like a vinyl design you know collectible yeah and that's all I have up right now that and I have a set of nesting dolls that are different Detroit Red Wings players oh wow so that you know okay is

honoring my hometown for For you, Jordan. What's your prize possession? What's your... Well, you know, I've got a ton of toys scattered around, and they're all kind of like, everything is now, like, just packed into my room, my little... Why did you put question quotation on your room? Because it's more, it's more like a hole with a bunch of clothes and toys. It's a bit of a closet with one shelf in it. Right. Yeah, right, right, right. You guys live in the same space, I see. You have bunk beds where you...

It's about 300 square feet at number. You really should see your lawyer or something. You're not getting the proper payment. for your efforts that's probably part of the impetus of going big time because i mean that's why we're making a movie i mean tv's great and all it's adorable it's sweet i mean peabody's whatever blah blah blah blah but big time now movie stars yeah it's time to turn back i love the fact that and i like that everybody's saying it because what we're doing is you as a person who is a purveyor of of information news let's just say let's just say it's good that you're saying we're movie stars before the movies come out i like that because it's moving that idea for It's becoming closer to a reality.

To a reality every single day. Every time someone utters those words, it makes it more real. It is a reality. So then we can move into a closet that's 600. Maybe a partition. Maybe there's... Maybe we'll put up track lighting and hang a curtain. Would it be great?

What do you think? I think is good. Have we started? I think so. Are you comfortable starting? Yeah. Do you want to go back in time? Sure, do we feel...

Is that not your A-LIS material? I'm on mic check. So make sure. Go for it. I make a check one tick. Check three. Check four. tech five check five where's that coffee

all right here we go I heard check check chach chach chach where's that coffee Jordan's only consumed warm up I was not aware of this We need caffeine because you guys are in a hell of a press tour right now Yes we're actually we're coming into for landing pretty soon Very very soon Have you have you have your brain's intact

Have they melted yet? What's what's been the source of agita If there has been one on this wonderful tour? You know it's it it does feel like my brain has been um you know like like mind like some some professor x or something is like come and like looked at me in the eyes and now i'm like some kind of weird zombie dude i do feel like that too i did i did just take a half an hour nap so that was that's helpful you're refreshed but but the thing is it's as you know those days when you're kind of stranded you just keep plugging the phone and then

you have to use the phone so you never get pretty much past 69 or 72% full that's kind of where we've been for the last two weeks 72% key and peel is better than frankly most of people at a hundred percent i would argue we're looking at looking at looking at 144 percent so yeah that's good math yeah yeah yeah if our minds are together right right but that's if anyone of us a human and a half right right for most people so we and i think a lot of it is sometimes in an interview you're just speaking and then you'll watch it back later and go oh no i did i answered the question because there's just like these new neural networks they're just rutted into our minds now they just answer the question yeah there might be there might

be some stuff around it some padding but you get there we get to the essential thing eventually sometimes there aren't even actual questions right right we're just that's my style yeah so the best possible kind of podcast um uh i love that i love this movie this movie is for many for me i feel like it's a call back to some of the movies i loved as a youth i mean in terms of well it's kind of like two idiots in the middle of like a michael bay movie in some in some respects it's like bad boys it's like they were if they were yeah if they were yeah if they were idiots when it's meets Three Amigos, right? A little bit of that.

I love The Three Amigos. Come on. A bit of the, yeah, the imposter film. We talk about New Jack City. Right. Definitely wanted to make a movie in the general genre of like Raising Arizona or True Romance. Yes. There's heart in it. Yeah, lots of heart.

But then the tone, the tone still, another thing is in the mixture, the tone harkens back to movies from the mid-80s. So he's like 48 hours and Bubbly Hill's Cobb, where you kind of get that sense of, it's not an action comedy so much as it is. You can take your pick what you want the movie to be. It's either a comedy with real violence, or it's an action film with laughs in it.

Right. You know, because this is just my own personal opinion. I was discussing with someone earlier this week, that when we started calling things action comedies, they started to lose their way. It didn't happen really to the late 90s or the aughts, But they started to lose their way, I think, a little bit. And we're trying to harken back to that tone.

What's the high water mark of that genre, if it is a genre? Midnight run. Midnight run is the high water mark. Yeah, because it's, and once again, you find yourself in a position where, if you look at a lot of people in our cast, you find yourself in a position where they cast two amazing actors who happen to give over, give themselves over 100% to the genre they were in. Right. And that's what got the laughs.

Yeah. Not them trying to be funny. Well, there's a very heartfelt tale for Charles Gruden's character And that for both of them My favorite thing is this It's Jack Walsh putting the watch to his ear That device that he can't get his daughter back

And he wouldn't give up on being righteous And then they kicked him out of the fore All that stuff All that stuff in our movie is wrapped up in Keanu Yeah It's the cat represents all of that stuff And it's the only reason It's the only impetus to move forward in the piece

I mean, is it important to have those kind of conversations Because to some it might sound weird or silly to kind of talk in kind of like that heady character arc stuff like at the end of the day you obviously want people to laugh in a film like this but like do you have to kind of lay that groundwork and kind of decide on the movie you're making before you can start to just throw

out jokes and kind of figure that out yeah I mean that's how I tend to write a movie is playing it out and the same with sketch I like to know what the project is before I even put pen to paper yeah now what will happen with a movie like this

is you'll you'll do that and you'll write it and you'll write a draft and then you'll make you know have some realization some epiphany and a completely new thing will be born in this case keanu came from a later draft the the earlier draft was um about kegan's character clarence and his cousin rel and they were going on this weekend to help find help clarence find his inner badass got it And Keanu, you know, came to give my character a little bit more of a reason to be going on this journey too. But then we sort of realized, you know what? The kitten and the do-rag, Keanu, that is the movie.

That is the perfect icon to take us through the movie, the perfect McGuffin. Was Clarence kind of a callback to what true romance? Is there a little bit of that? There was, yeah. There was a purposeful Claren's shout out. I didn't know that, but I assumed it. That it's the best kind of fish. And also, what a good archetype to use as a real person who's a fish out of water.

Right. So that once again, you go back to that, I'm hammering home that point about some movies that were kind of happening in the late 90s and the aughts where you go, no, I'm sorry. They would have shot him in the head by now. You know, as opposed to Three Amigos where there's something about Three Amigos about those guys. It's about their confidence in themselves. Yeah. Where you go, oh, half of the time they don't know the trouble that they're in.

Right. So there's that sense of it as well. So growing up, were you guys, when you class, yourself as comedy nerds or film nerds or both like what was the first kind of thing that you nerded out or got obsessed obsessive with oh wow I mean both both I think for me certainly a comedy nerd first and so in those formative years it's that time where not only was I sneaking playboys I was also sneaking my dad's prior cassettes right when I shouldn't be and and but watching my father laugh was a big thing for me to watch my father laugh

at all in the family, to watch him laugh at a Bill Cosby special, to watch him laugh at those things, made me go, what's this thing and why does it yield so much, so much power over this demigod in my life, you know? And for you, for you, Jordan? Yeah, I mean, I was, yeah, full, kind of full-time nerd. I was into role-playing games and like, you know, fantasy films and things, you know, I, were you the dungeon master? What was your, what was you? Yeah, we trade out that Dungeon Master role. Have you played D&D with Vind Diesel? Is that a life goal?

Because he's a reputed huge D&D fan. Really? Did you know that? Diesel. Vin Diesel is no hardcore. He wrote like the introduction to like like D&D books. Yeah. That's his thing.

That's his thing. I would love to play that, you know. Come on. I mean, it would be so hilarious. I want to be a cleric. I want to be a cleric. This is my force Whitaker impression. Like, you know, I mean, that would be absolutely hilarious.

It's like, dude, you realize you are, like, you are the witch hunter. You are Riddick and you have, you have like $50 million. What are you going to role play as? Yeah, once you're bigger and more powerful than the creature you're creating in your imagination, there's something that's a little off. What are you going to be? You won life. No, but I get it.

There's something about escape. And, you know, video games for a while. But comedy was always a thing, too. I loved sketch comedy, living color, Saturday Night Live. deaf comedy jam yeah it was it was all about was all about TV was that all hitting you at the same time

was that it's all kind of hitting at the same time I went through I went deep into aliens the movie aliens of James Cameron that was a that was a real deep I had a face hugger over my bed did you really I did I don't know that all the all the comics magazines I was bonkers so what

let's talk like again because this is kind of keeping in the theme of the film, the action heroes that resonated with you. So were you, Team Schwarzenegger, Van Dam, Seagall, where were you? Where's your allegiance when you think 80s, 90s action heroes? For me, it would definitely, one movie that always sticks with me is Commando.

And because, and I think it has to do mostly with just being just a little bit older than Jordan. So he was, I had a very solid diet. Remember raw deal? Oh, yeah. Raw deal. You should not drink and bake. one of the great lines ever in a film yeah raw deal commando um uh total with the original total recall

cinema total with obviously not literature but but but the so he was right in my preview but then for me the big thing was i was a thriller guy like i'm thinking of the movies that stuck with me the most i'm i was just gaga for de nero so things like angel heart and those kind of thrillers those were and i was right in high school like right in high school when all that was happening and i i i had an inkling about wanting to be an actor in my formative years. But right in that moment, that was it. I'm like, I want to be that guy. Yeah.

I want to be Robert De Niro. But he never played anything close to an action hero until Midnight Run. Right. So, so it was, but it was mostly those guys and then seeing really dangerous people in comedies. So any, you know, everything was legit and Ghostbusters. The scariness was scary. And, and, but I'm trying to think other hero. I mean, I was a big Schwarzener guy.

And then, of course, die hard was the greatest thing that had ever happened in the history of the world. it still might be. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was, that was, McLean was the thing, but, you know, Ripley, Linda, Sigourney.

Yeah, Sigourney, also, T2, T2, Linda Hamilton. Yeah. Yeah, those were it. I was crazy about, um, uh, Thelman Louise.

Yeah. And also just absolutely bonkers over point break. Totally. Point break. I see this all the time, business, I just, I think at every moment of the day it was repeating, when you have a set piece with people pursuing them in a house. The foot chase, right? Yeah. Yeah. When someone throws a grown dog at you, that's the coolest thing I may have ever seen in a movie. Like in the same scene,

a rot while gets thrown at you. Yeah. And someone tries to slice your face up with a lawn and ends with a guy shooting guns, uh, built in theater for no reason. Exactly. For no reason. It just, um, that now getting into the late 90s, I think, The Matrix is just a seminal film because everything about it reminds me everything about the Matrix reminds me how Jordan writes because you were asking that question earlier

and the big thing is I attribute a lot of how he writes about getting the architecture and the groundwork down to his love of horror films because you're constantly, correct me if I'm wrong, you're constantly thinking about now why wouldn't they leave? Now why wouldn't they leave? It's that good old fashion

it goes back to Richard Pryor. It's that Richard Pryor joke. you know, goodbye, you know. So if you can solve that problem, and then another thing, my old roommate from graduate school, Tyler, said something, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I thought you'd find this interesting.

In a thriller like, dead again, something like a movie like that, dead again, great movie, great concept. But in movies like that, my friend Tyler used to always say, I want to find a movie where there's not a coincidence that triggers you into the third act. Like, what movie happens where there's not a coincidence? right you have to have a twist

no coincidence in sixth sense right no coincidence if I'm correct in usual suspects right because the overall thing was already set into place

right right right so in Keanu there's a couple of delicious surprises at the end where if you had any sense that you were like but now why would she oh I see

happens right at the end right right and so yeah and you're coming up Jordan you're coming off of directing your first film which is a horror film and you would And I would think you're confronting some of the stuff that Keegan talks about.

And it's challenging if you're if you're obeying that kind of law of like let's think logically and let's not just like throwing coincidence and and kind of treating your audience intelligently. Yeah. I mean, it's it really is, it's the bread and butter of every good movie. You know, I really talk about comedy and horror as having a lot to do with each other. Yeah. Very similar. And you, the big thing for me is,

to ground it. Something's only as funny or as scary as it is played realistically, I think. And even, you know, even when you talk about something like Looney Tunes, which is hilarious, obviously, and isn't necessarily realistic, but it has rules. Right. And it has, you know, you can walk out and off a cliff and stand there for a couple seconds and then you fall. Right. But that's kind of like a consistent rule.

Yeah, totally. You can count on that happening every time you walk off a cliff. That is reality. Yeah, yeah, right. So there's a reality, there's physics to it. Yeah, the rules you're obeying, even if they're absurd. Exactly. And then, you know, so we had this, there was this whole horror movie renaissance with, you know, the found footage.

Right. And that, I think that really resonated because, first of all of a sudden, video is the way we actually consume life and we actually record life. and that became more grounded and relatable. And so when you applied that to these movies, you know, the Blair Witches and the paranormal, all of a sudden, it just feels like, oh, my God, that's, that is real, that's real stuff. Right.

You know, I think, you know, psycho sort of started a renaissance. So, you know, they're just talking about a crazy person. Oh, that's too real. Yeah. But, yeah, anything that I'm doing and I was, those genres, I'm going to be, it's going to be taking an absurd, crazy notion and then just applying as much reality to it as possible. I want to talk about sort of like the arc of the last few years for you guys, because

you've obviously achieved such phenomenal success with the TV show. And I'm wondering, like, how you kind of rationalize it all in your mind. Like, do you feel like you got funnier or people came around to you? Do you know what I mean? Like, are you substantially funnier and smarter than you were 10 years ago? Or did it just take the right vehicle and the right timing for, you know, you know, to have this kind of moment you've been experiencing for a while now. I think it's the latter.

I mean, there's growth. There's always growth because you start, as you get older, you start to notice patterns and notice what works and what doesn't work. So there's process of elimination that just happens by growth as a human. But the other thing is, when the idea came up about us being partners, that was a no-brainer for me. I was watching him come into his own. He was already 85% there before we started Kean Peel.

I'm like, oh, I'm an idiot if I don't, if I'm not going to write and collaborate with this guy. It was a foregone conclusion. So to me, it's more of the latter than the former because there's training that we had. It's like if you never, if Cirque de Soleil was only happening in Montreal and then finally someone had the money to have it tour, you're going to go, I'm sorry, what just happened? Right. He just leapt from the what to the wear onto her head and then balance. That's not a possible thing that humans can do.

It's why, it's why crouching tiger, hidden dragon won an Oscar. I'd been watching those movies for 15 years. And then everybody in the stage just collapses and goes, God, I'm like, over a wirework? I've been seeing wirework for years. So I think it's the way we were trained and our perspective crashed together and then we were given a vehicle

to show it to a widespread group of people. But that's my opinion. Did you guys ever kind of, for lack of a better term, have your kind of like Dave Chappelle near meltdown moment where like it was too much, where it felt like everybody was revering you and the pressure got to be a little bit overwhelming, or did it feel like it was manageable throughout the five-year run? It was manageable. We, you know, I think the, you know, the big difference between Chappelle and us is we have each other, you know, so that's, you know, I think, you know, toward the end, it almost, if, you know, you always hear he, he. sort of was grappling with who's laughing and who's the show for and who is it okay. And almost too can he trust, like he was isolating himself maybe a little bit too from. Right. And for Keegan and I, we can kind of focus on making each other laugh.

Yeah. And that's, that can be the beginning and end of it. Yeah. And it's like, you know, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, if the, you know, if the, if the, you know, if the, if the, you know, if the, you know. Right. who's to say the racist white guy through laughter will not have some iota of an epiphany sure who's to say that won't happen and um but at the end of the day like jordan says if you can objectively look at your if you can take a step to just kind of objectively look at your job yeah and you don't get bogged down with going oh i'm being a responsible being irresponsible you really just go are they laughing done done good done right yeah we could go crazy trying to police who's laughing and why and why and why they're laughing that way yeah yeah yeah do you guys now now coming off of the show do you guys like own the rights to all those characters can you do with them as you please or is it oh no those are viacom properties yeah yes gotcha so is that is that a somewhat of a headache in terms of like oh we created this great thing that legitimately we feel there's there's more to do um or are the powers that be willing and able to kind of work with you on these kind of

things. Can it kind of work? I mean, it does sort of futs with our incentive to go back there a little bit. But, you know, that's not to say that'll stop us 100%. But, you know, also, we're wired to be looking to do the next thing and surprise. And we resisted the recurring character for two seasons.

for a couple of seasons and then eventually start finding some sketches and realizing oh you know what we've already come up with the perfect character to execute this game this comedic game yeah so yeah it's I think ultimately it's it's a good thing that we don't

because we could just spend the rest of our lives playing in that world and that sandbox we created and there's clearly it seems to be a reason if you just look at the history of successful sketch shows that they've run two or three or four or sometimes five seasons yeah longer than they should and you guys, are smart guys, you were probably cognizant of both the history and your own creative

output and knowing, yeah, you don't want to pour it all into four-minute sketches. There are other ambitions. Yeah, it's like if people, if we went up there and people had that feeling of, what? No, I need more. I feel like if we have that, we'll be able to rock forever with that. Yeah, why would you not want that? Or, you know, it would be the same thing if we didn't, let's say we made this movie and it went really well and then didn't make it. and then just totally Terrence mallocked it and didn't make a movie for seven years which would then us

be, would just be us falling into the into the Pixar pattern. Because that would just mean that the movie was, we knew the movie was going to kill when it came out because if you allow yourself to take that time. And the other thing is what I thought you were about to say, Josh, was we've also seen that you see the track record of

movies where the star is a sketch character. Right. And how does that work? And you know, our toes right now are dipped in that water, but it's going to be, I'd rather it take four years and have it be right and have one to say, oh my God, they did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did it again.

They took a recurring character and made it work. How did they do that? Right. You know, so you either, you can do two things. You can look to the success of how somebody has done in the past, i.e. Jake and Elwood blues. Right. Or you insert five SNL things that just didn't work for whatever reason.

Yeah, and try to figure out, you know, what's the difference there? The other thing is, if I may, that's interesting about Jake and Elwood Blues. There was never, ever a Blues Brothers sketch. Right. They appeared in a, it wrapped in mystique, performed a song, and then disappeared. Right. So your imagination could spread and spread and spread about what their backstory is. Yeah, part of the beauty of that movie was like, it's a whole new world.

You've never possibly, or if you've imagined it, maybe you imagine something different. Of course, yeah. And, yeah, yeah. So, you know, it only behooves us to think in the way. that we're already, the way that our circuitry already works. I mean, do, coming off of this, of this film, do you have the same kind of, like, do you feel like you have the same mastery and confidence in this form now

as you'd had on, you clearly had sketch on lockdown? You kind of, by the end, or even a season in, you knew what you were doing. Do you feel like this is apples and oranges? Do you feel like you now kind of, like, have the tools and know what's required in a feature film? You know, it's very different. I think, I think we're, I don't think we can say we're, We were masters of film yet.

You know, it's the beginning of our journey. We're definitely very, very proud of the way this one turned out. Sketch is something we, you know, we had a lot of practice in. A lot. Yeah, way over 10,000 hours. Right. Yeah, it's sketch, right. So, and so I think the sort of the tricks of that form,

the, I think there was something, we came in, very confidently feeling like who's got the, who's logged in the hours at this format that we have. And we basically were able to just take our favorite elements from all the best sketch shows and blend them into one. And, you know, vague elements like always keep the audience on their toes. You know, you have this, you have this format that if you use it to your advantage, it can be a the best thing ever, but you have to do that. And you have to realize, yeah, we're, we, this format is about, uh, vignettes. It's about small, these short sketches and seeing seven of them in one episode.

So better make sure you go to seven completely different places. Right. And even after the first six sketches, you want that last one to blow people's minds that, oh my God, now they're doing a pirate shanty? What's going on here? Right. Um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Movies are, is, is so exciting for us and so fun because we're such fans.

And, uh, and we, we, we had so much fun on this film and we, we learned so much. Yeah. Um, we have, we have more to do. I would think that part of the excitement and conundrum or headache of coming off with such a massive success is, is, is, I mean, the great part is you have so much opportunity and so much thrown at you, frankly, for the, not first time, but like more so than ever, probably in your careers, right? That's true. Yeah. But there's also this onus on you to. to make the right choices and to say you're probably saying no frankly to a lot of things is that sort of like is that its own headache in a way in terms of um being selective and not sure you've offered a thousand things to hosts or put your attach your name to um like how do you choose

where to throw your time money and headspace at this point well you have to go i think i feel that you have to go back to the why you have to keep going back to the why Yeah. Sometimes I can't speak for Jordan, but sometimes I get in a place where my nose is on the grindstone so closely that I don't pull back and look at the entire mill. And I need to pull back and say, okay, go outside and look at the sign on the door of the mill and figure out what's the name of this mill and what do you make here. So that you're doing the why first, then the how, then the what. Yeah. And just, you know, Simon Sinek, you know, it's that the golden circles. It's, it's, you have to have a sense of what the why is. And some days I get, it's a bit of a challenge for me, I get lost in the why. And at the end of the day, one thing that's helpful with that is always going, how much money do you really need? Is all this money over here that is potential worth your fulfillment? Your artistic fulfillment and your overall happiness as a human being.

That's part of the why. That's one ingredient of the why. So for me, it gets, it's getting easier to say no, but I have lots of representatives in my life. who have representative waving in the back yes constant headaches like why would you say yes to okay well what about for you but jordan is it again i i would think like you know everybody struggles to a certain degree earlier in their career it must be kind of a little bit of a a mind fuck at some point to be able to to to have to say no to things that maybe 10 years ago you would have killed to do you know it's it's really it's pretty liberating yeah you know

it's a good thing it's it's what we you know we worked hard to kind of get to the this point. So there's something very, uh, very nice about it actually. Yeah. I mean, my, my kind of thing is if, uh, you know, early in the career, you do a lot of, you know, you recognize that fame and, uh, being recognizable and, uh, having a brand of some sort is, is so much of the currency that's going to get you more work and allow you to do what you want to do. Right. Um, so, now we kind of have that and uh and and so you know my thing is you know i i don't i don't i i make a cut off of those those those projects those shows that are it's like the only thing

you really get out of it is maybe you get a little bit more exposure yeah um and uh because because yeah ultimately it's like we can we can we can do are the things we've been waiting to do our whole lives now are there i mean you know this is this is obviously a holy original property that you've created here uh that being said like we were we were just shooting the shit for a while like geeking out on like pop culture that we both grew up on early on um like is there i know police academy something that you guys have some involvement in is there like a franchise a property that like if they came calling you would be like i need to get i need to be involved in some way that would just be wish fulfilled fulfillment for you i mean that that is the that's the toughest part is when

comes along that is in that category you're talking about where hits you in the heart as a kid or something yeah it's like the original so much it's like well now um i can't say no right like i'm not i'm not a i'm not a terribly huge fan of the the new teenage mutant ninja turtle movies if they asked me to be in one of them i would have to be in one you just genetically you wouldn't be incapable of saying no i'd be incapable of saying no to that just because my heart and soul my childhood is all wrapped around right that you know if you if you my only caveat would be that it can't be mocap if you asked me to play a shrub on tattooing i would do it if you ask me to do anything other than motion capture in a star wars film why don't you do the mocap do it no mocap

we've had we've had mocap issues in the past on star wars talking jar jar yeah that's what i'm Well, I guess Lepida's character And the new one is pretty good I like that character But the Jarger still stays The Jarger stuff is It's in there And it's in my, it's definitely

It's like halfway to the hill In my craw It's still But then You know what? I don't know if you know There was a series of books In the 80s

called Elric of Melnebonnet I don't, okay Elric of Melnabonnet And his other name Which was very unsettling It was called Elric the Woman Slayer And he was like this Nordic Nordic DEMI

God guy. And when I was younger, I was thought that's, I remember it was the first time in my life because it was just starting to happen. I read these thick novels, and then they turned the novels into graphic novels. So I read a lot of independent comics, like, um, um, it was just my, you know, first exposure to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Right. And, um, uh, what was it? There was another one called radioactive, prepubescent hamsters that did not take off. Um, but, um, there's a series, there was a series in the comic eclipse comics called Scout. Yeah. And it was about a Native American who traveled across the country.

And he would be on these peyote trips and he would see these monsters. They were humans who were screwing up water reclamation rights or they were running drug rings or human slavery rings. But he would do drugs and somehow feel that they were bad people. So the comic book would play out much like the Max. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's always stuck with me. why have you not optioned this i know i should yeah jordan's like look you look at that willow yeah who's who's signed that well that's that's that's val kilmer oh my god you got you got mad marigan

up on that will i knew it was only a matter of time before he saw that comic book and something i didn't i didn't notice he didn't notice and i went i'm going let him have that surprise yeah that's please a source of great pride that's that's amazing he wrote i mean that that that made an impact come on who that was great you know it's funny because uh you you know you're you're a couple years older than me a couple years yeah we discovered that we went to the same junior high school actually yeah yeah oh really yeah but you know based i've noticed you know in kegan's a few years older than us right a couple years older than us but i noticed there's this very interesting uh pop culture divide where um and you correct me if i'm wrong it's like keegan you you when willow came

out it's like the feeling was like okay this is supposed to be the next star wars you were smart enough or wise enough for but maybe not that but like you had here's what a flop right right right right It was a flop. Right. I never knew that. But it kind of was our Star Wars in a way. In a way. It was a medieval GUT Star Wars.

Right. My thing is I'm, because I'm, because I'm, so how old are you, Josh? I am 40. Okay, so I'm five years older than you. So the thing that's interesting is I saw Willow, knew that girls in my high school who had seen it liked it, and I had to figure out if there was a girl I could take to see it. That's what I was thinking about. More important strategy than us. Right.

But, but, but, but, or just certainly a different strategy. Yes. And remember, one of our EP. He's on Key and Peel, Jay Martel, who's written for the National Lampoon and worked on Michael Morris shows, The Awful Truth and the TV Nation, right? It was a writer on those shows and contributes to the New Yorker, these days, he's a writer, you know. But it's interesting to talk to him. He's 57.

So if you talk to him about Star Wars, he was 14 when Star Wars came out. So he was, he thought also, oh, this, there's no way to. it'll be better than Logan's run. This is great, but it's no silent running. Which is so funny. When you think about something like Star Wars, I look at Jordan's career as he moves forward, and I always think about, it's like,

I'm being very presumptuous right now, but if Keanu does the best it can possibly do, I look forward to, I hope I'll be involved. But the way that Lucas did Star Wars, but if you look, you've ever seen the movie, THX 1138? Sure. I love. This is your THX, you think?

I feel like this could be, let's hope that this is our Star Wars that affords us to make a THX 1138. Okay, you're going more experimental. Go more experimental and see, you've seen that movie. I've never seen it. Donald Pleasance, Robert DeVall, and not Shirley Knight, not Shirley Knight, but I came up with the woman. I'm blanking on the female lead, yeah, yeah, you've been told me. Futuristic dystopia, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah.

It's terrific. And it reminds me, it's like an earlier version of the movie equilibrium with Christian baby, a better version probably, a better version probably, with all due respect. But you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. There's a grit and a darkness and I can't, like, we do this all the time. He's like, you've got to see this. Yeah, totally.

I've got to see this. We'll all come together and watch Willow again and again together. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Before you guys run, if these questions weren't stupid enough, I've got even dumber questions. And this Indiana Jones fedora, would you care to pick out a random question or two? You're going to ask in the fedora or you're going to pick it out and you're going to ask yourself. All right. Okay.

You can both take whatever you want. Okay. My question, Josh Horowitz, says, when was the last. time I cried. Jordan was there. He witnessed it first. Did Jordan do it to you? No, he did.

We were on the plane flying here to New York to finish up our press. And here's what was amazing. So I had not yet seen Inside Out. So I'm watching Inside Out. He said to me like a month ago, he goes, five minutes in, scoosh. It's just going to start coming on. Oh, that early. I was thought it was going to be Bing Bong.

I thought it was going to take a little while. Bing Bong got me hard. And it got me. so hard that Jordan Jordan's sitting next to me Jordan there's a person in the room hasn't seen Bing Bong yeah it hasn't since I won't but you know the scene and you know the sequence

of course so Jordan is watching me I was watching the screen the whole time because I knew when the Bing Bong went off I was going to do this so my man he does I can't really do it but this is what Jordan did he's watching and watching me then it starts happening he starts weeping I'm weeping

And then he turns him and he goes, right, dude. I'm like, yeah, dog. Got that bing bong. You got that bing bong? And I'm like, yeah. Like, smiling and weeping at the same time. Because it's so fucking well done that you can, nothing's been better done in a movie in 2015.

It's pretty awesome. And you're just going, and so that was, that was the last time I cried. It was literally 48 hours ago. You got bing bing bonged hard. I got bing bing bonged hard. I got bing bing bonged hard. okay my favorite Halloween costume okay I was a poker table one year

I was a kid my mom got came with it she uh we it was a round piece of cardboard put over my head and neck and then a red and white checker table cloth that's amazing

there was a a plate of pretzels on my head beer cards chips were all on the table and I had a problem thinning through doors. Tricker, tricker, hold on. I could just trick.

Maybe slightly easier than a roulette wheel at the best maybe? Slightly, slightly easier. But harder in that it's a square? It was around. It was round. It was round. It was round. It was round. It was kind of like a moffy. So soft edges at the very least. Oh, man. Look for Jordan this Halloween as a gambling table of CBD. We'll see.

Perhaps this time. Perhaps this time again. narrow on the side so you get rid of the door. Kind of stroll through the casino, see what... Yeah, what the hot game is this year? Exactly. Mahjong. It's good to have you guys in here. Best of luck in Keanu.

It's a great film and hopefully many more collaborations to come. It comes out on April 29th. I'll be there. 2016 in case anybody is... Wait, that's this year. This year, it's literally like 48 hours from now. Speaking of, films that have a similar tone. If you like 48 hours.

You're going to love this kid. Thanks. guys. Thank you, man. Good to see you. Hi, everybody. This is David Gregory, and I want to tell you about my new podcast, The David Gregory Show. It is that easy to remember. And it's me talking to all sorts of really interesting people, getting them off their regular script into deeper, more personal conversations, like Ariana Huffington about parenthood. I think especially for mothers, they take the baby out and they put the guilt in. Or Bravo TV's Andy Cohen on being less

afraid. Look, I'm a single gay dude on a late night talk show. If I can't overshare, who can? We'll have a new program every Friday, so go to iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever your favorite podcast app, and download the David Gregory show and eavesdrop on really cool conversations. Thanks for listening. All right, next up on the podcast, hopefully you guys enjoyed the comedic stylings and smart witticisms and pithy witticisms of Key and Peel. Again, check out Keanu now in theaters. But as a bonus today, we also have a really great conversation with Eric Banna, who I was

really excited to talk to because he's had a very, a very interesting career. For those that don't know, he started out in comedy. Did you know that, Sam? No. Yeah. He had a very big career in Australia. He had his own show, the Eric Banna show. What?

I swear to God, I swear to God, go on YouTube. He did impressions of like Schwarzenegger. and Cruz and like he was a big deal in Australia as a comedian and then made this shift with this very good film called chopper years ago and then it was off to the races soon after came Black Hawk down and Hulk and Munich had this great run and and Munich I mean heavy stuff and now it's really settled into kind of like a really reliable interesting career where I feel like he's he's kind of out of the rat race and but he's kind of settled into kind of a groove as both a character actor and leading man.

You know, he was the bad guy in Star Trek. He did his own documentary that he directed. And as I said earlier, he's now starring with Ricky Jervase. He's also friends with Hugh Jackman. Well, they all know each other. The Aussie crew, right? We're like such a clique. Something in the water.

This guy, by the way, when he sat down, I was like, oh, you're a super good looking dude. I guess I understand why you have starred in movies directed by Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee. I mean, yeah, he's like cut from the same clock as my immortal beloved. Yeah. And I should say, like you, a very charming man and a good sense of humor. So first time I got a chance to have an extended conversation with him and really happy to do so.

So without any further ado... Does he do any impressions? I don't think you... Don't wrote it. Oh, yeah. Stay tuned. I remember to check out special correspondence on Netflix right now and enjoy this conversation with Eric Banna.

Eric Banna. Banna. Can you say Australian? Eric Banna. I was so good. Was it? Okay. I feel like maybe.

Cut it up. Oh, look. It's Eric Banna. He just walked into my office. Chancy that. Should we confess that the first two minutes of brilliant conversation is lost to the ether? You should confess.

I don't think. I've got anything to confess. Eric was great. Eric had a great introduction, and I didn't record it. But suffice to say he's here. He made it. And it's very hard to recreate that magic. So we're not going to have to forget that didn't happen.

But I will recreate my compliments on the film. Special Correspondence, you and the brilliant Ricky Jervais. Thank you. This is a fun one coming to Netflix very soon. That's going to be kind of the call that every actor kind of dreams of. It would certainly make my career, if I ever heard Ricky wanted to work with me. my God. Absolutely. I mean, I think there's, I mean, if you're being really honest, there's probably only room for a few times in your career where, um, you know, you really have to pinch yourself.

And the first day of working with Ricky on the set was definitely one of those. I mean, when you're a huge fan of someone and suddenly you're working with them, it's, it is slightly bizarre. I mean, you get over very quickly, but you do allow yourself, you got to allow yourself that moment and going, yeah, this is, this is, this is pretty cool. How does it come, as it comes it straight from Ricky? Or is it, you can come in, thanks. Thank you. It came in, thank you very much.

Thanks so much. It came in, we're at the same agency and someone called me up and said, who works with Ricky. Ricky's got this new project, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to send you the script. And I thought, that's actually a cool thing about sharing an agency is I get to read what Ricky's doing next. Yeah, forget even if I'm involved.

No, I had no idea. be involved and I said how am I getting to read this and they're like well Ricky wants to know if you want to play Frank and my first reaction was he knows who I am he knows he knows who I am so I was already happy with I was just happy that Ricky had heard of me and then I read the script and realized that it was like a buddy comedy and that and it was like him and I um for a majority of the film I just yeah I couldn't believe it I loved the script thank God and it was yeah it was a very quick yes. I was watching an interview that you guys actually just did on the stage this morning and I was surprised. Is this true that he wasn't even aware of your comedy

background? That can't be. Is he playing? No, that's true. It's true. And I wasn't aware of that fact until after we met and had lunch. And then I wasn't sure if he was taking to taking the piss or whether he was telling the truth. Then there was no, he's telling the truth, which was the greatest thing for me to hear because it just kind of freed me up and made me realize that I can just go and, you know, I mean, I realized that, I mean, I realized that for the film to be funny, I just had to do Frank well, you know?

You're almost in your own drama in a way. Exactly, exactly. And then by by recognizing that, you then leave room for the two of you to be funny together. Yeah. But if you set out for Frank to be funny, it would have been disastrous. Right.

And so I think it probably was an advantage because maybe if he had a known about my comedy background, he might have been scared that I was going to come in and try and be funny. Right. So then, you know, we just found a happy medium

where then we started bouncing off each other and I think the film's, you know, better for it. Yeah. So the stuff that occurs between us just kind of happened organically rather than being sort of forced. Right. Now, he, of course, wrote this one, directed this one. He's a joy to be around. He's an easy laugher, to say the least. I know just from my experience.

Can it get in the way? Does the piercing, haunting laugh of Ricky Jervais haunt your dreams sometimes? No. I mean, it gets in his way because he's the director and the writer and the producer. producer, so he would waste his own time laughing, which was good for me because I'm a laugher on set. And so that's, again, that sort of took the pressure off. And I'd realize that it was, you know, that I'd never get in trouble for it. So it's, it's one of these fun films in that it's kind of like built on a snowballing lie, basically, that just kind of gets insanely

out of hand. Is that something that, I mean, to relate it to an actor's career, did you ever do the thing, lying on your resume, basically, on your skill set in terms of getting a job? Oh, we all do that. I mean, there's that, there's a hilarious, so I'm just raising my, which one, hang on. There's that hilarious form that everyone fills out when they're beginning that, you know, it's like grade yourself on a level of one to five in the following 650 activities. And, of course, you can skydive and win. I mean, everyone's James Bond when they're filling out that.

They're all retired stuntsman, you know, so. Does anyone, one skill jump to mind that got you into trouble at some point? or we have to. Although the irony was that, you know, I've done, you know, lucky enough to have done a lot of different things and I've actually had to call upon

a lot of the things that I've had to, would have to have lied about. You know, can you ride a horse? Yes, never ridden a horse before. Can you fight? Yes. Never fought before. Can you, you know, sword fight.

Yes, of course. So, yeah. What's the joy of this character beyond just the interplay with Ricky? I mean, even the opening moments of the, see of the film really set the character, like just the swagger he has down the street. It's like, okay, I get this guy. I know this guy.

There's nothing more fun than playing arrogance for real. Right. Not tongue-in-cheek arrogance, but total, complete self-belief dick arrogance is so much fun. And like I say, when you're not playing it for last, when you're playing, you know, like Frank really thinks he is the man, you know. So I think committing to that was a lot of fun. Yeah. It was a lot of fun.

Where did you shoot this all in one place? We shot between you and I. The film's set in New York. Yeah. We shot in Toronto. Did you? Okay. But then we did come here.

We did come here. We crossed the border. I was going to say. And we did a few days. We did some, you know, the obligatory pickups on the streets of New York. And so most of what you see on the streets of Manhattan is real. We'll try like a film festival. Didn't kick you out.

They allowed you here. They, you passed the threshold of being a New York film. Is that the threshold? I guess. I don't know about that. But I've been here with films that weren't shot in New York. I love the festival, actually. I really do.

I think it's, in all honesty, it's one of the true festivals. I love the programming. There's a kind of lack of arrogance to the programming. It's my fourth film that I've been here with. And, yeah, I think it's a great festival. Are you a consumer of film? Are you, I mean, I know you've got kids. You're a busy guy with your own work.

but like do you make a habit of trying to catch things, especially at a film festival where you're working, but are you able to see other things? Not in this case. I dip in and out. I go through active periods of non-film watching, and then I go through periods of, of binging. And that works for me.

And I guess it's that thing of like, because my life at home is so completely normal and different from my working life, I then don't even really want to watch movies as well. So I tend to go through. you know, I'll go through months where I won't even see a film and then I'll sort of binge on a bunch of stuff. But yeah, I try to try to take a break from it. Well, so give me the sense of growing up with the first film's first actors that resonated with you, maybe even before you knew you wanted to make a go of it. Well, I guess early on, I mean, well, for a start, my uncle used to sneak

me into the drive-in when I was a kid. So I started out watching way too many R-rated films when he was babysitting. And then, obviously, The stuff that I was allowed to watch was a lot of comedies, you know. So I grew up with, you know, a lot of the classic comedies in the early 80s and mid-80s and was a huge fan of people like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. So I had a lot of comedic influence early on. And then, you know, I was born in 68. So all of 70s films were the stuff that I grew up with, like, you know, the godfathers

and, you know, one flavor of the cuckoo's nest and dog day afternoon. you know, movies like that. So that were heavy influences. But then being from Australia, obviously Mel Gibson was a big influence, you know, because he was an Australian guy who was on screen not as an Australian guy. You know, it's just an actor. Right. It wasn't Crocodile Dundee.

So that was, that was a bit of a remarkable moment for me, you know, watching, watching his career. Well, this brings up a couple of questions. What was the viewpoint from the local viewpoint on Clock? at al-Dundee. I remember here. I mean, that was kind of a phenomenon here in the States. Was there disdain for what that kind of stereotype was back back home? Or pride? No, not at the time. I think pride. I think pride that, you know, even though it's less than ideal, at least there was someone with an Australian accent speaking in a film. And when you think about it, you know, we never get to do that. Like, I think I've done one Australian accent in 20 years outside of Australia,

which was funny people, again, playing an arrogant dick, but with an Australian accent. So, for some reason, we don't exist in the world in cinema on film, which is kind of really not right when you think about it. It's bizarre. It is bizarre. I mean, there's plenty of Australians and Brits everywhere, but not in films. No, no, no, you can't do that. So funny people was about the only time where actually that character was American originally

and I said to Jad, look, I'd love to do this, but I've got to do them as an Australian. Why was that? I just thought it'd be funnier. I just thought the character would, there was more to play with her. I knew that guy. I knew the Australian version of that guy. Yeah. And Judd was really cool about it.

Yeah. Just do it. You know, so. So give me a sense of, of the impact of a film like Mad Max and Mel Gibson as a kid. I mean, one of the biggest treats of the last year was I had George Miller here on the podcast. Wow. And, I mean, Fury Red. I don't know what you thought of it was epic and sane in all the best possible ways.

but it's a that first film they're all all four of them have been kind of mind-blowing in their own respects what was it like for you as a kid to see that uh well the first film is is on such a level of genius on i mean it's just it's kind of the perfect film to me actually the second one is almost the most perfect film they're on a part i find them really hard to separate first one's so innocent and out there and just genius and original the second one is is one of the rare cases where a larger budget made an as good, if not better film than the first one. Sure. I think it's the perfect action film of all time.

But the first one, I mean, it's just, I just love everything about it, you know, and I was a car guy. And so that was the explosion of, you know, the big screen car film that was also Australian. I mean, it was just like, it was too much, it was too good to be true. Too perfect made for you. You know, it was like an overdose. And I don't even think I was late to see that on the big screen because, yeah, I would have been too young. So I think I saw it on VHS and then, you know, I saw it years later on the big screen. But, yeah, it was just, yeah, too much.

Have you met Mel or George in the intervening years? I've met both. Yeah, I met both once, actually. George, very, very sweet man. I directed a documentary years ago about my obsession with my first car, which is the same car as in Mad Max, a Ford Falcon Coupe. and I had to get permission for a tiny bit of footage from Mad Max and he was so gracious and then he turned up to the premiere of the documentary in Melbourne

so yeah got a soft spot for George absolutely amazing um so I mean yes I mean for those that don't know and we've already alluded to it obviously the first part of your career was was spent uh mostly in comedy really and I mean it was that I mean how did that develop I mean was it stand up first yeah and why and how and was it just all against random or was it desperation No. In all seriousness, I mean, in a way out.

Yeah, I was working in a, I was, you know, my 23rd non-serious job in a row. I was working in a, in a bar as a glass boy and a barman. And the promotions manager said to me once, he decided to put on a comedy night. And he said to me, said, you should get up. I said, I'm not going to get up. He said, he should get up and do kind of what you do for us when we're packing up at the end of the night. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, but that's, you know, again, I grew up.

you know, watching people like Richard Pry. And I thought every stand-up was of that standard, okay? And he said, no, just do it. Just do it. So I got up and did five minutes and... And this is just improvised off top of your head? Yeah, I sort of wrote some stuff that day. Okay.

And got up, did five minutes. It went really well. And the guy who was paid to headline that night, I literally bumped into him in the bathroom afterwards. And he said, yeah, man, you should come along to another gig and give this a go. I think you'd have a future in stand-up. comedy. And I said, oh, okay, I just took it with a grain of salt. And then again, Jim, the promotion manager said, you know what, we're going to go to a stand-up night. I want you to

see what it's like. So a week later, went to a stand-up comedy venue in Melbourne, and there were probably six comedians, and five of them pretty much sucked. And one of them was really good. And he said, okay, here's the breakdown. That guy's doing it for free. That guy's doing it for $60. That guy's doing it for $150. And that guy's doing it for $400. And I said, are you serious? It's like, yeah. I said, okay, I'm in. I'm in.

Because I'm picking up glasses for eight bucks an hour and I want, I went in on that. So I literally went away and wrote, you know, 10, 15 minutes of stuff and started doing tryouts. What kind of stuff were you writing about? What were you performing? It was kind of anecdotal. Yeah. It was sort of story. I mean, I used to do a few impressions here and there, but it was sort of just basic storytelling stuff.

it was a bit of blue stuff as I progressed as I'm a short as I'm a bit of blue. But I tried not to go full, full blue initially. And then I just, yeah, I was more prolific early on. I was pretty good with my writing in terms of being disciplined. And, you know, before I knew it, I was working full time and doing, you know, 45-minute sets. And I was doing that for quite some years. And then auditioned for a sketch comedy program.

Right. And then, and then that was it, sort of went from there. So what was the ambition? Was it kind of, again, was it sort of just like in the beginning, it was, you know, an opportunity to make some decent cash. And then obviously, I think you probably get a flush of success and realize, oh, wait, people are appreciating what I'm doing. So that encourages you.

But were you kind of goal oriented then? Was it like, I need to get this 45 minutes so I have a full thing? Do I need to get to the States? Do I want to act? Like, what was your out of? It's a good question because I did want to act. I wanted to act because I thought I could do it. right i just for whatever reason call it naivety or like it wasn't about i want to be in movies i just

look i watched movies and i just felt i felt like i think i could i could do that i think i could be other people and when i started doing stand-up i almost didn't make the connection right i just i kind of fell into it and i was okay at it and suddenly i was like a proper job and i was touring and you know i had a pretty good following and and um it's just kind of snowballed It wasn't until I got into sketch comedy that I started to link the two. And I had a lot of people. There was only, we had a big cast. There's probably 12 of us.

And there were only two or three of us that were comedians and the rest were actually actors. And because I was surrounded by all these actors every day, I suddenly thought, well, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference between doing carrying on like an idiot and playing eight people in a day to then get an opportunity to just be one person for eight weeks. That seems a lot easier. math a little bit. Yeah. So I, the sketch comedy was a bit of a fence. Fence pull down for me. Did it feel like you were, because I mean, prior to Chopper, had you really done many films, TV outside of the sketch stuff and outside of doing your own comedy stuff? It feels like you hadn't. No. So how, so were you going up for jobs and just people not seeing you in that light or were you not, because the comedy thing was going so well, you weren't able to prioritize

acting? Yeah. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the comedy stuff was going really well and I had my own sketch show and then I got a phone call literally on my honeymoon saying that they're making this movie about chopper read and would I audition and I thought hang on chopper read chopper yeah he sounds familiar I'm pretty sure I know who that guy is because I'd seen an interview with him and I just felt like I could be him and I said yeah I'll do the audition why not audition for that and then it was you know like nearly two years before we actually made the film but that was a point at which I thought, okay, I'm going to switch gears here and take a risk and sort of walked away from the comedy.

I still, luckily, was doing stand-up because I kind of needed to survive, but I walked away from TV. I walked away from TV to pursue the drama, but then still was basically surviving off my stand-up until even after Chopper, actually, I was still doing stand-up for more than a year after I'd shot chopper. In fact, even after the movie was released, I was still doing the odd gig. I was curious about that, because it's a bit of time ago now, but I mean, I'm curious, like, how quickly did, so this is, this is, I think it was a debut film for Andrew Dominic as well, right?

Yes, it was, yeah. Which, who obviously has gone on to great success with assassination of Jesse James, et cetera, a true artist behind the lens. How quickly did it move from something that was like a curiosity, a small thing? to something that had kind of global recognition and was even getting attention here in the States. Well, it never really felt like that. So when we made it, Choppel was kind of known

in the state of Victoria where I'm from in Melbourne, but not that many people knew of who he was around Australia. A few people did, but not many. So I kind of thought, well, people in Victoria will see it, but no one around the rest of the country will see it. And then it sort of became a bit of a breakout hit in Australia, But it wasn't, I think the best thing that ever happened for me was that it wasn't a well-known film. It wasn't a breakout here.

It didn't get a push internationally. It went to a couple little film festivals. It had word of mouth. But it became a film that people discovered continually over a number of years, which I think for me was actually a better thing than if it had of come into America with a great distribution and push for awards and things like that. It was almost better for me that that never happened. it's just kind of percolated amongst real film geeks and they would talk about it and other people would discover it and it was like every couple of years it was like another new audience that was finding it so i think that that was the probably the the most powerful thing about the film

yeah what was i mean the perception at least looking in the like the filmography post chopper was like as you say it took a little while clearly for it to like kind of like to get past stand up and everything to actually get a career going but once you got there it seemed like there was a lot packed into a few years, like whether it's from Ridley Scott and Blacklock down and Hulk, of course, to Munich. It seemed like you were like, it, guy, it, guy. And you know how the industry works, you know, the hot thing everybody talks about. And there's a lot, there's a flush of opportunity. Did it feel like that in the moment?

Like, this is my time. I'm getting all the meetings I've always dreamed of. This is. Yes and no. I felt like there was a pressure to do a lot more work than I was doing and I just kind of went at my own pace. I just refused at the time to do more than kind of one film a year. Right. So I wasn't, I was working hard because a lot of those films were really long shoots initially in the first sort of three or four years of my international career. They were all kind of like crazy five, six month shoots. Like, you know, Black Hawk down, the Hulk was really long. Troy was really long. It wasn't until I got them out the way that it sort of started to sort of settle down. But, um, so I was kind of always going,

own pace and it it sort of felt like that but at the same time it didn't because I was determined like people would say what's your fall movie and I said I don't even know what you're what language are you speaking

what's your what's your summer movie what I took me a while to understand what they meant and what they meant was actors do a film each season right and I go well the falls when the leaves come down from the tree isn't it and spring is when the flowers start budding and winter is when it's cold and summer's when it's hot right You know, that's how I relate to the seasons.

I don't relate to the most. And now for my fall movie. Untitled Banner Fall Project. I was just like, the whole thing seems so ridiculous to me. So I never really bought into that. Yeah. And I just, you know, and also, luckily for me, I had two very young children at the time. So my priorities were I'd go and work and then I'd go and chill out at home.

I mean, I guess that's part of that is the timing of a career where, like, you know, you got that major flesh of film success. in your early 30s as opposed to your early 20s. And it might have been a lot different where, you know, everybody at 22 is just ready to destroy the world and just screw family, whatever. You actually were an adult, hopefully, with some priorities. Yeah, I think you're right. I think I think I also benefited from the fact that whilst I had no career outside of Australia, I felt like I'd already done okay.

Yeah, not totally. You know, like, I was like, I'd had this, you know, amazing career back home. And I'm not saying that I don't have aspirations, but I was never the kind of person that kept beating myself over the head saying, you must do more, you must conquer, you know, you've barely begun. I was like, this is, you know, this is kind of pretty good. This has already gone better than I expected. And every 12 months just kind of seemed like a bit of a bonus. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, totally.

It's gravy. Yeah, you already had the success. So, you've already in the course of this conversation gone into just different voices naturally, clearly. Clearly, this is something that's always... Have I been channeling? You're channeling. Is that something that just like growing up, was that in the family? Was that unique to crazy little Eric that he was doing voices all the time?

No, I think I'd do it without even, yeah, without sort of thinking about it too much. It started out family members and then it became teachers. Right. It wasn't until it started to get me out of trouble at school that I realized there was some sort of currency. Right. Attached to it. Well, jumping around. a little bit back to i'm curious about black hawk down because um yeah for a first i guess

film of that stripe that you hadn't made something certainly of that scale yet very few people ever got to make a movie of that scale period ridley scott the cast of that he assembled is insane um when you think back to that shoot what do you think immediately that's the first thing you think uh it was overwhelming yeah um it was again it was you know one of the you know two or three times where you just really do pinch yourself and goes, is really happening. I'm in a movie that I used to watch growing up. Every day was just, you were just soaking it in. We had the, it was a greatest cast and I've got three, maybe four really close friends to this day from that movie. Just because of that experience, that mentality a little bit of. Sharing the corridor

in a hotel for four or five months. Just going through that whole experience of being in a foreign country for a long period of time on a on a on a on a film and for a lot of for a lot of us it was our kind of first i mean there were a few veterans in there but there were a lot of guys like myself who were just starting out yeah um it was just it was overwhelming it was um it was amazing it was exciting you know we got to do some so many of our own stunts because we're on the other side of the world and because we were clearly expendable um and you know working with the military every day and with Ridley. It was just, it was everything.

It was everything. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. I'm fascinated by, I have a deep affection for Hulk. I really do. And I think what Ang did in that film is very unique, especially, say what you will. If you have quibbles with it, it stands apart from the comic book movies that we see today. He was really going for something special. And I've talked to a lot of actors that have worked with Angley.

And he can be a tough filmmaker. He knows what he wants and he's not necessarily a cakewalk. Well, first, is that something you went after? Did he go after you? I mean, I'm curious of sort of how that even happens an opportunity like that. So, good question, because I don't really know how it came about. I took a little convincing. I wasn't sure about doing that kind of movie at the time.

I really was attracted to it because of Ang and because the kind of movies he'd made. But that kind of movie was not at all on my radar. But it was also, it was very early days. It wasn't really anything to compare it with. We were coming out pretty shortly after the first Spider-Man reboot, which had already been a huge hit. And that whole Marvel universe didn't really exist. Yeah.

So it was kind of cool to be one of the first, well, back then anyway. But it was a little overwhelming. It was a, it was a, it was a, yeah, it was a, it was a odd, it was a kind of odd production to be a part of because it was, you know, on the one hand, it was this huge superhero film, but for me it wasn't because I was just in a room with a couple of actors each day. So it was almost like the opposite of a green screen movie for me. It was like this intense, really sort of moody drama that was also a superhero movie. It was kind of bizarre. Yes, that's kind of my memory of it. It also has one of, in addition to you and Jennifer, one of my favorite performances in

Again, that genre, if we want to call it a genre, Nick Noltee in that film is amazing. Like, you talk about an actor you can't take your eyes off of in a film. And certainly, it sounds like a character in his own right, memories of working with Nolte. Yeah, he was, he was half insane and half not in sight. There was kind of like the insane Nolty, but it was always with a wink. You know, it was all, and he had these little oxygen tank on set, and he'd like inhale pure oxygen, then sort of give me a wink.

It was almost like, this makes him think I'm crazy. watch out that voice oh my god it was yeah it was we had a lot of fun we had a lot of fun working together it was yeah it was pretty cool cast and Sam Elliott as well like just

fantastic was there ever talk even the early going of like the sequel that never was did anger or the studio ever talked to you about sort of what that story would have been no there was never really there was never really a conversation yeah and then something like Troy which is

these are all massive undertakings at the time this was the period of your life where you was exhausted But after all, there's... I would imagine. I'm raped to retire. My God. But, again, the scale of that was ginormous. Yeah, for me, biggest ever.

It was just... But also a treat in that, like, again, I think of things like in collecting actors like you and Brad and Diane Kruger, but also like Peter O'Toole. Yeah. Again, first thing that comes to mind on a production like that. Again, it was similar to Black Hawk Down. It was kind of too good to be true. It was an amazing cast.

You know, I loved working with Wolfgang Peterson. It's just the greatest, greatest guy. Being on a horse every day, out in the, out on the sand dunes, you know, doing fight scenes. It was just, it was everything. It was amazing. It was, it was bigger than it needed to be. It was bigger than, you know, if you were making that film today, you'd probably make it for half the money with half the people and half the extras and half the stunt. It was kind of on the cusp of that.

I mean, like, clearly digital existed, but like it seems like one of the last of that type that like, and Wolfgang had the juice at the time where he could. Yeah, exactly. We used way, way more people than we really needed to. The sets were way bigger than they needed to. But all for good reasons, you know, because they, in those days, digital was on the periphery. It wasn't like you just built the smaller set possible and then built digital around it. It was like you built the set you could afford and then you used digital for the rest. So it was, it was, yeah, it was epic. It is, again, in a totally different vein, Munich is a masterwork from Spielberg, I think. And I think people, even then, but now I think are appreciating it as the complex, like just kind of outlier in his career. It means he's made so many classics. But that film seems, I don't know, it's a special one. It seems also to be not necessarily a fun film to make.

I mean, it's not an easy sit for an audience. Was it a pleasurable experience? It was the opposite. It was so much fun. Really? Yeah, and I think that just, it always comes from the top down, and Stephen's such a wonderful man, and he's very funny, he's got a great sense of humor, and also has that attitude that, you know, if you're working on something that dark, you really need the circuit

breaker, and we were constantly joking around on that set, believe it or not, and I think it was because it was so heavy, and the world was a heavy place at that time. I remember we were in Malta shooting in this really narrow, building we had to climb up like four or five flights of stairs and it was the day of the London bombings and it just you know it was it was back when all that stuff just felt felt very real and because of the subject matter yeah it was it was there were moments on that set where it felt quite tense yeah so I think we used humor as a bit of a circuit breaker oddly enough so no I look back on that and it was one of the most fun shoots I've ever

done I would think I mean again talking about sort of like the comedic aspects the voices, the way you kind of enjoy clearly transforming yourself to different degrees at certain points, something like Trek would seem to be, would check those boxes where you get to really kind of dip into a character like, you know, you've never done before and do a voice and do a look, et cetera. Is it fair to say that was sort of part of the fun of something like that? It was. It was the first time where I had the opportunity to be in a film where people may not even realize I'm in the film. Right. And I was a huge fan of JJ. And, and, and, and, and, And, you know, JJ and Stephen are very similar in terms of just their energy and sense of humor and what they're like to work with.

And that film was amazing. I mean, it was very contained for me because it was pretty much, you know, confined to my little spaceship. Which was, again, which was way bigger than it needed to be. It was actually pretty, pretty impressive when I walked onto the set. I was like, this is pretty cool. So, yeah, that was, again, you know, definitely a pinch yourself moment. walk onto the set and you go, okay, I'm a villain in a Star Trek movie. Like, how did this happen? This is so cool.

I mean, are you someone that, like, you know, you look at some of the other filmmakers that you've worked with in recent years, whether it's Joe Wright or Peter Berg. I mean, do you gravitate towards a certain kind of filmmaker, you think, a certain kind of filmmaker that you enjoy working with, or are you kind of receptive to all different techniques? Yeah, I think I sort of subconsciously, I mean, I'm a director hall. I mean, I'm a huge respecter of. the art of directing.

So I'm definitely attracted to to directors who have a point of view and have an opinion and have some grunt, you know, have the ability to get their story told, not a, you know, a story by committee. And that doesn't always work out, but it's always the sort of projects I'd rather be a part of. And I've definitely tried to gravitate towards the directors who I think I'll have a good collaborative experience with. Right.

And you can sometimes tell from just, just me. with them and sometimes you can't tell until you're on the set. But I just know that I do, I definitely do my best work when I'm in a collaborative space rather than a kind of dictatorial space. And looking ahead to a couple of the films that I think you've already shot, I'm very excited to see that, I mean, the guy Ritchie thing, I mean, I always love what guy brings to anything and certainly his take on King Arthur will be an interesting one. And Jim Sheridan, who hasn't been directing enough for my money. And I'm excited to see that he's actually shot some. something with the US, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, we did a film called The Secret Scripture with Runei Mara and Vanessa Redgrave. And it's a beautiful story based on a Sebastian Barry novel. And, yeah, we shot that in Dublin last year. And it was, it's a beautiful, beautiful little film. So I'm not sure what the genesis of that will be. I'm sure it'll probably end up at a festival somewhere. And, yeah, so it was, that was a great experience. I mean, Jim's such a unique director.

My God. I mean, talk about, you know, being a director whore and being attracted to, you know, people's body of work and then getting a chance to work with them. It was just, it was amazing. Do you have a favorite filmmaker or two just as a fan that when they come out with their new thing, you are you going to be first in line? I do, but I've got to say, I'm as much of a DP whore as I am a director of. Tell me that. I want to hear that, too. Yeah.

I mean, I, you know, like Janusz Kiminski, I've been lucky enough to work with him a couple. Roger Deacons, I mean, I'll go and see everything that guy does. So, yeah, I definitely am attracted to DPs as well as directors. You enjoyed Sicario then, I assume? Very much. I mean, very much. Yeah. That's also a filmmaker.

He's probably at the top of my list of people I haven't worked with, actually, ahead of directors would be, would be Deacons. So is that, I'm curious from an actor's perspective, do you even communicate much generally with the DP? Or are you just saying that, like, I can trust that they will make a beautiful? No, I do. I love the D.P. relationship because I see it as really essential. And I'm a camera buff and you know, I love photography and all that sort of stuff. So I'm, I'm in awe of the D.P.

On a set. And I tend to always get along with them very well as a result. And so I'm always picking their brain and watching them work and watching that relationship with them and the director and the A camera operator and the Gaffer and stuff. So yeah, it's a job. I have a lot of, a lot of respect and interest. I mean, you're sounding like somebody that's going to direct again. You directed a documentary, but is that something that, it means, sounds like you're, you know, you're not clocking in and out on the set. You're interested in the whole process.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. I'm not desperate to, I've always said that I don't read scripts with an eye to direct. Yeah. But if I felt as passionate about another project as I did my own, I would, I would direct again. And I learned a lot directing and working on a documentary and working, and working closely with the editor and it almost seems i don't mean this to sound wrong it almost seems too good and too easy to be true that you could write something down and people will actually

go and do it right no yeah it's like compared to putting a documentary together so i could write two pages of something and we'd actually go away and shoot exactly that and then i could put that in the film um so yeah i there's a chance i'll do a narrative at some stage i've got another um i have other ideas for other documentaries and stuff. It'll just depend on what gets in line first. But it's hard when you then lazily, then you get offered great material and then you just kind of go and do that. I mean, how can you? Yeah, I got Jim Sheridan, Guy Rich. You want to work with me. I'm not going to, you know. Mickey Jervais. I mean, it is hard to go, no, I'm working on my own project right now. Right. Like, just push all that stuff aside. So I do have things that I'm working on,

But at some stage, they'll hopefully see the light of day. Before I let you go, I've got this weird Indiana Jones Vodora filled with stupid questions as opposed to the very thoughtful, intelligent questions that I've been lobbing at you as he stared blankly at me. Yes. Bring them on. Would you like to grab one or two? There we go. You can pass if it's too stupid.

If I were a rapper, my name would be. Don't tell me you haven't thought about it. this clearly this I've never thought about this beatbox banana if you want to freestyle something right now no no beat box banana is as far as I go can I pull out another yeah please it's too much fun never thought I'd leave here with a rap name when I was a kid my hero was ooh oh oh that's a tough one that's a tough one Probably had a few, and they were all race car drivers back then. Yeah.

I used to love Mario Andretti and James Hunt and a couple local guys from Australia, Dick Johnson and stuff. So, yeah, they were race car drivers early on. I've conveniently left out the fact that I don't have a driver's license because I thought that would barely even wants it down with me. That's a good close. And on that, ladies and gentlemen, we're signing out. Every pounded storms out of my office.

Wow. No respect whatsoever. No, full respect. you're a new yorker i'm a new yorker you don't need a car who needs a car here not even i would need a car here thank you okay we came to grudging mutual respect in the end after we worked through some issues um earnest congratulations uh on on the new film i hope everybody checks it out i know anyone that's a fan of ricky and yours needs to check it out special correspondence the film um eric thanks for stuff thank you very much This has been an Earwolf,

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