The Bill Simmons Podcast - Jake Gyllenhaal on Picking Roles, Filming in Boston, and Creating Characters (Ep. 265)

Episode Date: September 27, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Jake Gyllenhaal to discuss auditioning for 'The Sandlot' (7:00), his new film 'Stronger' (13:00), shooting on set in Boston (24:00), role models in acting (30:00), 'Donnie Darko' (38:00), the social importance of 'Brokeback Mountain' (48:00), Heath Ledger's legacy (58:00), filming a sports movie in 'Southpaw' (1:10:00), working with Tom Ford (1:14:00), and shooting a sibling thriller with his sister, Maggie (1:18:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor. Buy and sell tickets in just two taps on your phone, everything fully guaranteed. Football fans, $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on NFL tickets. Use promo code BSNFL, download the SeatGeek app, or go right to SeatGeek.com. We're also brought to you by Hotel Tonight, the app that helps you find amazing hotel deals up to seven days in advance. Perfect for a unexpected trip or a spontaneous staycation.

Play it by ear, knowing you'll have the freedom to score a great place and price. All it takes is 10 seconds, three taps and a swipe. Grab killer last minute deals by downloading the Hotel Tonight app now. This is going to be an interview that we taped with Jake Gyllenhaal

last Friday in my office. He has a new movie coming out called Stronger that is about a Boston Marathon bombing victim named Jeff Bauman. I thought the movie was excellent. I saw it last week and I was really excited to have Jake on and talk about the movie and his career and a whole bunch

of other stuff. So we're going to do that right after the break. Wanted to mention quickly, theringer.com, my mailbag slash pics column goes up every Friday. I might be in a little bit of a cold streak, but that doesn't mean the comp can't be damn entertaining. And also, don't forget about all the good stuff we have on TheRinger.com. NBA preview stuff is launching. It actually launched at the beginning of last week, but we are now in the mix. All the NBA stuff, pop culture, NFL, politics, you name it. It's all in there, theringer.com. And also the rewatchables, which I'm not on this week, but I did speed last week with all my dudes.

And we had the Titanic this week with Julia Lipman, Amanda Dobbins, and Cam Collins is gonna be posted later this week. And then next week, Scream, the longest one we've ever done. Who would have guessed Scream would be the longest rewatchable pods? So anyway, that's a great feed. People really like that one. And if you want to send any questions about any of the pods that we've done on the Rewatchables,

hit us at themailbagattheringer.com. Coming up, Jake Gyllenhaal, but first, Pearl Jam. Jake Gyllenhaal in the house. We're taping this on a Friday. His movie came out, Stronger, which is excellent. We're going gonna talk about that we're running it next week but it'll be fine

your movie will do okay I was saying you walked in and I was like wow you're tall you were like almost as tall as I was

anytime I meet an actor I'm always I'm always prepared for anything from like 5 foot 4 to 6'3

you never know but I think you're like the seventh tallest actor in Hollywood. Yeah, I actually am. Clint Eastwood, Liam Neeson, Jeff Goldblum. This is good. I think that maybe Ben Affleck.

Ben Affleck's like a solid six two. Ben Affleck's tall. Leonardo DiCaprio's pretty tall. Yeah. Adam Driver's pretty tall. Adam Driver, that's a good one yeah he's tall should be a basketball team of tall i think he probably would yeah that'd be a horrible basketball team well actually i shouldn't speak for the tall maybe they play basketball at some point but you've

only done one sports movie right so um do were you in anything else you weren't in a team sport movie yet no a lot of time i almost i really when i was a kid because i was a kid actor i really wanted to be in a sandlot did you audition for it i did i auditioned for the sandlot oh my god i want to make sure my phone's off this is uh that's probably my son's favorite movie or top three but it's funny like that now that they're streaming just keeps going the next generation just jumps in and then it just what used to be what kind of trial for uh the like nerdy kid i forget his name that's a tough loss but then the kid who i played actually played with i played over in uh over here in la um at john burroughs high school like they had you know

they had like the baseball league over there and um the kid who was like star player actually got cast as like the star player in the movie you know the like the kind of tall kid who had a good game good looking kid who was like yeah that's he i played baseball with him over at john burroughs wow yeah so you're an la kid then i was i did no research for this yeah i always like to learn as i go with the cool with the thing well you and your sister la kids again in acting yes yes parents or you wanted it parents wanted or you want no no no i i don't know i'm not consciously yeah but um my my father's a director he directs tv um and my mom's a screenwriter so, we come by faking it really honestly. And so we were sort of in LA

and in that kind of trying to make movie scenes since we were kids. And then we just got into acting. We like doing commercials and all that stuff. No, no, no. We didn't do that. I took acting classes when I was a kid. My parents let me do that.

And then- What high school did you go to? I went to Harvard Westlake high school. Interesting. A baseball powerhouse now. Powerhouse. They're like a college university. I went to high school with the Collins twins. Actually they were in a class right above me. Yeah. So, you know, I'm used to tall and they're tall and smart. So I, I went with them, but yeah, they are a baseball powerhouse and they, they're tall and smart so yeah i went with them but yeah they are a baseball powerhouse and they they're in a pretty it's a pretty incredible school all around academically too i mean um and the performing arts department there is incredible too i mean uh that was really where i learned

about like the literature and the history of you know particularly theater and then from an incredible teacher there named ted walsh who a number of people who have passed through there's like jason siegel was in my class actually he played basketball he was a he played with the guy yeah he's super tall yeah we were in the same we were in the same we went to he was one year older but we were in the same class i mean same school so yeah so you were like like age 17 18 you're like like, I'm going to be an actor. I'm doing this. Yeah, I guess I thought that. What I was doing was in between my free periods, I was going to auditions.

So if I had like a double free period, I would schedule an audition if it was possible, and I would go run out. Usually because the high school is in Studio City, so usually a lot of those places where you audition are like around studio city and in the valley so i would just rush out finish class rush out get my car go do an audition and come back make yourself cry yeah make myself cry and then uh make myself cry and then work up some sort of emotion in 10 minutes. Punch myself in the face in the car and just walk right in, come back out. But when I was 16, it was really funny. I was 16.

I was not cast in the school play, and I thought I was going to get it because I had been in a lot of plays, and I was pretty cocky about it. I walked into the audition, and I asked Ted Walsh, the theater teacher there, how to get to this, like, professional audition I was, I was going to go do after, and I didn't really memorize, memorize my lines, and I didn't really give it much focus, and I was like, I'm gonna get this, I'll get the starring part in this, and then I went and did the other audition, and I went to the, like, cast list the next day, and I wasn't cast, and I was like, what's up with that? And I was heartbroken.

And I went up to him and he's like, you know, being an actor is not just about being good at what you do. It's about being respectful to the people around you. And you walked in here and you were, you know, you asked where the next audition was and you, you know, didn't really know your lines. And I don't want someone like that in my production.

And it was the biggest lesson I've learned. That's awesome. Yeah. It's funny how you can have one thing like that happen in your formative years and it can completely flip your perspective on things. Well, the irony of that was the next couple of weeks I auditioned for this movie called October Sky,

which was the first movie that I was starting and I was 16 and I got the part. And he then cast me in the musical the school musical the next semester and i couldn't do it because i went to go make that movie yeah and he came to visit me on set actually we shot in knoxville tennessee and um he came to visit me on set and um he's i i when i take off my my wardrobe at night when you after you finish work a lot of people kind of throw it throw it on the the wherever you are like the bed or whatever in a trailer

and i always like to fold it up like i was like take it and he saw me doing that and he was like that's what i'm talking about he's like full he's like fold up your fold up your costume so you know be respectful to everybody yeah that was a big lesson that he taught me. I've since totally abandoned that, you know, but. Would you give me an A-list star just to go around people around? Yeah, who cares? Respect, whatever. It doesn't matter. It's just, it's all about the money.

But no, that's always been in my, it's always in my head. And that was super formative. But yeah, Harvard Westlake, that's an amazing performance. I want to talk about Stronger and then I want to go through I want to zip through your IMDB and talk about some of the movies yeah okay it's a long bumpy ride Stronger is emotional

I mean obviously I'm from Massachusetts and spent my first 32 years of my life in New England and lived in Boston the last 10 years I was there the marathon's kind of holy ground. Yeah. And so I've gotten nervous anytime there's been a marathon movie.

Patriot's Day, I was super nervous because that was almost like an action movie. Yeah. And they handled it well, and it's good, and I'm glad they made it. Your movie, which I intentionally didn't read about because I wanted to just kind of throw myself into it and it's about jeff bauman and uh it's it's it's grueling but and i don't mean that in a negative way it's just i mean you're in it from the get-go as a viewer and you see everything and uh it was really emotional. It was one of those movies you leave the theater and you're just kind of like, what do I do now? Got to go get some food.

But I thought it was terrific. My dad went to Shake Shack after last night he saw the movie. He was like, I just felt so relieved and so happy and so like life was good. He's like, so him and his wife, he's like, so we went to Shake Shack. I was like, oh, it's so dead. So you've had a few of these roles that you just, you know, just these really taxing roles. Is that an accident or is that something that you just find yourself

attracted to? I don't know, maybe sort of both. I mean, I'm drawn to a challenge and then I'm drawn to what moves me. So maybe it's a challenge that moves me, but in the case of Stronger, um, I was just, first of all, when I read it, the screenplay of it in an early draft, I was laughing, you know, I didn't know that i would turn to page three and i'd start laughing and then i'd be crying and i'd be laughing at spots and like i think that's what surprised me about it and they said they they set the characters up as just these in the wool boston

dudes yeah initially and then i think it's just when the event happens i think the way jeff handles it yeah um is initially through humor i, the first thing he asks when he wakes up is, is, is Aaron, who's his girlfriend, is Aaron okay? And then the next thing he says is Lieutenant Dan. You know what I mean? So I, I think, and then the next thing he says is I saw the bomber because he identified the bomber and he was really, he was a pivotal part in catching, catching those guys. So, I mean, I think I was just,

I was moved by it in more ways than that. And then I think that's how I read a script normally is I go, the story's really great and I want to be a part of it. And then I usually go, oh shit, like this character's going through a lot. I didn't even realize it. I just love the story so much.

And then I just get in it, you know? So I am drawn to the physical aspects of performing and also the mental aspects. I don't think they're different in the end. So, yeah. Well, with this one, the CGI was almost a character. I don't think we've seen a lot of variations of this type of movie, especially like Forrest Gump from 20 years ago.

You can see now that the CGI is pretty obvious. This is incredible how they did it. Yeah. Like, you don't, it's every single scene where there's a wide shot, like, there were some of them where i was like i don't know how they did that yeah it's incredible oh yeah i mean well we worked with an incredible company called micros who they just do incredible work because they're not about the only them and what they're doing they're about the scene and what's going on in it so they'd say to david gordon green

the director and to me they say well what do you want to do? And we'd talk about what we want to do, and then we would all figure out how to get that done. So there's a scene where his girlfriend's sitting on the bed where your legs would have been, but you have legs. So how do they do that? So in that case, in order to pull anything like that off, we live in a world now of so much visual effects that I feel like people are not used to like what you'd call in camera stuff you know just stuff you do actually on the set yeah so a mixture of it is always what is because it seems

like the two of you were acting and right next to each other yeah we were right next to each other and the reason why is because my legs are um under the bed under the bed there are holes in the bed and then we made prosthetic molds of my the top of my legs because um jeff is a bilateral ak so above the knee both legs and we made prosthetics and of both sides of my quads basically and then they and then we have an incredible makeup prosthetic prosthetic guy who created that so i wore these pants that had doubles of my knees and then my and my legs went under and then the prosthetics went over on top of it so i have so i can actually move them underneath it's very hard i can move them underneath a little bit um so that's that's so

that's why she could do that there but then in some cases I have green socks on in the wheelchair and I always have to keep my legs straight out in that scene. Cause you want to keep the thing that makes it work is that it's not like I'm wearing green socks. My legs are bent. I'm just keeping normal. My legs are straight out in green socks. So I'm doing a scene with someone and my legs are just sticking out sometimes in between

their legs. Like I'll roll up in roll up in but i don't know if it's hard to visualize no i noticed a couple times where you would see the person behind where your legs should have been and i don't know it was they are incredible it was seamless though because you bought in immediately with it and it wasn't it was one of those things where 20 years ago i think that kind of stuff could have overshadowed a little bit but you didn't think about it in this case. So there's like about an hour of this movie that is just grim and the character's in a dark place.

Are you one of those people when you're doing a movie like that, do you go in a dark place or are you able to turn it on and off? Yeah. I mean, I knew like no matter what I did, I wouldn't get anywhere near what Jeff went through. So I just tried to understand everything about him. And I think everybody who, people who were there that day, people who, anyone who was touched by that event, you know, and what happened can feel those feelings, I think, somewhere, you know. But like you're coming home, but back to your hotel at like 1030 at night. Like, how do you, how do you get out of that?

Sometimes you don't. Yeah. I don't know. Sometimes you don't. I mean, there's one night, particularly that scene where I'd have to drag myself across the parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. Like we would roll the camera for like 20 minutes, you know?

And I think that struggle sometimes, you know, every time in my mind, you know, you just go like, no matter what you do, you will never understand the pain. So how far can you go? So, you know, rolling a camera for 20 minutes and being in it is tough, but it's nowhere near tough and, you know, compared to what he's got.

So I just kept doing, you know, you're just in it. And I remember after that scene, we finished at like 2 a.m. because we were shooting like half night, half day. And I drove home. My driver's name's Dana. He's awesome. And I like thank God for Dana because I wouldn't have been able to get a little bit of the accent without Dana because he's got the best accent.

And I just couldn't get out of it. You know, like I didn't sleep that night. And then I came back to the set that the next morning and I was like, I went into makeup cause I have an incredible makeup artist. He does incredible character work. It's amazing what he did. We have all these discussions about the painkillers that Jeff was on and and how that affects your body how that affects your skin tone like how the body in stress you know when you're sitting there sweat while you're trying not to express yourself but your body's saying something else you know we we talk about that a lot he's all about physiological psychological effect on the body and it's not just like oh like let's make you look pretty, you know? I went in and we started talking. I just broke down.

Like, you know, I just cried to him and I was like, this is crazy, you know? And things like that happen, you know? Jeff's story is like that. And there are harrowing times in the story, you know? But, yeah. What really resonated with me is it was kind of unapologetic, some of the things it showed, especially when they take the wraps off his stumps for the first time and the camera's just like, we're showing you this and you're going to go through this with him. And when it gets to that level, that's when I think as somebody who's in the theater, that's the stuff that sticks with you after, I think, in a good way.

Yeah. I mean, I think you have to, how do you know joy without pain yeah i mean and i think that's the thing that movies like this particularly inspirational movies don't tend to go to you know they don't i in my opinion we had to have the balls to be able to go like we're going to go to the pain so we can go to the joy how do you earn that joy and that was uh well what's what's even cooler the thing i wasn't prepared for was the girlfriend which is a part that can go either way in a movie like this and sometimes can just turn into a wet blanket which is usually what happens in any sports movie but yeah um but in this one she becomes as sympathetic as him and you start rooting for her and she's also a great actress that usually incredible. And you start rooting for her.

And she's also a great actress. That usually helps. But if you start rooting for her the same way you're rooting for Jeff, which I guarantee was the intention when they went into it. But it worked. Oh, that's awesome to hear. Yeah. She's the strongest one.

Yeah. I mean. And she had, both of you nailed the accents, which I'm very particular about. I was worried. Really, man? Because people have been giving me, people like, some like some some boss you're taking shit for it no no like in person no but like you know there's some reviews and stuff people are like oh he's doing his best like brooklyn accent i'm like no no no man sorry i just you know i'm like

we worked so hard on it and i and i and i i you know that's really good to hear from you thank you i've set the record straight i've talked about this before but most of the the boston We worked so hard on it, and that's really good to hear from you. Thank you. Set the record straight. I've talked about this before, but most of the Boston accent, the mistake most actors make is they try to do the Kennedy version. That's so true. America. Damon has, because he's from there, he gets it.

Come on. He has a great one. But then Martin Sheen and Nicholson's trying to do it. And he's doing like this New York Bronx accent. But you had like, it's attitude. It's 75%. Yeah, like what the fuck are you talking about? Like it's like there's a hiss to it that you figured out.

You have to be okay with being torn apart. Do you know? Like that's a big part of it. If you're okay with it, then the accent comes out. If you can take some shit, then you can probably do the accent do that her accent was good too yeah well she's canadian everybody was good then you had lenny clark who has one of the five best boston accents on the planet lenny's one of the five best people on the planet yeah that was a lot of lines for lenny i've known him for a while that was uh oprah's your life when i saw him i was like ah they got lenny as

a boston guy and it's like he had had like seven, eight scenes. Yeah, he's fantastic. I've known Lenny for a really long time because when I grew up, I grew up, my parents, my mom went to Martha's Vineyard like with an old boyfriend years, like 30, 40 years ago. And then she brought us there when we were kids. So we've been going, like all my best friends

grew up in and around Boston. So like, because I spent my summers over there so Lenny I've known actually for a really long time always come up to me on the beach like oh like hey Jake it's Lenny yeah you know and I'm like this guy's nuts and then and then like I mean I love him I love Lenny so much and he came in to read and he was like you better get me about you get him get me about I was like yeah yeah okay okay Lenny he was fantastic because he's read and he was like you better get me about you get him get me about i was like yeah yeah okay okay lane he was fantastic because he's fantastic and i was like you got yourself apart you're where'd you shoot this in massachusetts did you actually shoot in chelmsford or did you go all around yeah yeah we shot all around we shot in chelmsford we shot in

boston like pretty much in and around boston yeah it became kind of hard because we were shooting they were shooting patriots day and also we were shooting at the same time. So- Well, they're two totally different movies. So, I mean- They are. But I think the city was very sensitive, rightfully so. And I think when you got so much of that coming in at a time where I feel like people were like,

look, we're still healing from this. And I think there's a rightfully so a skepticism of like, what is you know quote unquote hollywood doing here you know and like but we all had the best intentions and like a lot of love and i think they i think they saw that i hope they see that now but i think they really got that we were there they brought out the best of boston and everything i love about boston like that this terrible incident and but it happened on like the holy Boston day, which is like this special holiday

that only people from Massachusetts get off. And then there's all these stories that, well, they're going to run the marathon again. And everybody's about like, fuck that, we're doing the marathon again. And it was like more people than ever the next year. And it was like, kind of everything I love about the city and what I miss about, you know, living 3000 miles away. But I, you know, I,

I had the same reaction when I heard they were making Patriots day. When I heard about this, I was like, ah, yeah, I don't know. Believe me. I was like, Oh, it's a big stakes. Cause if it didn't work out, nobody would be angrier and more vengeful I think that, uh, the Boston people, have you screened it in Boston yet? Yeah. We, we premiered the movie. The U S premiered the movie was at Spalding Rehabilitation Center in Charlestown,

which is where Jeff rehabilitated after the injury. It was actually where a lot of the first patients there were marathon survivors and amputees. And they were all there actually, Jeff and the doctors and all the caretakers. So what's his reaction to this? I mean, this has to be like an out-of-body experience for him to watch this.

Yeah, I mean, think about it. I was thinking about it when we were in Spalding Rehabilitation. I was thinking four years ago he was here as an outpatient. Before that, just as a patient, trying to recalibrate his entire life and trying to get perspective being called a hero not knowing what that meant you know yeah he always says he was sucker punched you know and then all of a sudden everyone's like you're a hero and he's like whoa yeah let me give me some give me some time that was one of the best scenes when he they

take him to the bruins game oh yeah like uh yeah you're gonna wave the flag and he's his head spinning and he is he can't process it that was the first day we shot that the first day yeah because we didn't know if the bruins were gonna make the playoffs and they didn't and so we were like but you needed the bruins game we needed the bruins yeah we needed that so bad yeah and um we i remember the conversation because we were in pre-production and we were in the production office and nicholas stern our awesome line producer um he who did creed and he's like he's awesome and he came came into office he's like is everybody sitting down and like also because in that scene was one of the biggest you know in the elevator that's a pretty big scene too

where yeah he gets overwhelmed by everything that's going on and there's a little his like ptsd kind of comes back a bit and so he goes uh so listen uh it looks like the bruins are not going to make the playoffs uh and so we need to probably shoot on the first day and we need to like put out basically an apb now and say hey anyone who's going to that game can you stay because we're going to shoot afterwards and let's just pray they don't lose that night because everyone's going to leave right i was like oh shit jesus i was like okay like but this movie's been like that from the from the jump like every single thing about it has said like you go deep or you go home like literally it was that every single time it was like it's asking that of you i don't know what it is about the organism that this movie is um maybe it's just

like the spirit of boston or whatever it might be but everything was like it looks like we're gonna lose this thing and then so we get out there and we we shoot some stuff in the box because we have some scenes to shoot in the box and then the game ends the bruins lose and we make this announcement me and jeff have filmed this thing It goes up and the Megatron thing. And they say, hey, we're filming. If you guys can stay. And I'm a forever, I mean, hopefully not forever cynic, but I'm definitely a cynic.

And I thought, no one's going to stay. And we get down there. I get in the wheelchair. I'm there with Tatiana, who plays Aaron in the movie. And our crew's there and our camera crew. And they make the announcement. Lights go down and they roll me out and I realize that three quarters of the stadium has stayed and they've all come down and including um Jeff's boss at Costco who's gone through Kevin his

cousins like all these people lined up as we're being as i'm being rolled out and they're all cheering like jeff jeff usa and i just got overwhelmed it's like overwhelming just by proxy the love they have for jeff that everybody stayed and i just thought like that was the craziest most beautiful send-off you could ask for i just thought man this city like and uh and and that was it like that was how we started thinking we were gonna lose but i think we we didn't so so do you think this is the best performance of your career or is it fair to even say that i mean can you even judge your career like that um no i i have no perspective on my career yeah i i don't really plan i mean i mean i that you know in all honesty we're strategic you know people i work with you know

we are thoughtful and you'll be you're you're the rare a-list actor who just picks movies you want to make every time like Like you're not, I'm sure you've been offered superhero movies and things like that, but it seems like you're veering left, right, down, up, doing all kinds of things, challenging yourself. You have to know yourself. I'm not sounding like I'm kissing your ass. No, but that's fine.

I'm cool with that. I don't mind that. I never know what Jake Gyllenhaal movie is next. Oh thank you uh no i mean uh i just i think i think that i you got you got to know who you got to know who you are you got to know your value and you got to know who who wants you know like i've always thought that that i've tried that game like i've tried the sort of the huge game you know like yeah and um like i think i'm just a different type that wasn't you yeah and i just think i'm a different gambler you know like i gambled i mean it doesn't mean you can't you know i think everybody has this idea like go like you

gotta do the like this i don't know whatever this we all have this idea, like, go, like, you got to do the, like, this, I don't know, whatever this, we all have this, maybe it's an American thing. It's like, we think we got to go like higher and bigger and all this stuff. And to me, I think I just bet, like, I don't bet safe, but I think I just try and bet with my instinct and say, I got to bet on myself, you know? So if you're going to bet on yourself, you got to bet on what you like and what you can give your everything to. And I think then eventually people go, this guy's probably going to give everything to this thing. So maybe I'll go see it.

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See for yourself at GilletteOnDemand.com. Gillette, the best a man can get. Pricing applies to select products and is at the sole discretion of the retailer. Let's get back to Jake Gyllenhaal. What actor, as you were kind of rising up the ranks, did you say, that's the type of career I'd want, that guy's career?

Or did you not have one? I don't know. I didn't really look at, I mean, for a little while there, I really, really respected, like, I mean, I still do really respect, but I think I, early on, I looked at, like, there was, like, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire and that group of guys who were working with great directors. Yeah.

I think their choice is, like, just work with great directors and you'll be cool and um smart move yeah it's a smart move and you're not really in that group are you too young for them i'm like a little older right i am way too young for them no uh like five years those dudes are old no uh no i'm kidding uh yeah i'm like i'm like eight years younger eight five eight years younger than them. Yeah, somebody like that. I've missed out on a lot of good parties. I know. They couldn't have folded you in?

Like a younger brother type thing? Again, I've been to some pretty good parties. They've just been a little bit, you know, maybe not as high profile. But you know what? Like, it's my thing. I just do my thing, you know? Right. So, no, they're covered.

They don't need anybody else. That's true. They have enough. I think they have enough in the group. What was your biggest paparazzi run? Where you were just- What do you mean, like running away from or towards? No, just when all of a sudden you were in Us Weekly all the time and you're like, how did I get here?

What happened to my life? That's sort of how I feel every day. How did I get here? What happened to my life? Sort of a general mantra but um i don't know in my early 20s i think there was there was like um like when you were dating kirsten dunst yeah like when i first were taking photos you guys having coffee yeah yeah that was intense what we were doing was intense yeah yeah that was like kind of the height of the early

paparazzi before like yeah that was when getting coffee like that garnered like a lot of attention yeah you know what i mean that was like someone i was on corn o'brien the other night he was like there's this instagram page called like things jake does or something like that what yeah it's ridiculous it's so funny it's there are pictures of me eating a sandwich and laughing and they've cut people out of it and it's just it's like jake laughing at his sandwich it's the best it's like like jake being amazed by snow because like there's like pictures of me like at some for me i did this movie the day after tomorrow and there's like all this snow coming down they did for like the red carpet and so i was like smiling and i was like that wasn't snow that's cocaine i mean i do think social media has changed the game with that

stuff because like last decade that was, you, you know, you read us week or whatever to stay in touch with whatever celebrities you like that we're interested in and stuff like that. And now you just get them directly. But now like Instagram and the way Twitter and the way people can just go directly to their fans,

it doesn't seem like, like who's on Robertson taking pictures of people coming out of the Ivy, you know? When I was living here in the mid 2000s, you know, you get on Robertson and there's paparazzi everywhere. And now Robertson's like, half the stores are gone. Well, that's nice. Well, not nice to hear that all the stores are gone, but. Well, it's nice from a privacy standpoint,

it's probably a little easier. Yeah, I mean, I think after a while, you just learn how to you know go to the places where you feel most comfortable you know i think that's basically you're not used to it i can tell what just being just being famous and having somebody take a picture of you as you're like coming out of the gym i'm not i'm not used to that and i know that's like uh but i also will say that um it's one of those things where they always like catch you like scowling and stuff like that, because generally what I would say, and this doesn't go for every one of them, but there's usually a, not a nice person taking the picture but you really do love all the people who are looking at that picture yes which is always the that's always the difficult part is like it's really just the jerk who's doing that so just be aware that if there was somebody

being jerky taking your picture you'd probably be like that too like keep that in mind with people when you see pictures of them that generally that's what's happening. You know, they really like the people who are looking at the picture. Let's go through some IMDb. Okay. 1991, City Slickers. Yeah. You played Danny Robbins. Yes, I did.

Who was Danny Robbins? This was your first role. He was Billy Crystal's son. You were Billy Crystal's son in City Slickers? Yes, I was. Did you know this, Tommy? No idea. Kyle's never seen City Slickers yes i was did you know this tommy kyle's never seen city slickers he's how old are you how old are you he's like 24 how old are you're 24 you've never seen city slickers that's like on vhs you don't even know what vhs is he's literally if

you're 24 you're like i said to somebody the other day i was talking about crisscross and i was like because i by mistake the other day i was so we were super busy promoting this movie and I put on my underwear backwards and I wore them on backwards all day long. And then I had to change for something and I was like, Oh no, it wasn't changing. I had to go to the bathroom. Yeah. And I was like, what the fuck? I literally was like, Whoa.

And then I was like, what's wrong with me? And then, so that happened. I turned them around. I like weirdly in the bathroom went and like turned them around. And then it was strange because I was like in a doctor's office or it was weird. I felt uncomfortable. And then I went home and I had to go do some event that night and I walk into the event and I realized my t-shirts on backwards. I was like, what's wrong with me? So I'm talking to these people, they're 20, 23, 24. And I'm like, man, I put on my shirt on backwards my underwear on backwards today and it's like crisscross and they were like

uh and i was like no no this is happening yeah no that's the way it is it's happening the mid-90s is officially the nostalgia zone yeah like the mtv has a show called 90s house where the people have to dress and act like they're in the 90s. That's how old we are. Yeah. That's where we're headed. I got to say, they don't know the Sprite commercial with Criss Cross? No.

Come on. It's like, Chris, what up? What is that? What up? Something. What's his name? And he's like,

what's it in your hand? It's the S to the P-R-I-T-E can. Come on. Understand the cross, Chris. Drink the crazy, crazy twist of unexpected is that you can never miss. So what's your name? Daddy M a C. And what's your drink?

S P R I T E. What? Cause it's a lifesaver. When you need thirst, quench it like a kiss with a lime and twist. Now, you know, that's kicking.

What? So drink up, drink up is all you gotta do. Why? Cause I like the Sprite in you. Wow. Come on. I wish we had a 90s.

Yes. Thank you so much what do you remember about october sky oh wow in 30 seconds uh chris cooper before he was chris cooper laura dern um being 16 years old um having no idea what it was like to be in a movie let alone a star in a movie and um and you had like your own trailer and stuff yeah my own trailer on a door yeah but i like expected a lot like of like you know pomp and stuff like i expected it to be kind of like you know movie set and really what i realized what i think what what good hard work it is yeah at 16 and i was like pulled out of my second semester of my senior year in high school to do this and it was a huge honor but i remember chris cooper that's what i'll say 30 seconds or less chris cooper um just being a pro well him saying to me in one fight scene we had i was yelling yeah i was so excited because you know fight scenes for actors are always the most fun you

know yeah and he was like he stopped me and he was like, stop. Just listen to what I'm saying to you. And the whole entire scene changed. So. Interesting. I've taken that advice from. Chris Cooper. Yes. Yes.

Donnie Darko. There's your breakout movie, 2001. It's funny. That movie was like a flop when it first came out. But then it became like that had this whole second, third, fourth, and fifth, and seventh life. I know. What do I remember? 22 Days.

We shot in 22 Days. 22 Days? 22 Days. Jesus. Yeah. My sister's in it. I remember Patrick Swayze, who was the consummate gentleman. I call him the great Patrick Swayze.

You can call him Patrick Swayze. No, he is the great patrick swayze you can call him patrick no he is the great patrick swayze he really incredible run yeah and he's just he was just the kindest man you know just the kindest man like the the version of you know the star that you would always hope people would be you know great man um the good girl that's one with jennifer aniston yeah we made out yeah we simulated sex and we made out in that movie that's all i remember simulated was that your first simulated sex scene yeah it was real kissing but it wasn't real kissing but it was simulated sex yes and like the patch dick patch? What do they call that thing? That giant circle patch? Yeah.

Yeah, the giant circle patch. Giant. In my case, yeah. Huge. That's to get the extra large. Yeah. No, I do remember a pillow between us. That's what I remember.

And it was that moment. Need the pillow. I remember actually like, yeah, I remember being like, man, I don't know what I like. I have to be naked. Like, this is weird. I have to be naked. This is weird. I have to be naked with Jennifer Aniston. Oh, my God.

The peak of her powers. That was really awesome. Brad Pitt's going to be mad at you. That was awesome and horrible at the same time. It was so incredible. Yeah. Pitt, it was like, you were psyched, and then you were also like, I'm going to get my ass beat. It was like, but you didn't.

He was cool. Nice. Yeah. Just laid back, that Brad't. He was cool. Nice. Yeah. Just laid back, that Brad Pitt. He was great. Moonlight Mile, which is. He's tall too, actually. Pitt's pretty tall.

Like six feet? I don't know. Five, ten? Moonlight Mile, for the record. On cable a lot. Dustin Hoffman, not tall. Yeah, I've seen him. Yeah, he's short.

Moonlight Mile, on cable a lot lately. Really? I don't know why. Huh. Yeah, on cable a lot. That Really? I don't know why. Huh. Yeah, on cable a lot. That was just a bad haircut. That's the best thing I can remember. No, that was literally the all-star group of actors.

I was 23. I have no idea how I got that part. And it was Susan Sarandon, Dustin Hoffman, Dabney Coleman, Holly Hunter. It was every single scene with another extraordinary legend. And I learned more on that movie. There are two or three movies along the way that I learned about acting from. So what did you learn in that movie? I remember seeing with Holly Hunter, well, Dustin, all the time.

I mean, knowing particularly that acting in film is very different than acting on the stage yeah um and you can you can do a lot off camera um and you can really help your fellow actor a lot too and be engaged and make it new and he does that he does that a lot you know i heard maybe he was changed by this point but he had the reputation for being super difficult to work with though at some point like the kramer versus kramer did you read that stuff i didn't i think they wrote a book about meryl streep and there's this whole chapter about kramer versus kramer and how oh yeah he would like make her really cry to get the performance he wanted he was one of those guys he must have milled out by 2002 uh no i think he did a little bit of that too but i think he made He made you cry? Well- No. Yeah, well, no, he tried.

I don't know. It does not happen. No, I mean, the thing about it is like, and this is the thing about acting is we're all different animals, right? Like, I mean, I think we're all different animals in whatever we do. And if you're a professional in particular, I think you have to be aware that not everybody is the same animal. And that's something I've learned too.

I'm definitely similar in style, not similar in caliber of talent, but definitely similar in style to Dustin in that. I believe you should undo what you believe are the rules. You can get really caught in rules and ideas and preconceptions about a scene. And I think he's the kind of person who undoes those things and breaks you open into a new space. And I'm always down for that. Because it's a sacred space. I believe it's the kind of person who undoes those things and breaks you open into a new space

and I'm always down for that because it's a sacred space I believe it's a sacred space I believe once you get in front of that camera like anything goes right and you better be prepared for anything and like if you're if you're down I'm down if you go far that's why I love Tatiana Maslany and stronger because she's like that there's a scene in the movie where she screams in my face that doesn't scare me jeff that was her line because i was at her in the scene yeah and she screamed back at me that doesn't scare me jeff it's in the movie it's such beautiful work by her but you didn't know that was coming no we're just in the scene together and i'm going at her and she was going at me and because these characters in the movie have a lot going on and there's so much love between them but there's so much pain and so much guilt and so much stuff and she's going at me and i went at her and i was

yelling and when i yelled at her i yell at the character yells at her in the scene he says you know um why do you want me like why do you want me like i'm a piece of shit like why do you want me and she's like that doesn't scare and i do you want me? And she's like, that doesn't scare. And I'm screaming it at her. And she's like, that doesn't scare me, Jeff. And it was like, oh, like, you know, I think in that scene, you hear that line too. You go, oh, and you feel her power.

You feel her strength. And he tries to take her down and she goes, no. And that's the way their relationship is through the whole movie. So I think I love actors like that i think preparation discipline planning uh all of those things are everything and are important to the process but you got to throw them away and then you got to come up with ideas in the moment because you know new things are going to happen and dustin was like that we do this podcast called

the rewatchables where we break down movies that people have seen a million times. I did Silence of the Lambs last week with my friend Chris Ryan. And in the research of it, found out that the first time Jodie Foster had the scene with Hopkins, when she goes down in the cellar

and she does the accent, he ad-libs something about how he can tell it's her accent. Like he basically makes fun of her accent as anthony hopkins but through lector and it rattled her and made her upset which is what he wanted and then got whatever performance he was hoping for i was like i love that shit i love when the actors are like kind of pushing nudging each other a little bit i think that's the game i mean that's the fun part that's the fun when you get to a place like that's why you come prepared yeah because if you're not ready like the truth is if you don't have everything down your research all of your lines in an

unconscious way which is about preparation like i have learned from working with having had the privilege to work with such incredible actors like you know like literally like get off the field you know and and so i come in i'm ready to go you know and in truth like if you're not ready to go like i'm gonna like i'm gonna do my i'm gonna do my thing and and i think that's i think that's beautiful you know kind of sounds like basketball yeah you're like the captain of a basketball team it's like get off the court yeah i mean look we're running today it is an honor to be doing it yeah there are so many people who want to be doing it and there's so many people who who deserve to be there probably maybe more than me or the other people who are doing it too you know

and the truth is if you're there like you better play hard you know and like that's definitely how i that's definitely how i feel but i think it's a different thing too because you can't just go all you have to be vulnerable too right you have to be open you have to be able to love you have to be able to say i'm i'm a little broken too you know it's not all just like pushback, pushback. It's also saying, who are you? This is me, you know? And that's why I think, you know, actors are, relationships with actors are amazing, you know? I think they can be really cool people.

So at some point you became kind of one of the it guys, it young guys. Like it, like the horror movie or like? No, like you probably had a lot of options. People are like, everyone loves to do that. He's next, here he comes. like it like a horror movie or like no like you probably a lot of options people like everyone loves to do that he's next here he comes and you get to do that whole wave of publicity did the day after tomorrow summer movie yeah yeah but it seems it seems like you're kind of already starting to veer toward no no i'm not gonna be that guy i'm gonna actually make some choices yeah i mean um because your next couple are all like thoughtful choices well what happens in a

career when you're young and you start is you first don't have much choice you just go and audition and you hopefully get parts and if you do get the parts then you're just psyched to be working yeah you know so i i got lucky to be making some really you know get get cast in some really nice films you know and then you sort of go into a period of time where you're like cast and then also are auditioning so whatever you get you're kind of doing too and then eventually over time sometimes if you're lucky enough then you get to make those choices so there are people making choices for you really early on. So a lot of these choices we're talking about are not fully mine. They're other people's and great filmmakers.

So about the day after tomorrow is like when things sort of started to come. But I thought, I mean, like right after day of tomorrow was like. You have a nice run right after that. Yeah. And I think that run came from a mix of like things like Donnie Darko and also the day after tomorrow. Cause all of a sudden you're in a movie that makes money. And then,

then that opens the door. Okay. We could put him in a movie and all that stuff. And then, uh, it was like, uh, jarhead like Sam Mendes and John Madden.

Which one was first? Cause Oh five, you made three movies. Yeah. Three good movies. Brokeback proof Proof and Jarhead it's a solid year congratulations

thank you very much fucking 12 years later I've been waiting for that for 12 years no one's congratulated me about that year except for you so thank you awesome three very different movies crazy different movies Pro Crazy different movies.

Proof did, didn't that have some Oscar nominations and stuff? I vaguely remember. I don't know. No, I don't think. Maybe, I don't know. Shit, I should know. Brokeback did. You lost to Crash though.

Yes, we lost to Crash, yeah. That has not aged well, that decision. Which, oh, the decision. That is, anytime there's an oscar travesties or worst oscar decisions it's always in the top five it's like holy shit crash feet broke back i know it's kind of it's more amazing over time that was that was a great movie and uh it's it's it's hard to watch now because of Heath Ledger just like

especially you see that you see the the Dark Knight or even 10 Things I Hate About You like that was a great actor and

we don't have a lot of great actors now you know he's not there I know you became super close to him when you did the film but I mean

can you even watch that movie now yeah of course I can what's it like to watch it now that he's not here it's beautiful i mean you know for me and for all of us who made that movie it's a making a movie is a very different experience from watching that movie you know but that movie was the process of it was particularly special you know it was like you know what i remember from that is like little things like watching ang lee do tai chi in the morning and a bite by a river we were all living in our trailers so right next door to each other

so i was like me and then um michael houseman who's our first ad and then ang lee had his trailer and then heath had his trailer and heath and and and Heath and Michelle Williams, they fell in love on that movie. Yeah. Yeah, so they were then in a trailer together, you know what I mean? And then it was like, and we had like six trailers, and we would eat in the morning, we'd have breakfast, someone would cook breakfast. You're just like in the middle of nowhere. Middle of nowhere. We're in Wyoming? We're nowhere in Alberta, Canada, yeah. And we would cook breakfast, someone, one of us would cook breakfast, we'd all meet up, we'd we'd have breakfast have some coffee and then one by one in order of who was working first we'd walk to set and for the first month of that movie it was that

and um we we we weren't necessarily knew we were doing something special like what it became we had no idea anyone would see the movie so or you just thought it was gonna be like a indie yeah man some two movie theaters and that's it yeah at that time no one was really telling stories like that you know so it was it was ang lee who had an extraordinary filmmaker but i think we just went yeah it's a beautiful story we want to tell it and i don't think any of us knew the phenomena it would become it's a phenomenon it was crazy when it came out and um so for me it's those times i mean to me i think relationships are made not in you know the success of like the outward success but in the connection so we're all very deeply connected due to the process of that and And then he leaves the movies, dating Michelle Williams, and just keeps going. Yeah, yeah.

That movie now, 12 years later, and there's been so much progress with so many different things, although maybe some of that progress is now being flipped as this has been not a great year in the country. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think that's gonna go away.

I know that that is a fear. You know what i mean though yes i do oh well that probably yes yeah absolutely um but uh for the moment but part of the narrative of that movie was like it's a movie about these two these two men who fall in love like this is so radical now it doesn't seem radical at all to watch it yeah it's basically like a Western where two guys fall in love, but it's, there's been so much TV, movie, everything that it's, you know,

in 2005, you could feel it like, Oh God, Oh God. Oh, they're in the tent. Oh, right.

I'm not used to this. Yeah. Now it's like, whatever. Yeah. Um, really? Well,

it's more, it's more, I'm into it now. I can't get enough. I can have a gif of it. I have a gif of it. I just put'm into it now. I can't get enough. I can have a gif of it. I have a gif of it and I just put it on repeat. I just can't get enough of it. But it's like a Western now.

I think that's just what it is. Yeah. I mean, you know, it is still, I think, a very topical subject. I think it is still an issue. Like you said, I think it was at the time much more, I think there weren't a lot of movies that were being made like that. Like I said, you know, like, I don't think we saw.

Well, think about like Kiss of Jessica Stein was like 2002. And that was like this radical movie. There are these friends and they fall in love. And it just wasn't really a plot. like 2002. And that was like this radical movie. There are these friends and they fall in love. Right. And it just wasn't, wasn't really a plot. Yeah. I mean,

it is very different in entertainment now. I mean, you have so many things being made about, you know, like same sex relationships and transgender. And, you know, there's a lot of things.

Gay characters. Like it's. Right. But man, I got to say like the response was so incredible from so many people. Except from the Oscar committee. Well, yeah, but also- That response wasn't incredible.

Well, I mean- That was terrible. It was interesting, you know? I know you can't, you have to be- No, no, no, it was. I mean, look, man, it's like, that movie was made for $12 million, which is a lot of money. Yeah. It made $250 million around the world.

It's amazing. Like, what do you make movies for, know for people to see them yeah you know and for people to be moved by them and to hopefully because i do believe in the power of storytelling change some lives maybe have somebody see themselves in a different way be moved you know walk in walk in tight walk in closed come out open come out looking at the world in a different way or come in feeling like oh you know like I got it made and then have somebody scare the shit out of you. And you go like, whoa, you know, you know, there's so many different feelings that can be, can be brought by a great story. And to me, like I, it, I'm not being political when I say it was interesting because it is interesting. I think I study human behavior. That's what I do for a living. I'm fascinated the way we behave. You know, we are, and I speak for myself, I'm a bundle of

contradictions. Like I will say this and do something else. And I think we are all like that. And if you do this job in a way that can, you know, it's your life's work, you know, you can look at the world in a different way and it can teach you because it is an absurd job that i do it's it can be stupid but it can also open doors and show you the world in a way that you've never seen before i mean i never thought i would meet jeff bowman when i saw that photograph of him yeah i saw that photograph of him and i was like i was devastated i was angered i was hurt but who knew that i would meet him two years later right and he'd be one of my friends i make a movie about him i mean like that's that's the job who knew that i would spend five months on the street with cops doing this movie end of watch i did

and would change my life i have two of my best friends in in the world now because that movie was really good yeah it's a good movie yeah i don't i felt like it should have been bigger really yeah but see there no i we made it for we made it for very little, and it made 50 million bucks. That's pretty good. Let's take a break to talk to the fantasy football fans. Listen up. It's not too late to join the 450,000 people that have already downloaded Draft this season. You get to play in a real-life snake draft, but you're done in under five minutes and

they last for just one week. Join one right now for week four. Play for cold, hard cash. Your chances of winning are 80% better than on the salary cap sites. And if you already hate your fantasy football team, here's a chance to just start over. All new players get a free entry into a real money draft. When you make your your first deposit you have to use the promo code the ringer that's the promo code play a real money game for free use promo code the ringer it gets even better draft.com is so sure you'll love it that they're even offering our listeners a money-back guarantee up to 100 all you have to do is search draft in your app store or go to draft.com and come play for free right now with promo code the ringer back to jake gyllenhaal how good was heath ledger as an actor yeah i mean i

know he was a great actor but was he potentially like an all-timer what like what do you think would happen the next 10 years of his career yeah i think that every choice he made he was a totally different guy in each movie yes i think you can feel that energy i think you can feel that energy from that time that i think one of the saddest things about the whole thing is that we won't be able to see his work you know but yeah you can see how extraordinary he he was just figuring it out in a way you know and really expressing himself in a way that the best actors you could take four movies that they're in and they're completely different in each one and they feel like different human beings in each one you know what i mean him and dark knight has no correlation to him and like

his previous three movies which is why i think he had a chance to especially as he got older i think it would have been fascinating to watch the choices he made so he's like his net the net of his energy went out to so many different people you know like and and since he died i think you i feel that a lot like all the people that he touched and interacted with who he was learning from yeah that was cut short you know there's such an eclectic mix of people he just had no judgment and he was so open artistically to people yeah and he was so he was an adventurer you know and i think that courage that kind of boldness you don't you don't find in a lot of even really great actors you know like right he was very he was so he was always interested you know and so you made zodiac in 07 and you got to work with Fincher. Yeah. And Zodiac is now, it's been 10 years.

I think everybody agrees it's a really good movie. There are some people who are like all the way in like, no, this is the best movie of the 21st century. You're so right. You don't understand. You don't understand. Let's go through each scene. Like there's psychos about it.

We have a couple on the ringer staff. Yeah. It's Chris Ryan's favorite movie who I respect, but Fincher probably peak right as he's hitting the peak of his powers. What'd you learn from him? Well, he like that year was really interesting for him because he hadn't made a movie for a little while.

He had been through a pretty rough divorce. And then I think he had stopped making movies cause he wanted to be there for his daughter. Yeah. And then he was like was like i gotta i want to get back into it and he decided to make zodiac but he also decided to make benjamin button at the same time so he made a deal to say i'll do benjamin button if you let me make zodiac yeah and so it's kind of like zodiac was tango and cash yeah it was like it was the movie and Cash. Yeah, it was the movie that I think he, it was a movie that he had wanted to make that he knew he wanted to make in a particular way. Yeah.

The colors are amazing in it. I mean, Harris Savitas. He actually made it seem like 1969 in the first. I don't know how people do shit like that. That's the part as somebody who's not in the industry. I'm always like, that's just amazing. I mean, he's extraordinary, Fincher but like he had one of the best cinematographers to have ever lived in harris evita's who shot that movie so the big wide tvs have helped that movie oh yeah the big hd like

all that stuff like zodiac's gonna win long term as the equipment gets better i think well there's some scary really legit scary moments in that movie yeah but i also think people who are really love cinema like they watch that and they go we're so used to the resolve like that the brilliance of that movie is about you know he turns it right back on the viewer in this way where he's like deal with your own shit you know and you're like no and that's most people are like oh that's brilliant other people are, God, can't we just have seven again? You know? Right. You go in the basement with that dude at the end.

It's like, good, good. We're going to get some answers. Like, no, you're just going to run out of the house. Yeah. We're going to get no answers. No answers. We're going to like bring you into the own sickness in your own mind. Yeah.

And we're going to just like confuse you and spit you out of the theater. That was that sort of, but I think- You got some Downey Jr. in that movie. Oh yeah. I got a lot of Downey Jr., man. We did a lot of work together. Another acting lesson I learned, we did an amazing scene where we rehearsed and he decided he wanted to wear red socks and put his red socks up on the table.

And then I realized they were in the foreground of my close-up and he was stealing the scene even while even with his red socks just like fuck with you that's what that's these are actor tricks man you know you got to be you know if you're you know you're caught slipping like that's it that's what i'm saying it's like people don't realize so he's he's approaching that almost like a showdown with you oh yeah it's like a it's he's so brilliant it's like sometimes like a psychological game you don't even realize and you're in it and he's like checkmate bitch and you're like fuck you know you're in the middle of the scene and you're like i'm killing it with all my oh fuck they're looking at his feet you know like that's that's that's downy you know downy do you think he goes in the

movie like i'm winning the movie i'm looking at ruffalo i'm looking at jill and i'm taking these dudes down probably yeah i mean somewhere i mean no he is the most like loving inclusive um everybody loves robert dana jr yeah yeah very high q rating i think there's a respect industry yeah there's a respect there's a respect of deep respect for robert but there's a deep respect when someone gets one over on you you know what i mean it's, it's one of those things. I like, I watched that scene. You can see it in the movie and you're just, I just watch every time.

I'm like, you idiot kid. So when, the way you played the character in that movie, do you have to, cause how do you know like, all right, I'm going to play him this way. I'm going to play him as kind of like this little nervous, kind of withdrawn into himself suspicious do you study like what what the guy was like or is that just your interpretation of it yeah yeah yeah i i the robert graysmith who i play in that movie he's a real guy and it's you know based on a true story so he's he's in existence and I saw his behavior.

So you just picked some text from him, basically? Kind of. I mean, you know, some of it's written. Some of it's my interpretation. At the time, you know, I was a lot younger. I mean, I'm very different now than I was when I was creating characters. And I was trying to figure it out. So, yeah, at that time I watched him him i observed him i i didn't spend a

whole lot of time with gray smith but uh yeah is that the movie people bring up to you the most or what's what is the movie yeah uh like donnie darko i think uh donnie darko still broke back yeah yeah donnie darko definitely it's like some weird rite of passage for people. Like Dustin Hoffman once told me that he has all the same fans that he had since a graduate. They just all have blue hair now. Yeah. And like I sort of get that like, you know, but I feel like Donnie Darko is like a rite of passage

like in your college years, like, you know, like take a hit from the bong Cypress Hill style and like watch Donnie Darko, you know, and all of a a sudden you don't have people cornering you with their theories of the zodiac killer no no i really don't know if you want to corner jake yeah he loves hearing your zodiac there it is there's a huge fan of it prince of persia 2010 your one superhero movie yeah it didn't go well and then that was it you were out i mean it just depends it's relative what you mean well a lot of money i mean kind of i it uh it was a really interesting adventure you know it's like it is an adventure that movie it's funny a lot of people talk to me about that movie being some sort of turn in my career where i decided okay i'm gonna

like do something different i've talked that was that a lot. That was my interpretation. Is it? Yeah. That's not true? I mean, man, I put just as much work into that one as I have in everything I've done. But you were jacked. Right. Exactly. You definitely, like physically, physically you had like 25 pounds of muscle? No, I don't know.

Maybe. I don't know. I was young, man. I mean, I was really excited by that idea i i thought it was a really cool idea and you know i think what i realized is it's hard to do the kind of character work that i like to do like in a movie a certain size like yeah if you're gonna do a very large movie like that which i would love to do i want to do i'm not like so you're open for business for large movies.

Absolutely. Okay. I just want to. People out there is open for business. Yeah. I just want to create a, I just want to be able to create a real character that, you know, people go, oh, he's still doing what I like, like what he does, you know,

true to what I do. So what franchise are you jealous of then? Like, do you be like like if in an alternate universe like would you Bourne is Bourne I was gonna say Bourne seems like the ultimate one

Bourne is the shit Bourne is it so you just gotta take Mission Impossible from Tom Cruise you'd be Ethan Hunt's brother Bob Mission Impossible

is different than Bourne though just come in just take it no just one of those spy like just you need movies where you're a spy and you're running

just running as fast as possible you run in a weird way I don't know if you can see this but his his palms are like way far away from his body and he's running like he's like skiing or something so so people out there need to rate you a spy franchise sure okay all right um but the thing about born is it's not just that it's that it is the best concept ever. It's a guy who doesn't know who he is, and then he has to go search for who he is. But he also has, like, the awesomest fucking fighting skills on earth.

And he's like, how am I so awesome? It's like, that's the reason it's great, is because he doesn't know who he is, but who he is is awesome, right? So you're like, oh, whoa. And then you get to make three movies about like trying to figure out who you are. And you know, it's,

that's amazing. That's amazing. I like source code. Thank you. I like, I like movies like that, that mess with your brain and you have to keep reliving things

and always a gimmick that works for me. No, it sounds like life. So yeah. Yeah. And to watch 50 million, not bad. Yeah. Yeah. And to watch? Mm-hmm. 50 million. Not bad.

Yeah. I liked it. I thought, I love LA cop movies. Yeah. Just in general. Yeah. I feel like that could almost be a channel. There's not quite enough of them yet,

but it'd be like stars, LA cops, like that. Be on there, I'd at least flick by everyone so I can see what's on there. Whatever. Which one resonated more more do you think which one in source code versus end of watch i think they're similar in terms of being resonant i would say end of watch because you know i cannot tell you how many you know law enforcement men and women have come up to me and just said how we did it right. Nice.

Yeah. I spent five months on that movie. I spent five months in Southeast LA with Sheriff Department and Los Angeles, Inglewood and LAPD. And I learned so much about the world and what they do. And they didn't hold a lot back you know like and and that was incredible and i hope what does that mean they didn't hold a lot back well over i mean look you know when you have ride-alongs and things like that initially like you see journalists do those things and they do them for like a couple nights or whatever

and you're putting those guys in danger like those women and men who are doing that job when they have to carry two more people or one more person in their car with them it's like they have to look after you and they have to do their job right and and i also think that there's usually like they want to they initially want to put out this idea of like perfection you know as we all do and what we do and then over time i think you start to learn the human beings behind the the badge and um i think that's what i mean uh and it was really five months with five different sets of partners that we spent time with both me and michael pannier who are in that movie and and we learned about them as humans like you know whenever you get to know anybody you get to know they're all

they got their complications and they're also pretty incredible prisoners is you wouldn't watch that one 10 times yeah that's that's denny it's a good one watch that's that's denny and he's an incredible you know he did arrival and he did um he did sicario and he did Blade Runner. It's coming out. Sicario was a good one. Yeah. 2014 Nightcrawler. Yeah. Yeah, that movie was a movie I produced. One of the first movies. I mean, I executive produced End of Watch,

but I produced Nightcrawler. And that was an incredible, incredible group of people. And just this amazing script that Dan Gilroy wrote and his first time director and he just killed it. I mean, that was like, talk about an experience that stays with you. That character definitely stayed with me. It's like, yeah, he's intense.

First time director, you start like blowing him around telling him, hey man, let me tell you how this goes. Yeah, no, because I was like not eating for that movie and I lost a ton of weight and i was like basically out of my mind so i wasn't doing much except but the great bill paxton is in that movie and um he's incredible in that movie and i do believe that everything that that man was in and everything that he touched was successful because he was in it even if he plays like a small part in the different movies we've seen,

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Bill Simmons to activate the offer. You play, you win, you get paid. All right, let's finish up with Jake Gyllenhaal. So you've done the Lost a Ton of Weight movie. You've done the boxing movie. I love my career's been like whittled down to a few phrases.

You haven't done the Put On 45 Pounds movie. Yeah, well, you know, hopefully I have a little more time. Then after that, I'm done, right? There's a couple more we can come up with okay cut your hair really short movie yeah yeah oh yeah jarhead that's already done yeah oh yeah you did that one already yeah have you dyed your hair blonde in a movie oh there you go i grew my beard really long we've done that movie a couple of times. So shave my beard off movie.

Yeah. How about like handlebar mustache? Yeah, that's actually, that's deep in the toolbox. I don't ping that out unless I have no fucking idea about the character. That's when I pull that out. What about like an 1860s Western? Yeah, actually I did just do that. I just did a movie with this incredible director, Jacques Odiard, who did this movie, a prophet and he, with Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly. Yeah. It's, it's coming out probably next year. Um, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Riz Ahmed,

like amazing cast. And yeah. And I have a bit of a handlebar in that. So, and it is 1850 Oregon, uh, you know, gold rush. So there you you go i guess cross that one off my list we're running out of time so i gotta ask you about southpaw go just talk faster boxing movie what you had to do a boxing movie because yeah because you you love the craft and all great actors have to do a boxing movie it's just a rule who hasn't done a boxing movie who's an actor who's at a certain level so you had to do it right how much boxing training that six months of boxing training i didn't know how to box at all so i did it twice a day i was like i feel like did you hit that point that it seems like most people hit where

they're like i could do this no okay um because i think de niro thinks he could have like won the welterweight title or whatever well that's why he's really good in that movie um i mean i i definitely felt like i got really good and i feel like i learned so much and i didn't even know how to box and now i feel really confident you know with my skills and um but yeah there was there was a moment when we were filming where you know we were fighting and i was like i i didn't really and truthfully like yes there was a moment where i was like okay i could probably do a little bit of like amateur stuff that you know but i also know like you know no yeah not when you see not when you see whatever they go through who's your wife in that movie who dies who plays the way mcadams it's rough man i i have to say i

i knew it was coming and it's still it's only like 20 minutes in the movie you're like oh whoa is she gonna die wait a second because you think it's rachel mcadams you think she's gonna be in it i know you're like i like her better more than i like him why is he why is it he died kill rachel can she at least be in the hospital for a while i want to see her in a boxing movie i know i know well somebody said to me the other day they were like hey what was that movie i'm trying to think i loved it so much he's the one where your wife died and i was like there were three movies in a row where i didn't like no joke where that happened so i was like i don't know um there was a weird period of time in there where that just great stories and that

happened and i'm not sure why that why but it seems like he could have mixed in a rom-com in here just for your own sanity maybe he could have just been like i mean an architect too he was like literally turned around he was like um you know i mean these things keep me sane no i know you know like being able to get out you know what's in here in my head and in in my heart is you know very helpful it's like what is so cool about my job you can you can be crazy and people are like oh amazing you know so it's it's it's the best part you know what i mean and they pay you so it's like what that's why we're all like total narcissists you know so everest yes yeah really good big tv movie yeah nice shots of the mountain not a happy ending it's good

though when it's on it's been on it's on the cable rotation now and i'm like yeah all right i'm in for 40 minutes and you just kind of get sucked in it's's good. I don't know. I like those movies when you have to put yourself in the situation of the characters in a bad situation. And that's definitely one of those. Like, all right, what would I do? Yeah, what would you do? I don't know. First of all, I wouldn't have climbed the mountain.

So I wouldn't have been in there. But yeah, it's a crazy thing to do. That's not a feel good movie. I guess it kind of is a feel good movie. I mean, who gets saved at the end but they don't have a nose? Yeah. It's like, I'm still alive. I have a nose. thing to do that's not a feel-good movie i guess it kind of is a feel-good movie i mean who loses who who gets saved at the end but they don't have a nose yeah it's like i'm still alive i have a nose josh brolin has no nose yes yes i'm still here my nose is gone nocturnal animals tom ford yeah yeah what was he like oh well jeff jeff bowman makes fun of me in this thing we did where he was like

he's like what was that movie where you fell on your gun and you shot yourself and i'm like we did this like video we did together he interviews me and i was like nocturnal animals he's like what the fuck he's like you fell on your own gun and you shot yourself he's like you're an asshole um but yeah i mean tom ford is tom ford is incredible i mean i can't i just don't believe how his mind works you know he wrote the screenplay and it was he sent it to me it was just amazing screenplay was amazing i i was like i kept flipping back like did say tom was written by tom ford like this is incredible and then working with him you know it's the same way he's like he's meticulous um but he also really loves actors and he gave us a lot of space and uh the

movie visually was really cool yeah like the the colors were that was another movie with weird colors colors and people whatever yeah and then stronger yeah i mean there's a bunch there's a bunch of others no i skipped over like a lot there's a lot more they're like 40 man you might want to take like four months off i did do a musical on broadway this winter and uh the cast album came out uh on the february friday september 22nd same day stronger came out so um yeah that i'm very proud of too besides the movies i'm in and you know just being on stage too because i think you need to mix this i think you need a sports light-hearted sports movie dude i'm in i'm all in like here but i'm getting older so

kind of like a for love for love the game type of oh all right yeah okay aging guy trying to keep it together like he used to be the best like major to keep it together like he used to be the best. Like Major League? Like Tom Barringer? Yeah, you knew he used to be the best but still trying to keep it together. Tom Barringer. Tom Barringer. Yeah. Major League is, by the way, it's a held up classic. I love Major League.

Have you seen your sister's show, by the way? Not yet. Not yet. But I can tell you that I know she's incredible in it because she is incredible. It's a great show. You've seen it? Well, I've seen the first two episodes. Why don't

you interview her huh exactly no i'm kidding anyway i would love to interview her i'm kidding uh yeah she's like she i know when she nailed it nails it because she's i can feel that energy it's like she's very excited about it she's excited about the work she did in it and she loves the people she works she loves david simon and she loves pelicano and she loves james franco and when was the last time you guys worked in the same movie like donnie darko yeah so you need to have some sort of sibling just maybe there's some sort of uh some sort of thriller sibling thriller would be so awesome can you imagine sibling thriller write that one down get that one sibling thriller maybe you're trying to contest the will it's just it keeps spyler out of control we leave weird notes in each other's houses like middle of

the night you know like yeah you're married to somebody she doesn't like she just takes her out yeah um good luck with the movie. It's excellent. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I know I was probably one of the wheelhouse audiences for it, but I thought it was fantastic. I thought you were great in it. No, it was actually really women over 35, but you know.

Is that what it was? Apparently, but you fit right in there. I would say everybody in Massachusetts would be right there as well. Oh yeah, probably people in Massachusetts, but our core audience is really women over 35. Congratulations though, it's excellent. Thank you. over 35. Congratulations, man. It's excellent. Thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it. It's been an honor. It's an honor. Thanks to SeatGeek for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase

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We'll be back on Friday with one more podcast. Thanks for listening. I don't have a few years with him on the wayside on the first I never said