Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Timothy Simons

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Actor Timothy Simons talks to Ted Danson about feeling refreshed by his role on Netflix's "Nobody Wants This,” his love of the Cheers pilot, imparting small town values to his kids, living and working with ADHD, his involvement with an infamous commercial, and more.    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.

We're trying to soak up all the stuff and try to remember and lock it in there so it can come out later. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. I am so excited to talk with Timothy Simons today. He almost runs every time he sees me because I tackle him with my affection for him as an actor. I just think he's amazing. Timothy is absolutely hilarious in his role as Sasha, and nobody wants this on Netflix. I had the best time talking about Veep. too. I love that show. So here he is Timothy Simons. You worked on a commercial that now called

the Incest Folgers commercial. Yes, right. Sorry, we'll scratch the Folgers part. I just watched it. It's like, oh. Did you watch the actual commercial? Yeah, just now before you walked in. Yeah. No, I was running camera for commercial casting, like a commercial casting company. when I first moved out here, I got a job doing that. And I just, like, I ran the auditions, like, all the first calls. And then I ran the callbacks when the director was there. And then it has just had this weird, now 15-year life of being, like, the incest commercial. And then, like, GQ or Vanity Fair did, like, an oral history where they interviewed the director.

They interviewed me. They interviewed the ad agency. Yeah. Like, they went. They even interviewed people who were like erotic fan fiction writers who had written some stuff based off that commercial. And one of the people, I was like, that person just has to be a real writer, or not a real writer, but they brought up this idea of like, well, why do you think the brother went to the Peace Corps? he was trying to get as far away from his sister as he possibly could. He knew that this was untenable.

Like the idea that this person was writing that history into it is incredible. God, I hope they got work afterwards. They were good. They're good. Just, you know, off a little off base. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just go more mainstream. Okay, I'm going to start with a conversation killer.

Okay. You're my favorite kind of actor, and you know this because I stalk you at every event we've ever been to at the same time, usually some award thingy. And I tell you this, but you are incredibly funny. And underneath the funny is a layer of sadness, and underneath that is anger. And I just fucking love that danger that you bring.

and watching you in this second season of Nobody Wants This, you were so leading man in your kind of relationship with your sister-in-law? Yeah. Yeah, who would be, yeah. Yeah, Justine. And you're just a really wonderful actor, and I admire you hugely. This immensely, immensely flattering. Flattering implies not true.

It was a good compliment because it's true. Thank you. It's something that very specifically to, like, last season and then I think into this season is the opportunity to, I mean, like, I'm sure we all feel like this. Like, you know, like, there's always that part of an actor who's like, I can do anything. You know what I mean? Like, I want to be versatile. tile. I want to be able to be thrown into things. And sometimes you get thrown into things. And it's like, oh, actually, like, you know, maybe that wasn't the thing that maybe we found the one thing you can't do.

And it is, I will say nice, that I'm very happy that I've been able to do a lot of different things, sort of big or small or dramatic or funny. I've been very happy with the career that I've been able to have. to this point. And one thing that I really do like about, just to your point about this second season and even going into the third, that I played a lot of, like, very public odious people. And I think it's, it's a cool thing and an opportunity that I value that there could be a scene in which I kiss someone, and that would be looked on as not disgusting. And I, you know what I mean? I feel like a lot of fucking weird. Parts that I played before, like if that happened,

the intended audience response would be like, oh, God, you know what I mean? Intended, yes. Intended. And this is, I like that the creative team behind this show is like, well, what if he did that and it wasn't gross? You know? It's a great opportunity, I think, for an actor. And it's, it's so smart, by the way. I mean, look at,

look at Humphrey Bogart kind of thing. There's so much that's not leading man about him except what he exudes, that confidence that, you know, and he played villains forever. Yeah. No, you're a very cool actor. Thanks, man. I can't, I'm just, I didn't even really prepare for you that much

because all I wanted to do was hang out. Can I say, can I had the same idea coming into this, like this is going to be really cool? to get this much of your time. Yeah, back in. Because most of the times that we've been hung out have been in circumstances that no human being should ever hang out in. No.

You know, like, we're all in such a weird headspace in those things. Yes. But I have absolutely valued every moment that I've been able to speak to you at those, including this last one. We were at the Critics Choice Awards. Yeah, Mr. Nominated. Ah, yeah. I brought that up just for that.

Yeah. Actually, you won. I didn't win. No, it's my podcast, and I get to do whatever I fucking won. You won. Congratulations. Thank you very much. I left the trophy in the car.

I'll bring it in next time, or if we have a break, I'll go grab it. I remember you have a level of openness and comfort about you that I was able to come up to you and be like, I'm going to run outside for a minute. Ted, it's very great to see you. I'm having a panic attack. You have that level of like if there's one person in the room that I can be honest with, it's going to be like my wife and then it's going to be Ted Dance and feel like he's going to know what to do. And you were very comforting in that moment. And I appreciate it.

That's so funny. Your wife, Annie. Annie, yeah. Yeah, she's got to be cool. She is. She is. She's a, well, you have an actress. Yeah.

You have an actress wife. I think it can be hard. I'm assuming to also have a working actress wife in trying to get those two schedules to match up. Yes, you go out of your way to do that, but that I would say is the only hard thing. Yeah. My wife grew up an actress when she got into the world, like out,

like when she was in college or when she got into the actual life of it, she was like oh the life is not for me yeah so she went back to school but like theater was a big part of her life growing up so she now like runs theater departments and acting programs for the public school system in l.A she did that she was doing that in Chicago when we met and she does it here meaning our contribution to the world you and me is in the shadows of what your wife is very much and it is it is wild to see

like the public affirmation difference between you know we make people laugh and that's a great thing she's working in like the public school system of Los Angeles like mostly Title I kids like mostly kids that are under the poverty line using theater as a teaching tool for everything and like the imbalance in public affirmation for those two jobs is pretty wild

but like it's cool like to she knows I think inherently why someone would choose to do this, even if she's not doing it now. You know what I mean? There's a good balance there. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And she must see firsthand what arts do to people's ability to soak in education.

That they're more willing. They're more apt to be better students because they're excited by something creative. Yeah. And I think to see, like, the school that she worked for for a long time, like they would integrate theater into everything. So they would use it as a way in in history. And I think even sometimes in math, they would use it as a way in. But I think that thing of like, especially she teaches high school, especially to kids that age, to connect the emotion of something. Like if you can connect the emotion of history to history, it becomes less about dates and facts. You can put yourself there a little bit. Skip gates.

Yeah. Finding your roots. Yeah. That's literally what he's doing, putting you in history with emotion because it's your relative or your maybe whatever ancestor. It is so smart. Yeah. That's so cool. It's pretty rad.

Yeah. Alice Walton, who has the Walton. family and um i have to be i have usually i'm she's so cool i want to be careful how i talk about it so i don't misrepresent anything but a very large sum of money the family walton family has and she uh started a museum called crystal bridges in um bettenville arkansas and it is astounding it is one of the top three considered one of the top three for whatever handful of museums art museums in the world. And at first when I heard that, I thought,

oh, it's Arkansas very sweetly with its inferiority complex. Building it up, no, it is. It is astounding museum. But her mission, besides being an astounding layout of a museum and the art, it's free to any school kit. She buses them in from all over. And there was this one unintended kind of experiment where one group, maybe the bus,

broke down, I don't know, but one group of kids from this high school was able to come and spend the day in the museum. And the other group was it? When they came back the next week, all the teachers noticed a couple things. They were excited about learning and empathy. They had empathy for everything and everything around them. How do you teach empathy? You know, that's just, and what is so lacking and needed in the world. It's just so cool, the arts. It is. It's better to be famous like we are.

Oh, yeah. No, no, no. We can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like that's going to be in the show notes. This is no bless obfuge. Yeah. Yeah, if there's anything I think that people should take away with from this,

is that fame is the most important thing. And then beyond that, you have love or family. You know what I mean? But like, chase fame first. When did you first experience fame? Fame meaning people stop you on the street. Fame meaning you also know you're doing something really cool. When was that?

I mean, like, if we're going to go with like a sliding scale, I remember like when I was in college, I was in a play that got written up in like the student newspaper. And there was a part of it was like, I'm the most famous motherfucker that's ever lived. You know what I mean? Like, you know? I think like after VEP came out, after the first season of VEP came out, you know, I am noticeable.

Like I am very tall. I remember being outside of my house. I was like putting the garbage cans out or something. And somebody like drove by my house and then turned around and drove back up. and then said like Jonad out the window and then kept driving and like that was the moment where I was like

oh oh shit okay do I need to have like a different time of day that I take the you know we had like just had kids so there's like that sort of immediate protective thing but I would say largely

and I'd be interested to hear your take on this too largely my experience with fame or being recognizable has been pretty fine. I love it. You know what? It doesn't really get in the way. We're not we're not we're not doing playing tough guys. Yeah. And I was never a sex symbol ever. I was never that guy. So I people I'm we're both associated with a moment that made people laugh. Yeah. And you get that reflected back. Yeah. Like it never gets in the way. The only like the moments. Moments. There can be moments. They're going to be moments.

you know, if it goes on like a little too long. Wait, what? But there are like, I think I grew up in a really small town in Maine. Maine, like 2000 I heard or something? Say again. 2,000 people. Yeah, 2,000 people. Like my high school, like drew from like four towns or graduating classes where like 100 people.

It was a very small place. And knowing that like my kids' hometown is Los Angeles is very, odd to me and I love Los Angeles but different different I would say broadly a different value system or at least comparatively to where I grew up and there are times where of course like being recognized is cool you know what I mean yeah yeah like it's a nice pick me up it's a nice little pick me up hey yeah cool yeah I did something that somebody liked you know um but I think with my kids, I am, I try to be vocal about it with them, like not in like a finger wagging way, but like, I think especially when you're a teenager, that idea of like external validation being

very important in that age, you know, because your brain is mush and it's all getting reformed. I do try to remind them that like, yeah, that is like a cool part of my job. but that shouldn't be the thing that we chase. I try to be gentle about getting that in there of like, it's like an after effect, but like the good thing is this other thing. You know what I mean? Because it can be attractive,

and I'm sure like a teenager, it is attractive to like random people are coming up to you on the street saying you did a great job and you want to take a picture. Like that sort of external validation, I think, I don't know, there's like a little bit of an intoxicant to that. Yeah. You know?

And I'm trying to like, you know, plant the seeds of, yeah, this is cool, but... Like anything that's mood-altering has come through its problems. Yeah. Our kids, how old are your kids? They're 14. We have twins. They're 14.

Wow. So they're really smack dab in the middle of, so your dad's cool. Hey, you know, and our kids at varying degrees of how they dealt with our fame. The healthiest was Charlie McDowell, who's now a director, so why I say his name, and he's a really good writer-director.

But he, this was back before you got sent links to watch movies as the Academy. You know, you were sent DVDs, and he, you know, very quickly realized that DVD could mean a lot to some young teacher teaching me, who can't see these films quite yet. And he would parlay, maybe not the actual grades, but he would parlay favor from teachers by bringing in our academy nominated films.

Like your screeners? Yeah, our screeners. Nice. See, that I respect. Yeah. I respect that. But then some of the other ones would get, my sister was a bit, sorry, I'm rambling, best example of this,

she moved to a different church. And no one paid any attention to her. This is a small community too. And then found out, someone found out that her brother was Sam Malone on Cheers. And then all of a sudden she was just flocked with new friends. And it hurt her feelings. It hurts.

Yeah. You know, oh, you have to discern. Your kids will have to discern who's my friend and who just wants to rub up next to fame. Yeah. That's like a thing that I... Bad thing, but it's real. But it's real.

And I don't know. We're trying to keep their heads on straight. You know what I mean? Yeah. Hopefully we're doing a good job. I like to tell, I would give all of my like, stay humble whenever we were sharing a limo to some place. Because that, that, you know. Yeah.

And like. Or a private jet. Yeah. Of course. Or a limo after a private jet. Of course. Yes. That's where humility.

Then they go, oh, I get it. Yeah. Of course you can. fly the plane. Of course the pilot. Of course you can, but just don't, don't get used to this. How did fame fuck you up? Come on. There must be some fuck-ups for you. Or had you dealt with, had you dealt with your stuff to the point? Yeah. Well, the dealing with stuff is ongoing. Sure. I don't, I mean, like, I don't know. I don't, I didn't, it didn't really hit till I was, because I moved out here when I was

30, so it didn't really hit until I was like 32. Yeah. Your brain was not mush. The brain was not mush. It's a little bit more formed. And you didn't go shooting up through the roof. You did small steps. Yeah.

Including behind the camera. Yeah. And I think, you know, and like being, like coming up in like, coming up in like theater and like with some teachers and then both moving to Chicago, which has like a, my first teacher in college was like very big on the idea of ensemble and not holding yourself above the ensemble. Like there was always a little bit of that underneath there. And like Chicago is a very, you know, a very like workman city of, you know, the work that matters. And so that I provided like a really good base. And I think I had also been like in very very good. And I think I had also been like in very. various ways kicked around enough of like, oh, I've been through bad shit and I've made it out the other side, whatever that might have been, that I was able to appreciate it when it came.

Wow. That's cool. So that was good, you know, but also, you know, came into it and like my very first experience was very different from most others in that like, you know, it was artistically satisfying, made a living, and did well critically. Like sometimes you don't get all three of those things. VEP, yeah. Well, through the roof. Yeah. Yeah. And I do remember, like, I think there can be moments.

I don't know if you've ever had one of those where it's just like, oh, well, all right, everybody sees so I can stop working. You know what I mean? And I, do that again. Oh, everybody can just see that I'm great now. so I can just stop working and it's all going to be fine. It's going to be a cakewalk from here. And there are certain moments where I look back and I'm like,

oh, you should a little bit, like, worked a little bit harder in XYZ moments to, to get further ahead or have had more opportunities or you should have just. You're talking to career or not the acting within the episode. You're talking about. More career. Yeah. More career stuff, thinking that like you get to a certain point and then it's just like off to the races.

but then you just look around and it's like, oh, no, everybody just has to keep grinding, no matter how big they are. Or there's always like another goal that you can make up for yourself. You know what I mean? I think my angels know that I'm totally incompetent to become a megastar, that I need to be very slow. You know, I am very slow. Once I understand it, I'm solid.

But it takes me a while. And I don't, you know, Mary went from my wife, Mary, who you were in a film with, maybe not acted with, with Vince just recently. Oh, yes, that's right. Have you seen it? No, I haven't. Have you? Either she, no, I'm dying to see it because I heard she had this one killer scene in it. Yeah.

I remember the director, Nick even talked about it. Just like one continuous take really hard scene and killed it. Evil. Evil. like evil person. The person I know came out. Anyway.

That she snowed everybody else. Yeah. Did you study theater at Stanford? No, fell in love with it. Yeah. Stumbled into a play and then, you know, it was so serious about it that people kept saying, well, you should go back east.

And so I went to Carnegie, Mellon, then New York. Yeah. And then out here. Yeah. Did the job bring you out here? No. A Pampers commercial that gave me $2,000 brought me out. Hell yeah. Hey, commercials.

It was how I kept the lights on. Yeah. It really was. And I think I read it because it is still a commercial and your performance playing Lincoln in Geico was. Geico? Yeah. Yeah. Was just true.

Thank you. And you're not even in the foreground. You're in the background. And it's just so, so funny. I've told this story before, but that was ultimately how I got introduced to Allison Jones, which is why I ended up on Veep was that commercial. Can I tell you I went back and watched the Cheers pilot pretty recently? And there are two things that I try to remember of like, I don't know,

Maybe it's just my own brain or maybe it's an actor brain of wanting to like over-explain things or like if it's not spoken, then it, then people won't get it. Yeah. But there's like an unbelievable moment of economy when Diane asks why you don't play baseball anymore and you say, I had a problem with my elbow. And she said, oh, did you get hurt? And you're like, no, I lifted it too much. And like in those four, and it was in those four lines. Yeah, you got it. You know, you got it.

Yeah. And also there was like really something amazing about that, that this is like a hugely successful comedy that is also willing pretty early on to deal with a pretty dark setup. That I just loved that swing. And a huge amount of respect for the audience. Yes. To the point where the network would say,

no one's going to understand that literary joke. You just said, it doesn't matter. There'll be a handful to do. Yeah. Yeah. And it was that kind of attitude of always playing up. Which is something that I do mourn every once in a while. We still get it.

We still get things that have more respect for audiences. But I feel like, I don't know, maybe everybody goes through this, but every once in a while I am just like, treat them with more respect and they'll live up to it. You know what I mean? Fear. Yeah. Yeah, the fear. Fear and everybody goes, you have, you have.

you have two chances. By episode three, you're either on or off. Yeah. You know, it's crazy. The other bit that I loved was coach when he answers the phone. And then I can't remember his real name, but then he like asks everybody. Ernie Pentuso. That's you, coach.

Hello. And then he's speaking. And you've got him. And you've got him. And again, like, the economy of that is like, I watched that. And I'm like, man, I would have put too much fucking sauce on that joke. I know I would have. And he just, like, he just, like, speaking is the most dead on, dead on delivery of that joke.

Yeah. That is unbelievably funny. It was such a sweet soul. Yeah. There's not a bad acting trick. There's not a human trap that I don't. fall into. And it's certainly not a bad actor trap that I don't fall into. Every time I start something new, I'm going, couldn't this character have a scar and maybe a eye patch? Because then I,

then I could play the shit out of this. You know? Sometimes though, it's like, I'm trying to think of like what the analogous thing would be, but every once in a while, I think it's okay, or at least I like to think it's okay to keep the scar and the eye patch in your head. Yeah. Because there's, bound to be one where it's like, scar and I patch might really work. This might be the one. And then you get to do a scar and an eye patch. You know what? Like we can't like shove them away forever. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to happen one day. I like to sometimes play scenes as if I was stone. And that somehow it loosens me up completely. It's like, oh. Not actually Stone. That would be a nightmare. I once got excused for my film. I was doing

something with Glenn Close. It was called something about Amelia, a very serious piece. And we, they wrapped me. I go back to my trailer and go, oh, what the fuck? And light up and have a talk. And then, knock, knock, knock, knock. They need you on the set.

It was just a drive-by. I didn't have to say anything. I had to drive by the camera. And I was so Paranoid. Yeah. I could barely, barely move. I don't know.

Yeah, that's not a drug to know. No, they had to cut it. No, I don't know. I have no idea. But, hey, let me bounce around. Yes. I listened to Dax Shepard because he's so good at what he does. You and Dax were on this particular one I was listening to.

That way, I can steal it, just slightly reword the question that he asks you, and then I seem like I'm almost as good as he is at podcast. It's great. And it'll give me another crack of being better at the answer. Yes, very good. All right, let's talk just for a second about ADHD. And we don't have to talk about other than you have it or experience it or deal with it or whatever. My question was, when I was listening to you both talk about it, would you credit any of that as, let me just set this up a little bit?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm in acting class. My wife just says she wants a divorce. I'm heartbroken, but part of me goes, this is going to be great for acting. This is going to be really good. I can use this divorce thing. Has ADHD ever served you as an actor? Because there is a dangerous part listening to you talk about having ADHD,

a compulsive or out of control feeling. Your acting has that sometimes. I don't know. where are you going to go, which is wonderful. I think, to your very, God, if you would not said that specific thing, I would never admit to this. There was one time I was going through a breakup, not with my wife. We are still together. I was going through a breakup, and I do remember.

And this is like the most fucking self-serious actor bullshit ever. It's horrible. It's awful. And I'm a terrible person. But I remember going through that being like, remember what this feels like. And now I look back on myself, I'm like, what a dickhead. And this person had every right to be like, whether or not they knew, whether or not she knew, she made the right choice.

Because in that moment, I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Some people would call it self-absorbed. I think it's just being a caring actor. We're trying to soak up all the stuff and try to remember. lock it in there so it can come out later. So is my ADHD question

kind of stupid or naive and I'm fine if it is? No. I think it's been nothing but a help because I think like the things that are great about it are that hyperfocus

is a hyperfocus is like a comorbidity of it which means that it I think I can find it pretty easily to hyper focus on something, which then also means like, I feel like I generally,

when things get chaotic, I'm like, yeah, all right, this all seems normal to me. Everything is all chaos, and that's fine. That's what it normally is like. And then when you have like the sort of chaos of set and then it's all like,

then everything has to get quiet and everything has to all of a sudden stop and then they like actually now have to shoot something, like to be able to like sort of hyper focus on that, moment and block out all the other stuff is actually something that I'm, I think, pretty good at just because it is something that goes along with it. I just, I also think that there is like all of those things that go along with it of like your propensity to daydream and like an underlying creativity or your brain just working. I didn't know about the daydream part.

Oh, just like like your mind wandering and like one of the reasons I was not a great student is like make this more interesting. Or if not, I'm going to make up my own thing. I think that, like, all of the things that don't make you a great student or a great accountant are beneficial to this specific job. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

I'm trying to think of, like, more specific examples. I think maybe it's just, like, a willingness to be, or, more open to things that come your way in a lot of... Yes, I also... I don't know if this is true, but I always... People who are dealt with something that is tough and could be a roadblock,

and they overcome that, but they have to kind of deal with it and overcome it to some degree daily or whatever. There's an aristocratic thing about that. in my mind. There's a thing that you know, it's like, I like, I once saw an actor who was hanging on to sobriety. It was a

65 year old man or something hanging on to sobriety to get in front of a camera was so agonizingly vulnerable and terrifying to him. And I'm not suggesting this is a good thing at all, but to see

how that informed his performance was so amazing. And I think that people, part of the thing that I see in you is layers. A lot of times when you do comedy, people just meet the joke, the funny moment at that level. But you have so many layers underneath it, which is my favorite kind of comedy.

You know, I love comedy that comes out of sadness and pain, and I love the writing that comes out of that same place. And I love drama that is fucking funny. I have always personally been, more attracted to comedies of sadness and dark comedies. And when I was growing up, I remember seeing my parents, the community to see, like, waiting for Godot. And I think I was like seventh or eighth grade.

And for whatever reason, I don't know that I could tell you even now what the play means. But I know that when I was sitting in front of it, I was like, oh, this all makes sense to me. whatever these guys are doing, this makes sense to me. And so I've always really been, and again, like, like, ADHD, like there's, you know, I've said it before, I've been reasonably open about it, like long history with depression and all of those things. So I think it's like the being open to chaos, having gone through those things, you have

sort of touched them and to be able to be like, oh, hey, I was, I was down bad there for a minute. what was funny about, you know what was funny about that, though? You know what I mean? And to be able to try to... All of life is available to you. I respect that in Dax, too. Yeah. Yeah. Says that, you know, sobriety and A plus personality and ADHD and all that stuff. But he has the level of you being able to be truthful and not just skipping along the good stuff.

It gives you so much depth. Also, I imagine some people come to you because they can see that you've experienced and can hold both the fun and the scary. Yeah. The same time. That's really cool. And those are the best people that can hold both of those things. Yes, I agree.

You said a minute ago, which just caught my ear in today's climate, you said values, how you grew up in Maine, small town. When you said, you know, the values, those were the values you would like to have for your children and, you know, worried about coming to L.A. and all of that. And it is values. It's not a cultural war statement. It is, you know, what's being real. Yeah. And what's, you know, what's the other stuff feels like and what's your face here in L.A. is so much distraction. it is so entertaining.

Yeah. You know, there's so much to take your mind off of real. Yeah. I think one of the big things is like my dad, like, you know, for where I grew up had, was able to like, like, he built like a little studio under our house. And we had like a middle class, very comfortable upbringing. But like, I also was like going to school. like I'm very much anti-gun, but I'm not anti-hunting. Yeah.

Because there were families in our community that, like, hunting was a big thing because deer got them through the winter. Yeah, deer got them through the winter. And that was a very real thing. And just like, just like that idea of like, I guess maybe Los Angeles specifically, Los Angeles, the way that Los Angeles displays wealth specifically, there is that part of me that I've just, like, it's not for me. Yeah. And I'm and I don't, again, I don't think it's real and to like put those up as the as the thing of like, oh, well, that's where I have to get to.

I don't want, I don't want to do that. And so trying to like keep in like trying to teach them like if you want to earn money, earning it is part of it. Like actually putting in work is a part of it. It doesn't just come to you trying to teach them the value of like us. Like as a person who like started working when they were 15 or, you know, had my first job when I was. 15 being like that does mean like your own freedom your own like putting in the work actually then does i don't know trying to put that stuff out there too but just like i don't know being nice to strangers assuming best intentions uh which is very midwest which is very rural yeah you know like don't throw trash onto the street. You know, like, you know, if my kids would throw,

like if my kids sometimes they would pick up something that they found and maybe this was too harsh, they would like pick up a piece of trash and then they would throw it down. I'd be like, pick that up. And they were like, but I didn't throw it down. It's like, well, you picked it up and then it became your trash. Yeah. You know what I mean? Pick that up and throw it away.

Like that sort of thing. Like, that like I grew up in a, in like a real small community. like I was as much raised by my parents' friends as I was by my parents. And if you were bad, they knew. The whole town knew. Yeah. And I was bad a lot.

So I got to, I was charming though. So I got away with a little bit of it. So, but that idea of that idea of what you do affects the people around you. And that doesn't mean that you can't do anything for the risk of it affecting anybody else. But it's just being mind. of how much that might affect somebody else. Be mindful of if you throw that down, somebody's going to have to pick it up.

Yeah. You know? Turns out we are our brothers keepers. Yeah. Turns out. Yeah. That wasn't just some bullshit that your dad decided to say. Yeah.

Yeah. Did your wife grow up the same way? She did. Yeah. She grew up in the burbs of Chicago. Again, like very Midwest. My parents are from Michigan and St. Louis. So, like, very Midwest.

stern ideals, even though I grew up in New England. But yeah, she grew up the same way. And in fact, like, there are sometimes where I am, like, hon, you got to stop thinking about other people so much. Like, you got to like, all right, this one, like, you just need to, like, take a minute for yourself here. Yeah. You know, I think she can, she can tend to, like, take on too much of that.

Right. Yeah. So it's like finding the balance of, like, emotionally healthy but also stewardship. Tell me you didn't introduce me to your wife and I forgot. Did I meet your wife at the... I mean, you may have met in passing on one of those nights. You're being very kind.

But I mean... No, I'm so self-absorbed with those things. It's all a facade with me. It is a headspace that nobody should ever be in. And it pummeles you right into your ego. Yeah. It's horrible. Yeah.

I mean, really, it's lovely. It's lovely to be honored, yada, yada, yada, true, absolutely true. But it throws you into the worst part of yourself. It has nothing to do with acting in your job that you love. Yeah. I know it's a part of it. I know it's a part of, I mean, like, especially for, especially for Veep. And like, like, I know it's a part of it.

And I know that, like, being able to, like, we got nominee of the show got nominee, for Emmys, Julia won, I think, six of them. Like, Tony won, Tony got nominated,

Mac got nominated, Anna. Like, that all is a great thing for the show. It brings more people to it. I'm not, I would love to be like

one of those recluses that, you know, that never speaks about the worker. You know what I mean? That would be really cool. I don't think I'm going to ever have the ability to be that person.

No. Because I think you also have to decide to be that person the day you start. Yeah. You can't pivot to being the recluse. Okay, I've been nominated and lost 12 times. I'm out. I'm out. I'm above this. Yeah. I never cared. So I understand why it's there and the importance of it of like getting people to the work. But yeah, it is not, it has nothing to do with the actual job. And it's like, like one that I'm very uncomfortable with. Like I was,

the only bummer, I didn't win. Ike Barronholz won. Awesome. Very, although he is coming next week. Love him. Love him.

Love him. Yeah. But you can motherfucker him a couple times here today. No, no, no, no. He's fucking. We'll cut that out later. The,

I, I was like a very deserving, honor to be nominated, was both so relieved I didn't have to give a speech and also I felt I had come up with a pretty good bit for the speech.

And I was a little bummed out because I liked the bit. I really liked the bit. And just also in that performer way, I was like, man, if I could make this room laugh, that would be pretty cool. Because no one, all they hear is the roar of their ego in their ears, all of us.

Because you can't hear a fucking thing. It's a tough. office room to make a joke. Yes. And if I could have somehow gotten a bit out there that worked, that would have been really happy. I have, I have to write a speech or introduce or something. I spend 99% of my time looking for a joke for the beginning. I have to have a joke for the beginning.

And if there's laughter, everything else is fine. I'm actually dealing with that right now. Oh, you are? You're about to. I'm about to go give the commencement address at UMaine, which is something that I agreed to do thinking, oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah, what a great idea. That's flattering.

Wow. And then I actually sat down to start writing this thing. And I was like, I should have never agreed to this. This is a nightmare. They're going to kill me. They are going to- Joe's punk. No, kids don't.

Yeah. I'm old. I'm old. And then again, like, there is also that part. of me that's like I don't know like what advice I can really impart in the way that like the world that I when I was their age world is massively different whatever like even if it's not they're interested in getting into the acting world I'm like I don't know what the path is now I don't know what the path to like making a living is so I don't know how I can help but then you also want to be like

the middle-aged guy that comes back and wags his finger and tries to tell them how to live yeah this is all to say I I think I'm recycling the bit from the speech as the opener so that hopefully I can hit them with a laugh early and then just sail from there. Yeah, yeah. And that's my hope. Yeah, no, you'll do it. Yeah, I'm going to try. I got an honorary degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Did you not graduate?

I left early because I was a transfer student, so I didn't graduate with them even though I graduated. I only had to be there two and a half years instead of three or instead of four, something, whatever it was. And the guy who was the big whoop-to-do speaker, I don't know who it is, who gives the commencement speech, he had just given like, I'm making this up, but hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new business building on campus. and he paid for every graduating student's debt. He was very, very wealthy.

And I just thought that was not fair. I mean, how do I compete with that with my speech? Paid off the entire graduating class, you know, school debt, tuition debt, whatever you call it. They're not expecting that for me, are they? No, but something. Oh, something. Guys, I have great news. Ten of you under your seats have AirPods.

My business manager even didn't want me to do that, but ten of you have AirPods. Or a compilation of my work as an actor. You have Blu-ray copies of individual seasons of some of this shows that I have. I've done. I saw that you're going to do that. And I wanted to ask you about it because the idea terrifies me.

I can do Q&A. I love a Q&A. You love Q&A. And we can get pithy and all that stuff. Really pithy. Yes. But the speech, I'm dead in the water. I bore myself halfway through delivering a speech.

Yeah. Which is not good. No. We're really sad. In the back of my mind, I was like, I actually saw, I saw you give a speech this past year at the Emmys. You and your wife. Yes, Mary and I.

It was beautiful. It's a great speech. We worked on it together, but Mary is the poet. Yeah. Mary's actually writes songs. She's a songwriter, professional. And so she has that poetry in her. Yeah.

So she can take my, oh, yeah, and turn it into something really lovely and beautiful. But I will take credit for the sentiment was mine. The poetry was married. The poetry is hers. It's always hers. I will say one nice thing about this is, and this is also, it helped for the critics' choice speech that I was not able to give, is that having access to, like, to Dave Mandel, who show ran the last three seasons of Veep and to Lou Morton, who was, one of the EPs, and I'm sure for you in these situations, like, just being able to throw this to Mike Scher, you know what I mean? Like, I have access to, like, legendary writers. And so I'm

definitely going to be like, hey, guys, this is what I have. If you have punchups, let me know. If you have punchups, let me know. But I also understand that because they're comedy writers, I will tell you, I was in, like, the bathroom line at the Critics' Choice Awards, writing it in in pencil because of course they left it till the very last moment. And I don't know if Mike is like this, but definitely Dave. And he always said like he needs the ship's, the ship burning behind him in order to actually write. And it was very much true in this case of like I had been through the red carpet and was like just hanging out with like whatever. It was Saturday Night Live.

Yeah, it was exactly not. That same. Just right up to the last moment, handwritten notes. because he definitely threw me a couple things. And I was like, oh, this makes this a lot better. So I'm just writing them into margins. Mike sure is the exact opposite. Really?

Before you even buy your tickets for the boat ride that he's providing, you know exactly when what puff of wind will come from what direction. I mean, it's amazing. It's lovely. Magic wand, 10 years from now. Magic wand, nothing is off the table. Where are you? What are you doing?

Don't you sound like Barbara Walters? I hope not. I feel like some days I'm turning into Barbara Walters. You know what? That maybe isn't a bad thing. Maybe not. I'm hoping you'll cry. But anyway, go on.

Magic line. Yeah, for real. I'd like to be splitting time between Maine and Los Angeles, to be able to see my family out there a little bit more. And like doing like, you know, most of the summer, spring summer out there, because I do miss it. And I also, I miss like that the speed. And this was honestly very much like related to ADHD. Like I was always very attracted to the speed of cities of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. That was sort of always like where I wanted to

be. And I did not appreciate what I had there until I have now as an adult gone back. And I'm just like your chest actually like releases a little bit of tension. And I don't want to do it forever. I wouldn't want to like move back full time because the sun goes down at like three o'clock in February. And you're in the middle of the woods and it's bad. It's depressing. So I'd like to split time. And have a career that would allow you to.

And to have a career that would allow that. and and I'm like and when it comes to like career magic wand you're doing it I mean like I've been really lucky been really lucky if I can like keep the train on the tracks and keep doing stuff that I like agree with artistically that lets me keep the lights on with people that I like you will I hope no you will because you love being an actor you love going to work you love ensemble You love good material.

You've proven yourself. And you will. You just will. And I was thinking about this recently. Like I like the idea of still chasing doing something when then when it's done big or small, somebody's like, oh shit. I didn't know he could do that. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like that's still pretty cool to chase. And I haven't done that yet. I feel it's part of what makes me want to keep going out is no, no, no, no, no. know i haven't really done it yet wait wait wait wait wait can i tell you i worked we had to film a scene because we're in production right now on uh nobody wants this with your good friend and we had to film a scene that was sunrise for sunset so call time was like 4 30 a m because we had to be rehearsed and all set up for like when the sun was in the right spot um and i was telling and i you know I was done with work at like 845.

I took the best nap of my life in a trailer waiting for a, waiting for a table read, like the last two table reads were going to be at like lunchtime at like 11, 1115. And I got home last night. I was telling Annie, she was like, how to go. And I was like, man, I had the best day because I love like going into work that early because it feels like free work. You're not actually there. Nobody, if it's 4.30 in the morning, you're not at work.

So everybody just weirdly has a great time because everybody's in the headspace of being like, we're not fucking work right now. The sun isn't up. What are you talking about? Yeah. That was great to have a morning where I actually went in and did my job and walked away being like, that didn't feel like work at all. Yeah.

That's cool. Yeah. Keep that feeling going. Yeah. Yeah. I love crews too. Yeah. Love the whole going to studio gates, everything about it.

is like delicious, which is why you'll keep working. I will say, like, the one thing that I've really got more comfortable with is, I think, like, and I don't know if you feel this way of like, and I think it's definitely like a younger actor thing of feeling like, well, the emotion is the only thing. And this realization that this industry is a combination of all of those things. It is a combination of the emotion and editing and framing and lighting and all of those things working together. And so even if you aren't feeling it in this perfect, pure way, it can still be communicated. Yeah. That's a great thing for me to hear

over and over again, too. Because, I mean, there are times where I'm just like, man, didn't hit it, didn't hit it today, just didn't have it. And then you watch it later and you're like, holy shit, that works. And like, thank you to all the other people who helped make that work. But it's nice to have done this enough to realize that I can not only enjoy crews, but trust them and, like, talk to cameramen. Yeah. Like, hey, are you going to see this?

Like, do I need to bring this up? And we're on the same page. Like, are we on the same page? Like, we talked about it a lot during Veep that, like, we all got a lot of kudos for are comedy timing. But camera. But the camera time. Well, were you handheld?

We were handheld. All of them? All of them. That's amazing. And they, like the camera ops had to have good camera timing. And sometimes it was like it was just, they would always talk about like you never want to land on the joke. You want to land a beat behind it. So they just had to have an inherent understanding.

Yeah. And sometimes it got to the point where, because we were a very written show, but there was improvisation intentionally in it sometimes. And then they would get to a point where it was almost like they would know there might be an opening, like Matt's going to say something here. Even if it's like six of us in the room, they're just like one of them would just be like, Matt's saying something and they would just turn and Matt would say something. And so the timing was there even with them.

You know what I mean? Like, that's the beautiful thing about it of like ensembles of actors, but like ensembles of the entire creative community that goes into it. It's cool. And then throw in a great hair and makeup trailer who takes you from your everyday life, which may be a little, maybe you're grumpy that day or a little, I don't feel like make believe. And you walk out the door, a full-blown actor in character. Yeah. That's a good hair and makeup trailer. Yeah.

Yeah. It's amazing. Can I ask you how you guys rehearsed? Because a lot of those are very, all of them are very fast-paced on your toes, fast line run-throughs almost. How did you rehearse? Because it's not like a three-camera show where you rehearse and get it up on a feet and get a live audience.

Did you get to rehearse lines and sit around? We definitely did. We actually had like a, and again, this like sort of. I'll say two things about it. Number one, it really spoiled me because this was my, like, VEP was my first big job. And I got very spoiled by what we were able to do in process. But, like, we would have, when we went out to Baltimore to shoot the pilot, and we went out a full week early.

We had five days of rehearsal, which was more like script workshopping. And that felt very comfortable to me, like coming out of theater. That felt like something I could contribute in. So we would have like script workshops. The writers would be there. They'd take notes. They'd go away. They'd write them in.

And then we would get new pages. And then on Saturdays when we were shooting, we would go on stage to be like, well, let's work this out. Let's work these big scenes out in the space before we're going. Who called that rehearsal? Production or actress? Armino, like production. And so what like from a very like from from day one in a great collaborative way,

actors and writers had a dialogue between them. And some stuff didn't work and they wouldn't put it in. But we would play, we would play reporters. We would play like to throw stuff off Julia. It was basically just like Julia's a situation. So Matt's playing the Joint Chief of Staff. I'm playing a reporter, somebody's playing a janitor, and we're just trying to fuck up Julia's Day to see if anything comes out of that. And then it was a chaotic show.

We would sometimes get, we would get 12 pages of rewrites in the morning. On your way to the set. On your way to set. And then at that point it was, all right, well, we're just going, this is like where you get spoiled because we had the luxury of time and onset time. Because of the success of the show. Because of the success of it. And I think HBO's belief in it. And their willingness to be like, this is Armando's process.

And he's proven that it works before. And it costs more money to do it. Was Morgan Sackett? He came in with Dave. So Morgan, he did seasons five, six, and seven. Yeah. Love him. Love him.

He's incredible. And that way of like, we are here to support the creative. Whatever the creative needs, will find a way to make it work. What is he? A line producer, production, whatever.

He makes everything run. He makes everything run. And also like a really fun director. Yes. The actual director in his own right. Which is so bizarre because when you meet him, he's Mr. serious.

Don't fuck with him. Even though he's a pussycat. Yeah. He looks like you better not fuck with me. So intimidating. He's so intimidating. So intimidated. And then he turns around and can direct and find the funny and is really good.

Yeah. Yeah. And a very, And like in his very like, you know, a man of few words way, he can come in and give you an adjustment that's like, fuck, man. That's the, how come I didn't see that? That is, you know what I mean? Like, he's incredible. We love to punk him because he gets so embarrassed by the limelight.

And so whenever we're in public, we always wish him publicly happy birthday. And get whole crowds of people to sing to him and just kills them. So we had this like insane rehearsal. process that then again goes back to 12 pages of rewrites. Like we got to get that up and on its feet. And like a lot of times we're shooting like 18 pages in a day. So like that's not the only thing we're doing. We got to do with that other scene later.

So your hours were fungible. We're fungible. They were long and chaotic and we were up and down a lot. But like that then again, that comes back to ensemble of like we all knew that like if I dropped a line, Tony was going to figure out a way to feed it or keep the scene moving. Yeah. You know.

Tony Hill. Tony Hill. Like, an incredible person, incredible performer. And like, that was just kind of like at the heart of it. I will say that, like, somebody reframed something for me a couple years ago that I really liked. Because I would say that, like, I would go on other sets. And I would be like, Veep taught me some bad habits of preparation. which was I had mostly only been on the VEP set,

and it was changing all the time. And then I would go on to other sets, and I wouldn't really prepare because I would think, well, we'll work it out. We'll work it out. And then you go there and they're like, no, that's what it is. Like, we might alter a couple lines,

but like, no, that's what it is. And so then I'm like furiously learning it because I just assumed that everything changed all the time. And I kept saying that it taught me back, habits or but they they reframed it they were like you have learned good habits for the job you have and i loved that because i think i do have a tendency to be more negative about stuff like that it was my it was my inability it was my failing or whatever and then that reframing i really like that sitting here i have just an ounce of anxiety for real actor anxiety going through my body

Because I'm about to start something, a new show on Apple with Elizabeth Banks. Oh, cool. Great cast shaping up and all that. But here I keep talking to actors about acting, and I'm going, fuck, I have no idea if I can still do this. I don't know. What about, am I just, am I at that brittle age in my brain where knowing the lines becomes the only important thing? Oh, please don't let that be the case. you know, all these kind of aging fears.

And the material is so much fun that my next thought is, don't die, Ted. Don't die. Please. Stay alive so you can do this. Stay alive. You have good scenes in episode five. Not to continue, leave, no.

Just like, let me hit that one scene and then you can take me. That's right up there where this is going to be great. This divorce is going to be good for my act. This divorce is going to be so good for that. God, wait, God. Wait, wait, wait. I've got a killer. I have a killer button for this one. Wait till you hear it. Even the fact that I just said that is making me go, oh, this would be a great little quote from the podcast when I keel over. Yeah. Oh, actors. It's actually kind of booing to hear you say this only because booing. Booying?

A booing. Is that a word? Not booing. Not bad booing. No. Sorry, you were really. right, booing. Buying. Because it's taken, I haven't gotten better at it, but I've gotten better at dealing with that feeling of showing up to a set on the first day when you're like, no, I'm bad at this. Yeah. Like, oh, I'm bad at this. And today's going to be the day they find out.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like I've gotten better. It has come up every single first day on any set. And I've gotten better at dealing with it. but it just thinks it's buoying to know that it never goes away. My dream, my nightmare, almost always involves Shakespeare. And it's like I'm walking to this place, places, and I'm walking to the set,

and I say, can I somebody, can you, does anyone have a script? Yeah, and then they hand me the play of Hamlet, and I'm going, what the fuck? I'm playing Hamlet and I haven't looked at the script. You still have them? Yeah, I do too. Yeah. And when I wake up from the nightmare, I will burst into gales of happy laughter that it was a nightmare and not real.

It still hits. What we're trying to say, everybody, it's really hard. It's really hard. To be a white man actor. And I think if you go back historically, we can say it's been pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. Love talking to you.

I love that. I've now earned my heart. hug when I see you in public. I can come up and huggy, man. Truly thank you for having me. Yeah. Very flattered to be asked. And I, and like selfishly was like,

I get to steal a solid hour. Me too. This is great. Yeah, crazy. That was too high pitch. We'll cut the Me too. Me too. Leave it.

Just listen to it back one time before you cut it because I liked it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Nobody Wants This, are streaming now on Netflix with a third on the way. And I can't wait to see it. I love it. That's it for this week. Special thanks to Team Coco. If you enjoyed this episode, send it to a loved one. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts, if you have a mind. Once again,

you can watch our full-length video episodes at YouTube.com slash Team Coco. 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 Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel

with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grawl. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Jane Boutista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steenbergin, and John Osborne.