Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Andy Garcia

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Leading man Andy Garcia and Ted Danson may be very different people, but they make a fabulous pair! Andy talks to Ted about how he got cast in classic films like "The Untouchables" and "The Godfather Part III," fleeing Cuba at a young age, his friendship with Diane Keaton, the importance of faith, and the journey of writing and directing his upcoming film “Diamond.”  Season 2 of Andy’s show “Landman” is streaming now on Paramount Plus.  Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is all because of the fucking award show the other night. It's going to be okay, Ted. I got you. I got you, Ted. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Andy Garcia is a leading man who exudes gravitas and life experience. Over the years, he's been in some of my favorite movies like The Untouchables, Godfather 3, Ocean's 11, when a man loves a woman and so many more. He is also a director, writer.

and Grammy-winning producer. He also starred alongside my wife Mary in the book club movies, which we'll get into, as well as his show on Paramount Plus, Landman. You're about to hear Andy console me over the Critics' Choice Awards, which took place the night before. I'm sorry, I have to take a break. Here he has Andy Garcia.

Sorry. Every time I think over the years, I'm above it. I'm grounded. Not above it, but I'm above the fear and the hope and all that stuff. And I get sucked into it. I'm 78 years old and I get sucked into,

oh, who am I? What is this mean? Oh, I'm a loser. Oh, fuck. I've just retired. Do you ever go there? Do you ever? Were you nominated?

Were you there as a nominee? I was nominee. Also, you were in the, like, processing that whole situation. Yeah. Feels like you're a far more serious man than I am so that you don't dabble in the silly stuff. Obviously, it's a huge compliment, you know, privileged to be recognized by, especially your peers. Yeah. That's the most important, I think, your peers, you know, your colleagues.

And, of course, critics are part of our industry, and they're recognizing your, you your work, which is always well deserved, Mr. Denson. Your work is always well deserved and well to be celebrated. But like you said, you can get sucked into the, I guess this is my philosophy about it. Years ago, I had this incredible blessing to be in this movie The Godfather Part 3, which is a movie that was the film that made me become an actor, you know. The first Godfather. The first one, yeah.

And so I started studying seriously. after that and you end up by the stroke of you know you got nominated yeah and then you were in this process of you know the movie comes out and i remember the head of marketing at the time at paramount forget the gentleman's name ran into me on the lot i was there on the lot and he said uh we're going to build a uh a campaign for you for a nomination and i'd really kind of my immediate thing that happened to me when he said that to me. And I kind of took me away, you know, I kind of went off and I went, I said, I'm a campaign. I said, I'm sorry.

He says, I really, I'm not comfortable campaigning for an award. Please like me. Please like me. Yeah, I said, you know, I was 32 years old. I was still processing the whole aspect of people recognizing you and the sort of this wave of, you know, fame that comes along when something, you know, the attention comes on you for a moment. And I said, I, and I went like, oh, this is not, you know, personally, I just kind of shot a way, medium in my mind. And he said, oh, don't worry, we'll do it for you. And I said,

oh, okay, I mean, that's up to you guys. But the conceit of that you, that you have to go out and campaign for something. Yeah. That's where, to me, it gets kind of tricky. And I don't mind supporting things that I'm proud of, you know. Sure, sure, sure. But there's a very thin line, you know, to, you know, William Soroyan said something that I read and I was developing one of his plays once, and he said, awards will make the prince of the child and the fool of a man. That's great. Wait, do break that down for me. Awards. I got the fool of a man.

Awards will make the prince of the child and the fool of the man. Boy, I got fool of the man last night in Spain. Yeah, so, you know, it's that thing, you know. And then, like I said, I think it's an extraordinary privilege to be honored by your colleagues, you know. But take it as a privilege, you know, a blessing and put it aside, you know. Don't get, you know, go like, hey, I got this now and I got this now. Right. And it's a good time to also take stock of are you being grateful for everything in your life?

Are you taking for granted? And are you thinking, oh, I'm a little, you know, it's an ego check for me. I always think I'm on top of my ego. No, I'm not. I fall right into the trap of entitlement and lack of gratitude and all that stuff. In our business, because it's so like the concept of celebrity that if you happen to, again, have this kind of blessing of having a career in what we love to do and you kind of sneak through and all of a sudden, maybe you become some sort of recognizable figure or whatever. And we've all come across in the history of our time here, you know, people that conduct themselves with a self-important. that you did just as soon as they walk in through the door you kind of sense it and you're

going to go oh yeah here we go really really and then you know dark glasses in a bodyguard yeah exactly i don't want any i don't want to be noticed but you got three bodyguards around you but you know at some point you kind of when that kind of thing is around you you kind of go you know i'll be outside you know yes when you guys figure you guys figure you you're all this shit out, I'll be outside and I'll come back in and we'll begin to work, you know. So it's, it's the ego is a very dangerous thing, you know. And I think it's, I mean, it's important to have a healthy ego. Of course, you wouldn't take a shower in the morning, you know what I mean?

It'll comb your hair, but it's a dangerous thing, you know. Yeah. You and I kind of got to that place of fame or recognized, being recognized, gradually. in that you started off doing small parts, good, but small parts here, being part of good things, but small parts until, I don't know what you consider your boom for me with you, it was the untouchables. It was like, oh yeah, because that was a very successful film.

You know, that's the thing. You're in a movie that's internationally received and does a lot of business, so therefore your stock goes up because now they deem you to be somewhat marketable, you know, and that's what gets you, you know, some... After 15, 20 years of working very hard to get there, whatever. Yeah, whatever it was. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. But there were steps to get to that part, you know, the little baby steps. Me too. And, I mean, Mary got shot out of a cannon with Jack Nicholson. She was waiting tables and then co-starred and Jack Nicholson, like basically like that. I remember, yeah. I did, you know, I was on BJ and the Bears. You know, I was on every different little.

The onion field. Yeah. That was a little different, but I was, because that was a classic. Yeah, a beautiful film. Yeah, a class act. But my ego and my ability to deal with fame came gradually, I think, because that's what I needed. If I'd gotten shot out of a cannon, I don't know. I had trouble.

I had trouble with the onslaught myself. I naturally were like side away from it, you know. And I remember there was, I just, it was like, oh, what's going on? You know, and it was just not my nature. for you, right? Wasn't it that moment? Yeah, it started before that. I had done like I finally, after many years

I would say like, I came here in 78 and started doing improv at a comedy store and taking class and doing local plays and stuff. And then I got a movie with Kurt Russell called The Mease Season. Finally had a part in a movie that was part of the story.

Myself and his great actor who became my dearest friend, Richard Bradford. who passed, played detectives. And there happened to be a part of this Cuban detective in Miami. The story took place in Miami. And before that, all the parts that I would even, really my representation at the time was not very good, before that movie.

And all the parts that were available to me to audition, the rare audition were, in those days, with a Hispanic surname, were just like Mexican gang members. And I would go into, even if they just brought me in, because they saw the name Garcia and I'd walk in, they go like, what are you doing here? They were, you know, actor.

They were actually real gang members in the hallway that had agents, you know. So it was a good night. Seriously? Yeah, yeah. You know, because they needed, you know, they were, they, and they were all great actors, you know, or people that can really have more physical, you know, the physicality that fit those parts, you know.

I couldn't, you know, the lady would say like, oh, you're like the diplomat son, you know, what are you doing here? I said, I'm an actor. I couldn't do, you know, the standard thing. But then there was just one, in this particular movie happened to be a young Cuban detective. So I got this part with Philip Borso's great director who passed shortly thereafter. He did a movie called The Great Fox with Richard Farnsworth, an amazing film. And Philip was amazing, a young Canadian director. and he unfortunately died of cancer shortly after.

And that movie, you know, got me some attention, you know, just because there was an actual part that you can watch, and it's a beautiful film. And then Hal Ashby was doing a movie with Jeff Bridges with an Oliver Stone script, and it was called A Million Ways to Die. He was based on a series of novels. A series of novels.

The character he played was Matthew Scudder. He was an alcoholic, you know, down and out. LA detective, ex-detective kind of thing, private eye. And there was this part in there that Oliver Stone wrote, his name was Angel Maldonado, and he was a young drug kingpin who killed people, and he was nasty dude, cooked out of his mind all the time, you know, huge ego, that kind of guy. And I would, my agent at the time, Jerry Scott, was desperately trying to get me in to meet Midland Stormmaster. And he also said, I know Andy, he's, you know, I've seen his work.

He's a nice young actor, but, you know, we're looking for like a Hector, macho-cumacho type, you know. And I kept insisting to, Jerry, please get me in. I know who this guy is. I know who this guy is. Anyway, I finally came in and auditioned for Lynn. And the same day, Hal came in and I read for him, and he gave me the part. And that movie came out and got a lot of, that movie.

they took the movie away from Hal, unfortunately. And so he never really finished, never cut the film. But the movie had a certain energy that he let us create because Howe was a very improvisational director. You know, the script was thrown out several times. Me and Jeff basically improvised all our scenes. So the movie had that energy, which most of Hal's movies have, like The Last Detail and all those.

And so because of that, I got a lot of attention for that part, And that's what got me. Lynn was casting the Untouchables, and he brought me in to play, I've said this story before, but to play Frank Nitty, who was the killer in the Untouchables. That was beautiful.

I haven't heard this story. Yeah, by Billy Drago, who recently also passed. He was great in the film. If you remember him, Lee, sort of like, feline, you know,

kind of quality about him. And I read the script and I said, no, no, I want to play this young Italian kid. That's it. I want to work with Sean Connery, And so I met with the Palma, and then I read for him and Art Linson, I think it was in the room also, and then they gave me the part. And then that movie blew up, and then all of a sudden, you know, Mr. Mancuso was the head of Paramount at the time, Frank Mancuso, took me under his wing and we said, I want you here with us. And he's like my second father to this day, you know.

I remember he won the gentleman, Frank. Yeah. And I remember they wanted to do like a three-picture deal at the time during that time period. And he came to get me to his office and stuff. And I just said, I don't need any deals of you, Mr. Mancusa. I just shook his hand. I said, as long as you want me here, you know, I'm here. The moment you don't want me here anymore, you don't, you know, I'm out.

And I did a lot of movies for them, including the Godfather, you know, who he wanted. That was his choice. I had to convince Francis, you know, there's a whole history between in the Godfather, or who the studio wants compared to who Francis wants, you know? Yeah. So I was the studio guy, you know. But I finally got to meet Francis. I was the last guy to a screen test.

And a day later I had the part, and we started rehearsal the day after that. Wow. He kept it to the last moment, you know. God, I remember for me, it was the untouchables. The first time I went. Oh, wow. And it was like Sean Connery is all of our, you know. He's James Bond.

Yeah. And also kind of that male energy, macho, just, you know. He was my childhood hero, you know, growing up, because he was the guy. But the first scene, you come on and you go, don't fuck with me. Deshaun Connery, which I know sounds silly because we're actors and we're pretending, but there was that energy in you. We had to protect who we were, the characters. Yeah.

It's all saying the boards, you know. with the board's people, it's like the stage, right? Yeah. He's the great equalizer. You can be whoever you are in the limo coming to work. But once we're in the room, all bets are off, right? I mean, you've got to look after your character. You've got to look after ours.

Yes, and because we pretend, we can act, and we can do things that we aren't necessarily. But I will argue that if you don't have that sense of that inside of you, it'll be not the same as somebody pretending to have something. And that gravitas that you have made me, when I listened to some interviews recently, about your father, your family, being exiles. There was nothing frivolous or silly about your growing up.

There were a lot of huge sacrifices being made for you. For me, yeah. You know, and your siblings that I'm sure didn't, you know, I don't see a glib bone in your body. I grew up silly. You didn't. And I just wonder how much when you look back at your family's history, how that informs. Oh, completely. Yeah.

Completely. Yeah. Because, first of all, it's the example that is set before you by your, in my case, I was fortunate to have. parents that, you know, we were a family that was united and also my older brother and my older sister. But, you know, it's the work ethic. It was very important in our family. Not only my father and mother who came, you know, I've said this before, it's not the, we came from Cuba and 61. We were under Fidel Castro for two and a half years. Finally, he passed the law that after they took everything from your properties, your money, everything. You were zero,

but then they also across the board it didn't matter with your politics there was only one politic there was either you're with a revolution or you're against the revolution and if you're with the revolution

you don't own a lot of stuff you don't know anything everything's taken away from everybody and you either go yes here take it and we're behind you or you go like what the hell's going on but then they took the rights to your children away and so at the age of five

you you basically hand over the rights to education and everything to the state which is where they indoctrinate you, you know, to be like they want you to be, to worship Fidel. Remember, there's no religion now. There's no, on the wall, there's a picture of Papa Fidel, you know. So my parents said, we're out. This is none.

How did you, I mean, how did you get out? How did they get out? We were lucky that we got out. Legal, I mean, as far as, we got some visas. And we, they closed the country down, I think, around 64. And it was, that was after that. I think it was much harder to get out. But somehow, we went out first and my father came like,

a month later and we started in Florida there, Miami Beach, and a little efficiency. Those little motels where the northerners would come down. And it's basically a one-bedroom suite with a kitchenette, you know, and it's like little horseshoe. Yeah, horseshoos. The one we stayed is called the Dutchess. It's still there on Harding Avenue, like 84th. And that whole stretch in Miami Beach is public beaches.

So across the street on Collins Avenue from the public beaches, where all these little motels that people would come down and cross the street to the. the beach and stuff. L.A. has some of those little horseshoe teeny motel-like down up a place. Yeah, yeah, especially back in the older days, you know. So, I mean, we grew up there, but that, you know, we had, you know, the, you start from scratch, right? So you have, in the case of my family, this is very typical. I thought I was a lawyer and a farmer. My mother was an English teacher. You went to work as a secretary because he spoke English. and my father went to work in a catering business,

you know, running a small little catering business. Without breaking stride too, right? No, you can't break strides. You just, you let you land and you go, boom. What's the, you know, you, this was a small little exile community already there, you know, in that area for obvious reasons because the little motels. And you go like, hey, Ted, I just got here, you know. Hey, how you do it?

I just got here. Any work? Yeah, there's needs some, you know, some, you know, some, janitors at the fountain blue. Okay, let's go. You know, so you had doctors working as janitor. Whatever, you got to pay the motel rent on Friday. So you just had to go with wherever you go, you know, and doctors began to, you know, work and then later became doctors by studying again and lawyers got their bar again. It was a process. Do you think there's a difference between, I mean, I've heard you talk about, no, not immigrant. Exile.

And that there's a big difference. Oh, you got... There's a difference. Yeah, because the exile, you're sort of like you're forced to leave. But no, but immigration, I guess it's a gray area because sometimes immigration is based on the absolute need, either violence or absolute need to provide for your family where you can't, where you are. In our case, we're political exiles, you know, because of the political system. We left. We immigrated to another country.

But I think maybe the... I think maybe, in a sort of way, maybe the exile always wants to go back home, where the immigrant maybe doesn't. You know, the general statement, you know. Right. We've come to America to stay in America. The exile is going like, we're here until we can go back. Maybe that's, and that kind of longing, that kind of sense of, when are we going back,

when are we going back? We got to go back. The need and the love to go back is the sort of the umbrella of emotional umbrella I grew up with the idea of always wanting to go back. Not because it wasn't great what we were, but that was our home.

Right, right, right. So. Have you? No. No. Actually, I went once to the Guantanamo Naval Base in about 90, you know, Clinton had, he had changed the, you know, the laws with Cuba to what they call a wet foot, dry foot law.

Since the beginning of the revolution, you know, in the early 60s, if you were at sea, you were a rafter, which, you know, it's been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of rafters have come from Cuba. If they found you at sea, the coast guard, they'd bring you in and they process you at you and you were here. And then he changed that you had to touch ground. If not, you would be sent back. They didn't have the heart to send back to Cuba, so they sent a lot of people to Guantanamo Naval Base. And you would see on the news that people would be off the coast of Key West, usually around Marathon, because that's where the Keys kind of,

the Gulf Stream takes the rafters in a certain direction, and Marathon Key elbows there, and it's the closest one to the Gulf Stream. So people would get close to Marathon, And then, you know, let's go and try to get out of the Gulfstream and get close to shore. And you could see on the news in Florida, the police boats confronting these people on the raft that were maybe a mile offshore or a quarter of a mile by then. And they would go in the water and try to swim because they had to touch ground. I remember one image where some of the police had these big fish nets to try to catch the people in the water.

you know. So it was that anyway, so we went to, I went there to do a concert with Gloria and Emilio Stefan and a gentleman that I was working with a Cuban composer, a bass player named Kachau, a very famous guy.

And that was the first time I went back, but we just, we were at the naval base and there was 16,000 rafters there when I went in like a tent city. And we did a concert for them. We spent basically the day there. We came back later. at night. And that was the only time I went back to the island. You just kind of see it. You got to

travel around the eastern part of it because I don't let you fly over. And you come into Guantanamo, which is on the southern side, and you landed. And it's, you know, it's amazing because I remember growing up, my parents would always say, oh, the skies in Cuba are so beautiful. Well, it's like going out to the desert here, you know, when there's not a lot of big city in Guantanamo, it's just a naval base, but there's nothing there. So there's no lights to get in the way of the sky, you know, and there's no pollution there or anything. And the sky was like a planetarium. It was incredible, you know.

I don't know that I, this is a half-baked thought as we're sitting here talking, but I've always wanted to go to Cuba. It always sounded, sounds romantic, like a stepping back in time, unfortunately, because of the way it is. But, you know, and this is the first time I'm going, hmm, maybe I should check myself. Yeah. Well, what happened? Well, you know, Cuba is not, it's beyond stepping back in time.

If you want to go to Pompeii, that's where you're going to find in Cuba. I mean, it's completely falling on top of itself. And the infrastructure of the country has not been touched in 70 years. And, of course, there's no food, there's no electricity. It's in its worst situation. and that regime has caused this extraordinary hardship there. But also the city has just crumbled on itself. It's an extraordinary city that was like the Paris of the Caribbean, you know.

The new republic in Cuba after the Spanish-American War the city was designed by the same architect that did Washington, D.C., you know, so it has that grandeur. The Capitol building is a copy of the American Capitol. So it's, you know, but the thing is about select. Celebrity. People who go to Cuba, they love for you to go to Cuba because they take pictures of you in Cuba. And they go, you see, Ted Denson loves us.

You make it okay. Yeah, he approves of us. He thinks we're great. He thinks our system is great. And you're just going there out of a curiosity. But I've seen them, the government, you know, use the celebrity quotient when people go. But I don't, you know, I don't judge people for that. I don't, my thought did not come off of something I was gleaning from you, but it was like, oh, it's more visceral.

I mean, I've heard the story. I was around during that time and all of that, but I'm sitting there opposite you talking about your family and your experience, and all of a sudden it's more visceral. Yeah, absolutely. No, no. Cuba has been a place of, there's a lot of curiosity for a lot of people. You know, the Cuban people are joyous people and they'll take you in, even that they have nothing. but unfortunately it's in a terrible, terrible situation there. And, you know, there's always hope that there'll be changed, you know,

but we've been hoping for a long time, you know. I don't mean to reply, you can't be silly, but it does explain, I think, a little bit, the gravitas that you put out into the world. Yeah. But I can be very silly, Ted. Trust me. Trust me.

I suppose I can be deep upon occasion if forced. Together we make this extraordinary pair. You have like, you, it seems to me, from your upbringing and, you know, your family experience, had to have your, you know, your eyes on the high beams. You had to be focused. I kind of describe my upbringing until, Jesus, until I was in my 40s, basically, I went through life as if I were sitting in the back of a pickup, facing backwards, looking at life, come past me going, wow, look at that.

Oh, look where I am. I'll be damp. I never really turned around. That's amazing. And went, I want this, sir. I need to be going in that direction. That's incredible. Yeah. But that's because I, you know, I grew up with the family that my mother, you know,

didn't have a dime growing up. Yeah. My father was Cincinnati, Ohio, upstairs, downstairs, maids. Depression, less so. Then he fell in love with Arizona. came an archaeologist and never made more than $10,000 a year, but it was his passion and love. So I grew up around, we don't seem to have any money, you know, when I look around me, because their values were different, but money was never an issue.

And that was kind of a nice luxury to grow up in. But the one thing I will say, I got it. This is all because of the fucking awards show the other night. It's going to be okay, Ted. I got you, I got you, Ted. I'm self-examining. What's your worth? Who are you, Ted?

The one thing I say that I got from my family, so many things. Sorry, so many things, mom and dad. But one is curiosity. So I love, you know, being able to do this. Yeah, yeah. Because I want to know what makes you tick. Well, what makes me tick, obviously is my passion for the thing I love, which I loved since I was a child, films.

And then later the stage, I was a huge film buff as a kid, and would go to see Sean Connery and double features in Lincoln Road in the summers. And I'd go at noon, and I'd watch Thunderbolt and Dr. No. And then I'd stay and watch Thunderbolt and Dr. No. And then I'd stay and watch, like, all for about a buck. Yeah, whatever it was, a buck 75 for the summer for kids. And I go in at noon and I take the bus home at 10 a night. And I just stayed there the whole time.

So that was my passion. And that eventually it was like a virus. It picks you, you know. And eventually you've got to deal with it. I got, this is what I want to do. And you kind of start figuring it out. That makes me tick my work. Sports must have had some.

Yeah, I was an athlete. I played baseball and basketball and high school and stuff. At some point, I wasn't going to be playing for the Lakers, you know. Right. But this other passion, and actually, and I've said this, it's hard of these podcasts, but you end up telling the same damn stories all the time. We'll get you in a minute. Yeah.

The thing is I got monorucleosis in my senior year. And then I was like, I couldn't play basketball. I was like right when the season was starting. And I was in this kind of limbo. and I stayed home for like a month because I couldn't do anything. And I took an acting class. And that kind of,

it caught me in this kind of vulnerable space. And I was encouraged that I felt stimulated. And the Godfather came out. I saw it and I said, I want to try to, this privately to myself. I didn't go around and say, hey, I want to, you know, because people think you're crazy.

But the most important lesson I learned as an actor was the first lesson, I think it was like the first acting class I ever took. And maybe not the one in high school, but one in college. But it was the exercise where you had to fall backwards and someone would have to catch you. Yeah. Trust. Yeah, that's the trust.

That's the essence of it. You have to be able to be willing to fall backwards and know that someone's going to catch you. Yeah. If not, nothing real spontaneous happens. I got you, you got me. Let's see you kind of go. The other thing is also exile. You know, when you come into a country as a five-year-old,

again, I've said this story, but you asked me what makes me tick. And you don't know the language, and you're thrust into a public school in the kindergarten. And you go in and you're going like, and people are talking. And you don't have no idea what they're saying. Wow. Are they talking about me? Why are you looking at me that way? So I had, you know, there was a transitional time there.

And it manifested in me having to constantly feel like I had to fend for myself because I was alone. Right. And that also informed, you know, who I am, you know. And I'm not that, I would say I'm not that person. I'm exactly that person. I just, I don't, you know, I don't get in fights every day like I did when I was in first grade. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I don't go to the principal's office. but I do channel that in my work if I need to, you know. Was there a fork when you could have gone the fuck you all punch in the face? Or, okay, I don't have to do that. Maybe I won't. Where did you get? I mean, because I think after, once I left grade school, in seventh grade, I started to, you know, it's kind of, I had adapt, you know,

I sort of made the transition and adapted myself and with friends and sports and then, you know, kind of that calmed down. But I would say after like the sixth grade, going into junior high. Before we leave your parents behind, are they alive? None anymore, no. Did they get to see Andy Garcia, you know, the actor? before they passed. Yeah, I took them to the Oscars, you know.

Ah! Yeah. That was great. Yeah. Yeah, he was the, you know, my father at the time had been dealing with illnesses, you know, for a while. And we almost lost them several times. But, you know, he got it together. And he was at the Oscars with my mom.

My mom lived to be 100. Wow. So he died, I think, like, maybe like 73 or four or some. And so she had another like 25 years alive. And she recently passed. But yeah, they went, you know. You know, they don't like many parents like yours also, they had no idea what, you know,

connection to the entertainment business or anything. Like my kids, I have two actors, actresses in my family, my daughters, you know, and they grew up in it. They know the pitfalls. They know what they have to do. You know, but my parents, when you say, I want to go and I'm going to move to Los Angeles or to Hollywood, you know, and be an actor. It was like, what's going on with this kid, you know?

I mean, they had seen me on stage in college and stuff, but they thought it was just like, okay, you're doing that, but, you know, you're in the family business. And so it was like, you know, they could not, especially with my dad, you could not understand how do you make a living doing that, you know? I mean, I joke to myself that I would say, like, my parents would go like, you know, I love my son, but he's not Humphrey Bogart. You know what I mean? That's to them, that's the actor that makes a living, you know what I mean? Mark Gable makes a living.

Well, that's their generation, you know. So I can understand the worry, extreme worry. My mother was more reckless. My father was more privately, here's an interesting anecdote. I was doing a commercial. I was directing a commercial in South Florida on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Recently.

About four years ago, yeah. In Miami Beach, and I'm directing this commercial. And on Lincoln Road, and a young priest, maybe 34 years old, you know, comes up to me. He said, hi, Mr. Garcia, can I speak with us here? Of course. And I said, give me a second. And then they were setting up a shot.

So I went over. And I said, sit down. What's going on? And he said, my girlfriend. grandfather is the owner. I'm going to see if I can get the story correct, but it's the owner of Navarro Pharmacies. Okay.

And I believe he said Navarra. I'm pretty sure, but someone out there may listen to this. He goes, it wasn't Navarro. It was a lot. But I think it wasn't the Navarro Pharmacy. And he told me the story. Navarro Pharmacy was a series of small pharmacies in Miami. And my father used to sell to them.

And he had developed his friendship with the owner of the chain of a little small pharmacies. And he says, he told me the story that your father came to see him when you left, when you were leaving for Los Angeles in 1978, and that he was very concerned. And he came to seek solace to my grandfather, who was my father's age, you know. And it's like a confession saying, you know,

what I got to I'm having a lot of trouble my son is leaving I've been training him in the business all his life and he's leaving now to L.A he wants to be know that story and he came like you know hat in hand kind of saying I need help you know and the grandfather told this young priest that he told my father you got to let him go you got to let him go you got to and it was interesting that this story came all the way around to this young priest to me on Lincoln Road you know whatever it was 30 years later you know and he had died your daddy long before that

yeah yeah but I just it's just I had heard from my mom and stuff you know his he's concerned and you also expressed concern to me you're like saying you know he's very traditional you say like when you go on an interview

wear a tie you know that kind of thing mine was maybe you know maybe get a degree so you could teach acting because I know you love acting but maybe you should have a back on. Yeah, something to fall back on. My mom was supportive of anything creative. Right. Anything.

Yeah. Just follow your creative part. Yeah, my mother was more reckless. Like I told you, she was like saying, fly. If you break a wing, you can always come back and heal, but go. Which reminds me of another phrase I heard you say, or was it your father or somebody, you're going to fall. Just fall forward. Keep going forward.

Yeah. His classic thing was he said it's the only phrase from the revolution that he agreed with. You know, the revolution had a lot of propaganda phrases. Yeah. You know. Some are very, you know, indoctrinating kind of thing. But the one he says, I only agreed with one thing in the, one phrase, one thing in the revolution. It was a phrase called, never take a step backward, not even to gain momentum.

How was it in Spanish? To attract and to coer impulse. And basically, you know, because when you go like this to try to move forward, you're off balance. Yeah. You can easily be pushed or fall that way. But if you're always leaning forward, if you fall, you're going to fall one step closer to your destination. So it's a very basic thing, but I must say that it's been a philosophy that I've had on my life. I think it's a truism, one of those.

Absolutely. I mean, just the law of attraction. kind of. Yeah, and just hold your ground, even if you just don't lose ground, you know. Yeah. And if you happen to lose ground, just get back up and try to gain that thing back as quickly as possible. Because as you know in life, we only know this through wisdom, you know, or through example, in the case of my parents or people who come before you that you know the story, you, everything is accomplished through persistence. Yeah. And work ethic. A little suffering along the way

As long as you get up and be going. Keep going. And eventually, whatever you want to do, you keep training. And then when that little creak in the door opens and you step in, you got to be ready.

That's the door. And if you don't do all this before that and train and prepare and be ready to go, when that door opens, you got to make that impression, right? In our case, you might not get the part,

they'll take your resume and they go, let me put it in here, my go-to drawer. And the casting director puts it here, not in the stack over here. Yeah. And that's what keeps you, you develop a little reputation amongst the casting people. And eventually they say, can I get,

hey, baby, can you think Ted could come in tomorrow? I have something I think it'd be great for. And you walk in and you get the part like this. It's like it wasn't like the... Because you showed up a year ago or a month ago and gave it your all and you were just wronged for the market. I got the guy. I got the guy.

The thing with Phil Borsos, Jane Jenkins, who cast me in that. When I went in, it was the easiest job. I mean, that had been turned down forever on jobs. But I met where we talked and he says,

I want you to meet the director. I met the director. Done. It was like that. I don't even know if I read, maybe I read a little bit, but it was nothing. It just,

the part was right for me. And, you know, they had seen. me auditioned a million times for things and they said, no, that's the guy. There's no need to look any further kind of thing, you know. But that was after eight years of being here floating around, you know, trying to get that little break.

It's not what we do, it's how it's done, basically. How many people just step out of the, step out, and they go like, hey, I had an actor friend of mine, Stephen Bauer, who I grew up with in Florida. He came out and had an opportunity right, right? He said, come on, get over here. You know, it's great. It's work.

And, of course, I got here. And it wasn't the same experience for me. Yeah. But he was great. He's great. He's great, great actor. Yeah, really good. But, you know, and it's just one of those things.

Sometimes you catch a break early, but you were saying it earlier that sometimes it's better. You're not really ready yet. And you have to realize you're not ready yet. And you have to know inside of yourself where you go like, Yeah. I'm ready right now. I'm ready. I'm ready right now.

Before it's like, I can do it. I want to do it. I can do it. I know I can do it. I'll give it my all. But at some point, in the craft, you get to that point, you go. Yeah.

I sometimes think it's a bore for other people that my insecurities are also a fuel for me. Because it's like I go, oh God, I go full self-dot. And then another voice comes. said, fuck that. Get up. You know, I do combat with myself as opposed

to other people telling me I can't. I end up, because I do feel like, I know I haven't done a quite a lot of yet. Well, you know, it's a great technique in my Eisner teachers, you know? Yes. Did you study? Yeah, yeah, I did. Me too. Not with him, but actually I'd

study with an actor who worked with him. His name is David Proval. It was a great teacher who studied in Hollywood. it. And don't do anything. No,

the thing is that in that repetitive thing, you know, it's like, even if you're like saying, well, that would even,

let's say in film, you do a tag and you go, well, the hell was that? You know, what, that was just, I'm just not connected.

That was a shitty take. Well, how does that make you feel? Yeah. How does incompetence make you feel? And all of a sudden, bang,

now you're, now you're into something. Well, it makes me angry. Okay, let's do another thing. Yeah. I'm fucking angry right now,

you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, and speaking of Meisner in the neighborhood playhouse, Diane Keaton. Yeah, yeah. Diane Keaton, that's where she comes from. Yeah. That's where she studied.

Mary came from there, too. Also, yeah. They had that. You can tell you. I mean, I met you. I remember the first time I saw you, I do this. I'm terrible. It's like, first thing I asked, it's, can I give you a hug?

I'm just a love. I love actors, and I love good actors. Me too. Me too. Oh, man, I got to hug you. I give people hugs and kisses all the time. My wife said, you can't kiss everybody you meet. I said, that's just kind of the way.

It's an instinctual thing. I don't even think about it. Me either. Yeah. You know, here comes, Sandy. Be careful, he's probably going to kiss you, you know. But that was book club. Yeah, with Diane.

Yeah. Four amazing ladies. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I think it's fair just for a second to say what a magnificent creature. Diane. Diane. Keep this, man.

Amazing. You know, I met her on the Godfather because she was back then, and she was living with Al at the time. And we used to go to dinner, you know, four times a week, you know. I would always go, what are you doing tonight? You want to have dinner? Yeah, I'll sure. Let's have dinner. And I have my two kids and they come with us, the kids.

Other kids would stay. We had some help in Rome. And we go to dinner, we died. So we got to know each other pretty well. And then, you know, once the movie is over, it's like happens a lot in our world. You kind of find another instant family. Yeah, instant family. I never really saw her that much.

But when I would see her someplace, it would be like, you know, we had made a connection, you know, a friendship. And I remember she was always very curious. It's kind of her work. When she looks at you in her work, it's like this Meisner curiosity. And she's bouncing off of anything you're doing all the time like that, right? And she was always very curious about like, who are you? Who are you? Yeah.

Kind of thing, you know? And I remember my daughters would, one time, and we were at a thing where she was being honored and I was there. And it was Daniela came with me. And Daniela said, Diane came up, he goes, we need to talk me and you to my daughter. he goes, we need to talk about your dad. What's going out with this guy? Yeah. So she loved working with you.

Oh, I know that. Likewise. I know she requested me, you know. The director came to my house and said, you know, Diane asked me to talk to you about this movie. And I said, there's nothing talking about I'm in, you know, it's Diane Keating. But I did say to her, I tell you one thing that I know in my heart, that will work very well together because with Diane,

first of all, I have maximum love and respect for her. And there's a comfort there that I know exists between us, which is important. And important for her maybe even more than for you. Yes, and she's very calm.

And that she, this important thing I think for Diane is to not keep her on her toes, but keep her, just throw stuff at her. Yeah. Because when she's having to deal with improvisation and stuff. She's magnificent too. And that's

what be my task in the moment. Oh, that's so smart of you. And that's and then that was, you know, that was the way I approached it, you know, just to keep her just do like that. Yeah. But you know, and you know Diane probably better than I do. I don't know. And it's very merry, but I remember the first day of the first book club we did. I got to the set and I was in a little trailer, you know, and they said, they need you in the hair makeup, you know, to go powder you. up and whatever.

And I got out of the trailer and I started walking towards where the, and she was coming out of the hair and makeup trailer. And it was about, you know, 15 yards or 20 yards away, you know, that were passing. It was 8 o'clock in the morning or 7.30 in the morning. And I said, I called the Lady Die, you know. Say, Lady Die. Good morning. And she said, are you allowed to curse on this show?

Are you allowed to curse on the show? Yes. Yes. She said, what the fuck are you doing here? These guys, what the fuck you do here? Really? Really? Go home, please.

Really? You had to be here in this movie? Really? And walked away. That was her low. Yeah. I hate you. I hate you.

I hate you. She would say that all the time. What are you doing here? I hate you. I hate you. Really? Again? This is the second movie.

You know? Anyway, that movie, once we were going to do it, Then I was doing another show and we couldn't, the schedules didn't work out. The first one, first book on. Yeah. And I said to the director, I said, I'm all in, but I can't start until, you know, a week after the date you need to start. I'm working on the show there.

I can't get out. And they couldn't figure out the thing. So they had to recast the part. And Diane, apparently he told me later that she turned everybody down. And she kept saying, when is Andy available again? This is how he told me the story. And eventually they shut the move, they shut down for a week and then they picked back up. So she wanted to do it with me.

That's very cool. And then the second one, when they said they're doing another one, when I got to Rome, you were there with Mary. We were on that rooftop, a little soiree that they did. As soon as I got into there, Diane was around. already there. She saw me. And there was again. Really? Really? I mean, really? In Rome now, I got to deal with you in fucking Rome. Really? This is how she spread her love to me. Then she calls me, I don't know, a year and a half after that or something with a producer friend of her. And they had another project. And she called me hi. And he goes, what are you doing? I have a movie you have to do.

I said, Diane, really? Really? Really, I have to take it. take this abuse yet for another movie. So, and then, you know, the movie didn't come together, but, you know, then shortly thereafter, I started to hear that she was having some issues and stuff. But she is an American original. She is just very, she was in the way that maybe like Judy Holliday was in that way, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This kind of.

A little kilt-off kilter. Yeah, most magical, magical. Magical, magical, magical, which is what, I guess, you know, when you hear the stories about Annie Hall. It's just about to say that. Yeah. She wasn't an actor doing this Annie Hall part that Woody wrote. She was.

She was Annie Hall. In fact, I don't think the movie was even called Annie Hall at the time. It's only after the story I heard was that the movie had, they had, you know, tested the movie. You put the movie together. And everybody would just go like, Annie Hall. It was a character's name, right? Yeah. We need more of Annie Hall in this movie.

And he went back and, you know, they did some additional shooting. Makes sense. And I think the movie maybe was called something else, and then it's called Annie Hall. But it's like they saw that and it goes, just right, you know, just get on those cold tales. I worked with her once in a film called Mad Money, someplace in Louisiana. and played her husband and it was a lady's picture kind of so it was a kind of supporting part or whatever I was there for about three weeks and as she was saying goodbye at the rap or something she looked at me and said you're a revelation and walked off and I don't really know what it meant

but I felt seen by Diane Keaton, and that meant so much to me. I have no idea what it meant, but she looked at me. She saw me, and this was her opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she had me from that on. Yeah, I remember one time we were in having these flashes. We were staying at the village jail there in Italy, in Sicily, in Palermo.

My family had just left. My wife and kids getting back in school. We had like one more a week or 10 days left in the shooting before we wrap back to Los Angeles. And I think we're going to meet Al in town or anything, but we left the hotel walking to the, I think we were meeting Al somewhere. And those just us too. And she had this big camera that she took pictures with,

like the Ouija camera, it's a big thing with a big flash bulb. And we were talking, you know, and they said, do you have any girlfriends? And I said, I just kind of going like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're my girlfriend, Diane. Like, what are you talking about?

Do I have any girlfriend? I'm married, I got two kids. What do you mean? What are you talking about? It kind of threw me. Like, do you have any girlfriends? Yeah, I guess I have a lot of girls that are friends of mine, you know?

Right, right. But the way she asked it was that curiosity thing. you know, like, yeah, which is the way she looks at, you know, the way her work is that has that acute curiosity about her.

She's so president in what you're doing and what's going on and process, she's kind of process it in that la-di-da way, you know, that eventually was in the movie,

la-di-da-da-la-di-da, okay, we're out of here. She walks out and it becomes this iconic moment, you know, in films, you know, and she was just probably just going like, improvising,

I-di-di-di-da-da, because she was going, okay, I guess that's all there is, you know, and I'm out of here. I wonder if, like, I hate you. And you again, Andy, really, really? I think poking you to see what comes out of you was more interesting to her than if you were just presenting normal. She wanted to jostle you. Yeah, but also what the subtext was, thank you for being here. I love you, you know, how much I love you. Yes, yes.

And I knew that, you know. And I go, I love you, Lee. I would never do the, I wouldn't go there with her. I just say, I understand, but I still love you kind of thing, you know. Catholicism. Where are you in the... I was raised Catholic? Yeah.

Still am. Still, may I ask questions like church going? Do you go to church? Occasionally, not every day or about it comes to church. But I'm faithful or have faith. And I have a... I feel. that I have the blessing of having a direct line to the man upstairs.

And I think that's important for people to have someone upstairs. Yes. Regardless. Someone is okay. But someone. Someone, yeah. Yeah. As long as that someone representing something that is good and not evil, you know.

Yes. And so I think. it's important to have a higher spiritual order that you can speak to and uh and also i people who had been in part of your life that are no longer with you they're up there also very much so yeah so it's it's all it's all there yeah and and you you could you could uh you could not argue but you can accept the absolute reality that they're up there with him, whoever that him is for you, you know. But they're up there, you know.

And as long as you know in your heart that they're up there, they're up there. I often think that, totally believe that. You know, and in some ways feel like I've experienced that. Oh, yeah. I mean, like, vividly. Not to convince anyone else, but... I'm right there with you. Yeah.

I sometimes think that science and theology, if really pursued, is headed in that direction where they will intersect. You know, I came from a science family. Yeah. And there's no contradiction in my mind. I have things that have happened to me. that people have observed things or have told me things,

that it's impossible to them to know this fact. It's impossible. It's not something that's Googled. It's never been articulated to anyone. It's impossible for you to know or that person to know this situation or that person was part of my life. It's not even, you can, I could tell you right now, try to find this, and you couldn't find it. Yeah.

You'd have to go on that guy finding your roots, you know? Yeah. And he'd have to do like a six-month search. And still probably wouldn't find it. No, you'd have to go through records, like, you know. Yeah. And I've had situations like that where you go like, yeah.

Okay. I got you. But just physics. Why wouldn't it be that one? Yeah. You know, now that we know that thoughts, our energy, have weight, have, they are matter. Yeah, man.

You know, and just because your cells die off in your body, energy doesn't get, but also, you know, we also, because of our training, have been trained to access all that stuff as part of our sense, emotional memory, sense memory, all that stuff that we've been trained with. And it's part of our accessing our subconscious and all these things that fuel our work. And not denying possibility. No, accepting him and taking this kernel of thing of thought and amplifying it through your imagination or amplifying the emotional element of that because it's what the character needs or whatever.

So we have that training already to be open to that stimulus, you know, that you might do something, it might stimulate something and all of a sudden we're, you know, I'm, you know, what just happened? You know, that door opened. I went through it and, are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay. I'm all right, you know. So that's, we're there, you know. That's part of our training, you know.

People, you know, people think they're just acting as people get up there and just do it. You know, it's not easy, man. It's very hard to make it look like it's easy, you know. I give myself a lot of credit when I say I'm about 50. 50. Yeah. Meaning 50% of the time, I may actually be present in this moment. Yeah.

And other times I'm, I've just gone, wow, I'm really present. Oops. No, no, I know. You know, I think most creative peoples have this kind of, back in the day, you know, you'd go at school and I was always the daydreamer in school. I was daydreaming all the time. I think people in the arts or in art world, that's what they

and now they have some scientific terms for like ADD or whatever but did you hear what I just said 10 did you hear what I just say yes I did but I get that all the time you know it's like Andy

Andy did you hear what I just said what? What's going on? Or just flat out lie yes I said no I'm sorry I was sorry I just said no and

and the imagination is like, you know, and you're off. And I think it's... But then also in that world, there's a hyper-focus. You think you can't focus at this task. But all of a sudden, then this task is a hyper-focused because that's what really interested you. And then all of a sudden it's like,

so that's all you think about. I faked my way through until I found acting. I was at Stanford University. Faking your way. way through Stanford. Fanking my way. That's an Oscar-O-Winney performance, man, actually. Actually, I didn't even fake.

I went to about maybe two months of the two years I was there. I went to classes. And then I realized, oh, this professor has written a book, and he's really proud of the book. So everything, just read his book. Yeah. You know, and you'll be fine. Or get your name on the rolls the first day.

Come back on the last day. on the last day to take the exam and they were fine. I just faked my way until I found acting. And then I became the most serious student joyfully. Yeah, exactly what you said. You found your passion, your focus, you know. It's like this is, I'm going to figure this out, you know, because I have a passion for it. And listen, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of embarrassing, thinking back,

there's a lot of embarrassing moments of terrible auditions or, you're just trying too hard or you think that this is what it is until I said, until you continue to try to figure it out, you know, and then slowly by studying in class and teachers and you start

getting an understanding of until one day you have this kind of epiphany or a breakthrough. And you, this thing happens physically and emotionally in the exercise or in the repeat exercise or in a scene.

and the whole place goes like, yeah. And you go, and people go like, that was fucking amazing, man. And you go like, oh, that's it? That's what it is?

Oh. Oh, okay. And you, that's what you say, boom, and you land, finally your feet are, that doesn't mean you don't keep growing through it, you know, like, boom.

You know, I was in red, to direct a film in 1978. But through time, I've directed things that I've developed and produced out of sheer interest in doing that, you know, and the desire to do it and to learn it and to learn the craft and to tell a story, film, you know, not only as an actor, but as a director, as a writer.

But that doesn't come on day one. It comes from, well, what lens is that or what's going on? Watch how they do this. How do you, sitting in cutting rooms, you know, sitting in there, in the dailies with Gordie Willis, taking all this opportunity that you're given as an actor by working with all these people.

If you're really interested, it's right there. The master class is right there. I never had that brain. I do admire it. I never was that person who looked at writing, directing, producing.

I never went there. That side of my brain, I'm happy to... To relinquish. No, no, but to put it elsewhere. I've been an ocean advocate for 40 years. And I get to play with really bright people and they let me in the room. And that gets set.

That satisfies that. The directing is different than just producing a movie. That you're acting because, you know, it's a different responsibility. The director you're there from day one answering questions through prep and having to, in the case that you're also acting in the movie and directly is an added thing. The first movie I directed at Lost City took me 16 years of, my life. It's about Cuba, obviously, about a family leaving Cuba. So it was very personal. Not necessarily our story, but our story is like a universal story, you know.

But the thing is that, and then just recently I directed a movie. I'm in post right now that took me another, that one took me 16 years. This one took me 12, 13 years to get it made. And we just shot it in 25 days. When you write something, because both of them I developed, this one, the particular last one I actually wrote, the other one, I took a 300-page document. meant and formulated into a screenplay. But it was written as a 300-page screenplay by a novelist. But once you have it and you have the movie in your hand,

you go like, here's a movie. It's done. They sit there. Read it. It's all there. There's the story. There's the film. And then you go like,

you mean I actually have to shoot it? Right. And now I have to actually do it, but it's right here. Yeah. Now you've got to bring that to life and the first task is where you're going to get the money to do it.

And then you show it to everybody in the natural places you would show the film to the studios and now to the streamers and every and then everybody turns you down. And as Sean Connery was saying, the untouchables to alien nest,

what are you prepared to do? Yeah. Right? Yeah. Now what are you going to do? Everybody just turned you down. Your baby. what are you going to do?

What are you going to do about it, that? You go like, okay, I guess it's not going to happen. Or you go like, okay, here we go. And it fucking haunts you every day of your life to try to get this damn thing made. It just haunts you. You have nightmares. You're dreaming about the material. You wake up at 4 in the morning going, oh, I got to, oh, yeah.

Let me write that down because I have an idea about that scene. and a thing and the thing and he says, why, and you're asleep, and you're crying in your sleep. Why are you crying in your sleep, Andy? You know, that'd be interesting for the character.

You know? That's in the movie. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, I see. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's why a guy cries in his sleep, I understand. That's why he does that. That's why I'm doing it. because I'm thinking about, you know, and all, it's this constant subconscious that's,

in the meantime, you try to find someone to give you the money to make this movie because everybody's turned you down. Then you have a new draft three years later or two years later and you see if you have like, oh, they have a new head of Amazon, throw it over there, see if they bite. No, it didn't bite. Here it goes back to you. And you just constantly like, you know, throw and keeping the bait in the water to see. Who bit for the slash?

Independent money, independent equity. No studio, nothing. We made it outside the system. Now we got to sell it. Yeah, yeah. What's the name of your movie? It's called Diamond. Diamond.

Yeah, Diamond. After the character's name is Joe Diamond. And it's a private eye, like a Raymond Chandler. Great. Private Eye, 40s. Period. No, he's in period. In life now.

That's great. So the world he creates for himself is all period. The way he dresses. his apartment, his loft. Yeah. His office in the Bradbury building is in period. Yeah. His assistant is dressed in period like he is Latanya Richardson.

And, but he operates as this gumshoe in contemporary Los Angeles. So a little, you could say, off balance. So you have to find out, you know, through the course of the story, why he is the way he is. And he, and, you know, the character is like an urban, legend because he's been successful as this private eye. So he's been in the news. If we would go out to have a coffee and he'd pull up in his old Ford, we'd go like, there's diamond.

You see? That was him, right? Yeah, that was him. Because you've seen him on TV and some. Yeah. And one of the cases that haunts him in the story is that he was hired to track down a flock of stolen flamingos from the zoo. We were kidnapped, taken.

for the feathers. And he was the one who found them. And of course, he was on the TV all over California. And that case haunts them, you know, because they go, A Flamingo Man, who's going on? You know, it's going like, oh, you know. So this character was born out of, basically, my imagination. It was actually a daughter, Daniela, had an English paper in her senior years.

He says, Dad, I got to deliver this English paper in the world. Can you help me? And I want it. He goes, just a short story, it took a couple pages of, you know, And I said, sure. And she said, get your computer out, you know. It's a moment for us to play, you know. She goes, okay.

And so what is it? He goes, well, he just have to pick a, he goes, what do you say? They said to pick locations in L.A. And, you know, use that as a tool to open up a story. I said, okay, how about Bob's big boy? You know, because it's near in our neighborhood. He said, yeah. And goes way back.

And because of that, I started improvising an inner monologue of voiceover. I woke up in the bed of ice plants that will always have the imprint of my out-of-shaped torso. You know, that kind of thing, you know? Oh, that's great. I looked up and I saw Big Boy smiling at me, and I thought, why is he always smiling? You know, things like that. So that voice came out of me like that. And I wrote like three scenes right there.

You know, she was typing away. And I was just improvising. And then he just sat in my computer for years. And I kept going like, this character. What's going on with this guy? You know, who is this guy? And why is he the way he is? Yeah.

Then I thought, oh, you could be an interesting series character. Like, for the streaming was starting. And I'm going, so I just started to dig in, you know. And then wrote a screenplay about it. And I had to create a case. And, you know, it was a whole process. Yeah, yeah. It was very challenging.

And but here we are, you know. God bless. And here we are. And I got this. extraordinary cast that jumped on board has supported. Vicki Creeps and Rosemary DeWitt, Brendan Frazier, Danny Houston, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman,

Wow. Yule Vasquez, Rachel Tickerton, Latanya Richardson, Jackson. My daughters are in the picture with me. That's fantastic. Yeah. And because of you, I started watching Lampen, and it's really good.

It's a good show. It's a really good. Taylor is an extraordinary storyteller and writer. Yeah. And you start from the voice that he's created for Billy Bob. Yeah. Which is like his music, you know, that character is like Hamlet, you know, for him. Yeah.

And then you surround him with all these great characters and beautiful actors. Yeah. And now we have Sam Elliott in the mix. Yeah, who's just spectacular. It was the sublime. Billy Bob is definitely a puncher, counterpunchy man. You're in a fist fight. Oh, my God.

He's amazing. And to watch them, too, I mean, all the characters he has to deal with, because he has to deal with, including my character, He has a deal with everywhere he turns. It's like another punch that he's got to get getting hit. And, you know, with Ali, his wife and his daughter and all the guys in the Permian Basin and, you know, and to me. But that relationship with his dad is just so beautiful, you know. This has been lovely.

You know more about me than most people. And now people know stuff that I. Well, I know I appreciate. Yeah. You call me in a vulnerable state. Yeah. Well, thanks. Your mom and dad would be super proud of you, man. I'm proud of that.

You're a very impressive guy. I'm proud of that. I try to make them proud, you know. Yeah. Thanks, Andy, for sharing yourself with us today. I really appreciate it. Catch him on Landman, streaming on Paramount Plus Now. That's it for this week.

Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. As always, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple. podcasts if you're in the mood. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash Team Coco.

See you next time. Where everybody knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow, our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our super

Supervising Producer, Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Graal. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Jane Batista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gen, Mary Steenberg, and John Osborne.