The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Seth Green

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Actor, producer, and director Seth Green sits down with Andy Richter to discuss discovering a love for theatrics during summer camp, pulling public pranks, and acclimating to fame. Plus, Seth talks about Robot Chicken’s journey to the airwaves, how a trip to Thailand inspired his new movie Changeland, and the thrill of portraying his most convincingly bad persona.This episode is sponsored by Mack Weldon (www.mackweldon.com code: THREEQUESTIONS), HelloFresh (www.hellofresh.com/threequestions80 code: THREEQUESTIONS80) and Dashlane (www.dashlane.com/andy).

Well, we're ready. Are you ready out there? Three questioner listeners? I got to think of a name for you people. I mean, Dax Shepard has all kinds of cute things to call you. Oh, like questioneers or- Yeah, questioneers. The questionites.

You know, you three Qs. You dirty Qs. Triple Qs? Yeah. Yeah, you triple Qs. You Q-cubes. Yeah. Q-cubes.

Triple Qs is almost more syllables than three questions. Yeah, than actually say three questions, I know. Well, that's Seth Green. He's my guest today. You guys probably knew that. I mean, does anybody really stumble upon a podcast not knowing who they're going to listen to? I don't think it's accidental. There must be some kind of podcast roulette app where you could go through what you have available and select something at random.

Yeah, but I doubt there'd be a, what the hell am I listening to moment for anybody. That sounds like Seth Green. Oh, God. who is this well you and i have known each other for a zillion years yeah you've been coming on when was the first time you were on the conan show uh in 98 98 yeah yeah and how old were you in 1998 uh early 20s early 20s maybe 22 for like Austin Powers or something? I think the first time I came on was for Can't Hardly Wait. And I just remember, because I love the show. I watched the hell out of the show from the very first time it was on the air. And I was super excited because it was- I was bored with it by the time.

Why would you? I almost never watch the things that I'm in. Especially not a daily show. That'd be exhausting. No. People would always like, do your family? No. They don't care at all. Like like did your kids see that no no they don't it's on their calls no one's even attentive you know no they're i mean like my mother watched every show oh she did yeah yeah absolutely and had a huge vhs library of them uh of them, which I think my sister finally begged her, like, those exist elsewhere.

Yeah, that innovation, like the digital filing was one of the greatest things prior to that. Yeah. I remember going to Michael Richards' house at one point and seeing, it was a prized possession at the time. It was a VHS library of all of Seinfeld. Yeah, yeah. And then just a couple years later when it came out on DVD and the entire seasons were the size of a hardbound book, I was like, oh man, I wonder if he just had a VHS smashing party. A valuable commodity becomes clutter in like one second. Well, I interrupted you. You were

saying when you came on the show that you were a fan oh yeah i was and it was so fun just because i like improv uh improvising and i i like um you know creative conversations and that whole segment was just awesome like you guys were so cool and uh we had a ton of playful interaction it was like a really great spot yeah yeah it's good i it was well and i mean it all blends blends together. I feel like I've known you now for, well, shit, it's been 20 years now. Yeah. Yeah, and even though we only see each other at talk show stuff or at other people's social events. Yes, yes. It still feels like, oh, yeah, there's Andy.

Yeah, yeah. You're a safe port in a wild storm. Absolutely. Yeah, and we do see, and we've seen each other at weddings and I don't know about any funerals. Birthdays and stuff. Yeah, yeah, birthdays and stuff. Have I seen you at fun at weddings and I don't know about any funerals. Birthdays and stuff. Yeah, yeah, birthdays and stuff. Have I seen you at funerals? I don't know.

I'm sure we've been to a couple of the same funerals. I usually make funerals all about me, so I'm not really aware of who else is there. Yeah. Even if I'm not invited to eulogize the person, I will, from the audience, talk about my personal grief. Yep. I was at a funeral where they talked about competitive grieving. And I thought that was- Did they really talk about it? It was very, very funny.

Oh, wow. Every person that came up was like, well, I just have to say, I'm the most hurt by his loss. Yeah, yeah. It's really important that everyone understand how I figure into this. Yeah. I haven't been to a lot of comedy funerals, but I have been, I mean, and they're on their way. You know, I'm 52. They're, they're coming. But I went, I got to go. And I really do say this, that I got to go to Rodney Dangerfield's funeral. Oh, wow. Because I had done, I had just done like a couple of spots

with him. And by spots, I just mean like weird gigs. You know how it, you don't know what to call them, but like he and I were in the same place both getting paid to do something and we just hit it off i really liked him and i you know like he to this day i think is like my favorite howard stern interview ever the one where he talked about being close to death and not believing in anything and how fucking chilling that was jesus i haven't heard haven't heard that. It's worth looking up. It's worth looking up. But his funeral was fucking hilarious. I'll bet. And it was, and there were lots, and I mean,

like the funniest I have ever seen Jay Leno be. Oh. Because it was mean, Jay Leno. It was mean. Fuck all of you, Jay Leno. Wow. Yeah, it was, but I mean mean like in a you know yeah like that was what that was what everyone it was a kind of a roast not so much of Rodney as it was everyone

else in the room and it was just it was hilarious it was so so funny yeah but anyway forget about funerals let's talk about the beginning of your life because you're not from here. You seem to me to be, you spent so much time in California of your life, but you're from Philadelphia. Is that right? Yeah, I grew up in Philadelphia and started working really young and took the train to New York four to five times a week for auditions. And then lived in New York for lengthy periods when I was working on stuff that shot there. I came out to California, I think when I was nine years, eight or nine years old to screen test for something. And then I kept coming back for, you know, auditions that got down to the

wire or stuff that I booked. And then I lived in all different places when I was working, but I moved out to LA for good right before I turned 17. Okay. Yeah. And what did your folks do? Both my parents were teachers. Were teachers. Yeah.

And how did it, how does a kid go, I want to get on the train and go to New York and act? What, do you remember a moment where you're like, that's what I want to do? I do. I grew up loving performing and I realized very young that I was an adept mimic and I would work to vocally sound like cartoon characters or other performers. I practiced accents. And before I even understood that that was a thing, it was just something that I was inspired to do. Yeah. And so I knew I loved making an audience feel something, whether it was, you know, comedic or dramatic.

I just really enjoyed telling stories. Yeah. And you just mean like at parties, your parents would throw and stuff, not necessarily even like a school play or church function, just like you knew, like you'd like to put on shows for people. I did. I'd put on costumes. I'd play characters. My sister and I would, you know, do bits and stuff. And then I was six years old and I had two experiences where my mom was working at a summer camp, two different camps. And I got to participate in, one was a talent show that the, the, uh, CIT, the counselors in training put on and they let me play a small part and do like the, the act breaks between the performances. Like MC?

Kind of. They had a six-year-old MC? That's fantastic. A little bit. What a great idea. It was very silly. The whole sketch concept was a Star Trek-type parody where there's a space team that's traveling through the galaxy

and stopping at each of these planets, and on each of the planets is an act. And so I was the captain of the ship, and we had a shootout at the beginning, and then we were moving from place to place, and I would ask the Chekhov character, like, where are we headed now? And they would give us an intro and then we'd set up the next act. And I just loved it. It was one of the first times I went up on a line. I didn't even know that that was a thing. They prompted me from the wings

and I picked it up and felt really cool about that. But then there was another summer camp and the teenagers were putting on a play. This is the next summer? The different summer. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And, um, I got, I begged them. I begged them relentlessly. In fact, this one actually might've happened first. Um, I just wanted to be a part of the show. I knew they were putting on a show and I wanted to be a part of it. And they refused to let me have anything to do with it. And we're like, stop coming around to our rehearsals. You're incredibly annoying. Yeah. And then, uh, the then the second, the summer camp went for two terms, you know, like four weeks here and four weeks there. So they refused to let me be a part of the first play.

But then I wore down their resolve. And in the second play, they gave me one line at the very end before the last review. And that was it. And I did it. I was there for the rehearsal. end before the last review. And that was it. And I did it. I was there for the rehearsal. I watched everybody putting on their makeup and all of the tech run through and learning the songs and doing the dance and everything. And we did it, you know? And so like the showtime comes and it's my cue and I take the stage, I say my line, I'm there for the song. And then we all take our

bow. And I was certain in that moment, taking my bow, I was like, oh, I say my line, I'm there for the song. And then we all take our bow. And I was certain in that moment, taking my bow, I was like, oh, well, this is what I do. This is, everything in me was vibrating in perfect harmony in that moment. And it's a sensation that I hold fast to because it's nothing in my life feels that same way. Wow. Yeah. And what do your parents think when you say, like, I mean, do they know what they're in for? Do they, I mean, they don't, I'm imagining they don't have any experience with professional show business. Yeah, it just wasn't a thing, like in my neighborhood, in my school, in either of my parents' schools.

It is rarely anywhere is it a regular thing. Yeah, it didn't seem probable to anybody. But, you know, I think back on this and I'm really grateful my parents were so encouraging because they let me run with this flight of fancy. And they put me in several positions where it was possible for me to succeed. And at every point, they let it be my choice, even though it required an incredible commitment on both of their parts. Yeah, yeah. And how did you start working professionally? Just local agents doing commercials and stuff?

Because you were, I mean, when I first became aware of you as an actor in, I don't even know what it would have been. It probably would have been a TV show or a movie or something. And I was like, oh, it's that kid I've seen in commercials for a million years. Yeah. Because you had such a, well, I mean, first of all, you were like the cutest child in the world. You're a handsome man. Hey, thanks, man.

As a child. No, I mean, you were like, you know, you were a really cute little kid. Hey, thanks. I always thought I was pretty goofy looking and my teeth came in super crooked but I and I was short uh and I had red hair yeah and a funny name but I read uh at a at a very high level yeah and my vocabulary was such that it it made me able to participate on a higher professional level even at a really young age right and probably play younger like that was probably a very attractive thing to casting agents because it always is yeah with with child performers if you got a 15 year old that can play 11 yeah you're gold well i could because you can work them harder it's the truth yeah they did they worked the hell out of me yeah but i i i wanted it too like i really it. And I was so convinced that that was my path that I was hungry for every opportunity. And I just learned anything that I could. And anytime anybody gave me

valuable information, I tried to integrate it into what I was doing next. Yeah. And were there plays? Did you go to New York and do plays? I auditioned for all of it, everything from Les Mis to Into the Woods. I didn't get a lot of that. I didn't really get any of that. I didn't really get any of that. The first full-length play I did, I was in my 20s. I got to do American Buffalo, which is a mammoth play, a three-person mammoth play. And we did it in a small round theater in the Old Globe in San Diego. So I lived there for a summer, got the best education in my life. And that was the same summer that

I booked the first Austin Powers movie. Oh, awesome. Wow. Now, do you have, when you're in, say like when you're in New York and you're staying there for stretches of time as a kid, is it your mom that's with, is it your dad, your mom comes up? Yeah, my mom was primarily my guardian for all of it. Occasionally my dad would do it, but my mom had, had quit teaching like the year before I started working professionally. So she was more available. Yeah. Is, do they, as now that you're an adult, do they ever say it was rough on them sometimes to do this, to be carting you around all the time? For sure. Yeah. They've both, they've both offered me that admission. No one's quite,

no one's out and out said that I caused their breakup, but I definitely, I didn't help them. I wasn't going for that. I didn't help them spend any more time together. I certainly didn't create opportunities for them to work through whatever issues they were having. Was that anything that you felt responsible for? When I really look back at my parents and how different my mom and dad are, it is shocking to me that they ever got together and not a surprise that they didn't stay together. Their needs, their tactics for problem solving are so different. My sister and I joke that they likely only came together to make us and then that was it. It was sort of to our benefit that they ever um met up and not a surprise that they didn't that they didn't function yeah i think like kind of i mean as an older person the notion of opposites

attract is certainly true but opposites persevering i think is a little bit is a little trickier you know it's a little harder you gotta have stuff in common you gotta you gotta approach problems in the same way you you have to be willing to communicate you you have to have mutual interests or else you'll just continually grow in opposite directions all the fire dies out and then you got to talk to each other you know you got to really be able to and that's like and i i you know i mean now like i say like i I'm older and I have seen throughout my life so many people getting together and just having this feeling of like, you're going to reach a point where you guys are going to just have to be like, you know, it'll just be like one long Sunday afternoon. You're like, you know, and you got to just kind of figure out how to talk to each other. And you got to like each other.

You got to want to want to out how to talk to each other. You got to like each other. You got to want to spend time with each other. Chris Rock had my favorite joke about that. He was like, look, if you smoke crack, then your spouse has to smoke crack. Like, that's just how it's got to go. Right. You got to like the same stuff or it's not going to work. Same thing. You know, like figure skating.

It's just like crack. Yeah. You know, you got to, yeah. You hear that from every Olympian. Oh, absolutely. So how old were you when your folks split? I think it was the year I turned 15. Okay. Was when they officially split, but they had been falling apart for years before. You kind of knew that that was, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have kind of like a little group of theater you know like auditioning kid friends like when you were living in new york or away from home well because it's not that the pool was small it's just you would always see the same people

that's what i mean yeah and so i did i had kind of a peer group that even though i wasn't close to there were a couple kids that i would stay friends with. What's amazing, honestly, is now, you know, over 30 years later, anybody who's still here, I've got a handful of people that were around at the very beginning of my career. Yeah, yeah. And we're all still working, which is an incredible accomplishment. Yeah. We remind each other of our own survival stories. Yeah, no, I mean, I just, you know, the Emmys were just last night.

And, you know, and it's, I'm sitting, I was at home, but, you know, I'm sitting, here's all these people that I've known for 30 plus years, you know, at the Emmys. And it's pretty, I mean, that in and of itself to be still, like you said, all of us still working and still maintaining like a real friendship. You know what I mean? There's other people you fall out with and friendship you know I mean there's other people you fall out with and you know that along the way but certainly those and for me it really truly is those people that I came up doing improv are the ones that have stuck through I mean I had other friends like say from college and film school and high school that not so much you know have we really kept up but it's it's hard to keep up with anybody um and it's especially hard to stick around yeah yeah well and i've talked about it with different

people on this it's like when you find the phrase we've used i don't know who if it somebody here said but it's fine in your tribe and that for me it's kind of like those are the people that have stuck with me are the ones that are like they're they're great in the similar ways that i think i'm great and also damaged in the ways that i'm damaged and so it all kind of works out that way yeah there's um there's a wonderful tolerance and acceptance in this crazy carnival you know this this whole um it's it's You know, this whole, it's, I don't know, when I first moved to LA, I found it was so important to shrink my world and not try and keep up with everyone and everything. It's very difficult. As I've gotten more into producing, I found it even harder just to memorize all the details.

Because it used to be I just had to know all of the other actors. And then it was getting to know all of the directors or the producers or the casting directors. And the more I get into producing, it's like knowing all of the people at the network and all of the people at the agencies. And then in each of the industries, which are all the same thing, it has gotten harder and harder,

especially as I've gotten older, just to keep all the facts and details. I'm terrible at that. And I have been terrible at it forever. And like I was, you know, in between my two stints with Conan, you know, I was on three different network television shows and I was always terrible. I mean, there were people that I knew because I liked them. And so I would, like, I know you. And, like, we are friendly and we have drinks. And when I see you at these things, I'm so happy I have someone to talk to.

And then there are these other people who any adult with any sense of, like, business, any business sense would go, like, I really need to remember this guy's name. And the fucking spoiled brat in me is like, that guy's a dick. Fuck that guy. Yeah, I know he holds power over me, but let other people talk to that guy because that guy's a dick. And I kind of still in that way. living behind this huge shielding thing that's called Conan O'Brien, who handles all of these things and has to go to do all this hoop jumping. And I'm just like, nah, I'll see you at the show on Monday. You know, fuck this. And it's terrible.

It's like, eventually it's going to be a problem. But, you know, and I feel it every time I go to any kind of industry thing and I'm just like, oh my God, there's 40 faces here that are attached to names that I should know. Most people really understand. And I don't even have an ego about people remembering me. Like it's always, it's always kind of unpleasant if someone remembers you, but I'll also reintroduce myself all the time. Yeah. And I always appreciate when people remind me of their name or their context. And that way, we're actually talking.

Yeah. But I meet like 1,000 people a week. It's almost impossible to keep it all together. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, and I always feel, too, especially like the commissary here at Warner Brothers, it's always a whole cavalcade of familiar faces with people that I worked with for 18 hours a day

for two weeks, six years ago. And they remember me, you know, they know I'm Andy Richter. And then I'm like, I know you're maybe Bob. Oh, Tom. Okay. Hi, Tom. And are you a prop guy?

Oh, you're, you know, audio. Okay. You know, I mean i there's just such a you know well and also people change in six years and so suddenly someone is more gray or they have purple hair now or i was like any number of you grew a beard didn't you and sometimes it's no i always had the beard fuck shit well now was it were there times that being a showbiz kid was a lonely thing? Yeah. Because you were certainly, I mean, you probably had kids when you were little, and you were living kind of a regular neighborhood life.

And then all of a sudden, you're kind of off on your own island. I mean, what was that like? That was not fun. It was hard for me to be in school and make friends because I wanted so badly for people to like me. I wanted to belong. But I didn't. The stuff that I was interested in, the things that I wanted to do, it was not common in my school. K through 12, nobody in my school was getting the real world experience that I was. And it definitely separated me. And regardless of how I put myself out there, if I put myself out there too much, everyone thought that I was showing off. And if I didn't put myself out there at all, everyone thought that I was stuck up. Exactly. And so it really wasn't until I moved to LA and was able to make friends that were doing the same things that I was, that I actually felt like I found my group. I still have friends in Philly that have all moved

to different places, people that I grew up with. I have like one or two people that are still actually very close friends of mine. And it's very rare, I think, to keep that basis of familiarity with other people that aren't necessarily in the industry. Did you go to school for acting? Did you go to college or anything for it? Or did you just keep working because you're already working? I did. So I went to a regular high school, public school in Philadelphia. And then I had tutors all the time. I had social workers on projects. Because you have to. It's the time. I had social workers on projects and I had to maintain my own curriculum. And then

I had just a year, one semester in California at a continuance school and was able to transfer my records back so I could walk at graduation with my Philadelphia class. But I had one year out here where I went to high school with like Mila Jovovich and yeah yeah yeah the weirdest year of school you can imagine now did that at these at these lonely times did you ever like think about like ah maybe I should go back to being a regular kid you know or I have that every I mean you know to to have a career over any length of time it is it's really apparent that you're going to have ups and downs, that you're going to have periods of time where just you're unhirable for whatever reason. And it can be incredibly discouraging and deeply depressing. But I have, at each of those moments, consistently reaffirmed that I believe this is what I do.

Yeah. But I also know that what I do. Yeah. But I also know that that's up to me. It's up to me to always be better, to always work harder, to continue to evolve. And more than anything, to show people how I want to be seen. Like no one is ever sitting around waiting to cast you or think about you. They are too busy doing exactly what's in front of them. Yeah, yeah. you. They are too busy doing exactly what's in front of them. And so, you know, every time I've auditioned for something, I remember this is up to me and I'm not always going to be right for

everything, but I've got to show people why, why it's me and not somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so what age are you when you move out here? And so what age are you when you move out here? It's the same year I turned 17. 17. Yeah. And do you sustain yourself with show business? Or do you ever have to get- I've never had another job outside of this industry, which is insane.

But it's- You have never had the shit kicked out of you. I mean, you've had the shit kicked out of you. Yeah. But you've had a very high class getting the shit kicked out of you. But yeah. It is exclusive to this industry. Although, you know, since we started doing Robot Chicken, I had the experience of coming into an office every day.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, working amongst people in the equivalent of cubicles and living in a, you know, that regular coming to the same workplace existence. Although I got to tell you, it's a lot. You're still working in a place called Robot Chicken, where it's like, you know, people are playing with dolls. Absolutely. You know, you're not, you know, you're not, it's not an office of actuaries figuring out like, you know.

I had some parallels between like having to learn word processing and having to file paperwork on time and everything from time cards to OSHA requirements. But it is still making television. And so that in itself is, I know, unique. most boring bone crushingly boring day or moment of robot chicken is thrilling compared to a tool and die maker there's that you know it's just there's uh there's an amazing line in the disaster artist where all of the extras are sitting around talking about how fucked up this experience is and how unbelievably disastrous this movie is and how nobody even knows if this is a movie and it's probably something they'll all be embarrassed about and then they commiserate that even the worst day

on a film set is better than any work day for anyone else if this is what you do yeah if this is where your passion is and yeah what drives you then then anything besides this is devastating i and and when i say like oh you haven't had shit, I don't mean that like as you're a lesser than. I mean, you're lucky. I'm deeply offended by your underestimation of me, Andy. You're lucky. You're like, you don't, because I do think that sort of, there is something that is, well, that we can tell ourselves about being, about having somebody, like I've always said about my kids. about having somebody like i've always said about my kids like i want them to have be told by somebody that is just like a fucking asshole they have to do what that person says

every day to make a wage and that there is something that's kind of like like i say it's humbling it's a real world experience because that is really what boiled down what a lot of employment and a lot of adult life is doing something that somebody you're not crazy about is telling you to do for a wage so that you can make money but it's not healthy it's like yes it's humbling and yes it teaches you some kind of life skill and patience but it also makes you fucking angry i have so much fucking anger in me about just like how dare you tell me what to do and i have no it's just it's just goes out into the ether it doesn't i mean there's parents involved and there's but there's also and there's coaches and high school teachers but it's still like you know it's there still was like i was in

a place where i felt like i don't even like this place. And I have to fucking now sweep up. And you're going to, you know, like bitch about my sweeping ability? Yeah. You know, I should be on the stage, sir. Where you're tasked with caring about someone else's passionate thing that they're not even that passionate about. And, oh, fuck, waiting tables. thing that they're not even that passionate about and oh fuck the waiting tables where i would have these moments where i'd realize the most important thing in my life right now is getting that fucker his iced tea because i forgot it twice and that's the most important thing in my life right now and

that should that's crazy yeah and i would just have like where i'd feel like i want to fucking cry but the right the right employer will be able to inspire you oh absolutely with their passion yes their dedication and it makes you want to do a good job even if you don't organically desire whatever it is that they're that you're tasked with i i have one thing i've never understood and just kind of like and you now you are a you know you're a check signer as opposed to a check endorser. You know what I mean? Like you, which I don't love by the way, but it's, but it's, it's a natural evolution. It's a healthy evolution.

It's a very adult thing to do. I appreciate the responsibility. I, I have always seen myself as the artist that is amongst the artists and as, as obnoxious as it sounds to declare yourself an artist, I know that that's my best instincts. That's where all of my skill set lies. That's where all of my entire life's dedication is put. And so when I'm doing things that are not that,

that just feels wrong. It makes things feel out of tune. But there's other people that are really specializing in it. But, you know, you are, you're a creator. You were in a creative business. And as a creator, sometimes that turns into a business. You got to pick a name. Well, and I appreciate that responsibility too. as I'm tasking any employer with, I want to be an employer that inspires all of our workforce to

do their best job, to discover their own way of doing it inside our mandate. Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, and that's what I was starting to say was that it's always amazed me from working, like I say, in a grocery store, waiting tables, working for a moving company, and then starting as a production assistant. Because I worked, before I ever acted, I worked in production in Chicago on commercials and industrial films. And so, and starting at the bottom, like starting at like the flat rate, $100 a day for 16-hour days, doing fucking fucking having to do anything

it was like being a child which I always say the worst thing about being a child is that everybody can tell you what to do right and as a production assistant everybody can like you don't have to just be sorry I only do what the wardrobe designer says no the fucking electrician says do you coil that you got to coil that you know and you better twist it while you coil yeah and you got to do it right yeah and uh and but i've always been amazed by the people that think if you just want to look at people as machines to get productivity out of the sweetest way to do that is be nice to them yeah is be kind to them if you're a dick to them and

you make them feel scared the minute your back is turned they're gonna be like fuck you man i mean i used to when i worked in production the people that were mean to me i would steal from them i would i would make up fake taxi receipts and be like all right yell at me again fucker here's 40 bucks you just gave me out of like six taxi receipts. Because in those days, you just, taxi drivers would just give you a blank slip. And if you gave them 10 bucks, they'd give you a whole pad of them in Chicago. And you could just make out like, oh, I had to take 12 taxis yesterday while I was running errands. But I'm always amazed by people that don't get that. They don't get that like kindness is the thing.

And also, and it sounds like you're doing that too. And if you're working on something creative, nobody creates well when they're scared and mad. They create it when they're happy. It's hard though for anyone to step outside of themselves and observe their own interactions with other people. And typically, people are just dealing. They're just dealing. And so if you're in an employer position and you have deadlines and responsibilities, you can pay forward your own anxiety by yelling at someone else. But it takes some external observation. It takes a moment of reflection to realize what you – to even think about what you want those interactions to be like. Yeah, and it's a strength of character and it's a kind of a poise and an otherness that, you know, people possess in different degrees. Like being focused on other people.

Some people can't do it at all. Some people do it too much like I do. But anyway, that's for my therapist. It only came to me through experience, both being yelled at, you know, both watching other people be yelled at and, you know, commiserating with them about how that felt or how discouraging it was. And then by the time I was in a position of employing, I had already had more than 20 years in this industry. And I'd gotten a witness, and I paid close attention to the results of all different tactics. Yeah, yeah.

And were there times, like were there times, well, this is always, because this is interesting to me, because there was a point in my career when I'd work and I would want to be your condition to do as you're told, especially as an actor. Like in the very beginnings of acting school, one of the basic things that most of them teach you is that you're a slave to the script. And there's an improv version of that that no one player is more important than the ensemble. So that means submit. So if the script, if you got a problem with whatever this motivation is, no, you're a slave to the script. You have to do what it says.

And it gets more loosey-goosey as time goes on. And you start to be able, like a director tells you to do something that you just think like, oh, what a corny choice. At a certain point, did you get to a point where you could start to say like, nah, I don't really want to do it that way or, you know? I definitely gained some confidence in my own opinions. Yeah, yeah. And that what I was bringing to the table was as valuable as what anybody else could

bring. And when does that start for you, you think? Young. I mean, when I was still a teenager, when I moved out here by myself and it became my responsibility to get work, I would do unconventional things. I was still auditioning for a ton of commercials and I would just do anything to stand out,

whether that was improvising or how I was dressed or how I would graffiti my Polaroids so that when they're looking through the folder, it's like face, face, face, what the fuck is this? And that helped me. I've had so many people after the fact tell me that it was exactly those things that stood out. If you're watching a hundred people audition for something, it's the person that makes a choice you haven't seen that you notice. It's the person that does something unique that even makes you watch their entire tape. And you don't want to go out of your way to be ridiculous, but at the same time, it's very difficult to even stand out.

And that's the truth about any of it. There's so many people that want this job. You can't this job, you can't just coast on any one thing. You have to constantly be working to be better. You talk about watching the Emmys. Everybody that was nominated got lucky enough to get whatever part it was that they're nominated for or write or create or direct, whatever it is that they're nominated for. But it's on those individuals to knock it out of the fucking park to really just strangle, crush that thing with everything they've got every time they get up to bat. Yeah. Yeah.

Where, where for you, like, is the moment like, like I found when I came out here and started working probably the most, aside from like, I always like making people on set laugh and i like i like being i like me and i mean whether the camera's rolling or not yeah i like being in a place in a workplace

and having fun and being fun me too but for me i loved getting the job. Like that was always like to get the job was like that was kind of where I felt like this is where I feel the juice. Like when I started doing improv and there were people that would get up in front of the crowd and you could just tell that they were soaking something up like that was like nourishment to them. And for me, it was always kind of like, well, that's nice. But really, it's more about the play for me, you know none of it felt like the juice it all felt fun but like I just remember getting was there is there a point like for you that was like the real like this is the marrow of the bone of this business for you um well for me my it's it's all is it all, it's always been the same thing where I really love performing. I love, um,

I, I love doing all the work in advance so that when the camera rolls or when I hit the stage, it is just happening. And I'll always get really nervous right before it starts. And then when it's, when it's happening, it's like everything feels zen yeah yeah when

when the preparation when i've done the work in advance then when i do it it just it it's it's there for me yeah you know and i love um finding it with other actors i love giving a director exactly what they want i love when the crew laughs if we're trying to be funny. I like making people feel stuff. And that's usually where I vibe the highest. Yeah, yeah. And when you started working live, I mean, how did that compare to because I imagine that you were, you know, you started doing live stuff when you were a little kid, but then you were in motion pictures. I was looking at young adulthood, right? But I got i got cast man i did so many guest spots and so many day plays sitcoms oh yeah multi-camera stuff on single camera stuff

like i that's it's i worked on everything yeah i really just enjoyed that like i got the benefit of being a journeyman character actor for years before anybody knew my name that's amazing so by the time that's knew my name. Well, that's like I said, I said, when I first saw you, I'm like, oh yeah, that guy. Yeah. That guy I've been watching for years. Yeah. But it feels like an overnight thing, but it's been a, you know, a 30 year hustle. Of course. Yeah.

And it's very easy to just fade. But like I say, it's, it, it is always my own responsibility to show people how I want to be seen. And the more people know you, the more they feel they know you. And so it becomes even more critical to reshape how they consider you. Because nobody has the time to think about everybody all the time. Yeah, yeah. How does a live audience compare to an on-set performance to you? I think I prepare for it the same way. The difference between a live thing and something that's filmed is you get the real time response. And so you can sort of evolve

to get that ride a little bit higher. Comedians will talk about that too. You can tell when the audience is engaged and when your pause or your timing or your improv, like you just sort of feel it. It's like, it's like chemistry, you know? You can tell when something can go longer to get a bigger laugh. I always talk about that with sitcoms. When you're filming in front of a live audience, even though you can make mistakes and go back, you have them. And so it becomes about how you're standing, the face that you're making, your timing, your reaction. That all grows the response of the audience.

And that's an alchemy I love. Yeah. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? When you first come out here as a young man, are your folks okay with that? Are they nervous? I mean, you've already worked. They were dealing with their breakup, so they were both dealing with their own things. My mom didn't move out here until—

You struck out while they were— Yeah. Well, it was critical. I had been fortunate enough to get cast from different pilot seasons and get cast in guest spots on existing shows. So it was very important for me to come to LA and be able to be their first person. Like they sent teams to cast out of New York. They'd occasionally send tapes to Los Angeles.

But just being able to walk into the room with the people and have your interaction with them not confined to exactly what's on tape, that was an incredible leg up. And also, too, one thing that people don't realize is that the casting business and show business is every bit as last minute and fucked up as any other business. And they will go, we need someone for this part, and we need them tomorrow. Like, that's always struck me throughout. Like, wait, what? You've had this script for how long? And now, you know, you're telling me

I have to go to Vancouver on Tuesday? Yeah. Like, why didn't you ask me two weeks ago? Well, and as an actor, you can get outraged and say, this is so unfair. I'm not being given the real prep and no one's helping me. But if you're on the other side of that, producing or directing,

then it comes down to who the fuck can do this right now who is already well prepared and exactly what i need to just jump in yeah get these lines and kill it on stage like that's that's the truth and so i always say that to other actors just get sharp as you can be prepared all the time because 99 of it is rejection but that one percent is going to come from you shining when you didn't know you had to. And somebody saying, oh shit, you, I could use you tomorrow on this thing, but you're not going to get the three months to work out for it. You're not going to get your fight choreography that you can practice for several months until you've already gotten

the job. So the more prepared you can be, the more ready you can be whenever your shot comes, the better your odds are of being cast. And you got to be here because there are little jobs that happen that you're not going to even hear about when you're not here in town. It definitely helps. Or like just coincidentally being in Atlanta when they need like somebody to show up last minute for a local hire. Right, right.

It's impossible to pretend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything is, the best thing that any actor or anybody can do is just always be prepared. Yeah. Yeah. Now, what happened first? Series, regular, or like big film role for you? I got, the first feature film I got, I was eight years old.

Oh, wow. And it was The Hotel New Hampshire. Oh, yeah, that's right. Which was all of these was the Hotel New Hampshire. Oh, yeah, that's right. Which was all of these. I'm telling you. Oh, yeah, that's right. You were in that. I was.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, thanks for bringing that up. Sure, sure. I never would have remembered. Yeah. But I got the benefit of working with all of these incredibly experienced people. Yeah, no kidding. All different ages and all different categories.

And it was an unbelievable education. Yeah. Yeah. And it was an unbelievable education. Yeah. Yeah. And, but when you're out here, like when you, you know, when you go from, like, as you said, the character actor, the young character actor that everybody knows, but they don't really know his name.

Yeah. What turns that corner for you? That wasn't, it was the same year that I went and did Conan. I had this convergence of things in the same year where Austin Powers came out on DVD. I got made a series regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And a movie called Can't Hardly Wait

came out. And so that same year The year of Seth Green is what it's known as in the showbiz Bible. Yeah, it's been stamped and sealed. Oh, you mean Y-O-S-G? Yeah and sealed um no that was y-o-s-g yeah exactly yeah um but that was it that was the year that that people knew my name yeah yeah and different than there and there was that sort of um anything that had come before was aggregated

against that new revelation right like oh yeah this was that guy that did that commercial that did this movie that did this guest spot. And it was like an overnight success that was almost 20 years in the making. And is it all good? Do you go a little nuts? Do you handle it? Is it as much change? I was still as dedicated to the working. And I felt like I had gotten a level up in a way because I had access and I was seen as a desirable commodity.

And so I got auditions that I wasn't getting before. I got to do award shows and talk shows. And each one of those things was an opportunity to showcase myself. And it definitely was different. The hardest adjustment for me was getting recognized at that volume because I both felt an obligation to anyone that took the time to remember me or wanted to interact with me. And as a result was kind of negligent to my real life or my actual friends or anyone I was dating. And on the other hand, it also became a very troubling reality where I was no longer anonymous.

I used to dick around at the mall or be very silly at the movie theater or create a scene in a restaurant because it was fun. Pranks for your friends, yeah. Yeah, and I couldn't really do that in the same way. And I'm only grateful that I didn't go through that time in an age of social media. Yeah. Because it would have been far more permanently damaging. So, as a result, I got to.

What were you doing? No, it was just. Waving your dick around at GTA Fridays or something? No, it was just... Waving your dick around at GTA Fridays or something? Well, you know, my buddy Brecken and I would stage gunslinger shootouts at the local Arby's or something where we would... With real guns or something? No, we had like a whole Toys R Us kid set of six shooters. And we would, you know, simultaneously kick open the doors on the opposite sides of the restaurant and do like.

Well, it's our seat there. Everyone is trying to figure out what is happening. And then we're like, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, shoot each other back through the doors and then race away in our vehicle. We just be silly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brecken would like throw himself down the aisle of the CityWalk Cinerama and like spill an entire box of popcorn and large soda and then start crying just to make the audience laugh. And nobody knew who we were. And the second people started recognizing you, you can't stunt like that. But it also was a little disconcerting to walk into an airport or walk into a restaurant or walk into a public place and literally have every person, regardless of their age, see me and

become alert to me. It's a weird feeling. Yeah. It's a weird, one shortly after I got the Conan show, I've told this before, I was back in Chicago at Christmas time. My mom needed to go to Best Buy while she was buying what she needed. I just wandered around looking at DVDs or whatever. And when we got out to the car, she said, a bunch of the people that work there were

following you around. The whole store was looking at you. And she was saying as it like, isn't that great? And I was like, mom, think about the phrase, the whole store was looking at you. It's like, you are a huge, like there is like, yeah, I know why you're, you're like your smart brain knows like, yeah, I'm on TV. That's why they're all looking at me. But like your lizard brain is like, why are you all looking at me? You know, like, is this a threat? Are you going to attack? Well, I had this realization because I was becoming so disconcerted

by it. And I, this, this will sound funny, but I, I looked to Will Smith, who is an incredible celebrity prototype because he is a big star and has no misunderstanding of why people are looking at him and he maintains a brightness, a joyfulness. He really, he really does it well. And I, I kept saying, I've got saying, I've got to Will Smith this a little bit better. I can't be pensively curled up in a ball angry at people for having watched me or connected with something that I've done. to specifically dedicate my life to servicing fans, but I owe it to myself to not be surprised when I go in public if someone recognizes me. And I can't have contempt for somebody that wants to have a moment

because it's coming from a positive place. And I started trying to think about it as a basic compliment. Like somebody saying, oh, I like your jacket. And just being like, oh, thanks. I made a good creative choice with how to dress myself this morning. Yeah. If someone was like, hey, I saw that movie or, or even worse in today's day and age where people will just sort of randomly be filming you when you're doing public stuff instead of knocking their phone out of their hand and saying, why don't you learn to be a fucking human?

I've started saying, hey, what's up, man man do you want to take a picture instead of stalking me like a creeper yeah no they do that yeah yeah yeah no it's although it is weird it's like there are people like i having known will ferrell for a long time going out and having been out in public with will ferrell it is like people love will ferrell with such a fervor i have it been a few years, but it's too much. Yeah. It's like trying to stop a wave coming in off the ocean. Yeah. And you do have to, like sitting at a, we were working on a movie, sitting at a meal with a table full of 12, 15 people,

and him having to tell the whole restaurant, I can't take a picture until we're done with our meal. I can't, and people getting fucking pissed. Yeah. And then when he gets up, literally the entire restaurant sets upon him. 60, 70 people just set upon him. Like they've all been, like it's a flash mob of picture takers, you know, like all of a sudden, oh wait, we weren't having lunch. We were just waiting for Will Ferrell.

And that's, you have to mentally resolve how to contend with that, how to continue to be able to do the thing that you love and not just crumble underneath being freaked out. I know it's, but it's really hard too, because it's got to limit him. You know,

that's got to let, like, I, I think, you know, I can say, so and so not being saying they can't go to the grocery store that's ridiculous you can go to the grocery store i can go to the grocery store but i'm not will ferrell you know i don't know if will ferrell can go to

the grocery store i don't know there's just a certain um reality that you have to accept yeah that it could spark this kind of reaction. I know, but like Tom Cruise. Can Tom Cruise go to the fucking Gelsons? No. Can he go to Ralph's? No, because everybody in the place would notice that he's Tom Cruise

and become interested in what his shopping habits or techniques are. That's weird. It's a weird thing to trade off. But knowing Tom Cruise, he is such a proto-human that I think he would do it just to set an example of what awesomeness can look like at Gelson's.

Yep. This is how I shop. And you can do it too. And now I'm going to run shop. And then he just runs with that weird learned run that he does. Let's bring back Supermarket Sweep and make Cruise the contestant. He would just kill it. Karate chopping hams into the cart.

Well, now, how does Robot Chicken chicken come about how'd it come about because you're by accident you're an actor and then all of a sudden you're a producer you got a hit show which is 10th season yeah on adult swim the strangest reality i think i've only been able to continue to do it by deeply compartmentalizing all of that because i still we still focus on just making something that we enjoy making yes yeah yeah and and very and a very homemade aesthetic yeah which it probably started out because it was homemade i imagine yeah we get a lot of leeway with with the the look of the show or the style of the show or what kind of things we can cheat because it's not meant to look flawless. We, we save, um, you know, more detailed, pristine animation for other projects, but, but robot chicken can, can feel

a little handmade. And I like that. Um, it started out because I just wanted to make something. I, I had been doing a ton of acting, but I had never produced anything. Um, and I had friends, Breckenmeyer and Ryan Phillippe and my friend, Adam Talbot. I had a video camera and we were just inspired to shoot our own sketches, to make our own stuff. And we started shooting shorts and I would get editorial time at a local place and figure out how to cut it together and do credits and stuff. What year is this? That, I don't even think I was 18 when we started shooting our own stuff. And is this on three quarter inch tape?

It is on VHSC. VHSC, yeah, yeah. I keep thinking about transferring all this shit, but I'm a little scared to look at it. And it's super rudimentary. I've had a thought about putting it up on YouTube just to put it out there. Just for fun.

But I honestly haven't watched any of it in quite a while. I don't, you know, comedy doesn't age. You should let somebody you trust look at it and pull clips you know that like say don't embarrass me but let you know but pull clips because i think that somebody that you trust will be able to have a better because i look at every old thing i ever did and i hate it i just wonder if there's actual value to it i feel like all of the things that we were talking about have been so dramatically improved upon that it's, that it's, I have to wonder if there's even, if even as a curiosity, it'd be interesting. Well, I think for people, for people that have been spent 10 years watching

the show to see its roots, I think would be actually sort of informative and interesting. Well, the roots of the show start a little bit later, unless you could argue that just making my own stuff was inspiration for making this. Because this is live action stuff where it's not animation. No, we were doing weird parodies

of like Power Rangers and Pulp Fiction. Oh, yeah. We were doing just like silly sketches and it was all the same kind of deconstructive pop stuff.

Yeah. Is there drinks involved? No, we, nobody, we were like the cleanest kids yeah yeah well yeah that's probably why it's still you know but it still holds up why we had that work ethic yeah no if you're all fucked up then you'd be like oh no we can't show this to anybody yeah well and then um it was i was going on Conan, as a matter of fact. I was scheduled to go on Conan for like the third time. And I had just been talking about myself so much. I was really stuck in an interview mode. And I wanted to make something.

Yeah. And I had an action figure that was coming out from Austin Powers. And I had heard that Hasbro had produced this doll of Conan for some anniversary thing. And I was like, oh man, if I could just get those two toys together and shoot some silly stop motion thing about us saving the world or going to San Diego Comic-Con or something. Before that was even a thing that the general public knew about. And that was really the roots of it was wanting to make this short

and then an insane series of events that through happenstance got us producing 45 minutes of content for a website before there was broadband interface. So through dial up, Sony had launched a precursor to YouTube and they were throwing a little bit of money at a bunch of different creators to try and generate what they were calling linear content. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing that that all that shit was not that long ago. Yeah. That was, that was about 99. Yeah. It's so weird that we made that deal with Sony to produce all these shorts and that's the actual origins of robot chicken. And so I produced this one short that is five and a half minutes about me and Conan going to a celebrity con and running into like the Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider

and Smurfette and all of these ridiculous characters. Did you show that on the show? I did. Yeah. I remember. I'm like, my memory of the show is so, you know, it's such a dusty Mrs. Havisham's dining room but i like yeah i remember that we came up with a bit that uh well preceded britney spears having any kind of public breakdown where we just hypothesized that she was crazy and uh the joke the joke was that conan was only coming with me to this con because he wanted to meet britney yeah he met all these other assholes on the way to meet her and then when we met her she was fucking nuts and it was very very silly yeah um and then she gets hit by the the duke's a hazard car it's very complicated um and shaves her head well that was i know i know

i know i know years before that i thought imagine if you'd done that oh i know oh my god i felt gotta be genuinely terrible. I know. Because, you know, she's a simple, sweet girl with a lot of talent who never should have been put in the position of answering questions about global politics. And then you just are like, yeah, sure, Britney Spears is crazy. And then, like, years later, you just feel like, oh, fuck. I feel bad. Yeah.

Well, and also the idea of Conan obsessing over someone much younger than him. And then when he meets her and she's out of her mind, it's just very funny. Yeah. Yeah. So that was it. We had that 45 minutes of content and we started shopping it around to other outlets and replaced from Comedy Central to MTV to try and sell it. And it was almost set up at Comedy Central and then September 11th happened and kind

of killed comedy for several months and soured that deal. And in that time period, because we had already done the first season and a half of Family Guy that got canceled. Yeah. And then Adult Swim developed out of the Cartoon Network and started producing their own original content. They bought the, uh, those existing seasons of family guy started showing them in second run and it was doing really well. So Seth McFarland called me and said, cause he had participated in our original webisodes and said, Hey, that, that thing you're trying to sell, this might be a place for it. So then my partner, Matt Senrash and I took a meeting with Mike Lazo and Keith Crawford,

and they greenlit 20 quarter hours of a show. And we had to figure out how to make a show. Yeah, yeah. But it was still Adult Swim. It was the midnight block on Sunday of a late night cable extension of the Cartoon Network. And what are the lengths of the episodes? And have they always been? Yeah. Is it 15 minutes? It's under 15 minutes. Yeah, And you've got an ad block. Yeah. And it's always been that.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was always this, it was, you know, stop motion, sketch comedy with action figures and we lampoon pop culture and some current events, but because of the lead time, it's only pop that's sticky enough to remember a year later right exactly or now in today's age where the internet is is beating us to parody on almost every subject it's coming up with a different point of view or a different kind of joke that someone's not going to make on youtube and i imagine there's almost no sort of nobody telling you what to do um We have, you know, there's certain laws and specific details about the way fair use parity works that we have to adhere to.

But that's not somebody, that's the law. I mean, there's not somebody going like, hey, don't poke fun of Pepsi or whatever. Well, you know, there have been incidents where Adult Swim will have a major advertiser and they don't want us to make some terrible joke about it, but we also can make a case for why it's critically important or why this is not a restriction that we should adhere to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and there's always trading going on. Like when I started working in sitcoms and working on writing, helping write sitcoms and just the notion that you got a joke that's kind of rough that you're afraid is going to get kicked out. So you put a joke that's like way shittier

and like way dirtier and way more unacceptable a page before it. So they're like, what are you crazy? Get rid of that joke. And then the one that you actually want to do seems sensible. All right, we'll cut this Holocaust gag if you let us keep the rape ghost. I mean, I don't know if those are the particulars I would have chosen, but, you know, it's robot chickens.

We did a sketch. It was Ben Stiller getting a new job at a new museum and like wondering what the antics were going to be and you widen out

to reveal it's the Holocaust Museum and he's like ah fuck this man nope I quit oh my goodness can't you tell

my love's a-growing? Well, now you've gone from TV producer to auteur. You have a movie. I did. That you wrote and directed in this? Yeah. Was that scary as hell? I mean, the writing, I guess, you know, that's not scary, you know, but the directing.

It all felt really matter-of-fact to me until I actually put it out. Yeah. And then I had to. Put it out in what sense? Like. Like release the movie. Oh. And then all of a sudden I'm having to answer questions with people.

And I realized I'm like, oh, God, this is insane. This was an insane endeavor. But for me, it was so matter of fact. I was inspired to tell a story. I knew that no one else was going to be able to interpret my idea for the money and the time that we had to do it. And it just made sense. I would be in a unique position to collect exactly the people, exactly the participants

that I thought would help me be able to achieve it. Yeah. And I knew firsthand what I wanted it to look and feel like. And so that was, that's really the directing of it. Right. So, I mean, not to make you repeat yourself, but quickly the inspiration of the movie happens. And actually a guy I know, a friend of mine, too, a mutual friend,

you guys go on a trip. Yeah. So I'd been coming to do Conan for so long that your segment producer, Dan Ferguson, and I became like best friends. He was Dan Ferguson. And then he became Daniel after a while because he had to be classy. Right. Yeah. But we, we started, uh, uh, you know, doing pre-interviews for, for Conan and we would talk for half an hour, 45 minutes. Uh, and then it started being like twice a year that we would have this conversation. Then eventually I would come to New York a day early and we would just go out to dinner

and do a pre-interview that way. Well, he's one of the most fun people. And he's the best. He's great. Well, then we started going on vacations together. And then we started like going for a week in Europe together. And it just became this very funny thing where we had coinciding vacation time. And Dan's such a great producer.

I would let him produce our trip. Why not? And pick places that we both wanted to go and set us up for activity or a lot of activity. He's also one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever known in my entire life. Yeah. He's always, wow, this is great. You know, he's got a lot of excellent quality. Yeah. And so we went, wow, that sounded almost left-handed. He's got a lot of excellent qualities. No, that was a full right hand. I know, I know. Yeah, firm fist right through the center target.

No, we went to Thailand for about three days. Wow. And it was part of a much longer trip. His idea, your idea? It was his idea because we were going to Africa and we were going to Palau. And then there were places in between that we could stop that made sense. And Thailand was one of them. And so the trip that we had was so unique in the midst of this much larger trip. All of these places that we went to, the people that we met, the experience that we had, the things that we saw, it felt unbelievably

cinematic to me. So much so that I started trying to construct a story while we were there. I was taking pictures of places and thinking about what the complications would be for shooting in them, how to make an audience feel what I was feeling and how to tell a story about people that I thought would be relevant. How to write off your vacation. The minute you took one note, it became a business trip and you're spending pre-tax dollars.

You're a genius. I should have factored that into my returns, but I never did. It took me years to develop this movie into something shootable. So I don't know if retroactively I could get the tax break. But that was really what it was. I spent a bit of time trying to write a story because I knew I had an incredible location. I knew I had an amazing circumstance to tell a really simple slice of life story. And I've always been attracted.

And does the story have a, I mean, without not getting any more revealing than you want to, does the story itself have roots in the reality? Or is it kind of like you were on this trip and it inspired you to write a fiction? More of the latter, but everything in the movie is based on either experiences that I've had or experiences that I've witnessed. I see. I wanted to tell a story about growing up, about what it is to get older, to have a friendship over a long time. it is to get older, to have a friendship over a long time, to, I've been having this experience where so many people I knew who got married young were getting divorced, where people were either having affairs or had their spouse or significant other cheat on them. And I wanted to talk about

all that. I also found how much it was my responsibility to be the person that I expected other people to be towards me, how much it was my responsibility to be a good friend if I expected to have good friendships. And I wanted to tell a story about that. So, very simply, it's about a guy who prepaid a second honeymoon for a marriage he didn't quite admit was failing. And on the eve of surprising his wife, he discovers she's been having a year-long affair. And instead of confronting her, he calls his old best friend and says, I need you right now. And we're going to take this trip together. And you're going to help me figure out what to do. we're going to take this trip together and you're going to help me figure out what to do. And in it,

you see the character's own accountability for why this marriage didn't work and where he's correct to blame and also that he hasn't been a great friend. And he's kind of settled into a life that wasn't even necessarily of his choosing. He's kind of given up and become a little bit of an asshole. And it's about, you know, waking up in that moment and deciding that you want something better. Yeah. And it never being too late to start over. Yeah. Yeah.

It's nice. I like that too, that there's, that it's a romantic relationship, a platonic romance, because there is, it's got, you know, you don't go to thailand and shoot you know and have all this beautiful scenery and not be somewhat romantic but that's the fun about it is that we over the court when dan and i went everywhere we went because it's typically reserved for honeymooners everyone was trying to give us an incredibly romantic experience yeah and it was at a time in our our uh our country's history where we had just elected the first black president who was trying to push for legalization of gay marriage and stuff.

And so all over the rest of the world, people were like, what a beautiful romance you guys are having. And they would do things like throw flower petals on our beds and candlelit dinners and everywhere. We just, Dan and I were like, ah, fuck it. Yeah, we're here together. Yeah, yeah.

We'd start holding hands on the way to dinner so that other people were satisfied with the experience they were giving us. Why not? Yeah, so I made that a detail in the movie that set against the backdrop of this incredibly romantic place is a character nursing their own heartbreak

and having to honestly observe all of their own responsibilities. Yeah. Well, I think it's romantic. I mean, come on. You guys, you guys' story, say, you know, you and Dan, you know, like you've pushed together for like, you know, show business and the talk show. And, you know, and a real friendship grows out of it. I think that's romantic.

Thank you. I think that's romantic. Thank you. I did too. I also like showing an example of a positive male friendship. There's a lot of talk currently about toxic masculinity and how people are afraid to show their feelings and sort of this resurgence of the super macho man that can't even hug his buddy. And I just, I've never withhold those kinds of affections from people. of the super macho man that can't even hug his buddy. And I just, I've never withhold those kinds of affections from people. And I have no lack of confidence

about my own sexual orientation to be threatened by someone else's. And I thought showing a very positive example of that would be a good thing. Yeah. Have you screened the audience, or audience screen the movie yet oh yeah it's uh come out and uh now it's on dvd oh it is yeah you can get it anywhere oh my

god which is what we were going for and how i felt like this was how is i mean how are you now now that it's out there in the world and you know it's kind of the general feeling that people get from it well i i i consistently have to remind myself that I never lead with all of the things that I realize I did wrong or things I could have done better. And instead just say, yeah, this is what I made and I hope you connect with it. But it was always conceived to be a small intimate experience that I hope people would share. And so my goal in releasing it was getting it into people's hands in the easiest way possible. So we had a real limited theatrical run at some art house theaters, but simultaneously put it out on very accessible cable on demand and several different VODs. You can get it on Amazon Prime and Apple. So it's literally anywhere you want. Oh my gosh. And I'm not sure when this will air,

anywhere you want oh my gosh and i'm not sure when this will air but it's coming to the uk uh october 1st okay it'll be on their uh sky network which i'm thrilled about because that way it'll be in people's houses oh that's great yeah that's great now uh does it does it inspire like are you thinking about a next movie to or is it sort of you know like do you like does this make you think like okay i did this movie i did this kind of movie and i got this kind of response next one is i don't i don't think i'm thinking about it the way ang lee has to make something in every genre but i did really enjoy the experience of directing live action film and i learned a tremendous amount that I would apply to the next thing I direct. Yeah, yeah.

I have one project that isn't written that I'm considering directing. And I don't know. We'll see how fast that takes shape. But I don't want, I don't really want, I have not been inspired to direct for hire. There's been two different projects that I met with people about, actually no, three, about directing live action film. And that made me, every one of those pitches, I would have done the movie if I had gotten the job.

But even each one of those pitches made me, it was great experience because in it you're like, oh, I could have prepared this way or I could have said this, you know? Right. Yeah. Now one of the three questions of this podcast is, you know, where are you going? And is that, do you think that that's kind of,

that you as a director is kind of that? Or do you think it more as this holistic experience that you're already in the middle of and just seeing where it goes? I love acting more than anything. And so I really enjoy the experience of directing and producing. And to that end, I go where my passions drive me. If there's something that I'm inspired to direct,

I'll fight tooth and nail to get to make it. But my goal is to continue to be an actor for the rest of my life. I still feel like my best, most informed work is ahead of me. And I'm optimistic for the opportunities that I will both be given and will be responsible for creating for myself. What kind of part do you want that you're not reading for, not getting? That's what's hard is I've never imagined a role and thought, oh, I need people to see me this way it's it's always been the part

itself that inspires me when i read someone else's material or or someone brings to me an idea and that that creates some some inspiration for oh here's all these ideas of how i would perform that like because for me i like i would love i got to be a murderer once and it was fucking great and i would love to play more murderers like and i think you would be a fucking awesome murderer because because you're no well because it is that thing of like you're everyone likes you you you show up on screen yes i like that guy but have that guy murder people that'd be fucking fantastic i've gotten to play a couple bad guys before and it's always been really satisfying um the the the most convincing i think i've been as a bad guy was on entourage um and because i played myself i found it completely

disoriented the audience wow yeah it was it was in a time when we were like an asshole version of yourself yes and that was kind of the joke was I was playing what I thought was an inspired parody of a, you know, an amalgamation of all of the worst kinds of movie stars you could meet. Yeah. Yeah. Everything from, you know, never taking my sunglasses off to literally always texting, even when I was in a conversation with somebody. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was a brilliant performance and I guess it it it was because it convinced an entire generation of kids that i'm a piece of shit well kudos that's as good as an oscar and i really thought about it i was like if i'd been playing a character i might have won an emmy for this but because i was playing seth green people like hey fuck that guy yeah yeah what a dick it's pretty great that's awesome i'd do that honestly i it's that, honestly. I've been lucky enough to pick and choose and not just take stuff for work.

I've worked so hard my entire life, and I've been smart about my money and never had any major addiction or any real public humiliations that have made it impossible for me to continue to work. My goal is just to get to do this forever. I see all the older actors who got to do it for their lifetime. That's really all I want. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Well, you know, we've talked a lot about show business. And the third question is sort of what have you learned? And I would want to know, because like I say, we've talked a lot about show business. about show business. Like what have you learned? And because you have been so, so steeped in this business from such a young age, which is a very unusual thing. It's also a very unusual thing to be as healthy as you are to it. Seriously. Like, do you know any other kids that have been in show business as long as you that started as kids and they're at this point now that are not wrecks yeah well i'm still really good friends with uh sarah michelle geller oh yeah she and i started when we were i think she was five and i was seven when we did a commercial together and then we've gotten to work together a bunch of times yeah she's incredibly healthy and

unbelievably accomplished and yeah married to another guy who's been in it almost his entire life. Right, that's right. Two really cool kids. Yeah. That's probably one of the best examples. And then Brecken, I've known since we're like 15. Oh, yeah, yeah. Breckenmeyer is still one of the healthiest

and most sane people I know. It's tough because this business just kicks the shit out of you. And it is incredibly easy to feel on the outside of it all the time. But one of the things that I've learned is that everyone always feels that way. Everyone literally always feels exactly that way. And it's just up to you to work through that, work through that fear, that insecurity, and just continue to show up and do your thing.

It's not like you're going to get uninvited from the party. You just consistently need to re-earn your invitation. And that can be exhausting and brutal. And you just want to think that you've crossed some threshold and that you'll get a pass, but you really don't. And why would you? Yeah. When everyone wants to do this. Sure.

Everyone is fighting for the same volume of important slots. And it is up to you at every moment to prove it. Sure. Everyone is fighting for the same volume of important slots. And it is up to you at every moment to prove it. Yeah. You know? You want people to pay to see you getting

something to pay for. And also, you hear about people that seem to, they get a little nuts and they start to act like they're indispensable. And then they find out,

oh, they're dispensable. You know what I mean? And it's always sort of- I just think that's insecurity too. Even that ego when people are divas on set, it just comes from their, you know, when you first start out, you don't need all these conditions or totems

or dumbo feathers to be able to do your thing. And then the older you get, because everyone I think suffers from the fraud syndrome of being convinced that I don't deserve to be here. I'm not good enough. Everybody else is more important and more valuable. And so when you do get in, you almost start to antic just to defy that, just to make people have to service you. So that's something else I've learned is that no one on any set is more important than anybody else.

Anybody is not doing their job to the best of their ability. The thing's just not going to work. And how does these kind of lessons carry over into just life, into just you're married and marriage and friendship and all that kind of stuff? Yeah. You got to show up. Yeah. Right? You got to show up. Yeah. Right. You got to put the time in.

Well, even with my wife, I just have to watch my tone when I'm talking to her. Yeah. You know, if you're a little bit grumpy or you're a little insecure or you're tired or whatever, you can come at your partner with a tone that, you know, makes them insecure or angry or upset. So it's just being present and always trying to say things with love, say things with kindness. And an awareness, an awareness of somebody other than yourself. Yeah. Which the fact that that's what you got out of show business is pretty crazy. Mazel tov.

Well, it is just show business. I know. I know. Well, here, they put a piece of paper in front of me that says plug. Sweet. Robot Chicken is in its 10th season on Adult Swim. And it's been fucking hilarious for 10 years. Hey, thanks.

That's really, really amazing. We have a lot of help. It's not a singular effort. I know. But it's hard to make something funny for one season. Hey, thanks. That's really, really amazing because it's... We have a lot of help. It's not a singular effort. I know, but it's like it's hard to make something funny for one season, so great. And your movie, Changeland,

is now available on video on demand and on Sky in England. In the UK. And it's on October 10th. It's like all of the stuff, Voodoo and Roku and Amazon Prime.

Just Google it, Changeland. You can get this movie. For Christ's sake, you lazy bastards. Well, Seth, thank you so much. Thanks, Andy. It's always a joy to see you. It's always fun.

And I always love talking to you. I know we usually get to run more comedic bits. And this was definitely like a detailed conversation about real stuff. No, this is, I want to see the guts. I want you to just vent. Well, I didn't, I didn't cry, but I feel like we've worked through some important topics. The minute the mic's off, I'm going to make you cry. Oh, sweet.

I'm saving the reason, but you'll see. You heard it here first. Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's just really a pinch. I'm just going to pinch him real hard. Ow. All right. Thank you out there for listening. pinch him real hard.

Ow. All right, thank you out there for listening. This again has been The Three Questions with Andy Richter and we will visit with you next time.

Bye. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Earwolf production. It's produced by me, Kevin Bartelt, executive produced

by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Chris Bannon and Colin Anderson at Earwolf. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, associate produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Chris Bannon and Colin Anderson at Earwolf. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, associate produced by Jen Samples and Galit Sahayek,

and engineered by Will Becton. And if you haven't already, make sure to rate and review The Three Questions with Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.