SmartLess - "Rashida Jones"

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Rashida Jones joins us this week, donning her dad’s pink headphones. Agenda items include: the massage bus, a tanning booth, dreams of litigation, and the central conflict of the movie. What am I doing today? It’s an all-new SmartLess. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

So welcome to SmartList everybody. I hope you have a full charge on your iPod. Do people still use iPods? No. I don't think so. I think they just use... Is that what they listen to us on? Their phones. Okay, boomer. What is... is boomer what ages are Boomers? 1946 to 64.

I just looked it up today. Truly? Truly. Wow. What's a Zier? Us. That's us. No, we're Gen X, man.

Oh, we're X. Sorry. What are the ages of X? Gen X is like 19... Well, sorry. We keeping you up? You know we're rolling, bro. 1960...

Are we rolling right now? Yeah, we're cold opening the shit out of this right now. Is this an all-new Smartless? Alright, welcome to Smartless. Oh, yeah. Well. Yes. Well, Will. Today's Will's guest.

It is. Yeah. It is. How are you feeling about your guest today, Will? I'm feeling very good about my guest. Yeah. Well, because, I mean, I don't want to get into it too quickly, but because it's somebody that we all know, so.

You'd think I would have a preference as to what I would do. I would have a preference as to what I would do. I'm feeling very good about my guest. Yeah. Well, because, I mean, I don't want to get into it too quickly, but because it's somebody that we all know, so... You'd think I would have a preference as to, you know, either your guests or Sean's guests by now, like who ends up hosting better guests. Do you guys have a preference on, like... I think it's pretty random, right?

Like, who... A lot of times we bring people on that we all know. Yeah. And then sometimes it's a lot of times it's people none of us know and sometimes we... Sometimes it's in the middle. And sometimes it's right in the middle. And sometimes...

It's fascinating. But like and sometimes we reach out to guests and then sometimes guests reach out to us and it's just... It's just a great blend you guys. I gotta listen to this. And it's just, it's a great blend, you guys. I gotta listen to this show. This show seems great. Jason, it was good to see you last night.

We all had dinner last night, and we haven't seen you in so long. It was so nice to see you, and the dinner was super fun, and everybody was funny. All giddy all night. I laughed real hard last night. And then, I told you. I'm real hard last night. And then I told you.

I'm real sweet on that Tig Notaro. She's great. She's so funny. I just love her. Hysterical. Hysterical. I told Will this a couple weeks ago, Jason, I finally saw The Godfather.

Oh boy. Yeah. Sean says to me the other day. And it was really good. He goes, hey. Was it good, Sean? I was like, you know what? We watched The Godfather the other day. And it was really good. He goes, hey. Was it good, Sean? You know what, we watched the Godfather the other night.

It's really good. And I said, oh, did you think everybody was lying? And then I just watched that part two, like two days ago, three days ago. Now they say that part two is better than the first. I don't remember having a feeling either way. Yeah, I think. They're different, they're both excellent. Part two, the Godfather two is excellent as well. Yeah, I think. They're different, they're both excellent.

Part two, Godfather 2 is excellent as well. Yeah, I kinda had to pause every 10 minutes to be like, Scotty, who's that, who's that, who's that? There's so many characters. You're one of those. They remind me never to watch a movie with you. Okay, never watch a movie. And then number three gets a bad rap,

but I don't remember watching number three and going, this is terrible. I think he got a bad rap at the time and then now people as they look back they go like they've had a different. I just found, I just gotta just say, Coppola went back in and recut it recently like in the last five years or so.

Oh really? Oh really? Yeah. Open it back up. I don't know if that's true. Yeah, three and a half. Yeah, anyway, check it out if you haven't seen it. Hey yeah, if you haven't seen any of the Godfather films.

Welcome to Smartless Hot Takes on new films. It's like the time Jason came up to me and said, hey, you know what I watched? Blues Brothers is a really good movie. Yeah, I remember that. The 1980 film. A band was humming the Flashdance song the other day and I go, you know, never seen it.

She goes, oh, you're such a loser. I really am, there's so many. Remember last night we were talking about At Close Range, which is a good movie, I wanna go back once. Haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. I need to see it. Who's in that?

Sean Penn and Chris Walken. Oh yeah, I wanna see that. Yeah, let's see. I never saw Flashdance. You didn't? No. No, that surprises me. What about Ghost? I love Ghost. Sean, I'm surprised you I never saw Flash Dance. You didn't? No. No, that surprises me. What about Ghost?

I love Ghost. Sean, I'm surprised you haven't seen Flash Dance. I know me too, because I dance. Because you like dancing. And you're flashy. And I'm flashy. All right, this is not for the fucking Regis, Kathy Lee chatter.

What are you talking about? This is the fun part. And so is the guest part. But this is fun too. I know, but I always feel bad for the guests. I gotta sit there and listen to the patter. All right, fine. Well, everybody's got busy lives too.

They're probably sending emails and texts and stuff. You think your guest is sending emails and stuff? Well, I know that our, also put it this way. This is a great segue. Our guest is a very, very busy person. Huh. Yeah, because in addition to being a very sought after actress, she's also a very sought after writer and producer.

Oh, really? Yeah. She has written and produced Emmy nominated stuff. She's produced and written big, huge animated films, like, I don't know, Toy Story 4? Sean? You know, she's acted in, and she's written a new series that she's got coming out. Her new series is called, I think it's called Sunny?

Yeah. That's the worst fucking intro I've ever heard. No, because I'm trying to... Just take a little time to write something down when you write something. No, because I'm trying to disguise who it is. You wrote it. You're doing a great job. Because as soon as I say what you know her from, you're gonna know who it is. Let's have it.

Because you know her really well, because you know her also very well from things like The Office, and Parks and Rec, and Boston Public, and Freezing... It's an AVV. Pollard? No, it's Rashida Jha! Rashida! Rashida, did you know you were coming out when I saw you last week, two weeks ago? I did.

And I don't listen to your show, so I didn't know it was a surprise. I'm really glad I didn't say anything. Okay. Wow. It's happened so many times. I don't even know why we continue the whole structure rate

Yeah, look at your pink headphones. I know she's got some real headphones My dad's JBL really you rocks a pink headphone. No, this is it's like his oh Oh, really? What's it? Yeah, it's JBL, but it's like his it's like the queue Oh really? What's it called? It's JBL, but it's like the Q. We're happy to do some personal experience if you want to send some of those our way. You got it. By the way, for my sister Tracy,

your dad is Quincy Jones. Please continue. Okay. Yes Tracy. That's also if you're not a listener of the. I heard about that. I heard about that. We reference Tracy.

Sort of a catch all for those less informed. But there's no shot at Tracy herself. No. She's a very bright, sharp Wisconsinian. She's representing the people. Yeah, she's happy to do it. Rashida, welcome to Smart List. Where are we finding you in this great booth of yours?

Thank you. I'm in my husband's studio. That's a question mark. What does husband do? Why does his husband have a studio? He's a musician. He has a radio show, not a podcast, a radio show. Oh.

But also a musician. Wait, wait, Jason, do you honestly not know who her husband is? I don't, you know how old I am. I barely know what day husband is? I don't I you know how I know I barely know what day it is I've embarrassed myself hourly. You're kidding. On my kid's life I have no idea who her husband is. Her husband Ezra is singer-songwriter extraordinaire have you ever heard of a band called Vampire Weekend? Oh no way Yes, I didn't know that either. Both met him.

Oh, that's right. But he didn't announce his job. He didn't give you his bio. Right. He didn't lead with that. It's like when people come up to you and they go, oh, you're an actor, what are you in? Yeah.

Do you want me to start listing you? Well, by the way, still to this day, I assume nobody knows who I am. Nobody knows what I'm, people look at me funny and I'm like, yeah, I know, I look like that guy you went to school with. Right. At this point, really?

Come on. Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, you know why? Because I spent so many years assuming everybody knew who I was and I had a very uncomfortable adjustment. You keep girly. I will never make that mistake again.

Yeah, now I'm here on this side. Everybody knows you're Justin Bateman. They know that. That's exactly right. I get that once a day. Justin Bateman, big fan. Not that big. Rashida.

It's so good to see you. Tell me what you're doing like today and what's going on. You know how much I love you. I love you. I love you. What am I doing today? This, I'm doing this.

I'm, I don't, what am I doing today? I'm like prepping for the summer. Oh, how does one prep for the summer? Cleaning the pool? Just like a lot of reps. Got a lot of vegetables? Yeah. No, just like packing.

Canning booth. Canning booth, of course. Where are you going? Just a lot of, well, I'm doing some press for the show. Oh, yeah. That will mention Sonny. I didn't write it. I'm in it. I'm in it. But I produced it.

I thought you wrote it, but you produced it. And you produced it. Which is a really cool... The premise is your character moves to Japan, lives in Japan, and her husband dies. Missing. But they were on a plane crash. They're missing, yeah. And the company sends, his company sends you

a new personal robot. Yes. Called Sunny. In the future. In the future. Yeah, it's in the future. I had three callbacks for that robot. Did you? Yeah. They said, you know what they said, you know what the note was?

Too robotic. Too robotic. I think. Is the only way I tee it up was? Too robotic. Too robotic. Is the only way I tee it up for you, Willie. I know. Well, wait, hang on now. Rashida, you wrote yourself something that puts you in Japan a little bit. I didn't write it, you guys.

Let's be very clear. I produced it. But yes, I put myself in Japan. Yes, I lived in Japan. How great was that? It was really great. I know I've never been to a great. Have you been before?

Japan is the best. It's the best. I had been there like three or four times for a couple weeks, but I was there for six months. Wow. Wow. Well, now, Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka. Kyoto and Tokyo. We filmed in both, yeah.

Wow, that's so cool. Because I hear if you go over there, you gotta have it wired. Like it's a place you need to like have a chaperone or like very good notes or tips or you can get lost there. Yeah, you can, but even getting lost is fun there. It doesn't really matter. There's no bad version of it.

But yes, I was like dialed in because I had like the most amazing PA and like people who really knew the cities. And so like, I just went to the best, coolest restaurants, gardens, temples, onsen. Yeah. So Rashida, you know, I loved Silo so much. I told you when I saw you and I was like,

oh my God, Rashida's in this show that I heard so much about that Io so much, I told you when I saw you, and I was like, oh my God, Rashid is in this show that I heard so much about, that I love so much, and then you died in the first fucking episode. That's, yeah. Spoiler alert. That's how I do it. That's how I do it. I was like, wait, what?

Did that bum you out? Cause that's, every, I- No, that's why I took the job. Okay, okay. Cause it looked like it was locked down. No, it's fun to, it's fun to make people like you and then die. Yeah, if you guys haven't seen Silo, it it's fun. It's fun to it's fun to make people like you and then die Yeah, if you guys haven't seen silo, it's so good James Dean Damn, dude. No way. It's not even 11. Yes

He died by the way, what not too soon by the way, there's no fucking way that's really guess how old he was when he died 23 yeah, was he yeah. Yeah, so yeah, isn't that amazing that he was never older than? 23? Yeah. Was he? That's so crazy. Isn't that amazing that he was never older than 23? I looked at him, I always thought he was like, you know, like, that's a man. I just watched The Giant with him and Ron Hudson and Liz Taylor. Just Giant. More Hot Ticks from Sean.

Tracy, it's just Giant. Yeah. How was that? Was that part of the... Hey, you know what's a great movie? Gone with the Wind. You guys seen that? Nothing's really gone. Nothing leaves.

I mean, there's a fire, but... It's got legs. Yeah, I know it was really long, but it was good. I didn't know it was based on... Dallas was based on it. The show Dallas was based on giant Oh, yeah. Anyway, let's continue. Yeah, James Dean. I think this is one of his last movies or his last movie Wait a second. Hang on a second. This is like

Like a fucking and you're like, what am I doing? Why am I but is that a known fact or is that a weird? Reddit thing that that Dallas was based on no guys name is JR I mean his initials are JR and giant oil king and blah blah blah blah blah weird Reddit thing that Dallas was based on. No, the guy's name is JR. I mean his initials are JR. And giant is an oil king and blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah. You're sure?

100% positive. Oh, okay. And then what Not's Landing was based on. Love it if Scottie just slid in on a rolling stool. Well that was based on. Just for what it's worth, A Place in the Sun with Montgomery Clift is an amazing movie. Sorry, I just thought we were doing random.

Rashida, let's get to the guests. Will, do you have any questions for your guests? Yeah, would you back off? Come on. Your attitude is so shit. Go eat something for fuck's sake and then come back at me. Too much oatmeal is the problem. Sorry, Rashida.

Jason pulled up his shirt last night and I saw his abs, crazy abs. Really? Oh my God. It's a leaky three pack. Like summer abs? But not by choice, just from diet. No. Yeah, well I'm playing with God.

There's no sugar, there's no sugar, dairy? There's no food. There's no dinner. There's no food. There's no dinner. There's no sugar, no dinner. That's the key. Intermittent fasting, that's what you do?

It's unintentional, but it's, yeah, I'm playing. Intermittent eating. Yeah, that's it Wow, are you hungry all the time? It's are you hungry and grumpy all the time? No, you get you get you get past it You just got you know that you got a race to get to sleep. You got to get to bed You got to get to sleep. He thinks it's discipline. Oh, it is definitely just it's mental illness, bro Yeah

For different things So wait, so Rashida I want to touch you a little bit about so your experience illness, bro, at this point. People have different words for different things. You know? So wait, so Rashida, I want to touch you a little bit about, so your experience, everybody knows you from The Office and from Parks and Rec, and then, but everybody knew you as this actress, and you were kind of working in comedy and TV, and then you started, you and, I want to say that you,

I don't know how long you knew Will McCormick for, but you guys teamed up, you started writing, and you just started writing all your own stuff. Like you kind of made this shift at a certain point. Was that like a conscious decision? You're like, I've always had all these ideas and I'm sick of doing other people's stuff, I just wanna do my own shit?

Yeah, I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn't feel like I was good enough or anointed to be that kind of person. I think probably because I went to school with a lot of people who ended up writing for television. Harvard. Did you really go to Harvard? And they were all in the lampoon and they were funny and the guys who were going to get the jobs and stuff. So I never felt like that.

So I didn't feel worthy like pursuing that. And then a strike happened. Did you know Sure, did you know Mike Sure at Harvard? Yeah. Mike Sure's the one who created Parks and Rec? We met freshman year. We did a play together freshman year

called Love, Sex, and the IRS. Love, Sex, and the IRS. Wait, was it? It opened with us making out. Was he acting? Yeah. How was acting? Yeah. How was he? Yeah, funny.

I'll bet he's great. Yeah, he was funny, he was great. Yeah, I bet he is great, yeah. Mike Schur, yeah, for Tracy, Mike Schur started SNL and he was head writer of Weekend Update and then he went to the office and then he went with Greg Daniels and they created Parks and Rec

and then he went on to do Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place and tons of other stuff. He's a brilliant writer and you guys have a long relationship. I feel like I kind of know Sher through SNL but also kind of through you because you guys were friends. Yeah, since we were 18. Yeah, that's amazing.

We wrote a paper together in college, by the way. How stupid is that? We convinced our teacher that we should write a paper together. For the class, the Warren Court. What is that? About the Warren Commission? About the Supreme Court Justice Warren.

Ah ha. Wow. I'd love to read your paper. It sounds hilarious. It sounds really funny. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Now wait, so, get me back to the writing part of it.

Did you, what gave you kind of the fuel to like say, well you know what, maybe I can, or maybe I should? Did it come from just getting more and more proud of your writing, or were you reading more and more things that were not great that were getting produced? And you were like, I can do at least that. I think it was that. I think you just read so much when you're auditioning,

and even if you're not getting jobs, you just see the kind of landscape of what people are writing, and obviously there was good stuff, but I was kind of inspired by that moment in time that like the peak Judd Apatow where like all those dudes were just like, just writing themselves, you know?

And I thought I could at least do that, right? Even if it's not as good or as funny, I could find some audience. And I also had this feeling that like, nobody would ever cast me as a certain kind of thing. And if I'm going to get that part, I probably have to write it for myself. You know what, it's so funny, when I was living in Chicago,

I would watch certain channels that no longer exist. And on those channels were shows that no longer exist, and they weren't really great. And I was really young, and I was like, I know I can be at least that bad. Like, if that's all that's required, there's gotta be some job for me somewhere. You know what I mean?

Because they're not fantastic. Anyway, that was my... I wasn't saying that about, no, I'm not saying that about, but you know what I mean? Like I saw the entire spectrum and I thought, there's somewhere I can land. And of course I had lofty dreams because I grew up on Jim Brooks and Nora Ephron

and those were the kinds of movies I wanted to be in and I wanted to write. And I think having Bill holding each other's hands through the process, like we literally sat side-side and wrote our first script together and I feel like that. How did that relationship start? How'd you guys? We were set up. We were set up by his sister Mary McCormick. You must know Mary McCormick. I know and love, yes. Of course we love Mary.

I did a movie in the 90s, indie movie with Mary and I was obsessed with her. She was like the coolest, funniest person I'd ever met. She was like, you should go out with my brother. You guys are soulmates. And she's not wrong, it didn't work out. We did date for three weeks, it didn't work out. But he kind of is my work soulmate, you know?

We still work together, so. So you guys still work together, you and Will? Yeah, we produce and we write together. That's awesome, I love Will. He's such a good dude and Mary is so amazing. So you guys start, so you guys kind of have this, you realize, you date but it's not working out, but you realize that there is something else there

on another, maybe potentially even deeper level that you connect on. And what was the first thing that you guys were like, hey, we need to write this. Like, how did that happen? We started writing, oh, it's so weird. No, we started writing a show in New York. I mean, we were just drunk.

It's not even worth mentioning. The only thing we completed was Celeste and Jesse Forever, was the first movie that we completed, wrote to, in its entirety and went out with. Did you get, were you tempted to write about your relationship and how it did? Well we kinda, kinda, yeah, it kind of was that a little bit of it, it was like an amalgam of

the first kind of love that we had our own separate loves plus our dynamic as like a kind of somewhere in the middle of romantic and best friend chip yeah You just made me think of sorry to bounce around One of my favorite movies is social network. Was there any, your participation in that and having gone to Harvard, was there any, was any of that happening while you were there at that time? No, bro, no, I'm old, no.

So it was after you left? Yeah. I think it was like 2004. We had The FaceBook, which was the freshman Facebook, which is what the name is based on. And so like you'd get to school and you'd have, everybody would pick their headshots, you know. Like a yearbook.

Yeah, like a yearbook, but you submit your picture. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Was it digital or was it a hard copy? Hard copy, digital? We had ethernet my senior year. There was no internet. Right, yeah, we're about the same age. No, you're younger than we are. I'm younger than you, come on.

Jason, you're the oldest one here, by the way. I know. How old are you? 55. Look at his face. Wow, you're 55? That's amazing. Yeah, there's some gray in my beard.

Somewhere under that beard, you do look great. You look great, you look great. Just a lot of beard, but I see it. There's a hell of a back in the company. I'm playing a loser, so you know. Oh, you are? Yeah. Oh, in the movie.

Oh, in the movie. In real life. My wife and I like role playing, and so this month she's got me as a loser. This month. Hey, growing up around so much music, I'm sure, there's constantly music in your house, I'm sure, right? Yeah, yeah.

And were you ever inspired to do that? Like, was your whole family like, wait, don't you want to come over here and do what we're doing? We're playing instruments, we're singing songs, we're producing records. I love it so much, and I kind of like sing for fun. I've written for fun and I've sung,

like I've sung backup on some albums and things like that. Really? Yeah, I sang backup on the first two Maroon 5s. No way. I sing for them live, yeah. That's so cool. That's so good. Wait, can you read music, can you write music?

I can write. My reading is limited, but my dad's a musical genius. That's like the last thing I wanna do is try my hand at that. But I love it. I have a deep ache for music, and I just don't ever feel like I'm good enough to do it. I'll never be good enough to do it. Again, I wanna remind people,

your dad produced Thriller. Yeah. Yeah. Right? So that's so, Jimmy, I remember one time, Rashida, going over to your dad's house with you and being blown away, going downstairs and seeing, you know when you go into somebody's office, guys,

and you see like, they've got like a record, right? Like a platinum record or whatever, like some whatever. And you go into Quincy's house and well, it is A, it's a museum and B, the framed thing for Thriller has like 40 platinum records in the frame. Literally 40, you're like, what the fuck? It's like the granddaddy of them all. And what about that documentary you did was just so awesome.

Yes, that was so good. Yeah, so I was gonna talk about it. So let's get to the documentary about your dad. Yeah. What a great thing to do for your, I mean, for your parents, it's just like, I don't know. That was a lot of time. Well, I was gonna say, so, I mean, obviously we,

you know, yeah, like Jason said, it's a great thing to do and to be able to do with your dad, but also like, what was, do you remember the moment where you're like, how that, the sort of the genesis of that? What was the moment? I'm not gonna take any credit. My dad is so well-documented.

Like, he had it, there was a doc series on BBC, there was a documentary about him in the 80s, and I was with Jane Rosenthal, you know Jane. Yeah, the great Jane Rosenthal. Who's a legend, and she worked for my dad years ago, like 30 years ago. Oh wow. And she said to me, you have to make,

you have to make a documentary about your dad. And I was like, oh fuck, I do, I do, don't I? I didn't want to, but she was right. Because the truth is, he's so well documented, he's so accomplished that it's almost impossible to spend any time storytelling about who he is as a person to cover so much ground with just what he's like like Contributed to the world and culture I wanted to do something that felt like it captured his personality because nothing ever has and

So that was kind of the goal. And then Al Hicks, who I love. By the way, if you've never seen, he made a documentary called Keep On Keepin' On, which is about Clark Terry, who's my dad's mentor, horn player, and his last mentee, who's this incredible jazz pianist, he's blind, Justin Coughlin, it's like about their relationship.

It's like, if you're ready to cry, that's what you turn on. Like it's like waterworks. It's so good. Keep on keepin' on? Keep on keepin' on. So Hicks, he directed that. We met on my first day of filming in Montreux

in Switzerland at the Jazz Festival. I had a 5D camera. I was trying to figure out what to do, how to do it. And we met that day and then I asked him to co-direct with me. Wow. Yeah, and I mean just the access, so yeah, all that archival footage

that people have already seen about your dad, no one's seen you just walking around with a camera in the house and talking to your dad. Right, that was really cool. That was just like this access, it just felt so privileged watching it. Yeah, it felt intimate and too intimate, in fact, because there's a whole scene where,

I mean, he almost died while we were filming. Right, oh, yeah. We stopped filming, and luckily my brother was filming a bunch of stuff in the hospital, like, show my dad, because he went into diabetic coma. And, you know, luckily the conclusion of the story was such that we could put it in and felt like the real triumph through that because my dad is a beast

and he has cheated death many times. 91, still crushing it. So. That's amazing, yeah. You know what was fascinating to me watching that was seeing you in the document, because you told me like, you have to check out this documentary.

I ran home and watched it. And there's my friend, Rashida Jones. And I'm watching Rashida Jones interview her dad, who's Quincy Jones. And I had this weird thing where like, wait, they're related? Which is a compliment because- That's really nice, I take that.

You've become, you've made such a world for yourself, separate from his huge world, and you've both become hugely successful, that it was wild just to see, wow, that you both became. Well, it's true, Rashidi, and that was also something I wanted to get to, which is like, it's not easy, I can imagine, I can only imagine, how to,

and it's not by anybody's fault or design that you have a dad who is larger than life, who is, as you said, a musical genius. Everybody knows he's created incredible things. He's done amazing things. And to grow up with that, I can only imagine there's a lot there. And then you go to Harvard and get...

To create your own thing and to have your own incredible success. That's a real there. I'll just say that. And then you go to Harvard and get... And then to create your own thing and to have your own incredible success, that's a real testament to your talent. I hope you recognize that. Yeah, to have the courage to even try. And then you nailed it. And now people are like, wait, she has a famous dad?

You know, it's like, you've already got your own thing. It's Janet and Michael. It's Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson. I never think of them in the same family. Oh, his mother, Janet? No. No, but It's Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson. I never think of them in the same family. Oh, his mother, Janet? No, but like Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson are in the same family, but when I see them,

I'm like, I don't think of the other one. Right. It's not a great analogy, also. It's too close. It's too close with Michael and stuff. All right, sorry, sorry. No, I mean, we would cut it, but we want to shame you, so we're gonna leave it in.

We might open the episode with it. Yeah, yeah. Have you seen The Godfather? Just kidding. No, I heard you guys talking about that, and we actually did, we watched it recently too, we watched all three. And great films, great films.

I don't know if anybody knows, but really great films. And three, great film. I don't know if, I think we watched the edited version, but I watched it because I hadn't seen it since I know Sofia so well, and just seeing like baby Sofia in that movie. First on screen, wasn't it? You know what's crazy about Three, you guys?

It's about first cousins in love. I know. It's wild. I just started watching it. And that's not the central conflict of the movie. It's just a story. Well, so you mentioned Sophia Kobla. So you made a film with Sophia,

I wanna say five, four or five years ago, right? On the Rocks? Yeah, 2020. Well, it came out during lockdown. So yeah, 2020. Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. I blanked that part out of my head. I mean, completely.

Yes, we all have. I don't know what you mean. So you made this film on the box in 2020 with Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray. Yeah. And you got a lot of great reviews for that performance. I mean, everybody loved it. And did you know Sophia before

or was that where you guys kind of got to know each other? We had met, I was like an out of work actor in an acting class in New York. And she came to the class to workshop Lost in Translation. What? And so I played the like main part for a month with her. No, wait, wait, walk me through that idea. What is that?

So my acting coach, Greta, works a lot with Frances and Sophia. And they do dream work around character dream work. And so she kind of came to explore and enrich like the characters in the film. And so I was like assigned to the lead part to the Scarlett Johansson part. And then, you know, I had to do like dream assignments

and come in and like, you know, embarrass myself by acting out my dreams. But it was really very cool. Like I got to play that part and work with Sophia for like a month. I was like 27 or something? 26, 27? Wow. Wow, that's pretty cool.

That is cool. Also shot in Japan. I didn't get the part, but that's fine. Didn't even audition. So, but you didn't get the part, but you got to have a sort of a really intense working relationship with Sofia. And you guys stayed together. We were like, we got gotta do something at some point. That's the kind of vibe, or?

I mean, obviously I would've done anything for her. But we stayed friends over the years, and then I shot, we did, she directed a Calvin Klein underwear commercial that I was in. Wow. And then she did this Bill Murray Christmas special for Netflix. Right, yeah.

And we had a little scene in that, and she was like, there's something happening here. This is a good dynamic, and I think she got the idea sort of from that scene we had together. Nice. And that. But what was that like working with Bill Murray? I know a lot of people.

I know. I mean, you don't really talk to many people that work with him. I know. there is as lucid as he is Yeah By the way thought about that that's true. We have we when we were doing that workshop Sophia was trying to cast him and she had a Dedicated assistant who sat outside our rehearsals with a phone waiting for him to call back all day God, it's amazing.

Yeah. Right? By the way, she already had a relationship with him, had a successful film with him and stuff, but she still had to have that. No, no, no, that was for Lost in Translation. That was before. Oh, that was for Lost in Translation.

Got it. Yes, that was originally when I met her and we were working on that. She had not cast him, she was still courting him. And you know, he's like a Loch Ness monster. Because the story goes like you can only reach him via fax or something like that? I know, yeah, I guess.

I've never had that. He's got a phone number that you can call and leave a message. He had like a toll free number or something for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that, yeah. But he really is like, he did a guest spot. I had a show called Angie Trebekah. Yes.

And he did a guest spot and he called me and I booked his ticket. He was like, oh yeah, I wanna leave at nine. Oh no way. On Wednesday, I was like, okay. That's funny. Are you serious? Shiet Blue, yeah, yeah. That's funny. No way.

And is he just about as chill and sort of don't sweat the small stuff as he seems? He's pretty great. I mean, he is extremely charismatic. You know, he's like, and he's also, what I didn't really know, I'd worked with him a couple times before, but doing a whole movie with him,

like he's so, he's so good, he's so good. I'm not saying anything you don't know, but he's such a good actor and he's so, he's so present and he still works hard as an actor. He's not checked out. He could be checked out because his talent is undeniable. But he works hard. He had a lot of big meaty monologues in that movie

where he would talk about evolutionary biology and the nature of men and women. And it was a lot. He had to run down some serious theories and he was fully committed. You know, inspiring. I would love to have him on this show and ask him questions for an hour.

Did you, wait, first of all. Well, why don't you wait out in the hall with the phone. Yeah, by the way. Exactly. Not good enough? I get it, Murray. Wow. Yeah, Jesus. Already thinking about the next guest.

Already thinking about old Bill Murray. Yeah, Jesus. Already thinking about the next guest. Already thinking about old Bill Murray. We'll be right back. All right, back to the show. All right, so let's switch gears. All of a sudden, now you find yourself in with the gang over at Pixar, right? The crew. The crew,? The crew. The crew, the Pixar crew.

The Pixar crew, they approach you and they go, Rashida, we want you to come in here and start mixing it up on the Toy Story bonanza. How'd that go down? I mean, I love these Toy Story movies. I love Pixar movies so much. Yeah, I do too. Yeah, me too.

And it was, yeah, I was on Parks and, you know, they have really kind of cool development where every, you know, their development people, their casting people, they watch indie films. Like, that's how they get their ideas, you know. Like, I had had some friends who had written indie movies who had written there. And we went and screened Seles and Jesse Forever.

And then we got a call to meet on a project, all very, very under wraps, you know? Like they have to keep everything really. And we went and met and we got the job. And so I went to, sure. And I was like, listen, I love you. I love the show. I wanna be here, but I got a job.

It's at Pixar. I have to move to the Bay Area, and like, but I need your blessing, you know? And he was like, he's the greatest, he's the best boss ever, because he let everybody do everything they wanted to do while we were doing that show. Chris Pratt, they like filmed in London

so Pratt could do the first Marvel movie he did. He just wanted everybody to be like the best version of themselves, so he was like, yeah, of course, you have to go. How long did you live in the Bay Area to do that? I lived there two years. Wow.

Yeah. And you had to live there while you were writing it because the process is so sort of collaborative and back and forth? It's collaborative, it's iterative. You're rewriting a script every three weeks. It is not a WGA job. I'll just say that.

And you're working with the story artists and they're sort of writing within the way that they draw, changes the story and then you have to change the script to fit the sequences they've. Yeah, one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen is The Pixar Story. Yeah, they sit down and show that to you on your first they've... Yeah, one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen is The Pixar Story. Yeah, they sit down and show that to you

on your first day there. Yeah, they should, it's so fascinating. Yeah, I see that. And I did Monsters University, that little movie. And so I went up there too, and the whole facility is the coolest, like everybody's just playing ping pong and walking around, like, it's like college.

There's a vibe there, it's like a live there. It's like college. Yeah They're so good at ping-pong up there. They're so good at that's the one thing I love about picture is how good Yeah, I did one movie I did this ratatouille. It's not a big deal. Yeah With Brad Bird who cares movie that's a very played that great you've created that that great big huge dude right there No, he's the German sous chef. So good Fun movie with Brad Bird is such a gene. That guy's a genius. Yeah It feels like they send me a nice coffee table book every Christmas. Oh Yeah Just about just different subjects each each year just stuff, you know from everybody from your friends at Pixar belt boats. I'm very nice

I really appreciate it Wait a lot of coffee tables. I drink a lot of coffee. Okay guys You and Jason both grew up in the valley. Did you ever run into each other? Have you known each other or no? You always ask each other. You don't remember do you? Don't know I, we've crossed paths. Uh oh. No, no, no, no, no, there's no raw stories. There's no raw stories.

I just remember seeing you around and like, you were cute, all my friends liked you. I just feel like there's so much crossover. 80s, Valley? Yeah, but like where, was this before we were driving? Were we at kids parties? No, because you were driving when I was like 12. Yeah. Or 11.

Yeah, right. But I feel like there was like, I'm trying to think of the 80s parties, 80s clubs. Well, sure, like Roxbury. Flippers, peanuts, Roxbury. Sounds like you didn't see each other. Well, I wasn't remembering a lot back then. But wait, let's go back to Flippers and Peanuts.

Yeah, Flippers was a roller skating place where... Did you know about Flippers? Flippers is now the CVS on the corner of Los Anagas and Santa Monica. And you still go there? It was like Studio 54 but roller skates. But no way! It was happening. And then there was a big club where the Beverly Center is right now.

Oh yes! Called Odyssey, wasn't it? Odyssey, yes! Roxbury though, that was the spot. And then above the Roxy, on the rocks, that was a biggie. On the rocks. The whiskey bar at the bottom of the Sunset Marquis was a big haunt for me.

Oh, that was banging, yes. Me too. Yeah, it was a good time. So see, I do remember things. But just not her. Did you go to high school? Like did you go to high school in sets? This is a great question.

Ish, I did not get any. Imagine a, okay, Rashida, imagine a school bus. No, no, that was eighth grade. The back of it has a bunch of massage tables.. The back of it has a bunch of massage tables. And the back has a bunch of massage bus, right? She doesn't know about the massage. You went to massage bus school. Yeah, it was called Heartlight.

It was an experimental school. It's just one year. Exactly. And I also grew up with Amanda. Yeah, yeah. Oh, Jason's right, Amanda. Yeah, we all go back. Yeah, yeah. Amanda, oh, Jason's right. I've known Amanda since high school, yeah. Yeah, we all go back.

Where did the acting bug come from? Was there a... At what age? Well, your mom, obviously your mom. My mom was an actress, yeah. Was an actress for... Was she encouraging there? The great Peggy Lipton.

Yeah. Yes, the great Peggy Lipton. Yeah, she was encouraging. I was like, my rebellion was like, I'm not doing this Hollywood bull. I'm not doing entertainment. You've been surrounded by it, and you're right. Yeah, I wanted to be a lawyer.

I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted to be legitimate. You would have been a great lawyer, by the way. Yeah, you would have been great. For real, you would have been. Thanks, Will. What kind of lawyer? I wanted to litigate. Like, I wanted to be like, you know,

Spencer Tracy in Hair at the Wind. You know, like I wanted to argue the case in court. You could do that with a lot of different kinds of law, can't you? Yeah. But there's no particular law that really interests you, like environmental law or criminal law. I probably would want to have been like, yeah, I would have been like a DA or something, you know? Rashida, with all of your success already,

have you sort of like slowed down your dreaming? Like do you even allow yourself to, like where would you love to see yourself in five, 10, 15, 20 years? Is it more on the writing side, the acting side? Like just like harmony just with your family? Or do your goals move as often as like mine do? And do you just settle on anything?

Yeah. That, no. I don't know. I'm in a real like maybe you guys can tell me because you're a tiny bit older than me. I'm having that moment right now where I'm like, I don't know anything. I don't know anything. That's better.

And by the way, you can do it all because you're already doing it all. I don't know, am I? I don't know, sorry. We're also like approaching. I just started therapy, this is true, I'm going to get real for a second, and I fucking don't know anything.

This is the most scared I've been in my life, is right now. That's good news. That's good though, Will. Wait, why? Because it's really scary, I'm doing like, I can't even believe I'm talking about this. I had heavy therapy this morning and I can't believe it.

It's scaring you because you're like admitting that like you might not know as much as you're pretending to know? Yeah, that's the tip of it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's so good. And I do think there is something at this moment, there's something sort of regenerative, and I'm sure it's coming for you, Will.

Right now you're sort of resetting, which is incredibly scary, but most people I talk to who are 50, just turned 50, have this thing where they're like who am I there's like this full rebirth What who do I want to be for the next 50 years? We're lucky. Yeah, what does my back half look like? What's actually fulfilling? What is my ego want? Do I need to fulfill my ego? Do I need to fulfill a deeper soul purpose like so much is coming about all that shit in my therapy I talk about all that stuff. Yeah Well. I talk about all that stuff, yeah, so good. Will, I'm excited for you, this is really exciting.

I wouldn't be scared, I would embrace it, like embrace the fear of doing it. But the fear's good, because we're all scared. I had to put eye drops in just so that my eyes were white because I just was like, it was rough. Oh, well. I know, I had a really rough morning. Really? I love it. It's been a tough couple weeks.

It's been a tough couple weeks. Yeah, yeah. But good for you for doing that work, because you could just like slide by and you could probably be okay and live in denial for the rest of your life and the fact that you're going deep right now means you're gonna rebuild

and be like the best version of yourself. By the way, the best part is I told Polar yesterday and she's like, oh, I'm so glad. I'm like, what do you mean you're so glad? What? She's like, oh, I'm so glad I'm like what do you mean? You're so glad She's like 20 years too late Talking about laughing about it on a podcast I think at this stage of your life

You've done stuff like you've had like the this huge first couple chapters of your life and you have the work stuff and you have the adolescence and then the work stuff then the kid stuff and then the work with kids stuff and blah, blah, blah and you get to this point you're like, okay, now what? Right, and also that's all that stuff that you thought for your entire life was gonna fill the gap.

You're like, wait, it doesn't quite fill that gap. There's still a little piece missing, and what is that piece? And we're privileged enough to have succeeded in a way. But I think for everybody, they're like, wait a second, it's just gonna be this forever? All the firsts are gone. Yeah, it's so interesting.

Wow, I talk about all that, Merchida, in my therapy. But to your point, Jason, like I think everybody here, including me, I wanna not to be overly earnest, but I wanna be able to create from like a real source, from a feeling of connection. So I'm like, I'm taking a little breath to figure out what that actually is and what that looks like and what I wanna say because, you know, I don't know,

I don't wanna just put shit out and also it's hard to put shit out right now. All right, so Rasheeda, so then first of all, everything you're saying is so well said, that's so succinct and to the point and I love it. What is the best advice somebody's given you to get over what we're all talking about? Or to not get over it, but to kind of deal with it.

Yeah, manage it. Well, the thing I always go back to is my dad says, make decisions based on love and not fear, which sounds so platitudinal, but it's really not. Like when you think about it, well, like, you know what you were just saying, like I have often looked at my life and thought, let me just do this thing that I know

is the kind of safe way to do it. Or let me do this thing that's gonna make people love me and because I'm afraid of not being loved as opposed to like really, really loving something and believing in something and not caring. Worrying about the results. Yeah. Well, I realized that I have all these tricks,

what I've come to sort of realize anyway in the last couple is that I have a lot of these tricks that I can do that help me get over things and get by, and I can get to a place of okay, and I can kind of put the things back on track, but there are patterns there. And I'm like, nothing's ever gonna really change unless I actually look at it.

I think looking at it, acknowledging it, and then I would say my greatest gift is just continuing to develop my inner life. Like something that is not connected to anybody else, creating almost like a little house inside, whether it's meditation or breath, whatever it is, nature. Yeah, that's self-sufficient, whether it's meditation or breath, whatever it is, nature. Yeah, that's self-sufficient and it's not reliant on external approval, gratification.

Yeah, love that. Anyway, have you seen Goonies? Yeah, good movie. Welcome back to Sean's Hot Takes. Hot Takes instead of hot cakes? Triple hot. Well, Rashida, you are real sweet to give us an hour of your day. That's so funny.

Was that an hour? Wow. That's an hour, yeah. Look at us. They're breezy. It's a breezy little stop here. We were just getting into the meat of it, too, right? No, we were getting deep. I know we just started again. You want to take another bite, Will? No, I don't.

Should we talk about therapy? Another bite. I really, really don't. I can't believe we talked about it at all. I love that you did. I love that you did. It's great to be vulnerable. Yeah. We always talk about that shit. It's good. It's great to be vulnerable. We always talk about that shit. It's good.

Rashida, we love you, I love you. I love you guys, this is so fun. Thank you for having me. And talking to me. Watch Sunny. Sunny, watch Sunny. Now Sunny, is that spelled with an O or a U? S-U-N-N-Y, it's on Apple TV Plus.

Apple TV Plus, Sunnyny starting the incomparable, Rashida Jones. Rashida Jones. Rashida. Congratulations on that. Yeah, congratulations on everything. So much love to your family and continued success. Same, thank you guys.

Love you guys. Thanks Rashida. Bye guys. Bye, see you soon. Oh well, Willie, that's almost your kind of half-wife, right? Isn't she's best friends with Amy? Yeah, I mean, I've spent a lot of time with Shida Rashida

over the years. We've like, a lot of time. We've vacationed together many times. We've just done, she and I actually went, well, not, we asked her to go to Mike Schur's wedding. What do you call her for short? Sheeda. Sheeda?

Yeah, Sheeda. Sheed, Sheedy. Sheeds. Yeah, Jones, Jonesy. Rashida Jones and me. RJ, ever RJ? RJ would be good. Oh, RJ's good.

RJ's pretty good. You're obsessed with the initials, Jay. Yeah, I do like it a lot. I just call you Jay. Oh, RJ's good. RJ's pretty good. You're obsessed with the initials, Jay. Yeah, I do like the initials. I just call you Jay. Yeah, she's lovely, she's so grounded. She's so, well, she's so smart and funny and just razor sharp and has always been. And yeah, I always like spending time with Rashida Jones.

And easy on the eyes. And easy on the eyes. And easy on the eyes. Easy on the eyes. But she's grown up in such a potentially privileged, isolated environment, yet does not seem that at all and probably works hard to not be. Very, very down to earth. If you didn't know that her dad was Quincy Jones and that she'd grown up in Hollywood,

if you met her in a coffee shop in Kansas City, you'd be like, oh, she's just somebody from any town, USA. Yeah. And who is just a smart, you know, awesome person. But she has no, there's no, she's not spoiled to that way. No, no, yeah, really great. But at the end there, I like that we got real real about it. And I like talking about that stuff and I'm glad you're doing that well. That's really great.

And I love when Jason asked if when you know, we weren't done if you wanted to take another BITE! Out of the meat. SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarve, and Bennett Barbeco. SmartLess.