SmartLess - "Matthew Rhys"

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Open a bottle of beer with a key and grab a fire poker, we’ve got Matthew Rhys on the horn this week. We sit down with the intelligent yet dashing yet wise yet charismatic Actor (and skilled traditional Welsh Chef) to hear recipes from the heart and tales of yore. Grab a slice of meat pie— it’s cooling on the windowsill. #EatSmart #SmartLessPlease support us by supporting our sponsors.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/SMARTLESS and get on your way to being your best self. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sorry that you guys caught me off guard. I was just talking to Jason's wig maker and he had said that they don't make the hair that Jason uses for the wig anymore because it's a synthetic thing and it has to do with because they use a certain petroleum component to it, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the point is if you see Jason on the street, just please say, hey man, your natural hair looks great. It's an all new smart list. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Are you guys excited? I'm excited. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes. I think, are you talking about our, we're on the on TV.

Yeah. Coming up. With the doc. We're gonna be on TV. I told my whole family. Smartless on the road. Smartless on the road. On Max.

On Max. That new platform, yes. Yeah. Yes. Should we do, should we watch it together? That's much it together. That would be super fun.

Oh God, that's not a bad idea. I'm really excited. I'm excited for people to. See Will Ferrell. It sounds weird to say. Well, yeah, I'm excited for people to see. Well, we have so many great guests. Yes.

That's a great point. Say some of the guests. We have Will Ferrell. Will starts it off though, doesn't he? Will starts it off. Then we have Conan. Yeah, and Kevin Hart. Letterman.

Hang on, hang on. Then we have Letterman. Then we have AOC with special appearance by, can we mention that Bradley makes a special appearance. Bradley Cooper comes in, changes the light for us. And then we go to Chicago. We have Andy Richter and Jeff Tweedy from Wilco. Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban. And then Matty Damon. Matt Damon, the Matt. Yeah, Turtle, Quirtle, Whirtle, Perennial, Third Place, Finisher, Matt Damon. And then one of the biggest guests of the entire tour is Tracy from Wisconsin. Tracy from Wisconsin, come on, you guys.

Tracy, Sean's sister. My sister. Sean's sister makes an incredible appearance. Yeah, that's really good. And doesn't your mother's, your mother's right eye makes an appearance as well. Your mother's eye makes an appearance too. It's all true.

By the way, it's all true. And you can see it. Get it? Yeah. Don't get it. On max, smart list, on the road. Check it out. I'm glad you asked because I don't think they get it.

And then by the way, we come back to LA and then we end here with Kimmel. With Kimmel and Kevin Hart. I mean, we get to have, what a soft land to come back and have our good buddy, Jimmy Kimmel and then Jan makes an appearance and guy, I mean. And then what's the final meal of the whole thing? Oh yeah, then we're over at Shawnee's house

for some reason. Oh, and we go to Shawnee's, right? Was it spaghetti and meatballs? Sloppy Joe's. Sloppy Joe's. I made Sloppy Joe's for scratch for you guys. Yeah. It's all in the dock.

It's all in the dock. Are we watching it at your house? Yeah, let's watch it. Let's watch it. We'll watch it on max. It's kind of so fun. I think, I hope people like who knows, but... We hope.

It looks real good too. Sam Jones did a great job directing it. It looks real handsome, it's black and white. I hope people like, it's why it's May 23rd, right? May 23rd on max. Okay. I have a crazy story that happened. I told Will, I said I was going to save it

to tell you today. You have some pre-show pattern? Yeah. You know, Shawnee. Go ahead, Shawnee. No, this is crazy. Shawnee, what have you prepared? I have prepared this.

By the way, Dante and Rebbe is peaking and prepared. There's somebody preparing something in the kitchen behind you. Yes, Scott is going to make me some tea right now. Okay. Tea? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you fasting? He's on Broadway, man.

He's on Broadway. I'm on the Broadway. Oh, to keep your pipes nice and lubricated? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, it is one o'clock there. What was for lunch today? I just had a, I had a, what's it called? Like a Kaiser roll with egg and cheese and a little bacon.

I had, what do they call it? Like a foot long sub. A Kaiser roll. Kaiser. Yeah. Where do you have to go to get that? Like a bread shop. Downstairs.

Downstairs. Downstairs. No, Zabars, Kaiser. Zabars is a Jewish deli. We live right near it. And then there's a cafe and they don't do bagels with egg. You'd think they would do bagels because they sell bagels in the store part,

but not the cafe part, which is really crazy. You gotta go full Kaiser. All right. All right, so this is the story. This is crazy. This is going to blow your mind. I think it blew my mind. So the show takes place in 1958 backstage at the Tonight Show.

Oskar Levant is the guest on the Tonight Show that night. The other guest, which we never see, we only reference a lot is Jane Mansfield. Sure. Okay. Who was, you know, this big star back in the 50s. Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield, very similar. So Mariska Hargitay, you know Mariska Hargitay?

I do. Yeah, she's the star of the SVU thing. Oh, thanks, Scotty. And thanks, Scotty. Thanks, Scotty. He just made me tea. So she's the star of this show for like 20 some years, right? So she's like, I'm outside of your theater.

Come out. And I'm like, oh my God, I came out, gave her a hug, said hello, we took a photo, we're done. And somebody in the show whispers in my ear, her mom is Jane Mansfield. I go, wait a minute, what? Yeah. Well, Mariska Hargitay's mom,

I go, your mom is Jane Mansfield. I go, do you know that we reference your mom in this show over and over again? Did your mom know Oskar Levant? And she's like, I don't, I don't know. You know, unfortunately she was very young when her mom died. So then we go back and we say her buys. I go back in the theater and I forgot, I texted her.

I go, by the way, your mom made her Broadway debut in this theater that we're working in right now. Wow. Isn't that crazy? Crazy, crazy, yeah. And so, did you at least offer her tickets to the show? No, she's gotta pay for those. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you can give her access to the house. Yeah, I can get her. Her dad, her dad was Mickey Hargitay, who was like a bodybuilder guy from Hungary. How do you know that? I know that. She just Googled it. No, I didn't.

I knew that before and... Wait, why do you know vague Hungarian bodybuilders? Look, do you want to see my magazine collection or not? No, I don't want to see your search history. I do, I actually do. I read somebody in my search history the other day. It was such a bonkers all over the map. I go, here, do you want to know what I've been searching up

for the last 24 hours? And it was just the weirdest, stupidest stuff. I want to say just because I want to be, and I don't want to bring it down, but I got to be honest about where I'm at, if that's okay. Yes, yes. Today, and then we can switch gears. Is that okay?

Of course it is. It's very real. Do you want me to say? Do you want me to describe it? My oldest friend in the world, Jeremy, passed away. And I loved him so much. Oh, well, I'm so sorry. Yeah, you just found out yesterday, yeah?

Yeah. And I just got to be honest about it because it's what's going on in my head. And I just wanted to say that I just, I love the guy so much. And it's so, Jason and I were talking today this morning and it's funny, we always get surprised when people then you say,

it's such a surprise, such a shock. And we know that the deal is that everybody's going to die in something. Yeah, we're here for five minutes. Yeah. And you passed suddenly, well. You know, the last few weeks were kind of came out and nowhere, certainly, and then he finally passed.

And I'm happy he did, he was, you know, obviously he was in a lot of pain. And I'm just thinking about his family and all of them, and I've known them forever and his daughter and his wife and his parents, who my parents knew and our great-grandparents knew each other. Our families are intertwined for generations.

And he was- So Jeremy was up in Toronto? He was in Toronto, yeah. And he was one of the great guys. He's a, I always say he's a first ballot hall of famer, just a great guy. You could always rely on him and I miss him. And, you know, you never,

and I was just thinking this morning, you know, I was taking the kids to school and it was just thinking like, oh man, hug the people you love. Yeah. Tell them as much as you can. And if you're thinking about somebody, call them. Let them know.

Right. Just let them know you're thinking about them. And you love them how important they are to you. I love that. And I just wanted to say that because it's all my mind and I love you guys so much. We love you. We love you too.

Yeah. Yeah, it's, it is, you're right. It is this sort of like, we're always shocked that people died but everyone here is going to. Everyone listening will. And it's like, it's a terrible thought and we somehow have managed this little device

inside our head and our heart to kind of put it in a little box and keep it away and deal with it near the end of our life. We just kind of pretend it's not ever going to happen but it does and we just hope we use our time correctly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, I, I just did this,

I just did this article, this interview and Jay, you were so kind. I just read it. You said such nice things about me and I appreciate it. I appreciate your generosity. And, and I said, I said, you know, if I can pull this thing off, great. If not, I'm still alive.

Yeah. It's my quote, you know. Oh, about the play. So you're feeling bullish about the play. Yeah, you could suck, but at least I'm not dead. No, but the point is to your point, well, it's like we're still, we're here. We're here, right?

We're here. We're here. Nothing matters other than our health and our people we love and all of that. And the people we love and, and I just, yeah, I wanted to say that, just say, Jared, we love you. And, and that's it.

You know, I'm thinking about you, buddy. And, and I also know that he was, he was also quick with a laugh and he loved to freaking laugh. This guy made me laugh. And so, I don't know, he would, he'd be like, great, well, get to your guest. Yeah.

So. Yeah. You have a nice opportunity to give him a nice goodbye this weekend with all of those people you're talking about. That's right. That's a wonderful thing for, for him to watch. That's right. You know, I mean, the, that's one of the good things

about after we go, right? We get to what, like, it's a narcissist delight. You get to just pull up a chair and watch everybody say nice things about you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I love that. At least that's my fantasy. I know.

Well, it's one of your fantasies. Right. Just a big Jason session for a whole day. What are you eating? Right now? No, in that situation where you go, where it doesn't matter anymore. It's just a super salty puff inducing things.

Cause, you know, you can be as puffy as you want upstairs. Sure, you can. Yeah. You can come. Turns out you can be as puffy as you want downstairs too. Well, actually you lose water weight almost instantaneously down there because you're always sweating. Yeah.

Yeah. It's hot as shit. Oh, where you're going. Yeah, you're going to get a lot of sweating going on. That's a good point. It's a constant fit. To switch gears. Sure.

You know, if we can, as much as we can to somebody who's not puffy. Really? No. This gentleman keeps it very tight in the best way. I really. Lucky son of a bitch. Yeah, I know he really is.

He's got, this is a guy. You want to talk about First Ballad Hall of Famer. This is the guy who's got it all. I mean, these, when you got, when you got, when you got talent and good looks, forget about it. When you got an easy way about you. Oh boy. For a freaking good.

This guy's done it everything. He's been on the big screen. He's been on the little screen. He's been on the boards, you know, on stage, if you will. This guy's from the other side of the pond. Uh-oh. He's British. Yeah.

Well, he's actually Welsh. His first language is Welsh according to the internet. He's a guy who's done so much. And he's, he's one of those guys who'd like you just, every time you see him, you're like, oh, I love this guy. Everything he does. This is the way I feel. You know, he was for years,

he was on, you knew him from brothers and sisters. And then he was on the Americans forever. And the thing I love about him, maybe the most is that he is partnered with one of my all-time favorite people, the delightful Kerry Russell guys. It's the incredibly talented Matthew Reese. Oh, Matthew.

Oh my God. Yes. Look at him. Look at him. Look at this dash. Look at this dash. Look at this dash. Look at him.

No water in that face at all. No, not for years. We have a fifth guest today. He just, he proved that the mustache was real. He pulled on it just to prove it. No, no, I'm just checking, I'm checking the glue. Listener, he's got a 30 pound mustache on and it's looking strong.

Are you playing a motorcycle cop? No, I'm doing the Tom Selleck biopic. You could, you could welcome to smartless Matthew Reese. Matthew, you stood, good to see you. Thank you, thank you very much. You know, that's the, that's the real terrifying moment, the reveal. I know.

Because at the beginning I was like, is he talking about Ian McKellen? Who are they expecting? What is this? This is going to go. It's Taryn Edgerton, everyone. The real Welshman, who can say? Sure.

Wow, it's so cool to meet you. I know. Very, very cool. And thank you, thank you very much for having me on, Gents, this is a real pleasure. Matthew, I wish we don't know each other well enough. We've crossed paths a few times because obviously Carrie and I are old friends.

And so we've met through Carrie. And she's such a delightful person as you were well aware. And then she's like, I just, I love the idea. I'm like, you're as good as the people you hang out with. And the fact that you and Carrie together, I'm like, Matthew's a good guy. He's a great guy. I can just-

No, I just, no, I took, I took that idea. And then I latched myself on together. So that those around us would think the same thing. By the way, that's smart, that's smart livin'. How long did you guys do that show together? Was it five, six? It was six, it was six years. It was meant to be five.

And I think the poor showrunners had kind of arced it for five. And then FX went, you know what, let's do one more. And they went, what, what, what? We don't ask. That's nice. We had the opposite. That's a good sign on a show. We're talking, of course, about the Americans.

Yeah. And Margot Martindale's a friend. And dear, dear Margot Martindale. Yeah. They were both reunited on Cocaine Bear recently. Yes. So Margot, and you did, you were in Cocaine Bear as well. I muffled my way in.

Just looking after the kids in Ireland and reading the script and that first opening scene, I said, I was like, who's playing that guy? The guy who bangs his head and falls out the plane. She's like, who? I don't know. And then I said, I asked, I asked Elizabeth Banks. I said, I asked Banks, who's playing that part?

So she texted Banks, oh, we haven't cast it yet. And I said, tell her I'll do it. I said, no, no, just ask her if I can do it. And she very kindly said, yes, you can come in and fall out of an airplane. By the way, what an absolute treat. So you're directing a movie and then you got a guy who's got like one scene, basically.

And then you're like, Matthew Rees calls in. He's like, hey, can I just do this one scene? You're like, are you kidding? Yeah, she smelled the desperation on me. I was like, can I please get out of the house? I can't do another zoo or aquarium, please. Sean, is it true the rumor? Sorry, that's how you and Scott met, right?

Didn't you put in the search for cocaine bear? And no, did I not hear that? No, I think technically it was cocaine cub, wasn't it? It was cocaine cub. Yeah, it was the prequel that they haven't done. Oh, Scotty. Oh, Scotty, if he only knew. So you do cocaine, and of course I don't want to just gloss

over the delightful Margo Martindale, whom we all adore. Oh yeah, she's the greatest. No one can swear like Margo Martindale. I mean, she should have a kind of course at NYU, like swearing for film and television, because no one can swear like her. And no one can get their ire up quicker and then get to swearing over like something

that seems trivial. We did the show together, the Millers, and she'd be like, can you believe they just did this read and I got to fucking remember this fucking thing and they want to shoot this afternoon. She's like, Jesus, what? Yeah. She said, if one very famous actor who's in our show,

she went, can you fucking hear the way he breathes? I went, well, I'd perform it, and I had no, I haven't actually, but I can hear it now. You brought it up. I'll work with her. So, Jason, you don't want to work with Margo Martindale. Jason, you will so fall in love with Margo Martindale. You won't be able to contain yourself.

Guys, am I right? Yeah, she's the greatest. She's absolutely gold. Now, tell me, Welsh is a language. Is that what I heard you say, Will? Oh, my God. First of all... Wait, so it's not English?

Yeah, ready for the letters. It's not English. It's much older than English. Yeah. It's one of the oldest in Europe. So let's start there. So I just want to say, so Matthew, you are... It says that your first language was Welsh.

Is that true? It is. It is. I grew up speaking Welsh. The whole family speak Welsh. But isn't Welsh just English with an accent? I don't understand. Yes, basically.

We just... What we do is try and adopt such a harsh accent. No one really understands the English of speaking. No, no, no, no, no. That's... He's putting you on. Yeah. I've spent some time in Cardiff, which is where you're from, yeah, Matthew?

It is. What were you doing there? I was filming there a few years ago, and I remember we had this... What were you driving? I had... I was going to say, the driver I had when I was working on that show, you know the guy... Jerry Lockett? Yes, Jerry Lockett.

Oh, the Lockett Rocket. Yeah. The famous Jerry Lockett. Yes. What do you mean, driver? What are you talking about? You had a Rolls Royce. That's what I was trying to bait you to.

Didn't somebody loan you... Oh, no, no, no. Loan you... When I was in Bentley, when I was in London, I was drove around for a few weeks. You're disgusting. I know. It's a long story. Right side drive.

Wait, did you drive yourself in this Bentley? Yeah, I did. I drove myself. Right side drive? Sure did. Oh, my God. And then I drove up to Ricky's to Jervis' house in London, because I was going to have... Go to his house to have just a visit.

Who are you? Who's my... And I called him and I said, I'm outside, and he came out, and he saw me in this Bentley and I go, where can I park this thing around here? And he was like, Jesus fucking Christ. Look, it wasn't mine. It was literally... I don't drive a Bentley.

That was why I made a point. Anyway, so you're from Cardiff. We know Jerry Lockett. We've got Jerry out there. We know that he's listening. We love you, Jerry. So we know who you do. Rocket Lockett.

How are you? And I knew that you guys knew each other, because he was always like, do you know Matthew Reese? And I was like, I do. I do a little bit, because I know Kerry. And he says, yeah, Matthew's from here, and he's so proud of you and all the Welsh are so proud of Matthew for what you've done. I think there's...

Because there's only three million of us, three and a half million. That's all of Canada, isn't it? What? First of all... What is the population of Canada now? 30, 30. Oh, okay. You missed it by a zero.

Ten percent. Yeah. So anyone who's Welsh and has done anything, even if they haven't done anything, we're just inherently proud for a country the size of Connecticut, which I'm talking about. Who are them are named Bale, and one of them is named Reese? Yes, that's it. That's basically it. So Christian, Gareth, and Bale, and Matthew Reese.

Well, there's also Hopkins. You also got Hopkins. Oh, yeah, you do. Yeah. And in Burton, obviously. There are a bunch. So wait, I don't know anything about you, and I know you, I'm a fan of you, but I don't know anybody.

Did you... So were you one of those people that grew up in the theater and stuff as a kid, and you're like, oh my God, if I can go to America, wow. We're going to get to that, Sean. That's exactly right. He's right in the middle of a story. He's telling a story. What's the story about a Rolls Royce and a Bentley?

Speaking Welsh is his first language. Say something Welsh. He's landing the plane on that. Okay, sorry. Go ahead, Matthew. What's the Welsh? Sean, check your chat, please. So talk about, no, but growing up speaking Welsh, you guys spoke Welsh at home, yeah?

We did. We did. And in Wales, there's a great reverence for performing arts, and there's a kind of an ancient tradition, dates, it's pre-Christian, whereby everyone congregates, when the old people congregate, and then you would sing competitively, or cite poetry, or anything of that ilk, basically, and it's very modern these days, but twice a year, all the children of Wales will gather, and it's a competition now, but you're very much encouraged to get on stage in some form, art form or another, and compete for your school or your county

or whatever. Oh, wow. So, yeah, so from a very early age, you're kind of kicked onto a stage, whether you want to. Really? And now, a word from our sponsor. SmartLess is supported by Think. If you're anything like me, you probably think about doing a lot of things, getting more

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A lot of the times, as I'm doing this play on Broadway, I'll walk to the theater, which is great, it's great exercise, but I grab a think bar with me to eat on the way so that I have energy to do the show. It's the perfect time to just kind of like walk and eat. You're doing two great things at one time, putting great stuff into your body with a healthy bar and walking and exercising. So get out there this spring and take Think protein bars along for the ride, available at your favorite stores and ThinkProducts.com.

It's ThinkProductsOneWord.com. SmartLiz is sponsored by BetterHelp. So for me, I know I always talk about being selfish. It feels like being selfish when you take so much time for yourself, but you can't be there for other people if you don't take care of yourself. Well, sometimes I find myself taking too much care of myself. See? It can work both ways.

I'm not spending enough time with what Scotty needs or friends or family need. So there is that constant balance you got to figure out. It's like, wait, I'm doing too much for myself. Wait, I'm not doing too much for myself. So it's a constant battle in your brain about how do I balance my life with being there for other people while being there for myself and vice versa. It's so easy to get caught up in what everyone else needs from you sometimes and never take a moment to think about what you need from yourself and vice versa.

But when we spend all of our time giving sometimes it can leave us feeling stretched thin and burnt out. Anyway, therapies always help me try to find that balance. I know I speak about it a lot, but it really does work. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.

Find more balance with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash smartlist today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash smartlist. Thanks to Game Time, supporting smartlist. So I'm doing the show on Broadway. I don't have a lot of time at night because all my nights are taken up, but when I do have that rare time at night when I can go see something or do something, you know, I'm always stressed out about like, how do we do it?

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We went to Game Time app and we got tickets to a show that we both really wanted to see on one of my very few nights off and it was fantastic. Despite planning months in advance, Game Time has deals on tickets right up to the day of the event. The Game Time guarantee means you'll always get the best price. If you find tickets in the same section in row for less, Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference. That's amazing.

Snag the tickets without the stress with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code SMARTLESS for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code SMARTLESS for $20 off. Game Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, back to the show. So you grew up, you're speaking, well, obviously you speak English as well.

They speak both there. The signage and stuff in Wales is delightful. It's one in English and one in Welsh and it's tough to read. It's a hot bed of contention. What's the distance between English and Welsh? I mean, I have absolutely no idea what it sounds like, what it looks like. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit in Welsh just so we can hear it. One of the oldest poems in Welsh is about 600 BC and it just says,

It's Lord of the Rings, the elves. It's how the elves speak in Lord of the Rings. Yes, we're talking based elfish on Welsh. Oh, I just made that up. Is that true? Oh, yes it is. Are you kidding me? I mean, I'm a 54-year-old man that is not living in a cave.

Why have I never, ever heard Welsh spoken? It's a golden cave. Let me let's be honest. Yes, a beautiful cave. There's no sign to it. I've heard tell. Let's be clear. Yes.

One cave to bind us all. Why? What? I don't understand how that's gone by me. Why do? Well, I think, listen, I don't want to get into on the English bashing soapbox, but the English, you know, if we're going to, we'll do the quick history. The English did their best to kind of eradicate all the Celtic languages

for the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the Cornish. You know, they, they, they weren't too Celtic friendly. So there was a lot of stamping out of the language in the culture. Wow. And, and was it influenced by folks more Northern, like, was there a Viking influence to all those Celtic languages? I mean, I mean, there's the great evolutionist, Germanic based. And then, you know, the, I think the Celtoi were a Spanish tribe initially, and they,

you know, then the Gauls got involved and amalgamated. And then, and then they set up Camping Britain and then the Romans came. Were all such babies here in America? Well, you don't learn any, even if you did pay attention, you know, even if you did in America, go to school, not on a massage bus, you, you, you learned, you learned, you learned history. How dare you? You learned history.

But at least in Canada, we did, we had to take British history. So we knew, oh, we're always talking about the fucking battle of Culloden and all that shit. Is the, is the, is the empire still stamped down your throat in Canada? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, I don't, I, I haven't lived there in 30 years. So I, I'm not sure. This is a guy who reads World War II books on the can, going to bed.

Yeah. It's not as bad as Justin Thoreau who will watch World War II documentaries through the face hole of a massage table on his iPhone. Okay. That's, he takes it to a new level, this, this lust for World War II. And he lines it just for comfort and stuff. He lines it with his discarded sleeves, just to protect his face. Just to pad the ring.

So, so Matthew, so you're, you're in, you're, what, you're sort of 17 and you go to Rada. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of the ones, yeah. One of the Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which is the preeminent classical acting school in the world. Yeah.

I tell everyone. Yeah. I was what I've told my parents. They allow me to go. It's like everybody who goes to Rada, they'll tell you in the same way with everybody who's ever gone to Oxford, make sure to let that be known. Yes. We'll drop it in.

You know, they're all called, you walk in and they've left the, the on the boards are still up in, in the, in the foyers. So like, you know, has Peter O'Toole and Antio Hopkins and it's incredible. I did a summer, I did a summer course there years ago. Did you? 1987. Yeah. Shakespeare?

Yeah. I did the whole thing for a few years there. At Rada. At Rada. I sure did. How was that? I was amazing, man. What did you do?

You seemed so dumb. It was amazing. Is there a lot of pressure when you go to a school like that to, to, to, to make it? I mean, obviously you did, but I mean, is there, it could just sort of culturally, do you feel there like, oh my God, okay, so I'm in Rada now. I got to, I got to, I got to, I got to maintain our, our batting average of, or is there a lot of people that go there and, and, and then go into other fields? Is that, is that more common?

It is. It is. It's a, it's a very small intake. There's only 30 to each year. 15, 15 men, 15 women. Every year. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's, it's very small. So you, you feel the pressure. Immediately. That's small. Did they do it on a bus? Yes. Like a massage bus. Yeah.

Yeah. It just, it just kind of goes around, around to Piccadilly Circus. We had 30 on the massage bus comfortably. That's what I heard. And then you got to stop, you got to stop for lunch at Jinkies on Ventura, right? Yeah. I mentioned that. Yeah.

But it's very exclusive. But you, here you are, you're a kid from Cardiff with the, you're the only Welsh person in your year. Yes, I was, I was, I had a friend who was a year older and then Michael Sheen had just come through and kind of blazed a trail and was kind of, you know, setting the West End on fire. So, so there was this, you know, there was a, the, the flag of Wales is, is the dragon. So there was a kind of a dragon's firmly stamped as to, you know, the Welsh are resurging again.

But, you know, like as a Hopkins, Anthony Hopkins was the, the chairman of the board at the time. So he beat in and out and he'd, he'd just done Shadowlands. So, you know, there was this, there was this great air that, you know, anything was, anything was possible really. I think, I think one of the things that the Welsh and Wales suffer from enormously is small person syndrome. And at that time, there was just this little bubble of, of a few, you know, Welsh people

doing incredibly well, Catherine Zito was bursting to the ranks. So I was there at this renaissance when anything felt possible. You know what my question is going to be. I can ask it now or later. Oh, did you ever forget a line on stage? What's your favorite theater story, Matthews? Yeah, because you got to have one or two. Yes.

I have, I have quite a few, in fact. No, but when I was, because I was doing theater for, for the first, well, five years solidly. And then at 25, I thought I, I, I got the role that was going to change my life and my career. It didn't. But I got to play Benjamin Braddock in a stage adaptation of The Graduate with Kathleen Turner as my Mrs. Robinson. Wow.

And to me, it was the first real introduction to Hollywood because I'd never experienced anything like it in every sense. Like PAs and I was like, what's a PA? Who has a PA? It was just incredible. Anyway, fast forward, halfway through the run, it got a little, you know, there were a few bedroom antics in, in, in the production. And there's one moment where I jump in bed and we're simulating sex.

And I have to kind of plunge my face between her legs as if I'm, I'm pleasuring her. Sure. And she did have the, you know, the obligatory kind of, you know, flesh toned underwear on. But anyway, I had a, I had a streaming head cold. Sure. And being the malicious vindictive type that I am, I wouldn't let the end of study go on. So I went, I went on and I had my nose is just streaming, my cold, my nose is streaming.

And I couldn't, I didn't want to kind of sniff heavily during, you know, during. So I, and I'm, yeah, I go, oh, I know what I, I know what I, I know what I'll do. I'll just clear my nose in that quiet moment when I'm between. I know. And I didn't think. So I jumped in and I'm between Miss Turner's legs and I just went and inhaled deeply and the covers kind of shot up and she's looking down at me like, what the fuck, what the fuck are you doing?

And I was like, oh, oh, no, I'm not, no, I'm not, I'm not sniffing, I'm not sniffing. I have a cold. I have a cold, I'm not sniffing you. You're not trying to whine out. Yeah. No, no. My God. No way.

That's that. I always live with this deep regret of that moment, that and when someone, there was a paparazzi photo, when the moment she took off her robe and this paparazzi photo, I stood up and photographed her and a big flash went off. I know. Oh, Lord. And I looked at her on stage in this moment and I was like, oh, we should, we should stop. And she came in with the next line and I always remember thinking, regardless that she

was a consumer professional, I'm going to come in with the next line, I'm going to carry on. I bitterly regret in that moment not stopping the production because the next day in a tabloid newspaper, there was a huge photograph of, yeah, yeah, I was ashamed. I was ashamed. Oh my God. Well, you know. But it was.

It's a tabloid and the headline just said, Welshman, you know, just fucking cowers under pressure. Yeah, yeah, yes, spineless Welshman does nothing. We'll leave it to the English tabloids to say that. Yeah. I love that. Oh my God. So Matthew, so you did, as you said, you did, did you play another great Welshman?

You played Dylan Thomas, didn't you? I did. At one point? I did. That, yes. Oh my God, it feels so long ago. It was about 12 years ago now, yeah. He had this incredible moment, the poet Dylan Thomas had this incredible moment in his

life where he was having an affair, that power was played by Keira Knightley and Ternan Miller was playing my wife, and Killian Murphy is the husband of Keira Knightley, and this is all true, that he burst in on Dylan Thomas with a machine gun because he was doing the Second War. He came in with a machine gun, he opened fire, he, like, and then missed everyone and took out a grenade, pulled the pin, and the grenade didn't go off, and it was that story that we told in. No way.

The image of love. Yeah, it was kind of, it was an unbelievable story that he survived, and then tragically drank himself to death. Wow, talk about the worst assassin you could ever imagine. Yes, and I was like, I was talking to Killian about it, I was like, but you're playing, you're a commando, you're a trained commando, do you want to play this part? So you are, you are not, you do not live in Wales, correct? I do not, no.

I now live in leafy Brooklyn. Leafy Brooklyn. No, you live in Brooklyn, but you come over, you do theatre, as you say, for basically five years, and then you move over to America to do what, what was the first thing that brought you over? The first thing I did, I was doing a play, I was actually doing a two-hander draw court with Paul Betteney called One More Wasted Year, and everyone called it One More Wasted Evening because it wasn't good, my own family said as much, it was terrible.

So they come backstage, what were they saying to you backstage? My uncle was the first person of the entire group and they came in and he's an old sea captain, very salty, and he went, well, that was shit. Yeah. And I couldn't argue, I went, you're absolutely right. And then, yeah, Stephen Daldry, who was the, Stephen Daldry was the artistic director at the time, and Prestonite came in, went, darlings, was it the play we need to see right now? Probably not.

Should we go to a party? There's hysterical. Wow, that's so hardcore. So you come over with Paul Betteney, you do that. Sorry, yes. An American agent came to see the play and he said, do you want to come over for pilot season? And I had no idea what it was.

And I said, yes. And then came to LA. And then the first audition he set me up with, it was Julie Tamer's first movie Titus with Antony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, and I just thought, oh my God, Los Angeles is truly the promised land where you just turn up and get these huge movies and everything's great. Yeah, you just signed up. And then I did that.

Yeah. And I shot that in Rome for six months, and then I went back to LA and didn't get a job for a decade. Yeah. So here's another time I'm going to, my career's going to be made, and it was just like, eh, we're just paid a few bills. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that, I love that feeling of like, yeah, it's going to be like this forever.

Yeah, yeah. It's like the Klondike, I arrived, it was like the Klondike, where they throw you these scripts and go, this is being made for MGM, with this as the lead, and you're like, oh my, and you're allowing me to audition for this? This is madness. Yeah. All I have to do is get the part, and I'm set for life. You never know anything.

You really don't. I mean, look at us three morons. Like, each of us have had great success as I knock on wood. We're super grateful for it in our careers. But then, you know, this thing comes along, it's more successful than anything we've ever done. And it was just us three, and it's chatting during COVID. Right.

What would you know? And the world basically was saying, we don't want you guys to do the thing that you think that you're going to just tell. The things you're pre-professional at. Yeah, you can keep doing that a little bit if you want. But we just want you to be that you're, we want to hear your idiotic thoughts on stupid shit. Yeah.

Just like, you know, wonder at the moment where Sean learns that Whales was, you know why, you know where Whales got its name, Sean? That's where they made the first harpoon, you know? That's not true. That's not true. It's not true. That's not true. Correct.

And that's what they tune in to hear. Because he'll fuck with me and he'll say something that's completely not true and then he'll say something that's completely true and never know what to believe. It's tough. I'm fine knowing. But wait a minute. They did shoot Moby Dick in Whales with Gregory Peck and my grandfather worked on it. Is that true?

Is that true? Yeah, they built three large rubber Whales and one of them, I know, this is a great joke is like they came to Whales and one of them sailed off into the Irish Sea, which I think is fantastic that there was this. I have a whale that needs a rubber, but go ahead. Hello. My grandfather caught Moby Dick, but there's a cue for it now. Wait, wait, what did your grandfather do on that?

His friend, Edgar, was a carpenter and they kind of helped out and I think in the framing of the Whales. I love that. Yeah. That's cool. Wait, I want to ask about Kerry and I want to know like did you meet each other, because I'm an idiot. I don't know.

Did you meet before Americans or on the set and how did that go? And when did you know the sparks flow? Just one question at a time. We did. Because I get easily confused. Because I love Kerry. I love Kerry. So do I.

We met quite a few years before the Americans in Rustic Canyon at a kickball party that Jennifer Gray hosted and I had no idea what kickball was. Boy, all of that adds up, by the way. Yes, yes. How I just amble through life, bumping into the furniture and ending up going, how did I get here, how did this happen? And we were the last two to leave, we were in the parking lot and I was trying to open a bottle of beer for her with a key and failing and I asked for her number then.

And then, and that was all I can remember. She was moving to New York two days after that on the Tuesday, it was a Sunday. And that's all I still remember. And then the road to the Americans was a long, crazy one. And then on the first day of fight training, I said to Kerry, I said, oh, we've met, we've met before, actually. And she was like, no, no, we definitely haven't. I've sort of been years.

He's been years at this point. And I said, yeah, yeah, we met before, we met at a kickball party in Rustic Canyon. She went, I know who you are, and you left me a message on my answering machine, a very drunken message. And I went, oh, did I, did I, I'm so sorry. I have no memory of leaving a long, rambling, incoherent, drunken message, which is probably what she wrote. No way.

Did you really? Wait, can I, can I be a super moron? Are you guys together? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Wait, did you, so you got together, you started working together.

They were just bringing up that they're just good friends. Well, no, because they worked together on the Americans for six years. That's what I'm saying. That's what I was asking. That's correct. But then, but during that, you guys fell in love, got married, had a kid. We did. And I want to know what happened.

So she goes, oh, okay, now I remember you. And then what? And then it was, it was just a very, it was a very slow burn. The first season, you know, I think we were both trying to be sworn off to that thing where you're going to go, I'm not going to do what everyone tells us never to do. I'm not going to do that. And then, but the beginning of the second season, it was, it was, it was, it was, yeah. Super sale.

Oh wait, it's okay. So now, were the producer, did the producers take each of you aside individually and say, hey, this is, you're dealing with an asset here. Okay. Everyone has jobs. If you guys go south, we have to shut the show down. Was it, were there conversations? No, no, they were very gracious about it because I've had friends, I know, I've had friends

who, you know, who've had that conversation to sit down from the producers going, look, we've all been down here before. You guys are in your mid thirties now, the, you know, you're not 22. Right off the company. And they were very, yeah, they were very kind of gracious about it. Do you know, do you know the TV director, Tommy Slamy? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So, Slamy was directing the beginning of the second season and he has that kind of beautiful voice. But Kerry and I were having a, we were doing a sex scene and Slamy just goes, these two have been naked together before. And then we just, it was like, called out. Oh really? Mr. Slamy. So at that point no one knew, but he could tell.

He could, he could tell them. And then there's a longer story as to how we got found out, which was just. We've got time. Well, Kerry got broken into, I was in the house, I was in the house at the time and the, and the robbers kind of grabbed my backpack, shoved it full of her stuff. You're in the house alone during a home invasion. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, start there. Well, so here's the other thing is it's early day and this is, this is just a testament to my abject stupidity. But with early days of our, of our relationship and she wakes me up, she says, there's someone in the house and I go, no, there's not. And then I just heard this voice and I remember, and I remember thinking in any logical moment you'd go, let's lock ourselves in the bathroom, call 911 and for some stupid reason, because it was very early days, I thought, what I do next, right, she will judge me on for the

rest of our lives. Have you, what's that? Um, film? Force, for sure. Force, for sure. Yeah. The avalanche comes and he just runs. He leaves his family behind.

Right. Right. I was like, if I suggest to go into the bathroom and call 911, will she think me a coward? Right. Your relationship's over. Yes. I had all these weird things going through my head. So what did I do?

She had a, she had a working fireplace in the, in the, in the bedroom, so I picked up the poker and with not a stitch on me, I walked out to meet my fate. Oh God. Wow. And we'll be right back after these messages. Okay. So now we're back. So now we're back.

So now you're, now, now you're- So after eight months of treatment, yes. No. I was fine. No, I'm kidding. So, so did you face to face with this fella? No. Because what I did was the, I think what most people do is you turn the light on, light

on and they run straight away. Right. So I heard them kind of run and, and they ran it, they ran out the front door. Oh, thank God. I know. I know. Jesus. So you do this and now Carrie thinks that you're her hero.

Yeah. I wouldn't go that far. Or did she think you were stupid for chasing her? Yeah. Yeah, basically. Yeah. She was locked in the bathroom. Yeah.

Calling 9.1. Calling 9.1. Yeah. Then seven cops turn up and they start, they clock her and they're like looking, they love no idea who I am, but they're looking at her and then, and then all of a sudden the DA were like, they catch them and the DA said, Oh, I tell you what, we would love to return your belongings on set with a photographer to Carrie, if that's okay. And she's like, she wasn't wild about the idea, tried to pull her off.

I don't know, cause the DA was retiring that year, wanted kind of a, you know, hero ending. So the NYPD, come on set with a photographer and then they're holding up my bag and Yedid, one of the young PAs went, wait, that's not Carrie's bag, that's Matthew's bag. And as I'm running, trying to go, shut the fuck up, and that's how the crew kind of found out. No. Wow. Wow.

Wow. So arbitrary. Yeah. Wow. That's kind of cool. So then this guy managed to grab a few things before he went running. He did. He did.

He did. And when I saw the picture of him, when he was arrested, I said, Oh, I said, look, there's a picture of the guy they caught him. I said, look, look, and he's been cuffed by two little tiny cops. She said, they're not tiny. And I saw this, oh my, I saw the size of him. He could have, he could have turned me into a kebab with that poker and done what he wanted. I wouldn't have had a.

Now, did you have any sort of war cry as you turned on the light? Was there any sort of? No. Hey, bear. Hey, bear. Yeah. You know, was there any of that? No, no, as much as that, as much as I have a poker.

Yeah. Yeah. As much as I love that moment in Gladiator and all the Celts kind of attack the Romans. And I always think, you know, if it came to it, that's how I'd react. I was not, I couldn't move my legs. Don't make me come down there. Yeah. I'm classically trained.

You know what? I'm fencing. Totally naked. Yes. Let's, let's get this going. Yeah. And we will be right back. This episode is brought to you in part by Element.

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That's athleticgreens.com slash smartlist. Check it out. And now back to the show. All right, so you and Kerry have a child. That's a boy or a girl? He's a boy. He's a boy. Kerry has two older ones.

So there's three. You know, there's three in the house who outnumber us. And what are the ages of all three? 15, 11 and six. Wow. 15, 11 and six. Yeah. Then the 15 and 11 or boy girl?

A boy girl. It's a boy girl boy. Boy girl boy. Yeah. And how are you liking being a dad? I love it. You love it? I do love it.

It's the madness that I love. It's when it's at its most catastrophe. The small stuff irks you, but when it's catastrophic, it's brilliant. Yeah. When those mornings, when the wheels so royally come off, that's when I can sit back and go, oh, this is just brilliant. Who's the more patient one with all of the, with the chaos? Is it you or her?

Her. Her. Yeah. Chaos I'm fine with. But man is like, rudeness, I don't tolerate. And that's when I... No, me neither. Yeah.

How old are yours now, Jason? I got 16 and 11. Two girls. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's totally permissive and the guy that plays around and I don't have to really be the disciplinarian. But if it's the rudeness, if it's stuff like that, and I just like the switch gets thrown. Yeah.

Same. Same. I can choose my moments. Yeah. The chaos is great. Yeah. Yeah. We've got 14, 12, and then my partner is a five-year-old and then we have an almost three-year-old.

Oh, wow. All boys. All boys. No way. Yeah. You've almost got the hockey team. Almost got the team. And it's the fuck.

And it is... Sometimes it is absolute, just abject chaos. Like just... How do you like it? I love it. The chaos. It's great. Yeah.

I love it. It's... I don't know. I just wouldn't have it any other way. I embrace it. It's fun. Same thing. All...

They're all nice. They're all nice kids and everybody, you know, has good manners and stuff. That's one of the things. But I love it, man. I love it when it just gets absolute, you know, sometimes when you get into the witching hour, sort of near bedtime, it gets fucking bonkers. Yeah. How about the complications, Matthew, of traveling stuff, since you guys are both very active

in your careers and your kids are now deeply entrenched in school and having that sort of social and academic continuity, like you can't really pick them up and take them places with you as much as you want, I'll bet, right? How do you guys manage that? Is it easy or tough? It is tough. I mean, we try and live by this ridiculous rule where one of us works, one of us doesn't and that, you know, the kids stay at school, but it's just...

That never works out, right? No. Because, like, what if somebody gets a great, great call and it's, you just can't say no, but this is your turn and, you know... Yeah. Yeah, this is what happened last year and grandma came in and, you know, the kids ate sugar for six solid months. They...

They loved it. I think that my sort of view on it always is, is that you have this idea of how you want it to go. So you say, like, one of us is going to work, one of us is not. Whatever that thing is, and you try to set those parameters and you try to get as close to it as you can and you have to be flexible and allow yourself to, you know, that there are going to be moments when it's just pure chaos. Yes.

And the truth is, kids are so incredibly resilient, like they don't know any different, you know? Right. No. They don't know any of them or flight attendants. She was gone two weeks of every month. That was just normal to me, you know? Just had my mom half the time.

Yeah. And that was just normal. Yeah. I had my dad. No, right. So... Matthew's going to love this story. No, no.

Yeah. Go. So it starts with a Chevy Pontiac, the engine turning on. Yeah. And it ends with a peel out. Yeah. Just a peel out. Yeah.

And a real... And a sort of a distant kind of... Fuck you! Fuck you! Oh, man! John, this isn't true. Is it? Yeah.

It's true. My dad left him. That's five. And he's left his mom to keep an eye on all of them. And I stress and I... His father has one eye. And I'd stress and I. Matthew, it's brilliantly tragic.

Tragic. You have to laugh. It's fine. Yeah. It's the only thing we have to do. We have to laugh at our misfortunes because... Yes. But wait, I'm going to ask you a weird question, only because you're wearing a black T-shirt.

Yeah. And I've seen a lot of photos of you and stuff like where you seem very, you seem very kind of fat, like you're into fashion when you have to be. Like I know nothing, like I'm terrible. But like you're probably like Will, you're probably like Will where you're like, I like to look good when I even go to the store. I like to look good when I go out in public. Like is that, it seems like a lot of effort.

Oh, no, no. If you truly knew me, it's, Kelly said the other day, because I have these beating up car hearts and I wear usually just the same black T-shirt every day. And even Kelly's like, you've got, you've got to change for the school run. You've worn the same thing for, it's now months. Right. And my car hearts are really beaten up and there's, there was this, there was this... What's cards?

Car hearts. Sorry, it's the way I'm saying it. It's a brand, clothing brand. Oh, car heart. It's like one of the carpenters, car heart here, all the carpenters wear them and they're real, real worker guys. And I wear them into the ground because it looks so terrible that there was, I was standing in school pickup in the line and this mother kind of looked at my travels and said, what,

what is it you do? And I went, I went, oh, I'm actually an actor and she went, oh, oh, it's like, I was like, why are you masquerading as someone who works for a living? Well, you have your uniform. Well, it's like Jason always gets the question when they see him. They always say, what, what, what, what time's your tea time? Right? Isn't that the question?

You know what I wear at this little outfit, it's, it's clear, you know what I do get a lot, you know what I do get a lot is, do you, do you color your hair? And now recently, because of this, this film where I play in a guy in 1985, they think it's a wig, just a full blown wig that I'm wearing. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that immensely. No one thinks that my hair is the right, is the real color and it's just because in your seventies, like you are, it's not, it's unbelievable that a 70 year old would not

be here. I, I, I have to admit that there have been, I've had a few people in the last year who have asked me, Jason, if you color my hair. Yeah. Same. I tell everyone that you color your hair. It's just what it is. Yes.

Son of a bitch. It was, it was, yeah, it was during that, it was during that moment. Do you remember what, do you remember, I don't know if you remember this in the golden globes, that is, this is sound perversely pretentious, but it still makes me laugh, that kind of green, the virtual green room, if you remember, is you, me, Bob, Odin, Kirk, Josh, O'Connor, and then we were all waiting for Al Pacino to kind of pop up, do you remember, into the virtual green room and we're all waiting, we're all waiting and then he pops up because we're all at home during the pandemic and he looks like a Bond villain because he has

like a small dog in his lap and he's choking it. Yeah. Yes. And we all sort of say, we all say, hi, hello. Hello. Hi, hi, hi. Hey, I'm in the middle of a Christmas violence and then we got into a second round and well I'm like going, hello hot, no nothing.

And then I think you said, I don't think he can hear us. And then Pacino just goes, oh, I can hear you. Oh boy. We all went oh. Oh. Just doesn't wanna do the group hi. And then he said, I think he colors his head. Yeah.

Oh, this guy, oh, oh! Oh, hey, so, so Matthew. What's the problem, Charlie? Yeah. Good question for Jason. Why is the emblem, why is the person holding an umbrella? What is that? Oh, this is some silly golf sweater.

Mary Poppins. Oh yeah, what is that? It actually is a Mary Poppins. This is a, I believe this is an ATT thing, Willie. Yeah. From ATT? Yeah, this is one of the... From that swag room we went into?

Free sweater. We have smartless golf stuff coming out soon. I love it. Let's take the opportunity to do a merch tie-in shot. Smart. What's he saying? Matthew, Matthew, can you commit right now to wearing smartless golf merch on the school run?

My entire closet is mainly made up of clothes I've stolen from jobs. I don't buy a thing. Well, we're going to send you some smartless golf swag. I love it. So like some plus fours, right? For the golf events, you know, you can wear that. Yeah.

We were listening, I do want to say, your show gives us so much joy. And we were listening. Yes, it does. We were listening to it recently. And, Will, I think you went to dinner with Sean at Jar and Sean, you were... Yeah, I was not invited. Yeah.

Well, we brought that up in the car. We were like, I wasn't chasing. Yeah, I never am. These guys have been all over the world together. Oh my gosh. I've never asked. I mean, they've been to Turkey. They've been to, where else, guys? Yeah, we have.

Where has your passports been stamped? Venice Italy, right? Venice Italy? You guys play golf every day. OK, go ahead. It's different. So you did say that you were wearing Uggs. What are those kind of slipper Uggs for dinner?

Is that right? Did I remember that right? Absolutely, yeah. And I said to Kevin, see, it's fine. And she went, they live in LA. Right. Sean, that was you wearing the comfy shoes? Yeah. Yeah, why not? He's been doing it for years.

He's been doing it for years. Who looks at your shoes? Nobody looks at your shoes in a dark restaurant. I would. And then I would choose to never come to dinner with you again. Cobblers around the world. Cobblers. Listen, so Matthew, so now recently,

in the last couple of years, you've partnered with our good friend, Mr. Downey Jr. Oh, yeah, Perry Mason. Now, that's a handsome-looking show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk to us a little bit about that. First of all, how that came about and what an absolute terror he is as an executive producer.

Oh, this Downey. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. He's a shit. Yells and screaming. Oh, what a screamer. He strikes people. Yes, yes, with a glove.

Has a leather glove, a small gauntlet that he sometimes put a metal thimble in it just for the little, ah! Yeah. Oh, Christ, he's here, he's here. He speaks so highly of you. How did that come? How did that?

Yeah, he loves you. Yeah, he does, he really does. Robert loves you. And talk to us a little bit about it. And Susan as well. Susan does not like, oh, she does. Well, yes. The great Susan, the brains of that duo.

If I may. The wind beneath the wings and the brain in the head. Yeah, how did that come into your sort of, into your world, the Perry Mason project? I mean, I'm trying to think what year it was now because it was a while back. Probably three, four years ago, maybe? Yes, yes, yes.

And I always, this is how my brain works. When my manager calls and he goes, you know, team down, he want to talk to you about a reboot of Perry Mason. My first question was like, who's turned it down? Who's turned it down? Right. Why does Robert want to do it? Yes, and I think he did.

I think that was the whole point that Robert was supposed to do it. And it took them almost 10 years of development. And it went through many, many, many guises of a TV film, a series, and I just think Robert never quite got there. So, yeah, they reached out for a meeting, which I was terrified about. And the brilliant Mr. Van Patten directed that?

Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just a dream. By the way, I love that their company is called Team Downey, which is always fun to me. I think that's a great company name. I've always been jealous of that. But I don't want Robert to know.

I would have called it Touch Downey. Yeah. Oh, that's good. That'd be good too, right? That's fun. Yeah, it's fun. It's just like I'm looking to rename mine, Master Bateman, but it has not cleared.

So Robert, so Team Downey reaches out, and you go and you meet with these guys, and you're like, did you know that it was going to become this group? Like, what was your first thought of it? Were you excited? Were you sort of skeptical? Were you? I mean, I was slightly skeptical, because I have.

Like, did you develop it with them, or was it a script? Well, you're also carrying a bunch of pedigree out of the Americans, one, the Emmy. The Americans and brothers and sisters that you did for five years with our old buddy, Robbie Bates, my old friend. You did not want it to suck. No, no.

But that was never in doubt, because I think when you saw Team Downey, the writers on it, Tim Van Patten, HBO, it was kind of, it was straight of, I wasn't concerned that it wouldn't be of a certain caliber. If anything, it usually stems from my own insecurities, how I can turn it into a catastrophe more than anything else, but I was very excited. I loved it.

It was pitched as a one-off, and they were like, look, we just want to do the origin story, and that'll be it. And then halfway through, they were like, you know, it works pretty good. It looks good. We should think about doing this, you know, we should think about doing more of this. I did have that small reservation where I've done,

where I kind of, you know, Perry Mason's sort of revered. Well, it was in the UK. It was huge. And here, also, there is a certain generation of an age group up that kind of go, no, no, no, you can't touch Mason. You know, after you have to leave that alone. And then a ton of people have no recollection of the show whatsoever.

And that's what Susan said. She said, look, there's an entire, there are swathes of generations ready for a new Perry Mason. Yeah, we can do it. We can make it whatever we want. And where did you guys shoot that? In LA. They went back to the origin story in the books,

which was 1930s LA, which to me was, you know, with Chinatown and everything else was such, was so alluring. And as a kid growing up watching old movies, I was like, oh my god, I get to wear a fedora in LA. And you do an American accent? Yeah, yeah. You get to wear a fedora in LA like everybody else in Venice,

right? In LA or Los Feliz, yeah. As an actor, is the American accent a tough thing to do? And do you have like a phrase that clicks you right into the typical American sound that's sort of like a shortcut for you? No, there's no real shot. It's still, it's still a huge, it's like a, I say block.

Like hamburger. Well, I tell you what, oh yeah, I tell you what, killer. I went up to one of the writers early on in Perry Mason. And I said, hey, is there any chance we can change like murderer to killer? And he's like, you do realize you've signed on for Perry Mason. Like you're going to be saying murderer a lot. And I was like, yeah, I hadn't quite thought that one too.

That's a bit of an Achilles heel for me. That's why I always sound like I'm right. That's a tough word to say. Yeah, like your batteries run out halfway through, you just go murderer. Murder, murderer. I was like, can you say killer? What about suspect?

Suspect would be great. Right, because the British accent would put an A-H on it, murderer. Murderer, murderer, murderer. Murderer, murderer. By the way, if you're going to live in America, you got to learn how to say murderer. I mean, sorry.

Yeah, I know. She's so true. You're going to say the most. Jesus Christ. Well, so now you've got the second season of Perry Mason coming out, which is fantastic. Would you never thought you'd do? No.

And that was delayed a bit, yeah? With COVID, perhaps? Hugely delayed, because it's too soon to, you know, definitely, no, we're going to wait. We're not going to shrink the show and make a smaller show of the first one. We'll wait until we can make the same big show with hundreds of supporting artists and do it right.

Right, because there's a lot of background players in a lot of crowd scenes, yeah. It's a massive production. Oh, it might. It's a beast. There are those days I turn up on set and I go, I don't even know how this works. My brother-in-law was a tank commander in the British Army.

Whoa. For most of his life. And he said it's all, it's like, if you think about the logistics, they have to do, it's insane. But he came on set one day and he went, how does this work? Right, yeah.

And he was just so shocked. He goes, what amazes me, he said, what amazes me is that so many components have to come together in one tiny moment and be quiet. He said it was, it sort of staggered him. And he was like, he was like, amazed at the cool sheets and everything. It is.

It's true. When you watch, when you go to a, when you go to a big film television set and you watch all these people who are at the top of their game and they're seeing, like you said, coming together in that moment where everything's got to be silent and everything's got to be great and you see it pulled off. Sometimes it has the timing of something

that has to happen in the shot. Whatever it is, it is pretty amazing to watch how good these people are at what they do. Yeah. And filming, filming in New York, which we obviously did the Americans on, it's staggering that they get away with what they do in the kind of, like location department

should be given flak jackets these days for the amount of abuse they just get from people who want to park, drive down the street or, you know, enter a shop. But how many times have you had that when you're shooting in New York on the street and then some, it's like pretty good. And then like somewhere in the tech,

you just hear somebody out, leaning out a window going, I want to be in the fucking movie. All the time. All right, let's go again. If it says exterior night in the Americans, you know you're looping it. You know you're ADRing it

because you know there's someone shouting along the line. There was this one time in Harlem I was doing a scene and it was like eight guys, because I had to shout the scene, eight guys were shouting the exact same words along with me and the director said. Because they've heard it so many times. Yeah, yeah.

Matthew, we have taken up so much of your time. My God, I just realized we could talk to you. This has been a treat. This has been a treat. Ever. Yeah, yeah. In a real treat. You're one of us.

You're one of us. You're one of us. God, I'm one of us. This has been a real treat. Sean, I can't wait to see the show. We're all coming to see it. We're very excited about it. Oh, that's so nice.

Thank you. How are previews going? Really well, really exhausting, but thank you for asking. I walked down the street one day today, walked down the street to go get my little sandwich, my egg sandwich. Anna Kaiser roll.

Anna Kaiser roll. And this woman stopped me. She was really sweet, but this is how much energy was in her voice. She grabbed my arm and she goes, I saw your show last night. I go, yeah. Thank you for coming.

She goes, this is really good. And she's just fucking. I love New York. Oh. New York undefeated. And that's it. I was like, yeah. She was very nice though.

Last time I did a play, I was walking from the theater and this woman just shouted, you're an asshole. And I just went, I hope you saw the show. That's not personal. Uh-huh. Matthew, well, when we come to New York,

I hope that we can grab a meal. You, me, Carrie, and maybe one of these ding-dongs as well. That would be a ding-dong. Let's go. Yes, please. Get Sean and Scotty and JB and we'll do it up. It'll be great to see you, man.

Thank you for having me. This has been such a treat. Thank you, Matthew. And send all of our love to Carrie. I will. We adore her as well. And we adore you. You are, as Sean said,

you're one of us. It's been such a pleasure, buddy. And a continued success. Perry Mason comes out. What's the release? It's... It's out now. It's out now.

Monday nights at nine. Yeah. Monday nights at nine. There we go. HBO Max, yeah. HBO. Congratulations, Matthew. Yeah, congratulations.

All the success, buddy. Thank you, guys. Thanks a million. Thanks for being here, buddy. Have a good day. See you soon. Bye-bye. And you slam it shut.

Now, there's a nice guy. Well, what's a nice guy like that being... How is he friends with you? Because that's the kind of... That's the ilk of people that I attract. You know what I mean? It's just like-minded people. Birds of a feather, cool dudes.

Charming. He knows how to carry on a conversation. Yeah, I know. I'm always impressed with guys like that who are just so, like, relaxed. Yeah. Like... Well, he's confident.

You know? He's comfortable. You know, he's got his uniforms. He has his black t-shirt and his... He's not like you guys. He doesn't have an axe to grind. You know what I mean? He doesn't have something to prove all the time.

He's not trying to prove anything with his fun tops that he wears, Sean. I'm a fun top. Now, listen. I know you are. Speaking of which, where's the cocaine bear? What's he fixing now? Huh?

He's fixing something. Scotty, what are you making? What kind of sandwich? What kind of sandwich? Oh, you had a turks. You had a turk sandwich. Oh, a turk sandwich? What else is on it?

What percentage of the day? What percentage of the day? Hang on. What percentage of the day when you yell out, hey, Scotty, what are you doing? Raise the answer. I'm making a sandwich. Well, usually it's for me.

No, that's what I mean. Making sammies. That's what I mean. Well, so what do we got on the turkey? So how do you like your turkey sandwich done, Sean? I ordered one yesterday for lunch. It was a turkey, avocado, lettuce, and extra, extra, extra mayo. And are we toasting the bread?

No. Really? How about a light toast with a little snap on it? Just like a real soft thing there. Extra. Do you literally say extra, extra, extra mayo? Yes, I always do, because they never put enough oil. You know what I like?

I like it when you get one of those, like, sort of like an Italian, you know what I mean? With different cuts of meat, some cold cuts, lettuce, tomato, and get some oil and vinegar, get a little salt peps. Stuff it in there. Stuff it in there. By the way, it reminds me of what I was saying,

about the wearing the hats all around. I remember Thoreau went through a long phase. He was always wearing like hats and little pork pie hats and fedoras and stuff. And I remember Polar, Polar said to him one day, you look fedorable and it just really killed us. Hey, what kind of hat do I have on today? You got one of those smartless merch hats.

That's right. Yeah. Wait, where do we get one of those? I started to interrupt, guys. It looks like Carrie Russell's entering the waiting room. She might just want to say hi. You want to just pop it. Put her on.

Put her on. Put Carrie on. Then we're going to air it. There she is. There she is. If you can hear us hello. We'll have to have her on. I will tell the boys they can't hear you right now

because they're on the other system. You were fantastic. Thank you. Bye. Okay. Thanks for everything. Really appreciate it. Well done.

I love that we just had a quick visual visit from Carrie Russell. And we couldn't hear her, but we got to see her. And she was there. She was probably with the kids, right, Sean? Yes, she was probably with us. She probably would. It's about time for pickup. Yeah, it's probably for nap time for our kids,

which she would then sing. What would she sing to them? Oh my God. I'm going to put her kids to bed. She would probably sing like rock, rock, rock. Bye, baby, baby, baby. Jason hates when we go up. He just, he just pinches that voice off.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Smart, Lost, Smart, Lost. SmartList is 100% organic and artisanly handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjalf, and Bennett Barbago. Smart, Lost.

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