Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - DAVID KRUMHOLTZ: Scary Oppenheimer Audition, Trouble on Numb3rs & 9 Month Mental Breakdown

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer, Numbers) joins us this week to candidly share his experience overcoming thyroid cancer, the difficulties surrounding this disease while working in Hollywood, and how it was preceded by a nine month panic attack. Later, David talks about the validation he received from Christopher Nolan after landing a prominent role in Oppenheimer, his humbling first day on set, and a crazy story of how auditioning for this part evidently led to him becoming sober. We also talk The Santa Clause, pivoting on Numbers, and a horror story of a honeymoon. Thank you to our sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 🖼️ Aura Frames: https://auraframes.com + “inside” 🟠 Discover: https://discvr.co/3Cnb1V8 😌 Nutrisense: https://nutrisense.com/inside 🏈 PrizePicks: https://prizepicks.com/inside __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. You are listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Hi, Ryan. Hi, Michael Rosenbaum. This is one of those things where it's late in the day.

Ryan took Ryan forever to get here because traffic his hair's a mess my hair's a mess both of us didn't shower today shower last night did not shower today well and I was right you're correct yes I showered yesterday as well I showered last night so not together we weren't together no we could try it though but yeah I have a walk in so we could there's plenty of room do you do and a bench if you want to sit while I lather up I got it I mean just to give you an idea of my closed living quarters I got a text from my building manager lives next door to me. And I got home late last night because it was soccer night. And I got a text from my building manager at 1145 saying, hey, could you not slam your toilet seat down?

Oh, my God. I would have said, buddy, mind your own shit. Minds your own shit. My thought was, okay, she was having a day. Like, obviously this is like. Could you not slam your toilet seat down? I just heard it. For one second, it was loud.

I mean, it's just, I don't know what. It's so weird. Anyway. Thank you for listening to the podcast. I know, again, you have a lot of podcasts to listen to. We've got a lot of great podcasts coming up, too. I've got some amazing guests. Every week I learn something, and I know you will too.

We talk about mental health. We deep dive. I have real conversations with folks that you might not think are that real because there are celebrities or whatnot. But I hope you're enjoying. it if you are enjoying it and you want to support the podcast even more there's a thing called patreon p a t-r-e-on patreon dot com slash inside of you and you could join and you really help the podcast my patrons without the patrons this podcast wouldn't exist period just would not exist couldn't do it so i

want to thank them all the patrons uh if your top tier patrons you get things like shoutouts in the beginning of the pot or beginning of the end of the podcast all your name uh boxes sent from me with uh by me for with little gifts and notes and uh you get to ask questions to guests and it's just there's a lot of great stuff on there so go to patreon.com slash inside of you support the podcast today um i'll try to send you a message and um i will get around to that and i thank you you can also go to the inside of you online store for great merch we're talking uh smallville script signed and lunch boxes signed and tumblers from the podcast and uh i look at i have this little jacket it's inside of you jacket there's not many left though but um also i'm having another live podcast that's right uh i'm not

going to announce it this second i'm just telling you i'm having one uh looks like it's going to be late january so if in your loss if you're in los angeles it's going to be a it's an amazing guest you are going to love this woman she is fantastic fantastic actress and we're going to have a lot of fun at the live podcast so you're going to have to get tickets once i tell you when and who and all that stuff but shouldn't i be enough ryan Shouldn't they want to just come to the podcast to see me? Probably not. It's okay.

It's all right. I mean, you know, you think that. You think. You are enough. That's what I always say. No, I don't. I say, be good to yourself. I don't say you're enough.

It's part of it. Maybe that'll be my noon one. It's in play. Hey, you're enough. It's in play. You know what's funny is that's, that's a story of me. You're enough. Like, just be enough.

You're good enough. That's it. You don't have to be great. Just be good enough. You're good enough. Yeah. Anyway, we're going to get into our guests soon. Also, you can go to my Instagram, which is at the Michael Rosenbaum,

and my link tree shows any events. Coming up, my band, Sunspin playing, sunspin.com, if you want to support the band, I think you really dig the music. We have two albums out now working on a third. And the Talkville podcast, Talkville Podcast.com. Tons emerged. There's these new pieces of art that there are only 50 available print signed by me and Tom that you have to get because we're running low now.

So if you want to get those, go to talkvillepodcast.com and thanks for all your support. And yeah, the holidays are close here, Ryan. They're very close. I'm having Thanksgiving here. You won't be here. You'll be with your family. No, I'm coming here for Thanksgiving. Oh, you're coming here for Thanksgiving.

Right. Oh, good. Yeah, I'm coming here specifically for Thanksgiving. I think that will be really nice. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. It's always fun. Yeah.

I figured out I could make stuffing. Amanda wanted to bring stuffing. Make stuffing. And I was like, what, wet bread? I guess that's what it is. It is wet, but no. Do they have gluten-free stuffing? This one will not be.

I'll be right. I looked up a good recipe. And I did a test run last weekend. You did a test run? Did a test run. You guys are serious. Well, because I'm not, I wanted to, I didn't want to bring something in a tin. I wanted to be able to make it.

I wanted to try it out. So I found a recipe and went to pavilions. Got a lot of things. Good for you. It turned out well. I like that. It's going to be good. I have a feeling it's going to be good.

I wish other people would test their product before they bring it. Some stuff isn't. No, most of this stuff is really good. I just supply the turkeys. I don't have a signature dish yet, so I wanted to make sure this was presentable. I just supply the house, the party, the turkeys, the mashed potatoes, things like that. I think that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, turkeys are a big part of Thanksgiving. So, wow.

I'm good enough. David Krumholtz is my guest today. You've seen him in so many things, the show numbers. You've seen him in the big movie Oppenheimer, which he was brilliant. I had to immediately text him after and say, wow, wow. He talks about, I believe, his thyroid. He talks about his weight gain. He talks about so many things and gets personal.

And I love to hear what you think. think about this our handles are at inside of you podcast on facebook and instagram at inside of you pod on twitter you can watch us on youtube and listen to us everywhere write a review on apple write a view anywhere it really helps the podcast and thanks for the support let's get inside of david crumholz it's my point of you 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. Is that what it is?

Your Killy's Heel? I had the strangest experience with Aaron Rogers. I did the Tribeca Film Festival a few years ago, and they asked me to be a juror for, like, the best documentary short category. And he was on my jury. and he didn't know why he was there and I didn't know why he was there but he was totally nice guy but you could see in his eyes that he'd been hit way too many times you can really tell once you can really tell that it looked like he had yes he was he look he's key there was a crazed maniac look in his eyes really which I assume most football players

who've been dinged up over time have but I don't know how you don't get injured immediately on every play the way they hit each other and the the muscle and the speed and you know hockey and all these sports i don't know how they do it and then you know they retire and i have friends that have retired that have you know had big injuries one of my friends pat la fontaine he was a star for the islanders and you know played for the rangers but he had like 11 concussions and took him out in fact he just designed this new helmet valori sent me one to help prevent concussions but like when I talked to him, I could see he's such a nice guy, such a sweet man and smart. But you can tell that he's been hit quite a few times.

There's just a look in his eye that's just a little bit like I have been concussed. So I understand what you're saying. Yeah, he definitely, Aaron Rogers definitely had that look. Do I have that look? He was supposed to play ever again after like one concussion. David, do I have that look? I can't tell what the glasses on. The glasses make you look all right.

Yeah, there it is. That's it. That's the look. I'm concussed. And it's not a laughing matter. We're not joking about it, but it's just, I mean, we are, but we're not. Have you ever been injured or had a real? I mean, I know, look, I know we can get into it because we get personal and close here. It helps a lot of people. But I mean, I know you had thyroid cancer. I had the cancer, yes. I mean, is I, you know, when I hear the word thyroid and cancer, it just sounds like that's not a good cancer to have. You know, it's not a bad cancer to have. I mean, if you're going to have cancer. It's super treatable if you catch it on time. The problem is if you don't catch it, if you don't know you have it, it can spread to your lungs pretty quickly. I got crazy lucky. I got saved. I went to a masseuse.

I went for a full relaxation massage. And at the end of the massage, she massaged my neck. and I was like, what is she doing? No one ever does that, like in the front of my neck. And at the end of the massage, my full relaxation massage, she told me she felt a lump. And I was like, well, that's not relaxing. And then I didn't even think anything of it. And like three months later, I went to my physical and my doctor was like, you know, he checked me up and down.

And he was like, you know, at the end of the session, he was like, is there anything else you want to tell me? And I was like, you know, I went to this masseuse, and she told me I had a lump on my neck. I don't know. And he felt my neck. And he was like, there's two. There's two lumps. And I was like, oh, shit. He looked concerned.

He looked concerned. Well, it was concerning at the time, as you can imagine. But, you know, it was so, it came after, I had had a nervous breakdown that year, which all was because of the thyroid. Like your thyroid stops functioning and you get crazy depressed and like it really messes with your head. So it kind of was like a relief. I was like, oh, that's why I've been freaking out. It's like I've had not healthy. Like I'm not physically okay.

And it was kind of like that year was so crazy that just being told I had cancer was like, well, of course I have cancer. In fact, I went out. I went out to dinner with John Hurwitz, who created Cobra Kai and the Harold and Kumar movies. And I told him, I said, you're not going to leave this, but I have cancer. And he said, of course you have cancer. I guess people expect me to be sickly. That's terrible. And it was just, of course.

Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was bad in the moment, too. I didn't think it was funny. But looking back, it was. And anyway, I caught it. And it's super treatable. and I'm still in contact I found the masseuse

and I'm still in contact with her I sent her a bunch of gifts she saved my life and she didn't have to do that and a little bit of an angel there and uh but like the problem is you lose your thyroid they remove my whole thyroid right

so I became super um super fat is that what happens when you lose your thyroid you get fat I don't know how these things were I'm severely hypothyroid, and what that means is, like, I'm on the highest dose of the medicine that people take to replace their thyroid, which is called synthroid. And even with that dose, man, like, I cannot eat without gaining, like, tremendous amounts of weight really fast. It's like my metabolism, I would say, like, slowed down by a hundred percent or more, like, literally, like my, it just, and so I gained, I ballooned. I swelled up, you know, it was like I was swollen. It wasn't even fat. It was like, well, you look good now. I mean, so how do you lose weight if you have no thyroid? And you're on these hypo, you're on these drugs. Well, no one wants to admit this in Hollywood, but I'm going to, I'm going to do it. I'm going to say it right now.

I, O-Zempic is amazing. Really? Dude, Zempic rules, man. So you're on Ozempic. I always joke. I was like,

who is on Ozempic? And some people say, I've been on Ozempic for about six months or seven months. And that's about it. That's about all you're supposed to take it for. So I'm at the end. And I've lost 44 pounds. Feel good?

Easily? Um, you know, slowly, which is good. you know like it's it's it's it's no more than two pounds a week so i'm not like losing a ton of weight i'm eating smaller meals the only you know hard part about ozempic is the way it works is that it essentially makes you nauseous but slightly nauseous but enough where you're halfway through a meal you get nauseous and you don't want to eat

anymore you know so you you you know you're only eating half meals but that's good you know you're you're eating smaller meals that's what you're supposed to do so it's good and it has some drawbacks but it's worked for me. Does the nausea go away quickly or is it just happened when you're eating and then it sort of dissipates or whatever after a while? Depends on if you panic, you know, because it's such a gnarly feeling. But no, it doesn't last very long.

It doesn't like, you know, a couple burps brings it up. I just wait for the, wait for the burp. Yeah. How much weight, what was the height of your weight? Does that make sense, the height of your weight? The height of my weight. The weight of my height. At 2.32 at 5 foot 6, my, the average weight or the recommended weight for a person that's 5 foot 6 is 155.

So 232, that was pretty overweight. Right. Now, being an actor and being in Hollywood, look, I think you're one of the best. I think you're tremendous. I think, you know, we can get into that. No, but I just, I really, really respect your work and even seeing like highlights of Leopoldstadt, is that how you pronounce it? Yeah, I know that you put on Instagram, I believe.

Yeah, I put one. I was, I was, I was blown away. I was like he's English. He's, he's this character. I haven't seen you play something like that. And, you know, you got a drama league award. to get nominated for a Drama League award for that. And I'm like, you know, I always thought you were a great actor, but I was like, oh my gosh, look at this.

He's on Broadway. He's fine. He's a Broadway. This is a fucking actor. Thank you, man. I, you know. Inside of you is brought to you by Quince. I love quince, Ryan.

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slash inside of you. Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash inside of you. 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 Rocket Money. 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, you have to do this and pay for and that. But with Rocket Money, it's, they're saving you money. You're getting this app to save money. I don't know how many times that I've had these unwanted subscriptions that I thought I canceled or I forgot to, you know, the free trial ran at Ryan.

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don't have to. Yeah, because I don't want to. Press one now. If you want, oh, get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget. And even when you're doing a good job, Rocket Money's 5 million members, have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions. With members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features, cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show.

inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket money. You know, when you're 232 pounds, I'm sure people are kind of like on your Instagram are looking around and go, God, that guy got fat. Yeah. So I wish I'd never been. Were you aware, like, were you like,

were you embarrassed by it or you were just like, you are embarrassed by it? Yeah, well, I wish I'd never been skinny, you know, or else because then people wouldn't do that. But like when I did like numbers, for instance, like I was super skinny. And then, you know, you get big later in life for whatever reason. Yeah. You know, and people, yeah, people are mean about it.

I don't know. Embarrassed maybe. I was disappointed in myself and frustrated because it wasn't like I was overeating. It was just I was gaining weight regardless. And that was really tough. As an actor, like if I was. an actor, I guess I wouldn't care that much. Like, it's unhealthy, but I wouldn't like have like tried to lose a lot of weight. Because you're not in the limelight as much. You're not like,

you know, at all when you're not an actor. You don't have to think about that. New Jersey. Fuck it. I'm Jersey skinny. The 232 is third is, you know, Jersey athletic. But, um, uh, yeah, as an actor, it started to really bother me, especially because it just felt like, oh, no, like I'm not, going to get up i'm going to lose opportunities and and then what happened was you know i got a lot of like opportunities to play chunky guys but then there's always some like ribbing in all these scripts you know like oh the fat guy and you know and it was like wow i guess that's that's what i've got to do is is just be the big guy suddenly and um and i didn't like it yeah so So I've made concerted efforts to lose weight several times.

O-Zempic is the first time that I've done it in a healthy way. I'll say that. Why aren't they sponsoring you? You should be doing commercials for O-ZEPIC. I'm ready. Would you do it? They were like, oh, O-Zempic, you know. Because I've heard, like, a lot of actors in Hollywood are doing that,

but you have an actual reason to be on this. You know, there's like, it totally makes sense. um yeah that's was it hard for your personal life i mean was your did you think your wife was unattracted to you yes that she tell you yes yes she did yeah well look she was like she she made the mistake one day because i was like i feel so big and i i don't i don't feel right and and she said so be big who cares be big and i thought well if she doesn't care Then I'll just be big. But then I found out she did care.

And she's not a superficial person. She's not shallow. But yeah, you know, you feel great. Like, you know, you know, yeah. When you're in intimate situations, you're like suffocating a person, you know, suddenly. Right. The lights are off. Potentially hurting someone, you know.

I keep the lights off anyway. And I'm not like, you know. I keep the lights. on and i also keep my socks on do you every time that's very jewish of you it is yeah you know keeping the you don't keep your socks on do you uh i've taken them off a couple times but i like them on i don't know why does she like them on i mean take your socks off um yeah i probably should i probably should are they black socks they're there no they're they're white tube socks white tube socks

so you're nude except for the white give you a nice little visual there I just see going to town in white tube socks you have 32 pounds going to town with nothing but white tube socks but you know in a way in a way this is like

you know De Niro gains a whole bunch of weight to play a character all these actors do this you inadvertently gain all this weight to do this and you're able to play characters that you probably you wouldn't have played like the character in the movie that in the movie Oppenheimer you play this physicist and he's he's a heavy guy yes he the actual guy I played wasn't as heavy as me but yes right so but but I was I thought you were brilliant and I like that you didn't look exactly like you used

to look, that you look more mature and you look like this guy that could be this guy. It just, it really just, I was like this, you belong with all these great actors. Like, they belong with you. So that character, yeah, I mean, would you have wanted to play it skinnier? Yeah. You would have. I don't know, man. I mean, I'm vain.

I'm an actor, man. I'm vain. You know, I'm not going to lie. I am too. you know you worry it's just it comes to the whole bunch of worry of then people go oh well that's what he does you know that's the things like they're always trying to like audiences and the industry alike want to know what they're getting because they want to feel like they're they know you you know and i have always with weight without weight with my hair with whatever

I've always tried to switch it up because I don't find myself that interesting at all because I know I'm not. I'm like kind of a boring person and like, um, what? You think you're a boring person? You can't be a boring person. You're an actor. I'm not a boring person. I just don't find myself that interesting. I personally don't find myself that interesting.

I'm probably a very interesting person, but I, I'm not interested anymore. I lost interest many years ago. And for me, it's like, I just want to, like, switch it up and, and, like, surprise people. The surprise, then you get away with so much stuff when you can surprise people. I just thought, I just thought of a situation, you know, you're talking to your girlfriend. This is hypothetical, obviously, because you're married. And you're like, like, this isn't going to work. And then she's like, why?

Well, I've lost interest. She's like, what do you mean? In myself. I'm just not interested in myself anymore. This isn't going to work. I have no interest in myself. I don't find myself interesting. Well, I do.

Yeah, that's tough shit. Yeah, but I don't trust you. I don't trust issues and interest issues. Gosh. You know, when you auditioned, we can keep all this. When you auditioned for that fabulous director, did you meet in person or was it on the? I have a great audition story from it. So I had done two self-tapes for it.

And then they said, okay, come on and in and do. it for him for Chris Nolan face to face and I had met Chris a good 16 years prior he was scouting for like the dark night maybe or yeah I'm not sure or yeah maybe the dark night and he was scouting at Hollywood Los Angeles Center Studios, which is where we shot numbers. And we were the only show. It was us and Mad Men. So it's this huge lot downtown in the middle of downtown that no one really uses much except for like music videos come in for like two days or some commercial, some big commercial like LeBron James will come in for two days. They need a sound stage. So they go for it. There's all these soundstages.

And Mad Men would be there for like three months. But we were there for like 10 months out of the year. And all these movies would shoot there for a day. You know, they'd shoot. They literally, you've seen it in half the movies. You've seen this sort of building that they use that that's there. That used to be the old like 76 Union SoCal gas building. Anyway, he was there.

And I was like, oh, shit, there's Chris Nolan. and he came up to me and he said hey i think you're great on that show this was numbers and i was like whoa crazy and then you'd think you know the thing is your worst mind goes to oh well he's there you know that person forgot about me or that person enjoyed that thing that i was in but has no interest in ever working with me but that was very nice to hear that and so knowing i was going in for him face to face was not so intimidating i was like oh i know that this guy enjoyed my work at one point. And so that wasn't intimidating. What was intimidating was I showed up and they were like, you're the only one here for this. Which is like, oh, it's yours to lose thing.

And I'm sure you've been in that situation. I'd rather go against people than be alone. Me too. And I thought I was showing up and, you know, I also like need the motivation. Like I walk in and there's another actor there. I'm like, I got, it's like all of a sudden, I, this is not when work with people when i audition against people i'm like oh i got i'm in a championship fight and i got to knock this guy out yep what kind of like i know what i feel like i know what he's going to do so i got to do something different so going in alone was a little scary um because then you go holy moly like they really i'm this is it's it's mine to lose inside you is brought to you by rocket money if you want to save money then listen to me because uh i use this ryan uses a

so many people use rocket money it's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions crazy right how cool is that monitors you're spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings and you know what's great it works it really works ryan rocket money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you the app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals they'll even talk to customer service thank god so you don't have to um i don't know how many times we talk about this but like you know you got it and they helped you in so many ways and with these subscriptions that you think are like oh it's a one month subscription for free and then you pay well we forget

we want to watch a show on some streamer and then we forget and now we owe 200 dollars by the end of the year yeah they're there to make sure those things don't happen and they will save you money. You know, Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the app's premium features. Get alerts if your bills increase in price, if there's unusual activity in your accounts, if you're close to going over budget, and even when you're doing a good job. How doesn't everybody have Rocket money? It's insane. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money.

Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know that I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. You buy a pair of socks, that's two socks. You buy a pair of Bomba socks. That's four socks. Because one purchased is one donated. Sox are the number one most requested clothing item in homeless shelters.

So when you buy a pair of super comfortable Bomba socks, you're also donating a pair. Bombas customers have powered over 150 million donations. So Bombas would like to thank you 150 million times, but we only have like 30 seconds. Go to Bombas.com and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's BOMBAS.com and use code audio at checkout. And I went in and he gave me, I had two scenes. There was no script available. And I assumed that those two scenes were the whole part, you know,

because you don't assume you've been given anything more than that. Anyway, so I did the two scenes, and he had me do it three times. And I tried to switch it up a little each time. And after the third time, he said, I want you to do it again. But this time, I want you to do it like you're driving home from this audition and thinking, I should have done it that way. Wow. Wow. And luckily, and I came to know, Chris, is a very sarcastic and very funny person.

Right. And, but in the moment, I don't know that. And luckily, I played it off. You know, I actually laughed. I didn't get nervous. I kind of went, ha, ha, ha, that's funny. And then I thought, and then I even said, like, my drive home, I'm going to do it in the elevator. Did the thing left and was convinced I had ruined it.

Like, totally convinced I'd ruined it. And you're driving home on your way back from the audition. I'm supposed to drive home. I was actually, I was in LA and I was supposed to drive back to my hotel. I drove straight to a brewery and just downed a bunch of beer just by myself on like a Tuesday at 2 o'clock. It's just literally me at the brewery just drowning my sorrows and going, holy shit, I had one of the biggest opportunities I've ever had and I blew it. And I was about like three or four beers in pretty rocked. And the plan was to just, you know, then sober up and drive home and just spend the whole day at the brewery.

And my agent called and said, you got it the same day when I was plastered in the parking lot of this brewery. I was like, yeah. Needless to say, I'm now 14 months clean and sober. I don't do that anymore. Nice. Yeah, why not? Good for you. Thanks, man.

But, but yeah, like. Wait, so you didn't know you thought you had a couple scenes in this movie. And what's funny is, I see you in the movie. And I'm like, oh, cool, he's in this. He's got something. And you're the integral part of the movie. So then I went and read the script. The next day I got called in.

And then they said, we're going to let you read the script in the office. And then we're going to take it back from you. I was like, okay. and the script was printed on dark red paper so you can't copy it or read it it was that hard to read yeah it was that secretive and i'm reading it i'm like oh fuck man there i am again and whoa shit and it came it dawned on me like he chris really believed in me you know you as an actor you spend so much time going you know i don't know who believes in me and if they do i wish they would just show up right now you know i know and then and

happens and that um it made me super emotional you know he showed up after i read it he wanted to talk to me about it and i was just i had a shit ingrin on my face you know i was just like and i just kept saying thank you i just kept saying like thank thank you wow thanks and the coolest thing is like as they were promoting the movie these last few months i had a little secret which was that I wasn't just in it. I was in it a good deal, you know? And then it was about like, do I suck in it? Like, I hope I was suck in it.

Did he, is he somebody who after a take will go, hey, Dave, that was great. That was great. No. No. So it's cut or let's do another one. Try it like this. Be a little bit more. Remember that?

I told you that. Great. Do that. Okay, great. All right, good. Let's move on. Yeah. So he works super fast.

He shoots one camera out of time. Nothing more than one camera. He doesn't have a video village. He has a small hand monitor. And he was watching my close-ups on, like, a hand monitor, and he wasn't happy with, like, stuff. The first scene we did, my stuff was basically shot chronologically. And the first scene we did is the scene on the train.

It's a pretty intimate scene with me and Killian Murphy. And Chris was like, he made me do 14 takes of my close-up. and this is a guy that does like three takes typically and this is your first scene my shooting now were you thinking about oh my god everybody's looking at me killing and murphy thinks i'm terrible i'm bomb and i'm going to get fired all these things you're thinking of you're obsessing consciously in the moment and it doesn't help that chris is like i don't know what you're doing and i'm i'm thinking to myself well because i'm on that tiny monitor you know but he wants wanted something different than what I was planning.

And, you know, I had to adjust on a fly, but you don't argue with Chris Nolan out of respect because he doesn't, he doesn't, he's one of those directors. He doesn't demand respect. He commands respect. He is the hardest working man on the set. He's involved in everything. There is no, you know, assistant doing half his job for him. He isn't taking a break.

He never sits down. He never goes to the bathroom. So you just go. He's on Ozempic. What's that? He's on Ozempic. That's what he's on. I was just like, I love this genius guy.

And like, all I want to do is make him happy. So we did 14 takes. And the next scene we did, we did nine takes of my close up. And at the end of it, he came up to me and he said, well, nine takes. It's better than 14, which is what you did the first. those time. But he's being sarcastic. Oh, yeah.

But he's the opposite of life. And there was one day where we did a scene and I went up to him and I said, was that good? And he said, he's fishing for compliments. He really doesn't like that. Really? So let me ask you this, because I've done this before where I'm on set and he, the director wants something. And he's giving me now notes.

And I don't even understand the notes. It's like, I'm just going to do another take, but I don't even really get what he's saying. And I feel like if I keep asking him, I don't understand. It's going to make it worse. I'll just do it and see if I get lucky with my abilities. Right. Did you feel like after eight, nine, ten, you're just like going, I'm just trying something different. Did you ever look at Killian Murphy and go, well, here we go.

Yeah, because Chris, you know, Chris has so much brevity in the way he gives notes. He's so specific and so smart about how to get what he's. wants out of you. I just, I guess I was just in a place of stuck in what I had been doing for months in the auditioning process and then, you know, what I had planned. And it also, like the literal space that we were in, that train car was tiny. IMAX cameras are massive. They're like three times the size. And it was him, his DP Hoyt, boyda uh killian literally like off camera sandwiched up against the wall and so there's not a lot of like mental space physical space claustrophobic yeah and so i think what i ended up happening

was i was very much here and i needed to be very much here and it took me 14 takes to get there it probably took me 10 and he gave me four good ones do you go how many did killian Murphy get how many takes on that yeah less did you go home afterwards and call your wife and say i don't know i don't this could be my my first and last day yes you did you were that nervous you're going to get fired 100% yeah you know that movie specifically because you look at that cast and you go man there's some heavy fucking hitters on this cast you know downy and oldman and Killian and the list goes on and Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh and you just go, man, I can't suck in this. You know, if I had a smaller role, I could kind of suck if I wanted to.

Let him suck in that scene. I have to like fucking chew this thing up and spit it out. I have to make something of this. And yeah, I was really nervous. I, but everyone was. Everyone in that movie was kind of like, wow, it's a murderer's row. It's one of the best castes ever. and, you know, best ensembles.

And it was just a murderer's row, you know. I remember Jason Clark came in to do his scenes, and I did my one scene with him. And even he was like a little like. And he had a lot of dialogue, too. A lot of dialogue, and he has heavy moments. And you could see that he was up to the challenge and that he was going to nail it. But it came from a place of, I better nail it. There wasn't, it wasn't the most laid back environment.

Yeah, you got to step up. It's like, I know my lines inside out, reverse forward. I don't care if it's two lines. I'm going to know it a million percent. Plus, you're shooting on IMAX film. So it's not like digital where you can do this all day. Like they're running out of money as you fuck up. Every time you fuck up, it's a big deal.

Yeah. And, oh, you know, it was just, uh, did they pay you well? Did you get paid well? um yeah all right yeah but it was it was surprising actually it wasn't bad um good yeah yeah let me ask you this when you do a show like numbers i i remember watching numbers and i remember thinking i could never do this i could never play this part i could never i the words he's saying the amount of dialogue he has you're doing how many episodes a year 22 yeah How much dialogue did you have per episode on average?

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We are wicked and grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. A lot. But, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I, it was, it was, it was the job, you know, that was the job. I mean, but like, listen to me. Are you, are you, are you, uh, you have photographic, uh, memory? No. You don't.

I, I'm maybe on some level I do. How, how long does it take you to, learn your lines so for numbers what happened was we started doing the show and uh you know i'd go home i'd learn the night before wake up the next morning and it was such complicated jargon what i was speaking that i'd forget it so i'd be in the shower going holy crap i stayed up for three hours straight working on these lines and i can't remember them and there were days on set where I had like mini crises, you know, in the beginning. And two things had to happen. One, I had to stop being afraid of not knowing the lines. My fear of not getting them, you know this with heavy

dialogue. The more afraid you are of not knowing it, the less chance you're going to have to know it. Like, you've got to not be afraid. And I was really afraid. So I had to drop that. How do you drop that? How do you just drop that? I came up with a plan, but it wasn't a plan that everybody liked. I will say that. I will say that. What was the plan? Okay.

So I was like, I went to the producers and I said, the genius of the character is catching up with the capabilities of the actor. And I was like, and I don't want you guys to like rewrite anything because I'm stupid. You know, I don't want you to have to do that. one of the things I asked them to do was they would like give me like a whole long speech and in the speech I'd have the same complicated word eight times within that speech so let's say the word is algorithm okay I'd have to say algorithm eight times within that speech and the problem the way the my brain works at least is like I'd get to the third algorithm and think it was the sixth you know what I mean and skip over a bunch of dialogue as a result I

I'd fuck up. Right. So I asked them, I said, if there's any way to not do that, to like, you know, to reword it. Yeah. Get your thesaurus out. And like, what's another word for algorithm? Like call it a formula, call it whatever, you know, and they did. That was really not.

It was the only ask I had for them to read. That's not big of an ask. No. I would have said cue cards, earwig. That's all I asked. Well. So then what I did, I said, and here's the deal. I'm going to come in not knowing them.

And they were like, what? And I was like, I'm going to come in not knowing my lines. And they were not happy with that. And I said, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to come in. I'm going to not know them at all. I'm then going to spend the 20 minutes that it takes for you to set up the first shot after rehearsal with our script supervisor.

her. And if she can't do it, we got to get somebody who can. Anyone who's willing to on set will do it with me. And I'm going to cram them. I'm just going to cram the shit out of them. Pressure's on. I got 150 people waiting on me to learn these lines. That's how I'm going to learn these lines. And so that's how we did it for six years. And, you know, first takes sucked. You know, it cost a couple takes. You know, I would fuck up. But then by the third take, I get it. And what was great about it was, you're watching me kind of get it as I'm getting, as I'm performing. And it looks like to the audience, the audience sees a mathematician coming up with the ideas as he's saying.

As you're thinking of lines. It's actually remembering his lines. So it looks spontaneous. And so it started to work. And I started to make sure that I, you know, first takes were better. second takes. We moved so fast in that show. We ended up doing 10 hour days most of the time, nine pages and 10 hours. We rock, rock that show. And so it got easier for me, got easier for everybody. And then no one cared. Everybody was like, fine. This is the way we're doing.

And if this is the way. Could you do it now? If Christopher Nolan said, I just wrote a paragraph for you. Can you do it? No way. See, on numbers, unfortunately or fortunately, numbers became, you do 22 episodes a year, it becomes monotonous. It becomes a job. I'm not saying that you don't keep the work honest or that there isn't passion behind it. But at a certain point, you just go, wow, I got to get the job done. So I may not be as concerned with how I perform this scene as I am with getting the lines right. Right. On a movie with Chris Nolan, when any other thing, like, I have to know the lines before I show up to set. Like, I must know them backwards and forwards.

And what I do is I learn them and then I go into the shower and I recite them backwards. And that's kind of not word by word, but sentence by sentence. I go from the last sentence all the way to the first. And if I can do that, it's just confidence, just knowing like, oh, okay, I did them literally backwards and forwards. And so now I know them. So you know them, even when you think, I pretty much know them. you want to go at a million percent more of knowing them yeah because i don't want to be hindered

by the lines i want to be able to perform you know what i mean like and the better i know them the more sort of loosey-goosey i can be with my performance just do weird stuff yeah crazy but when you know them that well is there ever a point where they go oh you know add this little thing in there does that fuck you no i've been i got good at that because i've done a lot of multi-cam sitcoms a lot of failed multi-cams i've done eight failed multi-cams sitcom so when i say failed i mean they went to series and never made it like got canceled before 13 episodes i've done a couple of those yeah yeah yeah and you know they come at you with rewrites you know while you're shooting you know whatever new jokes or whatever and so yeah

you got to learn that stuff on the fly so i got good at that i got good at that yeah thankfully you talked briefly you skimmed over it you said you know you got thyroid cancer and the year before something you had a mental breakdown you're like oh that's why the thyroid but when you say mental breakdown what happens when you have a mental break because i because i feel like i've had one as well and i had to go and get myself you know i just went through a really tough time and a lot of people out there do a lot of people i feel like every great actor should have one um because it really changed everything uh i got married so basically what happened was my show ended numbers ended i didn't know who i was anymore i didn't know what my career was i got married

and the very next day i flipped the fucking i flipped out we made the mistake i made the mistake we booked our honeymoon the next morning in St. Bart's. Beautiful place, except we went during the off-season. So everything was closed. And when we got there, the island had just had like a massive storm. So the internet and TV was knocked out. So here I come from like the most wild raucous night of my life and this huge momentous occasion. And I find myself in an island in the middle of nowhere where all the stores are closed, all the restaurants are closed. The only food I can get is at the hotel. There's no one at the hotel. Fucking place is empty. And I got like island fever. And that's how the nervous breakdown sort of started. So my, so three, three and a half

days in, I said to my wife, I said, we got to get out of here. And we had booked an eight day honeymoon. And we left. We left my much to her parents chagrin. You know, my, you know, my Laws were like, what the fuck is going on? I was like, I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out. I can't stop panicking. I can't. I have bad anxiety. I cannot stop panicking. The anxiety then turned into really deep, paralyzing depression. I became agoraphobic. I couldn't leave the house. And it went on for nine months. It was a full nine months thing. Right after you get married. And right after my show ends, which was a big. successful show, yeah. So my wife, God bless her, was just like, who is this person? And you

tricked me. You basically, you tricked me. We're married now and you're a mess. How did this happen? And I felt terrible. I felt so bad, you know, and it made things worse, you know, that I had to face her. And I was scared of her. I was like scared of her coming home because I didn't want to be a burden on her. It was really, really intense, really intense time. And I got sober during it. I got, you know, I tried everything I could. You know, I wasn't into getting on meds, but then I sort of, you know, just put, I just realized I was powerless over what was happening. And again, it was all happening mostly because my thyroid wasn't working, but I didn't know that. But yeah, I became a total recluse, shut-in, nervous, mess, ball of depression, like scary depression, deep, deep, deep depression for nine months.

Did she think she was going to leave you? No, no. Really? What made you feel that way? That she wasn't going to leave me? Right. Yeah. She's the most wonderful person on her.

and I knew and she was my motivation to get better you know if I was alone or whatever single dude I would have probably maybe even offed myself to be honest with you you were that bad oh it was bad it was really really bad I lost my mind you know you lose your mind you know you just you lose it and uh you know and friends also my friends stepping up and sort of going like oh he's not like you know i'm a kind of a jokey guy and it's like oh he's not telling jokes anybody like he's like you know this is not the guy we knew he really is he really is uninteresting yeah finally i really was finally is that interesting oh they couldn't be around i'd be crying all the time you know it was that bad you know and it's serious chemical

imbalance so you know um yeah it was a tough time very tough time i'm glad it's behind me but I learned so much from it you know it was the ultimate fall you know it was a huge fall and two years later I took her on a proper honey you know it was two years later where'd you go we went we went to Ireland and Scotland and we drank our asses off and had a blast that's great we went and it was awesome how about that yeah things work out I think that you know I've been there I've been to the darkest of darks and uh you know it's funny because you you you do people have this sort of idea that it's a you know when you people who kill themselves how could they be so selfish how could they be this when you get so low to a point it's like nothing else matter

the only thing that matters is just not being there it's like i can't be in my own fucking body i can't be it's like this darkness and i can't even imagine that next step of darkness that you know robin williams or some you know people must have felt that you know so i never look at it as like that i look as like no they were very sick they were very we have no idea where they went it's not fair to say that and so you can you could understand that but what what got you out of it what got you out of that i mean i know you said the thyroid thing made you go oh that's what it was but did it sort of go away before the thyroid thing no um it was getting better i went to a lot of therapy man um i mean i found myself literally in fetal positions on the floor of therapists offices but they

didn't give up on me no one gave up on me um i reached out to a crisis manager um because i was in crisis man i went to what did i what did i what i did i did i went to some weird fucking like super weird LA hypnotist thing you know brain scan thing like I did everything I possibly could and yeah meds helped meds helped big time you know thank God you know like I'm a big proponent of do what you need to do you know you don't have to suffer you know life if if you're in a situation where you're suffering and you don't have to you got to take every route you can to alleviate suffering. No one deserves to suffer, especially for prolonged periods of time.

You know, there's some suffering that can't be helped, but this is suffering that can be helped. And I was suffering. I really was, man. But, you know, just a good support system and just not giving up, just sort of not. You know, there was part of me that was just like, I'm, I can't go out like this. Like, I'm not going out like this. But I turned down jobs. You know, I couldn't work. I didn't want to travel.

I was afraid to go anywhere. I was afraid of going to, you know, wood ranch at the grove. You know, like I couldn't go to a barbecue, my favorite barbecue restaurant, you know, like, it was that. And you're afraid you're going to have a panic attack or you're going to pass out. A wall's having. I literally, dude, it was like a nine month panic attack. It was kind of the craziest thing ever. I've I you know I had the worst panic attack at my 50th birthday all my friends were meeting me at a restaurant and when he had this back room and my friend Tom walked up and I go I'm having a panic attack right now I can't go home I can't do this and he said dude dude calm down you know it's your birthday or it's your friends it's okay and I stuck it out like I but I sat in a corner of the restaurant where all my

my friends were talking were you there ryan no uh ryan's here you don't you don't know ryan's here anyway um i was i just i felt like i'm gonna pass out uh it was just so awful and i just wanted to go to my bed oh you know i'd wake up and i would just like 30 minutes in i'd want to go back to bed i just wanted the day to go away it was fucking disastrous and i'm i'm glad you know, thank God people were patient with me and I was just finally the right meds sort of worked for me and it did change my life in a way. You know, it's definitely changed me in a lot of ways because I think I've had this panic or this anxiety since I was a child. I didn't even know it. I thought it was just part of me and it was all the dysfunction and all this craziness

that was going around that it was just part of me. And I'm like, why am I so, why am I so nervous about this? Why am I so nervous about this? Why? And I realized, wow, I thought it was just situational like, oh, I'm having anxiety, midlife. But I think it stemmed from years and years of letting this go on. And finally my body said, stop it. We're not doing this anymore. And it broke down. It just broke down mentally and physically. So, so you started to get better. But I mean, just to your, to what you're saying, I'm glad you're feeling. better. I mean, the thing is, is like, people really don't, panic is exponential, right? You panic and then

you panic that you're panicking. Yep. And then you panic that you're panicked. And it goes on and on. And it builds to a point of complete madness, you know. Um, so yeah, it's important to like just have people who understand near you, you know, you know, like, luckily since I've been in the situation where I've known people who, where I've been able to help people through those moments of their own, you know, so. Yeah. Did you have, do you have any celebrity friends that reached out and tried to help you? I'm asking that because, you know, it's like, you know, celebrity friends, but are they

really friends? Yeah. No. No. They were, they were, I had a couple celebrity friends that were worried about me, but didn't. do anything no right they didn't i was beyond oh man i was beyond help i i really i was i had to do it mostly on my own in a therapist office with a trained professional you know there was no there was support you could give me support and say hey i'm worried about you and anything you need

but there was nothing i could i couldn't it was just too much and it's gone now you don't get anxiety anymore i get you know every once in a while i get a little ting just something um you know but yeah not really man it's gone it's it's it's gone but you know uh cognitive behavioral therapy taught me to like not be afraid of it and to actually welcome it you know if i have a panic attack now i go okay i hear you how bad can you get you know let's bring it on you know that way i'd put in a leash on a gnarly dog you know what i mean and whether i like it or out that that dog is mine i got to raise that dog and fix that dog somehow you know stop it from being so gnarly if i let go of a leash it's going to go attack somebody you know so like i got to

hold on to that leash for dear life and um and and it's mine instead of being afraid of the dog just owning it you know like i own my panic i own it it makes it so that when i do have a panic attack i can just sort of go oh okay this is happening instead of freaking out Did you find through all this and then, you know, the thyroid and you realize, oh, this is what caused it. And you're like, oh, good. This is what caused it. All that's done. That nine months was just because of this.

But along the way with therapy and cognitive behavior and I don't know if you did EMDR, but whatever you did, did you learn a lot about things that maybe have happened in your childhood or things that happened along the way that all just help clear your head more, that it was worth all that? Absolutely. I mean, you know, I had to face a lot of stuff. You know, there was stuff that I had used as motivation for many years. There was stuff that I had used to make me angry and I thought it was okay to be an angry person and live angry and be bitter and, you know, there was stuff that I had to sort of come to a really. acceptance of real peace with or else I wasn't going to get out of that, that situation. Wow. And, you know, forgiveness for not only other people, but for myself, you know, and, you know, sort of chipping away at the self-involvement, you know, like chipping away at the ego, which had become massive on some level in a way that I was, I was, I was a nice guy.

I could be your friend, but, man, I was, I was me, me, me 24-7. And part of getting married freaked me out because of that. It was like, oh, I, I'm obligated to someone now, you know, it really, and I wasn't, my ego was too big to handle it, you know, and, and I needed to chip away. I really needed to chip away, you know. I'm one of those people that, like, I think, I'm, I'm, I'm a messiah with an inferiority complex, you know, like, you know, like it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the best. You know, like, you know, like, you know, kids will tell you the truth about yourself. Yeah. Which is that you're ugly fat, untalented, not that impressive. Uh, and it's the best, it's the best medicine, man.

It is. Well, I'm glad you went through all that. And, you know, it's, it's, it's tough. It's tough face. It's tough admitting to yourself that you have a problem or you have this, you know, because I could certainly sit here and say, yeah, I've got an ego. Yeah, I could be completely selfish. Yeah. But I'm aware of it.

And I also can be very giving and thoughtful and all these things. And those bad parts of me, they kind of linger around. and they're always going to be there. And as long as I'm aware of them, and as long as I don't let them get out of hand or make them change me or, you know, or, you know, it's, for so long I punished myself really like, you know, you're fucking ugly, you're fucking asshole,

you're a fucking this. And I would just, you know, and now I try to just go, hey, you're all right, man. You're all right. You're all right, kid. Hey, we got some, this is so awesome. man this is like you don't understand how this helps so many people and the listeners and they're so loyal and you know this is this is the stuff that people want to hear i i believe you know you were

you were talking about um you know when christopher nolan came up to you many moons ago when you did numbers and goes hey you're really good in that and um you also said that you know most of time it's just like hey someone like my work and nothing will ever happen with that right most like most of the time and that's happened so many times with me where you know i remember quitting tarentino was like fucking lex luther i fucking love you man i go you're quitting tarentino i fucking love you are you kidding me and i go i got we got to work together goes oh yeah man for sure for sure man and nothing you know i've had other directors and big you know come up to me and nothing nothing it's always nothing it almost never happens right you know and that's like

I don't know, I just wanted to say that. Does that happen a lot to you? Look, you know, it's rare when it happens, and then I never expected to happen again, like it's, because it's super rare. I went to dinner one night at a restaurant, and Stephen Soderberg was sitting with a couple friends at the table over, never met him in my life. And he got up left, and I'm with my wife, we're eating. And the waiter comes over and goes,

Steven Soderberg paid for your meal. And I said, what? Someone had paid, I was like, what? And there was a little note from Steven Soderberg saying, whatever. And I was like, what the fuck? And so I thought, oh shit, man, he wants to work with me, man, or something. You know, I should send him flowers or something. So we call his office the next day.

And he's like, we're like day, hey, you know, like, I was super, that was so sweet. Can I send flowers or something? And they were like, no, he does it for everybody. he does it all the time he buys people dinner left oh god why'd you say that makes you just feel like shit yeah what are you gonna do i remember i had a golden globe or not a golden globe fucker sorry it's way off a saturn award and i was holding a saturn award and he was like hey congratulations that's great and i go yeah thanks so much you too you know and we took a picture together and we talked for a minute.

I was just praying that Stephen would have been like, you're really terrific in that show. And I'd love to work with you. But that never happened. Yeah. Damn it. Damn it, Stephen. Don't you watch Smallville?

What's the matter with you? This has been terrific. You're so engaging. You're so open. And I just think this is, yeah. I'm a mirror. I'm a mirror. no you're you're a great guy you're a great guy who's who's the uh who's a who's

your favorite actor of all time in terms of quality quality mine's Gary Oldman who is it Gary Oldman yeah I have a tie it's a three-way tie okay it's Kate Blanchett it's De Niro and it's Klaus Kinski really yeah those three Those are, that's my holy trinity of acting. I would say Nicholson. Very, very much up there for me. Gary Oldman. Also.

And, uh, the best actress of all time. Merrill Street? Yeah, Merrill Street. Yeah, I mean, yeah. All very much up there. Funniest would go to Kristen Wig. Probably the one on the funny. Her and Danny McBride are the two funniest people on the planet to me.

Okay. Okay. What do you think? All right. I think they're very funny. I'm an Eddie Murphy guy all the way through. I love Eddie Murphy. And Martin Short.

Martin Short. Martin Short. That's good. Always have been, like, obsessed with those two. Who's the one actor that you met, who was one of your favorites, and they couldn't have been better and nicer? Oh, wow. And you were like, wow, thank God they were cool.

Wow, that's a good question. Um, kind of, I got, it's a tough one, but, uh, I got to say all the biggest actors, like the biggest names I've worked with have been awesome, you know, Downey's awesome. Clooney's awesome. Brad Pitt's awesome. Uh, yeah, those, those three. It's the smaller ones that aren't that great, right? The ones that aren't as big, maybe.

You get a little attitude with that. You know, the one, it's not even the smaller ones. It's the ones, it's the big ones that have lasted a really long time. And then you're like, oh, this is why they lasted because they're nice. Like, they're not just talented, but they're super nice. And they make it easy for people to shoot movies with them. And then you go, oh, that's the key. It's just be like super nice.

Who is the worst? You can't say it. But you have one in your mind, right? You have one in your mind. The worst famous person that I met as a fan. As a fan. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you a funny story really quick. Okay. And then, and then I'll, I'll try to make this quick. I'm 21 or 22 years old, 23, actually. And I get my first lead part in a small indie movie, tiny indie movie. It's going to shoot in New York City. And the producer has us come to her apartment in Tribeca for a table read. And I go to the table read and you know we do the reading and the director is like hey stick around after the table

read i want to talk to you specifically about your role i said great i stick around there's pizza there and i'm 23 years old and at the end of our no session he says hey you want to take the pizza with you and i'm like hell yeah and i walk out of her apartment and directly across the hall with their apart with his apartment door open holding his apartment door open is robert fucking deniro right And I freeze because I had one week prior just seen Raging Bull. And I felt I froze. I was scared of him. And he slammed the door in my face.

And I can't believe what happened. I turn and standing by the elevator in this building are two, are his two twin children. He had twins. And they're like four or five at this point, maybe six. And they're standing there. and they see that I have pizza and they want the pizza, right? And I'm like, no, you can't have the pizza. And I'm also super afraid to go knock on De Niro's door and say, hey, you left your kids out here.

I assume he knows the kids are out there. Like, I got to get out of there, man. I just got my, the door slammed in my face. I'm scared. And like an idiot, I push the elevator button. And the elevator comes and these two get in the elevator. Okay. So now Robert De Niro's four or five-year-old twins are in the elevator of this building.

He's in his apartment. If I leave to go knock on his door to tell him, the elevator door closes, they go downstairs. So I'm stuck with his twins. I go into the elevator with them. I say, here's what's going to happen. They're like, can we have the pizza? I'm like, no, I'm not going to touch them. I'm not going to force them, physically force them out.

So I'm like, here's what's going to happen. We're going to go down to the lobby. I'm going to press your floor and you go right back. up and you go home. Okay. So we go down the lobby. I press their floor. Lobby door closes. 22 year old, 23 year old stupid me is like, okay, I did it. Get out of here. Go home. A few years ago, Tribeca Film Festival, I'm a juror. They have this luncheon. Aaron Rogers is there. And there's Robert De Niro. And I think, you know, I'm going to tell Robert De Niro this story. So I go up to Rob De Niro and I say, hey, Mr. De Niro, I'm so sorry to bother you.

My name's Dave and I'm just, I just want to let you know. I'm a huge fan of yours and I just want to tell you a funny story. And I tell him the story I just told you. And he laughs. He laughs. Thank God. He's not pissed. He laughs.

Yeah. His kids are okay. They're grown up. Nothing ever happened. I go. They announce, hey, okay, everybody. Now we're all going to go upstairs and deliberate on our films. I said, great, I go to the elevator to go upstairs to this room where I'm going to deliberate with Aaron Rogers and whatever, waiting for the elevator, and Robert De Niro comes and stands next to me waiting for the same elevator.

And like an idiot, I turn to him, I go, well, you'll be the third De Niro I ride an elevator with and start laughing. And he goes, I'm going to take the stairs. And he did. Oh, my God. I'm going to take the stairs. thing up date the stairs and boom took the stairs and that was it 75 year old man took the stairs you should have said i hope you fall down him you old fuck yeah that's that's you know i mean what a shame you think he would have been like funny you're funny that's good but no yeah i thought

that's what i was going to get oh god gosh well i wish we went out on a on a good note but that's a sad no it's great i love that story that's fucking fantastic uh well don't always meet you heroes uh i love you buddy this has been great i'll let you know when it airs i couldn't have had more fun uh this is this is awesome this is exactly what i was hoping for you too brother man i'll see you soon all right great guy you know someone who's been around someone who's worked someone who's been through up and downs ups and downs um yeah i really enjoyed this i really enjoyed him i just he's such a likable person and innately good good soul i could always see that i could see through bullshit the i've been

sitting here talking to 300 plus guests and i got to tell you that i can see through people pretty easily within the first 20 minutes i kind of get it like i know i know what's going on and they you know you can hide things to a point and i don't try to pry things out of people i don't you know but just having candid conversation and most people are genuinely good and have something to share and he was one of them so thank you um if you miss the intro and you fast forwarded make sure you'd roll back uh okay why don't we get to the top tier patrons if you don't know what a patron is they're uh patrons of the podcast they go to patreon.com slash inside of you. And you become a patron. And one of the perks is these people get their

names shouted out at the end of every episode. And I couldn't do it without them. So if I over-emphasize one name, it doesn't mean they're just not as important as any other name, but they are. No, I'm kidding. Let's do this. These are the top tier patrons. I love you. Nancy D. Leah and Kristen little Lisa you Kiko Leah by the way I ate all those stop you know I'm just gonna can I just like give you money instead of getting Girl Scout cookies because I torture myself I eat so much and it's so bad for me so next time just say hey you know just invoice me and I'll just give you the money I don't I don't feel like I can't eat that stuff anymore it's so good and I just want to bury myself in it little Lisa thank you for the this shirt

I'm wearing right now. Hockey Night in Canada. Little Lisa got me that. I love it. That's cool. It's our brand for you. Right? Yeah.

I'm watching hockey right after this when this is over. So we got to. It's a little Jason mask too. Yeah. It's a little Jason mask that's sitting next to you. Uh, Ukiko. Love you, Kiko. You have supported this podcast for so long and you're so far away, but you're right here

with me. Jill E. You've been around. You've been around. Thank you for all the love. Brian Henning Camp, gosh. I'm going to the Depeche Mode thing. Nico P. Robert B. Jason W. Sophie M. Raj C.

Sophie, I just saw you in Rhode Island. Joshua D. Jennifer N. Stacey L. Jamal F. Janelle B. Just saw Janelle Mike E. L Don Supremo 99 more. Santiago M. The Statue maker. He's so supportive. I love, I love that guy. Want to read some? Lee Ann P. Chad W. Hi. Hi. Hi, guys. Maddie S, Belinda and Dave H Shila G Dave who

Dave H, Dave Hill Dave Hill Dave Hall I love Dave Hall He's so relaxed He just talks like this It's on Dave Hoob Minds me of like a Gary Oldman

It's like Dave Hole in it Yeah go ahead Hey he's all right Uh Sheila G Brad D Ray H Tabitha T Tom and Talia M Betsy D

Reannon C Cory K Dev Necks And Michelle A Jeremy C Brandy D Joey M Eugene and Leah All right That was good That's one breath

Eugene and Leah. Yeah, and Betsy D. I haven't heard from Betsy D in a while. Ray Ha-da, got to have another concert. Yeah, he's got to come to the concert. Sunspin's going to be playing soon in December, so I hope everybody turns out and comes to the show. We don't do as many shows as we used to, so please support. If you go to sunspin.com, you know, you guys will know when we're playing.

Corey, Angela F, Mel, S, Christine S, Eric H. Shane R. Andrew. Andrew M. Andrew. but Amanda R. Kevin E. Stephanie K. Jarrell, Jammin J, Leanne, J. I feel like I know these people. I do. Luna R. Mike F. Stonehenge. Brian L. Jules M. Kendall L. Jessica B. Kyle F. Marisol P. Kaley, J. Brian A. Ashley F. Marion Louise L. Romeo the band. Frank B. Gentie. I'll just read the rest of it. I got lost. Nikki L. April R. Hi, guys. How are you ladies? Randy S. J.D.W. Sounds like J.D.W. and Associates. Oral P. Remember Oral B? That still exists. Yeah. And he's Oral P. Oral. Oral. Or it could be Aral. Aural. Rachel D. Melissa H. Nick W. Stephanie in Evan and Charlie Ney. Couldn't do the show without you guys. I really appreciate you. And thank you for being here. I am Michael Rosenbaum from the Hollywood Hills in California.

I'm Brian Taylor. I'm here, too. Yes, a little wave. Be good to yourself and you're good enough. Just remember that, right, Ryan? You were good enough. Yes. You too. Football season is here.

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