Will Forte Commits to the Bit

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I suck for my face paint.

I suck for my face paint.

Face paint.

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Yo,

just washed my hands.

Good to see you.

How you doing?

I like you.

Thank you for doing this on short notice, too.

Sorry it's so last minute.

No, this is this is ideal.

Were you coming from other stops on your press tour?

We started a couple weeks ago and did a big junket.

And then we last week did the premiere and I did a Kimmel.

And when we were working on this, we were doing it in like Beacon, New York.

So when I saw you, that was why I only came down for a half hour because I came straight from work and had to go back.

I was going to say, when I saw you, it was at Sadegas' birthday.

This would have been the fall.

Yeah.

It was karaoke.

You appeared out of the mists of upstate New York.

And people are like, we don't know why Will

is even able to be here right now.

I surprised him.

Yeah.

I was, I was up

there in New York and we finished at like 10.

So I just got in the car and I think I got there at 11.30 and I said, I, or, or maybe even midnight.

And I said, I can only stay for a half hour.

And I did.

I stayed and did a karaoke song.

You

very memorably dueted with Jason

Luther Vandross.

Always and forever, right?

Then, a kind of recent one that is one of our anchors now is

Shallow.

Which you've done, I know, on stage at his charity.

I always get to do the gaga part.

So like trying to hit that, oh man, I have shredded so many people's eardrums trying to hit that note.

I mean, my version of hitting it is just like bunting the ball.

The word that comes through that I heard at karaoke and that you were just describing when it comes to blowing out your vocal cords, there's this through line of what I dare say is commitment.

Like you commit to this shit, man.

Thank you.

But what I have been realizing, what I've been finding out talking to people that know you so much better than I, of course, know you is that this is part of your myth and reality, it turns out, is that like you're a myth?

genuinely the stuff i've been hearing about it all feels almost too absurd to be your life but this is this is the case well i'm looking forward to to diving in there

so what i need you to know at the top here is that will forte is responsible for some of the most idiosyncratically bizarre characters in the history of American comedy.

And he is also responsible for my favorite comedy of all time, which starred Val Kilmer and Kristen Wigg, and also isn't even really about the SNL sketch that inspired it.

And so I will finally get to talk to Will about all that in just a bit here.

But you should also be aware that I have been doing a bit of reporting on Will.

Because first of all, I'd never met him outside of that half-hour karaoke when he briefly left the set of his excellent new Netflix show with Tina Fey called The Four Seasons.

And so what I did was just start asking Hollywood people why, specifically, they all clearly love working with him.

As he made his way from The Groundlings, where he was improvising, and then Letterman, where he was a writer, and then That 70s show and Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and Conan and The Last Man on Earth, and also a serious, critically acclaimed film like Nebraska.

And at some point in this research, mutual friend of PTFO Mike Scherr, who wrote for SNL in the office before creating Parks and Wreck and many other TV shows, told me something eye-opening.

Mike told me that out of all of the SNL auditions he has ever seen, all of which happened to occur in front of the show's creator, Lauren Michaels, nobody has ever made him laugh harder than Will Forte.

My SNL audition, I was writing at the 70s show at the time and was

loved writing at that show.

It was, we had just gotten picked up for two years, which is unheard of.

I had been on a series of shows that had gone,

gotten canceled after 13 episodes.

So this was the first time that I felt real job security.

So

when I did this groundling show, there was a hiatus period in between seasons.

And I did a groundling show.

Lauren came and he asked, I think, four of us to come out and audition.

And I was like,

I can't, I can't do it.

I'm under contract for 70 Show.

I think I was just, well, I know I was just terrified of it.

Like, I don't want to go.

That sounds so scary.

Anyway, eventually he talked me into going.

The people at 70 Show were super cool about it.

So I went over

the did the audition, which was Tim Calhoun, which I did on the show a little bit.

I am Tim Calhoun, and I am running for the office of President of America.

I did a speed reader, which I also did on the show.

Done!

Poor Jesus.

And I did a couple impersonations, Michael McDonald and Martin Sheen, both of them very bad impersonations.

And then this thing, it was the gold man, which was something that I did at the Groundlings for, it was

something that was very dirty.

This is an NC 17 show when it needs to be for the record here.

So this is a guy, one of those guys, you've seen people on the streets who

are, you know, dressed in all gold or all silver.

Well, this one was all gold and he doesn't move.

And then you put something in the, in the jar, and then they do, you know, a couple moves and then,

you know,

freeze again until somebody puts more money in.

So my thing was this guy gets his money stolen.

Somebody takes all the money out, but they're not putting money in.

So he can't move.

And he has to wait until somebody else puts money in.

And then he like goes, tries to find, find out where.

the person is and and they're long gone.

So he's up there and then a bunch of people crowd around him.

Like, why is the gold man so sad?

What is the turn at which this becomes a thing?

Okay, I'll sing it for you.

If you would like.

I would love to find out what the gold man song is.

Okay,

I'm going to just shut up and sing it.

Okay.

Just because I'm a man made of gold doesn't mean I'm made out of money.

But the calling I've found is to give people pleasure through incredibly precise robotic movement.

That's why I come out to the streets to help me make ends meet.

And I work real hard to fill up that jar.

But then a bad apple ruins the barrel.

Heart of gold.

24 carrot.

But through all the pain, I grin and I bear it.

Heart of gold.

I'm living a golden dream.

And any way you you slice it, we're all on the same team.

Come on, everybody.

And then everybody gathers around.

Heart of gold.

24 carrot.

But through all the pain, I grin and I bear it.

Heart of gold.

But it don't make me no saint.

Cause I got a little secret.

I suck

for my face, pain.

Come on, everybody, singing with me.

Heart of gold.

I suck for my face, pain.

I suck for my face pain.

Face paint, face pain,

and face paint.

Face pain, face paint,

face paint, face paint,

face paint, face paint,

together at last in a heavenly union.

And it's just kids going out and you know, then it's just all and face paints.

And I remember getting to, that's how I ended the

thing.

And

I walked up to Lauren

and I didn't know what to say.

So I said, sorry for all the

and then I got the job.

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One of the single most important and glamorous jobs you could have in comedy is to be the guy who plays the sitting president of the United States on Saturday Night Live.

And back in 2004, as you may recall, our sitting president, about to start his second consecutive term, was an athlete named George W.

Bush.

We must stop the terror.

I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers.

Thank you.

Now watch this drive.

What you may not recall, however, is that the cast member Lauren Michaels assigned to portray W in 2004 was the self-described non-impressionist who joined the show in 2002 and is also sitting with me in studio here today.

And this turned out to be a deliberate turning point in Will Forte's life in a typically atypical way.

So you're already sort of like disclaiming your other impressions.

But just to give people the recap on like you taking the mantle of W,

just like

talk about like a backup quarterback stepping into a job vacated by who in this case?

Well, it was vacated by Will Farrell.

Finally, to Saddam Hussein, I have just one more thing to say.

Live from, no wait, two more things to say.

One of the people I still consider to be, you know,

he's,

if not the funniest person alive, he's in the top three tied for funniest person alive.

There's nobody funnier than him.

With one of the most iconic political impressions of all.

It's like this went beyond a political impression for me.

But you like, I get it.

Like, it's,

you have to have somebody doing George Bush on SNL.

He's the president.

We got to get someone to do that.

I don't agree that I was the right person for that, but I, you know, it was my, God, I think it was my second year when they, when they came and

asked me to do it.

And for, so, A, I'm terrified.

Um, it's not my strong suit, any impersonation.

I've since found out that I can do a Kermit the Frog, and I think that's it.

Can we hear Kermit the Frog?

Kermit the Frog here.

But everybody can do a Kermit the Frog.

I mean, a pretty good version of it.

Now, you're George W.

Bush, by contrast.

Do you have that even in you?

That muscle that can activate what yours was?

I just remembered the first time I did it, I think.

It was just saying

it was hard.

But I also wanted Osama to know something.

I'm ready.

Anytime, your turf or mine.

I'll be waiting.

Texas style.

I know that Sudakis ended up taking W, no?

Or who got it?

Yes, Lauren came.

Yeah, what's that like to be taken to call for the reliever when you're on the mound doing W?

I think Lauren knew that I didn't like doing it.

I think it was best for the show.

Sudakis,

he's just really good at those things.

And if you wear a uniform and regularly carry a gun, we need you in our rank.

Whether you're a New Jersey state trooper or Alan Iverson.

How does he talk about because basically it was entirely through the lens of like when he took over W from you,

it allowed you to be the like staggeringly original person that you actually are as opposed to this vessel for other stuff.

I will say I do think that was a big part of it because in the early going when I was given

this Bush assignment,

I would

usually be in these cold opens as Bush.

And then basically it's like, oh, Forte's taken care of.

He's got his Bush.

And it's like, no,

I don't want to be doing that.

I'll do it if I have to, but

it's nothing like the stuff that I do.

So I was looking for face paint before.

Yeah, it's just like weird, absurd stuff I like.

And because of the Bush stuff, I very rarely got a chance to try those things out.

So once once like I was free of the Bush thing, which was, I remembered hearing that, and it was like 99%,

yes, oh,

I'm free.

I'm free.

And then 1% of like, oh, he didn't like me.

Right.

You know, you, you can't help but know that like, oh, that means I wasn't doing great.

But, but it was way more the other side of it, like, oh, I'm finally free.

And then, yeah, a little bit at a time,

got to start doing the kind of stuff that I like to do.

Now you must fly away from these woods and bring back something, a possum, a squirrel, anything to keep us alive.

So be gone, my friend.

Bring us life!

Bring us life!

What is also clear to me as I assess the scouting report here is that, you know,

I don't know what a prank as defined

necessarily entails, but you know, I may or may not have heard stories about you, I don't know, throwing omelets out windows.

Yes, it was a, we used to go to this place called, geez, what is it?

It was a real the pump.

I've been to the pump.

You have?

I have.

Is it still around?

Yeah.

Oh, way to go, pump.

The pump energy food.

Yeah.

That's right.

So, Eric Sloven, he had ordered this meal for like late night and I came in and I

forget why, but I had a $20 bill out and he took the $20 bill and went to his window and said, and threw my $20 bill down, which was really funny.

So he's watching it.

He's like, ha ha.

And it's fluttering down.

I don't remember.

I'm sure that I deserved for that $20 bill to go down there,

even just for just being kind of annoying walking into the room.

And so he's watching the thing flutter down.

And while

he's doing that, I had grabbed his meal and just dropped it out.

And it kind of he

had to realize, like, oh, that's my freaking omelette that's going down.

No.

So the way it's always told is that I just callously threw out his omelette.

This was like ultimate frisbee and omelette.

This was me evening the score.

This was justice.

Guilty is charged.

Yeah.

With

yes, It was justice.

Thank you.

What form of justice is being served when it comes to how you decorated a certain keyboard?

That's also slowman.

So that probably, like, that makes, and that was way before all this stuff.

So I

did,

I don't do a lot of manscaping.

So I have a pretty full

jungle in my nether regions.

And so at some point, I just just like took a bunch I cut off a bunch of my my pubic hair and I sprinkled it all over his keyboard just to bug him

for a little surprise when he came back in the room.

And he he his sloven is amazing.

So he just he just

deadpan just came in.

You could tell there was some

a little

curbed anger.

He was holding it in check and he just undid his keyboard and came over and brought it over to my keyboard and then undid that.

And then, you know, we had a keyboard swap.

Look, I don't stand by this stuff.

It's not,

it was stuff we did.

I look back now and I'm like, oh, I have two daughters, and they're going to, you know, at some point listen to this and go like, listen to the sports adjacent podcast and be like, so why was it, why was our dad being deposed for pubes?

Why did our dad get kicked out of the country?

I do want to get to when I'm talking about how you were as a writer and the deliberateness.

Like you care about details and you have an internal logic to why the thing you wrote is that way.

And so just being the guy who has a point of view that feels like it's fully formed,

did you walk in with like, I have

this sensibility and I want to make sure it is protected as it makes its way through the operating room of SNL.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did.

I think everybody has

their

lane.

I'd rather have less people like it more than more people

liking it, but like, yeah, I like that.

I'd rather people go like, I love that, but like one out of every 10 people.

So, I got if I'm being charitable to myself, say like, I love that, you know, as opposed to like, you know, six people saying like, yeah, he's good.

He's fine.

But that, but that is, I think, how I feel when I re-watch

you and Peyton Manning doing a locker room

motivational, you know, talk sketch.

They're soaking.

Look, coach, it's no use, all right?

We suck.

And I know for a fact that we can't win this game.

And I'd much rather head home, bake some Snickerdoodles with a few of my bros, and then practice French kissing with my French kissing puppet so all in favor of getting the f out of here say aye aye all opposed nay

that was that's my favorite one i ever got to do so we wrote this whole sketch the dance wasn't even part of it at the very last minute all credit to john lets because we're about to turn this in and he's like yeah at the table read tomorrow

maybe

dance during the

during the music like are we just gonna sit there and he's like do a little dance or something so i'm like like, oh, okay.

It was like, it's so crazy to think back now because that's the whole thing.

I mean,

Peyton is

Peyton is so funny in that and says so much funny stuff.

But like, but I thought without that dance.

I mean, truly, as a person re-watching it, I'm like, they started with the dance because the whole payoff is the dance.

Right.

You would think, but it's that's that's that place.

It's such a collaborative place.

The potato chip sketch, if you ever saw it, Dave, have you seen that one?

Yeah, so explain it, please.

This was a sketch that me and John Solomon wrote.

This was one of those examples I was going to say about one that kind of just flowed out.

John Solomon was writing with somebody, so it's getting later and later, and soon it's six in the morning, six: thirty in the morning, and at like seven in the morning, he's like,

All right, what do you want to do?

And I had had this little idea that I had recorded into my phone that was just like,

I think I just said,

And don't dig my potato chip.

I don't, yeah, I don't want to dig my potato chip.

And so, he's like, Oh, that's really stupid.

So, basically, it's really hard to describe the sketch.

It's basically that voice of that guy right there is works at NASA.

And I thank you, sir, for your interest in outer space.

So, how long have you wanted to be an astronaut?

And Jason Sadekis comes in.

The best way to describe him is like a Colonel Sanders-looking guy with the voice of Foghorn Leghorn.

Sir, I will be waiting here patiently in the deepest of impissuppation.

And

he's interviewing to be an astronaut.

And it's just

the most bonker sketch.

And I leave the room.

I warn him not to touch my potato chips.

He eats a potato chip.

I come back in.

I catch him.

And we just get into this insane fight.

I did not come here to have my reputation assassinated.

Then you shouldn't have taken that potato chip.

You go take me both once I go to you.

But I'll do nothing of the sort.

That is between you and your god.

Now get the hell out of here.

I'm not going nowhere until I'm an astronaut.

We just basically did stream of consciousness writing.

Like, you know, we knew immediately when we're like, we're like, okay, what should we do?

Interior NASA.

And it's like, and John's like, yep,

logical.

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Whether you're celebrating a big win or simply enjoying some cocktails with family and friends, Remy Martin 1738 is the perfect spirit to elevate any occasion.

So go ahead, treat yourself to a little luxury, and try Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royale.

Learn more at remymartin.com.

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Please drink drink responsibly.

Your philosophy, by the way, that you articulated before of I would rather have this be the favorite thing for a minority of people as opposed to the broad appeal that can sink the level of your creative sort of sensibility and ambition.

It does take us to Magruber quite organically.

Yeah.

I mean, that does.

My theory of this movie, which I consider like truly, like my when people ask me, and I'm on the record again, saying, like, what's your favorite comedy?

I say Magruber, unapologetically.

Thank you.

The sketch was originally a parody satire of MacGyver.

Yeah.

And the scene ends.

And Magruber, again, if I may just summarize him as a character, is a terrible person who is a terrible teammate.

And the bomb explodes, killing everybody.

Magruber, I feel like you've gone down some kind of alt-right misinformation rabbit hole.

You're all wrong about that, Karen.

My information is 100% non-insane.

Have you ever heard of QA and a

you know, there are movies like this, and they're called cult classics, which is, again, like a pejorative wrapped inside of a compliment.

But it is like it's wet hot American summer.

It's this stuff that wasn't commercially viable or successful, I should say, that got an afterlife because

through an authentic human-to-human virality, it became this test of like, are we sharing this very specific wavelength?

That's a really cool way to put it.

When we did Macruber,

it was

the exact movie we wanted to make.

I mean, little things here and there.

If the, if the budget was bigger, we could have done a couple of things that we didn't get a chance to do.

Then the, you know, we get it exactly the way we want it.

We're so excited about it, so proud of it.

And then it just

the bed so hard.

And it was really tough.

It's hard not for your brain not to go like, oh, I agree with the

movie going public who hates, you know, didn't go to see this, you know, the market.

They got to know

we do.

Yeah, exactly.

So it's hard not to like.

But just to give a sense, Will, of like how in real time you experienced it, like, you know, you have a movie coming out.

Your family is proud of you, I presume.

But like, truly, like, were they ready for what this was?

My mom,

and we just talked about this the other day, lost friends who she, you know, she's like being a good mom and saying, it's Willie's movie comes out.

And she, she lost some friends who, who

just couldn't be friends with her anymore.

By the way,

I think that that was a good paring down process.

Because whoever is going to like, again, do we share this wavelength?

Yeah, but more than that, just like my mom had nothing to do with that.

She was just being a good mom supporting her son.

At every turn of this podcast, I wanted it to be clear that Will's family has nothing to do with the contents of what we're describing.

But the reason why it's something that I love so much is because

it has so little to do with whatever like log line it originally was.

How would you describe what it is, actually?

Because I'm just...

A full-on love letter to all the

80s action movies that John and Yorman and I and everybody of our era grew up watching, you know, Uncommon Valor,

Roadhouse, I know

so many movies went in because they all share this one.

So we're just like, we're just having fun doing our versions of the movies that we love to see.

And we're like, and at the heart of it is this dip shit.

But what Sudek has described it as, as we were like talking through, like, how would you describe a grouper to someone who hasn't seen it?

He's like, well, it's kind of like if The Jerk was an action movie.

So, like, Steve Martin's the jerk.

I mean, the jerk is, I think, my all-time

comedy movie favorite.

And maybe all-time

Jaws is up there.

I love Jaws.

Raises the Lost Arc.

But, but, but that's a

real compliment.

But, but, like, the commitment of Steve Martin in the jerk to be always

this guy.

Yeah.

So too are you as Magruber.

I mean, look, throat ripping as a love language.

Awesome.

Got another throat rip in.

Cool.

Might go for the turkey.

The turkey.

Yeah, it's a bowling term for when you get three strikes in a row.

You know, for those not familiar, like, yes, there's the action stuff.

There is just an incredible amount of you ripping people's throats out of their bodies.

That was really disgusting.

We'll get used to it because that's my main move.

Besides, he would have done the exact same thing to me if he had the chance.

No, he wouldn't have, he would have shot you.

No.

And then, as I like to survey, like, now I'm just doing the exercise of like, what was the point of no return for Will's mom's friend?

And I'm like, was it the celery?

What are you doing?

Making a little distraction.

By the way, the celery scene, my mom came that day to watch us film.

So she, the night before, she called up and said she was there with two friends.

And these weren't the two friends that she lost.

She was there the night before and she said, so honey, we're going to come to the set in the morning and then we're going to go to Santa Fe.

And I said, well, let me pitch this.

Why don't you go to Santa Fe in the morning and then come to the set when you get back?

Because I knew that this freaking celery scene was up and she's like,

let me check with Barbara and Marsha.

So

she

calls them and she says, no, we're going to come in the morning.

So I'm like, all right.

You know, I think I warned her, but, but anyway, anyway, so that we're doing this.

celery scene, which for those who have not seen the movie is basically I'm creating a distraction

to try to let Ryan Phillippy's character take out these snipers.

And so

what I chose as a distraction is dancing around naked with a piece of celery in my butt.

When you use the old celery trick, you're going to want to go with the thick end.

Seems counterintuitive.

But if you go thin end bruised, it just slides right out.

You're wasting your time.

I'm never, ever going to do that.

So she just watched me take after take,

you know, dancing around with celery in my butt.

How many takes, roughly, would you say, Barbara?

I mean, you got to do this angle.

And then you got closer and closer.

So it was, I'm probably out there for,

you know,

two hours doing it, I would guess, something like that.

So anyway, at a certain point, I just, I remember looking over and my mom, my mom is just the most supportive, best person, my dad too, my whole family.

Very lucky.

But my mom was there just smiling.

You know, I can't really, you know, she might have even waved.

And then I just saw her two friends right behind her kind of

horrified.

But the sex scene,

sex scenes,

romance, 80s, music soaring like sincere into a series

of sounds that I assume you already had mastered earlier in your life before you unveiled them in this way.

All three of us, John and German and I, all kind of enjoy the, you know, doing stuff for a little longer than people feel comfortable with.

And, and so it was, the editing process was like, that was tough.

All three of us, I, I think I wanted it, you know,

double the length.

It was,

and then, and, you know, like the idea of the fort, of the Snyder cut of this, the forte cut.

It's like, man.

I think it, what, what what ended up turning into what we, we finally agreed on, on that length.

And, and, uh, but, but, yeah.

And then the, so Kristen, oh, man, God bless her.

You know, she's,

it was very hot.

It was the summer in New Mexico.

I'm a sweater.

Um, again, we know.

I'm not really a sweater unless I get active and moving around and then I just can't stop sweating.

So she, if you look, I mean, there's so much stuff that we cut around that was just like somebody's pouring a bucket of water on her.

The second one with Maya Rudolph.

So just the timeline of this, because I was trying, again, do my research as a responsible, rigorous journalist.

Wasn't she pregnant at the time, Maya?

She was eight months pregnant.

She, for those who haven't seen the movie, this is, I'm, I'm feeling really guilty.

I've just had sex with

Vicki,

who was Casey, Maya Rudolph's character's best friend.

But Casey was dead.

So I went to the, I go to the cemetery to apologize to Casey's gravestone, and she

shows up in

ghost form.

And then my apology to her turns romantic, and we start having sex.

So and then it just pushes to me like fully naked.

And she's sitting on this

headstone with no back support or anything.

And she's eight months pregnant.

So like, I have have like a little thing covering my genitals, but I'm completely naked besides that.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

And I'm just like, you know, just

having.

I can't stress enough how vigorous the

approach you have here is.

I mean, she's a total pro, and we've known each other forever.

So

she was,

it didn't feel like that was like emotionally uncomfortable for either of us, but physically,

basically, anything's uncomfortable when you're eight months pregnant.

And this position she was in, I think was very uncomfortable.

And here I'm, you know, like, then,

like, it's so anyway, they would have a stand-in who would come in every once in a while for, for the shots we could get away with to like, you know, to give this poor woman a rest.

And then we had to do it so that that you can see Brandon Trost, our cinematographer.

His dad comes by.

He's like a

person picking up trash in the park for some reason at two in the morning.

And his point of view then is me just having sex with the air.

And so Yorma, for that one, I remember

he, he, so I'm having sex and this thing, it's because of where I'm at.

Every thrust, the only way my body stops is by knocking right at this level of my shins into this, this gravestone.

So it's very painful.

And it's going on for,

you know,

a minute.

And then I'm like,

you know, it's from behind.

So I'm like, all right, you guys, how are we doing?

It's very painful.

You know, trying not to move my mouth.

And they just keep going.

Soon, I just hear them laughing because they were just, they had gotten it.

So long before, but they just wanted to make me keep doing it.

Commitment.

Commitment.

Just as a matter of now, doing the accounting of

the family members involved.

Have you met the child Maya birthed?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Is he or she aware of what, how close in contact she were?

It's very funny because it's like, you know,

she must be like 16 now.

And I do, I haven't seen her in a while, but I did do something for,

I think it was

at some point I saw Maya and her.

And like, it's just kind of

almost inappropriate to bring it up because at the time she was probably 12.

So we, you know, trying to, it's kind of funny to us.

Like, oh, this is the one who was in.

And it's like, you can't really say, yeah, this, this was, yeah, I was like.

you know,

you know, you heard what I, how I just explained it.

That's not something you tell to like, this probably was now that I think about it, seven years ago or something.

And so she would have been nine or something.

Oh, my God.

We'll save it for

her 21st birthday.

But when it comes to the Hollywood people who love spending time with Will Forte, and you can see yet more A-listers who fit that description in the four seasons, which came out just last week on Netflix, the collaborator everybody told me to ask about is Val Kilmer.

Val Kilmer died at age 65 from pneumonia just last month after career playing Iceman and Top Gun and Batman and Batman Forever and Jim Morrison in The Doors and also, yes, Magruber's arch nemesis in a parentally polarizing adaptation of a gross SNL sketch that happened to gross less than $10 million

worldwide.

And so I really wanted to talk about Val Kilmer with Will Forte,

but I also wasn't sure how Will would feel.

Can we talk about the now

late, great Val Kilmer?

Yeah.

I mean, just

to go from the beginning, though, like, Val Kilmer, convincing him to do every.

He's in this movie.

If you've never seen it, just know that he is a star of the movie you've now heard described.

As one of the great all-time names, by the way.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter.

There's still enough immodium nitrate left in that warhead to blow up the White House and Congress combined.

Right again, Kunt.

Of course, it's going to be awfully hard to fly it without

the guidance system.

We

so I can't.

That's another one that's like.

No, I will say, I will say very, very confidently that Dieter von Kunt

is just

the only name that character could have ever been named.

I remember how blown away we were.

And then

for him to be a part of it.

And then you go through the whole experience and you just get to know the guy.

And then soon it's like,

oh, this is just my buddy Val.

Like it's so weird that then

you just forget because he's such a part of your life that like

then when I,

you know, when he sadly passed away

you see all these things and you're like oh that's right this guy who's my buddy is like,

what a, what a,

just

an amazing career he had.

But you just forget about it.

But I remember there was a point where he stayed with me for a while.

Yes.

This was another thing that I did not appreciate until he passed because then the stories started circulating that you and Val Kilmer, for some real period of time, lived together.

He moved in with you more specifically, right?

Yeah.

So he was selling his place place in New Mexico and he was trying to find a new place.

He was living in a place in Malibu, but having a dispute with his landlord.

So he was trying to find a new place in Malibu and he had had a party and he invited me and my girlfriend at the time.

And so we were over there and he said, hey, I'm getting a new place.

Can I stay with you?

for a couple of days.

I think he said for a couple of days.

However he phrased it made me think that it was going going to be a couple days um

and until i can lock down this new place and i said yeah of course great so this was a saturday and monday he shows up and then uh

like that afternoon his his assistant came with carrying two just enormous duffel bags filled with books and then i was like oh this is not this is a bad sign i mean not a bad sign because it's a different sign he's here for the longer haul.

I don't think two days is what it's going to be.

Because it just turned into this amazing, delightful thing that I look back on with so much joy.

Like he's

so many fun stories.

But man, I just will never forget the stuff that he was just a.

It was a delight to get to have that experience with him.

And there was one day I will say that

just as I was saying earlier, like, oh, he just becomes Val and becomes your buddy.

There was this day where we were sitting around the dining room table and he started listening to these Doors songs through his speakers.

And

I was a big Doors fan growing up.

So we both started singing these songs together.

And then it kind of dawned on me as we're going through like just remembering that Doors movie and how special that was.

And I was at UCLA at the time and I think they were looking for extras and I was going to Alaska for the summer or something.

So

I couldn't do it.

But I just remembering like, oh my God, this is this guy that I idolized growing up.

And one of the reasons I did was for this role,

he's sitting right there and I'm getting to sing this with him.

And this is a guy

who I'm buddies with now.

You know, it's just like, it kind of sunk in

just how, how,

how special an experience is it is and just how funny life is.

And, and like, you know, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of messages.

take a moment to smell the roses type stuff.

But yeah, he was a special, a special, unique,

there is nobody like that guy.

Often, it seems, based on, again, the reporting I have, I have become aware of, often dressed as Mark Twain.

Yeah, he was getting together his Mark Twain show.

So he was watching, a lot of times I'd come back and

all the lights in the house would be off and he would just be in his little guest bedroom and the door was cracked a little bit.

And I'd just see a little light coming out, not from the lights, but either it would be coming from one of two things.

One, he'd be reading a book and he'd have like a little miner's lamp.

Exactly.

Yes.

And he would use that to read.

And so that was one way.

The other way was he was going through

a big 30 Rock kick.

He loved the show 30 Rock.

So he watched that a bunch.

And so I would just see him, you know, with a little.

tablet or whatever, whatever it was, a DVD player probably at the time.

So I,

having been a part of 30 Rock, they asked asked me to do one of the DVD commentaries.

And I said, you know what?

Val Kilmer is living with me right now and he loves the show.

Would you ever want us to do it together?

And they're like, of course.

So anyway, I just tell him, you know, meet me at this place.

And

freaking Val shows up dressed as Mark Twain.

He's just been like walking around the streets of the Third Street Promenade as Mark Twain.

And it was just like that kind of stuff.

You just never knew what was going to happen.

He was fearless and

fun, and he had this way of communicating.

He was,

he would be like mock serious,

but also so silly at the same time.

It was just

real, real, a real loss.

I'm still mad that you guys didn't do the amazing race.

Oh, yeah.

That was for people who don't know that.

We, I used to watch the amazing race

back then.

So he comes in.

He's like, what are you doing?

This reality TV stuff is going to rot your brain.

You got to turn this off.

And I'm like, I think you might like this if you gave it a chance.

So check it out.

So he's like, all right.

He kind of begrudgingly sits down on the couch and got very into it to the point that at the end of the episode, he's like, we got to do the amazing race.

And I'm like, yeah.

Yeah, let's do it.

And then, and then we both called our

reps the next day, and it was a resounding no from all of them.

They're like, no, you crazy.

So anyway,

when he passed, I called my agent back and I was kind of reminding him like, yeah, at some point we were going to go on that amazing race together.

That's, you know, and he's like,

he was like, oh, that'd be awesome.

It's too bad you didn't do that.

I'm like, what?

You're the dude who told us not to do it.

But I do look back now.

And, you know, sometimes you just got to

just do it because that's one I think we should have done.

My God.

My God.

Look, I am,

as I said before, you go through these junkets and you think back on your past.

And it's like.

I'm the luckiest guy on the earth.

I got to, you go into comedy,

going into the ground links.

It's like, I just want to be on SNL.

That's, that's what I want.

And then I, then I, Letterman wasn't even a part of it.

And then all of a sudden, my two dreams would be write at Letterman, be at SNL.

I got to write at Letterman.

Then I got to be on SNL for eight years.

And when I left SNL, Magruber bombed at the box office.

I was not like this.

I wasn't leaving like, oh, this guy's a sure thing to get any job ever again.

Like, I right, was aware that

that might have been the last acting job I had.

And then just somehow it was like blessing after blessing.

Nebraska came out of nowhere.

And then getting, and that led to Last Man on Earth.

You know, looking back,

I would have never seen myself, you know,

being 15 years after leaving SNL, being on a, podcast, well, podcast didn't really exist, but like to talk about a project I'm in currently with Tina Faye and Steve Carell

and Coleman Domingo.

While the guy across from the desk is about to ask,

clearly, this means now, following the rhythm of your career, that you're going to make Magruber 2.

You're going to make another Magruber.

Look, I,

it's

that Magruber family is, it is a family.

And

they're all people that I love so dearly.

Would love to do another Magruber if somebody would give us a chance.

I would doubt that anybody would,

but I would jump at it.

After this podcast, Will Forte,

I have a feeling that someone out there might be insane enough to

reflect upon,

yeah, the level of commitment that it takes to make something truly special.

Man,

you brought it full circle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This was thank you for all the kind words.

That's really, really,

it makes me feel good.

I am grateful that,

yeah, that the people we know in common

they feel the way that I feel, it turns out about

getting to hang out with you.

So thanks.

Thank you.

This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Metalark Media production,

and I'll talk to you next time.