Happy Sad Confused - Kurt & Wyatt Russell

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Kurt and Wyatt Russell have finally teamed up for MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS and they're talking about it and their famous family and their acting philosophies and much more in this special LIVE episode taped at the 92nd Street Y in New York City! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! DraftKings -- Download the DraftKings Casino app NOW and sign up with promo code HappySad UPCOMING EVENTS December 14th -- Claire Foy & Andrew Scott -- tickets here! January 8th -- Dan Levy -- tickets here! January 11th -- Annette Bening -- tickets here! January 17th -- Clive Owen -- tickets here! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes of, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. When you talk about the family life, where I was fortunate and where Goldie was fortunate and we're meeting each other and having our family, that circus that we go to every day is actually not as much fun as ours at home. And that is saying something. That is saying something.

I mean, because that circus, as people well know about people who live in Hollywood, You wonder why it's tough on relationships? That circus we go into and play with, if you all could do a Quentin Tarantino movie, you'd say, I'm never doing anything else again in my life. I'm having that much fun. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

Hi, guys. Hello. Welcome. I'm Josh Horowitz, and today on Happy Sondon. Say I Confused, we are live at the 92nd Street Y with Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell, guys. This is a special one. And we have Godzilla to thank for this unique opportunity.

Thank you, Godzilla. Amazing. This show is fantastic. I've been lucky enough to see eight of the 10 episodes. Don't hate me. We're gonna act it out for you tonight. We're just gonna ruin it all. No, the show is fantastic, and if that wasn't enough,

it has brought together these two generations. of acting talent. You all know Mr. Kurt Russell. I don't need to list the credits, the thing, escape from New York. He is a true legend and an icon. His son Wyatt has been killing it in recent years. Everybody wants some black mirror,

Falcon and the Winter Soldier. And now they are coming together in this ambitious new offering from Apple TV Plus. It's going to be a special night. Thank you all so much for joining us. Let's bring them out, give him a warm welcome. welcome Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell. Come on out. Welcome guys. As I said, this is a very unique opportunity. I've been privileged enough to talk to you both. I've actually the last time I spoke to

Wyatt, I met the next generation of Russell's. That's right. He was on your lap. You didn't bring Buddy today with you, but- I didn't, I needed to feed my wife was not at home, and I thought, okay, we'll schedule this interview, and buddy's gonna be sleeping, he was like three months old, and he woke up in the middle of the interview,

and I was like, well, Josh, the rest of this interview is gonna be done with me feeding my son of a bottle, so good luck. I felt like I was a special part of the family that day. No, congratulations. on this very special show and this unique opportunity. Ooh, I'm getting a special microphone. All good.

Now you guys can hear me. Hi, guys. So talk to me a little bit about the opportunity that comes around for this, because prior to this, though, you must have gotten the standard kind of offer, like, father and son. Yeah, all the time.

And that just did not appeal. It was not the right fit. It was, like, it was, like, low-hanging fruit that you'd kind of get all the time, and there was never, I mean, honestly, there was never a script and a filmmaker where we were like, yeah, you know, if we were

going to do that, it was going to be something that was going to be special and cool, and we were going to be able to work on together and make difference to the shmovey. And when this came along, it was like, well, that is really different. That is unique. I don't know of anybody that's been able to do that.

And we've been looking it up recently, and it's like, only people who, little bit parts here and there, but not like a full deal thing. Right. So, yeah. They wanted why I had to play Herb Brooks when I did Miracle. They wanted to play Young Herb.

And we have worked actually a little bit together and just little tiny things. But we did. We looked it up recently. We said, hey, in that regard, we're talking about, you know, well-known people. You know what I mean? You've done a lot of stuff and they know you both from it. And we started asking each other with that question. And I said, well, go to the tape, go to the Internet and see if you can find it.

I am like my dad's assistant when it comes to like internet Yeah, I'm really good We went in the other day Last night we went into Oh God fuck it's nice doing these like 45 minute ones We don't have to slam everything in No I need it now, Wyatt

10 seconds The the We were like Okay well what other father and son things And it was like What about the Griffey Juniors And like Barry Bonds And body bonds

I was going to say this like betrays your competitive streak that you were like, wait, we broke new ground, right? Well, this is the first. We did it. In this business, yeah. It's hard to do anything new at this point. Yeah. Well, that's increasingly true, isn't it? It is. It is. Before we come to the actual show, you've been on this kind of very cool, interesting press tour. Like, what's it been like to do press alongside each other? You must... Way better than normal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so much easier. It's so much easier. Because, well, A, we didn't get to spend that much time together when we were shooting the movie because we were shooting

the show because we were not together. Our character is the same, so you're not like everyone's seen together. And then he'd be working on a Saturday or maybe we'd see each other on Sunday watch football but mostly we didn't really see each other that much and so this time

just before we came here it's like this has been nice we've actually good to hang out together. It is. It's fun. This is probably, we did a lot of work together and then a lot of work together. with the writers and the showrunners. And that was a lot of fun.

It was fun. It was interesting. It was also, it was a lot of work. And I did, but, you know, I had an opportunity to go down to Wyatt's set a couple times to see what he was doing because what we always kept in our mind was this is not a father and son. It's the same person. And for me to be able to watch.

watch what he was doing was very, very helpful for me because I was going to make sure some of the same idiosyncrasies in a certainly not in a cartoonish fashion but in a subtle way were followed and so we were the same person. But this is really fun. I don't know if we'll ever get, this is the most fun I've had doing this. So this is like I get to be with why it's like every time I fall down he just sort of take the ball around it. There you go.

Finish each other's thoughts, hopefully. The best part is the first time I've had to go into a show and before we did this, I was like, can you just explain the movie because I'm terrible at doing it? He has to explain it all the time. I'm like, oh, thank God and I was going to do that. You've got that down after decades of experience, Kurt. You know how to just summarize a movie.

It's a hard one. This one's a hard one. As you can see, that's actually a very, we just watched a little bit of that, but that's actually nice to see because you're getting a good idea of the, it is a mystery. I mean, this show is a, 10-part mystery, and it involves a family learning about themselves, and then they run in,

or they need to find this character that we play, Lee Shaw, to begin to unravel this mystery. It is kind of like, look, I love the monster movies, I love Godzilla, I love Kong, but it's kind of the icing on the cake in this thing. It really is, as you say, kind of like a very, it's a character-based drama and mystery, and you get some monster action thrown into. Well, you get to find, what's fun about it, and a lot of people have said, have seen it like you have, you begin to find out about the monsters. Right. You know, they're not just, they're not just there.

There's a rhyme and reason, but they've got to figure it out. Who's the bigger Godzilla guy here? I mean, you, because probably you. He's never seen any. So by default, Kurt wins. Never saw anything. So I guess that makes it. I mean, it was just never.

my jam. I mean, when it first came out, and it was the Toho Monster movies, that was probably such a different experience to, like, a cinematic experience to see that. It was like, oh my God, and the bomb and World War II, and all the stuff that it entailed. Then when we got to our time,

I just didn't, like, I don't know, it wasn't my thing. I fall asleep in transformers. So, like, that's, I wasn't Just what didn't go see those type of movies. Sure. And it actually benefited me, I think, because it was like, I don't know, like, should we, you know, do I want to do want to do this?

I don't know. And then they were like, no, we want to make it a human story. And I was like, okay, great, you don't need to know anything about the monster movies. It's better if you don't because I'm playing a character who doesn't know they exist. Right. So it was like, oh, great. Then I don't have to, like, watch anything. It was good to find out about, I saw Godzilla when I was probably eight or nine or so.

and never forgot Godzilla I mean that makes an impression right and the the progression of Godzilla and the other monsters in the movies that they've done I've only seen one it was really good Godzilla versus King Kong was really well done and then talking to them about what they wanted to do here

was much different this was really much different double-edged sword that could be interesting that could also be to a lot of the practitioners of the Godzilla world where are the monsters here? Well the monsters are used here

I love the way they're used here because they're much more they're placed and they're they become I think they have more impact I think did you shoot this kind of in sequence because you were saying that you got a chance to see some of the choices he's making on set first so you're kind of driving

the ship. Right Before we came on board, Lee was a certain way that was, we were a great casting idea, but we felt like, you know, to become Kurt Russell objectively, that like young Lee and only need to do things and be a certain way and have a certain swagger that people will respond to and kind of there's an expectation to fulfill a little bit in the gods of. movie, a Godzilla show, and so that scene was important in establishing, like, this guy is in the 50s, he's not a dick, but he, but there's a certain sense of swagger and a certain sense of...

There's the seeds of dickishness there. Yes, right, and it's, and it does show that we thought was important again to show the time period of, you know, no, he's not going to just assume that there's a female doctor, of Japanese female doctor there. It's 1953, you know, three. It was, that's a few years after World War II ended. And to establish that relationship in a very real way, and not just all of a sudden that would be like a meat, cute, you know, like out of the middle of nowhere, it was important to add those little elements in. That was some of the stuff that we worked on. It's the first, it's the first time that Lee meets Keiko, and it's a very important

relationship so it needed to walk a fine line and but it achieves what what we all wanted to do it's fun to watch it with an audience because you don't get to watch television shows with an audience ever so you even just responding to the moments in the way that you're kind of like that it's kind of fun keep laughing keep enjoying it feel free you make it look easy and I know it's not easy like the physicality you always bring on screen just feels effortless and I don't know if part of that comes from and I want to talk about a little bit about both of your athletic backgrounds. I would imagine that that is an element.

Like you have an easy. I mean, for me, I always felt that in creating a character, you have to physically carry that out as well. And I have prided myself on that because I wanted to use my athleticism in an acting way for a character. You don't move the same as if you're not. doing backdraft and you're a bull in a china shop, literally bull in the back of his thing, he's like, yeah, that's the way he moves. And, you know, he's, here he's, they, as you know,

at one point they say, well, how old are you? Because nothing makes sense here. He's not, he doesn't look like, you know, he's like supposed to be about what, mid-90s. That is a hell of mid-90s. So it hasn't been explained thus far in what I've seen. Is there an actual explanation to come? Is there Godzilla magic? Yeah. In 8 and 9 there's a bit of an explanation. Yeah, it remains not a complete answer.

So it remains a bit of a mystery. But as far as the physicality of it, that was also something that we felt would be fun to match up on. And what eventually became the first scene where you meet Young Lee, you

carry that through too. Yeah. Yeah, the physicality of just everything that I think you do comes from, you spend so much time when you're playing sports learning about how your body works and like the limitations of your body and where your body can go and how far it can take you. And so when you get in when I got into acting, it was definitely helped me to use that to the best. of my ability. And it's gotten me in trouble sometimes because you think you can go further than you actually can. And, you know, but on this one, it was more difficult for me, honestly, was just being a little more straightforward with it. Like, Lodge 49, I'd, like, had a limp, you know. I had to, like, limp everywhere. Every scene, you'd be like, hey, you got a limp. Remember,

you got a limp. And then, but it was subtle. this, when you're just being straight, like having to climb up a thing 500 times a rope and shoot a alien thingy and, you know, do all that stuff, it's actually harder to just be straight and not use your physicality

in like a character actor sort of way, which I was very used to, and it's even in the U.S. agent. Like, he walks a certain way. That dude's like, he's, he's in a china shop. Everything is like, his heads low, his shoulders are things. When I work out, my traps get bigger, like, I do it on purpose.

This was like, he's kind of a normal guy in the 50s. He's an Army guy in the 50s, and I was like, oh God, what do I have to play? Sometimes you realize those things can be like a crutch, right? Literal crutch, from like, I can play this, or I can play that, or I can, and this was like, no, you're just like

kind of naked out there, just, you're just a guy, and you've got to run around and be straight. and so it was hard it was really interesting to go down onto his set it was it was not only interesting it was really I felt really necessary for me to watch him establish the character because I've got to carry it through so it was fun to watch what his inventions his creations and what he was doing and the things that we had talked about in terms of screenplay for with with the showrunner and the writer and then get a to watch him put it into action. You know, it's usually you that's gone through that and now you're going to put it into action and it's deep in your head.

We talk this stuff out a lot of times with them and then I was like, man, an interesting choice. Okay. Yeah, no, it was really, it was fun to watch to do that. I'd see him and be, and there's some stuff, like he has to get to a certain place. Lee starts at a certain place, he's got to get to a certain place.

So he's got to start somewhere and end somewhere. And where he starts is probably, you know, it's a little subtler and I'd look at some of the stuff my dad had to do and I was like damn that'd be fun like you know that'd be cool like he's like kind of cracking he's kind of crazy and like out there and different and but it was it was I was like oh yeah like you have to work your way there so then we had to incremental incrementally yeah make those moments and then in an episode in episode like you know well I won't give it away but in certain episodes like these little things happen where you're like

oh that's where he learned that right that's where that happened and oh that's why he's sort of that way and that kind of stuff is fun to work out. Some of it's more subtle than I thought it would be, the scar, for instance. Right. I was surprised that you guys did it as subtly as you did. Right. Well, it's noticeable enough, you know what I mean? But it does keep you guessing, like, we're, that happened along the way.

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I have to say, seeing you in the snow, that's just automatic. You can't help the look of the thing. Thank God I didn't have a beard on it. Did you have flashbacks? because the thing always stands out to me not only as one of the great films of all time but also as one of like the most palpably cold movies I've ever seen.

I can feel it. Yeah, I did remind me of it because we were flying helicopter up to the top of a glacier and when we were doing the thing of course we lived up there and we'd come down one day when I think it was on Sundays we'd come down Saturday night

get Saturday night down there and then go back up but yeah, same. Only difference was in in the thing when we shot it was quite cold and we had to keep the set at 28 degrees because we were going to blow it up at the end of the movie and we wanted to get lots of snow on it everybody went and so we were living in this place basically 28 degrees and you got to the point finally where you'd be outside and it was cold enough outside to when you came inside everybody take their jackets off and stuff and um and it you know it would take you

45 minutes before you'd start to kind of cool down enough to read, say, I'm gonna pull something on here. When we shot up there this time, it was a lot of the time it was quite warm. I mean, for that, you know, it was like 55 or so. Your buddy, Mr. Carpenter, I think recently said essentially, he has that answer to the question he's been asked for 40 years, that you've been asked for 40 years about the end of the thing.

Do you know what he has in mind? Do you know what the answer is about which of them is? We talked about that, the ending of that movie, John and I for a long, long time. We'd kind of like trade ideas for the end, write it out. And it was one of those things where John didn't want it to be, John was concerned about it doing a movie that you would see for two hours plus

and bring you back to square one. And we finally got to a point where it was like, and I, you know, we tried different things. And I just remember, you know, finally saying, you know, how about this one? And we're trying, he said, still, I said, John, I think this comes back to square one. I think that's what it, I think that's what it does. And that's, you know, and the only thing I could do was, you know, finish it with, why don't we just sit here for a while and see what happens.

That was the right call. Yeah. That was the right call. It worked, I mean, it was the thing that, it was the thing that it called for. Yeah, and we're still talking about it for. Yeah, it's fun to hear people talk about that one, I must say. That's a fun one. I mean, I know we chatted before in our previous podcast years ago

about like you're feeling about sequels, et cetera, and like you were just never that guy. It was never interested you. Yeah, I'm not big on them, only because of one thing. First of all, a lot of the, especially sci-fi, a lot of it is like you're bringing the cat out of the bag. I mean, at the end, you get it, you go, boom. So you've really sometimes got nowhere to go.

That's certainly not the case here because that's not the style of the structure of it. But in that one, and in others, in other shows where it ends up in a way that people really enjoy it enough to want to see more of it. Generally it's a character that kind of carries that. If it's a character that carries that, then, you know, there's opportunity to look at it that way and do something else with the character. but if it's story-oriented, I think that's very limiting. So that's why I don't, I don't lean towards them, but, you know, I've done them. I mean, to your point, though, Jack Burden could have had five movies. I mean, that character sustains five movies.

Come on, big trouble with China, hive, activate. I think that was a lot of fun. John Carbenter, in my book, the thing, though, is maybe the best, just in terms of filmmaking. That was, that's pretty, it's a classic. He was fantastic on it. So, Wyatt, I mean, growing up in this house where there's so much amazing artistic ability, achievement, you obviously didn't pursue that the first part of your life.

Like, what was your relationship to, you must have been on many film sets growing up? So did it demystify movies? Was it less intriguing? I mean, what was your kind of relationship to your dad's films, to your mom's films growing up? When we were very young, it was just their place of work, you know, that was really it. But movie sets used to be very different, and then it was a little bit more of a familial

environment. People would bring their kids to work a little more. And my dad's makeup man, Denny, of 40 years who did our makeup on this show, he was like, my uncle, Danny. You know, I'd play hockey with Denny, and Denny would take me around, and, you know, Jimmy Petty was my dad's driver for a very long time, and Jimmy would play hockey with me, he was from Boston, and he'd shoot on me over my goalie pads. Like, I spent, I was very lucky to be able to spend that time at work, and he'd go work. Then there was, like, setups were also much longer back then, too. So the lighting setups would take, like, a couple hours, so he'd be able to be back at the trailer.

We'd play stickball. It was like a magical experience when we were on set. But the actual like doing of it kind of seemed like a hassle. Not because it is a hassle, but because my dad would have rather have been hanging out with me. Now that I have a son, I know that 85% of the time, the other 15% of the time, you're like, thank God I got, I slept till 8.30 this one. But 85% of the time I want nothing other than to be with you

and this is taking me away from me but I have to do it as my work and like that's what we of course I love doing it and all that stuff but I felt that was what I felt so this other thing that he did was like this is the thing that I do and then when he would come home or my mom would come home like no one ever talked about acting or the day of nothing

it was just like now it's they came home to their kids. Right. And we had hockey and baseball and watching King's games and like doing stuff with your family. Like it was left, it was seriously like they had an amazing ability to turn off the switch. And so I never grew up with some sort of regard for film because it just wasn't what we had fun doing.

We had fun playing sports and catch and hockey and all that stuff. You never missed a hockey game. like, took me to hockey practice all the time, you know, all this stuff. He in one movie, like, negotiated in his contract that he would fly home every night from the desert to come home and be with us and be at home. And so, like, that was how important it was to my parents, and that's how important it is to me. Yeah. I haven't been able to negotiate a private jet back to my family yet, but, you know, so, but, but, but, but what,

What I will say is that as I got older, I got hurt playing hockey, and it was a head injury, and it was like, oh, God, you know what I might actually not do this forever, and I need to, you know, what else do I want to do? And then as I got into watching films, I was like, well, I'll just start watching like 100, you know, AFI 100, just to just start watching movies. And then I'd realize, like, well, they actually did show us a lot of movies, and we had been around it for a long time. And as I started watching more movies, I saw what could be special about making movies and telling stories.

And if you have a proclivity for it, then why would you not want to do it? And as I started watching movies, it was like, oh, I love that about that filmmaker. I love that about that actor. I don't like that about that filmmaker. And I started to form an opinion. Went to USC for a summer program, made five short films, had an absolute blast. was the first time I didn't work with people who were athletes

have made friends. It was so much fun. I went and continued to play professional hockey for a few years, but after that was a moment where I was like, you know what, I think I could be good at this. I think that my sports can translate. You know, I think it could work.

And so that's, that was the long story of transitioning into film. But in terms of how my parents were, yeah, I don't know. Well, I'll tell you it. You know, I, the fun part for me right now, in all honesty, too, because I don't have, you know, I'm not, I don't know the one who has to say it anymore, but, um, why it actually worked, he, he, in escape from L.A., he actually played a part, and I told him what it was. We just saw this clip recently where, like, somebody had a, you know, was really, it was the day he was on the set and working. And he was dead on it. And then in Soldier, he plays. young, the young guy, the young character, Todd. And I would say to people quite often, especially my agent at the time,

and Rick Nesita will verify this. You know, we had Goldie Hawn. Kate, I think, was at that time recently nominated for an Academy Award. I've been in business, Oliver, Oliver has done more work. than any of us probably combined done over I don't know how many hundreds

of television shows and series and stuff like that but I used to say not jokingly well the best actor in the family is a hockey player now you all know I was right writing in place sight

he was there the whole time he was right there the whole time but I wasn't joking the best we got right now is a hockey player And it turned out to be a true statement. Well, the best we have is probably a psychiatrist. Well, we have, yes.

Boston is the only smart one. He's a therapist. Jimmy Kimmel recently said, well, that's a must in the fan of the actors. And he's really a good actor. He and Wyatt have done some fantastic stuff when they were younger together. We would do stuff at home. We were just four.

And this is like, I was like 20. about two. I was like acting but it was just with my brother of Boston we had those flip cameras and I could use like final cut and we would make like the most insane videos about two English brothers who lived on a manner who was creating inventions

that were ridiculous and stupid and we would just do it in our backyard funny enough as it is it does help you know like it helps you find things be free be funny you with your brother like I don't know I probably haven't had any more fun acting than I did it was possible

Just trying to get back to that moment. Yeah. We all are. That's great. Totally. I wonder if, like, you know your dad's acting career as well as I know his acting career. No. I wouldn't.

I wouldn't. You'd know it better. I'm going to ask you a couple questions, why. Yeah. I'm going to start it easy. Before he does that, I'm going to answer this in a different way. One time when he was in school, it was the day where everybody draws a picture of what their parents do. Goldie happened to be direct.

directing a movie called Hope at that time. So the teacher calls us in, wants to talk to us. And I'm a pilot. I'm not current now, but I was flying a lot then. We actually flew to the set, the time was quite young when he was doing this. This is probably when you're about five or six. Yeah, maybe third.

And there was, he drew a picture of his mother his mother with a megaphone? She was like, you know, performing or doing right, right? And they talked about it. What is your mother? What is your... She says, so when I asked him what his father does, he says, he flies, he's a pilot.

That was what he thought his dad did. Anyway, that is what I thought my dad. To lead into the reality of what they haven't seen of ours. Fire away. I think I know how this is going to end. Well, I'm going to start easy.

Finish the title of this Disney classic, The Computer War. Tennis Shoes. Okay. We're starting easy, of course. How many films did your dad make with John Carpenter? You've never seen that movie, though? No, I never seen. Our kids have not seen...

No, I never saw it. Eight percent of what we've done. You've seen Elvis? You guys know he played Elvis way back to that. John Carpenter. I know those. You've seen Elvis on YouTube. It's on YouTube. Oh, I guess it's new.

I didn't know. Yeah, I know Elvis, Big Trouble, a little time. the thing. Go ahead. Watch this. This is good. He's struggling already. Oh, escape from New York and escaped from L.A. Yeah. Did you mention Big Trouble? My favorite? Big Trouble little shot? Okay, good.

He stays in the family. It's okay. Five. Did your dad play tango or cash? All I remember was Jack Pound's doing cash. Tango. Cache. That's literally the only thing I remember about the movie. I don't know. 50, 50.

Come on. You played cash? Yes. Okay, you got lucky. I got a 50-50 shot out of it there, went. No, the only reason I said that was because I know Slive Stallone and that time was like the man. And he'd become, I would probably be the first name. Yes.

That's right. That's amazing. Wise. He knows the business. Cash. You're one-man, Jack, I'm very excited to see. Do you know his character name in the Fast and Furious movies? Do you know he's in the Fast and the Furious movies?

These are, go back to when he was a kid. He doesn't even know the recent stuff. Of course not. Oh, no, no, no, that's Mr. Nobody. I was thinking he had a name. Yeah, okay, sorry. I'm not going to put it. Like Todd or Jim.

Mr. Nobody, I know that one. He's named, though, after, I mean, you obviously were in the great movie Tombstone. He's not. He's not. That's a good story. Let's hear it. No. How old were you then?

Ten? No. Seven? Seven. I got that script from an old agent of mine and he said, Kevin Costner has just let this go. He's going to go do a movie called Wyatt Earp. He said, I think that you should do this movie, but you got to move fast. You got about 24 hours to put it together.

And I had been on a bicycle ride with Andy Vanya, which is eventually where I went to. So I'm reading this script, Tombstone. And I, it's maybe the best screenplay that I ever was ever involved with in terms of, that's a tough thing to say when you've worked with Quentin Tarantino. But this one was, this guy was a great writer.

And I left it open and we had an office area and in the house. And I think I was in the kitchen and Wyatt came in we started talking about something. He said, hey, Dad, I just went into the thing. And said, I read the script. There's a guy, there's a character in there with my name. I said, that's the guy I'm looking at playing.

So that was seven, he was before, seven years before I did. I was going to say, it could have been worse, you could have been snake. But it wasn't, that's not the story. Was I named after like a highway? What's that? Wasn't I named after a highway or something? No. Sam Houston's family.

It was a name that I had thought of many, many years before you were born, and then I couldn't remember it. And a friend of mine in Aspen, Colorado, a fellow named Sam Houston, I said, you know, Goldie was about two weeks from birthing Wyatt. And I said, man, I had this great name, and I can't pull it back. I just can't remember it. And then I said, where are you? Well, we're kind of on Henry. That's kind of where we're going to go.

And he said, I got some great family names. His first one was, he said, his last name was Houston. And he said, heart. And I said, ooh, heart's good. That's really nice. I like that one. He said, yeah, and this guy, I had an uncle named Wyatt. I said, that's the name.

That's the name. I didn't even finish the conversation. I ran home. I said, Goldie, the name. Wyatt. And she said, I love that. That's great. Sam was always a little bugged because I took it.

Amazing. But his first forum was named Hart. Before we take some audience questions, you guys have a lot of, exciting projects coming off, I just want to mention. You haven't started shooting Thunderbolts yet, as I understand it. No, have not started shooting. We should have almost started shooting that about 14 times.

No, have not yet. Have you read a finished script for Thunderbolts? Not in what it will be its current state. Right, they're doing a little rejiggering, which is all good. Yes, it's important to do rejiggering when you need to do rejiggering. Yeah. It's, but I have confidence it's going to be good. I know everybody is sort of on this marvel train right now,

if things not going so well. And the team that they have with us right now, if Florence Pugh, who is arguably one of my favorite actresses going, I think she's fucking unbelievable. She can do it. It really is good, man. Yeah, she can, as they say, read the phone book and I will

Is that a spoiler for the movie? She was reading the phone book and Cumberball? Yeah. They wanted to be more character-based. I think we need to get more re-write, you want to get more acting? Florence, start with A. Yeah, but like she's incredible.

And Sebastian Stan, who's become a great friend, is incredible. Really good. And David Arbor is amazing. And Jake Shreier, the director, Lodge 49 We still look at each other and we can't believe it from doing Lodge

We're like, you know, wow, this is incredible I can't believe that we're here, but I know Jake so well and I know how how smart Jake is and how much he cares about making something interesting and different and

utilizing everyone's talents to the best of their ability and the story that I think they've come up with is really interesting. I know parts of the story and how the story works. I can't talk about it, but it's not as straightforward Marvel movie as you've seen, I think

in the past, it has, I don't want to put any Marvel movies down because Julie Louise Greta's, you're like boss. She's the boss. So I think that it's going to be a lot of fun, but I think it will be something that hopefully Marvel fans will look at and go, okay, so this is

something a little different. Let's go hard at it. And as far as how we are approaching it, you know, it's time to go to work a little bit. It's time to make a good Marvel movie. Yeah. So let's do that and work hard at it and don't take things for granted, you know. While other money managers are holding, dynamic is hunting. Seeing past the horizon, investing beyond the benchmark. because your money can't grow if it doesn't move.

Learn more at dynamic.ca.ca slash active. Dynamic, actively different. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. Big news to share it, right? Yes, huge, monumental, earth-shaking. Heartbeat sound effect, big. Mink is back.

That's right. After a brief snack nap. We're coming back. We're picking snacks. We're eating snacks. We're raiding snacks. Like the snackologist we were born to. be mate is back Mike and Tom eat snacks wherever you get your podcast unless you get them from a snack

machine in which case call us okay it's official okay it's official we are very much in the final sprint to election day and face it between debates polling releases even court appearances it can feel exhausting even impossible to keep up with I'm Brad Milkey. I'm the host of Start Here, the daily podcast from ABC News, and every morning my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So, kickstart your morning. Start Smart with Start Here and ABC News, because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. Kurt, there's a talk of foot that you might be re-teaching one more time with the man the myth of the legend, Mr. Quentin Tarantino. He has one film, he says, left to do.

Are you in the movie critic? Are you doing it? I've been no idea. I never know. Really? You know, he just calls up or somebody calls up and says, hey, you know, you're going to work. I love working with him. And he said a long time, and when we did Death Proof, part of Grind House, we went out one evening,

Goldie and Quentin and I and we were talking and during that conversation he said yeah I'm gonna do 10 I'm by the time I'm 60 I'm pretty much gonna be done we had a long conversation about that which was really interesting so I guess that's he's sticking to it and I you know he's since talked about that there's actually it's a long conversation that but I think his reasoning is is spot on and yeah I mean if he wants me to you know carry the leads Water, I will. I don't care what it is.

I mean, he's just a fun person to work with. He's quite amazing. No, he's one of a kind, truly. And is there any openness? I mean, there have been rumors in recent years. I mentioned the thing, we mentioned Snake Pliskin. There are all these like sequels, reboots, et cetera, and I know the radio silence guys are working on kind of a sequel reboot for escape.

Are you open to going back to playing Snake for somebody that's not John Carpenter? John Carpenter? I'm always... Oh, Snake? No. John, no, period. John Carpenter is the reason for Snake Pliskin. I did make him happen, but that's...

John Carpenter movies are John Carpenter movies. And that's what's fun about them. You know, all movies are the same. If you read them and they strike you, you feel like there's something you want to do there, then you get going, you talk about it, you talk it out. I just don't think you, I understand that I don't disagree. If I was a studio person, I'd be doing the same thing they're doing, but I'm an actor. So if I can't see myself in it, if I can't see myself doing it, if I can't get excited

about it, it's just not going to happen. This was a tough go. Early on in this, there was no chance. One percent. But we worked like dogs on this. I've never worked harder, tombstone maybe. But that's a whole different thing. But I mean, thank God for Wyatt.

I wouldn't have made it. And then without him, that wouldn't happen. It was a tough haul for everybody, understandably so. So they were doing 10 hours. That's five movies, back to back, to back, to back, to back. Each movie being approximately two hours with the new director. You don't even know what 10 is until you're halfway through three. They're not even talking about seven or eight.

They talk about trust with that. Of course there has to be trust. But, you know, trust only goes so far when you're reading something. You're going, okay, hang on. Hang on. We've got to figure this out. It's tough. It's hard.

It was very hard. I've never seen my dad work harder. And I think that that was something that looking back on this show, that I don't think it could have survived without it because there's a couple reasons. One is obviously always need to work hard. But two is there's a tendency to take things like Godzilla and use that as a crutch to just kind of be like,

well, I don't know, whatever. Yeah, we'll just cut to Godzilla. we're good yeah and for the actors everybody involved to just be like kind of just go well I don't work really that hard on it because like you know whatever it'll be fine and because because you're not concentrating as much if you don't have that then you only have the scene in a movie and I don't think that you know not not everybody is used to to someone coming on set and saying no I don't do we don't do it like that We want to make this good, and then those things will be icing, like you said, icing on the cake.

And it was, it's always up to the fish stinks from the head, you know. And so he's always been a person that walks to walk, he talks to talk. I know that because I'm his son. That goes down to like we disciplined us, right? So that's ingrained in me. I'm like that because that's my example. but not everybody knows that. So going on set,

it was really great to see him go be as strong and as necessary as it needed to be because that is fucking tiring to go every day and continue to fight the good fight instead of just being like, oh, fuck it, I don't know. Yeah, the easy ways to just check out.

Ultimately, it's on you. He was a goaltender. I was a second baseman, but I was brought up by a man who was a professional baseball player before he became an actor. The Apple fell like right there. And his whole thing to me was, growing up, was whenever we lose a game, he always wanted to know what I could have done.

He wanted me to think about what I could have done to help us actually get a win there. That teaches you to be an impact player. You know, the idea is to win. It's not a shame to lose. You have to learn from losing. But the point is it's on you. And when you're going to be,

if you're going to hit us third and fourth, as I once said in this, if you're going to hit third and fourth, yeah, you want me to drive in a bunch of runs. I can do that, but I can't do it hitting eighth and ninth. I can't do that. Right. So we're going to figure out what we need to do.

to hit three and four, but also what makes it even more difficult with this show and what made it interesting with a show as opposed to a movie is that when you go do a movie, you have your director, you have the lead actor, and they're pretty much on the set together every day. The director is definitely on the set every day. And you know the last line of the movie. And you know the last line of the movie. You can work back. You can reverse the engineer. The thing with this is you have the Matt Shackman, amazing sets the tone, great. Then he leaves. Where'd Matt go? Where'd Mac go? And Chris and Matt Fraction, they can't be on set every day. They've got stuff to do. They've got, like, so much stuff to do. So that leaves it with the new director. Well, it's not their fault that they weren't there for the last two episodes and didn't see everything.

They watched the dailies, but they weren't, they didn't have the, there's no dynamic yet because they haven't been on the set. So you kind of are tasked with carrying the dynamic, except I'm not the lead and he's not the lead. we are the lead. So you have to be in tandem on like, the set has to be cohesive. And it was a little bit in certain ways up to us to carry that cohesion

so that people were coming to work and excited to come to work. Always understanding that this is about Alice going down the rabbit hole. Right. It's not about him. Right. It's about what she's finding.

What she's finding and then what her brother's finding and then what the friend is finding. And then it goes back to the 50s where you begin to discover what this character was finding because there were two other people and on it goes fun stuff

to try to succeed at and try to make it have fun listening to you talk about the eight episodes that you've seen because it's a slow burn well and I think that one of the greatest compliments I can pay you is that for all what you've been talking about and all the effort

that clearly went into this I don't feel that watching the show right it doesn't feel like on the pieces together. We're having... The audience never cares. They don't care how much money you spend. They don't care about anything.

Curtain opens up. Show me. The one we should preface is, with all of that work, that's the time you do that is before you start shooting. And then the goal is that when you get to the set and you start shooting, like, we are all having a blast and we're all having fun working towards the same goal. And the other actors can feel it. And the other actors are, in my timeline,

Mari and Andres, we play cable and Billy. They were so good to work. work with. Days when I was feeling slow and tired, they could pick you up. And the team element and the atmosphere was there. It was so great. It was fun in that regard because you had, you guys had your team. We had our team. I had, you know, Anna Renan Kirstie. And they're all very individual. I really, I just really like the way Anna comes off in this. I will say one thing. I wish this was on the big screen. She's a great big screen presence. And Kiercy, like Katie and Goldie, Katie and Prider, they were watching it recently and they're really

into it. When Kirstie came on, when her character entered, literally at the same time, five seconds, they went, ooh, I like her. I like her, right? And it's like she has this energy and power and she's very, very good. I think that I just felt this from the first time I met Wren. There's something so authentic about this guy that he's almost like a throwback. To me, he's like a throwback male movie star type because he's silent.

But he's, what is he thinking? All the time, he draws you and draws you and draws you in and the progression of his character. of his character. I was really happy to see that in the final result. There's something different there that's very hard to find. And then all the others, all the other characters that we have who can go through all of them, but they're all, they're just really good acting. They did a great job, great job. And you see how checked out these actors are? They don't give a shit about the product.

This is so discombobulating to me. Because you guys are so invested. It is so amazing to see how, I mean, it's just, It's just a passion that, like, has not joined it at all. Hey, listen, when you talk about the family life, where I was fortunate and where Goldie was fortunate and meeting each other and having our family, that circus that we go to every day is actually not as much fun as ours at home. And that is saying something.

That is saying. I mean, because that circus, as people well know about people who live, in Hollywood. You wonder why it's tough on relationships. That circus we go into and play with, if you all could do a Quentin Tarantino movie, you'd say, I'm never doing anything else again in my life. I'm having that much fun. And to be able to just be lucky enough to have an even better circus at home was for all of us. And you have that now. Creating his own new circus. It's really fantastic.

Because it's a real circus. Yeah, it's a real one. It's not a made-up one. It's not actually real. We are somehow already over time. I want to go really rapid fire because we didn't get to any audience questions. I just want to give them some love here.

This is really the most existential question of the night. Is Godzilla a good guy or a bad guy? Now, you started this with talking about our character and you were talking about being a dick. Well, let me tell you. That's the dick. There's no bigger dick than Godzilla. Won't look you in the eye.

Favorite location. Where's dick's good? He's got to dig it. He's a dick on the planet. In every conceivable way. You've never shoot him from the waves below the waist. Wait till episode nine. Wow.

What was your favorite location from? King Kong, we want to have to say something about. Stop! No, please continue it. Favorite location? You were saying you loved Hawaii. Hawaii was your favorite. Hawaii, oh, fuck, no.

Hawaii was my least favorite. Hawaii had the work. There's a Jeep scene, and the Jeep is on this, like, process trailer, but it's, you had to be towed at, like, a thousand miles an hour, and it's, like, bumping around, like, crazy. And the night before, Anders Mari and I had gone to this great sushi restaurant, but I ate way too much sushi,

a gas. And I've never been more sick in my life. To the point where, like, I think Apple health and safety was like, we cannot let this continue. And I was like, it was like December 22nd, 23rd or something. I was like, you're going to have to bring

me one of a fucking body bags. I'm not missing Christmas. Nobody, none of the other crew is missing Christmas. And usually the crew is like, dude, go home. But they were like, gay you're good so Hawaii Worse than Overlord Not worse than Overlord

I got Mono and had to work at night Which was a whole other disaster Massive fight scene when you got Mono That was not fun A land fight scene I had to do with Mara You got out of the most violent sport to get your ass kicked on movie sets Yeah I was I don't know what I was there

But no so my favorite Vancouver because I live to Vancouver and Vancouver was my home. I love Vancouver is my second home. We lived there for a long time. Sylvia wants to know, have you ever heard of Gogi, Wines, or Lake Hour, RTVs? Where are you, Sylvia?

There's Sylvia right there is. All the way. Great buyer of wine? Pennsylvania. Where's the case? Why didn't we bring it to the proceedings night next time, guys? I'm not pushing wine.

He's got pallets of it at home in his garage. Fair enough. And this one's mine, I always like to ask, what's the worst note a director has ever given you in your career? What's the one that was like, oh, my God. Oh, I've gotten a few.

You want to go or do you want to think? No, I got it. I got it. It was, it was, be more manly. And I was like, okay. Have you seen my facial hair? What can I do? And they go, well, just, I was using.

a higher register on purpose and it was on purpose i was and uh i was also playing a real person and and and but i'm playing like this i can't do it yeah yeah and they go and they go i don't think mickey mouse would be that manly yeah they go just trying to use her lower register and i was like have you heard his voice it's pretty high and then they went uh no no no i haven't listened to him i'm like well you're probably listen to me making a move make a show about i'm But no, that was it. That was the worst one. That's a good one.

Kurt, do you have anything? No, the only thing I have to say about that is it's funny. At times, you know, now as you get on with your career, you're able to have a conversation and say, well, you know, if you, I can't, all I need, all I need right now from you is you're the first audience. So you tell me what you want to feel. I'm good at doing that you tell me what you want to feel

don't tell me how to do it I can't because it's not making sense to me right but it's very rare it's really rare what I like to do with some guys finally is I've done it with Quinn with Bob Zemeckis other directors too

is just give me a line reading and then when you watch them do it because they become a little alternative you have to do a lot of translating in your own mind I think what he's trying to say is that. But, you know, I never, pieces of direction.

I always looked to Dakota Fanning. One day, she said, when you were young, when you were little like me, what did you do? And I said, I'd nod and just act stupid like I couldn't get it. And she said, that's what I do, too. Good advice. Good advice. Gentlemen, this has been such a pleasure, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Congratulations on this show.

As you can see, they put their blood, sweat, and tears into this one. It's all on the screen. You're not going to see the effort, but you're going to feel the passion and what they've delivered. It's fantastic. It's on Apple TV Plus Fridays. Check it out, Monarch Legacy of Monsters. Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, give it up one more time. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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 pressured to do this by Josh.

Are you looking for a movie review show where the critic is at the top of his or her game, meticulously breaking down and explaining exactly why. a film does or does not work? Well, good luck with the search. Because we're having fun here on Adam does movies. I talked to you like we just got done seeing a movie together, giving you the pros and cons, and I'm digging in the trenches, in the mud and muck, on streaming services, telling you which films are worth your time. Each and every week, I hit the big blockbusters, I cover the streamers, and I even tossed in some movie news for fun. Because this show is Adam does movies. I'm obviously Adam, I probably should have led with that, but

perhaps I have led you to check out the show on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube. And hopefully, we can do movies together. Hooh-hoo-hoo! Hot.