Happy Sad Confused - Theo James

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Theo James, leading man or comic actor? Maybe both? In his first visit to the podcast, Theo talks about his comedic and musical roots, what he learned from DIVERGENT, why there's a little bit of his WHITE LOTUS character in all of us, and his new horror comedy, THE MONKEY. UPCOMING EVENT! Nathan Lane -- March 20th in New York -- Tickets here SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Quince -- Go to Quince.com/happysadco for 365 day returns and free shipping! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, 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

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

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. last actor you were mistaken for? Yeah, God. It was one of the Franco brothers again. Probably last week, someone was like, excuse me, excuse me.

And I turned around and I was like, here it goes. Are you, Dave Frankos? Fuck you. That turned very quickly. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Hey, guys.

Welcome to another edition of Happy Set. confused, I'm Josh. This is my podcast and you are about to listen or watch depending on what platform you are using to my conversation with Theo James, first time guest on the podcast this week. He's promoting the monkey. We'll talk about that in just a second. But before we get to that, some reminders, if you want to see me live and in person doing my thing, the next one that officially has tickets on sale is March 20th with Mr. Nathan Lane, icon of stage and screen. He will be a first-time guest on the podcast. Get your tickets now.

The link, the information is in the show notes. Come on out. This one's selling well, but there are many tickets still available. So I hope to see you guys there if you want to see me, as I said. Do my thing in person. As always, patreon.com is your friend. Patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused. For early access, for bonus content, for posters, for merch, anything and everything happy,

say confused. If you like what we do, give it a shot because that, Let's us make more cool stuff for you. Okay. Main event. Theo James. You may know Theo from a variety of different performances and projects. I first got to know him through the Divergent films,

which we covered a hell of a lot of at MTV when every YA book series was being turned into movies. And Theo was front and center alongside Shailene Woodley in those films. And I knew immediately I really liked Theo from the start, He's kind of like this leading man guy in person, but you get to know him a little bit. You realize he's got a really fun, twisted sense of humor, doesn't take it all too seriously, just a good dude. So I'm really happy he's kind of having this kind of new round of success, thanks to his Emmy-nominated performance in the White Lotus a couple years back, his leading performance in The Gentleman, the Guy Ritchie Netflix series, which has already got a second season green lit. And now the monkey, which is, if you like Stephen King, this is based on a Stephen King short story, if you like Oz Perkins, director of long legs, if you like a final destination kind of vibe to your horror, this is the movie for you. It is about to open. It is a tale of brothers, Theo plays twins. That's not a spoiler, who encounter a pet toy monkey. You heard me right. Who wreaks havoc, basically tons of

murders ensue around this horrific pet toy monkey. How's that for a summary of a crazy movie? It's a crowd pleaser. It's a fun movie to see in a packed house because the kills are insane and fun, as you would hope, in a movie like this. So that's kind of the main reason for having Theo on, but we cover everything in this. I think you guys are going to enjoy it.

I know you're going to enjoy it. I certainly did. So without any further ado, here is me and Theo James. Thanks for doing this virtually, man. No. Where are you? It's at your apartment? This is welcome to my lovely New York apartment, Theo.

You're invited over any time. Yeah, very trendy. You know me. You know how I roll. How you been, buddy? It's good to see you. I'm good. You're doing very well, man.

I see your interviews everywhere. Excellent. I've always said one day, no, not at all. One day I'm going to be big and strong like Theo James. And one day, one day he's going to be on the podcast. podcast. And as the prophecies foretold, look at that. Oh, they see the thumbs up? What just happened? You see the balloons? I saw the balloons. Yeah. That's amazing. I was going to say, the prophecies have always said a murdering monkey would bring him to the podcast and it's come to pass.

Here we are. So officially, congratulations. The monkey is so great, man. It's fucked up and wonderful and delicious. How are you feeling about about this one? You must be riding high. good yeah i mean i guess i feel like i've been doing it long enough where you never you never really know but you know i think it's really for what it's worth if i'm in it's hard to tell but you know it's it's funny and it's irreverent but it also has kind of a bit of an existential backbone and we had a good time making it you know oz is obviously great long legs kind of smashed him out into the stratosphere but i'd followed his stuff since before that me and him actually pitched a couple of things uh him as a writer and me as a as a producer during lockdown um good stuff

the nature of the industry the tv show that we were kind of developing and pitching didn't come to fruition but i knew his work i knew his humor i knew how quick he was as a writer so um when i heard he was doing a stephen king adaptation i kind of thought It was a no brain, and then I read it. And my first thought, actually, was to call him and because then we had a chat, obviously, and I called him, I was like, this is really funny. Am I getting that right? Is that the idea?

Yeah, man, it's the idea. You can't do a serious film about a monkey that murders people, a toy monkey. So I think, you know, what he set out to do was always this. And it's been kind of impressive seeing how he's evolved it, basically. This does feel like the comedy renaissance of Theo, I feel like you've returned, and as I understand it, going back to your roots, like, comedy was something you were passionate about early on, but I feel like only in recent years are you really getting to stretch that muscle?

I've been allowed to do it, yeah. Totally. That's funny. I kind of feel the most confident in that space in a way, because as you said, I kind of, in a very amateur way, that's how I started as an actor. We used to write sketch shows and stand up and shows and take them up. to the Edinburgh Fringe when I was in my early 20s. And then I, you know, the nature of life and whatever,

I kind of got away from it and I missed it, but doing more of it and I'd like to keep doing more of it because I love the freedom it brings you as an actor and the lack of self-consciousness it enables. And working with people like Oz and Mike White as well, you know, they remind me of each other in a way, not personality-wise, but in terms of their style. when they find exactly what they're excellent at doing,

which both of them have done, they're incredibly quick with rewrites. They're incredibly confident on set, but not in a kind of dickish way. And it gives you confidence as an actor to try things. And I think in comedy, that's particularly important and pertinent because you need to be able to feel a level of trust there where you can do stupid dumb stuff and some of it doesn't work

and some of it might, you know. And that is really, it's really, really freeing. As I said, I like to do more of it. I also think that there's an element of, you know, I think when you're starting out as an actor, like people define you more so even by your look, by just the vessel you're in. And I think that that goes for probably every actor. And I think of you, I just saw Mickey 17 with Robert Pattinson, another multiple role performance. And I think of another guy who kind of like, you know, has this look and is now

like getting the license to play weird and fucked up and funny. now that he's kind of like reached a certain stature. And it feels like in a comparable way, it's like you kind of paid your dues play in kind of the straight arrow guys. And now you're getting a chance to kind of buck around with that image a little bit. Yeah, and push the boundaries a little bit. And, you know, he's a great actor, Robert Patterson. And he did that, certainly for kind of our generation of young actors at the time.

Now we're getting kind of old and decrepit. But he was smart in taking risks and doing things that were, were unexpected and I think that can really pay off and you know I think about even Colin Farrell or someone like that he he is best when he's doing you know weird strange um offbeat characters because there's there's a richness there and you want to circumvent any assumption of who you are or the roles that you played before and quite frankly when you're coming up as a young actor you're you're hustling as you always are because that's the nature of the game but when you're literally just starting out you don't you know you kind of got to ride the tides that

are given to you and you don't always have the control that you you would want well it kind of dovetails if you allow me like with kind of the themes of this film which is all about kind of like is fate intervening are we in control of our own destiny and like I always have this conversation with actors and like most people don't realize it like 95% of actors out there are kind of just taking what they can get like you you have the luxury of choice is so few and far between and luckily you have that to a degree but like very few have you know are Leonardo decaprio it can just kind of like go through the board and you're just making the best of what you got like have you felt at a certain point have you come to terms with kind of like how much control you can have over your own career

like how do you kind of navigate that as you age into decrepitness yeah yeah yeah your under a false illusion that you have control, especially when you start out, and you really don't. I've also learned that naively, when I started, you read a script and you think, oh, there are cool parts of it. You know, there's an element of interesting character evolution.

But, you know, it's a kind of five out of ten, but we can fix that. And you never can fix it. If it's not there, it's always going to be. It's not there. It's not there. We'll plus it up on the day. We'll figure it out. Yeah, exactly.

so really you've got to as much as you can again you don't always have that luxury and that can change moment to moment but choosing people who are good at what they do I mean particularly you know directors with good material I know that sounds like an obvious thing to say but there's a naivety I think when you first start out that you can just kind of mould stuff and make it better but inherently it has to be a piece and it has to be a confident voice more than anything and It doesn't always turn out the way you want to. That's just life, isn't it? But those are the choices that you have some control over. Beyond that, you have to let it go to the wins, as it were. Can we talk a little bit about the... Go to the wins. Go to the wins.

That old chestnut. The excitement of playing dual roles in this, you're playing twins. I mean, you're following like a long line from Lindsay, hand to Jeremy Irons. They've all done it. And here you are, Theo. Yeah. I did it once before for a kind of short-lived HBO TV show, which I enjoyed doing. But it was a good learning curve pre this way because it's a great thing to do because you get, especially with this, because you're playing two sides of a different coin. You know, you're playing the Hal character is the more kind of grounded, kind of straight

guy, sardonic guy, and then you have the insanity of Bill, who's just a complete maniac. So you can kind of, you know, do two things at once there. But what I learned from doing it initially on the time traveler's wife was you kind of have to know 60% of what you're going to do, as in you don't want to plan it so much that it affects naturalism, because that's what we're aiming for, hopefully. But you need to know what you're doing because I found in that, I would end up trapping myself into a performance on one side of it, if makes sense. Because if you're performing with another actor and then you turn around and the actor does the side that you've already done, obviously.

But if you are not aware of how you're going to play the other part, you suddenly find when you turn the camera around and you're playing the other part, you're stuck in a rhythm and you're being forced to make choices that you didn't want to make, if that makes sense. So that's the boring side of it. But the exciting side of it is to being able to do anything. And certainly with Bill in The Monkey, Oz and I were like, let's push him the hardest we can. You know, there were moments where I was kind of crawling around like a dog yelping and, you know, licking microphones.

None of it made it in. But, you know, to have the freedom to do that and not feel stupid, or at least to feel stupid after the fact, enables you to find little pieces here and there. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Goodbye, summer movies, hello fall.

I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer. and early fall releases. We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lanthamos' Bougonia.

Dwayne Johnson's coming for that Oscar. In The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLuis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about, too. Tron Aries looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2, and Edgar Wright's The Running Man starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Okay, so since this is your first time on the pod, and as much as we've talked over the years,

we've never really had kind of a little bit of the deep dive background conversation. Let's go back for a second. First of all, most importantly, did you come out of the womb sounding like this? When did this voice happen? I remember it very well, actually. I was doing a performance of Joseph's Technicolor Dreamcoat when I was about, quite young, I was about 11, and it was in this kind of church of England school in this little church. And I was supposed to sing the song, you know, I closed my eyes, blah, blah, blah.

And the second, I think it was the morning of the performance, my voice broke. And, you know, the primary school teacher was like, what the fuck happened to your voice? And I sounded terrible and couldn't keep key as well. So it was incredibly embarrassing. But my, yeah, I don't know. Otherwise, my dad has quite a similar voice, and we get mistaken for being the same person on the phone. And we used to call it as kids the raw voice

because you'd hear him, and he'd be like, rah-r-r-r-r-h-ch-all-foyed that. I always think of, well, when I first met you, of course, I think it was on the set of Divergent. And I remember meeting you, meeting Jai, and thinking, I am not a man. I am a child.

I am not of the same genetic species as these guys. No, we're just dork. Then I realize. Then I realize you guys are just dorks. You guys are just like me, basically. The voice I've actually enjoyed over time, actually, because I do some voice over stuff as well for, you know. And I, this sounds fucking actuary and wanky,

but I enjoy that side of kind of performance as well, because there's a lot you can do in that space. And I love accents, and I love, you know, I love the nuance of that because there's a lot to it. I mean, even the American accent, you know, I think there's a misconception that it's easy to do, but there's so much more to it than just rounding your arms. You know, there's a complexity to it, and I love the nuance of that.

You mentioned voice acting. You did a voice in X-Men 97, right? I did, yes, yeah. That was very simple. Were you a comic book kid? What were you, what were you into? You were a 90s kid, so what were you into? I was into, you know, like classical literature.

Not buying it. Nope. I was a comic book kid, I'd say, because in Britain, it's less of a cultural thing, if I'm totally honest. It wasn't something that I was exposed to or friends were reading at school or my brothers were reading. You know, as a young kid, it was movies, really. and, you know, pretending to like football.

My brothers love football, and I fucking was always shit at football. But as a young British kid in the 90s, you had to pretend that you were a big football fan. So that was kind of where I started, you know, learning how to act, is being like, yeah, I fucking, yes. I love fucking Man City. Yeah, get him, son. I mean, no idea.

So what were the actors or films that you were obsessed with? What could you recite by heart? what actors were the first ones that you really started to follow well my brother um was he did a he did film and american studies as an undergrad and i was about 12 the time he's the eldest of five of us and he went to UCSD for a year and he came back and he would love and i remember visiting him actually and kind of loving the seeing cameras for the first time you know you in action as it were and then he came back and we would make these kind of stupid movies together

usually comedy and usually like gross humor that would be offensive any day I was going to say nowadays but they were definitely offensive back then but everything really but I think to me you know vintage Harrison Ford

was really interesting because he was kind of a archetypal hero looking like you know You know, we know who Harrison Ford is, obviously. But his delivery is quite comedic, and it's also he loves to underplay things. And I love that as of a style. I find that kind of fascinating and interesting and endearing that you could have a kind of,

you know, masculine, strong, heroic figure, but he's always slightly taking the piss out of himself. I found that really fascinating as a young kid. Yeah. You know, it's a name drop. I just interviewed him the other day and I was so starstruck you know, I've done this I've done this for a long time

but like, oh my God. You've interviewed a lot of people. I've interviewed a lot of people and still when you walk into the room with Harrison Ford, it's butterflies and he's still, he's legit. He is the guy. But when I always love...

Yeah, and I love growing up with his stuff is like, you know, as like, you know, as like, you know, idealized man as he was. He was also so relatable because he like, he took the punch and it hurt and you felt it. Like, Indiana Jones, like,

wasn't perfect. He was bloody and fucking up and that's what kind of made him so endearing. Exactly. Making mistakes, freewheeling, making up as he goes along. Yeah, that, and his performance style is interesting, because he's always quite under low-key. It's very throw away, but it's funny at the same time.

He's highly sarcastic, and he's quite irreverent, and it kind of works in a space where everything has a quite knowing wink, and that's connectable for an audience, isn't it? So I know music was the first passion before taking acting seriously. Like, best case scenario in your mind when you were in your teens or early 20s, like what was it going to be? Like, if it had worked out, where would you be? What would you be doing now in the music world?

I'd be a drug addict, obviously. That's the best case. That's the best case that I. Yeah, I think music. because I if I'm honest I loved we talk about kind of control and it is very different and you know I never did it to the heights of what other people have done but but the modicum that I experienced it you know you're it's your stuff it's your words it's your rhythms and melodies and you're completely bare bones in front of an audience and I think the high from that

you can get that from theatre to an extent but it's quite quite different from working filmically. I think I like screen because of the nuance of it and the naturalism is really interesting to me. Kind of as a conceit, playing that and realizing that. Kind of subtlety of emotion. But in terms of music, you have complete control and the ecstasy from it is unmatched, I think.

But I sometimes joke to my wife, I think I'll be, you know, four times divorced and, you know, some kind of deep fuck-up. So it's probably a better choice. And frankly, I kind of tried, you know, and I, if I'm totally honest, I tried to an extent where I think I had opportunities where, if it would have happened, if it would have happened, if that made sense. So, yeah, I've made my peace with it. It says something, yeah, I was going to say it says something when, like, acting is the

stable alternative to the other career, because it's like. This is maybe the second most unstable line of work you found. Exactly. So I guess so you're working for a bit before diversion happens. I'm curious like what was there like was there a near miss that you thought was going to change the career prior to that opportunity when you look back like something that felt like a potential game changer, whether it was a job you almost got or whatever? No. No, not really. I felt like, you know, before that I, before that I'd come out at a university and then I went to the old Vic and I had a bunch of student debt and I was just kind of hustling,

really. That afforded me an opportunity to do some different things, but it also came with its own slight poison chalice of the type of material it was. It was also kind of the kind of the the fatigued days of a sub-genre, right? It was why a young adult, and I think there'd been a glut of material like that, and that came towards the end where audiences had a bit of fatigue towards it. And that's kind of talking objectively

where you can't when you're actually doing the thing. But it was interesting, but it made me realize more the things that I didn't want to do, if that makes sense. I'm not sure green screen. I think I'm not that way inclined. I'm not particularly good at that, to be honest.

So that was a big learning curve for me. But before that, it was more just a hustle, to be honest, paying off fucking shitloads of student debt. Yeah. And trying to vaguely make choices. But as you said, in reality, you're just trying to pay your bills at that point in your mid-20s. I mean, I don't want to revel on, because I know like, you know, Divergent kind of, yeah, kind of went off the rails by the end, sadly.

But like, you know, you go into it with the best of intentions and Neil Berger was a great, a great director. That first film, I think, like, there was a lot of potential there. Like, what are the happiest memories you have of making Divergent? I mean, that group was amazing. That group of actors is fantastic. Happyest memories of me crying in my trailer in Georgia. when it was 41 degrees Celsius, no. I think, you know, Neil, I really enjoyed.

He had this idea of, you know, his touch points were like Blackhawk down for it. He wanted it to be kind of dark and dirty and frenetic. And I thought that was an interesting way of tackling something filmically like that. and yeah and Chicago I think the first one's from Chicago and then later moved to Atlanta I think that is an interesting environment in terms of how the thing looked the age of the city I enjoyed I enjoyed that and thematically there's some some interesting themes

you know in in that film but but yeah burgy I'd say I enjoyed burger boy Yeah. Was there a period? Okay. So the series comes and goes, and then it's time to kind of figure out what's next. Like, I know, for instance, like, Shailene's talked openly about, like, thinking about, like, she took a break. She's like, I'm not sure I want to act for a minute. Like, did you have a bit of an existential crisis for a bit? It seems like, look, thankfully in recent years, we have, you know, Guy Ritchie, we have White Lotus, we have this. You found kind of like your niche. But, like, was there a period of kind of like figuring out what's next after something? something like that? Yeah, definitely. I think the experience was a mixed one for me. And, you know, considering it wasn't like I'd always wanted to be an actor since I was two or whatever. We talked about the music and other things. So, yeah, it was more, yeah, trying to figure out how to have a bit more control

and how to do things that were. satisfying in some kind of, you know, it sounds pretentious, but in a kind of creative way to feel satisfying. I also found I started, which is a similarly hard thing to do, but I started producing and making things. And that was a big learning curve and hard as well. It's even harder, to be honest, because you, you know, as an actor, you drop in and if it's good or if it's bad or if it's an okay experience, you do it and then you fuck off and you forget about it and then you do something else. But, you know, birthing something, hustling the rights from a newspaper, convincing the

writer that you're the right person instead of, you know, selling it to a studio, then convincing a writer to write the treatment for less than they could get from someone else, then taking it out to pieces of talent and packaging it, then taking it to market, then making it for the budget that, you know, all those things. But what it afforded me was to kind of understand the industry a little bit more and understand the machinations of it. And that and a bit of age just made me a bit more relaxed, I guess. I think in my youth and in my 20s, I, you know, was quite kind of aggressive and wanted to have control where I didn't really have a modicum of control, honestly. So that afforded me to relax a little bit, I guess.

But, but, you know, the nature of the industry, you're always having existential crisis, honestly, and that's not a bad thing, but there are great, there's great creative things to be gleaned from being an actor or making, you know, a living from doing TV and film, but at the same time, you're not saving lives, so sometimes you end up reflecting on the bigger picture and life is incredibly sure and what do you want your children to remember you for you know you need to make choices that feel true to yourself and sometimes i think when you're a young actress well you you you compromise you know on your own sense of self and your own moral standing and i think probably not compromising is the stronger thing because in terms of longevity in terms of your own self that's going to that's going to be this hold you in the best regard for yourself and for people around you for the rest of your life, you know. And again, that link film, which I'm not doing because I'm changed the subject,

but that has always fascinated me about the idea of the shortness of life. You know, there was caught a lot of kind of death in my family and it makes you reflect and understand about how short the moment is, you know, and realizing that we've got a pretty short time here and to take advantage of it and to enjoy it while you're here and not have a compromise where you can. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer and director.

You might know me from the league, V or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, Critical hits. Fan favorites, musts season, and in case you missed them. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcast.

And don't forget to hit the follow button. 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. snacks. We're eating snacks? We're raiding snacks. Like the snackologist we were born to be. Mates 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. Call us. I would imagine then an experience like White Lotus, you're soaking up every moment of something like that. You know the show has this amazing. amazing pedigree. You know Mike White is this unicorn of this creative force. And you've got a delicious character to play. I mean, how satisfying was it to play this kind of uber douchebag,

if you'll forgive me? I mean, it was a gift. And there was some, you know, the only, the only modicum of pressure and, you know, Megan and Adam and I would do, and everyone would talk about the second season coming off the first one, which was so good. and I'm independent of auditioning for the second one. How do you kind of recapture that? Especially when it came out and it was a kind of a sleeper hit, the first one. You know, people weren't, it was COVID, and it was post-COVID, and people weren't kind of expecting it to be as nuanced

and incredible as it was. But otherwise, it was a real gift. A great cast, as you say, Mike is at the height of his powers. He's able to tap into a comedic understanding of great. greater and larger themes about, you know, humanity in a really fascinating way. And as a result, he's incredibly quick as a writer. He's incredibly confident. And those things emboldened you as an actor.

And again, that was kind of the first time, as you said, about comedy, the first time I'd really been able to get back to it. And it was really so gratifying to do because it was like, oh, I feel kind of comfortable in this space. And in terms of him, I've said this before, but I've just known so many versions of that character. I mean, you live in New York. You must have met those dudes.

They're fucking fascinating. They're disgusting, but they're fascinating. And some of them, the charming ones, there's a lot of not charming ones who are just boring as fuck. But the charming ones, you love to hate, but also you like hanging out with occasionally for a few hours. You know, they're fascinating. So playing, and some of him is me as well. And some of him is based on, you know, these people we've met along the way. I've been watching episodes of the new one.

I feel like you and Patrick Schwarzenegger might have a good conversation. There's a little bit of Cameron in his character, I'll venture. Maybe not on your level, but he's in the winch. A little bit of Cameron and everyone, even you. Sadly. There's the warning of the day.

Will Ferrell once showed off his prosthetic testicles from stepbrothers to me. Do you own the prosthetic penis from White Lotus? No, we used to play fight with it. and we used to, you know, whack each other at their head with it. We used to play Donkey Kong with it. No, of course I don't. What a freak.

I would be. Will Ferrell could get away with it. If I did that, I'd just seem like a fucking pervert. Fair enough, fair enough. Are we going to get more of the gentlemen? Have you been shooting? Is there, what's the plan for second season? Yes, that we're shooting next year.

I'm going to Seoul, South Korea next, to do a really great, one of the best scripts I've read for a while. Kim Ji Woon, who's Seminole Korean director, and Hoyan is playing kind of the other character in it. It's, yeah, so I'm doing that, and then I come back and I start season two, The Gentleman. Amazing, amazing. Do you get more of a kick out of the James Bond stuff

or do friends and family? When that's brought up, does your phone light up with friends and family ripping you or saying, go for it, man. we got you like what what's the narrative within your own life or do you kind of just try to stay away from the betting odds the whole thing the james bomb thing there's no narrative amongst my friends because they would say you are you joking uh and the and on the adage which i've said before but was from one of my school friends i'm still friends with now is when it was you know

it's muted to any bucking actor between 20 and 40 i mean literally any male actor or female actress But, yeah, the adage was, oh, yeah, you'd be, you know, the first Bondopolis, the Greek bond with humus and, you know, but, no, it's not really something that's ever talked about, honestly. You've never practiced in the mirror saying Bond James Bond, just to see if you can pull it off? Only in front of you, my friend. That's between us. Covered in oil. That's just for me. Have you done more a musical auditions or superhero auditions in your career?

I'm surprised neither has happened yet for you. I've done, a superhero or what was it? A musical or a musical, yeah. I'd like to do a musical, actually. I don't think I've ever audition for one. Maybe I did a bad audition for, oh, God, you know. You got a Mamma Mia? What do you got?

French Revolution. Oh, way miss. lay miss yeah yeah no i i and i've done some uh some over the years especially when i was younger but i haven't done one for for i mean i probably a decade um but i remember uh again i've told this story before but so apologies but like in my first year as being an actor conan the barbarian was being cast like i'm a moa one yeah yeah yeah and obviously you know it's not going to be fucking me but I remember and I'm going in with a bunch of

young dudes and we're all nervously waiting outside and we went in and it was like a page and it said the top line was do that and you die and then the end line was something similar whatever so I went in and I said the line and then I said the other line and then the casting

director said what are you doing what about the whole bit in between I said oh that's the bit when he rides he's on a carriage and then he like stab someone, throws a spear at someone and she's, yeah, I've got to play that. I play terribly badly and I never

do anything like that ever again, I think. Oh, so sad. What about what about Spandex auditions? You've worn a cape. You've worn Spandex in an audition. I would venture. No. No, never. Have you? And you're a... Yeah, me. I almost got Batman.

Adamson just beat me out. Yeah, it's a shame. I've never had. I, I just, It's about my life. I never, never, never. I'm not hunky enough, I think. Yeah, that's the problem. But in our waning time, you're going to answer the happy, say,

I confused, profoundly random questions, Theo. Are you ready? Do I do scatter shots quickly or can I think about it? Lean in, lean in. If you have some, you know, elaborate as you will. Dogs or cats? Are you a dog or cat guy? Cats.

interesting this is the minority opinion but yeah my my daughter loves cats and I always say well we can get a dog because I think it's kind of cooler to have a dog right you know maybe and kind of no judgments I would say so because I'm a dog owner but that's just me because she loves cats so

okay okay I'm not going to argue with your wonderful daughter I would argue with you but not what do you collect if anything I love cars. I love old cars. Not that I have thousands, but obviously, but I, me and my brother used to be really into that as kids. And he was better than me. And we both had these old mark two golfs. And we would do them up. And when I say do them up, I was always fucking terrible at it. But he would help me with it. But it kind of started my obsession with cars. My first word was car because my bedroom window. overlooked a kind of busy street and I would watch the cars go past and sometimes double-decker buses would come by and on the top you know on the upper deck they'd see some little kid being like um so I and I love you know the the kind of the smells the they remind me of a time gone by and I yeah that to me is my my crux nice do you have a favorite video game of all time

when you've spent too much time playing perhaps I was never a huge video game again guy, but a university, we used to play Tekken a lot, and I enjoyed Tekken. Yes, Tekken I was obsessed with for a short time. You? What about you? I'm older than you, so I go back to, like, the Ms. Pac-Man. Yeah, I'm 48, man. I'm falling apart here. What are you doing? It's over. Oil the way. I just bathe myself in your faith. Stop it. Go on you.

I didn't know you're 48. Very good. Very good. This is the Dakota Johnson Memorial question. She asked me this. It's a very important one. Would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one B in your butt? I'll definitely be in the butt, right? Because it's either going to be very painful or it's going to bring you to orgasm. Sensible thinking.

What's the wallpaper on your phone? Kids. Nice son and daughter, yeah. last actor you were mistaken for um yeah god it was it was one of the franco brothers again probably last week actually someone was like excuse me excuse me and i turned around i like here it goes are you dave franco's fuck you that's turned very quickly what's what's the worst note a director has ever given you I would say a non-vocal one, one of this.

Oh, do you have any thoughts, any notes? He's like, we're gonna do something else. I'd say that was the worst note. Heartbreaking. I'll just go back to music. I'll try something else. And then finally, in honor of Happy Second Fused, an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen, you're happier.

you're happier. Okay. Or do you want to say the most you go? I thought you're going to do. Fastbender. I love Fastbender's face. I think when you put a camera on his face, just whatever he does.

He's just interesting. I like the lines on his face. He's got big eyes. He's interesting and he makes me happy. A movie that always makes you sad. Probably that Italian movie. God, what's it called? Are you going?

cinema parodies so life is not so no life is life is life is beautiful yeah that's that's the other one yeah one of those two always comes up yep and and finally a food that makes you confused you don't get it why do people eat that oh um uh uh uh korean barbecue really yeah i just it kind of you you end up coming it's kind of brightly lit and you're a bit hot and oh it's the the ambiance more than the food even. And you come out and you kind of shirt is a bit, you know, smoky and my face is covered in sweat and I'm crying. I'm scared. I don't know where I am.

Describe so many situations with you, though. He's sweating. He's crying. What's going on? Okay. No Korean barbecue when we hang out next. Hopefully we will see each other in person. It's been way too long, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Where'd you do it? You do it in a cool, trendy room somewhere, right? I run around New York, wherever they'll have me. You don't have a spot. You don't have a Mac.

No, no, no. But next time in your New York, let's catch up. Honestly, congratulations, man. This movie, the reception so far has been huge, justifiably. So I hope it does great for you and that we can talk soon. Thanks, as always. Thank you, brother. See you soon.

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 pressure to do this by Josh. The Old West is an iconic period of American history and full of legendary figures whose names still resonate today. Like Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Butch and Sundance, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo, Wyatt Earp, Battmasterson and Bass Reeves, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok,

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