The Kristian Harloff Show - SEAN GUNN talks Creature Commandos, Superman, growing up with JAmes and if he would return to Marvel

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Sean Gunn has had some amazing roles from his time on Gilmore girls to the MCU playing Kraglin in the guardians of the Galaxy franchise, avengers, and more. In this interview, he discusses with Kristian Harloff, growing up with his brother James, transitioning from Marvel into DC. They discuss the popular show creature commandos and his role as weasel and G.I. Robot. He talks about his brother's transition into running DCU. He discusses Superman and his role in that. This and moore on this episode of the The Kristian Harloff Show. #DC #CreatureCommandos #Weasel #DCU #DC #Superman #JamesGun #ShawnGun #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #Marvel #MCU OUR SPONSORS:  THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY BETTERHELP Visit http://www.BetterHelp.com/BIGTHING today to get 10% off your first month. VIIA: Try VIIA! https://bit.ly/viiakristianharloff and use code KRISTIAN!

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Do you ever go, look, I don't get involved in this normally, but why in the world would you do something like this? Back off or is it the opposite? Like, go and change this shit. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, well, first of all, that was a total surprise to me. Yeah.

I didn't know. Like I said, he'll keep me posted on stuff, but he did not, he did not tell me that he and Peter were thinking that, that they even had an opportunity or were thinking of doing something like that. Like, so when I got that, that news essentially the same time everyone else did, maybe like two weeks before they announced that he told me. So like, you know, that like it was, that was very shocking.

All right. I've been talking about this all week. I'm excited for my next guest. I mean, man, whether it's from the start with Gilmore Girls, whether it is Guardians of the Galaxy, most recently, obviously, in Creature Commandos. And he's going to be, we're going to see him in Super Bowl. man. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show, the one and only. Sean Gunn. What's up, man? How are you doing?

Hello. I'm doing good. It's, uh, yeah. Really good. I just, I was, I started to tell you, I was just, uh, I just watched the trailer with my wife, which is why, um, I'm, I'm, I almost am a little teary. I got a little chariot. I did too. I did you, did you, hey, you had not seen it before. The trailer, no. Really? Do you, so you don't, you don't, you don't like, Come on, let me see it. Well, if we were in the same city, he would have showed it to me probably or showed me, like, it's funny because my wife Natasha, she had seen some incarnations of it. Okay. Or at least when they were working on it because she was in, she was in Atlanta later than I was.

So she was kind of around for stuff. And it goes that way with James and I a lot. Like if I'm around and we're in the same city, he'll show me what he's got. but but he's been you know like balls of the wall working for for I mean as always kind of but I I've I've barely gotten to seen him to see him in the last six months so I just haven't seen it yeah I was going to ask you that too because I can only imagine from when you know the responsibilities changed with him that I was even talking to Frank Grillo about it when he was on and how just locked in James is on all this

stuff and I can imagine as you know his brother you're like that's great but I just don't I don't get to talk to him as much as I used to yeah although he's always been a little bit of uh you know he he's a he's a work maniac you know like he's a he's always been sort of work first and I I am too in some ways but not like him so it's always been dependent on we you know we we find our times to hang out but we also know that sometimes it's going to be it's going to be a few months like it may be be a little while it's never worrying but we we it's sometimes it takes a while right and the beauty of it obviously you guys get to work together a lot and you know it's and right now with creature commandos I'll tell you all right so the great thing about episode four of this and if you haven't

seen episode four so far I would say come back to this part because I'm going to spoil some of it what was done so well in this episode with both yourself and with the writing and everything in general with this character, you have this kind of wild animal who you just never know what he's going to do, and you bring this depth to him in this episode, and you really see that he's, first of all, people judge him wrong, and they think that this one thing, we find out he's put away for the wrong reason. He didn't kill these kids. He was actually protecting them. So what went into really diving deep into this kind of backstory of Weasel?

Yeah. You know, I got to say I originally when James told me about Creature Commandos and said, oh, you know, weasel's coming back and we're going to do Weasel again. There was a part of me that was like, you know, like, I didn't, I didn't get, you know, and it. If you saw the suicide squad, Weasel is kind of played for laughs, which is fine. But it's also like sort of a, it's like, you know, when I heard, hey, I'm doing this animated show. And it's like, oh, so I get to go like just grunt and whine. And, you know, for like for seven episodes and just make weird noises. And I was like not overly thrilled about it.

And then we talked about G.I. Robot. And I knew I was going to do his voice too, which I was really excited. about yeah but weasel was kind of an afterthought i'm like oh i've done this and like i you know but reading the scripts and seeing where weasel what what happened to weasel what his backstory was was really interesting and then actually going into the booth and recording that stuff was really gratifying i really in it was it was incredibly challenging and fun and i kind of realized that you know weasel james always described weasel's kind of like a a big dog. He's like sort of a he's he's an animal. He is not a, this is not a human, he may be

human sized, but he's not a humanoid creature or have, he doesn't have complicated, um, emotions, but he does have emotions. Anybody that has a dog, you know that your dog gets happy or sad or depressed or, you know, like scared and all these things. And so I just knew that all of a sudden, okay, I got to tell this story using a different toolkit than you usually use as a performer. And so I still, you know, I still have those like kind of grunts and and squeals and wheezes and whatever it is, whatever it is, whatever it is, weasel does. But I had to do it to tell his emotional story. Yeah, and there's a lot to that. It really, there really is because you have to, you've got to feel those moments.

And you do. I couldn't believe it because so far, and I've seen about seven or eight, it's like it's the most emotional arc, I think, so far. And it's funny because even with GA Robot's a pretty emotional one as well because he's got like this one purpose to just protect, protect kill Nazis, right? And we finally see Sergeant Rock. You know what's funny? Dude is I worked for Joel Silver back in the day.

And that script, Sergeant Rock, they tried to have Shane Black do it. They try to do all these different things with Sergeant Rock. And they wanted to get that movie going. and it just never went. I was like, I wonder if we'll ever see Sergeant Rock and we finally see him. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think they're making a movie now too, right? That's what they said, but I'm always curious because James said that all the voices that are in, anybody who has a voice in it, if you're voicing the character, then that's who you're going to play in,

that's who you play in live action, right? Like you look at Frank Rillo, who's playing Rick Flagg, Sr., and then he, peacemaker and Superman. And the same thing. Well, you know, when it comes to I think a lot of these different roles

I'm curious about Sergeant Rock though I wonder if the voice there's been no talk about that I can't even pretend to know the answer of that right it's something I would ask James like hey I'm gonna make this movie and if so how are you gonna do it?

Yeah though it was really it's it's been a cool experience and I did my character's G.I and Weasel got our episodes back to back so it's kind of fun these last couple of weeks but yeah, you know, Weasel, it's like a real, it's, it's always important for me to remind myself that, that what I do professionally as a performer is unpredictable.

And like, we get caught up in these things of like, oh, I want this kind of role and I want the next thing to be like this, but it just, it hits me from left field sometimes the way I'm able to, you know, I have the privilege, really, of, like, stepping into some of these stories and trying to tell them in a unique way. And I don't know that I don't know what it's going to be before I start, you know? Yeah. Anyway. Well, that's also, but I think that's too, you know, knowing, obviously with the relationship you have with your brother and the fact that you can, you can play.

And he does that with most of the actors that he's working with. He lets people play and he lets people, like, build up. He just had that quote about David Corrence. but with the tights and that David had said one thing. He said, well, I think this is the reason why he should have the tights and James listened to him. So I'm sure that as a performer for yourself to be like, look, also in the fact that you've known this guy all your life, you can present these things that's, hey, hey, I want to take a shot,

I want to try to do this with the character. And it probably lets you play a little bit more than with people that you don't really know as well. Yeah, that's true. I think one of James' biggest strengths is that he is, he manages to simultaneously be a great manager of his own vision so that he knows kind of almost exactly what he wants but a great collaborator at the same time and he does he does listen to performers and here performers is one of the reasons you know people give them flack sometimes by using the same performers over and over again but

it's like he's really good at it understanding what someone's skills are and then writing towards those skills and so of course of course you're going to use the same i was i was i was say to people, you know, if you have a plumber who comes in and fixes something in your house perfectly and then you have another problem, you're going to hire the same guy. You're not going to look for a new plumber. And like that's kind of, I think James does that with actors a little bit. Yeah, I think he does it very well with casting because that's, I think for me, watching just on the outside, the things that I see, the big strengths are, are both casting and music, you know, like music. He used it very well. And I was so excited to hear these,

like, different renditions in the Superman trailer of the classic John Williams, Did you, did you know that was coming? Yeah, that, yeah, I knew that was going. Awesome. Yeah. But, but yeah, it's rad. It sounds great, right? It's like, oh, God.

I mean, in that idea, you create this texture, you, you know, this tapestry of, of, it's new for, for some viewers, but then some of us remember the original, you know, I think I was four years old when the first Superman came out. So it's like in the recesses of my, of my consciousness, you know? Yeah. So, well, it's funny, but, you know, I don't know how, are you pretty active on social media? Because not really, right? Me, I try to stay away from it.

I used to be, and now I try to, like, if I feel, you know, positive about something, I try to put it on Instagram and try to say, hey, check this thing out. If it's something that I really want fans to know is out there. But I'm not, I don't care about it the way that I think a lot of us did five years ago. I think mentally you're probably better off for it because it's the same thing. It's like, yeah, it's like I like to, for me, I do the same thing that you just said. I like, I post and run is what I say. I like, I post my things.

I check this out. Because even when the one thing I did wind up posting for it, I was so excited about the music coming back. And I always thought that for me, I never understood it because you see people, and some people were bitching about it online. They were talking about how, oh, I can't use an original theme. And I go, James Bond had the same themes in Sean Connery. It's, it's his theme.

And it's like, and I know Hans Zimmer changed it up and did his thing. I get it. was, and I liked the theme a lot. But the thing with me was that John Williams' team just was that beacon of hope that you guys are going for in this movie. And I think it just worked. But I wanted to talk to you about your character, as much as you can tell me, as much as you can tell me. Because, you know, we saw an iteration of, um, of the character in the last Wonder Woman movie.

So with Maxwell, what is, what is the difference? Maxwell Lord, what is the difference with the character this time around than what we saw? saw in the Patty Jenkins movie. Well, okay. What I can tell you is, I know there's a lot of stuff I'm supposed to sort, like I can't talk a lot. Okay. So much.

Okay. But, you know, I can tell you that the one obvious thing is that it's me playing the role, which doesn't, which doesn't just mean that I'm, that I'm going to give a different interpretation. It's like every, your own body is the. vessel for what you're doing. So obviously, I'm going to do, like, nobody's going to confuse me and Pedro Pascal is performer. So we're obviously going to do something like super different. I think that there's, James is good about directing me towards the relevant source material.

You know, and so I think that the whole, just the whole concept of the character is, takes a different type of tack than that does. I saw that movie and obviously Pedro's a great, great actor, but what he does in that movie it was not really relevant to anything that I'm doing. Okay. And then so were you a big,

you're the youngest, six kids? Yeah, youngest of six. Wow. So that's a, that's a, that's a, in less than eight years, by the way. Wow. to yeah yeah yeah yes james is the oldest and he's okay you know seven and a half years older than i am so tell me a little bit about that though so you're growing up in a house with six kids within eight years and and and it's like and so james is the oldest and he's doing his things and and again

correct me if i'm wrong but you're the only uh performer uh actor uh out of the group professionally yes but when i was growing up everybody did it like my my oldest siblings all did plays in high school, you know, everybody had a little bit of an artistic bent to what they were doing. Okay. Was it so when you're growing up and you're the youngest, are you looking at your older siblings and you're going, oh, I want to do that. I want to do what they're doing. Or is it like, no, you know what? I'm going to, I kind of caught the bugs. I'm going to do my own thing. Like what's the dynamic of the gun kids growing up? Yeah, I, for me, I was definitely the one who was always just like, I am an actor. That's what I'm doing. And you can see.

see when I was, you know, when I was six years old, people asked me, what do you want to do when you grow up? I would say, I'm going to be an actor. And my mom, I saw my mom last weekend, and she was like, she was like, yeah, I think it was actually even earlier than that, though, that you were, like, showing that you wanted. She was like, I remember when you were two years old, you would get the cylinder block and you would stand up on the hearth and act like you were performing in front of people. Like, that's what I, that was what, what I did. did. So for me, it was always about being a performer. But I also, so I never felt like I was following the footsteps of my siblings.

But I did from a sense of like taste and what we valued and all those. Like I wanted, I wanted their approval. I wanted them to think that I was cool, you know, and I wanted. So from a standpoint of like listening to the music that they listen to and liking the same movies that they liked and just sort of, you know, getting this identity of who I am, which when you then go into the arts, like that, that alchemy becomes part of who you are as an artist. So I do think that like even though I wasn't, I don't feel like I was following in their footsteps, but I do feel like there's some little part of all my siblings and my makeup as a person. Sure, yeah, you pick things up along the way.

and certain things that you see, like you said, with the movies. Yeah. Did you pick up the love for comic books during that time, too, or not as much? No, not as much. Okay. Not as much. It's funny, because I go do Comic-Conns all the time, you know? Now I'm like, I've been on the circuit for a while, and I go, and I meet so many fans,

and there's a lot of people who just jump into going deep into comic books, and I'm like, I bet on sports, you know, like I'm like. Who's your team? Like, let's talk about the NBA. Yeah, who's your team? Clippers in the NBA. Big time. Rams and Rams in the NFL.

Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. So you totally went over to the L.A. side. Cardinals, though. Okay. Cardinals and baseball. Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I love sports. I'm particularly a basketball. Like, it's a big thing. And it's like it doesn't. It's like it was never James's thing. Yeah. I would get, I would get glimpses of what he liked.

And so I would pick. things up. I would literally see comic books on his room and I would pick them up and I'd flip through them, but I would never really read them. Right. They didn't hook you the same way. Yeah. So I knew who they all were, but I didn't, yeah, I didn't get there the way he did. You're welcome. Yep, I gave you the gift of Vaya. That's right. And I'm going to give it to you again. If you want to break from the crowded stores, a endless gift list, you restore your Zen and you embrace the natural power of cannabis this holiday season with VIA. This holiday season, and you've got to unwind, you recharge with Viya.

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Yeah. So tell me a little about what then with Cragglin, then when you guys decide you're going to do Guardians and you come in to do this role. And that role just evolves throughout each movie and even into Thor and to the Christmas special. So how does that whole thing come about? It's crazy that that role expanded the way it did. I knew when, okay, so when James got the job that he was going to write and direct Guardians, which was just like such a massive life change for him. It was a downtime.

It had been a downtime for both of us professionally. I'd done Gilmore Girls, but I kind of had some really lean years. And I was like, I was not working enough and things like that. And so I knew that we always would try to work together when we could. But also it wasn't, it was a big new job. for him. It was big. The idea that like he should just be expected to hire me for something was not there. Like I knew that like, hey, if you can, he will. That's always been our thing. If it's

right, we'll do it. But we're not going to like shoehorn something into the wrong. I got your good Christmas gift last year. Come on. Yeah. Right. And and um, but he kind of told me when he first talked about guardians, he talked about Rocket and he talked about how how they had not, that they hadn't cast a voice actor yet, that they were going to go, they were going to go with a bigger celebrity, but he wasn't even sure they would have somebody cast by the time they started shooting,

and that he needed somebody on set to play Rocket, that he trusted that he could, like, that would be something other than just a PA holding a script, et cetera, things. And that maybe he would ask me to do it, he wasn't sure. There were a lot of things. And he said at the same time, I do think I have a role for you also, a character that he called the first mate. Okay. Who's like, he's like the first mate of the character that Rooker's playing. I knew Rooker, we'd work together and we were

friends by that point. I was like, cool. And I really, first of all, I was really excited for him, but I also just really needed a job. And so I was like, great, hopefully this will work out. I have no idea. And then it all came together really, really fast. I think after he was in prep for a while, he's like, okay, we're going to, it's going to be two things. We're going to ask, I'm going to ask you to come to London and read this character of Rocket, at least like read them in the read-through, and we're going to figure out how this character is going to work.

But then also while you're here, there'll be this on-screen character that is, that I didn't know much about. I read the script. and like we we experiment like cragglin evolves so we experimented with who that character was i i know that i showed up and it was like you know he's just he's texture in the first movie he's a sidekick and uh i mean he remains a sidekick for part of it but like he's like kind of chimes in from the background and has a line here a line there and it was like who is this guy is he a bad guy i don't i had no idea. I was like, see like a

maniac, are we playing them for laughs? What are we doing? And we experimented. We did it. We shot it different ways on set and we like kind of tried different things and it wasn't really until I saw a cut of the movie

that I understood much better who the character was which is like that was a new experience for me as an actor. I remember like like I was feel I went to, you know, I went to an acting conservatory I've been like acting my whole life so the idea that I would do anything other than try to create a complete a complete performance and then deliver it was different to me um and uh but

but I really felt like we kind of learned who craglin was and then James got he got sort of an expanded um vision of who that character could be and before the second movie he's like he's like I want to do a little more with Craglin, and I think he started to have a vision. I think James always had pieces of the trilogy in mind, but then after he finished the first movie and saw what worked,

he got a real vision for both the second and the third movies, kind of, at the same time. Yeah, it reminded me the evolution of what Craglin's character was, reminded me very wrestling. It reminded me the old school kind of heel, going into a, turn into a baby face. By the end of it, you're like,

I would buy his murder. But, you know, tell me a little bit about, though, with Guardians where that starts out, that movie, because that hits at 2014 when Marvel's just hitting home runs left and right. And but they were doing it on the, on the, you know, the Captain America's Iron Man. And so here comes this movie that no one knows what the hell is a guardian of the galaxy. No one knows what that is. And so is there, in your head, in his head, are you guys going? fingers crossed let's see what happens and then whatever that feeling is then leading up to seeing that opening weekend go okay we got it yeah i mean i think that it's it's always i always

like to point out that like the um the level of risk was a million times more for james right you know and chris and chris pratt too yeah yeah um then it was for me you know if that movie you know if that movie movie, if that movie bombs, you know, I walk away from it and I go do my next thing. But James may not get another, isn't going to get another chance anytime soon to direct a big budget movie or maybe even any movie, you know? And, and it's kind of the same thing with Chris and the lead, like, carrying a movie. It was like, so I think those guys were a lot more nervous about it being a bomb. But I also, like, I knew the movie was going to be pretty good, at least.

Like, my floor was, this movie's going to be good. I knew my brother. I knew his work. He has since said later that there were times when he felt like he was designed in a lab to direct that movie franchise, you know, that it was like, it really was the perfect job for him. I think it was the perfect job for James. And I think James was the perfect hire for Marvel for exactly what you're talking about. needed somebody to take these characters that people didn't know and make them as lovable and as much at the forefront as these all the characters people did know and that's like nobody

like james is better as good at that as anybody has ever been yeah like making it like taking these characters and really make it so i i just i knew the movie was going to be good i had no idea if it was going to really find its audience i didn't think it was going to bomb but i was also like look at the very least people are going to like this movie it's going to be you know it's going to be a cult hit maybe you know it's it hit it's floor like people will think it's funny and cool but is it going to be a hit the way the other marvel movies are i have no idea but it's also kind of out of my hands and um and so i just was like after it was shot i mostly just became a spectator i became a fan and like i watched I would watch stuff that James would show me

and I would And it was just like You kind of just get on the roller coaster And see what happens Yeah and it's funny because like I And to be completely up front On the first one I loved it The second one the first time I saw it

I was like it was to me I was like I was overwhelmed by the humor I thought it was all funny I thought it was all funny But I was like everybody had a joke And I was like I don't know if it's hitting from the same way It was the rewatch

When I did a rewatch When I did a rewatch that I was like Oh the emotion When you really tap into the on-do stuff and the Rocket stuff and you see and it was after I saw Guardians 3 that I went back to revisit it and it's like oh it really ties into what happens to Rocket and because that the third movie is my favorite out of the three like I just mine too it's so good and it's as an animal lover like everything it's like it's just such an emotional ride and a great ending to it but um

I want to I want to shift into the DC thing but before I do with that I wanted to get your thoughts on the third one because you just said it was your favorite also Yeah. What was it about that movie that you're like, oh, this is this is the special one? Well, it's it's a few different things. Like for me, it's half of it is always personal. So it's like I'm, when I'm watching the movie, I'm watching it as a fan, but I'm also reliving my experiences making it and knowing what it was like to like kind of complete that trilogy. And I was a little worried when we showed up.

to even to start making the third movie. Like, you never know. I love all the people involved, but it's like, is anyone going to be phoning it in maybe in a way they weren't? Is there going to be, is there going to be the same, the same enthusiasm to make something special as there was at the beginning? And what I found was that there was more enthusiasm, that the people who were part of it were really part of it,

and that they were there because they wanted to, like, kind of really complete this circle and make something, great. So also my character got bigger. I became a member of the family and the way that I wasn't in the first movie. Maybe I was as a performer, but I wasn't on screen, a member of the family.

Anyway, and so like, that part of it is really special. But the movie itself, which I think is what you're asking about, I just think it's really cool how you kind of complete this thing where the first movie starts out as

as Quills story. Yep. It seems like it's Quill's journey, but by the end of the third movie, you kind of realize that it's really been Rocket's journey that we've been, that we've been watching all along. I mean, that's when Lila hugs in and says this,

she says exactly that. It's been your, your story all along. And like, and, and the idea that this, that this little creature that was, so full of self-loathing and loathing for the world. You know, when we first meet Rocket,

he's like pointing a fake gun at people's heads and pretending to kill them, right? Stealing arms and doing all that, yeah. And by the third movie, him kind of taking the reins and that we learn that there's this trauma behind that and the whole, there's just like a whole beautiful arc for that character that I just think really, really works. Like, it really is, it's very moving to me.

I love it. Yeah, same. I was, that one, I just, that one blew me away when I saw it. It's like I said, I really enjoyed the first one, and I had, I found a love for the second one, but the third one really, really was special to me. Great villain. Chuck's a great villain. You need a great villain.

Yeah. Yeah. And like, and it really just, and I think all the acting is a little bit, like, like, I'll act as a little better. Anyway, go on. Yeah, well, it's just because, you know, it's like being on a TV show for a bit. Also, you know the character, so well, like you said,

from what you saw, you didn't really, from the first movie, you don't even really necessarily know what your character is. You have to watch footage. By the third one, and the Avengers movies and everything else, too, you know who this character is. So you're like, you just switch on. So that makes total sense. Yeah. But I want to, and talk about

this as much as, as much as A, you want to, you can also tell me to move on from it, because I just want to get into the path of getting to D.C. because there is that point where it doesn't look like James is even going to do the third movie, and it looks like a lot of you guys are like, well, F it, I'm not going to do the third movie either during all that time.

And then it's, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's in between that time where he gets the suicide squad, right? Yeah. Right. So can you tell me just as much as you can, you don't have to rehash anything, but that particular time of like, okay,

well, now he's doing the suicide squad. It's like, I'm going from the Yankees to the Red Sox. So here we here we here we go. What's what's that time like? Yeah. I mean, it felt it felt like a long time in the moment. Yeah. But I guess it kind of really wasn't.

And it was like, you know, the whole thing. Again, we don't have to rehash the story, although I don't think there's any, I don't think there's any embarrassing elements about it. It's up to you. I just didn't know if you don't know what to talk about it. Right. And like he had written these tweets and he got.

fired for it and it was kind of um it was like half half bullshit half understandable that he got fired like there's there's always a lot of things of play other than our emotional attachment to what how we think things should go obviously um and so and then all of a sudden so yeah it's like oh we're not making this third movie that we're ready that we felt ready to make and um it was really devastating for me personally but i also was more i was more worried about my brother who I know he thought his career was over for a minute

you know and and so he was kind of what he you know what he was going through I know was incredibly difficult but I also think that you know people in the business of making

movies are recognized talent and they know they know how to not pass up an opportunity and and so my understanding is that is that one of brothers contacted him pretty quickly and said we want you to come do something here then that they may have had their ideas about they're like we can tell you what we'd most like you to do and he's like well i'm just going to

tell you what i want to do which is i really want to make he's like like my first choice would be suicide squad but i know you just made him made a suicide squad movie so maybe you don't want me to do that they're like do you want to make another one let's just do it he said said that's what i want to do and then he and then he just kind of jumped in yeah like i'm i'm not for people who know me as a collaborator my brother james i'm not ever involved in any of that part of the business you know like i don't he then calls me and says hey man i've decided what my next project is and here it is and you know i'll let you know if and when there's there's a part for you or if there's something you're interested doing you know yeah sure well i think

I think one of the things that I noticed with all that too, and I'm sure that that probably would add into the Warner Brothers saying, let's call this guy right away, is the amount of support that James got from, I remember just Batista, I remember him alone and everybody else just standing up going, this is bullshit. Like this guy,

wherever he goes, I'm going to go. And I think that this shows the relationship he has with the talent. But then Warner Brothers basically going, yeah, come on over, do this movie. And then he calls you and says, yeah, let's do, let's do this. I got, I got Weasel. Yeah, totally.

he's like I know weas and calendar man too yes and caler man but it was the same thing what I was talking about earlier with creature commandos about I was like I was like I don't know weasel really but I do want to play GI Robot so I'll go do both it was almost a little bit of the same thing with suicide squad where I'm like gosh just a big sticky crazy character and like well I can play character

calendar man also got these he's got a he's got a fun moment and a funny little thing and maybe that character show up again down the line. I'm who too, like, that seems doubtful. But like,

it's like I, but like, yeah, weasel is just like, I don't know. This is weird. Yeah. Like,

like I'm always, um, first of all, I'm a, I'm a physically kind of strange actor. Like I'm limber and my body shape a little weird. And like I, and so I'm like,

I'm already, and I'm also a gamer, you know, in the sense. that like I'm I don't I don't have any shame when it comes to

like I don't get embarrassed doing crazy things I think it as part of my job that like it's always like tell the story tell the story do it to the best of your ability so like I'm I'm just going to try to do weasel from whatever

it is that I don't know I could go on and on about stuff I don't I think yeah I love I love love the fact that you know but that's great and the fact that he so he's she tells you that you're like I don't want to play a big crazy animal he's like yeah you do here's here's this is why yeah yeah and you're going all right cool then I can do this I can do it yeah and then I and then also my ego kicks in it's like well nobody's going to do this better than I am so like I I I'm like I I don't know that I really want to do this but I also it I also don't want to watch someone

else do it right and so like I'm like yeah yeah of course are you laughing your ass off and you finally see what he does with it, when you finally hits the screen, you're like, holy shit, that's exactly what I was going to hope, and it would be. Yeah, kind of. And I, you know, he includes me in a lot of that process.

So he'll show me, like, you know, before I even step foot on set with Weasel, I had pretty, like, full renderings and animatics, and I knew what he was going to look like. I knew they were, you know, like, modeling him after me and certain unflattering elements, but whatever, that's how it is. You know, it's like, yeah, so I feel like I know, I have some sense of what it's going to look like.

Yeah, Suicide Squad was one. Because I mean, again, the first one, that wasn't for me, but then the Suicide Squad was. And I remember that was like during like the COVID period. So I was watching, I watched out of my old office. And I, there's this one particular scene when Harley Quinn's walking and like there's like in this whole like long scene with like the flowers and all this. the way it's shot it's just so beautiful but the scene that killed me was that was the peacemaker scene when they're going through the and they're shooting all the dudes and then they find out they're on the same sign i laughed for so fucking love that shooting it's so dark too that scene is so dark

it is and that scene actually is that scene played great on the page too yeah you know like you like i read that scene and i was like holy smokes like it was just really it was yeah i i love that scene too it's hilarious and that that movie in some ways is very is as much james as is uh is anything what i really like about creature commandos is that i feel like creature commandos has that element of of really doing it like kind of this is hitting the the mark of what james really likes to do like what we saw on suicide squad. Right. But it's got a little more of the heart that the Guardians has as well.

So it's kind of, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I think that one of the things that kind of going down that road and the transition of it, so the suicide squad, it ends. And it's, and like, as I mentioned, it's COVID. It's a tough time to really judge to where people are going to the theaters or not, because I know that box office wasn't exactly what everybody wanted it to be, but it was also time when it was just hard to get people in the theaters at that point. But nonetheless, he goes back, he does Guardians three, you guys finish. that up when you find out the DC news that he's going over there to run the shop do you ever go look

I don't get involved in this normally but why in the world would you do something like this back off or is it the opposite like go and change this shit oh my gosh yeah I mean well first of all that was a total surprise to me yeah I did not he like I said he'll he'll keep me posted on stuff but he did not he did not tell me that he and Peter were thinking that that they even had an opportunity or thinking of doing something like that like so when I got that news it's essentially the same time everyone else did maybe like two weeks before they announced that he told me so like you know that like it was that was very shocking and I actually remember my my friend um dan paladino who's um amy sherman paladino's husband who I worked with on Gilmore girls and I did this episode of

marvelous Mrs. Maisel and he's been a creator or writer and He's incredibly talented. Worked on Family Guy Forever. Anyway, I remember talking to him and he knows James. I was doing ADR for Mrs. Maisel when the news came out that James got that job. And he asked the exact question that you asked, which was, he's like, I get that it's an insane opportunity. But why would he want that job? Why would you, when you're on, when, you know,

There's, it can feel adversarial the difference between creators and, and, you know, studio people. And like you're always constantly, like there's always a little bit of a battle. And so he's like, it almost felt like jumping ship, like you're going from being a creator. Right. To being, all of a sudden, you have to say no to people. You're joining the empire. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, you know, you have to listen to pitches and say, no, that's not good enough.

You have to like all these kinds of things. And it really kind of stuck with me that like, yeah. But I also know James well enough that I kind of got on it. But I did ask James the question. I said, you know, Dan asked this question, why would you want this job? And he's like, it's like, it's just kind of an opportunity to create this story. world from the bottom up in a way that's never been done before. It's just an opportunity to do something that no creator has ever really had been given the opportunity to do. And of course,

I just couldn't pass it up. And I get that. I get that James like, you know, building and, you know, it's like, oh, you know, making one movie, that's awesome. But then, oh, you can make a whole franchise. that's even more amazing. And now it's like not just a whole franchise, but a whole world. You're like, he's not doing it alone. You're doing it as a manager. You know, you're like, you're like finding the right collaborators

and picking how the different pieces fit together. And I get it. And he's the right person to do it. Seems like it so far. I'll tell you that. I mean, you look at what he's doing with both Creature Command. those how he's putting together lanterns and and and going into the Superman trailer already. I think that everybody's going to have that question about because James is a funny dude.

He leads with humor a lot of times. Peacemaker at work, suicide squad works, creature commandos. And the question is, well, I don't know if that's going to work for Superman. In the trailer, didn't see any of that yet, but it's not the movie. But still, but your trailer is like, look, this is what the movie in the tone is going to be. It's hope. And you kind of get that through that. So it looks like he's making the right decisions thus far.

So I get why he takes the job also. And another reason he gave an answer. So Josh Horowitz is a buddy of mine. And he just had James on the show and they had a conversation about it. And he said, look, the thing is, I'm not the business guy. That's not the thing that I want to do. That's what Peter is so good at it. Yeah.

And he's like, so I'm able to do the creative stuff and continue to do the creative stuff. That's what I want to do. And then basically everything that you just said. So you guys go, you leave, you know, the Marvel, Marvel stuff is you made your mark. you guys take off, you go to D.C. Now there's a time in between that where the strikes happen. And so, and you were pretty vocal on a lot of times, you know,

and so is there, because you guys go over to D.C., I'm just curious if there was a line because you were pretty vocal against Iger a lot of times, right? Is there was like, you can go after Iger, just leave Saffron alone. I mean, not Saffron. Zazl. Thank you.

I couldn't get the name out. Zazlaw. Yeah. Uh, I'm a bunch of counsel. Just fair, you can't answer. That's fair. You know, I, look, I was specifically, no, I did not single out Bob Eiger. I didn't, and I didn't even mean to personally denigrate him.

I was specifically commenting. He had just done an interview at that like billionaires thing in Aspen where he's like, where he's like, you know, it's a, it's a shame. It's a shame that that, that, that, you know, they. that these writers and actors think that there's more money available than there used to be. And I just, like, really, it burned me up. I got a little angry about it. Yeah.

Because I'm like, what I always wanted to call attention to, and it is true of all the billionaires. It's true of all these guys who run the company. But I just, like, I think it's important to remember in every field that there's a moral element to, to, like we can't just lean on this idea that that you know capitalism is what it is and so if all the money flows to the top that's just how it is and that's a shame like there's there's a moral element to that there is a there's a responsibility if you want to be a good person to say like no i'm going to make my company somewhere something in which we share equitably with the people who have created the wealth together.

Right. You know, and so I think I was really, I did not mean to single anyone out. I was really just responding to. That was a tough time. I saw that morning. Like I watched that interview that morning and then I went to the picket line. And I, you know, I hope I'm not blacklisted by anybody, you know. I bet you wouldn't be because I think that that time was so, that time was just,

that was a very heated time in general for everybody. and I think it's like one of those things. It's like almost like during a political debate, people are just going back and forth saying things, and the next thing you know, they're shaking hands and they're working together, you know? It's just like, it's how it goes down, and I understood the passion behind it for sure.

I was just curious. But you go to D.C. then, and then it begins, it starts. And, you know, you mentioned something about Maisel. Do you at any point go, hey, you should consider Rachel for Lois? Oh, it was a little bit the other way around. What happened was, you know, James said, he had auditioned her and said and said her that her audition was just obviously. It was spectacular.

You know, and he told me that. And I was able to tell him, I worked with her very briefly and thought that not only was her work excellent, but she'd see. seems, but she seemed really cool. And I hope I'm not, I don't, I don't think it's a secret that James does, like, he's, because he's talked about it, he does, like, very deep vetting of actors because he wants to make sure they're nice people in addition to being, and that they're hardworking feel in addition to being good actors, it's one of the reasons why his sets run smoothly and why it's, I think, I think his jobs, you know, his movies for the most part.

really fun to work on because people are super prepared and because people are nice to one another and they don't tolerate a lot some of the Hollywood bullshit you get with other people yeah anyway but I was I said she's great and I said I can also you know let's I can also ask my friends who've worked with her for a recommendation what do they think and she got the most glowing I mean Amy Amy gave Rachel the most glowing um uh recommendation you could possibly give an actor about how wonder after doing you know after years of of what i'm sure was a hard shoot on mazel you know that like that just what a what a professional and what a joy of a performance she has to work with so i passed that along to james and he's like you know i don't

know how much of difference it makes but he's but it's like it's it's still going to be about the screen test and about the work but he's like that's good to know that they that that she's also an awesome person it's also refreshing to know that he's you know that he looks for that type of stuff on the set, right? And I can tell you that I'm at the Critics Choice Awards. I can't remember what year it was, but I had an opportunity to meet her and I was talking to her and I was talking to her about staying up and on the side. And she was just about, it's like after the show, she was just so welcoming, sitting there having a whole conversation. We were talking about George Carlin because she had never seen, she had never seen

seen Carlin at Carnegie. I'm like, oh, you got to watch that one. That's when you got to see. But we just had a really long conversation. And she was just, she was a sweetheart. I mean, look, it was one day as opposed to people working on it. But you can get a vibe from some. somebody if they're just like, oh, yeah, they're just kind of like shining yon, but this is, it was, you could tell that kind of warmth that was there. And to have that, plus, you could see what you can do in, in Maisel with kind of being like lowest needs to be, you know. Yeah, totally. You see that. Yeah. So, and then Corrin Sweat, who comes out of nowhere, basically, I mean, he's been in stuff, obviously, and I didn't realize he was a Juilliard guy.

Oh, I just, did. Did I even know that? Grillo told me that on, uh, the one I spoke to him. I had, I knew that because we were talking about Christopher Reed. Yeah, and he's like, they brought him to Juilliard. I was like, holy shit, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, maybe I knew that somewhere in my brain. And I don't know David well. I met him a couple of times.

He's great. I can tell you from the footage I've seen from the movie that, like, I'm just absolutely knocked over, I'm pulled over by his performance. I just think it's, it's, you know, sometimes viewers don't always understand. the degree of difficulty of of of certain certain performances you know there's some kinds of like like I it always burns me up that like for example comedians rarely get

Oscar nominations because they're just but but like actually what they're doing is often much harder than these dramatic roles and I kind of think the same thing sometimes about these about these big movie star roles that like they're to carry movie and be charismatic and do all the things that a movie star needs to do is is difficult and it takes a certain type of skill but to add on that layer of of craft where you're you're just like elevating you're elevating every little part of it in every little way you can is a it's a tight rowbacked And it's incredibly, it's just incredibly impressive. And I just, I think I'm very excited for an audience to see that.

Because I think his, you know, his performance is the type of thing that would rarely be singled out as one of the best performances of the year because of the type of movie it is. And yet, I just think he's spectacular. It's so funny you say that because I was thinking about this the other day where like the movies that normally get nominated for Oscars now, the ones that have come out at the end of the year, they're usually dramas, biopics and all these things and like the Harley the mainstream movies really get nominated. Some, some do, some don't, but I was thinking about back in like, well, that 90, 91, there's no world that today

Julia Roberts gets nominated for romantic comedy in Pretty Woman. There's no world that that would happen today. Right. It just wouldn't. Yeah. Yeah, so I think you make some really great points that, you know, that type of performance should be. There's a lot of the, that's a lot of that type of thing.

And I try to, as an actor, I try to be like, you know, awards are kind of. stupid they're not really for like like it's like i get singling people out but i also it's like oh this performance is better than that one it's always a weird for me with so i try not to get too wrapped up in it but i also want i want people to get their due and i want audiences to find the the stuff that they should anyway yeah no i'm i'm with you and i i think that it's like i'm always for me reward shows i feel the same way it's like i don't what it is what it is but if it is going to help people get jobs

and it's going to help them in their careers and it's going to help them do things and to elevate them up there, then I understand it. I think it's a great move that they finally moved to the Academy Awards to streaming. I think it's a different world now. You don't need to put it on network television,

but whole other conversation. The last thing to discuss with you before I let you go here is that with Creature Commandos and where it is right now, are there things with the characters you're playing now inside of that? And then also, and I just don't know how much you can talk about it with Maxwell, where he goes, you know, because are we going to see him past Superman? Are we going to see some of these characters? How long is Sean Gunn going to be in the DCU, I guess, is the question I ask her? Well, I think, you know, unless, unless Christmas Day goes really poorly at the gun household, I can say that my brother and I will try to work together as much as we.

can for as long as we can. So I would like to think that like there'll be something that we can work on together. I don't know I don't always know where that goes immediately. I have a lot of trust in my brother

and I have a lot of trust that he is good at recognizing how we might best be able to collaborate on something. But I'm also a free agent. Like it's like, like, earlier, and it's like whatever, but earlier you mentioned, like, kind of moving on from Marvel and going away from that, it's like, I guess so. I mean, they have my phone number if they call me. I'm not, I'm not hanging up.

So you would. So if they say that, hey, listen, we want you to return in the role. And if you can, if we have more things like, yeah, I guess that's another question. They wanted to do Guardians for without James. And they're like, hey, we want Cragglin to come back for, for you'd be open for it. of course okay yeah of course i mean i'm i'm uh i'm an actor i'm always i'm always uh you know promoting something but also looking for work so like yeah okay i would yeah i would i would talk about it for sure okay um it doesn't mean i'm like waiting by the phone or that i'm expecting

that necessarily to happen i'm i for the most part i'm not expecting that to happen but um but no i never i never say never to anything i want i want i want to do cool stuff and i love doing a variety of stuff i love like doing you know i did a couple of indie movies last year that are super low budget and i might do a couple more this year and medium stuff i've you know been looking i would love to get back on a to have my faces on a on a regular television series again which i haven't done in a long time so like i i i love trying to do as many different types of thing that I can. I'm like a utility infielder. Yeah, would you, would you want to do, really, the answer is probably whatever role is the best one. But I think that would, do you have

a preference as far as like streaming network, uh, television? Like if something came along, is this something, what, what's, what are some of the shows that you're like, that you're like, that you're like, oh, something like that or maybe something, maybe that. Um, yeah, I'm trying to think of what I love that's on like, that's like kind of going on right now. It's funny. I just finished Penguin, which is awesome. That's a DC property. Yeah.

It's like that. But like I like some of these, you know, I like, I like that comedies. You know, I watch a show like hacks, for example, or, or I always forget them in the moment. But something where you can kind of like, that are grounded in reality, but you have a, have an opportunity to show some some comic chops as well like I I feel like it's something that's sort of missing from my from from from my not just from my resume but from my you know performing right now that I'm good at that I would love to I would love to like do something that's like I am one of the things I like about Maxwell Lord is I I

I've done a lot of this weird type of stuff where I'm either been makeup or I'm in green screen or I'm like doing it and I like the idea of playing a character who's my age and looks like me and walks up right and talks in complete sentences like is like is really is really appealing to me yeah but yeah I don't know but it always the first thing you said is the truest which is like it's always chase the words so whatever the whatever the best material is is always going to be the first choice. Understood. I have to thank you for joining me here today. Appreciate it very much, and I'm really enjoying what you guys are doing right now. Creature Commandos is on right now. You can go on

Max, HBO Max, and you can check that out. It's a really, it's a fun show. As Sean mentioned, it's got a lot of heart to it, so I highly recommend it. But again, Sean, thank you so much for joining me here today. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it. It's been a great chat. Thanks, man. All right. We'll talk to you guys soon. Thank you, Sean. All right, thanks. We will. Well, there you have. Sean Gunn, everybody. That was a fun chat. He's a nice, yeah, man. Really nice guy. So I liked how honesty was. I liked how honesty was. And I liked how he was just like, you know,

brought up, anything brought up, whether it was the stuff that would happen in the in between with James and Disney and then even talking about the stuff that he, when he was talking about the stuff with Igar. He's really honest. I like that. And I also like the fact that he's just talking about, you can tell the love he has for his brother, too, man. You can feel that, you know, when he's talking about him. It's his big bro. he's talking about the stuff that he's did

and now there's things he knows that he can do and they have like these kind of these calls together and you could also see the big brother kind of holding back and all right little brother I'll let you know when you need to know and now you do and I want you involved in it. The story that was told in between that I really enjoyed a lot so I like

what they're doing and I also like the honesty he was like I don't know he gave me wheezel I'm like I don't know if I want to do this just making noises and do it and he's like then I wind up having a lot of fun with it I got to be me it was a great chat I agree with him. I really liked talking to him. I thought that he had some really great things to say. So

thank you guys for joining us here today. As you saw in between the interview, please check out one of our sponsors. We've got some good ones here today. And enjoy your holidays. Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. We'll see you later. Bye.