The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Mark Duplass

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Actor and filmmaker Mark Duplass (The Morning Show, Creep) joins Andy Richter to discuss getting started with his brother, acting in "The Morning Show," why he'll always make independent films, and his new show, "Good American Family." Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel.

Hey everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm your host Andy Richter, and today I am talking to actor and filmmaker Mark Duplass. He's a prolific writer, actor, director, musician, and producer. That's too much, if you ask me. You've seen him in The Morning Show, The League, and The Creep franchise, and much more. His new miniseries, Good American Family, premieres on Hulu next week. And don't forget to join in the fun on the Andrew Richter Carlin show.

We've had a lot of great guests lately, like Darcy Carden, John Lovett, and Paul Scheer, and we would love to hear from you. Now here is my really great conversation with Mark Duplass. ["Good American Family"] All right. Let's podcast. Let's podcast. Let's podcast.

Do you have a podcast? Nope. Are you, are you thinking of getting one? They're very popular these days. I do think about that. And then when I talk to people, the general consensus is huge regret. Huge, huge regret because the consistency of the weekly interview, the research in order to do it correctly, the editing, the promotion, and I've gotten good advice from people who know me well.

I mean, like, you already do too much, and this seems like fun and a cool way to connect with people, and it is, and you'll regret it because you've got to carry a lot of water. It is very true. I mean, I have a support structure around me, you know, because I'm part of, I'm signed with a company. And like, like Dax Shepard is a friend of mine and he, you know, he started his podcast, which is very successful. It is.

And he just started it and was doing it himself. And when he asked me like, why don't you just do it yourself? And it's like, cause I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it. You know, like I would, I would record episodes and then be like, oh, I don't want to edit it. And oh, I't I wouldn't do it You know like I would I would record episodes and then be like So I need to have a support structure around me, but yeah, you're right it is It's not it works for you. It's yeah Well, and it's also you're right that it's not if you commit you got to do it. You know, that's that's what it is

I know my like I'm you know, I have the whole company to run. I have sort of my separate acting career. We run a nonprofit. I don't think I have room for the podcast, but it sounds fun. You don't you don't make your kids make one and then you can just be on occasionally fucking kids do something. They better start making some content. Yes.

I'm screaming at my kids all the time. Where's the fucking content? Where is the content. Yes. Right. I'm screaming at my kids all the time. Where's the fucking content? Where's the content? God damn it. So anyhow, uh, it's good to talk to you. You know, we tried this. It's really nice to see you. We tried this before.

I'm turning up my mic gain here. Um, we tried this before, uh, but you've been sick. I got sick. Yeah. Is it, was it just like some sort of respiratory thing? Yeah, it was just like that RSV thing that ripped through our lovely town. That shit's serious, isn't it? I mean, it can be.

I think if you're, you know, in what they say, like no underlying conditions, relatively healthy, exercising 48-year-old male, which which is the thing I qualify for those things basically. Oh good. I'm okay. But it knocked me out a little bit for sure. Yeah. It did that thing where you have to distill your life down to just the bare essentials and jettison out all those things that can be jettisoned.

And Andy, you were determined as jettisonable and I'm sorry for that. I do not blame you. I would jettisoned and Andy, I get it. You were determined as jettisonable and I'm sorry for that. I do not blame you. I would. But we're friends. I would jettison me too. OK, OK. But most importantly, I know myself well, like sitting here and having the fortitude and presence to be able to like genuinely connect with you and talk about our lives and stuff, I was not there.

I was more in survival mode. You would have been plain hurt in other words. Yes, you would have been asking me these really deeply soulful questions. How can I get through this in 42 seconds so I can get back to sleep? Well, you do, I mean, it does kind of make me think and you sort of touched on it just recently,

you are, you know, well, I mean, you know, your name and you and your brother's name, especially with like Indy, like they're sort of married, your names and Indy together. So you are such a self-starter, which I am so envious of, I'm such a not that, you know, like, um, I just don't left to my own devices. I'm just like, Oh, I think I'll make a nice dinner. Um, not write a screenplay.

Um, but I wonder like when you are sick, like if you have eight irons in the fire, how do you, you know, how do you do it? How do you like, it's a good question. I mean, you know, how do you do it? How do you like? It's a good question. I mean, the truth is I don't do it well. I mean, you, you go into survival mode. I mean, I've got lots of structures in place where I, you know, I run a company with my brother and we have employees, we have a head of our company. And, and so I, I can, and I have the good relationships with them. I can call them and be like, Hey, you know, can you carry this, this bag of water

and that bag of water that needs to happen? And then I try to have relationships in my life where I can be honest with people and just be like, man, I really want to show up to your premiere and support you, but I just don't have it in me. I could probably go, but I kind of got to save myself for other things. And they're like, totally get it, man.

So that's helpful. But for me, like, there's an engine running inside of me that's been revving at a certain speed for a long time. And I think that comes from being an outsider to this industry and, and having to be a self-starter to feel like I could come into the industry. And so even when I'm sick in bed, like the creative ideas are still rolling around in my brain I still have my laptop open I'm still doing writing and all those kinds of things I'm just I'm just supine yeah yeah yeah well now you are an outsider except you do have like a very thriving acting career yeah when I say I'm an outsider I started that yeah yeah like this is I

didn't I didn't have any connections. So I had to kind of like figure it out on my own. So technically now I could take my foot off the gas because I do have agents and an acting career and people who want to buy my stuff, but my engine is conditioned to rev in a certain way. So I'm, that's going to be a long process to figure out how to sort of attenuate that speed for health and happiness and balance, which is, you know, that's the whole thing. Yeah, because I mean I just wonder because you are such a well-known entity

and such a respected person in this business, both as an actor and a creator, that I do wonder like the fact that you're doing in, you know, independent stuff, at this point that's a choice, isn't it? Yeah, it's like, why would, why would you, you know? I mean, it's a good question, like, and a complicated question because, you know, technically the way things used to work for independent filmmakers was like,

you make one movie for cheap, put it on your credit cards, it's really hard, you go to Sundance, you sell it, and then you come to Hollywood and you never have to do that again. Thank God. Right. First time was difficult. And that was the lore that I sort of bought into in like the late 90s and the early aughts, because that's like what we would read about.

You know? But then what I discovered when I got here to Los Angeles, which I do love, I love Southern California and I love this place, was that, you know, I didn't really want to fully leave behind the independent way of making things. Not because I'm a glutton for punishment, because it came with all of its own wonderful advantages. And so to your point, it is a choice, but it's not like a choice in a way that it's like, I'm going to my old rusty gym just so I can connect with who I was when I was a high school athlete. I actually go there because it's a financially better deal.

I get more creative freedom. I have a lot more fun being with my people I've worked with through the years. And also when you're in the independence sphere there's a fun like gamesmanship element to this where you're like each project is like this little startup and there's like a little bit of gambling with it it's like what's the right amount of money we should make this for so that we can hopefully turn a profit and all of our crew members who are the shareholders of this nonprofit can reap the rewards at the backend. And I like gaming the system and it keeps me feeling younger than my

hair color, hairline and beard hair color would intimate. And it keeps me alive a little bit. So you're right. It's a choice, but not just because I'm like, I just want to be indie for the indie spirit. Yeah, yeah. I won't let the man tell me what to do. No, it's like its own cool little ecosystem that I love. It also is, I mean, I imagine there's a fun aspect of it too, that like you said, it's like there's wheeling and dealing and it does feel like almost like there's like a

carny aspect, you know, like where you're sort of in the same businesses like Ed Wood, you know what I mean? A hundred percent. You're like in that, or you know, uh, faster pussy cat, kill, kill that guy. Russ Myers. Yeah. Russ Myers. Yeah. Yeah.

I go to the, I just got, I just went to the independent spirit awards last weekend and, and it's such a fun event to show up at because it's, it's the same people I've been working with for 20 years. And we're all growing older together and we all, you know, a lot of these people change jobs, but we have all these crazy carnival experiences together. I was like talking with someone the other day about how, when I was selling our movie Bag Head in 2008 with Josh Braun, who's infamous indie film rep who also used to play drums for Madonna in the early 80s. You know, it's like that kind of guy, you know? Yeah.

And I remember like it was my first time like being a part of like what this indie film scene is like in the business, you know, and he was like, he sent me into a meeting with a distributor with a cell phone and he's like, just talk casually as if you have all the time in the world. I'm gonna call you like six minutes into the meeting. And when you get the call, look at it, panic and say, you gotta run, you gotta take this.

You know? And we're like pulling all this like crazy, like James Bond, SB&I stuff over the sale of a movie that was only gonna be like a hundred thousand dollars anyway. But it's just so fun. I just love it. And I'm sure people like that, like they love that aspect of it. Like the, you know, it's got to be some chicanery involved or I don't care.

I won't get out of bed unless there's some scamming going on. And then like three, three years later, I'm in another meeting to sell a different movie at Sundance. But one of the guys who used to work with Josh Braun now works at the company I'm trying to sell to. And my cell phone rings in the meeting, a genuine call for my children. Right. It's like, I know that move. That's a fake move.

I know that move. I taught you that move. I used to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you tell my love's a girl? It just reminds me of like years ago in New York city, my ex-wife and I looked at an apartment and as we were going in, it was like this little apartment at the

top, it was kind of weird setup where it was on its own up this weird little staircase above a business. And as we were walking in, there was a young couple walking out and they were going like, we are going to call. We're definitely going to call. We love it. We love it. We love it. And we didn't like the apartment, but we did move in like a block away.

We found an apartment a block away. And on at least four occasions, I saw that young couple standing on the doorstep of that, like smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, ready to do the exact, like, you know what I mean? It was all totally set up. You know, like we love the apartment. Like, and there is something about it. It's like, am I, do you really think I'm that stupid that just

cause somebody else might get it, it makes me go like, oh my God, well, I need to live here. Well, I'm fully willing to admit that I'm that stupid. For sure, for sure. If somebody else wants it, I want it. Yeah, there's a famous story. I can't say if it's true, but I always loved it where it was a guy was like a PA working in the valley, you know, and, um,

they have to get this scene and they're shooting outside and they, you know, some guys got a leaf blower and it's just like so loud, you know, so he producer gives them a hundred bucks. He's like, go over there and, and, and try and bribe this guy. You know, they ended up giving him 500 bucks to make them go away. About 12 years later, that same PA is now a producer shooting in a completely separate area of town, trying to get the scene. And there's a leaf blower going off and he walks over there and it's the same guy with the leaf blower. And he's

like, this is interesting. So he follows him to his truck and in the guy's truck, he finds out he has a copy of all the location reports of where everything is shooting in Los Angeles. And he's made like $60,000 in bribes. That's so awesome. And I was like, you know what? Give this guy a medal. Absolutely. Entrepreneurship at its best. Yeah, yeah. And that leaf blower paid for itself.

A hundred percent. A hundred million times over. Yep. You are from New Orleans. I am. In which I, I mean, I always knew about you and your brother too from New Orleans because my ex-wife was from New Orleans. So I'm familiar a little bit with like the growing up in New Orleans kind of Catholic

school culture of New Orleans. And you guys- That's my culture. You guys come from that. And if you can like describe it for people. Yeah, I can. It was a really cool upbringing for me personally. And I think Jay liked it too, because we grew up in

Metairie, which is about five miles outside of New Orleans. And you're across the causeway or no? Not across the causeway. No. So, so we're, we're still on the same side over there. Yeah. And really I can, I can get uptown in 15 minutes from Metairie. Um, but what I really liked about it is I had this wonderful combination of a

pretty sleepy, boring, Spielbergian suburb where not much was happening and I was left to my own devices and I felt safe. And so that really engendered creativity in me and Jay. Um, and at the same time, I had the option to go experience near death whenever I wanted it in New Orleans and have the thrill. And so whatever I needed at that moment, like I'm bored in this small town, I need to go light it up or I'm feeling anxious and depressed and insecure and I need my little suburban nests to nurture me. I had them both at my fingertips. I think it was pretty critical for my upbringing.

The second thing that really was, I think, seminal and I didn't realize this until I moved to Los Angeles and really steeped myself in the creative community here was the rigor and discipline of Catholic high school. Yeah. Was I hated it at the time. I did not choose to take five years of Latin, um, but, and, you know, and, and compete heavily to be a national merits finalists and all these things. Yeah.

But when I took all of those principles and I applied them to the creative process, I think it's a really important element as to why I'm still working today and how I have learned to be creative on a timeline, how I've learned to be diligent, how I've learned to just all these little schemes. Like I watched so many of my peers, like they have this one screenplay they want to make and they're convinced they can only be creative from two to five in the morning, maybe. Um, and I I'm just like, I've got seven scripts going at once when I'm feeling

super creative for the deep dive. I go for that one. When I'm feeling a little anxious or a little tired, I've got my low hanging fruit where I can just go through and do spell checks and clean it up for the suits read. You know, I always have something on and I learned that the diligence of these fucking maniacs that taught me at Jesuit high school that was crushing at the time, but very helpful. So did you not have that at home? I mean, were your parents sort of type A, you know, cast masters? No, they weren't really like my dad, my dad was a civil trial attorney. And he

found a way to make like a good living working with insurance companies, which was really shitty, tough work. But he was of the generation that was like, I want to raise my boys up a class. So yeah, I'm gonna lay I'm gonna lay the tracks here. I'm gonna buy us a house. I'm going to start getting generational wealth. I'm going to make sure that they go to good high schools, rub elbows with the hoi polloi, do the thing. And he did it. And like, we got this great high school education.

We both got scholarships to go to university of Texas and we graduated at 21 years old, super confident and debt free. And it's like, that's the greatest gift as far as I'm concerned that any parent can give. They also gave us this feeling of, if you want to pursue arts, you go for it. You're amazing. You can do anything. That's great. So they did like the things that I needed them to do to set us up. But they weren't very curative as parents.

And I don't know how you, you were with your children, you know, I found myself being pretty hands on and trying to be very like curative of their experiences. These are the movies you could watch. These are the books you could read. They'll make you an interesting person. And then we'll go, you know, I'll put musical instruments all over the house.

Maybe you'll learn to play those and, and none of that shit played like the way I wanted it to play, you know? It played much better. My parents who accidentally starved us out from everything, they wouldn't give me anything. They made me fight tooth and nail to get a hundred dollar acoustic guitar. Like I had to work years to get that. And it was better. Yeah.

Yeah. They, that scarcity mindset made me hungry. So I kind of screwed it up with my. No, I, I, I am sort of the same way in that I do think like, also too, like I was working, I had a paper route and you know, when I was 13 and then there has not been a point in my life when I was, I mean, until, you know,

the underemployment of being an LA actor. But I, you know, I've always had a job and like my kids never had jobs when they were kids. And there's part of me that was like, well, yeah, but, you know, let them focus on their, on their schooling. But there's part of me that's like, yeah, but there is like that just, you got to do stuff that you're told because you're getting paid to do it kind of aspect that, you know, that I don't really feel like they I mean they understand it, but they don't they've never kind of lived it Yeah, you know yeah, and it depends on the DNA of the kid. Yeah, absolutely my kids are very very different I mean the the thing with us and my parents and they'll tell you this now is like

You and Jay were so hard on yourselves. You were so diligent. You had such crazy work ethics. Our job was to back you off, not to encourage you from it. Like we had to make sure that you guys weren't going to destroy yourselves, which we have done to a certain degree. You know, um, we worked ourselves to the bone and we put some wear and tear on our bodies and our spirits in the process. I can't say I regret it because I'm so thankful now that like I own my home and I can pay for my kids

education and my wife and I are going to be able to retire and be comfortable. Like it's beautiful, but you know, it hurt along the way. I definitely, I, you know, some, some dings and bruises on the body and the spirit. Yeah. Now one, one aspect of growing up in New Orleans is that place. It's almost like in the same way that there are towns where they're like, well, we need green space. We certainly need to have bike lanes and things.

New Orleans makes that, except for drinking and partying. Drinking lanes. Yeah. We have drive-through daiquiri lanes. Yeah. And I mean- We do have drive-thru daiquiri shops. Absolutely. And I- You have to leave the straw covered. Right.

That's the law. Yes, yes. Because then- That says what we need to know. Right, right. But like my ex-wife, you know, she would tell me stories about, you know, going to bars in their Catholic school uniforms. A hundred percent.

A hundred percent. Well, it was 18 to drink, so you could actually go to school, go to a bars and new school uniform, but really what happens there is you get your driver's license at 15 at the time. So it's older now. Um, so I'm born in December. So in December of my freshman year of high school, I am, I turned 15 and I am out driving completely obliterated around the French quarter at 15 years old and I was your inaugural journey.

And I continued that habit for years and years, and I'm not proud of it. It was just what we did. Right. Uh, the, the good news is I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so we're fine there. I mean, but that was our culture. Well, that's why I say like, how do you, how do you combine the diligence and the work ethic and that, or were you just is, that's New Orleans. Were you just peddled to the floor with everything in every aspect of your life?

Those are separate things. Like, you know, my ability to work hard and be a straight A student and get the things that are moving forward in life are not in any way in contrast or anathema to the idiocy of driving drunk and all the things we did, because that's just the most powerful members of the city were also doing the same thing. Yes. So you didn't, we didn't see those as, as, you know, being problematic with each other. They were, they were in they were in per they were in perfect

cahoots in New Orleans. You know, the cool part about that culture, I will say this, and a lot of my friends have experienced it. If it doesn't get ahold of you and you don't wreck yourself via either an addictive personality or a horrible accident that can happen. Um, when I went to Austin at 18 to go to college, I was fully done with the party phase of my life and I was ready to get going with my career. Oh wow.

Oh, this is great. Yeah. I kind of like got this all out of the system and I show up to Austin and everybody's starting to learn how to get drunk for the first time. And I'm like off making short films with Jay and all of his friends and trying to figure out like, here comes the career. Yeah. What's the age difference between you guys?

We're about three and a half, four years in school. And he's older, right? He's older. Yep. And even though he looks 15 years younger than me. What is it? What's going on? Packed with Satan kind of thing.

I think it's genetics. I have to believe it's genetics because like I know, and this is me just speaking really truthfully, like I have put miles on myself the way that I have lived and not just like the drinking stuff, but it really wasn't that it's more like the stress, the ridiculous work ethic I have and the white knuckling it through all my mental illness before I diagnosed it and figured out how to properly live a life, medication and therapy and all that. So I am thusly road hard and put away wet and I know that about myself. But Jay is actually similar too. So he should look as old as me. Right. So I don't know what happened there and we're still working on it.

Can't you tell my love's a grown boy? I mean you have talked about that and you've talked about that publicly about you know basically I guess 20 years ago you kind of had a breakdown and you know and since then you've been you know, basically, I guess 20 years ago, you kind of had a breakdown and, you know, and since then you've been, you know, medicated and I actually saw an interview that you did where you're like, yeah, that's just like, that's like coffee table talk in LA, like, you know, what meds are new on, you know, like when, how many breakdowns have you had? Yeah, I mean, don't you feel that it's like kind of around our, our, our culture, maybe it's this business, but, or maybe it's just where we are.

But I, when I first started publicly talking about my mental health, I really did, it did not feel like I'm going to be brave. Yeah. I'm going to go out and talk about this. I was just like talking about it. Like I talk about like, Oh man, I'm dealing with tennis elbow too. And this, um, and, and what I realized is that, you know, uh, I was kind of Talking about it like I talk about like oh man. I'm dealing with tennis elbow to and this yeah And and what I realized is that you know I was kind of living in a little bubble where yes

It is destigmatized and are my little social circle here, but like around the country for sure it still isn't So I still kind of find it kind of funny there was that's so brave of you to talk about that You know and I'm just like I guess so yeah bother me So I still kind of find it kind of funny that it was that's so brave of you to talk about that, you know, and I'm just like, I guess so. Yeah. It doesn't bother me. Yeah. It's just like, you got kidney stones, you got to take something to deal with it.

I got, I got, you know, mental and spiritual kidney stones. So I got to take some meds and do my thing. That's what I do. I, I, uh, I am 100% on the same page with you because I had a similar experience where I just sort of was open about the fact that I, you know, and even to say struggled with depression feels like self-congratulatory in some way. Yes, yes. You know, it's like I've said, I have an emotional limp, you know, it's like it's not, it's just

like there's this thing. And I mean, it actually has gotten better as I've gotten older and I don't exactly know what combination of things has made that to be true. But I definitely spend a lot of time in my life just being sad for no reason. And when I talked about that in a couple of different places, podcasts and on social media and stuff. And I would, again, I wasn't trying to, as you said,

I wasn't because you hear celebrity types being like, if I could just help one person, and they always sound so grandiose to me, at least because I'm a dick. But I certainly did not think of myself in that way, but then it's like one morning in the Warner Brothers, uh, commissary, I go in to get a coffee before I go into the gym. And there's like some guy all choked up about how he finally was able to go to therapy. Cause he heard me on a podcast and you know, that's real.

Yeah, it's real. And it's just, it's like you say, my thing is like, if you are walking around with a bone sticking out of your leg, you'd go to the doctor, you know? And it's like, if you have the emotional equivalent of that, go to the doctor, you know, get it taken care of. But I don't know.

I think that's coming apart more and more. The resistance to that is, is, is breaking down. I don't think, you know, in the culture, it's like, I was no fan of Dr. Phil, but at least you could turn on Dr. Phil and there were men talking about their feelings. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think we're generally heading in the right direction with the culture.

I mean, we've got, we've got a little bit of issues with what RFK is doing right now and his general skeptics. So we have to play against that. I'll probably be a little bit louder right now because of that. But I do agree we're headed to a much better place as a culture in terms of talking about it, particularly with men. Yeah. But still a ways to go.

Well, when you start, you know, because you and Jay, when you're out of college, you both just come here or does, I mean, because he's a little bit- No, no. No, it was, you know, we both went to University of Texas. Jay went there in 91 and I graduated high school in 95 and went there. But the years between 91 and 95, where I'm still in high school, Jay is in Austin, were really formative for me. Because I would go up there a lot.

I would jump on these cheap Southwest Airlines flights, and really immerse myself in what Austin was, which was like the city of independent music and independent film. Yeah. It was great, and it was so inspiring because I think for my personality, if I had been visiting like New York or LA at that time, it all would have felt. Impossible. It all felt like, well, how the hell do you like, yeah, get on a national network and become the sidekick to the host of this shit?

Like, that's not possible, like at all. But when I was in Austin, I was like, this band rehearsed in their garage, hardcore, wrote a bunch of songs Now they're playing for a $2 cover and they're making a hundred and forty dollars a night I can see how this thing can expand and I can see it brick by brick how I can build and it's happening right in Front of your face and it's happening right in front of me Similarly Robert Rodriguez and Richard link later had just broken onto the scenes with movies that had cost like seven thousand or twenty three thousand respectively they picked up the camera and I was like, I can see that too.

And also these guys, they look like me. They look like ex high school athletes in jeans and t-shirts and ASICs. And they're not like smoking a pipe and wearing a beret. Like this all feels doable to me. That sort of working class nature of it. Um, so that started to demystify it for me. And for a while there, it was this dual approach where we were, we were playing music and studying film.

We edited a lot of movies in Austin to make money, ran like a little business. And, um, and it kind of felt like, Oh, which way am I going to go here? And I played in bands for a long time and traveled the country and did all that stuff. And at a certain point in my mid to late twenties, I sort of started to realize that like the lifestyle of a touring musician was not compatible with me at all. I mean, the, the, I was so close with Jay and we had our filmmaking partnership. I was so close with Katie, who I'm now married to, you know, we've been together since we were 22 and 24 and I'm a homebody. Yeah.

The whole like, go out, play a show, wrap out at two in the morning, go stay at the band's house who headline, hang out with those guys till five in the morning. I was just like, I gotta, I gotta get up at seven 30 and have my oatmeal and do my meditation or else like this isn't gonna work. Right. Right. Um, so I was glad to leave that life behind. And that happened to be right at the time we made our first micro budget feature, the puffy chair that was going to end up being our breakout movie. Um, and I don't know how much you've thought about this in your life in terms of all the different

things you've done as like, host, anchor, writer, blah, blah, blah. You know, I started to think more curatively about what is the form that's going to suit me and make me happy in my life. And there were a couple of things about filmmaking that I just loved. Like I knew that when I see musicians on stage have to play the songs that they wrote 30 years ago that everybody has come to see, and I see the look of depression in their eyes, that that's what they want to see instead of what they're doing now.

Yeah. I was like, I don't want to do that. Yeah. Movies, you make it and you never have to play it on stage again. Yeah. You put it away and you move on and you make your next movie, which I loved that. I love the idea that I could have multiple different things to do in a career. Like sometimes I'm on the morning show and I get treated like royalty and I'm spoiled

and they bring me lunch and they pay me really well. The snacks are great. They're so great. And everybody's so nice and famous and smart and handsome. And then because I'm a human being, I'll be like, well, I kind of miss it when it was just like me and Jay, like hanging lights and eating Taco Bell. And then I get to go and do like the creep tapes, which I make for $5 with my friends and get a taste of that. So having those multiple facets were really like, I don't know, I was starting

to realize that I was, I was going to be well suited to live a longer career without burning out. Right. I don't know. Have you thought about that for yourself, about like where you want to put your energy and what kind of stuff you want to be doing? Yes, I have. And, but I also too I

And it's a it's a root Problem for me. It's a root issue of like what do I do with myself? Yeah, you know like left left to my own devices What do I want to do and I don't we're holding your kids? I have a 24 year old a 19 year old and a five year old now. So. Oh, that's right. I forgot about the five year old. Yeah, I got a little one.

So you're on that, you're on that road. Okay. Well, and that takes up some of your time. Having a five year old too, and I've mentioned this before, like when I, cause my wife was a single mom, she had the baby on her own. Like she was one of those women that, you know, she had a career, she had a life, she had a business, she had a job, and then she, you know, had never met anybody that she wanted to have a baby with and she decided I want to have a baby.

So she had a baby and the baby was about a year and a half old when I met her. And the fact that I was dating somebody that had a baby and was like going to be this old man, you know, this guy in his 50s that would, that's going back to the toddler well, you know, which everybody, everybody who has had a kid, they're like, oh my God, that's so much work and there's so much time. And they would act as if like, for me, it was some, they're like, wow, like as if it was an act of heroism on my part. But I- You're brave. You're talking about your mental health and taking care of a toddler.

You're so brave. But the thing is, is I feel like, no, I now have like given myself another like 16 years of not having to think about what I'm going to do. I have given myself 16 years of somebody else setting the agenda, which there's a part of me that's just like, I'm okay with that. You know, like I don't, and I, you know, and work is, it's so weird now. Like it's just so weird now. And as I said, I I've spent a lot of time, I don't have the drive and the sort of auteur urge that you and your brother have.

And I have spent a lot of time in my life beating myself up over that and thinking that I should be more like that, I should do that, I should be that. And then I just kind of, you know, I kind of realized like, well, yeah, but that's, you know, I also wish I was a better basketball player, but I'm not yeah, you know and it's and You know, I've done lots of good stuff

I you know, I am a collaborator more than I am an author and I'm and I'm okay with that, you know And you're making a living doing something that most people would kill to make a living and I mean, it's wonderful I mean, let me just take a moment to take a look at and I mean, it's wonderful. I mean, let me just take a moment to demystify the grandeur of the auteur lifestyle for a second. Because for me, it is, um, as much of a blessing as it is a curse. Yes. All the reasons you can imagine it's a blessing.

Um, I've always felt emboldened create my own work. I never feel depressed when the industry takes a dive because I feel like I can figure out a way to make a project. All these wonderful things. And you do keep busy. I mean, just looking at like the list of stuff that you've got. We're always doing stuff. As I said, the iron in the fire are amazing how busy you guys are.

You know the industry is cratering. We're doing stuff. And that's wonderful. But the truth is, that's not really a choice when I can turn that on and turn that off. So when it comes time for Saturday at 1030 AM and some potential for some real relaxation, I have a very difficult time doing that because my brain is just running. In fact, I've been, you know, talking to my therapist, talking to friends, like, what would it be like if I took a year

off of work, like did a sabbatical, like, is it, am I just going to crumble underneath it or could I, as you suffer in the space of what do I do with this idle time, it's probably better for it to be literally taken up by this new child. That's great. literally taken up by this new child. That's great. Um, for me, I suffer with like, I don't know if I can actually relax and have idle time, you know, because of the way my brain works.

And, and, and I, I don't know the answer to that question. Did you, did you get some experience with that in COVID? Cause I feel like everybody had to gear down. You didn't, you kept. I did. And no, I just, I kept writing television series that I was, I wrote a whole season of a television series that I knew I was going to make independently when it was done. I made a Zoom movie during COVID that I could do with Natalie Morales. You know, I just kept going. Now, there was a little bit of calming down because the whole social calendar got erased. And that for me was wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Me being in the house with my, at the time, eight year old daughter and 12 year old daughter, a 12 year old going through puberty at home with us.

We're dressing up for dinner every night, doing theme dinners. We pick a different movie that they haven't seen from the eighties or nineties and watch them. And honestly, like, you know, I know this is a privileged place to say this from, but like the COVID year was like probably one of the happiest years of my life. Yeah, but you're not, you're not the only person to say that. I don't, you know, I mean, granted it was a horrible time for, you know, lots and lots of people, but I've, I've heard that, you know, like, yeah, and then, you know, and I think also too, you know, all the work at home and people, I think people still are like, yeah, I was forced to work at home

and I like that and it's good for me and it's good for my family and the fuckers at the top are still trying to keep them from doing it, you know. Fuckers at the top are still trying to keep them from doing it, you know Fuckers at the top. Yeah, our next Well did you so was there any relaxation I mean you had those times but you know, there was some you know Like when I hear the moments where I can get relaxation is like I I work out like very vigorously Like I get on the elliptical machine and try and like bang out a lot of that nervous energy. And part of it.

Try and break it. Try and break it. Yeah. And part of that is trying to get the endorphin rushes that I need as an anxious and a depressive. And part of that is just like, just exhausting myself a little bit. But when I do that, and then I go like into the sauna

and sweat it out and then go jump in a really cold pool in the winter and I sit in that pool for a moment for like three minutes, I'm like, is this what normal people feel like all the time where it's okay to just like sit here and enjoy the wind on my face and look at this bird? I can get it. I go backpacking a lot. I can get it when I'm out backpacking. My phone's completely gone. I've exhausted myself by walking 15 miles. I have my little dinner at the stove at six 30 sun goes down. So I get it and I get moments of it. But, you know, the idea that I could somehow achieve that in a more prolonged state is a major life goal for me. And I'm not sure how I'm going to really go about

getting it. The good news is I'm not miserable on the other side. I genuinely am like lit up on my work. I love it. It's fun. As my dad would say, I'm playing with the bank's money. I'm okay. You know? But I wanna get there.

Is Katie just used to it? Like, is it a struggle for her being married to a squirrel on a treadmill a, on a treadmill? Running, running, running. No, no, because here's the good news is that like, I do relaxation, right? I, I do cook dinner with Katie and we play games at the table and we take little vacations together and I, you know, watch survivor with my kids and have, we, I do all the things.

I'm not like runner. It's just that inside the head, the mouse is still running. They can't see that the mouse is right, but he's still in there. So I'm the one who kind of cannot fully relax, but I, but I'm still. Creating wonderful memories with my family and those kinds of things. I just wish I could just chill out more and settle into it, you know? Yeah. It's just something I struggle with, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Is it easier, do you think, to be married to an actress when you're doing this? For me, it is. But also an actress like Katie in particular, who is also a filmmaker. And so she really, really understands the passion that I have for it. So I think for me to be able to share the pillow with someone who understands that the relative ups and downs and dramatic bars of my life are similar to hers is good because if I were complaining about not getting full creative control and not getting the deal on the foreign

value of my television shows to an ER doctor who lost seven patients that day, I think that it might not be good for anybody, you know? So our relative low emotional bar of this business that we share is something that is the height of our emotionality is really good. Yeah. It's very good for us. Now, in the early days before we fully went to therapy and worked things out, there were

some power dynamics that were tough because like, you know, we made the puffy chair together, me and Jay and Katie, you know? But because Jay and I were the Duplass brothers and we were the writing directing team, our careers catapulted and Katie was more sidelined. It's just like, oh, she was just the actor and she was there. Yeah. Yeah. And so like that was really shitty. And I think if I could go back 20 years ago, I would be like, ah, I should have done a better job advocating for what a like partner she was in that, you know, but like, I was 27 27 my career was taken off and I was just like, oh my god, right, right, right It's like you can't steer a rocket. It's just a rocket. I don't know what I know, but I know a little better. Yeah

But so, you know, that was a little that was a little tricky at times And there was and there were times when I think you know We had to deal with again in our late 20 and early thirties, like the power dynamic of like, what does that mean if I cast another woman in a role that Katie could have played in one of my movies, you know? And like we, we had to work our way through those things, but, but we have, and it's, and it's really good now that we understand each other. So I'm, I'm in, I'm in favor of, uh, of, of being with someone who knows my business in and out.

It's good for me. Yeah. I always say like being Conan O'Brien's TV wife for years made me understand being a showbiz wife because you go to parties and there's people, you go with your spouse and then there's people that just know, you go with your spouse and then there's people that just talk to you, look at you, you know, don't focus at all. Like your spouse just happens to be there sort of.

That's right. And I would get that a lot, you know, and I get plenty of attention. So I'm not like saying like poor me, but- It's not nothing. Yeah, but no, but I mean, people would, you know, many times there'd be people, Conan and I would be on the street just hanging out, walking to dinner or something. And people would come up and they just look at him and be like, yes. And

just be like, I love the show. I watch it all the time. Can I get a picture? And he's, you know, yes. And then they just hand me the camera and they take a picture with him. And I'm like, okay. That has happened to Katie. Who we were both on the league and some people come up to me and say, I loved you on the league, you know, and Katie's like, you don't recognize me. Cause I'm not wearing my pushup bra. Yeah.

What's happening here? You know, um, you probably had it triply. So with Conan who's so tall and so orange headed, the shock value is even more so. He cannot. Well, and also too, he's suited. He loves, like when you go to, when you go on a work thing to a town with Conan, when you hit town, most everybody's like, I want to get to my room, take off my pants and watch TV. That's me. And, and he's always like, you want to go out?

You want to, hey, you guys want to walk around and stuff? Yeah. And people, they, you know, Conan O'Brien is like a human Mardi Gras float, you know, like you cannot miss him, you know? And he loves it. And it's not like some desperate thing. He's just a very personable person that enjoys meeting people. Me, not so much, you know, like when we did, you know, our security guy used to

say, like, because we go and we do shows at Comic-Con or in Dallas or wherever. And I always would plot my escape, you know, where I could just duck out and not have to just feel this sort of you know Attention and pressure and you know, I don't know what it I just it's it's a really nice thing nervous You know because some people get drained by that and some people get infused by that type of energy, you know and You know I've always just assumed it was sort of my depressive personality that can only withstand so much of that energy and so I have to protect myself from it.

But I get so jealous when I see people like Conan or like my friend Sean Baker who really thrive off of that energy. They want to see people, they want to talk to them. And they're genuinely curious about everybody's lives. I. Yeah, I'm jealous. I'm jealous of that I'm like to have more that It usually requires a couple of drinks for me to get there then I can't really drink anymore because I'm on antidepressants So, you know, I just stay home you can do that. So you can drink on antidepressants. Yeah You can I don't recommend for me. It's fine

You can, I don't recommend it for me. It's fine. Yeah. It's fine. What's your favorite work? Do you have a favorite? I know that's like saying picking a, you know, your prettiest child, but you know. Ultimately, it is the balance that makes it go around for me. Yes, that's the non-sexy true answer, right?

But there are things and moments that make me feel happiest and most excited. Um, when I get what I call the flop, sometimes a screenplay idea comes to me and it comes to me like a flop of like, here come the cards, lay it out and, you know, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, I see the first act. I see the second act. I see the third act. Holy shit.

We're here. And so when you said, I thought you meant a huge dick being laid on the table Yes, like a pork tenderloin. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See I don't have one of those. I don't either that doesn't come I don't need you know, yeah boy if I did no if I did no table would be safe Like Just imagine you as the next karate kid, just like chopping tables with, anyway. So when the idea hits you? When that comes, and those next three or four days where I like basically tell the people in my life, I'm like, I'm going to be around to take you to school, kids. I'm going to be around for dinner. But like, I'm going to give myself to this thing. And I'm alone with my thoughts and my own prowess and what I can do.

I feel so proud of myself. I feel so fulfilled, so excited. Yeah. That, that moment is incredible. The other moments I love are when I'm on a show, like the morning show full of these huge movie stars that have been doing this for years, that I've like had crushes on, you know, Reese and Jen and Billy crude up like all through the year. Yeah.

And, uh, and I sometimes feel like, Oh, what am I doing here? What's going on? And then we'll have one of these big, highly technically crafted walk and talk scenes where you got to hit this mark, this word and hand up these papers to this person and be there at the right point. And they put me at the center of it because my little Jesuit high school brain knows how to do all that stuff. And I'm counting steps and they know that if I get there early, um,

I'll improvise words to make it work. And if I get there late, I'll cut words. And I'm like, they chose me to do that in the middle of all of this stuff. And it makes me feel like I'm uniquely using my skill sets. I, I can't do what Adrian Brody does as an actor and I vote like that. I'm not that kind of actor, but I'm, I am. I'm a great walk and talk organizational TV actor. So when I'm in that space, that feels really good.

You know, um, other things that I love are like the moment at Sundance when you know your independent film that you made for $100,000 with your friends is going to go sell for like two or three million dollars and the sound recordist that worked on your movie for a couple of points is going to make $50,000 and be able to go buy a house. Oh, that's great. Like those moments are like the most incredible moments. I can imagine. Wow, that must be great. It is. It's so, it's so beautiful. Yeah, so those, those kinds of things are like my,

my favorites. But I, but if I had to say like, Mark, you gotta just choose one thing and that's it. You can't do anything else I would choose the writing which is weird because I know most people find the writing to be miserable but I love being alone I love getting feedback and having people point out what I missed getting better at it. Yeah adjusting to notes is good can be fun. It can be really good particularly when it's from like peers I respect and and I love the flexibility of the job. Like the idea that like, you know, my kids go off to college, like Katie

and I can travel around and I can do this job from Estonia, like, you know? Um, so I think that would be the one I would probably choose if I could only do one. Let's talk about good American family. Um, starting soon on Hulu. March 19 are our first air dates. Yes. It's starting soon on Hulu. March 19th are our first air dates, yeah. And it's yet another story of that goddamn kid that isn't a kid.

Well, that's your perception on it. And I think that a lot of people feel that way. And I think that- Well, I saw the trailer of this and I wanna, I definitely wanna see it. The other ones I've kind of been like, I don't know, it just seems like so much, you know, like... So this is obviously inspired by the true events of this story, you know, of Natalia Grace. And a lot of people saw that documentary that went around.

And, um, and what I thought was interesting about this show, Katie Robbins is our show runner. She's amazing. And she came up with this take that was basically like, let's show it from everybody's perspective. Like part of this thing is downright thriller and horror story from the perspective of the parents who feel like this kid may have lied. Yeah. And, but another part of the story is from her perspective, experiencing the, I think the best way to describe this is like the path and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This religious couple who adopted this young girl, little person from the Ukraine, thinking that they were going to save her life. And when she wasn't exactly as grateful as they wanted her to be and maybe act it out because she'd had a tough upbringing. Yeah they went to war with her and so the truth is There's a long period of time where no one knows how actually old this girl is yeah, and it might be being used as a weapon against her and This show does a really good job of showing how scary it might have been for those parents

But even more importantly how scary it must have been her watching these two religious parents who thought they were being heroes being crossed and them turning into something quite evil. Yeah. Wow. All right. Well, that's pretty good. Yeah.

You also co-wrote the movie Magic Hour with Katie and you, uh, she's directing, you're starring. No, she's starring in it with Daveed Diggs. I co-wrote it and produced it and Duplass Brothers financed it. And this is like, it's almost like a return to the way we used to make our movies, like with the puffy chair, like these early Sundance movies, you know, and Katie, we, the first one to tell you, like, you know, she's gotten to that point in her career where she's just like, I'm not getting offered the kinds of roles that I used to love to do and love to make anymore. And I want to make this for myself and I want to do this thing. So we came up with this story together

and we shot it completely independently and premiered at South by Southwest in a couple of days. Sweet, sweet. Yeah. What do you, what do you, you know, the final question of these is what have you learned? So, and you know, and they could take the form of, you know, like, what would you tell somebody? Like if you could distill Marc Duplass down into one sort of like idea, or it could take the form of advice too. Yeah. I mean, I think that there are a couple of things that occur to me, which is, you know, this one is not wholly original, but it is important to me. It's that it's hard for me to have regrets because I'm happy where I've ended up. But I do wish I could go back to many moments in

my life where I was stressed out and worried that things might not ever be okay and unable to enjoy myself because of that and tell myself, you're going to find your way. It's going to be completely what you don't expect. And everything you're doing here is building you towards it. So even though I spent all these years as a musician and I'm no longer a musician, those aren't lost years. I learned things about dealing with human beings, about the artistic process. I laterally moved all of that into myself as a filmmaker. So all of this is building who you are and it's fine and try to take a breath and enjoy it because you literally might be in the middle of the happiest years of your life and you don't know it. I wish that someone had given me that.

The second thing, and this occurred to me- Would you hear it? That's the thing. No, fuck no. No, no. If somebody tells me that now, I'm like, ah, really? Cause I had this sciatica thing going on. I'm not sure. The second thing that I think is the principle that I live by right now is that we're in a world

of scarcity right now. And whether that's, you know, this, this business that you've chosen to be in, whether that is, you know, just in general with international politics, the way the world is going, everybody feels like there's not enough and they got to figure out how they're going to get theirs. And I totally understand that. And I used to feel that way for a while. And I know you need a certain amount in order to be able to be comfortable. But my argument is this, that I can guarantee you that someone is right beneath where you

are and would kill to be where you are, whether it's where you are in your career, whether it's where you are romantically, whether it's where you are with your family. Um, and they're dying to get a hand and a help up and you're spending most of your time looking up, trying to get somebody to help you and they're not going to help you cause they're also looking up. So we live in a world of vertically stacked people raising their hands up and no one is doing anything or getting any help. They're just being sad because they're not at the next level. And you can change this

paradigm by looking down and grabbing the hand of someone and bringing them up to your level and where you are. And that's going to do a couple of things to you. It's actually going to be good for them. It's going to make you feel fucking great. You're not going to be focusing on your petty problems. And so you'll feel fulfilled. There's one thing I've learned from the Catholics that is a good thing to reach out and help other people, despite all the other things that they do that I'm not so happy with. But I think, you know, perhaps more importantly, you know, I love living in a

world of what I call selfish altruism. The more you do that, the more you're going to build people that are probably going to leapfrog you and then they're going to be able to, at some point, reach down and help you out and bring you up. You know? And that's the key to this life for me right now. I, that's, I, whenever I've always had, when people are like, you can't compare yourself to other people, I feel like, are you crazy?

We're like the comparison apes. Like, you know, like that's the kind of, and also that's like a really healthy thing, like relativism is like my religion. I mean, you know, and it's like, and I mean, in some way, you know, in some ways, like early on in work things, but also too, like you could put it into like love, you know, like there were just the feeling of like, wait a minute, if that fucking guy can, can work, can be in love, can whatever, well, then I certainly could too, you know, and then as you get old, you know then as you get older and more settled, then it's also sort of like, yeah, right.

Well, look at those people and then complain, you know? I mean, not to be a Pollyanna about it, but you're absolutely right that it is a good way to sort of count your blessings, you know? Yeah. It's a gentle way of introducing chaos into a system that isn't working and it's and Usually when you're thinking about chaos bombs They're rough-edged, but this one is gentle and loving. Yeah, and so that's what I love about it, you know, well mark Good American Family. It starts on Hulu March 19th

Magic hour everyone should look out for that when you you know, whenever, when, um, and then sell it at South by Southwest. It'll be coming out in the fall. Absolutely. In the fall. Yeah. And then, uh, Huracana, um, which is look, sounds crazy. It's about Anna Nicole Smith's appearance at a boxing match.

Yep. That's going to be showing up at festivals this year as well. So that sounds, that's a wild one. Sounds fun. Well, Mark Duplass, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I'm glad you're feeling better. It's lovely to speak with you. Yeah, it's great to see you.

Great to touch base and thank all of you out there for listening. I'll be back next week with more of The Three Questions. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista, with assistance from Maddy Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl.

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