Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Laurie Metcalf

Episode Date: April 29, 2018

Laurie Metcalf is on a roll. The 62-year-old actress is coming off a year that included a Tony Award for her performance in “A Doll’s House,” an Oscar nomination for her acclaimed role in “Lady Bird” and a revival of her Emmy-winning performance on the hit TV sitcom “Roseanne.” In this week’s episode of “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks with the actress about her whirlwind of a year and how she juggles that crazy work schedule, including her latest adventure on Broadway. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, what's going on guys? Willie Geist here. You're listening to another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. You guys have been awesome listening to this, downloading and subscribing it. Our last episode of Damien Lewis, the one before that with Bill Murray, Chadwick Boseman, Drew Barrymore, John Goodman. The list goes on and on and on. Emily Blunt as well. And this week, we've got an amazing guest.

I think you're going to love it. She is the only person I can think of who in the last year won the Tony for Best Act. on Broadway, was nominated for the best supporting actress Oscar at the Academy Awards, and is one of the stars of both the number one and number two shows on television. How's that for a year? Her name is Lori Metcalf. She was, of course, one of the stars of Roseanne and its original run 21 years ago back for the explosive reboot that's gone crazy, not just in terms of ratings, but in terms

of driving some cultural conversation. She's also on the Big Bank Theory, which is the number two show on TV. She was nominated for that Oscar for Lady Bird. And now she's in a new play on Broadway with Tony nominations coming out again this week. She could be nominated again. She is on fire. She kind of for 40 years, a little under the radar. And then for the last year has just absolutely exploded with the help of Lady Bird and Roseanne going to the next level.

A lot of fun to talk to. A fun catch to the interview. informs us midway what you're here doesn't like performing in front of cameras, which is kind of what she does for a living. She'd rather be on stage with a live audience. As I pointed out in our interview, we were surrounded by I think five, maybe six, maybe seven cameras plus a still camera. So I didn't realize till halfway through how immensely uncomfortable she might be, but it didn't show at all. Lori Metcalf is this week's guest on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Lorry, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.

My pleasure. So let's talk about the play. You were telling me that you didn't quite get it, maybe, when you first read the script. I didn't understand it on the page. I have to say, I was very excited because I knew that there were some people already attached to the show that I was dying to be in the room with, namely Glenda Jackson and Joe Mantello and Scott Rudin.

And so I had always known the title, but had never... read this particular Albee play and I cracked it open couldn't wait to start reading and as I'm reading I'm like I don't see it I don't get it I don't understand I'm thick I don't get it I don't get it but I have to do it I mean I want to do it I want to do it I want to work on this in the room that that was one of the exciting things about it and so it was really slippery show to to work on we had to it's a small cast and with Joe and we really had to rely on each other and figure it out in that rehearsal room.

And I never would have pictured, what we ended up with, which I love, I never could have foreseen that that was the shape that it was going to take. That's so interesting. It's kind of bare bones writing can be interpreted in many different ways. And I can't say too many spoilers about it

because it's fun for an audience to piece together what's going on. But it does start out in this opulent bedroom set of a 91-year-old woman and she has a caretaker, and then another woman, I'm the caretaker and another woman who's there from her lawyer's office to go over her finances. A, B, and C?

A, B, and C, that's all we're referred to. There are no names in the whole play. But we decided to do it not as two acts, but as one act. And so there's a set change that had to become pretty remarkable in it in order to make these two worlds come together. But that's the relationship that we start out. as and then something happens and our relationships shift. Is that fun or a little scary not to quite know where the script is going, to read it and go,

I hope this goes well. It's both. It's scary, but it was scary because I thought I'm going to be at sea for a couple of weeks in this rehearsal room. I can just tell. But it's also fun knowing that you're working with this great A team that you can really rely on and that you're going to learn from. Well, the reviews have been staggeringly good. I was just reading the New York Times review, which ends calling it a raving success or a raging

success. I think raving success. You never know, I mean, as you know, when you put something out there, you don't know how people will respond to it. No, no. It's sold out. The reviews are great. It's got to be incredibly gratifying.

It truly is. I mean, to sign on is always a bit of a risk, because you don't know. And you pour your heart and soul into it, and you don't know how it's going to to be received. And then when it's received well like this, audiences are so taken with it. And it has a lot of, it's, it has a lot of emotion to it and impact, kind of a cumulative effect towards the end of it, but it also has a lot of humor. And that was fun to figure out in the rehearsal room, too, just how much humor we could mine out of this Albi, non-linear play.

You're coming off having just one the best actress. last year, the Tony Award. You're right back in a play that's getting a lot of critical acclaim. You've always said that the stage is where you are most comfortable, the thing you love the best. What is it about the stage for you? Well, first of all, I think maybe I'm so comfortable

with it because it's where I started. So I feel like I understand it more. I know more what I'm doing. And I like that there are no cameras involved. I have a camera phobia. and I've never been able to shake it. And at my age now, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to. We're not helping you much today, are we?

No, no. None of you are. None of you are. Especially the moving one, which is signaling, I'm over here, I'm over here. This is your waking nightmare right now. Right. Right. I never learned how to work with it. Some actors know how to do it.

but even after all those years, all those tape nights on Roseanne. I love the rehearsal days. And then that tape day, I feel stressed out. And I'm doing my best to hide that phobia that I have. And so I become a little more self-aware than I care to be. That's so interesting. So you think it affects your performance? Yeah, a little bit.

It does. I can't be as free as I feel on a stage. Wow. I'd love to be able to figure out how to hypnotize that out of me. But like I said, at this age, I don't think that's going to happen. And people who enjoy Broadway more than they do TV or movies always talk about that instant response from the crowd. And it being different every night because the audience is different

and reacts to different pieces of the show. That's the thrill of being in something live, is that it's different every night. An audience kind of sets the tone for us. every night. They teach us where the laughs are, which is great fun. And also, it's so fun to, you know, be having figured out, it's fun to be in control of it, to know, to know, like, you've got a setup for a laugh, and then here comes the laugh line, and you know just how it's like a giant softball this big coming at you, and you've got a bat this round, and you know exactly

where you're going to hit it and how far it's going to go. It's the rush of the response, that instant gratification that you get when you're all in the room together, you know, experiencing this thing. And being in control of leading an audience through a show, I find really compelling, really, really enervating. I don't know. I like learning the show and then I like doing the show. It's kind of two different skill sets, but I like everything about theater.

I also hear a lot of people who love theater talk about the community of Broadway and being in New York City and going out to dinner with the other actors and seeing people around. And I don't think a lot of people realize if you went to your dressing room tonight, no matter who you are, you're in a dressing room about the size of these chairs in that table. Whether you're Bet Midler or Lori Metcalf or anybody, it's a great equalizer. It sure is. It sure is. And I like to know the history of what other actors have. have sat in that room for a hundred years. Right.

A hundred years of shows have gone on in some of these theaters. I used to sit in a different house. Right now, mine opens off out into, my window opens down into an alley, so I don't hear things, but there was a window that I had in a different show. And I would hear people downstairs from the street. I was up on the fourth floor or something. And then I would hear a horse go by,

probably, you know, a mountain policemen go by. Or a horse returning from Central Park, you know. But the, but I, it just always made me think of, you know, doing a play in 1918. And that's what I would be hearing, you know, as people were arriving to the theater by carriages and the voices going on down there. You sort of feel the ghosts of the theater with you.

Yeah. They're all pretty much haunted, I guess. They say they are. I was asking the girl who's at the stage door, at our place, at the golden, what kind of run-in she's had. She's had a few. With the ghosts.

Have you had any run-ins with the guns? No, I haven't. But I'm one of the first people out of the theater as soon as the... You sneak out. After years and years of doing theater, I can get dressed really fast and on my way out. You figured out how to escape.

Yeah. It's amazing what's happening. happened in your life just in the last year or two years when you think about this show, when you think about winning the Tony, when you think about being nominated for an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actors for Lady Bird. Unbelievable.

And the incredible success, I think maybe unexpected success, even, of the revival of Roseanne. What does it feel like to be you right now? Well, I'm trying to be in the moment and appreciate this year that I've had because this is, I know how rare it is, especially in, to cover TV film and stage. I mean, first of all, to be able to bounce between the three

is so lucky, especially because I would hate to burn out on any one of them, you know, just by doing one over and over again and it keeps it very fresh, be able to bounce around. But every project that came my way in these last two years has had, great writing attached to it, clearly, obviously. And when you're handed something like that as an actor,

you just can't wait to get started. And I start daydreaming about the next project or whether it was Lady Bird or which I thought at the time it was a tiny little independent movie sent my way and I thought, well, I haven't done a movie in a decade or, well, really, too. And so this will be a little nice experiment to put my toe back in that water. And then that exploded. What do you think it was about that film that's so connected with so many people?

Well, I think that Greta knew, wrote it in a way that was universal, super, super specific, but people of all ages found something to hook into. I don't know how she did it. And she had a beautiful cast. And she directed it in perfectly, delicately. And she had done all the heavy lifting and the writing. And so when we got on the set, everything just seemed sort of effortless. She's natural at it. I had got to do scenes with Sersha, Ronan, who I couldn't have asked for a better scene partner. I got to work with Tracy Letts for the first time, who I've known for 30 years through Steppenwolf Theater, but had never been able to work with before. So it was just heavenly.

It was just a dream job. I told you we interviewed Sersha for this show a couple of months ago, and every time I'd ask her a question about herself, she somehow spun it to you, and how she couldn't have done it without you and how you made all those scenes. And what was it like to find that partnership with her? Well, we hit it off right away.

We got to do a couple of rehearsals with Greta in her office. a little bit. So we were on the same page to begin with. And, you know, it was written as a great mother-daughter dynamic, so that part was easy to hook into. But I really, I was looking to Sertia for how, for my way through being in a movie again, because she has so much more film experience than I do. That's interesting. You said she was kind of your mentor, despite the fact You've been in business for 40 years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I don't know my way around a movie set,

and she does, clearly. And so I would look to her for guidance in the scenes. And Greta, obviously, if we had any questions at all, Greta was the source. She was the true source, you know, that we could go to. And it was a wonderful shoot. I just, one of my favorite scenes was the opening in the car because it was,

had a little bit of everything in it emotionally. But we got to, Sersha and I worked on it, so we got the pace going, you know, the overlaps. It's always a real luxury to be able to incorporate overlaps because they make it automatically seem so much more realistic. And so we played off of each other in that sense. So it was an emotional scene, but also just technical, in learning the rhythms that we wanted to hit and listening for what word would trigger the next person's lines.

I love that marriage of instinct and technique. So in a very short time you go from having not been in a film for 10 years and reading this little indie script to standing on the red carpet at the Oscars. Is that a surreal experience? I can't even tell you. I can't even... And it, I had no idea. Again, Sersia, Greta, they'd been through the Oscar, on that Oscar train before, you know, everything about it was new to me and unexpected.

People were saying, get ready, you know, about press, about doing press. And I thought, well, yeah, I guess there would be a couple of things to do. But I didn't, I had, I had no idea. And it was probably good that I didn't. because it's like a whirlwind. It's like a tornado that you just... I guess actors who do movies all the time, you do your three months on a movie,

and then a year later, you carve out three months where you can't do anything else, but promote the movie, which you did a year ago. It's just a whole different world. I had a huge learning curve on that project. Huge.

Well, they probably didn't quite explain, When it started to pick up momentum, they said, we've got to get you out in front of these cameras and talk to people, right? Yeah. And what was it like to be on the red carpet of the Oscars? I know you flew in that morning, right? That, yeah, so part of me thinks that it didn't even really happen.

Because I did a show, I did three tall women, matinee, and then the, no, I'm sorry, we did, is the Oscars on a Sunday? It is. Yeah. So I did two shows that Sunday. That's Saturday, Saturday. We had two shows Saturday.

And then Sunday morning, I had a very, very early flight, got to the airport, sat on the runway for two and a half hours. Cutting it close for the Oscars. Yeah, I know. I would have been dragging a roll-on bag down the red carpet running barefoot to get there. That would have been an entrance. Could have happened. So made it, went straight to hotel room, had the glam squad. You know, like the cowardly lion in Wizard of Oz, everybody working on everything at the same time, zipped up into a dress and off to the Oscars.

And then right afterwards, right back to the, I didn't go to any parties. I went back to the hotel room and went straight to bed and then flew out the next morning to make a show. Come back and do the show. Yeah. Yeah. So did it happen? I mean, there's proof that it happened. There's, there's, it's on, it's taped.

I know that I was there. What's it like to be in that room with all the biggest stars in Hollywood and they're all coming up to you and telling you how great you were in the movie? Well, you have to be somewhat starstruck because how can you not be? And, but one of the cool things about being on that train ride during the Oscar push is that you start seeing the same actors over and over again from all, from the other movies that are up for. awards. And so I got to know people that I never get to know ever in my life because I just don't do movies. And so like now I know Willem Defoe, you know, and Alice and Janney, I already knew quite well because we go way back together. But I just, Francis McDormon, you know, and Sam Rockwell and I, I, Gary Oldman, we say hi to each other now. I mean, this is,

That's a huge perk of hanging out. Yeah, hanging out with those people, Octavia Spencer, and Richard Jenkins and Sally Hawkins, I know now to say hi. Crazy. Did you have any expectation going into that night that you might win an Oscar? What was in your head as you sat there? Did I think I might? Well, I didn't think I would, but you always came.

there's always upsets. And so I had something to say in case that happened because that's the real actor's nightmare to me because I can't just speak. But extemporaneously, I would, if I hadn't had thought of anything at all to say, I would have stumbled up there, dear in the headlights,

and stood and stammered and left. So that would have been horrible. So you had a little something ready just in case. Yeah, it was that big. It was little. And did you practice your face? Because they show you all at once on TV. And if they announce someone else, you have to sort of applaud.

I didn't practice. And I should have. But, you know, you tend to forget, even though the camera is right there. You know, you're watching other things and you forget the, and there's no red light. You don't know when it's on or when it's off. So who knows what I got caught doing. But I know now to be more aware of that. Next time.

Yeah. No. So then shortly on the heels of that, a month and a half later, here comes Roseanne. And I think people were excited that it was coming back. But when those numbers came out the next day and it was 20 million and it grew with DVR to 25 million numbers, people hadn't seen a network TV in a long time. what were you thinking? Well, I didn't really know what the numbers meant. I didn't have any context for it.

So, and then somebody said, no, no, that's like triple good. So I thought, oh, okay, well, I'll take your word for it. But I think everybody going in, all the actors and the writers felt such a responsibility to doing the show justice. You know, because people had grown up watching it. people, some people were, were, just felt like it was part of their family. Or that's, that's my aunt. That's my sister. That's, you know, that's my dad. So we didn't, we wanted to be able to make it nostalgic, but also current.

And I think that the writers did a really good job of doing that, walking that line. We saw, we interviewed John Goodman a few weeks ago and he said by the end of the first run, He'd sort of taken it for granted the success of the show and he was ready to move on. And he just said he was so happy that they called again and he got to see all you guys and be together and kind of do it over. Yeah, that's exactly right. You know, after nine years, you start taking it not for granted, but you might want to explore something else. Right. And so the timing of that was perfect.

Although as soon as it ended, I thought, oh, please let there at some point be a reunion. show. And then 20 years went by and I thought, okay, it's never going to happen. And then Sarah Gilbert called and said, would you like to be in a reunion arc? Not even a show, but like nine episodes. And so, you know, we walked onto the set. They recreated it down to the pickled eggs in the pantry. Everything was exactly the same, but except that we all hadn't been in the same room, all of us together in 20 years. And the kids, and the kids. were grown and then they've got kids of their own on the show who are also super well cast. And then the writers room was old timers and also new writers.

And so we got to sit around and the table and do a read through again after all those years and it was like no time had passed at all. Was it really? Yeah. And everybody, John's right. Everybody wanted to be there. Everybody, everywhere you looked around the set and at different people, there was history, memories.

And I loved watching scenes happen as they were taping them, scenes that I wasn't in. I would watch the history of, you know, like the two daughters having a fight in the kitchen set, where they really did grow up on that kitchen set, you know. So every show forms an ensemble and forms a family, but this kind of, there's a lot of layers to it this time around. I think it's richer and because of that history,

that natural history that comes with, you know, doing a pilot 30 years ago together and spending a decade. And that was really your break, is it fair to say, in 1988 when you got the role of Jackie? That was your biggest exposure you had? I had, yeah, oh, definitely the biggest exposure. I had only done theater. And it had only been in Chicago, really.

Right. I had done one movie, Desperately Seeking Susan. With? With Madonna. But it had a whole cast of crazy characters. And so those were the same casting directors who cast that movie. They saw me in a play. They cast that movie.

And then on a fluke, I went to L.A., my first time ever there, to see if I could maybe get another movie, maybe. And they were out there, the same casting directors, casting the Roseanne show. I was literally in the right place at the right time. I had given myself two weeks to go out there, sleep on a friend's couch, and see if I could get a movie out of it.

So I have to ask, as a 20-something actress, what was it like to be thrust into a movie with the biggest pop star in the world? She was just taking off, as I recall. Right. And I, and she was great. She was really curious about what everybody else knew about working in this new way, you know, really wanting to absorb

all everybody else's, what they had to teach her. I didn't have anything because it was my first movie. it was my first movie too. But she was really great that way, of really studious in wanting to get better at whatever she was tackling. That's a heck of a way to start your movie career with Madonna.

Yeah. Yes. So back to Roseanne, what do you think people then, and especially now, are responding to in such huge numbers? Because it is hard, it just is because of the nature of media

to get a number even approaching what you guys get. Right. so many people are so dialing. Well, I guess there was a lot of expectation of, you know, as far as the reboots go, which I love the idea and they're all working, but I think the Connor family was the perfect one to check back in on 20 years later

and see what that particular family was up to now. And also, Roseanne herself was so smart about the way she, did the original show or had the writers look at it was that she always, every once in a while she wanted there to be a meaty issue going on in the show. Sometimes sparked by her own experience that she was going through in her family or whatever, you know, whether it's a kid's, you know, dark period, whatever. But something that she could really talk about and saccharges. And and sacrifice some of the laughs along the way,

but to make it be about something. And so because she started doing that through that first run, nine years, audiences went with it. And I think that I can't think of another sitcom, four camera sitcom that can handle the weight of some of the things that she asked those writers to write about and those actors to deal with.

And so, and now, Now, having done these nine, and not all of them have aired yet, but there are a handful of those kind of moments again, where it gets weighty, it gets dark and a little heavy, and surrounded by laughs, obviously, but that show can handle it. And they're in that family, as you know, there are political conflicts, and the show has been a huge rating success, but also has started this. cultural debate and launched a thousand think pieces about what the success of the show means. And some people say, finally, it's a show for Trump's America, wherever the other show is for

coastal America. What do you make of that cultural reaction to it? Yeah, I don't know why it got labeled that exactly for Trump's America, because I don't think it's that. The political bit that we did in the opening show is as far as a that goes, you know, as being about the election and the divide that happened after it. We couldn't not address it. And I thought the writers did it really well, is that it caused a rift in the family. But then what they also did was shrink it back down like all the other shows used to do to be about the family. Like what is it with those two sisters that really the heartfelt emotions under that rift? And that's what it got down to when they,

they finally confronted each other. So I thought they handled it really well. But I don't think it's, they're not consciously writing it for a certain political view. But some of the issues that are on these new shows, some are different, like opioids addiction, and some are exactly the same of what they were 20 years ago with job insecurity and things like that.

Yeah, well that's amazing. that some of those themes have carried across. If you think you went off the air 21 years ago, and that stuff's all still there. Yeah, and again, another reason I think that people are hooking into it. Yeah. So I'm curious, just as a pure logistical matter, how you do all this. Because you've got Big Bang Theory, you've got Roseanne,

you're always on Broadway, you're doing movies now like Lady Bird. How do you schedule your life? Well, another reason why I had such a great year was because it never works out in an actor's life. that things schedule out. Usually there's no work at all or three things happen at once and you have to let most of them go.

You know, so I was, again, super fortunate that, like I did, well, Lady Bird's been a year and a half ago now. And a doll's house was a year ago. and then the Roseanne reboot was last fall, and then I went right into the play, and then the play's going to end in two months, and then Roseanne starts back up again. So that's been really lucky.

And do you want to do another movie now? Of acting jobs, movies are at my bottom, or at the bottom for me. I don't really enjoy the... Why am I shooting my... myself in the foot like this. I might as well say, no movie submissions, please. She gets nominated for an Oscar and she's out.

That's it. Walk away at that point. I've washed my hands of it. But I've heard people say that. The process takes too long. The process is not for me. I mean, it's, and some of it is just because I'm not that clear on it, you know?

I don't feel that comfortable in it because I haven't learned it well enough, because I just haven't done enough. You know, I have no experience doing it. I had obviously a magnificent time doing Lady Bird, but I think it also spoiled me rotten because it was so stress-free, and there was just a great vibe about it,

and the material was so rich, and the scene partners were so rich, and, but I, There's something about, you know, getting up in the dark and going to some set that you've never been to before. And then, you know, the day is like 15 hours long, but you work maybe two hours of it. And then you do some big emotional scene and then you think, who we got it. And then you realize, oh, that was the master. Oh, now for the next six hours, we're going to come in and do close-ups and over the shoulder and all these.

that, the angles, and you're like, oh my God, my, turn it off. It's not like Broadway where you walk in for two hours and you walk out and that's it. Yeah, you walk in, you do your prep work, whatever your process is. You go down, there's a, there's, there's 800 people there with their programs sitting there and then, and you're in charge of leading them for the 95 minutes and, uh, you, you, you, Yeah, and there's no record of it on film or video. That's nice, too. Yeah, that's nice.

It's completely different animals, you know, so I, yes, I would love to do another movie, is the answer. At the end of that, you say yes, I'd love to do one. I think it's a little late for that, Lori. I would love, I actually. I actually would. I would love to, oh God, you can edit the hell out of all this. Yeah, if it's credit, it's sure. But honestly, there's also like this Broadway, you know, doing eight shows a week takes a certain amount of stamina. Yeah. A lead on a movie, I can't even imagine I've never done it, you know, and it's similar to actually probably a lead on an hour

drama is probably even worse. I mean, stamina-wide, just draining the amount of mental stuff you have to put yourself through just to be present, you know, for those amount of hours a day and for months at a time, it's cruel. I mentioned Big Bang Theory. Your daughter plays the mother now on Young Sheldon, and you play the mother in Big Bang Theory. Is that a crazy thing for you? That's crazy. I went back to do a Big Bang episode just last Monday. It's one of those things, again, that it seems like a dream, but there is a video record of it, that I was in L.A.

Because I did the matinee. That's where I got mixed up. I did the matinee last Sunday of Three Tall Women and then flew out that night, did Big Bang on Monday, and then flew back the next day. And made the show Tuesday. Yeah. And so I went back because it was Jim Parsons' wedding. of the show and I'm his mom, so I gotta be there. And I had a little scene with Jim

where I just had the line, I wish your father could have been here. And talk about layers. Now that I know the show Young Sheldon, and I know who that father is, it's Lance on the show. It just became so much more real. I was talking about somebody that I've seen like a,

like it would be like a whole movie of, you know, because Young Sheldon is the prequel, you know, so I, it just, it gave it more of an awareness that I hadn't planned on it hitting me like that, you know? And Jerry O'Donnell plays little Georgie all grown up, and so I got to see him and then referencing Montana on Young Sheldon and see where they've taken. It's kind of fascinating.

It's done in a totally different way with the single camera and the narration that Jim does than Big Bang. But it's so fascinating to see these characters separated by a couple of decades. Tell you, you have a nose for hit shows. You know you're on the number one and number two. two shows on television? Man.

Right place at the right time. You're humble. No, it was that it was that trip to L.A. Little did I know, you know, giving myself two weeks. Is that what it was? Yeah, I said, I'll try, I'll try this for two weeks, sleeping on somebody's couch, and then I'll go back, go back and do more theater for, you know, tiny, tiny spaces. And that was when you got Roseanne in 1988.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever think about that arc of your life coming from Edwardsville, Illinois, and now you're starring on Broadway up the street here? No. I mean, yes, there's a band of high school fellow students that I graduated with who come see at some given point during a run every show that I've done in New York. And so they were here a couple of weeks ago, and we all went out afterwards. And they were asking me questions and reminding me of things that we had done in high school, you know, productions.

And it's so touching that they are proud of me, you know, and yet it's really grounding, of course, obviously, because, you know, they're... We were all just doing plays together back then with no... I've never had any kind of plan. even in joining Steppenwolf or forming Steppenwolf. There was no, it's like, let's do these one acts for a summer

and see where that takes us. And now Steppenwolf is in its 45th season in a theater that we built from the ground up. It's pretty amazing. But I owe a lot of it to that company. You know, I don't know that I would even be in acting if I hadn't done it in the early days with that group, with that Steppenwolf group.

That was an incredible collection of talent. Yeah, again, look at the people that, you know, we just found ourselves at the same school together and said, hey, let's put on a play. But I don't think that I would have been thick-skinned enough back then to have gone to auditions like in St. Louis and not gotten something, and then I probably just would have quit, you know,

thought, this isn't for me. I don't know anybody that does this, you know, in my community. You know, what are the odds? I'm too practical to try and really commit to this. So I think I would have walked away from it. But doing it as a group, there was a security in that. Right. Well, it's worked out pretty well for you.

Pretty good. Do you remember the first time you acted and what excited you about it? Well, you can't call it acting. I don't know what you could call it. But I think I was in Edwardsville, and I had a swing set in the backyard. So I think I was about seven or eight. And I had a record player and an extension cord

and brought it out into the backyard and had a record for some reason of when the red red Robin goes bob, bob, bobbing along. I put that on. I set up lawn chairs. I charged money, and you sat and you watched me swing in time to the music. And you charged for that.

I charged and that, so like, was it acting? What was it? Performance art. It was performance art. Yeah. So that's when I thought, I can do, I can do this, I can do this. And how old were you? Seven or eight.

Wow. Yeah. And you got a reaction and you knew I can do this. Mrs. Kriegy across the street seemed to like it or, you know, gave me compliments. I would also have the show album of Gypsy, and I would play that in the living room and act out for some reason the boys part, which was, you know, got my striped tie, got my hopes,

all I need now is the girl. So I did his part, I don't know why. And fake dance, and that was for no one. That was only for my own pleasure. If Mrs. Krieg could see you now. Oh, she probably didn't see you now. Proud. So proud. She would. Well, I mentioned all the things you do at once, a bunch of TV shows and Broadway and movies.

You've been called a workaholic. Why do you feel about that label? I think it's pretty accurate. I love the work, and so I like to keep the work coming. And I really don't know too well what to do with my downtime in between jobs. But I do like to know when there's something out there that I can be starting to fantasize about and, you know, start the creative juices going that I can think about. But other than, you know, like just getting back into the routine of school and all that,

I get a little antsy. Got to get back on a stage somewhere, right? Yeah. Thank you, Lori. Thanks. It was such a pleasure. Thank you. My thanks again to Lori Metcalfe for a great.

conversation. You can see, of course, Roseanne Tuesday nights on ABC and also the play, Three Tall Women on Broadway now, and it's there for a couple of more months. Huge reviews, big crowds. You get a chance here in New York City, go check it out. My thanks to Lori, my thanks to you for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast to hear the full unedited interviews with my guest from my Sunday Today show, which is every Sunday on NBC. Be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And of course, don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. Thank you for listening to Sunday Sit Down.

See you next week. I'm Willie Geist.