SmartLess - "Dax Shepard"

Episode Date: July 20, 2020

Celebrating the anniversary of our first moon-landing and the launch of SmartLess, the guys' old pal Dax Shepard surprises them on the pod. Dax is an Actor (Parenthood), Director (Chips), and renowned Podcaster (Armchair Expert). He introduces the gents to the world of podcasting, they talk ski-trips and adventures, and they all discuss their growth through personal experiences, stories and hijinks from memorable (and highly unmemorable) moments in life. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and me, Will Arnett. Each week, one of us brings on a special guest and surprises the other two. They don't know who the guest is, which makes it fun. And then we laugh and we get a little less smart less. So I guess more smarter. More smarter. We should have needed more smarter. Anyway, come take a ride on the SmartLess train.

Will, you just, congratulations. You just had a baby. That's pretty amazing. It should be noted, my partner had a baby, I was, I didn't do it. But you pushed just as hard. I sure did. I pushed her. Yeah.

I was like, what are you made of? I was like the great Santini in the delivery room. Yeah. Yeah. I just had a baby boy, little Denny. That's incredible. Just last night. Yeah.

So crazy. Do I look tired? You do. So way to, way to, way to hang in there with your girl. So you just thought you'd pop over for a podcast, huh? Well, I mean, somebody's got to pay the doctor bills. You understand? We don't have healthcare in this country.

I'm like, I'm just, are they both still in the hospital? Are they both? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And where are you? You're at home. You're at home.

Doing a podcast. That's great. So you got a pretty stiff deductible, I guess. And I had to come home and sauna and cold plunge first. I mean, listen, this, this chassis, as you would say Jason, it's no fluke. Okay. Wow. That's great.

No, I actually, as you guys know, I was a little late getting here. And all of a sudden I stood up and I was like, babe, I'll be right back. Oh my God. I raced down and jumped in the car, drove home, got on here doing this and I'm, and I'm going to be right back at it. But I just actually came from feeding him myself. He took a little extra in the bottle and it was just unbelievable. Wow.

That's so cool. Yeah. I'm talking about Jason. Yeah. No, I got it. I got to look at him. He looks like he's about to poop any second. I think, I think maybe I should probably have like a lift, some sort of like a, isn't

there a thing where you can kind of like cinch up your forehead a little bit and lift your, lift your, your brow back. Interested when Ed Begley had the eyes because he had alpica and then I turned his eyebrows on upside down. And I go, God, you look surprised and he says, Oh, do I, sorry, I must have put my eyebrows too high. No, no. He said, I think I put my eyebrows on upside down.

Guys, I'm super excited about our guest today. He's a, he's a fellow that we know. We all know and we love very much. He's originally from the suburbs of Detroit. And this I didn't know graduated magna cum laude from UCLA and anthropology. What? I did not know that. And I've known this man for a long time.

He's been very successful in everything he does and director movies, movies, TV shows to his marriage, to being a father, to his own podcast from which we could all learn a thing or two. Dax Shepard. Yes. I love this man. He's one of my besties. He's one of the kindest.

Dax Shepard. I got it. Today on SmartList, we have with us the amazing Dax Shepard, everybody. Magna cum. Hang on a second. When you said magna cum laude, I knew that because I'm not jealous of the fact that he's got it. It feels me with so much joy because one of the things about Dax is you look at this son

of a gun. He's got an attitude. He's got the cutoff shirts that I love. He's got the guns. He's got the whole thing. And then this motherfucker is sneaky smart. Like you wouldn't believe. Wait a second, Dax, how come you didn't let us know, me know, ever that you graduated

magna cum? That seems like something you might lead with. From UCLA. Yeah, from UCLA. Under promise over deliver boys. Wait, wait, wait. I have to write that down. Get the guard down, get the guard down, Chauncey gardener it, and then sweep in and get all

your women. I'm kind of dead serious. I'm really shocked. Barney, your lady, although I've not met her and she's just with child, she's mine. Geez, I knew that. It's cutthroat. Is the kid yours too? I don't want another kid for crying out loud.

No, I just want another bedmate. If he wanted it, he'd take it. Wait, are you dipping right now? Hang on a second. Are you dipping? You're dipping. Yeah, you're chewing. Dax is chewing.

Wait, do you have chewing tobacco in your mouth right now? Let's just put me right on blast four eyes. Yeah. No. Oh, sorry. We don't want to go down this road. You want to start picking fights, lighting fires? Yeah, magna cum laude and dipping.

Jason, here's where you could learn from Dax. When I did Dax's podcast, he let me up there in his space. He let me blow some darts and I was killing the butts and he never mentioned it on the air and then he comes on here. He's not on here six seconds before you're blowing up his spot. Wait, is that a secret? Are you supposed to keep that quiet, chewing tobacco? I know.

I never knew that. I never knew that about you. Magna cum laude quite nicely. Exactly. And in the rare event that there's like 10 or 15 young men who look up to me, I find it hard to believe, but I certainly wouldn't want them packing a dip just to be like me. I'm not trying to promote that. Now, look, yeah, do I have some bad habits still?

Yeah, I've cleaned up a bunch of them, but there's some left in this chewing tobacco. Look, I'm on and off it, on and off it, and in quarantine. I'm all the fucking way on it. It's not the loose stuff though. Your band, that's right. No, no, I got a big, let me, let me, look at that thing. Have you ever swallowed it by mistake? Probably while drunk, drinking, yeah, yeah, you know, out of a, out of an old beer bottle

that I've been spitting in. It happened. My brothers used to chew and would swallow and then throw it up to manage their weight or no, because they were probably drunk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I loved about being a drunk and I think a few of you can relate is that you'd

show up on vacation, you don't need a game plan, just have a couple of cocktails at the bar and everything else presents itself. You meet someone next to you that you would never hang out with, but you're lit. He's got to come to my bungalow, great. He's got these pills. Yeah. Now we heard of a dance club. You know, everything just happens.

All you got to do is just get that first drink down and everything takes care of itself. And in sobriety, when I went on vacation, I'm like, what, what, go by the pool and watch other people pound cocktails responsibly. Right. Right. Wait. So, but what age were you when you started doing all that? A partying.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I had a year in high school where I actually spoke to my mother and I said, look, I know dad's an alcoholic and everyone in the family's an alcoholic, but I'm going to need to find out for myself. And she said, I really wish you wouldn't do this, but I'm going to allow it. But with the understanding that if it gets out of control, you promise me you'll listen to me.

And I said, yeah, I can commit to that. And then I was woken up on one Saturday morning because the local law was at the house on a Saturday morning and they wanted to speak to her son. And that proved to be the nail in it. So I then shut it down for my full senior year because I respected her and then I went back at it when I graduated and then I did 11 hard years. Wow. Good for you.

Good for you for getting back at it too. Because a lot of guys would have given it up and just thrown in the towel, but this guy's got to get up and get it. He's got an engine on him that don't quit. Yeah. Yeah. I said, look, I think this law enforcement showing up at my house in the morning, that's got to be an anomaly.

That can't happen again. Now, Dex, I truly do want to know, I've always wanted to ask you, because when you said you started this podcast, I don't know, two years ago, three years ago, I don't know how long it was. Two and a half. And you were like, I'm doing this podcast. I'm on my attic. I'm like, what?

I didn't understand. What made you want to do it? I was a pretty regular guest on some of them. And the feedback I got, say from Mark Marin, where dozens of dudes had stopped me over the years and said, like, hey, man, I listened to that episode pretty often. I got sober after hearing it. I always kind of go back to it. I had had so many guys tell me that.

And I was like, I don't feel that when I'm in a movie looking in the barrel over Don Johnson's shoulder. No one stops me and says that got me sober, although certainly someone got sober because of that. But I was just, I was really, really moved with the, the response of being a guest on like Sam Jones, Mark Marin, a few of the long form ones. And as all of us have done, we're all comedians and we've all done a million talk shows. You know, that pressure to be amazing in six minutes, which is fun.

I love it. I love being on talk shows. But I wanted for like, oh, I have more thoughts and I have more to offer and I have a bigger story to tell and I want to do it. But just again, largely just enjoying being on the long form one so much and generally being open to being on people's and just always loving the experience. I was like, I want to do this all the time. But do you miss, like, I've worked with each one of you individually for months at a time

on multiple projects. And one of the things I love and one, it's probably one of the reasons I do this is because I love that experience, not just doing the scene, but I love hanging out with, with guys like you and people like you and gals like you, like having fun and laughing. I've had some of my greatest experiences working, have been with all three of you guys where I've had a great time. Likewise. Oh, that's everything.

That's the whole reason to do the job after a while. It's such a blast and so, and formed really great lifelong relationships with all three of you guys. So does that, do you miss that part of it? Do you feel like a lone or no? Well, I just shot, you know, 28 episodes of Bless Us Mass and I'm also on Top Gear and I also host the game show. So I'm doing more than enough of that.

Of course. Yeah. In fact, it's, yeah, more and more with it, when you just look at the amount of energy required and time committed and two kids and all that, less and less do I want to be on a like scripted show that takes 65 hours a week, nine months of the year. It's just, yeah, it's less and less appealing to me. You know, all my, all my acting aspirations are, are gone in a healthy way. What about your directing stuff though, because you're a great director and you're able to,

you know, juggle a bunch of balls at the same time and guide multiple departments and, and shape and experience for an audience. Is that something that you think you'll, you'll return to? I mean, I recognize it's a bit of a time suck and you're super busy, you know, on the top of the hill. But, you know, do you see that sometime in the future? Um, because you did, you used to saying that how much you loved it. I love it.

There is nothing more fun than when you're in production directing. To me, it's the closest thing you can get to doing cocaine, uh, with kind of no downside. You're just, when you're there as an actor, as you guys know, you're, you're like, when are we getting out of here? That's, I arrive and I ask when we're, when are we getting out of here as a director? The thing flips entirely where it's like, how long can we stay? I want to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot now. And maybe we could add this thing and like just that flip of, of wanting to be there

and wanting more time and, and, and the control, the control of, of, of solving problems as they arise. Cause there's no, there's no game plan for a movie unless you have 130 days like Tarantino and you can sit around and wait for the sun to be where you thought it was going to be X, Y and Z. You know, Bateman, you do it all the time. You map something out, you got there, you guys got there three hours later, the sun's now in a different spot. You're now shooting on that side of the street instead of this side of the street.

And I love solving problems. So I love going, okay, well, how can we make this work on the other side of the street? That's very stimulating for me. So I love it. Do I love editing for four months and then testing over and over again? I fucking hate that. Do I love promoting and getting tracking for fucking two months, knowing you're just going and promoting for no reason and it's going to tank, you know, all that stuff that the

risk reward is just unappealing to me currently. That part of it's dead though. I'll bet you that. It is. You're so right. So what I want to like write a pilot and shoot the pilot, yeah, I think I would like to do that. That seems like something that would be manageable.

And then you're not so dependent on the studio to promote it and all these other things. But yeah, just the heartbreak of like two years and then you and then your whole life's decided on a Friday. I just don't need that again. It would be like for me, you know, having a boyfriend that kicked my ass and going back to that. Why would I do that to myself? Tell me about it.

Two and a half months of shooting isn't worth that to me. I last year as a mantra, as a mantra, I would be saying, your opinion's not needed here. Like just as a everywhere I go, your opinion is not needed here because I think everyone must hear my opinion on all fucking topics and it's just these people are doing just fine when I'm not around. Right, how do they make it without you? Yeah, I think Chris and I have both said that to each other in fights. Do you think that I just arrived here like by accident, like I was doing plenty good

without you. I was eating and taking dumps and showering. Everything was, the bills were paid. Right. Yeah. Now, Dex, I know you jumped around because last time we talked a week ago or two weeks ago. You said you had mentioned about jumping around from house to house when you were a kid from

stepfather to stepfather and it was very uneasy and kind of like, you know, I had a hard childhood too as you know, but talk about that a little bit and like why that was unstable for you and what did that drive you to do or not to in your adult life? Like how do you, and by the way, was comedy an escape from all of that as well? Did you like, I got to get out of here. The only way to deal with this is drugs, alcohol and laughing. Sorry. Dex, B1, this is a 14-pronged question.

Go ahead. Well, I'll just say I'm going to parse this out. I think I heard why are you a comedian and why are you an alcoholic, so let me try to sum that up. Oh, so I'm coming through loud and clear then. Yeah. Yeah. And you guys are, you guys are five-hour episodes.

There's going to be a two-parter. Special two-parter. Yeah, because I just, I want to plot out my answer. I want to come, I want to land the plane in under three. Can I just say before you start, can I just say before, before you start your answer, can I just say, because I don't think it came out enough, how goddamn happy I am that Dex is here. Yeah, it's pretty bitchy.

This is such a fucking joy. Yeah. I've just, I don't know if you heard Dex had a kid. My son was born yesterday at a newborn, and I'm sitting here with three of my fucking old-timey pals, and this feels so goddamn good, and I'm so happy it's you. Go ahead. I love it. God, listen to all the love oozing out of this softy new dad.

I love it. I love it. I wish I could face you right on the mouth. How masculine is Arnett? He just can't have a girl. No, I know. Like you and I can only have girls. Exactly.

And this guy's on propitia and still making boys. Nothing but testosterone coming out of him. That was my explanation for having all girls. I'm like, it must be the propitia. I'm on Dettrol Hydroxy Testosterone. I am on nothing but propitia. That's all I need. If you kept going, you'd have a fucking football team on your hands in no time, Arnett.

It's crazy. Anyways. Like an entire police force. Look, I have a genetic predisposition. I come by it honestly. A lot of shepherds were alcoholics. I got some uncles that shot each other, a lot of my people in prison. We're all from Northern Kentucky that migrated to Michigan.

So that's the gun. And then what loaded it is, you pointed out, was lots of stepped dads, some physical violence, some sexual abuse. And then a penchant for fucking fun, love and life. So just a thrilling, but I would say probably the biggest catalyst was, with the absence of a father figure giving me approval, I sought it with reckless abandon from my peers. And my peers were all about how hard could you party? How could you fight?

How far could you jump a motorcycle? How long could you wheelie? And I was like, sign me up for all these. I want the masculine credentials. I want to be a man. And I did all those things. And it should be noted that you probably did those things more than all those people who challenged you to knowing Dax.

Well, all those things happened at the same time on some occasions, show up lit on a motorcycle to the bar and start swinging. So you can dovetail them all into one explosion. And then yeah, unlike you gentlemen, I was auditioning for 10 years in LA and could not get a job, couldn't book a commercial. And that was, that was rough. And yeah, booze was a nice little vacation from that. Hard to see everybody around you, kind of, especially you were at the groundlings, which

is kind of like Second City and all of the other improv classes. Hard to be around all those other people who are like booking stuff left and right. And you were in the groundlings with Melissa McCarthy and just all these huge names. Yeah. And I'd go home and I'd pop on the TV to watch basketball and all of my classmates and peers were selling auto insurance and fast food and, you know, and they were all just quietly making like, you know, 70 grand a year doing commercials. And I instead was driving cross country for General Motors to make ends meet.

Which I'm sure they were jealous of. They were so jealous. They were like, how many hours are you in that car on the weekend? I'm like, around 72. I think I even blew by Bateman and his buddy on their infamous ski trip in that van. Now, all right. Now listen. Wait a second.

Wait a second. What is this story, Garrett? It was a 40 foot boundary, not a van. How dare you? Was it beef, Garrett? Oh God. Have I ever told you this story? Give people context.

Come on. Yeah. Give us context, Bates. I tried to get it all out of them on my podcast, but it was too dangerous. So maybe on his, he'll feel empowered to tell us the truth. You got to. You have to now. In his retelling on my podcast, there's just some gaps in time that he has no explanation

for. But we all know what the fuck. I think we went down a rabbit hole about a wiping techniques. I think that that's exhausted our time. I heard that. So Leif and I, Leif and I were buddies because he, Leif Garrett, yeah, he was dating my sister and, and I, I just thought he was just the coolest thing in the world. And then they broke up and he and I stayed friends and I was thrilled about it.

And he was a great skier and knew his way around a bottle of booze and he admired his skiing prowess and everything else. No, this, this guy, this guy's it. And then I pitched, I wanted to just take him away. You know, I wanted him all to myself. So I said, Hey, how about, how about we go on a ski trip, Angel? And he said, he said, great. So we rented a, a motor home, stocked it up with all you can handle and read between

the lines. Yeah. We put two, two mountain bikes on the roof so we could, we could travel from the, from the, from the RV parking lots into, into the main town, wherever we'd, we'd go. And we, we plotted a loop. We went north from Los Angeles to mammoth. Then we went to Tahoe. Then we went to Jackson Hole.

We went to Sun Valley. We went to Aspen. We went to. You went to a lot of places. Yeah. Utah. Yeah. Yeah.

We don't need the itinerary. Well, but. You put some miles on it. But that's significant, right? Where'd you gas up in between? I mean. Oh, so we took a couple of weeks. I would say the beauty of the story is in the details statement.

Okay. Sorry. Don't spare us any. Yeah. I love every one of these stops. I can't do them any more details than just destinations, mostly because I can't remember. Once we, once we turn the, the rig off, things got a little cloudy. It should be noted as hardcore that is, and you guys going on this trip or you're filling

the RV full of parties, supplies and stuff. The nerd element is, and we had the mountain bike so we could go from wherever just into the town. Like what? Nerd. And that's a new development for me. Can I tell you what I thought when you originally told me there were mountain bikes involved and, and skis, I was like, God bless these guys.

They're doing some downhill mountain biking. Like I assume when they come out of elevation and it gets warmer, they're in Moab maybe on the mountain bikes. No, no, no. It's drunk. No, no. It's a, it's a winter trip. So we're riding these mountain bikes in the snow, pretty lit up.

So it, it was tough. Do you remember my first follow-up question when you told me that story privately? I do not. I said, if and how often were you and Leif both making love in the same RV at the same time? It's close quarters. I bet I had a pretty colorful answer for that. Listen, this is, this is great and I love, thank you Dax for saying make love.

Good for you. Yeah. Yeah. This is a couple of thrill seekers, romantics. They're on the road for God knows how long. Not a fuck trip. This was, this was beautiful mountains and making love and rivers and, and light snow. Good for you.

Because I want to, I want to get back to like life stuff because I love it and I don't, I wasn't there at this, in the story, so I'm kind of bored by it. Oh my God. Okay. Sean, I'll, I'll spice it up for you. Any dudes come in that fucking RV. Finally. Finally.

Jesus. God. All of a sudden. Swing their wangs around at all. My earphones just popped up a little bit. Trust me. You guys are seeing, you guys know when you work with Sean, it's like, yeah, your line, your line, your line, my line.

Right. Your line, your line. Everybody else talks. Everybody else talks. Thank you for teaching me that, Will. So obviously the four of us have been friends for a super long time and know, know everything about each other or almost everything about each other. I didn't know about the Magnum Cool Outer, but, but for the people listening who don't

know, like you're one of the funniest people I've ever known, Dax. And like when you were going from house to house, stepfather to stepfather, like for me, I didn't, I didn't fall into the trap of drugs and alcohol, like the three of you did. Not yet. So it's not a competition. So not yet. And so my true escape, my nerd escape was Saturday Night Live and comedy because it made me, if I could laugh or make other people laugh, it made me feel euphoric.

That was my corny, dumb, nerdy drug because I didn't do drugs, right? So for you running around, doing all that, what were, who were your influences and who were, who did you watch and was comedy as much of an escape as a drug like it was for me? Okay. So what I love about this is I'm juggling three balls and I'm juggling Sean Hayes and Bateman and Arnett and it's great. So I'm going to click in, you're in the air right now, you're in the air.

But to answer your question. So what I like about is I'm clicking back from sincere to, to getting roasted. But to, to that I would say the other element was I was, you know, severely dyslexic and I went to the learning disabled room for an hour a day and they knocked on the door and they basically brought me and the other guy out. You can imagine what he looked like. It was demoralizing and yeah, my defense for that was I was, I was funny. But I think it now, you know, that I'm older, I really recognize its control.

Every one of these things is control. Why I like cars and motorcycles, it's all control and why I like comedies control because I'm in an awkward, we're all awkward, we're all, we all have social anxiety and I have this thing where I could take charge of the whole interaction and I could steer it and I could do something and get a predictable outcome. And I, I loved that predictability. I think my childhood was largely unpredictable and sometimes dangerous and, and just having a sense of control of my environment and the people in it.

That's what appealed to me. A lot of comedians will go like, Oh, I just love the joy of making other people laugh. Not me. I like control. I like predictability. Yeah. I'm not that altruistic. Yeah.

I get that from you. Well, then that sets up well for what you're killing right now, right? And I want to talk about that. I mean, I think it is incredible, awesome, fantastic news that you're just right up on top of the mountain with what you're doing with, with your podcast. I just like, and, and, you know, we're, we're three morons trying to see if we have any idea what the hell we're doing in this space. So I want to try to pick your brain a little bit and try to keep it entertaining about

how we try to do this half as good as you're doing it. But just, I do want to say, I said, I've told you privately, I want to tell you publicly, I just, I'm so happy for you with how incredibly successful your, your podcast is and do you like the dynamic of, of the control of that, where you, you know who the guest is, what the questions could, should be, what the angle is going to be, and then kind of pivoting inside of that and trying to be a little bit flexible, yet still in control. I mean, is that, is that an, it's an appealing thing, I bet, yeah? For sure.

It's like, it's downright euphoric when it goes well. And you really do, not to get corny, but you, you can reach a state of flow in this. It happens to me all the time where, you know, I interviewed Yuval Harari and they're like, he's got to leave in an hour. And I was like, okay. And then all of a sudden I saw the person like signaling us, he had to go. And in my mind, I would have bet my children's life on the fact that we had been talking for 12 minutes.

Yeah. And an hour had gone by and I was like, oh my God, that reminds me of, you know, other, other aspects of our work where that can happen, it happens to me in the editing room, right? Where it's like, you're so hyper focused on this thing. And all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, I've been editing for six hours. That's crazy. Or, you know, I think any, I get that on the motorcycle track. Anytime I'm present, I'm not worrying about what Dex needs in the future or what I don't

have now. As soon as I escape that prison of my brain, I'm really happy and I enjoy it. And yeah, there is this great sense of, it's not unlike acting too, where it's like if you get into a scene and it's really sloppy and things are changing and you're reacting. And then all of a sudden some magic kind of happens. And that to me, that the podcast is like, it's two hours of my favorite aspect of acting. Like, can I listen? Can I respond?

Can I elevate this? And I have found it, you know, I directed three movies and the whole goal of directing a movie in theory would be that you're going to let someone in on your point of view, how you're processing this world around you. And yet you're confined by the three X structure and you're confined by the rules of Aristotle and poetics. There's all these things you're confined by. And then I realized on the podcast, like, oh, I sit down for two hours, you're in my

fucking point of view. There was ever a fast pass to my point of view. It is that podcast and it's what normally takes me two years to do and I don't even succeed when I make it. So has it made directing and acting less important then? I mean, you're getting satiated with this, yeah? Yeah. You know, what's funny is I heard Joe Rogan about five years ago say he had no desire

to act. And I, as a cynical piece of shit, thought, oh, that's bullshit. He's just not getting asked to act anymore and that's his story now. And now I completely, I totally believe him and it's not that I don't have a desire to act or anything. It's just that, yeah, this is fucking incredibly fulfilling. I don't have to get hair and makeup. I drive to my guest house above my garage.

There's so many elements that are heaven about it. One of the things that's really great, this is more sort of an observation is that, and I bet the other guys will back me up on this, is that you are a guy who's very, very interested in the world around and you're very interested in other people and what other people's perspectives are. You're often blown away when confronted with somebody else's perspective that's really cool to watch. You'd be like, wow, this motherfucker thinks this, that's crazy.

But not bad, more like, that's wild. That's not how I looked at it and you hear that when you talk to people. So well, one thing was, I don't know if you guys watched that Michael Jordan documentary. Yeah, it's great and it's hit me a couple to say, I watched it's not fair and injected it or something. It's so great. And do you know, do you remember the part where the guy said, Jordan wasn't the best fastest runner, the best shooter or whatever, but never has there been somebody who's been

more in the present moment than that guy. He's always in the present moment. And I think that that's what you're kind of touching on that desire to be. I understand that and I understand to the extent that I'd love to be able to connect with it as much as possible because when I do, it feels so fucking good. And that's what I hear coming through from you. Like that desire to be right there in that moment, like you said, when you're on the motorcycle track or doing the podcast, right, like that's the kind of zone you want to live

in. Howard Stern does that really well. There's a sincere curiosity about other people's perspective and really stays engaged in his conversations with people. You do that incredibly well too. Yeah. And I got to tell you, so two things. One, I just want to give full credit to AA.

The whole reason I'm any of the things you guys might compliment is from AA. 15 years ago, you would have liked me. I was a blast at the party and I would have fought for you guys, but that it would have ended there. You wouldn't have asked me to like help you do anything and expect me to show up. So I give all credit to that. And then also I just want to say as far as the podcast and as far as you guys are concerned, I asked Chris Hardwick, because I had him on early and he's obviously done tremendous

in this. And I said, what advice do you have for me? And he said, you know, the less and less I prepare, the better I am. He said, because inevitably, if you're trying to lead someone to a story, best case scenario, you'll hear that story. Great. But you already knew that story. So there's limits to your engagement.

You can only be so interested in something that you already know the outcome of. And it's palpable. And he said, you know, be flexible, let the thing go where it goes. Don't try to steer it. You know, have some flags planted, but, but, you know, really be open to what can happen. And the more the times that I get into a state of flow is like the piece of paper vanishes, you know, I mean, obviously you should come in prepared enough that if the person's a fucking dud, you can walk them through it.

But also be, be soon as you get that green light that there's someone that can run, then you just fucking, yeah, join them, you know, and to that, who do you think maybe you don't want to say, but, but, but can you think of a person who was potentially the biggest surprise in the sense of where you thought it was going to go and where you ended up? Was there one person who stood out to you is like, wow. Yeah. Well, well, well, first and foremost, my mom, that was my favorite interview I've done so far because, you know, she's not, she's not in the public eye.

She's never been interviewed and for her to tell her personal stories succinctly and so powerfully was like, I was that, you know, I got to ask her questions in that interview. I never even thought to ask her and then B maybe would have been nervous too, but the time was right and it happened. And so that was, that was like a very profound experience, but dude, dog the bounty hunter, dog the bounty hunter who we all have loved on television. You've seen him run through those doors with the industrial can of mace. He's got his whole, all of his kids or so many kids, you know, the whole thing's great.

It's great entertainment. He shows up and dog is got a humongous bandage around his thumb and he has been bit by an actual dog at the Starbucks next to my house minutes ago. So right out of the gates, I'm like dog, dog, the bounty hunter was just bit by a dog. You know, seconds ago and he's here with this, this fucking makeshift bandage. So that already I loved. He came upstairs. His wife had only died three months ago and he just went right at that.

He must have cried six times. I started seeing like, oh, this dude was the sergeant of arms of the devil's disciples motorcycle. That's not Hollywood bullshit or fucking rap stuff. To be the fucking sergeant of arms of the devil's, you've got to kick ass. And I'm looking at this guy and he's the sweetest, most beautiful guy with a fucking terrible stepdad and his whole life is about been building this armor, this outward armor to say, don't hurt me because I will hurt you back.

And I was like, I love you and I relate to you and I'm doing the same thing. I've done the same thing always. And we're all, man, we're all, we've all had babies. You pick them up and they're fucking flawless. And then they just get injured and injured and they create all this stuff to protect themselves. And I just, I don't think I ever felt so, I related so much to a guy as dog, the bounty hunter.

Do you still feel like you have that armor? Like do you still feel like you, you put that on to protect yourself? And if so, when do you drop that? I think lesson, lesson, I would, I would credit Kristen with this entirely, which is, you know, for the first Kristen, come on, Sean. No, I know everybody knows. The only reason someone turned into this is to listen to Kristen Bell's husband talk about something.

So Sean, Sean, Sean, Sean wishes we could have Chyron's on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Can I tell you guys one, one funny story about a pamphlets out for it before each episode? Go ahead. Yes, please. Really quick, funny story about Colin Hanks and I about two years ago, I got invited to be a, a judge on a cooking show, right?

And it was a tremendous amount of money for three hours of work. And I said, absolutely. I'll be there. Colin Hanks is the other host. They've got us on the scissor lift. That's got to be four stories high, you guys. And it is so wobbly. They've built like this stage on top of the scissor lift.

And then all the chefs are below cooking. And this thing is swaying and rocking. And I say to Colin, I go, I just want you to know when this thing collapse and we die, the headline is going to say Tom Hanks, son and Kristen Bell's husband died in a scissor lift accident. And by the way, it's so, so true, but, but, you know, can I just say this, so like 12 years ago, we do this, we go this funny or die tour that Will Ferrell is doing with. And Adam McKay is like doing the intro stuff for him and Will's performing.

And then he's got a couple of standups and one of them is Gal Finakis and who else? A bunch of guys doing Nick Swartzson and stuff. And Adam, Adam had to leave the tour for like a week. He got sick. And Will, we were doing pro promo for this thing and he goes, come with us. You're leaving. We're leaving tonight and you're coming. You're filling in for McKay for a week.

I was like, great, it'll be super fun. So we go to like Penn State and we go to, we go to University of Rhode Island. There's like 20,000 people in the, in these arenas that feels great. And I, Will goes out, he does the intro as first. And I'm just kind of his sidekick on the side of the stage, helping him keep it moving. We get to Boston, Boston College and it's, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, oh, we're so happy to have you. And here he is coming out.

You love him. Here he is. Amy Polar's husband. And I come out of here and I'm like, in front of all 20,000 people, I'm like, you son of a bitch. That's hilarious. Polar's husband. That's funny.

Anyway. But anyways, yeah, so, so Bell had, you know, we, we one time were on actress, Kristen Bell. Princess Anna, Kristen Bell, what if, what if she didn't even earn her own title, either? So we're on our way to this place and we'd been together for maybe a year and we're dressed up and a guy threw this humongous drink at my windshield in my car. No. On sunset.

Yeah. Right in front of Chateau. He was hammered and he was like crossing sunset in front of Chateau. There's no crosswalk there. He had plenty of fucking time. I didn't slow down. So then he realized I wasn't slowing down. So then he was like tough guy in it, just standing in the middle of the road.

So then I went by him on the outside. He chucked this huge drink. I thought the windshield had exploded because it was just, you know, glass and ice everywhere. And I thought the windshield was blown out. So that, that thing exploded and the e-brake was up and I was exiting the vehicle before the car was stopped and I fought this guy on the sidewalk and, you know, he was screaming, I'll sue you and the whole people at that magazine stand were like looking and they missed the part where he fucking threw a glass at my car.

So it looked, it literally looked like I was just beating the fuck out of a random guy on the sidewalk. So no jaywalking. Yes. Vigilante jaywalk enforcers. So I get back in the car in my hunches that she didn't love that. You know, I know enough that that wasn't great for her. But God bless her.

She didn't say a thing and we get to this restaurant. It was right before the Soho house opened, but they had it, you know, running and she and I had hurt my leg pretty bad because when I kicked him, I hit his head on my shin and I had a huge egg on my, on my shin and, and she was aware of it and I was kind of limping as we got out of the valet. And so she said she had to go to the bathroom. She came back and she had procured me like a bag of ice and slid it to me under the table. This is like a meeting with her representatives.

There's other actors there and she's sliding me a bag of ice for my leg that I kicked somebody with. And, you know, afterwards we had a talk about it and I said, you know, thanks for not running me up the flagpole. I shouldn't have done that, blah, blah, blah. And she said, why do you do that? And I said, you know, I, I have a bully thing and I have a, I'm going to protect everyone thing and I, and I will never be a victim again.

I have all this stuff and she said, you know, I just want you to know it doesn't make me feel safer that you'll stand up for me. It makes me feel more scared. Like when we go places, I'm afraid you're going to be punching people. And I was like, wow, that's the opposite outcome of what I'm trying to do. Like I want you to know that I will fucking go through 10 guys if they're saying something to you. And she's like, yeah, that just doesn't make me feel safe.

And I was like, well, this is, I've been telling myself a lie. No one feels safer around me. You don't feel safer. You're waiting for me to get into some shit sometimes. I think it's funny. I love it when you mix it up with others. There've been a few times, a few times where I was, where Dax, like basically big brother did it for me, which is unbelievably great.

Dax, how often when you're out driving around in Los Angeles, are you driving aggressively, taking risks, breaking laws, you know, not, not, not, not being irresponsible, but getting after it. This is so embarrassing to say, but 100% of the time, I'm like the wolf in, in, in Pulp Fiction. Like it's 20 minutes away. I'll see you in eight minutes. My, my hobby in life is getting that way.

I have that same bad habit. Yeah. I get that ways estimate of how long it's going to take me. And for me, if I don't beat that by 20%, I should throw my car keys in the trash. I'm exactly, I'm exactly the same way. I live my life exactly the same way. I see that estimate and to me, it says you're a fucking coward if it takes, it's like, it's like, it's like name that tune.

I'll beat that. I'll beat that two minutes. I can beat that in one minute. I told you this, we talked about it when I was on your show, but two, two of the guys on this house, you and Bateman are the only two people that I know even in my life now that if I get in a car that I'm okay if they're driving, you two guys are the only guys. Sean, you and I haven't driven enough to, no, I'm pretty, I'm pretty bad. Max, wouldn't you love to do a remake of Against All Odds and do that race on Sunset with James

Woods and Jeff Bridges did? Bateman, remember, I told you, I wrote that, the Daryl Hall show, right, that I was, I sold the show time. It was, it was a false history of Daryl Hall's life. Hall and Oats. Yeah, it's a great idea. Really? And I was going to play Daryl Hall and then the whole, the whole world's fake.

Like you find out all the, the real meanings behind all those hit songs and it's just insanity. God, if you could get Schwarzman in a, in a perm to do Oats, God, whatever happened with that because I remember you telling me about that. It ended up getting really dicey with Daryl's giving us life rights. So I became friends with him and he's awesome guy and understandably he was nervous about about, you know, I'm telling a history of his life, but it's all insane. But Bateman in the fucking pilot shot for shot the Against All Odds races in there in the same cars up Sunset.

It's literally, I wrote it, I wrote it and I was, my whole fantasy is like, I cannot wait to reshoot that fucking piece. Do you think you'd ever be able to permit that, like get sunset locked down so you could shoot that? No way, right? Oh, it's so easy. Dude, it's so easy. A true story.

We, we developed a pilot, Thoreau and I developed a pilot for Don Johnson playing like, Justin Thoreau. Justin Thoreau. Playing a sort of. Jennifer Aniston's ex-husband. Yeah. That's right. With, for Don Johnson, Tubs' partner, we do a thing where he plays this guy, he's kind

of like a Crockett, but later in, it was a great part, but we had this whole segment was the exact shot for shot through the intercession of Beverly Glen and Sunset where he blows through. Against All Odds. Against All Odds. God damn. All roads lead back to Against All Odds. Can we tell everyone our DJ story, which is one of my favorite show business stories

ever. Don Johnson. Arnett. So Arnett and I are doing a movie with Don Johnson and a couple of funny things. Don, look, I loved Miami Vice in Don Johnson's awesome, but I'm not a devotee of Don Johnson, but Arnett is, fuck it. He is his, Joe Namath, Michael Jordan. Look at him.

It's over the line. He is so thrilled that Don Johnson has landed. Like we're in Italy and he's like getting updates when DJ is going to arrive. He's so thrilled, right? And so Arnett gives him a real full court press from the second he arrives. And Don is cordial and nice, but even you would admit Arnett, he's a little bit like, all right, bud. And then I'm kind of, I'm treating him like, I came on way too strong.

Oh, fucking, you, yeah, the gates weren't even open when you were springing. And so, and I was kind of giving them the, you know, you're the hottest girl in school treatment. And so I was ignoring him and didn't he become obsessed with me, huh, Arnett? He was like, I want you to do a remake. He's like, if they ever do a remake of mine about being him, and I'm incensed. I'm fucking, I'm rich at how dare he, Dax doesn't even care. It's so great.

And then so at one point while we're shooting the scene, and the scene is, we're all in a church at a wedding and Arnett and I are one pew behind Don Johnson. And this shot is of Don Johnson, but just prior to this scene, DJ pulls me aside because now he's mentoring me and he says, you know how I connected with the audience on Miami Vice? What my trick was. And I go, no, what would you do? And he goes, I buzz the lens, at least once in episode, buzz the lens.

I go, hold on, you would look right down the barrel of the camera. And he goes, oh yeah, just you glance it, you buzz the lens, you pop in and then you're out. And that, that for him, that was the recipe for success on Miami Vice. So I immediately tell Arnett this, we're in stitches about it. The very next take, poor DJ, he's acting his ass off in the foreground. I suppose those are about on the other, on either side of his shoulders, looking right in the fucking lens.

I mean, we are target lot staring. It was the craziest feeling because you know, you're all your trainings that never look at that lens and we were straight in it for like six minutes and now we're laughing so hard. We're like, we're squeezing each other's legs and we're trying not to bust and we're just in the lens and it made the fucking cut. It's one of the greatest days of filming ever. What is this film?

Oh boy. When in Rome. Kristen Bell. We'll tie that up later. That's right. That's not the point. Actually, you know what, to ask a good footnote to that is that DJ and I have since become good pals.

I knew it. Of course. I wore him down. You played the long game. Does he ever bring me up? Of course. The one that kind of way. Of course.

Of course he does. You're the ex he can't stop thinking about. Oh man. I did love him. He's fucking awesome. He's such a cool dude. And then we took, buzzed the lens and we just ran with it. You know what, I've said it on virtually everything I've ever done since then.

I've always talked about buzzing the lens. I have heard that from you. Yeah. I like to grab a little glass every now and then. I think a DJ. Just kind of look. Dax, you used to always say, I like to throw a fastball right down the lens. Sure.

Right in the barrel. Dax, as we wrap up, because I don't want to take too much of your time for your empire that you've built. Yeah. And let me say as an aside, if Kristen ever gets sick of your garbage, call me. Okay. I think you're swell. Okay, great.

I think you're real swell. Oh, wait. You'll take me. Yeah, I'll take you. You'll take her. Yeah, no, no, no. I'll send Amanda over to Kristen's house. It'll be great.

And we'll go on a ski trip. I got to. Don't let him get you on a ski trip. Yeah. Get me on a ski trip. Because what we'll do is we'll go north. We'll go to Mammoth. And then we'll head on up to.

Here we go. So 395, US 395. Yeah, yup. Up in the Sun Valley. Then we're going to take it over to Jackson. Oh. But Dax, we are so proud of you for your success in this, in this kind of world that we're just kind of chipping away at.

And we do look up to you and are so honored that you joined us today. And that also is one of our closest friends. But as a mentor to this world, we know nothing about. And so hopefully we can, we can learn from you. And we love you so much. And thank you for taking the time and your busy schedule. I know you're taking over the world. So I love you Dax.

Love you guys. Love you Daxie. Thanks buddy. Bye Daxels. Say hi to Kristen. It never, ever gets old. No, he's the best. You know, my God, he's so open and so not afraid to be vulnerable and everything.

I mean, I don't know what he hasn't revealed. Yeah. And it's not a bit either. It's completely sincere. You can tell he really likes who he is. He's truly comfortable in his skin. He's always had incredible charisma, but I think he said that he's never been better or that since he's been with Kristen, she's made him better.

And he truly, he was great back in the day. But even now he's just, I was sincere. I hope he felt that I was sincere when I said, if things don't work out with him. Of course. That he can call me. He's such an authentic guy. I should have left my number. I don't know.

But he's such an authentic guy. One of the things I think that you guys will probably agree with me on is we've known him for a number of years and you see him, he's gone through different stages in that time, but he's always been really honest about where he's at, wherever it is that he's at. Always. That's so great. Always. And I think that's why, that's why he's successful.

Yeah. Now we see him in this place and you can see that he is truly happy. So we, you believe it because it's true. It's not a bit. It's not an act. And he's found a medium and a format that truly embraces and takes advantage of his best qualities. I'm thrilled for him. Great guess, Sean.

Thank you. Nice going, Sean. All right. Well, until next time. Nice potting with you. See you tomorrow. Oh, I like that. Nice potting with you.

Nice potting. Okay. Bye everybody. Bye you guys. So much fun. Love you guys. Love you guys. Bye.

Bye.