Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Will Arnett

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

Will Arnett was bouncing around New York and Los Angeles for more than a decade doing dramatic work when he landed a role that put him on the path to comedy stardom - the hilariously buffoonish magician Gob Bluth on Arrested Development. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks to the actor about that breakthrough, the new season of his hit series Lego Masters and those pipes that have him voicing every commercial on TV.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I am so excited to bring you this one this week. For my money, he's one of the funniest guys walking the earth right now. His name is Will Arnett. You first fell in love with the man playing Joe Bluth on Arrested Development, the cult classic series that has taken on new life in the last few years and gotten an entirely new generation of fans during the pandemic, I think.

You know his voice from just about every other commercial on TV right now, whether it's Reese's or GMC. You loved his voice work as Lego Batman or on BoJack Horseman on Netflix. You loved him maybe in his role on 30 Rock. He's currently hosting a series called Lego Masters. It's the second season. So he played Lego Batman, thanks to his gravely deep, rich pipes. and then went on to be in a couple of other Lego movies as well. And so now he hosts this series on Fox called Lego Masters,

which is really like intense builders who build Lego, and you'll learn it's Lego, not Legos. Don't make that mistake. Oh, boy. They build these elaborate designs that incorporate engineering and architecture and all these things. You'll hear him talk about that. We also get into Smartless, his amazing podcast,

with his buddy Jason Bateman, who of course he met and starred with on Arrested Development those years back, and his friend Sean Hayes, of course, of Will and Grace fame, the three of them get together, and just kind of go at each other and then introduce a guest and bring somebody onto the show. So I won't waste your time with more introduction because I want you to dive right into one of the funniest and best dudes out there. This is Will Arnett on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Will, it's great to see you. Thanks for doing this, brother. My pleasure to be here.

So there's a lot to catch up with you on. We got Legos, we got SmartLists. I want to know, though, what the last year has been like for you sort of at home. I understand you've got a very busy house. A lot of boys running around. How are you holding up? You know, some days are better than others. I'm going to be honest about that.

It's good, though, man. And it's just, you know, more logs on the fire. And so at any given time, I mean, there's a chance that that door behind me at any point could burst open. And somebody's going to come in with so-and-so did this, so-and-so wrecked that. I cut my arm off, you know, whatever. There's, that's, I live in a constant state of fear of what's about to happen next. Like I can't, I'd love to throw out, I don't know about you, I'd love to throw out my smartphone and just be done with it.

I'm so sick of my phone. I'm so sick of messages. I don't want to text anybody. I don't want to get any more emails, but you got to keep them on because of the kids. So I live in a constant, like, I'm like, oh, my phone's on quiet. I need to have it on. Literally, I went to the beach for an hour the other day, and I wanted to turn it off. I was like, I can't turn it off.

Right. Because I'm like a doctor who a call. You know, like a cardiologist who's on call. It's so true. There's no peace. There's no quiet ever. What's the, I know you've got sisters. You've got a brother and sisters.

So what's that like pure boy energy in the house? What's that like for you? You know, yeah, I grew up with two sisters. But I did go to all boys school. So I was a little bit used to. to it, that kind of all-boy energy. And I know how to manage that so it doesn't get to Lord of the Flies. But it does, I do find myself saying things like, hey, you know the rule, no punching in

the face, which when I say it, I'm like, I can't believe I have to say it. What a great lesson for kids, too. Just don't bruise the face. otherwise you're good. What's the money maker? You know, never the face. If dad's taught you anything, this is the money maker. Yeah, so I've got them, they beat each other with phone books.

They do it old school style. Blackjack's onto phone books. By the way, not easy to find a phone book these days. That is hard. That is hard. That's old school, too. That's like a detective from the 70s trying to get a confession out of somebody. Yeah, it's like Serpico style. So among the many projects you've continued to work on through the pandemic is Lego Masters,

which is such a cool show. I watched a couple nights ago, the one where they build these incredibly elaborate structures, and then you turn a dial and you just start shaking it until you break it. So for people who haven't watched the show yet, what's sort of the concept, what's the concede of Lego Masters? You know, Lego Masters, we started the first season. Last year, we aired the first season. Actually, in a great time, too, during the pandemic, I don't mean a great time.

I mean, in the sense that it was a show that I think in a time where everybody had a lot of anxiety, our show is very lighthearted, and it's a show that really tries to celebrate people who are into Lego, which is, you know, I include myself in that group. And I was happy that we were able to be a little bit of a respite from what was going on. The show, like I said, it celebrates people who are into Lego and who are who are Lego builders or who are aspiring real Lego builders. There's a whole community out there, Willie, that not a lot of people know about a global community of people who are super into building Lego and who build competitively. And you kind of go like, oh, okay. And then when you see what they actually do, you go, oh, okay, these people are really, really good at what they do.

And so we were the first season found, identified some people around the country who were into it. I think because once people actually saw the show, a lot of great builders came out of the woodwork. And the second season now we've got all these people who are really, really good at what they do, and they're able to come on and display their skill. And it's not just, you know, you get people who you can say, hey, can you build me a building? Can you build me an animal? Can you build me a hat? Can you build me a castle?

Sure. They're not just great sort of artists, but they're also great engineers, too, which is great. Watching these people build in a way that I think like, I make this joke all the time, I can go to MIT and I still want to be able to build the way these people build. It's amazing. And for me, I get to kind of be there and be a cheerleader for, you know, for all these great builders. Like I said, it's a feel-good show. We're not a gotcha show. We're not a reality show where we're trying to, we get people all, you know, boozed up and then watch them cry or fight with each other.

That's not us. You know, we want to see people get out there and be really good at what they do and champion them. And ultimately, I also want to wreck their business. at the end of the day. So, you know, if you're a parent and you've built Lego a lot, which I have, people say, well, do you, it's out, I remember the first season when I smashed these builds with a baseball bat. And a lot of these builds are like, oh my gosh, that's just sacrilegious to do that. And I was like, yeah, but it feels so good.

After all those builds, I get to, now, if somebody were to smash something that I built, I would be be furious. But it's so funny, you know, like my own kids, my son is in the other room. He just built this Technic Ferrari over the last three days that we bought at this bookstore over here in town. We're out on Long Island. He bought this big technique thing.

And he spent the last few days building this thing. And he's 12. He had already kind of started to go into what they called the Dark Ages, where he wasn't building as much as a 10-year-old brother. But he's back into it. it and he's in his room and he's listening to music and he's building and then you know of course late last night where's the other tire because his little brother had been playing with the tire and there's all that stuff but we're all super into it and talking to each other and building and it's I don't know

for us it's really positive for me it's been such a positive thing in my life and now I've been talking for seven minutes straight no no I hear everything you're saying because I have an 11 year old son who's about to be 12 and it's the same thing so and we we didn't appreciate it we We thought, oh yeah, you know, you buy him Lego and they play with it and it's a fun thing. But then we realized, oh, he's sitting, first of all, not playing a video game, he's sitting, he's focused, he's learning a little patience, he's doing hand-eye, he's following directions, and then he's seeing that all this hard work ends in this beautiful thing. So I think whether you're a kid or an adult, by the way, it's just a cool thing to do

and can be soothing in some way. It's very soothing. And, you know, first of all, you hit on a great one, which is, and a lot of parents can relate to this, they're not on their screens. Yeah. And when my kids are building and they're building with each other, they're not in their screens, I'd way rather them be building all day.

You know, obviously you want your kids to be outside as much as they can at certain points, but at least if they're inside in their building, I'm much happier because they're much happier. Yeah. And the soothing part, too, is amazing. Two things. Last year when the show first aired,

I got a friend of mine who works with this group of veterans who it helps these veterans to have PTSD in lots of different ways. They were using Lego sets during the pandemic in order to some people found it very soothing to deal with certain effects of PTSD, which was amazing. We were able to deliver all these sets to these people

and hear their stories and what a positive effect it had on their life. And to think that how much Lego can impact different people's lives in different ways. The other thing is I know a guy who's a builder in California. And we were at a toy store to buy a gift for a kid's birthday party. And I see this guy in there. He's a 40-year-old guy. And he's buying it.

And I said, what are you doing? And he said, oh, yeah, I go home. He builds all day. And he goes home and he builds Lego and he goes, yeah, it just calms me down. Wow. That's crazy. Little busman's holiday taking the work home. That's crazy.

You know, I noticed something important that people watching and listening are going to take note of too, but I think we have to point it out. You say Lego, not Legos, which I only learned recently, like building Lego, you don't put the S on it.

Is that right? That's right. The plural of Lego is Lego. Wow. Okay. And I don't like to shame people if they say Legos, because we all learn it at a certain point and we've all used the term Legos.

So it's, yes, that's correct. It's probably the only area of my life where I don't correct people. I don't know why. Well, now I'm a little self-conscious. I think I said Legos at the beginning and you were thinking, God, what an idiot. Just up here.

You didn't say it. I promised you I did not think that. So you kind of touched on this, but you never could have imagined when you were Lego Batman that you were stepping into this world that was actually going to become such a big part of your life.

I mean, frankly, it's such a crazy story. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who wrote and directed the first Lego movie and produced and helped write the subsequent films as well. There are two guys I know. They had written a film. This is a crazy story. I don't know how much time you got, Willie.

All day, man, all day. Okay. I forget how many years ago this is now, probably almost 15 years ago. I know these guys Phil Lurton and Chris Miller. They're great comedy writers. They call me up and they said, hey, we're making a movie called Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. And I said, great. And so I was going to voice the lead guy. and my ex-wife, Amy Poehler, was voicing the lead female. So these two characters, we recorded a bunch, and then it ended up, the studio was like, no, it's too dark, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And we ended up, Amy and I got fired, basically.

And we're like, God, I can't believe Phil and Chris. Like, they stayed on. They had to, like, sacrificed us, you know. And they made the movie totally different. It was very kind of bright and more kid-friendly. And it was Bill Hader and Anna Ferris. And we're like, okay, fine, whatever. A couple years later, Phil and Chris called me out of the blue.

My agent called and says, Philo and Chris Miller want to ask you something. I'm like, those guys. Fine. And they said, listen, we're so sorry about how all that went down with Cloudy. But we're doing this Lego movie. And we want you to be the voice of Lego Batman. And I remember at the time thinking like, okay, I don't know what it means, a Lego movie. And the voice of Batman, I had no, we hadn't thought about it in that way.

Fine. And who knew that that was going to start, in fact, years earlier during this Cloudy with a Chet, that would start this relationship with Lego. You know, we all have a connection. I had a connection as a kid with Lego. I couldn't have imagined as a kid that later on as an adult, I would have this connection to Lego, make all these movies, make the Lego movie, and then the Lego Batman movie,

then the second Lego movie, all the while having my own kids, young kids at that same time on this totally different track, being really into Lego and building, and then now doing Lego Masters, we're in our second season and producing the show, and it's just, it's all very surreal, to be honest. And the best part is, and like I said,

my son building the set, being at a bookstore, and going in and just buying Lego. You know, I'm just, I'm still just a Lego fan and dad of kids who love Lego. And how cool to have something that your kids can relate to what their dad does and love it and appreciate it in a way

maybe they don't, you know, arrest of development or BoJack. Yeah, they don't. Like, in the way, like, I wish I could have related to my dad, like, you know, when he was at the track or, you know, at the bar in the middle of the afternoon. I'm kidding.

By the way, my dad's never been to a track. He was like, what? It was worth it though. Throw him under the bus. What I love about the show too is that we get Will Arnett in there too. It's about the builders and the structures are cool and all that. But you're going to say at some point, you know, that structure was like a movie from the rock.

It's a little disappointing in the theater, but you will watch it on cable every time it comes on. So you do get to be yourself. You do get to be yourself and inject that. into the show. It's, I mean, it's, again, I don't know what I'm doing as a host. I'm kind of learning as I go. I have such new fan respect for people who are hosts and presenters, et cetera,

in a way that I probably didn't before. It's such a specific skill. I mean, I look at like, for me, my heroes are, you know, Ryan Seacrest. Ryan, what he does is so hard. So, yeah. So, yeah. And so I go on there and I'm like, I'm just trying to stay out of the way, you know, not make it about myself as much as possible, which is tough.

And, you know, really make it about them. And again, but once we get into it, we have so many great teams and the stories are awesome. This year is really great because we have a bunch of sibling teams. We got a father, son team. We've got some lifelong friends. And that part's been really, really cool. I love it.

Coming out of this time of misconnections for the last year and a half where you hear so many stories of people who aren't able to see, I haven't been able to see my own parents in a year and a half. They're getting older. Being there with these people who are siblings and talking about how excited they are to have the opportunity to be on the show, but to spend time together, that got me.

I mean, I'm getting emotional talking about it. No, I feel it. You can feel it watching, something you can watch with your kids, which there's not a ton of that going around these days. So you're very busy Lego Master's season two well underway. And obviously, so much of your focus is on the Smartlist podcast with Mr. Jason Bateman, Mr. Sean Hayes, which is, I was saying to you before we started, there's no group of friends who doesn't listen to that and say, that's us in some way. Which is, which is like the guest is always great and that's fun, but really the heart of the show is just a three. of you giving each other crap. That's what we tune in for.

How much fun has that been? You know, it's been so much fun. We started, I think, I've told this story before on the podcast that, you know, I was going to do a podcast and I told Jason and then he called me like two days later. He said, I just had dinner with Sean, told, and told him that you're, that you're starting a podcast. And then we agreed that we should do it. with you. And I was like, wait, what?

And she was like, yeah, so we're, the three of us are doing a podcast now. It was so, it was just classic like, you know, and yeah, but that's how friends are, right? I mean, that's what we do. And it's like, it's just an extension of our friendship. And we've, again, we got to do it in this time when we were all at home because of, because of COVID and it was a real highlight. It was a positive thing that was able to happen. And I was again glad that we were able to kind of bring some lightheartedness and bring that into,

you know, out into the podcast space for people. And we're really happy that we get that we found it. And now we were able to continue doing it. And what's great is like I hear from friends, you know, friends back home. in Canada or friends back here in New York or whatever who all know us really well and they relate to it as well. They're like, yeah, it feels very authentic. It's really just us, you know, because that's what we all do. That's how we talk to each other. We goof around. It's always

lighthearted. We never meet it in this really, you know, I love those guys so much. It's unbelievable. I mean, those are the two guys that I would call in a pension. They'd be the first guys there to help no matter what, which is the best. And, you know, you, I'm on, I'm out here with my kids right now on vacation. And I say, yeah, I'm going out there. And Baman's like, great. Well, we're coming out this week. Not like, does that work for you?

This is when we're coming. You know what I mean? That's what you do. We're family. Yeah, well, the beauty of it, too, it feels anyway, like there's nothing artificial about it. It's like you guys plug it in your headphones and you just go. And that's it. Whatever happens for that hour, that's it.

Well, we quite legitimately start recording the moment we log on. That's it. And we've never once discussed, well, because we don't, the other two of the guys don't know who the guest is. So we never talk about like, hey, we should talk about this ever, not once. So we have zero idea what's going to happen at any moment. So that's why you get a lot of like me eating or whatever. You know, part of it too is, you know, you touched on, you know, I've got, I've got so many kids here now. And so sometimes when I go into the booth and start doing the show, that's a break from the insanity that's kind of going on around me.

And that's my chance to have something to eat, talk to my buddies. Very unprofessional. I get it. Well, it's funny you bring that up. So I mentioned you. I was texting with Jason today because I told him I was going to see you. you. One of the things we talked about, I think I speak for him when I asked, he wanted to know if you could slide your meal window into a spot in your day when it doesn't conflict with the podcast so that you're not eating an Italian sub when you ask your questions. It's so real from him. By the way, here's the best part. It's not just to burn, Willie, but he actually means it. Oh, totally. That's what's so sad that he's had to go through an intermediary now to,

really drive home his point. What's great is also is that Jason, and I've tried to mention this on the podcast, he has for years, he loves to eat and talk. And I don't know where he gets off giving me crap for it because he'd eat a salad like in a in-person meeting. I would never do it in person. That's the difference.

I guess maybe I feel somewhat disconnected because we're doing a podcast. He'll do it in person, so you have to witness him, and for him, a utensil is in effect just a small shovel. And so he'll stuff his face, and then he'll ask these questions. And I think, so when I take great umbrage at him accusing me, because I'm like, where do you? He used to, back in the day when we were doing a rest of development, every morning he'd start

with at least one burrito. And he'd come on to set and we'd do rehearsal, and he'd be, he'd be asking questions, questions, about blocking while eating a burrito. We'd be like, hey man, want to finish your burrito? What? The roles have been reversed now because you're right. If you listen to the podcast, you can hear genuine anger in his voice if you have food in your mouth.

I mean, he means it. Well, now because, and here's the other thing I pointed out, what he's really angry about is he basically doesn't eat. So he's just like eating almonds. You know, he'll have a couple almonds. He has some barely flavored like lemon. in water and that's it. And he is, it's just, it's embarrassing.

And he's always worried about everybody's water weight. Looks like you're retaining about water. Yeah. Oh, he's worried about water weight. He shuffles, you should see, we talked about it the other day. We asked him point blank, what's, what's up with your gate? He doesn't lift his feet off the ground. He's got one of the worst gates you've ever seen.

What's up with your gate? So that was, that was more of a suggestion, but the question was, from, this is, from, this is, Directly from Jason, he said, well, you can keep only two of the following three things in your life, which are they? National Hockey League, Premier League, soccer, or snacks. So you have to get rid of one of those three things from your life.

Jason would like to know which one it is. Boy, he really hits me right where it hurts. Honestly. Wow. This is tough. I'm gonna say snacks. You're getting rid of snacks? I'm getting rid of the snacks because I could, he's right, I could lose a little water weight.

And I mean, let's be honest. I can't even, yeah, it's terrible. Why do you think I do a podcast now? I've got a face made for radio. I can't do without my hockey. I can't do without it. And I can't do without my football. Right now, we're right in the throes of the Euro 2020, which to your viewers,

We know it's 20, Willie and I know it's 2021, but they was delayed last year, so they're still playing out of the Euro 2020, the football, the soccer from Europe. I'm very European. And sometimes I think in French, so it's difficult, but it's hard. So I love Premier League, and I love soccer,

what we know is soccer here. I love it so much. Well, these two last day, last answers kind of jive them, the food, eating during the podcast and the snacks, but you've given up snacks now in this theoretical question, yeah. I will give up snacks. Wow. Because hockey is my first work.

And soccer slash football is my mistress. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Will Arnett right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Will Arnett. You mentioned Will Arrested Development, which is how you and Bateman started this friendship. That's another thing during quarantine with my kids. We introduced them to Arrested Development.

And man, just immediately they got it and loved it and it hits. Is that gratifying to understand and to hear the sort of staying power of this show? you did, you know, 18 years ago. Wow. When you put it like that, it's crazy. Yeah, it is. It's really gratifying. I, you know, I'm really proud of the legacy of that show, for sure.

And I'm just happy when people, that people can still appreciate it, that, such a testament to Mitch Hurwitz, what incredible writer he was, or is, rather. You didn't pass today, did he? Anybody? No, Mitch is still with us. I'll check his Wikipedia. I'll let you do. No, I've got a whole team of fact checkers

just out of frame. He's still here, right? I spend my money in the weirdest ways. But, you know, he created this show. I think one of the great things is that it's not too zeitgeisty. So the jokes still are about things, you know, they're still relevant because they're about these people. and about these characters, not about what's going on in that moment and time.

It's just timeless, really, in that way. So I think, but yeah, I love it. I like that people are able to appreciate it. Still, it's certainly very, very gratifying. It's crazy, and that really kicked off. I've been really lucky to be a part of so many great shows over the last 20 years. I just, you know, when people come out of the blue and say, and say, I love that, you know, yeah, it feels good.

You know what I didn't realize, Will, is that was the first big role that people really knew you for. You'd obviously done a bunch of work before that. But I didn't realize when you came to New York, I think in like 1990, it was because we know you as this hilarious guy. We know you was Job and all the other characters. You came as like a Lee Strasberg trained serious actor, and that's who you were going to be, and that's what you were going to do. What was the, when did you get into that mode of acting after your childhood? I, you know, I guess, yeah, I came to New York because I wanted to, I always joke that it's that thing. I was, I was young enough that I thought that being taken seriously was important.

And, and I think that that is just one of the, you know, that's one of those things that you kind of grow out of. as you get older and you sort of realize what's important to me anyway. What was important was I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh and I love to be involved in. It makes me feel good. And one of my first agents, they said, all right, well, we're going to send you out for pilot season. You're going to read for a bunch of sitcoms.

And at the time, I was like, I don't know, 23. And I thought, sitcoms. No way. I'm destined for great thing. I'm going to really make people think and feel something. Of course, I needed a job. So after about a month, I was like, yeah, yeah, let me go up for that sitcom. I kind of, once I started reading for comedies

in this way that I felt like that I was able to connect with comedy writing, I thought, wow, I probably missed, I probably should have gone and done sketch. I probably should, I wish I had gone to Chicago or I wish I'd done it in Toronto, Second City, or at least tried. I'm not suggesting that I would have been able to be as good as all the great people who do it. But probably that's something that I would have really enjoyed.

And I didn't realize that until a little bit later. So I kind of landed backwards in comedy, to be honest. I think it was people, I always joked that every time I was trying to be serious, people would laugh. And we had on the podcast, Galvanakis, had the same experience. He was like, he would talk about how he'd going. you read for stuff, these dramatic roles of people would laugh. And he'd be like, what are you laughing at? Well, it's not a great mystery to me how you became a performer and an actor.

You're engaging. You like an audience. But where in your, I think you've called it a restless childhood, where in that childhood did you start to say, oh, this is something that I want to pursue in a way that could be a job in my life? I don't know. You know, I think, I don't know. I guess I always had that sort of thing that I like to ultimately really it was I like to make

people laugh and I like to engage in that way and you know when you're young and you're that you're that guy gets you in a lot of trouble yeah but also gets you out of a lot of trouble and I always was able to connect and you know make make teachers laugh in a way that was probably different from some of my peers maybe um again I'm not suggesting I was funny but let's be honest Of course, I was funnier than my peers. But, I mean, stack them up. A brief moment of humility there, and you just plowed right through it. It's great.

Well, I didn't want to be disingenuous because it's not. No, I mean, I was, you know, everybody knows people, my own son who is 10 years old. It's funny. My ex and I talk about all the time. He's just got this thing where he's really, really funny, and he gets it in a way that he can make adults laugh. So I think that that was always something. that I had and I found it as a really great escape. I had a pretty normal childhood in so many ways.

It was not traumatic. I have great parents. And, you know, I still talk to them a lot. Do I want to find the person who taught my mom how to text? Yeah, I want to find them. Are we at a ratio of 30 to one text in her favor? Yeah, we are. Is she using the emojis yet or is it just all caps firing off at you?

Oh, we are. I mean, she's been drunk on emojis for years. It is just, and it's non-seconders too. It's texts that come in the middle of the night. Like, I'm sorry, were we having a conversation? What are we talking about? I mean, I'm going to have to, I'm going to call her provider and throttle down her plan. But, you know, I have.

I have, I'm really blessed to have great parents who were really, and I really did have a very normal childhood. And I don't know what it is. I think that we, we did like to laugh a lot. My parents encouraged that too. They encouraged me to laugh. And they were pretty serious at certain times too, but I don't know.

I guess I just, I wanted to get out. I wanted to leave, I always knew that I wanted to leave Toronto and I wanted to leave Canada. And I wanted to go out and see this whole crazy world that's out there. Do you buy into Will the idea that there's something about Canada that produces all these hilarious people? I mean, that's sort of a cliche. But is there really something up there that produces, I mean, the list is so long of

these comedy greats you included? I don't, thank you for including me, because that would be so embarrassing if you were like, what if I said, you're notwithstanding. Yeah, like even in the interview, you wouldn't give me that, whether you believe it or not. I think that, you know, My friend Rob Cohen made a film about that, about what it, you know, he's a Canadian, he's a comedy writer who lives in the States, but is from Calgary and trying to investigate, like, what is it that makes Canadians funny? I think that Canadians have a pretty, can have a pretty good sense of humor about themselves. That's culturally part of our thing.

Don't take yourself too seriously. Yeah. And if you do, don't let us catch you. Because we will torture you for it. And which is great a lot of ways. And I always say like it's almost like a hockey analogy. I figure like culturally we are quite close to America. We're kind of in this no man's land of stuck between these,

the vestiges of sort of imperial English culture and the New World and North America. And, you know, post-war of 1812, by the way, the last of your listeners have, or your watches have gone now. That's a first. The War of 1812, yeah. Let's dig in on that. You know, like all that kind of stuff. I think that we're kind of stuck on the glass looking in.

We're like right there. We're up against it. You know, we can, we can smell and feel it, but we're just a, we have our own thing going too. And for a long time, I think Canadians, their identity was based on it being different from American identity. And it's only, I think, in the last couple generations, that Canadian identity has really started taking it.

a thing of its own. But part of that is we're able to look at what's funny about America. I think that's what it is. I don't know. Yeah, I think that's right. That's a good analogy, looking up at the glass for sure. I was, I promise I'm not running through your entire IMDB page, although maybe you'd like me to. We'll let you. That would be great. I mean, it started, yeah. I mean, I've got it, I've got it right ready here if you want it in case you miss anything. It's your screensaver. Go ahead. Yep, go ahead. I was going to ask you about flaked, which I think is a underrated really, really good show. And I didn't realize how much of your own life.

And I think you said at the time, like your own pain that went into that. Just what was happening in your life at that time. Did you take a lot of your own stuff, whether it was professional life or private life and put it into that show? Yeah, certainly that wasn't really the intention when I started. My partner Mark Chabble and I wanted to talk about, I don't know, we wanted to talk about this idea of who we are as people and the person that we put out to the world and who we really are and kind of how big is that divide. And the size of that divide often can be a pretty good measure of how unhappy you are as a person.

If that gap is too big. And I think that as we started getting into it, you know, you always start informing your work or your, especially writing is often informed by your own experience. And I guess just through that process started more and more of my own experience came through. It's not autobiographical. That's a word I just learned today. So I'm still testing it. workshop in it a little bit. Yeah.

So we're shopping it. So it's not autobiographical per se, but there were elements in my own life and also elements of other people in my life in this character of Chip in Flake that I really wanted to kind of investigate. And often what happens when you get into something like that, you get kind of close to a lot of things that are really

sort of hot issues for you. as it were. Yeah, well, I mean, right. And yeah, and now sort of five years removed from the second season, I can, I'm able to look back with much sort of healthier eyes at what that was. Right, right.

I mean, that was a really good show, I think underrated show, underappreciated. Well, thank you. Thanks, I mean, I took a lot of pride. It was a tough time because it was also hard. We got some, some of the reviews were pretty scathing at the time. and it wasn't until after that like a year later and two years later some people

started writing about it saying hey this show didn't get a fair shake and I think at the time I took it really personally and that was just that was difficult that made it it was a very sort of difficult confusing time for me which is funny to say because you know I was 44 or 45 46 at the time I wasn't a young man I was you know a middle-aged guy with kids and it was a and I learned like a bunch of lessons in a really short period of time which is often the way it goes I've talked to a lot of actors who say exactly what you just said which is you pour your heart into this you give a couple of years to it finally makes it up

onto a screen and some you know a couple of people go eh that wasn't too good and the world moves on you go wait a minute let me explain what we were trying to do no trust me it's great I mean that's got you in some ways I would think it does it really does and I you know I had somebody say, there was a guy who wrote a piece saying, this is not an accurate representation of what it's like for somebody to, who is going, you know, struggling with alcohol or whatever. And I was like, what do you know about it? This is actually a pretty fair description of what it was to go through that.

And so to call that wrong, I was like, oh man, I'm going to get this guy. You know what I mean? I'm going to write him a letter. I am going to... By the way, my version of get this guy. He's got a strongly worded letter coming his way. I have my agent type something up and send it to him. Yeah, yeah.

BoJack just ended last year, January of last year. Another just brilliant show. And also funny, but also had such, you know, some serious themes throughout the stuff that people can relate to. Yeah, I mean, BoJack, Raphael Bob Waxburg, who created BoJack, again, such a tremendous writer. It's kind of embarrassing how fortunate I've been to work with so many, just even talking about it now, how many incredible writers I've been able to work with. And it's, you hear the word all the time, but hashtag blessed. You know, to, I really do mean it.

I mean, I'm being glib because I can't get too real. Otherwise, I have to make a joke. But I've been really, really lucky. And Raphael was no exception, man. He what an incredible writer. He wrote a really great pilot that the first time I read it, I thought, wow, this is so funny. And then as we started to do the show,

he revealed himself to be such a thoughtful, you know, deep guy who could not only be, really funny, but be really pointing it at the same time. He really wrote the kind of stuff that I enjoy, which is you can be incredibly funny and incredibly tragic at the same time. That's such a feat. You know, I grew up my favorite film of all time. I talked about it recently on our, on our podcast was my favorite film of all the time is With Nail and I, English film by this guy, Bruce Robinson. Brilliant film. And it, it was the first time I had ever seen that move before, something that's really, really funny and really, really pointed and quite sad at the same time.

That's kind of the way life is. To bring back Flaked, we wanted to have, I never wanted to do a show that was just a comedy or just a drama because that's not how we experience life. We don't wake up and, you know, our lives, our days are filled with lots of ups and downs and things, funny moments and sad moments and sometimes, you know, back to back. And I think that Raphael with Bojack Horseman really got that. You know, here was a character who had been to the top and the top of, in his world with the entertainment industry. And you just see how kind of success doesn't necessarily mean success in terms of career does not mean success in terms of a person.

Whether it's show business or any business. You have a guy who's, you know, spiritually and morally bankrupt, even though he's at the top of his game and how incredibly sad and hollow he feels and bitter and how aware he is of where he's at, too. It just, yeah, really extraordinary. And Raphael, I just thought just an incredible job of bringing that out. To be able to render that credibly through an animated horse. I mean, I say that half joking, but it's true. To be able to pull that off is extraordinary.

I think, well, I think that that gives you, when you can have that be kind of one step removed and not have it be a human, but be a horse, you're able to examine things in a way that's much and really get to the heart of stuff that's hard to talk about. Yeah, no, it's a great show. Last thing before I let you go, the voiceover stuff. I mean, every time I turn on the TV, man, it's Reese's, it's GMC, you're everywhere. I mean, were you born with the voice like this? Did you train your voice?

Where did you pick up all this voice work? I would, like most things in my life, Willie, just kind of happened. And I just got real lucky. I don't know if I'm a lucky guy. I'm a fortunate guy. I will say that. And my dad's, my dad got quite a deep voice, and he always claims that if anything happens to me,

that he's just going to fill take over, which I think is rude. First of all, he's 83A and B, why are you thinking about something happening me? That's your problem, dude. I like the presumption that you're going first, and he's going to pick up the work. Again, yeah.

Well, I come from a family of optimists. I will say that. I'm a total optimist. I always just believe that things are going to work out, and they usually do. I think in life, you know, there's enough sort of negative stuff out there. You might as well focus on what's working, and that's what I do, and I tell my kids to do the same thing. And I've been really lucky with the voice stuff early on when I was a young actor. And, you know, when I moved to New York, I didn't have to wait tables because I was able to start working in voice stuff and lending my voice to commercial.

into radio commercials and stuff. And it's something I've been able to continue. I'm really proud of. I really like doing it after all these years. Yeah, I've been the voice of GMC trucks for 23 years, which has been an unbelievable partnership. And it's such a great group of people over there, and Reese's and has been awesome.

We have a lot of fun. That's also a great group of people who understand of like, hey, let's just go and make commercials and have fun. And anytime I can have fun and do it, do stuff. It never feels like work. I work with a company up in Canada. We do all these ads for this, you know, mobile company. And it's always just like, they're always kind of like, let's just have fun. And I'm always like, great, then we can be in business together. Right, right, right.

Your house must just be full of peanut butter cups, Legos, and GMC trucks, just to the gills. You got it. It's incredible. Honestly, it kind of is. It kind of is. And by the way, what's your take on Bateman trying to kind of step into your territory with his own car voiceover work. Are you threatened by him? What do you feel about him joining you in this field? Listen, I'm happy for the kid. I think, you know, for him to, because he's doing this stuff and he, and he, now he's put it, put it this way.

He's had to put himself in the commercials. These poor people at Hyundai, they've got to take an incoming from Bateman who feels so insecure about how I'm doing. over there with the gang at GMC and we're just kicking butt, that he's, they got to take an incoming and he's like, put me in the spot? How embarrassing. What are they going to say? They're like, okay, Mr. Sure, Mr. Bateman.

Oh, by the way, pathetic. It is, and I plan to tell them about it immediately after we log off here. Will, thanks so much for the time, man. This was a total blast. Congratulations on Lego Masters, congratulations on SmartList and all the stuff you're doing. I'm a fan. It's great to see you. Thanks, Willie. Great to talk to you, man. My big thanks again to Will for a great conversation and for always really bringing the heat when he talks about Jason Bateman,

swerving over into his lane doing car commercials. You can catch new episodes of Lego Masters every Tuesday night on Fox. And be sure to check out his podcast, Smartless, wherever you get yours. My thanks to all of you for tuning in again this week. As always, if you want to hear more of my conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on your television. That's on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.