Happy Sad Confused - Laurie Metcalf

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Somewhere along the way in her decades of work on stage and screen, Laurie Metcalf cemented her status as one of the greats. Maybe it was her iconic portrayal of Jackie on ROSEANNE, or her roles in the TOY STORY and SCREAM franchises, or most likely it's her many thrilling performances on the stage, all the way back to Steppenwolf to her latest in the Tony nominated DEATH OF A SALESMAN. She joins Josh to talk about it all! SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Rula -- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.rula.com/happy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #rulapod Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! UPCOMING EVENTS! 6/16 -- Matt Smith in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For like a whole generation, like 90's kids, Toy Story, Andy's mom, scream to Nancy Loomis. I mean, these are kind of generational important roles for a generation, truly. I know. I know. There's no plan to it, but I'm telling you, I got, I got everything right at its peak. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Say, Sad, Confused. Today on the show, a star of stage, screen, film, she's amazing. She's the one and only Lori Metcalf. Thanks, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast.

Remember to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already on YouTube, on Spotify, whatever podcast platform you're using, you know what to do. Before we get to Lori, who is killing it, as always, on Broadway in Death of a Salesman, I want to remind you guys, check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash happy, say I confused, early access to all these episodes, account codes to our live events, autograph merch, all sorts of cool stuff. Supporting us over there, as I always say, does support us over here. Helps us make more stuff. So patreon.com slash happy, say I confuse. We have some cool live events coming up. We announced just the other day, June 16th,

me and Matt Smith. The band's getting back together. Always a fun time with Matt. We'll talk Doctor Who. We'll talk Star Wars. You know, he's in the next Star Wars movie. And of course, we'll talk House of the Dragon. He is always a blast live in New York City, June 16. Come on out. Get your tickets now. The link is in the show notes. We have at least one more June event that is huge that is about to be announced. I'll keep you posted on that on the Patreon and here, I promise. As for today's episode, main event, it's Lori Metcalf. First time guest on the pod. What an honor. I mean, an absolute honor. She is so many things to so many people. Maybe you know her and love her from Roseanne. Many people do. 300 plus episodes as Aunt Jackie, an iconic role in an iconic show. Maybe you know her from, Toy Story. Maybe you know her from Scream 2, from JFK, who knows. But if you're in New York, if you're in Chicago, if you love theater, you know Lori Metcalf as one of the all-time greats. She's won two Tonys. She's been nominated for more. She has nominated, nominated again this year for her role in Death of a Salesman, opposite Nathan Lane, who is also

nominated, opposite Christopher Abbott, who is also nominated. This production is fantastic. I've seen it, nine Tony nominations in all. Maybe you've seen Death of a Salesman before. You haven't seen one like this. Production is very unique. And the performances, as you would imagine, are stellar. And Lori doesn't love doing a lot of this, but she was lovely on this. I'm so thrilled she agreed to do the podcast. Great stories. Her background at Steppenwolf. She's one of the founding members of Steppenwolf Theater, which I'm sure you guys know was kind of one of the iconic theater companies out of Chicago with John Malcovic and Gary Seneas and so many great actors. So yeah, she's the real deal as an actor. She's an actor's actor, no less than Merrill Streep recently called her out

as one of the all-time greats for her performance in death of a salesman. So so thrilled to share this with you without any further ado, enjoy me and Lori Metcalf. Well, this is a distinct honor. Lori McCalf is somehow on my little old podcast. Lori, thank you so much for taking the time today. I appreciate you. My pleasure. Thanks. So one of the joys of being a New Yorker is I feel like you're always working. You're really like have, I mean, you've always been working, but particularly the last few years. My sense is like whether it's opportunity, restlessness or whatever, it's like there is always a great Lori Metcalf performance to be seen on the stage.

Give me a sense of where you're at in terms of opportunity and theater right now. This year especially, I had projects that actually even overlapped. So that's a rarity because usually, you know, you tend to go with long periods in between projects where you're like, you know, what's the nice job going to be? I don't want this downtime. I need to be memorizing lines. I just don't know what they are yet. So. But this time, yeah, for a very, a lot of people made it work, work, which was wonderful.

between agents and producers and Netflix and tons of people. But I was able to go from big mistakes by Dan Levy to Little Bear Ridge Road on Broadway, straight into death of a salesman on Broadway. And now I'm heading back to season two of big mistakes, which I can't wait for. Yes. You know, it's the lucky part of all that is being able to jump around between. theater and TV and maybe even film once in a while. So because I do have a worry about getting too burnt out on one of the other, which I don't want to have happened because I like working in all three. Clearly, I prefer theater, but that can happen. And so I'm trying to keep other things

in the mix. I would imagine, look, you know, most actors aren't the type to kind of take a step back and kind of reflect on the resume and the awards and all this stuff. Like, that's my job. That's what we do around here. But, like, if you'll indulge me, like, you know, take a step back for me. Because, like, for someone growing up who didn't come from this background at all, to have the place that you have, film and TV and especially theater, it is kind of mind-blowing, isn't it?

I mean, do you take, hopefully, a moment or two sometimes to kind of realize what you've achieved and where you're at? Well, when you do put it that way, you're right. I mean, I didn't know. I grew up in Southern Illinois, and certainly there, I didn't even do community theater there. I did a couple of plays in high school. And then I went to college at Illinois State University as a German major with an anthropology minor and weirdly met up. with these freaks who wanted to form Steppenwolf Theater, which is in its 50th season now. So I got waylaid big time, and now I can't imagine doing anything else. But I was always still so practical that I thought, well, I better have a plan B because I'm never going to be able to make a living, doing, you know, acting, acting in any medium. So, but I don't know what I thought I was going to do with a theater major.

either. So I was mistaken in both senses. But yeah, you know, when you put it that way, when I do stand back, I mean, I've had the luck, good fortune being in the right place at the right time to work on projects

in every area. There were at the top of their peak, you know, like Roseanne or like Lady Bird or like Toy Story series. or like different plays, you know. And of course there's never been a plan.

There can't be a plan, really, you know. And so it's all, I don't know, it's been a factor of being aware that each opportunity is something that you need to give 110% to. And joining on some projects just because, well, I don't even know how attached I am to this particular script, but I want to work with these people. All kind of different factors play in to all different decisions, you know.

It's interesting to me also that I spent so many years in TV, and it kind of precluded me from doing anything else for a long time. So I have no idea what my path would have looked like, minus the TV part for all those years. years, you know, who knows? Maybe I would have come to New York decades earlier because I didn't really come until I was kind of 60. Right. And the irony, yeah. Yeah. And I've heard you say this, like the irony is kind of like even despite like that Steppenwolf background and all you did, kind of like by then you would come, it was like, oh, this TV actor is doing theater when in fact,

of course, you were always that. It's kind of a very, it's a, it's an irony to that. I might have imposed that on myself, you know. I don't think anybody was ever, like, judging me that way. But certainly audiences, when I got to New York, only did know me from TV. And so I think that that's definitely how I was viewed. And it took a long time, I think, to join the New York theater community. Well, you're embedded now. It's safe to say with a couple Tonys.

So, okay, to further embarrass you and hopefully make you blush, you probably heard this. Merrill Streep, no less than Merrill Streep recently came to see you in Death of a Salesman. And I believe this is an actual quote, I don't know how the fuck she did that of your performance. Can you believe that? So, I mean, it doesn't get any better than that, I would imagine to hear that. It does not get any better than that. I'm intimidated by people, but she is at the top of the list because I, I am in awe of the way she can mix instinct with technique.

I think those, I think every actor has, some actors have more of one, more of the other. She has a perfect blend. And that, that to me is one of the things that just make her incredible. And then, of course, the bold choices that she'll go after. And it is a tribute to actors who have that facility to switch back and forth or make those choices or make that commitment or just go all in, all in on a scene or something, that they invariably make it look easy. And it is so not easy. Just being on the other side of the lens or on the other side of the stage eight. apron and knowing how those how all the decisions that go into a single performance hours and hours

of thought and and and and and detail work about well if I set the glass down on this line maybe I could get more mileage out it if I do something it you just break it down and break it there's no end to it right so I can so appreciate any actors work that I look at because I've seen how the, what are they called the sausage is made. And I know how incredibly time consuming it is. And yet that's, it's all in the details. Yeah. You know?

10,000 decisions and then hopefully the audience doesn't see any of them. And it's just goes right by. Yeah, it looks like, well, how else would she have done it? Right. That's the only way possible. She just, yeah. Granted, she learned the lines. Yeah, that takes some skill, I guess.

But how, you know, but then, you know, flip a switch. And of course, it comes out that way. Yeah. So, of course, she's talking, as I said before, about this great performance in Death of a Salesman. I was privileged enough to see this. This has been honored with nine Tony nominations. It's you, it's Nathan Lane, wonderful Christopher Abbott,

reteaming with Joe Mantello directing, who you've worked with many, many times. Look, this is one of those plays. This is one of those plays that we all grew up with. Perhaps we've seen different productions. But actually, I read that you actually kind of had purposely avoided watching productions. Was it in the back of your head that this role might come around? Was that the intent of kind of avoiding productions over the years? Yeah, I did that also with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf thinking, well, one day, maybe I'll have the opportunity to play one of these parts.

And if I do, it's going to mess me up if I see somebody else do it before me. And if I participate as an audience member, I will get, I will have a wash of what the show could be or should be. I will have an impression of it that I'll never be able to shake. And I don't want to have that. I just want to have the words on the script sitting in front of me at a rehearsal table. I'm going to start from there. So that's why I purposely have never seen it. I think it worked to my benefit, I hope.

I mean, it helped me certainly come at it by thinking, well, I've heard this character described in different ways or with different adjectives. And I can throw all those out. and let's see what would it happen if you know what would it what would it be like if she's an equal partner in the marriage and what would it be like if she's super opinionated and what what would it be like if she had kind of an off sense of humor i don't know you can start from anywhere you know and and so i i was lucky enough not to be able to prejudge anything about the role and then the luckiest part besides working with joe which you know i'll just I'll just raise my hand for anything he's got going on down the line because we we work in a similar way, I guess, and we like to make each other laugh.

That's kind of what reminds me of the old Steppenwolf days of just like, made you laugh, you know, in the rehearsal room. But anyway, no, I got incredibly lucky with the little micro ensemble within the bigger ensemble of salesmen, which is. is the Lohman family. And when I was thinking about it, you know, yeah, I've been a wife in real life. I've been a mother in real life. But that doesn't clue me in on how to go up there and act like a wife or mother. And then it struck me like I look like a wife and mother to these three other actors because they're treating me that way.

They're doing the heavy lifting. I can do my role however I see fit, but all three of those guys are so genuinely free up on stage. They're very affectionate. They're very, geez, funny and present. And so they're, when I see what one of them is, you know, as I'm sitting on stage, like going through the attention must be paid scene, and one of them reaches out for me with their hand, you know, and so I take his hand.

And I, it's, they're the ones that are selling it, you know, that we have this intimate relationship. And so I just find that incredibly lucky that I wound up as one of the four legs of that Lohman table. And we all are genuinely off stage as close to each other as we see them on stage. And, you know, that's just something that you can't really fake in the, in the rehearsal room or cast on purpose. You know, it's the lightning and the bottle thing. I don't know.

It just happened. But I do, I spend 90% of my stage time with the three of them. And I have to give them credit for shaping my performance into what it is. I'm sure they'd say the exact same if I were talking to them about you. We'll be right back with more HappySeg Confused. You're no longer young people. You're just people. And people are either productive or dead weight.

It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. Were you just checking me out? No. It's too bad. I see at least 15 ladies I need to talk to before my beta block wears off. My coworkers don't take me seriously. It's not a human. It's just a piece of meat. Someone bring a gurney.

The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies. scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s.

And man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. It's usually a bad sign like at like a movie press when you're like talking about. or set design, but I do want to shout out that like the setting of this, the way that they've chosen to create this environment is really striking and really sets a mood. There's this car that is like a shadow of the future and the past just hanging over this story right from the beginning. I mean, how does that environment inform your take on your character, would you say? I only got to experience once, which was a first day of tech, when we came in as a group,

all the actors, to see the set up on stage. You know, we'd been in a rehearsal room with it marked out in masking tape, so nobody knew. The pillars are marked out in a little, you know, half square. And so we'd stand there, you know, inside the masking tape, not knowing that, oh, wait a minute, I have to go down to the basement of the theater and crawl up a lot. ladder and flip a trap door with my foot that comes down and so I can stand on it and then wait inside that pillar for my entrance, you know, so all the, uh, the, the working on the set was a big learning curve, I must say. But so, but anyway, I, I, I'll never get to experience what it's

like to, um, walk into that space and see the set and, and, and think, wait. is this death of a salesman I'm gonna sit down and watch in this cavernous looking theater so that was the big swing that Joe took was in deciding look are we gonna go into the winter garden or are we gonna postpone this thing some more you know because I think everybody would have chosen honestly, a smaller theater. Right. But that's what we had.

This is a big one. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we. It's the biggest one I've ever worked in. Yeah. And then this set for as, no moving parts really,

except the car coming on and off. It does do some cool things. People can kind of disappear in and out of the car, disappear coming out of pillars. But and then the lighting is very theatrical, I know, although I can't experience it from out front, on stage is blinding. What can I say? And so, yeah, that was a big swing on that set. And I've heard interesting things on people's takes on what it represented.

presents. One of them was that, oh, well, clearly, this was the piece of property that the lowmans had built their house on in the 40s. No, 30s. And that went to ruin. That got raised, and they put a parking garage there. And then that got deserted. And now these are the ghosts that haunt the place. I like that interpretation. That's a good one. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. Yeah, it was cool. But, and it is supposed, it can represent, you know, what it's supposed to be inside his mind. Sure. But, yeah, I'll just never, I'll never get to experience a, of a production of Death of a Salesman full stop. Because I'm too inside of it now. Officially, it ruined it for yourself. You're the one person. Officially I have.

And I've ruined Virginia Woolf, too. Well, all for the greater good for us. We thank you, Laura, for that. I took one for the team, yeah. You did. You've taken a few. So have you found that Broadway audiences have changed in recent years? I mean, are they more or less unruly?

Or is there more rustling of candy wrappers and cell phones? Or what's your sense? No. Not my sense. It just depends on the actual audience. I mean, we've even been doing this on Wednesday matinees to a lot of students. That's great. Yeah, it seats 1500, but we've had like five.

students at a time there. And they're very quiet. They're very respectful. No, it's an interesting stage to be on. Like I said, the largest I've ever been on, but it's super wide. And so, and shallow. So when I look out, it looks intimate, but because of the lighting also, I can only see a few rows back. And then the rest of it looks like a painted backdrop. to me of little heads, you know, up in the balcony and in the back of the orchestra. But I will say, it gets quiet in there. And then it's interesting when there are a few laughs in the show. Some, you know.

And then they, they don't, it's the configuration of the stage, of the orchestra, I think. They don't really roll like you'd expect, like, with a slightly smaller house. So there's a kind of a wave, but it sort of stops at the apron. I don't know how to describe it. It's very, and we're doing all of our acting, basically downstage center around the table and chairs.

So I feel close to them, but it feels like they're behind a scrim or something. It's different from what I've ever expected or worked with. And I can't really, pinpoint why. Maybe it's, maybe it has to do with the lighting, the haze, the hazyness. You know, but it's working for us and Merrill and the Tony nominating committee. So don't get in your head about it. Laurie. I won't overthink it. Yeah, don't overthink it. You're doing it

right. If you'll indulge me, I mean, you mentioned Steppenwolf, which obviously is one of those influential theater groups ever, full stop. And you were a founding member. And to look at that group of actors that you came of age with, whether it's Malcovich and Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, John Allen, Gladheadley, Sinise. It's a murderer's row. When you think back to that young group of wild young actors, was there a unifying philosophy you all subscribed to? What kept you all together, you think? We really did want to, it was a little competitive, I guess, I would say. We wanted to show off for each other. You know, if I could get a laugh out of one of those guys or a tear or a pat on the back after the show, that's kind of what it was about. We were

teaching each other. We were teaching ourselves and each other how to act. Nobody wanted to direct. That was the shit job, you know, nobody wanted to have that. That just meant, ugh, you had to be at all of the rehearsals, but you couldn't be on stage. And we were in a tiny little 88 seat house, but it was all about, and we had tons of energy, you know, we were 23 years old and dating each other, you know, so it was a real patent place about, you know, who's, oh, you know, somebody's not speaking to somebody else. Somebody just broke up. Does that, so did that seep into performances? That's an awkward position to be in when you're like hooking up and then breaking up. or somebody else. I mean, I can't even imagine. I don't remember it really affecting that part.

But, yeah, a lot of jealousies. Sure. And then, of course, we couldn't find plays that had seven, eight, 23-year-olds in them. So the hard part was always finding a script. Right. And inevitably, you know, we'd all have, there'd be like two good roles in it for us. And then other people had to play younger, older.

But in doing that, you know, you had to think outside the box and you'd be like, okay, well, now I'm the mom in True West. How am I going to do that, you know? So it makes you sort of go for broke in parts that you would never play in 100. years. You'd never be cast. And thankfully, our audiences way back in the day forgave us for all of that because they saw some little sparks in the roles that were right for us at the time. Yeah. They saw that, oh, these people are serious about, you know, doing the best theater that they can. And they, and they, so the audiences forgave us. and kept coming back until we could move into the city and branch out a little bit.

You kind of alluded to this. I mean, it's theater first for you in your career, though. You've had this amazing resume in film and TV. I mean, some know this, but some might not, that you've even described it as having literally a camera phobia throughout your career. Yeah. Which is inconceivable to think of somebody that's, you know, did 300 plus episodes of Roseanne and Lady Bird. and the list goes on and on.

But I mean, I'm curious, like, did you have to kind of reconcile or kind of accept at a certain point? Like, this is what it is. Like, I'm a theater actor. I can do film and TV. I can handle it, obviously. It's just never going to be what I love.

Like, what's kind of been your journey of accepting what works and doesn't work for you in terms of the different mediums? Well, I do realize after all those years of having a camera on tape day and the fact that I'm, I still have my camera phobia that clearly I am never getting rid of it at this age. You know, I can, I can accept the fact that I'm always going to have to deal with it. There are certain projects,

though, where that make it a lot easier. And one is right now, for me, big mistakes. Because there are, the way that Dan likes to shoot it is it's a rapid pace. And so we get to get in there and really rehearse the scenes. People are overlapping each other, which you're not allowed to do a lot in stuff. I was, in fact, a lot of, you know, editors hate that. They just want a clean, you know, take of it. But we get encouraged to do that.

And the cameras, usually there are two, and they're floating around. We don't have marks to hit. And so the TV show for HBO I did that was like that, which was my first experience with this kind of shooting was getting on. And it was, sometimes there'd be a camera behind, looking through the crack of a door. So I wasn't always aware.

So it was kind of a weaning off of my fear of it. And I could feel more like it was sort of theatrical. Because in theater, I don't know why it is. Maybe because I, well, no, I do. It's not being recorded. It's just live for the moment. I can do, I feel free. I'll do nude scenes.

I can do, I'll, you know, bite the head off of fish, whatever it takes. You know, it doesn't bother me because it's just a bunch of people in a room and there's no record. It's just between all of us, right? This is just for us. Exactly. But then when I, when I realize that, okay, and then they even tell me, okay, well, we're going to, we're going to be in. like right here and they show me how tight it is. I'm like, I don't want to know. I don't want to know anything about it, please. But with this moving camera stuff, which I think looks cool anyway,

when you see it cut together, it's a lot less stressful for me. And I enjoy it a lot more. Yeah. Yeah. So if you'll, if you'll indulge me, um, a few roles I have to mention. Obviously, um, I mentioned before 334 episodes, I believe of playing Aunt Jackie in your career. I mean, that's nearly 40 years of your life on and off playing that character. It's kind of insane when I, when I put it that way, I would imagine. Yeah. You know, I've been doing like a little embroidery project. I think I'm going to make my, yourself a pillow that says 334. It's a badge of honor. You should take it. I think that's going to be my next project. I love it. I love to be some small inspiration there. Talk to me a little bit about, I mean, I would imagine you are received at the coffee shop for different performances, different characters, but I would imagine Aunt Jackie does still come up. What do people, do people say the same things to you they've said for for decades? I mean, what's the meaning of

that character changed, do you think to people or what? Usually what people say, is one of two things. I have an Aunt Jackie in my family or I am Aunt Jackie in my family. It's one of the other. So that is the seal of approval that this is some sort of universal character that exists everywhere. And I don't know exactly what characteristics they're talking about when they tell me that, but it's in every family. And I don't know that, you know, it's such a, like I said, I've had all this look, but to be, to create a character from scratch in a pilot with a super strong ensemble is rare, obviously. And we had writers at the time who were, I didn't know what was going on at the. the time, but in hindsight, I realize, and all writers do this, they start writing to the strength

of the actor. So, casting Aunt Jackie as somebody else other than me, you would have had a whole different Aunt Jackie. It's just they started seeing things that, I don't know, I was unconsciously doing, they start writing to that, you know? Right. So, so who knows what it's all, it's, it's Writing amazes me anyway. I don't know how writers do what they do. But that's been incredible. Helps to have folks like Norm MacDonald, who I know was someone you who wrote on the show

and you later acted with. We were all such fans of Norm. What a gem. You know what he wrote. I was going to mention. So about half a dozen times every year, I see my wife sitting on the couch laughing at her phone watching something.

And I ask her, what are you watching? She's like, I'm watching the scene from Roseanne, the dad's dead scene, which norm, as I understand it, wrote. Is that right? Yes. Yes. Do you remember reading that scene and did that strike you as anything particularly special at the time? It didn't strike me right off the bat when I read it as, oh, this is going to go viral, you know? Exactly.

It was viral before viral. Pre-viral, yeah. It did not strike me as that at all. I thought, oh, it's a phone call. Okay, let's see how to do with it. I knew it had a build to it. It starts off a certain way. It's got a great build to it, and then it has a great button at the end.

Yes. Dad's dead. He sends his love. Click. Don't ever make me do that again. So I knew that the bones of it were great. All I had to do was not mess it up, you know, because you do, feel in front of a live audience that way and with four cameras position between you and the audience,

you feel like, I have to nail this. I have to. Because, you know, they're not going to want to see take two, three, four, and five. And it's not going to be as funny. So, um, and I, so it got that, it got a great laugh. And Roseanne was perfect in setting it up and then coming in at the end, you know, to, to bracket it in her, her comic way. But I didn't, I didn't know that it would be what it is today. That we're talking, it's on little, plus years later. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little mini, mini, little mini world. Just, you know, 30 seconds of, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, 30 seconds of perfectly written and timed humor. No, you're right. It has the whole arc. It has that build and that button, and it just, it just seems perfection.

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Patrick Pickle Bottom Everyday Mysteries is perfect for kids and is just as entertaining for grownups who love a good mystery. The whole family can listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Goodbye, Kyle! Did the sound of those words call to you like Pavlov's dog? then you might enjoy our podcast Turtle Time. Every week you can join me, Riley Hamilton, and my co-host, Amy Scarletta,

as we cover the most pressing Bravo news and dig into the new episodes to answer important questions like, who the hell is Adrian Maloof in this world? Listen to Turtle Time on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, new episodes every Wednesday and Friday. Here's a random one for you.

When I was growing up, a big movie for me, and you were part of an amazing ensemble, was JFK. And I always think of JFK. I mean, I feel like it was like a bunch of amazing actors, sweating in New Orleans, delivering just so much exposition, but it was all fascinating.

And the filmmaking blew me away. And Oliver is a legend and, you know, a tough cookie to work with, I know for many. Do you have any distinct memories of working with Rooker and Costner and Oliver on that one? I just remember it. I think it was probably my first time in New Orleans. You would step outside and be covered in sweat.

You know, just go into the stage or whatever. But I remember I had a big long monologue, and I was very intimidated by it. And, of course, you know, it's on camera. What they ended up doing was mostly cutting away from most of the monologue. But I learned it as one day. peace and I worked really hard on it to be able to rattle it off that way. And I remember being intimidated also by the accent.

I thought, I'm terrible at accents and I shouldn't even be attempting this. So why am I? But I think, I want to go back and see the whole movie again because I haven't seen it since. And, but I remember, you know, being, uh, mostly being, spending my time being intimidated and drilling, drilling, drilling, drilling, the information that I had to get out in a hurry in the midst of all this other information that's spilling out. Right. It's fascinating.

I mean, like, forget like Roseanne for a second. For like a whole generation, like 90s kids, toy story, Andy's mom, scream to Nancy Loomis. I mean, these are kind of generational. important roles for a generation truly. I know. I know. There's no plan to it, but I'm telling you, I got I got everything right at its peak, you know? Was was taking on scream two was part of the joy of that getting to kind of go off in that final act and like be the killer? I mean, that's you want if you're going to be in a screen movie, you want to be the crazy one. You want to be the one at the end. scream one had just come out and um so i got a call about uh possibly portraying the the killer in scream two and what i loved about it was the reveal i didn't see the reveal coming i knew that she was also debby salt great name a reporter a local reporter but i thought oh his mother that's clever you know So, and then, yeah, it was days spent at the end doing all the physical stuff, all the, ugh, gun, you know, making a, having a plaster cast of my forehead made.

And this was way back in the day where they actually implanted something, an explosive here in it on my forehead. Doesn't seem safe. Doesn't seem. None of it was safe. none of it was and an orchestra pit filled with smoke that you could accidentally

walk into and no none of it was safe but yeah that thing you know with a with a 500 I'm lying on the ground 500 pound camera on you know

aimed pointed down at me on stilts or something three two one detonate you know like oh my God you never want to have a job where they're saying three two one detonate that's that's that's a that's a word that's not a stage direction you want to see no god a couple other random ones for you i know you've talked about you've had so many different kind of theater experiences and the misery experience is an interesting one it was a different it was an unusual kind of production because it was clearly playing to that film audience even more than the stephen king audience like the people that knew what that movie and they you know they wanted to satisfy those for you folks and the opportunity to work with Bruce, who you said very kind things about, and I'm so happy to hear that, obviously, who's had some terrible troubles in recent years. But, I mean,

happiest memories revolve around working with Bruce, I would imagine. I mean, what comes to mind when you think about misery? Definitely. Bruce is one of the most generous people I've ever met. It was basically only the two of us. I had to shoot a sheriff halfway through, but whatever. But it was mostly just the two of us. And so he was in the bed at the beginning of the show. And I was going to be standing watching him. And there was a curtain, I believe, or the thing rotated. So we were hidden from the audience.

And so they'd get him all in the bed with prosthetics on and his leg. He would come in like hours early to do all this leg makeup because his legs were all beat up and everything. And I'd sit on the bed with him, and we would talk over our day and kids. And, you know, I was saying, well, my oldest son's coming to town. Where should we go? And he goes, oh, you've got to take him to Nobu, especially if you feel like sushi. And so we ended up – and the next day I said, Bruce, at the top of the show, I'm taking Will to Nobu. We're very excited.

He said, oh, great, I hope you like it. And then the next day, maybe after the second show, Will and I went. ordered a ton of stuff. We're seated in a extremely nice booth there, as I remember. And, of course, went to pay and afterwards on. Sorry, this has been taken care of by Mr. Willis. Lovely. Just handing out gifts right and left to the cast and the crew,

he is incredibly generous man. And so, yeah, those are my, he filled every seat in that. house sold out because everybody came to see him and you know they knew the title misery uh from the movie it was a weird hybrid between being a book and then a movie and now a play so it had some of the best and worst of everything all jammed together yeah but but they were just screaming his name in the curtain call you know everybody was was so happy to be in his presence. And then you get this gift of a script and direction from Greta Gerwig in Lady Bird.

After not doing a film for a while. Long time. Long time. You work with Sersha, who's as great as they come. I absolutely adore her. You're reading that script when you read that kind of opening sequence in the car, her jumping out of the car. Is it immediately apparent that this is unique material?

What struck you about that? Yeah. I had a phone call with her and I said, honestly, I have four kids. And I have one right now that's going through this, budding heads with, you know, mom and this was not a daughter but a son, but the budding of heads and sort of around the same age. And I said, I think I understand this material. And so we had a great conversation.

But when it was time to film that, opening scene in the car. Sersha and I had so much fun. We were the only ones in the car and it was being pulled. It was being towed. So I didn't really have to worry about driving. And it was a scene where, you know, it had some length to it. You know, it was maybe two minutes long or something.

And that sounds short, but it's lengthy, you know, to have a two-character chap like that, you know. And so we got to do it. multiple times and we got to overlap and we got we got a rhythm going you know and and and and besides the fact of it being so well written and so perfectly setting up these two characters early on in the in the show it was so much fun to do yeah i don't i don't know i it was it just seemed it seemed organic um and greta of course set the tone during the whole shoot of being so inclusive and open and and collaborative. It was a, it was a, it was a, it was a dream of a movie shoot. And I hadn't, I still have only done probably

a handful of movies. But that was by far the, the loveliest one to work on. I mean, are you, where are you at in terms of looking for, I mean, obviously, big mistakes is keeping you busy. theaters keeping you busy. But does interesting film work just not come around very often? Or is it just few and far between? What do you get offered in terms of film right now? I haven't

seen any thing. I haven't been sent anything. Yeah. Maybe a part here or there that's been certainly not a lead. A smallish part, but that was a conflict, you know, so I couldn't do it, but it's not, it's not my favorite way of

working anyway. So, you know, I don't really think, oh, God, what am I missing? I just prefer, I prefer the other ways of working anyway, so I'm not, you know, it doesn't really. Yeah, you're not wanting for great material. I'm not, I don't, I don't have my, I don't, agent on speed dial saying where all the movie was coming in. Yeah, exactly. We end every happy second fuse with some profoundly random questions, Lori, if you'll indulge me. Are you a dog or a cat person? Dog. Big time, right? Like, your dog, I hear comes to the theater. Here's what it is. I love, I've had cats, two cats, and I loved them, but I don't like all cats. So that's why I say dog. Okay. Okay.

you collect anything? I'm looking around. Well, it's not a collection, but I go through jigsaw puzzles like you wouldn't believe. Really? So in my closet, there's like a stack of 25 of them probably that I've already done and I need to donate somewhere. Amazing. What's the wallpaper on your phone, the background on your phone?

Oh, it's a picture. You want to see it? Sure. It's a picture of, you can't really see it. but it's pretty landscape it's yeah beautiful um picture from property i have in idaho oh lovely um who's the last actor you were mistaken for um it it never really happens but i was joking with chris abbott the other day that um if they were to recast you know us in our parts in salesman And it's, he can't do it now because he has passed away.

But for Linda Lohman, it would have been Bob Denver. That's my, that's my look-alike person. Didn't see that one coming, but. Amazing. And what's the worst note a director has ever given you? The worst note? Yeah. Well, there are no, personally and, uh,

Because there are notes that people tell you that are just undoable. You know, like be funnier. You know. So it'd be like be funnier, be sexier. Yeah, I think be sexier was the worst note I ever got. And it didn't even have anything to do with the role as far as I could know. And finally, in the spirit of happy seg infused, who's an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen on the stage or immediately in a better mood.

Well, I'm going to say Joaquin Phoenix, just because I'm so, I'm a bit obsessed by him and the projects that he chooses and his commitment. But lately, somebody that I'm also obsessing about is Joshua Henry in ragtime. Oh, yeah, I just saw that production. Great. Yeah. Yeah. So he's, he, he is so moving and, uh, he's, he's got everything.

He's got the voice. He's got the acting. He's, um, thrilling to watch. Yeah. A movie that makes you sad always, brings you to tears? Um, I don't really go to those. Um, hmm. A movie.

Like, what's your, A go-toe that for me and many people, terms of endangerment often comes up. Cinema Paradiso is the one that I think of. Could be a Pixar movie, a lot for, you know, a lot of Pixar does that well. They really do. Yeah.

I guess back in the day it was E.T. for me, you know. Perfect. Yeah. Of course. And finally, a food that makes you confused. You don't get it. Why do people eat that? Aspec.

Oh, yeah. What is it? That's like the gelatin? Like there's a, it's, yeah. Yes. It's see-through and it's jiggly and it's gelatinous. Gross. None of the things we like in our foods.

It might be used as a sealant also for for hams and meats and stuff. Right. I don't understand. That's what my character says at the requiem at the end. I don't understand it. That's what you're thinking about at the end. You're thinking about Aspect? Now I'm, no, it's in your head.

Well, now, tonight I am, yes. Great. I'm glad we've informed your performance. Thank you so much for the time today. I really, really appreciate it. And the performance and the production is absolutely stellar. Everybody should check out if they can. Death of a Salesman.

Big mistakes. I'm so happy. It's coming back for a second season. Lori, I really appreciate the time. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Jo. 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. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.