WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1032 - Stephen Dorff

Episode Date: July 1, 2019

Stephen Dorff started acting in movies before he was a teenager, but the sudden and tragic death of his brother made him contemplate leaving the business altogether. Stephen tells Marc why he stuck it out and how he wound up landing one of his most fulfilling roles of his career in True Detective. Stephen talks about the good fortune he’s had in forming relationships with an older generation of actors, like Dennis Hopper, Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson, and in working with a variety of great directors, like Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Oliver Stone, and John Waters. He also explains why he thought Blade would be the end of his career. This episode is sponsored by the Mailchimp podcast The Jump, Squarespace, and SimpliSafe. 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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To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th, exclusively on Disney+. 18-plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Lock the gate! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucking isms what's happening it's mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome to it i'm back I'm back in my house I've been away for a couple weeks in the lovely country of Canada which I love I like being there it's relaxing had a great couple weeks there worked really hard didn't get out as much as I want managed to offend an entire city a little bit

with some poetically dark but not critical comments about a certain element of their town that made national clickbait news and just like that just like a thousand flash points of light you know people's brains just set on fire for a minute over one sentence that was taken out of context maybe some people listen to it but I'm not gonna make any more hay about it i had a lovely time in canada maybe i will talk about a little bit in a little while don't know before i get too far ahead of myself here steven dorff is on the show today i was so fucking blown away by his performance on true detective that i had to talk to him and we had a fucking great conversation. Great. I love the guy. I'm happy to be at my house. I'm happy to get back into some regular schedule. getting some sort of horrendous stomach disorder, but I really think it had a lot to do with working

till three or four in the morning every night and just flipping that schedule. I don't know, but hopefully I'll feel better. I'll let you know. I did hike up the mountain today. I really felt compelled, had to get out there, had to get up to the top, had to breathe, had to listen to some music,

had to re-engage with the lizards, the abundance of lizards. It's very pleasant here in Los Angeles. We're having that nice brief two to three weeks of summer right before everything just is on fire. So they're speculating pretty rough fire season this year. I hope you're preparing however one prepares for that. But all that lovely rain apparently just created a lot more brush.

We'll see what happens. Suicide rate's higher than it's ever been. Fire season is getting stronger. It's raining, I think, lizards in the Midwest. But it all seems to be connected. A mild disruption in the history of the orb. But look, we're here. We're here today.

We're going to talk to Stephen Dorff today. Not going to freak out. It's like it's, I don't know if you know that feeling when you're away for a few weeks, but, and you come home, it's like, it's amazing and overwhelming at the same time. Like that, the transition from, you know, leaving your house to going wherever you're going and adapting to losing all your patterns and you have your few travel patterns and coming back and reengaging with your life patterns. Then you have to get all those supplied, get all the supply levels back up and reengage-engage with that but uh i'm happy i'm wearing

shorts i will say this the experience i had in uh in canada shooting this film stardust was uh was really a great one for me as somebody who's working as an actor occasionally just to lock in shoot those hours have to be real kind of economical and lean, have to show up for work and make sure you nail those takes. We're shooting one, two takes, and that director, Gabriel Range, is moving on. We have a lot to cover and a lot to do. Johnny Flynn's doing an amazing Bowie, 1971 Bowie, vulnerable, kind of insecure, kind of not quite formed Bowie vulnerable kind of insecure kind of not quite formed Bowie and it was I think we got a

really great dynamic going there was sort there was elements of sort of a buddy road movie happening and and there was sort of the two varying personalities really kind of started to gel and it was a great experience it was great talking to him and you know talking music and you know it was generally it was a tedious shoot but it was very engaged which is a lot better than sitting around a set doing nothing so i had i had a a really good time and i and i do feel tremendously relaxed in canada uh and the people are there there are very nice and it just i i just i just do I just do right when I fly across the border. It's just like, oh, it's not in the air here.

It's not in the air. Whoo, man. I literally slept for about an hour on the plane. It was very interesting. I'm sitting next to a guy, and uh, and you know, he's into his own world and I'm into my own world. We're both listening to music. He seems pretty intense. He's listening to some music. He's got a lot of thoughts going on. We're both kind of napping across the aisle. There's a, uh, some guy reading Willie Nelson's autobiography and,

and the cover of that book is Willieie with one of those it's a portrait of willie and he's got he's just looking out but it's shot in a way that he's always looking at you you know those paintings that are always looking at you well the face of willie nelson from across the aisle was always looking at me and i guess always looking at anybody who was walking by and i swear at some point the guy sitting next to me looked over and actually acknowledged with a head nod and waved at Willie's face. I'm pretty sure. And I don't think that's a negative thing. I thought it was an interesting thing.

You have moments. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you? He's listening to music. And then about an hour before the flight lands, you know, we start talking and he realizes he knows who I am. And then he tells me who he is. And it's Scott Cooper. And he's this amazing film director.

And we just started riffing about movies. But, you know, he's thinking, man. You know, he's out in his mind. And, you know, Willie was looking at him. Maybe he had a moment where it's like, yeah, Willie. You know, thanks, man. Maybe it's just a sort of like, thank you, Willie. In a general way, putting it out into the ether,

which there's a real good chance that Willie will pick that up. Knowing Willie, it's possible. But it was this guy, Scott Cooper, who directed Black Mass. He directed Hostiles. He directed Crazy Heart. But he's like a deep guy. Shoots dark movies. We had a nice chat i you know

i got to get him on the show at some point i told him but he didn't recognize me without my mustache and i wouldn't have recognized him and initially uh he was just a guy that that seemed to nod and wave at the cover of a book from across the way but everything changed when we started talking but he's still that guy i think i should have asked him then i'll ask him i'll text him i'll ask him right now i'm asking publicly which could go either way i'm finding when you talk publicly can go either way and i guess i can address it a little bit i guess because i i did not i had a very interesting and uh you know thoughtful time in hamilton ontario and I feel that the press, the Canadian press misrepresented, or maybe it was just a quick bait because they did put the quick, they did put the bit up there

that I said as negative. And I don't, in retrospect, I do not think it was. I just don't. And I thought it was embracing and honest. I think that when an American says something abroad, that it tends to to resonate in a way that, you know, is different. It's just like, who the fuck is this outsider? You motherfucker. I get it. I get it, man. There's certainly a lot of cities in America that are not unlike Hamilton in that they were once great industrial centers. And they've since, you know, that industry has moved on. And what it's left is usually, you know, generational poverty, drug addiction, destitution, desolation, you know, industrial garbage. And I and I understand i in in a lot of those cities i love and i certainly didn't mean to uh to be sort of insensitive to the

struggles of of a city that's in that position in any country and even here in la you know the we have an always a constant you know escalating real estate market with an influx of new people coming in, pushing people out. We have literal tent cities along the highways and a huge one downtown. But the issue really was is that I didn't really know much about Hamilton and I was staying downtown and I saw what I saw and it was it was sad, but exciting. And I knew there had to be some city problems, but I didn't realize really, you know, coming into it that you sort of you're up against this sort of nostalgic civic pride that is is sort of, you know, reluctantly or not so reluctantly, you know, aligned with an aggressive rebranding of the city, meant as an invitation to new investment that might change the makeup of the city. It does not necessarily solve endemic issues of poverty or waste.

But I guess if you just believe in the rebrand, you can romanticize the marginalization of a large chunk of your population. But the city is a beautiful city. I had a nice time there, nice people. And, you know, there's not, not unlike other parts of Canada, there doesn't seem to be the menace that there is in America.

And that might be just because, in a general sense, Canada may treat their poor better or it's just not the way that goes there. But I do, I love Canada and I do feel relaxed there and I did have a nice time. And if my dark poetry that was not critical but engaged bothered you, I hope you feel that I've balanced it out because I did have a nice bowl with quinoa, sweet potatoes, some kale, and with a nice tahini dressing at a place called Democracy. And down there on, I think, Lock Street, is it? And I did have another nice sort of raw-based bowl at another place called green bar the new one down

on lock street so i see the movement and uh and there's a lot of beautiful little homes here but man where i was staying and the few miles out of drive to go to base camp it was wild wild and sad but yeah on the other side of town the bowls were nice and the homes were nice seemed to be nice greenery next time heading into the waterfalls here there's a lot of beautiful waterfalls i will do that in other news sort of trust.com is where you can find all of the dates and theaters for the movie sword of trust the the movie's killing with audiences i do hope you get to see it all of my upcoming tour dates including toronto in september i'll be at the montreal just for last festival i'm coming into a raleigh soon and i've got detroit on the docket austin dallas houston portland Portland, Oregon, Nashville, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and more dates.

If you go to WTFpod.com slash tour, they're there. And that's it. I want you to hear me and Stephen Dorff. I think it's – I'm so glad I talked to him. True Detective, all episodes of the season three of True Detective are available on all HBO platforms. And this is me talking to Stephen Doerr. 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. 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. to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. you need to switch to low-cost coverage from Zensurance before your policy renews this year. Zensurance does all the heavy lifting to find a policy, covering only what you need, and policies start at only $19 per month. So if your policy is renewing soon, go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business. So you became a new to knife guy. Kind of, yeah. I've got like nine good ones now.

Like pocket knives? Yeah, pocket knife and I got a butterfly knife. Do you know how to do the butterfly knife thing? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah? Yeah, the little. You flip it around? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got a little time. I got a... Do you know how to do the butterfly knife thing? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah? Yeah, the little... You flip it around? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got a little time on your hands?

Yeah. I haven't, actually. No, you've been busy. Do you throw knives? Have you learned? Have you taken knife fighting? No. Yeah?

No. I know you were in a movie called Blade, but that didn't require anything of a knife fight. I had like a sword in that yeah we had a sword play but uh so you had to do that you had to learn how to do that yeah yeah just part of the job the choreography yeah just get a sword out and you gotta dance around they brought the sword guy on to teach everyone how to do it yeah the sword guy comes in with the martial arts experts. And you learn. And then you learn.

But some guys are into knife fighting. Like, there's a whole thing to it. I'm sure, yeah. I mean, I know a guy who's like, you know, Brian Callen. Do you know Brian Callen? He's a comic. I know the name, yeah. Yeah, he's kind of a, you know, he's one of those dudes that does dude shit.

And, you know, he's got a friend who's a knife guy. We were just talking about it. To, you know, the guys who really know how to be knife guys, they can take you out in like a second.

Oh, yeah. They know where to cut so your tendons stop working. Yeah, exactly. It's like the shiv shit in jail. Yeah.

You know, they make out of toothbrushes and stuff. I mean, like you can. But he might not kill you but he can make your arms stop working. He knows where to cut. He cut knows exactly the spot scary cheese yeah so what's going

how's the smoking yeah still going i don't like it's weird like because i know that you got some shit or for that advertisement but i've been on nicotine lozenges for a decade how are those they're great what do they look like? They look like mints, dude. So it's kind of like an electronic cigarette but a mint. It's like the gum instead of the gum? Yeah, but like you get a little more control over it than the gum because the gum you just end up chewing all fucking day whether it's got nicotine or not. When these things are gone, like you tuck them like a dip, you know, and just kind of

suck on them. There's four milligrams in there and you can just go all day with them how long you been doing that a long time i've got where can you buy those these are i get walgreens brand cinnamon four milligrams nicotine lozenges i'm gonna try yeah dude because like i think it's time i just had my chest x-ray at my annual my physical like not for movies yeah like my guy oh the real one yeah not the one where it's like how you feeling yeah all right here you go yeah not that one sign here yeah i could be dying and they just insured this huge production yeah um no but yeah my doctor which i do every year and yeah

and uh how'd it look looked all right yeah you had problems though no i've never had any like no not yet there was something that was written about uh about me that said I had emphysema, but I don't. But Cindy Adams in New York mentioned that in an article and I was like, thanks, Cindy. Because now I hear about it from. How's the emphysema man? Yeah. And no, Alec Baldwin, who I'd never met and he called me after True Detective. Yeah.

And he was really sweet to me on the randomly call my agents. My agents thought it was not Alec Baldwin. It was like a fake, but then realized it was him, and we did the number game, and he called me, and then he's like, so you have emphysema? And I'm like, no, I don't, man. What are you talking about? I mean, not that I know of, but I mean, I guess I would know, right?

And that's the first you heard about that? Well, yeah, and I remembered after World Trade Center, this movie I worked of, but I mean, I guess I would know, right? And that's the first you heard about that? Well, yeah. And I remembered after World Trade Center, this movie I worked on. That's a good movie. Yeah. I played Scott Strauss, the guy that saved, came into the rubble. Yeah. He was at ESU, a great guy.

I got to know him and his family. And I remember after the premiere the next morning, like, oh, you're in Cindy Adams' column. I'm like, all right. And I read it. And it said I had emphysema. I was like the premiere the next morning, like, oh, you're in Cindy Adams' column. I'm like, all right. And I read it. And it said I had emphysema. I was like, what the fuck? No, I don't, Cindy.

Jesus. You can just say whatever the fuck you want. I know. I saw it on, it's on your Wikipedia. Is it? I think so. That I have emphysema? You might have emphysema. Yeah, emphysema.

Jesus Christ. I guess I should get that changed. I don't know how you do that. Do you? I don't know. Do you call up Wikipedia? Yeah, just call them. Say, hey, this is Stephen Dorff. You're wrong about this.

No, I think you can go edit it. Oh, I can. I think so. Or get your guy to do it. Yeah. Get someone to figure it out. Yeah, I got to. Unless you got more time on your hands. Yeah, I'm going to remember that.

So you're down in Malibu? Yeah, I've lived out there for like 14 years. And I grew up in Hollywood and lived in the hills, lived everywhere, lived in the valley. Really? You grew up here? As a baby, yeah. I was born in Georgia, in Atlanta, because my dad was going to college in Athens, University of Georgia. So my mom was visiting him.

They're from New York. That's where it happened? They had me. They met in an elevator in New York, but then my mom was visiting my dad, living with him, finishing college. While he was finishing college, they had me, and then I moved to the valley,

Tujunga Avenue in Studio City, in an apartment when I was three months old. So they met in New York. Where are they from? They're from Queens, Forest Hills. Both your parents are from Queens? Yeah, and they met in an advertising agency elevator, Wells Rich Green, which was big in the 70s, I guess.

I would never think you're like a Queens guy. I know. That's where my family's from. You're genetically Queens. Queens. So you grew up with people in Queens. Not really, because I grew up in LA. No, I know, but you didn't have grandparents or aunties or uncle?

Yeah, grandparents, yeah. My grandpa on my mom's side was the head policeman at Shea Stadium. So I had this incredible baseball card collection from him left to me, like pictures of me as a kid or him with Mickey Mantle, him with Hank Aaron. You still got them? I still got a bunch of stuffle, him with Hank Aaron. You still got them? I still got a bunch of stuff in storage, yeah. Oh, you still got storage? I still got a storage unit, yeah.

Oh, shit. How long you had that? Forever. And it's getting bigger and bigger and costing more and more. You mean you still put stuff in it? I do, yeah. When we were making True Detective,

I was in Arkansas for seven months. And I got really into, I don't know, maybe because of my role, maybe because, I don't know. But I got really into taxidermy. So I bought a bear. I bought an Arkansas bear, which is like six. A standing bear? A standing bear that I had. Is that a black bear?

It's a black bear. Not a grizzly bear? No, a black Arkansas bear. And awesome. I mean, scary, but cool looking. And then I got this incredible buffalo head that I've always wanted a buffalo head. Like the wall, you hang on the wall? Yeah, but it's big.

I mean, it's like as big as this. Yeah, yeah. Buffaloes are huge. So my storage basically since that job has gotten pretty. Did you buy any other animals? No, that was it. I'm not a big hunter either. I don't believe in kind of killing animals,

but I got into taxidermy being I think in the middle of red state America. I don't know. Really? And also because I bought this barn recently. I bought a farm outside Nashville, which I plan to make my little kind of retreat outside of L.A. where I could just kind of go and chill. When did you get that?

I bought it right after True Detective. Oh, so it's new. Yeah, it's new. It's kind of a new project. All those animals, I think, are going to go out there. On the wall and in the barn? I think so. So the only structure on the land is a barn?

Is a barn and a main house, which is kind of cool. There's a main house. The house is cool. It needs a little work. The barn in the barn. I think so. So the only structure on the land is a barn? Is a barn and a main house, which is kind of cool. There's a main house. The house is cool. It needs a little work. The barn is the project. That's what I want to make into like a real awesome studio and like, you know, music and pool.

Oh, there's going to be a pool in the barn? A bar, yeah. No, not a pool, like a pool table. I need to put a pool in. So you're going to do a giant musical man cave barn. Kind of, yeah. Yeah, that's the plan. Kind of.

And I think spending the last year and a half in the South probably added to this. Yeah, to this fantasy? Well, and also just, I also had real reasons to buy it. And I kind of bought it for my brother who passed away a couple years ago. My little brother who lived in Nashville

was an amazing songwriter. What happened to him? Tragic accident. You know, worst phone call of my life. Sorry, man. He was on a vacation. Yeah, so I was pretty much

going to, two years ago, I was... You were going to move out there to be closer to him? No, I was just, no, I was going to, when this happened, I was just kind of going to pack it up. I wanted to get out of Mal get be closer to him i was just no i was gonna when this happened

i was just kind of gonna pack it up i wanted to get out of malibu i wanted to kind of when he passed you mean yeah i didn't really want to act anymore i didn't want to do anything i just got i was in a pretty uh bummed out spot and uh and then a year to his passing which was very weird uh my brother kind of two really amazing things happened to me and my father, who obviously had a very rough time with losing Andrew and I think as a parent, you don't ever want to have to bury your son. That's not what you want.

Anyway, yeah, two amazing things happened. I was given this incredible part of Roland in True Detective. My dad got into the Songwriting Hall of Fame in New York, which was always his dream. So my brother kind of touched us both on his year anniversary to the day. It was pretty gnarly. Good and bad.

Yeah. So I was able to induct my dad into the Songwriter Hall of Fame, and that was a beautiful night where I got to write a speech. And I was shooting True Detective at the time, but was able to get out. They let me out for a couple of days. I went to New York and gave this speech for my dad and talked about my brother. Oh, wow. It was pretty awesome.

Is it the only sibling? Yeah, he was my, I have two half-sisters that my dad had later. But, yeah, it was just me and my brother. Oh, it's heartbreaking, dude. I'm sorry, man. Yeah, we'd already kind of, thank you. We'd already lost my mom like 12 years ago, so it was kind of a...

Were they married still? No, no. But we were all real tight as a family. Yeah, I came from this really tight-knit family for a kid that grew up in L.A. as a son of a songwriterwriter which was kind of in the background but at the same time went to school with all these movie stars kids and oh you did and rich kids yeah so it was a very weird uh was he a hit songwriter yeah I mean when I was a baby his first

uh when we were living in this little apartment um on Tujunga Avenue and i was born in 73 my dad wrote uh every which way but loose from the movie yeah eddie rabbit yeah and so then my dad kind of made some money then he wrote through the years by kenny rogers he wrote some country standards yeah big standards he's he's had like i think 30 30 something number ones wow and my little brother was- All country? Pretty much. I mean, Merle Haggard, you know- Which one? Coca-Cola Cowboy. Was he a, is he a country guy?

Not really. He was just a real, he just got in with those artists. And once he got in with Clint, a lot of those movies were very country friendly. Right. And he did kind of all those. So he got in with Glen Campbell and started writing. He did a lot for George Strait, wrote all his hits. Really?

Yeah, big time. This is a Queens guy. Yeah, Queens guy. On a little Diobson piano, upright. He was like a little Jewish kid. He was a Jewish guy writing the country hits. Yeah, married a Catholic girl, my mom, who was just our mom. Was she Italian or Irish?

Yeah, had Italian in her, Italian and Polish. Wow. Yeah. I like this story. I like that the Jews that, like, because I'm a Jew, but like, you know, when you find out stuff like most of the Marvel universe was created by Jewish writers. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah.

So you just sort of like the Jews. That I could see, yeah. Yeah, that sort of like keep them entertained so they don't kill us. Yeah. just sort of like the Jews. That I could see, yeah. Yeah, that sort of like keep them entertained so they don't kill us. Yeah.

So when you grew up like in the valley initially, were you brought up Jewish at all? Not really. I mean, it was kind of a weird thing in my family because it was that real, my dad's side of the family, my grandparents on that side. Yeah. There was a little of that weirdness.

The tension? Like he didn't marry a Jew? Oh yeah, there was some tension there. on that side yeah there was a little of that weirdness like the tension like he didn't marry oh yeah there was some tension there really yeah there was some were they really jewish yeah they were really jewish and i think there was that pressure but then my mom would kind of want us to go to church and look here me and andrew you know on easter sunday and so we kind of did the catholic thing for my mom right but we were not i wouldn't say a very heavy religious home yeah but there was no pressure for me to get a bar go to have a bar mitzvah oh yeah i ended up learning some hebrew when i went to israel i made a movie in uh tel aviv which movie was that a little movie called zaytun yeah which was uh it was good actually i won the runner-up prize in toronto in like 2012 what'd you play i I played an Israeli jet pilot

in the 80s. And it was kind of like almost like a foreign film but it was done in English but then some Hebrew produced by the people that did King's Speech. Did you do the Israeli accent?

I did, yeah. I'm terrible at it now but I mean, I learned some shit. You did? Yeah. I hung out in Jerusalem. I floated in the Dead Sea. I mean, I had a blast. Floating in Yeah. I hung out in Jerusalem. I floated in the Dead Sea.

I mean, I had a blast. Floating in the Dead Sea. It's a beautiful country. It is. It's intense country. Intense. Intense drinkers there. Oh, yeah?

Jesus. They would always, like, offer me, you know, every time you hear the word chaser, expect a shot that's as big as this glass of iced tea. I mean, like, they don't mess around, I guess, because they're living for every day, you know? That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, they've really made some sort of oasis out there outside of just the history, just

the farmland and everything. Oh, it's insane. The flour manufacturing. They've just really dug it out there. Some of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at. Really? Oh, yeah. People were amazing.

I'd love to go back. I haven't been back, though, in like, I guess six years. Well, you should get there before the end times, because it's all going to go down. Let's go there and do our next podcast over there. Yeah, let's do that from Israel. That'd be cool. The end of days podcast. I want to be on that list.

All right. I'll do the final dispatches from the planet Earth from Israel. It's all happening. So where did you go to school with all these movie star kids? At the time, I think my mom didn't want me in public schools and where we were living. We were kind of living in the valley. I went to one public school, the country school in kindergarten.

Then I went to a school that's very actor-friendly now but wasn't when I went there, a school called Campbell Hall, which is in Studio City, North Hollywood. I know that it's actor-friendly now just because I've had to go back there for other jobs. Like when I did this film with Sofia Coppola somewhere. That was a good movie.

Thank you. I had to pick her up, Elle Fanning, at school one day. That was my exercise. I was trying to make my scar smell all right, make sure the seatbelts worked. You really had to pick her up at school? Yeah, that was Sofia's exercise for the day, and it was amazing. I had had to pick her up yeah that was sophia's exercise for the day and it was amazing i had three hours with her we went to color me mine we made pottery

it was like our bonding time and it was perfect for me to have to get into that zone without really doing anything just drive over there but going back to the school that i went to that i was kind of asked to leave from to pick up this young, awesome actress to then take her to get yogurt and then color me mine. And then we report back to our chief, to Sophia, and she's like, how was the day? And I tell her what we did, and we give her the pottery the next day.

Is that an unusual request for a director to have exercises? Yeah, I mean, normally it's more straightforward. Rehearsal, you meet in a room. Every director's different, but Sophia was such a special unique movie experience it never felt like a normal movie it felt like we were this intimate little team and she had me do really interesting exercises in the beginning like just pick l up from school and spend a couple hours and then you have to get her back to her parents house house at this address. And it was like, okay, that was my responsibility. So in doing that, when it's just the two of us,

there's no director studying us, it's our memory, it's our time to ask the questions we feel like asking. And then she'd have me do something like go to a fake dinner, but really have dinner with Elle and Lala, who's playing your wife, and just pretend that

it's 10 years before your first you're doing your first movie in hollywood and you're having dinner at the chateau marmont and just have dinner and then i'll pay the bill and everything but just have a normal dinner in your characters just talking and and and so like by doing that in a weird way you come back three days later you come to do a scene we've already had this long dinner as a family yeah we've already kind of experienced this weird so it's wired in to our improv wow it's kind of cool i mean i loved working with her she's been on your show i think right sophia yeah yeah it was like yeah she has yeah i think she's great great lady yeah and i i like in that movie i thought was really great she She definitely is able to create a tone. Yeah, with pictures and music.

What was that movie called again? Somewhere. Oh, yeah. And for some reason, when I saw it, there was part of me that was sort of... I saw it as a documentary. I'm like, I hope that Dorf's alright I guess like in my mind I'm like

I haven't seen him in a while and in anything so this is probably just pretty close to his life but it wasn't it wasn't really I mean it was kind of Johnny Marco's

kind of a I would ask Sophia I said am I playing somebody would ask Sophia, I said, am I playing somebody or am I playing myself? Am I playing, you know, because I'm an actor. I've been an actor most of my life. And she said, no, I just, I wrote it with a blend, but you're really the embodiment of what I want it to be. But don't play Steven and don't live in Malibu, she said, because I don't want you tan and

healthy and in the ocean. I want you pasty and hungover, and I want you living in the chateau the way you would if you were in a darker period of your life. I said, so you're going to pay me to live at the chateau and get wasted every night and just do my thing? And she's like, pretty much. And I was like, awesome.

And what was funny was I was in a healthy place in my life and then i was like now my job was to go the opposite there'd be one thing if i was down and right and dirty when she wanted me and i was like oh i could just walk into this but it was like i was kind of in a real healthy zone eating healthy oh yeah up early oh yeah hiking you know yeah it was like you go through waves yeah i got through i got through waves i mean i like i like training because uh you know and it's funny you mentioned the smoking because i'm really at the end of my rope i think i'm getting to that point fucking worse dude i mean it's like as much as i loved it you know i mean i haven't smoked in like a long time like but i can't get off the fucking nicotine if i do shit just gets too boring because i i uh you know I've been sober a long time and like so

that's gone and like I've gotten off of everything you just got to have something yeah and you don't want it to be food no or fucking yeah I mean you know you get too old and it's like you know you're gonna you're gonna leave a it's it's not yeah what else could it be besides food well I've never been a gambler so I ain't gonna do that that's just dumb yeah it is dumb right? Well, I've never been a gambler, so I ain't going to do that. That's just dumb. Yeah, it is dumb, right? I love it. I mean, God, I love sitting at a blackjack table with, you know, but it is the dumbest thing in the universe. There's just no winning and then you keep, I don't know.

I think that in order to really get that bug, you've got to have, you know, bet a lot of money and won a lot of money at some point. Yeah, just so you at least hit the high and left on the high. You can't sit there playing fucking $10, $25 hands of blackjack some point. Yeah, just so you at least hit the high and left on the high. You can't sit there playing fucking $10, $25 hands of blackjack all night and think you're gonna make it. You're just gonna go crazy.

Plus the whole night's gone and then you've lost at the end of the night even if you had your ups, you maybe won 20 bucks. You're like, well that was a waste of 12 hours.

and you had three hours before you were up 400 and then you walk away with 20 and be like, well I didn't lose. I missed the Lionel Richie show over this or whatever. I missed the Lionel Richie show over this, you know, or whatever. You know, I missed the fucking Cirque du Soleil part 12.

It is. I just, I don't like, I think the most I've lost is like eight or 900 bucks. And I'm like, that's stupid. I'm not doing that anymore. But like, but yeah, but the nicotine, I don't know. Maybe, you know, there's part of me. I think I'm going to pick those up on my way home. And if I do quit over those,

I'm gonna thank you forever, Marc Maron. Well, I think the thing about these, as opposed to doing the vapey stuff, is it gets you out of the habit of the thing. Because I don't think you, I don't do that anymore. I have to smoke when I'm on the show, I'm on Glo. I gotta smoke those fake cigarettes. It's a fucking nightmare.

Oh, and they're terrible too, because when you kind of go to Asht fake cigarettes. Right. It's a fucking nightmare. Oh, and they're terrible too because when you kind of go to ash, they break. So the whole behavior of smoking is terrible with those herbals. Like there's great stories and funny shit with me and Mahershala in that car because so much of us is in that car talking.

Sure, in True Detective, right. He's smoking too though. He's smoking, but now it's legal. I mean, you have to, on a stage, which we do a lot of those car scenes in True Detective, you have to smoke the herbals. If I'm outside, I'll smoke real cigarettes. Right. But on the stage, I'm smoking the herbals.

So in the gag reel at the wrap party, they had a gag reel of literally every scene where the window's cracked and it's like, ah, fuck. I had great rhythm with this tough line and the cigarette. There's no coming back from that because it's like, ah, fuck. I had great rhythm with this tough line and the cigarette. There's no coming back from that because it's like, ah, fuck. Yeah, and then there was another one where Mahershala doesn't smoke anyway. So he's acting the smoking thing, and he's doing a good job. But he drops the cigarettes, and now the cherry's under him on this herbal. Yeah, and I'm like, oh, I got it.

I got it. And so they had all these moments in the gag reel. It was genius. I was just like, fuck. Oh, man. And smoke's getting in my eye all the time. It's the worst smoke. Because those herbals, it's not real smoke.

It's like oregano going in your eyeball. I don't know what it is and how is it not fucking bad for you? Like, we're all smoking those on set. It smells like bad weed, too. It does. It smells like bad weed, but it's got to be burning your lungs. It's got to. Yeah, it can't be good.

No. Well, that was the thing when I watched True Detective because I hadn't watched one since i think i watched the first season second one i didn't lock into yeah and but then i turned the the new one on and i'm watching how do you say his name mahershala and i'm like who the fuck is that other guy he's really good i don't think i've ever seen him before and i'm like fucking steven dorf what the fuck and it's like it's so good how is he he's so fucking good yeah somebody sent me a text or a twitter oh that tweeted about you you know people pay attention yeah mark and i was like oh is that that's a good thing and and everybody was like yeah that's that's fucking good you know

and all these people started calling oh really people well nice people like i mentioned the alec baldwin yeah you know saying nice things i was just like wow that makes you feel good i mean And all these people started calling. Oh, really? People, nice people. Like I mentioned, the Alec Baldwin. Yeah, yeah. Saying nice things. I was just like, wow, that makes you feel good. I mean, Nick Pizzolatto gave me just such an amazing role. I mean, I've played a lot of things, but I just love that role of Roland. Somebody said, it was a very funny tweet. Someone said you were like a young, old Jack Nicholson.

When I'm old, I heard that a lot. Like a young, old Jack Nicholson. That's funny. I love Jack. He's an When I'm old, I heard that a lot. Like a young, old Jack Nicholson. That's funny. I love Jack. He's an old buddy of mine, too. That's how I met Angelica. Because I was a young kid. I wasn't that young, but I was like 22,

and I did a terrible movie with Dennis Hopper. Which one? A movie called Space Truckers, where we played like teamsters in space driving around frozen pigs. It was Stuart Gordon who did Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. It was just this weird $30 million sci-fi. And they got Dennis to do it?

Independent movie and that's the reason I did it. So me and Dennis, we go over to Ireland where we shot this space movie. And Debbie Mazur was in it, which was cool. And there were some good people in there. Anyway, Dennis and I hit it off great. And I was, I guess, at the time, I was up for this Bob Rafelson movie with Jack called Blood and Wine, which was Jennifer Lopez's first movie.

It was Michael Caine coming back, doing really great stuff. Yeah. It was like a really cool, gritty movie. I didn't see that movie. Gritty movie. You'd like it. But yeah. So anyway, Dennis, I couldn't see that movie. Gritty movie. You'd like it. But yeah, so anyway, Dennis, I couldn't meet.

When you're up for a movie with Jack, you have to kind of, once you're the director's choice, you have to kind of go meet the man himself. You got to get through that. You got to go out to his place? Yeah, you got to go out. So if you're Greg Kinnear on As Good As It Gets, you got to go and do the dance with Jack, kind of go have a coffee, whatever. And I wasn't able to do it because I'm doing space truckers in Ireland. So Dennis vouched for me. And I got the part

and I ended up going straight to Miami to a table reading. And I met Jack. And after the movie, we became friends during the movie. And he's still been such a loyal friend to me to this day and one of the smartest dudes I've ever met. And I met Angelica through him.

Really from Dennis on, I met all these interesting, amazing actors that I then, so I'm happy I did that space movie. Did you stay tight with Dennis? Yeah, big time. I mean, that guy was the best smelling man I've ever, I'm not gay, but Jesus, he smelled good. I would always tell him, I'd be like,

God, how do you smell so good? And what did he say? It was just his mix of cologne or something. I don't know. I wanted to go in the bathroom and just watch him put it on. I'm like, dude, you just smell so good, D. You know, and he was just, he was an awesome person. I loved his creativity.

Yeah, he was. And his photos. Yeah. I met Ed Ruscha through him. I met such great, interesting artists that are still my friends. You know, and so like i even i had an easy rider poster that i asked uh dennis and jack to sign for me and i never really knew peter fonda so i never asked him but i asked those two and they signed it and yeah and

dennis's uh signatures faded a little bit in the sun but it says uh um dorf smart dedicated was Dorff, smart, dedicated, demanding, you did me proud, hop. Yeah. And then Jack wrote, Dorff, with one F, thank hop for the recommendation. You did me proud, or something. You know, I don't know. And it's just like I still have. You've got to get Peter. I've talked to Peter.

I know, I need to get Peter on there. He'll probably come over just to sign the poster. Yeah. I mean, I'm a fan. I know the other two so well. So you still talk to Jack? Yeah, I haven't, since I've been home,

I actually owe a call up there. Is he all right? Check in with him. I hope so. I think so. Yeah. I think so.

Last time I saw him. I miss seeing him at the Oscars. I can't watch the Oscars anymore. I know, they're terrible. Without his face. Sitting up front, just sitting there. There's no credibility anymore.

I guess a whole new generation. I mean, I don't know the oscars to me seem now like dancing with the stars it's a little flat it just it seems like an episode of the voice or so i don't know there's weird stuff going on it's just the community so you know it's just lost its mojo something it's not what it doesn't feel like everyone's everyone's over there's too many award shows too there's too many award shows and everybody's so like there's so much it's all very transparent what everyone goes through to get an Oscar

to get prepared for the Oscar it's just this big sellout thing you know what I mean it doesn't feel like like you know when I was a kid you'd watch it was like royalty like Bob Evans, Warren Beatty Jack, Angelica you know like when I was a kid, you'd watch them, and it was like royalty. Yeah, like Bob Evans, Warren Beatty, Jack, Angelica, you know. That whole crew. I got slapped in the face by this guy that did not look like who he was.

I went to a birthday up at Jack's, a small little gathering, and it was like, you know, Warren and Annette and all the royalty. And I get slapped in the face really hard by this dude with white hair. And I look over, and it was Joe Pesci. And he's like, Dorf, you know, we always talk about you when we're golfing and stuff. You know, they want me to do this movie.

I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm quitting. Fuck this town. You know, and all this shit. And I'm like, Joe, that really hurt, man. And he's like, ah, come on. You can take it, kid.

We love you. We love you, Dorf. You know, and I was like, how do I get mad at Joe P pesci i love the guy but fucking hey he like nailed me he did get out kind of didn't he uh well no but he the movie he was talking about was i think this new scorsese one that he he ultimately is in so he either was the irishman or whatever it's netflix thing so i guess he was either holding firm at that point but he's funny he's like he's like yeah bob marty they all want me and i'm not doing it i'm not doing the fucking thing and i'm like i'm like well maybe you should you know you're you're pretty awesome in that threesome maybe maybe

that's exactly what you should do yeah you know i'm not an agent but yeah you know yeah come on joe i just like it so it's it's so it's such a great thing that you got to know all this that generation of that's been to me honest that's been my my most fun and I think the things that I take away the most out of purely like from the experience of sometimes it really working and clicking yeah like what what me and Mahersh had to play with on that going through three decades was amazing. Made me love acting again. But then the moments that really I take away aren't how much a hit movie made or this. It's really those relationships. It's like being able to count those guys. And also as I get older, losing a lot of those guys. So for me, that was how I learned what I do for a living. I learned from those guys.

Really? I learned from, yeah, I learned from, I say, I always say the acting school I went to was the best because I worked with the real guys, from Jack to Harvey Keitel to those directors, from Rafelson, Michael Mann, Oliver Stone, you know, to Sophia to, you know, to Willem Dafoe, to, you know, to those guys. That's the best acting school you can go to.

When did you, like, When did you start doing it? When you were like 15 or something? Acting? Yeah. Fuck. Was your mom in the business? No, my mom was just our mom. She was the lovely-

And your dad was writing country songs. My dad was writing all these fucking songs. Pop, too. He worked with Whitney Houston. He worked with Celine Dion. You know, all the divas. Barbra Streisand. So you were kind of on the-

It was a different zone of show business but it was in the house show business famous people would come through you know my dad's studio kind of similar to how you have a studio here at the house yeah my dad had his setup and so he'd have these people come over like what do you got yeah what do you got play me something steve you know you know i need a theme song for this TV show. And then he writes the theme song in 15 minutes and it becomes the theme song to Growing Pains, which we all grew up with, you know, like goes on for 10 years.

So he did all right for himself. Yeah, my dad did good. Yeah. Divorce, I think, hurt him twice, but he did well and he's healthy. How old were you when your parents divorced? I was older. I was 19. I was 19.

I was doing a movie in England, yeah. Got the call. Beatles movie, yeah. That was a big break for you. That was a big movie, I remember. I remember seeing it. You were great in it. It was an interesting angle on the Beatles.

Yeah, it was like a cool story. He played Stu. Yeah, Stu Sutcliffe and Astrid and that whole kind of early Hamburg day. That was an awesome part. I mean, it was weird. When I first got my first couple serious films, Power of One and Backbeat,

they're both to play English guys, like English South African or Liverpudlian and that in Backbeat. And all those great English actors in my category were just coming up, the Jude Laws, Ewan McGregors and stuff, but they weren't getting the parts. They were a little younger than you?

Yeah, a little, like I think a year or something. Oh, yeah. But they were all up for all these roles, but I kept getting these English parts. I'm like, well, I'm American. Am I ever going to play somebody with my own voice and not have to have a dialect coach? And then finally those guys started getting all those roles

and I started playing an American. But how old were you then? I was like 17 when I did Power of One. I was 19, I think, when I did Backbeat. I'm 45 now. Had you studied acting? No, I was basically found in my school. I went to this little,

I was found by this little commercial agent lady who asked my mom if I could go out on commercials. a little i went to this little uh i was found by this little commercial agent lady who said asked my mom if i could go out on commercials and my mom kind of said is that something you want to do steven and i said yeah it's something i want to do because i'd been with my dad on some sets right i saw kids on the set yeah going to school on the set and i was like the hell is this yeah this is what i want i want to be with adults and yeah i didn't want to be in these private schools. I didn't have a great schooling experience in Los Angeles. I never had a teacher that really found that curve in me. Why'd you get kicked out of that camp?

It wasn't that I was expelled. It was more just like I was asked politely, my mom, to not have him come back. That happened to me too for being a smartass. Yeah, smartass, class clown, leaving for three weeks if I got a gig, and then coming back would set the wrong tone for the other kids. Right. Whereas now they let anybody who's on a series into their school. They don't care.

Give them their books. They're so actor friendly. Back then they weren't. Then I went to a school, funny enough, called the Bel Air Prep, which was not in Bel Air. It was like by Tower Records off Holloway. Yeah. On Sunset? Yeah.

Yeah. West Hollywood. But they called it Bel Air Prep, which I never understood. And Jason Bateman went there. And I went there with Drew Barrymore. We were kind of in seventh, eighth grade together. And we were the Valley kids. So we took this van over the hill.

From the school? They come pick you up? Yeah. This little van would pick up the Valley kids. Yeah. So we'd go over there. and I remember going to school there, and then I ultimately got my diploma on Power of One in Africa where they sent it to me.

I got it in a FedEx or something, I don't know, some UPS thing, and I realized I graduated high school. I got it from a school called Montclair Prep, which was a private school. In New Jersey? No, it was in the Valley. But they they were just like the headmaster was just like i don't care if you act if you play football come to us and we'll give you whatever you need you know so he was like he was awesome so i had my teacher my private tutor and then i got my work from there

and i blah blah blah i got my got the diploma i got my diploma but i was about to go to college uh before i got that movie because i couldn't get a movie so i auditioned for all these theater schools you just like you just started doing commercials when you were a kid commercials and then i did this horror movie that um a lot of sci-fi horror people love called the gate so i didn't know what acting was it's a cult movie yeah it did really well and like people like tarantino like they worship this. And that's all they talk about. And you were in that.

Yeah, I've done three decades of other movies, but they'll always mention The Gate. That's the one for them. Oh, yeah. And were you like 16? No, I was like 12. 12? With fat and had a bowl haircut.

My grandma came with me, and I was up there for like six weeks in Canada. And I was like, this is cool. I just have to scream and shoot rockets into demons. This is like. Forever you're that guy. The gate. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, but, so you really just learned on the job, huh? Yeah, pretty much. You know, and then it was really like, kind of once I got into like, I got into some TV things. I got on Roseanne, I played the boyfriend. I did a couple scenes with John Goodman, so I was starting to realize what theatrical acting was as opposed to just commercial.

By doing three camera stuff? Yeah, just learning that, then learning film, getting a lot of attention on auditions, but not getting, just callbacks, but just not getting that role. Finally, John Ableton, who's not with us anymore but he had directed a lot of films i grew up watching like rocky karate kids and he was doing this boxing movie in africa big book and big production warner brothers and i was this unknown

guy but i was in the ring learning fighting training and for this guy who was a madman really made me work yeah and finally gave me the part and that was power of one yeah and that was a big change that was the big well that was like took me on a year journey to africa london working with sir john gilgood morgan freeman it was like whoa this is this is the shit and you're just like that and then you haven't really stopped working since you know i've hit some i've hit some lows here and there. I've had a weird career. You know, I've always said that directors are the ones that have kind of saved me because.

I mean, there's a lot of movies here, but I don't know a lot of them. Yeah, there was probably a string where I was getting paid doing movies that I probably shouldn't have done. Well, who decides that? I mean, you know, you get what you get, what you get offered, right? I guess, but isn't there somebody who's supposed to go like, maybe you shouldn't do this you know what well who decides that i mean you know you get what you get what you get offered right you know i guess but isn't there somebody supposed to go like maybe you shouldn't do this once yeah but i do i tend to like to spend money so i like to make money too not that it's the end all but i do like to the worst thing about that is is you know what you're making is never going to be great yeah which. Which is not a great feeling. Right. That's like you starting an interview knowing this is going to suck. Yeah.

No matter what I do, if I'm fucking Marlon Brando, it don't matter because we're never going to have the right equipment because we took all the money. Yeah. They're going to have a sound man that is never recorded sound. It's just never going to work. But the great thing about it is when i would do those movies those few or like maybe i'd say five of them out of my whole resume right

i had great people with me that i got to work with so i'd be like bob hoskins was in one that i did in budapest that you've never heard of called den of lions yeah but i got to work with bob hoskins it was fucking awesome we both knew it was a piece of shit, but it was at least, at least I got to work with him before he passed. You know, I did another one like called fear.com or something, which was like a internet killing movie. But I got to work with like Natasha McElhone and Stephen Ray and really cool actors,

you know? So like, I never was like in the middle of a, the worst experience with nobody. I always kind of went in with the team, but we kind of knew we weren't going to be making Gone with the Wind or something. So those movies,

it's sort of like you're getting paid for an education because you know going in that's sort of like, I don't know if anyone's going to see this movie. Well, yeah, because usually those movies have directors that the key element that you should decide, I think, as an actor is your first thing is what's on the page. Second is who's directing.

Third is who you can act with. Yeah. And those are, for me, the most important things. You're basically going the opposite. You're saying, that's what I'm making? Great. What about all these other things? Oh, I don't care, I guess.

Although I do care who I'm acting with. Right. But the director part is the one that kind of you miss. And when you're on a set for those movies, you find that most of the other actors know what's up too? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And then you have the other, well, then you have the other flip side where you're doing a big movie that's a big studio movie that's probably going to make a shit ton of money.

Yeah. It's going to be a big hit and I'm working with John Hurt, but I just didn't like the experience. You know, a movie called Immortals. Yeah.

I'm on a green screen for five months and it's just boring. Oh, so you're not really doing anything it's all dudes naked with abs everywhere and it's just not sexy and it's boring and it's just i wanted to kill myself and working with her it didn't make i love working with her and we had a couple drinks together and god man what a fucking awesome dude he was and we had some mutual friends so yeah uh i never got to act with him really unfortunately who in that movie hurt oh he was just around he had some mutual friends, so I never got to act with him, really, unfortunately. Who?

When that movie hurt. Oh, he was just around? Yeah, he had kind of a bookend part. You know, he's kind of in the... He's a great actor. He was great. Yeah, he's gone now, too. I know, man.

They're all fucking dropping, man. But I guess when you did Blade, that seemed like a big break, right? Yeah, I thought that was the... The ticket? The end of my career., I thought that was the... The ticket? The end of my career. Why? Because that was the first time I had said yes

to a high-concept commercial studio movie. I had been kind of a renegade up until then, working with Nicholson. I did a small movie with Mary Herron called I Shot Andy Warhol. Yeah, you're good in that, man. That's a weird little movie. That was great.

Yeah, I started doing shit that people were like, why won't he do a hit movie? Why won't he play the Holly with them? Did you like doing the, but you like taking risks, obviously. You were willing to do whatever. Well, yeah, and Blade was just the first one that they came at me hard with.

I had a big salary, and I was like, all right, I'll play the villain in this big vampire thing. I've always liked vampires, so I'm like, I could do this. And then, you know, we did it, and then I still thought it was gonna be the end of my career, and then it was like the biggest movie I'd ever done, so I was like, this is weird.

Why'd you think it would be the end? Because you would lose your- I just felt like a sellout, I felt like it was pre-Marvel, it was pre that that's all there is today. That was like the first Marvel movie, almost. Yeah, I mean, you know, the whole world now is like, you know, to find a cool drama that, you know,

me and you and some actors could go make as a feature is very rare these days. You know, they don't, maybe a handful of them every year. You know, there's, unless you're doing small indie things that they're going to fight to try to even get a release. Right. You know, you're basically in the comic universe now. That's right. I mean, everything is that. And all those indie movies, they make it to the screen maybe for a minute and then you just watch it on netflix or whatever you become a festival favorite and maybe you make it to the uh you know the dancing with the stars ceremony

in march or maybe next year it'll be in june because they they keep postponing it's like the whole year there's no more hosts anymore and they're just gonna they're gonna let people host it from their houses on skype yeah they're gonna do a contest i mean the oscars would be better if you just gave each person the award and gave the announcement over your podcast. They just have to come to Glendale to get it. Yeah, or just make a little video that they post on YouTube. But it wasn't the, I mean, so you thought you were a sellout and that was going to be the end of you. I did when I did that one.

But now, I mean, to this day, I still get the blade thing everywhere. I mean, it's just... Really? Yeah. The Blade and the Gate. The Gate, no, that's just for the weird freaks. The freaks, right. Yeah, that's for the freaks.

But you're still the guy from Blade forever. Yeah, big time, big time. But you worked with, like, you did weird, you did that John Waters movie. Yeah, I love working with John. They didn't want me to do a movie with John either. Who, your agents? My agents, yeah. They're like, no,'re like no no you got to do this movie and it was like a movie you've never heard of the one they wanted me to do the one i did with john was like his

big budget action movie it was awesome yeah like throwing oyster grenades at melanie griffith and it's about film terrorism and it's like shown in art colleges to this day like i love john he's like the coolest he He's still around. Smartest friend of mine still. He calls me on my birthday every year. Oh, yeah? I get this weird, hi, Steven, it's John.

How are you? Happy birthday. You know, whatever, in his weird voice. I love the guy. Yeah, he's great, man. He's the kind of guy you could have like, like he's the most polite sweetest guy you

would never know that the guy that comes up with the raunchiest no he seems like it i've never interviewed him i should i should i know it's like i kill it on this i should do it oh yeah he'd be great i i mean i should do it before it you know gets too late and so like in terms of these directors though like with all over stone that world trade center that was like i remember that came out and like I thought it was a great movie but it didn't seem

to hang out that long maybe it's too heavy it's a tough thing it was five years anniversary when it came out it was a well made movie and I thought Oliver

did a great job and it touched me because I was in New York ten blocks from that when it happened I was in Astoria on my roof I was in

near Soho really and the wind when the wind moved you know I had to go uptown I couldn't get out at that point when it happened. I was in Astoria on my roof. I was in near Soho. Really? And the wind, when the wind moved, I had to go uptown, I couldn't get out. At that point, you just wanna be with your family because my mom, I wanted to be with my mom, my brother, my dad, I wanted to know,

is LA next, what's going on? My generation had never seen something like this. So nobody had. So it was important that I thought did that film. What was it like working with him? It was cool. He's very quiet, very intense. Oh, really?

But yeah, it made me work to get that part, and I needed the part because I wanted to show him I could play. He's like, you can't do this. You're too cute for this. I said, well, Oliver, I'm an actor. I can show me what he looks like, and I can meet Scottott talk on the phone i can i get his voice i know he's from massapequa and you know long island i you know i said let me

i want to do something i want to do something in this film you know and this is the best part i think for me i don't there's nothing else right so he you know sure enough made me wait a couple months he shot a lot of the stuff in new york and when it came time to get into the the big rescue sequence uh which is what scott and michael shannon yeah those those parts right right part the marine comes calls the su they came down went in the rubble and cut these guys out of the rubble that was done in the studio we did it all at howard hughes hangar uh yeah in playa de vista yeah and uh and they rebuilt 9-11 out there. It was pretty, it was all outside. The pile of steel. Pretty much, yeah.

Oh, man. Choppers flying over. I mean, it was, I can understand why the movie wasn't a huge blockbuster. They weren't trying to, like, I don't think make money off it. It was more like, I think they even donated a lot of the box office to it. But I think it did, like, 70, 80 mil in America. You know, it did a couple hundred mil worldwide yeah and uh and but like in terms of directors everyone's different you know like every captain's different you know i mean like sofia is the most gentle sweet you know have a

tea and let's yeah do a scene of course like right unreal yeah experience yeah uh Let's fly to Milan and shoot a scene there. Okay. And then you're like with your friend and that great DP that gave me the knife, Harris Savides, had shot that movie and he was a genius and he passed away right after that. But yeah, I mean, Sophia to Michael Mann. Michael Mann, what was that like?

Which movie was that? That was Public Enemies. Oh, yeah. Which was cool. I got to, it was right after my mom passed, and I was in a pretty sad state, but I, you know, my mom, I was with her when he offered it to me, and I said,

I really love Michael Mann, Mom, but I don't know if I can go and do a movie right now, you know, because I knew my mom was. She was sick? Different than my brother. Yeah, I knew she was going any day. So when I met with Michael, I just said, look, you're Michael Mann.

You can do whatever you want to do. There's a million people in line for this part. This is what's going on in my life. Was it Dillinger? What was the movie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Public Enemy. I played Homer Van Meter, who's kind of Depp's right hand in the gang.

And I told Michael what I was dealing dealing with and he said yeah look i'll get you caught up on prep later you do what you have to do but i want you in the movie to be good for you and i was like what a mensch you know yeah and uh and so i i was with my mom i was able to have that closure oh do what i needed to do and then i shipped out and everybody from johnny on was uh really supportive and sweet to me what'd she have? She had a brain tumor. Wow. Small little fucking tumor the size of an M&M that was in just the wrong part of the brain.

You know, couldn't go and get it. So you have to try to shrink it and do all this other advanced medicine. And we did pretty good with it for about a year and then it comes back. Right. That's how Harris died. That's how Sidney Pollack died.

That's how. Harris. Harris-Cevedes, that DPO. Oh, the same thing? Same thing, went to my mom's doctor. back that's how harris died that's how sydney pollack died that's how harris harris avides that dpo the same thing same thing went to my mom's doctor yeah you see how it too huh same little thing sydney pollack same thing and uh you know it's so it's uh yeah but at least you know we lost my mom way too young 59 but but she was such a special lady. But it was my brother that really was something else because those surprise phone calls, that shit's just the worst, man. It's terrifying.

It's heartbreaking. Yeah, I mean, every morning I wake up, like I'll wake up in the middle of the night to that reoccurring phone call. It's like a bad dream, you know? And all I can do is now with kind of the good stuff that's been happening, just try to do great work for my brother.

And I bought Nashville kind of as an homage to him. So I'm going to host events for his nonprofit on the property. I'm there to kind of be a face there as well, more than I ever was before for my father to help him because we own this big catalog of songs with Universal, his publisher. Just kind of keep getting these songs cut.

My brother's had three number ones since he's been gone. Seriously? Yeah, he's had Rascal Flatts number one, yours if you want it. He's got a new Carrie Underwood single coming out that's awesome called Ghosts on the Stereo or Ghosts on the Radio. And these were just ones he had around?

Yeah, we own a thousand of them. That he wrote? Yeah, he was an amazing lyricist, amazing. Wrote all Blake Shelton's hits, My Eyes, he wrote Kenny Chesney's hits, he was kind of the new breed. He was on his way to lap on my dad for sure. That's what's kind of even more painful about it is for a

long time he didn't have money and he was always my brother the son of my dad and he was always trying to figure out his niche right and he was the only one that moved down there and just sat there while they weren't cutting his songs and i'd be like what are you fucking doing out there you know fuck these southern does he play did he play no he was more of just a little beat poet he was like a he's just a lyricist yeah like awesome and he's just sitting down in nashville writing him writing not getting anything cut eight years go by borrowing money from me my dad and i'm like andrew come to la or new york you know so many people you're a genius you can work write songs for beyonce write songs for i mean we'll get you in with somebody else yeah they're not cutting your songs he's like steve it takes time i'm building something building something sure enough when that shit rocked he was making more money than me and

my dad i was borrowing money from him uh and i was like are you fucking kidding me and the kid was right he created his own niche and so when you go to nashville andrew means something more than my dad or me because we don't work there every day my dad's known as the hollywood guy right you know he'll dip hollywood country yeah he'll go in and dip in and do a george straight session but he's out my brother was there just writing every day with writers just sitting there writing smoking cigars yeah drinking champagne he was a special kid that's i'm, man. That's rough. I can actually send you over a book Universal did of his lyrics.

It's beautiful. Because each song is almost like a movie. You may get inspired to write a movie or something. I'll have one sent over. Oh, that'd be great. And they published it? They did. I think they made like a couple thousand.

Trivia? Yeah, they passed them out at the Country Music Awards one year. They've done really, Universal's stepped up. Usually you die and they forget you. You know, that's just what I've realized about life. They kind of usually, you know, you leave your legacy, but shit moves on. Yeah, people don't, I don't know if they handle,

or I don't know what you're supposed to do with it, but it does seem that when you pass. Just people's lives, you move on. It's the next day, what do I got? Oh, I got a coffee with Marc Maron, I'm doing a podcast. I mean, you just, you kind of have to move on almost. But Universal has been like really special, classy. Like they have a room at Universal in Nashville

that they dedicated to my brother. So now when all their writers come in to do a writing session in one of these writers rooms, it's the Andrew room, so there's pictures of him. Cigars. Was he older or young? He was younger, he was 40 when he died. Oh man.

Yeah, he would've been 42, because I'm gonna be 46 in July, end of July. Yeah man, well that's good that there is a legacy and that you're honoring it and that he's getting the respect. Yeah, and also the music stays alive, so it's nice when i hear them turn on the radio or something you hear it and i hear my brother's song it's pretty dope that's great man that's what he would have wanted yeah well that's great so now that i understand it there was never a point where you're like

this isn't working out i gotta do these things some of the movies do you know what i mean like you just like you like you always had a reason for working, but it wasn't because you were like in trouble. No. I mean, there was times where I ran out of money, you know, and had had some loans that I needed to pay off. Right. Right. Luckily, I'm kind of a late bloomer. I've never been married and I haven't had to support anybody but myself.

Right. And my brother when he needed money until he started killing it. Yeah. But there was never a point where it's like it was a dark time for Dorf. Yeah, I mean, I never, the good news about me is I come, I credit my family, I credit my mom and dad.

I mean, I had a very tight-knit family and I think somehow along the way I've had that voice of reason from my mother even in the darkest of times where i could have ended up in a pile of fucking blow and just you would have been reading about me or you would have seen me arrested and many times yeah and i never went that way yeah funny enough because i'm frankly kind of square when it comes to drugs because of my mother i think think, in a weird way. I have that weird thing in my head too. I come from a pretty gnarly life.

I've been partying. I love to drink. I love to smoke weed. I mean, I like to let go. Yeah. But that's all I ever did. And that's what I think saved me. Oh, so you never got into the book.

Never got into all the other shit. Yeah. Never got into the new wave of drugs, what people are doing. I just never, my friends, I just, for me, it's best when I'm too tipsy or too stoned to just go to sleep or have a driver take me home. Not do blow to do more.

Yeah, and just have the party continue and continue and continue. And I credit, I think, my family for that because once I never tried it, why am I going to go and why go start it now? It seems pretty stupid. I miss the best times. The world is changing dramatically. You had your window for blow.

I have my window. It's gone. Yeah, you missed it. It's fucking gone. You don't have to do it. It's all right. It's all right. Well, yeah, for me, I always had that part of me that's sort of like I don't want to go too far.

I don't want to get lost. Yeah. Like, I did blow. But, like, you almost can see the end. So if you can visualize that, why am I going to go to it? Well, yeah, you don't have that bug where it's just sort of like you lose your whole fucking life down the hole. Yeah. You must have seen a lot of dudes go down, though.

Oh, yeah. From everybody. Yeah. I mean, from everybody. Yeah. I mean, I just, you know, I'm really, really lucky and blessed that I'm still here and now getting the chance to hopefully do some of the best stuff I've ever done. I feel like that's going to happen, man. I mean, but you did like- I'm much more humble, too.

I mean, I was kind of an asshole when I was young. I was kind of confused. I mean, you know- In what way? Just cocky? kind of confused. I mean, you know. In what way?

Just cocky? I think so. And just trying to maintain it all when you're young and you're kind of grow up in this dump and then you fucking, you know. Yeah. I finally start seeing the world and working with artists.

I think acting helped me. That was my education. That was where I met adults that I was like, wow, they're really smart. Wow, I got to listen and watch them. And, you know, because in LA, you're in a bubble of a bunch of rich kids. I Wow, I got to listen and watch them. And, you know, because in L.A.,

you're in a bubble of a bunch of rich kids. I mean, I was going to school with the, you know, Prince of Kuwait son and whatever. I was going to birthday parties where their kids are getting Bentleys for their 16th birthday. You know, just bullshit. Just shit that's not real.

Shit that I can't stand about L.A. now. I mean, I love nice things, but I'm not a flaunter. I've never been a flaunter. I've never been a flaunter. I've never been one to. Well, you're out in Malibu. That's probably as flaunty as I get,

but I'm also moving. You got to drive to flaunt when you live in Malibu. Hey, let me show you where I live. It's only going to take you

two hours. No, we're going to the club. No, but no, I mean, I'm actually moving out of Malibu, it looks like.

Nashville. Well, I got this place and I'm in the process of selling my spot. In Malibu? I just need a change, yeah. Well, I think the thing that struck me when I saw True Detective, and I don't know nothing. I'm really out of the loop with a lot of stuff until somebody tells me. Yeah. And it was almost like you know you

were you're born again somehow like you know like it was like i'd never seen you before and i have of course and everybody has but like that role it was like what the fuck where's this coming from i mean you were always there but i have to imagine that it's put you on the radar in some whole different way you're a different age and you can fucking carry a lead. No problem. But also, you know, to do that character with that accent in that, you know, through those generations with the amount of depth you were able to bring to it was kind of amazing. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it.

I mean, did you feel that when you were doing it or was just another role? No, I felt a natural, I mean, it's, you know, not to make the whole episode or podcast about my brother, but it was weird. It was a weird time. I was in Nashville. It was a year, coming up on a year of his passing, and I was having a party for his community out there.

And Vicki Thomas, who's an amazing casting director, they were asking, I got a random call while I was in Nashville that I was one of a few people that they were considering for the lead of the new True Detective opposite Mahershala Ali. And I was a fan of Mahershala's. I really liked him in Moonlight, but I really liked him in House of Cards. And I thought, I didn't realize he had been acting so many years before, doing parts in everything, but just not having a lead or a supporting role until recently. Until Moonlighting? Yeah, pretty much, until House of Cards, until some of that, I guess.

So, to make a long story short, I said I can't make that meeting, but I'll be happy to read on tape or something, but I'm going to Nashville for this, this is what's going on, and my instinct was, maybe I should call Vicki Thomas. I never get to call casting directors because I'm always usually either offered the part

or I pass on the part. And the casting process when you're going for the lead or the second lead is not usually, you don't usually have to meet the casting director. Right. So I never get to really meet a lot of these cool cast directors

that I've known for years that I used to audition to. So I said, you know what? My instinct is I should call Vicki and she should hear it from me what's going on in my life. Yeah. So I was just very honest and I said, here know what? My instinct is I should call Vicki and she should hear it from me, what's going on in my life. So I was just very honest and I said, here's the deal.

This is what I'm doing and I have to do it and I've organized it for a month and a half and I got 200 of Andrew's closest friends coming. She's like, you got to do that, Stephen. You come back,

as soon as you're back, we'll lay it down on tape. She was like a mensch, like Michael Mann. Yeah. So I came back, I laid the tape down. Next day I was in HBO and the next day i was in hbo and

and the next day i was i had they wouldn't give me scripts i'd never you know up until my offer i hadn't had a script you know and i'm like i've never said you know about it well i've never said yes to a part without knowing what happens and nick pisolato's like wrote me an email and he said you have no idea steven this is you're going to knock this out of the part you age to your mid 70s it's three decades roland is so important to this project but I don't want you to read it until you know I know you're in yeah and I said all right well you have your process and Nick I'm a huge fan and I love the first one I didn't connect to the second one like yeah like you had said I was also

working and I just didn't get a flow with it right first one I thought was magic right yeah that was brilliant Harlson Harrelson is like oh he's brilliant in it and matthew mcconaughey i thought was the best i've ever seen him yeah the whole thing was brilliantly shot brilliantly the mood the energy the writing i was just like this is the best thing on tv since the sopranos for me i waited every week to watch it like a fan so cut to i got two scenes for my audition for Nick and I have no problem reading if I have to read and I know it's gonna be good I'll fucking read

I love acting you know so give me something to read that I like I ain't gonna audition for fear.com you know I'm not you know I'm not

but I'll fucking I'll go fight for a role if I have to fuck it I don't have an ego with that this is what I do I'm an actor

it's a crazy profession you know so I I fucking go in I get these two scenes and I felt very natural with this accent with that this is what i do i'm an actor it's a crazy profession yeah you know so i uh i fucking go in i get these two scenes and i felt very natural with this accent and they had said don't do an accent a lot of people i guess coming in dumbing it up with this southern accent i said well this guy's got to have an accent it's written that way i said i'm just going to trust myself and i was listening to a lot of my brother's country stuff on the way to the HBO in Santa Monica. I go in there and I laid it down

and to the day of my brother's passing, they offered me the role. A year after? Then they started sending me the scripts. It was a year to the day? Yeah, a year to the day. Two at a time. And I'm reading these scripts just around my house

going this is the weirdest thing in 30 years. I've never not known what the part is before taking it yeah but now i'm getting to know what the part is and the part is the best part in the show it's like i just got he's got the best lines the the sense of humor is on fire he's got heart he's this is the best role i i've ever gotten and i get eight hours to play him i don't have to squeeze it into 90 minutes or two hours you know where you get your your big scenes you know you got a nail right and you're out and you hope that it all works right this is all you this is just me and Mahersh and I'm going to work with that with that actor and he's awesome and when God knows who else is going to be in this cast and these scripts are this good the I got seven of the eight yeah Mahersh and me didn't get eight until halfway through shooting because Nick hadn't actually,

he knew how it was gonna end, but he didn't pen it down. So he was still writing when he was shooting. He had outlined it, eight, but I got the first seven and I never remember me running around the house going, I can't believe how many amazing scenes there are. I mean, this old age shit is insane.

How are we gonna do this shit? Is it gonna be hokey? Is the makeup gonna be good? good you know all the questions and that that team was just on yeah a plus production a plus you know just producing just everybody that cares about what they're making and the crew from from the lighting guys to the gaffers to the camera boys they're all my friends still focus pullers i mean like you do something for seven months, 120 day shoot or something, and I think I worked probably 110. Mahersh, I think, worked every day except for one.

You do something like that, you really create a family, and I'd never experienced a series type thing like that, living the way the world's going, and to be honest, to me, that's the money. If you can find, my biggest problem is now is, how do you find something as good as that? know right it's not a show about dragons or a show about this or you know something that's a little more futuristic everything has an angle true detective what's great about it is just grounded it's just writing and acting yeah there's no real we're not no

bullshit we're not flying we're not it's just it's it's shit and boots you know and it's awesome and and so I love that. I mean, my only fear is, It's you sitting with a dog. What the fuck am I gonna do now? Yeah, yeah. But like, so the accent just, you didn't like, So it came really natural.

But it wasn't an Arkansas accent or what? No, it was kind of more of like a Texas Arkansas drawl. Okay, yeah. Is what, it was kind of a, I had done Texas in a small movie that I actually made with my buddy Ryan downstairs who's a big fan of yours we made a pretty cool movie that you

might like too maybe I'll send you that too called Wheeler did he write it your pal? there was no script we just basically created an idea and then a ballsy idea of what if I went to pay homage to my brother was still alive at this point yeah

I've written some music in the past but I just never of what if I went to pay homage to, my brother was still alive at this point. I've written some music in the past, but I just never really went that way professionally because I was always busy, plus that's my dad and my brother's thing, and I don't really want to have an album at that point. I was like, I'm just gonna, I'll write these for me, and one day maybe I'll use them in a movie. Because I love playing, I play piano and guitar,

and I love music, but it's not what I do for a living. So I had this idea in my living room. I wasn't getting any movies. I was kind of in a funk and me and Ryan are like, what if we dropped

into Nashville as a singer-songwriter and did more like a documentary with just a treatment, you know, without the ending or maybe a beginning,

middle and end and fill it and just put them on its feet and film it the way Sacha Baronon cohen would do a comedy get releases yeah get access through some friends in the biz which we have right but really make this character live on his own and how can we do that when i'm the guy from blade and i have that face that some people do know yeah i'm not tom cruise but i do have that thing Are you happy you're not Tom Cruise?

Yeah I'm a sucker for Tom Cruise I think he's still pretty No but I mean like are you happy with your play? Yeah I have I mean to be honest True Detective's been gnarly because the power of a show that hits the zeitgeist like that show and when it's received well I you know every day somebody comes up to me about that it's pretty that's different

You like it? I usually get yeah I don't love it. Yeah. But I do like the response. Sure. Because I. You like, you did good work and they like the work. Yeah.

But it's like you want to be able. And I like, that fucking season sucked. Right. You know, it's like, I'll take the fucking nice thing. But, so anyway, I said, fuck, let's go, let's call Christian Tinsley, who's a great makeup man and I'd worked with on a couple movies. And I said, what can you do to my face to change my chin or my nose, my face?

We put a wig on. How can I drop into Nashville for two weeks and shoot a movie as a singer-songwriter? I'll get a fucking spot at the Bluebird. I'll get a fucking, in a writing round here and there and there. It'll make my brother nervous, but I'll get some access, and then I'll let it live,

and it'll either fall on its ass or it'll live, and we'll come up with a narrative and make a movie. And he's like, this is a bananas idea. I said, think Sacha Baron Cohen, how he would do Barad or one of his. I'm doing a drama. Wheeler Bryson, he's from Kauffman, Texas. He drives all the way into Nashville. It's his first time. His daddy's just died, and he just wants to see if his music means anything to this town the way it did

back in his small town yeah American Dream story right so I write the whole album I sing the whole fucking album and we went under prosthetics and I went into Nashville

for 14 days and we shot this movie LA Times New York Times loved it bad release not too many people have seen it but it's the kind of movie

that I think over years and over time people really trip you should I gotta watch it I gotta show it to you i don't want to watch blood and wine too but wheeler was fun and so the point of that story was i had this cool accent and i kind of just used a little bit of wheeler without the texas thing so much into roland and the naturalness of it came through and i just trusted it i didn't work with a dialect coach i just i

had a connection to this part in a weird way yeah i i that i never had before i i trusted it I didn't work with a dialect coach I just I had a connection to this part in a weird way yeah I that I never had before I felt it I didn't have to do much I didn't know who you were for like an hour well yeah well that wig doesn't help in the 80s but I mean my 80s look but still like I just could it was so organic that like I wasn't you know what I mean it's and Mahersh is so great in it too I mean just the whole connection it's really a show about character was tricky man I mean like you really grounded that whole fucking that whole season you know because his character was like he was he was hard to like you know for a while yeah I mean the acting was great yeah but it was a difficult character yeah he's a he's a stone cold, tough, quiet.

That last beat at the end, I thought was genius. I think they wanted Nick to cut that, and he's like, I'm not cutting that. I thought it was great, because the poetry of it, man. Yeah, I love Nick. I'll never forget that dude. He gave me a gift there. Yeah, so how has it changed your life?

Well, I did a film, a really cool film right after that I think is coming more at the end of this year. It's called Embattled. I played this UFC, kind of like a Conor McGregor type guy, which was really hard to play after Roland. Roland because Roland was so rich and so soulful and had so much heart that I went right into this really ignorant, obnoxious beast of a guy, but it was a really well-written part. Did you have to get all ripped or was it? Yeah, I got pretty big for it. I went right from True Detective into that. I finished that in like mid-November, had the holidays and then um january we went on the press thing for true detective i went to europe a few times i did some of that because

maherchla was busy with the oscar i mean the timing of right this season was bananas it was very similar to the first one when matthew had dallas buyers club but in a way that academy campaign was coinciding with detective i mean yeah mean, what a year for Hirsch. Yeah, someone's got to go rep the show. Yeah, so I was flying around. I went to Lisbon, London a few times, Paris. I did kind of the dance out there for the show. And did well internationally? Yeah, yeah, they loved it.

They all loved it. And then you came back. And then I came back, and I've been reading scripts. I found a couple of cool things that I like and kind of in the process of figuring out what I'm going to do. I mean, I've been trying to be picky. I did a show with David Ayer, director, who he did End of Watch and Fury and Suicide Squad. Intense dude, but good movie maker and we made we made a new show called Deputy

which is a show I didn't want to make but ultimately did and I had a really good experience I only made the first one so I made a pilot of it oh so you don't know

if it's going to go or not yeah I mean they say it is but I won't know until I know so right now I'm going to focus

on what you know try to find a good movie to do and there's been a couple that I like there's a cool one that I don't know why the West keeps following me, whether it's country or I don't know.

It got that grit to you. I don't know what it is, but they want me to play an old rodeo clown, kind of like a bull rider, kind of like the wrestler was for Mickey Rourke, but almost like a 46-year-old rodeo clown who used to ride and was a bit of a legend, but he's so broken and he's kind of bone-on-bone, cartilage, just steroided out. And that's why he had to become a clown? Yeah, he becomes a rodeo clown, but he gets back on and it's kind of this pretty awesome, it's called The Last Carnival.

It's a pretty cool movie. Whose movie is that? It's a first-time director, a friend of mine. And it's the best script I've read. I mean, everything else that i've read i mean everything else that i've read has been so bad that i don't know how to that's the problem when you get something so special yeah what do you how do you follow it right and you would think that like you would think that you'd be getting like you know special scripts but i guess they're they're just rare in

general they're rare in general right i mean they're just not around yeah you can win the oscar like maherish and then what do you do next you next when he found a movie I guess he's going to do some sci-fi movie but we all know what the scripts are that are out there there's not many of them that's the thing that's why I think Mahershala was so smart to go after Nick he went after Nick for True Detective

and Nick changed the part for him do you have good things to say about Arkansas yeah I had a great time in Fayetteville. Fayetteville and Bentonville are kind of known for the Waltons, basically, because they started Walmart and they've infused so much money. They've made a big art museum down there, I think. Huge. Yeah, Willow's.

I mean, Crystal Bridges. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, de Kooning's, you know, Edward Hopper, some of the most incredible paintings you've ever seen. And that's just all Alice Walton just paying back to the community, buying amazing paintings in auction and putting them in this free museum.

So they're not all bad. No, I mean, you know, they seem pretty good to the community. They bought a beautiful theater in Fayetteville. Fayetteville, where we were based, is more of a liberal little bar town, college town, and so really nice people. I made some good friends there that's good you know i really liked it you go out 10 minutes out of these towns and you're kind of in you're in red state america definitely where where shit hasn't changed in many years for these people yeah they're holding the line yeah i i kind of would stay in fayetteville

and then we basically the show took us on all these incredible journeys through the Ozarks, whether it was Devil's Den to Northwest Arkansas. You know, just we shot everywhere. That's cool. And doesn't Bateman shoot down there too? He shoots in Atlanta most. They shoot that show in Atlanta. You guys friends?

Yeah, he's a really nice guy. I've known him since we went to school. I know, we went to school. I know. Kids. And I read funny enough, I was in Atlanta and he came up to me and I hadn't seen him, but he congratulated me. He told me how he tried to get our DP,

but he got our editor. He basically took for a whole true detective for this new show. He's working on, he's working on a new show that he's the producer of that. He's I think got a cameo in, but it's a, it's like a murder mystery hbo is ozark's already over no he's still doing that too kids like guys on fire he's like doing two at once in atlanta i guess when you get your window you gotta take it yeah he's always been a nice dude and his wife amanda i've known for years since my first girlfriend he seems like a pretty genuine guy i've interviewed him and i've run into

him and he's always real nice. Yeah, you gotta be happy for people like that because he's just... He's good too and he knows what he's capable of. He is, yeah, he is good. Well, it was great talking to you, buddy. Mark, that was awesome, man. Yeah, I wish I could...

Thanks for having me. I wish I could tell you, I feel like I should be like, just take that knife, but I'm not gonna give it to you. No, no, no, no, you keep it. I'm gonna keep my knife. You've got a few. Yeah it to you. No, no, no, no, no. You keep it. I'm going to keep my knife. You've got a few.

Yeah, man. All right. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, Mark. That was Dorf. We're still in touch. He sent me a beautiful book of his brother's work and words and pictures. Just what a solid guy.

Now I'm going to play some airy, sad guitar for you. © transcript Emily Beynon Boomer lives! 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 and ACAS Creative. Ontario Cannabis Store, and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March

9th at 5pm in Rock City at TorontoRock.com.