SmartLess - "Tim Robbins"

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Punch-Up Line, please hold— it’s Tim Robbins. Oh, the laughter: Dungeons & Dragons, Strat-o-matic baseball, a destination, an experience, and whatever. “Now that’s a problem for tomorrow, no?��� It’s an all-new SmartLess. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Guys, it's so hot outside. Does anybody else hot? I'm so hot. I need a glass of water or something. I need something to cool off. You know what's going to make me cool off? A new episode of Smartless. Hey, guys.

Hey. Will's in Italy. Oh, my gosh, Will, what time is it in Italy? Nobody knows. It's time for a camp party. Cue the music. It's a problem for tomorrow, no? So, Will, have you run into our back-of-the-the-the-the-the-the-theter critic?

Oh, every... about here. What a podcast. This guy, what a body on him. Nobody knew. I see him on the Italian beaches now. No way. At Fis 56, I'll eat my hat. We did have, we did have,

we had, we're up in, we're on the Italian Riviera right now and let me tell you something. It's fantastic. That's a Portofino. Porto just drove up here today. Just drove up where was at a wedding in Tuscan Sure. But I did have a guy the other day

came into the room to look at something with the AC and couldn't, with the light, and couldn't fix it when it go out. And he said, that's a problem for tomorrow, no? With a little smile like that, too? It's too hot to fix today.

You know what? And it was. It was a problem for tomorrow. Isn't that so different? It's so different than us. I know. What do you mean you can't fix it here? Yeah, they take all of August off.

Europe does. It's so good. It's so, so good. What about you, J.B., how's the city treating you right now? The city is all right. The heat has gone down to 85 and 90% humidity as opposed to 95 and 90% humidity. Are you shooting outside? Yeah, yeah, on a farm.

Not a lot of shade. But it's okay. It's great. I'm losing water weight, you guys. You know how I love that. And Shawnee, how are things for you? And Sean wants to go and just trying to go from the bedroom to the office and back up to the bedroom?

Try not to sprain your ankle going in and out of the kitchen. No. Have you had any more smores dates with yourself? I had a couple smore of them. Oh, Sean has been up early. I was not really. Anything to update us on in your life, Sean? Yeah.

I did. Oh, yeah. I did a, just last night, I did a, with my friend Todd Stashewick, who was an actor. I went to college with him. And he hosted a D&D night, a Dungeons and Dragons night. But I haven't played Dungeons and Dragons in like, since I was like 10 years old. Since you lost your virginity. Yeah, because you're 56.

Yeah. I mean, it adds up. If you think about it, if you look at it, the math adds up. Was it kind of him to like throw in the surprise in that sentence? Like, I haven't played since I was 10. Can you believe it? Nor has anyone else. No, man.

No, we really did. It was so fun. I mean, it was, I think Stranger's things really brought that game back. So what is it with that? I never did play it when I was 10. It's a role-playing thing, right?

Yeah, it's all improvised, yeah. So, but do you roll dice to find out who can, who gets the shield, who gets the sword? Well, and, like, who gets, and, like, damage and, like, how much damage you did? Like, did you survive their hit, or did you? Is that just based on how hard you roll? Yeah, I know.

Are higher numbers more damage? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, it is. But you know what? It's like playing a video game, but with your mind. Oh. Oh. Okay.

So you really get carried. You really just get taken away into a different place. Wait, I heard this. I heard this. You get carried away. So fun. Do you want to hear a good joke? A new pun joke?

A dad joke? Yeah, I've been getting my money's worth out of what did the sushi say to the bumblebee, wasabi. Everyone's been enjoying that around. Have they been telling you they enjoyed it when you're the boss? Well, I see it on their face. Yeah, sure. Oh, that's a good one, boss. Hey, is Jason hit you with that four fucking times too?

Yeah. He thinks I'm a PA. I'm a driver. Over and over again. You got a freshie for me, Doug? Yeah. You guys, oh, God, this is awful. The new...

The guy who invented cough drops died yesterday. Oh, no. Yeah, there's not going to be any cough at his funeral. All right. I'll take that. I'll take that. I mean, yeah, they'll love that. The only...

Yeah, the only... And this is not a criticism, Sean. Come on, that's funny. You know what is? It's just that you say, Coff and cough, you say cough in the setup. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah, but the cough. Oh, right, cough drop. Well, the guy invented throat lozenges, maybe that's better. I don't know. Listen, let's open up a suggestion line for peeps if they want to do, like a punch-up line on SmartLen. And they can punch up our jokes. We've got a table together. Punch-up line, please hold.

Punch-up line, please hold. Tell you it who doesn't need a punch-up. Here we go. Here we go. This is a segue for segues. I can tell you, it's a female. I heard whispering earlier. She sounds like she's got a pretty whisper voice.

Okay. Well, aren't you going to be surprised? No. He's going to get a great chuckle out of this. Because he's an Academy Award-winning actor. Academy nominated director, J.B. He's made some great films, and I don't use that term lately. He is...

David Lean. He's done iconic roles. And I'm going to go backwards on the... Kenneth Brana. As an actor? I'm going to go back. I'm not going to lead with some of his most famous rules because you're just going to know immediately

because he's just done some of the most iconic films of all the time. But I'm going to say things like Jacob's Ladder, the Incredible Bull Durham. I'm going to say the player, Mr. Grimmard's. You guys, it's Tim Robbins. Tim. Oh my God, Tim Robbins. Welcome, Tim Robbins.

This is really exciting. So who was the female whisperer? Was there any... She's just off camera. She's just on camera. No, it's basically someone, because I'm an idiot with technology, someone that they sent from Apple to help me set up the microphone. Us granddad's have trouble with it.

You have a smartphone, don't you? You're not still using like a flip phone, are you? No, rotary. Oh, no. Portable rotary. Oh, God, you carry that with you everywhere you go. Yeah, I know. And you have to find, there's fewer and fewer points.

places to plug in. Yeah. Tim, it's so overdue having you here, first of all, let me just say that. Thank you.

It is so overdue. It's great to have you, man. It's great to see you. Such a big fan of yours. Yeah. Where, J.B. says, where are you? What part of the world are you in?

East, West Coast. West Coast. West Coast, right now. West Coast. Oh, in Los Angeles? Yes. Don't give them an address.

Tim, don't. Okay. I'm careful, Tim, don't tell them where. I can't give you my quadrant. No. Dungeons and Dragons set up. He's going to show up with his golden dye. He's going to ask you to roll.

Roll for damage. Knock on the darn. Are we doing a barbecue? Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons, Tim? You know, that's what I missed. I was more, you know, that kind of long-form, nerdy kind of game. Mine was stratomatic baseball. Oh, tell me about that.

You're talking to a baseball cell. I didn't play, but I'm aware of it. Tell us a little bit of it. Really cool. You know, it's a long, long game, but, you know, you play nine innings and you pick your teams. And, you know, basically there's a roll of the dice and a multi-sided dice, die that determines whether it's a hit or, you know, a strikeout or grand slas, you know, whatever. It's very complicated. Do you pick real players?

You say you pick your teams. Yeah, we pick real players. Yeah. I haven't played for a while. Back in the day when Cal Ripkin was on his long streak, you know, his, I don't think anyone's ever going to break that record of consecutive times played without missing a game. We kept Cal out of the game. We kept Cal out of the game.

We kept Cal out of the game. Yeah, we kept them out of the game. Yeah, just to spite him. It was Cal won't play. The Philly was in there. We ended the streak. Yeah. What about fantasy baseball?

Do you play that at all? I don't. Cool it, J.B. Sorry. Are you a fantasy guy? Yeah, he's up at 4 a.m. I'm like the commissioner of my league. Really?

It's my Dungeons and Dragons Dork stuff. Can you be bought? Sure, everybody's got their price. Everybody on my team's up for sale. Except the Dodgers. Wait, so Tim, were you, I'm gathering by the fact that you played that, that you were a lifelong baseball fan,

and I mentioned Bull Durham, which I saw in the theater twice. I loved that movie. I know it was a million years ago. It's an iconic movie. It's one of the great sports movies. It's not just about sports. It's about so much more and about...

So when you... I guess you were a big baseball fan, so when you got the chance to play... And that character you played... What was his name? Nukke. Was that his name... Yeah.

Eby Calvin, New Clouche. Yeah. I mean, were you... Was that a role when that came your way? Do you remember the process of getting that? Were you stoked to get that to play that point? Oh, are you kidding me? You know, what the weird thing was that I got cast in another baseball movie the same time,

Eight Men Out, that John Sales was directing. Yeah. And I loved John Sales. It was, you know, I had to make a decision, and I'm glad I made the one I did because it kind of shifted everything for me in life. I was so psyched. I mean, I did the audition section, and then I got the callback was basically, you've got to come play some base, but throw the ball with Kevin Costner, right?

And so they wanted to see if I could throw. He didn't want to have to fake any of that stuff. And could you? So I had played all my life, and mostly third base, and so I had a pretty good arm, but I didn't know the mechanics of the pitching, so I had to go, you know, earlier

and try to, you know, put that together. Did you end up becoming a fairly decent pitcher? Like, did you learn a couple of pitches? I did. I got it up to, I got it up to 85. Wow. Wow. No control at all. No control at all. I threw it into the stands.

When he hits the bowl, you know, that was basically me. But I could, I could throw it pretty fast. And how were you as a hitter? Pretty good. Could you get a round on an 85 mile an hour pitch? No way. No, no. Oh, no, no. I didn't play. I grew up in Manhattan.

So we didn't have a lot of, we didn't have a lot of, we didn't have a lot of, a lot of baseball fields. Right. Right. You had show leagues. Yeah. We had concrete playgrounds. So we played softball. Gotcha. And so, mostly softball. And so I could hit a softball. I could hit very well.

And I still, you know, I still play a little bit. Do you really? Yeah. I play first base now, you know. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. It's easier. Tell us about that. Is that just your buddies? Is that like, is it a show league?

is it, how are you doing that? Usually just friends, you know, get together. There's some regular leagues. When I'm on the East Coast, there's a game I get involved in. I play hockey that way, too. Still? Oh, my God. We can get so hurt.

I have a game every Sunday out here that I'm missing for the show. You're playing roller hockey, Tim? Roller. I used to play ice. I haven't played ice for a while, but I play roller hockey every Sunday. Tim, I used to play on the Upper West Side. for you, and I played ice hog, and then when I moved to New York, I used to play up on 84th Street, and there's a school between Amsterdam and Columbus, and they paved it. And then for some reason, it wasn't open for like six months. And all these Canadian guys that I knew, and a bunch of American guys,

we played every, we played all day, Saturday and Sunday, like right when Roller Blades came out, like 91, 92. So nice. And we, and I lived, I lived by the Holland Tunnel, and I would skate uptown with my stick all the way up to the Upper West Side. the best through cars and shit. You know, Tim, Scotty, my husband was a goalie in an adult ice hockey league in New York at a place called Skyrink, and he played you guys. Sure. No way.

Yeah, in the 90s. Scotty's team played your team, and he said he took a beast of a shot. You took a shot on him, it was great, but he blocked it. Isn't that wild? What a small world. Do you remember Scotty the sieve?

Do you remember Scotty the sieve? Scotty the sieve. Isn't that wild? What a small world. Wow. That's crazy. I remember Sky. Goldies are a special breed, by the way.

They sure are. There's well. I used to be a goalie. I was a goalie growing up. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wouldn't you agree there's something different about them?

The kind of weird... It's like the catcher in baseball. It's usually the brains of the bunch. Well, there's always that thing. They always say that goalies are the best skaters on the team because they have to be really nimble. I don't know if that's necessarily true. But I think that goalies, you know,

They're spending a lot of time. Think about it. Even in soccer, too, they spend a lot of time on their own, and then all of a sudden they've got to kind of perform. I know. They're the king of their own little domain, you know what I mean? So they have to have a certain temperament. I don't know.

What about injury? Are you worried about injury? I'm worried any time I get active, like you're going to blow out a hamstring or a lower back. I mean, you know, we're not 25 anymore. Yeah, but were you ever like that before, or is it age that's telling you that? Or bringing that fear? You're sneak. J.B. not sneaky.

He's very athletic. I will say, I've seen him hit a softball out of the park, and he's a heck of a golfer. But he does pull a muscle now, you know, pulling Greek yogurt out of the fridge. Yeah. You know, it starts to wear on you after a while. But anyway.

No, I don't worry about it. I don't worry about it. I have injured myself, and it just means you have to sit for a while, you know. But you're not legging out ground balls, Are you? Oh, no. Yeah.

Yeah. I went the last time I played Chelsea peers of, sorry, go ahead, Tim. No, I was going to say, yeah, I leg them out as fast as I can. Right. But I'm not, you know, going to tear a muscle for it. Have you guys ever tried to not say when you're talking over each other and someone says, go ahead? Have you ever tried not to say? Oh, yeah, no, I was just going to say.

Yeah. You can't, you can't do it. Not, yeah. Oh, that's right. If somebody, if somebody says go ahead, you, you don't just go ahead. It's always a, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I was just going to say, you can't, I'm telling you, try, try to do a week without that. You can't do it. It doesn't work with an edit, either.

It's true. Like, if they edit out the interruption. Yeah, right. Yeah. It doesn't work with the edit. You know, I've been curious about this, you know, I've listened to this show, and I love it. And, um, has it ever gone wrong? Oh, yeah.

Like when you, like the surprise guest is actually someone that's the one of the other two hate or has had a bad relationship with or a, or some kind of. Yes. You don't have to say names. Don't have to say names. Well, I tell you what, Tim, it's funny you ask, because I got it, not in trouble, but about six months ago, guys, I was doing, I did this guy's podcast in the UK, this really funny dude, Romas. He's hilarious dude. And I mentioned that a couple of, that we'd had a couple of guests that didn't go so great.

And everybody I knew asked you guys, right? And asked me who I was talking. I didn't say who. But we had a couple that didn't go so shit hot. Give us the names now, Will. It's just us. But we have had, yeah, and you have, as you know, I mean, it's, we all kind of are in, we do the same.

And we work with a lot of people, and we know a lot of people, and we know, and there's a lot of crossover, and there are certainly times where you have people who, they're a hurt feeling, or whatever, and there are times where you have people on who you're like, yeah, I got history with this person. But it's never, but it's never gone wrong, like, the reason that episodes have not aired is not because there was anything contentious or something like that. It's more just like, that was sort of like not really a flowing interview and probably,

and just to protect the guest mostly. It's like, they don't need that out there, you know, where they were sort of, tight or we were tight and it's just not an entertaining thing and so we just we scrap it we do we do so many and and we also i think um sorry i was uh demanding to say yes yes that um that um that we always once we get on i think that i i you guys chime in too that we want i always want it to go well like i want it to go i'm always rooting for the person no matter who it is i want it to be good.

Yeah. Always is. Yeah, I just was, I was curious about, like, like, two of you don't know who the next guest is going to be. Right. Correct. Yeah. So what if, like, you had an affair with somebody?

That was previously undisclosed. And it ended poorly. Yeah. Guess what? We're way too close. We know each other's dead bodies and everything. So when there is somebody that we know the other person has mentioned before as maybe not being their favorite person,

we will sort of break our little rule and say, hey, man, I was thinking about having such and such on. Are you guys good? Yeah, yeah. I don't tell you when, but yeah. We don't say when, and people do ask, we legit, the other two legit don't know who the other person is going to be on that day.

So there is, as J.B. says, there might be like down the road, like, hey, but we never let it. I like that element of surprise about it. Yeah. I think that's a good thing. Well, what's funny is, and we know this, is the audience knows who's on because we advertise who the upcoming guest is.

So we're the only two idiots at don't know. It's just for us, I guess. It's just to save the homework. Right. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Tim, so let's, so I mentioned Bill Dorman, you auditioned for that. And talk a little bit about, so you grew up, you, I mean, your parents were musicians, right?

You grew up in the city. Really? Yeah. And your folks were musicians. And so when did you know that you, well, weren't going to go in the family business necessarily be a musician and that you were going to go and but you were going to perform, you know, as an actor? I probably got the bug from watching my dad on stage with his group, the highwayman.

He was a folk musician. And I remember specifically, not very clearly, but a responding, the audience responding to him saying something and laughing. I felt that was like the entry point. That was the moment my three-year-old or four-year-old self was like, hmm, I want that. So he became, you know, he went out on the road until 1965 with them. And they made several albums together.

I had the music bug, though, too, as well. Acting, I started in grade school, but music I also had it. And I actually, I'm glad you bring that up because I've been working the past couple weeks on some mixes of some concerts I've done. I have a band called the Rokes Gallery Band. Wow. Really? And we occasionally will perform live.

We've done tours of Europe and the United States. And we recorded several of those shows. So I'm mixing a couple of them right now. I'm opening a kind of new website, performance kind of platformware. What's the website? It's Timrobbins.com. Okay.

And it'll be launching. How did you come up with the name? I fed it through an AI computer to tell me what would be the best available. Do you play guitar and sing? I play guitar and sing, and I write most of the songs. We do some covers, but usually covers that are really not well-known songs. The Rokes Gallery started as a band put together by Hal Wilner. and it was

originally the albums they made were about sea shanties with, you know, all kinds of different guests, guest artists, and Hal was, you know, such a genius, and one of the angels in my life, you know, he used to work at Saturday Night Live.

Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. Yeah, yeah, not well, but I knew him a little bit, yeah. Yeah, and so, I'm on this new site. I don't want to call it a website because it's sort of like... It's a destination. It's an experience. Yeah.

Whatever. It's right. Portal. It's a portal. Basically, it's my way of like... My portal. That's good. Portal.

It's portal. Tim Robbins portal. I have a storage unit that I have so much stuff in. And I want to get rid of. That's what they're for. So I was looking through some boxes in there, and I found some old videotapes of... I used to mess around on sets with old-school video camera.

You know, the ones where you could load the entire video cassette in. Yeah, the VHS thing. Sure. You'd shoot, like, behind-the-scenes stuff of projects you were on? Yeah, but it would be more like stories that I was making up, right? I have one from Howard the Duck. Yeah, and so I made up a story about, you know, what was this intrigue that was happening on the set of Howard the Duck.

And I did two with Howard the Duck. I did one that was about this actor that goes to set and everybody hates. And the other was about this place called Kittyland that we were filming at. It was this location we kept going back to because there was always a shot that they needed and so you thought you were finished with Kitty Lanin and it would not

it would not end. I was on that movie for six months. It was supposed to be three. And the last six weeks of it were the ultralight sequence, which is like maybe five minutes in the film. So it was pretty extraordinary, so I was going

a little crazy and so I had this video camera and I had friendships with the crew members and we would, you know, just make shit up. So you sat there and you were watching this video after going through your storage unit and like... Yeah, so I said, I want to put that out there.

I think people would like this. I also have all these interviews with people like, you know, Johnny Cash and Kurt Vonnegut and Harry Belafonte and I, you know, I've never released them. Wow. Did you remember these? Or did they just come back to you as you were going

through the storage unit and you started seeing all these tapes did you sit down and have like a weekend of going down memory lane that must have been really kind of powerful those those journeys can be powerful and dangerous too right old versions of ourselves i know and what it means and what did i what was i thinking and so you have to give a listen and make sure that you weren't an idiot at the time that you were doing this um but i think there's some good stuff here and and the people that have been working with me are, you know, they're the ones kind of driving. They were like, why aren't you doing anything with this stuff? So these are up on Tim Robbins.com or you're in the process of doing that?

No, it won't be up until September 1st. Oh, okay. Yeah. But that's like a visual, you know, people say, you know, you should write a book, you know, but like this sounds like a kind of like a visual book. I mean, it's really cool. It's multimedia. It is.

It's a portal. Exactly. It's a portal for everything. This is my marketing team. All right. What else do we call? I've got this thing called Robbins Radio, which is going to be on my live shows,

my father's shows, and my brother, who is a film composer, his scores. And it'll be, you know, kind of on a kind of random play. Yeah. Continuous when you come to the website. Dude, that's cool. Yeah, I'm excited by it. It is like a living archive.

I'm this, but it's also just, it's also just been a lot of fun to do. Yeah. And at the same time, I am actually writing a memoir. So it's, it's all just coalescing. And I'm trying to find stuff that might be interesting. Do you have a name for the memoir yet? No, I don't.

Say timrobots.com. No, portal. Timrobons. Timrobons.com speaks. On paper. Yeah. Now, Tim, you used. You used music in, I was just thinking about, sorry, Sean, I was just going to say.

The Times of Tim Robbins.com. Yeah, oh, that's good. Oh, that's really good. And it'll drive people to the website. They'll buy the book, and the website's right there on the cover. By the way, you open the book, and it's just a hyperlink to the website. It's a QR code. It's a one page.

Oh, my God, it's so good. Oh, you'd be so cheap to make. The publisher would be stoked. Do you think you, I was just thinking about, You're thinking about your dad and the highwaymen. Now, wait, the highwayman, wasn't that Bob Dylan? No, that was, no, I think you're thinking of the Johnny Cash, Whalen Jennings, hireman.

Willie Nelson might have been. And that's not it? No, this was in the early 60s. Okay. Before your time. Sure. Barely. It was, yeah, 1960 to 65 were their years.

But you took, you took, I was thinking about the, I think the first film you directed was Bob Roberts, right? Am I right? Yes. And that was about a guy, which is a great movie about a guy who is like a right-wing politician, but he uses folk music to kind of sell what he's doing. And it was

like a confluence of, this guy kind of used media and personality and, and if in a lot of ways it was very sort of prescient, if you think about it, of considering where we are these days. Unfortunately. I mean, it was a little Yeah. Yeah. I mean is pretty

can you do you ever think have you thought back on that over these last years and gone like wow we were we kind of predicted the way politics might go in terms of the celebrity aspect of it

yeah you know it's yes it's weird but it's also I was looking you know going through all this stuff realizing that at the time when I was doing press for it I was also

in some of the interviews they were saying is this, you know, is this because the coming election was George Bush senior versus Clinton when it came out. And so the press was asking,

you know, is this movie about Bush? And I said, well, he's actually in the film, you know, there's clips of him in the film. But it also could be about you know, the Gore of a doll character too, you know, it could be about what, why

change doesn't happen. And so when Bill Clinton was playing his saxophone on a Sydney Hall, I was like, hmm, that's kind of Bob Robertsy too. Yeah. So at the time, I said, you know, it could be either. I don't know. I don't, I really don't know. So as time has gone on, it's become kind of, you know,

very prescient as far as the current administration. but I personally am not a happy guy with either. I got to say there's got to be better ideas and better, you know, better motivation for people to vote for Democrats. They have to get their stuff together. They really do. Yeah, I think there's a lot of shortcomings. No shortage of shortcomings.

I've learned, at 65, you know what I did is I realized I have to retire from something, right? I didn't want to stop acting. I didn't want to stop directing or writing. So what I retired from was the daily anxiety of opposing something. Oh, that's good. The idea that you can find your worth and purpose and virtue by hatred is a terrible, terrible idea. And the idea that the source of your hatred is a particular, person you don't know, it's even a worse idea. You're battling a concept or an idea or a philosophy.

You're not dealing with an individual. Right. And so there's so, I feel like there's too many people that wake up agitated about political figures. And then they use that as a fuel to get through the day. That's so true. On either side. And it's not a good way to start your day. The first thing you're doing is doom scrolling about something that will make you feel better about your political beliefs you know you might try a little yoga or you might try a little exercise or take a bike ride

or totally because I always say that I have this discussion with Scotty all the time you can watch it all day long on TV or read about it online or whatever but there's nothing you can do about it necessarily we have the power to vote and we have the power to protest but to actually

you know my friend Maria Shriver she always one of the greatest quotes ever And if anybody's complaining about any of it, she goes, I totally agree, so what are you doing about it? Yeah. And it stops people in their tracks. Well, here's the thing. This is what I learned was that what are you doing about it?

Well, about 15 years ago, I had that epiphany of like, what are you doing about it? And I started working in spaces where I could make a difference. So with my nonprofit, with the actors gang. So I put a lot of attention into how can I expand the programs that we have, the education programs that we go into schools that do not have theater programs, and we introduce them to theater. The prison project that we have that goes into California State prisons. What is that?

It's a rehabilitation program that we've been doing for 20 years now. Through like theater and acting and stuff like that? It's basically, I made a documentary about it, actually. I know, that's why I asked. I feel like I saw it. It's called 45 seconds of laughter, and it will be coming to criterion in November. Oh, then I saw something else. Yeah.

You may have seen it. We've screened it around. It went to the Venice Film Festival and to New York Film Festival. No, what we do is we don't go in, as some groups do, and I think that's valid, too, but we don't go in to do a production. We don't, you know, try to make a production. What we do is we do a seven-day intensive workshop to train them, which is basically in the four states of emotion that we have.

And we introduce these states of emotion, but first we introduce the characters they will be playing them in. So we create a distance between their expression of emotion and their personal story. So we use the Comedie de Larte. So you have the rich old man who wants to marry off his, beautiful daughter who's in love with a young man. He wants to marry her off to one of his business associates.

It's a tale as old as the time. It's done in every culture. It's told in every culture. I saw it in Bali in a town square. But the reason is it keeps the characters simple and stock kind of characters. And then we try to get them to genuinely portray emotions through these characters. Wow.

So what happens is they get in touch with emotions that they have kept dormant or suppressed for many, many years. Survival in prison is one emotion, it's anger. It's about keeping safe on the yard. You have to project an image of anger. And so when they start playing these other emotions, some of them tell us that they haven't been allowed

to be sad or, you know, in fear or happy for years. And so it allows them in this place. The other great thing about it is when we set a program up, we ask the prison to give us people from different sections. Like it has to be integrated with different gangs, different, you know, so they're all in the same room. And what we find out happening is this bond that happens in a room

between them when they're sharing emotions together. and looking in each other's eyes and realizing that they have a lot more in common. I mean, imagine if we could do that for people who aren't in prison. That's what sent me on this path of like, if these guys can do it, we can do it. You know, we can't, we don't, we have created our own yard where you have segmented populations that stick together

and if anyone crosses over the line, it's at their own, you know, detriment. Right. And that's the way it is now in our society. Right. If you say anything that might be sympathetic to what you view is the other side. Yeah. You're done.

You're out. You're done. You're condemned. And it's, listen, it's a terrible way to build a movement. Let's just put it that way. When a good organizer walks into a room to organize a movement, they have the main objective is to find out what all these different people have in common right there's going to be they have to walk in knowing they're not all going to agree with them so

what can we agree on right it seems like the opposite now it seems like in order to get to save your position in a certain community you have to act in a certain way and if you act outside of that then you're kicked out of the community. Yeah, that's right. And that's on both sides, by the way. That's not a partisan thing. That's something that happens on both sides. And that's not a good way to build a movement.

I totally agree. Because basically you're making people, you're saying you have to agree with me or you're done. And then so people learn very quickly, oh, well, I shouldn't talk. I shouldn't say anything. I won't say anything. Even though I don't agree with what they're saying,

I'm not going to say it. And so that's not an alliance. That's fear that's causing that. Right. We'll be right back. And back to the show. Tim, did you get involved in the prison stuff when you did, because I was thinking about Dead Man Walking,

which is your second film, which is so different from Bob Roberts in every way. Is that when you first started getting involved with that or becoming really aware of that? I was kind of aware of a girl. Growing up, I had friends that went to jail, so it wasn't, it was one of those, you know, there for the grace of God go I, you know, I had maybe different parents or different upbringing that kept me away from that.

But, and then I did some work with some prison organizations back in New York when I first, you know, after Bull Durham. But then I did Shawshank and then, then Deadman Walking. So I was around that space more and more. And one of the things I, you know, one of the prison guards on Shawshank said to me was, you know, I asked what would you do to change things if you could, you know. And these are salt of the earth, Republican, conservative, Ohio kind of prison guards. and the guy said, you know, you've got to legalize drugs because what we have is we have people coming in for possession for a year

and they're winding up becoming better criminals. It's basically they call it crime school. Right. The prison guards were calling it crime school. And so basically they said, you know, there's no GED programs, no job training. Those are a year waiting list. So these kids come in and they have to survive with violent offenders

and they basically are training criminals. So you've got to either legalize it or create a separate prison. And did they, since then, there has been movement there, right? Certainly legalized marijuana to a large extent. Yes? Yes. I don't know if it's that way in Ohio. Okay.

Yeah. I made a far inferior prison film called Let's Go to Prism. and Tim, if you ever get a free afternoon. This is a production. What a feature. Yeah, and by the way, Tim, I love that you just rattled off those movies that are so huge iconic. Your friends that were in prison must have watched you in Shawshank and be like, wait, how did he break out? I got to take something. I've got to figure that out. Do people, people must still stop you on the street about Shawshank. It is one of the iconic.

I mean, it's always at the top of people's list when people go like, what's your favorite movie? Shashank's always there. Yeah, that's a real beautiful thing. Bull Durham, not right next to it. Yeah. I was going to say, I was going to ask you what today you get stopped for mostly when you go to the story where you're on the public. I was going to guess Shoshank Redemption or Bulldorm.

But then I was like, but silo, which I watch, and you're fucking brilliant on. Which, by the way, season three is coming. I know I can't wait. Tim, when you showed up on, I had no idea you're in that. because we're sci-fi nerds, right? Dungeons and Dragons and everything sci-fi. And I watched it. Your performance is just incredible in that. Thank you.

Yeah, I really love the show. Do people stop you now, like nerdy kind of? Yeah, yes, nerdy and others too. Yeah, it's a lot of people are seeing it. It's really nice. It's really nice. And it's such a good show. Rebecca Ferguson is a great actor.

She's amazing on it. So good. I've had a blast on it. You know, I was shooting over, we were shooting over in London. So it was, you know, a real human experience, let's put it that way. Ten hour days, you know, never going over because there's never any weather. You know, it's always in the silo. Everything is in the silo.

Right, right. You know, it was, and I actually, now can talk because this is airing in mid-August. I've been under like kind of a gag order shut the hell up kind of thing about the show because I wasn't supposed to be in season three. Oh, uh-huh. It's funny, Sean just ordered a gag,

but that's a different... Okay. Also coming in August. Also coming in August. I can't wait. They're back ordered. Did you get the ball option too, Sean? Yeah, of course I did.

And I paid extra. to get it here sooner. Does that come in Hello Kitty style? Of course, and Dora the Explorer. What happened? What was the guy?

I just want to say a little bit more about Sala. Yeah. We would, you know, the thing about human is that it allows the crew to have lives,

right? Right. If you work in 10-hour days, unrolling lunches, and everyone knows they're going to get home for dinner with their kids.

It creates a happy crew. Absolutely. You get people that, you know, the younger people, they have time for a date. You know, it's not driving you into the ground, you know. And I really, I was really inspired by that, you know, that's Graham Yose, the executive producer. That's his achievement. He created a great group of people.

And he created an environment that it wasn't oppressive. that, you know, we tend to take for granted now. You know, we're going to go 12, 14, you know, 16 to get the day, you know. And I've done it as an actor and as a director. And I never stopped to think, really, until I worked with Clint Eastwood when we had like six-hour days, seven-hour days. Like most of the time we were out by lunch. Wow.

Because he would only do one take on everything. Wow. But it created a discipline. and more family. It created this idea that we used to have, I think, in the business of this can be really fun. Yeah. What about directing, Tim?

Do we get to see some more your great directing anytime soon? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I'm working on what that is on the long term. Yeah. I'm writing a couple scripts right now, which I'm kind of reluctant to James. Right. Yeah.

Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd love to see you write one that you star in and direct about somebody doing what you were talking about earlier, about, you know, figuring how to not be so sort of tribal with their beliefs and practices and passions and things like that and trying to be more sort of inclusive. And you're the kind of guy that could handle something as, you know, kind of nuanced and delicate as that.

Well, thank you. Yeah. Where's the conflict? We need that story. Where's the conflict? Well, there could be a bag of money and a gun, you know. I mean, we'd be... Perfect.

Perfect. We got it. Yeah, I remember, Tim, I don't know if you remember this. We probably don't, but everybody asked, how did you meet Jason, Sean, and Will, how did you guys all meet? We met playing poker. I mean, we kind of knew each other before that, but we really started hanging out when we were playing poker.

I was like 27, 28, 29, and you would come over and play poker, too, sometimes with a at Cage's house. Yeah, Kyle Gass. Yes. That was so wild for me who just got off the boat from Chicago. I'm playing poker with Tim Rob's like, it was told all my friends, it was so cool.

I just loved it. It was so wild for me, but you probably don't remember. I do remember those games. Yeah, yeah. Yes, absolutely. But there was an element at cages that, you know. Oh, sure. Yeah. Would lead one to forget. Yeah. You'd have to crack a window

every once in a while. This dude, for the listeners, should know that this dude had a, in his living room, was dominated by a custom-made 12-man poker table. Right. And he was the bank as well, which... Served as a kitchen table, the kitchen counter, the dining room. Sean, one of the first times that you came, Sean came in, and I think you went all in on like three of your first five hands, and you took a...

And then you were like, oh, my God, it's so late. Remember it was Tuesday nights. It was often Tuesday. It was Tuesday night. You'd be like, oh, I got to go. And everybody's like, you're not going to. anywhere. Right.

I'm like, oh, okay, dumbass. Like, great. They want me to stay. I had a running Friday night poker game on Silo.

Oh, really? And Common was the, you know, he was that guy that walks in and goes, I've never played this before. Uh-oh. Mm-hmm.

And all of a sudden, and by the way, I don't, he wasn't bullshitting. He hadn't. You know, he'd be, and of course,

the cards are going to drop on him. Yeah. And he would win almost every time. It was insane. Were you playing Texas Holdham or dealer's choice? Texas Holden. Yeah. God, remember those games?

Will, how do you remember Tuesdays? Like, it was Tuesday because I came to the show that night. I just thought about the same thing as soon as he said that. Crazy. It was so, there were a couple people who came in who had first night luck too. Richter did. Andy Richter did one time. And then I remember, remember 80 Miles came in and did the same thing.

And yeah, I don't know. No, Tuesday nights. The Commons went into second and third night. You know, I won the first week, hands down, right? And I realized I can't win every week. I can't do this. Not a good luck, yeah. So I kind of was an idiot the second night, and that's when Common won.

And then he went on a string, like three or four and five, until Rebecca showed up in the last poker game, and she won. That sounds like fun, man. First night. You always shoot in London the whole time, Silo? Silo, yeah. Yeah, I was over there for three years. Really. I mean, back and forth, but a lot of time over in London in the past five years.

How do you like living over there? I loved it. I loved it. But I'm going to love anywhere I'm living right now. It's like, why not think that every place you're in is the best place in the world? Yeah. Right. Right. There's so much to do in London. There's also a lot to complain about.

But I was just like, well, how crazy is my life? How great is my life that I'm being forced to live in London? one of the world's great cities for like almost three years will will doesn't like it much will's not a big i love i love i love i love i love i love i love i love i love i want to ask i mean i was just thinking about this before we let you go tim and jb be kind of for you too a little bit um because i remember we're working on my thing with bradley i would ask like you guys as actors who are also directors have such a luxury of working with directors and really good directors um And we get to do that as actors, but also then to have to do that as director, you get to observe and have that experience with a lot of great directors.

How did working with directors as an actor then influence you as a director? It must have, right? Absolutely. You get it. Yeah, you know it. So you know what they're going through. You know what their process is. one thing I've also understood is the actor will give you the truth.

If you're directing someone and you go in with an idea that you know how the scenes should be played, that's a bad idea. Because you're cheating yourself from two really good artists that are going to interpret something. And oftentimes when they can't say a line or they keep messing up a line, it means the line needs to be changed. they're the truth through line. The director has to modulate their performances so that it fits into what they're trying to construct.

But deep respect for actors because they're going to tell you a lot and hopefully they'll tell you in a way that is not upsetting a set or something. Hopefully you have a good relationship and that you can find as much as you can out from them and then guide it towards what your truth is. Yeah, it's really well said.

The tricky part sometimes is that the director is somewhat obligated. I would say it's sort of required that they come in with a plan such that everyone who is obligated to follow them has something to follow and there's a strategy to get the call sheet done that day and everything. But oftentimes that plan can be at odds with, like what you're saying, Tim, about how the actor might have a completely different idea or perspective or interpretation of what the scene is about and how it should be played,

that could be at odds with some of the plans for the camera work and whatnot that have been in effect for months through prep and tech scouts and all that stuff. So there's a balance to strike there that's often somewhat tense because it's the day you have to shoot it and there's not a lot of room for reinterpretation.

Right, that's where you're telling as an actor when you're directing comes up. Exactly, to try to talk them into your way. Yeah, exactly. Do you guys remember good, do you guys remember moments where you did a scene, where you're directing a scene and an actor did something that so surprised you

in the best way that you were like, fuck, yeah. Yes, absolutely. Like, mind-blowing stuff sometimes. You know, it's like, no, it's like, it's that moment where you go, we don't have to shoot this scene anymore. This is done. This is like, that truth.

has been laid down. Or you don't need coverage of the other actor because this actor is killing it here. I'm just going to want to watch them listen and talk. The guy's like, wait, wait a second, are you turning around? You're like, no, we got it. No, we got it.

Oh, man. Tim, we've taken up way so much of your time. Man, what a pleasure, dude. My pleasure. Yeah, that was very nice of you to come and talk to us. That pleasure. Yeah, and Silo Season 3 is happening. It's on?

Is it right now? You may or may not be in it? Well, now I'm in it. I wasn't in it until the end of July. And now we're somewhere in August. And the truth has been revealed. I'm actually alive. And I really love this show.

I really stand by at 100%. It's a great, great show, great writers, great actors, great everything. and crew, everything was so beautiful about it. I love that at this stage of my career, I can go to a set and really kind of fall in love again with people. In that old way you had when you were young, you know, you walk on a set and you're like,

oh my God, this is the best thing ever. I felt that about these people on Silo. I felt it. That's great. It was such a great crew. Well, Silo season three, Tim Robbins.com, it's a multimedia portal. We've been through that. Coming September 1st.

Coming September 1st. Tim, you're just a, you're an icon. You're the best. And thanks for the inspirational words today. Some of those really, really cool stuff. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Thanks, dude. Enjoy your day. Bye, buddy. The great Tim Robbins. Great Tim Robbins.

the movies he's been in. I know. We didn't really talk. Did you guys see Arlington Road? Oh, wow. No, I did not. I wanted to. Such a good movie.

I don't think I ever saw. I mean, I haven't seen it such a long time, but I remember loving that movie. He plays some, like, psychotic, or some, it's like a small town that turns on them or he turns on that. What about Jacob's Ladder? Wait, didn't you see it?

It sounds like you didn't even see it. I did, and I loved it, but I haven't seen it in decades. It was so good. Jacob's Ladder was one of the greatest movies ever. I have not seen it for years and years and years. I don't know if it holds up, but man, I thought a few times back then. And him in War of the World? Did you see War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise and?

Spielberg film, right? Yeah. Really good. He was so good. Dude, think about the player? Right. Remember how groundbreaking that was? The player was amazing.

What the fuck did we just talk about for an hour? I know. Cover any of this shit, for that? Sorry. You're going to drive that fucking interview. No, but he was teaching us stuff about life, man. Yeah, just open up your mind, Sean. I love that we're talking about.

Who are you mad at? Yeah, I love that we fan out after he leaves. I know, I know. Well, we did it before. We get shy. Yeah. I know, because I'm like, I'm like, Shawshake Redemption, right?

You remember? I know. I've seen that movie 100,000 times. God, is that so good. And Dead Man Walking. What is director here is? By the way, Dead Man Walking. He's his second film. I think Sean Penn won the Oscar for that,

didn't he? I think he did. I remember when my dog had cancer, and I was taking for his last walk around before we put him down, I said to his face, I said, it's dead dog walking. It felt so bad. And he laughed. He laughed, didn't he laugh?

Oh, he laughed. In that way he used to laugh. Oh, the laughter. Oh, poor little buzzy. Remember buzzy? And he was also, you know, I was thinking about the other film that he was. Here it comes. Well, I had.

You could always hear a little turn off the highway. Let's get to the off ramp, Willie. What's the name of the off ramp today? It's so sweaty. What is it? Yeah, and do you remember that one film? Yeah. What's this one called?

He had a great part of that movie. My Fidelity. Oh, God. That is. That is terrible. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye.