WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1381 - Elizabeth Banks

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

Elizabeth Banks says she’s the kind of person who likes to get ‘A’s on tests. And in show business, directing feature films for Hollywood studios is the ultimate test. Elizabeth and Marc talk about how her imposter syndrome faded over the past few years and how Elizabeth feels like she’s acing the test as she finishes up her third film as director. They also talk about the uncomfortable timeliness of her new movie, Call Jane, and why she jumped at the chance to host the game show Press Your Luck. 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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A lot has happened for her since then. She's been directing and producing films. She's been very politically active. She's been a game show host. Currently, she's in the film Call Jane, which is now playing in theaters. I enjoyed that film very much, and I was excited to talk to her. I don't know why. She's just one of those people I feel familiar with and feel like I get along with, so it

was kind of a fun chat. This is Monday. You're listening to this on Monday. Tomorrow is Election Day. Vote. If you haven't voted, I imagine many of you have already voted. I imagine most of the people that listen to this show are voting tomorrow or have already done so uh look i don't uh i don't know what's gonna happen but i know it's not good it hasn't been good since 2016 really whatever we were

hanging our hope on if you had any which i didn't uh was just some kind of placeholder and that placeholder i don't know if it really worked out it doesn't seem like it did and i had some realizations in texas i really did of all places texas i had the realizations and i'm doing shows i got several dms several emails from people more than usual saying look i was almost too depressed to go to the show i you know i'm barely holding on i don't know what to do. These are people who live in Texas, so it's compounded a bit there. And they felt better.

They felt less alone. They felt, you know, a certain amount of joy to be seen because of the nature of why I do comedy. That's all you can do, man, if you're a creative person. I went to the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Look, I was in Dallas. I was in San Antonio. Stayed at a funky hotel. Ate some good barbecue in Dallas.

Stayed at a weird hotel in San Antonio. I always enjoy Houston because some rich fuckers, you know, made a lot of nice parks and owned a lot of nice art and created a lot of nice museums there. And the a lot of nice art and created a lot a lot of nice museums there and the Rothko Chapel is there Mark Rothko uh the brilliant abstract artist and this is all coming together for me because you know I dated a painter Sarah who did beautifully colorful paintings abstract paintings and at some point we talked about it and she painted almost as an antidepressant. It came from a place to sort of, to kind of like, you know, shine a light into her

own darkness. And if you look at Rothko over the arc of his career, you know, the colors he used for a while, you could see the same thing happening is that there are these floating sort of shapes in these kind of almost like um uh abstract mists you know just two or three colors usually you know rectangular floating uh no edges and to me it was to me it was it was perfectly uh uh peaceful and had a tremendous effect on my disposition. I can stand in front of a Rothko for 20 minutes. So I guess it seems that Rothko was commissioned in 1964 to do these paintings for this spiritual space that was designed by Philip Johnson.

It's a non-denominational chapel, all faith kind of spiritual space is what they call it. And there is, I guess, like 14 murals, if you call them that. They're large canvases, abstract and very Rothko-esque. And what was fascinating about this visit to the Rothko Chapel is I'm thinking about all these things. I'm thinking about what am I really doing? I'm not a huge star. I have my fans and my relationship with them is very specific. I'm trying to keep my shit together. That is the theme of my work. And I'm trying to see things in an honest way or in a different way to shed light on things as I keep my shit together. And those are the kind of people that enjoy what I do. And what I do provides something for them. It makes them feel better. It's heavy,

but I got some heavy people, emotionally heavy, sensitive people, empaths, people aggravated existentially about things totally out of the control that seem to be coming down on them every day. And I go to this Rothko Chapel having been a fan of his and having been there many years ago on my first traveling, like probably 35 years ago, and it's been renovated a bit. But I realized this is a spiritual space. These are huge murals, huge pieces that surround. It's almost octagonal. I don't know what shape it is, but they're on every wall.

And there's benches and some sitting pillows if you want to do that. And they're huge. They take up the whole wall. And they're dark. They're deep purples they're they're a kind of um multi-layered black purplish things you know some of them are lighter than others but when i was looking at him this time in this spiritual place and when you think spiritually you think uplifting and i'm looking into the fucking abyss in these paintings you

know people get married in this place they meditate in this place and it's not uplifting it's a quiet space but at that point i believe mark rothko that the colors had gone out for him they had gone out he did the the the se's Commission for the Four Seasons Hotel after that. And those are some of my favorite paintings of his. You can see them in the tape. And the light is gone. It's like it's bleak as fuck. But it's true.

And it's his truth. And whether it was coming from his mind or not, he was such a capable artist at that point that he could speak for the human spirit. He owned part of the human spirit. He could represent part of the human spirit and you make your choices. If you pay your dues and you do your shit and you keep putting your stuff out in the world, keep creating and you are,

are gifted with some sort of talent, then you speak for the human spirit. That's part of the language of art. And I didn't realize until this time in this life and what we're all dealing with and what he was dealing with at the time, I think his health was fading, you know, and he was, you know, not well.

He committed suicide in 1970 and he didn't see the completion of this thing. I don't know when he completed the canvases. But the truth he was seeing, the part of the human spirit he was representing, was the darkness. And he brought to that darkness his craft. And he created a context for it. And framed it. And elevated it as a fundamental existential truth.

But sitting in that chapel for me at this point in time was not uplifting. But it elevated my spirit to be in the realization of profound darkness. There's a master's hand. It spoke to my heart. It speaks to the heart. It is a plane that is meditative, but it's ethereally bleak. And you can build from that.

So whatever you bring to that place, to those paintings, to the art of darkness, you can reflect in that. And it's a hell of a foundation to see your life against. It might be the purest vision of your life and who you are framed against darkness against the abyss against a bleak unforgiving universe and that to me that realization was tremendous i walked out of there like i get it man i get it and i thought about what i do not that i'm r Rothko, but why do I fester in the pain of whatever I live with and in my fear? Why do I work from that space? Because that's how I contextualize it. That's how I feel it emotionally. That's how I put it out there and I make it funny. So it sinks in and then you see yourself. What's at the core?

So it sinks in and then you see yourself. What's at the core. And then I went to the Museum of Fine Arts over in Houston. They had this Philip Guston. I think that's how you say his last name. Philip Guston show. And I never got his stuff completely. It was sort of cartoonish, but I never saw the entire arc of his paintings.

And I got that too. Again, he's dealing with racism. He's dealing with figurative Klansmen in cartoon modes in his paintings. And this sort of kind of weird cartoonish chaos. It was all there. You know, power, oppression, terror. All there. Like, it just, the whole thing blew my mind the trip to houston was elevating and completely relevant in light of what we're dealing with and what's going to come down

probably tomorrow so how do we keep creating how do we keep not hope but how do we how do we hold on to our humanity to our spirit in light of the worst parts of the human animal succeeding and taking power it's a challenge but it's been met by generations and generations and generations of creative people who find a way to elevate the human spirit i don't know if we can do anything politically but it's time to fucking uh connect it's time to fucking find that part of you that cares about people for real i'm talking to myself man so yeah vote we'll see what. But prepare for the fucking worst. So, look, this movie that Elizabeth Banks is in, it's quite intense and real. It's historical. It's about the call. Jane was a service that there were women who were providing abortions for people who needed them when they were illegal. And it was just a group of women.

Some learned how to do them because that's what needed to be done. So it's totally relevant to the situation we're in now. It's not the exact same situation. options now but it does really connect you with what it means when women have no fucking rights over their physical autonomy and she's also got other stuff going and she also has hope so don't let my negativity don't let my negativity bring you down because this conversation is pretty chipper. This is me talking to Elizabeth Banks. Carl Jane is now playing in theaters. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats.

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FX's Shogun. A new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. How are you? I'm great. Yeah? I'm all right.

Yeah, I'm tired. Wow, this is going downhill quick. We started great. I just want to be honest. And then we're okay. And then we're tired. Do you want to add some more words? You know, you just get to a place of exhaustion that's constant. I am there.

But how old are your kids now? Nine and 11. Oh, so that's doing it? Yeah, it's real. Yeah. And, you know, and I just came back from New Zealand. I was gone a long time, so I'm also catching up with my life. Where were you?

New Zealand? I went to Newaland to make a film is it that cocaine movie no that i made in ireland so wait so what was going on new zealand did you buy a house no i'm not ready to give up on uh the u.s just yet oh wow i won't be i won't be one of those people i'm gonna fight from the inside that's gonna be my plan i i appreciate that let me know what i can do from canada to help you what was going on new zealand i made a movie called a mistake and this is just acting yeah just acting you didn't produce it nope what's it about it's based on a best-selling book about a surgeon who makes a mistake in surgery all the ramifications

of that. My dad was a surgeon. No kidding. I actually knew that, I think. People look for mistakes. There's a whole business around trying to find mistakes. That's part of it. So how was that experience in New Zealand?

Good? Yeah. The people were amazing. The place is beautiful. It was winter, though. What does that mean? Snow? It was raining a beautiful. It was winter, though. What does that mean? Snow? It was raining a lot.

It was cold. Pretty much every day off it poured rain, so I didn't explore as much as I would have liked to. Yeah, I hear it's beautiful. It is, yeah. That's not where I would go, by the way. No. I don't have that kind of money.

You know what I don't understand is these rich people who want to kind of bunker in. It's like, what are you going to do with that life? Why would you want to be fucking know, kind of bunker in. It's like, what are you going to do with that life? Yeah. Why would you want to be fucking alive for that? I don't know. I know.

It's sort of, we did it. We survived the thing. Let's go outside. Like, well, it's not rushing anything. They're in the bunker.

Yeah. Just hanging out. Also, but like, what are they doing? It's not like, we're not making TV at that point.

We're not entertaining anybody. We're not doing anything. No. I guess it's like a strange love i i don't know if they're going to just reproduce the next wave of i don't know what happens all i know is i'm a little freaked out not just about fascism but about the water situation i just i mean mostly of course it's real yeah it's great how many pictures of a half empty lake mead do we have to see before i don't know they're going to find more bodies in that thing, too, don't you think? How many more bodies? They're finding.

I like that spin of all the drought, of these news stories of like, look what we found. It's amazing. That's the spin. The world is ending, but it's so cool. We're rediscovering a bunch of mafiosos killed apes. In Mississippi, they found Civil War belt buckles. Yeah.

And I can't, there's some prehistoric shit happening. Oh, they're going to unearth the dinosaurs, yeah. That'll be cool.

And all the woolly mammoths, like where the ice is melting, that actually, that kind of blows my mind. All of it, like even if they find like a sneaker or a shoe

from like 2,000, 3,000 years ago, you're like, wow, it's the shoe from a guy who was walking along. And then just, yeah. So what was that? Before we get into the depth of it, whatever that's going to be. But like, so what is this cocaine movie?

Cocaine Bear. Yeah. I want it because it was Leota's last movie, huh? Yeah. And you directed it. I did, yeah. What's that movie about? It is about, it's inspired by a true story.

There are multiple podcasts about this story. Is that where you got the idea from a podcast? The writer, and I read the script. The writer got the idea from an article, I think, or a magazine article maybe, about this drug runner, infamous drug runner, named Andrew C. Thornton. He has a really fascinating story.

He was an entitled guy from the South. He was the lieutenant governor of Kentucky's son, I think, is what the dad did. But anyway, he was a paratrooper in the South. He was the Lieutenant governor of Kentucky's son, I think. Yeah. The dad did. But anyway, he, he was a paratrooper in the army. He was like a lawyer and he was in law enforcement for a hot second.

And basically he was in narcotics. Yeah. And started running drugs for the Colombians. Huh? Flying planes. Yeah. His MO was that he would dump the drugs out of the plane for people on the ground to pick up. And then he would parachute out of the plane. Cause that's that he would dump the drugs out of the plane for people on the ground to pick up.

And then he would parachute out of the plane because that's what he did in the Army. And then the plane would get ditched. Because, you know, what was the plane? A couple hundred grand and he's got an $80 million drug run. So he was hard to find, hard to track. Yeah. And he fell out of this plane one day and died dead on a in a driveway yeah in kentucky and so they so they knew he'd done a drug run right that night right so it's like there's

more he had some drugs on him we we had got the police report and so it's very true to life what we do in the movie yeah the way he's dressed is exactly how he was dressed. 1985. That's an interesting time for clothes. It was actually September 11th, 1985. Okay. We don't mention too soon. So we don't mention that.

So you directed this. So you had to get the set deck and the wardrobe person to get that weird mid-80s clothing. Correct. Although I didn't go too... Too crazy? I didn't want to fetishize the 80s. No, no. I know.

But it's still a little different. Yes. It's a little different okay so September 11th so basically that guy dies and that's all true and then the other true thing is that three months later they found a black bear dead in the middle of the Chattahoochee forest who had consumed

like 70 pounds of cocaine and they did a necropsy on the body and like every internal organ was like exploded inside this poor animal. I know, it's terrible. So our story picks up the day after he's dropped all the drugs in Chattahoochee

and tells the story of the bear. They found the drugs. So it's like a Disney movie? Pre-death. It's a Disney movie? No, it's a universal movie. Does it have a- Perfect universal movie.

No, but I mean like, is it one of those things where you have to like, and then the bear crawls to- It's like a bear eating honey, but it's actually just Coke. Kind of. Bears partying like Scarface.

There's other bears around at the table. You gotta see it. Talking about his day. It's kind of, I've seen it with an audience and I couldn't be prouder, actually. The ride of the ride that I've created.

Yeah, I'm really proud of it. Because the last time I talked to you was like a million years ago and you were just, I think we talked about surrogacy more than anything else. Oh, yeah. You hadn't directed movies yet.

You were just acting. You'd done a couple shorts. Yes, that's right. But then I think I directed Pitch Perfect 2 by at that point hadn't I

I don't know oh I don't know maybe hold on maybe I have I think I have 2015-2016

well I don't think I think it was like 2013 you might be right I had I had babies before I directed in fact I was just looking

it was a 10 year anniversary of Pitch Perfect it was 2013 there you go wow had not directed yet you had done nothing now i've done three feature films that's crazy i know right but you're producing pitch perfect and then like boom and that was that's like good business pitch perfect's pretty good business yeah You know we made something People really like But

So joyful Those freaking films I love them too Yeah I mean Yeah there's nothing wrong With making people happy Yeah Just make people happy

Entertain people Sure Why not We're all going Yeah Let's make it a little easier But So you started the production company

With your husband Yes When was that That was on the Pitch Perfect Did you do that for No we did that We didn't know We made a we produced a movie called surrogates starring bruce willis back in the day that was our first film what was what year was that oh god 20 yeah i don't know 2012 something like that okay so yeah we've had the company a long time. Yeah. And I remember we talked about you being mostly Jewish.

Yeah. Yes, a Jewish home. A Jewish home. Did you follow through and get the full Jew? Did you do the full Jew? I never mikvahed. I never had a mikvah. No, I know.

But you did the conversion classes? Yeah, I did some classes. Yeah. My kid is about to start his bar mitzvah situation. Yeah. We're going through with it. We're sticking with it still. But is your husband religious?

He's religious enough. You know what it is? He... It's cultural, no? It's cultural. It's like... You do it. It's his parents.

Right, of course. Right? He can't call his father and be like, I'm not going to have a bar mitzvah for a kid. Never going to happen. Right. Right? He just can't disappoint...

So you're in. The parents. Yeah, so now you got a kid... No, no, no, we're totally in. In the bedroom. We do Shabbat. Never gonna happen. Right. Right? He just can't disappoint the parents. So you're in. Yeah, so now you got a kid in the bedroom. No, no, no, we're totally in. We do Shabbat. We love Shabbat. You do the Shabbat? Love it.

Write the candles? Of course. Buy a challah? Fridays, buy the challah. Have you ever made a challah? I have not made a challah. I haven't either. I would like to.

Looks tricky. Bread, though. Yeah, why not? I don't think it's that tricky. I think you could do it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't do breads. I don't really do breads either. Do you cook? Yeah, why not? I don't think it's that tricky. I think you could do it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't do breads. I don't really do breads either.

Do you cook? Yeah. No bread? I like to cook. I can do the, like a quick bread. I can do one that doesn't involve yeast. I've not fucked with yeast.

That's my thing too. The whole rise and the special drawer people have. Chemistry. Yeah. Yeah. Irish soda bread, I can nail that shit.

Wow. Yeah. I got some good recipes for irish brown bread irish soda bread i love an irish brown bread you're speaking those that's my people i'm 99 irish do you like the sweet one or just the brown bread i like them both oh yeah the sweet one though with butter come on no it's the best little warm yeah with the butter on it so you shot that movie in ireland cocaine bear we shot in Ireland, yeah. Why? We shot Ireland for Georgia. Now, what was the incentive of that?

It was a literal tax incentive. To shoot in Ireland? Yes. It was cheaper to shoot in Ireland than in Georgia. Because you could have shot in Georgia? Oh, it was. Yeah, it was a little. It actually worked out.

And frankly, Georgia, there was a bunch of hurricanes last summer. Oh, yeah. And it rained a lot in Georgia. Right. So we actually kind of lucked out with the weather. What part of Ireland? Just south of Dublin. Great.

I stayed in a place called Dalky, which is where Bono lives. Oh, yeah. And like other famous, like Enya lives there. What was that? What was her big song? There's really only a few famous. Yeah, that's it. Oh, my gosh.

Wow. You nailed it. I can't remember what she's saying. I don't either. It all sounds funny to me. Did Bono come say hi? Nope. Did not.

Wasn't around. He's no idiot. He spends, there's no summer really in Ireland. Yeah. The high of 72 was the highest it ever got. That's perfect for me. He spends the summer in an actual summery place probably. Yeah.

Like the south of France or something. I think I'm going to interview him. Oh, you should. I don't know if the structure can contain it. What does that mean? I don't know. He's just like a... He's Bono.

I've met him. He's lovely. Is he? Yeah. And he cares about the world. He wants to make a difference. God, Bono, he's the best. Yeah.

So how long were you in Ireland? Five and a half months. Oh, my God. Yeah. Did you long were you in Ireland? Five and a half months. Oh my God. Yeah. Did you buy a house? Did I buy it? I just want to keep asking if you buy houses. My husband's interested in Portugal.

I can't pretend that it's not true. Are you really going to do that? No, I'm not. Where you can just pay for your citizenship and go to a place where you have nothing in common with anybody and be like part of that kind of weird upper class culture of expatriates? No, I'm personally not doing that. Have you ever, are you just going to let him go with the kids? He can buy it and get the citizenship just in case, I guess.

I mean, you know, who's going to, nobody's going to fuck with Portugal. It's too nice. I just applied for permanent residency in Canada, which is like a green card. I'm willing to do that. Wow. Not an option, I don't think, for me. What are you talking about? Well, how would I do that?

What do you mean? They're not going to take everybody in Canada. No, of course. I know. I would just like to be taken before I have to show up as a refugee. I would just like to be taken before I have to show up as a refugee. I don't want to be with my bag and my Jewish star armband trying to figure out how to get out of the America. That might be coming back.

It might be? Unreal. Do you feel like as a partial Jew, as someone who's Jew adjacent, do you feel... The anti-Semitism?ism yeah of course i do i have young boys that are jewish yeah you know have a jewish last name and yeah practice jewish like are jewish yeah the um and went to jewish preschool yeah and man you know there are there were certain days when that armed guard outside the school i I was like, yep, good. Yeah. Let's have that. Yeah. It's scary.

The whole thing is fucking scary. But I mean, like, I really, I really liked the movie, the Call Jane movie. Thank you. I really did like it. You were great in it. Thanks. Yeah, I'm proud of it.

Yeah? Yeah. Did you produce that one? Nope. Oh, just acted. Just acted in it. Like, where did, because I had just seen not long ago the documentary.

Yes, The Janes, yeah. Right on, was it HBO I think or somewhere? I don't remember. And I never knew anything about it. But I thought the movie did a very good job. Like it was well written. It's beautifully written, yeah. Yes.

It's like a slow burn too of like this. Isn't she a playwright or the woman? No, she's a screenwriter. She's Academy Award nominated for Carol. Oh, that's right. That was a great movie. Great movie. Also kind of a slow burn.

Yeah. But like writing for women for real. For real, for real. Yeah. Woman writing for woman. Yeah. It was beautifully written and I thought everybody did such a great job. I loved working on it. I loved

working with Phyllis Nagy as the writer director. She is a writer on the script that the script was written by two other incredible women. Oh really? Yep. Three people. How'd that happen? Different versions? Yeah. Well yes. The duo that wrote it is

what brought Phyllis to the table and Phyllis directed it. She directed a Mrs. Harris back in the day with Annette Bening. I think for HBO, right? So technically

has done a feature but it was on TV so they can't count that. Yeah. So this was her directorial feature debut. Okay. But she's incredibly talented.

Really? Yeah. The thing about the movie though is that I know when did did you, when do you think you became politically active? I was pretty young. Really? Yeah. Because I remember you speaking about, I don't know if I saw it somewhere, but the concern was, you know, for you, during the election, during, you know, voting activism that we can't that the Supreme Court that was the primary issue for you and reproductive rights.

Yes. Was the issue you were active around. And now we have this movie as as a sort of a warning. But now the deed is done when when this movie was made had it happened yet no no uh no uh dobbs the dobbs decision was just this summer and we made the film well over a year ago and and i read the script before you know in like 2018 or something yeah so the script had existed for a long time and when when I first read the script, I remember thinking, oh, this is like an amazing way to sort of honor these revolutionary women in Chicago and tell a little bit of history that maybe people don't know about.

Because when I read the script, I didn't know about the Janes. Yeah. And so I thought, okay, this is like a cool movie and it kind of aligns with my value system. I'm interested. And now that the

dobs decision has happened you know it just feels like we've created like a mirror for society yeah hey yeah guess what the guess what america looked like before roe v wade got passed women in a lot of desperate situations and um doing surgery and doing surgery yeah i mean like i couldn't like these procedures yeah that they it was just this kind of the whole thing with the doctor who wasn't a doctor that i didn't i had no idea and then just women learning how to do this procedure in apartments yeah but you have to remember there's a history for 10 000 years of human beings where women handled all that stuff sure women were did reproductive health care right like we had midwives and doulas and all that whole practice that very slowly one of the things i really kind of studied in preparing for this movie was those practices you know i have a really good friend friend who's a midwife and who basically is like a practicing OB for all intents and purposes.

You know, she's an RN and practices midwifery. And she knows the history of midwifery. It's incredible to think about how basically the patriarchy was like, you know what? We want to control that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. From now on, if you want to deliver a baby, you have to be a doctor. Right. But you know who can go to medical school?

Only men. Right. Right? And so suddenly it was like, wait, wait, wait, what? And then, you know, women were basically getting drugged up, told to be quiet, no screaming, and get in this room, make it easy for the doctor to deliver the baby. Right.

And the doctor was a guy. Right. And it's just, you think you think like think about how that just slowly got taken away from women as like well no no no like we will take care of you it's too dangerous for you to do it meanwhile they weren't washing their hands yet you know women were still dying all the time during childbirth right you know i don't think it improved the maternal mortality rate when we just handed it over to like dudes rate and we just handed it over to like dudes yeah and i find that fascinating that that was just something that all of a sudden like women weren't allowed to handle yeah it's crazy we still have all these rules and regulations

and everything and look i'm i'm happy to have safe safety standards in place for things yeah but the fact of the matter is like you could just have a baby at home with your friend delivering it like that can happen my my friend's wife's a doula yeah yeah um so that i think about so when the women in this story just decided to perform the abortions themselves it was a part of a long tradition and history of women caring for women in those circumstances. But what did you know about, I mean, I imagine that terminating pregnancies has always been part of them. Always. How did they do it back in the day?

I mean, mushrooms, teas. Yeah, mostly physical pain. Yeah, pain, punching the gut. I don't know. I wasn't there. I know. I'm just curious. We're saying that women

have been part of health care for this long i just wonder if they're what were the other methods well you have to remember that women always had to plan their families like when you read the history of it too i mean goes all the way back to like nomads so if a woman had you know a mother carrying her baby and had to pick up the whole camp and like now they're gonna migrate somewhere well if she's just had the baby yeah she now can't get pregnant right away right she doesn't want a second baby right away because you can't carry two right so there was always family planning right there was always this sense of like i'm gonna you know i'm gonna have one and then two years later i'm another one and da da. And also it preserved your health, right?

And your physical health. And people die during childbirth. So like if you were an important woman in your tribe, maybe you don't have 20 kids. Well, I mean, that's something that's obviously going to happen again. The dying in childbirth because of this. Well, our maternal mortality rate for a country as wealthy as the United States is terrible, especially for black women in the South. It's like a black woman in the South is three

times more likely to die during childbirth than a white lady. And, you know, all of these abortion bans, they all disproportionately affect women of color and poor people. And it's all terrible. And I thought in the movie you handled that sort of patriarchal thing well or they the writing did you know in terms of these large rooms of men making decisions looking at you and i thought that your sort of kind of conversion into activism in the movie was you know very honestly played yeah because like you would be the least likely candidate in a way totally i mean i say that all you know we we talk about that like this is a character of the character i played joy in the movie not somebody who thinks she's ever gonna seek out abortion health care

yeah right this is not something on her radar at all right. But when her life is in danger, when she has to choose life or death for herself, she's pretty clear in choosing her life. Yeah, right. Right? Yeah. And staying around to mother her kid. And also the men were just sort of like, nah. Yeah, the men were just like, nah.

We don't really care what happens to you. It's kind of, and that's what's happening. That's, yeah, that's been happening. I mean, that is what's happening all the time. But now, like, with it outlawed in so many states, I mean, it's right back where it was. Absolutely. I also think the film helps recenter pregnant people

as the people who should have their rights. Yeah. It's amazing to me. Like, these women, as long as they've been pregnant people, they've been people who have not wanted to be pregnant. Yeah. And they steal people's time and energy and, you know, emotions. I mean, it's just it's there's nothing healthy or life affirming about an abortion ban, in my opinion. No, it's terrible. Yeah. And it's like and now there's like, I don't know if it doesn't seem like it's going the way of the Janes, but it seems like there's an underground network of abortion pills

it's not even underground yeah yeah i mean no there's there's tons the bridget alliance is i mean if you're out there and you're looking for abortion care you can you can find these abortion funds yeah um they'll they help people get bus tickets and child care and take the day off from i mean they're they're really helping people access the healthcare that they need. And you know, more, um, there are more,

the, the majority of women seeking abortion healthcare are already moms. Yeah. So these are women who are fully aware of what pregnancy does to their body. Yeah. Um, and they're, and they're fully aware of the emotional,

psychological and financial toll of raising kids. They are family planning. Yeah. That's what they're fully aware of the emotional, psychological, and financial toll of raising kids. They are family planning. That's what they're doing. They're going, wait a minute, I got two kids. And by the way, every time you have a kid, it's a gamble. Everybody knows that. We don't have healthcare for that, just FYI. You have a baby that has some sort of birth defect.

Are you going in the hole for a million bucks? i don't understand like you know what i mean and then just putting that decision taking that decision away from somebody who's actually going to be responsible for everything that comes after the birth of the baby yeah it's like insane to me it's like this person knows this person knows the consequences yeah and i i can't like, I guess I've gotten to a point where I can't understand why decisions are made and supported. I don't understand the humanity of it. I don't know how, you know, because it's not, it's not just religion. You know, it's some other fucked up thing.

Well, it's control. Yeah. It's not just religion. But like, you look at these men, it's sort of like, what are you doing? Like, you know. And women. There's thing well it's control yeah it's not just religion but like you look at these men it's sort of like what are you doing like you know women there's a lot of women and like what kind of fucking people are they well i think look there's i mean i don't know i'm not asking you i'm not i mean but like how are you able like you know when we're talking at the beginning about you know the future yeah what is it that keep why why are you able to maintain hope are you just not the kind of person that's

totally paranoid and gonna let your brain break i am fear i do not lead a fear-based life for sure i don't and and i um and that is definitely part of it and And also because I get to tell stories and I know that when you hear a story that rings a little true for you, you know, my character Joy, this is a good example. You know, she goes in, she accesses abortion healthcare through this Jane network

that takes care of her. Well, she's pretty judgmental of people seeking abortion. And yet then she starts to hear their stories, right? And the stigma around it starts to fall away. Yeah. And that is, that to me is the hope.

That people hear the stories and they see themselves and they go, wait a minute, I don't want that to happen to my daughter. Yeah. I don't want that to happen to my wife. Well, I think it is a big issue and I think it is an important issue. And I think even if you're you know right it has to be you have to make them connect to like well even if they're like i don't know i'm too old to have a baby i'm this is not going to be my problem right how do you make them empathetic to other women whose problem right you got to tell them the story of women who needed health care and couldn't get it and couldn't get it and make

them really go oh that's not good oh i don't happen. And also the fact we're the only fucking, I mean, like, there are other countries where it's like they don't even think about this. 60 countries in the last, since Roe v. Wade, 60 other countries have liberalized their abortion laws. Ireland. And the church owned it. Yeah. Only four countries have taken those rights away. And it's like Nicaragua, Poland, maybe. I don't even know. No, you know, it's not great. So what is your, outside of doing like this movie, how are you involved? Like here we are heading into the midterms in days. Are you involved?

I sit on the creative council. I'm the head of the creative council for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is the legal organization that's fought for reproductive justice at the Supreme Court level. Last three times they lost the Dobbs case. But continue now to work at the state level. They're right now in court literally today trying to block Georgia'sia's six-week abortion ban again um and they'll work to get you know women's reproductive justice which is basically our human rights and our equality yeah yeah you know enshrined in state constitutions as much as possible like here in california yeah i i just don't like you said before there's no postnatal responsibility.

No. And like, what's going to happen to all these people? I've done jokes about it in a very cynical way. Yeah. That, you know, in terms of these unwanted kids, you know, hopefully they can end up okay, but like the possibility of them ending up okay, it's not great. You know,

it's interesting. I, I, um, I have a home in Utah and I was in Utah when the decision came down. Yeah. And, um,

on the radio there, I was started listening to the Mormons talk about it. And interestingly, um, they were saying, someone was saying that an unwanted child is a tragedy. It's a tragedy all the way around. Yeah. And we don't need tragedies.

It's terrible. And that was a Mormon? Yeah. It was a Mormon. Yeah. They were real. It was beautiful, beautiful, beautifully said. And also a great reminder that not every religion demonizes abortion. Yeah. Judaism doesn't. And it's in the Mormons were like, we, they didn't, you know, there's a whole thing where like a baby isn't a baby until they breathe their soul in.

Yeah. So they have to actually be born. Yeah. So there was a question whether pre-birth anything is even an issue. Oh, so the soul doesn't happen until they come out. Yeah, because they don't have a soul. Wow, they've got, it's sort of like they pop out. I'm no expert on Mormonism.

No, I get it. I was telling you, I was listening to these really interesting conversations where the Mormons were like, hang on a minute. Are we for this or against this? We're not sure. You like Utah? I do do it's

beautiful it is yeah right really beautiful yeah i like to ski i go there a lot in the where park city yeah yeah do you grow up skiing i did in massachusetts yeah where'd you go massachusetts like stowe killington i went to my local mountain because um they had a subsidized program after school to try and keep people monday through friday at the like local spot busk basque basque brody and jiminy peak were the three places i grew up going and basque offered after school like i think it was a ten dollar ticket lift ticket and free rentals yeah so suddenly my my poor like, yeah, the kids have something to do. It's cheap.

We can teach them cheap. I learned like in my, you know, in between my dad's legs for a little while and then in middle and high school that was like all the rage. Yeah.

You were 11 years old and you could go to the after school and night ski when the lights came on. That's fun. So fun. And you stuck with it like somehow or another it's become too,

it's been too much, it seems aggravating to go skiing to me. I think about it like a workout. Do you know what I mean? That's how I think about it now. I can't even get through a concert. All right. So I can't, in a way, it's sort of like 45.

There's apples and oranges. What are you talking about? My point is, is that like, if I get a ticket to ski all day, I'm good for about half a day. Well, that's fine. Yeah. And you know, it's like, how many runs do I need? When you're a kid, you're like, let's go back up. Yeah.

And you're always going back up. But like after two or three runs, I'm like, I think I did it. I think I did the day. And now what happened? Well, yeah. I mean, look, the best day is you get in some really hard runs. So you feel like you really worked it out. And then you have a long lunch with maybe a little booze. Right. And friends. Yep. And friends and a great

view. Right. And then you go pick the kids up at some point. You go find them. Yeah. After their day. Home at 430 in the hot tub. So you live by the ski area? I do. Yeah. Oh,'ll find them. Yeah. After their day at the- Home at 4.30 in the hot tub. So you live by the ski area? I do, yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Because I grew up in New Mexico and people live up in Taos and stuff. Yeah.

So, all right. Now, do you like doing the game show thing? Oh, man, I love it. I mean, because you're really good at it and it's fun. Is it fun? It is the most fun. It's exhausting work.

We do a lot of shows in a day. What's it called again? Press Your Luck. Yeah. Press Your Luck. It's so weird that these big movie stars are doing game shows. You know, it's interesting because I grew up on game shows. I was a latchkey kid, right?

So we came home after school. I watched Press Your Luck, the original Peter Tamarkin, you know, whammy with my sister. We would watch it. Yeah. And I loved it. So when the opportunity came, it's me. It's my personality. Yeah, right.

Sure. You know, I don't pretend to have some, I don't know, highfalutin person. I'm just like, I love, I don't know, highfalutin person. I'm just like, I love, I like people. I like meeting people. I love giving them life-changing cash and prizes. Who doesn't love that? It's like the best thing.

And all they have to do is hit the button. And, you know, and it's all about risk-taking. Yeah. But it's wild, the personalities, you know, Who's going to push and who's not going to push? Yeah, but I mean, the rules of it. I hosted a game show once that was some sort of improvisational game show that didn't have any real stakes. It came over from England. It was called Nevermind the Buzzcocks. And I did the American version.

And I couldn't even wrap my brain around the fucking game. So somewhere there's footage of me hosting 12 of those those things and i don't even know what's happening i will say i did you do have to do a lot of work beforehand like just getting down like wait now what happens after this round do i go to commercial right does this person spin first or who spins first yeah i i do have to remind myself of all those little details yeah right yeah and i couldn, I just couldn't cut it. It never went anywhere. It's the weirdest thing. I did so many of them for a VH1, like 12 of them for that when they were re sort of inventing

VH1. Yeah. With me and Galifianakis. Oh, so fun. But he did a talk show that went nowhere and I did a game show. No, like no one saw the game show. And I don't even know if there's footage of it. It's crazy.

Well, I'm not unhappy about it. It's like one of these great gifts. You don't want it unearthed. No, I was just happy to leave with the suits. Yeah. And the suits, yes. Can I keep the clothes? Can I keep?

Then this wasn't a complete loss. Where are you wearing suits? I'm not wearing any suits. I know. Not anymore. I mean, I bought a black suit for the black suit stuff. I have one suit. Yeah.

Everyone needs the black suit, yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. Not a tux suit. No, no, no. It's for funerals. And award shows. That's the funny thing.

Yeah, important thing. Award shows and funerals. The good and the bad. Those are the rituals that we're doing that you wear a suit to at this point. So what the directing thing. Do you love that? I do really enjoy it. Yeah.

And now you're kind of a pro, right? You feel confident? I feel I'm putting in my 10,000 hours. That's a lot of hours. You know, like, well, that's what they say when you feel. Yeah. I feel less and less. It seems like a lot of hours.

I feel less and less like an imposter, right? Like the imposter syndrome, that's fading away and I'm feeling like, you know what, I actually kind of know what I'm doing. Oh yeah, that's good. That feels good, that feels confident. It's all about having that good DP, right? You gotta have a great crew across the board.

It's not just the DP. You gotta have three ADs, the ADs do the whole schedule. They're the whole thing. The AD that's in ADs do the whole schedule. They're the whole thing. Yeah. The AD that's in the place, the set AD. They've got to run it. They run the whole thing. Yeah.

It's a very specific personality. It's kind of wild. Right? Yes. But it seems to me like the DP thing, because I directed a couple episodes of my show, but it doesn't really count when you're in it, because it's hard. Because then you're just sort of like, did I look all right? Can I look at it?

Do I need to? Okay, let's just move on then. You gotta trust somebody. Yeah. But like, it just seems to me that, like, because I don't understand, like Lynn knew about lenses and about, you know, overs and two shots

and all that shit. But like, you see it, but really if you want to direct, you could just really go like, if you have a really good DP, you could be like, do you think, what do you think we should do here? That sounds good. You could do that.

I know, it's not my favorite way to work as an actor. Is it your favorite way to work as an actor? Is when the director comes to set and is like, I don't know, what do you guys think? Well, no, they never asked the actor, but it just seems like- But you get a feeling when they don't know what they're doing. Do you know lenses and stuff? Are you good with that now? I'm pretty good with it.

Yeah? I'm all right with it. We're going to use a whatever for this? Well, I like to shot list, and I like to storyboard, and I love preparation. So I'm all about the prep. I feel like the shoot is like the test, and I like to get A's on tests. So I do a lot of studying beforehand yeah yeah that's you know i'm very prepped yeah but sometimes it's not a lens it's like i wanted

to feel like that right i want to be with the character yeah that's a close-up when you say that language you're talking about it how do you handle the way you're dealing with kids too i did yeah we had some kids in this one yeah well how do you do like you know how, you're dealing with kids too. I did. Yeah, we had some kids in this one. Yeah. Well, how do you do, like, you know, how are you as an actor's director? Do you, what do you bring? I love actors. Yeah.

But how do you, like, how do you, like, as an actor, how do you deal? Like, are you? I probably give too many line readings. Oh, you do? Yeah.

I'm sure I do. Some actors don't care and others do. And that's really what, I find for directors, that's the other thing is like everybody has their own process.

You got to figure out what their process is a little bit you know and you can't give up your entire process because you still have to figure out you're making the movie sure but you do have to you know everybody works a little differently and i i try to honor as much as i can how the actor what what they're bringing to it yeah what their expectation is yeah what do they need to get the best performance yeah did you like working with Sigourney Weaver loved I did I talked to her yeah yeah she's oh yeah I listened to it what am I saying of course you just had her not that long ago yeah yeah she's very level very level you know what I mean she's definitely got all her hours in let me tell you well that's the thing about the hour thing isn't that weird though like that guy Malcolm Gladwell that it's his idea right I mean that's's definitely got all her hours in, let me tell you. Well, that's the thing about the hours thing. Isn't that weird though?

Like that guy, Malcolm Gladwell, it's his idea, right? I mean, that's a lot of hours. If you really break it down, it's a lot of fucking hours. Like you're going to be like, you know, 50 years old. Like I always think about it.

Like, did I put 10,000 hours in? That's a lot of hours. It's a lot of hours. But that's only if you, that's if you want to be the best at something. You know, look, you're probably, you're going to be the best at something. You know, look, you're probably going to get close on podcasting, you know, and being on the road. You have 10,000 hours of stand-up.

You definitely do. I've done like almost 1,400 of these podcasts, right? So they run about, you know, with talking to people, that's still like 1,400. Let's say it's 1,600 hours. Yes. In order to get 10,000 hours of podcasting. You're not giving yourself enough credit. Maybe just- But you had to watch my movie before.

That was two hours of your life. Okay, so that counts? You have to prep, of course. Okay. You have to edit afterwards. Yeah. Like you don't just show up and chit chat and like you are creating this whole show.

This whole entire summary. So like you're saying that, you know, driving to to the gig are you thinking about the gig on the drive probably well then you're working yeah you're sort of like what's the hotels where which hotel are we staying at that might be does it count no that doesn't count so what um when you did charlie's angels yeah why um i loved the idea of another one is this would be the third or the fourth which i mean like of the charlie's angels movies well yeah i mean like it was like it's it's almost the era that we grew up in or that yes even with that with the game show thing that there is a a nostalgia market yeah right yeah and that was sort of a very you know now seemingly camp undertaking the charlie's

angels yes when you think about like the hair and i thought that era so how much of it was your decision to do that to do the movie? Well, I wrote the movie. So it was all your decision. I produced the movie. Yeah, I got my name on there four times. So I can't deny I had a lot of control over making that movie. But you had the idea,

like it's time to make another Charlie's Day. I did. I knew they had the, I was brought into Sony on a general meeting and they talked to me about something else. And the executive brought up, and you know, we have Charlie's Angels if you ever want to do anything with that. And I was like, ooh, wait a minute. And then, you know, I went home and I kind of had an idea.

And then I was like, I think I do want to do that. And then like, it took like five years until we made it. And at that point I was very invested. And I loved my actors. I had Kristen Stewart, who I think is one of the greatest of her generation. She's great. And just stunning and a surprise. Did you like that movie, Spencer?

Surprising in the movie. Did you watch Spencer? I did. I loved her performance. I liked the movie. I liked those weird kind of poetic meditations. I liked the Marilyn movie. I don't give a fuck what anyone else i did too that was crazy that movie i think those are i think they're really jackie o movie was good those are the three of a kind anyway so yeah so you like your actor it's five years yeah five years so you're

like you're kind of pregnant with it as they say in the business right that's why i never set out to direct or anything like that. Why? Because it's sort of like, it's going to take that long? Well, it's not like I wasn't doing other things along the way. I have a lot of other pokers in the fire. So you got people working on stuff. Yeah, and you go to some meetings and you think it's never going to happen.

And then over time you realize, oh, it might actually happen. And then you really start gearing up and then you're in Berlin, Germany and you're making the movie. And it's happening. It took on a life of its own at a certain point where you're just like, all right, the train's moving and we're leaving the station and let's go. Yeah. And it didn't do well or it did? It did not do well on opening weekend. But it's beloved by a lot of people

that's nice and they all email you oh they do you know what it's interesting i went to see it on opening weekend yeah you know i you know you like go and hop around theaters sometimes see how the audience is doing and i sat behind this group of young women um mostly uh girls of color yeah i have a black angel and a um a woman of um asian yeah descent right there indian woman uh-huh and these girls were on having like their birth it was like a 13-year-old's birthday party. Yeah. And they were all at Charlie's Angels for the birthday party. And they were all in the row

and then there were a couple moms behind them. And they loved the movie. They had the best time and they laughed at all the places I wanted them to laugh. Right. And they clapped and they loved it. And that's why you do it.

Yeah. You do it for that. That's half of it. Yeah. You do it for that. That's half of it. Yeah. It seems like, you know, with the Pitch Perfect and the Charity's Angels, it's like, you know,

making young people enjoy their time is good. Yeah. And then you do Call Jane and that's making, you know, grownups understand, you know, what we're up against. I also aimed to entertain with that one too.

You know, like always entertain. Really? If you can be, I like to call it being quietly revolutionary. Right? Like there's always something a little revolutionary in what I'm doing. You know, Pitch Perfect, if you think about the poster for Pitch Perfect, I mean, we weren't, you don't see posters with, you know, eight women on the poster. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Those don't exist. That's not a thing in Hollywood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, these stories about that many women working together to solve a problem. They're hard to find those. There's a couple of movies coming out soon that are going to be heavy. Did you see those?

The women talking movie? Yeah, I'm excited about that. I love Sarah Polly. She's great. Did you see it? I have not seen it. And what about the other one about the reporters? Oh, she said.

Yeah. Did you see that? No. Don't you get mixed? I've been busy talking to you all right i can't watch everything either i know i can't wait to go on vacay i watch them all when i go to vacation you're waiting for your screeners yeah well it's all on everything's digital now it's the best oh really don't send i guess they don't send them anymore you don't even have to wait for the dvds they just it's

all gets downloaded bam well you're such a good actress. Thanks. Because you can do all the stuff. Yeah, it's fun. I prefer the comedies, though. When's a new comedy coming? I don't know. Nobody puts me in comedies anymore. What's the Beanie Bubble?

Oh, yeah, that's funny. I forgot about that one. I just see a name on there. I'm like, I'm looking at Beanie Bubble. I'm like, that can't be serious. No, me and Zach Galifianakis, no. Really? You and Galifianoodles?

Yeah, Galifianoodles is in that with me. What's he doing? What is that about? That's what he goes by too. He was great. We had such a good time together. What's it about? It's about the Beanie Baby craze in the early 90s.

Okay. And when it all burst. I mean, you remember people thought that if they bought those things that it was like a great investment oh yeah remember yeah and people were making hundreds of thousands of dollars off of those being a baby yeah little commodities collector's market yep exactly it was the rise of ebay yeah right was at the same time as little beanie babies so oh so this is about the beanie crash? It's about the crash. The beanie bubble. Bursting.

Who came up with that movie? It was based on a book, too. There was a great book about it, about that whole time, that era. And Ty Warner, who's the founder, still alive in Chicago. Billionaire. The beanie guy? Yeah. That guy's got a B he's a billionaire yeah from beanie babies

yeah well and other things Ty you know that little tag the TY tag it's on a heart yeah and that guy

it's big business my kids have some Ty stuff I mean you know they're like really cute right now they're all about these big eyes

oh these little so that's his thing creatures yes billionaire yeah and he did some things right i guess if you want a billion dollars you want the responsibility of it

i like to think of myself as somebody who uh you could have the billion but it'd be too much yeah i just want to state this level yeah yeah the next level it seems like you can only hang out with certain people sure it's kind of true though it's kind of no you can always i don't know i mean i just remember where i'm from and then i just hang out with people i don't know keep it do you hang out with reese witherspoon not very often who are your buddies who are you asking about my famous buddies or my actual buddies well yeah first name actual buddies i have a lot of actual buddies from back in the day i do have some very old friends i mean the people that i like to

travel with and stuff although i went you travel with people i went this summer on an amazing vacation um with school friends from college the no elementary school friends like my kids became friends with other kids. And then I met the parents and I was like, yeah, I like you. Oh, okay. And you know, as an adult, it's not that easy to make new friends. I know. It's hard.

So when your kids are little, especially. So I tell people who have little kids, I'm like, I never leave the house. I have a three-year-old. And it is. It's not great. It's not great for your social life you have a three-year-old but once they're in school all day and you see these women for years yeah and then you're in your you're like every you know drop off you're like hey and then you kind of maybe have a coffee and then the next thing you know you're kind of traveling well and you're doing because you have a lot in common all of a sudden.

Yeah. You know that's what you forget. Yeah. That's what makes people friends. Oh so that's the new friend thing. Common experiences. That's my problem. I have no kids

and I don't you know I just do comedy. I'm not going to meet anybody. You'll have your old friends from comedy. I have a couple old friends. You have some old friends from comedy.

Alright so what happens now? What happens today? What are you working on right now i'm in still in post on cocaine bear oh so you got to go look at uh i'm gonna go look i'm gonna get we're in color timing oh yeah yeah yeah yeah uh we're color timing that film and getting it ready ready for uh for release it's sad to see ray it is sad see Ray. Was he done shooting when he passed? Yes, he was, yeah. But I had just seen him. He'd just done ADR. So I had just seen him.

He'd come in. We'd hugged. He was telling me about his summer plans. He was going down to make this movie in the Dominican. That's where he passed away.

What happened? He just died of a heart attack? Well, I don't like to tell someone else's story. Do you know what I mean? It's not my story to tell. I don't know. I have all the details.

But I do have the details. And yeah, I mean, he went to sleep else's story. Do you know what I mean? It's not my story to tell. I get it. I don't know. I have all the details. But I do have the details. And yeah, I mean, he went to sleep and he didn't wake up, basically. It's the best way. Yeah. By the way. The way we all want to go. No shit. That's it.

Oh, my God. So you're just doing that? You're doing post on that? I'm doing post on that. I'm promoting Call Jane. Yeah. That's what we did. That's what we're doing.

Do we do that thoroughly? I don't know. Sure. Yes. People should see the movie. I thought it was a good movie. Thank you i'm yeah i'm really happy with it and i am um and now i'm back finally in like mom mode today's halloween happy halloween to those who celebrate do you know what did you carve we sure did we carved you did yeah actually i have a fat lip from i i was putting a stencil on the um pumpkin and i went to rip a piece of tape with my mouth and the tape stuck on my the tape stuck on my

and ripped part of my lip off oh my god yeah those are the little things that pumpkin stencils pumpkin stencils yeah so you can make it look real pro on the pumpkin with the stencil really oh yeah but do you cut the then you use the stencils like an outline and then you cut yeah all the way through yes all the way through what does that mean you're carving the pumpkin of course no i know but like i see some pretty pro jobs and they look like there's something it's like power chalet food and then all the way through and oh you mean yes because you can like shadow and stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah no that's cool yeah i'm not that level yeah no i got two pumpkins sitting out there i don't know what the fuck i'm like i thought i was gonna carve them but now i'm just sort of like they get the idea right i just want them to know i have candy i do like that they glow

my and my it's something to do with the kids my kids love it yeah yeah because like they come around here did you see across the street oh your neighborhood's excellent it's crazy la is this is the biggest holiday in la i tell people this all over because we have all the best you know uh it's all the the production designers yeah the guy and the hair and makeup people and the biggest gig of his year literally is over there there there's there they've got things you know in the basement that none of us can dream of and they just

bring it all out and put it up yeah and they know how to do it all right you know light it all the lighting designs

the guy across the street every year it's a theme like last year it was an operating room with skeletons yes and this year

there's a tent it's a camping theme of course this is why people put so much energy into it here. It's really amazing and excellent. They've been out of work for a while. I don't even think so.

I think they really... The neighborhood starts to come to expect it too, don't you think? Oh, yeah. Wouldn't you be pissed if that guy didn't put something up? Sure. My old neighborhood, there was two. It was not... But it definitely wasn't a Hollywood undertaking.

But there was two houses next to each other that were clearly competing. Oh, yeah. During Christmas and Halloween. It was just this shit show of stuff. Lights and ghouls. It brings me joy. What kind of candy did you buy? You know, I don't buy chocolate because in LA it's actually hot and things melt.

Interesting. Yeah. So I got some dots. I got some Skittles, a lot of Skittles. I like a Skittle. You do? Yeah. Tootsie Rolls.

Yeah. Dum Dums. I love those lollipops. Okay. Pretty good. Things like that. That's what I got. I went all chocolate, but now I'm nervous.

Well. I went Reese's. Yes. Twix. Yum. Kit Kat. Love it. Snickers. Can't get enough. Yes. Twix. Yum. Kit Kat. Love it. Snickers.

Can't get enough. The best ones. All the best. You got to go watch that nut allergy though with those Snickers. Well, they know. It's not on me. You tell your kid. I don't deal with the nut allergy very well either.

What are you going to do? I'm just like, come on, really? Yeah. Are you going to like trick or treat? Do you have any allergies? No, exactly. All right. Good talking to you again.

Oh, you're the best. You are. We barely touched on anything, I feel like. What are you talking about? I don't know. What do you feel like we missed? We went pretty thoroughly into abortion politics. Come on.

We got into the movie. Yeah. We talked about you directing. Yes. Fairly thoroughly. That I can tell you're very interested in. I appreciate that. Yeah. into the we got into the movie yeah we talked about you directing yes thoroughly that I can tell you're very interested in I appreciate that

yeah we did the we talked about the cocaine bear the whole story right oh yeah it goes by too fast we talked about Jews

a little bit yeah yeah well kind of a lot kids get in bar mitzvah you've got a kid down the hall speaking in the

in the ancient tongue borah who has I don't know yamborah yeah yeah It's getting bar mitzvahed. You've got a kid down the hall speaking in the ancient tongue. Baruch huvah zedonai, ambarot. Is that happening? That's happening down the hall. It's going to be happening, yeah. So the grandparents really Jewish? Yes.

Okay. I mean, yes and yes. It's a cultural thing, you know, and it's important now to, like, I can't. It's weird because I'm not that religious certainly anymore, but I'm culturally Jewish. And like every time I do a special, I really hit this like Jew tone just to make people who don't like Jews mad. Like I just want to poke at them with Jew stuff. And I'm doing it again. And I got to go to Oklahoma and Texas. And now like it's midterms.

I'm like, what if I, why don't I just paint a target on myself? Yeah, exactly. But you know, you can't live in fear. But you can't shut the fuck up. No. But for me, I'm just sort of like, I want. You mean you're being too provocative, you think, even.

Well, yeah, I literally say, as a Jew. Your existence is provocative to certain people. I will say, I'll say this on stage, I'll say, I just want you to know, as a Jew. Your existence is provocative to certain people. I will say, I'll say this on stage. I'll say, I just want you to know, as a Jew, we will replace you. Goes over. It goes over great. Kills. Kills.

Except for the two people that are like. Exactly. That are like, yeah, that's the conspiracy theory I subscribe to. Yeah, I know. Their brains are broken. That is true. And they're not coming back. How do you fix that?

How do you fix whatever the fuck has happened? I say that exact thing, that their brains are broken and they're irretrievable. Often irretrievable, yeah. But I do, I mean, I don't know. You got it. They're also probably not surrounded by, you know, they don't know nice, you know, Jews. I guess so. But it's just where they're getting their information and how it's getting them worked up.

Yes. But also, yeah, but then I think why, again, living in fear. What are they afraid of the Jews are going to do to them? Literally. What are they afraid of? They are living in fear. Period. Full stop.

Well, they think it's a control thing, that they're secretly controlled. They're going to be controlled. Are they? I got some bad news for you. We invented Jesus. He was a Jew. Yeah. But I constantly am like, I want you to sit in your home this morning and make your cup of coffee and drive your car.

Yes. And walk down the street and go to your shop and go to the bar. Right. And I want you to think about all the control that's being, what are you talking about yeah and what does it mean you're getting up you're going to work you're living your life it kind of ties you're paying your taxes but it ties into socialism and communism all this you know and like a money thing yeah and then now with hollywood they're really kind of pushing the you know they've got our brains fucked you know the jews it's like look we just we know how to make movies yeah we're just

entertaining you what are you talking about look over here all right well now that we figured that out i think we covered everything except for you can give me one name of one famous friend oh my goodness fine you still want a famous. I just want to know like who you got laughing with. I love Melissa McCarthy. Oh, see. There you go. And her husband, Ben. That's how I met her, is through her husband, Ben.

And you guys go to have dinner parties and stuff? Yes, we do. How hilarious is that? Yes, we do. See, that makes me happy. That's entertaining me. And I don't think you divulge anything. That's true.

Now we know, like Elizabeth Banks and Melissa McCarthy are just hanging out eating and sometimes that's the best. Yeah. Occasionally I will I will

I will have food with Jeff Ross. I love Jeff Ross. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Occasionally we'll be at the comedy store

and he doesn't know how to cook so he has to eat out all the time. So we'll go we'll go to Craig's, which I never go to. Though part of me thinks I need to go there. Of course.

But part of me is sort of like, do I need to be part of this? Do I need to be- I go to Craig's because they have the best spaghetti squash dish in LA. But you probably live close by. I'm across town over here. No, I'm not that close to Craig's either. It's not a place I- It's not easy to go.

Here's what bothers me. But when I go, it's delicious. Yeah, I always enjoy it. And I've sat with Craig because I go with Ross close to Craig's either. It's not a place I, I don't, it's not easy to go. Here's what bothers me. But when I go, it's delicious. Yeah, I always enjoy it. And I've sat with Craig because I go with Ross. Love Craig, yeah. But like, you know, I don't, I never know if I'm at the level where if I go in, will I be taken care of? Well, what does that mean? You know what it means.

No, you got to pay your bill. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying like, if I called and I said, it's Mark Maron. Can I get it? Right. Am I on that list? Minus Jeff Ross. Right.

Don't know. Exactly. And that bothers me. You know what, though? The hierarchy is everywhere. There's always somebody bigger and better. Bono could always show up. That's right.

Yeah. Bono could always show up. I like the stories where whoever's working the door, they don't know them. That's the best. Oh, it's the best. All right. I'll talk to you later.

Bye. See, that was fun. I love her. Call Jane. The movie that she's in is playing in theaters now. And could you please hang out for a minute?

I'll lighten'll, I'll, I'll lighten up. I'll lighten up. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no,

you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats, but meatballs and mozzarella balls. Yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats. Get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region.

See app for details. 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 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com.

Hey, I'm back. Here's today's suggestion for an archive episode you can now listen to for free. Episode 838 with Jennifer Lawrence. She's got a new movie out this week on Apple TV Plus called Causeway, but this talk with her is from 2018 when she just spent the past five years at the peak of fame and was dealing with the ramifications of that. Where do you live? In Fancy area?

Yeah, I live up in a big mansion up in Beverly Hills, obviously. By yourself? In a big mansion? Yeah. Do you have servants and people? Be honest. One, yeah, yeah. One yourself in a big mansion? Yeah. Do you have servants and people? Be honest, be honest. Yeah, one, yeah, yeah. One guy. One servant.

One person who lives there all the time? Horrible. No, no, no, nobody lives there. Just me and my dog, Pippi. But you have somebody come over and do things. Yeah. You have an assistant. You're full Hollywood, right?

I'm full Hollywood, yeah. I'm fully staffed. Did you put your own makeup on this morning? I did. Oh, it looks very good. Yeah, yeah. I'm not like that. Not that bad? Yeah, I just have a security fully staffed. Did you put your own makeup on this morning? I did. Oh, it looks very good. Yeah, yeah. I'm not like that. Not that bad?

Yeah, I just have a security guard outside and didn't drive myself. But he's not- But other than that, I'm totally normal. But he's not your regular guy. No, I don't know who that guy is. He could be a murderer. Right, he was just here. Right, he's here.

He said he was a security guard. I believed him, but you don't know him? I don't know him. Should we call the authorities? No, he said he works for the film movie company company why don't i just start screaming and let's see what he does let's not do that because you know either way i'm gonna have to explain something yeah not in this climate no exactly i don't i don't i don't need that you can listen to that episode now for free in any podcast app as part of the large back catalog we've released if you

want older episodes like the first one i did with el Banks back in 2013, you can sign up for any tier of WTF Plus. Just go to the link in the episode description or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF Plus. All right. I'm at Largo this Thursday, November 10th, running the hour. I'm in Long Beach, California at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center this Saturday, November 12th. Eugene, Oregon at the Holt Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, November 18th. Bend, Oregon at the Tower Theater on Saturday, November 19th. Asheville, North Carolina at the Orange Peel for two shows on Friday, December 2nd. And then Nashville, Tennessee, I'm at the James K. Polk Center on Saturday, December 3rd. And my HBO special taping is at Town Hall in New York City on

Thursday, December 8th. Two shows. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives. Monkey and Lafonda. Cat angels everywhere.