Nicholas Hoult

Speaker 1 Don't miss Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, premiering on Hulu, November 21st. Filmed live at the sold-out United Center Arena in Chicago.

Speaker 1 Sebastian's newest special features his larger-than-life presence, one-of-a-kind physical comedy, and hilarious everyday observations that will keep you laughing non-stop.

Speaker 1 Sebastian goes all in on family chaos, aging, non-existent manners, and life's most relatable and frustratingly funny moments.

Speaker 1 Watch Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, on November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundled subscribers. Terms apply.

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Speaker 1 Just go to linkedin.com slash Conan. That's LinkedIn.com/slash Conan.
Terms and conditions apply.

Speaker 1 Hi, my name is Nicholas Holt.

Speaker 1 And I feel truly happy about being Conan O'Brien's friend.

Speaker 1 Fall is here, hear the yell. Back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walk in blues, climb the fence, books and pens.
I can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Speaker 1 Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Speaker 1 Hey there, welcome to Colonel Brian Needs a Friend, joined by Sonom Ossessian. Hi, Sona.
You done coughing? It was a lot of coughing.

Speaker 2 I always have to clear my throat.

Speaker 1 My grandfather used to say, it's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in.

Speaker 1 Fun guy. Anyway,

Speaker 1 then it'd say good night and shut the door. We have to go to sleep.
Matt, how are you? Matt Gorley? I'm good. How are you? I'm good.
I have a little pet peeve. Oh.

Speaker 1 My pet peeve is that sometimes we gather around these mics, these microphones, these holy transmitters of our wise words.

Speaker 1 And we're supposed to do a podcast, and then you guys start yammering. Mostly, I think we know who the criminal is here.
It's Sona. You'll start yammering about something and we haven't begun.

Speaker 1 And you're like, yeah, before we get started, and you'll yammer sometimes for 20 minutes. And I'm thinking, why aren't we making this the podcast? Why can't you control yourself?

Speaker 2 This is part of my process.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm sorry, Marlon Brando. I didn't realize you were.

Speaker 1 You have a process?

Speaker 2 I have a prod. This is my.
Can I say something, though? I think you always forget, out of the three of us, I am the least professional.

Speaker 1 Never forget that. Oh, okay.
Never forget that. Sometimes I forget.

Speaker 1 Do I forget that you are an unprofessional person yes okay so total loose cannon sometimes you might forget that you're cuckoo in the cabeza so you might forget that sometimes it's never never left no sometimes you might forget it never ever i never forget that and so what all i'm saying is there are times where i'm thinking we're here uh we're here to to do our our job which we also love it's fun But you'll start gabbing and gabbing and gabbing.

Speaker 1 And I'll say, well, why don't we just say, hey, welcome to Conroe Bryan Needs a Friend. And we can, can, whatever this is, we can talk about what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 And you'll be like, hold on, I'm not done yet.

Speaker 2 What did he just say? What did he just say earlier?

Speaker 1 Shut the fuck up. Monetize it.
Monetize it.

Speaker 1 Shut the fuck up. Yes.

Speaker 1 I do think,

Speaker 1 you know, I know.

Speaker 2 Maybe that was, you know.

Speaker 1 Okay, sorry, go ahead. No, no, please continue.
I think

Speaker 2 you know, okay, la, la, la, la, la. We have to like talk when the microphones are on.
But sometimes I just want to catch up with you guys because I'm actually your friend.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, you're friends, and sometimes it's okay to just catch up.

Speaker 1 In when we're in this room, everything must be monetized, everything must, Adam, help me out here. When we're in this room, everything

Speaker 1 must, you know, is part of the product, the team cocoa. Can I offer a suggestion?

Speaker 1 Especially if it's coming from Sona, that she should be paid more because the product is being monetized is primarily hers.

Speaker 1 Well, I didn't say that. I don't know what that does.
I did not say that.

Speaker 1 Do you want to weigh in? That does not agree with you that it's a waste. It's inefficient for there to be conversation happening off-mic.
But

Speaker 1 in Sona's defense,

Speaker 1 I think you're often guilty of the same thing, which is

Speaker 1 telling stories, chatting when we're not actually recording. So I agree with you in theory, but I have to say, I think that it's not just Sona.

Speaker 2 I love you, Adam. And can I say something

Speaker 2 to bounce off of what Adam just said?

Speaker 1 Can we just let this moment sit?

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, because I have something to add to it.

Speaker 1 I invited Adam.

Speaker 1 He sits way in the corner. He's over there

Speaker 1 calculating, scheming.

Speaker 1 Calculating and scheming. Yeah.
And I bring him over into this holy, holy area of the table with the mics. And

Speaker 1 then you stab me

Speaker 1 through my toga. He crucified you.
He crucified me. I just have to be, I just have to be my honest self.

Speaker 1 I have to be true to myself, and that's the truth. So you think sometimes I spin a yarn after we're done.

Speaker 1 Well, now, I hate to do this, but can I add, most of the time when you do that, it is unmonetizable because it cannot go public. That's true.
I tell some real corkers.

Speaker 1 Did you just get on me last episode about using the phrase cock of the walk and you just use corkers?

Speaker 1 I tell,

Speaker 1 you know, sometimes I... A real lulu?

Speaker 1 Sometimes I lay out a real Lulu of a story. No,

Speaker 1 I do tell some stories that are not for public consumption because maybe they include a name and I don't like to sell people, you know, sell people out.

Speaker 1 But and so we have some delicious conversations in here.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 yeah, I guess I'm guilty of the same thing. But I do think Matt's right, though.

Speaker 1 I think you are usually thoughtful about if you're going to tell a story that is appropriate for the podcast, you will save it for the podcast. Okay.
What I'm saying, Sona, is that I want...

Speaker 1 Don't, how dare you harump?

Speaker 2 I was just breathing.

Speaker 1 That was not breathing, that was a harump. If that's your breath, or else you have emphysema.

Speaker 1 I'm breathing.

Speaker 1 I think all those years in the coal mine have hurt you. I believe, Sona, that you should be a little more disciplined here about your work and you should tell your tales into the microphone.

Speaker 2 Off of what Adam just said, how often during when we were taping the show, did you hold up rehearsal because you were noodling on your guitar so much. And isn't that kind of the same thing?

Speaker 2 We both have a process.

Speaker 1 We do. Oh my God.
You know what? That's a fair point. Oh my God.
There are,

Speaker 1 I want to say over, there are 28 years of,

Speaker 1 there's 28 years where I'm making late night television. And I think there may be easily 2,000 hours

Speaker 1 of me

Speaker 1 playing whatever guitar song I want to play that day while people in headsets desperately try to get me to rehearse a scandal.

Speaker 1 Wait, what was even the conversation that you were supposed to save for the mic? We don't even know at this point. We don't even know anymore.

Speaker 1 I don't remember.

Speaker 2 It's just because I let you, you don't like it when I have a good time sometimes.

Speaker 1 It is true. When Sona's having joy,

Speaker 1 I feel like I'm having a heart attack.

Speaker 1 When Sona's experiencing true joy,

Speaker 1 I have all the symptoms of a major aortic aneurysm. It does feel like before you enter the room, we have to hurry up and get our catch-up sessions.
That's right.

Speaker 1 We do. Yeah, just otherwise you're going to yell at us.
We talked about a lot in about seven minutes before you walked in today.

Speaker 1 See, so you guys are afraid before I come in the room that once I show up, I'm going to shut everything down.

Speaker 1 You're going to monetize our little anecdotes about how we've been and what we've been doing over the past. That's exactly what happened.

Speaker 2 This is a bigger conversation about how you,

Speaker 2 the work environment you've created

Speaker 2 and how we can't. comfortably speak.
So I'm glad you brought this up.

Speaker 1 Can I just say that if someone is struggling in a situation like this, Better Help?

Speaker 1 With BetterHelp, you can get online counseling.

Speaker 1 Come on, Alice.

Speaker 1 It's not wrong. I'm just

Speaker 1 use offer code, CONING. Oh, my God.
Yeah, exactly. And you know what?

Speaker 1 You can, if a therapist isn't a good fit, you can cut off that session right away, and it's no hassle to start another one.

Speaker 2 This is kind of like us having Miller time.

Speaker 1 You know what? It is like Miller time. You know how it's like Miller time?

Speaker 1 When you're a bunch of buddies standing around, and you know what you want when you're with buddies? You want beer that tastes like beer. You know what I mean? Oh my God.

Speaker 1 You know what you've done to our friendship? You've fractured it. Yes.
There's a blast. Jesus, there's a blast from the past.
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Speaker 1 I heard that with the B2B model. Yes.
Okay, we just made...

Speaker 1 Yep, $88.

Speaker 1 Worth it. Oh, my God.
All right, you guys, my guest today starred in the Hulu series, The Great. Now you can see him in the new movie, Nosferatu.
I'm very excited. He's here.
He's incredibly talented.

Speaker 1 Nicholas Holt. Welcome.

Speaker 1 Are we started? Is this it? Yes. This is it, yeah.
I was thinking about friendship on the drive here. Were you really? Yeah.
Well, I was thinking about how LA is quite a lonely town in many ways.

Speaker 1 Anyway, we'd have to get into it too. Well, no, we should, because you live in L.A.
now. Yeah, well, technically down in Long Beach, yeah.
So LBC. I've lived in the middle of the day.

Speaker 1 Whichever one in LA. It's been 20 years.
Oh, whereabouts? In Belmont Shore. You live so close to me.
I'm on Naples. Oh, my God.
I lived in Naples for a little bit too. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 I want to be friends.

Speaker 1 I didn't ask you guys. Hello, this is a fairly fair.
You're a thief. You're dismissed.
I'm going to go have a coffee. I live in Belmont.

Speaker 1 I live in Pasadena now, but I don't. Oh, you went the wrong way.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Friendship overcome.

Speaker 1 He wanted to get farther away from the water and closer to the sun

Speaker 1 and just be miserable. I do like Pasadena.
Well, there's a Huntington Library and Gardens. Yeah, you want to be friends?

Speaker 1 Well, we don't go there anymore because it's too far now.

Speaker 1 I understand.

Speaker 1 If

Speaker 1 I ever lost control

Speaker 1 completely. Basically, I'm here looking for friends.
What are you just coming for? You'd be an amazingly cool friend to have.

Speaker 1 I have to say, I am a massive fan of yours. Thanks.
And

Speaker 1 you seem like a very normal, healthy person. And I'm sure you don't love compliments ladled on you.
No, I always liked your work. Oh, you do.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Well, first time I saw you was in About a Boy, which is

Speaker 1 such a great film. And you were so good in that movie with Hugh Grant.
And it holds up. I think I've watched it many times since then.
It's one of those movies, whenever it's on, I love you in it.

Speaker 1 I love the story. I love Hugh Grant.
It's just so well done. I love the soundtrack, blah, blah, blah.
And then I saw you kill it in many roles. And then you started doing The Great with El Fanning.

Speaker 1 And my eyeballs fell out of my head because I thought Nicholas Holt is one of the funniest actors alive. You are so good in that role.

Speaker 1 And here's the thing, you're walking this insane line of a terrible murderer who

Speaker 1 is constantly on the verge of killing his wife. And by today's standards, just an inhuman barbarian and incredibly likable.

Speaker 1 And I thought, what kind of Juno move is that? But I loved your character in that. I thought you were absolutely hilarious.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 It was a dream of a role because Tony McNamara's writing is so smart. And that was the thing.

Speaker 1 I kind of discovered that character along the way, as everyone else did, because he wrote the favorite as well that I was in. And then after that, he said, oh, I've got this other script.

Speaker 1 And it was at that point a feature. script for for the great and i'd worked with l before he said he was going to ask l to play catherine and she's wonderful, as you know.
And

Speaker 1 I knew I had a fantastic time working with her previously. So I was excited about all the components.
And then he turned it into a show.

Speaker 1 But when we started shooting, we only had like a couple of episodes, two or three episodes. So then it was kind of as we went, we would get more of the episodes as we shot.
So it was kind of like.

Speaker 1 I'd read it and I'd be like, oh, this is terrible. Very funny, but terrible, horrible character

Speaker 1 who's just punched his wife and all these things. But then you'd start to eke out all the things that made him human and tick and

Speaker 1 the way he is and how ridiculous he is in very humorous ways. So, it was kind of, it was definitely all down to him, his writing, basically.

Speaker 1 Okay, yes, great writing, but I thought you and L together, one of my favorite couples I've seen on TV in memory, and uh, and also, uh, we had the best time.

Speaker 1 Well, you could tell, you guys have such a great chemistry, but also, um, Huzzah became, I think you put Huzzah on the map, it's back, it's Huzzah is back, Huzzah, and also

Speaker 1 just that

Speaker 1 self-assurance, constantly obsessed with your cock and sex.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I was just watching this and thinking. Is this the segue? I know.
Is this in your journal again?

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah.
No, but just like...

Speaker 2 Cock was so aggressive. Yes.

Speaker 1 It's a very aggressive word. It's a very aggressive word.

Speaker 1 Strong sounds. Yeah.
It is.

Speaker 1 But also just this kind of

Speaker 1 musing about sex and what he's going to do next. And just like, it was just hilarious.

Speaker 1 It's hilarious. A real foodie.
Yeah, a real foodie.

Speaker 1 One of the redeeming things about him is his foodie nature, but also he's very, he's very open. It's exactly what you see is what you get.
Yes.

Speaker 1 And I think that's one of the things that people can appreciate about him. It's like, not very common that you see someone who tells you exactly what they're thinking when they're thinking it.

Speaker 1 And he's the kind of person who might say, hmm, I may have to murder you now, but would say it out loud. And then go, well, probably shouldn't have said that out loud.

Speaker 1 That's the kind of I think think that show,

Speaker 1 I mean, first of all, the acting across the board,

Speaker 1 who plays the,

Speaker 1 I mean, such terrific acting, but the

Speaker 1 minister of war, the general. Oh, Douglas Hodge.
Oh, my God. Elemental.
Yeah. And that is truly incredible, his performance, because, you know, his characters aren't described.

Speaker 1 There's not like any of the bellowing and breathing and all those things that. Douglas added.
And I remember being in scenes with him when we first started shooting. You'd hear him constantly like,

Speaker 1 swallowing his own burps and stuff. None of that was in the script.

Speaker 1 It was just something that he brought to the character and was so hilarious that there was times that we had to like cut and stop scenes because the rest of us would be giggling so much at just how he breathed.

Speaker 1 He's constantly,

Speaker 1 but again, he was a great character because he's this, you know, he's this Russian general who's drunk, kind of drunk all the time, but also

Speaker 1 has common sense. I mean, I mean, he is the voice of reason often in a scene, but also not.

Speaker 1 I don't know. That series was so delightfully surprising.
And I watched that. And then

Speaker 1 I knew that I had a Nicholas Holt obsession when I don't know if you guys remember, but

Speaker 1 El Fanning came on the podcast and we were talking about the show. And I kept saying, tell me more about Nicholas Holt.

Speaker 1 And she, you know, she would indulge me. And she was like, well, what? You should talk to Nicholas.
And I'm like, yes, I should. You tried to get his number from her.
I did.

Speaker 1 I i did and she gave it to me and then it was like a suspiciously wrong it was a 555 that's the one that's just been cooling and breathing down the line

Speaker 1 now i recognize the breath

Speaker 1 you thought it was douglas hodge so i just want to go through yeah i i just want to walk you through your your career which at sucking such a young age you've had such a range of experiences and so much success.

Speaker 1 But, you know, I saw, I know that you had worked as a child, but then About a Boy is when it's like 2002, I want to say. Yeah, about that, yeah.
And you're working with Hugh Grant, who, by the way,

Speaker 1 has had this, I mean, he started out as one type of performer in romantic comedies, and now he's become, he's found this whole other sweet spot that I find extremely emerald. He is so good.

Speaker 1 His recent one's come out soon, right?

Speaker 1 Heretic, yeah. Yeah.
I saw the trailer. That's great.
It looks amazing. I maintain, and I have many people, I think many people will agree with me, Paddington 2, and it sounds like I'm making a joke.

Speaker 1 So good. Paddington 2 might be a perfect movie.
And I think it has a score on Rotten Tomatoes of just absolute perfection. I've watched Paddington 2 several times, looking for a flaw.
There isn't one.

Speaker 1 But Hugh Grant is so delightfully, insanely over the time. He's having such a good time.
It's brilliant. He is.
He is truly brilliant.

Speaker 1 But he, you worked with him, you were young, 10, 11, 12, something like that. You're working with

Speaker 1 Hugh Grant, and he taught you by observing him, he you learned from him.

Speaker 1 I still think the other day I was thinking about, and I think a lot of my sense of humor probably stems down a little bit from him and also just how he was on set.

Speaker 1 He was so dedicated to the work and professional and kind and good with everyone and just really, really deeply cared about doing a good job himself and making the film good.

Speaker 1 And I think I couldn't have had a better experience at that sort of age in terms of just learning and watching people and being like, okay, this is how it's, how it's supposed supposed to be and how it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1 You'd have to put in the work

Speaker 1 to get to the fun part. You need to prepare, you need to be on it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And also, it's that thing of like, you know, you end up on sets sometimes where people won't come out of trailers and this and that. And there's just extra kind of ego business going on.

Speaker 1 And there wasn't any of that. So I think good to have, you know.
Good behavior around at that sort of, you know, it's. Well, you lost me with this whole line of reasoning.

Speaker 1 I had a trailer put upstairs in this office just so I could not come out of it.

Speaker 1 But half the time, no one wants me to come out of it. It's a win-win.
Yeah. I wasn't familiar with, you know, this show you did when you were an adolescent skins.

Speaker 1 I don't really know that show, but it became huge in the UK.

Speaker 1 And that was a little difficult for you to handle because you're an adolescent and suddenly it's this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think any of us were prepared for how well that show would do. And I stand by this.
Somebody was asking me about that show the other day.

Speaker 1 And I was saying, I think the reason that it did of capture the moment so well is because it wasn't expected to be what it was.

Speaker 1 You know, I feel like more commonly now when shows kind of showing the teen way of life and whatever, and we're and they're going to show everything and it's going to be hardcore and all this sort of stuff, there's kind of this idea of what it's going to be and how it's going to fit into the zeitgeist early.

Speaker 1 Whereas that was kind of like, we're just going to make this show, we're all kind of messing around.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a good bunch of people, um, very talented bunch, and great writing, but it's kind of like nothing's expected of it.

Speaker 1 Yes, um, and then it did kind of blow up into in a way that um i feel like it still kind of gets watched some by some people now i've never i've never actually seen it you were young to be experiencing that kind of attention i was 16 or 17 and it was i guess it was around then that maybe camera funds and stuff were starting to kind of come out as well and it was just it was it was a weird transition because up until then i'd basically most of the time just been able to live my life very normally and and and i still can mostly day to day it's um being recognized as kind of a a weird, it goes in weird waves.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you find this, but it's like if you've had something out recently or you've been on people's screens, then maybe they recognize you.

Speaker 1 Otherwise, people just look at me like maybe we went to school together.

Speaker 1 But at that period, because that show was very popular, like with my age group and everything as well, it was kind of, it felt like I was under scrutiny a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So if you're going out, you just want to have a drink, hang out with friends,

Speaker 1 you have to accept that someone might be recording you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was a weird transition. I didn't particularly enjoy that at all.
I think it's healthy not to enjoy that.

Speaker 1 I think there are a lot of people who'd be 15, 16, 17, and think, boy, if I could be famous right now and get that kind of attention at an age when you want attention,

Speaker 1 wouldn't that be amazing? And so often it's not. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know. What kind of attention do people want?

Speaker 1 Well, let me explain my problem

Speaker 1 to the master.

Speaker 1 There we go. go.
You're talking about getting recognized. I wear a hat that says I am Conan O'Brien wherever I go.
Stop me and ask for a selfie.

Speaker 1 You know me? I love to travel. You love to do it.
Travel the world. I do it

Speaker 1 professionally for my travel show, but I also just like to, sometimes with my wife, go and visit a foreign land and try their different cuisines.

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Speaker 2 I didn't even know there were 215 countries.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's just, well,

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Speaker 1 Searchlight Pictures presents Rental Family, starring Academy Award-winning Brendan Frazier, Takahiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman, Akira Amoto, and directed by Hikari.

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Speaker 1 ScreenRant calls it one of the year's best films, while the Hollywood Reporter calls it a warm and witty delight that balances poignancy and humor with rare delicacy. Huh.

Speaker 1 Critics are praising Fraser's performance with Next Picture calling him brilliant and describing the film as a love letter to Japan. You know, true story, when I was shooting a show in Japan,

Speaker 1 we shot a segment where I rented a family.

Speaker 1 I think we still have a picture framed with you and your family that you rented. Yeah, it was really fascinating.
And it was a great experience.

Speaker 1 And I worked out some of my issues between my father and I with my rental father. That's good.
Who I don't think spoke English. But guess what? It worked out beautifully.

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Speaker 1 I was up half the night last night watching a World Series game. Yeah.
It was very exciting.

Speaker 1 I have to tell you, I don't care what your sport is, tailgates or watching parties or, you know, whatever, if you're watching High Lie,

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Speaker 1 It's a taste you can depend on because Miller time is always a good time. I'm out there throwing the pig skin around.
I used to just throw pig skin. Really? Chunks of pig skin.
Wow.

Speaker 1 I never had a football. Where would you find the pig? Oh, I went to a farmer.
Oh, good. Yeah.
And the pig had fallen and it was shredded.

Speaker 1 Anyway, back to Miller Light. Millite is just hawking pigskin around.
I like to raise a Miller Light in the air and celebrate a great pass,

Speaker 1 throwing chunks of pig skin around.

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Speaker 1 You've had this interesting education where you were getting probably attention and working as a child, then you're a teenager, but then you've, I mean, you've handled it all really well.

Speaker 1 You've done, I was thinking of your performance in Mad Max

Speaker 1 as, first of all, when I first saw that, I didn't even realize it was you. Yeah.
See, no one will recognize me from that. Yeah, because

Speaker 1 you play Nux. Yeah.
And Nux is this terrific character. You lost so much weight for that.
And the backstory, first of all, I love that movie. Yeah, it's

Speaker 1 a parody of it when we were at Comic-Con once, where I play the Doof Warrior, who's the guy that

Speaker 1 we actually recreated, we shot it film style, we recreated that whole giant truck. Do you remember this Sona? Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 I'm hanging off the front with an electric guitar and the white face and wearing the red onesie and shooting fire. Do you still have the red onesie?

Speaker 1 I'm wearing it now.

Speaker 1 But I'm wearing it for

Speaker 1 the red onesie is this new nickname. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 And I'm wearing it for medical reasons.

Speaker 1 But I'm shooting.

Speaker 1 They gave me a guitar that she was.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And then we were shooting it out in the desert, but they said, I remember just before we started to shoot, they, no, after the first take, they said,

Speaker 1 when you get near a telephone pole, turn off the fire. And I was like, what? And they were like, because otherwise you'll set the telephone poles off here in the desert outside Los Angeles on fire.

Speaker 1 And I went, no one thought. Like, this is up to me.
If I want to, I can take out the power grid with my electric guitar.

Speaker 1 But anyway,

Speaker 1 we did a whole parody of that, which was really fun to do. But I absolutely adore that film.
And your character, I mean, talk about being able to lose yourself in a character.

Speaker 1 You lost a ton of weight to play Nux

Speaker 1 because you're in this, everyone who's survived that apocalypse is sickly.

Speaker 1 And yeah, Nux is meant to be kind of essentially on his deathbed the day that you meet him

Speaker 1 at the start of the film. So that was something George asked me to do was to lose some weight.

Speaker 1 And I did get a strange body dysmorphia through that where I didn't feel I was that skinny and then looked back at photos and I was like, oh, you were very skinny.

Speaker 1 I didn't realize quite how far I'd gone with it.

Speaker 1 And what was the, I mean, everyone has their own technique, but is that a kind of thing where literally you're working with a doctor and they're saying, okay, you can have a Tic Tac today?

Speaker 1 And then it was super bad. It wasn't that.
It was just not eating as much and just running tons and jumping rope and like, yeah, just not eating that much. I wish there was a secret.

Speaker 1 Oh, I didn't eat as much.

Speaker 1 Fuck. I think there is now, right?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
I'm going to get an Ozempic colonic.

Speaker 1 Oh, God. Oh, geez.
I don't know. Maybe it'll go even faster, but I know the other way.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to say.

Speaker 1 A colonic.

Speaker 1 I want that for other reasons.

Speaker 1 They don't go together.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 But the red onesie is going to be helpful throughout this.

Speaker 1 Thank God I have that onesie on.

Speaker 1 When did you begin? My mates had to give himself like a colonic.

Speaker 1 That's when you shoot the stuff up to loosen everything. Yes.
He had to do that in a hospital and then like lost control. And they said you could do it himself.
And he was like, okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 1 But then was like on the floor of the bathroom in the hospital, like cramping with

Speaker 1 PCs.

Speaker 1 Why did they say do it yourself? Oh my God.

Speaker 1 First of all,

Speaker 1 this story is much better if you identify your friend. I can't.
They're very famous.

Speaker 1 It's got to be you, Grant. It's you, Grant.
It's got to be you. Hugh Grant cramping, shitting all over the floor.
You heard it here, folks.

Speaker 1 Let's get that out there.

Speaker 1 Stop. It's not.

Speaker 1 Too late. I'm editing your it's not out.
And we're replacing it with an AI, yes, it is. Definitely him.

Speaker 1 Oh, we got the sound bike.

Speaker 1 Now we're good.

Speaker 1 You got very seriously into motorcycles at some point. That was for a role.
I learned to ride bikes for a role.

Speaker 1 The first thing I did with L called Young Ones that Jake Pouchoy directed with me and Elle and Cody Smith-McPhee and Michael Shannon. A great group.
But yeah, my character rode motorcycles and that.

Speaker 1 So I learned to ride for that and then got into it for a little while and was riding a lot and getting on track and all that sort of stuff. But I've kind of stopped.

Speaker 1 It started to feel a little bit.

Speaker 1 Well, I fell off a few times. So that started to feel a little bit dangerous.
And then I got more into car racing.

Speaker 1 So I've been doing more of that because it feels a little bit safer yes you got just some you're in a cage yeah you've got a whole roll cage helmet i mean you wear a helmet obviously on the bikes but you've also got this this hands device have you heard of this the hands hand i think it stands for hands head and neck saver so it's like underneath your harness is this thing that then connects to your helmet to stop your head if you do crash from moving too far so it's saved loads of lives so you have and you have seriously first of all as a kid you were interested in cars yeah i grew up watching it with my dad and racing and with my dad and stuff and he he would like build cars as one of his hobbies um so i was always kind of interested and excited by them so now i'm lucky where i got the opportunity to kind of go and race around a track you just took i mean a serious course what's the course that you just took oh the course of belotta the ferrari yeah so now i'm kind of waiting hopefully i've i've done some of their track attacks at the ferrari challenge and those have gone well and then next will be the actual race but the track attacks like when everyone's out there trying to set the fastest lap sort of thing time now explain to me the appeal because I've never, I'm not a gearhead.

Speaker 1 I enjoy a nice car, but

Speaker 1 when I first made money and could buy any car I wanted, just you know who you're talking to.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I'm a writer on The Simpsons and I go out and I buy a

Speaker 1 Ford Taurus SHO. That's the Ford Taurus that has the stick shift.
Yeah, stick shift's great.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but it looks exactly like a Ford.

Speaker 2 You missed the Ford Taurus part.

Speaker 1 Well, I had the stick shift and I was like, okay,

Speaker 1 having fun.

Speaker 1 It's got a sweet Yamaha 6 in there.

Speaker 1 And, but yeah, I remembered thinking, this is so cool. And people would say, you're driving around in a Ford Taurus and you're 28 years old.

Speaker 1 And you told us you were going to get this really cool car. And I went, yeah, but if you look inside, it's got a stick shift.

Speaker 1 And the common reaction was,

Speaker 1 it's a Ford Taurus. You look like you're going to Whole Foods to buy some broken.
Not even Whole Foods, like Big Lots. Okay.

Speaker 1 Let's not get dicky about grocery stores. But anyway, that's the degree to which I'm probably not a gearhead.
But

Speaker 1 you participated in and won a race recently, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, I got the fastest time.

Speaker 1 I don't know how to describe the feeling of it is something where it makes you very present. But you have to be.
You do have to be, right?

Speaker 1 And it's a weird mix between having a lot of adrenaline but then having to kind of counteract that and calm yourself and be extremely focused for periods of time where you're doing things that are against human instinct because like for instance at the track where you you're kind of coming up through turns two and three and it's blind and so you can't see where you're going and you have to keep your foot pinned to the floor and you're going about 130 40 miles accelerating into the into the yeah so you've got yeah so and you're going up you're turning left but you can't see exactly where you're aiming to come out and then there's walls on either side so you're going through there at like 140 and it all goes well, luckily for me this time, and everything was fine.

Speaker 1 But there's a weird feeling where you're like half of the muscles in your leg are trying to pull up and stop you from doing it, and the other half are like overriding it

Speaker 1 to be like, No, you have to do that to get quick.

Speaker 1 And then, and then it's so there's, but then once you've done it once, you can do it again, and then you keep on building up, and you start to get muscle memory, yeah, muscle memory, and you start to just

Speaker 1 feel the car, and it becomes you don't become one with the car. That's such a stupid thing to say, but you start to feel it.
I did with the Taurus,

Speaker 1 Was that not clear?

Speaker 1 Wait a minute.

Speaker 1 My car was not on when I became one of the people. But my car was not even on, and I was not in it when I became one.
You were talking about stick shift?

Speaker 1 I thought it was fairly clear by the way you're talking about it. I'm going to keep explaining what happened.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 okay, but I was going to go so far with it. And I've arranged myself.
I'd just like to take this time to apologize to you. It's fine.

Speaker 1 Don't worry, Nicholas. This never has to air.
It's interesting. I'm just going to sound like I'm

Speaker 1 making a joke, but I'm not. I kind of understand what you're saying because if I'm in front of a large group of people,

Speaker 1 I am, there is an adrenaline rush and I am sometimes doing things that are against my better nature.

Speaker 1 But I also

Speaker 1 think this is going to be really funny if I do this thing that's potentially quite embarrassing or foolish.

Speaker 1 So there's this push me, pull you, but I also like to be in control, but I also like the potential chaotic loss of control. And it's all at the same time.
That's the closest I've come to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, no, it's exactly

Speaker 1 a slow state and it's kind of very meditative and it becomes. But let me ask you something then.
So when you're about to make a joke or take a risk,

Speaker 1 how often do you doubt it before you do it? And if you doubt it, do you just abort or do you

Speaker 1 override the business? This is one thing I found is that if I'm thinking about it beforehand, it's not going to be as good. And if you do it then, it's not as satisfying, it's not as good.

Speaker 1 And for some reason, the audience knows it too. I don't know what that's all about.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, I get, I, yeah, I get what you're saying because when you were first talking about the Ford Taurus, I was in my head, I was going to make, I was reaching for some sort of joke about there being a condom on the gear stage,

Speaker 1 and it was there somewhere. And then I was like, oh, and then I thought about it too much, and I was like, this isn't the time or place, let's just bury it.

Speaker 1 But then I went there.

Speaker 1 So you showed a lot of restraint and caution. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you held your tongue. And then me, the older man, who should know better.
Well, just because I couldn't formulate what the idea was. No, I didn't formulate it well either.

Speaker 1 I have me fucking a Taurus.

Speaker 1 You just said I fucked my car.

Speaker 1 There's some sort of soul sign joke in here, too. There was no.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm an Aries. Better than a Capricorn or something.
I'm an Aries, yeah.

Speaker 1 My point is.

Speaker 1 What's that joke? What's the one where it's like, oh, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I broke up with my ex, and someone says why, and they said, Oh, because I'm a Sagittarius and they're a cunt. Sorry,

Speaker 1 sorry, I probably can't say that. Beep that one out.
You can say it. That used to be my favorite for a while.

Speaker 1 You're allowed to say it in

Speaker 1 the UK. Yeah, so I say.
Apologies to anyone who's offended by that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You can change that word for other words. They were a dick, but it's funny.
Hey, Sona.

Speaker 1 I just want to make sure people know Sona said that. Cun, cun, cun, cun.
Okay, there you go. Now we're good.

Speaker 1 You know what's funny?

Speaker 1 Why is it you have better material than I do?

Speaker 1 This is frustrating. But it is funny how

Speaker 1 I did have an experience that I really loved. We shot a travel show in Berlin.
Oh, I'm going to Berlin in a couple of weeks. Let me know.
Is it for work? Yes. Okay.
This was a while ago.

Speaker 1 I won't be going there anytime too soon,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 we shot a segment where I believe I'm in a very, very fast BMW that's latest model, fastest model, and we go on the Autobahn.

Speaker 1 And what I always heard about the Autobahn is you can go as fast as you want. There are no speed limits.
That's not really true.

Speaker 1 There are sections of the Autobahn where I would crank it up as fast as I could go, but they're short.

Speaker 1 And then it's like, no, no, no, this part you have to slow down to like 55 kilometers an hour, whatever. And I was, so I was.
I was as fast as you went. I wonder, I have to look at it.
55. It was 55.

Speaker 1 No. No, we went.

Speaker 1 I think, I mean, it would not be impressive to you. It was impressive for me that we

Speaker 1 I'd have to find the speed that we got to, but I was, I was impressed. It was an impressive speed for you.

Speaker 1 No, because they were sweaty anyway. A lot of the time on track.
I'm a bit of a pervert, but ever since the tourists. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, I want to say it was. I think you got up to like 121 or 126 miles per hour.
Which to me, I mean, you said you've done two. What is it?

Speaker 1 The fastest we went on track in the challenge for our challenge car was 170, I think. Wow.
Okay.

Speaker 1 But that's weirdly, everyone always says, I was pulling a trailer. The first thing, I want to say

Speaker 1 it had three horses in it. That was through the drive-thru.

Speaker 1 That's what everyone always asked, though, isn't it? Like, oh, how fast do you go on track? And a lot of the tracks, you don't go that fast because the straights aren't that long. And

Speaker 1 it's not the sitting, going fast in a straight line that's the difficult bit anyway. That's how everyone can put their foot to the floor and go up through gears.

Speaker 1 It's the bit getting through the corners quickly, which is the scary and difficult bit. And how well the brakes work.

Speaker 1 The first time using the brakes in a race car, you like just kind of kick your foot to the brake as hard as you can. And it's

Speaker 1 everything, like they stop quick. It's impressive.
But then trying to get that right whilst you're turning and releasing them.

Speaker 1 And then, and then you go into the pits and they're like, look at your time and they're like, well, this is why you were slow because you, you, you hit the brake.

Speaker 1 one car length too early, but traveling at 170 miles an hour. So you know 0.1 tenths of a second, but then you didn't release it at the right pressure.

Speaker 1 So you lost two-tenths of a second, and then this and this. And suddenly you see why the details of it.
And I think that's one of the reasons I like it as well.

Speaker 1 I've said this before, but in acting and filmmaking, there's lots of subjective things in racing that's very objective. They look at it and they go, This is why you're slow.
So do that better.

Speaker 1 And you'll be quick. And you're like, okay.

Speaker 1 No, it is refreshing because it's something that I find refreshing about sports.

Speaker 1 Not

Speaker 1 participating in this so much, but is watching them is that things can be measured.

Speaker 1 And in comedy,

Speaker 1 no matter what you do, people go like, ah, not my cup of tea.

Speaker 1 Or someone can like it, someone else can hate it.

Speaker 1 It's just this miasma. It's this soup.
You can never quite say, no, no, empirically, this wins, because how can you do that?

Speaker 1 But in...

Speaker 1 And that's true of all the arts. Like sometimes when I watch the Oscars or any award show, I think, this is so crazy.
How can we be comparing all of these things and who's deciding?

Speaker 1 And what does that even mean? It always seems ridiculous to me. Was

Speaker 1 let me ask you something.

Speaker 1 Career-wise, was there ever a measurement that you hoped to attain that you were like, oh, if I attain this or reach this or this happens, that'll be a good barometer of like, oh, of course,

Speaker 1 I've done it. I've made what was it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, what was it? Is it right now? Welcome to the Nicholas Holt.

Speaker 1 If I could get Nicholas Holt to ask me questions as if I were interesting,

Speaker 1 That's my egot.

Speaker 1 That's my egot.

Speaker 1 No, I remembered

Speaker 1 my career has been a series of me thinking if I could get to this point, then I'd never worry about anything again.

Speaker 1 And that goes back to me being 22 and just thinking if I could just make a living as a comedy writer. And then I did.
And I'm like, okay, well,

Speaker 1 the minute you attain something,

Speaker 1 you have disdain for it. But when I was, what's next? What's the next, what's the next level then? For me,

Speaker 1 I think cover of men's health in a speedo. Oh,

Speaker 1 just like super cut.

Speaker 2 You should pivot.

Speaker 1 I should have

Speaker 1 on the bonnet of the Taurus.

Speaker 1 Washing it.

Speaker 1 Making sure it's extra clean. I think.

Speaker 1 I think think it's time

Speaker 1 61-year-old men of my complexion

Speaker 1 who work out intermittently are seen as sex symbols. This country's already going through enough.
I think this country can handle more.

Speaker 1 No, I think. That's what the country needs.

Speaker 1 No, it is funny because

Speaker 1 I was very young and a writer on Saturday Night Live.

Speaker 1 We won an Emmy when I was there for a season that I've been working on. And we won.
And I was in my 20s. And I remember thinking, wow,

Speaker 1 you know, this, I want an Emmy. This is going to change everything.
And of course, it doesn't change anything. None of these things change anything really.

Speaker 1 And so it's just been this constant education and re-education and re-education. It's all an illusion.
You just keep, you just keep going.

Speaker 1 And I think for, I mean, your analogy would be,

Speaker 1 there's not going to be any point in a car where you're going to say, I'm satisfied, right? You're going to keep.

Speaker 1 I mean, I guess if you go and win, it can get

Speaker 1 the trophy or something, then you can be, but then, of course, that's like

Speaker 1 you've got to do it. It's like you've done it, you've got to do it again, or you've got to go to a different track and do it again.
You've got to defend. Like, yeah, there's always.

Speaker 1 Did you stand on top of the car when you won the race? No, I didn't.

Speaker 1 What are you supposed to do? There are all these iconic things you're supposed to do when you win.

Speaker 1 I got on the podium. and they gave a bottle of champagne.
And I'd never done that before, the spraying champagne thing. And I did a terrible job.

Speaker 1 popped it it didn't really squirt anywhere and then I saw the guy the other guy on the podium like one of them like hit the bottle on the ground so I kind of did that to try and get it to fizz but it just kind of a load fell out and then it was like oh it was just all a bit of a mess because when you see people spraying champagne it looks cool and awesome yeah did they take your trophy away

Speaker 1 they should have done it was an absolute disgrace you could see them back taking your car with a tow truck they took the car back and then and then i'm like i can fix this I can do better.

Speaker 1 So I'm shaking it up, sticking my thumb. And then it's, and by then, like, there's not enough in there.
It's not fizzy enough. And then everyone's left.
Yeah. You're there late at night.

Speaker 1 You're there with a diet seven up, shaking it. Come on.
I still do it every morning. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you

Speaker 1 do you?

Speaker 1 This is what I'm saying on curious.

Speaker 1 Does any of this translate?

Speaker 1 Does your driving ability translate to you on the 405 freeway?

Speaker 1 Does anything like that translate? Or are you an amazing driver going 55 miles an hour on the highway to get your oil changed? No, no, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 I just get bored sitting on motorways, stop, start, and whatever.

Speaker 1 It's a completely different.

Speaker 1 I like to think that maybe my reaction time and if something happened, my car control would be good. But I've luckily never had to use it

Speaker 1 on the road. Yeah.
That's good. You just knocked wood in.
I don't think this is wood.

Speaker 1 What do you mean?

Speaker 1 I think this is is wood. Definitely wood.

Speaker 1 This is

Speaker 1 an expensive case of voice of wood. I don't trust Eduardo.
I think he cheaped out on us. He found something cheaper than wood.
Quite the particle board. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's better for the sound, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He gets it. Yeah.
You get it. I don't get it.

Speaker 1 How do you like living in Los Angeles area?

Speaker 1 We were talking about this a little bit when you first showed up, but it's so interesting.

Speaker 1 Maybe it's the grass is always greener, but having 100% Irish genes, I always find myself yearning for it to be cloudy and rainy here in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 But for years, I've noticed that people from the UK, Brits, they want to be here. They are not interested at all in a cloudy day.
They want to get red unit-faced.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Do you know? Do they? Well, I think so. Yeah,

Speaker 1 they love tanning.

Speaker 1 Do you think I'm onto something?

Speaker 1 Well, you know what?

Speaker 1 The reverse of that would be my wife was like, when we first met, she was like, oh, I love, she's from here. She was like, oh, I love rain.
I love Cardi Days, whatever. I was like, oh, cool.

Speaker 1 And we were back in London for a while shooting some of the great

Speaker 1 for six months. And I think it was rainy and cloudy and cold for most of that time.
And she quickly realized that she

Speaker 1 didn't enjoy that. There's something about if you grow up in the sun where you kind of have this romantic idea of rain and grey and cold and all this.

Speaker 1 But actually, when you put her in it, she was like, no, this is. And you're happy.
You like it here. I like being in the sun.

Speaker 1 I mean, I miss london i miss pubs and the theater and friends and and a lot of the things about the lifestyle i've been able to walk more places so i do miss it but i mean the thing about my job is i'm always kind of on the road in different places so but i'm finding this a nice base at the moment the uh we're talking i want to make sure we get the word out on nosferatu yeah where did you shoot this where did you shoot nosferatu we shot it in prague oh my gosh see that

Speaker 1 That is why I do a travel show is that for years and years and years, for 28 years, I sat at a talk show desk and talked to people like you who said, Oh, I just got back from Prague. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Have you been there for no? I've never been to Prague. I want to go there, but you should do an episode going there.
Yeah, I will. In like

Speaker 1 alignment with Nosferatu coming out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you want me to travel to Prague? To get the word out on Nosferatu. Thank you.
All right, Sona, could you book me a flight to Prague? Sure, book. And get me a cheap, good, good,

Speaker 1 good, really good earbuds. Really good acting.
All done, Bob. And could you have a shirt made that says

Speaker 1 no sferatu in theaters now?

Speaker 1 Let's see that. Can you screen print it?

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 Whoa. Laser printer.

Speaker 1 Stupid. What kind of machine makes this? Do all your machines make noises like that? Yeah.
Your guillotine probably goes,

Speaker 1 I'd like to hear the guillotine. Yeah, let's hear the guillotine.

Speaker 1 Splort.

Speaker 1 Splort. It needs to be a little bit of a

Speaker 1 wet sort of bird.

Speaker 1 He landed on his tongue.

Speaker 1 I don't know what happened there.

Speaker 1 Boing boink.

Speaker 1 Didn't realize the French Revolution was so humorous. Yes.

Speaker 1 Betty Hill in the French Revolution.

Speaker 1 Okay, you made Nosferatu, directed by one of my favorites, Robert Eggers. I love his stuff.
He's incredible, isn't he? Absolutely incredible. And so, I mean,

Speaker 1 I'm excited to just see the look of the film. I mean,

Speaker 1 he always achieves.

Speaker 1 I mean, I agree with you. I'm such a huge fan of his.
I love his movies. I love the performances in his movies.

Speaker 1 He is, I think, a real auteur filmmaker. and one of the greatest working and alive.

Speaker 1 He's just, and it's, you know what, I was thinking about this the other day as well. He's so dedicated to the craft of filmmaking in terms of technically, emotionally, historically, what he creates.

Speaker 1 There were moments where he was like watching old films to try and figure out what was the best snow we could use. Because he shot all on film.

Speaker 1 He's, he's, like you said, the look is so important in terms of telling this story. But he, so he was, he was like,

Speaker 1 why is the snow good in these movies, but it's not good in these? And then he found like some old stock snow that isn't made anymore, fake snow from the 90s or whatever. And they managed to locate

Speaker 1 just enough.

Speaker 1 And I'm breathing this asbestos in, and i'm like god this movie's beautiful and it's worth it there's a reason they don't use it anymore poisoning myself

Speaker 1 god it looks good on on screen he is he is like yeah

Speaker 1 it's just his dedication to like the the details of historically but also like exploring the occult and the emotional aspects of this story it's something he's wanted to make since he was eight years old and there was a play of it he did at school so um no one could have told it better what are the eggers movies that you were really drawn to i mean the witch was the first one i saw and i met him after that which I just thought all his movies feel so real, which is kind of a weird thing because I'm not necessarily like a horror fan.

Speaker 1 Well, this is. It's so funny because I had the opportunity to interview Jordan Peel and he was asking me, what kind of horror films do you like?

Speaker 1 And I said, I don't like someone jumping out of a bush, stabbing, jump scares, and someone chasing someone else with a chainsaw.

Speaker 1 And I cited The Witch as an example, and Eggers as an example of there's a wide shot early in the film. It's fall and it's New England,

Speaker 1 17th century New England,

Speaker 1 and the wind is blowing and you just see these trees slightly undulating and it's terrifying

Speaker 1 because of the implication of what something malevolent is out there.

Speaker 1 He managed to make trees in the fall in New England. very frightening.

Speaker 1 And I responded to, there's so much in the witch that

Speaker 1 it's so much of its tone and so much of it is.

Speaker 1 And then there are, yes, there are little moments that are frightening, but when you think about it, there's so little violence, there's so little action, but your heart's in your mouth the whole time.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, he's a master of creating tension.
I think you're going to love that. I think I'm excited for you to see it because it's like the tension he creates, but it is visually stunning.

Speaker 1 And the score and the sound is like imposing and fills your bones.

Speaker 1 But then there's this weird thing where it's like, you're watching it, you're like, you can't take your eyes away because it's, it's like looking at a rembrand every scene every shot but then but then there's also this thing where you like don't want to look away because you're also this is scary something's coming something's happening and it's it's a it's a really interesting exploration of kind of the evil that we all have within ourselves but also externally coming and how that affects us so i'm i'm excited about it i think it's a really good what was that the period is is it 18 yeah 90 spitsburgh germany um so it's kind of a gothic yeah tale i guess um but then yeah going back to his movies of course the lighthouse was like and willem defoe's in this one as well and him and Rob were so brilliant.

Speaker 1 We got to do, we did a travel show in Dublin last year. Yeah.
And we drove around and we went to Wicklow, which there's this great iconic lighthouse.

Speaker 1 And I got all made up as Willem Dafoe in the lighthouse. And I have this long, insane speech

Speaker 1 that we shot in black and white. You're doing promo for the lighthouse, then, so you can do something else wrong.

Speaker 1 You better make another shirt.

Speaker 1 What I'm saying is, go check out the lighthouse.

Speaker 1 Get the costume on as well yeah but what i love send you the script what i loved about that i guess what i loved about that movie is the performances are amazing

Speaker 1 but also you're paying attention to like the button on someone's weird suit which is very somehow evocative yeah he manages to get all that stuff right and i'm thinking gothic nosferatu late 19th century field day with the visuals.

Speaker 1 Oh, the costumes, Linda, the costumes that she created are all impeccable and stunning, but it is all that detail. Again, it's like his historical knowledge of everything going on.

Speaker 1 And because he leads from the front with such passion, everyone around just really wants to bring their best and do their best

Speaker 1 to serve his vision. But then I would text him thinking he'd be asleep about something

Speaker 1 in the middle of the night. in the middle of the day here, but which middle of the night in London.
And he'd be like, oh, I'm up.

Speaker 1 I'm researching which cigars your character should smoke in this scene and whatever. He'd be like, dude, go to bed.
It's 3 or 4 a.m. in London.
What are you doing? But he's just constantly

Speaker 1 so in the zone of what's right for the story in every smoking thousands of cigars.

Speaker 1 He's vomiting.

Speaker 1 I've got to get the right one.

Speaker 1 I am, well, listen, I am a huge,

Speaker 1 huge fan of yours as a person, but

Speaker 1 I just think your performances are off the charts great. And this movie is made for me.
So, and oh, yeah, Bill Skarsgård. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, his performance is magic as well because he's created, you know, this monster, Count Orlock, but he's given it such history and rooted it in something very real.

Speaker 1 So it's, you know, it's terrifying, it's scary, but it's also, it's also real. Do you, I'm curious because

Speaker 1 my work is always I make something and then we see it either instantly or 10 minutes later and then I never see it again.

Speaker 1 Your work is you work really hard on something, you craft it, you make it, you have some control over some facets of it, but and then this long period of time goes by, I would think, before you see it.

Speaker 1 How apprehensive are you about, okay, now it's time for me to go see myself in Nosferatu? I don't like that. I don't like that.

Speaker 1 I always equate it to like when you're at school and you did a test and you're waiting for the results to come in. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's that nerve-wracking feeling where you're like, ugh.

Speaker 1 And it depends also how you left the shoot in terms of how you, your overall feeling there. Like, did you feel like you gave a lot of variation on each scene?

Speaker 1 In the edit, if they want, they're going to have options. Did you feel like you explored everything you could have done?

Speaker 1 And then that's a different feeling as opposed to if you walk away from something and you go,

Speaker 1 I think I missed a bit here, or actually, that could have been better. And suddenly then you're looking back and you're like, oh no.

Speaker 1 So it's an odd feeling waiting for something to come out and not something I look forward to particularly. I'll say, from my vantage point, your work is excellent.

Speaker 1 And so, and trust me, I think a word from Conan O'Brien carries a lot of weight in the film industry. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Huh. The car fucker.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Web Onesie, the car fucker.

Speaker 1 Five stars.

Speaker 1 Five stars from the Taurus fucker.

Speaker 1 Absolutely thrilled that you could be here

Speaker 1 today. And I do want to be your friend.

Speaker 1 I doubt it's going to happen.

Speaker 1 We can definitely be friends.

Speaker 1 I'm going to get with the sheet.

Speaker 1 And I'm going to say it's not going to happen on your end. I'm going to say you're the one that's going to.
You'll see. Just keep calling and breathing down the phone.

Speaker 1 I'm always waiting. Nicholas.
That's the only reason I've still got a landline. It's me.

Speaker 1 But congrats on the new film, Nosferatu. And thank you so much for stopping by and for being so funny

Speaker 1 and terrific. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 Appreciate it. Peace out, Tupac.
Oh, God.

Speaker 1 No one expects that.

Speaker 1 Conor Brian Needs a Friend is brought to you by Airbnb. I've taken a few trips in the past where I got a place through Airbnb.
I've mentioned this before, lovely experience.

Speaker 1 I think I'm going to do it again. I love it.
It makes me feel so comfortable when I'm in a home that I get on Airbnb. Well, you've done this a lot, haven't you, Blai? I have.

Speaker 1 And actually, Eduardo and I tomorrow are going to Austin, and I'm trying to get him to stay with me in a house that I got on Airbnb. I don't know about sharing a spot with you.
Well, he's very loud.

Speaker 1 He's very loud. And he always has to bring his figurines with him.

Speaker 1 They're emotional support figurines. Yeah.
But the great thing about getting a place through Airbnb, and I've done this in several cities, I like just feeling like, okay, this is my own space.

Speaker 1 I can do my thing. You're traveling.
Why not enjoy it? Yeah. Well, thank you.
Yeah, that's so nice of you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Eduardo, don't go with him.

Speaker 1 The other thing, and this would be a cool little detail for both of you, is if you're not using your place, you could list that on Airbnb. It's true.
It's a terrific way to make some money.

Speaker 1 It's a terrific way to travel. So your home might be worth more than you think.
Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

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Speaker 1 What's up, Matt Gorley? What's the plan? Well, we're going to do another staff review. I love staff reviews because as the, what is my title at this company am i ceo no am i chairman no am i

Speaker 1 i feel like you're just you're the head of talent you're the you're not someone are you admitting i have talent i'm saying you're not someone who's like making like hey guys let's wheeling and dealing decisions this i'm doing it i do that but that's all i do all i do is come into meetings and go hey guys let's do some wheeling and dealing and then adam and federovich and ross are all like what and i'm like like, yes, I'm wheeling and dealing.

Speaker 1 And they're like, just, and they just pushed me out of the room. And I've got my shirt button down.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You're the face of this company.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And what a face.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Let's move on.

Speaker 1 I like,

Speaker 1 as the grand poo bah, I like talking to the employees and telling them how I think they could do better. Okay.
So today we have Eduardo, who is

Speaker 1 currently hiding behind Eduardo.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 be a man about this, Eduardo. Can you step away from the machinery that you employ as the

Speaker 1 Adam?

Speaker 1 Yeah, Adam. Adam's over there checking the levels.
Do the levels.

Speaker 1 Have a seat, Eduardo.

Speaker 1 Is this your first time at the table? I think for the hopping, I was interrogated.

Speaker 1 Just have a little seat there, Eduardo.

Speaker 1 Buckle up.

Speaker 1 Buckle up.

Speaker 1 Okay, now, Eduardo, if you don't mind,

Speaker 1 this is a very, very large company. Huge company.
There literally have tens of thousands of employees. Your full name, please? Eduardo Perez.
Okay, Eduardo Perez. As I've said before, Eduardo Perez.

Speaker 1 There you go.

Speaker 1 Let me help you. Eduardo Perez.
Perfect.

Speaker 1 So, Eduardo Perez.

Speaker 1 Eduardo, you are, I'm going to start by buttering you up before I chop you down. You made this beautiful studio that we're in, state of the art.

Speaker 1 You're a very talented guy, and I applaud you for your work. Thank you.
Thank you. I did it with the help of many other individuals.
I can't take all the credit.

Speaker 1 They're not here right now, but you did a fantastic job, and you've done, as far as I can tell, mostly a really good job here.

Speaker 1 Excellent job.

Speaker 1 Describe your duties. You have to make sure that the equipment's all functioning.

Speaker 2 Duties.

Speaker 1 Well, duties, yes. Yeah, your staff reviews next.
Yeah. Take it easy.
Yeah. Duties.

Speaker 1 My duties relative to this show. Yes, yes.
I engineer. I make sure that you all sound as great as you can.

Speaker 1 And who has the most challenging voice of the three of us?

Speaker 1 Honestly, I would say you do. What's challenging? You're very dynamic.
So you get very excited and loud, and then, but sometimes you, because of your.

Speaker 1 It's called being a rageaholic.

Speaker 1 Yes. I explode in rage.
No, I know that I, when I, when I have an idea or I want to push something through and punch it, you probably have to ride all the dials. All the time.

Speaker 1 I'm constantly, exactly, riding your levels the most

Speaker 1 of all three of you. Sometimes a guest will match your energy, and I'll have to ride you and the guest.
Yeah, that can happen sometimes. Yeah, but you're that happened with Doris Kearns-Goodwin.

Speaker 1 She started talking about Lyndon Johnson, and she was shouting.

Speaker 1 And then I was doing bits, and she was doing bits. You know, it was also difficult to record sometimes: Jimi Hendrix.

Speaker 1 The great artists are sometimes hard to capture.

Speaker 2 You've just, you've been doing this for so long that I'm surprised you don't know how to like talk into a microphone properly.

Speaker 1 I don't care about the devices around me. I mean, I do see myself as a pure, purely artistic cloud that just emanates energy, goodness, and

Speaker 1 genius.

Speaker 1 And then these machines, they aren't my concern. These are the concerns of others.

Speaker 1 Like, is it Eduardo Perez? Eduardo de Perez, yes, that's right. Eduardo, you know, you do a very good job.
You did, we were

Speaker 1 recording a certain celebrity recently. I believe it was, I believe it was Caitlin Olsen, of course, and very talented, wonderful.
And she comes in and we were all excited to talk to her.

Speaker 1 And then there was an issue.

Speaker 1 And I hate to bring this up in your review, but

Speaker 1 it felt like you weren't ready to go when it was time to go. What happened? That is correct.

Speaker 1 Right as we were about to get started, the software program that I normally use just completely froze.

Speaker 1 Gorley would know this well. Anybody who's used the computer before.
Yeah, and I'm actually pretty fluent in this. I was doing a bit before, but which one is it? It's called console.

Speaker 1 Yeah, console, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 And so what happened? Be specific and really get into the minutiae because I can match you. Sure.
So the

Speaker 1 spinning wheel of death appeared. And we all know what that is.
It means it was buffering. Exactly, exactly.
And it wouldn't go away

Speaker 1 why are you talking to me like i'm a child wait what i'm sorry what was buffering excuse me oh i'm sorry okay can you seriously use the real terminology because i i you're talking to me like i'm an idiot i have worked in show business for a long time and i know a lot about uh television i also know about the audio aspect of things so let's have a real it's not even that complex well just please let's get into it the computer simply froze

Speaker 1 that's all you've got that's all that happened okay and i had to just hit research i had to restart the whole system. Yes.
That's all you did? That was it. And then I had to load up Pro Tools.

Speaker 1 I had to load up console. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You have to load Pro Tools. You have to load console.
But my question is, did you try anything else before you went to what anyone would do, which is unplugging it and then plugging it back in again?

Speaker 1 I tried to force quit it and tried to reboot it. Did you try the force? There is no try.
There's only do.

Speaker 2 Do you know how to force quit?

Speaker 1 Yes, of course you do. What's the shortcut?

Speaker 1 What's the keystroke for sure?

Speaker 1 Control, alt, force, quit.

Speaker 1 Listen, can I I tell you something? I believe you that was the easy thing to do, and it took a long time. Caitlin had to sit here for a little bit because

Speaker 1 it was longer than a minute, it was at least a minute and 15 seconds. It felt like eternity for me, I'll tell you.
And I could tell she's a lovely person,

Speaker 1 but she was thinking of leaving. I could tell.
She handled it like a champ. I was more nervous about your energy than I was about her energy.

Speaker 1 This guy's never had a single hiccup for how long has he been? I know, but can I say something? Prince, anytime anyone in his band hit one note that was a little bit off, he would find them.

Speaker 1 He would find them. He's a psychopath.
No, that's not.

Speaker 2 Are you comparing yourself to Prince?

Speaker 1 Yes. You're podcasting.
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 I'm just saying, you wouldn't know what's wrong because you don't.

Speaker 1 I hear the music just the way Prince did. And I think in our each and our fields, I am every

Speaker 1 prince of podcasting.

Speaker 1 You're the prince of

Speaker 1 Prince. I'll say say that.

Speaker 1 And I'll tell you this.

Speaker 1 I just question, did you panic and force quit? Because there are other things you could have tried first. Like what? Yeah.
I don't know. You could have gone to Ultra.
You know, sorry? Ultra.

Speaker 1 What's Ultra? What are you talking about? Ultra. It's a parallel system that you can use.
You can access it.

Speaker 1 And then you can go to Hibernet. If you had used Ultra and you had gone to Hibernet,

Speaker 1 don't. Hey, Sona, you're just laughing because you're embarrassed.
You don't know anything.

Speaker 1 You could have knocked it all down like three generations.

Speaker 1 What was I thinking? And did you try compression? Compression. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Compression.
Millennial compression. Well, listen, next time, look to me and I can help you.
You go. Okay.

Speaker 1 I do like the work that you're doing. Thank you.
I'm very lucky to have you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 And I'm very fortunate that you've done such a beautiful job. And this table,

Speaker 1 this is your baby. This is one of my babies, yes.
You put this table together. And anytime one of us, it's happened.

Speaker 1 Sona's always bringing various soups from home, soups that your mother made, soups from the home. She never once brought the soup.

Speaker 1 You know, when you come in with your soups from the old country,

Speaker 1 listen, and you spill it.

Speaker 1 Have you noticed that when you're, when, when the, just back me up on this. Admit, first of all, you bring in a lot of soups from the old country.
So you throw yourself under the hood. Just admit it.

Speaker 1 It is amazing. You bring soups from the old country.
But listen, but listen, it spills. Whenever a liquid spills, you freak.
I do freak it out.

Speaker 1 Because there's a lot of very expensive electronics underneath this beautiful table. Under the hood, yes.
Under the hood.

Speaker 1 Did you know when you were building this table, did you know that, first of all, I get clumsy sometimes with my drinks? So and, of course, ubiquitous soups.

Speaker 1 I had a feeling. Yeah.
I tried to impose a rule that would prevent drinks, but I was quickly outnumbered.

Speaker 1 Well, I ingest a lot of fluids to keep the old pipes lubricated, so to speak.

Speaker 2 You were the first one to spill all over this, and it was like a full glass of water.

Speaker 1 Okay, I did spill a full glass of water.

Speaker 1 However, how many times have you been in here with, and she drinks it out of a stone bowl

Speaker 1 and it's some Armenian stew or potash, right? Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 And you come in and you've got that big spoon that's crazy big, like the flintstone. You know what's funny is I'm thinking of khush, which would come with like a hoof.

Speaker 1 What? How many times? Oh, I said once. She was having some of this hush.
And I said, what she got there. And she said, you want some? She said, you want the hoof?

Speaker 1 You want the hoof? Remember? And I said, no, I don't want the hoof.

Speaker 2 I'm trying to share with you. That's all I'm trying to do.

Speaker 1 Well, anyway, great. So you're welcome.

Speaker 1 I finally got you to admit that you do bring tons of, you bring hush in in a big stone bowl that's been frozen for years because it's from the old country. Gotcha, Sona.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. Eduardo, thank you for all your work, and you are impeccable.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 My only question is, how valuable could your job be if you can walk away from it completely and everything's fine? I built it so that. Oh, you built it? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, you're such a good surgeon that halfway through the surgery, you can walk away for a peer review.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know what? I'm with you on this because he did plug in and plug out and plug in. That's what I would have done.
Yeah. I could do what you do.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, and also, what do I do? I guess I'll reboot the whole thing.

Speaker 1 Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonoma of Session, and Matt Gorley. Produced by me, Matt Gorley.
Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Frost, and Nick Liao.

Speaker 1 Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
Take it away, Jimmy.

Speaker 1 Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and Mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns.

Speaker 1 Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn.

Speaker 1 You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Cocoa hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message.

Speaker 1 It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at seriousxm.com/slash Conan.

Speaker 1 And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

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