Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Breakfast Club’s ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL: Embracing Your Past

Episode Date: November 9, 2021

Anthony Michael Hall (Breakfast Club, Halloween Kills) joins us this week to discuss his ascension into stardom in the 80’s with Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science and his evolution of getting involved in new projects and different roles nowadays, such as his character in the new Halloween Kills. Anthony discusses fond moments in prior roles and with previous costars, including his relationship with the legendary director John Hughes. We also talk about experiences with Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick, and working with Jamie Lee Curtis on the new set of Halloween Kills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. I hope you're enjoying your week. I hope thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in. There's so many freaking podcasts out there, but you choose this one. Or maybe you're tuning in for the guests. But regardless, I'm glad you're tuning in. And I hope that you continue to listen and maybe subscribe after the podcast is over.

We've had a lot of great guests. I think what you get here with this podcast is intimate conversations, real conversations. It's not like two actors are talking about. about actory shit. I like to get deep and I like to talk about real, real things, mental health and all that stuff and careers and, you know, what makes people tick, facing adversity, all that stuff. So if you like the show and you hear that noise in the background, that's the Gardner. And he wanted to be included in this podcast.

So, Ryan, good to see you. Good to see you, too. Yeah, it's always a treat. I know you've had a day. I've had a day. Yeah, we both kind of. I'm just a lot of it We're kind of going through the motions today

It sort of felt like when I walked in Yeah, I just feel like It feels like you're going through the motions And uh But hey man Say your gratitude's every day That's what gets me through is just waking up and saying Hey, I'm grateful I'm alive here today folks

We're alive. We're doing it. We're really doing it as my friend Tom Wally says We're doing it dude. We're really doing it. Just continue doing it man for me. All right. Do it and do it for you. Uh, I'd like to say before we get into this great guest Anthony Michael Hall.

I have a stage it, two performances coming up. November 20th, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. You can go to sunspin.com. The name of the band is Sunspin. We have two shows, Ryan, 2 p.m. 6 p.m. Virtual shows. You could watch, you could bid, tip, whatever you want, and just prizes and zooms to be won, to be had.

It's a lot of fun. My band partner, Rob Dancin and I. In fact, Tom Lally, my old band member from Left on Laurel is going to join us. So November 20th, get tickets, you can go to stage it.com or sunspin.com. And also, briefly, I'd like to mention a charity that I'm a part of, Echoes of Hope. For the next month or two, Echoes of Hope is hosting a holiday event for under-resourced children, teens, young adults. Roughly 300 students will be supported this December. And if they want to purchase a gift or two, if you guys would

like to purchase a gift or two, you can visit our wish list on Amazon by going to at our Echoes of Hope, that's at oh you are echoes of hope on social media these are students who a lot of times do not have the family so they oftentimes spend the holidays alone and it can be very lonely time for them so we host a holiday party to make the holiday season special for them visit echoesofope.org to learn more there's a bunch of different options for giving on the donate page so i'd like to just a little shout out to echoes of hope my wonderful charity that i'm on the board for And if you want to follow us, by the way, or write a review, please do so.

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is uh i was excited to talk to him anthony michael hall uh i mean name a movie vacation 16 candles breakfast club weird science uh johnny b good edward scissorhands and his new movie uh Halloween kills with jamie lee curtis directed by david gordon green i'm very excited um it's a really fun movie it's really fun action packed that's perfect for the holiday you got to see it uh i really enjoyed talking to him and he was open and I was nervous because I like to geek out and I like to talk about, you know, the old movies and the old, the old days. And what'd you think? I think you restrained yourself. I think it was good. I think he was happy to talk about everything, which was cool. Yeah. He really opened up. I asked him some good shit. I think you're going to

enjoy this. And please spread the word to subscribe to the podcast. And without further ado, let's get inside of Anthony Michael Hall. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. We're talking about age right now. We're here with Mike. We're here with Anthony Michael Hall.

But you like Mike. I do, bro. Yeah. Your whole life you go, Mike. Yeah. Now it's like the Bob version of. whatever my three names is. Well, it just sounds so easy, right?

You don't want people going, Anthony, Michael Hall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want, it's Mike. I'm just Mike. That's it. You know? Long name, short story. Yep.

Is this your first horror film? Halloween kills? This is, you know what? I did a zombie flick about 10 years ago with Darrell Hanna, and I worked with this company, The Asylum, do Shark Nato and all that's great. They were a lot of fun. But that was just, I still don't even, I still don't know what happened. Like two and a half weeks.

It was one of those. Right. Right, yeah. but this one dude i've never been more pumped we shot this movie two years ago in uh wilmington north carolina and everybody was fucking great um david gordon green danny mcgris who does mostly comedy and danny mcbride who i've you know i've auditioned for me too and love this yeah yeah and he's a great guy but you don't think of these guys as writing horror or directing horror exactly and but when you watch like all my friends and i for holl i'm a big

horror movie fan if you haven't noticed by all the fucking horror movies in here but like we were watching all the halloweons and i've noticed with the exception of a couple they're mostly shit they're not that they're not really good movies but then all of a sudden it turned with David gordon green's movies that's how i felt like it just all of a sudden the quality it's like well where did this come from yeah let's let's uh it just got got better and better so it's got to be fun to be a part of that like that creative crew definitely and when this came up up two years ago. I'm with these great guys that untitled, Jason Weinberg and Mitch Mason.

They called me. And I just initiated. I said, listen, I'd love to get together with David, meet with him. He came to town because those guys live in Charlotte, North Carolina. So you wanted to get with him first. Yeah. You like this guy and you wanted to meet him. Totally. So before the, before I did the screen test, I met with him

on La Cienega somewhere, a hotel he was staying at. And he was just great guy, man. He shows up. He's wearing like a Bob Seeger T-shirt, talking a first-name basis with the bartender. Right. And he was just super chill. We talked about it. We talked about his process and how he and Danny moved back east with their, you know, with their families and their wives.

And they just kind of regrouped. But also he mentioned how they set their life up there. We did all these great shows on HBO that we all loved, you know. He spat him down, man. We're my favorites. Dude, vice principal, all that stuff. I mean, great work. And then at this point, they had, I think Halloween was out for about a year or so.

So, you know, that was it. And then after that, I did the screen test. I went in just. So you auditioned still? I did. But I just met with David first. which was great because we had about an hour to kind of shoot the shit and just talk about process and what he wanted to do

and what his objectives were and the whole thing. Great guy, man. He actually reminded me a lot of John Hughes, Mike. Really? Yeah, dude, because he's super chill, very down to earth, very easy going. And even when we got on the set, his process was great, man. He was very collaborative, truly, like, kept the dialogue going, got ideas from everybody.

He's not uptight money. So you had an idea. Oh, so let's try it. Oh, yeah, yeah. And also like John, it's that thing of you work with so many directors, two great ones um you do two or three takes the way it's written and then we digress you know if it's if it's cool if not you move on you know but he was great man he was really great jeez is it have you seen the movie oh yeah it's fucking it's kick ass i love it is it violent

incredibly probably more than the other 11 yeah yeah yes not that i'm saying i love violence but what we want right it's why we have rooms like this but but by the way when you're watching a halloween movie you want to see the kills you want to see this shit and you never see them. They're like they got weaker and weaker as the series went along. So now we see a lot of deaths. And listen, people love this guy. Myers is, I mean, I thought there were about 20 of these films relative to Freddie and, you know, and nightmare and all these things. Incredible. How do you win when the, when the hero's the villain? And he just goes off, dude, it just Myers is gone. I don't want to spoil anything, but he just goes right to fuck off.

Dude, look what he got me. He brought me. He brought me a Halloween kill shirt. I got one from Ryan, too. I got one for you. Do you really? Yeah, yeah. With Anthony. on the shirt there? Yeah, look at that. Not bad, huh? Do you play a badass in it? Okay, so here's the thing. In the mythology of the series, in the 78 film, 43 years ago,

Kyle Richards and Brian, I don't know the cat's last name. They were the two kids, Tommy and Lindsay, that Jamie Lee babysat. So there's an arc there. It's interesting. So in the original film, his character was bullied by Lonnie I, Elam, one of the other kids. And he's also the one who says to Jamie Lee in the original film, you can't kill the boogeyman right so he's kind of like starts that whole mythology so it's really cool listen the last one was phenomenal it was great made 255 million dollars they did a great

job so this picture takes up right where the other one left off like it picks up Halloween night they've just set him on fire and of course he exits the fire and comes after the town of course so yeah and you see you in the town kind of forges together that's right and it's kind of a all fuck fest well here's what's happened here's what's great yeah so in this one the movie opens we shot this It's a really cool bar called the Rusty Nail, right in Wilmington. Perfect. Yeah. And the movie opens, it's the same night.

And all the locals and the neighbors have gathered together and they're kind of commiserating about having been survivors and victims and all that. And then he cuts loose. Then it comes up on the TV, local news. Myers is on the loose again. And then it kicks off from there. And it just kicks ass, man. It's really great.

I'm excited about this. Yeah, man. I want you to see it. You're going to love it, dude. Well, we have to watch. So in order we have, like right now, we have two robes. zombies and then we go into the David Gordon Green which I've seen the first one but then we're going to watch it

right through Hollywood Kill so we're going to be watching this great by the end of next week I'll have all of them oh good good so I urge you guys to watch it it's Halloween for God's sakes yeah it's Anthony Michael Hall it's David Gordon Green it's it's it's you know it's gonna be a lot of fun I look at all this stuff by the way the test screen

when you test scream for and you've test screen many times in your life yeah we all have yeah what is is it just you and David Gordon Green and some producers is it What are they, How do they do it now? Jason Blum is brilliant, right?

So he set up his office. It's great. It's on Melrose, I think, or Olympic all the way, almost towards downtown. Got a great office. His whole company is there. Obviously, it's a universal company. But so I went there, did the audition with the casting ladies that are set up there in office.

Right. And just, you know how it is, man. You just prepare, do your thing and just lay it out there. Are you still good with lines? I'm getting old now. I got readers. Now I have readers. It's great.

You got the readers. Sure. No contacts. You got the readers. I got the readers. I'm walking with the readers on my head, Ryan. You'll see, kid. You got 20 years to get your 50s, your best.

He's your son of a bitch, Ryan. It's good to be young. Enjoy that dark hair now. Yeah, exactly. Christopher Reeve over here with the dark hair. No, but it was just great, bro. So I just really went all in, you know. I just have, because that's the thing.

Like, I don't know how you work. I want to hear about your process. For me, if it's a comedy or something dramatic or whatever, you just make the audience, I mean, the crew, your first audience. So same thing in the context of an audition, right? It's the women or the gentleman in the room. Sometimes, as you know, they're great directors. They can really be helpful.

So we just had a couple of scenes that were in the film. And I just brought, you know, brought it to do whatever. Did you have to go nuts at all? Oh, yeah, totally. Like where you just lose your shit? You've got to see the moment. We're going to have to do a part two. Schedule me in for part two.

We'll do, schedule a part two here. I love hearing this stuff. I love here about what you do in an audition. And do you just let go? Are you good at letting go? Yeah, man. I think it was important for this because the thing that I loved and I realized when I got to Wilmington is that David, you know, he had this kind of hero's part for me. David and

Danny came this great role. And Jamie Lee and Jason Blum. So Tommy is kind of like the eye of the storm, man. He kind of goes after, you know, Myers and he just, like I told you, the way the movie opens. But in fairness to all the other actors, Michael, it's a great arc that he gives us all. Everybody goes, okay, fuck this. We're going to unify. We're going to fight. We're going to go forward. Nobody has an arc in Halloween movies. Yeah. Or slasher films. So the fact that you're having a little arc here, anybody has an arc is good. You just set up to be carnage. that C-A-R You know, I look at this

I look at your body of work And it's crazy I know you've heard it many times But like Breakfast Club 16 candles Weird Science Edward Cisorhands Pirates the Silicon Valley Which as Bill Gates

You were just fucking genius I remember seeing that going This guy should be in everything You know 61 when you play YD4 Dead Zone the series You worked with my friend Sean Pillar

Great guy We have mutual friend and Sean Yeah You got to direct an episode You've done so much Now, is it, do you, how much do you hate talking about the past going into like the past? Because, I mean, it's part of your part of the present. You know what, Michael?

I've always been open to it. I embrace it because had I not work with Hughes as a kid, I wouldn't be sitting here, man. So I'm always like just the opposite, man. I'm happy to discuss John Hughes. And the guy was a genius. I love him. When we were kids, I was, you know, he was like a big brother me. Yeah, you.

Yeah. I loved him, man. I still miss them. Really, I do. I don't want to get into all that stuff. Sure, man. your mom raised you? How long is this? Is this three hours? No, it's less than an hour. I can't talk more than an hour. We're already 10 minutes in. I'm middle-aged. I don't know how long you expect. Are you already hungry? No, I'm good. You're good. The coffee's not enough. Coffee's good. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money. I'm going to speak to you about something that's going to help you save money. Period. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. This is just a wonderful app. There's a lot of apps out there that really, you know,

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Joe. But your mom raised you. She did. I grew up in Manhattan, New York City. My mother remarried. She was a single mom until I was about 12. And she married my stepfather. He was a great guy. He passed on a couple years ago, my father. Sorry. Thank you, brother. Yeah. And Tom, just starrowed, my stepfather. So he was a great guy. So, you know, I had the benefit of kind of both. I was a son of a single mom. I also had a nuclear family, that kind of thing. East Coast upbringing, New York City. My company is Manhattan Films. And I've been developing projects for years. you know, working on different things that I'm trying to set up. So I consider New York a great teacher, man. That's why it was everything to me. It was really, because I sucked in school. How were you in school, right? Were you any good? B's.

Barely. I was like, C's and D's. That was me too. I was colorblind. I was slow. I couldn't keep my shit together. I didn't think I was going to amount to much of anything. Thank you.

My combined score, my SAT, I think was 400. It's embarrassing. It's kind of. But it doesn't mean, did you think, did you think you were dumb? When you grew, when you were growing up, did you think you were dumb? Did you feel dumb? No, I didn't feel dumb. I just was very, I couldn't deal with school.

It just poured the shit out of me. It was cool to me, girls, and go to gym and lunch, and that was about it. Did you get girls at a young age? Oh, I had some dates. Really? Yeah. Because, you know, you watch your persona as a young kid on, and you're like, this guy's funny. He plays a geek just amazingly.

He's lovable. But did you milk that? Was that kind of like you were the funny guy? Oh, I don't know if I milked it. I mean, I think I just had fun. I was one of these kids, like, I don't know who you were growing up, but I was doing shows for my family. you know what I mean, I'd imitate my aunts and uncles and play funerals and weddings and

you know what I mean. So that's how you started. No, I swear to God. You know, never having been a stand-up, that's how I think I started. My family, definitely, man. I was imitating aunts and uncles and that's what I was doing. Were you? Same thing, right? My parents would go out to dinner and they'd come home and they'd say, how was S&L? And I would go, oh, well, you know, Tommy Fenegan, I would say goes, and do the sketches, right? Or I would do, and I would do all the sketches. You look absolutely marvelous. I would do that. I'd go, my dad. I'd say, always told me Fernando it's better to look good than to feel good and I would do the church lady hello again it's the church lady miss a church chat and I would do that I would reenact it

and I think my parents just thought what's wrong I don't know what's what's going on with him yeah this is the only thing he can do no I'm with you man in the 70s I remember like you'd had to stay up late to watch SNL man it was like a treat you know so I grew up watching all that that first cast I mean I was very young I'm 53 now but it meant so much to me growing that's young thanks brother come on 53 is young no it is it is young I didn't say it was old He's just jumping in. He's not 50. I'm almost there.

I'm almost there. You're right there. No, but honestly, you know it is. It was a very important show, you know. And I've always loved comedians and stand-ups. I mean, my heroes growing up were Carlin, Richard Pryor. Oh, yeah. Then I studied Lenny and, you know what I mean?

And I have nothing but love for comics, man. That's a tough life. It is. But I love them. So SNL was just a great experience. I mean, the year I was not sucked, but it was a great opportunity. What do you mean? It sucked.

I saw, I was watching an old clip of when you guys were doing the armpit farts and you're reviewing a book with Robert Downey Jr. was pretty much right and the writing was pretty much thank you you know look at he's good at that yeah and you were doing armpit farts and he's my and i just thought it was hilarious that's like that was my best shit at 17 that's all i could come up with but i hear that you were you said this in a recent interview that you were scared as shit the entire time oh totally for the reasons because of the context i gave you before you know it meant so much to me and then the eddie murphy years i'm in high school watching him and then piscopo and crystal after that i loved all those guys man so after

i agreed to the show and i got the you know the call from lorn what year was that 85 right after I've done weird signs. And it was just incredible. I remember saying yes and then walking around the city like what the fuck did I just agree to? But most people don't usually Lauren hires people when they're nobodies. Yeah. So all of a sudden you've got a couple of hit movies. And now they're bringing young Estinels. Isn't that odd? I had the good fortune of working for him like many of us. Obviously it's an institution now four decades in running. He's an incredible guy. You know, he really knows his stuff. So it was a great training ground. And yeah, you're right. Usually comics or people that do Second City or Citizens Upright Brigade, you know, improv actors.

So I felt very fortunate. It wasn't lost on me even as a kid, but just a great experience, man. It's fun. Even when you don't have a great sketch, it's great, man. It's a lot of fun. What was it like the days leading up when you're in rehearsal, when you're doing all these things? Are you still? Are you nervous every day?

Well, let me tell you the schedule. First of all, we'd come in on Monday. I'm sure you've talked to people who have been on. All right. I want to hear it. Yeah. So you come in on Monday. You start writing.

You start paring off and kind of going into people. cubicles, not unlike 30 rock, that environment, right? And then the show's written the next two days. Everybody works around the clock. They woodshed. They do their thing. They write sketches. Wednesday at like noon, you turn in your sketches. And you are you writing at this young age? Yeah, I was. I was. How old are you? 17. 17. And you're already writing. Yeah. Because I realized no one gave a shit. And if I didn't, you know, I wouldn't probably perform. Yeah. But what was really cool was Lauren fostered this environment where he would say, you know, like go speak to Don Novello. or go go he would pair us with these legendary great writers man so we wouldn't you know he would

encourage that process and we'd have to kind of make the rounds and go around you know so anyway back to the schedule we shoot we write one day through Wednesday you turn in the sketches and then we do a read through about three o'clock and then what what lorn does is he invites the cast and crew in and he kind of sits at the head of the table whatever gets the best laughs he starts you know itemizing all the sketches and then he goes back to his office the cork board with the index cards three half hour columns figures it out you know and then Thursday through Saturday around the clock rehearsals

it's like 12 hours a day so people I mean I have nothing but love for everybody who's worked on the show and so many great women and men I mean honestly I think there have been even more great women on the show over the years but so many great people man

so that's how it goes it's like a six day a week job man and when you go live when you're ready for that Saturday night live they say it that's the rush is that the rush oh literally no it literally is like a visceral it's a rush how many shits do you take before a show

I take at least three before you're on the shit that's what I would assume show twice. So that's six shits. Six shits. Did you have things that were cut out of rehearsal? Well, I think that's part of the impetus for why he does it. You know, he taped certain things. Like they taped that whole show. We do it twice. Right. You know, so they bring in an audience at, what is it, seven or eight o'clock. We do the whole show live, soup to nuts, top the bottom. And then they kicked that audience out. They bring another audience in and then we do it

live. Amazing. So it's twice. Oh, you know, on Saturday you do it. And you worked. You had these guest stars come in, these big actors. Yeah. Who? was the one that you remember that you were like oh shit look who's going to be on s and l you know it was all kinds of people the year i was on it was we had you know madonna Oprah i mean it was just all these people uh billy martin the former manager for the yanks uh Marvin haggler this is the mid 80s marvelous yeah yeah who was the biggest pain in the ass madonna had to probably me at the time yeah probably how were you a pain in the ass well i wasn't ass bag so let's just deduce were you no i wasn't you were a nice guy that was a nice guy but i was a nice guy but i was a nice guy but

It wasn't as back, Ryan. But Madonna. Madonna was cool, man. Madonna was great. Was she like, I love you? I love you. No, none of that. No, no.

She was super cool. She was really very sexy, very professional, very serious, focused. Petit. She is short. Very petite. Very short girl. She was awesome, though. Honestly, everybody was good on the show.

I mean, the hosts were, and there was that thing of like they would cater to the host. We would kind of write for the host. And there was that emphasis, which was important. But just the fun of it. man it's like a six-day-week job unbelievable were you hard on yourself oh yeah you know i still am we all are in this crazy business you know what i mean but like we're saying like the doing of it was great the actual you know everything that led up to that hour and a half incredible man and you could have you could you have gone more than one year or you just wanted to you know you wanted to move on

to be honest i don't think lorna wanted me back i mean i i had just i am being honest um no he was great i looked up to him but you know i don't know if you felt it was the right fit or what have you when I was just trying to, you know, make my way. And I was also a wild kid. We were out, you know, partying throughout the week. You were a partier. You were a partier. Well, I think as a kid, I definitely was probably boozing it up more than I should have.

Oh, I think we all did. We all did. Ryan, are you doing it now? I'm doing it now. In your youth? Currently. Yeah, before again. Ron, you microdoses before a show or?

You microdoses before every podcast we do. I do six shits and six shots before every podcast. Six shots. for the show Now before all this happened Like if we go way back I mean you were like the honeycomb kid You were doing commercials

I mean seriously Yeah You were you were doing like Was your mother surprised Because she was a singer By the way do you sing I do make music I have it in years

But I love to make music I play a little guitar and bass And you know Why don't you ever record something I did years ago And I'm actually working with a guy I have a business partner named Jason Marr

It's a great guy And we are working on stuff We actually just produced a song We sold to Machine Gun Kelly Actually Get out Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm working on music still. And you sing? You're singing in the song?

Yeah, I mean, right now, yeah, I am. Yeah, but right now we're just kind of tracking stuff. And he's really good. This guy's had like 35 top 100 hits. He's written for the weekend, a lot of people. He's great. So that's fun. I still like doing it. Yeah, of course, man. I think I always wanted to be a rock star. And I was always like, you don't have the voice. You don't have the musicianship. And then one day I said, fuck it. Why am I so worried about everybody else? You know, why don't I just do it? Yeah. And it has been the best most amazing experience. to just make a CD. Great. Make a CD. Make a CD. Make an album.

Make a tape. He thinks it's the 90s, right? He's talking about CDs. For sure. Did he get rest last night? What's going on with Rosenbaum? A CD. I made an A track and I brought it to you.

But like you're doing all this stuff. What was, you know, and your mom's singing and she's taking care of the family pretty much. She's supporting you? She was until she met my father, you know, my stepfather when I was about 12 and they had my sister. My sister's an incredible artist. She goes by Mary C and the Stellar.

is a great band in New York City. She's incredible. She's a mother now, but she's an incredible artist. She went the route of making music. You check her out on YouTube. My sister's, yeah. She's produced about five or six albums. So I'm going to blow up my sister.

Yeah. But so I think it was just that thing, Michael, of like, growing up in the city, man. That was why I was a great teacher. I saw everything was possible. You're around so many different things, so much culture. Just the city, what it represents, man. It was like incredible growing up in New York.

Did you have this innate confidence? Do you think you had a young age that you were, like, you look back and go, God, I wish I had that confidence. Because I do, I feel like I wish I had the confidence I did when I was younger. I just didn't take no for an answer. I didn't give a shit. That's it.

Yeah. But I think when you grow up, you start to give a shit more. No, that's a great point. I had the similar perspective on it as a kid. Yeah. You kind of just fearless. And then you learn the craft and it beats you up to business. And you just have to, then I think you're, you create or you get to those critical, you know, places where it's like, do I really want to do this.

And you have to really decide to reinvest and keep going. But absolutely, man. You have to have a thick skin. You've got to be determined. You got to be kind of crazy, right? And those are in that regard. You do. You know, and I had that same mindset that you did.

You just, you didn't care or you cared, but you just said, I'm going to do my thing. Yeah. And I think, like you said, as we get older, you become more self-conscious in some ways. Maybe that's all, whatever. But then you kind of unlearn that stuff. It just depends on the work. So I just, I've always just looked at it like, you know what? No one's going to take this from me.

I'm going to keep working and just keep developing over time, you know, and mixing it up. Because, you know, it is. We don't have the luxury of picking projects. just necessarily it's not what people think you know it's a lot of year-round hustle was your mom always always like you know saying hey I'm really proud of you're doing great oh no totally did you get that kind of thing at home oh definitely no I had great support for my mother my father and my sister you know and I think that kind of northeast upbringing really served me well you know and you're always funny at home too you're always it was it was always yeah yeah yeah just to get out of shit or

make up for bad grades or whatever absolutely yeah no I was a goofy kid man I was always and Popular? Were you popular in school? No, no. I mean, well, don't forget, like when I was in high school, I went to work. So I went to high school till about ninth grade and then it was busy with Hughes, you know? What was the first one? So I never experienced like popular in high school. I don't know what popular was. I don't know what popular was, I don't know what popular is either. Never, never was popular. Shortest kid in my high school. Were you? Didn't start puberty till I think my junior year I got some hair on my balls. I used to pray at night. To God, please give me hair in my balls or under my armpits. Very nice. I didn't get that. Does that make you uncomfortable? No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Okay, good. I had hair on my balls by about 18, 19? No. 12, 13. What was the first big role?

The first thing you did? Well, you know what? Thinking back, talking about my early childhood as a kid in New York, I auditioned. This is how old I am. On Golden Pond. You auditioned for On Golden Pond? So what was this movie? Like, 1970?

Yeah. 80, 78. Right. So that I was about eight years old. I'm in this game, 45 years, man. Wow. Yeah. And I remember not getting the part.

and I had a great exchange with Mark Riddell, who was so cool, even to me as a little kid. Because I remember him breaking the news to me and basically said, you know, it's not going to work out. And they hired Doug McKean, who was the kid in the film. So that's how far I go back, you know. And then I did commercials and it was just kind of like a hobby that spun, you know, into some work.

So the first big one to your question was like vacation, Jebby Chase and Lampo. What was that audition like? Do you remember auditioning for that? I remember walking in and meeting Maddie Simmons. He was a great guy. We lost him a couple years ago. He created Lampoon Magazine. And I remember meeting Harold Ramos and Maddie on that day.

You went in for the first audition for all those guys. Yeah. Yeah. And what was your audition? Do you remember what scene we were reading? No, I don't remember what's seen, but it was something probably with Chevy, one of the scenes. Chevy was there? No, no, no.

But it was probably the scene in the desert with Chevy. You know, it was probably one of those scenes. I don't recall. Were you drinking the beer? Yeah, it was probably one of those. But you didn't have, you didn't meet Chevy before you got the part. No, no, just Maddie and Harold Ramis. So that was a big, that was really cool.

What's interesting, too, is John Hughes actually wrote that screenplay. He didn't read him then, right? So his trajectory was interesting. He started selling short stories to Lampoon Magazine. He had been a copywriter in Chicago. He wrote, and that's what she's having a baby, is that context. Kevin Bacon's playing him. Liz McGovern was playing his wife.

And so he sold this short story. Next thing you know, they made it into the film. I did that film, didn't know John. And then right after that, I did 16 canals in audition for him as a kid and then did three in a row with him. But vacation, man. That is, I always think. think of like people when they work with Chevy Chase because you always hear things. You hear

things. I've had Joel McHale. He was on here and he talked about. He loves Chevy but like, you know, there was some problems on set. Was there? Yeah. On the community and things happened and you know, he got fired and all these. Do you remember him being very giving and nurturing and kind of like guiding you? Because you had to be nervous as shit or were you not? Oh, I was nervous. Yeah. As a kid, absolutely. By the time I did community, no, I had a different take on it. But I had a great time on that show. I mean, there were so many great actors on that show. All the, all the whole cast was cool. And, you know, I worked with him briefly on that. Yeah, I mean, Jevi's a train, though. I'm talking about vacation. No, on vacation. I mean, I was just, I was rusty. I was 14 years old. So I looked

up to everybody, man, you know, John Candy was great. John Candy really was a big personality and a lot of fun. What was it about him? Well, Chevy was kind of like the way he is, kind of snarky and funny, you know what I mean? But Candy was Uncle Buck, man. He was really, and the way it happened was we shot one ending. It didn't work. And it was that thing where the studio tested it. They got the cards back and they realized from the original ending that they never made it to Wally World. So we regrouped six months later. Puberty kicked in. I'm like four inches taller. I get to the set at Magic Mount. I got a huge zit on my chin. Chevy's like, nice. Okay. You're jerking off. Good to see you've grown. It was probably did say that. But that's how Chevy was. Yeah, yeah. No, he said,

yeah, something like that. If you're blind, you're doing it right, meaning I was whacking off. I don't know what the hell he was saying. And then they hired John Candy. and that's the ending we shot that they used. So the test screening came back and the audience was like, shit, we want to see them make it to Wally World. They never did. So that's how it happened. Then we reshot the ending and we did it.

Did you think the movie was going to be? I mean, you hear this all the time. You'd have no idea. You never know. I think anybody who says that they knew when they were making something, I think that that's BS. You never really know. I mean, I had a great time and I was working with all these legends, you know.

But as a kid, I wasn't processing the future successive or anything. Were you on to the next thing while you're already finishing that? Well, 16 candles. So then back in New York, I'm like in ninth grade. get the audition for 16 candles. I go and meet John and Jackie Bird's casting director who really, you know, put me on, as they say. And I did

those three films. I got 16 candles after about 10 auditions. Wait, wait, wait, wait. 10 auditions. I, no, honestly, at that time, I remember doing that many. There was a bunch. And you know how that thing of like when they're trying to pair people off. If they're close to hiring you, they'll bring you back in and they'll kind of match you with

the actors. So that was that kind of thing. So that was cool. And then I got that. And then right after that, we did the other two consecutively. Did you test screen with Molly? No, no, no, it was no screen testing on that film. It was just rounds of auditions and they would have executives in. And I was kind of honored because every time I came back in the room, there'd be like three more executives from Universal.

It was like, by the last auditions, there was like eight people in the room. Who were some of the other kids who were up for that part? I don't recall. You know what's so funny in the interim, I've read that Jim Carrey did. And I don't remember meeting him. I love Jim Carrey, but I don't remember meeting him. But I think he was up. That's how old we are.

It's great. Jesus. Now, Jim Carrey's a lot older than you. He is, but I think he, I think I read something that he'd auditioned for him, which is pretty funny. Was that, if you loved him, I loved him. I loved him. He loved him. It's fucking great. By the way, you do impressions, don't you? Not really. Because I read somewhere that you always would do impressions. When you were in S&L, you did impressions. I can't remember if we did anybody. We did a sketch where I think we did the Kennedies, and I think that was kind of funny.

You played John F. Kennedy? I played Robert. I think, who played JFK. I forget who played JFK, but I think Randy Quaid played Lyndon. played Lyndon Johnson. Madonna was playing Maryland. And then Downey, I forget who Downey was playing. But yeah, in the Kennedy's, yeah. I think I did one of them. Ask not what your country. I don't know what I thought. I was that. I can hear that right there. Well, that's the Boston. Because you're from Boston. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, I'm not like, you know, Rich Little. I saw Rich Little. He's still alive? He's still alive. He's still alive. I just saw him in Vegas. Rich Little. Was he funny? He was great. He was great. How old is Rich Little? He's 114. He's doing well, though. He asked about you. he asked about me 16 candles obviously was that that's the movie that really took took things off for you i mean that was it did man it did you know because i can't imagine what it's like to be 15 16 years old and you're just become a story i mean how do you keep your head on straight i couldn't

either man it was a trip it was it's like everything you do at that point yeah so i read somewhere like you were the fourth most uh they said the fourth best teen actor of all time you were ranked on this list of 200 teen actors and they said you were number four i don't know how you weren't number one What was that? Like a VH1 contest? What was that? I don't know what it was. Wow.

But I'm telling you, it seems like everything you touch turned to goal. It was mostly Hughes. Honestly, God, Michael, he was great. You know, he had these parties set up. The scripts were great. There were always a nice sort of equal distribution of fun stuff for us to do. And just the way he worked, man. He gave us all those great opportunities.

And like I said, he was very cool with like collaborating, trying stuff. He was always kind of conspiring with the actors to make it funnier. And, you know, in a similar way, David Gordon Green, same thing, man. very natural talented writer great director not sticklers not sticklers great perfect word you know really open to the process and fluid and let things happen which is cool and i think when when directors are like that as you know you're gonna you're gonna go that much further for the director man you're gonna do you know yeah give it your all so that's the environment that he created michael that's why it was great have you had experiences where you you don't get that freedom man where you just like no

say it by the well you know how it is yeah without naming names you know you do movies or even TV shows, man, and you don't necessarily always get that vibe from directors. And I've worked with a lot of great directors and some okay, you know, some great TV directors, you know, and you know, you're always learning. But some of them are more, you know, subdued than others, or they might work from the monitor. You know how it is. Just get a variance of different things with different people. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas style excitement and a world-class game. gaming experience right to your fingertips.

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We are Wicked and Grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. Well, they say, like I've read, I'm sure you've heard this story a million times, but that John was really upset when you didn't take Ferris Bueller and you didn't take what's the other one? Pretty in pink. And he was really upset and the friendship

was sort of severed for a while. Is that true? You know what happened, Mike? When I was promoting Hollywood Kills, Halloween Kills in New York a couple weeks back, I had a nice conversation with a guy in a magazine and then this headline hit

and I'll tell you what happened. For years, I kind of opted not to tell the story, but the truth is he did write those two projects for me. He wanted me to do them. At the time, he was going to have Howie Deutch, who was a great guy, I know Howie. I worked with his wife, Leah Thompson. He was going to direct Pretty and Pink.

and he wanted me to star in Ferris Bueller, and I was actually booked and busy on some other projects, so it just didn't work out. And I think that kind of broke John Hughes's heart. It broke mine, too, because I really wanted to continue that relationship. Yeah. So that's how it happened, man, you know.

And then years later, the last time I talked to him, he called me with John Candy on the phone. It was incredible, man. And we hung out like this for a couple hours and just, you know, shot the shit. And he talked about the potential for like a Breakfast Club sequel. And all these things were in his eyes, you know, in his thinking.

at that time but he was just the greatest man I love him we were always laughing he'd take us to blues bars we'd go to record stores you know we'd go and hang out at his house I mean what he did for me he did for so many you know so many so it's not like just you know right right you know the deal there's so many great actors and actresses and he was just putting us on the map and giving us opportunity man did he throw shit at you like hey Mike try try try this add this line right here oh totally this oh no totally do your own tape but be just go off on this yeah no no no we would talk

it out between takes I would run to the sidelines and get you know his input and oh no dude we were always doing that man what's a scene that you remember or scenes that just elevated so you were like when you first started filming it it was like okay this is kind of funny yeah but it just became something way funnier okay perfect example this is a true story I'm guessing the car scene in 16 canals well let's go back to say well there's one of them I got one for that too so watch this we're shooting 16 canals I'm 15 years old I look 12 like a bobblehead and I remember we're counting We're in Chicago, and we're doing the casting rounds for the guys who are going to play my buddy, my two buddies.

So Hughes turns to me, I swear to you, I'm 15 years old. He goes, well, they're your buddies. I'm going to let you cast them. I was like, what? What? So I cast Cusack. I don't even know if Cusack knows this. Call me, John.

You cast John. I swear to you. Because John Hughes said so, I was like, I couldn't believe it either. And then this other guy, Darryd, who played the other sidekick who was hilarious. So back to the scene work. I mean, that scene at the high school dance, for example, just coming up with shit, like smacking them in the face, you know. You're turning around and you're like...

All of that shit. All of that shit's all you. Yeah, well, no, because he cut me loose. Because we would come up, we would talk about it. And then he would go surprise him and do that this time, you know, or goofy shit. Like we do the party scene later after the party, the house party. And we go on set for blocking and it's the scene after with Michael Schofling, right, after the party's over, right?

In the kitchen. Well, there's that one too. But watch, we go to the living room. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he sees, and there's like a clear coffee table there. So John goes, do you think he could fit it on the table? I go watch this, boss. And I go under the table, and that became the thing under the table.

Right. The thing in the kitchen is another one. We get to the set, we're shooting in the kitchen. It's like 2 a.m. It's one of these you've got to be funny at like 2 a.m. Right. So we get there, there's an apron and some peanuts. He goes, well, don't you throw the apron on.

I go, great. Then I'm eating peanuts. And then he even set the scene. He goes, I'm going to get Sinatra's strangers in the night. We're going to set this all up. I mean, dude, it was like that. So perfect example. We would just wing it.

we would just come up with shit and make ourselves laugh and that was the other thing too man he was always truly going for the laugh and if something came up he he was always laughing like in my mind's eye when i think about both of them both hughes and harold ramus the joy the happiness they worked with man they were fun they were always laughing right when guys get it and they get the comedy and not only that but they get you right they get you and they want you to be your best and they go well we've got a gold mine here we can get anything because you really at that time and you're like You, you, you, it seems like you could do anything. You could make, were you making the whole cast laugh constantly?

It was, well, there was that. That was fun too. It really was, the idea of having fun at work and making him laugh. Who is it easier, easiest to make laugh? Who'd you get to laugh the most? Well, honestly, I only remember thinking about making him laugh, but I remember that feeling of like, again, back to making the crew of your audience. You have fun with it, man.

But I remember wanting to make him laugh all the time because we were always working at this level where it was just like, partly improv, you know? But we would always shoot it as per first. You know what I mean? So when you're under that table on 16 cameras, that, what did you say? Did you say? It was a check. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And the voice cracking. I mean, that was all real shit. That was all just, it wasn't written. No. No. Just little shit. And you go home feeling so great. Like, oh my God, I made everybody laugh today. I'm having so much fun today. And then you grow up and you start to do roles where it's like, it's not as fun. It's just not as fun. That happened to. That happened too, to be very honest. Absolutely. By the way. So it made me appreciate how great he was because all these years later, no one was like him. And in fairness, in fairness, I would say Ramos, too. Harold Ramos was just brilliant. He was such a great guy.

Yeah. So I can see that when I think back, I can just see them smiling and laughing because that's how they worked, man. They were great. Was on, I don't want to talk too much about this, but like in Breakfast Club, Paul Gleason. Oh, he was great. The late great, Paul Gleason. Was he honestly great or did he want to personify that dick, arrogant guy that so he tried

to stay away from you? Tell me if something. Let me tell you how this happened. All right. So at the time, trading places was in theaters. Oh, huge Eddie Murphy fam. Still, I love Eddie Murphy. He was interviewing and auditioning

the guy that played coach on Cheers. Remember the actor? I loved him. He was awesome. Hilarious. So then I go see Trading Places. I come to the set the next day. I go, Johnny, go see this movie.

There's a scene in training places. You remember this? When Paul Gleez is at a phone booth and like a 95-year-old woman comes up to him and she's what, remember phone booths, right? She comes up to him, she goes, and like she's waiting for the thing and he puts the phone that goes, fuck off to the old lady.

so dude i came back to the set off i came back to the set and i told john about that he wound up seeing the film and he brought paulin so it was because i'd seen trading places and then he we just both so you cast paul gleason no no i didn't cast gleason but i gave him you gave him i did i did i threw that at him and then we became friends man we became buddies you know i met tyson through paul gleason went to fights and hung out paul gleason was great man he had two heroes Mickey Mantle and Dylan. Wow. Yeah, so Paul Gleason and I were buddies.

I mean, so many great friends I met, bro, like yourself over the years. Bill Paxton, the late great Bill. But what about Tyson? You became friends with Tyson? I became friends with Tyson. How old? 18. We went to the fight at the garden.

I meet Tyson. He's like just about to become champion. And this was funny, man. He knocks this guy out in like four seconds. Wait, was that Spinks? No, no, it wasn't Spinks. It was way before that. I forget the guy's name.

It was a garden fight. Again, about a year before he became champion. Tyson's about 19, knocks this guy out, and then he knew Gleason. So I see Tyson come out of the ring, and me and Gleason are sitting there, ringside, and he weighs me over, and he goes, I'm a great of my have you worked. And I was like, well? So that night I hung out with Tyson and Gleason and we became friends. I love, I just want a second about Tice. I love this. I love these stories. This is great. So Tyson, I got to say, I just love seeing where he's at now, right? I mean, he's got cannabis business and he's promoting concerts.

I'm just happy for him. And he's got a bunch of kids, a great wife. He is, man. He just really tells it how it is. He just, like, this is what I believe and this is what I'm going to say. Yeah, it is. It is, it is amazing. It really is.

So I'm really happy for it. I haven't seen Mike in years, but, um, so yeah, I mean, these great stories. Well, there anybody on the breakfast club that you'd really did, I mean, they didn't love working with or were everybody just great. Oh, no, no, we got along. It was cool. But what was funny at the time was me and Molly were kids, man. We were 16.

So we had, like, homework. We had to go back to the hotel with the Skokie Hilton or whatever the fuck it was and then Judd and Amelia would go out and hang out and they'd go have beers and whatever because they were like

I don't know 35 when they did the film they were in the early 20s so Molly and I had homework and Jut and Amelia hung out but we loved each other man we all got along great I looked up to all of them

to this day I love Do you still talk to them ever? I haven't spoken I ran into Judd a couple years ago he's great he's got a great sense of humor man Judd's funny Amilo I haven't seen that much

Ali I've seen over the years the last time we were all reunited as when Mr. Hughes passed 2010, man. We had the Oscar thing where they paid tribute to him. So I thought that was very classy of the Oscars to do that. Because as you know, they don't often, you know, acknowledge comedies as it was. Right. But Molly, you still, every once in a while, or it's been a while since you talked to her.

Yeah, no, it's been a couple of years since I've spoken to her. But she's cool. Very happily married. She's got a bunch of kids. She's doing great. You know, the janitor. Oh, Capilos. Yeah.

Father John Capelos, a great guy. He was, I did the show a couple of years back, and he was a guest star and we hit it off. Yeah. And he came over and karaokeed with his girlfriend. Oh, great. He came to the house of karaoke. What a funny guy. He is.

He is. So watch this. I produced a film this summer with a writer-director named Nick Solotzi. And it's not a remake, but it's an updated, kind of reimagining in the breakfast club. Anyway, we got, we got Capolos in. Oh, wow. So Capolos showed up. He's a great guy.

So, uh, and a great comedic actor. He's a great. Now, how do you go from John Hughes to Tim Burton? Now, Tim Burton seems like it's got to be, he's, I'm sure he's a great guy. He is. But it's got to be a different. way of working well at the time when that came up this is edward scissorham yeah 1989 man uh so i went to go meet with him and tim remember the member the cure he looked like a lost member of the cure

right he had the hair and yes yeah i remember when i went to his office smith yeah yeah robert smith he had the leg up in the chair and he was kind of twirling his hair and shit and really interesting guy very shy actually i'm very unassuming and very cool and but he really comes to life when he directs So he hired me for Scissorhands. I auditioned for him in the room, and that was a great experience, too, man. Okay, I have a theory about Tim Burton. I think he is Edward Cisorhands.

Here's what. I'll explain. Please do. Okay, I'll explain. He grew up in Burbank. He was a student of animation. His favorite actor was Vincent Price, right? And just I look at him like a modern-day Disney and beyond. I mean, you look at his films, their works of art, man.

And he's one of those, you know, like rare, attaure. great directors where he really has a look and feel of his movies. And they get more and more brilliant since then, right? I mean, he went on to do another seven movies or whatever with Johnny Depp, right? Yeah. So I just loved Tim Burton, man. And I think at the time he felt, I think he probably thought it was kind of funny because I had sprouted up and it was a bigger guy. Yeah, yeah. And Johnny was like, you know, to play that bully. I think he kind of thought it was a fun idea at the time. So great experience. We shot in Tampa, Florida. At the time, Johnny was with Winona and they were in love and all that.

Did you meet Vincent Price? I didn't get to work with Vincent Price. All those great actresses, Kathy Bates, all these women that were in the film were fantastic. And that was another great experience. I had fun on that one. And other roles I hear that you turned down. Like, did you ever meet with Stanley Kubrick on Full Metal Jacket? I did, man.

You met with Stanley Cooper. No, I didn't meet with him, but I had a couple calls with him. It's an interesting story. So I'm doing weird science, and I get a call from my agent gentleman named Marty Bauer. It's a great guy. Marty started the Bauer-Bennock agency, which became another big agency, I think, UTA, right? So as a kid, he represented me,

and he was like family. I love Marty. So he calls me like on a Wednesday. He says, Stanley Kubrick is interested in you for a role in this Vietnam biopic he's doing. And I was like, holy shit. Because even at 17, I'd seen the shiny

and all these great movie. Oh, yeah. So I get a call Friday two days later. He goes, well, he's actually wants you for the lead and he wants to call you tomorrow. Mike dropped, right? I'm like, oh, shit. Stanley Kubrick's going to call me.

It's like, wait for the Wizard of Oz, right? So the next morning, the phone rings. And I'm like up at pace. I'm at the Sheridan premiere by the Universal City. And I'm up like pacing. I'm just what I'm going. I can't believe I'm talking about. How old are you?

I'm 18. The phone rings. Michael, Stanley Kubrick. I was like, dude. I was like, and then this is what he said to me. He paid me the greatest compliment I've ever had. He goes, I just finished screening 16 candles. I watched it three times.

I couldn't believe it. sitting here and he goes you know you're my favorite actor since i saw jack an easy writer i was like dude i'm a kid yeah no exactly he said that to me so that it was amazing it was astonishing michael it was and then even more you know beyond that wonderful compliment he wound up talking about his favorite filmmakers you start talking about eisenstein the great russian director and chaplain and dude i'm like you're just sitting there listening i'm standing there in the sheridan premier like looking over the valley like in my window and i was just bugging out i was incredible. So what happened was it became literally like an eight or nine month negotiation.

Holy shit. Yeah. And it was, you know, it was, I could say in hindsight, it was about money, but it wasn't. It was just a crazy drawn out thing. He was incredibly private. I had to go to his attorney's house in Beverly Hills and read a numbered script. I mean, literally, dude, it was like this. Wow. And, you know, for whatever reason, it didn't work out. And that's another great film of So, I mean, I wouldn't have any regrets in my life. I don't. But in terms of a creative thing, that's probably the closest thing. And it just breaks my heart sometimes that it didn't work out.

I needed to work with him. Right. Do you think maybe agents got in the way? No, no, no. No, it wasn't even like that. It was just, we just kind of parted a waste, but I couldn't believe it took that long. At one point. Nine months.

No, no, no. I swear to you. At one point, he called his lawyer and his lawyer called my father, who was a great manager. He discovered Lagasamo and Sandra Bullock and all these people who was a great manager, Tom. And the question that Louis Blow had for my father was, Mr. Kubrick wants to know if Tom has read nuclear negotiations, a book called Nuclear.

Cuberk was deep, dude. Everything was chess. Jesus. Everything was check. Nuclear. Negotiations. I swear to you. I swear to you.

So anyway, I mean, I would have loved to have done that. And then it's funny little epilogue. I run into Matthew Modine a couple years later in New York City, and I'm still a kid, and he was kind of big league in me. He was funny. I go, how you doing? Modini, oh, cool. And then I start walking alongside him in New York and we're talking.

I go, so how long did you guys wind up shooting that film? Tell me vision quest. I want to know. And he goes, I swear to you good. He goes, 54 weeks. 54 weeks. He shot for a year and two weeks. Wow.

But he was just brilliant. And he had that capacity and that allowance within our industry. I mean, there are very few people. How long? I didn't shoot a film that long. I think not since Chaplin, you know, because Chaplin was notorious that in that day, of the Max Senate days, they would shoot something. And if he ran out of ideas, he would just break camp, you know?

And Chaplin would notify him when he had some ideas for stunts, you know? But Stanley Cooper, what can I say, man? I just bowed out. I love Stanley Kubrick. So I look, I'm grateful for that whole experience. What was your next project while you were filming while that was taking place? Johnny Be Good. Nice choice, huh? No, I actually enjoy Johnny Be Good.

Did you not like that movie? No, no, I had a good time on it. I'm just joking. Downey refers to it as Johnny. B movie. Is that what he says? But I had a great time. I had a good time.

But it's got to be hard. Like, you know, it's like, you've talked about this a million times, but like transitioning. Yeah. Yeah. How do you transition from the biggest movie star as a teenager and then as an adult? I mean, how often. And by the way, you did it. Yeah.

No, that was the thing. You know, and the truth is, you know how it is, man. You have up and down periods. You've got to be in it for the long haul, you know, Downy Senior. Downy Senior used to joke with me as a pun of my name, Robert's father. He goes, in the long haul, the short one. making. It's pretty funny. But that's the thing. You know, I had no idea, man, about a career. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was just a kid. But these were the experiences I

had. Incredible, man. By the way, one thing I got to say is like, how old are you when you do weird science? 17. How do you not hit on Kelly LeBrock? Oh, she was amazing. Beautiful woman. We're still friends of this day. She's a really? She's a lot of fun. I mean, that had to be an amazing experience working with her. She was cool. Because every kid, because I'm your age pretty much. And I'm watching going, holy shit. Well, here's what happened. At the time, there was another person hired a lady named Kelly Enberg, who was also a beautiful supermodel.

And unfortunately, it just wasn't working out. We shot for a couple days, and then that didn't work out. So then they brought Kelly, and she had done Woman in Red, and Kelly replaced Kelly, you know. And she was great, man. As the British said, she takes the piss out of everybody. She's great. She's super cool. And you were improvising in that movie.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that whole scene where you're like, call her on the television. phone yeah yeah yeah no that was another one what we didn't yeah and john set that up and then that kind of stemmed from being a huge fan of prior i would imitate prior for hughes i would listen like we would go to his house and then hang out with his wife and his kids and i'm like a teenager and we would watch everything from admon costello to the you know laurel and hardy to live on sunset strip or whatever right right so it kind of stemmed from that would be like an inside joke with me and hughes i would imitate this character that prior did called mudbone and mudbone how did he sound

go outside and get some sunshine on your face why you know he was just like this old character and that's kind of who you modeled that character off of the great richard prior so that would make the i just would have fun called it on the telephone on the telephone yeah exactly so i would just goof and it was just one of the funniest scenes ever thank you bro it was just a love of prior honestly just imitate prior yeah yeah yeah and he just said keep going with it well some of that was scripted i think he had some of the lines about the girl bitch knee me in the nuts and all that my nuts are halfway up my ass up otherwise i'm perfect yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But he was great like that. So he kind of set that scene and we just, you know. What's your favorite, if you had to look back at one part, if you just could only take one part that you've done? Oh, I don't know if I could do that. If you had to take one part. My favorite, this movie, Halloween kills, man. You like that segue, right?

I like it. But by the way, I've never been more pumped. Honestly, God, I've never been more excited. But I think everybody's pumped about this movie. I really think that it's just like it's kicking ass right now. And where can we watch it? Okay, it's in theaters. Number one movie in the country.

I think we got bumped this weekend by Dune, which did great. But it's made over like 90 million worldwide in 10 days. But by the way, I bet it's a lot shorter than Dune. Was Dune? It was a long movie. Did it take nine hours? It was two hours and 40 minutes. It was a good movie.

But I'm just saying Halloween is something you could probably watch. It's not that. It's not too long. It looks good. I want to see Dune. No, Halloween kicks ass. It's an hour and 45 minutes and it's just a fucking roller coaster. I mean, it is.

And how's Jamie the Curtis? She's awesome. Is she really? I hear she's awesome. No, no, she really is. I mean, when I think of Jamie, like, I was in love with her as a kid, man. When I first saw the first one trading places, I always love Jamie Lee Curtis. I had a huge crush on her.

I met her and her great husband when I was a kid. Chris Guest, another genius. I love this guy, man. Chris Guest. Oh, he's genius. He really is. He loved his movies for Goffman and everything. Right?

Best in show. Yeah. So I had the pleasure of meeting them when I was a kid. But she's awesome. She's super chill down to earth and, you know, has a great heart. She has this nonprofit called My Hand and Yours. Right. And which benefits children's hospital of L.A.

And she's just a cool lady. You know, she's got, they have a couple of kids and, you know, she's writing a project. I think she's going to direct a film with Jason Blum's company, Blumhouse. She's going to put you in it? I hope so, man. But she's awesome. She really is. She has a lot of heart.

It really cares about people, man. You can really see it. It cuts through, you know. Well, you do pretty much in terms of, not, I'm not saying everything, but you'll, if you like a script or if you like a project, you'll do it, whether it's horror, whether it's comedy, whether it's drama. You just have to like it, but you love to work. I do, man. I do. mixing it up. I think one of the things I've I've enjoyed just watching some of the

greats that we both admire, I'm sure, grown up, man, like I love Ben Kingsley, for example. Oh, yeah. Like Sir Ben Kingsley, man, it'll go light to dark, right? Like House of Sand and Fog and then Sexy Beast, right? Oh my God. Yeah. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. Yes, amazing. He's incredible. I could see you playing an absolute psychopath, like really. I have. I mean, what? I did this movie called War Machine a couple years ago. It was with Brad Pitt. That was a lot of fun. I played a general. I mean, it was based on... Oh, you did play a psycho. Yeah, well, he was a tough general. It was a crazy general. I mean, that was just my choice. You know, we were playing real generals, but it was in part

fictionalized. It was a project that Brad's company produced. It was based on a book called The Operators. Great project, you know, so that was fun. So I played kind of, I played my general kind of like a jarhead, like he was a Marine general or something. So, I mean, I've had a lot of fun playing villains, you know. And Pirates of Silicon Valley, though. I just remember. watching how you transformed yourself into Bill Gates. Thanks, man. And it just, it just blew me away. It truly, have you ever seen it, Ryan?

No. What the fuck? I know. I mean, you won't believe it. It's one of those things when you watch, you're like, because I think you were nominated for it, weren't you? Yeah, no, I appreciate it. No, the film was.

It was nominated for five Emmys, I think it was a great experience, man. Yeah, Noah Wiley, great guy to work with. He really looked like Steve Jobs, too, man. He was great. Would you do anything for a role in terms of gaining 30 pounds, losing 20 pounds? I kind of did for Halloween kills, man. I was just in the south. I mean, I was trying to hit the gym.

I was in there every morning for about a half hour. Really? But then I was eating like an animal, man. Good old southern food. Yeah, but it kind of worked for that too. And I decided to shave my head, which is, oh, I'm sticking with this haircut because it looks good. Thanks, man.

So, no, for that. Yeah, I wanted to kind of just beef up a little bit, but I was eating good, man. North Carolina was fun. This is called shit talk. And this is kind of the end of the interview where it's shit talking with Anthony Michael Hall. My patrons, my lovable patrons, they get to ask some questions. you answer them let's do it man

Leanne really led your character on the Goldbergs any behind the scene pranks funny moments you would like to share well just Wendy McClebb Wendy what was I'm sorry Wendy McClendon I can't go ask me I forget him forgive me Wendy

brilliant comedic actress I mean she carries the show but Jeff Garland all those people are fantastic we lost Mr. Siegel he was brilliant but everybody all the kids on the show I love doing that show and it's a lot of fun too

kind of poking fun of the 80s the writing is great. I have a great time on it. So they brought me on to do an episode. It was a goof. It was a spoof of vacation. Right. The joke was that Rusty was now a security guard at Disneyland. That was perfect. And then after that, they brought me on as a guidance counselor, Mr. Parade. So I've done about six episodes now. I think I'm doing another one this month. So you got a good sense of humor. You could easily play, make fun of yourself. That's the key, man. That is key. What did you say to me when I got here? If you can't do that. That's it. That's it. And that show gave me a great opportunity to do that.

because it's great. It makes fun of everything 80s, which is great. I love it. Steph A. Who was the most similar to their character in Breakfast Club? At the time, maybe. Ringwald. Really?

Maybe. Dave P., any 80s brat pack movie you'd like to see modernized? Hmm. I don't think it would work. Yeah, I can't speak. The first thought I had was not any of John's films. It was I actually thought of Fast Times, but you couldn't remake that. Remember how great Sean was in that movie?

Oh, man. It was all the characters. Mr. Head. You did. dick you dick you knock when you enter curtis remember entree i'm gonna go over london and party with mick and keith oh dude that movie is a great movie that movie is a great movie and i love one what's her name spivy kates comes out of the pool and he's jerking off in the oh another great moment yes carly to your relationship with john that's mrs kevin klein to you okay i'm sorry i apologize watch him will you

uh you know we are carly we already answered me too all the shit happened he has no idea busy. Michelle Kay, who is the one person you would love to work with again? Downey. We have something that we're writing a project and working with he and his wife the last couple years is great. So we're still working on it. We're still working on. We have a TV show that we wrote, actually. I would love that. What's the TV show? You can't tell what it's about. I can't. I can't. You know, it's interesting because it's, it's called singularity. It's a lot of fun. And it's something we've been working on. It's hopefully we'll bring it to air.

Dana asked super geeked with you. This guy is super. Dana is super, super. Dana is super geeked on you. The new movie Halloween kills being up front with Michael Myers. Was that face scary as hell or what? As a child up to right now, he still freaks me out. Yeah. Was it even scary while you were acting? It wasn't scary. It wasn't scary, but I mean, we have such great, let me just talk about the crew for a second. This guy, Chris Nelson, Christopher Nelson, designs a mask. He's awesome. James Jude Cordy's a great guy. But we kind of left each other alone during the making of the film just to kind of give each other space so we could vibe out the scenes but we've become friendly since making the film cool guy great cinematographer we had michael

simmons this guy who shot the movie it looks incredible but david gordon green dude honestly he just kicked so much ass this movie is like i'm so proud of it and the fact that i can say i'm working for danny and david and james was danny on set he was for the first week dude i'm a huge danny mcc did you guys just talked forever we did we vived out he was so funny you know he said something to me in passing i was giving him a compliment about his comment i love him and he goes use the force Luke or some shit like that. It was hilarious. He's like, use my force. He said something like that. Use my force. But he's super chill. He's so down to earth.

He's a great guy. Dude, what a great comedian, right? To me, he's like the modern-day Bill Murray. I think he's one of the funniest humans. Him and Kristen Wigg are the like the two funniest people in the world. Kate McKinnon, too. Yeah. There's so many good comedians. Brilliant. By the way, I have to mention it because I'm a big fan of Six-Pack from 1982, but you work with Kenny Rogers. You don't love Six-Pack. Kenny Rogers, dude. You didn't like the Six-Pack. I love six-pack. I have it on VHS somewhere.

You weren't watching the Family Fair in 1980. I bet I have it up here somewhere. Actually, you were probably like nine years old. That was like 12 when I made the film. Do you really remember watching that film? A billion percent. I love six-pack. I love that movie. Kenny Rogers was a great guy, man. He was an awesome guy. What a sweetheart. He loved us all, man. He was so cool. Did he ever play guitar for you and sit there and sing to you? No, but he had like he would, he would take us up on Helicropter rides and he had the rap party at his house. Just really great stuff. He was a really. Dude, he was awesome. Dude, he was awesome. And Diane Lane in it, too. She's awesome. I love to her. I know, beautiful. Damn, Lane.

I fell in love with her. I loved her when I was a kid. Remember a little romance that movie? Yes, yes. That was the first crush. You know Diane? Yeah. What was that movie where?

He doesn't know anything before 2012. What is he? 21? How old is this kid over here? What was the movie where Richard Gere kills the guy that she was having a affair with? Do you remember that one? No, no, no.

Was it? Oh, my God. That was a dark movie. With Richard Gere, you have to see that. It is an amazing turn of events, and she is the drop dead gorgeous. It still is. Beautiful woman.

It's a really nice person, too. By the way, you know, everybody always asked this question. It's not like you would fucking know. You wouldn't know the answer to this. I don't know much. But Michael Sheffling, the most gorgeous guy in the history of cinema who does one role in 16 candles, the heartthrob hunk. Yeah.

And then he disappears and he moves to the East Coast to be a carpenter. Literally. He's like, he was like the J.D. Salinger of actors. Great guy. We were great friends. We actually hung out a lot. He was a cool dude, man. And I, I miss him.

I haven't seen him since in, like, 40 years. Do you ever want to look at him up and say, what do you do? Yeah, dude, I actually met one of his kids. You know, he was cool. He was such a good guy. He did vision quests with Matthew Moddy. And then after that, he just took another one. He just went another route, man.

Great guy. And you never heard from him again. Never heard from him again. No, he literally did a Salinger. I think he just, but that takes balls to be in a fucking absolute hit of a movie, being the heartthrob and saying, I'm walking. Oh, totally. I couldn't have done that.

Could you have done that? that? No, I don't think, no, I obviously, obviously didn't do it. I've tried making furniture right. It doesn't really work. Yeah, man, that always, always baffles. But he was super, great guy, man. He really was. We were like buddies. It was funny because I was such a young kid, but he and I hung out all through the making of the film when we weren't shooting. Isn't that great? Yeah. And then Hughes, same thing. Hughes was 35 years old, man, at the time. And I was 15 and we were like best friends, honest to God. It was the best. He was awesome. Yeah. It really was, man. Halloween kills. It's everywhere. It's out in theaters. It's on peacock. You got to go see it. It's on

Peacock. It's on the cac. It's on the cock. It's on the cock, guys. You got to see it. It's Halloween. What else are you going to do with your lives? This is what we do. We watch horror movies during the month of October. I know you're going to see Halloween kills. And also, let me just say a personal thank you to everybody who's seen it because people are seeing it like three, four, five times. I mean, it's amazing. It's over 90 million bucks in like 10 days. So it's very humbling, really exciting. Well, I'm I'm super happy for you. Thanks, brother.

And you deserve it. You've done such a great amount of work. You've got such a great body of work. Thank you, brother. I want to see you continue. I mean, we didn't even talk about the dead zone. We didn't even talk about so many projects, great projects you were in. We'll do it again.

Yeah. But, uh, you know, love to work with you sometime. Likewise, man. It would be a lot of fun. And thank you, uh, Anthony Michael Hall for allowing to be inside of you today on the podcast. Could be with you. And I know you listen to the podcast. I appreciate that.

I'm a fan. We've known each other for years. Yeah. It's been a long time. I'm happy for your success. You're doing great. Thanks, man. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. I really enjoy that interview. I mean, talk about shuffling, the guy who played Jake and 16 candles and what he's doing and that they used to hang out and how Anthony Michael Hall improvised and on different sets with John Hughes and just the great relationship they had. Just a far-out,

far-out story. Would you enjoy about it? He seemed to be acutely aware that I was right next to him. He did. He acknowledged you. He acknowledged your presence quite frequently. It was like him and Rooker. It was a very similar. Yes, they like to sass you.

So does Bobby Lee. Bobby Lee. It's Leah. Yeah. People like to sass you. Yeah. I'm very close to them. It's a little unnerving.

Yeah. You're close to the guest. I mean, not that close. You're a couple feet, but nonetheless, you're still. I mean, my notepad. Another shout out to our stage at coming up. if you want to hear me play some music the album is out sunspin is the band you can go to sunspin.com we're playing november 20th virtually two shows 2 p.m. 6 p.m., please uh spread the word and show up

and there's zooms to be had and prizes and we play some good music some covers. Uh, my good buddy Tom Lally from left on laurel is going to join us as a guest surprise, although it's not a surprise now. And um, also if you want to give back to Echoes of Hope, uh, you know, there's a holiday event for under-resourced children, teens and young adults, 300 students will be supported this December. A lot of them don't have anywhere to go and are missing out on a lot in life and they could use your help.

And you can help them by going to at our Echoes of Hope on social media and you could give back, you could donate, you could do a lot of, there's a lot of different options. Go to echoesofhope.org to see more options and help those guys out, help those fine folks out.

Echoes of Hope, find charity. also a shout out to ronemaddonald house and food on foot dot org uh other cherries that i help help out with oh god you okay all right you're right see people are listening i could have just blame that on you you know i could say you okay ryan and they would have known but if they're watching they can see what you're trying to do no i didn't it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't i know you know of anyone you're not going to get it knock on wood dude right now is that wood this is wood right shit man uh yeah i love it and you know i think it's time to give a shout out to our top tiers we know those guys

on patreon patreon patreon dot com slash inside of you to give back a little more to the podcast some a lot more to the podcast they keep it going they help uh keep this train going so here we go big shout out and thanks again to anthony michael hall my guest today ryan thanks for being here with me no problem Nancy D, Leah S, Trisha F, Sarah, V, Little Lisa, E, Kiko, Jill E, Brian H, Mama, Lauren, G, Nico P, Jerry W, Robert B, Jason W, Kristen K, Kristen K, not to be confused with. Kristen Crook. Amelia O, Allison L. Raj, C, Joshua, Emily, S, C.J., Samantha, M. Jennifer N, Stacey L, Jain, Jemal F, Janelle, B, Kimberly E, Mike E, Eldon. Supremo.

99 more, Ramira, Santiago M, Sarah F, I love all these people. Chad W. Leanne P. Janine R. Maya R. Maya P. Maddie S. Belinda. Belinda. N. Correct. Chris H. David H. Spider-H. Sheter. Ray H. Horada. Tabitha T. Michelle. What up, Michelle. What up Michael S. Talia M. Betsy D. Claire. Claire. I don't know what that is. I think that's Claire. I. It's a it's a sideways. It's like a parenthesis. yeah no whatever it is laura l chad l rachel nathan e marian meg k jennel p trav l dan n big stevie w kendall t angel m reannon renanin rings like a bell through the night end would you love to love her corey k super sam coleman g dev nexon michelle a Liz I, Jeremy C, Andy T, Cody R, Sebastian K, Gavanator, Ann H, David C, John B, Brandy D, Yvore, Camille S, Beano, Bono. I think it's Bono, don't you? B. A.N. O'N. Bano. Boehno? Maybe Boehno. Beno. The C. Joey M. Willie F. Christina E. Adelaide, N. Jeffrey M. Omar, I, Lena N. Design O T.G. Eugene and Leah. Hi, Eugene and Leah. I didn't leave you out this time. uh i hope it's not lee maybe it's eugene and lee that i did i f it up again chris p nicky g

corey ktb patricia marissa marissa maria n and bradley s bradley s uh you guys really help the podcast out and i really appreciate you thanks for listening today it's been a real treat having you i hope you're enjoying the holidays make sure you go uh watch us and stage it if you haven't seen a stage of performance please get ticket sunspin dot com or stage at com type in sunspin we'll be there we'll be playing um the store is available for merch at the inside of you online store and sunspin.com you can get t-shirts and a bunch of stuff um yeah there you go ryan there you go good seeing you good seeing you too thank you all for allowing to be inside of you today once again thanks for having me as part of your drive or your life or

whatever that is and uh so many emails so many uh comments of how much the show means to them and it means a lot to me that you feel that way and that's why I keep doing it. So thanks. And from the Hollywood Hills I've been here in Los Angeles, California. I'm Michael Rosenbaum.

Oh, Brian, Tails. Guys, keep rocking in the free world. Have a good week. I'm in the free world. Football season is here. Oh, man. Believe has the podcast to enhance your footwork. ball experience from the pros one of the most interesting quarterback rooms to college

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