Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - WILLIAM H. MACY: Fargo’s Legacy, Mamet’s Influence, and Shameless Reflections

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

William H. Macy (Fargo, Shameless, Boogie Nights) joins us this week for an honest and wide-ranging conversation about his life on stage and screen. William opens up about the persistence it took to l...and Fargo, the influence of his mentor David Mamet, and the nerves that never quite leave even after decades of work. We talk about his family memories, including smoking pot with his grandmother, why Shameless was such a rare gift, and how his Aspen distillery and love of music keep him grounded. Thank you to our sponsors: xxx __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. We've got a great episode for you today, but I got a little information first. First of all, Ryan, how the hell are you? People want to hear you got water in your mouth? That's good. You're hydrating. We're going to read some ads in a minute, so I wanted to hydrate. Yeah, I don't hydrate as much as I should.
Starting point is 00:00:18 I have coffee, which dehydrate you, doesn't it? It does. I need to hydrate. I'm going to hydrate. Everybody hydrate out there. Look, a reminder, we're taking Christmas and New Year's off. So we won't have any podcast then just on Christmas and New Year's, but then we will come back strong, strong. And I just want to say thank you for your support this year.
Starting point is 00:00:42 I mean, we're a little podcast, and there are a lot of podcasts out there, and you choose to listen to this. And if you're just here for William H. Macy, I understand. But if you like the episode and you're like, hey, this guy doesn't suck, I ask you to please, you know, support us and subscribe. There's so many great episodes, and you'll learn a lot. And we talk about mental health and all that jazz. And if you just saw me cross my legs, you probably saw that I'm wearing slippers. But that's okay. I'm okay with that.
Starting point is 00:01:10 Yeah, listen, those of you who really support the show, Patreon, if you want to join Patreon, patreon.com slash inside of you. It's a wonderful platform for you express how you feel about the show and other things. And there's so many friends, people that have become friends after joining Patreon. And there's different tiers where you get boxes for me or you get to be on the show or Zooms with me. I just did a Zoom with the top tiers and how deep is your love tier for an hour.
Starting point is 00:01:40 We were Zooming and talking about all sorts of stuff. I hope NG Tracy is not cleaning the high school still because she works late hours. She's a patron and she was cleaning while she was listening to me, Zoom. And I was like, are you all right? I go, has anybody ever died in that high school? And she's like, yeah, this guy, Steve. And I'm like, I hope he's not haunting you.
Starting point is 00:02:01 No, Steve was a good guy. Anyway, it was a fun Zoom. And if you want to get merch like Tumblers, inside of you, Tumblr's, Lexmas scripts, pilot episode scripts, autographed, lunchbox, smallville, signed by me and Tom, autographed pictures, funco pops of Lex Luther, which are rare now. You can get them on the inside of you online store. So go there now and get some. great stuff for christmas for the holidays also you can go to talkville uh talkville podcast.com
Starting point is 00:02:33 for merch there and um if you go to my instagram at the michael rosenbaum go to the link tree there's uh cons that are coming up the smallville cruise go to cruzville.com it's going to be a blast uh my product rosy's puppy fresh breath for your dog's breath it's just you just put a drop a capful in your dog's water it's odorless tasteless and your dog's breath will be better Rosie's Buffy Fresh Breath and my fart book The Talented Farter All the Farts are mine It's a sound book. It's great for the holidays
Starting point is 00:03:01 Get it as a gift Go to Amazon or on the link tree At the Michael Rosenbaum Yeah On Instagram And I think that's probably it Oh my album I haven't really promoted the album that much
Starting point is 00:03:16 But my band Sunspin If you go to sunspin.com You could order vinyals And the books behind the scenes of the recording of the album uh CDs and much more uh so please do that you could listen on Spotify and everything where you everywhere you listen to music but listen to the new album um the first five songs from the album are out now they're really good and um you know i don't do this often we have a yam but uh so the new album sunspin is almost out but you could start
Starting point is 00:03:53 listening to songs you can go to sunspin.com and get the album and all that stuff but we're really proud of it and uh thanks for all the support and the love yeah it's a lot of fun uh so there's that now our guest today um i was thoroughly excited i i was like he's he's going to cancel and william h macy was probably one of my favorite guests of all time he i think he really enjoyed it which made me feel good and we got deep uh he was very open he was really funny and it was surreal having him in here wasn't it it really was it really was william h macy um and he gave me his email he said email me so i have him he emailed me back said bill thanks bill bill macy oh bill macy no bill but uh i think it's a great uh interview and i think
Starting point is 00:05:01 you're going to really like it so let's get inside of william h macy it's my point of you you're listening to inside of you with michael rosenbaum inside of you inside of you with michael rosenbaum in front of a live studio audience. I'm already there. I'm in my 50s. Oh, shut up. Well, I know, God. Sean of the Dead, one of the great films of all freaking.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Well, you're working with the, are we rolling? Oh, we're working with the, you're working with Edgar Wright, who directed that. Wow. You just worked with Edgar. Yes. On Running Man. Yeah. I cannot be more excited.
Starting point is 00:05:45 I saw it. I did some ADR for it yesterday. I only saw one little piece that I was in, but it's pretty freaking good. Now, you play one of the. the other escapees, I'm guessing? No. They went back to the book a little bit. And, you know, the running man, all he has to do is stay alive for a while and he
Starting point is 00:06:09 wins all this money and it's rigged. And so he goes to an old friend who lives, it's a dystopian society and I supply things like fake IDs and black market stuff. Oh, you're the man. I'm the guy behind the guy. And I get mad at him. I say, you put me in danger. Anyway, it's about that.
Starting point is 00:06:34 I outfit him with disguises and weapons and shit like that. It's who's with you in this? Glenn Powell. Powell is the running man. It's a huge cast. Huge cast. Don't ask me. So you can't even remember half the people who worked with.
Starting point is 00:06:48 Did you work a long time in the movie? No. It was in Great Britain. It's my, this is my thing, man. I show up. I do two days work and then I leave. Isn't that the life? The worst day on a set is your first day because unless it's their first day, you're going into a working concern. They're all family by that time and you're the new guy. And the next worst day is your last day because, you know, you think back to the first day. I wish I could do that again. And I just started having fun. What do I have to leave? So I do worst days on a film. That is difficult. It's always difficult to do that. I, you know, I always, when I was doing a lot of series, I did a series for seven years, but when people, guest stars would come on, I always had as much patience and like, Oh, God bless you.
Starting point is 00:07:35 Like, I really wanted to let them know that we're a family and you're part of it and let's do this. And like, you want them to be confident. Yeah. And sometimes you need some time to get the confidence. It's a wonderful thing to do. and sometimes it bites you in your ass because you're really nice to these people. And then you go, what do I got to do to get you off my butt? Yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 00:07:57 It's better to just be quiet. Yeah. No, I did it. I did a series for a long time, too, and I went out of my way to, I know what it is. It's exhausting, though. It is exhausting to give more energy than you have. Exactly. But I was number one on the call sheet, and that comes with the job description.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Well, it should. It doesn't, but it should. leader the leader and de facto but true lead by example yeah you know try not to lose your shit everybody loses their shit though yeah at some point you're like are we done here yeah can we move on i'm sorry yeah it's like when they say oh my god what it take that was perfect that couldn't be done better let's go again why look fargo boogie nights magnolia pleasantville shameless, Broadway director, writer, actor, nominated for all these prestigious awards, studied under David Mamet.
Starting point is 00:08:52 You have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Do you ever feel like that's enough? I'm good. Oh, no. What else do you want? At the minimum, more of the same. And, no, the serious answer is, I'm lucky. I love what I do.
Starting point is 00:09:14 And you know what I'm talking about. actors don't enjoy all of it. And I don't enjoy all of it. But when everyone gets quiet and it's my turn to talk, I really like that. I like the pressure. I like the audience. I like the challenges. When the cameras aren't rolling, I find that trying, but it's certainly worth putting up with to get to do it more. Wow. I mean, so retirement at some point is not in your vocableness. You know, when you do a long series like I did, it's not uncommon that you're kind of shelved for a while. You've got to grow a little older. People have to move on, and it's got to be going to their memory, not only the audience, but the people who make the films.
Starting point is 00:10:09 And otherwise, you know, I was on Shameless. I played a character named Frank. Gallagher. Frank Gallagher. So, you know, they'd go, oh, look, Frank's the lead officer. Oh, look, Frank's the president. Frank is, you know, that stuff. And so I thought I would have some sort of retirement, some semi-retirement kind of thing. Because you were exhausted. I was tired. I thought I, and I'm really good at doing Eiffle. Oh, me too. I love it. I love doing just nothing. Yeah, I'm really good at it. Really? Yeah, yeah. I look up and it's five. But it didn't work out.
Starting point is 00:10:52 And I wanted to work and the work was coming. I did a lot of the reason I've been running around like a crazy man, I did a lot of indie films in the last two years. And they take a long time to finish them because they don't have money. Well, Soul on Fire. That's me and Jack Buck. Hey, that's amazing. Oh, no, wait.
Starting point is 00:11:16 I met him many years ago. I was a baseball fan. I just saw the baseballs up there. Yeah. Who signed those? There's like the New York Mets, 86 World Series. There was Eddie Murray from the Orioles, just a lot of different players.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Where'd you grow up? I was born in New York, but I grew up in Indiana, small town, so baseball was pretty big. Did you remain a New York fan? Yeah, and unfortunately, I'm a Mets fan. Well, we can cut this show. or just cut it out yeah no no i'm a cubs fan uh you're a brother's my girlfriend yeah yeah yeah
Starting point is 00:11:52 i could do a great harry carrie for you let's hear it how's william h macy up to the play you know this guy told me a story he opened a box of cracker jackson there was no prize inside that has to be the most asinine thing for a child of humble origin there's a ground ball to say over to durham for the out that's excellent Oh, you, yeah, yeah. I loved Harry Carey. I did not do Jack Buck's voice. I don't know who Jack's book's voice is.
Starting point is 00:12:21 Was it a... Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, if you were a fan, you certainly knew what it was. Because he was Cardinals. I felt it was important to do something of a look-alike. And, uh... Yeah, I saw pictures. It's close.
Starting point is 00:12:35 Oh, yeah. I got the hair. The hair, for sure. But in the film, I don't call a game. I talk to the kid. So I didn't do that. And then they decided to, post-production, they decided to put in some games. So then I had to do a sound-alike.
Starting point is 00:12:53 I'm not great at mimicry, but I guess I didn't. How long did you listen before you figured it out? I have to listen a lot. I have to listen a lot. I've got to find my wife on the other hand, Felicity up, and she can do it instantly, instantly. And my daughter, Sophia, she's in the tribe. She can do it really well. But I don't have that ear.
Starting point is 00:13:12 Yeah, I have a good ear for certain things, but sometimes it's tough. It just depends what kind of, if it's in my register, you know, did Jack Buck have like a deep voice? No, it wasn't that deep. It was rich, but it wasn't that deep. And he, he opened up his eyes and he, you know, wow, he opened up wide. I did a couple of things that he did. Couldn't do them now to put a gun to my head. Are you one of those actors or just one of those people in general that you do something? and you just, it's gone. It's gone really fast. Do you memorize quickly?
Starting point is 00:13:47 Not quickly, but thoroughly. I've got a trick, and I can still memorize the lines. And because of the aforementioned Dave Mamet, I feel it's incumbent upon me to learn them dead on because one of the great writers of our time was my teacher. So, of course, I think that. I mean, learning lines, does it come easy for you? Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:14:10 it's the worst part of the business actually it's there's nothing to be done except to do it it's repetition back in the day if i had a page of dialogue page and a half i could look at it the night before if i worked hard i could be okay and then it went to two and a half days and now it's more like five days if i really want to be off book if i really want to be able to rock and roll five days at least and that's important to you it is it is it's a dirty secret but uh maybe not in features so much but on television mostly what you're doing is watching the actor go what's that word god damn what's that word uh yeah were they like very critical with every word in line and shameless absolutely not especially with your character right you could kind of just no no i memorized them and
Starting point is 00:15:09 And as we said, you know, the number one in the call sheet sort of sets the tone. And John Wells produced it and he wrote a lot of them. And we had magnificent writers. I did it. I wrote a film once with my friend Stephen Schachter. We used to do movies of the week. Remember that phrase? Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Oh, I do. We did a lot of them. I think we did. Well, six or ten of them that made it to air. Yeah, he was a great game. That's impressive. He would direct them. He and I would write them.
Starting point is 00:15:38 He'd direct them. And as my star rose, I started starring in them. And I was doing one that I wrote, and there was this woman I was acting with. And she was off to the races, you know. It was an approximation of what we wrote, but twice as long. And I finally called the first over, and I said, does she know I wrote this? And he said, your name's on the script. I think she must.
Starting point is 00:16:01 And I put up with it a little bit longer. And I finally said, you know, I wrote this with Stephen. said, yeah, I know. I said, you should write. Are you going to write? You should write. And she said, I've thought about it. I said, you should write. In the meantime, shut the fuck up and say what I wrote. Did you say that in so many words? I'm pretty sure it was those words. Wow. Yeah. So you had had it. You were like, it's offensive. It is. It's like have some respect for the writer. Especially Mamet. You can't fuck around with that. No. You know what? I've done a lot of his plays. Yes. You meet a guy.
Starting point is 00:16:39 that did, say, American Buffalo, I played Bobby in the original production. I got to play Teach one time in New York. And you meet another actor. We'll start riffing the lines because it's akin to your favorite song and you want to hum the tune together. It actually feels good
Starting point is 00:16:59 coming out of your mouth to save those lines. That's rare, isn't it? It's very rare. And conversely, when you paraphrase it, it's the equivalent is you're walking across the room and you trip and you go you look back what did I trip on what was that you just know it was wrong yeah it's because you substituted a word or dropped a word and so the music died that's a great analogy it really is was he uh because you hear stories great guy intense did you see him lose his cool did you see it did you ever get yelled at i did i did you ever get yelled at i did I've never seen him lose his cool on set. As a matter of fact, for a guy that's written such rough stuff and just relishes the language of the street
Starting point is 00:17:48 and petty thieves and all of that, he's the most courtly gentlemanly guy you'll ever meet. And he's got that Chicago accent, you know, Billy, come on over here, but he's so gentlemanly and respectful and kind. And when he gets mad at you, when he gets mad at people, He uses his intellect. You don't know it, but you just got eviscerated.
Starting point is 00:18:11 You know, he's that smart. But I got a great story. Please. Speaking of American Buffalo. We started the St. Nicholas Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. We built a little theater. The first play we did was American Buffalo. But before that, Stephen and I had moved to Chicago,
Starting point is 00:18:34 and we did a play of his called Squirrels. And then we were trying to get something else going and Dave would come over. He lived at the hotel link and he'd come over and he'd go, guys, I've got this great idea. And he'd go to the refrigerator and pull out the cheese and pull out the bread. He'd cut off bread and gigantic hunks of cheese. And we said, what we're going to do? We'll do this. And I'm going to talk to this guy.
Starting point is 00:18:56 You know what you should do. Get on this. And he would do that until the old cheese was gone and then he would leave. And one time he came over and I'd had a bad day. And Dave came over and he pulled out the cheese and the red machine. And I look at him and I go, help yourself. And he stopped dead in his tracks. And he said, help myself.
Starting point is 00:19:18 Help myself. How many times do I pick up the check when we go to dinner? Help myself. How dare you say that to me? I have bailed you. What's wrong with you? You should think hard and long about this bill. You're an ungrateful asshole.
Starting point is 00:19:31 And he stormed out of the thing. And I saw him. I didn't see him for that. three days and I said I apologize I had a bad day you're right you're the most generous guy please forgive me and he goes all right all right and I never heard another word about it until he came in one day and here's this script that he flops on the table and he said I wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning script give it a read it was American buffalo and there was that speech when ruthie says to him as he's picking the teach as he's picking the bacon this is in the script that bacon off her plate she goes
Starting point is 00:20:05 help yourself and there was that speech help myself help myself i should help myself to a quarter slice of bread 10 slices for a how many times we go to the the riverside not pick up the check nowhere but from an ungrateful blah blah blah blah bitch about that i just got goosebumps oh it's a great speech that's you that's you and david that's my claim to fame in this world that's incredible yeah that's one of the most famous you know literary pieces ever That was me. That's what he does. Real life shit, real life conversations, like things that it's like he probably left through.
Starting point is 00:20:44 He probably stormed out to go write it. Could be. Could be. You know, back in the day, people would say he just records conversations and writes them down, which just revealed the ignorance of the critics or how little they know about writing. because, um, no, his writing was the most sublime, is the most sublime thing I've ever read. It's, I am a pentameter. He, it's got music and rhythm to it. And I've seen him rewriting. He'll sit in the theater and he's got his fingers on his ears and you can see him bob in his head. He really
Starting point is 00:21:21 counts it out. And, um, wow. It's, it's beautiful writing. I mean, I, the plays of his that I know most intimately are the ones I've done, but I look at it and I'll go, where did you get that word? I can think of 20 other words in this sentence would be the same. But you pick that one word and it lifts it into art. Inside of you is brought to you by Wayfair. You know, when they say Wayfair has just what you need, they do. They are a one-stop shop. I love Wayfair.
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Starting point is 00:25:24 rocketmoney.com slash inside you know it seems to me like learning uh you know your lines for a mammoth play or anything would be you know you got it but then it's the cadence it's the rhythm it like you say it's like he wants it a certain way he wants it delivered a certain way so you have to learn it if we're going to do it fast if you know what i mean you have to know it inside out you do but interestingly I've seen him on the set somebody paraphrases a line over and over again over and over again he will say at one point well I must have wrote it wrong and then he'll fix it and he's not precious about his lines even when he's directing he's not precious about it at all he might tell the stage manager the first AD to gently say go learn your lines but most people that do Mammett come to it with religious fervor you don't have to ask them to memorize it perfectly because it's perfect do you think you still want to do more plays i do yeah because to me and i've done a lot of plays not nearly as many as you but it's it's work it's knowing you have to wake up you have to wait the
Starting point is 00:26:45 whole day unless you're doing a matinee it's hard work it's what eight shows seven eight shows a week at least eight shows a week if you're off broadway you can have nine or ten i used to i did a lot off broadway i'd start to get pissed off on wednesday about saturday and sunday when you had to do four shows one friday two saturday two sunday man and people say you show up at seven 30 you're home by 10 what do you do for the rest of the day you just said it i don't know what you do but you're getting ready for tonight yeah it's nerves it's sleep it's like do you do you worry so much the day or the day before the show not the day before but during the day of the show is there a lot of still worrying or is like i've got this i don't have to go over my lines i know it i
Starting point is 00:27:33 don't have to i can go out to the museum i can do whatever or is there still that that nervousness or that you know anxiousness well once the play is run for a while i mean previews in the opening in the first week or two after that, that's, yeah, you don't know it well enough that you can drop your guard. You've got to go over the lines, or at least I do. But once the play is running, and I've done a bunch of long runs, of a year or so, or six months even, and it's a weird challenge. It's not the play, it's that you have to, you have to, you have to, you have to, have to prepare yourself that when the lights come up, you're ready and willing and in a position to follow the play where it's going to go. And that's why theaters, I find, so challenging and so
Starting point is 00:28:37 much fun, because you're doing the same thing every night. You're saying the same words every night. You've got to stick to the blocking, but they can be remarkably different plays night to night tonight. I mean, if the cast is good, it absolutely is a different play than it was the night before. It's subtle, but noticeable. Do you get ever pissed off because someone's dropping their lines or they're having a really off night? Or do you just say, well, it happens? I get pissed off if they can consistently drop their lines. You'll say something like, Yeah, or make a joke at their expense or go to the first or the, I mean, the stage manager. Right. But it doesn't happen very often. It happens a lot in rehearsals where, you know, the last guy to finally be off book.
Starting point is 00:29:29 That actor slows everybody else down. Right. But you know what? The older I get, the more forgiving I am and the older I get, the more I'm that guy. I guess. I guess. Have you ever had a review that wasn't favorable that it was opening night? And have you had that? And then what do you do? Because you have to continue. And that's in your head. Show must go on. I've certainly gotten bad reviews. And I do read them. Not so much anymore because it used to be three or four people and they would make it. In Chicago, there were four newspapers in New York. They were four. four newspapers too and uh i read them and uh on balance i got better more good reviews than i got
Starting point is 00:30:24 bad reviews and i learned from them and i was pretty good at thinking uh that's wrong he's he's just wrong or she and um i was pretty brave about saying that's a good point would you ever dare make an adjustment based on a review uh interesting question never never consciously yeah i read the reviews um to find out if i got a good one that's basically all i was interested in yeah uh there was a part of me that wanted the play to run right and man it's great it's great when you get good reviews um oh yeah then you really have a confidence about you don't you? it's the top of the world it's as good as it gets i directed something at lincoln center one time and gregg mosher who ran the place we were um uh we were going to the opening night party and
Starting point is 00:31:22 we were hanging out taking drugs and uh we walked out uh onto the street and way up this street framed in street light was greg mosh who's a he cuts a stunning figure anyway and he fanned these newspapers and he yelled on the street you're a hit one of my favorite memories i'll take that one to my grave oh wow just this euphoric feeling that that's the biggest drug you can get isn't it oh man you're just on on a cloud even if they're wrong you just were you were you popular growing up um god what a great question um uh after a fashion yes here Here's my story.
Starting point is 00:32:13 I was bad in school. I moved from the south to the north, and no one ever thought to ask me, what's different about them? What don't you know? And they had jumped ahead in math, for instance. So they were doing stuff that I had never learned. The best example is everyone in the north played a flutophone.
Starting point is 00:32:34 It's a recorder. So they said, bring in 35 cents for your fluteophone. And I went to the class first time. They said, okay, you play this. I don't know how to play this. They said, yes, you do. The teachers insisted that I knew what it was. They didn't even consider that they didn't do this in Georgia.
Starting point is 00:32:52 So I went into junior high and high school, frightened and a failure. And my brother, who's older, Fred Macy, he went away to college. He came back playing a guitar. And he was pretty good at it. And he joined a folk singing group. toured all over the country for a while and i lost my mind i said i want a guitar and he taught me three or four chords that's all you need and then he taught me a really off-color song so they they had a they had a a a talent show every year and anybody could be in it and i sang the off-collar song in uh in the
Starting point is 00:33:34 talent show and overnight i was bMOC the chorus was your papa ain't your papa but your papa don't know and uh uh a year later as president of my class so was i popular yeah i was an overnight sensation and i had no training for it and i was failing out of school i think i graduated from high school because i was present in the class how did you be present of the class when your grades are so bad they didn't care doesn't matter doesn't matter so that gave me a lift and that's what got me into showbiz man when i said your papa ain't your papa but your papa don't know i got a laugh that i've been chasing to this day isn't that something and that like i said that is a drug the only thing i wanted to do as a kid was
Starting point is 00:34:25 if i could make my dad laugh you're right because i couldn't get much out of him yeah but if i can make him laugh i felt i did it um because that's that was a rarity and your dad was he strict i mean he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for flying the B-17 which dropped the most bombs in World War II, right? Yes. Everyone got that medal, by the way. But was, yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:50 He was obviously brave. Oh, my God, those guys were brave. He talked about it. He talked about his service. He was in the 8th Air Force, and he got there after they had basically defeated the Lufo. And they had bombed the army.
Starting point is 00:35:07 crap out of Germany. So they sent out 70 planes, 60 of them would come back. When the 8th Air Force first got there, they'd send out 70 and 20 would come back. It was a death. It was a death wish. They wouldn't make it. And those guys kept flying. They kept flying. And you know the whole story about night bombing, which the British wanted to do. And the Americans said, no, you can't hit the target. So he kept sending these young men over there. But it was still. Do you tell you stories? He did. He did. Mostly it was about the women he slept with, but he also talked about... He really did. I'll tell you that. oh my dad god bless him my dad loved me and i loved him i still miss him yeah but i was working in chicago and i said well i got to go home will you drive me to the airport and he said
Starting point is 00:35:55 yeah i'll drive you i said okay it's a long drive from cumberland to the bw i and i said okay we should leave about at about 11 because he said no i'll drive you i said yeah i know i said he said i'll drive you and I said what are you saying he said I'll drive you I said to Chicago he said yeah I'll drive you I said okay we hadn't gotten out of the driveway when he started the first girl he ever slept with and to his credit it took all the way to Chicago to get to the last girl it was really yes did your mom know about all this no no I think she knew he was a bounder but um A bounder. I'm going to use that. Yeah. I mouth agape. I just listened the whole way. It was amazing.
Starting point is 00:36:46 So I learned about the war, you know, woman to woman. That's basically the way he told the story. Were you grateful that he opened up like that to him? Oh, my God. What a gift. Because most fathers don't do that. I know. They just don't. He was pretty hip. When I started smoking pot, well, actually, he said, I'd smoke pot. I'd smoke pot and I started smoking pot and he said, stop smoking pot. And then I went to a hippie school called Goddard College up in Plainfield, Vermont. It was the grandmother, father, uncle, and aunt of all hippie schools. No grades. This is where I met Mammott. No grades. No rules.
Starting point is 00:37:26 Awesome. No requirements except tuition. You had to pay tuition or you couldn't come. And half the people that went there left because they couldn't take it. They needed to structure but we stuck and Dave was there and he filled in the vacuum and we just studied theater all day and all night anything we wanted to do that's the life yeah that was good times you'd have to worry about your shitty grades yeah there were no grades and um I remember my mom and dad came up and my grandmother and I went to somebody's dorm room with them and we all got stoned wait your mom your grandma my dad my grandmother who was 80 something you all smoked pot together Yes. I don't think they took much, but my dad got stoned. And that was so fun to watch.
Starting point is 00:38:13 Oh my God, God rest her. So I love that woman. But she was like, what is that? Is that pot? I said, yeah, it's pot. She goes, give me that. I go, no, no, no, you don't want to do this. She goes, what are you telling? This doesn't do anything. And she goes, and she smokes cigarettes like they're going out of style. And she's smoking it, smoking it.
Starting point is 00:38:36 And it's about an hour later. And she's telling me these stories, kind of like your dad did. And I said, you are so high right now. She goes, get the hell out of here I am. Getting another piece of pizza. You know, she scarfed down like a whole pizza. Oh, I love it. But that was a memory that I'm like, it's just a moment in time.
Starting point is 00:38:55 That's what life is. It's memories, you know, creating these moments that you have because there's a lot of dark. I mean, look, I'm in my 50s and, you know, I see a lot of my friends, their mom or dad, they're dying or they're losing. You start to lose a lot of people in your 50s and 60s, right? Was that a tough time for you? Like when you started losing people, how old were you when you had your first big loss? Oh, gosh, I don't know. But I'll tell you this, it's going to get worse.
Starting point is 00:39:22 I promise you that. I'm in my 70s now. You look great. That's all it matters. Yeah. Not how you feel. It's how you look. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:32 Or as my dad would say, you're only as old as the woman you feel. I would have loved to him at him. Oh, he was a card. Man, he would hear jokes and write him down, put him in his wallet, and save him for me. I have a million jokes. I always remember jokes. We'll go one on one. anytime you want i can i tell you one you'll think of it text you great i'll voice messages
Starting point is 00:39:54 bill one of my this is your more oh i have tons i love to have an audience and just riff i know guys like you and me though i just i'll just give you the first two lines you go yeah i know i know that one go on yeah but you probably know something that i don't yes and you know something that i don't so when this is over let's take a little bit of time think of your top two i'll think of my top Oh, yeah. I had the advantage of you. There are some jokes that are great, and they go out of style and they're forgotten. I still remember them.
Starting point is 00:40:25 Oh, yeah. Those are the best, the old ones. The dad jokes, they call them. Dad jokes. I love dad jokes. Me too. Yeah. They're great.
Starting point is 00:40:33 I like, I can be a little racy sometimes fun. Yeah. I'm a Jew, but I'll tell you a Jew joke. Yeah. I make fun of wasps, but it's kind of not funny. Well, you know, I got to get an Irish joke for you after this. All right. What is the, you know, when I look at Fargo, I honestly, I said this to my girlfriend before
Starting point is 00:40:53 I was going to interview you. I said it's honestly as an actor as just a human being watching this performance. It's one of the best performances in cinematic history. It truly is and arguably. I really believe that because it's, I couldn't believe the character you created. It was just so dynamic i just believed you were this guy and it was just it couldn't it was a train wreck and you couldn't stop watching and feeling it was and i think about is it something you got an offer for did you audition for it how did you get this role how did they did you audition three times they they call me in for the detective great role and ethan said you want to go out and look at jerry
Starting point is 00:41:46 And I said, yeah. So I went out, and I was out there for 20 minutes, went back in. They said, that's real good. They're such hippies, you know, they don't. Just laid back? Just laid back. Like, who gave you money, man? Yeah, I love that.
Starting point is 00:42:00 And they said, you want to come in tomorrow? And I said, yes. And every actor I knew in L.A. came by. And I was, I memorized the entire role that night just from doing it. I was ready to do any scene. And I went back in, they said, that's real good. We'll let you know. And then I found out.
Starting point is 00:42:16 they were in New York auditioning and I got my jolly jolly Lutheran ass on an airplane and I crashed that audition. Wait a minute. You auditioned for them. And then you went to New York because they were also auditioning. It's like you wanted them to know this role is yours.
Starting point is 00:42:34 I told them it was my... I don't recommend this, folks. If there are any actors out there, don't try this. But I said, I think to Joel, I'm worried you're going to mess up your movie by casting somebody else in this role. And I went in and I read it again.
Starting point is 00:42:50 They said you don't have to. I said I want to, which is also a bad idea. And then I was leaving. Ethan had said he'd gotten a new dog, a new puppy. And I said, well, give me this role, man. Or I'll shoot your dog. Thank God he laughed. And you said it in character, I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:43:12 Yeah, but Jerry Lunderguard character. I knew it was my role I read it it wasn't described as me it was a larger man overweight and bald but I read it and I thought I got this I understand him inside and out I could I'm ready to go on in five minutes if you want to start rolling the camera and I saw it recently during the writer's strike they I got hired to go around this is a thing I didn't know this but they would screen films this case Fargo in big theaters and people would come
Starting point is 00:43:52 and see the film and I'd do a Q&A and I hadn't worked in a while so I said yes and I was knocked out I hadn't seen it in a long long time and I saw it in a big theater with a good sound system and 500 people
Starting point is 00:44:07 I was knocked out Franny was so adorable I just lost my heart to her. She was unbelievable. My God. And Peter Stromar was... I was going to mention him. The scariest morpho that ever lived. And how did he do it? It was so simple. And juxtaposed with Steve Buscemi. Yeah. Oh yeah. Everybody was good. The Shep, the Indian guy that took the belt to Steve Buscemi. Carole, who was the husband of Fran. That's still Felicity and I look at each other and every once on, we go, we're doing pretty good, Marge.
Starting point is 00:44:50 You still do that? Yeah, we do it. After Fargo, about six months after we had a meeting, we said, no Fargeys in the house. We've got to stop talking this way. I mean, do you think what percentage of Lundegarde was there in the audition, you think? And then how much did you tweak it after that? Oh, all of it. I didn't create that character. Joel and Ethan did it was on the page but it's the delivery it's the it's the I mean yes but
Starting point is 00:45:20 um here's one thing I did that I think was key by the way this is kind of actor talk and I've seen I start talking about acting technique and I can see the will to live drain from people's size I don't think so okay they'll want to hear this I decided that his objective was to protect his family i was everything i did was to protect my family from this despot have har presnell who was keeping money from them and keeping them in poverty so i had a good bad guy to fight against and um i learned a pretty good lesson there i'd done it before and i'll credit Dave Mamet with teaching us that never describe your, I'm playing the asshole who don't ever do that. Everybody's the hero of their own lives.
Starting point is 00:46:22 100%. And so you've got to translate what the character does into something that you believe in personally. And it's a trick, but it works every time. It does. And it really messes up the audience. And I've, a lot of my career has been making unsavory, characters that you're supposed to like kind of appealing you find yourself voting for him all right i say it all the time yeah um yeah i mean i played lex luther i mean i'm written it's supposed to be you're you're evil you're this and i would always talk to the creator and it worked yeah and i played opposite i was doing the right thing yeah that's how i wanted to be real i didn't want it to you know and i just fought that i fought that because people don't want to be angry be evil they
Starting point is 00:47:08 They keep it inside. They want to discover it. They want to, exactly. So I think that's brilliant. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money. Rocket Money is going to save you money, period. So you want to listen to this. This is something that is just, it sells itself.
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Starting point is 00:49:36 Whether you're decking the halls or hitting the field, we've got you covered. Show your true colors and share the excitement of U.S. soccer this season. Visit store.ussocker.com today and score big with your holiday shopping. What's the hardest audition you ever had? Well, the first thing comes to mind, nothing is harder than when you're right for the role and you kill it at the audition and you don't get the role. Oh, it's the worst. That's because if you're a one in a million type in Manhattan, there are seven of you.
Starting point is 00:50:17 It hurts, it hurts, but. Does it still hurt? You don't have to audition anymore. I don't. Do you miss it? That's a great question. Good on you. Thanks.
Starting point is 00:50:27 A little bit. A little bit. I see films and I go, I could have done that. I would have loved the chance to fight for it. Yeah. But that's a piece of the answer. But the whole answer is, with the exception of my wife and two daughters, not auditioning is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Starting point is 00:50:49 Yeah. It's a brutal part of our business. If somebody could figure out a better way to do it, they would have. I agree. I think auditioning is, it's really, I love that your answer was. was, yeah, there's a little part of you that misses it. Kind of being in that room and that energy. And when you win.
Starting point is 00:51:07 And when you win. And you fought for it and you won. You ever watch something and go, I don't think I could have done that. That was brilliant. You do that. Oh, yeah. A lot. Really?
Starting point is 00:51:19 Yeah, I know my limitations, yeah. You know, it's. what the director wants, my daughter Sophia is an actor, and I've taught a lot of classes in my life. And what I try to tell them is that back in the day when you would walk into the room, when there was a room, that the most uncomfortable and frightened person in the room is the director, because he or she is waiting for the character to walk in and nail it. so that he or she can go, thank God I can put that one down. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:05 Let's go to the next one. And if that person doesn't walk in, I mean, what people don't understand is that directing a film is not talking about acting and stuff like that. It's trying to get it in the can before they take the cameras away from you. It's before the sun goes down, before you run out of money. If you have to stop and talk about acting and the character, you're dead. you're sunk yeah there's no time for that stuff i remember seeing a interview with quentin tarentino and he was with george cluny and he says can you zoom in a little bit on me yeah just zoom in on my face he goes hey actors i just want you to know one thing you have all the power you have all the
Starting point is 00:52:49 power in the world it's your time and the way he said it was like it just invigorated me as an actor just was like you shouldn't go in there and be nervous and what did they think who who said this tarentino said to you no said to the camera he was i was watching an interview with him oh oh oh oh i get it and he's you know it was that you don't know how much power you actually have and if you go in there with that power with that like i'm doing it my way i'm doing this this is how it goes like they want to see that they want to see the confidence do you agree with that only partially really yeah because I've been blessed. I've written them, I've directed them,
Starting point is 00:53:33 I've acted in them, even produced them a little bit. No. Yes, actors have an inordinate amount of power. The stars do. I'm in the room. In the audition room? Oh, totally. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:53:51 I see I didn't say the question right. Yeah. But in the audition room. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. If you, if they, because they could smell, fear, right? Oh, totally. As a matter of fact, just before Fargo had its effect, which took a year or two, I got good at auditioning. And the reason I did is I got sort of pissed off. I hated the process so much. And I adopted the attitude of figuring out what this movie's about
Starting point is 00:54:20 and what my part was in it and what I was going to do. And my attitude, I didn't say it, but my attitude is if you cast me, this is what I'm going to do. If you don't like that, don't cast me. Which is not to say if somebody says he's funnier than that or he's more serious than that, I would take the note and go for it. But I decided beforehand, I know what this character's about and what he wants. I'm going to go in there and get that and, or at least die trying and have a vision, have a voice. This is what I want to do. If you don't like it, well, thanks for having me. Thanks. I mean, hopefully you're malleable enough that they see the talent in you, that on set, they can go, hey, you're the guy. We just want to do a little things a little differently here.
Starting point is 00:55:05 Yeah, you can't win the audition. Right. You can only act well. Do you, have you ever had anxiety in your life, like really bad anxiety or dealt with nerves and things? Dude, I'm an actor. Yeah. I know. Yeah, I live with anxiety.
Starting point is 00:55:20 How do you deal with it? Well, I also mention I'm waspy. I have the ability to just put it out of my mind. It's not a good way to live, but it is pretty effective. I can just not think about it. It'll come back and haunt me and I'll go, I don't want to think about that. And it's bit me in the ass a lot. I should have thought about it and I should have faced it.
Starting point is 00:55:48 But I can just put it aside. Right. So when all the cameras are rolling and there's 50 people, crew, much more than that, and big directors and big names, and it's day one. Yeah. You get the jitters? You love it. Oh, yeah, I get the jitters. But what I realized is, well, for instance, go back to an audition. You're sitting out there waiting to go in. Everybody feels like a fraud. We all feel like frauds. And Dave Mamet was smart enough to say, at the beginning you feel like a fraud, like you got the job mistakenly and you're going to be found out.
Starting point is 00:56:24 but as you get older nothing will change you'll always feel like a fraud you'll always feel like this is horseshit coming out of my mouth uh you're right though the civilians quit and the actors plow through because we all feel that oh my god the first time you say you know you've memorized the line you got the speech of the century the first time you do it it sounds like trash yeah you're actually hearing yourself you're not even listening no yeah have you have done that a lot where you're just like, I'm not fucking listening. I'm not listening. Yes, but I think a better, a better tool is put your attention someplace else. Because people to think they can do two things at once are lying to themselves, this multitasking
Starting point is 00:57:16 thing. Put your attention on the other guy. or gal completely it's it's hard to be self-conscious it takes a lot of energy to be have your attention on yourself yeah no i agree with that and it takes courage to take it off of yourself and put it somewhere else it's like skiing every cell in your body is telling you to hug the mountain but you don't have any control you got to throw yourself down the mountain if you're going to turn right good analogies here today yeah that's what i will say uh i want to talk about a couple of these projects quickly, but like, the whiskey distillery. How did you think about that? Because I looked up this place. You have a tasting room there. It's like 15 miles outside of Aspen. It's beautiful.
Starting point is 00:58:04 The, the, uh, the, uh, the, the, the whiskey that you, the wooden, what are they called? Barrels, the little casks that you put them in that you can buy. They're big barrels. No, I'm talking about the little things when you buy it. Yeah. Yeah. Don't they have like, uh, don't you have like their, they have a box? What am I trying to say? When you, you, buy the whiskey from your distillery, right? Don't they come in like a really special little case? No, some of them do. Some of them. I put out a signature. That's the one I saw. It was beautiful. I was going to bring you one and I couldn't because I'm pleased to say we sold it out. But we're going to do another one and I'll bring you one. They're beautiful. They're really beautiful.
Starting point is 00:58:42 They're a little spendy, but the best gift ever. That's what I'm saying. I saw it. I mean, you give that to someone and they go, they got a gift. That's a gift you don't forget. I know. and you can just go online to Woody Creek and take care of a lot of your Christmas gift. Felicity, my wife, grew up in Woody Creek, Colorado. And I live in Woody Creek, Colorado. And I work for Woody Creek Distillers. And I got the job because I live next door,
Starting point is 00:59:13 who lives next door, to the three people who founded it and started the distillery. And Pat and Mary Scanlan, are people of means, as is everyone else in Aspen. And so they set about to make the finest spirits that you can, and they are the finest spirits in America. There are others that are good. There are none better, and there are a whole lot that are worse.
Starting point is 00:59:35 They bought these magnificent stills built by Christian Carl in Germany. They're three stories high. The bottom is a pot still, and then these column stills are all glass and chrome and copper and every ingredient comes from Colorado. Some of it comes less than three miles from the ground of the bottle. We've known the suppliers for now 12 years, same people. It's a family affair.
Starting point is 01:00:06 Very few people work for Woody Creek. So we decide they had three tenants. Let's make the spirits we want to make. Let's make them affordable. Let's make them as good as they could be. Let's not have any other rules. And they've never broken them. And where could we go?
Starting point is 01:00:21 Woodycreek Distillery.com? We're in California right now, and we're in California, but not so big. Yes, go online, Woody Creek Distillers, and you can get it online, and you can get it pretty quickly. And we do everything except tequila and rum, and they're great spirits. And I've always loved distilling. We started it 2,000 years ago. It's so old, we don't even know who invented the Olympic still. and the process is just writ large with science,
Starting point is 01:00:52 but it's the same thing we've been doing. You love it. I love it. And I've always loved drinking, and I'm very good at it. I love to drink. Where'd you get that from? I mentioned I'm a wasp.
Starting point is 01:01:05 It's beautiful. So go to Woody Creek Distillers, right? Distillers. And the site's beautiful. The website is, it's just gorgeous. The room, it's so inviting. I want to go there and do some tastings. And next time I'm there, I'm going.
Starting point is 01:01:19 Yeah. And just a side note, I got the job. I've got a piece of the distillery. I got the job. And the pandemic hit. Couldn't do anything. So I wrote a song about the Woody Creek Tavern, which is near my house of Hunter Thompson fame.
Starting point is 01:01:36 And he was in there all the time. There's a stool that you better not sit there. I'll kick your ass. And the pandemic hit. and there was nothing I could do and we were in Colorado so I wrote a song about the Woody Creek distiller I play ukulele I grew up
Starting point is 01:01:54 told you I played guitar now my fingers don't like guitars but I play ukulele so I wrote a song about the Woody Creek distillery Flicka shot it on her Felicity shot it on her iPhone and we put it out on the internet and I've been writing songs
Starting point is 01:02:09 about alcohol and the distillery ever since I love that I know and when we go to these various states you know and they'll have their big Christmas party. I'll sing a couple of ukulele songs. And it turns out I'm pretty good at it. You love it? I love it.
Starting point is 01:02:24 You're a good singer? No. I bet you are pretty good. I can carry a tune. That's me too. And I can play the ukulele well enough. I did a gig in Nashville and I look in the front and John Oates is sitting there. He was on the podcast.
Starting point is 01:02:40 I thought, that's what I'm missing. I wasn't nervous enough. But he couldn't have been nicer. and I opened for two of his concerts in Denver. No. Yeah, they're there to hear the preeminent rock and roller. I mean, 70s, 80s, 90s, all the songs we grew up with, fabulous songs. And here comes this dumb-ass actor with a ukule.
Starting point is 01:03:00 I can see the bewilderment on their faces. Everybody's high on consolation. I love hono notes. I do too. Oh, my God, he's a talented guy. And the sweetest guy in the world. And guess where he lives? Aspen.
Starting point is 01:03:15 He's been to your distillery. He's been there. Many people. A lot of celebrities have been there. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of celebrities all over that valley. I started a gig at a theater in Basalt, which is where our distillery is the first town down from Woody Creek.
Starting point is 01:03:35 And I'm going to do six of them. I've done two so far, and I'm sort of the host, and I hire people from the valley. There's a huge depth of musical talent in that valley. Valley and have been hiring singer-songwriters to each time. And I do a set of my four songs and they do their things. And I'm just loving it. You might have to have me in my bandmate. Well, he's not here. That's Ryan. He plays guitar too, but maybe he could play with us. But we have an album coming out, our fourth album. Stop. Yeah. I got a question. The band's called
Starting point is 01:04:04 Sunspin. We do it for fun. We don't want to be rock stars, but we have a little following and we just work harder and harder to make the songs better and better. I got a question. yeah what's an album well nowadays right yeah um we still make vinyl we will get a bunch printed um you really don't want to be a rock star do you because no well people are now buying vinyl again i think some people it's on the on the move it's coming back and do you put it on the interweb spotify and apple and all that stuff or people but a lot of times to pay for the album people will pre-order vinals and CDs and a book of how the band how how it came to be.
Starting point is 01:04:44 So it's... You play guitar? I play guitar and write the songs. And Rob's the amazingly guitarist and my partner in it. You write the tunes and the lyrics? Yeah. And Rob works with me, but I write all the lyrics. And I usually come up with songs and then Rob brings like, we need a better bridge.
Starting point is 01:05:00 Or, you know, we work really well together. He's a real season musician. And I've been learning a lot, but I've become a better songwriter. And I just love it. I love it. I love... You like performing? I do, but since, you know, I'm an actor first.
Starting point is 01:05:16 So if I was doing, you know, I'm more comfortable acting. So on stage, I feel kind of vulnerable, you know, playing music. But I'm, I'm pretty good. You know, if we rehearsed like four or five times before, I think I'd be ready to go. Yeah. I could send you some of the stuff. You could tell me what you think. I love it.
Starting point is 01:05:34 Yeah, I will. I got flummoxed. I ended up taking a beta blocker before the performances. Oh, yeah. you get nervous isn't that funny you could do mammoth plays and all this shit all the live long day when you get on and play music in front of oats my lyrics my lyrics and i can't remember them it turns out i like writing lyrics though tune first or lyrics first i usually start playing a corner oh i really like that where's that going where's that going and then the lyrics will come
Starting point is 01:06:04 usually the song i mumble like i don't know i don't want to me i don't want to you i'm The most famous, the movement you need is on your shoulder. Who's that? Hey, June. No. Yep, yep. You know, they would sing nonsense before they had the lyrics. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:22 And John sang that and Paul said, you've got, that's it. We've got to use that, the movement, which is my rail against AI. AI would never do something like that. It couldn't in a million years. You know, it's real. You know, it's original. November 21st, Train Dreams with Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones. Well, fabulous movie. I saw it in Toronto.
Starting point is 01:06:44 You love it. Love it. So interesting. It's about, how do you pronounce his name, Grinier? Grinier, Robert Grinier, a day labor in the early... Tiny story. It's so funny. I saw Frankenstein one night in Toronto and Trane Dreams the other. They were both magnificent, but Train Dreams is so simple. And Frankenstein could not be bigger. And they both worked. Made me love what we do for a living.
Starting point is 01:07:10 Wow. And the land, you're one of the leads in Dan Fogelman show. That's where you were today at Paramount. Yeah. All right. Hulu. About the NFL. Owner of the Cleveland Browns.
Starting point is 01:07:20 Oh, do you have a stash? Please say you do. I got it right now. Oh, there you go. I'm going to keep it. I love the stash. I wish I can grow a better stash. Oh, your stash is just fine.
Starting point is 01:07:30 It's kind of light like yours. Yeah. I need a soul on fire. It's a really heartwarming story about a kid that was burned over 95% of his body should have died. That's where I got to play Jack Buck. And that's just got to be exciting. It is. You're doing so many things, man.
Starting point is 01:07:49 I mean, like I said in the beginning, it's like, I guess you can't slow down. When you have opportunities, you take them. Yeah, and I don't work hard. There's a lot of time between projects. You know what you're doing. People think you're really working a lot, but you know how to work. I know. I don't dissuade them.
Starting point is 01:08:08 And they think I work. they think I think a lot about it what does William H. Macy watch just finished adolescence I like everyone else
Starting point is 01:08:23 was just gobsmacked by it the pit yeah love that so bloody so real yeah it's so real and I'm glad Noah Wiley won himself
Starting point is 01:08:37 an award for it He deserved that. Didn't you work with them? Yeah, I was on the ER for the first four years. I thought you came back though, right? I came back for one or two of them, yeah. Great to work with. Fabulous people.
Starting point is 01:08:51 And John Wells again. Just the best people in the world. You never know what people are going to go move on to, you know, to do certain things. And then they say, hey, you know what? Yeah. You'd be perfect for this. Is there a role that you wish you could do over? You ever look at a role and go, you know what?
Starting point is 01:09:07 Sure. oh sure yes but i'll never tell you yeah you can never tell that i mean why would you this has been awesome i love talking to you man a kindred spirit on yeah man you're just like it's just so easy to talk to you next roll with vernon davis the transformative journeys of athletes artists and entrepreneurs we have very special guests ladies and gentlemen devon franklin whether it's the movies I'm doing, whether it's the TV shows. I just tap into the truth. That's what I bring to every project.
Starting point is 01:09:40 Ladies and gentlemen, Isaac Keyes, people always ask, how do you make it to the NFL, how are you going to act? There's a story behind all of that. It's about whether you're willing to tell your story or not. Next role isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it. Next role with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.
Starting point is 01:09:56 This segment is brought to you by NHTSA. Did you know that driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal? And if you drive while you're high, law enforcement can definitely tell if you feel different you drive different drive high get a DUI paid for by NHTSA this is uh shit talking with william h macy this is rapid fire so you can just answer rapid these are my patrons who support the podcast patreon.com slash inside you they're just the the they get to ask questions Raj tell me about a time you hit a wall and what got you through it uh uh uh uh exercise
Starting point is 01:10:34 exercise. I used to keep a book and I would lie. I was the only one who read the book. Other brother, Daryl says, do you remember being asked to play Lionel Lutheran Smallville or was that just a rumor? That was a rumor. Never happened. You would have been my dad. It was John Glover who did it. You know John Glover? Yes, I do. Yeah. If I was asked, I don't remember. Melissa M, you always put so much heart and soul into your characters, which is amazing to watch. Was there anything in particular that you put into your character from the movie, the cooler uh my love of women um i um my wife told me this that when i look at women i have a certain look in my eye that um is good and um i love doing that movie and i love acting with maria bello
Starting point is 01:11:23 and i gave her that look every chance i got that was a that's a surprising movie you didn't see that ending no no did you see it don't say anything don't say anything uh bob k if Jerry Lundegarde had called Fred Gallagher for help, how would Fargo turn out? The opening scene takes play in a bar. It never would have passed the bar scene. That would have been it. Gosh, I don't want to keep you. This has been a great. I never do more than an hour. This has been, I'm a big fan. I hope we get to act together. Yeah, I would love that. I would really love it. That would be fantastic. It really would.
Starting point is 01:12:03 You went to H.B. Studio. No. You studied there, didn't you? No. You didn't. With Meisner for a bit, Sandy Meisner. I did a couple of scenes for Strasbourg with other people. They would bring me in.
Starting point is 01:12:18 No, Dave Mamet taught me everything I know. Everything. Everything. So every bit of acting you get from David Mamet. Yep. Yep. I mean, could you get a better teacher than that? No, you couldn't.
Starting point is 01:12:28 He knows more about acting than most people have forgotten. No. that's not how it goes. Most people would care to imagine. There you go. There you go. Something like that. No, I love acting. I love the technique of it. I've loosened up. Doing a series for 11 years taught me more than anything. I just put down a lot of baggage. It took 11 years to do it. But I'm simpler now. I go to the core of it. And I'm more forgiving. I think I was pretty much of a prick when I was a young actor.
Starting point is 01:12:59 and I want to do a lot more of it. How often do you take a role when you have like a week notice or three days? A lot, yeah. I used to ask, who dropped out? What was his name? That's how I feel when they do that to me. Yeah, I was talking to Woody Harrelson after I got shameless. And he said, I said, what are you doing?
Starting point is 01:13:24 And he was doing everything. And he said, what are you doing? And I said, I'm going to do this TV show, first. series i've ever done it's called shameless and i saw it in his eyes and i said you turned it down didn't you and he said yeah yeah uh i i saw the british the first season of the british i couldn't do better than that uh yeah and there was a pause and i said i could and he said yeah i know that's why you're going to do it what do you miss about shameless um the people people, number one.
Starting point is 01:14:01 John Wells is a great guy to work with. That cast was stunning. And it's even more moving to me because they were so young when we started 11 years, a long time in a young actor's life. And I watched them grow up. And I watched them get better. And I was the ominous gris on that thing.
Starting point is 01:14:26 So I watched them watching me. And I, it was so wrong. It was just so lovely to go to work and do these things that were so wrong all the time. It was liberating. You ask, because there's stuff. I haven't seen all the episodes. I certainly would love to take a second crack at some of those. But, man, it moves so fast.
Starting point is 01:14:52 It was my 10,000 hours. It happened. It had to come when I was fifth. but there you go you did it you probably well you're doing another show now i'm doing another show so many things soul on fire uh train dreams uh the land the show on hulu there's one i did with my running man running man can't wait for running man oh it's big um my daughter sophia who's an actor uh was one of the stars of this thing called brian and she talked me into doing a couple of scenes and i saw it maybe a couple of months ago they're trying to go to us
Starting point is 01:15:28 Sundance with that. Last year, Sundance is going to Boulder. Anyway, I saw that. It's delightful. It's a teen movie. They had $50 to make the film. It's so good. Do you still do, would do projects if you liked it for nothing? Yes. Oh, God. I said that on the year. Why did you do that? Why did you? Nothing starts at a million dollars from this point on. Can I call you Bill? Yes, please do. Bill, this has been awesome.
Starting point is 01:15:59 I admire you, and I'm happy for you. It's a joy to have you here in the studio. Let's do it again. I'll hold you to that. Okay, hold me to that. I'll wait at least a year or so. All right. All right, great.
Starting point is 01:16:11 He never calls. Reality says the odds are stacked against us. To think our U.S. men's national team can ever raise the world's biggest trophy. You're the first soccer team to beat them at football. Never. but here's the thing about us if you seem to accept reality it's kind of our thing
Starting point is 01:16:32 being unrealistic that's not a flaw it's a force it's fuel because if you want to be great and make history never chase reality join U.S. Soccer Insiders today
Starting point is 01:16:42 be part of the journey Bill thanks for being on the show I really appreciated it it was a treat I hope you come back see me and um promote anything you're doing you're always welcome back uh you were fantastic one of my favorite guests of all time and uh yeah uh let's just get into uh the patrons uh without these folks
Starting point is 01:17:12 this show wouldn't exist patreon dot com slash inside of you you want to join uh there's so many people that have become friends and are it's just such a wonderful community i love them we just zoomed and you could be part of that zoom too by joining patreon.com slash inside of you and i'll send you a message always send a message welcome you and um all that jazz so without further ado let's read the these are the top tiers and how deep is your love tears these are the folks that really give back a lot to the show and keep it going so uh i wish i could hug them i wish i could throw a party with every one of them showing up you know i try to do that i've done that a couple times where i go to a convention and i'll have a meet up we had a wonderful meet up in um
Starting point is 01:18:01 chicago that was great there was probably 50 60 people there are a lot of people there more yeah yeah it was a lot of fun and they're just such good good folks i consider them all friends uh they just uh you know it's they're not like people think oh they're crazy fans and this and that no they're not they're just good human beings who have big hearts and uh are funny and uh i really love them so patreon.com slash inside of you nancy d little lisa ukeko bryan h neko p rob i jason w dream weaver raj c where were you on the zoom rage stacey l stacey jamal f genel b these guys have been here forever i mean i've been here forever i mean i've read these names up so many times mike mike l dan supremo always supporting 99 more santiago m kendrick f belinda and
Starting point is 01:19:01 dave hall brad d ray how d just talked to her on the zoom and seeing our two little kiddos happy as clams tabitha t t tom n talia m david g betsy d hope betsy's all right rean and c michelle Jeremy C. Mr. M. Eugene R. Monica T. Mel S. Eric H. Oracle. Amanda R. Kevin E. Jammin J. Yeah. Leanne J. Luna R. Jules M. Jessica B. Frank B. Frank B. Gent. Gentie. Randy's. Randy S. Claudia. Claudia. You been Rachel. Rachel D. Nick W. Stephanie and Evan Stephen Charlie Ney
Starting point is 01:19:54 Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G Don G
Starting point is 01:20:00 Don G Jenny B 76 NG Tracy I admire her She works The wee hours of the night And She just got such a good
Starting point is 01:20:11 attitude about everything I just love her Keith B B What's up Keith Heather and Greg Grether I'll see you soon
Starting point is 01:20:19 For the food on foot dot org you guys bought the auction for me and Sherry O'Terry a lunch and you have hearts of gold uh Ben B Pierre C Sultan of Swing
Starting point is 01:20:34 Dave Tab Dave you got a big heart man Brian B T-Paul What would you like? What do you want for breakfast? Just some T-Pol Gary F
Starting point is 01:20:47 your parents ever say that when you were bad gary f jacky j uh little here ritzel pitzel ritzel pitzel i always think of wetzel's pretzels in the mall ritzels pittles benjamin r other brother darrell who i've met many times benjamin i've met benjamin was on the face time at the zoom ivan g i just talked to ivan g he rocks mark s John A John A and Mikhail L.
Starting point is 01:21:24 That looks like it. Mikhail L. Did I say that right? Mikhail, if not, send me a message in patron and I'll and phonetically spell it out for me so I don't mess it up. Thank you for listening today. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Starting point is 01:21:39 Hopefully there wasn't too many ads, but that's how we make a living. And from the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California, I'm Michael Rosenbaum. He was Michael Rosenbaum. That's Ryan Teas. I'm Ryan Teas. With a haircut.
Starting point is 01:21:49 With a haircut. Yeah. A little wave to the camera. We love you. Couldn't do this without you. Be good to yourself, most importantly. Take care of you. And thanks.
Starting point is 01:22:00 We'll see you next week. Check out the podcast that inspired Taylor Sheridan's latest series. Landman. There's a stretch of road in a royal rich region of West Texas. This region of West Texas, known as the Permian Basin, is in the midst of the biggest oil boom in history. This is a story of roughnecks, billionaire wildcatters and wannabe dreamers. My name is Christian Wallace.
Starting point is 01:22:26 From Texas Monthly and imperative entertainment, this is Boontown. Boomtown. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

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