Pablo Torre Finds Out - Will Forte Commits to the Bit

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Will Forte is responsible for some of the most idiosyncratically bizarre characters in comedy history — and the funniest movie Pablo has ever seen. But to understand Forte's legend, you must peer behind the scenes of "MacGruber" and "SNL" (his mythical audition, included). With a little help from their mutual friends, Pablo goes inside the making of a cult classic... and that time Val Kilmer moved in.• Watch "The Four Seasons" on Netflixhttps://www.netflix.com/title/81750702 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre. Today's episode is brought to you by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. And today we're going to find out what this sound is. I suck for my face pain. I suck for my face pain, face pain. Right after this ad.

You're listening to Draft Kings Network. Yo. How you doing? Just wash my hands. Good to see you. How you doing? I like him. Thank you for doing this on short notice too.

Sorry it's so last minute. No, this is ideal. Were you coming from other stops on your press tour? We started a couple weeks ago. Yeah. And did a big junket. And then we last week did the premiere and I did a Kimmel. And when we were working on this, we were doing it in like Beacon, New York.

So when I saw you, that was why I only came down for a half hour because I came straight from work and had to go back. I was going to say, when I saw you, it was at a day. Vegas's birthday. This would have been the fall. Yeah. It was karaoke. You appeared out of the mists of upstate New York. And people were like, we don't know why Will is even able to be here right now. I surprised him. Yeah, I was up there in New York and we finished it like 10. So I just got in the car and I think I got there at 11.30 and I said I, or maybe even midnight. I said I can only stay for a half hour. And I did, I stayed and did a karaoke song. You very memorably duetted with Jason

from Luther Vandross. Always and forever, right? Then a kind of recent one that is one of our anchors now is shallow. Which you've done, I know, on stage at his charity. I always get to do the Gaga part. So, like, trying to hit that, oh, man, I have shredded so many people's eardrums from trying to hit that note. I mean, my version of hitting it is just, like, bunting the ball.

The word that comes through that I heard at karaoke and that you were just describing when it comes to blowing out your vocal cords, there's this through line of what I dare say is commitment. Like, you commit to this shit, man. Thank you. But what I have been realizing, what I've been finding out talking to people that know you so much better than I, of course, know you, is that this is part of your myth. And reality, it turns out, is that like you're... I have a myth? Genuinely, the stuff I've been hearing about, it all feels almost too absurd to be your life.

But this is the case. Well, I'm looking forward to diving in there. So what I need you to know at the top here is that Will Forte is responsible for some of the most idiosyncratically bizarre characters in the history of American comedy. And he is also responsible for my favorite comedy of all time, which starred Val Kilmer and Kristen Wigg, and also isn't even really about the SNL sketch that inspired it. And so I will finally get to talk to Will about all of that in just a bit here. But you should also be aware that I have been doing. doing a bit of reporting on Will. Because, first of all, I'd never met him outside of that half-hour karaoke when he briefly

left the set of his excellent new Netflix show with Tina Fey called The Four Seasons. And so what I did was just start asking Hollywood people why, specifically, they all clearly love working with him. As he made his way from the groundlings where he was improvising and then Letterman where he was a writer and then that 70s show and Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and Conan and The Last Men on Earth and also a serious critically acclaimed film like Nebraska. And at some point in this research,

mutual friend of PTFO, Mike Scher, who wrote for S&L in the office before creating Parks and Rec and many other TV shows, told me something eye-opening. Mike told me that out of all of the S&L auditions he has ever seen, all of which happened to occur in front of the shows creator, Lauren Michaels, nobody has ever made him laugh harder than Will Forte.

My S&L audition, I was writing at the 70 show at the time and was loved writing at that show. It was, we had just gotten picked up for two years, which is unheard of. I had been on a series of shows that had gotten canceled after 13 episodes. So this was the first. first time that I felt real job security. So when I did this grounding show, there was a hiatus period in between seasons, and I did a grounding show. Lauren came, and he asked, I think, four of us to come out in audition. And I was like, I can't do it. I'm under contract for 70s show. I think it was just, well, I know I was just terrified of it. Like, I don't want to go. That sounds so scary. Anyway, eventually he talked me into going. The people at 70s show were super cool about it.

So I went over, did the audition, which was Tim Calhoun, which I did on the show a little bit. I am Tim Calhoun, and I am running for the office of President of America. I did a speed reader, which I also did on the show. Done. Poor Jesus. And I did a couple impersonations, Michael McDonald and Martin Sheen, both of them very bad impersonations. And then this thing, it was the Gold Man, which was something that I did at the groundlings for, it was something that was something that was very dirty. This is an NC-17 show when it needs to be for the record here.

So this is a guy, one of those guys, you've seen people on the street. who are, you know, dressed in all gold or all silver. Well, this one was all gold, and he doesn't move. And then you put something in the jar, and then they do, you know, a couple moves, and then, you know, freeze again until somebody puts more money in. So my thing was this guy gets his money stolen. Somebody takes all the money out, but they're not putting money in so he can't move. He has to wait until somebody else puts money in, and then he tries to find out where the person is, and they're long gone.

So he's up there, and then a bunch of people crowd around him, like, why is the gold man so sad? What is the turn at which this becomes a thing that... Okay, I'll sing it for you, if you would like. I would love to find out what the goldman song is like. I'm going to just shut up and sing it. Okay. Just because I'm a man made of gold Doesn't mean I'm made out of money

But the calling I found is to give people pleasure Their incredibly precise robotic movement That's why I come out to the streets To help me make ends meet And I work real hard to fill up that jar But then a bad apple ruins the barrel Heart of gold 24 carrot

But through all the pain I grinning I bear it Heart of gold I'm living a golden dream And any way you slice it We're all on the same team Come on everybody and then everybody gathers around Heart of gold

24 carrot But through all the pain I grinning I bear it Heart of gold But it don't make me no saint Because I got a little secret I suck for my face pain Come on everybody sing with me

Heart of God I suck for my face pain I suck for my face pain Come up for my face pain Come f*** Face pain I suck for my face pain I suck that for my face pain, face pain, cock.

Face pain, face pain, cock, and face pain. Feeca, face pain, face pain, face pain, face pain, face pain, face it, face pain, face pain, face it, together it lasts in a heavenly union. And it just keeps going out and, you know, then it's just all caches and face pains. And I remember getting to... That's how I ended the thing. And I walked up to Lauren and I didn't know what to say.

So I said, sorry for all the c-cars. And then I got the job. One of the single most important and glamorous jobs you could have in comedy is to be the guy who plays the sitting president of the United States on Saturday Night Live. Back in 2004, as you may recall, Our sitting president, about to start his second consecutive term, was an athlete named George W. Bush.

We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive. What you may not recall, however, is that the cast member Lauren Michaels assigned to portray W in 2004 was the self-described non-impressionist who joined the show in 2002 and is also sitting with me in studio here today. And this turned out to be a deliberate turning point in Will Forte's life in a typically a typical way.

So you're already sort of like disclaiming your other impressions. But just to give people the recap on like you taking the mantle of W, You just like, talk about like a backup quarterback stepping into a job vacated by who in this case. Well, it was vacated by Will Ferrell. Finally, to Saddam Hussein. I have just one more thing to say. Live from, no wait, two more things to say. One of the people I still consider to be, you know, he's, if not the funniest person,

live he's in the top three tied for funniest person alive there's nobody funnier than him with one of the most iconic political impressions of all time it's like this went beyond a political impression for me but you like i get it like it's you have to have somebody doing george bush on s and l he's the president i don't i don't agree that i was the right person for that but i you know it was my god i think it was my second year when they came and asked me to do it. So, A, I'm terrified. It's not my strong suit.

Any impersonation. I've since found out that I can do a Kermit the Frog, and I think that's it. Can we hear Kermit the Frog? Kermit the Frog here. But everybody can do a Kermit the Frog. I mean, a pretty good version of it. Now, you're George W. Bush, by contrast, do you have that even in you, that muscle that can activate

what yours was? I just remembered the first time I did it, I think it was just saying it was hard. But I also wanted Osama to know something. I'm ready.

Anytime. Your turf or mine. I'll be waiting. Texas style. I know that Siddakis ended up taking W, no? Or who got it?

Yes, Lauren came. Yeah. What's that like to be taken to call for the reliever when you're on the mound doing W? I think Lauren knew that I didn't like doing it. I think it was best for the show. Cedakis, he's just really good at those things. And if you wear a uniform and regularly carry a gun, we need you in Iraq. Whether you're a New Jersey state trooper or Alan Iverson.

How does he talk about? It was entirely through the lens of like, when he's, took over W from you, it allowed you to be the like staggeringly original person that you actually are, as opposed to this vessel for other stuff. I will say I do think that was a big part of it, because in the early going when I was given this Bush assignment, I would usually be in these cold opens as Bush. And then basically it's like, oh, for you. Forte is taken care of, he's got his bush. And it's like, no, I don't want to be doing that. I'll do it if I have to. But it's nothing like the stuff that I do. I was sucking for face paint before.

Yeah, it's just like weird, absurd stuff I like. And because of the bush stuff, I very rarely got a chance to try those things out. So once, once like I was free of the bush thing, which was, I remember. I remembered hearing that, and it was like 99%. Yes! Oh, I can't, I'm free, I'm free. And then one percent of like, oh, you didn't like me. Right. You know, you can't help but know that like, oh, that means I wasn't doing great. But it was way more the other side of it, like, oh, I'm finally free.

And then, yeah, a little bit at a time got to start doing the kind of stuff that I like to do. Now you must fly away from these woods and bring back something, a possum, a squirrel, anything to keep us alive. So be gone, my friend. Bring us life. What is also clear to me as I assess the scouting report here is that, you know, I don't know what a prank as defined necessarily entails. But, you know, I may or may not have heard stories about you, I don't know, throwing omelets out windows. Yes, it was a, we used to go to this place called, geez, what is it?

It was a real, the pump. I've been to the pump. You have? I have. Is it still around? Yeah. Oh, way to go, pump. The pump energy food.

Yeah. That's right. So Eric Slovan, he had ordered this meal for like late night, and I came in and I, I forget why, but I had a $20 bill out, and he took the $20 bill out. and he took the $20 bill and went to his window and said, and threw my $20 bill down, which was really funny. And but he, so he's watching it, he's like, ha-ha, and it's fluttering down.

I don't remember, I'm sure that I deserved for that $20 bill to go down there, even just for just being kind of annoying walking into the room. And so he's watching the thing flutter down. And while he's doing that, I had grabbed his meal. and just dropped it out and it kind of, he had to realize, like, oh, that's my freaking omelet that's going down. No!

So the way it's always told is that I just callously threw out his omit. This was like... The ultimate frisbee and omel. This was justice. Guilty is charged. Yeah, with... Yes. It was justice.

Thank you. What form of justice is being served when it comes to how you... you decorated a certain keyboard. That's also Slovan. So that, like, that makes, and that was way before all this stuff. So I, I did, um, I don't do a lot of manscaping. So I have a pretty full jungle in my nether regions.

And so at some point, I just like took a bunch, I cut off a bunch of my, my pubic hair. And I sprinkled it all over his keyboard. just to bug him for a little surprise when he came back in the room. And he, he, his sloven is amazing. So he just, he just, uh, deadpan just came in. You could tell there was some, a little curbed anger. He was holding it in check and he just undid his keyboard and came over and brought it over to my keyboard and then undid that.

And then, you know, we had a keyboard swap. Look, I don't stand by this stuff. It's not. It was stuff we did. I look back now and I'm like, oh, I have two daughters and they're going to, you know, at some point listen to this and go like, what? What? That's so. Why was our dad being deposed for pubes?

Why did our dad get kicked out of the country? I do want to get to when I'm talking about how you were as a writer and the deliberateness. like you care about details and you have an internal logic to why the thing you wrote is that way. And so just being the guy who has a point of view that feels like it's fully formed, did that, did you walk in with like, I have this sensibility and I want to make sure it is protected as it makes its way through the operating room of SNL? Yeah, yeah, I did. I think everybody has their lane.

I'd rather have less people like it more than more people liking it, but like, yeah, I like that. I'd rather people go, like, I love that, but like one out of every 10 people say, I got it from being charitable to myself, say like, I love that, you know, as opposed to like, you know, six people saying like, yeah, he's good. He's fine.

But that is, I think, how I feel when I rewatch you and Peyton Manning doing a locker room, motivational, you know, talk sketch. Look, coach, it's no use, all right? We suck. And I know for a fact that we can't win this game. And I'd much rather head home, bake some snickerdoodles with a few of my bros, and then practice French kissing with my French kissing puppet. So, all in favor of getting the F out of here, say I. All opposed. That was, that's my favorite one I ever got to do. So we wrote this whole sketch. The dance wasn't even part of it. At the very last minute, all credit to John Lutz,

because we're about to turn this in. And he's like, yeah, at the table where you're tomorrow, maybe dance during the, during the music. Like, are we just going to sit there? And it's like, do a little dance or something. So I'm like, oh, okay. It was like, it's so crazy to think back now because that's the whole thing.

The whole idea. Payton is so funny in that and says so much funny stuff. But like without that dance. I mean, truly as a person rewatching it, I'm like, they started with the dance. Because the whole payoff is the dance. Right. You would think. But it's, that's that place.

Such a collaborative place. The potato chip sketch, if you ever saw. Have you seen that one? Yeah. So, but explain it, please. This was a sketch that me, and John Solomon wrote. This was one of those examples I was going to say

about one that kind of just flowed out. John Solomon was writing with somebody so it's getting later and later and soon it's six in the morning, six 30 in the morning. And at like seven in the morning, he's like, all right, what do you want to do?

And I had had this little idea that I had recorded into my phone that was just like, I think I just said like, and don't dig my potato chip. I don't want to eat my potato chip. And so he's like, oh, that's really stupid. So basically, it's really hard to describe the sketch. It's basically that voice of that guy right there is works at NASA.

And I thank you, sir, for your entrance in outer space. So how long have you wanted to be an astronaut? And Jason Siddakis comes in, the best way to describe him as like a Colonel Sanders-looking guy with the voice of Foghorn Leghorn. Sir, I will be waiting here patiently in the deepest of anticipation. And he's interviewing to be an astronaut. And it's just the most bonkers sketch

and I leave the room, I warn him not to touch my potato chips, he eats a potato chip, I come back in, I catch him, and we just get into this insane fight. I did not come here to have my reputation assassinated. Then you're sure to take it to them up and day. You don't take people.

On the sword. That is between you and your God. Now get the hell out of it. We just basically did stream of consciousness writing. Like, you know, we knew immediately when we're like, we're like, okay, what should we do? Interior NASA. And it's like, and John's like, yeah, it's logical. Your philosophy, by the way, that you articulated before of, I would rather have this be the favorite thing for a

minority of people as opposed to the broad appeal that can sink the level of your creative sort of sensibility and ambition. It does take us to McGruber quite organically. Yeah. I mean, that does. My theory of this movie, which I consider like truly like my, when people ask me, and I'm on the record again saying, like, what's your favorite comedy? I say Magroober unapologetically. Thank you. The sketch was originally a parody. satire of McGuiver. And the scene ends, and McGruber, again, if I may

just summarize him as a character, is a terrible person who is a terrible teammate, and the bomb explodes, killing everybody. I feel like you've gone down some kind of alt-right misinformation rabbit hole. You're all wrong about that, Karen? My information

is 100% non-insane. You ever heard of Q&U. You know, there are movies like this, and they're called cult classics. which is, again, like a pejorative wrapped inside of a compliment. But it is like it's wet hot American summer. It's this stuff that wasn't commercially viable or successful, I should say, that got an afterlife because through an authentic human-to-human virality,

it became this test of like, are we sharing this very specific wavelength? That's a really cool way to put it. when we did McGruber, it was the exact movie we wanted to make. I mean, little things here and there. If the budget was bigger, we could have done a couple things that we didn't get a chance to do. Then we get it exactly the way we want it. We're so excited about it, so proud of it. And then it just shi-ed the bed, so hard.

And it was really tough. It's hard not for your brain not to go like, oh, I, I agree with the movie going public, who hates, you know, didn't go to see this, you know. Right, the market is, the market has spoken. We do. Yeah, exactly. So it's hard not to like. But just to give a sense, Will, of like, how in real time you experienced it.

Like, you know, you have a movie coming out. Your family is proud of you, I presume. But, like, truly, like, were they ready for what this was? My mom, and we just talked about this the other day, lost. friends who she you know she's like being a good mom and saying it's willie's movie comes out and she she lost some friends who who just couldn't be friends with her anymore by the way i'm i think that that was a good pairing down process because whoever's going to like again again do we share this wavelength yeah but more than that just like my mom had nothing to do with that she was just being a

good mom that's reporting her son so at every turn of this podcast i wanted to be clear that will's family has nothing to do with the contents of what we're describing. But the reason why it's something that I love so much is because it has so little to do with whatever like logline it originally was. How would you describe what it is actually? It's a full-on love letter to all the 80s action movies that John and Yorma and everybody of our era grew up watching you know uncommon valor

roadhouse I know so many movies went in because they all share this one so we're just like we're just having fun doing our versions

of the movies that we love to see and we're like and at the heart of it is this dip shit but what Sudecas described it as as we were like talking through like how would you describe McGubert of someone who hasn't seen it

he's like well it's kind of like if the jerk was an action movie? So like Steve Martin's the jerk. I mean, the jerk is, I think, my all-time comedy movie favorite, and maybe all-time Jaws is up there. I love Jaws.

Raises the Lost Dark. But that's a real compliment. But like the commitment of Steve Martin in the jerk to be always this guy. Yeah. So too are you as McGruber at every, I mean, look, throat ripping as a love

language. Awesome. Got another throat rip in. Cool. Might go for the turkey. Yeah, it's a bowling term for when you get three strikes in a row. You know, for those not familiar, like, yes, there's the action stuff. There is just an incredible amount of you ripping people's throats out of their bodies. That was really disgusting. We'll get used to it, because that's my main move. Besides, he would have done the exact same thing to me if he had the chance. No, we wouldn't have. He would I just shot you. Down, now. And then, as I, like, survey, like, now I'm just doing the exercise of, like, what was the point of no return for Will's mom's friend?

And I'm like, was it the celery? What are you doing? Making a little distraction. By the way, the celery scene, my mom came that day to watch us film. So she, the night before, she called up and said she was there with two friends. and these weren't the two friends that she lost. She was there the night before and she said, So honey, we're going to come to the set in the morning

and then we're going to go to Santa Fe. And I said, well, let me pitch this. Why don't you go to Santa Fe in the morning and then come to the set when you get back because I knew that this brick and celery scene was up, and she's like, let me check with Barbara and Marsha. So she called. calls them and she says, no, we're going to come in the morning.

So I'm like, all right. You know, I think I warned her. But anyway, so that we're doing this celery scene, which for those who have not seen the movie is basically, I'm creating a distraction to try to let Ryan Philippe's character take out these snipers. And so what I chose as a distraction is dancing around naked with a piece of celery in my butt.

When you use the old celery trick, You're going to want to go with the thick end. It seems counterintuitive. But if you go thin and burst, it just slides right out. You're wasting your time. I'm never, ever going to do that. So she just watched me take after take, you know, dancing around with celery in my butt. How many takes, roughly, would you say Barbara?

I mean, you've got to do this angle, and then you got closer and closer. So I'm probably out there for, you know, two hours doing it, I would get. something like that. So anyway, at a certain point, I remember looking over and my mom, my mom is just the most supportive best person, my dad too, my whole family, very lucky. But my mom was there just smiling.

You know, I can't remember, you know, she might have even waved, and then I just saw her two friends right behind her, kind of horrified. But the sex scene, sex scenes. Yes. Romance, 80s, music soaring

like sincere into a series of sounds that I assume you already had mastered earlier in your life before you unveiled them in this way

all three of us John and Gorman I all kind of enjoy the you know doing stuff for a little longer than people feel comfortable with and so it was the editing process was like that was all three of us i i think i wanted it you know double the length it was and then and you know of the fort of the snider cut of this the forte cut it's like man i think it

what what ended up turning into what we we finally agreed on on that length and and uh but but yeah and then the so christin oh man god bless her you know she's It was very hot. It was the summer in New Mexico. I'm a sweater. I'm not really a sweater unless I get active and moving around. And then I just can't stop sweating. So she, if you look, I mean, there's so much stuff that we cut around.

It was just like somebody's pouring a bucket of water on her. The second one with Maya Rudolph. So just the timeline of this, because I was trying, again, do my research as a responsible, rigorous journalist. Wasn't she pregnant at the time, Maya? She was eight months pregnant. She, for those who haven't seen the movie, this is, I'm feeling really guilty. I've just had sex with Vicky,

who was Casey, Maya Rudolph's character's best friend. But Casey was dead. So I go to the cemetery to apologize to Casey's gravestone, and she shows up in ghost form. and then my apology to her turns romantic and we start having sex. And then it just pushes to me fully naked. And she's sitting on this headstone with no back support or anything.

And she's eight months pregnant. So I have a little thing covering my genitals, but I'm completely naked besides that. Wow. And I'm just like, you know, just. having... I can't stress enough how vigorous the approach you have here is.

I mean, she's a total pro, and we've known each other forever, so she was... I didn't feel like that was like emotionally uncomfortable for either of us, but physically, basically anything's uncomfortable

when you're eight months pregnant. And this position she was in, I think was very uncomfortable and here I'm, you know, like, then like it's, so anyway, they would have a stand-in who would come in every once in a while for the shots we could get away with to, like, you know, to give this poor woman a rest. And then, then we had to do it so that you can see Brandon Trost or a cinematographer, his dad comes by. He's like a person picking up trash in the park for some reason at two in the morning. and his point of view then is me just having sex with the air and so Yorma for that one I remember he he so I'm having sex and this thing

it's because of where I'm at every thrust the only way my body stops is by knocking right at this level of my shins into this this gravestone so it's very painful and it's going on for I you know a minute and then I'm like you know, it's from behind. So I'm like, all right, you guys, how are we doing? We get this.

It's very painful, you know, trying not to move my mouth. And they just keep going soon. I just hear them laughing because they were just, they had gotten it so long before, but they just wanted to make me keep doing it. Commitment. Commitment. Just as a matter of now,

doing the accounting of the family members involved, have you met the child Maya birthed? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is he or she aware of what, how close in contact you were? She, it's very funny because it's like, you know, she must be like 16 now. And I do, I haven't seen her in a while, but I did do something for, I think it was, at some point it saw Maya and her.

And like, it's just kind of almost inappropriate to bring it up because I at the time she was probably 12. So, you know, trying to, it's kind of funny to us, like, oh, this is the one who was in. And it's like, you can't really say, yeah, this was, yeah, I was like, you know, you heard what I, how I just explained it. That's not something you tell to, like, this probably was now that I think about it seven years ago or something.

Right, right. And so she would have been nine or something. Oh my God. We'll save it for her 21st birthday. But when it comes to that, the Hollywood people who loves spending time with Will Forte. And you can see yet more A-lister's who fit that description in the four seasons, which came out just last week on Netflix.

The collaborator everybody told me to ask about is Val Kilmer. Val Kilmer died at age 65 from pneumonia, just last month. After career playing Iceman in Top Gun and Batman in Batman Forever and Jim Morrison in The Doors, And also, yes, McGruber's arch nemesis, in a parentally polarizing adaptation of a gross SNL sketch that happened to gross less than $10 million worldwide. And so I really wanted to talk about Val Kilmer with Will Forte, but I also wasn't sure how Will would feel.

Can we talk about the now late, great Val Kilmer. Yeah. I mean, just just to go from the beginning, though, like Val Kilmer, convincing him to do every,

he's in this movie. If you've never seen it, just know that he is a star of the movie you've now heard described. As one of the great all-time names, by the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter.

There's still enough ofodium nitrate left in that warhead to blow up the White House in Congress combined. Right again, Kuntz. Of course, it's going to be awfully hard to fly it without... The guidance system. We!

That's another one that's like... No, I will say very, very confidently that Dieter von Kuntz is just the only name that character could have ever been named. I remember how blown away we were. And then for him to be a part of it. And then you go through the whole experience and you just get to know the guy. And then soon it's like, oh, this is just my buddy Val. Like it's so weird that then you just forget because he's such a part of your life that like, then when I, you know, when he sadly passed away, you see all these things and you're like,

oh, that's right. this guy who's my buddy is like, like, what a, what a, just an amazing career he had. But you just forget about it. But I remember there was a point where he stayed with me for a while. Yes, this was another thing that I did not appreciate until he passed, because then the stories started circulating, that you and Val Kilmer, for some real period of time, lived together. He moved in with you, more specifically, right? Yeah.

So he was selling his place in New Mexico, and he was trying to find a new place. He was living in a place in Malibu, but having a dispute with his landlord. So he was trying to find a new place in Malibu, and he had had a party, and he invited me and my girlfriend at the time. And so we were over there, and he said, hey, I'm getting a new place. Can I stay with you for a couple days? I think he said for a couple days. however he phrased it made me think that it was going to be a couple days

until I can lock down this new place and I said yeah of course great so this was a Saturday and Monday he shows up and then like that afternoon his his assistant came with carrying two just enormous duffel bags filled with books

and then I was like oh this is not this is a bad sign I mean, not a bad sign because it's a different sign. He's here for the longer haul. I don't think two days is what it's going to be. Because it just turned into this amazing, delightful thing that I look back on with so much joy. Like, he's so many fun stories. But, man, I just will never forget the stuff that he was just a, it was a delight to get to have that experience with him.

And there was one day, I will say that, just as I was saying earlier like oh he just becomes val and becomes your buddy there was this day where we were sitting around the dining room table and he started listening to these Dors songs through his speakers and and I was a big Dors fan grown up so we both started singing these songs together and then it kind of dawned on me as we're going through like just remembering that Doors movie and how special that was. And I was at UCLA at the time, and I think they were looking for extras.

And I was going to Alaska for the summer or something, so I couldn't do it. But I just remembering like, oh, my God, this is this guy that I idolized growing up. And one of the reasons I did was for this role, he's sitting right there and I'm getting to sing this with him and this is a guy

who I'm buddies with now you know it's just like it kind of sunk in just how how special and experiences it is and just how funny life is and like you know a lot of

a lot of messages take a moment to smell the roses type stuff but yeah he was a special a special unique, there is nobody like that guy. Often, it seems, based on, again, the reporting I have become aware of, often dressed as Mark Twain? Yeah, he was getting together his Mark Twain show. So he was watching, a lot of times I'd come back and all the lights in the house would be off,

and he would just be in his little guest bedroom, and the door was cracked a little bit, and I'd just see a little light coming out, not from the lights, but. but either it would be coming from one of two things. One, he'd be reading a book and he'd have like a little miners lamp. Exactly, yes. And he would use that to read. And so that was one way. The other way was he was going through a big 30 Rock kick.

He loved the show 30 Rocks. So he watched that a bunch. And so I would just see him with a little tablet or whatever it was, a DVD player probably at the time. So having been a part of 30 Rock, they asked me to do one of the DVD commentaries, and I said, you know what, Val Kilmer is living with me right now, and he loves the show.

Would you ever want us to do it together? And they're like, of course. So anyway, I'd just tell him, you know, meet me at this place, and freaking Val shows up, dressed as Mark Twain. He's just been like walking around the stage, streets of the Third Street promenade as Mark Twain. And it was just like that kind of stuff. You just never knew what was going to happen.

He was fearless and fun. And he had this way of communicating. He would be like mock serious, but you, but also so silly at the same time. It was just a real, real loss. I'm still mad that you guys didn't do the Amazing Race. Oh, yeah. That was for people who don't know that. I used to watch The Amazing Race back then.

So he comes in and he's like, what are you doing? This reality TV stuff is going to rot your brain. You got to turn this off. And I'm like, I think you might like this if you gave it a chance. So check it out. So he's like, all right, he kind of begrudgingly sits down on the couch and got very into it to the point that at the end of the episode, he's like, we got to do the amazing race.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. And then we both called our reps the next day, and it was a resounding note from all of them. They're like, no, you crazy. So anyway, when he passed, I called my agent back, and I was kind of reminding him like, yeah, at some point we were going to go on that amazing race together. that's, you know, and he was like, oh, that'd be awesome.

It's too bad you didn't do that. I'm like, what? You're the dude who told us not to do it? But I do look back now and, you know, sometimes you just got to just do it. Because that's one I think we should have done. My God. My God. Look, I am, as I said before, you go through these junkets and you think back on your past.

And it's like, I'm the luckiest guy in the earth. I got to, you go into comedy, going to the ground links, it's like, I just want to be on SNL. That's what I want. And then I, Letterman wasn't even a part of it. And then all of a sudden, my two dreams would be, write at Letterman, be at SNL.

I got to write at Letterman. Then I got to be on SNL for eight years. And when I left SNL, McGruber bombed at the box office. I was not like this, I wasn't leaving, like, oh, this guy's a sure thing to get any job ever again. Like, I, right, was aware that that might have been the last acting job I had. And then just somehow it was like blessing after blessing with it. Nebraska came out of nowhere and then getting that led to Last Mountain Earth, you know,

looking back, I would have never seen myself, you know, being 15 years after leaving S&L, being on a podcast, well, podcast didn't really exist. But like to talk about a project I'm in currently with Tina Faye and Steve Carell and Coleman Domingo. While the guy across from the desk is about to ask, clearly this means now following the rhythm of your career that you're going. to make Magrooper 2. You're going to make another Magroober. Look,

it's, that Magruber family is, it is a family, and they're all people that I love so dearly would love to do another Macrober,

if somebody would give us a chance. I would doubt that anybody would, but I would jump at it. After this podcast, Will Forte, I have a feeling that someone out might be insane enough to reflect upon, yeah, the level of commitment that it takes to make

something truly special. Man, you brought it full circle. Thank you. Thank you for all the kind words. That's really, really, it makes me feel good. I am grateful that, yeah, that the people we know in common, they feel the way. and they feel the way that I feel, it turns out about, yeah, getting to hang out with you.

So thanks. Thank you. This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.