The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Best of DLS: Hollywood

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

The only thing this show loves more than hobnobbing with Hollywood celebrities is telling you about hobnobbing with celebrities. In our "Best of Hollywood," you'll find an interview with Russell Crowe and the story of how awkward that interview was for Dan, Jess, and Stu. Then, a chat between Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper with Adam McKay and Neal Brennan. Plus, Bob Costas, John Amaechi, and Method Man! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Dunlabel T you are with Stu Comas. Best of Hollywood. First up, Dan Jessich too. Break down their Russell Crowe. We got to be usually don't gather around at night to do interviews, but you, me and Jessica heard that Russell Crowe was available. He only became available because Jessica was so excited about this movie, The Pope's Exorcist, that the people around Russell Crowe heard about her enthusiasm and said,

let's get him on the show. But he was joining us from Australia. It was at night. And I'm just going to say we're going to play it for you next week. They've asked us to hold it, but without spoiling too much of it, the whole experience was odd. Yeah. Organized, but odd. You're right. Yeah. We got on a Zoom with 12 people from the studio, and then they sent us to another Zoom where we waited for Russell Crowe, but we were in a waiting room.

And so we didn't know when he was coming, and we were supposed to do the interview at 7, and he wasn't ready until 7.30. So by the time we started, we were all super rattled, I think. Yes. And Dan had a historically bizarre interview, according to Ballerie. Wow. Wow. Wait a historically bizarre interview, according to Valerie. Wow. Wait a second. You guys, so that she did the zooms like actual physical rooms. Are you

walking to a room and wait here? And then we'll take another room. We started in one room, okay, with his publicist, with some other people. No, I've, I don't even know who the people are. I've got to explain. I've got to explain this because it was a labyrinth. It was a labyrinth of Zoom room. It was startling the number of handlers. There were a lot of people in a room for us being allowed to talk to Russell Crowe for a few minutes. The whole thing was disorienting. It's not an excuse.

I was terrible because I didn't think you were that bad. I didn't even consider you thought you were bad until after you said Valerie said you were bad. And then I was like, well, I usually agree with Valerie. I considered it. I did because you were bad. And then I was wondering, I was wondering, Dan, this was strange to me. Like, did you get a haircut and do your hair? Did you get dressed up for Russell grow? Because you look great. You're really dead.

I was wearing the same thing. I wore, you know, the entire day. I literally had just gotten home from a haircut when we started that. I did get a haircut for real. You really? For real? Well, first of all, Russell, they were dressed up for me. He dressed up?

He was not dressed up. I was simply not wearing a hat. You have an every hair, it was employees. I just dressed up for me. He dressed up. I was not dressed up. His hair was gray. I was simply not wearing a hat. That's all. Every hair was in place. I mean, that's dressed up. I mean, okay. I'm just wondering, I agree. But that's all it was is I was not wearing a hat.

That's the, I wasn't drawing. I know you're pretty well. I've never seen you like that. You had a hat home, dude. You're wetting your wearing a hat. Was your hair combed? I had, I, I had, I had, uh, showered.

And so my hair was wet is all that was happening But you showered for the Russell Crowe. Yeah, I shower because Shower at night when coming home from work and you're wearing the same thing you were wearing six hours earlier You guys shower after you get home from doing the show No Okay, it was a nice time show. It's a show. Okay, I guess I should.

Fine, yeah. Okay, you know what, you got me. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, altercations, whatever you wanna call them. That's a nice way to say it. He was perfectly lovely and very friendly and nice to us. Yes. I was actually very surprised. Maybe that's why 12 people were on the call to make sure nothing went awry. I mean, I- He's walked out on interviews before.

I have never seen anything like this. 12 people just to get us to another room where Russell Grove was a half hour late by the way. It's like they didn't want you guys to access, maybe share that link to your friends and stuff. Yes, I think it's like a seven layers of security and maybe they only need like two, but it was pretty wild.

I'm the type of asshole who would have asked each person what they do, because I need to know who are these 12 people. But I just want to explain to people how the labyrinth worked. Sorry for crossing. To be so close to this Hollywood person, it's not just merely that we had to go to different places.

It's that they had all the controls of who can communicate with each other. And what ended up happening is Jessica, Stugots and I were separated and spent more than a half hour staring at a white slate in a room that made me text them saying, you guys do realize this is a psychological experiment and there are three journalists still holding to interview him for gladiator. Like they're trying to test.

How long will we wait? They're trying to test. How long will we sit alone staring at a white screen with no one communicating with us before people just trickle out and leave because we've been here so long. And now the action was so long. With Russell Crowley. Russell, I was wondering when you saw the script for this movie, is this something that you

thought, all right, now I have to read all of Father Amorath, he's the, he's the LeBron James of Exorcisms. I have to go read all of Father Amorath. He's the little Bron James of Exorcisms. I have to go read all of his books to prep for this now. Well, not all of them, but at least the first two. That's what actually fascinated me because when I first read the script, I thought somebody had made up the job chief exorcist for the Vatican. I didn't think that was a real thing.

And then I looked into it, it was like, oh, it is a real thing. And then I started to sort of chase down a morph himself from the things that he'd experienced in his life and what he'd achieved. And it was a very rich catalog. I think there's 12 books. There's also hundreds of articles for inter-church magazines.

He lived a very interesting life, so that's what actually got me interested was the man. Did you believe in the spirit world before this, and then you start reading? And I'm like, no, this is a real thing. And these stories are horrifying. And I believe differently than I did before I took this part. Is that a question, Dan, or is this a statement? It is a question. I was like, I was like, the same thing. My experience is not that at all. My experience comes from a point of view of objectivity and I look at this thing as a piece of entertainment. And I look at this thing as a piece of entertainment, you know, and there's other processes involved and I have my sort of thoughts about those as well, you know, but, you know, one of the

key things in my gig, man, is you never lose that objectivity. You've got to sort of be back from what you're doing a little bit, you know, in order to get the, you know, the result that you want. It's not just something that you dive into, you give everything over to, and then you fully take in the beliefs of everything that you're doing, because that would be very unhealthy. You've done horror before of any kind, anything attracted to horror? I did the mummy with Tom Cruise.

That was like 2016. But, you know, the thing is, man, I've got to look for fresh ground, you know what I mean? I can't do my job and just keep doing the same character or the same type of character, the same place. I've never done that, you know. So, for me, something like this is an area that I hadn't been into. And as I said, it was the character of a moth and the things that he experienced. You're talking about a young man who grew up in Moderna in Italy, which is where Ferrari came from. At 17 he believed deeply that he had received a call and to serve God. So he went to become a priest, but they told him to go away because he was too young,

you know, going get some life experience. Now, the period of time we're talking about is then, you know, the early 40s and so the world is a war. And this young man who has received a call into serve God now finds himself as a resistance fighter, you know, with a gun in his hand, fighting the fascists and shooting to kill, you know. He goes through that war experience, he gets wounded during the process of it, comes out of that and goes into law school, gets his law degree, comes out of that and begins working as a journalist and at that point in time, you know, a decade later, he goes back to Rome and says, I still feel this calling

and the priest that he talked to said, well now it's perfect. Now you've lived some life, you have some experience of yourself where you can actually really help people. So then he goes to theology school. Is a journalist joins the powerless, which is about communication, you know, produces radio, produces television, writes hundreds and hundreds of inter-charge magazine articles. And it's not until he's 60 years old, that he gets tapped on the shoulder by a guy called Father Candido, who we bail in you. And he says, you know, get ready now, you're going to change what you're doing, now you have to come and be an exorcist, you know.

And that led to 36 years of service in that job. You know, I've read a lot about Gabriele Amort. I believe in Gabriele Amort. And so therefore, I believe that his first person remembrances and memoirs of what he's actually done, you know, have to have a certain validity. Russell, you mentioned Tom Cruise, and I'm wondering if you agree with me.

Did Tom Cruise save movies with Maverick? LAUGHTER Well, you know, I'm not sure if you're in that camp, Tom Cruise has been saving the movie industry for like 40 years, you know. Exactly. Actually, I love his Twitter page. I think it says Tom Cruise running in movies since 1981. He's, you know, I've known Tom a long time and I know a sort of effort he puts into

stuff. And I mean, look, man, he's just he's a special creature isn't he? He does things that the mortal man can't do. I grew up going to Catholic school. I've been to Catholic school my entire life. So I feel like I can say this, but I find it's getting a drink's get a drink later. Yeah. Yes, please. I find Catholicism to be the spookiest of the religions. Is there something about the Catholic aesthetic that you think lends itself to making a horror film like this? Well, there's a lot of hierarchy, isn't there?

And there's a lot of structure. And there's a lot of ump and doorways, but there's also a lot of close ones too. So yeah, I do think, you know, the more you make your organization have channels of secrecy, the more questions you create, you know. So I didn't have that sort of childhood, the one that you described, you know, I didn't have a religious family. I didn't go to church schools. It was my own inquisitiveness when I was in my early teens, like 12, 13, where I actually went on weekends, go to different church services. I went to Church of England and Anglican Services. I went to Catholic services, it's just to see what was going on. So I have an objectivity to that.

For me, formalized religion is kind of like the middle man and the deal, because if you're saying that God exists and God is real and God is full and total and complete, then God doesn't need you to have a middleman between you and God. You know, so it's like the person that steps in the middle of the deal between the producer and the user and says, I'll take a little bit of that. And I don't really know. You know, obviously for all the cynicism that you can have about religious organizations, you also have to about religious organizations, you also have to stack that up against the good that they do and the community that they create and the connection they create for people. Okay, Neil Brennan, talk about their movie The Goose.

It's Cinephal Hoes, Oveno has an exact car. Oh, it's called Cinephal, but I'm so glad you asked the question. It's called Cinephob, in which we take movies that are poorly rated on Rotten Tomatoes, and we try to ascertain whether or not they're properly poorly rated, or maybe they didn't get a fair shake, and that's Cinephob wherever you find podcasts. And so Adam, we did the goods, live hard sell hard, which is a movie you forgive. I love it. Yes. Yes. Full disclosure, Adam. I went into this movie. I had never seen it before. Live hard sell hard, which is a movie you for do love it. Yes, yes, yes, full disclosure Adam

I went into this move. I had never seen it before I went into this movie thinking I'm gonna hate this And I'm gonna rip it to shreds and let me tell you I Love that shit Good movie. It was a good movie the cast is amazing the supporting The supporting cast is amazing. Like I, it turned me. Is this your first time doing the podcast? That when we give out the, the result up front. Maybe I'm lying. Maybe I'm lying to the celebrity. Yes.

Okay. Maybe that's what I'm doing. He is a. No, it's a, it's, it's good. Live hard. So hard. We got out. What was, what was the Rotten Tomato score on that one? Just to refresh my memory. I know it wasn't good strong

27% from the critics 27% of critics, and you know what the audience in like it is the comedies though They will do that to the comedies And especially because that supporting cast which you're right is fantastic a lot of them weren't that famous when we made it and then became famous. So, when you don't got that big name in the lead, you know, the critics can kind of like go, okay, I'm going to give this one some shots. And you just never know with the comedies, who's sent to humor is going to be what? And that was definitely one we got. I'm going to say we got ding two hard on that one because I really sincerely like that movie too. We produce a lot of stuff. Sometimes you do your best and it doesn't always come out right. That was one where I really thought it came

out right. I felt really good about it. And I remember being a little shocked that I got that level of hate. And it's directed of course by the great and brilliant Neil Brennan. What's the most expensive part about making that movie? Oh, man, that's a good question. I'm gonna say there's a riot, I believe at one point. And I think there's an alligator involved in it. That's gotta be the most expensive part.

I'm trying to think what else. I was wondering if... That's gotta be it. I think it dude. I actually was a guy who got his arms ripped off. I don't know if it ends up in the final movie. There was an alligator, a bunch of hell broke loose in this riot scene. And we must have recreated the Spoky and the Bandit car,

and that probably cost a little bit of dope. You had to paint the car. Otherwise, it was just all property rental. It is not a super pricey movie. Hey, am I on yet? You are on that's Neil Brennan director of the code. It's so hard selling home. Okay, you know what's hilarious? I just tuned in and I couldn't hear you, but this is what you look like. So then I unmute you and you're like, you know, the movie works ultimately. I think the movie works. Like I'm assuming he's talking about the goods and not anchor man because it's pretty clear

anchor man works. The goods were actually saying damn funny movie. Oh yeah, yeah, if you're just talking about like jokes per capita. Well, it had a little point of view to it. I'm going to, I'm going to support your work here. I'm going to say it. Thank you. Right when the US economy was crashing and it's kind of about like a lot

sale, America's on the ropes. It's got that bravado. I think you like you captured that spirit quite well and a ton of funny jokes including what I rank as the funniest ADR line in history, which is Ving Rengings saying. I'm looking at you being canceled for that. It was him saying looking at the lot, which was a mess, the car lot, and he says it looks like the bus station from Total Recall. And I literally, I laughed for two years. Neil dropped that one. Totally. That's the funniest ADR line. And then I kind of go in and I vouch for the people that you're bringing in. So I go in and say,

Neil Brennan's one of the funniest guys around, which fortunately he is, or I go in and say, Jesse Armstrong's succession, we should do this, I'll direct the pilot. So you kind of vouch for stuff, and then you oversee it and make sure it doesn't go off the rails. And then you jump in as a writer, you can jump in for casting, for helping with directing.

So yeah, it used to be, it used to be, for I mean, in that, like it used to be, it used to be to, I mean, in that, like, it used to be, there would just be these producers who didn't really know. Before Judd and McKay, the producers were never funny. There were just guys who would go like, I remember a guy who had produced, I want to say dumb and dumb or don't quote me, but me and Chappelle were at the Sky Bar, which is a big bar in Hollywood, it is in the 90s, and a guy saw Dave and goes, I loved you when, what was your last picture?

He literally said, I loved you and what was your last picture. So like these guys didn't, they just knew that guy's hot. And then, and then now the great thing about the reason, like kind of moves, we've gotten actually funnier and less kind of goofy, primacy, 80s and 90s, goofy, primacy, like a guy who drinks a potion and turns into whatever is because Adam and Judd and Samler to a lesser extent, but like actually funny people are in charge of what comedies get made instead of now McCay for granted deciding what financial why sexy drama is getting made. financial, why sexy dramas get made? We're going to psychosexual, okay? I like it.

You got sexy in there. Like I'm not going to say long. Yeah, because you said that, I'm going to make a super sexy financial drama next. A lot of stuff. There's something sexy about about succession, right? Like it's like, I don't know, not that would make it You mean that kind of high price kind of you know penthouse living I think money just has inherent sex I think you just said more about yourself than anything that's going on

Probably, but isn't that what podcasting is all about I'm just glad we're away from the 80s and 90s from those ridiculous premise movies and we get things like, you know, a little Nikki. And that's my dad. That's actually a little Nikki's pretty, I did really little Nikki's actually kind of funny. It's an underrated one. Here was my premise, Neil, during the peak of the body switching movies.

It was a guy who worked at a video store. This is how old this idea is, this idea is 25 years old. Yep. And he was super cynical and he's going through all the movies, bitching about all the movies where someone drinks a potion and can't tell a lie, someone switches bodies so they can understand their child. Someone, you know, rainbow goes through them so then they have a heart and he's taking all the movies off the shelf. And he's like, we're not going to rent any of this crap anymore. And he fills them. There's like 50 of them puts him in a box.

And he's putting him on the shelf. And they fall and hit him in the head. And I know what he's all like. Nobody will, what would have seen that coming? It's 25 years old. I mean, it's like a fork ball in a sports matter for the ephospic. But yeah, they made a lot of those, man, that was the big thing in the 80s and 90s was those kinds of movies.

Are we supposed to be talking about the goods? By the way, because I can't definitely shoot the shit for hours. Yeah, I mean, I think people would rather you guys shoot the shit than us asking questions, but I'm happy to talk about the goods if that, if you guys are into that, like what, what was the, what was the toughest casting decisions for that, for that movie? Because I'm sure you wanted a lot of people in there. They were, they were all sort of obvious at Sheldon. And you know what I mean? It just felt like yeah, him, him, it was like Kevin Hawn had been in

step-brother, so she was, or she had been in, maybe step-brother's head and come out. Hawn was someone, she actually went and did like some network show for seven years, so we had an heard of her because we didn't see the show.

Crossing Jordan. Crossing Jordan. Oh my God, man, that is, that's the way. Was that a real answer? Was that a joke answer? I don't know. I haven't really seen that because I was watching Daily's at my house and I had a friend over and she was like, oh, that's the girl from Crossing Jordan. I was like, what?

I know I'd seen promost for crossing Jordan forever. I, Michael Yollinger, I do a thing now when people ask me what I'm up to. I tell them that I'm on. There's so many shows now you can just make shows up. So I say I'm third lead on a show called X-ray Tech. I love this show. Which is about an X-ray technician who solves crimes. I'm going to say 80% of the people

you tell that to think it's real. Great show. How could they find out that it's not? There's too many, there's just say it's on Apple TV. I'm on a show called Apple Ridge and it's just about like a bunch of young people who grew up in this area kind of in the middle of the country and I'm the social studies teacher and I have like four lines every episode, nightcracket joke. Yeah. You're John, your John is what before it. They love me before to make them happy.

It's on the CW. Yeah. Yeah. Like I didn't even know the CW is still exist. It's got to. I honestly have no idea. Yeah. Where else will I watch a drama about Archie and Doug head?

Is that real? Yeah, that's the CW. That's the CWs. That's where you get it. I've heard of that. But I only, you know, I've heard of that because of the comments because I grew up on it. Is USA Network? USA Network still around? No, that's that can't be it. I think it's just wrestling.

That's it. No, yeah, this is where they show hockey highlights. They do. They still do that USA up all night with the Gilbert Gottfried. They still do that. McAteen us. The Dan Levitard show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by Better Help. The holiday season can store a wide range of emotions, and the specific emotions experience can vary from person to person. While many people associate the holidays with feelings of joy, warmth, and togetherness, it's essential to recognize that the holiday season can also evoke various other emotions, both positive and negative.

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The strangest place your son has made whoopee. I'm supposed to know that. I made whoopee. Picture it. Picture it. Spulgatz. There was a time, I think, Christopher was in high school. And there was a time when I Christopher was in high school and there was a time when I saw something I wasn't supposed to see which was Christopher on the

side of the house appearing to be what are you talking about now I don't think it's going great now it was Christopher and a girl and you know she must have been bending over the tires door something because The correct answer is in his father's garage So close you're close you've designated my garage That'll happen twice What this is the down lebatar show with the stugats Bob costus is the best to do in television We're bringing in now though Bob costus to gots

He's one of the guests that usually gives you once a year once a year Bob costus will grace us With his presence with you know, he's as good at television as anyone has ever been. Bob, can you tell us a little bit because you have, you know, you have railed against a corporate machine. You've had the, you know, within the confines of playing, you have had some opinions that I'm sure bosses don't like. So when it comes to bumping up against management or against corporate or against ownership or against governments, when it comes to the Olympics, what are some of the more precarious spots you have found yourself in journalistically?

Well, let me preface it this way. My relationship with NBC was 95% maybe more positive. I'm grateful, I'm deeply appreciative, and I was in agreement, the Olympics are a producers medium. Viewers think Bob Costas or Mike Toreco, however, might be, decided to go from the gymnastics to the swimming or decided that we would have a four-minute profile of this or that. No. Some input into what you say in an ad-lib situation, obviously, input, if you get to do an interview in the questions that you ask input into the writing, but beyond that all you can do is suggest.

It's a producer's medium, but I was actually in sympathy and agreement with 90% plus of what they did on the Olympics. But I always felt a little bit more journalism, a little bit more acknowledgement of the elephants in the room was called for in certain situations. I never thought it should be meet the press or nightline, but I thought that you had to acknowledge certain things. You can't do the next Olympics from Beijing, just as I tried to make the point you couldn't do the 2008 Olympics from Beijing, without acknowledging the realities that hang over the whole thing.

Same thing was so cheap in 2014. And for that matter, Salt Lake City in 2002, in the aftermath of 9-11, but also there had been bid scandal and all those other things, those are things to acknowledge, not to get in the way of the competition and the enjoyment and the shared experience and all the emotions that separate the Olympics from other sports events. I was good with all of that, but I just didn't want to be in the position of somebody who was pretending to be blindfolded to these other things going on. And without making a big deal out of my own standing, I had done some things through

the years that separated me from other sportscasters who were my own standing. I had done some things through the years that separated me from other sportscasters who were my contemporaries. Didn't make me better, necessarily. I have great respect for almost all of them, but it was different. I had done the late night interview show. I had been offered, and this is now publicly known, I never said anything about it for a long time, but I had been offered a spot on 60 minutes, And David Letterman did offer me the hour after his money went from NBC to CBS in the 90s. And I had done journalistic things for NBC news. So people expected something at least slightly differently, different from me than perhaps from someone else who would in his or her own way very capably host

the Olympics, but they would just do it in a different way. So occasionally, there were times when I was tugging on the other end of the rope, but never to the point where in the big picture, I wasn't friends with and very respectful and grateful and appreciative of the people I worked for and with and NBC. That's my worked for and with, and NBC. Not. That's my preface now back to your question. Not sports related because that is the preface, but I have you ever felt threatened by an employer by a government like if you ever felt that your job that you're trying to stand for something

and your job is in peril because you're going up against power that not even Bob Costas has power to defend himself against. I don't know about in peril. When I parted ways with NBC, I think it was misreported that I was fired. No, we reached the point of diminishing returns. And I realized that the things that I wanted to do just didn't harmonized with where they were, at least not often enough. And I had already decided years before the Rio Olympics that Rio would be my last one. I had done a dozen by that. I was in my mid 60s better step aside before people begin to think you should. And they hadn't had baseball since 2000, nor the NBA since 2002. My favorite events, the Kentucky Derby, I always enjoyed because of the pageantry and history of it,

issues aside. And again, that's a perfect example. You get acknowledged the issues and still embrace it. Everyone knows how much I love baseball, but I was the guy out there, one of the few saying, hey steroids, you know, you know what I'm talking about here, you could acknowledge that without without sending a message that this isn't worth watching or that you shouldn't care about it. So I don't think you could be a thinking person in the positions I held over three plus decades at NBC and not occasionally have disagreements. So yeah, we had some disagreements. In Sochi in 2014, I wanted to go a little bit harder on acknowledging that Putin's dark hand was involved in all of this. And I asked some tough questions of Tomas Black, who then was and still is the head of the IOC. And that may have made NBC uncomfortable. Ultimately, they went along with my desire

to do a two-minute commentary, which kind of summed it all up, and which was referred to in many quarters of one of the toughest things that a lot the coast has ever said about a host city and about its government. How that go over with Russia? I was on the plane before I had any chance to find out, but of course they had already given me pink eye while I was over there. So I'm in there dirty work.

It already been done. What do you, I guess the, I guess the best example was 96 in Atlanta during the opening ceremony. And here's the thing that some people just don't grasp, I don't want to grasp. This idea like I'm trying to watch the game, I'm trying to watch the event. When I do a baseball game, unless there's something that overlaps in some way and has to be noted parenthetically, I'm just calling the game. But for most of the last 20 years,

I wasn't the play-by-play guy. In fact, I never was on NBC since the early 2000s. I was the host. So you pick your spots, these little windows in between, never at the expense of Michael Phelps, are you saying, ball to Simone Biles or what they were doing? Never.

But you find a little spot. It's less than 1% of the total amount of coverage. But you find a little spot to put in something that you think is pertinent. So, China comes marching in in 96. If this was Bolivia or something, no matter what they were up to, it wouldn't be as pertinent. But here comes China. And so what I say is among other things, among noting their successes and the name of their flag bearer and the size of their delegation

and all the rest, I said, if there is any nation that has the means and the motivation to replicate with the old Eastern block did with their sports machines and remote the Soviet Union to just broken up a few years earlier, if there's any nation with the means and motivation, you're looking at that nation. And then I noted factually that a high number of their athletes had been caught using performance hand-sing drugs and international competitions. And a number of those athletes, prominent and successful, were notably missing from their delegation in 96. Now distinction here is, do American athletes cheat?

Have they? Yes. But they do it on their own, or with the help of rogue chemists. So far as we know, they don't do it under the supervision and with the complicity of the USOC or the American government. That's the difference between China and the Eastern Walk. And I also said, because it was relevant, that China emerging

with a huge economy and all the rest that we now see as played itself out, China wants to be an Olympic host. They had wanted to host the 2000 Olympics in front of Sydney, Australia. But among the reasons they didn't get it were its human rights record and other issues. All these things not only were true, they were pertinent. Now it's the early days of the internet, but up and running and Beijing is involved in helping to organize protests

against me specifically back in the United States. So I'm not saying there were thousands of people in the streets, but there were people outside 30 rock protesting. There was stuff online, there was stuff in Chinese language newspapers calling for me to be fired or their other suggestion was, if you don't fire them, then you should go on the air immediately after the Olympics

and make a public apology in prime time. This is the way they operate. Fast forward to 2019 or whatever it was in Darrell Mori of the Houston Rockets tweets stand with Hong Kong. And as popular as the NBA is in China, they took the games of their main network for two or three months or whatever it was. And you notice that many American sports figures who are quite outspoken about social justice issues

as they should be, in most cases, they're pretty silent about China because the NBA and other sports entities are deeply, are deeply invested. Same thing is true with Hollywood. They will bow and edit movies that go over there to take out content that the Chinese authorities find objectionable.

So now here we are on the verge of an Olympics in Japan under pandemic circumstances, which is nobody's fault. You can criticize people for how they might have responded in individual circumstances, but the pandemic itself is not the fault of the Japanese organizers, not the fault of the IOC. But there'll be an Olympics under these circumstances, and only months later, they will return to Beijing.

And how you thread that needle in covering those Olympics in China with everything we now know and suspect. I don't know unless you want an ostrich to broadcast the games. I don't know how you can possibly ignore these I don't feel like it was feafi. I believe a mechie. We're happy to see him and we're genuinely curious how you're doing because The world is getting battered. You're whatever, hope or optimism, even the psychological professor spirit that you carry around, like it's wearing, John, we're losing. You're losing. You realize that your quest for decency and equality, you are losing no matter how graceful

you try to be in your country and our country led by racist leaders as you write books clamoring for leadership. So we ask you genuinely, how are you doing? Are you okay? I am I am exhausted. I'm exhausted, but I am incredibly privileged. And so my exhaustion is an indulgence at this point. I would point out to you this, evil always looks like it's winning. The nature of evil is, and it's downfall, ultimately, is it's incredible need to be right right now.

It's incredible need to be like right now. It's an incredible need to win tomorrow. This is the thing with evil. Because it needs to win now, it impresses on you, it's power now. It never has the strategic outlook to actually be victorious in the long term. Think of any dynasty you'd like of, I mean the British Empire is a really good example, right? We were winning. There wasn't any possibility that we would lose our stranglehold, literally, on two-thirds of the world. And then one day gone.

So you know, whether it's cowardly senators or Uncommonly in decent tech bros It doesn't really matter. They're going to lose and not because good always prevails because that's not true, but because Evil has a habit of just not thinking strategically It doesn't look like it's losing right now though because one of the things that you must find uncommonly wearing is someone who's just clamoring for decency. Just, I mean, it's such a bare minimum-ass tolerance, such a useless word. Can you just tolerate me? And at every turn, it's like fuck off.

No. No, I can't even tolerate you. Like the selfishness, everything, the choosing of the dollar as we literally destroy the earth in a way that can't be ignored is terrifying, John. Terrifying. It's disappointing.

There doesn't come a point where you can no longer be, you can't be afraid for a long period of time, there's tons of experiments that have been done with lots of different types of people where they've exposed them to fear for a period of time. And then there comes a point where you just, you can't be afraid, there's not enough chemicals left in your body, so you have to think, what else can I do? And, you know, we are led by a little Scandinavian girls who are telling us that the earth is burning and they are making a difference. We're led by lots of people who at the grassroots are making a difference. I am that, you know, I'm the doomsday. I come on here and I

I am that you know I'm the doomsday, I come on here and I nag and regress and all the but they can't win. You know these people who insist that the color of a person's skin or their country of origin will forever determine their potential and how well perceived they are. They can't win. These people who think the presence of a transgender athlete will destroy it all, they can't win. They can make a huge amount of noise right now, like messy toddlers with ice cream all over their face and sticky stuff that you don't know it's come from,

all over their hands, but they can't win. They can't. You sound more hopeful than it feels right now, as you are confronted at every turn, not just with ignorance and hate and racism, but selfishness. John, I don't know what you thought the last decade was going to be, but I vastly underestimated, vastly, vastly underestimated the race problems in this country and in yours and around the world. And vastly, vastly underestimated that democracy and freedom could this quickly come under duress, peril, and be this fragile,

where I feel I'm sitting in the middle of, I may soon lose freedom. That is a particularly American concern. It is not that I don't think freedom is important, but Americans have weaponized the phrase freedom more than any other. Democracy is it under threat? Yes. Has it been under threat since senators and politicians in general in America and Britain? Really what they should have when you know in Britain you see them in the lovely parliament in the House of Commons and Lords. You see them in their suits but what you should really see them in is like those racing car driver uniforms, you know the ones that are plastered with badges of sponsors everywhere, that's really what you should see when you look at your senators and politicians. Because that's what it is. It's not a positive. I think it's deeply troubling. I resist, I support causes that I think will fight against it, but I just, what people want, what evil wants is for good people to believe that apathy is the correct response. That's

what evil really wants. For those of us who would muster our resources to be targeted and strategic in the way we fight back, the way we speak up. They want us to believe that it's futile and that what we should do is shut up. And so I have realized that I have contributed to some people feeling like it is futile to resist and it is not. Resistance is not futile. What happened, John, that birthed Donald Trump and Boris Johnson? Oh, wow. They're not new phenomena. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are particularly

clownish, but they're not new phenomena. The idea that someone who, I don't know if you know this, but Boris Johnson, when he was in school at Eaton, his headmaster, his report card became public, one of his report cards, and the headmaster essentially said, describe the man he is today, a person who thought that the rules didn't really apply to him, who thought that he should accelerate at an ever-increasing pace through life and achieve everything that he

thought he deserved without putting in any effort. And that is that kind of unearned privilege that that kind of arrogance of station defines people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, people who love to tell you the story about how their self made but forget the bit about their father giving them three million dollars. Forget the bit about the school that they went to that no one else could have gone to and the privilege that that earned them. The Bullington Club that they were a part of. Do you know the Bullington Club when Boris Johnson was there? It's a posh kind of posh bloke. Within a very posh environment, it's the poshiest of the posh blokes. Within a very posh environment it's the poshiest of the posh blokes.

They used to have something that they do when they walk through the streets. If they ever found themselves a rough sleeper, someone who was homeless, they would walk up to that person with a wad of cash. And as they looked to hand it over to this person great gratitude in their person's eyes, they would burn it in front of him. This kind of man is not new. This kind of man is a petulant man child with privilege oozing out of every gross poor. But I refuse to let someone I hold in such contempt, both Trump and Johnson. I refuse to let somebody I hold in such contempt. Kind of neuter my enthusiasm for the fact that I think the world can be better, and I think there are enough people who believe that too. The Meditin Man, Teeson Acti,

Joaquin. Method Man has always energized me for decades. So for the audience watching along at home, thank you guys so much for taking this graveyard shift over here. But we, this is where I'm loaded, that Method Man would be able to join us any time between 1am a.m. and he knew he'd be just like rolling a dice This is which unit he'd be talking to and we got a big unit in here We do have an exact harbor. What's up, meth?

What's going on? Meth we're both huge fans of yours and we have actually done one of your movies for our podcast our podcast is yours and we have actually done one of your movies for our podcast. Our podcast is CineFob in which we take movies that are poorly rated on rotten tomatoes and we try to ascertain whether or not they're properly poorly rated or maybe they didn't get a fair shake and we did how high we did that. Wow. Months ago in meth spoiler alert, we both love that shit. That is an amazing movie.

I don't know why it even qualified for our podcast I don't know how it got so poorly rated, but we love that movie. It's the highest Copper appreciate that I appreciate that we worked hard on that thing right there But I could tell you how it was poorly rated How's it poorly hated How does that happen, Matthew? You're so fun.

Everything you've done is so fun. It sounds like I'm just sucking up to you right now, but I am a huge fan. I'm a huge fan. So, Matthew, why is that happened to you? Well, you know, we were the little movie that could,

when how high dropped, it was around Christmas, and I remember because it was Harry Potter and a bunch of other movies out. And people were calling me saying stuff like, yo, it was sold out near, it was sold out near, cause we were in a multiplexes. What I didn't know was the multiplexes don't have

every theater in the multiplex isn't huge. You get where I'm going with this? Yeah. So the reason why the theaters were packed with how high is because people were buying the movie would sell out. But people were buying movie tickets to the other. So there was a spike in Harry Potter spike in this spike and that around Christmas time

because people were buying tickets for those movies but sneaking in the hours because we were in the little was theater in the corner. I did that with Barb wire that Pam Anderson movie back in like 1996 as a four year old. Yeah, it was a big moment. I was surprised. That wasn't a big screen. Pam is awesome. Pam is awesome. And let me tell you for 14 year old me or when however old I was when that movie came out, I was a big fan. That was the exact movie I needed it to be. Now, Now, you guys were in this movie. You had some real life actors, like big time actors, like Fred Willard and...

Shout out to OG. Yeah, shout out to OG Fred Willard, who passed away recently if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah. What, how were you guys received when you came on? As, because you guys are the rappers, right? They come in in here and they basically taking some good acting jobs from actors.

Al, well, I mean, if they said the movie was trash, I don't think we took anything from that. Yeah. Yeah. So actually, you know, I don't believe we cut the line at all because the actual title of the movie is a record that myself and Red Man did. And this thing was designed especially for us.

It's no different than what Kid and Play did. What's slightly different because I believe the Huttland Brothers had a big hand. Shout out to the Huttland Brothers, of course. Blackhead for the show. A big hand in doing that movie, which is a classic, by the way. So this was just geared for me and Red Man. I don't think we cut any lines, but if you see me in like a Marvel movie

or a big DC movie, I absolutely will cut the line. So if you're like the new Ant-Man or something, if they kick Paul Rudd out for some reason, we know that you did something to Ferris. Yeah, you think they're gonna kick Paul Rudd out for me. Hey, man.

You never know. You never know it's a tough game out here, man. People have been canceled. The last. Hey, Paul Rudd is certified though. Let's just keep, let's be clear. Let's keep it a bucket here. Well, man, certified. What made you want to act? What made you want to break away from, from just doing music and show more? I was broke. no, I'm playing. Actually, what it was was, I wasn't as satisfied as I was with the music anymore. It was drying up for me. You know, I mean, it was a whole new wave came in. You know, it's a young man's sport out there, especially with hip hop.

And most of the shows we were getting booked for was overseas because no one was booking older school rappers in the States and if you were getting booked it was for like 10 grand you know crappy money and we felt like we deserve more since we contributed so much to the game but then it got a little tedious because I have felt myself overseas for the ninth time that year you know wow I know I can do yeah I know I can do more than this. So I made a promise to myself that when I got back I would Explore you know other revenues of

Not just getting money, but you know to to entertain myself, you know or a career wise, you know and Acting it was like, why not? Let me see if I can do this. And if I'm not gonna go 110% at it, I'm not gonna even try it. So I want 110% at it. And I got booked and I haven't looked back since. I got to ask you, in the movie,

Jamal and Silas have a really funny origin story, how they meet. What was the meeting between you and Red Man the first time like? It ain't as funny, but it's kind of funny because he don't remember it because he was gone. But I remember it vividly because everything was new for me. I was a brand new artist and I was going out by myself. It was a Chris Cross album release party. They weren't there. They weren't there, but you know how you're in a big hotel

and they have like that conference room and they had like some snacks set up and a poster of Chris Cross and they just were playing their album, debuting their album for you know, like media and people of that ilk. And that's probably why myself Red Man was there. There's a picture we took that day

because Nas was there too. And Curious Church. And there's a picture of myself, Nas, Red Man and Curious Church. And there's no recollection of this. And he has no recollection. And that was the first time I've ever met his ass. You know, it was when I had the matter of fact, I could tell you exactly, it's this is a flow of surround on Instagram to us. A picture of me. I got a fork in my mouth. You know, and the New York Met's had on and Doc is in the picture with me. And then there's one with Nas in the picture with us and Curie is George, but they always crop Curie is out. I wonder why.

It doesn't ring a bell. I'm sure we'll figure that out later. That's probably what I was talking about. Yeah, that's probably what we'll figure it out. I'm hip hop to the core. Curie's George was a good artist, by the way. Meth, I want to test your memory here. Okay. Now this made this is going to be pretty hard to remember.

But about eight or nine years ago, was either 2013 or 2012. I went to Des Moines, Iowa for 4th of July, because Wu Tang was performing in Des Moines, Iowa, and Fourth of July. Unfortunately, I got too high to go to the concert. I got, there was a weed brown, it's not like, oh, my friend messed up the weed brownie, and I hit the floor and I never looked back for like 18 hours. And so I missed the concert, but I need to know

because I just realized like maybe you weren't even there. Do you remember doing that show where you were part of it? I was going to stop you soon as you said Des Moines. I was like, that's why it makes sense, right? It could have just been this big, this big room. I'm not sure. Actually, I've been so many places. I mean, Des Moines, I can't say I have.

I can't say I have it. I know I've been in normal. I do feel better. Illinois before. Okay. Okay. If not a normal Illinois normal like normal Illinois. This is called a nation. I go and what abnormal Illinois is like right?

No normal Illinois. It's called normal. It's a place in Illinois called normal. We went there on a hard knock like door and I and that was the joke like what is abnormal Illinois look like. Wow. And you said Chicago. I'm going to tell everybody in Chicago you said that.