Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Parenthood’s SAM JAEGER: Lucked Into It

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Sam Jaeger (Parenthood, The Handmaid's Tale) joins us this week and opens up on how the repetition of denial as an actor has him feeling like his last job will be his last, despite his success in hit shows like Devil in Ohio, Parenthood, and more. Sam talks about how he feels like he’s made it haphazardly through life with his ADD and how later in adulthood he faced anxiety and depression. We also get into what it was like directing co stars on Parenthood, his iconic Gene Hackman stories, and how he feels like sloppy seconds for Owen Wilson and Ewan McGregor. Thank you to our Sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 🛍️ Shopify: https://shopify.com/inside 😄 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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responsibly. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Ryan, I bit my tongue like a week ago, and it's making me talk differently sometimes and sometimes on certain vowels. And when I swallow, it feels like I have a sore throat, but I don't. What the hell, man? I know. You guys are bored out of your mother.

Not a way to start the podcast. But don't do that if you have to talk for a living, guys. Oh, my gosh. I know, man. I have a tendency to just bite my tongue. I should bite my tongue more often. You know what I mean? I know.

I know. I'm saying. Hey, all right. How are you? Hey, lady. Uh, hey, this weekend I'm going to be in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Steel CityCon.

You got to go. It's going to be a riot. I mean, Chevy Chase is going to be there. Beverly DeAngelo. Uh, you got to go. I'm going to be there with Kristen Krook. It's going to be fun. We'll see you there.

And we're doing a show. Stage it. Go to stage it. dot com, s-t-a-g-e-i-t-com, or you can go to sunspin.com and get tickets to see our show. They're pretty much free, but we're doing a Christmas show on Sunday, December 18th, 2 p.m. 6 p.m. We're going to play some music from the new album, the old album from Left on Laurel, maybe a Christmas song or two. We're going to be jolly. We hope you join us for our Christmas special, December 18th. Also, go to sunspin.com. Right now, you can get the new album. It's out now, but it's not streaming it. So if you want to keep sake,

Get a cool CD if you want it signed. We got shirts. We got t-shirts, mugs, calendars. Go to sunspin.com. Get all that. You could also book the band. And I'm on cameo for the holidays.

That's it for me. We got a great guest today. Make sure you follow us on our socials, Ryan. At Inside of You Pod, on Twitter, at Inside You podcast on Instagram with Facebook. That's it? We got a great guest today. I mean, Sam Yeager.

I didn't know a lot about him. And it's amazing how much you learned. I fell in love with this guy. He's amazing. I mean, Devil in Ohio. The Handmaid's Tale He's done so much Been in a lot of movies

You're going to recognize him I know that guy What a great story he has to tell I know Ryan really enjoyed this especially I text Sam I think after and said Ryan really liked this It was good Yeah you don't always like stuff as much as I do

I like this one a lot You did yeah So let's get inside of Sam Yeager 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. It's always good.

You know, you're like just meeting you, you're walking up the street. And I'm like, you know, you could have parked in the driveway, but I don't have your number because your publicist, of course, or your agent, they didn't, you know. Yeah. I should have said park in the driveway. But, you know, then you're walking up. You're kind of, what kind of cheap podcast is this? I got to park on the street. I was going to, I wasn't going to compete with that.

It's a new truck, man. That is a new electric truck. I do love it. I'm happy for you. Do you? And the world. More people like you driving obnoxiously large cars that don't pollute. I mean.

It doesn't pollute. No. Yeah. It's a little electric. Yeah. It's fantastic. Do you still like, I mean, you're like in your 40s. You're married.

You have four kids. Yeah. Do you still have certain things that you're like a, like a boy still. Like you like, you're like things. You're like your. Oh, yeah. Like, do you like any kind of toys or memorabilia or the, because if you look around my house, you obviously see that.

So, you know, I'm, I'm the, I'm the bachelor. Yeah. You know, you know, it's, man, that's a good question. I keep, I keep, I keep trying to make movies. And when I start to make movies, I always end up buying an old car. And so I, right now, for this one indie film that I'm kind of in the early stages of, I was like, you know, this character has a specific car he needs to drive. And so I went out and met this hippie out in Altadena who was selling a 1965 white Mustang that was so beat up.

It's like, you know, he found it in, you know, in Lompoc with like a paint can stuck to the hood. And I was like, well, this is perfect for, you know, but it stayed in my driveway for a very long time. So I'm a, I guess, not a reluctant. in car collector but an accidental car collector because that will come and sit and and I did a feature film my first 12 years ago where uh the take me home yeah the character gets into a cab and talks the cabing into driving her across the United States and I was like well I'm just going to buy a cab so we bought a cab the crew and I like the the week before we started shooting actually we started shooting we didn't even have the cabs and then we finally got it we drove it all the way across the

country it had 325,000 miles on it for the film you actually drove this cab the crew went across the country yeah with it with you yeah yeah six uh six crew members and my wife and i and uh yeah so after that experience i had you know i just drove the taxi cab around for a couple of years and and you know you kept the the taxi yeah it was my main transport you know around town and it had the riding on it and all that stuff yeah in fact one time i went to to a meeting at Sony and I was driving around the parking lot I was late this thing and I'm driving around this woman stops the car this is in this Sony you know four-story parking lot and she goes I rolled down the window she goes can you take me to my car and I go of course uh well I'm I'm not a

real cab driver I'm just going to a she goes oh you're an actor in a taxi cab okay well can you take me in my call anyway and I said yeah sure happened you did so I drove this woman around like six floors she couldn't figure out where her car was and uh you know then was even later to the meeting but that's hilarious I mean just to keep your taxi and driving a taxi all around town yeah and how old were you this was 12 years ago yeah it was 11 years yeah I think I was did I have yeah I was I was 30 something early 30 I'll tell you it is I actually She directed a little independent raunchy comedy that, you know, didn't cost a ton of money to make.

And I wrote it, directed, starred in it just like you. And when I read that you did this and take me home and your wife is in it, Amber, I thought I got to ask him how, I mean, because this, it was the hardest thing I've ever done. I don't know how I survived. Everybody was talking me, trying to talk me out of it. They're like, you won't have enough energy to move. You'll be so exhausted. You won't.

And there were a couple of days where I thought, I'm not, I'm saying this, it sounds like I'm Sure. I thought I was going to die. Yeah. I thought I was going to just collapse and they're going to bring me to the hospital. Yeah. There's an enormous sense of panic. It's one thing. It's funny because a couple of years later I directed an episode of Parenthood. Yeah. And in this one day we had a process trailer. We were shooting the interiors of a car with this giant, you know, the car is on a giant truck bed. And, you know, at one point we turn around and the the energy of the car collapses. You know, the the truck. the electricity just goes out the car shuts down we're mid you turn and everybody in the crew is flipping out oh my gosh we I mean we this is crazy we got to move this stuff around and everybody's in a panic and I thought well this is this is new for me because the cops are actually helping us they're stopping traffic and instead of us having to run from the cops which is usually the scenario when you're in an indie film you're like all right we're going to steal this We're going to steal his shot.

It's 11 o'clock in night. You guys look that way. Make sure there's no cop cars. You guys look that way. Make sure there's no cop cars. So to be in this set where I'm like, oh, no, we're legal here. And we have people, we have patrol officers protecting us from this is fine. This is cake.

That's funny. You say that because I remember I directed an episode of Smallville. And it was before I directed a movie. Yeah. And I was like, oh, my God, this is easy. But little did I know, it's easier because there's, Every department is working with, they know what to do. They know where to be.

They know what to do. And it makes your life tremendously easier. Just the fact that there is a department. Exactly. And you're not like, wait, do we have food for these people? Oh, man. Yeah. It was, I remember like day one filming our movie called Back in the Day.

And we're, uh, the first AD comes up to me and I go, what's the problem? I go, uh, the crew and everybody has been standing in line waiting for lunch to be ready for like 15 minutes and it's not ready and I was like it's an independent movie and I'm in Indiana and so we had to talk to them and say hey food has to be ready at exactly this time there's no other and it's just like but when you're doing TV the parenthood you probably were like this is a hell of a lot yeah yeah yeah no problem yeah is it and day was it really difficult was it the hardest thing you've ever done directing an independent and being the star in it and all that Yeah. Yeah, work-wise other than raising children. That's far and away the artist.

Well, what about working with your wife, too? Is that, did that put a kind of a, well, she was a great sport, you know, like, I mean, I was, you know, we were always, every day was like a new thing. And I, I was, I was, no actor should have put up with what I put her through. I mean, it would be like, hey, guys, we got a, we are shooting the scene in the forest because we had to shift over. because it was raining somewhere else. And so I was like, hey, we got this scene where you're digging through the mud trying to get your purse that you chucked into the woods. So we, I just, I'm guessing there's poison ivy here. Everybody get socks on and, honey, you're just going to have to just do it. We'll try and clear it out. Don't worry about the lime.

And she got poison ivy so bad that by the time we had driven out to Utah, we couldn't shoot half of her face. Are you serious? Yeah, because poison ivy had reached her. face and so we're like all right can't shoot amber's left side so uh and the whole time she was just trying to navigate as best and she was fine you guys didn't fight you didn't dick her no no i mean at one point she was just like hey i just need to i need to i need to i just need a little space here just because i'm doing the best i can but i'm i'm etching and we need to go to urgent care to get shots

you know good lord yeah but but on the whole you know i had The whole crew was like, oh, that was far and away the best experience of my life. You know, they look back on it as this incredible trip across country. Our sound guy was this short Spaniard who, is that offensive? Spaniard? I don't think so. That's right. I don't know what else you would call a person from Spain.

Okay. I don't know. Don't ask me. Okay, good. Well, we'll stay offensive. Spaniard. Stay offensive. But he was, the only reason he took the job was he had never seen our country.

And so he had wanted to see the United States. And so, you know, traveling with him, he was just, everybody was like, that was a marvelous experience. And I thought, well, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Because I was just, I hated it. I was the same thing. The crew was like, this is the best experience. The cast was the best experience I've ever had.

You know, some of the crew got arrested for, you know, drinking and getting up, you know, it was just, it was like, oh, my God. The producer was great because they kept me away from all the shit that was going down. That's pivotal. I mean, it was, there was a lot of shit. shit going on and people are effing everybody yeah people people people people um but you direct something like parenthood now you did a pretty you probably acted like you know i read something like a hundred episodes you acted in right yeah something like that yeah and when you're directing

Craig t nelson right and these other actors was it was a little bit since you're working with them so much that you felt like oh i had to prove myself because i felt like that that. I had to show them that, I know what I'm doing. You're in good hands. Trust me. Did you feel like there was a sort of? Yeah, I think a little bit. Yeah, no. Um, uh, you know, and also I knew that some of them wanted to direct and we're, you know, looking down that. So I think there was, there was a, a light competition maybe in, in, were you the first that got to direct? I was the first and then Dax, no, no, Peter Krause had directed the year before us. So, and I think, you know, people are worried once somebody one of the actors directs and all of a sudden all the other actors want to direct and it's

not really their passion but they were like well that's an opportunity i should take right and uh i had you know if it weren't for taking me home i i wouldn't have gotten the job you know but i had proven that hey this guy can tell a story and he's passionate about it so um but yeah it was it was interesting was challenging and uh you know to add to that um on the second day of shooting um we were like hey somebody said hey uh ron howard's showing up today and ron howard had never he was an exec on the show it was you know yeah derived from his his movie and he hadn't been on the on the set yet and uh everybody was like oh my gosh what ron how was coming around me you know like we set up this whole and we had a big family scene with all the actors in it and uh everybody

i remember somebody coming up to me and saying no well are you are you nervous and i said well not I mean, what's he going to do? Ron Howard's, we've been making money for him for a couple of years. He's going to show up on set and be like, that's a bad choice. No, he's going to be like, wow, this is great. I'm glad you guys are, I love the show and I'm glad you guys are carrying on and carry on. And that's what he did? Yeah, that's what he did?

He was great. He was great. Was he like, oh, so you're the director here? You're in, you're the act. Yeah, yeah. That's great. What are you doing here? Did he ask you what you were doing?

And like, how are we had, yeah, we had a family scene. And it's, you know, it's a big, messy family scene. So I think it was fun for him to see, you know, we shot that show so fast. It was three cameras and everybody was miked. And so everybody could overlap. And it has just that energy, which is fun to be a part of. Inside of You is brought to you by Quince. I love Quince, Ryan.

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inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. Was anyone difficult? Like you don't have to say their name, but was any of them just, it was like they were, it was a challenge to direct them. They were like they,

yes, that was. Sure. But, you know, it's more difficult because I knew them. So there were certain times. or people would try to get out of work or say, hey, can I, I don't know why I'm in this scene. Can I just not be in this scene or, you know, and you'd have to work around their personalities is that if I weren't a cast member, they would just be like, well, okay, I'll just show up and do my work.

But since they know me, they're like, I don't know if I, I don't really, I don't think I'm really needed in this scene. I was like, uh, yeah. And you just, you had to kind of suck it up. when you wanted to say, dude, this is my first time directing the show. Just fucking do your job. Just do your job, yeah, yeah. And also it would be like, you know, you're just, I'm going to have you done by 11 a.m.

That's, you know, so if you can just give me a morning, you can have coffee, come to set, and by the time you're done with your coffee, you get to go home. So just give me that. Was it? I'm guessing it was a male character. It was not. It wasn't. No.

God, it was not. No, no. All right. Well, I won't say anything else. No. I won't put you on the spot here. But look, you've, like, I'm already from just talking to you. I could see what, like, a nice guy.

You have this easygoing disposition. You're, you're chill. I could see why people want to work with you. I would see why you're still married after all these years. You're just a calm sort of, you can listen. And when you walked in here before we started rolling, you said, I, you know, I have ADD. I have attention deficit disorder.

Yeah. And I was like, well, I have attention deficit disorder. There's no way you have attention deficit disorder. deficit disorder. We can't all have it. How is this possible? What, what do you think of when you think like, you know, when they say you have ADD? Right. Okay, Sam, you have ADD. What makes that a reality to you? What is it that makes you have ADD? Well, it's, you know, it's funny. I, I'm, I have a son who was diagnosed with it. And to look back on how I kind of skated through kind of accidentally or haphazardly through high school and stuff what would have been a very

tough time you know it was still hard to focus in school but i i was in cross country because my brother ran cross country and i think that you know running stabilizes your brain in a way and i also you know when i was 12 years old i went and saw a dead poet society and i came out of that movie and i said to my best friend i was like yeah that's what i want to do i want to do that I want to act and I've just pursued that ever since, you know, for better at worse. And so that was very clear, you know, if you know what you want, it's much easier to deal with something like, you know, distractions and, and but, but on like I was explaining to my wife this summer, you know, we, we remodeled our house recently and we have a bunch of projects

that I was like, okay, I'll build the shelves here. worry about that and I'll build this and so but I'll be building a desk or something and I will literally have to tell myself as I'm cutting with the jigsaw Sam you're cutting with a jigsaw you are still cutting with the jigsaw look at your hand look at your other hand don't cut that hand continue to cut and now you're done otherwise I'm just going to be halfway through cutting a board and be like oh well there they go there's my ring finger it's gone is it that bad it can be yeah Where, I mean, for example, this morning, I was thinking, my wife, I turned to, I wanted to make a little more coffee because, as you can tell, you know, you haven't even touched your coffee. I know, but I'm going to start drinking. You made it for me and I thank you. There's a sip thing where you can, don't even have to take that off. But I'm worried that it's too hot because it's, I don't want to. Take it off. Okay, well, thank you. Do whatever you want. I'm just. No, I'll find out. I'll drink it like this. But to, to, this is a point being distracted. This morning, I put the pot. I put the pot.

under the water filters in our kitchen. I turned it on and was talking to my wife and halfway through it filling up because I was making a pot of coffee, she turned it off. And it was just like, I don't know if you want to call a microaggression or whatever, but I was like, why the hell she turned my water off? And then I flashed to all the times that I had turned the water on and left the room and then come back to a flooded countertop. You know, like the water fills up on the cup and then it fills spills out under you know like probably we've only been in our home uh not even a year and i've probably flooded the counter about five or six times really just turning the water on and being like oh i know what i got to do i got to go write that email and you know that's uh do you ever walk

into a room and go i forgot why i'm here every room every room every room yeah and every room i can't leave because i find myself saying oh well i'm just going to do this now that i'm here All right. Yeah. Are there other things? Have you ever dealt with depression or anxiety or just ADD? Oh, sure. Yeah.

You have. That's my bread and butter. Really? Oh, yeah. Well, welcome to the club. Yeah. Ryan's here too. Oh, man.

Let's do it, guys. No, but like, you know, because were you popular growing up? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was, I was, but I was a popular in an outsider, I think, always. Because I didn't feel, um, I didn't, you know, I loved growing up in, Perrysburg, Ohio. And I had, I grew up across the street from a baseball diamond and I have plenty of friends, but I just, man, I, I think seventh grade, eighth grade, where my son is now at his age. I'm just, that did me in, you know, just feeling like I needed to belong somewhere and

I don't know where I belong. Uh, you felt like that in seventh and eighth grade. You felt like you just didn't have a, yeah, you feel like you didn't have a purpose, sort of or? Yeah, I was just kind of aimless and, and, and I think I just got lonelier and lonelier because I didn't like the way trying to be popular made me feel. So I didn't want to go down that road. And I found theater in high school because it was one of those things I was good at and girls recognized me for doing adequately enough. And I could just, I could commit to that. I could go after school and build sets. And that was a tangible thing you know yeah and uh it was a safe place but i i mean i felt i felt ugly i had terrible acne and really yeah that's so difficult oh that's really difficult you had bad bad acne

yeah painful yeah and you know i think i spent a couple of years feeling you know unlovable and uh you know that's that i i think that i'm grateful for it in many ways but it's funny my wife is always like with our middle son particularly, he's like a cherub. He's like a living cherub, like with the bow and error and everything. And my wife will turn to me sometimes and be like, I swear to God, the woman that breaks his heart, the first girl that breaks his heart in high school. Amber, I mean, that's like, that's 10 years down the road. You're already spiting this poor girl.

Like, I want my kids to have heartbreak because I think that molds us in a way. makes me it certainly made me appreciative of of of where I am in life at all at any given moment you know yeah it could always be way worse because I remember when it was you know and and I think that's but I think I think depression is something that you you deal with um you know it's throughout life throughout it's something that you just kind of ebbs and flows it just yeah all of a sudden you feel like God I feel really sad I've done that where you know i remember like it was like a year and a half ago or something i my assistant jessica at the time she was downstairs and i walked in i go good morning how are you she's just good and i go

i think i'm depressed and she looked at me she goes uh okay um should i call dr krausman like yeah yeah i think i should talk to someone i just yeah there's just all of a sudden you just feel this and you're like what's why do i feel like this there's no real reason i just thought i had a good time the other night and i thought i and then all of a sudden nothing seems kind of fun and you get in a hole and it's amazing how quickly it happens two days ago you're i was euphoric and then yesterday i was like oh lord what what is happening here for for me i don't know did you grow up uh in the in the church at all or no so i grew up going to church every day i sang in the church choir from like sixth grade christ the lord has risen

in two day every one of them i knew them all and i could probably sing them all verbatim but and even the the lesser like even like growing up in the church you listen to like amy grant and michael w smith like that's the bread and butter and and so a lot of a lot of really painful soft pop music that's what i like that's what i like so i mean and maybe that's part of the depression i don't know maybe that's knowing that I've got several Michael W. Smith songs in the back of my mind, just loop on a loop. What was his big hit? And a friend's a friend forever, because the Lord's a Lord of them. That was my, my oldest sister had that on a cassette tape, a loop, and it would flip over and it would play that song for 60 minutes, just nonstop. So, yeah. But that might not even have

been his hit, but it was, that was what is stuck in my brain. tend to play sad songs all the time and i'll you know and i told my therapist this and they go okay i go you know that song um are you gonna stay with the one who loves you oh yeah or are you going back to the one you love and i just it's like glen fry old 80s glen fry and i go i just i feel like i play these songs all the time they're like she's just well i don't want you playing these songs all the time. I don't want you to play them on repeat. It's okay if you want to listen to the song. But if you're playing the song over and over, you're like living in this looped, sad world that you want to live in. You're creating this world for yourself. You've got to get

out of that. You've got to stop yourself, put on some happy music or something a little bit different. Go outside. It's almost like sometime when we're feeling depressed, we just like embellish it or whatever. I don't know what the word is, but we kind of live in it, like going look at me i feel sad for myself right and that loop is so dangerous because one thing that a diagnosis does is it feels like a life sentence right like you said we'll we'll have it forever but it doesn't mean we'll have it every moment forever and it also doesn't mean we you know there's a possibility you know there are moments in my life where i'm much more where depression is clings to me and follows me and then there are moments where i i think is it that

I was diagnosed with it, and that just lingers. And so every default sad thought I have, it goes back to, well, that's because you're, you have depression. You have depression. You're depressed. So you're allowed to feel this. So this is how you should feel. Yeah, this is how you should feel.

Yeah, yeah. And I struggle with that quite a bit. You know, what is depression? What is just a label I've had attached to any sad feeling I have? Right. But for me, the real depression going back to the church, I think, derived from this feeling of their being an afterlife and the comfort that that gave as a kid. And now that I don't believe that there's necessarily a heaven, that it makes everything,

you know, there's that, that underlies everything for me. And that's, that's been a hard pill to swallow. It's been, that's my life's pursuit is to try and, I do everything I can to try and get to the other side of that and make peace with their being a god or not being a god and that's a you know that's a daily struggle that's kind of convoluted isn't it it it is like you want to believe we want to believe that there's there's something else that there's a peace that there's i mean we all want that and then a lot of people are just like i i don't really believe the atheists i mean i have a lot of friends who call themselves atheists you're not an atheist you believe in nothing you have no faith in anything and what's the point i i mean it's just like have faith in something yeah and then there are

those people who just have faith because i i must have faith because otherwise i'll go to hell right and it's like well that's not real faith yeah if you're just pretending to have faith yeah so i try to really think that hey there is something more this is just one step along the way right whatever that is whatever you think whatever you think there's a heaven or they think there's this other universe that you kind of transcend into yeah uh spiritually i think that you know for me anyway. I mean, I speak for myself, but I think that there, I have these thoughts that there is something else. Yeah. That, hey, let's, while we're here, you try to have memories. Memories are all we have and you try to be a good person. You give to other people. Yeah. That's, that's, that's,

you try to do the right thing. Yeah. And we don't always do the right thing. So don't be so hard on yourself. Right. And that's, I beat myself up constantly. And that's, that's tough. Do you, do you, do you ever, like, have you with all the work, because we'll get into that. I mean, you've done so much work and so much good work inside of 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 as 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

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I name a couple of things. But then you, but you, parent. Hood, Handmaid's Tale, white women kill, traffic behind enemy lines, hearts war, devil a little high. It's just like it goes on. I'm like looking at the list, but had there, has there ever been a moment during all this where anxiety sort of takes over or you kind of feel like, uh, I don't have control of it. I'm too nervous. I'm to or can you, is acting something that calms you. Is it something that you get away from that? It's sort of calm. Yeah. The acting work is comforting but you know as well as I do that that is the reward you get for just years of

rejection and so you know I I have my son my oldest son loves Legos and I was like hey there's this Lego competition you know he's like that um Lego has this set building competition if we build a new set we can win these bigger Lego sets I was like wow that sounds pretty cool you got a few days into it I said well I'd be into he wanted to do it it with me and I said well yeah let's build something cool and we got a couple days in and he got really down on it and he's because he had seen what other people had built and he's like I said what something's rubbing against you what's going on here something's troubling you he's like well I just don't know why we should start because we're just going to lose and I said I said buddy um that's my job

my job is loss all i do is lose that's my career it's hundreds of jobs that i imagine getting i prepare to get and i don't get and then the reward i get for accepting loss over and over again is eventually i get to do you know i get to act and and then when that's done then i go back to feeling like you know like you said like i go back to being a loser absolutely yeah well and you know that You talk about anxiety. I mean, two days ago, I was like, man, I got to, I got to find, I got to carve out more time in the week to, to write and work because I always feel like the last job I had was the last job, you know. That's, it's tough too. And especially when you have a family to take care of.

Yeah. And you're like, I have to, now, now I'm giving you all the anxiety. Now you're like, oh, shit. Oh, I have a family. You're not saying. Yeah, you're preaching to the choir. I mean, are you someone, are you pretty specific in what you. want to do. Are you open to anything? I mean, I, I, so last night I'm watching TV. Okay. I'm watching

football. Sunday. It's football. Well, it's Tuesday now. So two days ago I was watching football because this air is on Tuesday. Right. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I'm watching it. I see, oh, an all new this show coming up, followed by this show, followed by this show, and this show. An all new number one show of NBC. And I looked at my friend next to me and I go, I never want to do any of those shows ever ever no ever no and you know but if you would have rewound years before and i wasn't working and i i had a family or whatever i'd be like i'd love to be on any of those shows yeah but thankfully you get you know there's a time when you can you can choose right but do you feel like you can choose a lot more lately i mean because doing parenthood for years yeah that probably helped

you a lot. You had a little nest egg and this and that and some things that give you a little bit of a nest egg. Then you do passion projects like Handmaid's Tale, which you're probably not getting paid a ton because it's HBO and you're just lucky to be on that show. They make you feel like that. Like, oh, this is HBO. We're not going to pay you. You just, you're lucky you're on this show. Yeah. Hulu. Hulu. Well, it's Hulu. Hulu. Well, it's Hulu. Handmaid's Tale is Hulu. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. It's one of those. But you know what I mean. But I don't know where I was going with this, but sort of like, do you get to, do you, are you choosy? Are your agency It's like, what about this?

What about that? And you're like, why are you sending me this? It's not what I want to do. Are you able to do that? I can do that a little more. But, you know, now the parameters are, you know, I was on the way out. I was, all it takes is standing in customs for a couple hours for me to have a life crisis. And, you know, I emailed my team.

I was like, hey, guys, I can't work in Canada again. Not this year. Just because I've been away from my family for most of COVID. My wife is tackling, taking on three maniacs at home. home and and uh that's a lot it's a lot and i want to be so if we can find a job that works in town great even in the states great you know and uh you know that said there's very few jobs like that and and not for nothing but you know i'm at a point where i i'm never gonna i thought i was going to stop competing but there's there's always other actors you know even in our our age it's

never ends it never ends and now it's because television is it's at i i compete against bigger name film stars so you know there's a there's a a kind of a sweet spot where i reside where people are like well we can't get this guy but we can get this guy i've always been that guy they can't get this guy so let's give it to that guy or this guy we're firing so let's hire this guy totally which is you know which is fine it's a great project you know sometimes you luck out you're like oh man i'm glad i did that totally it was funny i was talking with Lizzie, Elizabeth Moss on the Hayme's Tale. And I said, you know, it's funny is I, I don't know if you've had this experience,

but I, I, there have been moments where I've been, only a few times have I been offered a role. But it was after they had offered to someone else. And I, I lucked into being, you know, I was nosy and I was like, hey, who was the first guy offered? And, and one instance, it was Owen Wilson. And the other instance, Yeah, and the other instance, it was, you and McGregor.

I thought, well, geez, I'm getting there sloppy seconds. I'm doing pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say so. Yeah. And Lizzie goes, oh, yeah, once there was a job that Kate Winslet couldn't do. And they offered me, and I was like, sure.

I was like, wow, yeah. Okay, I guess I'm not to that level, but that's pretty sweet. Yeah. Okay, cool. So there's all these tiers of, you know, you know, where, you know, it's tough though because you're right they don't but there's not a lot of i mean most things shoot somewhere else because the tax benefits right right so they shoot now shooting nashville north carolina and louisiana and all these places that you know it's just easier so but you're still

away from your family yeah and it's tough yeah definitely tough um i mean that's got a big big thing i think that's why a lot of people probably get divorced in this industry oh yeah is because they're away and then they kind of or start things aren't going well and they start talking to some other guy on set or the DP or the yeah whatever yeah and things happen so uh did that worry you at all when you you know you I mean you met your wife pretty young right how old were you high college we were college you've known each other since college we were best friends when we graduated college and and joked about how easy and convenient it would be for us to fall in love and then about a year later we fell in love it was pretty wild and then it's just it was a nightmare for

a couple of years trying to figure out what that meant and uh and then we just you know we got married we had all we'd gotten all of our best fights out of the way and uh you know now there's just now now we just they're expedited now it's just like wait what the hell's your problem okay this is my problem okay I need five minutes okay I'm sorry okay who's gonna take the no yelling yeah well oh well there's yeah sure sure who's the yellow you or her it's her she's the yeller she's you're kind of calm uh yeah and she's hates that. She hates it. Yeah. Well, and also, and also, like, I had learned from my parents that, you know, I had learned my dad kind of viewed the world through rose-colored glasses and my mom had a coping skill, which was like, that's it. I don't want to talk about it. So when my wife, you know, wants to deal with an issue, she wants to deal with it at that second. And a lot of times, especially in my 20s when we were in our having our best fights, it was like, uh, I would finally yell like, I don't know how I feel. I have no idea how I feel. So I just need a minute, you know, because I had never

been bombarded with trying to figure out how I felt. I would just feel something and, you know, smash it down in the back of my brain and never have to deal with it. So finally, you know, I think one of the reasons we, we work so well together is we have these different, you know, if we were both raging, that would be pretty bad. And so a lot of times. Somebody's got to be the calm one. Someone's got to be the calm one. Yeah. And sometimes it's her, you know, because, because I've had to up my fight game, you know? I've had to be like, okay, well, just to get my point across, I have to raise my voice.

My friend just, he just got married. I'm not going to mention any names because, you know, there's a... Anywho, he said to me, I go, how's it going? And he looked at me, goes, I gotta tell you, she's really taught me how to fight. Had a really fight. And I go, oh, is that the good? Is that the... Oh, no, that's a good thing.

Is that the best thing you can say? That's when you're in trouble. That's what he's in trouble. She's teaching me how to stand up for myself. Well, that's good. That's good. I guess so. But you also want to have that moment where, you know, to her credit, there were, you know, big fights where I'd be like, I don't know how I feel.

I just need a few minutes. And my wife would go, fine. And she would walk off. And then she would come to her senses and I'd come to my senses. It's, you know, there's damage that can be done. But there's also a lot of repair. And you have to, you have to. focus on how how to repair after an argument and and we do that really well having a fight

probably you know if they're sort of intermittent if they're sort of they don't happen very often right it could be good for a relationship sure kind of get it out you're like all right and then it's like oh no hey this is great if it's all the time it's just I've had you know mostly I've had good relationships for the most part where it's not screaming at each other or yeah you know I've had a relationship where someone was just like, I'm going to leave. I don't want to talk about this. Oh, yeah.

And it's just like, oh, man. Now you're like, all right, so you're, you're immature. You don't want to have a conversation about this. That's right. I don't like your tone right now. I'm going to leave. Oh, yeah. This is my tone.

So I talk. Yeah. You know? The thing I love about having a partner that's like, wait, you're dealing. I can see that expression. What's that about is there's no, there's no passive aggressivity.

We don't have room for it. It's literally like she will pick up on every expression, even before I know how I feel. She'd be like, what, that's not okay? Something. Something. And I'll be like, oh, Jesus Christ, I thought, oh, I was going to just get in the car. Okay, here's the, here's the problem. This is, you know, this is how I feel.

And then we deal with it. But, yeah, but there are moments where you're, you know, yeah, you don't want to be in a situation where you're just like, she really taught me how to fight. Yeah, I don't know. Because you, yeah, I don't, have you ever, have you ever said, oh, fuck you? Oh, sure. You have. Fuck off.

Are you kidding? Yes. That's so healthy, too. It is. Yeah. But you don't call each other names. No. You don't say, you know, bitch.

No. No, you know, it's more like, fuck off. This is ridiculous. What the fuck are we talking about? That kind of stuff. Exactly. I get you. I get you.

Exactly. I get you. Do you like playing bad guys? I'm just going to go right into it. Let's do it. I do. I do. because you're really good because it's not you yeah you know what i mean it's like not i look at you and

when you play a bad guy it's like you can really turn it on well thanks why women kill yeah those are easy because i feel like i i saw a show recently where the the guy was playing bad and it and it comes across as a person playing bad right and so it's still the same work you know you still have to find what makes this person tick um it's just what makes them tick is usually narcissism, you know, like a, or a self-preservation. And that's at the heart of the worst, the worst people on earth. Yeah. The, the people we consider bad are usually just extremely self-involved. Yes. That is true. Yeah. And so I think it's fun to kind of explore, explore that rather than jump into a, you know, kind of a judgment, you know. Again, one of the things

that my wife does so beautifully is she doesn't judge people the way I did growing up. Well, that person's this way or that person's this way. Right. And so it's allowed me to think more like my wife, which is like, okay, what makes this person tick? So you don't, you're not judgey. I am. I am. I am. But my wife is, is not. She's far more forgiving, you know. Because when I meet someone, to the point where we'll be driving, you know, and, you know, somebody will cut me off. She'll be like, you know at least for years she'd say well you know you never know where they're going they could be going to the hospital i'm like no amber all these people on the freeway cannot all be going to the hospital nobody there's not 10,000 baby deliveries happening right now i can be pissed about this one

this guy's driving uh you know a 2005 souped up civic i'm guessing he's not driving his pregnant wife to the hospital he's just cutting me off you know i have a friend tom lally he's my best friend of all time. I've known him since I'm 12 grew up together in Indiana. He's like that and drives me up a fucking wall. You know, same thing. He'll be like, I'll be driving. I think, that guy just fucking cut me off. He'll say

some like, well, maybe he's not having a great day. Yeah. And I go, oh, shut up. Shut the hell up. I'm, now I get to judge you for not judging him. Yeah. And I remember I've gotten some fights with him. I'm like, why are you going with him? Why are you in the middle? When obviously, clearly

I'm right. Why are you on my side you're never on my side bro he's like man man man fuck off that's yeah that's well i will say that i mean i guess i have that tray where i find you know i try to understand all standpoints but my gut my knee-jerk reaction is usually like what an asshole oh yeah or i don't like this person i'm a good judge of character i think when i meet someone i'm like i don't ever want to hang out with them oh that's interesting i don't i know within minutes where i'm like I know who this person is, even though it's judging. Yeah.

I just in my heart, like the way I feel, they're making me feel, maybe inadvertently. I'm sure it is. But I just, I know, like, I could tolerate this person, but I don't want to, I don't want to have them in my life. Yeah, really quickly. That's interesting. Yeah. I have, I have terrible instincts on first meetings.

Really? Horrifically bad. My, my, my, one of my closest friends I met, granted at 4.45 in the morning, handing, out keys at the Reebok Sports Club, New York. And he was, you know, and we shook hands. And I was like, well, this guy's, you know, I walked in, of course, the first day of work to be like, hey, how are you? He was like, hey, and we didn't talk for five minutes. By the, at the end of those five minutes, I was like, well, I don't want to work with this loser ever again. Hopefully I don't get another shift. He's obviously tired. It's four. He's tired. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like over-eager because

I'm like, hey, how's it going? Yeah. I know it's full. 445? I guess I'm ready to make friends. You know, I'm a great guy right now. Let's talk. No, I don't want to. You have to understand that people don't always, they don't, they're not on your level. That's right. No, you're right. That's true. What would you say is the fate, your favorite role that you've played? And of all these things I've talked about, what is the one that you just think, I got to say this one. This is the. Oh, man.

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role you've played. But what's the role that you really look at and you're like, I just love playing this guy. I wanted to continue playing this guy. Oh, there's, man, there's a lot.

You know, it's, I love being on parenthood. I loved who that character was. He's very close to who I am. So, so, you know,

I also, I like what I learn on certain shows. I guess I don't, I guess I don't, it's not necessarily the character that I, I'm like, oh man i'm gonna miss that character um because i they're still i feel like they're still part of who i am and but um but i i miss experiences you know i miss and and um handmaids is a great

example of like i i have this very particular role he's kind of stoic and keeps to himself and holds all his cards and uh there's a lesson there you know for me which is you know watching Lizzie Moss do her work and there's a stillness and a specificity she has that uh and still a tenacity you know she's present but she's always she's always aware of what the camera is doing and how and her effect on it and I think I can learn from that so I just try to I just keep trying to learn you know really so you learn from everything yeah or else you know what's the point you know i've seen i remember seeing the actors i love from the 70s do projects that i was like i don't know what i mean this is a paycheck and uh that has to be done like you said yet family

that care for and stuff but i i i just want to i want to keep learning and kind of tricking myself or proving myself in a way that surprises myself and others you know because i because the second and you're like, well, I can do this. That's pretty boring work, you know. I almost didn't do this show Devil in Ohio that came out on Netflix last month because it was a contractor and a family man. And they were like, hey, they really want you to audition for this.

And I said, well, if they need to see what I'm like in that, there's 103 episodes of a show called Parenthood. And they can look at that. Yeah, and come on, this is easy for me to do. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, again, did they do that? No, they were like, well, they, they just like to see you. Sometimes it's more about, let's see if we like this guy.

Right. If we want to work with him. Right. Let's see what he gives us. Let's see his interaction with us. He's going to be easy. It's going to be one of those pains in the asses that's always calling us a change in the lines and late to work.

Yeah. Oh, he's friendly. Which I get. I like Sam. So that, is it jager or Yeager. That's funny. So this is funny. I actually had this conversation with my team.

I read this book called Predictably Irrational. And it was all about the myriad of ways we make decisions and how we think there's sound paths. But they're really arbitrary and silly means by which we make our decisions. And I said, so guys, these people want me to audition for a show. I don't know these people from Adam. But I read this book.

And one of the things that they said is a good predictor of whether you can, you know, whether people feel invested in you is whether they feel like a connection. I have no connection with these people. So what I need to do is if we can get the creator on the phone, I can talk to her for 10 minutes and then we have a relationship. And that's what we did. I met Darion. We talked on the phone. And after 10 minutes, we hit it off. She had just had a baby boy.

I had three boys. We could talk about that. And I grew up in Ohio so I could talk ad nauseum about growing up in Ohio. and how specific it is. And so when I auditioned, I said, okay, now I'm comfortable to put myself on tape for this and work. And so when we did the audition, it was just a work session because she was already invested.

And so at any given moment, I'm always like, okay, can we get the creator on the phone? Because that's going to go get me so much further than whatever audition we send out into the ether. Because I know they're seeing 400 tape on this. and we're all pretty much the same. Right. And I also think that I've said this before,

but there's something about when you get an offer for something, you're like, okay, they want me. I wonder what kind part of me they want. What is what is it they want? Yeah. And then you're just unsure. But if you audition and they like it and they cast you, you're like, I know what they want.

Exactly. I gave them what they wanted. Yeah. There's some comfort actually in a weird way about auditioning that I, I don't like auditioning. I'm not, I don't, I just have to put a lot of time into it. it's a lot of work it's a lot of work like i have to put to be my best i need a week yeah i can't i've never even when i wasn't known at all when i wasn't on the spectrum i i i would my

that sounds like we could feed into that one but my agents would say you know the i listen i'm not i i i can't do more than one audition in a week maybe two if it's a monday and a friday right but i just can't i can't i can't multitask i can't i have to stay in this character read for it and then move on yeah that's just something i just if i'm going to be at my best absolutely do you feel like that totally yeah and there are things i put on tape and i'm like yeah i mean it's good enough but i don't you know have you ever gotten a role when you were kind of good enough no i don't think you have to be great yeah you have to do your best you have to walk away saying i fucking kill that that's when you know you have a chance yeah absolutely yeah and there are you know people are like

what's the best acting you've ever done not the best role and i said well the best acting i ever did was i put myself i wasn't at it wasn't called for but i put myself on tape for uh the coens macbeth and i was and that to me is the best i've ever done really and nobody will ever see it you know but i i i remember you crushed it yeah yeah and i had put in a like you said a solid week of just those lines aren't easy no no no But, you know, that's, it reminds me of the Wilco's song, the late great Johnny Ace. No, is that, is that the name of it? But it's about, you know, like the best life never leaves your lungs.

And it's all about these bands that, you know, that never made it. Yeah. You can't hear it on the radio. Right. And I think there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a bittersweet quality to that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You're, so you're like, you're 45, right?

Mm-hmm. Have you had any major loss in your life that's really affected you? Have you dealt with that? Because for me, I've had two real major losses, my grandmother and my dog. And those affected me like I never thought they would affect me. I was just crippled by it. I have never cried that hard. I've never felt so much, so much emotion.

Have you ever had that? Well, I've lost grandparents. I don't have, I don't have any grandparents left and they all died. at pivotal ages when I was 10. My grandmother on my mom's side died, I guess, seven or eight years ago. And she was beloved. But I feel like, you know, I feel like I've, real tragedy, you know, real, has evaded me. You know, you expect your grand, yeah, knock on everything.

um you know and i i i know it's coming that's what's yeah you just can't dwell on it but you sometimes you get caught up and thinking about things that haven't happened yet yeah oh yeah and you're like and you can't be thinking about something that hasn't happened that's anxiety right and we we do we're humans we're like what am i going to do when my mother gets to be the who's going to take care of what am my my dad dies how do i take care of it i don't like all these things could just make you go crazy yeah and you just can't do that so do you just not think of those things yeah i mean i think i'm able to it's hard i mean i i have a i battle with a sense of hopelessness i think due to you know growing up in church and uh but i but anxiety about other people's deaths i i think i worry more

about death as a whole for all of us than i do about specific loss i know that i know that that my parents will die and man i i am so grateful to have had them in my life even up to this day that uh it will always be hard the idea of losing them but they uh but i'm so lucky i'm so lucky to have been born into the family i was born into um losing my children would be unbearable unbearable and so um but what can i do i mean I can't spend spend my days thinking about panicking about that or else I'll just keep them all inside the house no guys you guys are staying in with no one's leaving you guys are staying in with the cats here's here's uh you know here's the uh kitty litter you guys can use use that

keep them all trapped inside keep them all trapped my brother um my my brothers um adopted a my my niece has autism and and she will have it for her entire life and she's um you know she's she can't speak or she communicates through an iPad and um my brother is you know told me once uh you know we talked to a counselor about this and getting ahead of ourselves does us no good what are we going to do when when we're 80 how are we going to take care of her and who's going to take care of her and where does this responsibility lie and uh doesn't do us any good no good it'll just destroy us so all we can do is react to the day and uh and try to live this day out as fully as we can i have this thing where i do now because i'm just learning in therapy where it's like a uh what is it

called it's called pattern interrupt pattern interruption so when i start thinking about like oh my god you know my dog is four she could and she's 12 i only have it for stop yeah stop and then you breathe and you do this thing that i do anyway it's just like it just stop stop stop that thought stop because you'll just spiral you'll continue to go down these you know and i just in my mind does go to dark places sure maybe it's because i just watch domer the series don't know what it is that's a it's a red tickler oh my god it's tough um does that make you guys it's exactly what it is um what's next for you i mean handmade's tail still going yeah right so that season three's coming up season season season five is no season five is on right now season five i know there's five

and you've been on since season three i've been on since that's what i meant season two season two i don't know what i meant it doesn't matter with it The fact is that you're on season five. Yes. Yeah, we're handmaids is still, uh, still plugging our way.

It's crazy. It's a show that, you know, does better year after year, which is rare. You know, usually being on the, you know,

network shows, you're like, wow, we were a big hit in those first three episodes. And then we skated for five years and nobody ever mentioned us. And the fact that handmaids is still, you know, trying to,

you know, provoke and, you know, yeah and uh people love that show man they do they do they come up to you you could get recognized for that i do yeah do what do you get recognized for you handmaids you get recognized for parenthood obviously yeah people come up to you what else uh devil in ohio now yeah which which was that airing that's on netflix that's it just came out last month and was the biggest show on netflix and in the world how are you on all these hits after it i mean you're the guy to go to we got to you know we'll hire

someone will fire them will then bring Sam on and the show will become a hit take that owen wilson yeah ohin wilson that's fantastic so handmaid's tale season five yeah and devil in ohio just aired yeah on netflix you got it you could see this guy anywhere you could also watch parenthood where is that air on hulu now i think that's on peacock peacock which you know that's another thing i would say about shows nowadays you'd think that there's so many shows there's that they need us that they need me right before there's just like three networks yeah and you know you're fighting against every actor to get a role totally but now there's 50 networks and there's millions of shows that no one will ever hear oh have you seen a chipmunk

yeah what chipmunk yeah it's on uh she shell yeah she shell yeah it's this new platform but totally It's next to Tubey. I was on, I did two shows for CBS All Access, which now is part of Paramount Plus, which is a better name on the whole because, you know, for a myriad of reasons. But I, it's so funny because now people are starting to watch those shows. But when it was on CBS All Access, it was like, I felt like it was acting into a vacuum. It was like, it's on CBS All Access. What's that?

All Access. Yeah. What do you mean? All Axis. Yeah. It's all context. I mean, like you mentioned, the Handmaid's Tale, I, I, it's a, you know, it's as, as established a hit as it is, um, I was talking to my neighbor, Armando. And, uh, he goes, so, so what, what were you, what were you doing up in Canada? I goes, oh, I'm, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, I'm, uh, it's, I'm, uh, it's, shows ever it's uh it's based on a book i mean there was a long you know but you know i think that's

always healthy to be like oh right yeah not everybody knows these things these things we think are so important are just a a flick uh just a flicker yeah you know it's true hearing gone so yeah one person's like oh my god that's my favorite show ever i love it blah the next person can be like i have no clue who you are i don't care totally yeah i just i'm watching brady bunch repeats right now i don't know who you are yeah um by the way quickly have you ever been starstruck and by who oh yeah one of the first jobs i did back in the day i was uh behind enemy lines which was owen wilson um but my scenes were all with jean hackman you had all your scenes with jean hackman yeah i mean i'm just he's just barking orders to us but it's jean hackman and you know

every day i was just like oh my gosh did you talk to him yeah Was he cool? Oh, it was so cool. So cool. He also, and I had heard rumors that he was gruff and cold and stuff, but he had warmed up to us. We were a, you know, group of, you know, young 20-something soldiers or whatever. And he was, you know, kind of, we were in this.

We spent a couple days in green rooms, you know, sitting with him. And one of my favorites, one of my, two, I got two great Gene Hackman stories. Do you want to hear both of them? Sure, go ahead. Okay, you can edit out, whichever. the first one was i i i met him you know we were sitting in the room and kind of he's warming up because he was you know kind of in his work and a little you know kind of standoffish at first but it warmed up to us throughout the day and at one point they needed everybody on a shot

except for jean hackman and this actor bumper robinson and me and everybody leaves and it's jean and the two of us and you can i look over at bumper i can tell he's stewing because he's thinking what I'm thinking we have this one moment to ask jean hackman anything this is our golden opportunity and i'm sitting there thinking maybe i ask him maybe ask him about the conversation the the symbolism of the jacket and the conversation what did that i really you know and bumper robinson goes uh hey uh mr hackman um uh what was that movie you were in about um about bonnie and Clyde. Oh, no.

And Gene Hackman looks at him and he goes, is Bonnie and Clyde. And Bumper goes, oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. Oh, my gosh. And I was like, I'm not asking my question now. You've ruined it. Pumper.

That was our one shot, man. Oh, my God. What's that movie you're in? Bonnie and Clyde. What's that movie you're in? Oh, man. oh my god and then but it was awesome to watch him talk about acting and how he just had a very grounded not precious viewpoint of it which is which is cool that's awesome you know it's funny

as we speak he's doing a signing that he never does he hasn't and my friend called me and said hey i'm kind of doing the signing with him wow is there anything you want signed whoa so i ordered a hoosier's poster and a superman poster and sent it to him and he's getting him signed for me dude that is huge i mean from indiana has to have a lex luther i mean you got to dude that is huge right and i'm from indiana yes come on man oh this is so great got to do it so that's gonna be a new hopefully if it gets it done hopefully you know they'll have it shining here i'll take some poster off but what's the other jean hatman story oh the other one was um maybe i shouldn't be done this one well you don't have to no it's okay uh i'm not cutting it so you you better know okay well it's about

okay so he's old he's old no but it's about another actor so he was so to give a name I won't I won't name the name but somebody was we were sitting he he'd warmed up throughout the day and somebody said hey you worked with uh so-and-so right and he gave he goes

uh you're like oh it wasn't a it wasn't a good experience and he goes he's a big Hollywood movie story and he shined his Gene Hackman's smile about you know this person and we were like well what was it he goes well you know how far are we from the

trailers you know like what a hundred a hundred feet this actor chose to that they they they were you know they're like yeah that person's method right he's like i don't know what it is but it's a waste of time you know we'd be you know we were a hundred feet from the trailer and she'd call to get her horse you know to the she she could draw her horse to set a hundred feet and uh i remember one time she she came up to me she said you know um jean i got this scene and um i'm coming down the hill on this horse and i got a i got a you know my character was uh you know abused of the young age and uh you know that's what made her such a so gruff and you know so cold and distant and uh and you know so i i got a you know that's all the

things and she proceeded to tell me about the whole character history of about five minutes she said so so what do you think and i said well hell if you can tell all that by coming down this hill i'd really like to see that and i thought wow that's yeah that's jean oh my god that is just like yeah just do the job just do the job and go home all right real quickly this This is fast, rapid fire. This is shit talking with Sam Yeager. Shit talking with Sam Yeager. Top tier patrons get to ask these questions.

Go to patreon.com slash inside of you. I love you guys. You make the show happen. Here we go. These are quick, rapid fire. Ready. Little Lisa, do you have any pet peeves? Pet peeves?

Pet peeves? Shoot. Oh, man. So many. So many. Pet peeves. Oh, no, no. No.

I was going to say something about it. This is the only a thing that an actor knows. But sometimes people come up to you and they're like, I can't, I just can't figure out where I know you from. And if that's the case, don't, don't ask until you know. Don't ask until you know. It's uncomfortable. Yeah, somebody, like I don't want to say, I give you my resume.

A flight attendant did it on a flight. And she goes, I'm just trying to figure out what it is I know you from. And I said, this is a lose lose scenario for me. Because you're going to sound like a dead show. Because I'm either going to, I'm, Nope, not that. I'm going to go through everything you're going to say no, and then I'm just going to walk off feeling pretty dejected.

And it's just, I just Google me. Yeah, here's my name. Just Google. How about that? Bob Kay, how is it to work with? How was it to work with Craig T. Nelson? Awesome. Awesome.

Very, very funny, charismatic. Change the shape of our show. And some of the, you know, he's just a fascinating guy. Yeah. That's another guy I got so many stories about. Oh, my God. He's come such a long way, but I just love him dearly. Karina N.

What's the best lesson you learned in this industry? Hmm. Just come as yourself, you know. You spend so much time trying to be something else, trying to figure out what they want. But if you just figure out what you want and who you are, I mean, that's a, you know, that's a lofty question. No, I think it's true. I think it's like I, at a young age, I wanted to be giving. Gary Oldman. I want to emulate Gary Oldman. I wanted it. And then somebody's like, there's a Gary

Oldman. He's got that. Yeah. He's Gary Oldman. Yeah. Be yourself. Totally. Totally. They don't want another, whatever. Yeah. And you're not going to be another. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And what's refreshing is when you don't apologize for you. You say, well, this is who I am. You know, as you know, you come up with like, I have like trading cards of coping, you know, that I flip through every time I don't get a job. And it's like, one of them says, yeah, well, fuck you guys. If that's your choice, go to hell. Or I flipped the card again. It's like, oh, well, it just wasn't meant to be.

And a lot of times, you know, it's like the best card to flip is like, hey, it's not me. It's not meant to be. The next one will, Godspeed and just kind of make peace with it. Good attitude. Good attitude, Ryan. 99 more. Any fun stories to share from Eli Stone. And did you enjoy breaking into song and dance.

I did enjoy breaking into song and dance, especially not knowing that that was going to be something we were going to do on that show. as much as we did. Man, I loved, I loved, that was another show I loved working with, you know, Johnny Lee Miller, who was just a tenacious, fantastic actor, Victor Garber, and, man, I think that was, I don't have any specific stories, but I just love doing it, you know. It was my first series regular role, and you always remember that. Awesome.

Yeah. Dude, this has been awesome. This has been great, man. Thank you so much for having me. so open and and just fun and telling me about your life and how it all works for you and how you know it's uh i didn't know you i know i just didn't know you that we have mutual friends like erika christensen and oh you know who's the best who lives right around the corner from me does she yeah she lives like a block over oh man if i didn't she's been on a couple times has she yeah oh man

she's adorable i'm who else met show dax was on on the show on the podcast um god i'd love to get Craig t nelson he probably wouldn't do it he doesn't do a lot of these, does he? He may be in Hawaii. Is that where he lives? I think so, sometimes. Do you see him or hear from him ever? Every once in a while, I'll ring him up, but yeah. You'll just, you'll call him or you'll text him. I'll call him. Yeah. And he'll answer. Yeah, how are you doing, Sam? I try to give him a call every year he goes, he has his, uh, uh, AA, you know, uh, anniversary. And so I call him up. Congratulations. Congratulations. Oh, why you congratulate me? I just was drinking last week. I fucked it all up. That's right. The

stories he tells from those golden era i mean are unbelievable i'd love to hear so many stories from poltergeist oh my god remember when he does this thing in front of the front of his wife he pushes out his stomachs before after before after he's so great after the stomach he's great uh thanks for allow me to be inside of you today man this has been awesome i feel like i met a new friend uh likewise man the fact that you're wearing a carpe dm shirt my wife my mother my mother buys me stationary because again dead poet society was my favorite movie growing up oh yeah Every year, I'll get some piece of stationary or something that has that song. It's like, oh, that guy gets me.

My grandmother who comes to him, what is on your shirt? Oh, it's Carpe Diem. What is that? Seize the day. What? It's Latin. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

What the hell is this? All right. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me, Michael. What a treat. 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 thank you sam for being so open and sweet and kind you're talented man love to have you back sometime tell us what you thought of sam if you didn't know him um i hope you enjoyed this um and listen to the intro for all the stuff that's coming up in in our world if so i don't have to repeat it and thank you to my special patrons who make the

show possible they give back so much i couldn't do this show without them uh go to patreon dot com slash inside of you join today help the podcast out it's the holidays and now you get a lot to think about but we're trying to keep this thing afloat i see you guys at cons i love you thanks for the support i just saw a bunch of my patrons in um san francisco cool and uh some of them are going to columbus i'll see raj and a bunch of people in pittsburgh it's such a joy to see people who listen to the podcast this one in talkville support it support me and uh i'm lucky i'm very lucky i'll just say that right now it's time for the top tier shoutouts for patrons here we go ryan nancy d lea s sarah v little lica ukeko gill e b bryan h nico p robert p jason

w sophie k rosh c joshua d jennifer and stacy l jamal jamaul f jennel b kimb kimberle e mike e l don suprimo nine and i more san diego m chad d w lehan p janine r mya p mattie s belinda n chris h dave h shila g brad d ray h correct tap of the t tom n lillian betsy d chad chad d chad d f d d d d n big stevie w angel m rhian n big stevie w angel m riann and c corey k dev nexin michel a jemmy c gaminator david jane b brandy camille s joey m june and lee and lea Nikki G. Corey, Patricia, Heather L. Jake B. Megan T. Mel S. Hi, Blanche. Splatch is in the room. You can hear jingling. Orlando C. Caroline R. Christine S. Sarah S. Eric H. Shane R. M.R. M. Andrew M. Zituichi 77. 77. Oracle. Karina N. Amanda R. Amanda S. Gen B. Kevin E. Stephanie K. Lina 82. Jorell, Billy S. ADHD, Rocks. Todd. You heard that. Luna R. Again. I'm not going to say it, but that's it. The patrons rock. You guys rock. I hope you stick around.

I hope you don't get bored with us. And I hope you to continue to support the podcast. And that's all I'll say. That's it. That's about all I could say. That's it. Yeah. You're biting your tongue?

I'm biting my. Ryan, thank you for always being here. Thank you for having me here. Yeah. It's a treat. So that's it from myself, Michael Rosenbaum, in the Hollywood Hills of California. I'm Ryan. Tayas also where it's Black Hoodie Day. Just, uh, if you're listening. Oh, apparently it's Black Hoodie Day. Blanche. Just the kind of day it is.

Oh, my dog. So cute. I love her. Hey, a little wave to the camera. We love you. Thanks for listening. And of course, as always, Ryan, give her a nice pet. Hello. Look how cute that is, Ryan. Little Blanche. Always be good to yourself. Always be good to yourself, right? Always be good to yourself. Always be good to yourself. We love you. We'll see you next week. Spread the word. 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-advantaged 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 edition 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 on.

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