Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Greg Kinnear

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Oscar-nominated actor Greg Kinnear talks to Ted Danson about his pivot from talk show host to leading man, his expat years in Greece, their experience on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” why “Little Miss Sunshine” took him by surprise, acting on the Apple TV+ series “Smoke,” and more. Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes. 

I don't know what sort of suggestion you're making, Ted, but I did not think Little Miss Sunshine was a shit script. [♪ Music Plays, with a Meet and talk with Greg Kinnear, an incredibly talented actor who I've admired for a long time from afar. I'm really looking forward to this. He's been in so many of my favorite movies. Think As Good as it Gets, Little Miss Sunshine, You've Got Mail, Stuck on You, Sabrina, Green Zone and many more. He's currently starring in the Apple TV Plus series, Smoke, Meet Greg Kniell.

I think I was on your show late night with Greg Kniell. Were you? I think. They say so on the internet, but I could not find proof of. Oh, my God. You know, I did a year and a half of it, and we had so many people, and I never kept any sort of record.

All of the tapes are gone. I don't, there's no proof that I ever did this show. Or that I did. Or that you did. But my guess is that we, yes, maybe you did come on and we did have a wonderful conversation. Oh my God. It was amazing.

Who came on after you? Who took over that slot after you? Well, I did that for like a year and a half and then went into Don Oldmire to beg and plead to leave because I had gotten a movie and I just couldn't do both. Blankman or? As good as it gets. Well.

I had done Sabrina as a talk show host and then I did another movie and they let me kind of come in and do multiple tapings in a day, which is why I don't remember anything because we'd do like five half hour interviews in a day. And then when I got that movie, part of it was in New York and it was just too crazy. So they let me out of it at that time. But I did have a lot of people on and I enjoyed it. It was

fun. Listen, if I could remember it. So it's a real good chance that neither one, that it didn't happen. This is so great. I know. I think, have we? I don't remember Carson either. Yes, exactly. Wow, did you do Carson? Once. That is, where did, where did, at what point, at what point were you doing Johnny Carson? That's a bad Johnny Carson. Right about there.

Was it the end of Cheers? kind of during his wrap up? It was the beginning of Cheers. Oh, beginning? And he had, well, first four years, because it went on so long, four years, and still beginning. He had a guide that would interview you, pre-interview, and I'm blanking on his name,

but he was so scary, he was renowned. He would say, no, that story doesn't have an end. He needed a beginning, middle, and an end, and he was so scary. He was renowned. He would say, no, that story needs doesn't have an end. He needed beginning, middle and an end. And he would terrify you to the point where you came out. You thought Johnny was going to eat you for lunch and he was the sweetest, most nurturing, I think, person I've ever done a talk show with. Sure, but he'd already put you through the meat grinder with the other guy. He had the bad cop would come in and beat the

hell out of you. Mary, my wife, Mary Steenburgen actually dropped out went, Oh, this is too, yeah, I'm sorry. Can't do this because the guy scared her so much. Right. Right. I took the only time I saw him in person was my parents, my mom and dad were in town and I was working at some low-budget film company and a buddy of mine worked at Warner Brothers

and he was able to get us tickets. And I went to one taping of The Tonight Show with my mom and my dad. And Harrison Ford was the guest that night. And Harrison, you know, he wasn't exactly playing dad and Harrison Ford was the guest that night. And Harrison, you know, well, he wasn't exactly playing to the crowd. I mean, he was, hello, you know,

and probably, probably smidge stone possible possible. But it was, I remember thinking, my God, this is just such a small set. It's such a strange thing. And I remember thinking this is this whole show is not working. This is going to be talked about for years to come as the Tonight Show episode that just, it didn't work. It just didn't, Johnny was kind of off and they're going to

study it in film school. And, and then I went home and watched it that night. And I was like, damn, that was a great show. It all, you know, all the stuff, it was a different energy being in the room, I felt. So you must have had that. Because they didn't play to the audience that much. They would play very small to the camera.

Right, right, which was, of course, made it more powerful for the audience. Let me go back a second. First, I'm gonna fluff you up a little bit, which is also true. You're one of my favorite kinds of actors because you are, to me, you're like a leading man character actor. And you're one of those people who,

even if you're playing the second or third person who is like the interference to the love affair of the other two or something, you have such integrity for your characters that I just find you charming and totally 100% believable always. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, and you've been in some of my favorite films. I was listening to an interview,

you were actually like in the billions of dollars, the films you've been in. Yeah, it's made a lot of money. That's pretty cool. Yeah. But how do you- I think there's people who've done better, but I've made some, I've been in some stuff that's made a lot of money. It made, that's pretty cool. Yeah. But how do you- I think there's people who've done better, but I've made some,

I've been in some stuff that's made some money. Yeah. Yeah. Not me. Film-wise. But anyway. No, you've not really made your mark in show business, Ted. Yeah, why don't I go there?

Sorry. I'm huge. By the way, I'm gonna fluff you up in a second on- Okay, but me first. Yeah, okay, go ahead But thank you that'll give me I only have about an hour for this but go ahead. I Want to go back so you're traveling around as a kid because your dad was in the State Department Yeah, so you were in Beirut

Yes, when it was gorgeous and beautiful and Paris like and then you were also there when the war started. That's right. How old were you? I was 12. So, wow, so that's young man absorbing it all. That's right. 1975. What was that like?

I mean, stupid question, but that must have been amazing. It was quite amazing, and I still count, you know, my dad worked with the American embassy and it turned out to be a great blessing in my life. Not so much for Beirut because we weren't there that long. We were evacuated probably six, seven months after we were there to Greece. Right, to Athens.

We had to go slum it in Athens for the next six years. What year is that roughly? That was seven, well, we got there in like 76 through 80. So after the kind of King and Queen and revolution-y kind of thing. Yes, well, the Shah, are you talking about Iran? No. Oh, you're talking about Greece.

Greece. Oh yeah, you had the. Papandreou. Papandreou was out, you had Carmen L Karma lease if you know your great exactly so let it go We stay American I might have said a bad word there. I don't I only know a few like basically curse words So I had to drop some of those in but I can get around in a cab without getting all that too much. Yeah. Actually we were there for six weeks

because my father was an archaeologist and he wanted to drive around all the archaeological sites in the Peloponnese and Sparta and all that. Yeah. And we did and it was amazing time. Yeah we toured around a lot and just you know my mom would load us up and take us to places. But it was a... Mykonos. I had been to Mykonos.

I'd taken a ferry to a bunch of different islands. All my friends, if we had a three-day weekend, we're going somewhere, Spezis or wherever we could go to make trouble. And it was a great blessing. But listen, Lebanon was beautiful, but it was, you know, you hear the Paris of the Middle East, I didn't see Paris in Beirut, but I did see a gorgeous country with lovely people.

The Lebanese people are amazing. And they had coexisted this kind of Muslim Christian faction for years. And it just kind of Muslim-Christian faction for years. And it just kind of broke down all in the course of probably about two or three months. And once the fighting started, it just escalated. And eventually, as I say, my dad got reassigned and then got to grow up over in Athens. What a blessing though, I think, for a parent to be able to give their children

the visceral realization that there are other people involved in this world and life than those who look just like us, and sound just like us. Yeah, no, it was truly, I mean, like it was just a gift. And I have a lot of really good friends who, some in LA actually, and just that we all had this experience together

and we still talk about it and nobody is anything short of incredibly grateful as a kid to have had that. I mean, there was some, you know, there's times when you're, you know, you can lose perspective. And of course there were times where I probably wasn't as appreciating

as much as I should have. But mostly I feel like I was like, wow, this is pretty great. Yeah. Well done. So in Athens, in high school, you did your first talk show. Yeah.

How does one know? I mean, that to me is almost like saying I'm gonna do stand up, it's bold, it's a bold move. I'm gonna sit down. I'm bold. You are, I know. I'm bold, Ted. I'm seeing it right now in front of me. I'm bold. No, no, you just lost me.

What? Ted, hold on for a second. I'm bold. Am I to you or to the, should I play to the camera? I don't, you don't give me any direction. Oh God. I'm gonna have to start covering. All right, all right. I don't really know him that well, to be honest.

We spent a wonderful half hour of television. How, who, come on, who, how did you go, oh, you know what? I'm gonna do a talk, I'm gonna do a radio show. You know, there was a guy, God bless him, he was graduating, he was a guy, God bless him, he was graduating. He was a year or two ahead of me, I guess, in high school. And his name was Tanner Parsons. Hello, Tanner.

And just, I don't know why. I mean, I wasn't exactly the class cut up or anything. But I was, you know, I was kind of, I mean, I wasn't like theater kid, but I did a little acting and it was kind of like joke around a little bit. But for whatever reason, this guy came up to me one day at lunch and said, Hey, I'm graduating. And I was like, yeah, well, congratulations on that. And he said, he goes, I do this show, which I kind of knew about actually, if I'm, I think I did know about the show because it was kind of a thing. He had a weekly radio show at the armed forces airbase in Athens,

which has since been closed down and it, it played all over Athens. And you know, it was pretty good output on that station. And he, they had this one little hour that they devoted to one kid at the American Community School, ACS Athens, that would do this show called School Days. And he was graduating, he said, you want to do it? And I said, hell yeah. So I went down there, he gave me kind of a run through, It was kind of like this. You'd be happy. She wanted me to wear these. Because you would wear these.

But you do sound sexier, admit it. Damn it. Hold on now. Hold on now. AFRTS Athens, Greg Kinnear with you on school days along with Ted Danson. Ted, it's 75 degrees out, beautiful high thin clouds. How are you feeling?

Oh my God, you're good. Thanks. Yeah. And then we play some Bee Gees. So was it music, but you had to fill some of it with what, life experiences or jokes or moves or what? A little bit of talking shit about what was happening at our little school and

maybe read a few announcements and played some music and tried to be funny. And it was a low bar. I mean, I, you know, it was exciting. I was suddenly in show business. Yeah. And there was a guy there, Kevin Andal, great guy. He was a naval officer who was one of the DJs there. And he was like, Greg, this is how you have to do it. He kind of walked me through. And so, you know, I eventually got pretty good at it and I did it for a few years. Okay. You leave Athens and where did you go?

Arizona. I went to the University of Arizona. In Tucson. Yeah. My dad taught there. Did he really? Yeah, professor. Oh God, please tell me this is, I'm not being punked. Was I in one of your dad's classes? Yep. Oh God.

Can you get him on the phone? No. He never wants to talk to me again, I promise you. Okay. That's amazing. Wait, your dad was in Tucson at the U of A. Oh, he never wants to talk to me again, I promise you. That's amazing. Wait, your dad was in Tucson at the U of A. Probably, what year were you there roughly? The early 80s to mid 80s.

We were long gone. Okay, so what are you doing there? Did you go, I can't remember. I went there for three or four years. I started as a drama major. I had a drama teacher who kind of said, came in and said, less than 1% of you will ever make a living acting.

Mine said that too. Yeah, did you, seriously? It's mean, yes, literally. Kind of like mean-spirited, angry. I actually called him out. I wouldn't call him out. I remember thinking that's what it has to be, but I don't know.

Now that I look back on it, it was like, are you crazy? This is how you introduce this concept to these young, hopeful. And we're going to study with you. Right. It was enough for me. I mean, it really changed the course, but it's funny. Yeah. I did yours similar situation. Yeah, this is cutthroat. This is horrible. You'll have lots of disappointments.

And I literally no reason because I had been in, I had felt fallen in love with acting three months before that, before that nothing. And I remember saying, no, you shouldn't say that. There are people here who really, really love acting and really wanna do this. You should be encouraging us or something. And you stayed with it. I did.

Yeah. Well, I did, Greg. I mean, come on, man. Yeah. Cheers? No, I'm saying, I'm saying. God, how many times are we gonna hit that today? No, I'm joking.

I'm saying like, you stayed with it in, because the whole acting thing came way later for me Because honestly, I really did feel like you know, listen I I also didn't need a lot to push me off the bubble I did I hadn't fallen in love with I hadn't had an experience where I was like, oh my god This is an incredible outlet. I hadn't you know, I'd done some high school stuff. I hadn't done anything in college. In fact, I auditioned for one show, didn't get it, hang in there.

You know, so I just didn't have anything that was, was grounded at that point. So even more vulnerable to somebody who wasn't encouraging and saying, why are you interested in this? What can you do? So good that you stayed with it, Ted. Thank you.

What happened between you and there and Talk Soup? So I did that and then I came out to LA. I don't know why. I had few friends out here. I worked at this, a couple of different jobs, odd jobs, as we all do. I sold light bulbs and I worked at a low budget film company and the marketing department, nothing to do with film, nothing to do with what we get to do.

And while I was there, I got an audition through a friend of a friend into MTV in New York. So I went to MTV, remember how cool MTV was? Yes, huge. J.J. Johnson and Martha Quinn. It was like kind of the height of all that and I got an opportunity to go there and sit on the stairs and audition and say,

hey everybody, I'm gonna do the job. So with that audition, I didn't get the job but I got a nice tape out of it that said MTV audition. It looked very official. A few, I think maybe get the job, but I got a nice tape out of it that said MTV audition, it looked very official. A few, I think maybe six months later, there was a channel starting up here in town called Movie Time. Before E was E, it was called Movie Time,

low budget film, you know, they would basically just show behind the scenes footage or anything we can get our hands on, and they hired these four or five hosts. I was one of them, did that for three years. And then that still wasn't TalkSoup. Oh, I've talked to, I was like almost 30 when I did that show. So, so that came in like, uh, yeah, late nineties. Yeah.

Or I'm sorry, early nineties. Yeah. I can't. And then so E, so movie time became E, all this consortium of companies. Remember when there was cable television everywhere and it was still trying to find its way. And sure they had the cable ace awards, but they didn't really know what they were doing. I, you know, this, this kind of obscure channel was absorbed by Warner Brothers and all these companies, and they turned it into E. And when they did, they, they changed the look and the

name and all the hosts got fired. Long, long continuing story of me getting fired, got fired, went off and produced some stuff, came back a year later on TalkSoup and that was, you know, kind of early nineties and did that for three years. When you guys were wrapping up Cheers is when I was doing the show. I remember it was, and it was kind of surprising. It was like, wait, what is this? Who is that?

That was a moment for you, right? Yeah. Not acting yet, but it was a moment. It's like playing a part of a host who looks at daytime talk shows. But you were funny. You were very funny. So what I'm trying to get to is, how the fuck did you turn around and get?

I mean, some of the motion. It's in there. It's gotta be in there somewhere. No, it is. But you went, I know Blankman, but you went Sidney Pollack. Yeah. That wasn't that long from Talk Soup, was it? No, it wasn't.

I started Talk Soup and did it for a year and a half. Bob Costas was leaving later, which was on at 1.30 the morning late at night. And, uh, and he, that was a talk show, uh, which apparently you came on and I talked to you and we had a great conversation for him. And while I was doing that show and doing talk soup, Sydney Pollock called my agent. Uh, there was an, there was a lovely woman named Lindsey Duran who worked with Sidney, she had seen me on Talk Soup and then he had caught, somehow

caught my show at 1 30 in the morning. And he was looking to cast Harrison Ford's brother and he was like, listen, I just, why don't you come in and talk to me? You're from Logan sport, Indiana. I'm from Lafayette, Indiana, about literally 10 miles down the road from each other. I just come in. Yeah.

And I was like, well, okay, I'll go in and out, find some time for Sidney Pollock. Come in, I can squeeze that in. And I went in and I had a great conversation with him and a great... Did you read? Not the first time. He just talked to me. And he asked me about acting.

And I told him it was just like this, not as good as this. And then he said, well look, why don't you come back in a few weeks? I'll send you a few pages and we'll just read through it. And I don't want you to act. He said, I don't want you to act. If you're gonna act, don't come back. And I was like, I'm not gonna act.

And then I went back, yeah, a few weeks later and he read Sabrina, it was just at his desk. I mean, he just literally read off the page and I read it. We did it a couple of times. He said, try it a little bit this, try a little bit that. And then he was like, great, thanks for coming. And that was the end of it. I was asked back again, and this time-

Right away, right away? No, I was like, every time I left, I was thinking, great to meet Sidney Pollock. That's as far as it's ever gonna go. Then great to have gotten to read with Sidney Pollock. That's as far as it's ever going to go. Then great to have gotten to read with Sidney Pollack. That's as far as it's ever going to go. And then I get the call, they were going to put it on tape. And, you know, I think, you know, David, the great David Rubin, I believe, shot it and we just kind of put it on tape and then... With, once again, with Sydney or no?

Yeah, with Sydney, yeah. He was him doing it. And then, and then, and then I didn't hear anything for, for months and months and months. And I have a, I had a phone in the green room before I went out to do the late night talk show. There was a phone in the green room, which never rang, ever. Never got a call there.

And the entire time I was there, I'd be down there. They're loading an audience. I was always very nervous. And on this particular day, the phone rings. I pick it up and my agent at the time, Greg Lipstone, says, are you sitting down? And I said, no, I'm standing up. I'm walking out to interview John LaRocquette, who's just been introduced.

It sure wasn't me. It might have been you. Okay, go ahead. Well, maybe, because I definitely was a deer in headlights for that whole interview. But I went out after this news, and I believe I definitely was a deer in headlights for that whole interview. But I went out after this news, and I believe it was John, and tried to get through the interview and did my thing, but I was quite floored by what I just heard.

I even still, I think when it was over, I was like, this isn't really going to happen, and it all happened. So that was my first thing. That's amazing. All roads. And Blankman was before that but no one saw that. No one saw that. I didn't play I basically played because I was doing talks if I played like a talk show I was kind of doing a Jerry Springer and they gave me like two lines and I talked. It wasn't, it was nothing. And I played like a one time a buddy of mine put me in to be a news reporter on something. So I had been in front of a camera but I had done me.

Yeah. Was Sidney Pollack to you what he was to all of us? I mean he was our hero. I mean he was just doing astounding films. He came I think out of the neighborhood playhouse as an actor. That's right. So if you're going to read with somebody, you were reading with a really good actor, even if he was doing a woman.

I know. And in one of my favorite moments of all time was that scene with Dustin Hoffman and Tootsie where he's, you're not up a tomato! You know, the, I can play a tomato. You know, they have that great scene. And so I was able to fanboy, you know, with him and Nancy Marchand and Harrison Ford. There were a lot of great people that did that.

Nancy, wow. Richard Crenna, the great Richard Crenna. He was one of the first people to hire me. He was also a director. Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. He directed a lot of TV. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, really sweet man.

Yeah, really sweet man. Of course, the thing he directed got me literally blacklisted at NBC from Fred Silverman for a couple years. Why? What did you... I guess I wasn't good. I guess, and he, the person I was playing against. Did you think you, seriously, you didn't think you were good in it? No, I think I was fine,

but it didn't go for whatever reason. And he had chosen this young girl as somebody he just really wanted to promote, loved her. And when it first started, she was... Krenner or Silverman? No, Fred Silverman wanted this young aunt to play my daughter. I see. And when we started thinking about it, but it got delayed enough, it was a good father-daughter

image. Then she grew, and it became less and less of an interesting, acceptable kind of pairing. It was bizarre as a father-daughter investigating team, private investigating team. Anyway. Yeah, because the time of that, there is kind of a it was, uh, John and Val will could tell this better, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris, but they were trying to get Little Miss Sunshine made for years. And, and I, they, they tried to get funding and the funding fell out and they had talked to me a little bit throughout it,

but it just didn't seem like this was going to happen. And finally it was funded by the producer, famously, who, Mark Turtletow, we just put up, I think, seven million dollars to fund the movie. And that's why it happened. But John and Val were obsessed with the whole thing. They were going out of their mind because Abigail, our little sweet Abigail, was getting older every single year.

And in a way, there's a version of that movie where she could have been two years younger than she was. And there's a way, I mean, it all times out. Serendipity. Of course, of course. But that issue of like timing in terms of casting and acting, it's a thing. Yeah, my thing turned out later.

He left and I got cheers, so life is good. But you moved to one of my favorite films. I started watching it again because I knew I was going to be talking to you. Little Miss Sunshine, it was just brilliant. Yeah, it's a great, it's a good movie. And what a cast. Yep, it's a great cast.

Everybody was just so perfect. Didn't know it, I read it and I thought it was Michael Lawrence's script that shows you what I know. Got the, won the Academy Award. I remember reading it and thinking, this is, I didn't think it was a bad script. I want to be clear. Yeah. I don't know what sort of bad script. I want to be clear.

I don't know what sort of suggestion you're making, Ted, but I did not think Little Miss Sunshine was a shit script. I do remember reading it and thinking, like, this is good. This is good. You know? I thought it was a good script, but I didn't know how good it was. And none of that was clear to me until we like kind of gotten a rehearsal on it. And all of a sudden I saw Carell being this guy and I

saw, you know, Paul, who I, it was an incredible genius actor, young actor who I had actually worked with prior, but it just but he had a little part, and I just suddenly, he was off the charts. Abigail, you know, Alan. Alan. And Tony, who I'd worked with before. I knew she was going to be great, but it was all the parts. And then actually we had like a week or a couple of weeks of rehearsal on that movie. Normally you don't really get that very often in anything.

So it was a real gift. Did you, because it was a road show-ish, were you able to shoot in sequence? Do you remember? Yeah, it wasn't in, it wasn't in sequence. No, no, we started, we did start, we did open at the house. We did open, so if you remember,

they kind of start at the house and it gets into a conversation about, taking this road trip and who's gonna watch Frank and can grandpa come and all of that dynamic. That dynamic was like a play. And that's probably 15, 20 minutes. We did start with that. But then I think as we got into the car

and the sequences we went to, it did have to bounce around a little off. Is a scene where Steve, you try to stop Steve from describing that he had tried to kill himself and why. Is that part of that opening sequence you're talking about? Yeah, yeah, that's in there. That is just such an amazing scene. Yeah, Frank, Frank.

Don't tell him Frank. No, no, don't. Yeah. Yep. Wow. You love being an actor, yeah? I do, yeah. I mean, I think, when you find something good,

and this is a good moment to talk about your new show, which I saw on Netflix, and you are so great in that show. And in terms of the, there's so much nuance in it, with the kind of the history you have and kind of your own sort of fears that are established early on and your own kind of fears that are established early on and your own kind of vulnerability. And then it's funny as hell, it's written so well.

So well. And yeah, man on the inside. Yeah. Mike Schur, who did The Good Place and so many other things. He started, basically started, I think, with The Office. Yeah. And I've been told you don't introduce him

to any other actors. You keep him all pretty much to yourself. I literally, if I was told- That's what I heard. I mean, like if you wanted to just throw a guy a bone or something. I'm just saying, you don't have to. No, you just do your thing.

I don't think you're right for his stuff. No, of course not. I understand, and I wouldn't suggest otherwise. I mean, I will suggest it. No, no, no, no. Actually, let me tell him about you. Keep him to yourself. I would, if I was told you can only work with Mike Sher

for the rest of whatever you got, I, that actually is my plan. I would love to work just with him. I love that he's doing something purposeful. He's doing something where I get to be 77 plus and still get to play the tall guy. And it's a blessing. And he's talking about good stuff.

Well, talking about good stuff, yes. And then also, yeah, and just the rhythms and the storytelling, you know, never at the expense, you know, always allowing for the joke, but never reaching. It's just, what a gift. I mean. Mary and I just finished the second season. Do you know who I've ever met?

My wife, Mary Steenburgen. I don't know if you know. I think she did come on my talk show. Oh, great. And you remember her, I'm sure. Right, great, just great. Maybe I don't remember the guys. Yeah, maybe that's it. Because we wouldn't go out with you after this.

No, I do think Mary might have come. I don't know, it's all a big blur. It is a blur. When you've done so much- You know it's a blur. People are going to think this is crazy, but you do know, right? Oh my god, yes. We're allowed this.

It is. Not just age, but when you've done, you know, you've worked with how many guest stars over the years. It's like, yes, it's a million things flying past the window. And I am a little self-centered. Self-absorbed is a better word. And you are again. Okay, the director. Interesting. Okay. Remind me, did you like my work? Oh, yes, I do remember you.

You did! What is your name, sir? Interesting. And where are you? Before we get to where you're from, what of my work did you like? Interesting. When did you get married in all of this? Interesting. When did you get married in all of this? I married in, in 1999. Yeah. It was 1999. So we just came up on 26 years. Well done.

Thank you very much. 30, we're approaching, no 30. We're doing 30 in October. Yeah. Well, we're approaching, no 30, we're doing 30 in October. Yeah, well we dated for five years before, five. It's a long, as the kids point out, it's a long drag out there. Get to it a little bit, but yeah, so I guess we're in the 30 range.

Well done. Yeah, thank you. Very lucky. British. Yes, British, beautiful. Does she still have her passport? Can you double it? Everybody in the family has two passports. Including you. Other than me. Oh, you're screwed.

So I'm screwed. So we get there and everybody just goes through that line and they'll see me in 45 minutes kind of coming through the loser, the loser eye. Yeah, I'm buying a lot of Canadian stickers for my bags for our trip coming up. Yeah. Yeah. Feels like the 60s again. Yeah. Yeah, I'm buying a lot of Canadian stickers for my bags for our trip coming up. Yeah. Feels like the sixties again.

Yeah. No, no, I'm Canadian. No, no, I'm Canadian. Yeah, Canadian. So, and you have three kids? Three kids, three, three daughters. That's pretty cool. We have between us.

I just have women around me. Three, we have three daughters and one boy. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, but we're a blended family. Yeah. Okay. We came in that way. Yeah. So when you look at your resume,

you basically haven't stopped working, more or less you haven't stopped working. So did kids come with you in the beginning or? They did. Yeah. The whole family? Yeah, they did. It was really, yeah, I, you know, in the beginning or? They did. Yeah. The whole family? Yeah, they did. It was really, yeah, I, you know,

I have so many friends who they have, they'll have kids and they're always, you know, like how's this work exactly? And I feel like I'm fairly well equipped to tell them that it does work and it works great. There's nothing better for the first, till they get to about nine or 10. And then their friends are so much more important.

So much more important. Am I being generous with nine or 10, do you think? Did you expect me to go earlier? Seven, I thought seven, eight. Okay, okay. I know, I think I've added two or three years out of just like, they love me. But yeah, it's probably probably I think you're right. It's probably like, it's probably like seven or

eight. But but but it works great for that. And then and then they pick up and get a house wherever you're shooting and the whole clan. Yes. Yeah. Savannah, England, various cities in Canada, New York, just kind of buzz around and it's great. Great for them, great experience. Yeah, great experience and you knew that because you got all over the globe. Yeah. I wish my greatest, my biggest regret. We did take him to, I did a movie with Paul Greengrass called Green Zone years ago with Matt Baiman and we shot that over in Europe

and we were there for a while and we brought them over and that was great but I- I love that film, that was a great film. Thank you, thank you. And there's an example of you weren't exactly the hero. No I wasn't. But you have so much fucking integrity when you work in that you don't, there's never a,

you never sell out your character one iota, which sometimes is a bad acting temptation. Right. And you never do. What does that mean, to show the audience that? If it's comedy, there's a slight wink where, I know I'm being funny. Right.

Or I'm not really this. Right, right. You know, I'm a manly man. I'm not this silly person I'm playing. That would, I'm not this silly person, I'm playing this. That would be horrible. Yeah, no, it's horrible, it's bad acting. There must be, is there like a YouTube of like winks, like bad winks, where we can, there's gotta be,

the 10 worst winks where- Judged by one of the worst, Mr. Danson. Well, no, not by you, but I'm sure somebody in this world has made an assembly of these moments that I would want to see. This is a better way to say this, I think. You're in trouble now. No, no, I think it's better that I,

that you see sometimes people walk in and you go, well, they're not the lead and they're not gonna have, they're probably gonna have a part that's, they walk in with that on their shoulders. You walk in as the fucking lead. Yeah. Even though it turns out you're not. Right. You have that energy.

And that's what I admire. That's what I'm talking about. Ah, thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. And it was a really good movie for that time, especially where we're all feeling that. Yes.

And then you went on with Matt and Pete Fairley. Yes. Was that before or after? That was before. Oh. During that run of Siamese Twins movies where everybody was making them in town and it was like volcano really. We got caught up in the enthusiasm and made our own, our own conjoined twin movie.

Yeah. It's a classic. Do you stay in touch? Pete's a friend. Oh yeah, Pete's great. Yeah, he's like, it was so funny cause he would, he would come up to us and be like, you know, why are you guys, you know, you're,

you're doing, you're doing, you're doing the, it was just funny because he would come up to give you direction and he would be talking to Matt and I would be like this and then, and then I'm like, anything for me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Just try to do it. And then Matt say, what about, what about the things? So it literally, that was the, I did massive back damage on that show. How were you connected just wardrobe wise? Oh, it was a very scientific process as you would expect from the Fairly brothers. You know, we went over to- Two belts. Yeah, we went to their office

and they got like a piece of Velcro and wrapped it around and put a shirt over us and said, yeah, we'll do it like that. And I was like, yeah, yeah. Pete, that's my, I do, Pete, you know, I do this. Pete knows I do this, but my Pete Fairley impersonation is I only say one thing. Pete Fairley. That's good. Beat Verily.

I don't know where it comes from. Boston. Yeah, I love Pete and Bobby. They were lovely to work with and funny as hell. I think we need to talk a little bit about smoke. Okay. Because that's out there. Yeah. Still drawing a lot of big crowds, numbers kind of thing.

So tell me about it. I think it's number two. I only got to like get into it a little ways. Okay, that's all right. It's nine episodes. It's nine episodes. It's Dennis Lehane. Yeah, wonderful author, a great novelist and a great showrunner as well.

I mean, I worked with him on Blackbird and Taron and, you know. Showrunner, so he wrote all the scripts and was there. Yeah. Didn't direct or did direct. Didn't direct. But there for all of your... He's there. Yeah, he's there. He's there.

He's not, you know, I don't... You know, he's the hand behind it all and was both with Blackbird and with Smoke and did a... I've devoured his books for years. And his books are great. Unbelievable. So I'm are great. Unbelievable. So I'm just such a fan. Me too.

Just on a reading level. Have you read Little Mercies, by the way? Just came out? No. Fantastic. Great, thank you. It's so good. I'll give you a little summer read tip. So he just is,

he's just great. And in this I play Harvey Engelhardt who's the chief of this West Coast town There's been some we have an arson investigator played by Taron Edgerton and You know, there's been You know, there's been a little bit more arson activity in the

town than kind of at any other time. It's unusual what's going on. So much so that a police officer, played by Journey Smollett, who's wonderful, is brought in as well to kind of help out in this arson ongoing arson investigation. And that's kind of the setup for it. It's great fun. I really didn't get to work with Taron in Blackbird. I got to work with him a lot more in this show. Great cast, John Legosamo. He's wonderful. And yeah, it's just a great group of people. And I think the show's, yeah, it's doing really well for Apple

and it's great fun to do. That's great. I'm going to watch it. Yeah. And you and Taryn had just worked together on- Well, we did the other show probably a few years ago. So, but I didn't really, as I said, I didn't have any, you know, when you get to work with an actor Well, we did the other show probably a few years ago, but I didn't really, as I said, didn't have any, you know when you get to work

with an actor but you don't really get to work with him? Like you and me. That interview. Oh no, Curb. Curb, yeah, right? We have to talk about that. Curb, we actually worked together, but we didn't really work together.

I watched you work. I watched you sit in the chair watching me work. Thank you, which I do well. Yes. I throw focus. Oh my God. I was like, this guy is fully invested in my me. Hi, did you?

Sorry, yeah, I don't wanna, we'll go to a curb in a second, but smoke looks really good and I watched about an hour and I'm sorry that I didn't get to, we'll go to a curb in a second, but smoke looks really good and I watched about an hour and I'm sorry that I didn't get to watch it. No, no, we'll hook you. Yeah, but it's very cool. Thanks. All right, curb.

Oh, God, that guy. So how did that happen? Did he? That happened, you know, there's been a couple of funny, I know Larry socially, just not as well as you, but I know him through friends. I don't know him socially at all. You're two of the best friends I know,

and probably vacation together regularly. I know him from golf a little bit, and through a couple of friends. And there's just been a couple of funny times where, you know, maybe we of funny times where, you know, maybe we joked about me, you know, doing the show at this point or that point, and it just never happened. And, you know, either schedule wise or else he didn't want me. And then they were doing the finale. And yeah, I don't know exactly how it came out, but,

Did you know way early in the season that you were gonna be in the finale? Yeah, pretty early. And then I talked to Jeff Schaeffer, who's so awesome. And kind of got the low down on, kind of doing the lawyer, Rose Larry. But so you had to work your ass off.

You were hired to be an actor. I was hired to be an actor. Like I finally- You had lines. This is like, this is a curse of mine in the sense that I gotta do, I can't imagine, I've played golf with Jim Burroughs who's told me and kind of enlightened me

on what a unbelievable experience would happen on those Thursday nights. And like when you guys are doing a show and just the energy of that. I did an episode of Friends, my daughter was born, the day I was going on to the show. I was so excited to go in and do the big rock star thing and have that experience and of course foiled by the kids and birthing of children and whatnot.

So I missed that. So this was kind of similar to that in the sense that I thought I was going to get the experience and I was going to actually get on curb and do the thing that everybody gets to do, which is you do the riff and not learn lines. I wanted to, why shouldn't I get more water? And you get to just riff. And of course I had the opposite job where I want some more, you know, and you get a, you know, and you get a just a riff. And of course I had the opposite job where I actually had to say meaningful stuff.

You were really good at that. No, thanks. So you learned well, which leads me also to theater. Dear God, man, you got balls. You really do. Off you went. Have you done a lot of theater? No.

Any theater? No. How theater? No. How did they know you could do it? We're talking about you playing Atticus Finch. I don't know. I came from Scott Rudin and he reached out and, you know. I'm sorry I didn't see it. I bet it was amazing.

Yeah, well, you and millions like you because we got blown up by COVID. So we did, I didn't know. I did very, I did literally, when I say a handful of shows, I mean a handful. And we had, and then they closed it and it's never opened again. I shut the show, the greatest show,

the greatest successful play of all time, destroyed by me. No, it never resurfaced. And I hope, I don't know, I've heard they, there's, I don't know what the politics of it all are in terms of not re... positioning that kind of four quadrant, great, beautiful show that Aaron wrote, him and Scott, I don't know.

But at any rate, it's a- Did you have enough of it under your belt that you felt the play and the character? I got the whole experience of, it's funny, Larry was saying to me, because he had just done his play. Which he hated, Andrew. Which he hated. And he told, he was saying to me, because he had just done his play. Which he hated. Which he hated.

And he told, he goes, let me understand this. You got to rehearse it. They put your name in lights. You got to go to the show. You do it. And then you're done. You didn't have to stick around for six months. He was like, that's the greatest gig of all time.

And maybe he's right. I don't know how I would have felt about it. If I... It's hard. It's definitely hard. You know, to keep the stamina and all this stuff. I never got the experience of that. Had the family there on opening night and got the whole, you know, fun of it.

But it was also a shame to not get the full run of it. But I love the show and I love what Aaron did with the show. One of Mary's dear friends later in life was Gregory Peck. And to that day, I always think about. Did you ever meet him? I did, I got to hug the man. Wow. Did he know you were gonna-

I'm gonna hug you too when this is through. Did he know you were gonna hug him or was he like, hey, Ted's coming at me? You're not gonna know it either, man. You just come. I come. So I'll be doing this. You're not a hugger, are you?

Get in here, Ted. No, that's not true. He loved it. I'm a hugger. We're gonna hug it out. Come on. Thanks, man. I'm sorry that didn't happen because I bet you were great, I'll bet. I felt it felt great and I, as I say, I love the show and I love the, I mean they had a wonderful cast. We had great people to work with and obviously it's at the Schubert. You've got, you know,

1,400 beautiful seats. I mean, it's, if you're going to do a show. Did you do a handful? Did you do? Yeah, like a handful, like literally a handful of shows and some of them were like kind of test shows before we did the premiere. And then we did, we had like a couple of shows, what was happening right before, because I was taking over, Jeff had come back. It was late in 22.

And I was gonna do that stretch, that 13 weeks leading into the new year. And I just couldn't do it, because I was doing some, I was doing, I was doing, working L'Haine and and so Jeff came back to reprise his original performance and just came in and did 13 weeks which brought him to I don't know January 3rd or something like that and then then the new crew, including me, is taking over at that point.

So the rehearsal was kind of November, December-ish. And I was going in and hanging with Jeff just back in the green room and watching him. And he was off the charts amazing at this. And knew it so well at that time. He'd be like, now you're going to hear a gun. You'd hear the gunshot, you know, and he'd just walk me through backstage. All of the pre-game set up for the show, which was really interesting to see.

And then for the three nights or whatever we did this every night. He, somebody would come in and hand him a piece of paper. And he'd be like, oh, we just lost three more crew people. And these COVID cases were popping in crazily. And I remember at one point he says, I feel like I'm on the last chopper out of Saigon. And I was like I'm on the last chopper out of Saigon. And I was like, yeah. And sure enough, a week later, we started the show and just lost, you know,

we ended up finishing with 22 people, including yours truly, with COVID. Oh, I got it. I did two audience shows and then had COVID. Oh, I got it. I did two audience shows and then had COVID. Wow, that's early COVID. That's scary. Who knows how this goes. And that was their second bout.

Remember when New York had started a heat, there was the first one that we all went through in 21. Yes, but we can make it come back. And then if you remember, we made it through the year and then kind of seemed like 22 We were all gonna be okay, and then at the end of 22. It was like no We're not all gonna be okay, and it was right back again Yeah, would you practice voice and it work or anything you got to do cheers?

Before a show we just walk out and anything to it beforehand We were young and very rock and roll and and it was not discipline theater-like moments. And by about the fifth or sixth year, you also knew that any mistake you made, the audience would love, and there'd be huge laughter. Almost to the point where it's hard not to make a mistake. Yeah, hard not to, yeah. And we also, people would say,

how do you keep something fresh after 10, 11 years? And you did it by not really learning your lines. Right, you know, the more you, that is a tricky spot, right? Yes. Where if you know something too well, it makes the engineering of it just so much harder and effortful to try to deliver versus if you, I get the notion of just the less you know, the better. Theater usually is you rehearse and you go on these peaks

and oh, I got it, and then you suck for a long, then I got it, and then you suck. And hopefully you peak on opening night and it's like, oh, and then you. And then you suck for a long, then I got it. And you suck. And hopefully you peek on opening night and it's like, oh, and then you keep discovering as you go. But you, for Jimmy Burroughs, who you play golf with, used to say, I'm training comedy commandos. You only have to, I don't care what you do during the week, just show up for shoot night, you know, just that way.

Be there in that moment. I mean, that's the fun, amazing thing about acting. For me, it's 50, 50 at best that I will really be there in the moment as opposed to going, oh, I'm cooking now, look at me, or something that's not genuinely being surprised by what you're gonna do. Right, and do you miss, what about an audience? that's not genuinely being surprised by what you're gonna do. Right.

And do you miss, what about an audience? Do you miss that thing? Too scared to do that now. Really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I think. Got anything for us? I'm gonna look.

Yeah. Dancing in Canary. No, too scared. They're back. They're back. Can you look back and think of when you complimented me in this podcast? I don't think so. I think I can. I believe I... No, did you? Yeah. A man on the inside.

Okay, that kind of blows your whole thing, right? I've forgotten that already. I was told to read that too. It's COVID. I hit it all. It's COVID. You have long COVID. Eternally long COVID. Eternal COVID.

Hey, where the hell's Woody Harrelson, by the way? Hey, fuck him. I mean. Fuck him. You know, I- Oh, he's such a big star. I am such a big star. I'm Woody Harrelson.

Look at me. You're Larry David doing Woody Harrelson. Look at me. You're Larry David doing Woody Harrelson. That was good. That's Larry? Yeah. Oh, okay. I think we all picked up on the nuance of that. So I'm glad you saw it,

but I was afraid people were gonna miss it. He's working. He comes when he can. It was me doing Larry doing Woody. Yes. Yeah, right. Yes, yes. It's great to do this.

I really enjoyed it. Thank you. I'm so glad I got to catch up with you. Clearly we didn't talk to each other in the past. No. But thank you. This was really nice. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you. That was the delightful Winsome Greg Kinnear. Catch him in smoke out now on Apple TV+. The Winsome Greig Kinnear. I think he'll like that. That's all for our show this week. Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco.

If you've enjoyed this episode, send it to someone you love. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and a review on Apple Podcasts if you're so moved. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit youtube.com slash teen koker. See you next time. 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 Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sara Federovich is our supervising producer, engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grahl, talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steenburgen, and John Osborne.