Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Freaks and Geeks’ SAMM LEVINE: Saved by Shatner

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks, Minx) joins us this week and shares what it was like going from regurgitating stand up performances at bat mitzvahs to catching the eye of Judd Apatow and lucking into a role in the cult Freaks and Geeks. Samm talks about his time shooting the show and the panic that ensued as a young actor who just had his show canceled. We also talk about working alongside Quentin Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds, his entry into the industry via Lisa Kudrow, and how his impression of William Shatner landed him an iconic role. Thank you to our Sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: betterhelp.com/insde Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I've met him before. He's so humble and sweet and glorious bastards, freaks and geeks. I mean, he's kind of a little legend. He is. He is. And he's so smart. I'm just like, you know, it's just fun to listen to him and his stories and the way he sees life. Yeah.

You know, we'll get into Sam Levine. That's Sam with two M's. Because there probably was already a Sam Levine and SAG. That's how they do it. I just wanted to give a little shoutouts if you'll kindly listen to them. I'd love you to subscribe if you're listening to Sam for Sam Levine. If you like the podcast, that is. If not, tell me to F off.

That's fine too. The handles, Ryan? At Inside of You pod on Twitter. At Inside of You podcast on Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. Follow us. Write a review. We're on YouTube as well if you want to watch it, which is always nice.

But watch it. We have a clips channel, but try to subscribe, write a review. we have the inside of you online store that's what it's called tons of cool merch um from inside of you mugs and and tumblers we have actually some new smallville stuff we have a well we have a lex luther signed lexmus script from the show um we have a lex luther signed ship key the key to the ship so you're going to want they're going to be they're going to be around they're going to be available they're dope they're like hot cakes i put six up they were gone in 20 minutes so i'm I'm trying to get more, so this guy is supposed to send me a bunch.

So keep a look at it on that, the inside of you online store. Also, sunspin.com. Go to sunspin.com and get your new Sunspin merch. Our band has an album out of CD. It will be streaming in like February. You can listen to our last album, Best Days. It's called Sunspins the band. Best Days is the name of the album.

The new one's coming out, but you can get that on CD at sunspin.com along with T-shirts, mugs, hats, tons of cool shit. calendars what's the name of this album or is it a secret it's called never is what it is never is what it is yeah there's a song called that it's uh it's it's pretty it's kind of a sad song i was going through a tough time so there's a couple of songs that are you know sounds like a tompetti lyric yeah it does yeah never is what it is you have to you you have to hear the album but it's really cool a bunch of great musicians so support the band sunspin dot com follow us whatever a what have you. And just a shout out to, um, food on foot.org, helping the homeless on this,

you know, dismal year we've had. And, you know, people are still out there starving and go to food on foot.org. And if you can help in any way, it helps them tremendously. Uh, also echoes of hope for foster youth. It's a beautiful organization. And Ryan, I'll be in Vegas with Tom Welling. Oh. Yes, to do a convention, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 13th, 14th and 15th of January, Vegas, Smallville nights with Tom. We do a two-man event, read scripts from the old, you know, the old scripts from Smallville. You read with us. It's going to be a blast. Where at which hotel do you remember? I don't know, but don't, you know, look on my Instagram in the next couple weeks because you'll see it. So join me. And last but not least, Arm, the NAR rescue mission.

and my friend shearer runs it and they are rescuing so many animals uh there's so many animals out that are starving or abused or left to you know die and she tries to save every friggin animal i'm like you can't do that you're not noah stop and uh but she she really has a heart of gold and uh help the organization tell them uh tell them i told you to come and also ronald mcdonald house can't forget that in los angeles love those guys uh that's about it for the for the holidays we're getting there we're getting to uh christmas honica kwanzi kwanza kwanza what i yeah you know me i fuck everything yeah and ryan's also i like that you're you've been in the last couple of months i've seen like a shift i don't know if it's the therapy the better help therapy because i mean seriously i mean sponsor

yeah they are a sponsor but they're awesome that's why they've been with us because they know everybody out there deals with anxiety depression and everything in between and uh you've been doing it but also um you're taking a writing class every week yeah you're really enjoying it you're starting to do like comedy like oh you did you had to go last night it was good it was good i knew it would be good you were nervous oh was it because i had done it in two and a half years but you killed it i think so i mean i got enough people invited enough people and they like they um it was in you know was in elsa gundo which is which is not close uh for a wednesday so i mean i got a lot of when are you going again um i mean hopefully that's like a monthly show um so but where would

they go? What's called? Well, it's they called it a recession proof comedy. And so they just invite, so there's just going to be a just a comedy night, like the second Wednesday of every month at the Brewport Tap House in El Segundo. All right. So you'll let me know

a week ahead of time when you're going to do it and we'll get people out there. It's going to be on a Wednesday in El Segundo. But Ryan's a little celebrity here. I mean, he's on inside of you here. You love him. The people, folks love you. You're on Talkville. You know, it's like, you know your personality he's getting some you know some fans some love so they'll come and love you

you'll get a couple supporters yeah sure brian hindenkamp would come see you it's a far ride for him though i think he lives pretty far away but you like that i shouted out your name all right uh without further ado uh also i got to thank my patrons without you the show wouldn't exist talkville wouldn't exist you keep the show going patron dot com slash inside of you to support the podcast i'll try to send you a message um but a lot of tears and fun stuff on patron Without further ado, let's get in the wonderful, talented, incredible. You like that, Sam? Sam Levine.

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. Dude, how are you? I'm great, man. I'm genuinely great. I got married. I know.

You married Rachel. I married Rachel. You met her on a game show. Ish. Shmowdown? Yes, the movie trivia Shmodown. You let me know when we're going. We're probably already started, aren't we?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what Pete does. He just rolls right into it. By the way, start. That show, it was called movie trivia, Schmodown. The movie trivia Schmodown. Shmodown. Let me ask me some questions to see if I would be a movie enthusiast without going, you know.

I could ask you a few, probably, but I mean, they were like super easy softball. ones and then there are like five-pointer very very difficult questions like give me a easy easy one start me easy an easy one would be like um how many uh terminator films did james cameron direct in the 90s wow i thought this was easy one that's correct yeah yeah just the one yeah uh because for 84 99 yeah exactly there you go that's what i's thinking yeah so that's like you're like who you want to think about it because you don't want to jump into an answer oh my god i can't believe i forgot that and then like a super hard one uh would be oh great no i don't

want to do it i don't want to i honestly nothing's even coming to me because they're all really something give me something they're super they're you have to read a list of names to make sure that you're giving the appropriate information uh there was one it was like what um comedy uh starring uh for featuring paul newman john goodman and steve bushemi uh from the 90s like it was Paul Newman and Robert Redford was the category was like what comedy featuring Newman also has 90s comedy featuring Newman also has supporting performances from John Goodman Steve Buscemi and I'm leaving stuff out because I don't remember wow that comedy was it a really obscure movie no you've heard of it but it's not a pool movie no it's not the stakeout

is not the stakeout wasn't he in that I don't think Newman's in stakeout what was it it's the hudsucker proxy the hud sucker proxy cone brothers movie I should have known that when you said Goodman. Goodman and Bouchemmy. Bishamie. These are a giveaways. Yeah. That's how I'm like that your mind thinks the way I do.

Like when I hear certain actors, like I think that's one of the reasons I was okay at it was I know like certain directors who love to work with repeat actors. Like Henry Gibson is in a movie. There's a very good chance Joe Dante directed it. Really? For example. That's good. Yeah. Can you name every, now I'm not going to do this.

We can't do this. I was going to say can you name every Tarantino movie in order? probably, but who cares? Who cares? Everybody's thinking about it right now. They're thinking about it. Write it down, email it into us. Did you always have an affinity from movies growing up in television?

Was it something that was embedded in your kind of, it was part of your DNA from the moment you got out of mom's womb? Yes. And I owe that to two things. One, both my parents are cinefiles. Really? Both. Still with us?

Yes. Thank God. So they, and my mother's father. Uh, he too was a cinephile. He had a massive collection of laser discs and VHS and all the stuff in the, in the 80s and early 90s. So love and appreciation of cinema was something I was raised with. And then the second thing, the real kicker was, uh, they allowed me to have a television in my bedroom with, uh, unfettered cable access when I was 11 years old. So you're watching HBO? I'm watching HBO. Give me the HBO theme. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, nah, nah, no, that's the, yeah, we could have done the whole thing. All the thing takes, like, a minute. It does.

But, yes, yeah, I had HBO Cinemax. Did you watch dirty stuff on Cinemax? Of course I did. Were you jerking off at the young age? No, it's Kinemax. Were you watching Goodbye Emmanuel? Yeah, Emmanuel's diary or whatever they call it? Do you remember there was a song to those movies, Goodbye Emmanuel?

I remember when I was a kid I was watching, I was like, it was like, goodbye, Emmanuel. Emmanuel Goodbye Emmanuel I just remember I got to see some boobs I remember trying to jerk off when I was

you know 12, 13 years old or real sex and I was like Oh no wait a minute Come back with the attractive ladies This is a nudist colony thing I don't

These are old dudes Why? Oh no my eyes Yeah don't If you're if you're me and 12 Don't attempt to masturbate to real sex Now your dad was a dentist

still is. Still is a dentist. Does he still do your teeth? He does. And, oh, he's going to love this. He just relocated to Los Angeles. Right after the jerking off, he hears that. He's going to hear about it.

You know, when I edit this for him. Right, right, right, right. Yeah, no, he practices in L.A. now. Really? Yeah. The dentists do really well. I think it really depends on a number of factors. But primarily, believe it or not, it has to do

with what type of dentistry you want to pursue because, you know, periodontist, endodontist. Orthodontist. Now, ortho, that's the sweet, sweet money. But the catch is all day, every day for your life, you're going to be doing braces and retainers and braces and retainers. Right. And that's it. And he didn't do that. No, he's a general dentist. So he'll do, he gets to do the fun variety. But he doesn't do oral surgery. He does not do oral surgery. You go to oral surgery. You go to an oral surgeon for that. Interesting. Yeah.

Did you like going to the dentist when you're young? Like it? No. But I didn't mind it like other kids. Like you hated it. It was the worst thing in the world. Some people have massive anxiety. You know who has horrible anxiety with it?

Eddie Murphy. Ooh. That's what I hear. Okay. I know. I know the truth. Why doesn't he just send his head stand in? She should do that.

Now that's a little bit of inside Hollywood for those. But do you think dad was more mean? to you and wanted you to feel a little pain in a sadistic sort of way when you went in as of just like, oh, it's going to know, no pain. What, 100%? Do you think he gave it to you a little bit? Honestly, he would just poke around in there

with the metal sharp thing. There was nothing medically necessary about it. What were your influences like growing up to, like, to be an actor? What movies did you see where you were like, I have to do this? The first one, this goes back to 11 year old or 12, I'm 12 years old now.

You're how old, 40? I'm 40, yeah. 40. So, uh, the TV in my bedroom and it's the middle of the night and a clockwork orange comes on. Really? And I've never got you into it. Well, that was the movie that I saw that made me completely changed the way I viewed movies and entertainment. Because I'd never seen anything that grown up.

I'd never seen anything that intense. That was the first thing where I went, oh, shit, I had no idea movies could be like this. Incredibly disturbing. And then it's all I wanted to do was watch, I don't say fucked up movies, but like movies that made me think and movies that made me think about things differently and look at things differently. And I was, I rewatched that movie so many times and shortly thereafter, Reservoir Dogs. And like those, probably those two movies had a tremendous impact. What were your parents thinking when you were watching these kind of movies? Were they concerned at all?

Were they, you know, what is he doing now? What's he going to do with his life? I don't think I was all right. Illinois, right? No, Jersey. Born in Chicago. Born in Chicago. I was born in New York and I grew up in Indiana.

You were born in Chicago and went to New Jersey. Right, right, right. And no, they, I don't know that my mother knew that I was watching these terrible things. My dad probably did because I would talk to him about it. I'd be like, you know, I watched last night. It was of Clockwork Garden. And you go, oh, I saw that at the Ziegfeld Theater in 1971. I'm like, all right, this isn't about you.

But, yeah, no. No, they, they knew. And then also, by the time I was 12, I was doing stand-up comedy. I read this. You were doing stand-up comedy at bar mitzvahs? It started at bar mitzvahs when I was 11 and 12. What kind of jokes are you telling a kid's bar mitzvah? Remember, folks, you're 13 when you have a bar mitzvah.

Yeah. Would you do bot mitzvahs or just stick to the bar mitzvahs? Bar and but benign mitzvahs, if you will. Okay. That's the plural. Is that? Yeah. Okay.

Good. Um, uh, the, uh, the jokes I would do were probably five percent my own, which were not terribly funny, but then 95 percent, the grade A material of one, uh, Richard Jenny. May he rest in peace. Do you remember Richard Jenny? No. Oh, he was magnificent. He was one of the hardest working comics in show business in the 80s and 90s. Uh, and he had a number of HBO comedy hours and showtime specials. Um, he had a big one in 1993 that was Iowa. opening for me called Platapus Man. And he was just absolutely brilliant. And he had so many bits that I memorized word for word. Give me one. You want the whole thing? I just want a nice, come on.

I don't, well, he's got to, okay, here's one he did from a later comedy special. He said, he was talking about first dates. And he said, I don't know why men have the nerve to wear a sport jacket on the first date. You lion, son of a bitch. Like, this is who you are. You know what a man should be wearing on the first date? A top had a white tie and a cane, because he's just doing the same old song and dance. You know, I really like kids.

I don't care much for sports. I love scented candles and I don't believe in divorce. Tell me more about you cat. I'm hanging on every word. There you go. Wow. And you do this at Bar Mitzvizvus. Well, thank you.

I wouldn't do that. I don't think you'd written that yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a little older. I couldn't steal it yet. Right, right, right. But jokes of that ilk. So, yeah, I was doing goofy stuff like that.

And it was just... What you do in front of your parents, the jokes? Oh, sure. And they thought you were hilarious? Yeah, I did it at my own barmets for two. You did. You started just... Oh, I did like that.

So you had this innate sort of confidence that he, as a young boy. Yes. You could see that when you start seeing your work like early on, even like freaks and geeks. Yeah. See that maturity, that kind of like, wow, this guy's an actor. I don't know about maturity, but that, that misappropriated, confidence right like looking back there was a large amount of naivete right that it's based out of but looking back and oh so confident no it's because i didn't know what the hell was going on

were you popular in high school oh god no not at all not even never never got the girls no no no no really no no no very unpopular what would they were you picked on uh from time to time what would they do uh well mean things were written on my locker like what oh don't say jew bastard no no I only I only had one or two, uh, uh, anti-Semitic things screamed at me in, in my young life, uh, mostly by strangers. Um, what did they were? Oh, somebody wrote, Sam is whack and W-H-A-C-K. And I was so uncool. I literally had to ask. I was like, I don't know. Is whack good or bad? Really? I had to ask. Did you ever, did you ever like, because I was picked on a little bit and I, I know what that's like, I wasn't popular. But did you ever go home and sort of like, were you upset about it? Did you

cry? Were you sit in your room and say, or did you, did you? Or did you. Did you, you have friends or did you not worry about it too much? I did have friends. Um, and I didn't worry about it because, uh, I mean, when I was really young, I probably, no, I definitely worried about it. It made me sad and all that. Uh, but I had this epiphany. I remember I was walking home from school one day. Uh, I was maybe about 12 or 13 years old and I was starting to do stand up and feeling like I had a very good idea of what I wanted to do with my adult life. And I remember, I was walking up this hill, lived up this hill, and I was walking up this hill and I, like, stopped. And I had this absolute epiphany where I was like, oh, wait a minute, I'm only in school with

these idiots for like four or five more years. And then I'm going to go on my own life. And I'm going to go on and I'm do cool, great things. I'm going to be on stage. I'm going to be doing stuff I want to do. What perspective. None of this matters at all. I just got to get through the next five years. Fine. Fuck them. I don't care. See, the difference between you and me is I was thinking, How do I get through tomorrow? Sure.

How do I possibly get through the next four years? It was always, and that carried on with me, how do I get through this thing I'm doing? Instead of trying to make the best of it and enjoy it, it's just stress, anxiety. How do I, you know, but that is a very mature way of thinking. Thank you. I don't know. I have no good explanation for why I had that thought, but it, I remember it. I remember it vividly, and I just remember that was a defining moment for me.

sort of just being able to handle anything socially that high school threw at me. Were you able to, did people call you once you got famous or like when you went back home? Did people that you were like, you were never nice to me? Did they, because they come out of the woodwork.

That happened with me. Sure. Oh, no, I have apparently 30 or 40 best friends from high school that I misremember how close we were and how frequently they asked me to hang out. It's so true. I'm like, do you remember? You never hung out with me.

never saw each other. I never. I just know you were in my school. We were in the same grade. I'm friends with him. I'm friends with him. So what do you do? How do you? I just, I'm, I guess I'm too good natured. I just sort of go, hey, oh yeah, how are you? I just go with it. Sure. Whatever. I just go with it too. And I mean, I am on social media and so a lot of them have, you know, reconnected with me there. And at first I was like, I mean, I know what happened. Should I just ignore this person on social social media i'm like no no i i think i want them to know how i'm doing kill them and i'd like to know how they're doing did you were did you really want to know how they're doing some of them some of them yeah yeah because people do change they absolutely do

unless you're a child who kills animals and things they usually don't then they all they they grow up to be geoffrey dumber sure so you know or tom welling No. How dare you? How would you? Weird shot. 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

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Go to quince.com slash inside of you for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash inside of you. Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash inside of you. So did you ever have become friends with someone from high school that you weren't friends with in high school? Has that ever happened? No. That's never happened.

Also, I think one of the things, I remember I was having a really hard time in like fifth grade. And I remember asking my mom, because, you know, the only thing when you're fifth grade is your friends in your life and that's your whole world. And I remember asking my mom, I'm like, are you, are you still friends with any of the people you went to school with? She's like, no. I was like, really not high school or college or anything? She goes, I have like two friends from college that I keep in touch with. But I know no one from my life before that. You know?

And I remember having that hit me and like really trying to wrap my head around like, oh, many years from now, I won't know these people. And I mean, in fairness to her, social media, the internet was not yet a thing. Right. Because then it would be impossible to be in touch with these people. It would be impossible. It would be. Then forget it. have no way of reaching me. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Um, but even with that, uh, it's, yeah,

I don't, I know them. I know they're out there every now and then I'll, you know, chime in with one of them online or something, but by and large, no, that's, that is a part of my distant past. It was really weird. I was in New York and I was doing sketch comedy for Conan O'Brien and when he was, you know, nobody was watching that show. No one was watching. I was watching. I was watching. You are? I was. You are. But I was the Amsterdam kids, the two kids that were misinformed about Amsterdam's liberal social policies. I was a recurring sketch comedy guy. I did like eight episodes. And it was huge for me. I was on TV, you know, some people saw me. And I got a phone call from this guy that I went to high school with who I hung out with every once in a while. And I

liked him. I remember liking him. I go, I like this guy. We went cruising, you know, things like that. He was more popular than I am. He got girls. I didn't hang out with his crew, but he would invite me sometimes. And I got a message. And it goes, Rosenbaum. Dude, it's Kent Brennam. I'm watching TV and you come on the screen. Dude, that's so cool, man. I'd love to catch up. It's been forever, man. Congrats.

Gave me his number. And I called him. And I was like, and we talked. And then I would go, I had no other reason to go home. My mom was still there. But I didn't go home very often. I didn't really hang out with anybody for a while. And I went home and all these people came out of the woodwork that can't organize like to hang out.

Wow. And a lot of them, I was like, I remember. I went to high school and you were popular and I don't I didn't hang out with these guys yeah so they're all hanging around and you know year after year I'd go home for whatever and it was kind of like there was a couple of people that I still keep in touch with now is all this pre smallville pre smallville wow yeah and so yeah it was just it was odd and you go back and this was like only like five years after you know high school ended oh yeah and so I would see these guys at home and I'd be like you know And they were so nice to me.

Sure. Because I was on TV. Sure. And I just, I, I reciprocated. I was like, hey. And, you know, we were friendly. And it was just, it was just really odd a lot of times. Yes.

No. A similar thing happened to me when I was 19. I was only two years out of high school. And I had, uh, was in a feature film, not another teen movie. Ah, a big movie. And it was released, uh, in December of that year. So I was back home in Jersey seeing family for the holidays and the movie was still in theaters. And to then, you know, word spread. Oh, Sam's here. Sam's here. Oh, does he want to go see

his movie with us? And the same thing. Did you? I did. I went to go see a movie I was in with a group of people I went to high school with, many of whom I hadn't spoken more than five sentences to over the entirety of high school. And we came out of the movie. And if you were, oh, that's great, oh, that's great. What was, what was Cousin Eddie like? Because Randy Quaid is in the movie. Of course. And then the one girl who I'd had had a huge crush on my whole school life, um, she, like, looks me dead. And she's like, it was weird seeing you in a movie. Weird. Well, bye. And I was like, okay, I think we're, we're done here. Wow. Was it uncomfortable? No, it was just surreal and, you know. Did you feel like the man for a second? For a split second until everyone was just like,

all right, well, let's move on. Let's not laud him too much. We didn't like him when we were students with them. Let's not pretend we do now. But what's weird is now that we're all adults, I get the most lovely messages sometimes, um, mostly about how their kids have seen me in some of the stuff that I do more that's geared towards young people. Right. Um, which is delightful. What made you get into acting? Was it your love for cinema and then doing the bar mitzos and the stand-up and that kind of gave you the confidence to start doing plays in high school? It started with stand-up. Um, and, uh, from there, I got a manager. in New York, and he was the one who wanted me to be submitted on auditions.

Right. And I mean, in addition to that, I was doing school plays and stuff like that. Not really too many school plays, mostly. You were a late bloomer, though, aren't you? Still am, a friend. But I was a really late bloomer. I didn't start puberty, I think, to my junior year in high school. Yeah.

I didn't have armpit hair till probably I was 16. Yeah, no, I didn't hit puberty until I was about 28. If memory serves. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. No, it took forever. Yeah, me too.

But you're a tall, handsome lad. And look at this hairy chess now. Oh, buddy, yeah. Do you have a, oh, wow, well, juice. Get on it. I got some hair on my back too. Yeah, we can prepare that later. We'll put that on the Patreon.

Yeah. The, the problem with me was I was, I was short, short stuff, as they would say. Hey, short stuff. Did you reach your maximum height in high school? No, I was probably about 5-1 when I was a freshman. and by the time I finished high school, I was maybe five, three or five, four. I think I hit my maximum height when I was 18. Were your parents short?

Not really. I am short primarily because I was a very sick kid. Were you? Very sick. I was in the hospital all the time. Really bad asthma, cardiovascular issues, some heart stuff, bad news. Did you almost die? And debatable.

There was a couple times I got. really sick. Like I had viral pneumonia that had me in the hospital for like three weeks once. And they were just like, we don't know what to do. Nothing's making them better. And so the problem was this is the 80s, early 90s. And back then the thing was, okay, prednisone. Just all the prednisone all the time. And that's all well and good. But the problem is, as they've learned, if you give that much prednisone to a young person, it can really stunt their growth. So that's what did it? And that's pretty much what did it. Because I have a brother, he's just over six feet tall. And, you know, my dad, he's shrinking now, but at his full adulthood, he was probably 510, 511. Right.

You know, my mother was normal height, but there's no reason I should have been that tiny a kid other than the drugs. Makes sense. I remember I was five foot two and a half when I graduated high school. And I grew, somehow I grew in the next year and half. We were like nine inches. Wow. The girls were always like, oh, you're so cute. Cute, Rosie, cute little Rosie. I was never a guy that was going to get the girls. I never got the girls ever. Not at that age. Not at that age. Not until college. Until college it started

happening a little bit. Yeah. But so I know, I do know what that feels like. But like, was that really hard on you? Were you like always, did you let it go? You're like, I'm short. This is the way it's going to be. I, yes, because in high school, it was a non-starter. Uh, it was never going to happen for me with any of the girls in my high school and I knew that and I did not attempt. Uh, but then luckily, I mean, I was on freaks and geeks, you know, immediately after that. Uh, immediately after high school. Immediately after. Like, done with high school in, uh, June, starting freaks and geeks July. Unbelievable. Yeah. Um, and so after that, I was like, yeah, you know, uh, It's my understanding that people on television have an easier go at this. And they like me. I'm good.

I'm getting cast. What was that audition process? I'm sure you've talked about this. Was it something you auditioned for repeatedly? Not repeatedly like I've repeatedly auditioned for things since then. No, I went in and read just for Allison Jones, the great casting director. Emmy Award winning for her work on Freaks and Geeks, by the way. Yeah.

Cast and director Allison Jones. So first I went and I read for her. And I got the audition like any other. I think it was the very first actual pilot audition I'd ever been set up with. And that was only because Judd, Appetown, Paul Feig were specifically looking for unpolished non-known TV film actors. Like they didn't want, if you had a crazy resume, they were not interested. they wanted young people that looked like real unknown people yeah so that's impossibly how i got the call to go audition for this and originally i read for the role that john daily uh played

sam weir right and so it says in the breakdown it's like oh he's nerdy he's undersized uh he likes doing impressions with his friends they talk about comedy all the time i'm like well that's me um so i i hope this goes well And God bless her, my mother was like, oh, it says he does impressions. You should do your impressions. And at the time, I had, again, I was doing stand-up and I used to do a truly terrible impression of William Chattner. It's just terrible. Terrible.

Like, it was not a good impression. Yeah. It wasn't even that good. It wasn't even that good. It was mostly, it was that. It was just that. That's good, though. It looked good.

So I was like, yeah, all right, fine. So when I go into the audition, they always ask, do you have any questions? And I say, yeah, it says he does impressions. I actually do a William Shatner impression. Could I do that as part of the audition? And they're like, yeah, we'll do it at the end. Okay, great.

So then I read the role of Sam Weir, not particularly well. And then literally I turned to casting. They're like, okay, go ahead. And then I launch into my crappy Shatner impression, which was something directly from my act. I did him on Rescue 9-1-1. Remember he used to host Rescue 9-1? Yeah. To know it on Rescue 9-1.

That's right. Anyway, so. So I think this was, this didn't go well. No, I was like, yeah, it went fine. But at that point, I had hundreds of auditions. And you weren't getting tons. No, you go in, you do it, you move on with your life. Right.

And, and I felt pretty good about it. And then, like a day later, they called. And they were like, hey, they want to read you for producers. And I said, oh, great. So the real character. Well, here's what happened. So the real story is, Judd Apatow was looking at the tapes. And he saw that.

And my read of the scene was not very good. But he got such a kick out of my bad Shatner. that he said, oh, you know what, put that kid on the callback list. If nothing else, Paul Figue is coming in to do the first round of callbacks, that'll give him a good laugh. Like, just have this kid do a Shatner. You found out through Judge. Judd and Paul.

They both told me that story. Yeah. They're like, no, you only wound up on that list because I wanted to make Paul laugh. That's it. And so Paul was the one who I went to do my callback for. And when I went in and I read for Sam Weir again, and then I did my Chattner. And then Paul was like, that's great. That's great.

you know what? Can I give you a different character to read? And I was like, yeah. So then he gives me Neil Schweiber. And I take that outside and I work on it in the waiting room for 20 minutes. And they were like, you know, whenever you're ready, just let us know. And so I looked at it. I was like, I feel like I could do this too. And then like three kids later, I go back in and I do that for Paul. And he was really into it. And he was like, no, no, no, try it this way. Try it this way. Try it this way. And so. And you were giving him what he wanted. I hope so. I think so. You did, obviously. And she was like, okay, great, great, thanks so much. I leave and then an hour later

they call again. They were like, okay, they want to see you again tomorrow. I was like, okay, great. And so now I go in and so now I'm reading for Paul and Judd, Apatow and Jake Kasden, the director of the pilot. And I walk in and Judd literally says, all right, Levine, warm us up with some Shatner. And so I

start with the audition this time, or the impression. And then we start doing Neil Schweber and same thing. We're working on it. We're doing this. They give me an extra scene. And we're having goofy be fun with it. Were you nervous? Or just fun nervous? I was fun

nervous. I mean, I think the fact that I'd done stand up at that point for so many years on stage in New York. Like, I didn't get the typical stage fright stuff. Like, and then also, again, unnecessary confidence. There's no reason I should have been that

confident. It was borderline arrogance. Right. And I was like, I could do this. I know what they want. Fucking idiot. Who called you Did your manager call you when you got it? So, well, first they called me and that later that night, hey, they want a network test. Oh, you got to fly it. Another one.

You got to fly to L.A. Oh, boy. Yeah. So the good thing here, though, was, and this is the only time of my career, it's ever happened. Boy, they really screwed me, this being my first job. Judd told DreamWorks, who was the studio, I'm not studio testing any of these kids. I'm not going to make them do it twice.

I'm telling you who I want. You approve them. I'm taking them to network. And DreamWork said, okay. So you skipped it. So we did not have to do the studio test, just. the network test. Right. And yeah, so it was at the old NBC studios in Burbank. Yeah. Um, and we do a work session and at the work session. This is a lot for a TV show or a lot of

to go through. I'm, you know what this is. Yeah, I mean, I've done that. I've never, I mean, I guess I have. I remember the community. I, it was just between me and Joel McHale and we kept going in and out and then and, uh, yeah, I remember going, he's going to get it. He's the part. I'm not mature enough. He's going to get any got it. Oh. And remember, we've talked about that before when he was on the podcast. There you go. But go ahead. So, yeah.

So we're doing a little work session with all the actors. And once again, Judd has me do, you know, whatever, goofy impressions and other stuff. Like, he wanted me to warm up our own room. And then when I went into the big room with all the suits, there's 30 suits in there, uncomfortable. It would be. But I was the first one to walk in that day. And he goes, hey, it's everybody, San Levine.

and everybody starts applauding. And then I completely stole a line from Richard Jenny, which worked great, by the way, for years of auditions. Everybody applauds when you walk into a test because they want to make you feel at ease. And I was like, whoa, whoa, no, that's premature. What if I suck? That will all be embarrassed, right?

Come on. Let's not do this to each other. And they laughed. And they laughed. And then Judd was like, oh, Levine, warm up the suits with some Shatner or something. So this is like the fifth time he's asked me to do it on cue. And I'm always happy to apply.

So I did it. And it got huge laughs. And I guess it put the room at ease or whatever. And then we launched into the scene and we did the scene. And I, you know, I even think he was like, well, let's do the second half of it one more time. So we did the second half one more time. Okay, thanks.

And then I leave. And then they bring me and John Daly and Martin Starr in various groups to read with each other, mix and match. And there was only one other kid reading for Neil. And he looked significantly younger than me. And I mean, I know I had a baby face. this kid looked 10 or 11 years old. Right.

And my thinking, and I don't know who that kid is and my apologies, but my thinking was they wanted me, Judd and company wanted me. And so rather than only read me, they brought in another kid who was like, good enough. But it's one of those mental things that I've definitely seen producers do, where they bring in somebody. They'll never give this guy. So they'll think this guy substantially better. Exactly. He's better for the part.

He's better for the part. Of the choices, who do you like? So I think that's what happened. And then after the test, me and my mother and Martin and his mother grabbed lunch at the NBC commissary. And then we left. And I was staying at the Hilton, Universal Hilton, and taking the elevator upstairs walking back to the room. And as I'm walking to the room, I can hear the phone ringing inside the hotel room. And I like open the key and I run in and I answer the phone and it's my manager.

He's like, you got it. And that was it. That's why I got the part. Wow. Inside you is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you want to save money, then listen to me because I use this. Ryan uses as so many people use Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions.

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No. Comparatively speaking. What did someone back in 2009? 99. It was 99. Get paid to be an actor of your caliber, of your status. Which was none. Which was none, exactly. Zero.

I'm going to guess. You probably got paid $20. $25,000 in that episode. Wow. $15,000. Look, it's lower than that. And do you really want to... Yeah.

It's from the past. Sure. They gave me $10,000 an episode. But I was only guaranteed 7 out of 13. I wound up being in all of them. And that was because Scott Sasseh, the then network president saw a script that I was not in. And I don't know if he had it,

if he liked me as an actor, if he liked what he saw, what I did or whatever. But I remember getting that script at home looking through it and going, oh, Neil's not in this one. And I remember telling my mother, and she was like, oh, well, that's fine. You have a week off. I was like, Mom, if I'm not in it, I don't get paid. She was like, oh.

And I just thought, okay, fine, I got a week off. And then, like, two days later, they sent me a new draft and I was in it. And I found out Scott Sasseh, the president of NBC said all the geeks are in every episode. Who do you think I paid the most? Oh, got. who have been Linda or Siegel or Franco. One of those three got paid substantially more. Yeah, they were probably making closer to 20 to 25 or whatever.

Right, right, right. Because they, some of them had real credits. Were you, were you friend, friendly or just would you, are you still friendly with, who would you say are your closest friends out of that group now? I'm definitely closest with John. He and I have always been tight, John Daly. John Daly. Because you guys were best friends in the show.

Yeah, he was in the show. And he was three, he's like three years younger than I am. So, you know, Martin and I and Seth were all 17. John's 14. This was tough. That's a, that's a sizable age difference at that age. But then the show ended and like, I just liked John. So John was the only one you really hung out with.

Immediately after the show, he's the only one I saw regularly socially. Yeah. Were there any crushes or any lovemaking or anything behind the scenes that were going on? There were plenty of crushes. Did you have a crush? Oh, everybody. We all had crushes. But did anybody hook up?

Yes. I mean, I, famously, I think. Oh, is Linda and Jason. Right, right, right. Of course. That's because of the movie. Right. Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Right. And, but no, I never had any dalliances with any of the guests. Were they broken up by the way? Did they break up during the run show? No, no. They got together during the run. but worked really hard to keep it to hide it. Yeah.

Right. And they did. Like it wasn't until long after the show was over. They were like, hey, did you know? And so they were like, I knew. Yeah, the fuck you did. But no, they did not. We, we know when caught on while.

Were you stunned? Because it was such a great show. I mean, everybody I know just love that show. It just makes no sense. I talked to Judd. He was on the podcast. Oh, I heard great answer. And when that show got canceled, it had to be, I mean,

how upset were you? It was one of the worst days of my life. Were you just shocked? How could this happen? Yeah, the same day that I heard the show was canceled. I was working a different job and my car died on the day. And I was like, oh, how can things get any worse? And then I got the phone call that the show had been canceled.

And I thought this is terrible. And then- Who called you? Who did call me? Actually, Josh Weinstein, who is one of our writers and producers, was the one who let me know that the show. Did you think it was coming? Did you know? We all knew it was coming.

But we were, you know, optimistic, delusional, whatever. We, we, I didn't want it to be going that way. But, yeah, so Josh actually didn't call me. He picked me up because my car was no longer working. And so he was driving me to the garage. And that's when he told me, oh, the show's. been canceled and oh truly the worst news of the day paul fig's mom died we all knew paul's mom we loved paul's mom she was on set all the time so his show gets canceled and his mom dies on

the same day i think within a day within a day or so yeah um and your car breaks down and i mean that's that's why i start with that yeah start with that work your way to the important really important things um did you cry no you didn't cry when you got canceled no boy that's a that phrase takes on new meaning now, isn't it? She seems like it was like, holy shit, it was too good to be true. You're at such a young age. You're right at a high school.

You get on this show. It's like the critics loved it. Oh, yeah. Never a bad review. Not one. I didn't cry. I was mentally prepared for it. And also as an actor,

dealing with rejection, dealing with bad news. You have to learn. You got to, I mean, I learned instant rejection when I started doing standup when I was a teenager. Yeah.

You know, Like I tell those stories and I had some great shows, but mostly bad ones. Right. Yeah. I was not great at it. I had the energy for it. I enjoyed doing it. But like, if you want to be a great stand-up, you've got to write new material every day.

You've got to be trying out new material five times a week. And I never had the, I never had the driver of the patients to do that. Sure. So I did my little jokey jokes and I had fun and, you know, I'd write new stuff. stuff from time to time, but I bombed a lot because I just, I would get lazy and I would see if I could expand on existing bits or, uh, I would take the flimsyest of premises, hoping it would connect with people and then, I'll just riff on it. Right.

Right. Um, so, yes, but the point is I was very familiar with rejection and bad news. Well, you were, I mean, you've heard this, but you're brilliant on that show. You're brilliant. It's very, you were brilliant. You watch that show. The writing. you delivered you guys all delivered the characters were very specific very different very

defined i felt like i was there i felt like i lived in the neighborhood it was really a wonderful piece did you think after freaks and geeks was there a lull or did you just start working because i see your resume like ed spin city just shoot me steve harvey boston public undeclare what i like about you 70 show family got american summer all right five over i mean Veronica mars i mean you work I thank you however was there a lull I thought there was going to be that was my great fear was the show would end and I wouldn't work anymore but the show ended and I did have that panic thought so I took the first job offered to me which was actually a writing job on a game show on the USA network called strip poker strip poker I think I remember that it's what it sounds like and you were a writer I wrote yes I wrote dumb jokes and questions joky questions for a show or attractive young co-eds took off their clothes. And it probably didn't pay much. It paid $750 a week.

And you did it. I took that job. You took it. Whatever happens, whatever job comes, I'm taking it. I needed a job. I wanted to stay in L.A. My main job was done. I needed some sort of job.

Are you living alone in L.A.? Yes, I am. I kicked my mother out two days after I turned 18. You kicked her out. I was like, I'm good. Have fun. Go back to New Jersey. And you're writing on this show.

people saying, God, you were great on that show. No, no, no, nobody saw it at the time. Back then, no one knew the show was on.

It didn't become anything until years down the road. Like the next fall, they had it on the Fox Family Channel, which doesn't exist anymore. They were airing it. And then what really brought it

into the public consciousness was in the beginning of 2004, they released it on DVD. That's when it found. I think I bought it. I bought it. The audience that, you know,

we'd hoped for as a TV show on. Do you still see residuals from that show? Sure. You want to talk about money on the residuals? I don't know what I get. What? I get about 38 cents per episode and I get those checks I think three times a year. So I'll get there's 18 episodes. I've had those times a year. I'll get 18 checks 38 cents, 44 cents. Ooh, a dollar in one cent. I must have been in that episode a lot. Guys, he's not bullshit. I'm not. I've had a check written to me for 0.0.0. one cent. Oh, I have a collection of those. Those are beautiful. I still have them. I kept them. There is the the true unicorn of the residual world is the 0.00. Because why? What do you write? How did that get written? It's because the fractional after the second zero on the whatever

generated, you know, thing generating those checks, it exists. So it automatically prints the check. Right. But even though the first two digits are two zeros, it doesn't catch that. So I'm waiting for that unicorn. It's coming. I remember when Inglorious Bastards, was sent to my house and I read for it, but I don't even remember what I read for. And I was, you know, it was misspelled, you know, and thinking, next, I'll never be in a Tarantino movie. He'll never cast me.

One time he saw me at a bowling on and goes, fucking Lex Luthor and I go, fucking Quentin Tarantino. We had a moment and that was it. And I was like, hey, I go, and I was hoping that someday I'd be in a Tarantino phone. And you got to do that. You're one of the few that got to be. Was it something he,

sought at like he went after you i went in and read like everyone else you did read but i knew him not well at all we'd met on a couple of occasions years prior because i sought him out so i had heard from judd that uh before the DVDs came out he had sent tarantino freaks and geeks on vhs and i so he i knew he watched them and according to judd he liked them. And so this is now 2003. And Jimmy Come Alive used to be live back in those days. Oh, I remember. And I don't know if I remember. He used to have guest hosts who would sit with him for the week. Sure. And Quentin was one of them. And so I knew Jimmy. I knew people at the show. And so that was a door that I had opened to me. Anytime I wanted, I could just go to a tape. You called and

Jimmy and asked him? I don't think I called Jimmy. I feel like I called Daniel. Uh, maybe Daniel or Kellison, right? Daniel Kellison or maybe Ken Crosby, any of the, but you got on. I got there. I went backstage and. You want to guest. I was not a guest. Oh, no. You just wanted to go and hang out. Oh, just want to hang out in the green room so that I, because I knew Quinn would be there. Did you bring a poster to get autograph? No. I was coming as a try, attempting to come as a colleague. Right, right. Okay. So you're there. And so I was there and I see Quinn. I'm like, hey, Quinn. He's like, hey, I was. I was like, Sam Levine, freaks and I think Judd sent you the VHS. He goes, oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. What a great show that was. Oh, what a terrific show. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let's talk. Let's talk. And so he went out and did the show. And then after the show ends, we're all hanging in Jimmy's dressing room, which was like the VIP area of the green room. And so I'm just sitting on the couch in Jimmy's dressing room talking to Quentin. And we're talking about freaks and geeks. We're talking about kill Bill. We're talking about Regis Philbin for hours. As you do. Like we're talking, talking, talking. And now.

time is going on and like people are leaving and they're leaving and Jimmy's gone. And I didn't realize it's now just the two of us sitting in this green room. We did not realize the main green room area. Everyone's gone. And so it's been like 90 plus minutes. You're hanging out with Quentin Tarantino for 90 minutes. Yes. And so then a security guy walks in and he's like, I hate to be a jerk, but we kind of want to go home. And you guys are the last two here. So and Quinn's like, oh shit, I had no idea. I was like, yeah, me neither. Sorry. And that's when we walked out and realized. no one was there. And so, like, we walk and his car is, I mean, one step outside of the exit from the building. Right. Uh, you know, there's fans screaming for him or whatever. And like, we get outside and he goes, oh, man, it was really great talking with you. I really like to work together someday. And I'm like, yeah, that'd be all right. Let me think about it. I'll get back to you. I was like, yeah, that'd be great. Um, that was it. And that was it. You didn't bring up anything. There was nothing to bring up. He was promoting Hill Bill. All right. You know. And so then it was in the, summer of 2008 that kill bill or excuse me bastards the script was floating around town yes and

everyone oh and it leaked and oh you can read it this that and he's and he's looking for he's looking for actors he needs to make these bastards and so i called my people and i was like i'd already read the script you got to get me in there if you fail to get me an audition for this i am not staying with this company like not a chance make this happen get me in that room Reading, playing, learning. Stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision. They slow down the progression of myopia. So your child can continue to discover all the world has to offer through their own eyes.

Light the path to a brighter future with stellar lenses for myopia control. Learn more at slur.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLOR Stellist lenses at your child's next visit. Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying, and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast that unpacks real-life horrors, one case at a time.

With deep research, dark storytelling, and the occasional drink to take the edge off, we're here to explore the Wicked and Reveal the Grim. We are Wicked and Grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. And they did. and I went in and I read I met with him and when he was just doing generals

to start just general meetings did not want people to read just wanted you to come in say hello shoot the shit he wanted to get a vibe for who you were which is bonkers but I and I had to like bring a DVD with like one serious scene one funny scene from my you know

reel or whatever and so I had that ready to go and I go in there and God bless him I walk in and the guy's like hey what's up Sam good to see how you been it's been like four years since i've seen them last right but like nothing like no time had passed and we immediately fell back into that uh casual fun conversation that we'd had years earlier and we talked for like 20 or 30 minutes and this is on a friday and he's like oh okay okay you know what i want you to come back on monday and and and read read for eutovitch and i was like okay he's like yeah

just read read the script hands me the script read the script and just you know prepare utovich there's like many scenes. So I went home and memorized every Udivich scene. Over the weekend. Over the weekend. Just had it down. Down. And so I went in on Monday and we read Udivich for 10 minutes. And then he was like, no. Donowitz. Donowitz. And then he has me read Donowitz. To come back, memorize and come back? No. Cold. And so I looked at it for a few minutes and then I went in and did it. And it's a Donowitz scene that's not in the movie, by the way. You probably read for Donowitz if I had to guess.

probably uh and it's a scene that was shot but someday god willing we'll all see it's donowitz and an old jewish lady played by cloris leachman and it's him in boston before he ships off to war and he's going that bat that he's got that's got all the signatures on it those are the names of the people from his boston neighborhood or was still over in uh europe and have family in boston he said write write their names down here and i'll go either find them or get vengeance for him wow and so it's that scene. It's fucking intense. Right. And here's my favorite thing about auditioning for Quentin.

Now, most every other audition you go and the director's sitting there watching you and you're reading with, you know, casting assistant, maybe another actor. When you read for Quentin, you read with Quentin. He is in your scene. He's off book and he's right up in your face. And he wants to feel how in the scene you are. how what he's getting off of you if he were acting with it was it intimidating wildly yeah and i was like fucking put up or shut up like this is it this is what the man wants i'm going to give him

everything i held nothing back uh and we did it many many times we did the utovitch stuff a bunch we did the donno it stuff a bunch and i'm in there for easily a half hour and the interview's like all right all right all right that was great there's got to think i got to think but thank you so much and then i leave and i hear nothing for two weeks And I'm losing my mind because it's a Tarantino movie. It's a role in a Tarantino movie. Like the pinnacle for me. And I was like, nope, that's it.

I'm freaking out. I got to go. I can't do this. I got on a plane, flew to Chicago, bought tickets to see the Cubs at a homestand. That's my happy place. That's how I would deal with something that's stressful. And it was while I was in Chicago. That's when I got the call.

They're offering you the role. I was like, whoa, Yudovitch, Donowitz? No. Hersberg. I didn't even read for that. I don't care. I'll take a guy carrying a spear through the background of one scene. It's like being a stormtrooper in Star Wars.

Did Tarantino call you before you started filming or now? No. You just showed up on set. Did you have any kind of boot camp kind of thing? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we had two full weeks of rehearsal. No, it wasn't a proper boot camp like the private Ryan guys did. It was not that.

It was rehearsal time and weapons training. He wanted us to be very adept with the knives for the scalping and with all the guns because all of them were like antique German guns that we were using and he was like, look, sometimes I will be doing a scene and I'll realize I want you to have the machine gun instead of the rifle and I need you to know how to be able to use it. So familiarize yourself with everything. And we did. Do you remember the first day of filming? Do you remember not being able to comprehend what's going on? No, I could comprehend what was going on. It was just incredibly cool.

Like, it was certainly the most well-funded film set I'd ever been on at that point, which was lovely. And yeah, no, I remember like the first day we drove way the hell out to that. So the ditch where you see kind of the big opening bastard scene where Ratchman dies and, and a whole thing. That's the first thing we shot. And we were there for six or seven days. And like I remember we had to drive way the hell out there. And we get there and I'm seeing everything.

And okay, and here's the tent where you go and we're going to bloody up your hands and get them disgusting. And then you go to that next tent and you'll work with the props guys and we'll figure out which blade you're going to get and which gun you're going to have on you. And, you know, and then head over to set. And we're going to start blocking and Quentin's going to rehearse a couple times. And like we were. rehearsed for like an hour before they even set up cameras. I know that rarely people go, oh, cool, you and I know, that's fucking crazy. Never happens. That's crazy because they're

paying everyone. You got to make it to come back, you film it. They're paying everyone through the nose to be there. And he just gets to take the time he wants, as many takes as he wants, many days as he needs. I mean, we had two full weeks of rehearsal. So that means all the actors were being paid to be there and not a frame of film. And how long were you? And how long were you? you there. I was there from September, all told it was about four months, I think, maybe four and a half. Wow. What, what's it like? I mean, when, is he shouting things at you to say and do things? Depending on the scene, yes. Sam, Sam, Sam, do say this and turn your head and do that. Yes. And then put, put your gun down. Scream. Yeah, yell. Open your eyes. Yes. Yes. All that shit. All of that shit.

Not all of the time. Some of the time, depending on the scene, the setup, the angle, whatever. Uh, but he, So the bastards largely were comedic actors. You got me, B.J. Novak, Paul Rust. So he wanted comedians in those roles to play it serious, but he wanted to find the humor. And so I think that's why he hired us. Right. And so he encouraged improvisation. And you improvised.

Yeah. Anything you improvised that's in the movie now that you remember? No. No. No. But you improvised on the side. We did it. You did.

We did it. We did it. Yeah. Was, did you, was he someone who can be really intense or was he, was he always full of energy and positivity? Or was, did you ever see him stress and really have anxiety and, and, you know, like, oh, my God. I definitely saw him stress. And I don't know how else to say it completely justifiably. Right. You know, like, a million things going on. A million things going on. And there was one scene and there was a prop that needed to be. set in between takes. And we did the first scene and the prop breaks, which it's supposed to do. And then we're waiting. We're going to, you know, okay, we're going to go again. We're waiting. We're waiting. We're waiting five minutes, 10 minutes. And then from the next room I hear, are you fucking kidding me? Oh, God. What happened? Apparently there was miscommunication or whatever. And the props guys were like, it's going to take 40 minutes to set that up again. It's like, you think I have 40 minutes between takes? so he, he, he, he was just defiled. I was like, no, I'd be pretty angry too. That is a colossal. Did they get on my next take, though? He was like, I remember him saying something like, you have 10 minutes to get that set up.

And they did. We did it on the next take and whatever, whatever they did after that, they fixed it. I don't know if they were, they swapped out a different prop for the thing they needed or what have you. But it was, that was personally the, like the angriest and most stressed I saw him get. But otherwise, totally infectious good spirits. He does this thing, he's famous for it, if you've ever seen any behind the scenes footage.

He's not David Fincher level with multiple takes, but sometimes we will do a lot of takes on the same setup again and again and again. And you can feel people will start to get exhausted. And so, you know, it'll be like our 17th take and we'll do it. And I'll go, great, great, that was it. We got it. That was perfect.

That was everything I'm looking for. But we're going to do it one more time. And why? And then in unison, everyone on set knows the response to that is because we love making movies. And he did that a lot. All the time. That's what you get. Do you still talk to him?

It's been a while. But after the movie came out, I did get to hang with him quite a bit. Do you have his number, his email? Yeah. You do. You email him occasionally. I just want to check in and say, hi. Sure. It's been a minute. But yes, if I wanted to, I could reach out and say, what's up and, uh,

Hey, did you? I'd be like, hey, did you see this movie? You got to see it. It's awesome. Well, he lives in Israel now. Um, so yeah, you get wife, kid or kids or totally new life. I hear he wants to do a horror movie as his last movie. I take, take nothing you ever hear the, here's when you know the next, what the next Tarantino movie is going to be when he's on set shooting it. Because his entire career. Oh, here's what I'm going to do next. Here's what I want to do next. Here's what I want to do next. Here's what I think I should do. Here's what we're going to do.

We're going to do the Vega, Volume 3. We're going to do the prequel to Inglorious Bastards. These are all things that he's talked about at length. And none of them have happened. So here's what I believe will happen. He, when we were shooting Bastard, said he's going to retire from filmmaking when he's 60. He's going to make 10 movies.

And that's that. And I was like, come on. You're not going to, you're going to walk away. And this was the phrase he used. He said, I'm going to become a man of letters. What is that? does that even mean. So I'm going to be a writer, Sam, a writer. I was like, oh, okay. So the novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that he put out a few years ago, which I don't know if you haven't

read it, it's fucking great. He's going to do that, I think, for either all of his films or he's going to start writing the book versions of the movies that he never had the time to actually make. So I believe we'll get the Vega Brothers book. We'll get Inglorious Bastards the prequel book till bill volume three the book that's my feeling this is called uh shit talking with sam levine this is uh for all my patrons top tier patrons get to ask questions to the guests uh this is rapid fire i know if you want to join patron go to patron dot com slash inside of you you support and help the podcast more than you know here we go sophie rapid fire breaking in i was in the first season that's right you were and i left can you tell us about your time on set

there quickly. It was a tremendous fun. I got to work with Megan Malelli, who is simply the greatest. Really? Yeah. She's magnificent. I heard there was some nightmares on set. If there were, it did not happen around me. I was just a guest star. I did two, I think two episodes. Right. And getting to work with her was wonderful. And everyone was so nice to me. And Adam F. Goldberg. Adam F. Goldberg. That was his show. And I think I got that job because I'd done a short film that he'd written in 2004. and then I got breaking in and I was like, this is great, man, let's work together all the time.

I love it. Leanne, who are some of your personal heroes? Personal heroes. Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Ken Griffey Jr. Okay. Gianna H.

Having worked in the pre-web world, then seeing the evolution of the online world, do you think the fundamentals of show business have changed more than just the vehicle? 100% and for the record when you said pre-web world I was like is this a Spider-Man question yes

the nuts and bolts of the industry have changed dramatically since the 90s my God it's so completely different because you can launch a career now from wherever you are in the world with your phone

and the internet and huge huge acts actors musicians have come up that way in a way that was fundamentally impossible for people like us to break through that way in the 90s. Justin Bieber, for example.

Yes. You're right? Yeah. Steph F, we talked about this. Do you keep in touch with anyone from freaks and geeks cast? Yes. Just the one.

I mean, I'm on good terms with everyone. You just don't keep in touch like. Yeah, when I see them out and about, like I ran into Jason Siegel in Solvang. And you're just like, dude. Yeah. say we hugged we chatted for a few minutes but you know yeah it was lovely have their lives it was nice little lisa what's your most prize possession i can't say then it's going to get stolen

did you ever have uh tarentino sign anything while you're working with him no i didn't um but i oh i did grab some props what you grab um i got some red apple cigarettes really vintage red apple cigarettes. I got my dog tags. If I'll be schmaltzy, my most prized possession is now this wedding ring. You just got married. I just got married a couple months ago. Congratulations. Thank you. I text, I was so happy for you. You know, I'm 50. I haven't found that one. I am not, you know, I hope one day everybody hopes dreams of being with someone meeting someone that they could live with for the rest of their lives. Sure. I know it's a, it's a dream. But sometimes dreams come true. Did you feel for many years like you were lonely or I wasn't going to find the

person? I just, I'm going to be single. No one gets me. Did you go through a lot of that? Of course. Yeah. No, for sure. Like everyone, especially after a certain age, if you've had relationships, you thought were going one way and then they didn't, you know, you question everything. Maybe it's me. What am I doing wrong? Right. You know, if I can't figure it out and I spent, oh, you know, in therapy, which boy, boy, do I recommend. Um, and yeah, no, as a young person, I was a disaster. Uh, and so I could never make any of those relationships work. Uh, and then when I had been in therapy and I was actively trying, working on myself, trying to be the best version of me I could be and things still weren't working, I was like, well, I don't, then maybe

it's just not going to happen. And, and am I going to be okay with that? You know, like I saw older friends who had long-term marriages. And then I saw other older successful friends who were perpetually single. I was like, I don't, I think I could do either of those. So maybe I'll be okay no matter what happens. Right. And yeah, I'm not a big fan of the, you know, and you'll find love the minute you stop looking. That's nonsense. If you're not looking for it, it ain't going to happen. Like you've seen versions of the tweet where it's like if it's meant to happen, the right person will find me in my home. No.

No. You've got to go out and do, you've got to be proactive. You have to ask someone out. You have to take the initiative. You have to risk being rejected like where you're so used to be.

Yeah. No, I went on hundreds of dates. Sure. As a young person. I would say conservatively, 300 first dates over my dating career.

That probably led to 20 second dates. Overall. How long have you been married now to Rachel? we've been married it'll be five months five months six just over five months is it awesome magnificent she's the greatest she's the greatest like she's a person and we say this to each other all the time we're like how come i didn't know you existed until that point of our lives it seems wrong but then i'm like well if we'd have met at any other point in our lives it might not have worked

we needed to be where we were mentally emotionally when we met for this to work. Right. And so the timing was great. And I tell you, it's, it's, it's a thing that you hope for in your head when you're a single person looking for that. And I, you find, and I found it. And I just, I'm astonished.

And I fall more in love with her every day because every day I learn something new about her or I interact with her in a way that just melts my heart. And she's the greatest person I know. What a treat. You deserve it. We all deserve to be loved and to love. You know, we really do. And I think that's for a long time.

I didn't feel like I was lovable. You know, my friend said it perfectly, said, logically, I know that I'm lovable. Logically, I know people love me. But there's a difference when you don't feel it. Yes. And you have to learn to love yourself. You have to learn to feel it. Yes.

I am definitely a fan of you've got to be okay with you. before you can get someone else to be okay with you. 100%. Yeah. This has been great. This has been. Did you enjoy it? I had such a great time.

I thought we were just two guys chatting. Just two guys chatting, pitting out. What's, what's next for you? Anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Minks, season two.

Minks season two. Yes. We could watch that. HBO Max. Season one is on HBO Max. Minks is such a great show. I have heard Minks is a great show. Oh my God.

If you like Dong? I mean, who doesn't like Dong? Who doesn't like Dong? Do we see your don't? You do not. Not yet. Yeah. Would you show your dong?

For what it's worth, very few of the male actors on the show who've shown their dongs, I don't believe they're real dons. Oh, they're artificial don't. Yes. There are plenty of real don'tons, but I think you only see them fleetingly. Right. So I don't know. Would I show it at this point, I'm a married person, but honestly, and I mean this in all sincerity, nobody wants to see it. Why?

No, nobody wants to see it. Why not? Nobody wants to see me naked. You'd be surprised. I wouldn't. The people who would want it, no. You don't want to hang out with those people. Nobody wants to hang out with those.

We did get a preview of all the chest hair, though. That's true. Oh, well, that you can see in the show because I wear a very low cut, open shirt. So it's chest hair. I have shown my ass in a few things. How do you like your ass? It's hairy. Don't you shave it with an electric gray shirt?

I shave it, I've shaved it every time I've got to shave it. Does Rachel shave it for you now? No. It has not come up yet. Does she ever shave your back for you? No. It never trims there. No.

No. The body hair doesn't bother her. Okay. At least if it does, she's not said anything. But yeah. No, I've shown my ass. I'm comfortable with it. I've gotten so much more comfortable with my body, which is the hope. As you get older, you're like, it's funny.

As much as I dislike it, I'm not getting a new one. Like, this is the body. This is it. This is it. This is the hand I've been done. What is your handle? You need to follow this guy. He's obviously funny.

He's got great stories. He's a great soul. He goes to therapy. He's worked on himself. What's your handle? I'm at Sam Levine S-A-M-M-L-E-V-I-N-E on all the majors. Watch Minks on HBO Max. Also, quickly, Lisa Kudrow, I know she told you to get an agent and start auditioning.

Do you still talk to her occasionally? Every time I've seen her, we've always had a lovely interactions. Yes. And yes, that's true. When I was 12 years old, she saw me to stand up at a friend's bar mitzvah, asked me if I was a professional. I said, no. She's like, oh, you should consider it. I was like, okay, how do I do that? She's like, buy backstage. You'll find an agent. You'll be- And that's what you did. And I literally bought backstage and there was a manager advertising, are you a kid who does stand-up? So I called, and that's my rep who wound up years later submitting me for freaks and geeks. You're not with him anymore. No, but I adore him. Right. But, yeah, no, that was Sid Gold, the great Sid Gold. The great Sid Gold. And, yeah, so thanks, Lisa. Thanks for allowing me to be inside of you, Sam.

This has been a real treat for me. The treat has been all mine. You can be inside of me anytime you want. And I will. 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. What can I say? I like your stories. He tells good stories. He does tell good stories. Yeah. Yeah, I like people who, you know, he's been around. He's been doing so long time.

He has. He's not old. I'm a way older than him, but he's been around longer than I am. You know? I love his stories. I love the Judd Apatow and the stories about Inglorious Bastards. And, you know, he's a great storyteller. and a very funny funny

naturally funny guy you know he tells when he used to do bar mitzvahs or whatever and like he would do you know it's like I get it I get it and I wish him the best I'm so glad he got married and the love of his life and they're just soulmates and

hopefully I'll find that someday right it's out there man it's out there yeah well thanks we're going to do the top tier patrons right now make sure you subscribe right review if you like this podcast And if you missed, you missed a lot of stuff in the intro, I'm not going to repeat it. But go back to the intro for some really cool stuff that's coming up. Let's read the top tier patrons.

Let's do it. Nancy D. Leah S. Sarah V. Littleisa. You. Kiko. Jill.

E. Brian. H. Nico. P. Robert. D. B.

Correct. Jason. D.W. Correct. Sophie. M. Raj. C.

Joshua. Jennifer. N. St. L. Jamal. F. Janelle

B. Kimberly. Mike. E. Eldon Supremo. 99. More. San Diego.

M. Santiago. You're such a lovely man. It was so awesome hanging out with you at the con. You're going to send me that Lex Luthor bust, right?

A couple of those. Direct message me on Instagram. I'll find it somehow when I look through them. But you're, he's such a good guy. That's all I'll say. Chad.

D, L, W. Correct, Leanne. P. Correcto. Janine. R. Maya. P.

Maddie. S. Belinda. N. Chris. N. M. S?

H. Dave. Dave. Correct. Hi, Dave. How are you? Sheila. G.

Brad. L. D. Ray H. Hadada. Ray was at the last con. She was marvelous. It was such a joy to see her. And she's pregnant.

And she read some stuff at the Smallville Nights. It was great to see. It's great to see the folks when I do get to see them. My epi, I think I'll be seeing. I think Maddie, you know, Raj, seeing all those guys in Ligand and Brian. The list goes on. but they come to the Khans and I see them. And it really almost, oh my God.

It's like family. I immediately give them a hug. It's like I know them. Even though we don't really know each other, I feel like they know me. Tabitha. T. Tom.

N. Lilliana. H. N. P. C. A. B. A. Yes. Talia. I don't remember.

M. Betsy. D. Chad. D Close Rhymes with D B

Correct Dan I feel like I could do that every time Sorry Chad Just think Dan Dan Dan N Dan N

Dan N Big Stevie Angie Angel Angel M You got that on your own Rianan

C Corey A K K Dev Nexon Michelle

Okay. A. Yes. Jeremy. C. John. There's so many. John R. B. B. Brandy. D. Camille.

S. Joey. M. Eugene and Leah. Nicky. Nicky comedian. G. Nicky Glazer. Hmm. Corey.

Patricia. Heather. think Nightmare in Elm Street what on the poster Heather the words are so small Heather Langenkamp just think L

oh Megan Megan T Mel S Orlando C Caroline R

Christine just think Caroline R Christine S got it next letter in the alphabet Sarah S correct

Eric C-H H Shane R Emma R Andrew M

Zatuichi T 77 Oh crap Andreas N Oracle Karina F L

N N Amanda Amanda I don't know R Gen B Kevin E

Stephanie K Lina 82. Jarrell, Billy S. J and then J. ADHD rocks Todd. Luna R. Cindy E. Hi, Cindy. Hi, Cindy. How are you? Great to see you.

Guys, I appreciate you. I love you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for always supporting the podcast. Again, I know there's millions of podcasts and a lot of you choose this one. And, uh, uh, you know, it makes me feel really good. And I really do. see that it does help people. I'm starting to see and understand that hell, wow, I'm inadvertently or maybe it's just like I try to get something out of it that I think us humans would want to get out of something, you know, an interview like what, what do you want to get out? I want some maybe inadvertently some advice from someone. I want to find out how they get through their troubles. I want to explore, you know, things. I'm just curious. That's it.

Thanks for listening from the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. I am Michael Rosenbaum. Miao. Miao. I'm right there's. Yeah. We'll wave to the camera. So many great interviews coming up.

Don't miss them. I met a lot of folks at the con and we're trying. I think it's going to work out in the new year. It's going to be a great year. But we still have some time in this December, we call it. So look, take care of yourself. Would you say it's a. Long December.

It's long December and in, there's reason to believe. Maybe this year will be better than the last. Can't remember. Something like that. I don't remember. It's hard to sing that song because it's different like. It's different live every time. He does not stick to it.

All right. I love you guys. Be good to yourself. And as the last interview I just had who's coming up, which is going to be I'm promoting now. It's coming out in the new year, D. Wallace, the mom from E.T., Cujo, tons of shit. She's got self-health books. This woman blew me away.

You're not going to believe it. You're not going to believe it when it comes out. Ryan and I said this was the best podcast we've ever heard or I've ever done. Wait to you hear it. I mean, it's emotional. It's fun. It's charming. It's ridiculous.

It's just everything a podcast should be. Yeah. and I'm proud of myself and I can't wait for you to hear it so stick around Patreon stick around everybody stick around she taught me something important

Ryan remember where it is love yourself love yourself it's the most important thing it's hard to do it's hard to do but you've got to learn to love yourself before you could love someone else love yourself I love you see you next week

Hi, I'm Joe Sal C. Hi, host of the Stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax advantage retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. stacking Benjamins follow and listen on your favorite platform