WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1016 - Dennis Quaid

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

Dennis Quaid believes in the benefits of familiarity. In fact, he attributes his career to it. Multiple generations of audiences know him for different films, be it Breaking Away or Dreamscape or The Parent Trap or The Rookie, but everyone has a sense of who he is. That’s because Dennis says he’s always playing a version of himself, even when he’s playing real people like Doc Holliday, astronaut Gordo Cooper, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Dennis also talks with Marc about teaching mandolin to Marlon Brando, playing a true psychopath in The Intruder, and getting into the podcast game with Bob Dylan. This episode is sponsored by SimpliSafe and Stamps.com. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th, exclusively on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing with cannabis legalization. It's a brand new challenging marketing category.

legalization. It's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Lock the gates! store and a cast creative all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck nicks what the fucksters what's happening i just switched it up i switched it up did you notice i switched it up the what the fuck knicks what the fucksters what's happening i just switched it up i switched it up

did you notice i switched it up the what the fuck uh things trying to keep it fresh i'm exhausted i'm fucking exhausted i was in and out of sleep all last night had some weird dream that involves jeff sessions i don't know what the dream was but i had i heard a voice in my left ear and i've only heard that one other time that clearly as if it was waking me up it sounded like this crime crime and the only other time I heard that voice was when I was strung out on cocaine in Los Angeles having a psychotic meltdown, hearing voices in my head. And in the same ear, a voice said, get out. How far out can I go? I asked it.

You've gone far enough. Crime. So what does that mean? How you doing? You all right? How was your night? Crime. Dennis Quaid is on the show.

Yes, that Dennis Quaid is on the show. Yes, that Dennis Quaid that we all sort of grew up with, and he's grown up with us. I've been seeing him on screen since Breaking Away. He's here. I was excited to talk to him because he's one of those guys where oddly I've seen a lot of his fucking movies, and he's got a new movie out. I don't know if you call it a thriller or a horror movie, but I watched it, and it was pretty scary. The new movie is called The Intruder. It's in theaters now, and he's also in a very different film where he doesn't play a psychopath.

A Dog's Journey. Watch the range of Dennis Quaid. So that's coming up. I'm talking to Dennis Quaid. So let's read some emails because that's always fun. Let's lighten it up. Subject line, ha ha ha ha fart talk. Welcome to morning radio. Mark, this could not have been more appropriately timed. I'm about to pick up my college age daughter who is proudly the owner of the nastiest gas. As a mother, I'm constantly reminded that this younger generation doesn't have the same hangups as ours. And this is such a funny example.

Thanks for the laugh. I'm going to replay the intro just for her. Angie, you matter. I'm so glad that I'm bringing parents together with their kids. They're going to have a good laugh. Maybe both of them will start farting in the car. And don't get into an accident this was fun uh subject line interviewing older ladies country music have listened for nine years

look forward to mondays and thursdays because of that two things one when you interview older women e.g sissy space at jane fonda you interject a ton more yes, uh-huhs, or just general grunts while they're talking. I'm guessing it relates to your impatience when talking with your mom. It's obnoxious. Please cut it out. Two, this is where he tries to save it. Merle Haggard's If I Could Only Fly album, simple and beautiful, maybe give it a listen. He thinks he's going to slide that in with me. I'm going to attack your style and then like, David Merle Haggard's if I could only fly album simple and beautiful maybe give it a listen like he's he thinks he's gonna slide that in with me like I'm going to attack your style and then like but we're still buddies right thanks for what you do Scott so I wrote back I think if you listen

I do that with everyone sounds like your issue maybe with your mom yeah I went ahead and hit send on that one i hit send you know how they say take a pause no pause boom he wrote back you never know what's going to happen that could open up a portal to someone's innards that could go on for paragraphs but nope scott just hit me right back well played you damn fucking right it was scott i went and saw play that's a p-l-a-y i know i say it like pray play i went and say play last night called the wolves here at the echo theater company in Los Angeles. I don't generally go to theater in Los Angeles, but I did. This is about a,

I think it's a young, I don't know if they're young, they're teenagers, right? Teenagers, soccer team, and it all takes place on the field over the course of several different matches with some interstitial stuff, some blackouts,

some interesting moments with the actresses. But I didn't know what to expect. It was a little theater. There's no intermission. Now, as an older gentleman, you do worry about the pee problem. You know, it's like, I guess I'm at an age now where I'm like, oh, should I have drunk that soda? Like, how much of my night is going to be ruined because I can't go pee?

I almost peed in my car the other day. I'm not proud of it. It happened in England and it happened here. Did I tell you about that? Did I tell you about what happened in San Diego with the pee thing? I, you know, I got to be honest with you. Sometimes there are moments in life where you realize I'm not afraid. I have courage. I'm not going to take any shit. I don't have to take any shit. I was driving to San Diego

and it was getting dicey and there was nowhere to get off there was traffic heading in and i'm holding in pee this is not an it was not i don't think there's a physiological problem i just had a pee and i was in a car and and there was nowhere to go and there was traffic so i'm like and i'm gunning it to where the hotel is i don't know exactly which hotel i'm at yet and i just park in front of this one and i it wasn't the hotel I was staying at. And I walk in because I figure I can get away with this. It's a lobby situation. Where's the men's room? And they're like, you got to use the one in the restaurant next door. So I go through and it's connected to the hotel lobby. I open the door. The restaurant's not quite open yet. And there's

a they're setting up the waiters there. And I go, dude, where's the men's room? And he's like, hey, it's only for customers. And I looked him I said I'm fucking going and he saw it in my eye he saw it I'd like to think he was afraid of my power but I just think he was like this old guy's in trouble and I'm not going to step in here so I went and I peed and I got out and I went to hand him a few bucks. Am I here? Take it, man. Take it. If that's your trip, man, if whatever you just did there, if that's the extent of your power, it's for customers only. Why do you think, do you think I want to be in this situation? I'm a grown ass fucking man. Do you think I want to be like, you know, at the point i'm at now with you

for customers only have here's a couple bucks buddy you know what i mean thanks for for not getting in my way because you could have just you could have stiff-armed me you could have tackled me no no it's for customers only and i'm like it's too late now you feel that wetness on your leg that's because I'm peeing in my pants and you're on top of me holding me down who wins here let's take a couple bucks buddy want to take a couple bucks no man you don't have to do that all right I'm just trying to you know thank you could have gotten ugly what was I talking about so I go to this theater thing it was great it was moving like I didn't know where it this theater thing. It was great. It was moving. I didn't know where it was going to go.

It was, you know, it's one of those plays where it's sort of like, is this the way it's going to be? This whole, you know, six to eight women, you know, talking like they're kicking around a soccer ball or however many. I don't know. But they're talking and they're talking about things that teenage girls talk about. But they're also talking about genocide and they're talking about periods and they're talking about boys. But it all just evolves in a very subtle way. And it all takes place around, you know, kicking around a soccer ball, waiting to play. And it just evolves into this thing that becomes very deep and very moving. And it was beautifully performed by all the performers. And there's a twist at the end where it just kind of

fucks you right in the head and right in the guts and you're crying. And it was really tremendous. And look, I just wanted to give you a heads up because it closes today. So, but it was good. It was good. So if you want to tell your friends about it, you can tell them that I said it was good.

Wow, am I napping? I feel like I just took a nap. Was I awake through that? This is all a dream. Did you hear a guy say crime right in your ear? Crime. Are we all dreaming? Nope.

Hey, I'm going to talk to Dennis Quaid. This has been a Stream of Consciousness shit show. I hope you enjoyed it. Dennis Quaid is an actor. You might know him from many movies. The Rookie, The Right Stuff, Breaking Away, The Big Easy, The Long Riders. Remember that one where all the brothers were in it? The Quaid brothers, the Carradine brothers.

Christopher Guest has a brother. They brought him in. Walter Hill movie. I'll ask him about that uh the new movie is the intruder that's in theaters now and he's also in a very different type of film a dog's journey which opens on may 17th this is me and dennis quaid he brought his dog he brought his bulldog that's the first time a guy shows up in my house with his dog he's like is, is that okay? I'm like, not really. I've got three cats in the house. I don't think that I don't see how that's going to work out. He's like, ah, just leave him somewhere, leave her somewhere. I'm like, I don't know. And then I realized that my yard is actually enclosed and I could have a dog if I want. And we put his dog

out there and it worked out. It was a bulldog, kind of a small mid-sized bulldog i guess they come in sizes bulldogs you can order small medium or large his was a medium sized bulldog i think it was called that what kind of dog is that it's a medium bulldog you can get it in small medium large extra large and those are the ones that they can barely walk because they're hobbled. And like, isn't it adorable? I don't know. It looks crippled. Is that adorable? Anyway, this is me and Dennis. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea and ice cream?

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you know, past the bedroom and, you know, there's... It's what it is, man. Yeah, it's the future of entertainment. That's right. Well. It's the now of entertainment. The now, yeah. Did you have you done some other home-based podcasts? Well, I'm actually executive producing and narrating a podcast with T-Bone Burnett and Bob Dylan. I just had T-Bone over here. Oh, you did? Yeah. Yeah, and Jared Goodstat.

Jared Goodstat? Yeah. Who's that? Jingle Jared. You ever heard of him? No, wait, but you'restat. Jared Goodstat? Yeah. Who's that? Jingle Jared. You ever heard of him? No, wait, but you're going to do it with Bob and T-Bone? Well, Bob is contributing a song. Oh, okay.

And Pooh Bear. Do you know who Pooh Bear is? No, who's that? Musician. I feel like I should know him. He's mostly a writer-producer these days. He did the American version of it, like Despacito, and he has a couple of other real hit songs with Justin Bieber.

Oh, okay. A lot of them. Big hits. This is his record and stuff like that. So, like T-Bone, he was one of the last guys out in the garage before I had to do the construction. Yeah. But his ex-wife, it's not Sam, is it? Yes, it is.

Yeah, Sam Phillips. Sam Phillips lives around the corner. I just ran into her husband. No kidding. I ran into her husband yesterday. He introduced himself to me. Really? And she grew up here, so he knew the neighborhood.

Oh, that's incredible. His daughter lives over here then, too? I guess so. Yeah, they had a daughter together. I think she's about 1920, something like that. All your kids are getting older. Yeah, I don't care. You have young kids, too, don't you?

I have 11-year-olds and 27-year-olds. But T-Bone and I go back for 42, 43 years. Isn't that wild? When I first came out to LA, he was one of the first people I met. Really? Yeah. He was helping my brother to audition for the Buddy Holly story. For the lead?

Yeah, for Buddy Holly. And then later on, I married, my first wife was PJ Souls, who used to be married to Stephen Souls, who was in the Alpha Band with T-Bone. They were the backup band for Dylan at the time. For Rolling Thunder. The Alpha Band. Yeah, and the Rolling Thunder Review. So we used to go to a lot of Dylan concerts.

And then T-Bone was the producer of Great Balls of Fire music. He did that whole movie. Yeah. Where you played Jerry Lee Lewis. Yes. Did you have to deal with Jerry Lee Lewis? On a daily basis. You recording, by the way?

I hope so. Yeah, good. Yeah, I mean, like, what year was that? I mean, I can check if you don't remember uh that was 1986 or 7 I think and that's why I remember that movie is a good movie and it's a tough role to play because he's uh he's a deep dark well yes and uh and like but there's also the pop star side of it yeah and you know the beginning is a rock and roll and uh you know the the the movie was done to to be like a summer uh release movie you know yeah but then if you

really started thinking about it and they kind of made it into you know very kind of pop music very accessible type of thing and stayed away from most of the dark stuff yeah and if you really think about it right you're going to drop your kids off at the theater you go see a story about a 21 year old guy marrying a 12 year old girl right yeah in the southern way yeah yeah and uh you know that's that's that's kind of a tough ask i think but the film you know looking back at it now now, it's kind of infectious. It grows on you. Sure.

Well, I mean, like, I was sort of fascinated with him, the fact that he's still alive and he's still making records. Like, some of those guys, like, there's collections that, like, they never stop recording. There's hundreds of recordings. I don't know where they found the time. Right. Well, of course, they always find the time.

Musicians, you know, they're always recording. They'd rather record than go on tour. So they're just in the studio hanging around. In the studio, just whatever comes to mind. They'll go in and cover. You do cover songs, they'll go in. I mean, these days, it's very collegial. Everybody's working with everybody else.

It's easier, too. Just like social media. They're getting in on each other's social media. You invite somebody who's up and coming or you invite an old established guy into your song to give you street cred or whatever. Right, and it's also easier without tape. Yes.

You know what I mean? Oh, everybody's got a studio just like you in their house. Yeah, and you can do good quality shit. Right. Okay, so you've only done that a couple of times i guess where you actually play a real person no a whole bunch of times really yeah i'd say maybe a quarter of my roles have been real people is that true like it seems like i mean i know like i played gordo cooper and i played doc holiday i played jimmy morris the pitcher and the rookie oh that was a real guy

but doc holiday you can't hang out with i mean you could hang out with gordon right and you could hang out with jerry lou lewis right yes but when you're hanging out with jerry lou lewis what what i mean he must have been a pain in the ass on some level uh not in a bad way yeah yeah i'll say this because you know he it sometimes it almost seemed that there was a little bit of the 14-year-old bully schoolyard in there. Yeah, sure. But that's him. I mean, he has a learned sort of, I won't call it suspicion, but he kind of checks people out.

Yeah, yeah. But he's also just a very generous human being. He was one of my piano teachers. Yeah, and we did a video together. I have such respect for him. Did he teach you how to play like Jerry Lewis? A little bit. It's all about the left hand. Right. But he was also on the set every day. He was over my shoulder going, you did it wrong, son. Yeah, that sounds about right. So it's weird when I got to interview a guy who I feel like I grew up with, in the sense that you're very familiar to me,

from all the roles going back to breaking away. You're just always sort of there. You've always been there. And now these insurance company commercials. Insurance? Yeah, they're kind of funny. They're surprisingly painless, aren't they? They are.

Well, I like the sort of inside idea of it. Yeah. You know, like you're sort of like show. Lift the veil to be transparent. Yeah. But the weird thing is, is like in a time where, you know, I don't think a lot of people are watching a lot of television. You're like all over the place. Like, you know, like you're all of a sudden this familiar presence

to everybody on a very immediate level, you know, every day. Yeah, I think that's, you know, finally at the end of the day, there's someone from just about every generation. It's kind of transgenerational. It's for a different movie. You know, it could be Dragonheart or it could be Dreamscape going further back, you know, for the snake. I have my Parent Trap kids.

Yeah. The Rookie, you know, is another one. And The Company. What was that other one? Good Company. Good Company. I love that movie. Yeah.

But the certain generations that were kids when they saw the film, kids grow up. Right. Yeah. And then. You get them as kids, you got them. Yeah. Right. And they remember you forever. Kids have better memories than adults right and it sticks in there yeah

yeah but like where do you come from originally i come from houston texas really yeah first 20 years uh houston yeah so your family's like texan yeah or houston is sometimes referred to as west louisiana uh-huh oh really There's a lot of Louisiana people there. That's for sure. And are they from Louisiana, your people? Well, going way back with that. But my dad was from Oklahoma. He grew up in Oklahoma the first five years of his life.

In fact. Cowboys? Oil? More reservation type. And my cousin is Gene Autry. Really? Third cousin. Cowboys, oil? More reservation type. And my cousin is Gene Autry. Really? Third cousin.

Yeah, he was my grandfather's first cousin. No kidding. Yeah. So he's the singing cowboy, right? Yes, that's right. He was also on the Angels and KTLA. He's probably, I would say, Gene Autry, you know, dollar for dollar, you can make a case that he was probably the richest man in show business all time. Relative to-

He wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Right. Okay. Just that. And Frosty the Snowman. He wrote Frosty the Snowman? Yes, along with a couple of things. And then he had a very successful career as a singing cowboy.

And then he bought KTLA Channel 5 here in Los Angeles. And that was back in the day of early television when there was no east-west coast hookup. Sure. And so Channel 5 broadcast to the entire western united states yeah it was like basically a network right it was huge and uh of course he owned all the land too that went under it he bought a bunch of land in anaheim and i built you know that's the angels play there and he owned that no kidding so if you take it for dollar for dollar, the guy. Did you meet the guy? I finally met him in the opening of Wyatt Earp. He came to that.

How old was he? By the time I think he was in his 90s, maybe. He lived a very long time. Yeah. Great, great human being. And it was your grandfather's first cousin. Yeah. That's wild.

And they're from Oklahoma, but then you have people from Louisiana and then people from texas yeah basically and like what's your what's your what was the family's business uh my dad was an electrical contractor and you know had his own business yeah um he but he was also a frustrated actor and uh and he was crooning around the house all the time. His Elvis was Bing Crosby. Oh, really? And, you know, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. But he never really, he didn't actually perform? He didn't, like, he wasn't a guy that... Yeah, he would go down to the piano bars. Oh, he would?

He used to, yeah, he loved to do that. He was always doing routines. He introduced my brother and I to acting, really, you know, by pointing out actors on television and laurel and hardy and all those bits you know and uh uh that's probably where we got where we got the bite yeah oh yeah you think and what's the age difference between you guys three and a half years it's not that much then my mom's from east texas means? Well, that would be very country East Texas. My grandfather came to Texas in 1901 in a covered wagon.

Really? From Tennessee, yeah. From the South. Yeah. So it's all right across. Yeah. Yeah. And what was he doing?

What did he do? Well, he was a setup shop. He basically kind of scraped all his life. He was a roughneck on oil wells, which is a very tough job. Sure. Because his wife had died, my mom's mom, and we had to scrape it together with the kids. And he was a cotton farmer for a while.

He was a tent preacher for a while, sold Bibles door to door. Isn't that weird? His last job was a guard in an Austin insane asylum. And then his wife's, his second wife's father died and left those kids some land. And he hocked his Buick. And he used to be a roughneck on oil rigs. Yeah. And he knew what was around. And it wasneck on oil rigs. Yeah. And he knew what was around.

And it was during the late 50s. And what do you know? They struck oil, of course. And he went to being worth zero to like $2 million, just like that. Just because his wife's kids inherited the land. Yeah. And he was like, let's take a look under there. There's got to be something under there.

Well, actually, they wanted to sell it so he he bought the the oil uh oil rights to it that's that's a good story yeah i think it's interesting that there was a time where people could just decide to be preachers they didn't it didn't require well you can still do no you it's you can still do that in fact even more than ever now with social media and podcast yeah you can decide to be a preacher. But you can make a go at it. You can make a living if you were entertaining enough. Right.

That it was really a performance trip, right? Yes. And you can even call yourself doctor. Yeah. Was he a doctor? No. No, he didn't. No, he was not.

So you guys are, I just like Texas. I grew up in New Mexico, but it's definitely not Texas. And I like Houston. Like Houston's become kind of a weird eclectic city. It's very spread out. Yeah, it always has been. Really? Yeah, really.

You know, it's always had that Cowtown stamp on it or whatever. But it always has been a very, it was a great town to grow in for music. Oh, yeah. You had all kinds, you know, it was a big city. So you got a lot of different kinds of music from different influences. And music's important here. Because it's...

You play, right? It's in the East Texas, and so you get that Texas rock and roll and the Western swing thing. Yeah. And then you... Louisiana invites, you know, the Cajun. You get the swamp, the groove.

Cajun, Zydeco influence. And then it's cosmopolitan. So, i.e., my dad was singing Bing Crosby and Dean Martin. But also you get some of that Conjunto music, the accordion Mexican music. Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a great place to run for music. It was like a music gumbo down there. And you're a guitar player?

Yes. And did that start before the acting? Yeah, of course. Yes, yes, it did when I was about 12. My grandfather actually bought me my first guitar. It was like a $12 guitar from Western Auto. Oh, from Western Auto? With nylon strings.

And I tried to learn Light My Fire. That was the first one? Yeah, to try to learn it. Yeah, that's not too tough. Actually, if you're first learning, that's the first one yeah to try to learn it yeah that's not too tough that actually is if you're first learning that's not a great one to uh oh those are kind of rough because you have some yeah some bar chords right you have to hit there and you're you don't have the muscles for that so were you like were you in rock bands uh we had we call them combos back in like in the 60s you know like from seventh grade i had you're in a combo yeah it was a way of getting girls you know that's so that's what a lot of people say because it wasn't

you know i wasn't uh big enough to be in on the football team or anything oh really that's how i wound up in the drama room basically but what about so your brother was that was he also in the music um he was more into stand-up comedy really as a yeah as a kid kind of growing up and in fact had a really great with trey wilson you remember trey wilson he was in uh uh raising arizona he was raising arizona you know the unfinished furniture guy yeah he's great he was also sam phillips in uh great right that's right that's right we will we were all at university of houston and he had a stand-up, Quaden Wilson. They were in a team?

Incredible, yeah. And they came out here, and they would be at the Comedy Store when they first came out here. Really? Yeah, back in the early 70s. Right when the Comedy Store was in its heyday. I guess so. And that's how he got in, was doing stand-up. Yeah, and he had a little apartment right behind the Comedy Store where they're on sunset i had no idea that randy quaid was a comic yeah but he didn't come here for that

but he did it yeah he uh they were they came through texas uh when they did last picture show casting because they wanted local casting for the peter mcdonough which you know authenticity accents and everything and they went to the colleges and Randy was at the University of Houston and he was doing a thing but yeah he was he was you know the acting program act on the acting program no I remember the part he played this sort of dorky rich kid yeah I did last Easter yeah and and and then Bogdanovich called him up a year later and said, come out here and do this little role with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal

and what's up, doc? And that was his ticket out to L.A. And you were just starting college at that time? See, I was still in high school. When he got those roles. Yeah. How's he doing, by the way? He's doing all right.

Yeah? He's doing fine. He's doing okay. I'd like to see him work. Yeah. That's what I'd like in high school. When he got those roles. Yeah. How's he doing, by the way? He's doing all right. Yeah? He's doing fine. He's doing okay. Okay. I'd like to see him work. Yeah. That's what I'd like to see him come back and do some more work. And I think a lot of other people would, too.

He's a great actor. He's one of my five favorite actors. No, he's a great actor. I mean, he cracked me up all the time growing up, you know? No, he's always been great. And The Last Detail is one of the great movies. He's great in that. Yeah.

Well, as long as he's okay. But. So, okay, so you saw he had success with it, and then you just decided to follow suit, or you were already heading that way? Well, I was kind of torn between music and acting. Yeah. But, you know, I was in high school,

and I wasn't really in the drama department. Like I said, I tried to, it's a rite of passage to go out for the football team in Texas. And you were too small? I was basically, yeah, I was kind of light. I weighed like 130 pounds. Because you seem pretty athletic now. Well, now, you know, I've played a lot of football players,

baseball players. That's how you got in shape? Yeah. So, but I definitely wasn't going to make it. So that's how I wound up in yeah so but uh i you know i definitely wasn't going to make it so that's how i wound up in the drama room yeah with all the girls and and was that the last time like um in terms of continuing to study because i was talking to my my producer about this there's not a lot of guys like you who are around anymore who can do sort of anything you know as an actor like you you you know you're your own thing

but you get your range is insanely uh broad well i think you also got to give you know the younger guys time to you know age mature and rub and get get experience yeah it just comes through experience i never had any strategy in my career except to try as many different types of things as possible. But in terms of training, did you continue to work on that stuff? I mean, as you got older. Well, when I was at the University of Houston, there was this great acting teacher, which was the reason I was there. And my brother was there, too, and Trey and a lot of people because of Mr. Pickett. Yeah.

And he taught acting as a craft. And I was torn between music and acting. And I saw my brother's success, which made it real that you can actually get jobs out here. It wasn't some faraway world Hollywood in my mind was. And I wasn't serious in high school, but then when I got into Mr. Pickett's class, within the first week,

I knew what I wanted to do with my life. And it a real gift for a 18 19 year old kid and that what was so inspirational about that guy because he taught acting as a craft and you know I was very much into human behavior and psychology and that's really what acting is and he sort of made that apparent by being observant of people that of creating a character sort of from the outside in. And the outside will tell you what's going on with that person on the inside. That's how it works. Yeah.

Well, that's just one of the things. It wasn't like a method-method class. It wasn't like that. Well, that's sort of the opposite of the method almost. Yeah, and he had constructive criticism. He could be brutal. But he taught it as a craft and he gave you a space to really learn and fail. That's really the space to fail rather than being out here getting jobs and failing on camera.

You get to fail in a class doing a scene and then work on it and come back and do it again and you learn by trial and error and so you work like experience you work from the outside so is that stayed with you that kind of outside in because like i i believe that's true that if it's on the page you know and you do what's on the page you'll find who you're supposed to be right yeah well that was another thing that he taught is you know it's what uh what does the playwright say yeah about the character what does the character say about himself what did what do other people say about the character you know what what are his actions and uh his motivations basically yeah and how does that fit into the spine of the play or the story that you're thinking about.

So I always thought sort of like mythically in every role I've taken, no matter how silly the part is. And it's become over the years, I mean, I used to write everything down, but over the years it's become more like osmosis. It kind of seeps in there. What did you write down? I would write all that stuff down. Like a backstory for it?

Yeah, yeah. Or a whole history and stuff like that. Now it's just something I just kind of... I don't know. It just... It's become so much a part of me that it's... Like I said, it's just like osmosis. It just seeps in and I just find myself doing it.

And I let go a lot more than i used to well this like this role i don't know that i've seen you um in the intruder the new movie like i don't think i've seen you be this horrifying that part was just letting go to tell you the truth of course i may have had i may have had about two or three people that I've met in life. I may have had them sort of in my mind. Yeah. But it's still me back there actually kind of having a nice laugh, to tell you the truth.

Sure, but I mean, am I wrong? Isn't this the most evil fuck that you've like? Yeah, I would guess. Yeah, I would guess so. Like a psychopath. I'm usually the warm and fuzzy guy. Well, no, you've played some slimy dudes. Yeah, I know, but...

But this guy's straight up psychotic. Who was that? Who was one of the more slimy characters you played? Well, the guy... Oh, in Traffic. The lawyer in Traffic. Yeah, the lawyer in Traffic. For sure.

Yeah. But he wasn't necessarily a villain. He was basically... No, he was just a slimy bag man really yeah right right a morally compromised fellow yeah but this guy in the intruder is like like menacing and horrible yeah what was that fucking thing you were doing with your teeth i don't want to spoil anything but like you know what was that you were there's a moment where you're on the bed and you're just kind of looking at your teeth before like oh yeah he was just obsessed uh he's ocd no ocd and like

ocd is that had to do with really kind of making sure everything was just nicely clean even though he lived in filth yeah but so that was just an impulse you had yeah just they just needed they needed like some stuff they just shoot him here and you know in his space and it wasn't even scripted so it just kind of like made it up as we went along well i noticed it and it was creepy they were yeah they don't show up but i actually had my hair like in a hitler haircut oh really they didn't want to go overboard yeah there's a few things they wanted to pull back from and because you know that i have this tendency i'll go out there and just go big because it's much easier to pull back

than it is to add is what I kind of think. And so I would have, you know, actors don't really know what's too much. Sometimes that's what a director's for. And Dion's such a great director. And I asked him at the beginning, please just pull me back if you see me going a little too far with

us because it's easy with this part well right because you've got a lot of leeway yeah you're a psychopath yeah yeah you do what you want yeah you're the 800 pound gorilla so like going back though um what were the first movies for you like before breaking away there was a few before breaking away I came out here and I spent uh So right after college, you come out here. Yeah, I come out here. Well, I didn't even finish college. I went two and a half years there because I was going to be an actor. That's the reason I went. And you got enough?

You were like, I get it. I get it. And a degree was not really going to do me much good out there in Hollywood. It didn't matter? But you felt like you learned enough? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it was time for me to go.

So I came out and sent my picture to every agent in town. It got turned down. And so I started calling up casting directors. Were you living with your brother? I was on his couch for about the first couple of months. In fact, then my very first movie set I was on, Randy was doing Missouri Breaks. Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. I remember that. You know why you just woke up? Because I cut your throat. Yeah. I was on Randy was doing Missouri breaks Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson I

remember that you know why you just woke up because I cut your throat yeah that was my first set I was I'm watching Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson it's a pretty good movie like it Brando is like out there man yeah when he's dressed up with the old lady on that horse. That had nothing to do with the script. I know. It was just all out of it. What the fuck?

And I would go to dailies every day and watch Marlon Brando. They do 10 takes of a scene and he would do it 10 different ways. I'm trying to remember. Oh, your brother was one of the guys he was chasing. He was in the crew. He had an excellent scene. He had a great couple of scenes, especially at the campfire before Marlon kills him. Right.

So that's how he got introduced. Yeah. And then I got an agent after about a year. I was calling up casting directors and just out of variety where it said films in the future. And I would just go in and ask for an interview just because you know because they the ones that cast film and then nine out of ten would say no one would say yes and said go in and finally I thought I would look at my shoes for the first couple of interviews because I learned how to do interviews that way right now and after about nine months of that one of them called up one of those agents

that had turned me down and i got an agent and then about two months later i got a job did you meet brando oh yeah yeah i actually uh taught uh brando a couple of chords uh on the mandolin for uh in the he had to do a scene where he's playing mandolin i kind of remember i play guitar right and uh they said uh mom's gotta learn to play mandolin anybody here play mandolin i kind of remember i play guitar right and uh they said uh mom's gotta learn to play mandolin anybody here play mandolin i just went oh i do i play mandolin sure like the wind of course i play it i didn't play mandolin but is it just i did not play mandolin but is it same tuning uh no it's different it's different tuning and so i um you know i just went to the went to the music store i got like a chord book and learned the three chords that were in i um you know i just went to the went to the music store i got like a chord book

and learned the three chords that were in that song you know and uh you know i got to spend an hour in his trailer with him oh how was that that was like you know a big thrill of my life i could barely talk let's just put it that way was it was it weird well as far as being starstruck yeah you know sure these days you know i definitely don't get starstruck over too many people, but I mean, he was my idol icon, you know, and it was before he was a guy loopy,

right? He never went totally loopy. No, he never, he never did. He may have seen that way to the outside of the world, but he was, he was not,

uh, he was a brilliant, he was a genius. And he was, he was also just a very sweet man, too. And, you know, I got to spend an hour in his trailer with him, you know. Yeah. And did you talk about anything?

I hardly remember. I hardly remember what we talked about. I could hardly put a sentence together. But you're showing a mandolin, too. Yeah, I'm showing a mandolin. So you got to watch. So at least I had something to, like, something real to hold on to. I guess that's a good point, though, about, you know, what people in the world know about somebody.

You know, it is sort of strange the assumptions we make. He was an odd guy, you know, who, you know, was gifted and got old and got, you know, sort of like he seemed strange to. And, you know, there was a certain kind of alienation from the business for him because I was back in the day. He sort of invented the idea that, you know, go to award shows. Right, right. And, you know, he turned out and had, you know, what was her name, that accepted the Academy Award for him. And so that put him in the kind of sort of oddball category for a lot of people. Native American woman.

And then Mutiny on the Bounty was, that was, it sort of, he was in Hollywood jail for quite a few years, for about 12 years. Because that movie had gone so over budget and and they you know they pinned it on him you know and every other actor uh idolized him because he basically invented modern acting i know which movie was it for you that kind of like made you like a streetcar named desire it's crazy yeah and on the waterfront like you know oh incredible so you get to so you're out here like a year and you're meeting you're showing brando how to play mandolin that's exciting well yeah i mean that's that's enough for a lot of people and then what was it i got my first uh movie was uh called uh 9 30 55. Yeah. And it's the date that James Dean died and its effect that it had

on these seven college kids in Arkansas. And it was James Bridges was the director. I think he did Paper Chase, Brumman and the China Syndrome, you might remember him from. But a great director and he was from Arkansas. So it was kind of basically his story. Yeah.

I remember the first time the camera came in on me. It was really quite intimidating. And they had big cameras back then. Big film cameras. Big, huge lights. Yeah. This is right before my first take, one of those big Klieg lights that are about as powerful as the sun. Yeah.

And the wind, it just falls over about four feet from me. And you're already freaked out. You're kind of spooked, you know, like a dog that's been kicked. You've got to get away. Yeah, yeah. And, but that was a great way to start because Jim was, you know,

he was very protective of everybody and, you know, was bringing, because all the actors, it was our first movie, Dennis Christopher's first movie. How'd it come out? Because I don't know that movie. I feel like I should know. It kind of came and went at the time.

It was a very personal story. It was a movie of the 70s. Right. And you were what, 20s? It was kind of dark, too. And I was 21. 77. 21. Yeah. And that led to breaking away 23 i was 23 oh my god uh that uh yeah that you know that another nine months got another job you know kind of like

drive-in movies and did a couple of those and uh aig you know, and then Breaking Away came along, and that really changed my life and my career. And were you playing a teenager? Yes, I was playing teenagers up until I was 27. Up until I played Gordo Cooper, I was still playing teenagers. But Breaking Away was like a huge movie because it was one of those movies where, you know, as a kid, you'd go see it. Right. And it was like a huge movie because it was one of those movies where as a kid you'd go see it. Right. And it was

such a surprise too. It was basically I think they had those kind of what turned out to be the Brat Pack in the 80s. Right. Youth movies. I think Breaking Away was really the first of those. Yeah because it was you and Stern

Daniel Stern. Danny Stern, Jackie Earl Haley. He disappeared for a while, and then he came back. Yeah, didn't he? He was fantastic. Wow, man. I was so proud of him for that. He was out for a while, right?

Yeah. Do you guys talk? We had a reunion about three years ago. The Breaking Away reunion? It was really cool. It was like the 30-year reunion, and Dennis Christopher still has the bicycle from there. No kidding.

And we got together. I haven't seen him in much lately. Dennis and I have stayed in touch through the years. He played the guy who was obsessed with the Italians. Right. And Daniel was Daniel. Right. You know what's weird is I can't really remember.

Yeah. I can't remember the other team at remember yeah i can't remember the other team at all i can't remember the the jockey guys i know you guys were sort of the you know the working class the long right we were the locals right the local we were i don't know you and you know and we felt like strangers in our own hometown right basically retreated like that right oh and i remember there's that scene where you're swimming in the quarry and you hit your head and it's so horrible yeah so if i that quarry actually that scene where you're swimming in the quarry and you hit your head and it's so horrible yeah so if i if that quarry actually that we were at they that was the quarry that they uh built the empire state building from really that very quarry yeah i just

know when i went to look at that college which i did after i got out of high school i was like this is where they did that movie yeah and it was like a hundred feet deep down there i know i went and saw the quarry yeah there's a couple of them out there. Right. And they built the school out of that, too, that whole Bloomington. Right. So that's where it starts. So then all of a sudden.

And also, Peter Yates basically taught the four of us film acting. He taught me how to be, you know, there wasn't a stage. You know, the camera's in close, and it will read your mind. You don't really have to do anything. Don't overdo it. Well, you always have a tendency to want to like act you you think other people can't see it right and also when you see yourself on film especially for the first time you don't you can't tell anything yeah you don't see anything right but he was you know i'd been cast for a reason because i looked and sounded like the like the guy he wanted

to you know the character yeah and so he taught me how to be small you were the troublemaker kind of guy i was the guy that you know who's like probably the most pissed off yeah yeah because you know i my days of glory had come and gone high school football right that's right yeah right yeah but it was such and then when he came out i remember driving to the theater and my brother was in the front seat driving us there and he goes looks like he got a hit because the line was around the around the block that was back in the days when they'd have lines around the block sure and people would just show up you know it was kind of mysterious yeah and people would show up yeah as far as openings you know Audiences could smell movies back then.

I think they still candidate the truth. Well, it's weird. I just talked to Erwin Winkler two weeks ago about the right stuff specifically and about the jarring experience that everything leading into that movie and everything about that movie should have been a huge movie. Yes, it should have. I love the movie. that movie it should have been a huge movie yes it should have it was a dud at the box office yeah was made two million dollars and he doesn't penance you know for opening weekend he couldn't figure it out oh I know exactly why you do yeah there's a couple of reasons why was it something it was it was an election year

uh-huh John Glenn was running for president. John Glenn, none of the astronauts had anything to do with the movie. They wouldn't get behind it? No, they wouldn't get behind it. Yeah. And just like they wouldn't get behind the novel. And I know why, because of Gus Grissom. The way Gus Grissom is, Tom Wolfe turned him into a literary device, you know, because they had this whole thing about the top of the pyramid. Right.

And Gus, you know, he went up there, had dimes in his pocket, you know, like he's- That's real, right? Souvenirs. Yeah, sure. Yes, he did. Everybody else did, too, okay? Okay. But to make a thing of it, but it was about the hatch.

He was in the second flight. Yeah. too okay okay but to make a thing of it but it was about the hatch he was in the second flight yeah he uh and uh you know when he landed the hatch just blew right right that was and they lost the spacecraft it went to the bottom and he did not get the parade that uh that's all true shepherd did true this is all true and uh you know uh not even to go to the White House. He was disgraced in a way. That's what Wolf would have you think, but that is not the truth. Okay. For one thing, that was the first time that they'd ever had a hatch on a spacecraft. Before that, they were just bolted in, and the astronauts had all insisted that they have an escape hatch that they could blow with explosives. Yeah.

And had a window. Yeah. And also a window in it because they were pilots. Yeah. And they wanted control of it. Right. This one had some. So they sent it up on its flight, but they had not taken into account the pressurization effects on those explosive bolts so when he hit the water and the you know effect of splashdown

hit the water and the thing just did blow because of it wasn't designed right and he almost drowned his you know suit filled with water right he was about three seconds away from actually going a thousand feet down just like spacecraft right because it was gonna be dead weight and uh he was saved and uh if he was so disgraced if he was such uh had blown it so much then why did they give him the first gemini flight and why did they give him the first apollo flight where he was killed there on the launch pad. But I think he would have been the first man on the moon, to tell you the truth, because he was the best pilot that they had. He was very calm and cool. He had an engineer's mind. And he was the one that was really,

most of all, complaining about, because it was such a hurried process getting to the moon, Because it was such a hurried process getting to the moon that they skipped a lot of quality control getting there. Sure. And he was the one that was complaining about it the most. In fact, he was complaining about the wiring that they had in front of them in an oxygen-rich environment. And sure enough, they wound up, that's how they got killed. So basically, the brotherhood of astronauts were like, fuck this movie. Well, I wouldn't say, it wouldn't be so much fuck this movie. But, well, Gordo Cooper, I was lucky.

Just so I had, because I'd read the book. I grew up in Houston, which is Space City. Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut when I was a kid. I was right in the pocket of that age where they rolled in the TV and you saw them going into space. They replaced wanting to be a cowboy or anything else. And Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut of the original seven because he was the youngest. It was sort of like a rock and roll astronaut.

Yeah, yeah. I really liked that name, Gordo. Yeah, great. And then I wound up, the book came out and said, if they ever do a movie of this, I'd give anything to play him. And then I went in to audition for it. And what do you know? I got it. It was like the dream of a lifetime.

And then guess what? It's like they discouraged everybody from contacting their astronauts, you know, or whatever. Why? you know or whatever why but well i i guess either what either liability or sued or you know nasa wasn't behind it and all the rest from the get-go because they weren't nasa wasn't behind it didn't really like the way tom wolf had betrayed everybody as well right you know tom wolf was trying to create a novel right with things and so he needed literary devices with this whole uh theme of the top of the pyramid but turned out gordo cooper lived three miles from me in la come on over the valley yeah so i called him up yeah and he said come over and

he was the most generous wonderful dude and he's and uh from him i i learned to fly because i i was telling him that you know i should learn that radio voice you guys got you know i'd like to learn fight so we all learned to fly so he sent to learn to fly. He said, well, you ought to learn to fly. So he sent me over to Budwall in aviation there in Van Nuys. And I got my POTUS license while we were doing the film on the sly. But I got – You still fly? Yeah, I fly jets.

Yeah? I fly Citation jets now. I kept that up after we were there. That must be fun. Yeah, well, it's darn convenient. Yeah. Let's put it were there. That must be fun. Yeah. Well, it's darn convenient. Yeah. Let's put it that way.

You have a plane? I've had three. Then I had a Bonanza single engine, which I really miss. But it just got to be, I would fly 400 hours a year, which is a lot. Yeah. And for different reasons. But it just got to be hours working so much. And this you know, that dwindled down to like 90 hours. And it, you know, costs more to keep your plane in a hangar than it does to, you know, to fly.

So, so, so hanging out with Gordo did, so you got a real good sense of that guy. Oh, yeah. And I, you know, flew with Jaeger in, in a Bonanza over, over the lake bed where Poncho's was and out there at Edwards Air Force Base. He was on the set every day. It was like having John Wayne on the set every day. I love that. That's my favorite moment, really oddly, of that movie is your moment

on the press conference where, you know, when they ask you. Who's the best pilot you ever saw? And you have that moment where you're thinking of Jaeger, right? Yeah. And then you're looking at him. Right. But like that beat. I love that beat.

Yeah, he's going to give it away. The unsung hero. Well, it was the guy that couldn't make it because he didn't have a college degree, number one. They were looking for college degrees. And, you know, Jaeger was the best pilot. And Shepard was so good. He was really good.

Everybody was so fucking good. He and Jaeger, like, hung out, like, every day. They'd be over there. You'd look over and, you know, they had the hood of Sam's truck open. They'd be going over the engine because Sam doesn't fly. He was afraid to fly.

He had a thing. I guess he'd had a bad experience, but he didn't fly. He drove everywhere. Really? Yeah. So he had his truck. Yeah guess he'd had a bad experience, but he didn't fly. He drove everywhere. Really? Yeah. So he had his truck. Yeah.

They'd be over there. And, you know, Jaeger was from West Virginia, you know, basically started out repairing lawnmowers. That's how he learned about engines. So, you know, they loved engines. They'd be over there talking engines all day long. And Levine Helm, too, you know. Oh, yeah, he's great. Got a stick of Beeman's? Yeah, a stick of Be know oh yeah he's great got a stick of beemans yeah stick of beemans i might have me a stick it's great i think that was the first time he did he acted too

i think the first well the coal miner's daughter that's oh that's right was that after or before no that was before no i don't know it's kind of mixed up with my memory now a little bit but i i love that movie and I thought the script was great, and I thought the comedic elements were great. Because the thing that's great about that movie is it's a great heroic story, but there's a lot of comedy in it. Yeah, and it's become a classic since then. But the original thing was why did it fail at the box office?

So John Glenn was running for president at the time, and I think that had a lot to do with, and then Walter Cronkite actually did an interview right around the time that it was coming out, and he was with the astronauts and with NASA and all that, and the way they portrayed the astronauts was as Boy Scouts, basically. They could do no wrong.

And, you know, they were human beings, you know, who were out there doing things we probably shouldn't, we wouldn't want our wives or, you know, sometimes friends to know. And that was, you know, the press went along with it back then. You didn't have paparazzi out there. You're following your every move, one to out you. And they were managing the image. Yeah, and everybody's supporting him. And Walter Cronkite,

these guys were heroes. They put their life on the line. They weren't used to being celebrities. And so Walter Cronkite dissed the movie based on that. It showed too much of their humanity in a way like the too much behind the scenes i guess he thought it was a little too one-sided about you know the sort of extracurricular thing and also the way but really basically the way it had treated gus grissom and uh and that you know i agree i agreed with that, to tell you the truth,

about the way they had, because that's what people will remember. And he gave his life, really, for, he gave his life. They went in there knowing that they basically had about a 50% chance of dying every time they went up. Yeah. That's interesting. Because I don't know that Erwin Winkler considered any of this. Well, no.

They probably did because they saw it as just another movie. And you can't blame them. They're out to turn a book into a film. And it was a perfect timing for the for the film i i thought too yeah it was right there sort of when it came out at the you know it's sort of at the beginnings of the of the of reagan administration and um the right time for it to succeed yeah and i think actually uh one of the the, towards the end of shooting, I think that's when one of the shuttles blew up. Was it that early? Yeah.

Huh. I thought I went down to, I remember going down to NASA for that. It was just for the research. It was great. You got to go in all those doors that say authorized personnel. Well, they let you in there though, but they weren't supportive of the movie, but they still let you go down there. Oh, yeah. Huh.

Yeah, yeah. That's wild yeah there was you know we and we skipped the we didn't talk about the long riders which i was fucking excited about i remember because i was in high school still and it was like all the brothers yeah and it's fucking walter hill that yeah it's like you and your brother and is there a third quaid uh well we have a half brother his name is buddy was he in it no he was he was just born above it was the caridines oh the key she has in the caridines yeah the keeches yeah uh it uh two and then the caridine brothers are three caridine brothers right yeah and uh and there's a uh uh chris guest had a brother chris guestest. You know Chris Guest. Sure, yeah. And his brother. I just love the whole idea of it.

I remember being a pretty good movie. It was a really good movie. Walter Hill directed it. It was about the James gang. And that was one of the last of the great ones of that particular era. Sure. When Westerns were going out of style,

you still see some good ones every once in a while. I just read a book about, there's a new book about the Wild Bunch, about the making of the Wild Bunch, about Peckinpah and that whole trip down there. It's just crazy, man. Yeah. Just going down to Mexico and just camping out

and the kind of risks they took and just how insane it was. Oh, yeah. And most of the guys he had on, he was tapped into that whole crew of stunt dudes and you know wackos right they do anything and they'd come in you know after a hard night oh yeah and they just sam just to recover would say uh go build some track go build some track for a tracking shot knew that would take at least an hour and a half so he can get get himself get right yeah Did you ever meet that guy?

I actually owned Sam Peckinpah and Warren Oates owned a piece of property in Montana. Yeah. And Warren and I did Tough Enough together and we became good friends. And I owned a little piece of property in Montana at that time. But then, and Warren and I, it became piece of property in Montana at that time but then and Warren and I he became kind of like you know kind of fatherly in a way you know and he had a heart attack at age of 51 and died with his boots on there and I bought his half of the place with Peckinpah and then. And then Peckinpah died about 10 years later, and I bought his half from the kids.

So I had their place in Peckinpah's cabin. Warren was down at the bottom, and it actually had plumbing and stuff. Beautiful place. And then Sam was up three miles up in the mountains. No running water, no plumbing, no electricity. He got everything out of the creek, and he had his

uh bookcase up there he built the bed yeah the bed and he built it yeah and uh the table big huge wonderfully made crap such craftsmanship sure did not a nail in it was all pegged oh wow and uh then this bookcase was there and he had and uh and that there was a 1972 Playboy magazine that was the Holy Bible. And it opened up the Holy Bible, and there's a couple of Polaroids in there of some of the stunt guys and Warren. And then there's a picture of Sam in his long johns on the side of a house. And he's got his holster on. So he's got his holster on you know and so he's he's he's got you know he's got his gun in there and uh uh great and then there's the holster sitting right there and then there was a mason jar full of moonshine uh-huh that's the way he lived in montana yeah

that was his vacation house yeah yeah well it's nice you got an opportunity to spend time with those guys yeah uh well i never met sam oh you didn't no i never did because every time i would go up there he would be in town i guess at the murray hotel he liked to play poker uh-huh and uh um but uh real character i were great friends i had that place for 25 years and just recently sold it oh wow yeah i i love those uh that i i used to do it like a peckinpah film fest every year and just go through oh you know all the way from you know ride the high country right up you know beautiful movie yeah i mean like they're really why they're really trippy fucked up man bring me the head of alfredo that movie is so fucked up yeah the war notes his

favorite where he's just talking to the head he's driving with that wrapped head right and he's talking to it but my favorite is the wild bunch it was just you know it was a as far as that that era of the 60s early 70s uh and you know that movie along with uh bonnie and clyde of yeah really ultra violence that was in that film. It was, you know, as art and, uh, it doesn't even compare now. It's so weird. It was a real Western man. It was so risque, uh, you know, it was risque at the time, but now you look at what's happening and it's like, it's nothing. Yeah.

What we see on television every day, you know, and reading the book about it, I didn't really take into consideration a lot of the kind of like this like these were guys in a transition period in the West. Like they were old timers. Right. You know, trying to adapt. Well, yeah. You see a car. He always put like an automobile in a lot of his movies.

Well, the ballad. And that was sort of like about the end of the beginning of something else. It's like the ballad of Cable Hoag with the Robards. That's all about a car showing up. I think there's a scene where it's like. Yeah, it's about the end of something else. It's like the Ballad of Cable Hoag with the Robards. That's all about a car showing up, I think. There's a scene where it's like, oh, it's over. Yeah, it's about the end of their world. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, trippy, man.

I don't know why I keep saying trippy, but it's deep stuff. It's deeper. Because it's trippy, man. Yeah, man. Well, then, okay. I'm just going to pick and choose a couple because we're kind of moving through it. okay well just i'm just going to pick and choose a couple because we're kind of moving through it but uh i remember the big easy because you you put on the full uh the full drawl yeah you really kind of locked into the accent well yeah i wouldn't call it a drawl but uh uh that that that

yeah that was if that was a blend between a cajun or, you know, patois type of accent, and a, you know, what they call a yat, New Orleans yat, which is sort of, you know, like close to like a Brooklyn type of thing, you know, where they talk down there. And so you put them together, and, you know, it kind of comes out like that. And I met four people that were like that

that had that accent in New Orleans. It's not very common, but I met four people. were like that in in uh that had that accent in new orleans and that's not it's not very common but that yeah i met four people and that's where you pulled it from i just kind of put them together yeah and just came out with that one that was it i thought i i i i'm kind of fascinated with the you know the kind of darkness of new orleans i guess a lot of people are and i thought that that was a manageable way to uh to move through it yeah it was you know had a lot of charm that movie to it and you know that's tennessee will move through it. Yeah, it had a lot of charm, that movie, to it. And Tennessee Williams, kind of like describe it, had a rafish charm, but there was always a latent violence.

Right. Well, there's a darkness there. There's definitely sort of a something. There's something about the swamp and about the weird kind of a mix of peoples and how they've evolved gumbo you know yeah and uh that's where the quades actually came from you know because they were in canada and they you know came down in there and they're back up in the swamps of louisiana uh because just to be able to get away and they were french speaking yeah and. Yeah. And there were Native Americans up there, and it all mixed together. Right.

And also Spanish, who were left over Spanish. And in fact, up until the 1930s, your first language, if you were born there, was French. It wasn't Huey P. Long, when he became governor of Louisiana, built the bridges over the bayous. And so basically they were secluded from the rest of the world up until then. Right, and I think that's what's interesting is these kind of people that kind of, you know, different types of people that kind of became one people. Right.

It didn't happen in a lot of places, but it sort of happened there. Yeah, it's really kind of more of what America is supposed to be like than any other region. Yeah. Well, you had black, white, Native American, Mexican, just everything. So you've got some Native American in your family? Yes. Yeah?

Yeah. You track that back? Yes. Yeah? Yeah. You track that back? Yes, I track it back. My grandfather and then back to that. They actually, the Quades deduced, they left Louisiana for Oklahoma, I think, to escape the Civil War or to, you know, some draft thing. It's got a, who knows? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It wasn't their fight, I think. So that's how they wound up in Oklahoma. Not going to die for this one. No. And then you, oh, that's right, you played Doc Holliday. Yeah. That was, gosh, I love that guy. He was one of my favorite characters i ever played

yeah that was good that was the most difficult i think and that was with that was in the white that was uh with cosner's white herb yes he directed uh uh maybe cut a half you know all the stuff that was uh you know shooting buffalo and everything oh casdan directed that. I didn't even fucking know that. He tried the Western twice. Yes, well, Silverado and White Earp. I think he tried to pack too much into Silverado. I think he tried to pack too much into White Earp, to tell you the truth. Oh, both, huh? Yeah, I kind of felt like it was too long. Yeah.

And it was also being made at the same time as Tombstone. Yeah. Which I think is actually the more accessible movie. It's a shorter movie. Well, it actually tells the story and tells it succinctly. That's Kurt Russell. Yeah, Kurt Russell. Yeah, you guys are like, you guys are two of like-

I was actually offered that one too. To do Doc? I was offered Tombstone and uh and for doc holiday on both yes what do you think of val's version i thought that was very good what was his little tag uh you're my huckleberry huckleberry yeah he really he really went over the top with it. I liked it. I really liked his performance, you know. And then he could just get mean. He really had that right about Doc. I mean, I learned everything about Doc.

I really kind of fell in love with the guy. Yeah. Because he was one of those guys, you know, he had tuberculosis. And, you know, he was going to die. That's the reason he was out west. He was a dentist. And the reason he was out west yeah he was a dentist and the reason was out west because it's the only place he could breathe yeah yeah and he knew he was gonna die so in a gunfight yeah he could he could stand there and be calm

and aim and fire and that you know because that's usually what won the day not being fast oh because he didn't care for your guns and they just freak out scared you know you that's usually what won the day not being fast oh because he didn't care for guns and they just freak out scared you know you're scared shitless and you're just you know you're shooting everything and uh it's the guy who could keep his head and aim who would and he could keep his head because he knew he was going to die anyway he didn't care that's wild yeah and uh favorite the rookie or the player, you learn to play ball. Yeah, Jimmy Morris was on the set for all of that too, which I really appreciated.

And I thank God he was left-handed. And great story, which sort of reflected my own life at the time. Yeah. Because the movie's about second chances. Right. And that movie was really, got the ball really rolling for me i mean start with the 90s i was you know kind of my career was kind of going through a valley let's

put it was it parent trap sort of started a new thing yeah yeah and uh and but then the rookie uh really cemented that and it also came out uh back-to-back performance in Far From Heaven. Yeah. You were great in that. I mean, that's the thing. It's like there's so vastly. There was a gay guy and a major league pitcher. But you approach everything the same way in terms as an actor.

Yeah. Human behavior has always been very interested in about what makes people tick. Why are they the way they are? And do you, I guess you answer it with each character. Yeah. Yeah. What would I do if I were that character? Yeah.

You know, and you sort of live in their shoes and their skin, but it's always you. Yeah. You can't get, you can never get away from playing yourself because you always are playing yourself. That's true, right? It's just that we all have everything that every other person has, all the same emotions, all potentially the same reactions to those emotions, these clichés about life because they're true.

But you're always playing yourself yeah right i guess that's true i i mean i because i you know i've done i've been doing some acting myself and i'm always sort of wondering about that but you're gonna do some version of you're it's oh yeah you don't go to see like you know vito corleone or whatever you know you it's marlon brando everybody knows that's Marlon Brando. Like, oh, he disappeared into the characters. But some people do. No, yeah, but Marlon Brando just is doing a great job of that character.

Right. That's true. It's true. But some people seem to go through a tremendous amount of process in order to get places, you know. Yes. And, you know, that's part of, like, learning acting. And, you know, there's still, like like i know actors that are still like bill hurt is very studied and everybody has their own but he's like particular method that's the method everybody has their own way of doing

right but the funny thing about hurt is there's no there's no more uh a person that's more painfully bill hurt than bill hurt yeah like you Like, I don't know, whatever he's doing, he's always going to be like, oh, you know, like he's got that intensity, the pacing. He's going to take it, he's going to, like a simple question, he's going to take to some place. Have you worked with him? Oh, yeah, I've worked with him twice.

I just worked with him, in fact. I love the guy. I really totally love the guy. I love his point of view of life. Uh-huh. And I love his point of view of life uh-huh and uh um i love his quirks you know i i he and he's he's a brilliant actor yeah and he just feels so deeply about everything that's good you're a very sensitive human being and what was it like working with like on that

that crazy oliver stone movie uh with oliver? With everybody. You know, knowing Oliver's reputation... You played a quarterback? I played a quarterback. That's right. And you know the Jamie Foxx is the up and cover. Right, that's right. I like that movie. It was great. I think it's the best football movie ever done to tell you the truth because it's so visceral. really feel yeah what it's like to be in the game yeah you know i thought oliver stone you know given his reputation uh which was just a reputation in a lot of ways right that you know a lot of people were going to get hurt doing that film and nobody did yeah yeah nobody did he took care of everybody really well and he made an incredible

movie yeah it's weird that way that comes up again this idea that the the general public makes judgments of people and uh you know based on you know the information they get but once you're sort of in it well working you know that joke we call it we call him taco because he makes great tortillas and we call him this because he does that and then uh what do they call you? And he goes, well, you fuck one goat. That's right. That's true. You're the goat fucker.

You're the goat fucker. All right, man. Well, you know, it's really great to talk to you. And obviously, there's more to talk about, but I feel like the dog's got to eat. She's coming out. I guess your contract is out there she's bargaining something uh but the todd hansing i talked to him years ago too that now that todd haynes the guy who did oh yeah like far from heaven brilliant brilliant guy but when you work

with somebody like that who's got you know he's a very unique director he's got very specific vision for that movie he's making sort of his version of a Douglas Sirk movie. Like in the process of working with all these different directors, you know, do you find yourself, I mean, what is the experience from director to director? I am always there as an actor. This is what I learned early on. Yeah.

Is the actor is actually there to serve the director. Right. Because even though it may have been written by, know from a novel by this or whatever you were it's still the director is telling the story right he's the directing in fact that's what it means he's directing where the camera is what the camera is looking at yeah to tell the story yeah and uh so i'm there to serve him because i can't be making a different movie than the director yeah that won't work right you know and i'll look like an idiot yeah so you have to trust your director and so that's uh i've been very uh trying to be very good about choosing direct strong

directors i like strong directors in fact who will take me out of my comfort zone because actors have a general tendency you know to either have the same haircut they did the last film you know or do the same things that they know will work sure because that's their money yeah you know like me it's my smile yeah but a director who will take you out of your comfort zone and make you do things you're not comfortable doing that's the best that's the best. That's the best. That's when you are the best, too. Well, you're right. You have very specific Dennis Quaid-isms.

But even this new movie, it's like all those become so malignant and awful. Even the things that, like, you know. Yeah, sort of use it. Your smile is just really. Basically, the first part of the movie, I'm playing the parent trap dad. Yeah.

And then things go bad. Then things go bad. How do you stay in character generally over time? Does it just happen? I just turn it on and off. Oh, really? You know, I kind of first started to learn that with work with Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge. And she was just like, you know, the great Meryl Streep.

Yeah. And she is. But, you know, she would just like, she'd be like goofing off you know just talking you know we're just like having a good time on some completely different other subject you know that has nothing to do with the movie or the emotion appropriate motion that goes with you know the scene that we're doing yeah and you know they say rolling and we're still like were standing again it's like okay action right right into it huh just like that and then cut right out of it no kidding yeah and not walking around in it yeah and i tell you what uh it's actually easier in the long run to work that way because number one you don't take your work home

with you right which the last time i did that was great balls of fire and i wound up in rehab doing that but and and number two you just drop it like a hot potato and then so that you can you'll you know you can go do what you ever have to have to do in your life and you come back and it it'll be fresh in other words it's i actually like it when i don't know what i'm gonna do yeah you know what i mean yeah because you'll be in the moment yeah more that way if you're not living yeah like i i don't learn my lines i mean i may read the script about 10 times but i don't learn my lines until i tell it the day of yeah sometimes most of the time during rehearsal really unless i have a really long, long speech.

But you know the story and you know the character. I just listen. You know the guy. It makes you listen more to what the other character's saying so that, oh, you know, you know the response. Right, yeah, yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah.

So it makes it more of the moment that way for me and I don't have to, like, make up something. Yeah. I forget, I just kind of, you take all that stuff that you learn. Yeah. You know, as an actor. Yeah. The technique, you know, learning about all those basics. Sure. make up something yeah i forget i just kind of you take all that stuff that you learn yeah as you know as an actor the technique you know learning about all those basics sure and then you wad them up and throw it away and just let go right yeah are you sober guy uh well i don't do

cocaine anymore good that was that was my drug of choice and in fact, 1990, I did 30 days, 28 days in there, and I quit everything for like 10 years. Oh, yeah. I did what they told me to do. Yeah. But then I started having a drink about the year 2000. Yeah. Alcohol was, I don't like the feeling of being drunk.

Right. So you can manage it? Yeah. It's nothing to manage it because i i'll you know i just like that you know i've got a little buzz but feeling drunk i i never i feel so sluggish and i don't like that feeling and uh cocaine was crazy can you even okay and i would do until you it was all done there and you know to ask you if you had someone i had plenty of my pocket for Been up for three days. Yeah, it's a crazy drug. Right. As an older, I'm 55, you're older than me, but the thought of doing it now is just like,

oh my God. It's horrendous. I kind of look back and go. I can't imagine it. Yeah. You're up for three days talking about nothing to nobody? Yeah. Or you do the first snip of it, then spend the next 12 hours trying to get that feeling

back again. And you can't. And then you're just up. Yeah, then you're're just up and you got to be at work in an hour the worst not really great the worst build some track all right man great talking to you you too thanks for a lot of fun yeah so that's that how was that i love that guy it's like you know it's sometimes i'm in this chair and i'm looking right at a guy i've looked at on screen my whole life and he smiles and i'm like that's dennis quaid sitting right there i'm gonna play some echoey guitar i'm gonna bring some more

pedals up here apparently i'm gonna be here while. I will get some more pedals. But I'm just going to do this now. I am the three chord wonder. Is that alright? Is that a good superhero name? The three chord wonder? Here he comes with his basic blues power. Here he comes with his basic ability to play three chords in a thoughtful, kind of ethereal way. Look out! Everyone's going to take a pause.

Because I'm the three-chord wonder, I distract them. They're like, is this song going anywhere? I don't think so. Oh no! We've been tied up by the other superheroes. Yep, I did it again. Enjoy. heroes yep I did it again enjoy Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives! you can get anything you need with uber eats well almost almost anything so no you can't get snowballs on uber eats but meatballs and mozzarella balls yes we can deliver that uber eats get almost

almost anything order now product availability may vary by region see app for details hi it's terry o'reilly host Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category,

and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.