"Jeff Goldblum"

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Speaker 1 Hi, guys. We're about to do the show.
How do you feel today? All right.

Speaker 1 I feel pretty good. You feel great.
You sound like it. Oh, welcome to Smartlish.

Speaker 1 Give us a chance to catch our breath. Smart.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Oh, Willie's like really sensitive and kind of like, he's like delicate today. He's like very delicate.
I am. You're picking up on a vibe.
Yeah, I am super delicate. We know who you are.

Speaker 1 Backwards hat kind of vibe. Like, it's great.

Speaker 1 Took it off. Harrow got a little long.
He's an artist. Little.
He's an artisan. He didn't get much sleep last night.
It's like Crystal Gale over there. Dude.
Right? Bet it.

Speaker 1 I don't know what you're doing, but you are dialed.

Speaker 1 You are dialed, dude. Here comes JJ's back.
You're picking up on a vibe. Oh, there you are.

Speaker 1 There he is. Belissima.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Will is sensitive today and tired today. He's a sensitive, tired little boy.

Speaker 1 Will it Sunday morning? Well, no, it's Sunday afternoon. It's lunchtime where you are, Willie.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Great, great week. Long, late nights.
Shawnee was there. Do some nights.
Yeah, Shawnee was there.

Speaker 1 A few nights in a row. Oh, yeah, Sean, you did a little work this week, too, with Will.
That was fun, though. It was really fun.
Some really good laughs. It was fun, wasn't it? Yeah.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Oh, did you guys really work the scenes?

Speaker 1 Huh? No, we didn't. Was it magic? I mean, yes.
Yes. First of all, yes.

Speaker 1 It was good.

Speaker 1 Was it? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 we had a couple moments.

Speaker 1 We were sitting around this table that's all done up, you know, the props to put the food out and stuff. And

Speaker 1 Sean picks up these noodles and goes, somebody says something and goes, that's really low, man.

Speaker 1 Come on.

Speaker 1 So dumb.

Speaker 1 We were all trying to think of like Chinese food puns. And he was so dumb.
Was it on camera or was it just in between setups?

Speaker 1 Just in between setups. And we were just laughing because it's so dumb.
Everybody's giddy because it's, you know, one in the morning or whatever. Yeah.
And then

Speaker 1 painting.

Speaker 1 Sean said, oh, we got dinner. He goes, I got got a meal with somebody this week and tomorrow.
And I go, oh, at dinner? He goes, no, at lunch, I try to keep my dinners free. And I said, free of what?

Speaker 1 Vegetables?

Speaker 1 Did you get any of this on camera? Or is it just for your own? No. But that was pretty funny.

Speaker 1 That was funny.

Speaker 1 Will you say something about Pete, the great Pete Thorell? Oh, yeah, Pete. Pete Thorell is an absolute all-star.
He's the gosh. I love that guy.
Yeah, he's incredible. A total star.
So fast.

Speaker 1 He's the first AD. He's the, for Tracy, that's the guy who basically just keeps everything on track and running and for everybody on this.
The guy runs the show. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And so it was like one in the morning and everybody's so tired and not in the mood for any jokes. And I, and Pete was just talking about how the scenes goes.

Speaker 1 And I said, hey, Pete, he goes, yeah, I go, can you keep your process inside because we can all hear it?

Speaker 1 And if we have enough to think about. Did he laugh? For a second, yeah, he laughed, but for a second, I was like, he thought I was serious.
He thought he was serious.

Speaker 1 And I could see that Pete's like, is this guy really saying this to me?

Speaker 1 It's complicated when he was running. And Sean just did it in front of everybody.
Hey, Pete, like across the set. Can you just keep your vocalizing outside your process?

Speaker 1 Pete Thorell, one of the all-time greats.

Speaker 1 Jay, he came from you. He was a recommend from you.
Yeah, that's because you've worked with him. And he's just a ton.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Pete and I have done a ton of stuff together. It's my

Speaker 1 D and things that I've directed. He's just like.
He's so great. he's so great so you guys have worked together a lot

Speaker 1 we've done we did family fang together we did three or four seasons of ozark together we did the he was the he was the first ad every episode of ozark those first three four no no no he alternated with uh you rotate to there's two of them oh right there's two but i i get pete on everything i direct if he's available but he's very fancy now he's working with a bunch of uh you know directors that you know make me look like uh a little punk which I am.

Speaker 1 Which is weird. He worked together a lot because he said I'm his favorite.
He's ever. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 I literally take work just so I could work with Pete. Like, I really don't care what the script is.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I now get it. He's incredible.
He's an incredible dude. Anyway, the great Pete 3.

Speaker 1 So wait. So, Willie, I wanted to wait to share this with you today because I already told Jason last Sunday that this is one of the craziest things that happened to me.

Speaker 1 So Scotty and I, we're looking at real estate in Brooklyn, and we go see this new townhouse. Not that we can afford it, we just were like, let's see what's around.

Speaker 1 And my broker was like, you should see what's anyways. It's a beautiful townhouse.
It was crazy. It was like five floors.
And so we're walking, we're walking,

Speaker 1 walking all the way upstairs. We get to the top of the stairs, totally out of breath.
And I'm like, okay, great. Let's just move on to things that are real.
And

Speaker 1 because writing five, walking up five flights of stairs is just not going to happen in the real world. No, no, not five flights of stairs.
No. So Scotty goes, let's ride the elevator down.

Speaker 1 I'm like, okay. So we got me and Scotty get on the elevator with one of our realtors and Linda is her name.
She's great. And so it's like shoulder to shoulder, this like post is.

Speaker 1 Hey, Linda, if you're out there, apparently you're great.

Speaker 1 Good for you, Linda. You're part of the team.

Speaker 1 One of our realtors. Go ahead.
So you're in the fucking elevator in a townhouse. This is a hashtag relatable.
Keep going.

Speaker 1 But wait. So Willie.

Speaker 1 The door is closed, the gates close. I press the button and it doesn't move.
Open the the door, won't open.

Speaker 1 Press the button again.

Speaker 1 We're shoulder to shoulder. And now, even in 10 seconds in, I'm like,

Speaker 1 this isn't, I was freaking out.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 30 seconds, one minute, five minutes, she's calling the realtor. Scotty's blood sugar is dropping like crazy

Speaker 1 because they're double arrows. I was like, okay, so he's going to dine here.
I'm going to, like, it was crazy. And so I yell through the door.
I'm like, call 911.

Speaker 1 So they call 911. They call 911 and the firefighters.

Speaker 1 So the firefighters come and just, now we're like, 30 seconds is a long time to be stuck in something with that. So now you got a boner.
Right.

Speaker 1 Makes it even worse.

Speaker 1 That would have fixed it.

Speaker 1 So you'd think 30 seconds was long

Speaker 1 or a minute. We were in there for like 10, 15 minutes.
It was great.

Speaker 1 I had to squat down and like breathe. I was going crazy.
So, of course. Hey, Will, is the gum good? Does it taste good? Because it sounds awesome.

Speaker 1 Look at me. It's just a podcast, you know?

Speaker 1 Unreal.

Speaker 1 Sorry, keep going, Sean.

Speaker 1 I'm at the end of the story. So

Speaker 1 as the firefighters pull up, there is a latch in the door. I pushed it, the door opened.
I got out. That's it.

Speaker 1 And you're out.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 Scotty made it okay.

Speaker 1 We're not too sure.

Speaker 1 He's still in the box. I love that.
Look back.

Speaker 1 Jason feigned interest.

Speaker 1 Is Scotty always okay? Is Scotty good?

Speaker 1 Okay, let's get to the game. How's Linda's data plan?

Speaker 1 And so you passed on this one

Speaker 1 Back in the SUV. Did you ask if you could put it in an escalator?

Speaker 1 Oh, God, is that funny?

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Let's get to our guest. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 You guys,

Speaker 1 we're all big, big fans of this guy. He's amazing.

Speaker 1 I'm not committing to that yet. I promise you.
I don't know who it is. And it was such an honor when he was a guest of ours on Will and Grace.

Speaker 1 Before becoming the beloved Hollywood treasure that we know today, he used to write affirmations in the shower asking God to let him be an actor. Spoiler alert, God delivered.

Speaker 1 But before that, he was peddling office supplies to correction facilities in between auditions.

Speaker 1 Today, when he's not recording amazing jazz albums, you can see him being wizardly and one of the hottest blockbusters this year is the incredibly talented and utterly delightful Jeff Goldblum.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes, I am a fan of Jeff Goldblum. Yes, I am a fan as well.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 the best. The best.
Hi, Jeff. I'm so sorry.
I'm literally crying. Oh, shit.
John, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here.
I love you all so much. By the way, where are you?

Speaker 1 You know where I am

Speaker 1 in our apartment in Florence, LA. Oh, wow.
So

Speaker 1 another hashtag relatable. Jeffrey's doing very well.

Speaker 1 You don't have an elevator in there, do you?

Speaker 1 Yes. You do? We do.

Speaker 1 Yes, we do. It's a couple of floors.
It's very, very nice. But

Speaker 1 I want to be relatable. No, we've been living here for the last couple of years,

Speaker 1 a few years. Our two kids, seven and nine, two boys, are going to school here.
Lisée Francaise.

Speaker 1 My wife is from Toronto. She speaks French to them.
They speak now three languages because they speak English. Will that's from Toronto? I know he is.
I have much to ask.

Speaker 1 I'm so interested in you guys. I adore you.
I adore this show.

Speaker 1 And just your little tete-tete-a-tete before I came on. Your coffee chat.
Yeah, your coffee chat.

Speaker 1 I love so much. And I love this show.
But you know what I love? It reminded me, is people making each other laugh.

Speaker 1 If I have my drothers, I oftentimes, if I really need a lift, I'll go on YouTube and see the blooper reels for, you know, I have my favorites, you know, Julie Louis Dreyfus

Speaker 1 on Seinfeld. I love the way the way she laughs.

Speaker 1 Larry David. I love the way he laughs.
Ricky Gervais, all these people have been on your show, of course.

Speaker 1 When Larry David laughs, his jaw becomes unhinged and his heels.

Speaker 1 So great. I love it.
It is true.

Speaker 1 The bloopers from things, it is really fun to watch because you know it's coming. And so you watch the people as it like, it surprises them.

Speaker 1 It sneaks up on them, and then they try to hold it together, and then it's full release. It's always funny.
Better phrase than that. I love it.

Speaker 1 And then I sometimes, because my algorithm knows I like it, I guess, I see bloopers from the 1930s.

Speaker 1 And so you see, you know, Barbara Stanwick and Humphrey Bogart, you know, forgetting Betty Davis forgetting their lines

Speaker 1 and swearing. Isn't that interesting? Doesn't that make them encourage? I don't think I've ever seen anybody.

Speaker 1 I've never seen that. No.
Yeah. It's kind of interesting.
I mean, I love behind the scenes of all kinds.

Speaker 1 One of my little obsessions is to go on now, the device, and you can see interviews with everybody about the craft and directors and actors and these podcasts. We have to talk about that.

Speaker 1 If we were really at dinner and we could talk for a few hours, you know, I feel like I have so much to talk to you guys about that we need to be pithy on all these issues. But,

Speaker 1 you know, I would like to talk about the history of talk shows and the new podcast phenomenon, of which you guys are now the kings of the hill

Speaker 1 and the form, which allows us to know you and to know all your guests. So thank you for that.
And because I know there are people I like particularly on your show that I now know better than ever.

Speaker 1 I just saw a play. We just came back.
Sorry if I'm too self-starting and chatty, but I'm excited.

Speaker 1 We just came back from a little weekend trip, leaving the kids here with their helper, with good people. And we saw two plays, and we went to

Speaker 1 in London,

Speaker 1 a gallery, and saw

Speaker 1 a couple of good people.

Speaker 1 God helpers, yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 No, they're good, and they They did a very good job. And,

Speaker 1 but my point is

Speaker 1 that Kate Blanchett, we saw in The Seagull. Oh, how is that? I'm doing the barbican right after her.

Speaker 1 Oh, I want to hear all about that. And I want to talk about theater.
I want to talk about Oscar Levant. But The Barbican, I'd never heard of, I'd never been in.
It's a very beautiful theater.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. And it was one of the, I mean, The Seagull, I'd seen, my parents

Speaker 1 see that.

Speaker 1 Well, my parents who took us to see art films when I was a teenager, in the mid-60s, et cetera, I then only this last weekend remembered that I saw a movie made by Sidney LeMette of the Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave and et cetera, and

Speaker 1 a lot of people that I want to go and revisit. Anyway, we saw this play.
I'm going to be with you. Oh, my gosh.
Emma Corrin was Nina in it. She was the mother, if you know the play.
And

Speaker 1 at the end, we went back to see the actors, all of whom. It's a lovely cast.

Speaker 1 And I hugged, I've always, it's one of my favorite things about a theater experience going back, even though I love this three-hour show. But I went back.
Everybody was lovely.

Speaker 1 I met Emma Carr and da da da da. And then Kate herself allowed us to come back.
She couldn't have been lovelier. I've crossed paths with her.

Speaker 1 We've been in a couple of movies, never had scenes together, but I saw her in another play. Anyway, for the second time, I went back.

Speaker 1 The first time was after she did Blanche Dubois in Streetcar Named Desired.

Speaker 1 I wish I saw it bam but i went i went back this time and i just burst i blubbered i burst into uh the deep the deepest tears i do i do that too when i see something great i i really get moved yeah or some low main or some low main

Speaker 1 one

Speaker 1 about you guys about food to you guys too i love low main i love all manner of food we have to talk about that But, and then my other, the point that I was really getting at is that we tuned into your show because I'm doing all my research.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 heard about your show, but it's mostly since I've had this assignment in the last couple of weeks that I've been immersed in it. I've seen, I've heard many, many things,

Speaker 1 hours and hours and hours, including her thing. And so the point is, I learned more about her, and I felt like it was the best interview.

Speaker 1 And the way you guys do it, it allows us not only to know you, but your guests in a very beautiful way. We can't wait to get to know you today, Jeff Gallery.

Speaker 1 Here comes Sean's podcast character.

Speaker 1 Every time I hear like the seagull, I'm reminded of that line from Whitnell and I. And he says, I loathe those Russian plays.

Speaker 1 They're always filled with women staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow. Anyway,

Speaker 1 is that true? That's funny. It's a brilliant line, isn't it?

Speaker 1 It's brilliant. How do you know that verbatim? Bruce Robinson.
I've seen that film thousands of times. Withnell and I think it's the most perfect film of all time.

Speaker 1 Do you know, for years I have heard about that film, and

Speaker 1 I saw it

Speaker 1 the first 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 It wasn't because of the movie.

Speaker 1 I took an exit ramp, and I haven't gone in, so I've never seen it, really. And I know people highly esteem that like you do.
I know. I went down the same ramp.
I haven't been back yet. I'd like to.

Speaker 1 So you and I will do a double feature. We'll see the LeMette piece with Nail and I.
When are you back in the country?

Speaker 1 Me and you? Yo, yo, yo. I'd love.
Boy, what a reaction.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 me and you i thought you were talking to your conference no i don't know i'm looking at my schedule now and it's really tight right through christmas uh let's go to the movies let's do many things you know you're my favorite you're my best friends now you know uh

Speaker 1 we'll be right back

Speaker 1 Now streaming on Paramount Plus, it's the return of Landman, TV's biggest hit from Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan.

Speaker 1 Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton is back as Tommy Norris, facing higher stakes than ever.

Speaker 1 With an all-star cast, including Demi Moore, Andy Garcia, and Sam Elliott, tensions rise as Tommy and Camille Miller fight to control M.Tech's oil.

Speaker 1 When his father returns, Tommy must balance life as both oilman and family man. Don't miss Landman Season 2, now streaming only on Paramount Plus.

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I love a flannel top and a flannel bottom.

Speaker 1 And if you get me a pair of flannel socks, I'll say thank you very much. I mean, it's perfect to wear and it's perfect to gift.
It's the flannel of the holidays. Actually,

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Speaker 1 Go check out LL Bean Flannel, invited to the holidays since 1912.

Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 Now, Jeff, I want to talk about

Speaker 1 this thing about

Speaker 1 going. I poll anyone who will answer this thing about going backstage when you go see the play

Speaker 1 on Broadway. And apologies to the listener.
This is hashtag not relatable again. I'm going.

Speaker 1 So there's this thing where. Well, Sean did it the other night, Jason.
By the way, Sean did it the other night at Glen Gary.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, okay, so now I didn't. Okay.
I went, I saw Glenn Gary last week as well.

Speaker 1 And now I don't know those actors except for the fact that they have been on this show.

Speaker 1 Right. No, you know Bob.
You know Bob Odyssey.

Speaker 1 I've talked to Bob at a couple of parties, but I don't think that counts in order to what I think is disruptive and potentially annoying to an actor that's just finished a two-hour performance.

Speaker 1 I know you can't tell.

Speaker 1 Now they have to like meet and greet and like play host to a bunch of people backstage they don't know, except for the fact that they are also famous.

Speaker 1 But are you planning on being a handful? Is that what it is? No, but what are you going to come back? You're going to hear like, oh, you were so great. Yeah, you can't.
Thank you so much. Right.

Speaker 1 You can't tell if it's work for them and they want that or they don't want that and they want to go home. But Sean, as you pointed out, as you pointed out, you are made, generally, you're made aware.

Speaker 1 The stage manager will come and say, so-and-so and so-and-so-and-so-and-so is in the house.

Speaker 1 And what happens is, Jason, so a lot of those people, they, they, they, they look, they, they are fans of yours and they respect you and what you've done for some reason.

Speaker 1 And then they say, uh, he's out there tonight.

Speaker 1 And then they go, and then they're backstage and they're like, because it's become dirigueur to do that, if you don't do it, the also the opposite is true.

Speaker 1 And they go, this guy, Big Shot Bateman, as he's known, he rolls in, puts his eyeballs on us. We pour it out for hours with our snappy dialogue, mammoth dialogue, and

Speaker 1 our our wonderful blocking that we're doing and everything. It's like this orchestra.
And this guy's, he's in an Uber.

Speaker 1 Back to the Greenwich Hotel. Now,

Speaker 1 now,

Speaker 1 but now, really,

Speaker 1 Jeff,

Speaker 1 and Sean, and me. I'm with you, Jay.
I'm 50-50. Like,

Speaker 1 when I did Oscar, I went straight home only because I couldn't do it. It was just too much and shaking hands.
I didn't want to get sick. And

Speaker 1 I instructed the stage manager, no guests. Yeah.
Well, guests, like if they were friends that I knew, could come back stage, but I didn't want to go out to the crowd after. Jeff, what do you think?

Speaker 1 I'm glad we're talking about this

Speaker 1 because things always change. And it was an issue the other night.
I'm 50-50 with you. I know exactly what both of you are saying.
I want to be sensitive.

Speaker 1 It's very true what you're saying, Jason, but it's also true what you're saying, Will. And I always think, oh boy, they know I'm here.
You know, I got to, I should, I should go back.

Speaker 1 But oftentimes, I want to go back.

Speaker 1 But the other night, and this is a three-hour version of The Seagull, and they do eight shows a week. And, you know, and yes, I can well imagine they don't.
And so when I, as I,

Speaker 1 I guess is the way to do it, you know, contacted the nearest person with a bag who looked like, you know, an usher or

Speaker 1 the house manager comes up. I said, is it okay? How can we? Will it be okay if?

Speaker 1 Would it be, you know, I don't want to bother anybody, but what if we want to go back, et cetera, et cetera?

Speaker 1 At first, there seemed to be, in this case, and it was uncommon, I hadn't encountered it before they said um

Speaker 1 here here's what they did they were like

Speaker 1 already making hmm faces etc etc so i made it clear right away i got the picture and i said okay i i get it well

Speaker 1 whatever works

Speaker 1 you know if if if it would be nice for us to go back we we're available but please i don't want to bother anybody or if that's not cool that i want to help the serve them etc etc etc anyway by the end she said yes sent him back, and she was very nice.

Speaker 1 I was very aware of the time. I went, oh my gosh, I was blubbering, but also excusing myself quickly.
I said, here, this is Emily, my wife, and all so great. And goodbye.
Goodbye. Go home.

Speaker 1 And that was it. But so it was a whole, yeah.
So I'm glad we're having this conversation. Because it is a thing.

Speaker 1 Ultimately, ultimately, I think it's better to err on the side of going back because it's a nice thing to do. And it's a nice, and people, what actor doesn't like to get like, hey, great job.

Speaker 1 Well, what about, should I do a follow-up then with our, with, because, because Kieran and Bill and Bob,

Speaker 1 I guess it would be appropriate for me to potentially text them. Should I text them?

Speaker 1 I would definitely do what you always do, which is have Amanda write something up and then you send it.

Speaker 1 But, Sean, how was it going back? Were they receptive? Oh, my God. It was so fun and easy, and they loved it, and they loved people to come back there.

Speaker 1 And I was hanging out with Karen, and Karen poured me a glass of whiskey to share with him. And

Speaker 1 they did say something like, so we heard Bateman was here last week. What's his problem? Your name was not brought up once.
They all love the show so much. Nobody wants to bring your name up.

Speaker 1 They're all so hurt. Because, see, I think it's presumptuous for me to think that they know I'm in the audience.
And or that they want to see you. Right.
I know. It's tricky.
It's tricky.

Speaker 1 Listen, listen, listen.

Speaker 1 We're not going to solve it today. But what I want to get to, because we mentioned Toronto, you're wife being from Toronto and French and stuff.

Speaker 1 But what I want to get to, and I've always, I've never been able to talk to you about it. We've only sort of run into each other a handful of times.
We don't know each other, Jeff.

Speaker 1 I'm a massive fan of yours, like everybody else. I just think that you are just incredible.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Me, you, me, you.

Speaker 1 You also worked with

Speaker 1 a very prominent and prolific and talented, genius Canadian director by the name of David Cronenberg when you made The Fly. Yes, sir.
What a film. Oh, I love that film.
Can you now

Speaker 1 talk a little bit about that process of working with David Cronenberg, if you might?

Speaker 1 Yes, I might, and I will. And here I go.

Speaker 1 I love him. Here's what happened.
What happened? It was 1986-ish, I think.

Speaker 1 This script came

Speaker 1 to me.

Speaker 1 I was immediately struck by it.

Speaker 1 Did I? There wasn't a re I met him. Oh, was there a reading? I don't think so.
We met and da da da da, and they offered it to me.

Speaker 1 And then.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then, and it was great.

Speaker 1 He was wonderful. It was the most proactive I'd been creatively at that point.

Speaker 1 I worked on it like I always do conscientiously, but I was very passionate about it.

Speaker 1 I wanted to make it work. I had a big feeling about it.

Speaker 1 And he, as you've probably heard, is, even though he makes those

Speaker 1 wild movies, is a very...

Speaker 1 buttoned up, kind of sweet, Canadian,

Speaker 1 civil, polite, delightful, smart,

Speaker 1 intellectual

Speaker 1 artist who marches to his own drum, of course. And that movie, I'd seen all his other movies.
The one prior to that was the one with Chris Walk and Dead Zone, which I like a lot.

Speaker 1 I want to do a remake of Dead Zone, but when the guy, you know, he grabs the arm and he can see the future, right? He touches people and he can kind of see their future.

Speaker 1 I wanted to do a remake when he grabs people, but all he can see is he can give you traffic updates. So he grabs you and he goes, don't take the 405.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 That's good. I'd like to say that.

Speaker 1 So it was great.

Speaker 1 So we rehearsed, and then, and, you know, Chris Wales, who won the Oscar for the special effects makeup, had, and David and I got together and did these camera, these elaborate camera tests for which they had

Speaker 1 designs and da da da da. And it was five hours finally in makeup.
But he was great and we went from scene to scene.

Speaker 1 And actually, I had a kind of, we were, I had a vigorous conversation with him about the ending. There was an ending

Speaker 1 which had

Speaker 1 me,

Speaker 1 painted me

Speaker 1 retroactively,

Speaker 1 in a kind of villainous,

Speaker 1 even though I try to kill her at the end and meld all three of us.

Speaker 1 And then she goes with this guy, John Getz. She kind of goes, gets with him finally.
And by that time, I had so kind of, I was such an advocate and a passionate protector of my character, I was

Speaker 1 possessive and I didn't want her to wind up with him.

Speaker 1 Wow. And I said, you know, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Speaker 1 Couldn't it be that, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 I had some dumb idiot conversations. Who was I to talk to him about that? But as it turns out,

Speaker 1 it kind of wound up ending kind of like that with her, you know, killing me. And

Speaker 1 we don't want to have that aftermath where, you know, the bad guy's gone and she's now with this other guy. So I was happy about that.

Speaker 1 But it was a very, you know, arduous but lovely, passionate experience, et cetera, et cetera. I could tell you much about it.
It's a great film.

Speaker 1 It's a great film. Do you think that was the one that kind of really, like, I mean, you've done tons of work before then.
Was that the movie that put you over the top?

Speaker 1 Or Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Or what was the one that kind of like was. Big Chill was before that, right? Oh, Big Chill, right? Big Chill.
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 It was stepping stone to one thing led to another. And luckily, because I was, like my teacher, Sandy Meisner, said, takes 20 years to even call yourself an actor.

Speaker 1 And luckily, I had right away miraculously good, some parts, but small parts that led to bigger parts. And I felt like I was learning.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I guess career-wise, even though that hasn't been my focus, you know, from the start, one thing did lead to another.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, there was, well, Nashville, I worked with Altman and I did that movie Nashville, very little

Speaker 1 California Split. Yeah.
That was nice to be in and California Split. But then Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Philip Kaufman.
Fantastic.

Speaker 1 And that was, I did a movie in 76 before that with Joan Micklin Silver that

Speaker 1 I got some attention for, and that led to some other things.

Speaker 1 Actually, Lawrence Keston saw that, and I think that's what led him him to be attracted to putting me in the big chill which led to yeah now we're up to the fly and you know etc etc etc we're up to but wait truth to you doing the prequel uh the maggot No?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Jesus.

Speaker 1 Nice, Jason. Yeah, Jason.
Good for you, dude. You give me a little bit of time.
I will work on some stuff.

Speaker 1 No, but you know,

Speaker 1 you have played, you have done so, you've been very prolific and you've made a lot of films. And so I always want to know, we always sort of ask, what was the first,

Speaker 1 you talked about your parents taking you to see film when you were a teenager, which is great. So I'm sure that that maybe you tell us inspired you.

Speaker 1 But what was the first, what was your first professional gig where you went, I'm going to do this,

Speaker 1 and then you actually went out and did it

Speaker 1 and worked and did a job.

Speaker 1 Good question. It was a wild

Speaker 1 adventure of the heart when I was 10 years old. The seed was sort of planted.
I got the bug. I was in this camp, a guy, guy, I was part of this drama show.

Speaker 1 And my dad had already said, if you find something you love to do, that might be a vocational lighthouse and compass.

Speaker 1 Something clicked in me after this kind of thing

Speaker 1 when I was 10. And I thought to myself and kept a secret to myself, this is what I want to do.
I had a... Wait, this was a theater camp? No.

Speaker 1 You know, it was

Speaker 1 Chatham in Pittsburgh where I'm from, music day camp, it was called. It wasn't sleepover.
It was six weeks. And they had, I loved this group of people that was different and more

Speaker 1 my family than the kids I'd gone to school with. And I seemed to excel at art and piano and badminton and softball and arts and crafts.
And they had this acting

Speaker 1 little

Speaker 1 moment in the day. And at the end of the six weeks, they cast me in this Gilbert and Sullivan takeoff thing where I sang and I was the lead in that.

Speaker 1 And I kind of rehearsed you know with my mom and da da da da and you know and I leaped leapt on stage which was my first entrance and and that was it and I got some laughs and it was fun it was exhilarating and it was after that that they said hey how'd you like that and I went um

Speaker 1 I like that I like that but I kept that drug did that inform high school uh choices and and college choices and no well here's what happened uh briefly the um

Speaker 1 uh between ninth and tenth and 10th and 11th grades in Pittsburgh, there was a six-week offering at Carnegie Mellon University in art. And

Speaker 1 I'd

Speaker 1 had some flair for that and then music, da-da-da-da. And my mom was taking me through the brochure, and she said, you want to go to this thing? I said, yes.

Speaker 1 She said, well, they have this acting thing. I said,

Speaker 1 maybe,

Speaker 1 maybe this, the acting thing, maybe I'll do that. Really?

Speaker 1 Yes. Well, I did that.

Speaker 1 And I was, by the end of that, and I did it for two years running, I was was deeply in love with that campus and acting and you know just that's when I started to write on the shower door every every morning.

Speaker 1 Please God let me be an actor.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 I tried out for that school. They turned me down.
I had to gave a couple of bad, you know, I gave a bad audition to get into the school. It's very competitive.

Speaker 1 But one of the teachers there, Mordecai Lawner, said, oh,

Speaker 1 I used to teach with Sandy Meisner. I took with him, then I taught with him.

Speaker 1 You know, I'll help you on, you know, on audition if you want to go to New York and audition for NYU. And then then just check in with Sandy Meisner.
I did. Sandy Meisner, I lied about my age.

Speaker 1 We weren't supposed to be 17, but I said I was a year older than I was. I got in, and that's what happened.

Speaker 1 I went to the neighborhood playhouse in 1970 when I graduated high school, and at 17, just turning 18 that fall, started that course.

Speaker 1 I love you. You always hear stories about people lying about their age to get in the Army, never to get into theater school.

Speaker 1 But no college, Jeff?

Speaker 1 No college.

Speaker 1 Being in that college for six weeks,

Speaker 1 that was it. Jason and I respect that.

Speaker 1 Well, that's good. But this was a fancy two-year program if you really wanted to be an actor.
And I think, and they used to, Sandy Meisner and other people that imitated him,

Speaker 1 have a jaundiced eye

Speaker 1 make kind of comments about the college programs. He did at the time, going,

Speaker 1 that's not where you learn to act.

Speaker 1 We from the group theater know what we're doing, and they they require you to be a little more uh cerebral and academic and this is about this is a real studio and i'm going to teach you the real thing and he and he was that real thing and i was imbued with that that's so cool talk to me about um is this true one of your survival jobs was the office to to do office supplies for prisoners like to get them office supplies like how in the world

Speaker 1 pencils and things like that yeah like how in the how in the world did they have to blunt them you had to blunt them

Speaker 1 here's what happened that's a nice red drink you're drinking drinking there jason i have thank you it's just red wine that's spoiled really

Speaker 1 no

Speaker 1 electrolytes i like a nice oh i see it's like a gator aid i like a nice mocktail these days yeah you know i i've i i've enjoyed uh a couple of those recently i think they're starting to get that down all these restaurants have on the menu you know oh they're good i did they're really good yeah but uh but uh the answer to any question oh yes so i i lucked into like i say a couple of jobs two gentlemen of erona the first thing i did on stage

Speaker 1 at the Delacourt was a big hit. Raul Julia was in it.
Galt McDermott wrote the music. I was in the chorus.
I just kind of lucked into that.

Speaker 1 And then it went to Broadway. I stopped the second year with Sandy Meisner, did this year on Broadway as one of the chorus members and understudied one of the bigger parts.

Speaker 1 And then went back and finished that second year work with Bill Esper, who people may know. So

Speaker 1 I did that and then...

Speaker 1 auditioned for a play, I'll grunted to Coca-Cola, got that, and then Altman saw me in that, and I auditioned for my first movie, which was Death Wish, and I started to work right away.

Speaker 1 In other words, and I was even

Speaker 1 supporting myself and all that, except when I came to California four years later, after doing Nashville and a couple other things,

Speaker 1 and kind of moved out here and got an agent,

Speaker 1 Abby Greshler, there was a moment when I was paying rent and

Speaker 1 my money was getting low, and I thought, geez, I looked in the trade papers and they said, hey, are you an out-of-work actor? You want to make

Speaker 1 a little money? Come and do this thing. So I joined this boiler room operation, which I guess is illegal.

Speaker 1 At five, six in the morning, you go to Hollywood and you go to this place and you call correction institutions on the East Coast and you say, hi, I'm Bob, and we have a

Speaker 1 government surplus program just went bust, and we have a surplus of magic markers and pens and pencils. Can I send you, do you use the green or the red

Speaker 1 or the blue? Can I send you a a gross over the, you know, and you get them to commit to that is my least favorite thing.

Speaker 1 And maybe not coincidentally, after a week of that was only my straight job ever. After a week of that, I got this illness.
I wound up in the hospital.

Speaker 1 I'm just too sensitive for that kind of

Speaker 1 regular work. And after that, I went back to supporting myself luckily.
And ever since with acting. That's amazing.

Speaker 1 Well, Jeff, so you're saying that selling the markers wasn't a highlight of your career.

Speaker 1 Wound

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 I didn't get that at first. Wow, that's very good.

Speaker 1 You guys are

Speaker 1 sharp as tacks.

Speaker 1 Gosh, it was awesome.

Speaker 1 It's a tick. By the way, remember Cats and Dogs? We did that movie together, although we weren't on screen together.
Remember that movie? I have. Look, I know.

Speaker 1 I have, these are all the things I want to talk to you about, but I wrote down several things.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 several things

Speaker 1 that overlap with us, connections that we have.

Speaker 1 And I have, not only Will and Greg Cats and Dogs, and said, say really okay watch this so here it is I have Sean Hayes hey I like that I like just free associating anyway and and

Speaker 1 anyway now here's our our connections oh my god well Will and Grace cats and dogs

Speaker 1 hey well of course you portrayed Jerry Lewis and I was supposed to

Speaker 1 play his son in that last movie he did, Max Rose, which Kevin Pollack finally did because I had a scheduling

Speaker 1 thing. But Jerry and I hung out in order to bond at his office in Las Vegas for a day.

Speaker 1 And that was fascinating because I had grown up with his, I kind of adored him early on. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, Sean, when did you play Jerry Lewis?

Speaker 1 2000? And in what?

Speaker 1 What can I see this in? A movie. I don't know where it is.

Speaker 1 It was Jeremy

Speaker 1 Jeremy Northam. Northam.
Okay.

Speaker 1 He played played Dean, Dean. Martin and Dan.
So it was about the duo, and they're getting together and they're breaking up. I'm so fascinated.
I've read a lot about this. What film is this, Sean?

Speaker 1 Why are you trying to bury it? It's called Dean and Jerry. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Dean and Jerry. And where is it streaming? Is it on Tubi? Because Jason doesn't get Tubi.
He's not sure. Well, hang on.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 Do I have Tubi? Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 What's that?

Speaker 1 Oh, Martin Lewis, it's called. Martin Lewis.

Speaker 1 Was this a TV film?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was TV. Yeah.
Oh, it was a CBS TV film. Well, that's why you're being cagey about it.
Okay, so listen.

Speaker 1 I love that. So it on and on.
No, I didn't remember that until he just told me. Scottie just told me.
I want to talk about that comedy duo. I want to talk about Jerry.
I want to talk about Dean.

Speaker 1 But how about talking about you guys? How about the trios? How about which brings me to the three Stooges, of course? And there's the Marx Brothers.

Speaker 1 And how about applause?

Speaker 1 I loved it. I loved it.
Commitment. What can we do?

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I believed him. I believed every moment of that people.

Speaker 1 I was transported. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Now, wait, the three students, I loved when I was a kid. I saw all of their things on television.
But listen to this. I saw them live.

Speaker 1 They came to a place called the Holiday House in 1960. It must have been, you know, do two or five or something.
And I saw

Speaker 1 Mo and Larry and Carly Joe at that time. Yes.
And they came into the audience, I remember. And my sister, two years younger than me, was like five or six or something.

Speaker 1 Mo, who had big bags at that point, did something to her kind of aggressive. She burst into tears and kind of retreated.

Speaker 1 So he later got his eyes done and didn't have that problem anymore.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Different Mo, different Mo, different Moe.

Speaker 1 Hey, promises, promises.

Speaker 1 Jerry Arbach was the original.

Speaker 1 I love

Speaker 1 it. I went three times.

Speaker 1 And you came backstage. And I appreciated that.
So thank you.

Speaker 1 Oh, now we're full circle. Now we're full circle.

Speaker 1 All right, let's move on to Jason and Will, or I have a bunch of questions for you. Well, Oscar Levant, listen to this, though.

Speaker 1 My grandmother, Anna Katz, claims she dated Oscar Levantz, who's also in Pittsburgh, on one occasion. Now, I don't know if that meant he flirted with her, if they had some encounter.

Speaker 1 I don't know what that means. But anyway, Sean, you did not discover that during your extensive research? I didn't, but I'll use it.
Okay. Will Arnett, arrested.

Speaker 1 Well, I love it. I saw every episode of Arrested Development.

Speaker 1 By the way.

Speaker 1 Sean. I love that.

Speaker 1 And Sean's character goes, what channel was it on?

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Put him fine.

Speaker 1 So, but I saw it, but I loved all your, every character in it, of course, Eliza Minelli, I knew a little bit.

Speaker 1 And Charlie's throne, fantastic. But the magician, the magic in that, and I know you've talked about magic before.
I did magic in that

Speaker 1 movie Nashville, and I had in Wicked, I do a little magic. So

Speaker 1 we could talk about it. You are magic.
You are magic. You are too.
I bet you you strike me, Jeff, as the kind of guy who knows like a few card tricks and a few sleight of hand things, do you? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I know. Well, Robert Almond told me to learn some.
I had this guy in New York taught me a bag full of tricks. I brought it to Nashville and we used a bunch of them.

Speaker 1 The only thing that I've kept up my sleeve are these rope tricks.

Speaker 1 Yes, which I've pulled out too many times,

Speaker 1 and I know that. And then I know one car trick.
That's all I know. But the rope tricks I can do.

Speaker 1 Rope tricks.

Speaker 1 That's always tough. You got to make sure you're in a big group for that.

Speaker 1 So, Jeff,

Speaker 1 I want to, I'm pitching that as a halftime show at the Super Bowl. I think those rope close-up magic would go over well.
Sure.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 I want to talk about the famous Jeff Goldblum delivery, which is like you're known for, it's brilliant. It's made you don't break it down.
Don't break it down. Don't break it down.
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 Don't talk about a magic tree. No, I want to.

Speaker 1 I thought this was interesting. I read that in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, kind of when you kind of discovered this thing, and it was the line, I never thought they would come in metal ships.

Speaker 1 Is that right? Yes.

Speaker 1 And now I would say it. I would have never thought they'd come in metal ships, but you would say it.

Speaker 1 I never thought they'd come in metal ships.

Speaker 1 I don't know. I'm not making that up.
I have no idea. That's really good.
By the way, that's really good.

Speaker 1 I'm doing a caricature of my own fun butchery. I don't know.
I don't know what it is. I love that.
But it was at that moment that Phil Kaufman said, oh, yeah, that's good. I like the way he did that.

Speaker 1 And I kind of thought to myself, hmm, check note to self. I think

Speaker 1 that's something. That's something I can build upon.
It's something. Something like that.
Anyway, so there we go. Horton, here's a who.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes. Love it.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Legos.

Speaker 1 My kids and Legos. Now,

Speaker 1 Ozark, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
You know,

Speaker 1 I did this series recently, Chaos. I played Zeus.
And you know who played my wife? Janet McTear. Oh, boy.
She's a beast. She's wonderful.
She's incredible. She's incredible.

Speaker 1 And you know who I know a little bit, have not seen her since. When she was like, oh, what, 12, 13, 14, something like that, I think, or 15,

Speaker 1 this girl came backstage. I think this is how it happened, to see me in the Pillow Man.
I did this thing at the booth theater

Speaker 1 with people you know.

Speaker 1 I enjoyed doing that. So she came back, I think then said, oh, I like what you do.
You know, I want to be an actress.

Speaker 1 Maybe could we talk sometime? And you'll tell, you know, I have a script. We could, you know, read something or, or, and you'll tell me.
I said, sure. She seemed like an interesting and smart girl.

Speaker 1 That was Julie Garner. Oh, wow.
Wow. Really? And I have not seen her since.
I haven't seen her to congratulate her on everything that's gone on. She's interesting, isn't she?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. So what a sweet, sweet person and just a monster talent.
Yeah. Oh, my.
Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, and then, of course, hey, Will Speck, hey, we did the Switch, you and I, Dr.
David.

Speaker 1 We played best friends, yeah. Best friends.

Speaker 1 In the Switch with Miss Jennifer Aniston. Directed by the girl.
Miss Jennifer Anniston. Yeah.
Will Speck, Josh Gordon.

Speaker 1 And Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who directed me in some of these apartments.com commercials. I adore that.
Is that right? No kidding. By the way, I love those commercials.

Speaker 1 Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who directed Blades of Glory that

Speaker 1 years ago.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 1 Jeff, who were your, you know, you hear these stories about actors like these, like, you know, the great Gene Hackman just passed away, and you hear like he was roommates with Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman.

Speaker 1 And then you hear these different people who came up. Who was sort of your gang?

Speaker 1 Did you have like a gang of actor friends that we didn't know about or like people who worked a lot and you guys were all coming up at the same same time or was it a more solitary existence for you meaning did you have no friends

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 you know

Speaker 1 uh i fit into the more solitary category really

Speaker 1 yeah are you an introvert or an extrovert do you do do you mind your business and and well stay in a in a in a dark room by yourself like me well i like time a lot i have my homework i'm kind of i'm a good boy and i'm conscientious and i play the piano for an hour every morning, and I work out, and I like to work on my things.

Speaker 1 I'd rather not, I don't go to, I don't stay up late in order to hang out or all of that stuff.

Speaker 1 So, you know, there's that.

Speaker 1 You can be friends with us by self-actually.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're hard workers, obviously. But I adore people, and I, you know,

Speaker 1 like I said, you know, I can imagine being pals with you. And I have a good friend, Gary, and Ed Begley Jr.
is a good friend of mine. I love love Ed.

Speaker 1 We love Ed Begley so much. We love that.
Now, are you a concert pianist like our friend Sean Hayes? He's an incredibly accomplished jazz pianist.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I'm a humble student, but I do like the jazz.

Speaker 1 I started off getting the chops playing Cherny and John Harrison. Oh, Cherny stuff,

Speaker 1 and this and that, and then discovered the fake books and are now called the Real Books and jazz. And I fell in love with that, and that's what happened.

Speaker 1 And then 30 years ago, no, I put it in some movies. The fly character plays the the piano.
And in our

Speaker 1 plays, that's right. And in plays, I put it in a couple of plays.
And then 30 years ago, Peter Weller said, hey, you know, we did this movie by Kerbunza.

Speaker 1 He said, let's get together and play a little bit.

Speaker 1 And then a couple of people told Miles Davis, who he knows, and said, oh, Jeff, you and Jeff should go out and play a gig, and you'll get better and enjoy it. And that's what we started to do.

Speaker 1 So 30 years ago, I've had this group. Peter Weller kind of went off and did wonderful things, but I've kept this group.

Speaker 1 Peter Weller, who also worked with David Cronenberg on Naked Lunch and who is also first cousin of Fred Weller, my good friend, theater actor. Love Fred Weller.
I saw him in a play.

Speaker 1 I saw him on stage, but how about speaking of the movie game? So the Naked Lunch takes us to Judy Davis. I've never met her, but I do.

Speaker 1 She's great.

Speaker 1 Wow. Which takes us to husbands and wives, which takes us to Sidney Pollack or many other people.

Speaker 1 You had a role in Annie Hall as well. So that takes us, we're going.
I mean,

Speaker 1 so wait, Jeff,

Speaker 1 has jazz music, like playing jazz music, have you ever had to make a decision about doing acting work over

Speaker 1 your music? Or do you always kind of make sure everything's separate?

Speaker 1 Separate.

Speaker 1 They went on parallel tracks. Like I said, at 10, I had my heart set on being an actor in my life

Speaker 1 as a career. Like, have you ever turned down like a big movie because you're like, I can't.
I have a gig. Nope.
Nope. No.
I have not. As a matter of fact, I have gigs coming up.

Speaker 1 We have our fourth album on Deck and Verve coming out April 25th.

Speaker 1 And around that, and so in support of that, we're going to these places to play. We're going to play the Palladium

Speaker 1 in London. We're going to be in Toronto at Massey Hall, et cetera.
Give us some dates. Give us some dates on those.
Do you have dates on those, Jeff? Let's

Speaker 1 plug in. April 25th, by the time people hear this, may be too late, but we will have been at the Palladium.

Speaker 1 And my two boys who play the piano, and I work with them, where they have a great teacher, but I work with them, are going to come on stage. It's a surprise.
Nobody knows yet.

Speaker 1 They're going to come on stage with me and play something. I hope that's not abusive.
I hope they have a good experience. Yes.
And that's

Speaker 1 what it's for. Anyway, we'll be there, then Luxembourg.
We go, and then on the 26th, April, then May 25th, Atlanta, Symphony Hall.

Speaker 1 May 27th to the 31st, we'll be at the Carlisle, the Cafe Carlisle in New York City.

Speaker 1 You've been to Carlisle. Of course.
I've played there before. I saw you play at the Troubadour, I think, a long, long time ago.

Speaker 1 You're mixing me up with

Speaker 1 Bob Dylan or something. I don't know.
No, no, no. I've never played the Drupal.

Speaker 1 Then it was somewhere else in L.A. It was like, I just, anyway, it was.
I've been all over the LA. Yes.
And I did a play at the Whiskey Agogo down the block from a play door. Really?

Speaker 1 Believe it or not. El Grinda de Coca-Cola, yes, it was a cabaret theater.
Any good theater stories from the Whiskey Ago Go? Anything happened there that was Sean? Sorry to cut into your mind.

Speaker 1 Jeff, I always ask people if you have any crazy mishaps in the theaters. All right.
I know you do.

Speaker 1 Well, I did the Mooney Shapiro songbook, which there were five of us, Judy,

Speaker 1 Gary Beach was in it.

Speaker 1 You know from

Speaker 1 Beach, of course. He was just five of us, singing and dancing.
We were at the Moroscow Theater, and

Speaker 1 we were rehearsed for four weeks. We previewed for two weeks.
Opening night, it seemed to go well. The reviews came out.
They weren't so great for the play.

Speaker 1 I got nice reviews, and then Stuart Ostro called me up and said, so we're not going to be doing it anymore.

Speaker 1 What? What do you mean? Well, Tuesday, Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, and we're off tomorrow, Monday. No, no, no.
That's all. We didn't sell enough advanced tickets, and the reviews didn't go.
So

Speaker 1 it closed opening night. So that's the kind of

Speaker 1 I don't know how funny that story is.

Speaker 1 So wait, so Jurassic Park, I just want to talk for two seconds because I was so jealous when you

Speaker 1 can't, you, you, I've seen you at a talk show and you had your own lyrics to the melody. And I had my own lyrics that I was singing for years and years.
And it was

Speaker 1 put a wallet in his mouth.

Speaker 1 Sorry.

Speaker 1 And do you remember yours? Mine went like this: Kill the dinosaurs, kill the dinosaurs, kill them all before they eat you.

Speaker 1 And that was all I had. And then you came on, and I was because you had years to work on that yourself.
It begs for lyrics, doesn't it? Fuck. Yeah.
I don't know if it begs for it, but here's mine.

Speaker 1 Here's all I know.

Speaker 1 In Jurassic Park, scary in the dark. I'm so scared that I'll be be eaten.

Speaker 1 That's good.

Speaker 1 That's good. That's good.

Speaker 1 This is a lyric.

Speaker 1 Now, Jeff, Jeff, with all of the films that you've done, all the projects that you've done,

Speaker 1 you've done it all.

Speaker 1 Does the way that you choose what job to do, has it changed over the years since you've checked so many boxes?

Speaker 1 What gets you to work? What gets you to say yes nowadays?

Speaker 1 Good question. Well, it's always fluid, as you know, and that's always clarifying itself as the days and the weeks go on.
But now, as I have this family, which

Speaker 1 I adore, and these two little boys, you know, it's not just for any reason that I'm going to go off to, you know, the ends of the earth for a year.

Speaker 1 and or do a you know to do all sorts of things so so so it has to be special and my own criteria, you know, when I was, when Sandy, I took to heart what Sandy Meisner said, and it takes 20 years of constant work and then a lifetime of continual work if you get opportunities to keep growing.

Speaker 1 And that's a good, worthwhile way to spend your life.

Speaker 1 I took that to heart.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I went through a couple of decades where I

Speaker 1 worked a lot and wanted to work and wanted to work more and exercise myself and find and test myself and find out what I had in me and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 yes, I have as big an appetite as ever for

Speaker 1 the creative experience, so-called.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I don't have to work every day.

Speaker 1 I don't feel

Speaker 1 ashamed if I'm not working every day. That's okay.
And so I want to do special things,

Speaker 1 special, special things, whatever that means. But talk about that, what I thought you were about to say about you went through a period where it was all about testing yourself.

Speaker 1 So that was kind of what drove your decisions. And now are you feeling like,

Speaker 1 I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it's not like you don't have things to prove to yourself anymore. But is it less of

Speaker 1 an urgency? Like, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yes, it's less urgent, although in another way, more urgent because, as we know, time is running out. And

Speaker 1 I still feel, I feel like I'm doing my my best work. I feel at the top of my form.
I'm injury free and I feel like I'm enjoying it more than ever. I'm freer than ever and can do my best work.

Speaker 1 So I feel like grand things could be ahead.

Speaker 1 And you've satisfied whatever sort of personal doubt might be the wrong word, that you, whatever you were working through there and sort of having fun exploring, now you've sort of found this place of

Speaker 1 not satisfaction, but just sort of like, I feel

Speaker 1 content.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 And now work takes on a different role, perhaps? I'm asking all this because I feel like I'm playing with it myself.

Speaker 1 Well, you're intuitive. You're a good therapist.
You're a good friend. Well, we talk about it all the time, don't we?

Speaker 1 Like the balance and what is the things that, what are the things that truly make us happy, right? And the way that we measure our happiness, our joy,

Speaker 1 it evolves over time, especially when you add sort of kids and family and experience and age and all those things. Work represents a different thing in different decades.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 All of that. We could talk about all of that at length.
But yeah,

Speaker 1 I'm in the same ballpark. That's right.
And moving on to the next one. We could talk about it over on Smartless After Hours, our new podcast that we're launching.

Speaker 1 Well, I like this long form. This long form is great to me.
I mean, I like the six, seven minutes you spend on these talk shows.

Speaker 1 And, you know, that's another kind of thing which would be fun to talk about. But I like these.
I like listening to conversations. Yeah, I love it too.

Speaker 1 I do too. And then we're going to end on, by the way, thanks for being in Italy and talking to us for an hour.
I mean, this is incredible. I mean, I think

Speaker 1 what time is it there?

Speaker 1 It is, you know, oh, a quarter of eight. Oh, that's it.
The kids are already, I know. I said hello, but they're now in bed.

Speaker 1 So it's two.

Speaker 1 No, no, no. No, it's no, sorry, two, but sorry, I was thinking two is a quarter of eight.
All right. Oh.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 A quarter of eight.

Speaker 1 Yeah, look at that. Wow.

Speaker 1 Sorry. Anyway, hey, you know who sings on our new album is

Speaker 1 Scarlett Johansson and Ariana Grund and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Rivo. They have

Speaker 1 songs that they half are instrumentals and half are songs, singers, and they sing. How about that? That's nice.
Now, Wicked was probably as successful as everyone thought it might be,

Speaker 1 thank God, and deservedly so. There is a second one coming that you've already shot or that

Speaker 1 you're you're going to shoot? No, no, we've already shot it. We shot them all at once, but they're

Speaker 1 editing it and scoring it and special effectsing it. And a fun process, I'll bet, despite all the special effects and the wardrobes and all those things.
Oh, wardrobe. It was fantastic.

Speaker 1 You know, he won an Oscar for that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was great. But John M.
Chu

Speaker 1 is a delightful director and a very, very masterful director. And those, that cast and Jonathan Bailey, whom I saw here in Richard II the night before the Seagull show, by the way.

Speaker 1 He was terrific. And

Speaker 1 Ariana and Cynthia.

Speaker 1 It was a magical and great, great experience. I loved that show when I first saw it with Adina Menzel and Christian Chenwith, and I cried my eyes out at that.
And so I loved playing that.

Speaker 1 Joel Gray played the part originally on stage. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It's great.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, just great congratulations. Yeah, big congratulations.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. You're a type of social media.
It's always so fun to see you in anything.

Speaker 1 When you pop on the screen, you're like, like, ah, I'm going to be taking a look at that.

Speaker 1 Truly, you elevate.

Speaker 1 You raise all boats, my friend. You raise all boats.

Speaker 1 Well, you are so fun. This is a great honor.
I hope we see each other often and immediately.

Speaker 1 Get back to this country. But I know, now comes the part of the show.
I'll say my farewells. And now

Speaker 1 nobody's sung this song because you always say nice things afterwards. You have a little recap and a debriefing.
But you know that song? Please don't talk about me when I'm gone.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know that song? Please don't talk about me when I'm gone.
Yeah, that's a good thing. And then, of course, do you know that song from Oliver? You know any songs from Oliver, Sean? Well,

Speaker 1 who will

Speaker 1 this glory? No, I know, I know, as long as he needs me. Yeah, but who will hide this wonderful thing?

Speaker 1 Who will hide this wonderful thing? I don't know, I don't know. What is it?

Speaker 1 Who will buy?

Speaker 1 Oh!

Speaker 1 Wait, what are the words? Who will buy what? Who will buy this glory? Something, something, something. Who will buy this drop?

Speaker 1 Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 1 A guest has never given us a... Given an out.

Speaker 1 Okay, well, now you give it so good.

Speaker 1 And of course, I sung on one of those albums. I sang Little Man, You're Crying, I Know Why You're Blue, which is a version of what you sing to your kids when they go to bed, a la.

Speaker 1 Save it, save it, save it, save it, save it, save it. He's waving goodbye.

Speaker 1 All right, Jeffy. Thank you.
We love you. I love you so, so much.
Goodbye. I'll see you soon.
Bravo, Bravo, Bravo. Hell, yeah.

Speaker 1 That was amazing. Yeah, he's great.
Jeff Goldblum.

Speaker 1 We didn't get to Wes Anderson. He's worked with all the greatest directors, Wes Anderson.
He's still

Speaker 1 something like 80 films or something.

Speaker 1 It's insane. And like almost no bad ones.

Speaker 1 Almost no bad ones. And always happy.
Always happy. Always happy.
And again, another one of those, never a bad performance. Yeah, you never catch him acting.
He's just always doing.

Speaker 1 He's got his own rhythm. And, and, you know what, I think you were, you were right not to sort of dissect his thing.
And not, not that I would know how, but if I were to guess.

Speaker 1 Well, no, I only did it because I read that he likes to talk about it. Well, but it's like

Speaker 1 he's, you can see the next thought coming into his head. And so he races through the old thought to get to the new thing.

Speaker 1 Like there's, he's always like, that's, I don't know, I try to do, I try to think about what I'm going to say before I say it, which is how the brain works,

Speaker 1 But in acting,

Speaker 1 you have the line in front of you. You know what's coming.
And

Speaker 1 that's the missing point. You have to sort of like get the thought.

Speaker 1 But sometimes, don't you feel like I didn't want him to share it? Like you don't want to know too much how the sausage is made.

Speaker 1 And Sean, correct me if I'm wrong. You just want to enjoy the sausage.
Sausage. That is cracks.
Yeah, just the sausage cracks. Yeah, that is right.
That is cracks. Enjoy the sausage.

Speaker 1 You can keep the casing on it or cut the casing. It doesn't matter.
You can be cut or uncut. Massage the casing and make sure it's all evenly.

Speaker 1 oh boy boy that took a real turn i tell you that took a real turn uh what about the um what's that song from oliver you said what was it who will

Speaker 1 no

Speaker 1 bye oh no no i think what the the the better image is just sort of like a nice peaceful uh house there in the in the in the in the in the italian countryside yeah and put uh the families going to bed uh yeah the kids the kids go, you go to sleep, you go to sleep, and then you might sing them something, right, Sean?

Speaker 1 How would that song go? You know,

Speaker 1 you got somewhere you gotta go, yeah, that's lazy.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 you were just by advice, bye-bye.

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