SmartLess - "RE-RELEASE: Don Cheadle"

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Watch out, folks— it’s Don Cheadle, a.k.a. “Donchalant.” What is Jazz? Did Don have a good slumber last night? Get ready for some hard-hitters, like a deadly mignonette, the most rarified air, and both Kansas Cities. From our lips to pods’ ears, it’s an all-new SmartLess.This episode was originally released on 4/8/24. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Hi everybody, how was your day today? Are you asking us or the audience and you're expecting an answer from you? No, the audience is not Mike. You got sorry. Well, no, I was asked. Oh, they're not since when you call me and JB everybody. Yeah. No, I call you guys the audience because you think that's the only people listening to you is just us too.

Yeah, you got higher responsibilities in that. Let's come with the good stuff. Judging by this opening we're after, it's going to be a great Smartless. Welcome to it. It's ISU, Illinois State University, where I have an honorary doctorate and a scholarship fund set up for people who want to go into music or the arts and sorry, acting. Are they still accredited? I mean after you got a diploma, I heard that after they give you a diploma that they were stripped of their power was like a real on Is that an online universe? Oh, I still wear my sash to bed once they did an assessment of your intellect

They're like we gave this guy a fucking diploma Did you really go to ISU? I went to Illinois State University. Yes, the one of the greatest colleges ever. Okay Well, hang on. Let's quickly Google that I don't think you're gonna like first theater theater, by the way, you know who went there me Jane Lynch Craig Robinson And I were music majors together. No, we I know we've had them on the podcast I know we talked about that. We talked about for like half an hour. Hey Arnett. Where'd you go to school? I did it. I dropped out man.nett. Where'd you go to school? I did it I dropped out man. No, but they you did go to boarding school. You know where I went

I went to fucking hard knocks, dude Streets hard not life with Annie Toronto. Yeah, well streets of Toronto. Did you go do you went you went to use me you? Excuse me. You went to additional additional voluntary school. I did for half a half a year Yeah, I know I love you You went to additional voluntary school? I did for half a year. I know, I love that you go to additional voluntary. No, actually I should revert that. Voluntary additional school. And I just didn't understand the concept of that.

Well yeah. I now have an option to not go so taking that option Sure, you're in a good joke. Yeah, sure. Love one ISU Just jump in. I didn't realize that you were grabbing the reins here We were just merrily going down a path, but I knew it's like, errrr, let's just go fucking, okay Let's talk more about your school. I didn't go. No, that's not. Here we go ready The best gift I ever received was a broken drum. You can't beat it Okay, that's all right, that's okay. He doesn't claim that these to be great jokes

Oh, yeah, I got a couple laughs in the background there you should you should say do you want to hear a dad joke if you say? Ready for something good dad joke means it's not like the term dad joke I think that that's I think that's lazy to call it a dad joke. How about bad joke? Just say bad joke so people aren't expecting to laugh. Or like a pun. That's okay to say. I got one more, you got one more.

Are there any mom jokes? Here's a mom joke. What's faster, hot or cold? Hot, you can always catch a cold. That's good, that's good. Is that bad? That's pretty good. I guarantee you at least one of our listeners

will be using that today after they get out of their car or off their subway or done with their jog. It's fun. You're welcome. I love, hang on Sean, I love Jason Cheyenne to imagine what regular people do. It's so fun. They get on the subway and then they go. They kiss their kids goodbye,

walk out door, go to job, say hi boss, office. Want to hear a joke? Want to hear a joke? At water cooler with me. I love Succession 2. What are you watching? I'm also watching Succession. Are you watching it? I am also worried about saying that I don't like it. Do you're worried that you're saying I do like it I'm just alright the joke real real good opening pattern everybody did everybody sleep well. I slept really well Patters over let's get to a high-level guest. Okay, really good though Did you for the first actually that that is worth itail. You wanna talk to us about your sleep? The guest is not gonna wait for your sleep report.

Well it's very rare that he has good sleep. Before we get into it, it is true Sean, and I'm happy for you, and there's nobody, we talk about it all the time. Sean, yesterday morning JB, Sean, I said to him, hey you got a second, let me know when you got a second, like seven, I'm up at six, I said let me know when you got a second. It was like seven. It was at seven, he calls me, and I thought that him, hey, you got a second, let me know when you got a second, like seven, I'm up at six, I said let me know when you got a second. It was like seven.

It was at seven, he calls me. And I thought that he was back, you know his usual thing, he wakes up in the middle of the night, and then he goes back to bed at 6.30 until 10 is whatever. He was up and he'd been up since 3.30. 3.30 in the night. He's been on a bad run of not being able to sleep, so. So I slept all through the night,

I got up to pee and I went right back to sleep. And why do you think think that is did you load up on a bunch of sugar before you went to bed? I did a little bit but because of Yesterday, I think that what wills talking about I think I ran myself around in circles like a little child Being up at 330 and then I just crashed and it made me sleep all night long. It's awesome You know what a fucking story It was awesome. You nap. What a fucking story. I'll nap like ten minutes.

I'll nap like ten minutes. Anyway, so. Good that we stopped for that. You were right, Will. Silly me. So today's guest is so immensely accomplished. We're gonna see David's face. What a fucking story.

God, who else slept through the whole night? Make sure you call in. Our lines are open. And love to hear about it. So our next guest is so accomplished and so universally loved. Okay? He's so accomplished and so universally loved. He's done everything. He's done television, film, theater. He's even got a Grammy, I believe.

It's been comedy, it's been drama, it's been popcorn movies, it's been academy movies. I just don't know what else to say about this fella except he's a new friend. Oh. Okay. Okay. We met online. And he is also a Capricorn.

And no, he is a new friend that I'm very excited about. He swings a mean golf club. Oh, I thought we were gonna say both. The way that started was he swings. I know. I know. I was like, oh, what? He'll take you where you want to go on the weekends. Okay, well, that's what I'm saying. But listen, I love him. He's here.

Very kind of him to say yes, because this is a big shot. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Don Cheadle. Hello, Don. I. Don Cheadle. Hello, Don. Oh, I love Don Cheadle. People. Woo! What's happening?

Good morning. Don. Don Cheadle's done everything. You know what I was trying to remember, Don? What is that great nickname that you were given because you're so smooth? I couldn't remember it. You told me this on the golf course.

I think Kelly Slater said that was very Don Shallant. Yeah! Don Shallant! Is that a new nickname? That's really clever. I'm trying to put it out there. I was going to try to trademark it, but I was unsuccessful. Don Shallant is out there now, just FYI.

It's fully out there, and if you happen to run into Don Chilon in the streets, just immediately, Don Chilon. Yeah. Let him know. Mr. Chilon. You can single gun it or double gun it. I don't know. Wow. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don. Don Chilon, hi. Good morning. What's up, gang? I love Don Cheadle. You know, the team was like, you've got to do these guys' podcasts. You're going to love them. I love all of you individually and collectively.

Not as much when it's that through the banter. The early banter. It's like, remember the joy that Regis and Kathie Lee used to give you with that first 10 minutes of coffee powder? I love it. Right? Yeah. I love it.

I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. the early banter. It's like, remember the joy that Regis and Kathie Lee used to give you with that first 10 minutes

of coffee powder? Yeah. That's what we're reaching for, Don. No, it was a strong six minutes. Don, where are we finding you right now? And the reason I ask is because you look like you're either coming from or going to the golf course because you're wearing a zip-up, but I want to say, which is surprising, because you look like you're either coming from or going to the golf course because you're wearing a zip up. But I want to say, which is surprising,

because you are such, you're so busy and rightfully so, because you're always, you fit in that category for me too, of people who are always good no matter what the project is. You're so consistently awesome all the time. And you work- Wait until you see this one. Who's gonna take that down? I don't know.

Quick. You know what, you know what I just watched just last week, not even knowing obviously that we were gonna be on because you're Jason's guest, we watched Mission to Mars. I was in there. And I was like, there's Don, again, and you're brilliant in it. Always.

Always brilliant. Because you know I'll watch anything sci-fi. I am picking up on surprise in Sean's voice though. And he says, and you're brilliant. It was like, you were pretty good. No, I meant to Will's point. I didn't know you were an actor. And that you could grow facial hair.

I thought it was only Jason who could do that. This is not really facial hair. This is disgusting. No, it was great. So, Don. I'm in Atlanta, Will, to answer your question No, it was great. Well, so, Don. I'm in Atlanta, Will, to answer your question, I'm in Atlanta. You're in Atlanta.

And what's happening there in Atlanta? Working on something, no doubt? I'm working on something, it's a project called Fight Night. And I am in this wonderful project with who you guys had on the show, Kevin Hart. Sam Jackson. Taraji Henson, Terrence Howard. Wow. Yeah, it should be, I'm looking forward to it. I've shot one day, so I'm looking forward to this journey.

You can still be fired. They can still easily reshoot one day at work. Yeah, it's early enough. Yeah, so watch it. I've been replaced before. It wouldn't be the first time. enough. Yeah, so watch it. I've been replaced before. It wouldn't be the first time. Have you? No.

Have you? I've been replaced before. I have. I didn't mean to bring up something pink. Oh wait, I love that Don's like, no. I haven't, sorry, I was just kidding you. Of course not. Mine was a, why do you think I'm on your show?

Mine was a cruelest though, because I worked my nards off on this pilot, we shot the pilot, it went well, so I thought, and then like a couple of days before the big announcements happen about whether pilots are gonna get picked up to go to series, I get a call from my agent saying, you are going to, good news, bad news, good news is the show got picked up.

And I said, unbelievable, he, goes here, let me finish. The bad news is that they're gonna go a different direction with your character. I said, okay. Two days later, found out they're actually not picking up the show. So could you, I mean, this is like the worst 48 hours. So good, bad, good.

Good, bad, good. I agree with Don. I could have been spared all of it by just them saying, well we're not picking up the show. Basically, we're all fired. You know? Are you still with this agent? Yeah, that's gonna be a good thing.

Yeah, exactly. No, no, no. That's three or four ago. But it's good to know, I like it is personal a little bit because they were like, hey, we know the show's not getting picked up, but let's let Bateman know that even if it did, he wasn't coming with you. Yeah.

In the event that this is going forward, not you. I've been fired too. I got fired off a pilot that went to series the year before we started Arrested Development. Oh, God bless. And had I not been, I would have been stuck on that show. Don, wait a second. So you're in Atlanta, you're doing this thing with Sam Jackson. Are you potentially playing golf with Sam today? You know, Sam has been on IR for a minute.

I hope he comes off because I would love to. We used to play a lot, but he's nursing an injury or two. Fingers crossed. How's his game? Sam was like a four. What? Wow. Yeah.

Damn it. Wow. There's all these people. The game is just so easy to so many people. Well, you know, Sam, famously, you know, whenever he would get a gig, a part of his contract was they had to get him a membership to whatever local course there was because he's such a freak about it. So he...

Oh really, no shit? Yeah, he played everywhere. I was like, you can do that? Sam also was, you know, Mr. If you force me, you're bringing me $900 in cash in an envelope the next day like a drug deal. I was like, this dude's my hero. Yeah.

By the way, Jason, you can, Jason right now, you see he looked down, he's got, he's just gone on his phone, you know, speed dialed the CAA right now. He you look down he's he's got he's just gone his phone speed down to CAA right now I think like what the fuck 12 country club short damn it Yeah, all right now, how do you like how do you like Atlanta? You know I've worked there a lot and and I always I always thought that it was not gonna be a place for me

And every time I work there, I just love it more and more and more. Do you enjoy yourself there? You've worked there a bunch, yes? I've worked here a bunch because a lot of the Marvel stuff was here. Right. Oh, right. And I've kinda been around it a little bit more, but this is probably the longest stretch

that I'm gonna be here, so I'm looking forward to like getting up to the mountains and going to the lakes and just checking it all out. So I did a movie there a long time ago in Atlanta during the summer. Did you guys shoot all those Marvel movies in the summertime because you can't breathe, it's so hot. Hot Atlanta, hot Atlanta.

Yeah. And you're in those costumes and running around in that heat, is that what it... And you're in space? Yeah, I mean I think that was the... Oh, there's a callback. I have a callback. Good one. No, but I mean, isn't that brutal?

Yeah, it's brutal. I mean, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, where 98 degrees and 98% humidity, so I was born for this, you know? But yeah, it's not fun. But right now, it's very cold, actually. It's very cold. I like it too.

I like JB. I spent the last few years about, last year I spent six months, I think, almost in Atlanta. And I really liked it. I really liked the people. Once you find a kind of a good zone where you can find your stuff and whatever, I liked it a lot.

You gotta find a zone. but I was down in like I was down like right near sort of little five points like all in there like that's where I was staying it was awesome a lot of great like restaurants and okay okay yeah yeah yeah so Jason if you had enough yeah you open it you open it you open it this it. This is like a fucking court case. You, good sleep last night, Don? You know, what's hilarious when Sean was talking about that is I was very jealous because I did not sleep well last night. That's what I'm saying. The fucking worst episode we've ever recorded.

Right, we're right, we're 17 minutes into the worst. From what I did? No, no, it's all my fault, all my fault. I'm talking about fucking Atlanta. We're talking about the weather. We're talking about sleep. It's like, let's get to something hard hitting. Now somebody told me the other day that Kansas City...

Oh, here we go. Kansas City is actually split right down the middle, the border between Kansas and Missouri. You still don't have it. J.K.B., you still don't have it. No? You still haven't got it. J.B., you still don't have it. No? You still haven't got it. That's a whiff. No.

Help me. People? No, no, no. There's one in Kansas and there's a Kansas City and Missouri there. I mean, they're close. Wait, there's two different places called Kansas City. Oh my God. No, honestly.

I know. John's about to leave. John, this is every day, by the way. This is how it goes. 54 years old and this is, I'm just now's about to leave. Don, this is every day, by the way. This is how it goes. I'm 54 years old and this is, I'm just now getting clarity on this. Let's do it publicly. There are two places called Kansas City, one's in Missouri, one's in Kansas. Yeah.

Correct. And which one's got the G's? There is a border. Which one's got the Royals? Missouri. Missouri. Missouri's got what? Let me just say this.

Don, take a look at JB's face. Now JB walked on through the gummy routine. This is gonna explain a lot. Walk him through the timing and the amount. Guys, I'm still up. I'm still up from last night's chew. No, now okay, well then. We talked about this a little bit on the golf course.

I don't remember. I don't know if you remember. I'm sure you don't remember because your gummy program is that. No, no, never when I'm golfing. Golfing's serious business. You said that. Now wait a second.

But what sports team does Kansas City, Kansas have? The Royals? He's still, he's here. Is it the Royals? It's crazy. No, no, honestly, is it the Royals? Or in Kansas City? No, that's also Missouri.

Do you wanna ask Siri? Do we wanna just ask, go to like the interwebs? So Kansas City, Kansas has nothing, is that correct? Yeah. No sports teams, no professional sports teams. Yeah, man. I'll let it rest now. Let's just look it up.

Okay. I hope we get a bunch of no time. Honestly, honestly, you might be right. They're all looking it up, America. I've never looked into it this deeply. You might be absolutely right. I just know you have always claimed the Chiefs. He's not right.

He's not right. No, you're right. Kansas City, Kansas has the Royals. Are there any sports teams in Kansas City, Kansas? I'm so sorry America. And specifically. Kansas City has had teams in all five of the major professional sports leagues. Three major leagues remain today.

Is that Missouri or is that Kansas? That's Kansas City, Kansas. Okay. Wait, who's in Kansas City, Kansas? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Boy, this is, again, we're going to pick this up. Hey, Don, how'd you get started in the business? No, I want't know. Yeah, I don't know. Boy, this is, again. This is Kansas City. We're gonna pick this up. Hey Don, how'd you get started in the business?

No, I wanna know. JB, fuck you. You have, you're. I wanna know that. There's a little porn called Don Chalontes. And. No, I do wanna know because to me, I've seen you in so many things,

and like Will said, always brilliant. Like, to me, you were born on screen. Like, I don't know anything about you other than the time. I was born on screen. Yeah. Other than we run into each other a few times and had lovely conversations, but tell me, how did you get,

like, you were in theater in high school? Well, sidebar, we almost, we played around with doing a movie together at one point. I remember. I know, I remember that. I don't know if you ever got that off. I did. Did you get it off? Yeah, it didn't do well.

But thank you for your consideration. Next subject. Way to dodge a bullet, Don. I was trying to give a compliment and went right in the trash bin. No, but did you... Were you interested in high school? Like, how early did you get the bug? So I kind of got the early acting bug.

I think I was in sixth grade. I was Templeton the Rat in a production of Charlotte's Web that was written about extensively in the Denver Colorado periodicals. You can look it up, I'm sure it's still there. Sure, no, I don't have to. Templeton the Rat. And I was single about. I'm sure it's still there. Sure, no. I'm not asking. Temple from the Rat. I'm just saying I was singled out.

So, Matt. The standout was the Rat. Yeah. And when Cheetal hits the stage, hold on to your... Yeah. So I did that, but I was also doing music kind of at the same time. That's when I got involved in playing my saxophone and instrumental jazz. So I kind of was on these two tracks of really studying music. When I went to high school, I had a great acting coach, a great acting teacher, a great

drama class, and I was in a really good jazz band. So I was kind of on these two tracks. And then I graduated from high school. I had applied for both things, to go into music, to go into vocal jazz, to go into instrumental jazz, and also to study acting, theater acting. And I got some scholarship money from a bunch of different places.

And I kind of made- For acting or music or both? Both, I had both. But I kind of made not only a weather choice, but I think I made a choice based on what I believed I was going to be able to actually do. Because I grew up with musicians now who are like professional musicians

and who are hugely successful and incredible. And I knew what it was gonna take to actually be able to do that, go down that road and shedding and learning theory and doing all of those things that I was like, I know I'm not going to do that. And I think I'm probably gonna spend my time more being out of the house, being with other people and pursuing acting and I loved it equally

so I kinda went up that road. But yeah, there's definitely science and math to music that you have to want to. And I think it kind of, I was intimidated by it a little bit, to be honest. I think I was a little, you know, I'd gotten by, I had really good ear and I'd gotten by on really being able to hear music

rather than understanding how it broke down. And I was kind of wide-eyed when it would, when I'd get into the weeds on that. So I get that like I kind of ran into something that I felt more comfortable with but it's funny that the music has kind of come back around and that's become a bigger part of my career now too. But Don did you ever and and Sean forgive me for taking your question but did you ever think about you know kind of like when that when that guy dropped the uh the chocolate in the in the tub of peanut butter and they came up with the Reese's did you ever think of taking the music

and dumping that into the theater and going into musical theater, Sean? Five, six, seven, eight. Seven, eight. Did that ever, did you ever get into that stuff? Oh, he sure did. Let's talk about the Tonys, go ahead. Oh.

Well, I've never gotten one. No, but you produced something that's, yes. But I did produce the Tonys,'s award-winning show called Strange Loop. Yes! Oh my God! That's right! With Barbara Whitman. Yes. Right? And she produced the play I just did. That's right.

Yeah. Congrats on that. Thank you. Thank you. Crazy. Great show. But did you yourself, were you yourself at like in high school or afterwards in college? Absolutely, yes. 100%. I mean, when I graduated high school, the choice I made was to go to, I came to California and I studied at California Institute of the Arts. And we, you know, did everything there. Musicals and dramas and classical pieces, we did everything. It was really a great experience for me

and a place to be able to try everything and make a lot of mistakes and not get fired for it as a result. Get ready because I love horrible theater stories, things that go wrong, so just get one ready. Oh yeah, they're the best. Before we get to one of those, can you guys extend your tolerance

for my lack of intelligence again? Is Kansas City, are you gonna go to the Chiefs and the Royals again? It's worn pretty fit at this point. It's tripped very, very much. Yeah, don't bring that back. So if I'm on the border, but to, no. Whoa.

And we will be right back. And now back to the show. So jazz, talk to me about jazz. Now I'm a big music fan and specifically classical music and so I feel like if I love classical music, I could really love jazz because it's a little easier to love. It's a little bit more toe tappy. to love. It's a little bit more toe-tappy. But I got to understand it a little bit more and I'm hearing that jazz, its

real appeal is knowing that for the most part it's improvised. Is that correct or is there, is it more traditionally written out in their sheet music? That is a component of it and I think the umbrella of jazz under that are many, many subdivisions and categories. It's a huge sort of a blanket term, especially by now. If you think of somebody like Robert Glasper, who I won a Grammy with for producing the album, Miles Ahead, anyway.

Sorry, your cough sounds terrible. Your cough sounds really bad. It's my second Grammy, sorry. You got a really terrible cough. Yeah, thanks Will. Let me get a little water for him. Wait, are you close to an EGOT? Two Grammys.

Oh, now you have to clear. Your throat's clear now. I'm gonna get that looked at. Okay, that's good now. You have, do you have a nomination EGOT? I think you do, yes? I have a nomination EGOT, yes, but's good now. Do you have a nomination, EGOT? I think you do. Yes? I have a nomination, EGOT, yes.

But not... Wow. I don't have them all. Pretty fucking good. Wow. But like Rob Glasper, you look at his music and he's, you know, he spans the globe of what his musical knowledge is and his experience. And he does popular stuff, black radio, which is sort of,

I think you would think of more as like R&B influenced and then he does straight ahead, you know, jazz and standards and he does everything in between. So I think if you were to ask a musician like that what jazz is, or even if you were going to go back and ask, you know, Miles Davis what jazz was, he hated that word. He was like, that's a word to box somebody in, you know, it's about good music. It's about social music. So I think there are different, like when I get in the car and you know, the driver taking you somewhere is like, let's put on some jazz and he puts on smooth jazz. It's like, I want to shoot him. I hate it. Yeah, I'm done. You have to, Don, you have to forgive Jason, because they don't do explanations

of jazz on the Hollywood Reporter homepage. So he wouldn't read it. But let me just say this. We did this bit in our show Flake... Nothing. So where we did, this guy's getting ready to have this girl over for a date and then his buddy suggests he has put jazz on. And they look at each other and they they're unsure, and he goes, I'm not sure where I fall on jazz. And our joke was always that,

I can't figure out if it's cool to say I do like it, or if it's cool to say I don't like it, and I'm still trying to decide where I land on that. Yeah, yeah. Me too, I just feel like, you know, everyone says you should go to New Orleans for the Jazz Festival, or you you should listen to lots of... And that's a very specific kind of jazz.

Yeah. I'm more like, I'm open to it if there's a melody that I can hum back, like a song. I'm not open to the... Fair enough. You know, the jazz that's just people just playing... Sort of fusion-y, improvised fusion. Yeah, because I can't latch on to anything. You can't latch onto anything. You can't whack off to anything?

What? What did he say? I love it all, because if you're really, you know, if you're- Jazz, you can whack too. From the- Sorry. Jazz.

No, latch onto. Grab your thing and have some fun. Yeah. New chair. JB, you heard it too, right? I think I might have. So Don, so you're learning the saxophone at an early age. That gets you into music.

Eventually you find an appreciation for Miles Davis. And then that project comes about. Was that a documentary that you produced? No, no. A movie. A film. And you played him, yes? Yes. We're not good journalists. Brilliantly, and I remember you telling me

when I ran into you, you were working on that. You were so great. Nominations or even some wins for that, I believe. Well, that was the Grammy that we got for the soundtrack, which is really cool, that one we put together with Rob Glasper, he and I put that together, so that was really cool. But yeah, I think it's a big category.

Talk about jokes on shows. We had one on Black Monday where I'm talking to, thank you very much, I'm talking to Regina Don, her name, the character's Don, about it. And she goes, yeah, I can never get into jazz. It just always sounds like a bunch of instruments thrown down a flight of stairs. Yeah.

and it's thrown down a flight of stairs. Yeah. Now, in my incredible research, did you really work on The Fresh Prince? Funny enough, I did. I was on one of the first episodes of Fresh Prince, and I have a funny pilot firing story too about a pilot that didn't go. So I did the, I think it was the second or third episode

of the Fresh Prince where Will was still super green. He's like mouthing everyone's words, you know, along with his, so he'd say his line and he's staring at you and you'd say your line. Yeah, he's mouthing it. That's such a thing. We've all worked with people who do that. It's such an actor thing, right?

Yeah, yeah. Where you're like, are you mouthing my dialogue to me, as I'm saying it? Yeah. Yeah. So he was so studious. You know, he knew everybody's lines, and then he would like mouth everybody's lines.

But so we did that one, and by the third or fourth show, the creators, Susan and Andy Borowitz, who were the head writers on the show, they said, we want to do a show around you. Not necessarily based on the character that you're playing on this, but we just want to do a show around you. And I was like, okay, that's cool.

So they wrote this show. How old were you? When I did Fresh Prince. Yeah, early 20s. Is that really Jermaine to the story? I mean, he's just gonna come in with the out your own show. It's like I was six. Okay When are you getting offers for your own show and he's like I worked my whole life Michael Landon did it create a show for me. Sorry, I know that

So do I this so I did so third day they come down they're like we we wanna do the show. I said, okay, great. So they wrote this pilot. We shot the pilot. It's called In the House. I wrote the theme song to the thing. It was just, everything was great. Heavy saxophone. Super, super heavy saxophone.

It was on the schedule. And I'm pretty like, I don't believe it until I see it. And I just kind of wasn't believing that it was real. And also, it just was a huge thing. It was the biggest thing that had happened in my career at that point. I was like, I don't, something's telling me this isn't real, but it was on the schedule. It was going. So like the day before I got this faithful call, I gave my brother my car, I was like, hey, it's on, take the car, I'm about to have this huge windfall. Yeah.

I'm ready, and the next day I got a call and they said it's off the schedule. How old I was was Brandon Tartikoff was still running NBC at that time. Okay, we're late 80s. I don't know if people are listening now, no. Yeah, Brandon, yeah. But when he stepped down and Warren Littlefield came in and he killed all the shows

that were all Brandon. And that was one of them. That was one of the cast. You know, Sean, Sean, you told me your story and correct me if I'm wrong about where you shot the pilot because they had mignonette sauce instead of cocktail sauce for your oysters. Is that true?

And you guys were about to leave Van Nuys and you were so mad. You were shocked. Because you were like, I hate Mignonette sauce. I like cocktail sauce. And you shot the pilot after Mignonette sauce. But I spared the co-pilot. As a lesson so he could live to tell the story to other pilots about to get the sauces right.

Now, all right. So now Don, could you imagine if that show had taken off, became a big success, you would have been a big sitcom star, I wonder where your career would have gone and what would have happened. I was thinking the same thing. But like, even, so going back before that, was there another significant fork in the road,

either where you grew up, like a fateful move to a certain city or what your parents were doing or saying or sibling, where you could have easily seen, oh, if I'd just simply gone right instead of left, I would be a veterinarian today, or I would be an architect today, or was there a fork that would clearly? That's such a good question.

Thank you. I mean, it's crazy that my fallback was music. Like, if this acting thing doesn't work out, I'll be a jazz musician. That'll get me there. It's like... So, I mean, that's where I was trending. That's what I wanted to do. And quite honestly, there's still no greater pleasure that I have,

you know, in any sort of performance capacity than being with musicians and creating music. Still, that's to me the highest. It really is. I think because of, as you were talking about, improvisation, that you're creating things spontaneously. I don't know what it's doing biochemically to you, but I'm sure if you have electrodes on and they were testing you,

you're getting dopamine hits that are just through the roof because it's just so alive Yeah, and it necessitates this connection with these fellow pardon the term artists that you're kind of that's right Communicating without speaking and there's a bit off and a yes and thing you get that also in acting But yeah, you do and there's also that thing you do when you perform live when you you also get that When you get that feedback from an audience When you're on stage and you get that thing and it starts to inform you a little bit They become part of your creative process because you get juice from that. I think yeah. Yeah, absolutely

You do and and it transcends language and it transcends, you know English Spanish we can all speak this language. And so there's a big unifying thing that it does that's just like beyond. I had the same thing, Don. I always had music to fall back on should the acting thing, and I still have the music to fall back on

if the acting thing doesn't work out. But I always thought my fallback was gonna be, oh, I'll just be a pop star. Well, you can take your ass off, so you had a shot. Well, no, but when I was younger. Can we just play a little bit of it right now? We do this every once in a while, Don. Sean?

Yeah, no. Now, Don, do you? Don, do you? Bennett's gonna find it for us, and he's gonna play before Don leaves. Bennett or Rob are gonna play. Drop that needle, Bennett. Hey, Don, do you have a place where you go,

like Woody Allen famously took his clarinet out on a once a week or whatever and that that's not a you know that but you're my favorite guy on the podcast a place where you go whip out your sax and go play it. I just said Will got that one. You don't have to jump on top of Will's thing. Hey, hear what I did? Jump on top of Will's thing. Your turn, Sean. Get in there.

I'll take it off. Like, but like, do you have, take it off. There it is. Do you have a band that you play with or a jazz club that you go to every once in a while? No, and I've been bouncing around on, so I played the sax and then I didn't do that. When I went to Cal Arts, it was kind of like a conservatory, the amount of time that you had to spend on all that.

There was no time really to do anything but theater and voice and movement and dance and all that stuff. So I just kind of dropped it. And then I was in New York doing a play and I walked by a pawn shop and I saw this beautiful tenor sax and I was like, I'm going to pick it back up again. I'm going to see if I have any facility because you know, you lose your embouchure, you lose that musculature to be able to play it. It's hard to get it back.

So I started playing it again. It sounded terrible. I was like, no, just hang out. Just like stay with it. So I started doing that. And then I took a gig actually, the Rat Pack movie and playing Sammy Davis Jr. who played drums and played trumpet and you know, gun twirled and could play piano. And so I kind of went back to school again, having private, you know, having lessons from all of these teachers to learn

how to do all these different things. And that's when I started trying to pick up the trumpet, which became something that was going to, I didn't know I was going to need later when I did the Miles Davis thing. So I've been playing bass more than anything lately, and piano more than anything lately. I haven't gone back to the sax. I did bring, I bought a really beautiful brand new sax

and let this dude play and he just recorded an album with it. And it's like, so it's always in the periphery somewhere, but I haven't, you know, I think the most amazing experience I had in musical experience in the last couple of years was Rob Glasper was at his, he was recording something. He said, hey, come by, come listen. And I said, yeah, keep a track open

because I'm gonna bring the bass and I'm just gonna like, you know, kill you guys with some shit. So just keep the track open. I was completely joking. And so I came over and I listened to him for a while and he goes, okay, here's the bass, let's go. I said, no, no, no, I was joking.

I don't want to play. He's like, oh no, you're going to play. And it became sort of like, you know, trial by fire. And I don't play like that, but when you play with great musicians, you know that they lift you up. Yeah. It's just like acting. I wish they lift you up. Yeah. And they... It's just like acting.

I wish I could find that. Yeah. People to lift me up. It's fucking unbelievable. I'm just dragging these two. You're just stuck with these guys. Don, you seem to be like so great at surrounding your life with the things that mean, you know,

have great value to music, acting, family. You always seem to be in a great mood too. Is golf, yeah. How do you do that? How do you, for people who don't know how to do that, where they're like, I'm in this rut. To us, we've all found the thing that we love to do, or things we love to do.

How did you learn how to gravitate towards the good versus the bad? You know, the things that are good for you, the things that fill your soul. This is a question. This is a question. This is an interviewer, Will. This is somebody who knows how to shape a question, okay?

Sorry, go ahead, Don. I love the commentary. I'm just here for the potshots from the sideline, man. You know that. Will's killing, and you're killing the potshots from the sideline, by the way. Thank you, I appreciate it, man. Yeah. Don't encourage him. I honestly have to attribute it a lot of it after tribute a lot of it to

My upbringing I was very fortunate to have and and people get to it. However, they get to it You know, I was very fortunate to have really solid parents, you know Really sort of you know corny traditional picket sort of, you know, corny, traditional picket fence, three, you know, the 3.5 kids and a dog and the whole thing. I really was able to grow up like that with parents that never dissuaded me from going after what I wanted to go after. I think it was, you know, really fortunate that my mom was sort of a frustrated,

you know, performer, a frustrated singer. So when I wanted to be an actor, she was like, yes. So after that. Do you have an older sibling that knocked the crap out of you when you got too big? Yeah, well, she's a girl, so I took advantage of the different muscles. I was stronger than her.

And then we moved into weapons, and that's when I was like, oh, she's leveled the playing field, so we got to chill out. And that's when we stopped fighting. Just really close knit family and it's something I think I just wanted to replicate in my life. I'm really lucky that I have friends from when I was in elementary school still and from college. The people that I'm close to are still in my life. I think we all know people who have gotten

to a certain place and have looked around and they don't know anybody that's, no one that around them has been around them for five years and you go, that person's probably gonna have some problems. So you need people who will laugh at you and say, you're not important, chill out. I don't keep those people around because people can't breathe the air up here the way I can.

Yeah, you're one of those people we were talking about, Will. The air is so thin up here. It's so rarefied that I can bear it. I'm handing out masks to these two because I'm like, guys, we're going on a ride. We're going somewhere. Or we're going down. No, it's so important. I love that. It is a measure of somebody, by the way, how many old friends they have from back in the day. And I think, I'm with you on that.

I think it's really great. I've got a lot of my old buddies too. Now, Don, I got a question here. You've been a part of so many incredible projects. I wanna know if any of them felt or smelt like turds right in the middle of it and you were shocked at the end of it that it turned out so well. Projects like Crash, Ocean's 11, 12, or 13,

Traffic, Out of Sight, Boogie Nights, I mean, yeah, any of the Marvel stuff. Did any of them just go, oh Jesus Nights, I mean, yeah, any of the Marvel stuff, did any of them just like go, oh, Jesus, what did I do here? I think I've had the opposite where I'm like, this thing's gonna crush, and then it comes out and I'm like, ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not so much.

Not so much, right. I mean, we don't know, right? You just go in with your best, you've made the best decision you could and you go in and throw everything into it and then sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But I've never, you know, I've always had, I've always believed that the thing I've said yes to

has value and it's gonna be good and the experiences and then it turns into being what it's gonna be. I've been really fortunate to have really, really great experiences. I've had very few experiences where it's a toxic set and people are horrible. I've just been very, very, I've been, the things I've gravitated toward have gotten made

and I've just been very, very fortunate. I've had a very blessed career. You've clearly got a nice connection going with Steven Soderbergh, yeah? Yeah. I heard the set of Chernobyl was toxic. Nice, Will. Hey, uh.

That's a great show, Will. But you and Soderbergh have a great rhythm going, yeah? You see working with him again in the future, probably? Yes, of course, right? Yeah, I mean, we have stuff, we're trying to develop things as we speak. There's a couple things. I love Out of Sight is such a great fucking movie, man.

Isn't it good? So underrated and overlooked. It's such a good movie. Yeah. God damn it. Despite Clooney's looks, it's so good. It's tough to get around. Soderbergh's such a beast. Soderbergh's such a good guy too.

But I mean like writing and directing and camera operating and editing and I just, I would imagine that's gotta be an easy voice to follow considering he's kind of- Are you trying to dovetail into you? Cause that's what you're doing now? No, no, no, no, that's what I'd like to do. But can I take a minute to honestly actually- Oh, here we go.

Spike it, he served it up, you might as well spike it. Guys, take you go. Spike it. Spike it. He served it up. You might as well spike it. Guys, take a second. I do want to spike it. I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. I'm just gonna say I'm a big Jason Bateman fan. I'm really...

I love everything that I'm seeing you do. And I saw you in a roundtable talking about, you know, understanding as an actor what you were going to be doing as an editor and knowing when you get into the editing an actor what you're going to be doing as an editor and knowing when you get into the editing room what you're gonna be able to use and not use and how you're gonna craft your performance based on that. And I was like, that's so fucking smart and such a cheat.

But really. It's really fun because he lives his personal life like an editor too. So he's always thinking about the results. So he's trying to cut you off. Fuck off. Trimming you. Well, now, what Don's doing here is he's dovetailing into his accomplishments as a director as

well. I wanted to get into it. He has gone ahead and he's taken all the incredible set experience he's had and lent that to the directing experience, right? And made everybody's life a lot easier, I would imagine. Do you do, do you, it'll come on. Why not? Bullshit, you must love it.

I don't anticipate ever doing it again. Why? Come on, you've done it a handful of times, at least. That was enough. Really? Why? Why? Is it the workload or the pressure

or the time commitment or what? It's the pressure. Honestly, it's the pressure or the time commitment or what? It's the pressure. Honestly, it's the pressure. I think, you know, my agent one time said, good actors are just like, can be and sometimes need to just be hard sons of bitches. They just have to be able to, not necessarily in how they deal with people,

but you have to have the ability to have stuff kind of roll off and be thick-skinned and not have it be, you know, penetrate and keep moving. And I think I have more, I'm more like sort of bandied about by the things that happen and the things I wasn't able to get. And I just, and it's something that I've learned about myself going through that experience. I'm like oh I'm a lot more porous in that regard than I thought I was. Yeah as an actor you can ignore a lot of drama or problems or complications with the production and you just kind of sit in your trailer and then someone else will figure it out. So as director you can't hide from anything.

None of it. Yeah. We'll be right back. And back to the show. John you bring up a really good point though it is true you but we'll be right back. And back to the show. John, you bring up a really good point though. It is true, you know, actors, as we know, historically, you take a lot of heat and people go like, oh, fucking actors, or you hear people write, like even people you grew up with, like, what's your life like now you're an actor?

You see that people have this sort of thing. And I always say, and they're like, oh yeah, but you're just an actor. And I'm thinking like, yeah, I am friends with, I am an actor, I'm friends with tons of actors, they're some of the most creative, amazing people. And on top of that, to what you were saying, they're also, it is a tough road, as you know,

from when you're younger to start to do the things that you wanna do, and you do put up with a ton of disappointment. You get kicked in the nards on a daily basis you know my own experience I lived in New York for ten years and was trying to get fucking work and just got kicked in the nards and then as I'd go down to wincing in pain from getting kicked in the nuts I'd get kicked in the face you know like Jason's like you saying like the show's not here's the better you you you're fired

and then the next day the show's fucking gone. And you're like, fuck, I didn't need those two kicks. And by the way, and it's not once a year, it's like two, three times a week, four years. And that's if things are going well for you because those two or three rejections each week mean you got two or three auditions that week, which is really good.

And I'm not saying to feel sorry for it, but it is, right, Don, it's a tough, you do have to have a little bit of, you show your metal a little bit. Well, for me, I really could, I sound like an idiot, Aaron, complaining about anything about my acting career, because again, I'm super, super fortunate, I've never done anything but this to support myself. I, you know, got my first job when I was still in college.

You know, my junior, I got a gig. Oh, I did get fired from a job. That was actually the first job. I got an AT&T commercial where a kid was supposed to be on the phone and sort of trying to dodge the questions that his mom was asking because he was not doing so well. She goes, how are your grades? And he's like, uh, my grades, I can't hear you.

This connection is bad. She's like, no, I can hear you great. And it was AT&T. You know, you can't fake the funk. You know, it was one of those things. So I was running on my, I was going out of the door to do this audition and the phone rang in the hallway and I just kind of knew it was for me.

And I picked it up, it was my agent. She goes, uh, Don, bad news. They're not, they're not going to use you in the spot. I was like, what, why? She goes, they don't want to portray a black kid as failing out of college. I was like, so they're going to give a white kid my job? Wow. Yeah.

The irony of that. Yeah. That is crazy. That's what's going to give a white kid my job. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. The irony of that. Oh, boy. That is crazy. That's what's going to happen. So that I actually did get fired from a job I got. That was the first one. But yeah, but for me, the acting thing has been, I've been, like I said, I've been very

blessed, very fortunate, but the directing part of it, yeah, it's really just, it's been these particular experiences I've had. Not when I've directed my show. That's a little bit more of a comfort zone, a little bit more support I've had, and a little bit more resources and people to rely on. But, you know, I made, we made Miles Ahead for $8.5 million in a town that had, you know, only done one other movie before that, where we would show up and there was like no redundancy in the departments. We'd have two cameras and only one cameraman. I'd be like, where's Phil?

It's like, oh, he took a commercial with Dayton. You know? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Coming in one day and I was like, where's the... We had her in the scene. She's like, yeah, she didn't want to come today. I'm like, but she's in the scene.

They're like, yeah, she doesn't want to come. So I'm like, but she's in the scene. They're like, yeah, she doesn't want to come. So I'm like, put this woman in the dress, turn her back to the camera. Like every day it was something like that. Always solving problems. But the problems that didn't make sense, like the fire alarm going off, and then the actual fireman coming in

coming in while we're shooting the scene. And so, okay, we'll shoot this MOS and just mime all these things, we'll do it in post. I get, you know, just every day it was something like that. My wife came out to see me and she said, you can't do this anymore. I lost weight, it was just, it was bad. So I have a lot of scar tissue.

So maybe if I get some sort of procedure where I can scrape that off, I'll try it again. For the emotional scars. I have a question just about your acting style and approach because when I first saw Ocean's Eleven, which you were brilliant in, I'm not making this up, like halfway through the movie because of your accent,

I was like, oh, wait, is that Don Cheadle? Like, you didn't do anything to your appearance, you just changed your kind of way. I don't know how to describe it. And it's amazing what an act, just an accent can do. How did you find the trust to do that? Why that character like that? And how do you do that,

like in any character, your approach? It was written like that and I was going to change it. And my manager at that point said, there aren't black British people? I was like, oh, I mean, yeah. She's like, so why don't you just do it as how it's written? And I was like, yeah, fuck.

Oh, so it was written as that? I'll try it. And so while I'm in my trailer with a vocal coach, a speech coach going over like diphthongs and shvahs and stuff. They're out playing basketball. I'm like sitting in my trailer watching them play poker and have fun and I'm like, no, this works.

No, uh, no, uh, no, uh, no, uh, so. Sean, stand up real quick. Sean's wearing a diphthong. Stand up real quick. Oh, that's nice. That's a nice diphthong. But I was famously murdered. People are split right in the middle on that.

When I was in London, I almost had to get security because people wanted to kill me based on how bad they thought that accident. They hated it and me. People literally drove, they would see me and come across four lanes of traffic to pull up next to me to scream at me about how bad the accent was. I was like, why you guys are so serious about this? Oh my God, I totally bought it.

I totally bought it. Is it safe to say you'll never do another British accent again? Ding ding ding ding ding. Yeah, doing an accent, that would be very, very tough for for me because you're acting twice, right? You've got to do performance and you've got to do the accent.

Would you make them pay twice, Jay? I know Jay very well. Would you make them pay twice? I would like to. I would like to. Are you going to say that? No, I'm just going to say and some of them, you know, fit better than others that I've attempted to take on.

But they're all, like you said, it's all tricky. You're kind of acting through a mask and you're trying to make that mask be as real and as facile as you can. It's tricky. Right, right, right. Now, of all of these incredibly high profile films, which one do you think gave you the most useful bounce?

Was it Devil in the Blue Dress? Yeah? I would guess Devil in the Blue Dress was probably, I was on Picket Fences for a couple years before that. Oh wow. You know I was 12th on the call sheet and you guys know what that is. I'm sitting in the trailer all day

and they're like, we're coming to you next, we're coming to you next. And they're like, oh no, we're not gonna use you today and you've been in the trailer for 12 hours. So I started writing, that's when I started writing and just as survival, just to not go crazy. But then along comes this film with Denzel Washington and it was, did you leave that project

with any pearls of wisdom from Mr. Washington? I mean, it was an incredible experience. It was directed by Carl Franklin, who I did his AFI thesis project, his graduation project, so I had known him from before. So that was really old home and felt great. And Denzel and I from the audition on, which is online actually, our audition is online. Oh no. Yeah. And so is that pilot that I mentioned, by the way. Oh wow. People find shit and upload everything. But we

just had a great time. And of course I was was just in awe of him, and worked as hard as I've ever worked on anything to make sure I was in the pocket when I was with him. I didn't come out, I was super Method-y, I was not great character, I was mouse all the time. I just stayed in it, and yeah, I had a great experience. I loved that movie, and I loved that experience. Would you, if you had, say you had a scene with,

because you're Denzel now to a young actor if you were to do a film with it, what would you say to a young actor today that you wish you'd known back when you were just starting out? Stay out of my fucking light. Right, exactly. Would you upstage me or shadow me?

Don't you dare attempt to overshadow me. But we do have a tendency to overcomplicate things, right? And things get more simplistic as we get older. I wonder, aside from just that generality, is there anything specific, I'm trying to think myself what I would tell somebody, you know Probably probably step away from my BMW Which which of your BMWs that's a great I just think that you know, like we I think people

I just think that, you know, like we, I think people underestimate, you know, to what Will was saying earlier, what we really do. I think people think it's super, super easy and then they try it and they're like, oh, you're actually trying to be very naturalistic inside a completely unnatural environment where somebody's standing in your eyeline chewing gum and you know, somebody's making noise off, somebody's standing in your eyeline chewing gum

and somebody else is making noise off, somebody's walkie talkie's going off, and you've got to act like this is the first time you've ever done or said any of these things. And I think that you only do that well if you're really prepared and you've really done your homework and you're not here just because you think

it's going to be cool to cut line at a restaurant. It's like, this is really, we're not rocket scientists and we're not jumping out airplanes or whatever the hardest shit there is to do or ditch digging, but there is a craft. But we can play them. That's what we play the shit out of. And we learn about them, that's another thing.

Good actors are students, so we're always in the lab, right? We're always trying to... If I play a doctor, I'm going to read up on doctors. I'm going to follow doctors. I'm going to go to hospitals. I'm going to try to sit next to them. If I'm playing a cop, I'm going to do a ride-along. I'm going to... So I feel like that part of it often gets overlooked,

that we're always in school. You know, we're always trying to learn new things. So I think that's a great boon for us as artists, that we're always expanding ourselves. Now, Sean doesn't want you to get away without, you know, searching your memory for a really tough theater story, you know, like forgetting your lines or trying to give, you know.

Something going wrong. A sandbag fell from above. And I landed in the first row in the woman's lap and she said, you think you're drunk, wait till O'Toole comes out or something like that. Right, Sean, is that what you were at? Oh, you were at that performance. You were there.

That's exactly right. But I said, wait till my tool comes out. Oh, yes! Double guns! Yes! Double guns. Double guns. Yes! Don Chalant!

Don Chalant. Don Chalant strikes again. Is that you, Sean? Oh, this is me singing, yeah. It's horrible. Here we go. It's so bad. I'm like, okay.

That's enough. Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that Tabla? Is that's enough. Is that Tabla?

Is that some Tabla? Okay, that's good. It's like Jimmy Summerville from Bronski Beat was put in the back of a van and driven to Beirut and forced to make a Middle Eastern dance record. Jimmy Summerville in Beirut. That was the name of the album. Oh, Sean. Yeah, did you ever see, by the way,

did you ever see Ricky Gervais's music videos or anything? Oh yeah, those were tough. Really? Yes. That's what, that's a similar path. But yeah, do you have any like tragic, horrible theater gone wrong? My tragic, the most tragic thing,

other than a real injury that I suffered during a play, same play by the way, we were doing Cymbeline at the Public that Joanne Akilaitis directed, who is experimental director from Mabu Minds, if people wanna go back and look at all that stuff, she's great. But we had an actor, Stefan Schnabel, who played the doctor in this play.

And you know, it's kind of a stereotypical Shakespeare fifth act wrap-up where one character knows everything that happened in the play. Like, you're his niece, and she actually has the potion. And this king knew him. Like they unwrapped the whole thing and we're all on stage going, oh, that's how, dah, dah, dah. So he had this last speech that he had to give. Stefan was, I think, 98 at the time.

Uh-oh. Wow. So it comes time for him to wrap this up, and he goes up. That forgets his lines. Yeah, forgets his line, goes up, forgets his lines for those who want the theater vernacular.

And he starts stammering and making up words and basically just sort of like, Trouble. You know, standing in place and teetering. And no one... You can't give somebody... In Shakespeare, you know, it's not... We're not doing something naturalistic. You can't come up with some... You could try to come up

with some iambic pentameter and like slip a line there to help him along the way. But it went on so long that first the audience sort of laughed and then realized, oh, it's not a bit and stopped laughing. And then the other half the audience laughed and then half the audience shushed that part of the audience that laughed. And then the actors on stage kind of were starting to laugh,

those two that would start to laugh. And everyone's like, shut the fuck up. And then everybody stops laughing. And he's still kind of, you know. He's still trying to pull it off. He doesn't think anyone's noticed. Trying to pull it off. This went on for probably two minutes.

You know how long two minutes is. Yeah. Oh. I mean, you guys have died for two minutes for sure, collectively on this show for 100%. Yeah, it feels like a long time. Yeah, it's a long time. And finally.

She says it's not. Joan Cusack, who was the lead in it, who played Cymbaline, just finally just started saying his lines. She just couldn't take it anymore. Yeah, just took over. And he kind of revved up and got through it and then got off stage and he said, I want to kill myself. Yeah.

I have to quit. I've never won an act again. And you're like, you're 98, there's no point. Yeah, you're going to be dead soon, I guess is what Joan said to try to like, you know, bolster his ego. Good Lord, yeah. That's the scariest thing. Wow, you're gonna be dead soon, I guess is what, is what Joan said to try to like, you know, bolster his ego. Good Lord, yeah. That's the scariest thing I've ever heard. Wow, fuck.

It was really sad. Going up in your dialogue like that on stage. It's the scariest thing in the world. Right? There's just nothing. Yeah, you don't need that crap at 98. There's nowhere to hide. Yeah, there's nowhere to hide.

Right. But now, Don, you're like one of the sweetest people ever. What pisses you off? Because I can't, the few times I've met you, even today, you're always just very in the middle, very cool, calm, collected. Is there some? What's that?

I said I'm on that gummy program. Yeah. I bet he's not happy when he blades a bunker shot, right? You hit that ball right in the belly coming out of the sand trap, it's just, you're never happy. That's what pisses you off. Yeah. Immediately, but then I kind of let it go, you know?

I think like stupidity without any desire to not be stupid pisses me off. I don't mind if you're stupid, people can be stupid, but when there are like, incurious and don't wanna actually look under the stupidity and see where that stupidity is coming from, that kinda pisses me. And you know, as we can see, it's incredibly dangerous.

And you know, we're in a sweet spot of stupidity right now for a lot of people. And would that extend across all sort of areas, that sort of stupidity II like whether it's history Or language or just geography even basic geography of states and cities within the country that we live Oh, and oh like you know, I'm just House where city was Been explained to them like five times. I'm like shot. This is definitely hey, no, no, no, no, no, no

I think wills just trying to use any It feels like a shot. This is definitely, hey, a shot. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think Will's just trying to use an example. It's very general. I'm just trying to get a general sense of what's going on. Yeah, because Sean, remember earlier in the show and I had a problem with Kansas City.

Well, ignorance isn't stupidity. Ignorance is anyone can be ignorant. That's true. Anybody can be ignorant. Thank you, Jason. So Don, honestly, you've been a dream. You're such a cool guy. We've never hung out.

We threatened once. I was on a, I was, Joey Russo wanted me to get into a football fantasy league. And I said, no. And Joe said, well, just stay in the chat and talk shit, even though you don't want to play. And I did for about six months, I think. Really? Yeah, you were in there.

You were in there. It was great. Don and Pratt and Ru Roojo, and yeah. It was fun. It was a lot like this, just like pot shots from the side. It was a lot of pot shots. It was like, oh, there's Will. Well, you know, Will, you and Don should go out and play some golf

while I'm on my golf hiatus. And then I'll rejoin you guys in the end of fall. What happened? Why are you on a hiatus? I got some work. He's on a hiatus because he's working. He shot an even par 70 two weeks ago. But who cares really? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

It's not a big deal. But listen, thank you for joining us today, Don. Don, will you make me this pledge when you come back that you and I will play? Can we do that? Can we say that'll happen? 100%. Okay, great. He's the absolute greatest. Sean, do you play? This should be the foursome. When you come back that you and I will play can we do that can we say that'll happen 100% okay great He's the absolute Sean do you play this should be the foursome?

I I could I always say I could drive the cart. He loves to drive the cart. It's a date It's so much fun. We get him a soda We get him like a float like a root beer float and he drives on next time But it's a lot of sugar He's very groggy and by the 17th hole he's kind of irritable. A little, a little, a little grumpy. Guys, it's good. Just pick it up. We got to go.

That's totally me. Love you, Don. Thank you for saying yes. Love you, pal. Enjoy the rest of your day down there in Atlanta and say hi to our friend Mr. Heart, please. I will, thanks guys, great seeing you today. Great to see you, dude. Thank you, Don.

Bye, buddy. Yep, yep. I love Don Chalant, it's so good. JB, what a great, what a great, great guest. God, he's so good, I love that dude. Doesn't that your shoulders just drop when you're talking to him? Yes.

Yeah, he's cool. I mean, he's just, I can't even form him? Yes. Yeah, he's cool. I can't even form words. Mega talent. He falls into that category. Mega talent. And universally loved. And we say this all the time, it seems like the people who work all the time also have

wonderful personalities. Yeah, I agree. Like the kind and generous. Well, Jamie, you know, you're a director. It's a big part of your career now and your life, and when you're deciding between, you have a lot of options to do stuff with a lot of different people,

and part of the calculus, I imagine, is who do I want to spend the next four months with? Yeah, for sure. It's huge, and it's before I even start to get excited about the idea of them coming on, and that's cast or crew. I'll do Zooms with people that I may not even see on the set. And I just need to know that they're not going to,

you know, wreck it with their not being nice people. Important. But he is amazing. And I could have just gone on forever and ever. We didn't get to much of anything, which is what we do on this show. Sorry listeners. You know, we get a lot of complaints about that.

I think that some, from some people who say like, oh you guys didn't, you just, and what they forget is like, we're just so excited to see Don, right? So it got like Don, so we just start talking. Yeah, we're not journalists. We're just three dummies that want to just talk a little bit and can't believe anyone's listening.

So if you're like, oh, why didn't you get to what Don's favorite dog type is, we're like, sorry. We were just excited. We just wanted to talk shit with them. You know what I mean? That's on the Smartless Extras. If you want to know his favorite dog type. Or talk about vacation spots.

Like, I don't know, has he ever been to Thailand or Mumbai? Mumbai! Mumbai! You glaze right over it Mumbai! Smart. Less. SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armgerve, Bennett Barbicoe, and Michael Granteri. Smart Less.