KFC Radio - Quickie: Cameron Monaghan

Episode Date: May 11, 2018

Cameron Monaghan comes by to answer voicemails and talk about his roles on Shameless and GothamYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/kfcr

Hey, KFC Radio listeners, you can find every episode of KFC Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Alright, what's up? It's another KFC Radio Quickie. Today we are talking to Cameron Monaghan. You know him as Ian from Shameless. You know him as the Joker from Gotham. One of the most impressive actors I've ever met, I've ever watched, I've ever talked to. This dude is deep. This guy is very smart, super talented.

So he was cool enough to come by and hang out in the studio for a little bit. So this quickie with Cameron is brought to you by ButcherBox. ButcherBox delivers healthy, 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door. Each box comes with at least 8 to 11 pounds of meat, which is enough for 24 individual size meals, where you can choose from five different box types. You get all beef, you can get beef and chicken, beef and pork. You can do the mixed box, or you can do the custom box

where you get to choose your own cuts. So think of ButcherBox as your neighborhood butcher with all the quality meat, beef, chicken, pork, whatever, except it gets delivered right to your door. You can choose the delivery frequency and you can choose the meat boxes you want. So everything is to your liking when you want it, how you want it. And it comes from humanely raised open pasture animals that are never fed antibiotics, hormones, or fatty filters. So it's the highest quality meat, the safest meat, and it gets delivered right to your door. So right now you can get $20 off your first box and you get a free order of bacon when you go to ButcherBox.com slash KFC. And then you enter the code KFC.

So, like I said, get a customized box, get it delivered however you want it, whenever you want it, and get $20 off plus some free bacon. It's the most American offer you get. Free bacon and a discount. That's America. Go to ButcherBox.com slash KFC and enter the code KFC. Check, check, check. One, two. We're here with Cameron Monaghan.

We're going to talk all sorts of stuff. We got Gotham. We got Shameless. Good to go? Yep. My name is John. He's the worst milk checker in the world. That's sick.

I look so bad at it. It's rather embarrassing. It's cool, man. You've got a career in freestyle rap, for sure. I fucking froze so bad. That was one of the worst ones ever. I was like, I don't know what to say. Just count.

Just count. That's all you have to do, man. Just bring his mic up a little bit. Yeah, you just got to talk into it. Oh, okay. I see. I see. You got to really get close to it, make love to it. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. I like to get into it. Oh, okay. I see. I see. You got to really get close to it, make love to it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I like to get into it. Get passionate. I wonder how much spit and semen this thing is covered with. Let's hope not semen. Semen? I got to hope it's a zero on that one. I don't know what you guys do in here when no one's in here.

You know what? Neither do we. This floor is so sticky. I know it's not my semen. I feel dirty here. Well, you know what? You mean it's not very pleasing to the eye? We're, like, four guests in a row being like, hey, this place sucks.

This place sucks. You guys need to work on it. The bathroom situation is really mortifying. So we saw that you went downstairs. Yeah. Like, we only have two up here, and it's just, like, single bathrooms. There are, like, there's, like, 80 dudes in this building right now. It's not good.

Way too many. Way too many guys. And like three or four guests in a row have come in here and made fun of how shitty this room is. And they've also needed to use the bathroom and like it's either been locked or gross. So they just go here. That's why the floor is gross. That's why it smells bad.

The voice you hear is Cameron Monaghan. You know him from Shameless and now Gotham where he is playing the Joker. You are, you're an incredible actor man thanks man and you've been doing it for a while now i mean how old do you know i'm 25 25 it took you a minute there i think i'm 25 i never know how much age i am either yeah once you hit the quarter of life you start i think you start losing track a little bit have you had a quarter of life crisis yet i i think i'm in the midst of it are you is it happening because i feel like 27 is usually where i had it at 27 i'm now 33 he's a couple years behind me he had it at 27 i feel like 27 is a year where you really start i might have been 26 you were ahead of the curve that's you know that's that's that's very on brand for the depression and uh you're ahead of the

curve when it comes to that i think 27 is where a lot of people start to be like, what am I doing with my life? What the fuck's going on? Yeah. But like, that's like people in cubes. Correct. Cameron's a very successful actor.

That's why I wanted to, I mean, I've been, I've been working from a really young age. So, you know, I was like, I was working since eight years old.

So I think I had like a little bit of a different thing with that. And I, I also, I always had like really dark fascinations as a kid. Like I always was obsessed with death. Like I was very convinced from like eight years old that I was going to die at any moment. Let me tell you something. You were on the right program.

We talk like this all the time. So I think I had my quarter life crisis when I was like eight because I just figured I was never going to make it to this age. Like every day that I wake up, I'm like, oh shit, I'm still here. I don't know how. But you seem excited about it. Like every day we wake up, we're like, ah shit, we're still here. It's a fantasy. It's not like a fear. It's like a fantasy. It's like, Oh, I'm going to die one day. Am I allowed to say the F bomb by the way? Fuck yeah. Anything can go here. Okay. Um, well that's perfect. Then perfect. Then I think that's why you play the Joker so well. I mean, the Joker is an iconic role that, I mean, everybody,

literally everybody in the world knows at this point. But it's a really tough character to play, and you have massive shoes to fill at this point with the people. Big clown shoes. Yeah, I mean, the people who have come before you playing that from, you know, Nicholson all the way, obviously Heath Ledger, and now Jared Leto, now you. I mean, they're all heavy, heavy hitter. Were you intimidated by that, or were you like?

Yeah, I mean, it's obviously an intimidating thing. Like, you know, he's probably, just in the comics realm, the most well-known villain of all time. Period, yeah. He's been played by legendary actors on screen. And even when it comes to the cartoons, Mark Hamill's been playing this guy for 20-something years at this point.

You know Hamill's a legend? Oh, yeah. Yeah, so there's a lot of big shoes to step into. And thankfully, I kind of got backdoored into it a little bit. You know, I came on for one episode in the first season, and they were like, this is a character sort of hinting to this the joker but we don't really know if you're going to be back or what's going to happen with it and so i did this one and it went very well and it sort of caught fire a little bit went went viral a little bit and they were

like okay this works we like this let's bring this kid again. And it's kind of been a gradual stepping into the role, and I've kind of gotten to grown and mature with the character. And now we're approaching it from another way of we have, as hokey as it is to say there's a twin brother, which should be a soap opera twist. And in many ways, comic books kind of are soap operas a little bit. Their dramatics are ratcheted up a little bit. But for some reason I actually think it works with the character of the Joker and I think it works because his origin is always sort of convoluted and weird and there's a lot of stuff about like duality with this character. So having a reflection of this guy who is completely different but still two sides of

the same coin I think was an interesting challenge. And so this guy that I'm playing now is very reserved and intellectual, and his sadism comes from a more subtle sort of place. And that's been really exciting to be able to play, too, this year. And I think it's scary. I think it's actually scary. Well, you know what's scary about it is, like, the psychological aspect is scary. It's not like, you know what's scary about it is, like, the psychological aspect is scary. It's not like, you know, like, jump out at you scary.

But it's like that scene where you first kind of, like, flipped the switch and went crazy on, like, your dad was like, oh, this guy is fucking nuts. This is scary because you're capable of, like, anything if you're crazy like that. Yeah. Did you ever buy into, you know, kind of like the unfortunate urban legend that surrounds playing this role that it's so psychologically taxing and obviously Heath Ledger tragedy? Yeah, it's funny.

Heath, from what I understand, or Mr. Ledger, I guess I should call him, I don't know him personally, but he died during the filming of the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, not during the Dark Knight, which is what for some reason there's been a sort of urban legend and urban myth that's that's surrounded the guy. And everyone says, oh, he was so dark and so fucked up and he had all this stuff. And look, he had darkness. Everyone has darkness. He obviously was able to access it in a very great way because he created one of the most iconic villain performances of all time.

But from what I understand, he was a very full of life guy who was he was the guy whose doors were always open at his house and people came over and hung out with with him. And he was joyous. And from what I understand, he was that joyous on set too. And he wasn't just this dark, dour cloud. So it's kind of interesting how mythology can surround a person like that. I find personally I do have to somewhat stay in character when I'm on set. I can't just be talking about the fucking weather when I'm trying to do this. Because there's only so much time in the day to be trying to do this because it's just there's only so much time in the day to be able to do this you know and it's very

elaborate the camera setups and the sets and everything are very elaborate and sometimes we only have time to get it right once so everyone has to be on point and that means that there's not a lot of fucking around unfortunately you know does that mean that you go around like like, do you do the Leto?

Like, wasn't Leto like mailing dildos and like pink hearts and like all kinds of weird shit? Yeah. Just staying in character. Man, he got in right before the Me Too thing, didn't he? The whole like mailing used condom thing. That doesn't play now. A few months later, he probably could have gotten away with that um yeah uh no i i don't know i i mean i think that everyone has their own point of access into a character and everyone's going to approach it a little bit differently obviously

there's only a certain level of being method that you could do like you can't be running around and fucking stabbing people you know it's just obviously that method only really means that you're trying to access something personally that to then utilize it for the character. Right. Right. And we all in some way are utilizing our personal experiences, our own knowledge. I think everyone to at least a certain extent is a method actor if they're an actor. You know, and I do try to remain in a certain headspace and you know fucking concentrate because what we are is everybody on the set thinks you're a crazy person yeah yeah yeah that's what i'm hearing but we also argue that like now you you kind of limited

to just actors like every person is a method actor like every single day i'm pretending to be someone that i'm not really all the time i'm being like a nice, kind person in the office. And I'm really not. But I'm just pretending to be because I have to be in public. Yeah, we've said that, especially like in terms of like relationships, you're only like 10% of your real self. Everything else you're kind of putting out of front there. I think it slowly but surely drips out. And then the relationship ends. Once you reach critical mass.

Oh, yeah. This is really you? I don't even like you. Oh, God. I've been tricked for the last three years. What are we doing? Did you find that working on Shameless helped in any way? Oh, yeah.

With the Joker, yeah. I mean, I feel like there's some dark shit and heavy shit in Shameless that can apply. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a different kind of show. Um, shameless is much more rough and tumble and, and, and, you know, with something that's a larger budget ad adaptation of comic material, it tends to be more polished, you know, on shameless things are held handheld and it's really kind of gritty and, and something like Gotham, you know, it's just, it takes longer. You know, we work very, very fast on Shameless. And that means that you learn quickly how to catch on to rhythm and keep it moving and to make sure that you're in it and you're aware of what's going on.

You know, a lot of times on our sets, there's 10 characters in a scene all moving around sort of loosely around the set. And the cameraman is spinning, catching these little moments. And it makes it feel very alive. And so in certain ways, it almost is theatrical. It feels a little bit like a theater production. But there's a lot of really fucking talented people on that set. I'm working with Bill Macy. And also the younger actors younger actors too bring a

lot and i've learned a lot from them um and i think that with any sort of experience that you gain you're going to use it in ways that you might not even be aware of subconsciously yeah kind of becomes who you are yeah definitely so did you would you say that you like grew up as a not as an actor but as a person on Shameless? Oh, yeah, definitely. So I'm just thinking, I always hear stories of Saved by the Bell. Zach Morris is like, oh, my first kiss was on camera. It's like a little cookie cutter, funny stuff.

Meanwhile, you're like, yeah, well, my first gay, bipolar, fucking abusive relationship was with Mickey. And you were going through some, I mean, that's some intense stuff for like a, what, 13 or 10, 15-year-old character? Yeah, I was 15 when I shot the pilot episode of the show. I did meet my first girlfriend on that set. She was working as one of the crew members' nie, who was just helping around the office. And like during the lunch period, I would sneak on the set with her and like make out and like the fake couches and stuff, which I've never said out loud before. So now people think I'm really professional. But yeah, you know, I heard shit coming out of people's mouths.

At 15, I was like, oh my God, I can't believe you can people's mouths at 15. I was like, Oh my God, I can't believe you can actually say that out loud. And, you know, and because the subject matter is raunchy, you,

you, you know, it requires a certain level of maturity to be able to approach it. And they were very good and conscious of that when I was younger to make sure that they weren't putting me in positions that were, were, you know, something that I couldn't handle.

But you naturally mature on a set like that, and you learn a lot. So you're saying they waited until you were a little bit older to go into some of, like, the heavier shit with Mickey and all that kind of stuff? I think so. You know, I mean, look, I grew up watching stuff from a young age. My mom, like, never really tried to shelter me from that stuff. I remember when I was 10 years old, I could quote reservoir dogs from beginning to end, you know,

like, so I, she was allowed, she allowed me to have a certain level of awareness and openness with that. But that being said, any teenager doesn't really know what's up with, you know, their, their, who they are, how they function sexually, all these things that until you're a little bit older, you're not able to do. And thankfully I got to kind of learn along with the character and go on that process with, in that process with the character. So it was, it was interesting. It was a, it was a journey.

You've done a lot of like journeys with characters. Like you first came on with Malcolm in the Middle as like the special needs kid. Then you did Gay Bipolar. Now The Joker. Any interest in just doing a rom-com? Just like making out with Mila Kunis one day. I wouldn't turn down that possibility.

If my girlfriend's listening, I'm sorry. Listen, I think she'd understand. She wants to make out with Mila Kunis did. No, actually I did a rom-com. It's called The Year of Spectacular Men. It's going to come out in theaters in the next couple months. Okay, there we go.

So, yeah, and I think it's going to get released on demand and all that stuff too around the same time. And that's much lighter and kind of fun. And I do like doing that stuff too. I grew up with a somewhat comedy background, and now I've kind of transitioned into more dramedy or just straight-up drama stuff. But I still like that stuff. It's all fun.

I feel like you get a script for a rom-com, and it's like, all right, so wait, there's no bipolar. There's no alcoholism. There's no murder. This is cake I don't have to tap into the inner 8 year old who wants to die I can just keep that at bay

I can just like smile at camera and do some like cute stuff like that's what I want to do that's where I'm at flexing muscles a little bit whatever in the scene with Katherine Heigl can he be cutting himself? so we got a couple calls here.

A lot of like, we do a lot of relationship talk here and people just looking for life advice. So I feel like you're a good therapist for some of these people out there. So we'll see what we got. Why would you ever say that? Why the fuck do you call us and ask us questions? We don't know the answer. We certainly don't have good advice, but they seem to keep calling. All right.

Hi, KFC, Feidelberg, super producer at BC. First time, long time. So, first of all, I want to tell you that you've been a part of my daily routine for the past, like, three years. Listen to your podcast, do and from work every day. So, huge fan from Boston. So, anyways, I have a dilemma. I'm hooking up with this guy really casually. So a huge fan from Boston. So anyways, I have a dilemma. I'm hooking up with this guy really casually. Not a huge fan of commitments, so trying to keep him at a distance.

We've been good friends for a while, even before we were hooking up. But he recently found out I was hooking up with a girl at the same time as I was hooking up with him from mutual friend of ours i didn't think to mention that was bisexual in the first place because the first question a guy usually asks when they find that out is can we have a threesome tell me all about her tell me what you do with her blah blah blah fair always so of course that happens the second he finds out and the guy basically said you're selfish if you don't want to have one it makes me like you less you're not willing to do this for me um basically making me feel like pretty shitty about not wanting to um i don't know and i found that threesomes like in real life like outside of porn are wildly overrated majority of the time and i've explained that to the guy that i like to keep the guy and the girl separate i guess and not combine the experiences.

Do you think I'm being a dick for not sharing her? Or how do I handle the situation? And what are your thoughts if it was you? So you're a perfect, you are good for this question here. I feel like, as you just explained, you're on a set meeting your girlfriend while eventually on the same show, you're hooking up with a guy, you're... I feel like maybe on some level you can

kind of relate here. What would be your advice? I don't know, dude. With relationships, I'm pretty... Honesty is the best policy, and I think that even if she's saying it's casual, it's like... You can't be hooking up with someone else for a long period of time and not telling them of someone else.

Just because it's a girl. Yeah. I mean it's just sort of like – If you feel like – I think like we've been like conditioned like throughout life like if it's a girl, it's fine. It doesn't count. So she doesn't think that she has to – like she can keep it. But – well, so here's the thing. I think that she's being a little shady by keeping that like secret.

But then this dude's reaction of basically like you all have to fuck me or you're being selfish. Yeah, you're being really selfish right now. You're pretty much like forcing sex on someone. I don't think that's exactly a good look. Yeah, I don't know. It seems like it's maybe a little bit of a weird toxic situation. I don't know what's going on there, but I think she needs to say,

dude, I shouldn't have kept this from you but that being said i kept it from you because of this reason right right it's a valid point to be like every time i bring it up the first 10 questions are all exactly what you just asked me they're winning 1000 i mean and guess what i'd be an original i'd be this i'd be the same way i'd be like hang on you're hooking up with a girl let's let me like let's write down all the notes let's talk talk. Yeah, yeah. And then I guess I wouldn't know from personal experience, but I feel like the idea of a threesome in real life is probably more of a mess than porn will allow you to think.

I think I would have questions, and I'd want to know about it, but I don't think I'd be like, let's have a threesome, because this guy's not there. I can barely please one. It's just double the work, man. Like Seinfeld, I'm not a threesome guy. I can't pull that off. I'm not a superhero, so what am I going to do?

Hey, KFC Fights, Super Reducer BC. First time, long time. Got a quick question for you guys. So I'm hooking up with this girl for a little bit, right? Last time we hooked up was about two months ago. She's at my place. We wake up. She needs to go back to her place.

She needs a shirt. So I unthinkingly give her one of my work shirts. It's just a T-shirt, summer job. But, you know, it's about time to go back to work for me now. I'm in college. And I'm thinking I kind of want the shirt back. Um, you know, normally I'd say off two months, you know, too long. It's hers now.

The period has been gone. You know, grace period is over. It's hers. But you know what? This is, this is my special shirt. You know, they don't make the shirt anymore. I really want the shirt back. Um, it sounds stupid.

I know, but it's one of those things where it kind of makes the day better. I got to go to this shitty job, but hey, I got my special shirt and I really want it back. Is the period over? Is the grace period over? Is it too late? Can I get the shirt back? Is there anything I can do? Or do I just have to call it quits? It's been too long.

I love how he first starts off being like, I gave her a work shirt. It's a t-shirt. It's just a shirt. But it's a really special shirt. But's just a shirt. Yeah. It's just a shirt. But it's a really special shirt. But it's like the love of my life. I like to imagine him like crying over a bottle of whiskey every night thinking about this shirt.

Dude, you gave your shirt away. Like everyone knows that chicks steal your clothes. As cliche as it gets. The boyfriend hoodie is like, it's so cliche. That being said, if you have our information, if you really want to get the shirt back, how about be nice, get her another shirt or something, and you have a little bit of a trade and say, hey, this thing means something to me. Oh, I disagree.

You think it's over? You cannot ask for a shirt. I don't know. That's a transaction. No, I agree. I agree. That's like the transaction. It's like, I gave you sex.

Yeah. Like when you leave a bedroom or something like that, like when you leave a store, it's like all sales final. All sales are final. Whatever she walks out of your or something like that, like when you leave a store, it's like all sales final. All sales are final. Whatever she walks out of your room with, that's hers now. Those are her stores. Dude, I take a chair or a table or something every time I hook up with somebody. So I'm walking out the door.

Oh, flat screen. Do you think that there's any – there's no statute? Like maybe like two months is too much, I think. Two months, it's in God's hands. She might have moved it. It might be someone else's now. I think by the end of the week, if you don't have that shirt back, you're just screwed. I think you get maybe one more date or hookup or something where maybe it can come up.

But other than that, then it's gone. I think when you get the shirt back, it's insulting. I don't want my clothes back. Because it's almost like I don't even think anything of you. I got mailed a shirt back once, and it's the meanest thing that's ever happened to me in my life mail to this office i hit it right away i don't even see it like dude why is someone mailing you a sweatshirt wow because she took it and she just and it wasn't even like a relationship like we're over here's your stuff back kind of thing it was just a girl i hooked up with

somehow found the barstool address mailed me my sweatshirt back. And I felt, and this is the first time I've said it out loud, I felt like the biggest piece of shit. Oh man, I am just like worthless. Because you almost want her to be like snuggling with you that night, you know what I mean? That's the fantasy. Instead she's like, you can have this back, dude.

It's the shirt and you kind of suck. We got one more or is that it that's it all right dude so um joker is just awesome i mean that's very it's a very cool like thing to put on your resume and like i feel like one day when you look back after like a long career that you've been doing since you were like zero years old i feel like the joker no matter what will be at the top of like anybody's uh list of achievements so that's pretty sick. Pretty cool. And Shameless, too. Like, Shameless has been on the air for, like, 65 seasons now.

Yeah. So, like, that's, I mean, that's, and some of the names you worked with. It's all just very impressive. You're a really good actor, dude. Very good stuff, man. Thanks so much, man. Anytime you want to come by, you're welcome. So, sweet. Have a good one.

Thank you very much. Thank you, bro. Good stuff. Thanks, man. Pleasure to meet you. Nice to meet you. Mind if we grab a couple of picks outside? No, absolutely.

Cool.