SmartLess - "Sam Rockwell"

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

We cut some rug with the one and only Sam Rockwell. Batwing Lubricant, Fast & Furious with the sound off, and a longtime listener calls in! Don’t turn that dial — it’s SmartLess.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I was talking to my friend, I was talking, hey, good morning. I was talking to my friend. Did you just restart yourself? Still rolling. I mean, we just need a clean start. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Now, Sean says that he got up at four this morning, went back to bed, and that that's his standard routine. I guess I remember you telling us about that, but what do you do when you get up at four that gets you back down?

I read, I play games on my computer and anything to kind of get my brain back. So that's something you haven't been able to stop doing, right? No, for years. You don't sleep through the night. I mean, if I take something, I do. Well, what's wrong with that? I just don't want to do it all the time. You're so worried about the temple that is your body, right?

You don't want to put anything nasty inside there. Yeah, nothing to mix with the other crap authority. You don't wanna scoop the mac and cheese gut by now. You're bamboo shoot healthy body. Sean, how would you describe your body? Cause I'll go first. Cause somebody asked me to describe Sean's body and right off the top, I said pigs in a blanket.

How would you? You know what's so funny? That's what came to. I was watching the Bill Maher show the other night and some of the guests got on and Bill said, gosh, you've lost so much weight. And he goes, yeah, there's nothing worse than a skinny guy with a pot belly.

And I raised my hand and Scotty was like, yep. No, I don't see you as that. You know me neither. You guys have, I mean, I could get there. I could get there. You have a very nice proportional frame. It's true. How big you think you could get, Sean? I wanted to get so big when I was younger. I wanted to get like, I would go to the gym all the time. I'd drink milkshakes. My oldest brother would make like make would take me out for burgers.

And I would constantly, constantly eat. I just couldn't gain a pound. Well, it was like what? Like what? How'd that pan out? Did it give you, did you get the look you were looking for? Well, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that was a sign of power, right?

Exactly. You would be a big and huge and sort of a glutton, right? Yeah. Yeah, so if you were thin, what? You had no power? Yeah. You, so if you were thin, what? You had no power? Yeah. You were, you were probably. It was a sign of, yeah, it was a,

if you were kind of bigger, it was a sign of prosperity. Well, right. Yeah. Prosperity. Well, here's something that happened to me yesterday. I was at the car wash. There you are.

And the, I threw my stuff. You like to ride through? You like one of those? No, no. I do that with the kids every once in a while. Oh, you do for real? It's fun. Yeah, it's fun.

No, this guy is like, you gotta go to the wash. That's what I call, by the way, good clean fun. Good clean weekend fun. No, so I- The car wash is good clean fun. No, we get the quotes out of the way. No you didn't. Thank you.

Go ahead, Sean. Go ahead, Sean, back to Sean. No, so I get it hand washed, right? So I'm sitting there, oh, look at this. Hold your jokes. Hold your jokes, Will. Boom. God, look, he's just, oh, we heard hand.

Time for a H.J. joke. Fucking clown. Go ahead, Sean. Fuck. So I gave my car away for a hand wash. I come sit down, I'm waiting, and I threw my stuff in the trash, right? When you clean your car up before they wash it.

And all of them consist, you know, there's a lot of near full bottles of water. And so I was sitting there because I didn't think I was gonna be thirsty. 20 minutes later, I'm like, God, I'm kind of thirsty. So I'll go back to the trash and pulled out one of the bottled water. I hope someone took a picture of that.

And a woman just stared at me like, I was, there's something wrong with me. And I was conflicted. I was like, do I care what she thinks? Do I not care what she thinks? And I cared what she thought. So I looked at her, I said, I threw my bottle out prematurely.

And she said, oh my God. She's just got crazier at her eyes. She goes, aren't you afraid it's dirty? I said, no, it wasn't touching anything bad. And so she just glared at me. You were in a conversation. Yeah. Wait, that was the end of it?

That was the whole thing. She just ended up staring at me and I drank it. Would you ever do that? We have to go back and- Yeah, it makes- Fuck, man, I don't even know where to attack that story. It's just, every part of it is just open for assassination. I mean-

Wait, so was your water bottle slaying already filled with a bottle? Why didn't you just put that thing right in your little water bottle purse and just go sit down and wait for your car to be done? You've got one of those, right? No, because I threw them out thinking, oh, I don't need them.

And there was a little water left in them. So then sitting there, I was like, oh, I'm kind of thirsty actually. So I went back into the trash. I love it. You don't want to use a glass water left in them. So I'm then sitting there. I was like, oh, I'm kind of thirsty actually. So I went back into the trash. I love it. You don't want to use a glass bottle that's reusable. How fucking dare you? Or a metal one.

Oh, Sean, let me just say something. I need to get like a water bottle. That is to me the height of privilege. We're opening up a plastic water bottle. Okay. The height of joke. A visual joke for our radio audience. It's not fair.

Well, anyway, enough about that. Are we getting to the guest? Oh, no, no, you don't wanna do another hour on that. All right, so, Will, what did you get into last night? Last night I got into nothing much. It was pretty chill. It was kids, it was movie night for the little guys. Every night is movie night.

Did you watch the movie with them? Yeah, but they kind of, last night we ended up watching the classic Peter Pan. And so what they'll do is they'll go. So we're talking about the little boys, not the big boys. So they'll go, we wanna watch Pinocchio. And I'm like, okay, so you put it on, right?

We put it on in our room. They come in, they call it movie night, sort of 20 minutes before their bedtime. And then they don't really watch. What they really want to do is they want to be flipped on the bed and thrown into the pillows. Yeah, I get it. Like, Demi, Demi will actually, he'll just look at you

and go, can you throw me please? And you go, oh yeah, okay. But doesn't get them all fired up and then they can't go to bed? No, as it turns out, and you can look it up, as it turns out that kind of activity, getting thrown around and getting sort of squeezed and stuff, it gets a lot of like nervous energy out

and they end up falling asleep. And it's been, Oh really? Yeah, it's been about. Maybe I need to try that, so I can. Yeah, Scotty, Scotty, throw you around a little. Maybe you choke me out. No, hey, will you throw me?

I'll throw you, for sure. Hey, what about, have you ever gotten real close to accidentally really hurting one of your kids doing that? I mean, it's like, and trampolines, by the way. Forget it. Yeah, maple wants one. Honey, no, you're just gonna get better and better and better at it, meaning you're gonna be flipping yourself

higher and higher and doing more revolutions, and then it doesn't end well. Yeah, it's the trampoline. We have one, we have one. We have a little house out on Long Island, New York State. Next to the bowling alley. And we have a trampoline. And now of course it's injured.

I'm gonna say six winters and it's real rusty. You've seen it. It's always covered in debris. And I'm so stupid. I let the kids are like, we're going out. I'm like, okay. And I'm just, it's just, it's gonna be a moment. There's gonna be somebody come back

and go my arms backwards. Yeah, I can't. I know, I know. It's just going the pool, kids. I know. How fun was Sunday? Okay, here, ready? Sunday was super fun.

You guys, you may be noticing a pattern with our guests lately. They're a lot cooler than we are. And my guest today is no exception. We're getting right into the intro. Before becoming an Academy Award winning actor, he made his acting debut alongside his mother in an East Village improv show at age 10.

As a teen, he dabbled in break dancing to impress the girls, Tito, the break dancing part. And then he played head thug in the 1990s, 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. But I think he's done just a few things since then. I'll have to ask him It's one of my favorite actors of all time Sam Rockwell Sammy's all healed up I'm so sorry you had to wait a really long time for that. No, that was amazing. I was fantastic

Listener our our guest today had an illness. What, a few weeks ago? I did. I did. I had some sort of neurovirus or something, whatever makes lots of poop come out of you. Right. And you had to pull the handbrake day out.

Yeah, and so what he did was, I had a temperature. And he doesn't know that it's a surprise guest situation. So he texted each one of us individually, or at least me, and said, hey man. It takes a Jason, yeah. No, I think it started with just a picture of a thermometer.

And you know, Sam, and Sam, we're gonna let you talk in a second. But listen, you need to know that Sam, one of his things that he's very famous for is sending pictures of really life-scarring images. And I thought, what could this, okay, so what could this thermometer be? It must be a rectal thermometer coming from Sam.

So I didn't really respond. And then a couple of days later, he said something like, yeah, listen, man, I'm still sick. I'm not going to be able to make it. I'm like, hey, Sam, I think you meant to send this to somebody else who might be waiting for you to show up somewhere. And he should just know you sent it to the wrong person.

He's like, was I not supposed to be on your podcast today? I'm like, oh, so you were surprised. I blew it. But that didn't matter. Will didn't know and Jason didn't know when you were gonna come on, so it's fine. That's right, that's right. Still a surprise to all of us.

Hey guys. It's so good to see you, Sam. Thank you for being here today. It's so cool to see you guys, man. One of my favorite. And are you doing the same Jason Bateman thing because of a part? Were you calling all the Spatial Hero?

Yeah. I am, I'm doing something in April, right? Sort of look like. Yeah, me too, April 15th. I got it, but you grew up in the same part. You grew up in Mansbeard, yeah, what was the same part? You grew up in Mansbeard. Mine's...

Well, how long has that been? How long you got on that? About six years. No, um, this is, this is, uh, this is about some hair and makeup. You might need to go into the trailer. But my guy's supposed to kind of be a real loser and, and is capable of that part, but get to the beard. Yeah. I got another month left.

Sammy, thanks for being here. Tell me, I want to get into all of it, but I want to know about the break dancing thing. Yeah. Well, that was bad break dancing. But I remember years ago, I saw you do the splits in center of life. I was like, is that really him?

Was that really you? Yeah, I did it. I did, I tore my hamstring doing it during full for love actually eight times a week. Wow. Wow, full for love is great. We did it. It was a bit in the play. Yeah, yeah. It's not, you got to be warm. You did the full on splits? You know, it's a cheat. It's a cheat. I don't know if it's the risky business or the James Brown, but you're kind of like,

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Careful. You know, it's not quite... Yeah, careful. It's not quite the split splits. But have you always been able to kind of do that? You always been a bit of a dancer? I kind of messed around.

I watched, I remember watching James Brown and watching Michael Jackson. I was in the, it was a way to meet girls when I was 12. And I guess I watched Risky Business and tried to imitate that. Now, but then the great limited series that you did with all the, with the Fosse burden. Yeah, you don't just sort of train for that.

You need to be somewhat gifted before you even consider taking that part on. So you know what you're doing on the dance floor. Yeah. Well, thanks, thanks. But that was the first formal training. I did I think on that thing How much dancing you doing these days man? Hey cool it bro. He's I'm just Cool it I know it's true what you guys are in g-force together. Yeah, yeah, what a cast by the way

What a cast Zach. Galvanakis, Bill Nye. Yeah, Bill Nye, that's right. That's right. Heck of a cast. So Sam, when you were a kid, San Francisco, right? I love San Francisco. Yeah, yeah.

In the city or just like in the Bay Area? In the city proper, yeah, moved on. Wow, and your parents were both actors too. Yeah, and my father was a union rep for the supermarket clerks and the printers. And we lived all, we lived everywhere. Phil Moore, Tenderloin, Castro. I met Harvey Milk when I was eight years old.

He was getting in the unions and stuff. That's wild. Yeah, my dad was a big union guy. Couldn't cross a picket line. And do you think that San Francisco had more of an artistic community or as much of an artistic community as New York? Or was it different or what's the difference?

It wasn't as cool. I wanted to go to the Fame School. I went to sort of a small school of the arts in San Francisco. I went to high school with Margaret Cho, Ayesha Tyler. Wow. Me and Ayesha dated for a while.

And we were in a very terrible improvisational troupe called Batwing Lubricant. That is fat. We did that in rough. We performed at the other cafe, which is a famous place. Wow. So what age are we at now when when the acting bug starts to take hold? Well, I was 10, I dabbled with it. And then I was sort of busy

getting stoned and trying to meet girls. And then I didn't take acting very seriously. And it was kind of a rough school mac and tear. But we had the soda kids within that, like about 500 of them within the 2000. And juvenile hall was across the street. So it was like a mixture of kids from the mission. There were rich kids coming in for the School of the Arts. And I was dating a dancer and it was around 16.

I was kind of dabbling in it but I didn't take it seriously. Well and then when did it get serious? Did you move out of there? Did you go to New York? I got a movie when I was 18 and then I moved to New York and I didn't really get so I do like you know toothpaste commercials and shit like that and then I I studied with William Esper when I was 23. Sure. I did two years with him and then I met my acting coach there,

Terry Nickerbacher. Oh, wow. And studied in Meisner. Yeah. Wow. Now, why was the move to New York instead of Los Angeles? Shorter drive, more opportunity? Yeah, I guess my mom lived there.

And so I thought that was the place to go. And I kind of romanticized being a struggling actor, because I'd seen my mom do it. And a free place to stay, maybe it and a free place to stay maybe And a free place to stay but I love that story you told in your acceptance speech when you want one you ask her Yeah, sorry. I just hold it because we are gonna put we're gonna put a pause in use mine sure But dude so you win an Oscar you tell that great story about going to the movies with your dad And I loved yeah that with the way and I'm just going I literally just remember about going to the movies with your dad and I loved that with the way, and I'm just going, I literally just remember it

because it was so impactful that your dad would take you out of school and he'd lie to the school saying that you had to do some shit or somebody died. Yeah, that my grandmother passed away. Again. It's pretty morbid isn't it? That's so good. That's so great.

Fucking the best man. Yeah, I mean. I was in music camp when I was a kid and I sent a letter to my mom saying can you please come pick me up? Please just tell him grandpa died, please Just tell them grandpa died and you have to pick me up. She never did. She never did. Yeah And did you love it? Did you love getting pulled out of school going to the movies? Or did you want to stay in school and hang out with your buddies? No, I loved it. I loved it

Yeah, the school I was in at the time. I think I was getting beat up a lot. It was kind of a rough school Yeah, you were like in fight. I read you beat up a lot. It was kind of a rough school. Yeah, you were like in fight. I read you were in a lot of fights or the white supremacists. Yeah, but I didn't win any of the fights. I was getting my ass kicked. And then my dad, yeah, so when my dad took me out,

I was like, yeah, let's get the hell out of here. And then thank God, grandma was alive. And then we went to the opening day of Rocky. Oh, God. Really? Nobody had heard of it. My dad took me to all of those movies during that time too. They were so good.

All those movies that none of my friends were seeing. But like, my friends weren't going in to see like the Werner Herzog documentary, you know? Or like any movies with subtitles. No. Yeah. I remember my mom would take me too. I was kind of like her movie

powder. I remember her taking me to see, was it Missing, the one with Sissy's Basic and Jack Lomond. Yeah. And Jack Lomond. Yeah. About the people going Missing and Chillate. I was 11.

How long have you saw that? 11. Pretty heavy. Sure. Couldn't see for months. I saw the Deer Hunter, I was 10. I saw like Taxi Driver when I was eight. Exactly.

Right? It's like, got you excited about movies, but it makes you grow up quick. But there's something there, okay, so, but there is something there, messaging wise, which is like, you don't want to take your kids to just see something that's got gratuitous violence or language or whatever,

but if it's great filmmaking, and it's a great story, and it's a great, and it's great art, then there's value in that. The violence can be done cinematically. Yeah, but I mean, people enjoy the other thing. I was on a plane once, I saw a guy watch Fast and Furious movies with the sound off. I'm just saying, so there's something for everybody. Right.

That is when you've had the full lobotomy. Yeah. That's when they took it all out. They just scraped it clean. Wait, Sam, so I also read you hurt your hands or something, was that from fighting? I heard no, it was a car accident. Yeah.

What? Wait, wait, is that fully extended? Oh, wait, do it again. Can you not, oh yeah, you can straighten them out. Oh, look at that. Wow. Oh, the ginger. The ginger's almost my god. You see it in the green mile for a second. Yeah Yeah, that character, but I usually has got so he has a tweak tip of of what the Yeah, they were all crushed. Yeah, four of them were crushed. What happened?

I flipped a Jeep Cherokee on Sunset and La Brea. Just fucking got into a squat. You just flipped it? on Sunset and La Brea. Just fucking got into a squat and you just flipped it? Oh, you were in it. That's right. I'm fucking strong. You used your legs. I started the Roy's really early. That'd be so good if you were like driving around

then you just see Rockwell and you're like, is he flipping a fucking car? So wait, Sunset and La Brea, that sounds like, so you were upset at the Fat Burger there on the corner when you were getting you. I was, I hit the lead a little, little you know after rains when it gets kind of oily Yeah, I lay that the roads and I hit the I hit the leg kind of fast. I was trying to impress a girl Mm-hmm, and she kept going I took a left turn and I got into a skin

I got out of the skin that just went but those models I think tended to yeah pretty easily their tippers wait You're a model you're still you talking about, the car or the girl? The chick, the chick, the girl. Walk me back, you're trying to impress a girl at the stop light that you don't know. Okay, okay. I'm trying to like do like an American graffiti, kind of hit the lead kind of thing.

Sure. And, but then I took a left and I got into a skid. Then I got out of the skid, but then I hit the curb. And I went, psh. Fuck, man. Do you miss driving being in New York? No, and I miss driving at all. No, I drive, I drive in movies.

Yeah. But that's like a video game. Yeah, that's true. I once had to drive in a movie and the scene was, I was driving a car that was going the wrong way on a freeway and what they did was they built one of these pods on top of the car where they have a stunt driver up there with a wheel that is steering the car

so that he or she can make all the correct turns. They're not relying on an actor to go left, go right in coordination with the cars coming at you, going left and right that they've worked out. It was the most horrific thing I've ever been through where I'm speeding the wrong way on the road. Cause you're not in control. I'm not in control, but looking as if I am,

I've turned to my wheel, but there's a dude up on top of the roof in a little tiny built pod. Just a couple of hours earlier. That sounds great to me, that sounds kind of. But it worked. If you have control issues, especially... I kind of want to race cars. Does anybody else want to race cars?

I'm not even kidding. Do you really want to race cars? I do kind of want to just try it once. You know, guys, for my birthday, that's what I want. I'm not kidding. Do you really? I can set that up. Yeah, we can go up to Willow Springs.

I'm not kidding. Jason, fucking one. We've talked about it. Jason's won that thing three times. I know, I want to try it. You've raced cars, Jason? I mean, in a celebrity race, but then I did have two kind of cars.

No, you flipped a car in a real race in the Poconos. Yeah, exactly. What was professional for two races. And then I got upside down and said, okay, I'm good. Wow. I'll go back to the celeb stuff. Bass Fender is doing that, right? He's, but he's doing the real, real race is like

BMWs and shit across Europe. Yeah. Wow. That's a Sam. I want to get back to you. I want to get back to you when you're at the beginning. I do it on Broadway. Sure. I do it on the boards. I can't wait to just talk theater and all that. Hey, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sam, anything ever funny ever happened on stage? Anyone ever forget a line?

I've never seen Sean skip over I wanna get to Broadway. I've never seen him go like, we'll get to that. Can we hear about this little show that Sean did at the Tabasco? Oh, the Tabasco. Was he not just spicy as hell in that? Oh.

Oscar. It's very, you're very nice to come, Sam. It meant a lot to me. It meant a lot. It was, wait, but seriously, listen, I go on about all you guys and like the rest of the development, I go on about Ozark identity theft.

If Jason hears me say identity theft one more time, he's gonna punch me in the face. But it, but- That was the movie I was driving the wrong way down the freeway. Was that the movie? Was it real? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I mean, I didn't, I'd seen you in a play before. I didn't realize that you're a fucking assassin. I know. I mean, that, a play before I didn't realize that you're a fucking assassin. I know Oh, I mean that what the fuck what was that? And do you think that's why we were also knocked out because we just thought it wasn't gonna be good Yeah We are boy. We just were sitting here. We're gonna watch a train wreck. You said me You know when we went and saw the opening night I jay and we are all we're all there and we were sort of fucking like, and Jason, right as the sort of curtain comes down, Jason turns to me, tears in his eyes, and he goes, podcast

is over. When it was over, no one, the play was over and he had just like gained mountains of respect in Will and I's mind and it was already very high. But to see you do that, the level you did it, and I'm crying, and Curtin comes down after the curtain call, and I did, I turned to Will, I said, well the fucking podcast is ruined now. It's ruined.

So now you're gonna double down on the Busta's chops. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's nothing. That's very nice. Shut up, Sean. Hey, Sean, Sean, Sean, can I ask you a question for real? Can I be real now that we're on this subject? Do you have any good theater stories?

And we will be right back. Tropical Smoothie Cafe believes you deserve a getaway every day, not just once a year. They're introducing four new tropic bowls to their lineup of delicious tropical smoothies, wraps, and flatbreads. One bite of their new tropic bowls and you'll instantly feel like you're relaxing at a resort. The new tropic bowls are all made to order topped with refreshing fruit, granola, chia seeds, and a delicious honey drizzle. Honey? Drizzle.

Now that's what I call five-star luxury by the Spoonful. I personally got the new mixed berry Greek yogurt bowl. I like Greek yogurt, and I like dressing it up with a lot of fruity kind of sweet things. And when the berries were in there, I was like, blam! It was like a beautiful explosion in my mouth of all these wonderful tastes. And you know what? Get a little protein.

Never hurt anybody. You're on Tropic Time now. Enjoy Sunshine by the Spoonful with the new Tropic bowls at your local Tropical Smoothie Cafe. SmartLess is brought to you in part by Macy's. Valentine's Day is Wednesday. The Macy's gift finder makes it so easy to shop for everyone special in your life, including you.

It's kind of interesting. This Sunday, Jason, Will, and I are all going to a friend's house because it's this person's birthday. We all struggle to figure out what to get this person. We all chipped in a little bit each of us and got this person something very, very, very special. We can't wait to give it to her. So don't worry if you haven't found a gift yet

for your special someone. Macy's Gift Finder has amazing gifts at any price from luxe to under 25 bucks. Whether you're shopping for the tech guru, sports fan, or chef in your life, Macy's has something for everyone. They have your favorite brands like Ralph Lauren, Coach, Nike, and more. They even have Gadiva.

And don't forget to grab a little something for yourself. Pick up a new fragrance or something to spruce up your beauty regimen. Plus get 25% to 40% off underwear and lingerie from Calvin Klein, Gap, and more top brands. Some exclusions may apply. Everything I mentioned and more is on Macy's.com slash Gift Finder.

That's Macy's.com slash gift finder. SmartList gets support from Audible. Get closer to the best you. Audible lets you enjoy all your audio entertainment in one app. You'll always find the best of what you love or something new to discover. There are many wellness categories for you to choose from on Audible such as physical, mental, spiritual, social, motivational, occupational, and financial wellness. You'll find voices that'll motivate you to take action or sounds to soothe, to help you focus, reduce

stress, and sleep better. As an audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog. By the way, speaking of reducing stress, I started listening to Stay Hungry by Sebastian Maniscalco. If you don't know Sebastian, he's one of the funniest people I've ever seen in my life. I watched every single special of his on the streaming services. He's so funny. I ran into him the other day and I got to meet him for the first time.

Such a super nice guy. I love listening to his voice. He's so funny and it's a great book. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash smartless or text smartless to 500 500. That's audible.com slash smartless or text smartless to 500 500 to try Audible free for 30 days. Be sure to visit our URL so they know we sent you audible.com slash smartless.

Be sure to visit our URL so they know we sent you audible.com slash smartlist All right back to the show You know what you know what I'm gonna tell you something and then Sam I want one ready lock the loader so get ready cuz Okay, okay, don't threaten me with a great story But listen, I just sent will this thing that stretches out your calf, because if you stretch out your calves and your hands, you can release your lower back, because Will's been having lower back stuff. So I got that during Good Night Oscar

because I started getting plantar fasciitis, like my feet are hurting. Oh yeah. And it was so bad during a couple shows, I was literally shuffling along like I was 95 years old, I was in so much pain doing the show. And two days later, Will, I used that thing I sent you. It was gone.

Sean, so Sean said- Did you ever get the boot? Yeah, I got the boot. No, it's that thing that kind of rocks, to stretch your calves, right? You put your foot on it and it just- Yeah, and you were sleeping it, right? You're sleeping it's like-

No, no, no, you just stand on it. No, you just stand on it and you just kind of seesaw. My son, Abel, I mean, my son, Danny, who's almost, he's like three and a half, looks like that. Okay, that's something else. Oh, that's advanced. So these guys, I've been having this issue with my, it was my hamstring and then it became like a sort of

sciatic nerve thing and I'm fucking going to see this guy. We're not going to mention Tariq again. This would be four in a row. We're going to mention Dr. Tariq. Tariq is great. What about Tarik? You know Tarik? Have you seen Doran, the Israeli magician?

No, but do you know Tarik? Wait, you get to watch magic tricks? Okay, so Tarik's the fucker. So I've been going to Tarik. I've been living in his office for the last two years. Tarik is a fan. He's got a great elbow. Doran is also great.

Great, I don't know Doran. I don't know Tarik. Tarik has an unbelievable elbow. When he gets it there, forget it. So anyway, so Sean and Sunday night, we're at dinner with our friends, and he goes, I'm gonna get you this thing, this rocking thing.

It comes the next day, Monday. I do it yesterday. By yesterday afternoon, I feel infinitely better. Really? That's really good. Oh, really good. It's unreal. You've got to stretch your hands and your calves and you're good to go. Yeah, you must screw it up for a few weeks on that I have I indeed I have it starts with the feet. Yeah

So, so so hand injuries from the car any injuries from Broadway Yeah hamstring. Well, I have had tendinosis two calves from other stuff. That's about it shoulders are creaky Yeah, you know, how old do you know Sam? Two calfs from other stuff. That's about it. Shoulders are creaky. Yeah. How old are you now, Sam? I'm seven to seven. No, I'm 55. Right, so we're all about the same age. You look great.

You look plastic. Thanks. You guys look great. Things start to ache a little bit, right? Like, I don't feel like I deserve the kind of knee kind of tweaking or the hip kind of, because we're all staying pretty good shape. We exercise and stuff.

But you know, the car, the car does break down. It does break down. It's really annoying. But so Sam, go talk to me about the quote, well-paying 1994 Miller Light commercial. Oh my God. Right. So that's when, is that when you knew, like, okay, I got this big commercial.

It pays really well. Maybe I can quit all my other jobs. And what were those other jobs? Well, I worked in a lot of restaurants, Barback, Busboy, I delivered burritos. Wow. I heard your ruffle on what he was bartending. It was kind of a similar time around when I was 28, 29,

I started working more as an actor. Did started doing movies and stuff, yeah. But delivering burritos on a bicycle was my last job. No shit. Who do you go furthest back with of the actor buddies that you still have? Like, do you go back furthest with like Crude Up or Mark? Well, yeah, Crude Up and Thoreau and I

were together during 9-11 and we knew Phil and very happy for Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giammani and Russell. For Tracy, that's Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Seymour Hoffman, yes, listen. We don't really mention, as you probably know, we don't really like to mention Thoreau on this podcast. Yes, so we'll cut that out.

We'll go back, we'll trim that out. He's kind of persona non-G around here, you know? Yeah, well. Oh, he's, he have a message for us. He told me to give you a message. He said, you can ask Arnett this question from a listener in New York named Justin T. Will, when you buy button down shirts,

do you take them somewhere, take them to someone to remove the top five buttons? Or do you just buy them pre-removed? Also wondering what's your nighttime, let me get this right, decaluge routine. Love the show, keep up the good work. Oh my God, that is so true. Well that's rich coming from a guy that removes the sleeves.

I didn't realize you don't usually button, you don't have any buttons. Is that true? Yeah, it's true. What do you call it? Is that called a burglary? You mean like you go like that? Yeah.

I do. I do. If I'm wearing a bun shirt, yeah. I do a lot of this. Why? You know what it is? Because you gotta get people what they want. You gotta get people what they want.

This is a world, you have to understand that we are always transmitting and receiving. And so I'm putting out and I'm also receiving. And so I feel from the world they want, they want to get more skin. Sammy knows what I'm talking about. Oh my God. Yeah, you gotta do it.

All right, Sammy. Bond dogs. Yes, talk about skin. Yeah, lots of skin on that. I know, right? Wait, so you received critical acclaim and your performance was like incredible. Thank you, thanks.

Yeah, I love that moment. Those were the days I had abs. I've not heard of Laundos. Laundos, oh, you gotta see it, it's so good. Yeah, I get naked and I was in good shape back then. That was fun. Is that the thing you think kind of opened the doors for you, the porn?

Yeah, I think so. I think that was one of them. Did Safe Men with Paul Giamani, Ruffalo, Dinklage? I was going to say Safe Men that Hamburg, right? Wasn't that Hamburg? You know Safe Men? Yeah, it's a little, it's a little gem, I think. I knew those guys, I knew some of those guys, those guys who produced it, I think they were

the same dudes who made my buddy Steps movie that I did. Anyway, great guys. Yeah, and then Box of Moonlight was, those guys. And then Box of Moonlight was those three kinda. Box of Moonlight. Yeah. Help me get, and then Galaxy Quest and bring Miles for a half. Okay, so I wanna talk about Galaxy Quest.

It's one of my favorite movies. Dude, I saw Safeman. I really love Safeman by the way, and I knew a lot of those dudes. But then when you did fucking Galaxy Quest, Rockwell, you absolutely destroyed. Yeah, incredible. You destroyed it, right?

Incredible, thanks guys. Dude, I auditioned for the Enrico, Colin Jones part. Oh yeah. Yeah, still waiting here. You're not right for it. I know I'm not right for it. Well, they agreed, but I'm just saying that. You're not right.

So wait, this is from, so your character Guy Fleegman, right? Yes. He was so, he was so fun and great. Fuck. It was like a pick me energy. This is from Scotty, okay? No boy.

Scotty said the whole bit about you not wanting to be sent down first, your character, like whenever you go to a planet, those characters always died. That was a reference to Star Trek, you probably know this, Star Trek and the red shirts. Yes.

Which are expendables. But a lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that. That in Star Trek, whenever Spock and Kirk would come to a planet. That's right. They would always send these guys down first and they would always die.

It was such a funny time. I just kind of stole my performance from Bill Paxton and Aliens pretty much. Hey, Sean, just widen out. I just want to see if I can see the make out, the mountain dew on your desk, if it's possible. If I get the fucking monster energy trick. And the Star Trek cosplay outfit.

I mean, yeah. No, but it was, you know what though? It is true. That was the first time somebody sort of made that kind of joke on screen. Your fucking delivery, Sammy. It's just fucking unreal. Every time.

We lucked out with that movie. Sam, you're one of those guys, and I talk about this from time to time on the podcast You're one of those people. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It never it could be the worst You never suck you could be in the worst movie the worst play the worst TV you're always Committed I fucking love that about I know I love that too. Do you ever feel like I was gonna say the same thing Do you ever feel like movie to movie? Obviously? same thing. Do you ever feel like movie to movie? Obviously you never know what you got

or what you're in or what you have. Can you feel it by now at this point in your career as you're going day one, day week one, month one, month two. You know what, I think I'm in a piece of shit or I think this is working. Or I think this is really working. Cause I said when I did Good Night Oscar, we had an invited dress rehearsal

with a bunch of kids who didn't get any of the references because it takes place in the 50s. And it was crickets the whole play. I came home to Scotty, I said I'm in a piece of shit. Yeah, it's always scary, isn't it? Yeah, it's scary. And the next night it was. Yeah, that's a great thing. So what is Yeah, it's scary. Yeah, the next night was yeah

Yeah, you that's a great thing. So what is your brum around that? Like how do you feel? Well, first of all, thank you and right back at you all three of you guys and but but yeah, I I think you always think It's fucking Hamlet, right? I mean you think it's Citizen Kane I mean when you're working on and then at a certain point You realize maybe it's not. And then- Yeah, starts to take on water. Yeah, yeah. And then you're like, oh yeah.

And then you're like, oh shit, this could be bad. This could be, I remember Baldwin once saying to me, Alec once says to me, he goes, he goes, he never, he goes like, you never intend to make a bad movie. He goes, you know, you go like, you agree to do with something and you're making this movie with people

and they go, hey, we're gonna go over here. And you go, great, I can't wait. I'm excited to go over here. And then you start making it. And all of a sudden you start going to the other direction. You go, hey, I thought we were going over there. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no,

we're going over here. Yeah, yeah. And you can, yeah. Sometimes it comes from watching another performance or a decision a director makes or just the general vibe on the set from the crew or whatever, and you could start to smell it, right? And you just can't get, there's nothing you can do about it because you're only doing one little piece of it.

That's, it's just a team. Does it take away the energy and like, do you start depleting yourself of kind of the same chutzpah you and came in? I don't think you do. You always deliver the... Well, I think if you sign up and you get talked, I think when you get talked into something,

and I won't mention any names, but when you get talked into something, that's when it's bad, you know what I mean? And you try to do a fixer-upper thing on it. Right, but you have, you know, Willie, you said that he fully commits, and that's certainly part of why he's so great, but I've seen a lot of crappy actors

fully commit to a crappy performance that doesn't fix it. I mean, he's fully committing to a performance that's coming from a guy with great taste. There's somehow that you have the ability to keep one eye on yourself and judge whether the choice you're making sucks or not. And you're staying away from sucky choices with the way in which you play characters.

Is that- Sean, Sean, do you make a lot of sucky choices in your life? Do you make a lot of sucky choices? your life? Do you make a lot of sucky choices? Ignore that, Sam. Ignore it. You know, you wanna make God laugh telling your plans, right? So I just never know.

You never know. Right, but you have good taste. Did that come from, did you get it from mom or dad or from watching a bunch of great stuff? You know, again, I think it's just more ego to be frank. I think it's more like just wanting to have a big part of it. Have a reason to get up there. Right, and doing something

that you're gonna wanna watch. It doesn't mean that it has to be a lead role. It can be a supporting role. Sure. Yeah, that you're gonna wanna be a part of, so. Do you watch your stuff? Are you one of those actors that can't watch? If it's good, if it's good, it can be a supporting role. Yeah, that you're gonna wanna be a part of, so. Do you watch your stuff? Do you, are you one of those actors that can't watch? If it's good, if it's good, it's like a home movie.

If it comes on, Seven Psychopaths came on. I love, that experience was really great. Yeah, I hear Martin McDonough is just about the best guy in the world to work with. He's the best man, you know, and Chris Walk and I done a play with him and then we did the movie and Colin and Woody, so we had, you know and Chris walk and I done a play with him and then we did the movie and Colin and Woody So yeah, you know, it was just a really nice time. We had a great time

Yeah, so it's like a isn't it's like a home movie right when you see and it's either a bad experience or a good experience You know, but but what about like on set? Will you watch playback to sort of to help in calibrating your performance? Or do you like stay in the dark only if it's like in calibrating your performance or do you like to stay in the dark? Only if it's mainly for the canvas or if I'm a lot of times just to get maybe a tone and then I stay away from it. And a lot of times I'm noticing if I do look at it, I'm under where I used to be over the top. But I'm noticing it's actually I need more and then I need to contain it.

I would say tell the director to bring the camera closer instead of you reaching out. It's actually, I need more and then I need to contain it. I would say tell the director to bring the camera closer instead of you reaching out, you know? Fuckin', if they can't see it, they gotta get closer. You stay small. Or bring your own. Yeah, if you bring your own. We're one of those go pros turned back on yourself.

When you say to see the canvas, do you, and to see the canvas and the tone are those two different things? Like, do you mean sometimes that you actually look and go like, because when you're in it, you don't have a sense of like the bigger picture. And then when you get to see it, you go, oh, okay, okay. Whether in terms of staging and what effect is.

I guess I'm talking about stakes, you know. I'm talking about stakes. Interesting. You know, Crude Up is one of the people I've gone to, beyond my acting coach or my friend, Chris Messina, who you know, I'll go to, I've gone to a lot of friends for help. Stanley Tucci, lots of people. And but Crude Up is particularly bad. So he's rough, man.

Sorry, I cut you off. Yeah. Yeah, he's gotta go back to NYU. Yeah. He's so fragile. And he's hard to look at. Hard to look at. He's tough to look at.

He's tough to look at. No, you're gonna say he's particularly helpful? Yeah, he's very articulate about acting. He can, I went to him with American Buffalo. I was like, I was losing my saliva. Literally, I couldn't get through the speech. And I went, he can, I went to American Buffalo, I was like, I was losing my saliva, literally, I couldn't get through the speech. And I went, I said, man, I need your help, man. I gotta, I gotta, I can't get through this fucking thing.

And he came over and he really, he really helped me. He really broke it down for me. He's really smart. Yeah, what was it, sir? Yeah. What's the key to keeping your mouth nice and lubricated? Who's this for? Who's that question for?

It's a question. Sorry, I was looking at you. Okay, okay. Very quick question. Okay. Voice warmups, Sean, voice warmups, right? Very good, very good. Keeping, I mean they say bite your tongue,

but you know, I do a voice warmup, 20 minute link later warmup. Yeah. Also, isn't it wild when you're doing a live a lot It's real or yes, that's good when you're doing a live play that you've created this character and this world Yeah through weeks of rehearsals then you get up on a piece. So you created this piece of art and You think people will know your choices like think, so for your speech for example, you're like, well, I can't change it.

It's, this is how it's supposed to go. But people don't know that. So you're like, well, I don't want to change. But you're like, hey buddy, you could take the biggest pause in the world in the middle of a monologue, drink a glass of water. You can do any, you can add anything. Nobody knows how it's supposed to go.

But in your mind, you're like no no I'm compromising The role I'm compromising the part and that's the thing I was bump up against I want I once saw John Malkovich do burn this Oh, yeah, I saw that right so what about that opening opening monologue as he comes in after you know fucking trying to get a parking Spot out in front of the goddamn building and he's fixing his hair in the mirror And he stops in the middle of this in in the middle of a sentence, not in a punctuation, but in the middle of a sentence for at least a minute while he's fucking with his hair and then picks right back up on his monologue another minute or two, you know, talking.

I just couldn't believe the balls. Yeah. You know, I was a young actor watching this and I was like, oh, fuck, that's incredible what this guy does. Incredible. He's one of my favorites. That performance was unbelievable. Yeah. It was unbelievable. I was a young actor watching this like oh fuck that's incredible what this guy does Favorites that performance was unbelievable. Yeah, yeah unbelievable. So anyway, I added two glasses of water in the scene I'm like, I think my character should drink water now. Yeah, no Absolutely, I just six page money like I had the director. I said can I have like a water fountain? He said no Well, what can I can I have it? I just put, get a lifesaver. I was in a park.

And so I was like, all right. Now I'll ask you a real hacky question here that there is no answer for, but I'll ask anyway, you prefer doing theater over camera work? No, I mean, it's totally different. I think it's just the gym and it's really scary. And it's like going to the gym and it informs your film work, I'd say, but it helps.

Like Chris Walken does that monologue in Pulp Fiction. I think it's because he did Hamlet and he did Rose Tattoo. Yes, but Stanley Kowalski. But would you not agree that if you do a stage level performance in front of the camera, you'd be doing too much? Oh yeah, for sure. Definitely. But interesting, for sure. Definitely. But interesting, say you talk about that, talk about that idea, it's like going to the

gym for film work. Well, it's just obviously you can't screen, you can't do a stage performance, especially the ones I've done, because they're big. You know, in front of a camera that would not work,. But I think all you gotta do is turn the volume down, I guess, I mean, maybe that's not as simple as it sounds. But. Was calibrating. Do you enjoy the bigger movement

or do you enjoy getting super, super small, letting the camera find the little stuff? I prefer being small even on stage. I don't wanna get big on stage, in fact. I think that's the trick of, but I've never done a musical. So I don't know, that's a whole other thing. But I think keeping it real and still being loud,

with you're still being able to hit the back row with your voice is a trick, you know? Yeah, right. Phil Hoffman taught me a lot about that. I mean, sounds name-dropping, but he also is somebody who, he directed me in a play and he, he was very, you know, but no, but listener doesn't want to hear about process. Well, should they do, they'll listen to whatever, they have to listen to whatever

the fuck we talk about. By the way, the podcast, it's free, and they can not listen. By the way, the podcast, it's free. They can not listen. Yeah, man, what the fuck? What the fuck? I love hearing you talk about this shit. I do feel. Well, Phil was the, he was, you guys know him. He was, yeah, of course.

I'm envious that you guys knew him and I didn't. But dad, tell me about, do you like doing doing I love that whenever you're doing a like a lead role in a film? I just like because I'm just I want more of you at all times But oftentimes the lead role is not as spicy or as fun as As some of the the secondary or tertiary roles. What's your, do you have a preference? Yeah, you know, I think that's something, I mean, here we go with the name drop shit, but Clooney, I think-

George Clooney. George Clooney. I don't know, Clooney's not a name drop here. Yeah. Yeah. But Clooney taught me a lot of, you know, cause I come in with all these props and all these, I'd be smacking it up and...

Well, you were the lead in his first film, right? And I was the lead in the film and he's like, hey man, you know, we can't do bows with a clown every scene, you know, we gotta... I mean, he didn't say that. That was the note? He didn't say that. But I was like, you know, zero my style in there.

I mean, one of the great actors zero my style. But, you know, he said, you know too many props and let's just keep it You're the you're the lead guy. You got to like keep it simple and I learned a lot from him about that It's it's true because it's a canvas, right? So you're not necessarily the color red all the time, you know Kevin Costner and dances with wolves I mean, he's you know, they gotner and dances with Wolves. I mean, he's, you know, they got other people providing those colors. Yeah, you gotta really,

you really suss that out when you read the script and you talk about it and you develop it and you show up, you're like, where do I fit? Yeah. Yeah. And you have to be, sometimes you have to be a blank canvas, right? If you're the lead in a certain way,

you have to be able to let other colors. Jason, obviously has been a blank canvas to me for so many years. He's been this off-white mayonnaise, sort of egg shell color. Well, I think Jason's performance in identity theft is, is, is so good. Now you love identity theft.

It's really fucking amazing. Let's walk through identity theft. Let's show a clip. We'll just show a real quick clip. Let's go to clip. That is pretty amazing. By the way, I will say, I will say, I love identity theft as well. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that.

I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that.

I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that.

I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what's that. I don't even know what you not seen Game Night? I need to see that. It's so fucking... It's so fucking...

It's so funny. I can't even watch that. Jason is so good at that. Jason is... It's... And he knows how to play stakes, right? Dude. And still be like, you know...

Dude. It is a... That movie holds up to multiple viewings. Yeah, that's one of my favorites. It's fucking... By the way, Game Night is one of the most... It's one of the like, last great... I haven't seen a By the way, Game Night is one of the most, is one of the like last great, I haven't seen a great film comedy since Game Night.

Game Night, it's, yeah. I'm not, I'm kidding. Those guys, it's John and John. It's gonna be your new identity, thief. John with that. It's not, yeah. Sam, you have not seen it yet, right? I haven't seen it, no.

So good. Oh, it's Rachel McAdams. I've seen Marvel bosses, I've seen, I've seen the one. Jesse Plem good. Oh, it's rich. I'm a guy that's more of a boss. I've seen I've seen the one Jesse Plemons. You piss in the pond and oh, yeah, the magic pond with Ryan. Yeah. That's you know, it was really funny in that movie Billy Magnussen. Yeah. He'd that guy's a real talent.

He is hilarious. Yeah. He is a good and Sharon Horgans in it too. Sharon Horgans is amazing. Kyle Sharon Horgan's in it too. Sharon Horgan is amazing. Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights. How great is Kyle? We have fucking Sam's with us. Sam Rockwell. Let's talk about all his things.

Game night, I'm on it. We'll be right back. Our thanks to Liquid IV for supporting SmartLess. So when it's time to start another big week, celebrate Hydration Monday with Liquid IV, which three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink plus eight vitamins and nutrients, Liquid IV is there to kick off your week right.

All you need is one stick of Liquid IV and 16 ounces of water to boost your hydration. You know what guys, it's really easy to forget about your hydration when you wake up in the morning, you're running around and you're going from this place to that place, driving here, doing that, maybe you're forgetting to eat even. With as busy as your schedule is, you have to remember to hydrate. Liquid IV makes it so easy.

For me, sometimes I'll take a stick of liquid IV, put it in the 16 ounces of water, and put that bottle of water next to my bed. In the morning, it's the first thing I do, so I stay hydrated all day long. My schedule's pretty busy on the weekends weekends especially because I push all my social events a lot to the weekends and so I'm running around extra crazy on the weekends and that's when I forget to hydrate. Weekends are for going wild. Have a game plan for Monday with Liquid IV.

Grab your Liquid IV hydration multiplier sugar-free in bulk nationwide at Costco or get 20% off your first order when you go to liquidiv.com and use code smartLIS at checkout. That's 20% off your first order when you shop superior hydration today using promo code smartLIS at liquidiv.com. ["Sugar-Free"]

Thanks to our sponsor, CarShield, for their support. The hard truth is the price of many car parts has increased by almost 100%. That means when you need a car repair, you could be paying double plus the cost of labor. With CarShield, customers don't have to worry about the cost of covered car parts. Their plans can cover up to 5,000 parts and systems. You can get coverage on things like your engine, transmission, brakes, AC, electrical system, and much more. In some cases, a deductible may apply. With protection plans starting at around $100 a month, CarShield offers varying levels of

coverage, and most plans include coast-to-coast, roadside assistance, courtesy towing, and car rental options at no extra cost. The best part is CarShield offers price lock guarantee, so your rate will never go up no matter how many claims you file. Protect your wallet from those high costs at a price lock guarantee rate that's locked in for as long as you cover your car. Avoid the hassle of costly car repairs with CarShield. Visit carshield.com slash smartlist and save 20% off today. Again, that's carshield.com slash smartlist to save 20%. Visit carshield.com slash smartlist to lock in your price today.

Thank you to NutriFall for supporting our show. Get obsession worthy hair, you're no longer obsessing over. NutriFall takes a whole body approach to hair growth, multi-targeting root causes of hair thinning from within, like stress, nutrition, and hormones. With 20-plus vitamins, minerals, and natural ingredients, these 100% drug-free supplements improve hair growth, visible thickness, and strength in a few months.

With NutriFall, building a hair growth routine is simple. Purchase online, no prescription required. Free shipping and automated deliveries ensure you'll never miss a day. Start your hair growth journey with the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand. Take the first step towards healthy hair with NutriFall. For a limited time, NutriFall is offering our listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrifall.com and enter the promo code smartLIS. Find out why over 4,500 healthcare professionals and hair stylists recommend NutraFall for healthier

hair. NutraFall.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com promo code smartLess. That's NutraFall.com promo code smartLess. And now back to the show. So wait, Sam, I... You guys haven't said anything about my shirt, my T-shirt. I was trying to read it. I couldn't see it and I wasn't sorry that's bad. I am serious and don't call me. Wait, he's wearing tan pants and for a second I thought he was shirt cocking that he just had a shirt. Wait Sam, what is the shirt? Shirt cocking is

a real. It's an airplane shirt and it says, I'm serious and don't call me Shirley. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. That's a great T. I mean, they should redo that movie, right? I mean, there's a whole, not because it needs to be re-released, but just because there's a whole new generation

or three or four now that haven't seen it and that would love. Will's upset. I'm against the reboots. I'm against the reboots all together. Just have to watch the old one, right? I watched the old one and it, maybe it's not as quick or it doesn't cut as fast,

but it's good, it's got value. And then let's do some new stuff. Leslie Nielsen. Let's create stuff now that people 20 years will say, let's reboot. You know what I mean? There's so much of the same shit. No, no, no, let me go on a fucking highway.

Wait, Sam. By the way, guess who Sam worked with a couple of years ago? You guys are gonna blow both of your minds. Leslie Nielsen. No, it's a, it's a friend of the show. It's in one of the great names of the show. It's one of the all time references of the show. Grimoire Pildrebar.

That who, he comes up on the show all the time. I talk about him all the time. Chappy. Chappy, Mark Chappell, who wrote See How They Run. Oh. Is, Chappy's one of my best pals and he's my coretter. And must be giving Will at least $10,000 every time his name is mentioned.

Chappy comes up a lot on the, he's a recurring on the show. And he lives in London. Get the scissors out guys. Sean, drive the interview. Yes, thank you. We're not cutting Chappy out. Great script, see you in the run. Yeah, so Moon, when you did Moon, I loved Moon. It's, I mean, it was just you.

God bless you. I loved that movie so much. Now Duncan Jones knows how to direct, huh? I know. Go back and talk about like, I know we were, it's okay, you can talk about process. That's why we're here. Okay.

I don't want to bore the hell out of it. Cause I'm fascinated how you, what was it like day to day? Did you like the process of being the only person in the movie? Yeah, Tracy, this is a movie where he's the only guy in it and he's stuck on a spaceship. It's stunning. It's stunning. Incredible. It's a really good movie.

Thank you. Thanks guys. Well, you know, my acting coach, the first thing he says, watch buddy movies. He said, watch Midnight Cowboy I watched. And I stole a lot from Midnight Cowboy. And then, you know, Rachel Weiss just did a reboot of Dead Ringers, which is fucking amazing what she did. And I was watching the Jeremy Irons one. That was the best time, the best version of that trick I had seen. And I listened to the DVD commentary. And there's a very noisy camera called the motion control camera that's used for that gag to get two people in one frame and it's a very

weird process that I could go into and give us a little bit. Well there's a lot about timing the guy the sound guy would put the previous take the master on the on my iPod. And while I was going to hair and makeup for the other one, I would listen to it. So the ping pong scene would be a timing thing. So when I went back to the other clone. So you're acting against yourself.

Acting against yourself. And so I would listen to the sounds. So like if he dropped the handle of the paddle like that, the other clone would retract as he's coming towards him. So I'd have to listen for that. And I know how many beats you have to wait before you speak. Yeah, and he was saying, Doug, he was like,

don't add lip, don't add lip. But if you could add lip, if you fit it in the window, right, right, the timing, you know, you can change the line, but it'd have to be that time, you know. And I wonder if today technologically, it would be less antiquated. It's gotta be. Tom Hardy did a good job with it too, and but it's tricky.

It's tricky, but, and it's a lot of work and talking about paying attention, you have to pay attention in a scene as it is, but now you really gotta pay attention because you're also trying to, you know, pick up on timing another thing, did it scratch? Did it scratch an itch in a way that you didn't know?

Was it satisfying on a certain extent? Absolutely, if you're a narcissist and a director, a closeted director, you have control of the scene, obviously, for obvious reasons. And Jeremaritan's talked about contrasting energy. So one twin in Dead Riggers was aggressive and Rachel Weiss did the same thing very well. One was more timid.

And so we had to do, that was the trick was having contrasting energies. And so one was a clown and one was more together. And yeah, you can control the scene. In fact, we'd have two rehearsals. The AD would go, you know, hey, okay, go to Harry and Megwin. So Mick, you know, we gotta do the other rehearsal. We gotta do the other one.

So you'd rehearse twice, you know, before you went. Oh wow, yeah. Yeah, so it was a lot. You'd rehearse both sides before. Yeah. Wow. And then I had a body double guy and I was also an actor. And then the other line was coming to you through through the year. Yeah, near week. And sometimes you'd

be looking at tennis ball. Sometimes the actor who kind of looks like you from the back. Yeah. You know, so that's a that's a that's a contemplative sort of melancholy dramatic movie. Yes. Do you again, another brain dead question, but do you have a preference about drama versus comedy? I mean. Well, it's funny, you say that because it was a little too serious. And I said, we got to get some jokes in the beginning

because it was so dark. It was like that girl in Poe. And we got some jokes in because we're going to lose the audience because he gets so depressing. Yeah, but then there's that the risk of setting the wrong tone for that which is going to come. That's true.

So there's a balance there. I remember I was like, I was super precious and annoying and overly sensitive about any sort of. I did it the other night. Any sort of humor going into Ozark. The writers, these great sort of moments of levity in the first season. And I just- Where did you find the compromise eventually?

Well, once we established that, you know, this Jason Bateman show is not going to be a comedy, once the audience knew that after the first season, I felt more comfortable about, you know, making it- Did you watch, serious question, did you watch, after asking them to sort of erase all that, did you watch it, once you got to post where you're like, fuck, I wish there was a moment there?

Did you miss it a little bit? I don't mean a goofy thing, but it was a little bit of contrast. I was too sort of paranoid about being, it being taken seriously in the first year that I didn't worry about that. But the second year I was like, yeah, anyway, sorry, talk about fucking me again.

It's fucking great. Sam, what do we gotta do to have you working? See where you beat the guy up in the car is fucking great. Yeah. But you know, you earned that, you earned that. You know, you just had a lot. Yeah, you fucking earned it.

What about, how do we get you, how do we get you working 12 months a year so I as a Sam Rockwell fan can have more to enjoy? That's a great, yes. I think I have to, because you're balancing theater and film, so I gotta go to New York to see you sometimes, right? Which I'm coming, I'm coming this weekend for seven months.

So get ready. Okay, we're gonna do some hanging. It's a throw, we're all waiting some hanging. It's a throwing crew, we're all waiting. So wait, Sam, we're talking about all these kind of prep things for roles in different movies. Do you have a thing that you first do when you either walk on a set or prepare for a character? Do you have like a go-to, any kind of superstition thing,

like we do in theater? No, it all comes out of fear, trying to memorize the script and panic and, you know, and then you go to a, go see my coach, Tara Nickerbocker, where I go, and sometimes you have time to do research, sometimes you don't, and you might have the luxury of a few months and then you would do research,

like three billboards or something, I did research, but like, you don't always have the time to do that. So you're kind of like, just like, all right, I'm an arms dealer. All right, okay, fuck. I'm gonna watch Bill Murray and Kingpin. That's it, that's my research. Yeah, yeah, that's the actual.

But are you like Billy, because Billy talks about it and you know, you guys know it, like Billy likes to spend time with the dialogue for weeks. Yeah, yeah. Did you see the one man show he did? Jesus Christ. No, I missed it.

But are you good at learning your lines? Are you quick with that? No, terrible. I need time. Really? I need a lot of time, yeah. I need a lot of time. Have you always been terrible?

I mean, I tape the monotone. That's a Meisner thing, but I tape him and I run him with a reader, an actor. I think Billy does a similar thing. Billy's smarter than me though. He knows how to, he really breaks his shit down. My partner does too, Leslie. Her script is like really organized.

Mine looks like a kindergarten grown up. I'm always fearful that I'm gonna, if I really, really work on it, and I do a bunch of research and all that stuff, that I'll end up acting. That all of that is to do the greatest acting job ever. As opposed to, but that's my own bullshit. You put work in, come on.

I do put a lot of work into it, but there's a list of techniques and homework stuff that I used to do when I was a kid and went to acting classes and stuff like that. And I found that I was so proud of the work that I had done that I was hell bent on making sure the audience saw that work. I understand that.

Yeah, I mean, I don't like backstory. That's the thing I don't really care about. Yeah. I don't, I think that's useful. Interesting, but it's important for some actors. Everyone's got a different thing. I mean, it doesn't I think interesting but it's important for some actors everyone's Yeah, yeah, I you know, I think it depends you know It depends if it makes an imprint on you

You know you can get an ad lib from from somebody a real person. Do you ever get a? I was gonna ask you Sean get into like sort of the difference and with you Sammy as well about Then when you're working on stage, then you have the sort of the luxury of time to work on that and you understand and you have a facility with the dialogue because you've been working on it for months. But before I get into that, have you ever had the thing

where I've had a couple of times where like a member of the crew will go, well like between takes to go, hey, you know what I thought it'd be really funny if you said, and I go, what's that now? Like pitching me a joke or like a different way to say a joke and I'm like, what up? And then, and it's not bad. And they go like, I just thought it'd be really funny

if you said this. I'm like, oh yeah, okay, man. Well, I thought it'd be really funny if you move the fucking C stand over there. You know what I mean? But what if it's a good idea, you dick? No, I'm kidding, I'm being a fuck. Actually, it should be,

I'm just saying that just to be funny. The truth is, I've actually had some pretty good pitches before from like, you know, dudes. And there was a boom operator that I knew, this guy, Tom, who was really fucking funny. Jay, do you remember that dude, Tom? Yeah. And he was super funny and every once in a while,

like between takes, he'd go like, hey, you know what, blah, blah, blah. And I go, fuck, that's fucking great. And I'd use it. I'd say, thank you. Give him a little wink while he's holding it. I know if an actor does it. You know, what if another actor does it?

And then you're like, hey. Fuck, that's a fight. I'm always like best, best, whatever. That, yeah. If it works, it works. I don't mind that. I never mind a line reading from a director either because you're always gonna make it your own.

No, but you know what, there is that thing, and I will not say who this is, but there are things before where an actor might say to you, like, hey, you know what'd be really great? Say this, and they'll say it in rehearsal, and they'll say it to the director as you're doing a rehearsal. So at that point, you go like,

everybody's kind of waiting for me to do his pitch. That he said out loud to the director. You do it and then they laugh. I see, isn't that amazing? And you're so embarrassed. Well, that brings me to my, my thing about directing is I think, I was thinking, Jason, I don't know what you do with actors,

but I feel like you're really good with actors., I don't know what you do with actors, but I feel like you're really good with actors. But I don't know when a director screams a direction across a long distance, you know, over the crew, it's kind of telling the whole crew that the rabbit's going to come out of the hat before it does. And then you're like, hey man, there's a lot of pressure to take the rabbit out of that. You know what I mean? Right. Right, right. And then you end up adjusting your reading to make it surprising for the crew when it's not really the reading

that would be right for the audience at home. Yeah, I kind of want a conspiracy with the director. Yeah, I love it. I love the secret. Yeah, whispering, yeah. Sam, what do you do when all of this is, when we're not talking about this and you're not doing this, what do you do?

Yeah, what's the hobby? What would our listeners be excited to learn that you do? Well, somebody, I think maybe Thoreau just told me, potato chips are not a protein, which is alarming. I was during the pandemic, I got into some potato chips. Now, you know, I overwork out and then I over eat, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, I do it.

That's what I'm kind of compulsive. What's your exercise of choice? Are you a jogger? Everything. Like I might hit hot yoga or I might, the weights or I got the, the SoulCycle here, hit the mids, you know, that kind of shit. And that's all to facilitate your snacking.

All to facilitate, yes. That's why I work out. A little bit of, a little IPA, a little potato chips and chocolate. Well, you do a little, you do a little bit of boxing, right? You do a little bit of boxing. I've been doing, throw Gummy into like doing

the SoulCycle of boxing. You know, it's the- Oh yeah, my friend does that. Fight camp, right? And by the way, got me in shape. But now my son, what's interesting is my son, my oldest son who's 15, Archie, because I started doing that, he got into it because of Thoreau, through somebody else.

Anyway, he starts to, now he's fighting with a real guy in a gym every weekend, which is crazy. Oh, he's sparring. Your son's sparring. So he's sparring and he's really getting into it. He's way better than me. Oh shit, don't be careful. So I know.

Well, I'm very excited to see our guy. Should I be? Yes. Yeah, I saw the trailer. It looks incredible and I love Matthew Vaughn. It's really fun. That looks like a blast to shoot a movie like that. I'm very jealous.

A whole movie about a sweater. Yeah. So it starts with the idea, then the knitting, and then someone wears it. That looks like a blast to shoot a movie like that. A whole movie about a sweater. Yeah. So it starts with the idea, then the knitting, and then someone wears it. Walk me through it. You just gave away the ending. That's right. No, it's a lot of fun. You guys all hit your head so that the doctor is...

Do you like doing all the action stuff and the stunts and things like that? Did you get hurt at all? You must have. No, we had an amazing stunt team. He's agile, dude. He's fucking looking at me. Yeah's agile. Yeah, but you gotta do the start of the stunt and the end of the stunt, right? Yeah, do a little bit of the kung fu fighting, yeah. Yeah, and you had fun with that. I like it, it's fun.

I like it, the fake stylized violence, but you know, I had an amazing stunt double. Every time I would do something, I thought I was going fast and then I'd watch him and then I looked like I was in slow motion. Is this a stunt double you've worked with before? He's amazing, no. He's a prodigy.

Same's Greg Talley. He's like a Jackie Chan. He's from Northern England. He's a gymnast. He's a double for Spiderman. He's 26. He was 24 when he did mine. Yeah, he's amazing.

Did he get hurt? He did get hurt on another thing, but he's fine. Okay, very good. He's fine, yeah, yeah. Do you ever get, have you ever get hurt on another thing, but he's fine. Okay. He's fine, yeah, yeah. Have you ever gotten hurt or hurt somebody doing a scene? No, Tim Roth and I kinda hit each other, kinda clipped each other in a rain machine doing a fight, but it was fine, nothing serious.

Was that on holiday or during a shoot? I broke my toe talking to my agent in my house once. You know what I mean? That's what I mean. Yeah, that's the bad thing. I once sprained my finger getting into a Tesla. Yeah. You know what?

Sam, we took up way too much of your time. Wait, wait, I want to ask you about Oscar though. How did you get ready for that? How did you do that? How did you, what was your research for that? Well, it took a G5 to New York and then, and then it escalated from Teterboro to the Upper West Side, I think.

You really, but you nailed that guy. What, I mean, that's a lot of, that's a lot of behavior, man. That's a lot of, it's a whole thing with the imitate. Forget about the piano. It's a long, long story and it took about 20 years. Does it involve scooping up bagels from Zabars and filling them with peanut butter? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha And there was, I've said this story on here before. And one of the reviews in Chicago where we opened it said, Sean's gonna be great on Broadway,

but he needs to kill the fat suit and the plastic wig. No. Both my body and my hair. Yeah, you weren't wearing a wig or a fat suit, is that right? No, Sean. No, Seany. But anyway, thanks for asking, Sam, this very sweet.

Well, I'd like to hear more. But we didn't even get to be handing in Spokane or like, you know, billboards, which you won the Oscar for, which I fucking blew my mind. You blew my mind in that. There's so much to talk to. I will say, there are very few people.

There are a lot of people, no, sorry, that's not true. I will say a lot of people are deserving of Oscars all the time, every year. But to see you win an Oscar was so cool. You deserve 10 of them. So fucking cool. I love you guys. You're so fucking deserving.

You're so talented. And really quick, when I was doing, you were doing Behanding and Spokane while I was doing promises, promises. And I went downstairs to the basement to get my haircut from a woman named, I think her name's Carmel. And I walked down, getting ready for my weekly

or two bi-weekly haircut, and there you are, sitting in the chair. And I was like, holy shit, that's fucking Sam Rockwell. Yeah. What's he doing here? I'm like, why did he come here to get his haircut? I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Like I was guffawing.

I'm just a parasite. Yeah, listener, if you're not in the entertainment industry you need to know that this guy is the guy Everybody wants to work with be friends with he does Constantly the best performances. It's just always it's just catnip for actors and the fact that we're able to even call ourselves Friends with him is is enormous. So yeah, you deserve multiple statues. Yeah. And I want more. You need to get a Thalberg right now.

You need to get a full, like the full, you know what I'm saying? Right? We're gonna give the smart list Thalberg. Let's do that. Listen, I love you guys. I love this podcast. I'm a true, true fan. I know the terminology.

I'm a, anyway, fan. I know the terminology. I love you guys. Love you too, Sam. Thanks for being here today. Can't wait to see you soon. And the beard looks fantastic. Thanks guys. You look amazing. You look amazing. Thanks for doing this dude. God.

Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. And let's give Theroc, endless shit. Oh yeah, please. I mean, you can't hurt him more than he hurts himself. You know, let's be honest. All right. Big fat love. All right. Big fat love. Thanks guys. Peace out. Thanks buddy. Peace out. Bye Sammy. Bye. Oh, Sam the Rock. Shawty, great. Great. I love him so much. He's such a good guy too. He's just the greatest.

You know, you know, well, I sound like a broken record. He's just the greatest, you know? Yeah. Well, I sound like a broken record, but I truly do. But you know, when you go like, like, well, when you were saying, you go through all of it, when I was researching him and knowing he was coming out of the day, you go through all of his films and his projects, you're like, bam, bam, bam, bam, hit after hit. And if they weren't like a massive hit, he was great and like you said, he was great in it. It's just, you know, it's the result of dedicating your life like he has to a craft or an art or anything.

He's also walking down. He's just like no matter what part he's playing, even if it's, you know, sort of just like, you know, the lead that's kind of just kind of the straight guy, he'll find a way to give that character some quirk, something interesting. There's a little bit of like sparkle to- Color, the little shades.

It's easy to overdo that and overplay a character because it might not be written in the character, but he finds the right spots to do it. Yeah, you know, I was gonna say, I've always sort of used, John Goodman is my example of the person who's amazing in everything he does, no matter what the thing is over time, right?

And different volumes, different tones, dramas, comedies, Sam's in that same category and always good. He's in that like dramas, comedies, things. And like you say, Jay, like just adds color, has a little something, brings a little sparkle. Like it's the career that you wish you, I wish I had. Of course. But I want him to be cast in leads, you know, as well as just like the...

Well, but it's not as often as they... I mean, I've, he and I have talked about this, like there's just, there's a, you know, there's a certain kind of sort of like sort of like an average type of look and person and presence that studios feel comfortable with putting as the lead. They don't want anybody too definitive or specific. Well, that's because they're worried about, because they sort of think, they're always trying to anticipate what they think,

audiences, and they think about sort of economics. They're like, what is the thing, the prototypical? Yeah, but he can play something completely normal and level and just at the moments where it's appropriate for the leaps and... But he's almost like too interesting in a way. And I mean that as a compliment, not too weird. Too, he's got so much personality, he's super smart,

he's super fucking cool. He's magnetic on screen. We joked about Chappie, you should see how they run. It's a really good move. He's so interesting in that as this, he's the lead, he's the detective who's got all this shit going on. He's fucking, you're like, fuck man,

this guy's just, he always brings it, always brings it. By it by the way Iron Man 2 we didn't talk about Iron Man 2 written by written by the Justin Thoreau Justin Thoreau that's right yeah that's he wrote so hard that's when the first time the sleeves came off because he was writing yeah and they said it smoked him off yeah it was it was a fire right it was a fire, right? It was a fire It was a wrist fire that worked his way up Hey, yeah, well, I don't know what you're doing later, but are you open to throwing me? Oh Sure, can you just throw me please?

Sure, man. You want to be careful though You don't want to break break your arm and if you do break your arm you want to break it around the forearm You don't want to break your arm and if you do break your arm you want to break it around the forearm you don't want to break it up near the b-bye! Bye! Smart. Right. Smart. Right. Smart.

Right. Smart. Right. Smart. Right. Smart. Right. Smart.

Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbicot, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjalf. SmartLess If you like SmartLess, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondry.com. Academy is a new scripted podcast that follows Ava Richards, played by HBO's industries Myhalla Harald, a brilliant scholarship student who has to quickly adapt to her newfound eat-or-be-eaten world. Ava's ambitions take hold and her small town values break in hopes of becoming the first scholarship student to make the list. Bishop Gray is all coveted academic top 10

curated by the headmaster himself. But after realizing she has no chance at the list on her own, she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a secret underground society that pulls the strings on campus life and academic success. If she bends to their will, she'll have everything she's ever dreamed of. But at what cost? Academy takes you into the world of a cutthroat private school where power, money, and sex collide in a game of life and death.

Follow Academy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Academy early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.