"Hugh Grant"

Speaker 1 AutoTrader is powered by Auto Intelligence. Their tools sync with your exact budget and preferences to tailor the entire car shopping experience to you.

Speaker 1 Want a pink mid-size SUV with 22-inch rims and a V8? They got it. Nothing's too specific.

Speaker 1 Find your dream car at the right price in no time because AutoTrader, powered by Auto Intelligence, puts you in control of the whole experience from search to close it's the totally you way to buy a car visit auto trader.com to find your perfect ride

Speaker 1 nobody wants to spend the holiday season clicking from one site to the next to get their hands on the best brands But who knew Walmart has the top brands we all love?

Speaker 1 Like the big names that your friends and family actually want and all in one place. Nespresso, Nespresso, Nintendo, Apple, you name it.
Get the brands everyone loves at prices you'll love at Walmart.

Speaker 1 Who knew? Go to Walmart.com or download the app to get all your gifts this season.

Speaker 1 Hey guys, I'm off to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping and I thought you guys would like to know what's on my list. Here we go, ready?

Speaker 1 Yogurt, granola, tomato sauce, ketchup, ketchup, dried fruit, baked beans, nut butter, chocolate milk, cereal bars, bread, condiments, salad dressings, protein bars, candy, tea, crackers, energy drinks, canned fruit, juice, coffee, soda, ice cream, barbecue sauce, and cakes.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Smart List. Smart.

Speaker 2 Smart

Speaker 2 List.

Speaker 2 Smart.

Speaker 1 I had a great day yesterday. Yesterday, remember we were talking about the my heart bullshit?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Did you get a new one yesterday?

Speaker 1 No, I didn't get a new one, but I went and ate lunch by myself. I had really bad sushi.
Then I went and got, I bought two books and I had an ice cream cone on the way home.

Speaker 2 I was like, this is it.

Speaker 2 Was this solo? This is by myself. This is to make your heart better?

Speaker 1 Yeah. It was,

Speaker 1 and then I went into the bookstore.

Speaker 2 Hey, by the way, do bookstores make you want to poop a little bit? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 No. I'm thinking about just standing on your feet that long.

Speaker 1 I think gravity takes over. No, but it's like the coziness of a bookstore, the coziness of like a pharmacy, you know? No.

Speaker 2 Hang on. Like a like a

Speaker 1 gift shop. Sorry, coziness.
No. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. There's a comparison between a bookstore and a pharmacy.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, just similarity. Like the coat, like the quietness of it and the coziness of it.
It really gets my stomach going.

Speaker 3 This hypochondriac finds pharmacies comforting and cozy.

Speaker 2 So, JB, a bookstore is a place where

Speaker 1 which seems like a perfect segue to go into something we should talk about just for two seconds. Smartless Media is now doing a new show called Clueless.

Speaker 2 Yes. I've heard about this.

Speaker 1 Yes. You both were on an episode, actually our first episode.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's out there.

Speaker 3 This is not a podcast starring Alicia Silverstone, right?

Speaker 1 No, this is, that is correct.

Speaker 2 It stars the host.

Speaker 1 The host is Elliot Kalen. He's the former head writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Mystery Science Theater 3000,

Speaker 1 a bunch of great stuff. He's so funny, and I'm the permanent contestant.

Speaker 3 You're the clue-less part of it.

Speaker 2 He's the clue-full part.

Speaker 1 That's exactly right. It's like 10 to 12 minute episodes of just puzzle podcasts, and it's super fun.

Speaker 2 The little sprints.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you can try to solve it while you're driving or listening to the show, and it's only 10 minutes, and it's super fun.

Speaker 3 Will, how long do you take playing Wordle each day, Will?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Was it take for you to get through Wordle?

Speaker 2 Pretty quick. Pretty quick.
Because you usually bust real fast, right?

Speaker 4 Yes, guess, guess, guess. I'm out.

Speaker 2 I sure don't.

Speaker 2 I would stack my Wordle in timing and also success rate against yours any day.

Speaker 3 No, no, you're definitely smarter than me.

Speaker 2 Anyway, so Clueless is coming up. It's great.
You should listen to it.

Speaker 3 It takes no longer than the average person would take to solve Wordle.

Speaker 2 If you're super bright like Will Arnett,

Speaker 2 it's fun. I know.
It's fun.

Speaker 1 It's a super fun show. It's super fun games.
And it premieres Monday, November 18th. And I'm on every episode.
And I play with family and friends.

Speaker 1 And you guys were kind enough to do the first episode. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I liked it a lot.

Speaker 1 It's all for Smartless Media, which is fun.

Speaker 1 And that's our little pleasure.

Speaker 3 Let's check it out, bros.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Joes. And

Speaker 2 gals.

Speaker 2 Hey, listen.

Speaker 2 Speaking of checking out. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know what I like to check out?

Speaker 2 Oh, here he comes. Are the films of our guest today?

Speaker 2 You're like, oh, Well, and I don't think that I'm alone because I read somewhere that I think that our guests' films have grossed north of $4 billion worldwide. Wow.
That's strong.

Speaker 2 That's a very strong number.

Speaker 2 And what's even stronger about it.

Speaker 3 I just hope this person had a nice definition.

Speaker 2 Well, I wonder if they did. What's even stronger about it is

Speaker 2 the fact that they're so varied in the types of films they are. And some of them are sort of what you would consider sort of indie-type films, some of them what you would consider to be sort of

Speaker 2 comedies, some are what you might consider to be romantic comedies, some you might consider to be just straight-up dramas, some would be period pieces,

Speaker 2 everything,

Speaker 2 everything. And

Speaker 2 in addition

Speaker 2 to the financial reward, our guest has also been rewarded with loads of nominations and wins for sags and golden globes and baftas and emmys

Speaker 2 i mean this this person or he he he's a smarty he's a smarty he has been such a part of the film landscape for so long i know that i i i imagine he's embarrassed by my intro but he shouldn't be because he has done everything he's taught us about love actually he's taught us about what it's

Speaker 2 about a boy he's done it all and now he has a new horror film called Heretic. You guys, it's Hugh Grant who we do not know.

Speaker 3 It's the one and only Hugh Grant.

Speaker 2 Look at this guy. Do I take this off? No.
Yes, take it off. Oh, hello.
Look at this guy. No, not the shirt.
Not the shirt.

Speaker 2 It's a silver fox.

Speaker 1 Guys, we got a silver fox on today.

Speaker 2 It is the one and only Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant, welcome to Smartless.

Speaker 4 It's very nice of you to have good morning.

Speaker 3 Yeah, this is really cool.

Speaker 1 I only met you once on the street of New York City, and I said, Hugh Grant. You said, hello.
That's it.

Speaker 2 In a dismissive.

Speaker 1 No, you were very nice.

Speaker 4 Cold kind of way.

Speaker 2 No, no, you shouldn't.

Speaker 4 I'm not a very nice man.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's nice.

Speaker 3 We're all the same.

Speaker 2 That's entirely untrue, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 So did Sean yell it too loud and everyone then stopped and wanted to take a picture?

Speaker 1 No, you were.

Speaker 4 I don't know. I was probably a bit hungover and grumpy.

Speaker 2 There you go. No, no.
Did I have a child with me?

Speaker 4 I've got millions.

Speaker 2 And that always

Speaker 2 makes me unpleasant.

Speaker 2 Get in line.

Speaker 2 How many kids do you have?

Speaker 4 Well, we think it's five.

Speaker 2 But I had them much too old in life.

Speaker 4 You know, I started when I was 52. And now, you know, I...

Speaker 3 Your first kid, you were 52. Wow.

Speaker 4 Yeah, now I'm 64, you know, and the youngest is six. And

Speaker 4 I need a long stint in a sanatorium or an abbey. I often look at the abbey that Maria lives in in the sound of music

Speaker 4 and wish I lived there.

Speaker 2 What about one of those old, like really old monasteries that they built at tops of mountains that are accessible by just like a very narrow path?

Speaker 4 I'm frightened of monks. Okay.

Speaker 4 I don't mind nuns.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 Are you in Los Angeles right now?

Speaker 4 I've just arrived last night.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh, wow.

Speaker 4 From to bang the drum for my film.

Speaker 4 From London.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 How is that flying this way? Is it harder coming this way than it is going the other?

Speaker 4 It's brutal both ways, I find.

Speaker 4 I can't do it anymore. I think that's another age thing.

Speaker 4 I woke up hours ago very, very hungry, and it felt like my heart is made of play-doh.

Speaker 2 Do you have play-doh? Yeah, we have play-doh. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 I used to eat it. Sean's got a doctor for you.
I've got some upstairs.

Speaker 2 Hugh, you should know this, that Sean,

Speaker 2 two, three nights ago, woke up in the middle of the night with a heart issue, drove himself to Cedars Sinai, didn't wake up his husband, drove himself to Cedars Sinai. They brought the paddles out.

Speaker 2 They put him under. They paddled them.
He drove home.

Speaker 2 An hour later, he woke up to use the bathroom again and drove himself back to Cedars and got paddled again.

Speaker 2 And then to dinner that night. So you're jet lagged by comparison.

Speaker 2 And I'm not saying this to make you feel bad.

Speaker 4 Well, no, you are.

Speaker 2 That's working. It is.

Speaker 4 I feel humiliated.

Speaker 1 But by God,

Speaker 2 you look fucking great. Yeah.

Speaker 2 No, I don't.

Speaker 1 You do, I'm telling you.

Speaker 3 You do. You've managed to keep it going all the time.

Speaker 4 You know what I forgot to bring?

Speaker 3 Because

Speaker 4 I'm a bad packer.

Speaker 2 Underwear.

Speaker 4 So I'm talking to you, Commando, this morning. I feel

Speaker 2 exciting.

Speaker 3 I had a stint with that. I went a couple of years with that.

Speaker 2 Let's not go down that, Jason, because we know.

Speaker 3 No, no, I'm not interested in going down it either.

Speaker 2 Well, the details on it are not a little sorted.

Speaker 1 I used to wear boxers in college. I just didn't, I thought, because I was supposed to, and it was just like, it's dumb.
I don't get useless.

Speaker 4 That's a miserable experience.

Speaker 3 They don't provide any

Speaker 2 worth at all. I like to be cupped.
Yeah, exactly. You like to be cupped.
That's good. Yeah, he likes to be cupped.

Speaker 2 And, Jay, how do you go now? Do you not wear any undergarments?

Speaker 3 No, no, no. I'm into the boxer briefs now.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 It's a semi, semi, semi-cup.

Speaker 2 Yeah, same. Okay.

Speaker 4 I think that's the option.

Speaker 2 So, Hugh, we can listen, and

Speaker 2 feel free to say no. We can send somebody over with a variety if you'd like.

Speaker 4 No, I've already asked a concierge in the hotel to provide some.

Speaker 4 And he looked surprised.

Speaker 2 I'll go shopping.

Speaker 2 Hugh Grant, honestly, you know, I do feel,

Speaker 2 I'm sorry to say, you're one of those sort of film stars that I feel like, because I've seen you in so many films, I feel like, oh, yeah, well, it's Hugh Grant, whom I know from earlier.

Speaker 2 And there is that sort of familiarity that we have through roles.

Speaker 2 And you have done so many different. And now,

Speaker 2 I think I'm safe to say you're doing something that is completely new. Now you're doing this sort of horror film, if you will, for lack of a better word, right? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 I love it. No, that is correct.

Speaker 4 We can call it horror. Or we can call it psychological thriller.
Yeah. Perhaps for people who are frightened of horror films like me.

Speaker 3 Or we can also call it one of the last remaining viable genres for theatrical distribution.

Speaker 2 Yes, that's true. Why is that?

Speaker 4 Explain that to me.

Speaker 3 I'll bet you it's because people like to have the scare be a shared experience because a scare at home might be a little too scary and being in a right room for

Speaker 3 you know, but you would think that comedy would be the same,

Speaker 3 right? You want the you want the shared experience of the laugh, but uh comedies have yet to come back.

Speaker 2 I know, and I sort of brought that up actually to our friend Jason Blum, who makes a lot of horror type films.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Blum House. And

Speaker 2 I said that, JB. I said, well, why don't we make a comedy? And he said, no, there's no money in it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't get it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't get it either.

Speaker 3 I understand wanting to be home alone if you're going to be crying. You don't want to cry next to a stranger.
But I do like laughing with strangers. I like being scared with strangers.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Anyway.

Speaker 3 Hugh comments.

Speaker 4 It's very sad. No one's sadder than me.
My local cinema just closed down after 30.

Speaker 4 I mean, I've been going there for 30 years. It's been going for 100 years.
It's just awful.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I was

Speaker 2 closing.

Speaker 4 To me, I can't understand the instinct of someone who says, I think I'll just hit home, sit at home and stream. That seems so utterly sad.

Speaker 3 It is nice to not have to leave the house.

Speaker 4 I mean, I couldn't disagree with you more.

Speaker 4 My only object in life is to get out of the house.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 3 you've got those kids running around making

Speaker 3 noise.

Speaker 2 Hang on, JB, Hugh. Hugh, I want to get into this.
I'm so glad you're saying this because you're talking to these two

Speaker 2 are two people who would, and by the way, a lot of Angelinos who are sort of in the same, our age and who kind of do what we do are equally as boring as these two.

Speaker 2 No, you're not a Goraphor, but you have zero ambition and are way too comfortable in your fucking plush lives, and you're not interested in anything other than yourselves. So, Hugh,

Speaker 2 it's entirely true. Hugh, talk to me a little bit about getting out of the house.
What is it you like to do so much?

Speaker 4 I've always regarded home as hell.

Speaker 2 I think homes are hell.

Speaker 2 The home I think is.

Speaker 1 Home, hell, home.

Speaker 4 The guy who dresses me on films wants my autobiography to be called Coffee and the Custard. And I think that is better, actually.

Speaker 4 Well, yeah,

Speaker 4 homes. I don't get it.
That's why I don't understand why everyone wants to work from home. I cannot imagine anything more dreary or depressing.

Speaker 3 Hugh, are you currently married?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm married to a terrifying giant Swede.

Speaker 2 We're going to launch

Speaker 3 a new podcast from Smartless Media

Speaker 3 called Telling It Like It Is, starring Duke Graham.

Speaker 2 I could, Hugh, this is absolutely delightful and surprising. And obviously, I don't know you.
Tell us a little bit. Tell us

Speaker 3 about this catch you're married to.

Speaker 2 This terrifying person who's in your life.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 actually,

Speaker 4 she's magnificent.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 As are the kids. We know you, Jess.

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, I should point that out. No, she's great.

Speaker 4 To my great surprise,

Speaker 4 while I was being pretty drunk for a few years in London about 13 years ago, the bar I used to hang out at, there was this hot Swede at the other end of the bar.

Speaker 2 And it was her.

Speaker 4 She's an athlete. She was very nearly a pro-tennis player, but she's just too angry.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 4 anyway, we got closer and closer, and then we started breeding, and then we fell in love, and now we're married.

Speaker 2 I love that.

Speaker 4 She's very much the man in the family. She comes from

Speaker 4 the northern part of Sweden. I mean, Swedish men, I think, are quite masculine anyway, but when they come from the north,

Speaker 4 where everyone lives among the trees, they're really seriously masculine. And men are not supposed to talk.
If you talk, it's a bit girly.

Speaker 2 No, it's true. Her brothers, I've never heard them say a word.

Speaker 4 For yes and no, they just suck their teeth.

Speaker 4 That's northern Swedish for yes or and no.

Speaker 2 Oh, look at this.

Speaker 1 Oh, look, oh, the food's coming for you.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I got some coffee, thank God.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 thank you very much. Yeah, get that in.
Oh, yeah, the Swedes do that.

Speaker 2 Hugh, Corner, if I'm run, they do that thing where they, when they talk on the phone, they go.

Speaker 4 That's right. Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 That's a yes. That's an agreeable breath.

Speaker 2 I've spent some time in Stockholm over the years.

Speaker 2 I've been there a few times, and I quite like Sweden. And I always say that Sweden is kind of like Canada with much better architecture.
And

Speaker 2 the people are really great, but they're also very blunt in that way that a lot of the sort of the Nordic people can be.

Speaker 2 And I always find, every time I went there, I'd go and I'd see people, relatives or friends, and they'd say, oh, look at you. You look quite fat.
And I'm like,

Speaker 2 and I'm like, well, it's great to see you too.

Speaker 2 My, you are tired. You are very tired.
And I can tell by your face looks terrible.

Speaker 2 That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 4 I don't allow my wife to go on any of the group chats with the schools because she offends everyone instantly with remarks exactly like that.

Speaker 1 Wait, Hugh, did you ever, speaking of

Speaker 1 the character, how you just described your wife, did you find it difficult to give up control as a man when you met her?

Speaker 1 Like before you met her, were you like more in control of, or did you believe you were in control of more? And then when you met her, you're like, yeah, I guess I could hand this off to her.

Speaker 1 This is fine.

Speaker 4 I seem to be quite happy in my pussy role.

Speaker 4 I just can't believe she likes me. I mean,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 4 I'm a bit chatty compared to Swedish men.

Speaker 4 And I, you know, she catches me watching the sound of music in the afternoons. I love it.

Speaker 1 We get along great.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 God, I love the visual.

Speaker 4 She also has a long list of things that she says are unshaggable in a man. And they're really tough, like having tea instead of coffee,

Speaker 4 driving an electric car.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 1 so far check, check for me.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 I wish I could remember the other ones. They're good.

Speaker 3 So those are things that

Speaker 3 deem you ineligible for

Speaker 3 her pleasure.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 3 So you're a coffee man, full combustion energy.

Speaker 2 So all three children are adopted.

Speaker 2 So what does she see in you, man?

Speaker 2 I know.

Speaker 4 It's a mystery. And she was married before to a very butch ski champion instructor or something.
And now there was an ugly moment when I was filming this film, Heretic, in Canada,

Speaker 4 when I went for a walk one day. We were filming in Vancouver.
I went for a walk on Whistler Mountain nearby.

Speaker 2 Beautiful.

Speaker 4 And I told my wife on the phone and there was a bit of a silence. And then it turned out that her ex-husband lives on Whistler Mountain.

Speaker 4 I'm not very good in nature. And I did get into slight difficulties that day.
And I had this nightmare scenario in which her ex-husband rescues me,

Speaker 4 carries me down the mountain over his shoulder.

Speaker 2 That would have been a low-low mountain. He rescues you

Speaker 2 because he lives in the trees.

Speaker 2 Because he's living close to the bone on the land. He's sort of

Speaker 2 hauling logs through waist-deep snow.

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, that's him.

Speaker 3 And we will be right back.

Speaker 2 Today's episode is sponsored by Ashley. They don't just sell incredible furniture, they're also making an impact in vulnerable communities.
Here's a tough fact.

Speaker 2 Over 7 million kids are affected by the welfare system, and over 368,000 are currently in foster care.

Speaker 2 So, together with Ashley and SiriusXM, we made a donation to four others, an organization working to end the child welfare crisis in America. You know, partnering with Ashley in our live show,

Speaker 2 first of all, they just made our set look really good. They made us really comfortable.
And they kind of made us look legit because otherwise it would have been, you know, milk crates and,

Speaker 2 you know, cardboard boxes. And Ashley made it look like a real, kind of looked like a living room, made it really comfortable, made our guest, John Mayer, really comfortable.

Speaker 2 And then he thought that maybe we're professional. We're not just a bunch of clowns.
To be honest, there was a point where I I got so comfortable, I forgot that I was in front of an audience.

Speaker 2 I was sitting back on that nice Ashley couch and I was just hanging out with my buds in my living room.

Speaker 2 Anyway, Ashley offers timeless, well-crafted furniture with white glove delivery right to your door. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

Speaker 1 Some like it hot, but for most, a little spice goes a long way.

Speaker 1 Dorito's golden sriracha flavored tortilla chips are the perfectly balanced blend of yellow and green srirachas for a chip that's tangy and sweet with just the right amount of heat.

Speaker 1 Doritos Golden Sriracha are spicy, but not too spicy because Doritos knows bold flavor doesn't have to mean just heat. Try Dorito's Golden Sriracha for yourself.

Speaker 1 Look for them wherever Doritos are sold or find a store near you at Doritos.com. Doritos for the bold.

Speaker 1 This is an ad by BetterHelp. Have you ever had someone that you haven't reached out to in a long time and you're just like, you know what, just do it.

Speaker 1 I just did that recently and it was such a wonderful experience. We had a great lunch, a lot of catching up, and I'm so glad we did it.
It was great.

Speaker 1 As the seasons change, shorter days don't have to weigh you down. This season, BetterHelp encourages you to reach out, check in on friends, reconnect with loved ones, and remind them you're there.

Speaker 1 Just like it takes a little courage to send that text or grab coffee with someone you haven't seen in a while, reaching out for therapy can feel difficult too, but it can be worth it.

Speaker 1 It can leave people wondering, why didn't I do this sooner? With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms. BetterHelp therapists are fully qualified.

Speaker 1 BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. This month, don't wait to reach out.

Speaker 1 Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist, BetterHelp makes it easier to take that first step.

Speaker 1 Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash smartlist. That's betterhelp.com slash smartlist.

Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 2 Hugh, let's go way back. Let's go way back to you.
So I think for a lot of people,

Speaker 2 certainly in this country

Speaker 2 and in Canada as well, I'm going to speak to my fellow Canadians.

Speaker 2 We sort of came to know you, I think, through four weddings and a funeral was the thing where we went, everybody went, oh, this guy is amazing.

Speaker 2 But truth be told, it wasn't your first film. You'd made quite a few films before, yeah?

Speaker 4 I had a career before Four Weddings, but it was a bit lame.

Speaker 4 I specialized in really low-quality mini-series

Speaker 2 like

Speaker 4 Judith Crancy's Till We Meet Again.

Speaker 4 I was always, for some reason in these mini-series, I was always a champagne baron, an evil champagne baron.

Speaker 2 I did hundreds of those parts.

Speaker 4 And I, you know, used to sell the family reserves of the best champagne to the Nazis and then get horse whipped out of the house by Michael York.

Speaker 2 Horse whipped out of the house. Yes.

Speaker 3 Another alternate title for the biography.

Speaker 4 Having raped my half-sister Courtney Cox.

Speaker 2 Oh my gosh. Yes.

Speaker 2 Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 This is taking a turn for the better.

Speaker 2 And keep going.

Speaker 2 I'd love to see this.

Speaker 4 Oh, there was another one where I was.

Speaker 4 You know, there's a brand of champagne called Charles Adique.

Speaker 4 Anyway, I was him.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 what do you mean?

Speaker 4 Well, I played him. I played him.
It was partly sponsored by the champagne makers themselves. It was not a high point in.
television history, I don't think.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 4 And I made the mistake of doing a French accent

Speaker 4 i didn't have great lines i remember i had to say things like you must listen to the champagne there is laughter in the bubbles you know it was lines like that

Speaker 3 oh god how long how long have you been uh a professional actor uh uh earning a paycheck uh yeah well

Speaker 3 40 years yeah wow amazing and it's start and before you were earning a paycheck you were you were learning i'm guessing uh was there was there much training was there How early did the bug bite you?

Speaker 2 You can tell.

Speaker 3 Maybe it was not great training. No, you're fine actually.

Speaker 4 I never trained. The whole thing started by mistake.

Speaker 2 I had left university.

Speaker 4 I was heading off to do another degree in a different subject, which I didn't really want to do.

Speaker 2 Which is what? Which is what?

Speaker 4 Well, I was highly pretentious. I'd just done a degree in literature.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I was off to do

Speaker 4 a history of art masters.

Speaker 4 And anyway,

Speaker 4 in the summer

Speaker 4 when that was about to happen, someone said, come and watch this amateur film that I had played a small part in while a student at Oxford. And I thought, I might as well.

Speaker 2 I was showing BAFTA in Piccadilly that night.

Speaker 4 And I went there on my bicycle and I watched it. It was not a good film.
I was not good in it.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 4 at that time in England, it was very much the vogue for actors to be hoity-toity posh. It was the time of chariots of fire and brideshead revisited and things like that.

Speaker 4 So agents said to me, would you like to be an actor? We'd like to represent you. And I said, no, thank you very much.

Speaker 4 And went back to prepare for a world in the history of art. And then I suddenly thought, actually, I've got no money.
So maybe I should do that for a year.

Speaker 4 And then I'll go and do do my other degree so i rang them back i said yeah look i'll do i'll do this for a bit

Speaker 4 and i

Speaker 4 i got jobs but i was so bad i thought i can't leave it at that i'll do one more and try and be better and that has gone on for 40 years isn't that interesting because yeah because because you're english like we all revere and

Speaker 1 uh you it's just it's you just assume that you've had all this training as most well i was going to say yeah and there are so many

Speaker 2 of course, there are so many English actors who work over here and who,

Speaker 2 as Englishmen

Speaker 2 or pose as Americans. But there is always that thing about, you know, having gone to drama school, having gone to,

Speaker 2 you know, Rada or whatever.

Speaker 2 And I wonder if growing up in that environment, now, of course, you were coming out of Oxford, but growing up and a lot of your peers who are coming out of these schools, was there kind of a,

Speaker 2 I don't know, Was there a thing about that? Was that was that something that they that those people? I'm not asking you to speak ill of your friends, but was was there a kind of a thing about that?

Speaker 2 Were they kind of where they lorded that over?

Speaker 4 Were the ones who'd been to drama school? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, when I did this acting, I was nervous of them because I thought they must know stuff I don't know. And I did read books about,

Speaker 2 you know, the voice and the body.

Speaker 4 And I did tragic drills in the park by myself.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 no really awful awful

Speaker 4 I did one where you had to said you must run backwards with your arms spread out shouting

Speaker 4 from your diaphragm and I I was in the theater up in Nottingham in north of England at the time and I went to the local park and I did these things and then I remember looking over at some local kids who were saying, look, he's doing it again.

Speaker 4 What a wanker.

Speaker 2 There he goes again. Yeah,

Speaker 4 in many ways, they were right.

Speaker 3 Do you remember

Speaker 3 what the big switch and change was when you went back to do it again and do it better

Speaker 3 and not be quite as bad an actor as you say you were?

Speaker 3 Did you do anything on purpose that pushed you more towards the higher quality?

Speaker 4 performance was there one thing well uh you you all know this it's only about parts It's just about how good the part is, really. And in the end,

Speaker 4 the script, Four Weddings and a Funeral, came across my desk.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I auditioned, and they really didn't want me. The guy who wrote it, Richard Curtis, really didn't want me.
He thought I was all wrong. But the man who directed it did, and that seemed to help.

Speaker 4 Although I must say, I never really felt I got that part.

Speaker 4 You know, you get that feeling, don't you, when you think, I'm being rather good. I'm absolutely in character here.

Speaker 4 I never felt that with

Speaker 2 that guy. How do you mean?

Speaker 4 I couldn't hear him. I have to hear them and I couldn't hear him.

Speaker 4 Well, I couldn't anyway off the page. It helped after I finally met Richard Curtis, who wrote it, who is that guy.
And so in some ways, I'm just doing an imitation of him in that film.

Speaker 1 Do you ever sit back and, because I mean, we've all seen so much of your work.

Speaker 2 Do you absorb how do you get a moment of how

Speaker 1 being proud of yourself and like taking it all in in and being like you know you don't seem the type but like my wish for you is that you is that you accept it you know accept all the great work you've done well this night of you i've got better and that's a that is a mystery it's part again i think it's partly part so when i got too old and ugly to do romantic comedies and started being offered these weirdo parts it suited me best now you're now you're killing people running down the street

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 4 and and you know i have another weird well I have two theories about it. One is

Speaker 4 I learnt really much too late in my career that you have to mean it, that you have to think it. There's a whole other script behind the script, which is all about thoughts and feelings.

Speaker 4 And prior to that, I'd always just thought, I just need to land this funny line at the right timing. And that's not the way to be good.

Speaker 4 So meaning it was one thing, but the other thing was I have a weird theory that it was having children. I think

Speaker 4 I was a dried-up, middle-aged, golf-addicted Englishman. Then I had children and suddenly I had heart and I

Speaker 4 think I had more lairs or something.

Speaker 2 Wait a second. Now you're speaking our language.

Speaker 2 Jason and I are

Speaker 2 in two hours.

Speaker 2 We're teeing off.

Speaker 2 And if you ever are in town and you want to play with us, Hugh, Hugh just said, can I come? I just asked. Okay.
No, I can't today. You'll be glad to need a fourth one.

Speaker 2 We need a fourth if you can play tomorrow.

Speaker 3 So, Hugh, talk a little bit about, you know, when you say jokingly, you said, you know, too old, too ugly to do the rom-com parts anymore. But,

Speaker 3 you know, talk a bit about sort of the half-serious part of that where, you know, your looks still are incredible,

Speaker 3 but that that was

Speaker 3 a large part of

Speaker 3 what we knew and loved about you was this incredibly handsome, dashing man providing the lead in all of these films, which I'd like to still see you do, considering your incredible looks maintaining here.

Speaker 3 But, like, was that something that got in your way?

Speaker 3 Like some sort of, you know, famous, famously beautiful actresses of our time have often mentioned that, you know, they weren't taken seriously because they were so gorgeous. I mean, you know,

Speaker 3 was that ever something that you thought, well, you know, I want to be taken seriously as an actor, but people are hiring me for my looks.

Speaker 2 Was that ever something that was a problem?

Speaker 4 Well, I entirely lost faith that I could do anything else.

Speaker 4 I believed my critics, really.

Speaker 4 But I see now maybe I was wrong, because at the very beginning, if I had any talent, it was for doing strange characters and silly voices and things, outlandish things that were nothing like me.

Speaker 4 And I had this comedy group that was actually quite successful, the London and Edinburgh sort of fringe circuit, which was all

Speaker 4 character stuff, you know, silly characters.

Speaker 2 What kind of year was it?

Speaker 4 Sorry, that would be mid-80s. Okay.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 we used to perform in pubs with people like Mike Myers. He was next on the level.
Yeah. And that was fun.

Speaker 4 And actually, just after I made Four Weddings, I shot another film of the same director before Four Weddings was actually released, which was, you know, I was a

Speaker 4 nicotine-stained, predatory, evil, twisted, unpleasant theater director. And I was pretty good.

Speaker 4 And I wish that at least I'd kept that other strand of my career going through all those years and years of rom-coms. Not that I, I hasten to add, not that I hate the romantic comedies.

Speaker 4 I'm proud of them. It's nice to have made films that actually entertain people and they're much harder than people think and in some cases much better, I think, than the sneerers think.

Speaker 4 My wife's good on this. She was watching, I think, Love Actually the other day

Speaker 4 because we like to watch one of my films every night. I make all the children watch them.

Speaker 4 If they don't watch them, they don't get fed.

Speaker 2 And she said,

Speaker 4 quite correctly, she said, what's good about this film is that it's about pain. And

Speaker 4 the good romantic comedies I did were really about pain. It's about humor dealing with pain, the pain,

Speaker 4 unrequited love, etc.

Speaker 3 And so, do you feel that perhaps,

Speaker 3 but for the massive success of the more sort of commercial efforts that you made, the rom-com stuff, that you would have maybe had a better chance at being received as a as a thespian um it's you know sometimes uh you know our our great directors get stuck in that too you know they're they're in they're incredibly sophisticated but then they direct some big popcorn success and now they're that director where they're shackled by financial success right yeah exactly greed plays a big part in this yeah greed and laziness

Speaker 3 and they they they've played those two have played a huge part in my career well but you're being falsely modest here um but but do you think that

Speaker 3 would you have made different decisions earlier on to balance out more of the output, like chosen some weird characters alongside the others?

Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 4 Well, I still had some confidence coming off this other weird film I did before Four Weddings.

Speaker 4 And then another one called Restoration, which was not a very successful film with Robert Downey, but I played a kind of freakish...

Speaker 4 cameo in that and I was pretty good I thought and I should have I should have at least kept that going well are you looking forward to now this this stage of you know,

Speaker 3 maybe like saying, well, check out what's been under this all this time.

Speaker 3 And here comes some more interesting parts from you. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Well, I suppose that's what I've been doing for the last seven or eight years.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I was going to say that. It seems like you've kind of been on that track a little bit.
Yeah, and you've been sort of mixing it up.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I have mixed it up.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I'm so late to the party, but The Undoing is a perfect example that you were so great in that with Nicole Kidman.

Speaker 4 And I loved that series because I'm a big fan of thrillers and stuff like that so that was incredible I loved that series oh that's nice of you yeah not easy but very well directed that thing very well but Susanna Beer Danish you know that whole scandy noir thing that she brought she made that what it was I think really cool

Speaker 2 I think so

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 4 I was going to say, I don't want to spoil it, but it's ancient history now to be that charming guy, the ideal husband. he's a cancer doctor for kids

Speaker 2 loving to his child loving to his wife marvelous then it turns out he's an absolute savage psychopath yeah I love you know you know it's funny Hugh you seem to have like this this this very sort of

Speaker 2 I gotta say kind of refreshing and very

Speaker 2 I don't even know what to say sort of honest

Speaker 2 this sort of sort of self-appraisal that you're doing and maybe it's because and I and I will say I do share with you as now that i'm north of 50 i'm 54 i i spend a lot of time i i don't take as many things as seriously as i used to when i was a young man certainly when i was a young actor certainly my career i didn't have the career that you did in film in fact i always joke that if it it wasn't for bad films i wouldn't have made one but

Speaker 2 but but you you you seem to have this very sort of healthy um self-deprecating thing and it's not even self-deprecating i think it's quite it's obviously very funny but it's also I wonder how much of it for you is cathartic to just kind of let it all go and and not be serious about it is that is that a conscious decision I

Speaker 2 quite like it and and you're encouraging me to do it more about myself well I don't know I mean I feel actors can sometimes get a little pious or

Speaker 4 reverent about what they're doing

Speaker 4 and

Speaker 4 I've never been able to go down that alley. I do in the end, think we're in the entertainment business.
And if you're not entertaining people,

Speaker 1 what are you doing?

Speaker 4 What are you doing? It's a bit of a bit masturbatory.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I agree.
I agree. Sean, you want to speak to that?

Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 No, I totally agree.

Speaker 1 I always thought that, like, if you exactly what you just said, like,

Speaker 1 there's a lane to pick where you make great things that speak to your heart and that are true for you and that you want to make, and that's called art and in some form it's all art but if nobody's watching you make that art

Speaker 2 it's like if a tree falls in the forest you know like then what are you doing but but that's not right either right i i take back everything i just said because okay

Speaker 4 because if you don't have the people trying new stuff

Speaker 4 no i know that's a balancing act it's a balancing act and the problem is i think under the umbrella of art comes an awful lot of pretentious dross that deserves to die in the forest

Speaker 2 but also

Speaker 4 some absolute gems and

Speaker 4 artistry that actually genuinely gets me going. On the plane last night, I watched Zone of Interest and you cannot get

Speaker 4 more incredible filmmaking in every aspect

Speaker 4 than that film. It's incredible.
And that clearly is not made for

Speaker 4 what you might call entertainment or money, but it's

Speaker 4 incredible.

Speaker 2 Sean and Scotty, you guys don't, because

Speaker 2 it's not part of the MCU, as we'd call it, right? The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which I so adore.

Speaker 2 Sean and his husband

Speaker 2 can often be found with sort of children's lightsabers battling on the front lawns.

Speaker 1 I like to call it the front lines, but yeah.

Speaker 1 No, we're big sci-fi fans, but I know what you mean.

Speaker 1 I think the goals then, you know, if you're making the thing something like Zone of Interest and it does find an audience that's as it has, I believe,

Speaker 1 that's the real win is when you're making well because it's illuminating.

Speaker 2 It's illuminating, right? I mean, not only is it great art, there's also a message, but it's illuminating and exposing people to

Speaker 2 art sometimes. Jason, as you say, making the medicine go down earlier.
I hate even calling it medicine because it is.

Speaker 2 But also getting into conversations about what is art and what is not art is a very slippery slope into douchebaggery. Right, right, right, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 4 And I think what sometimes has got lost, or perhaps has got lost, is that it was possible to make big, successful box office films that were smart.

Speaker 4 I used to have a deal with Castle Rock Pictures, and Rob Reiner, who was the kind of boss of that, always said there are two $100 million movies in this country.

Speaker 4 One of them's moronic, and the other is very bright. And you can make big, successful films that are intelligent, smart, you know, groundbreaking.

Speaker 2 And he did.

Speaker 4 Lots of them, you know, and

Speaker 4 I think it's sad that that's got lost, that that doesn't seem to exist so much anymore. Or maybe it's

Speaker 4 it's moved over to Netflix or somewhere.

Speaker 2 We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 Having people in your corner makes all the difference. Big moments like moving into a new house, getting a new car, or celebrating milestones are better with the right support.

Speaker 1 With the right people in your corner, you can focus on what matters, like taking that new car out for a spin.

Speaker 1 State Farm has coverage options to choose from to help best fit your needs so there's support when it matters most.

Speaker 1 That means being able to talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need knowing there are options to help protect the things you value most.

Speaker 1 Filing a claim right on the State Farm mobile app and reaching a real person whenever you need to talk to someone.

Speaker 1 Whether it's your car, home, boat, motorcycle, or RV, you can choose the right amount of coverage for you.

Speaker 1 And anytime, you can simply go online to statefarm.com or use their award-winning app to get help. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Speaker 1 If you're like me, some of the footwear you've bought in your life actually doesn't last for a very long time, and you wish it did, but some things are actually built to last, and that's the promise of LL Bean, crafting boots built to last over a

Speaker 1 Bean boots carry that tradition forward, handcrafted in Maine since 1912, with full-grain leather, durable rubber bottoms, and triple needle stitching.

Speaker 1 Built for the outdoors, they handle rain, mud, and snow. With over a century of timeless design, they don't chase trends.
Each pair becomes more personal, more distinctive, and uniquely yours.

Speaker 1 LL Bean boots are simply best worn. Find your pair at LLB.com.

Speaker 1 Nothing goes with football like Sonic's new pretzel bacon Sonic Smasher.

Speaker 1 Two hand smashed Angus beef patties, crispy bacon and onions, plus pub sauce, all on a buttery soft pretzel bun.

Speaker 1 It's perfect for watching beefy linemen, crispy corners, saucy receivers, and buttery smooth quarterbacks. Geez, did they write this for me?

Speaker 1 And together with the original Sonic Smasher, they're forming a new dynasty of burgers. The pretzel bacon Sonic Smasher.
Try it for a limited time.

Speaker 1 Sonic!

Speaker 4 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 1 Now, what about Junkets? Now,

Speaker 1 the older you get for my sister Tracy, who doesn't, Junket is a press tour for any project you're working on.

Speaker 3 I bet you that's what Hugh's in town for.

Speaker 3 Hugh's in in town to answer a bunch of questions about this new movie coming out, and it's part of the sort of, yeah, you gotta bang the drum, light your hair on fire.

Speaker 2 And not only that, let's discuss the worst part, which is

Speaker 2 the back-to-back junket days when you sit in a room and then they trotted.

Speaker 3 He's about to go downstairs and start that. And you do

Speaker 2 and they say, okay, so today it's 35 and tomorrow it's 41 in a row. And I know you're listening at home and you're saying, hey, fuck you.
I stare at a wall all day and then I drive home.

Speaker 2 But this is equally as mind-numbing, I assure you. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, to that point, my question is just like what we were talking about before, the older you get, you kind of have, don't you have the power to say, guys, I'm going to do like three today and that's it?

Speaker 1 Or I don't know.

Speaker 4 Yes, you do, I suppose, but you feel a bit of an asshole if you do that. Yeah, because you come to love the filmmakers, don't you?

Speaker 4 You love your, you know, everyone's put themselves out there and it's a terrifying moment when you're about to present something to the public and to just walk away and say, I'm too grand to talk to

Speaker 4 the media is a bit wanky.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 But what happens in the scenario where you've seen the film and you're like, oh boy, oh, this is

Speaker 3 together. This did not work.
Yet you still have to go out and

Speaker 3 champion it.

Speaker 3 Is that difficult?

Speaker 4 Well, traditionally, at that point, I like to get arrested.

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 brilliant.

Speaker 4 Then you're kind of out of the loop.

Speaker 2 Very smart plan.

Speaker 1 You're N.A.

Speaker 2 Tech Notavail, LA.

Speaker 3 But this one, I imagine this one you're excited to talk about.

Speaker 3 You're in one of those really cool, new, that love this new, I guess it's not a new genre, but it's a, it's a, it's a tilt on the genre of horror films where they've really, over the last, what, five or 10 years, become much more cinematic.

Speaker 3 Like these are really, really well-made films. They're beautiful

Speaker 3 and they're challenging.

Speaker 3 And I would imagine this is, this is one of those.

Speaker 3 Did you have a great time doing it? Are you happy with the end product?

Speaker 2 I am

Speaker 2 very happy with the end product.

Speaker 4 And you're right.

Speaker 4 Well, part of the reason I did it was because it was A24.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 4 it's not often in life that you get something as surprising and uplifting as what they've done for cinema with just sheer balls.

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 4 courage and good taste

Speaker 4 creating film after film that's that's fresh and new, and often utterly fucking terrifying. I'm still getting over midsummer.

Speaker 2 Have you ever seen that film?

Speaker 1 No, I wanted to see that. I haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 Well, it's kind of like what you said, what Rob Reiner said.

Speaker 3 You know, like, why can't you have something that is artistically sound, but also so enjoyable and so satisfying and delivers so thoroughly that it makes a whole lot of money, sells a bunch of popcorn at the same time.

Speaker 4 And that's the dream scenario, exactly.

Speaker 2 That's the bullseye. Heretic has got that?

Speaker 4 Well, it's definitely very smart. I mean,

Speaker 4 it's fascinating.

Speaker 4 I'm a character who makes a lot of quite long speeches in it

Speaker 4 about religion.

Speaker 4 And they were genuinely fascinating to me. These two weirdos who wrote and directed it, Scott and Brian,

Speaker 2 who also

Speaker 4 wrote, for instance, A Quiet Place. They're interesting guys.

Speaker 4 They

Speaker 4 did

Speaker 4 years of research to come up with the arguments I make in this film. and I think they are really quite startling and fascinating.
And

Speaker 4 so,

Speaker 4 yeah, I enjoyed all that part of it. And it's filmy.
I am obsessed with films being filmy and not just like big format TV. So it's got incredible production design, incredible

Speaker 4 photography,

Speaker 4 and it's daring because traditionally, as you know, films tend to try and keep their dialogue quite pithy and short. This is very dialogue-heavy.

Speaker 3 how are you at learning your lines?

Speaker 4 Well, worse and worse. You know, the older I get, the more I drink.

Speaker 2 But I now

Speaker 4 start weeks and weeks early and I go for walks every day going through every single line over and over again because I think they I have a theory that they're like dance steps and that the more you repeat your dance steps the more you can't forget them on the day.

Speaker 4 And then you then on the day you can have other thoughts and other feelings and do what actors are supposed to do.

Speaker 2 It's in your skin, yeah.

Speaker 4 It's in your skin, and I hate seeing in my eyes or any other actor's eyes. I think he's just looking for his next line.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you really

Speaker 2 record it? Sorry, go ahead, Sean.

Speaker 1 I was gonna say, Jason has the opposite.

Speaker 1 He can look at something and memorize it in five seconds. He's very good at it.
I don't understand it. I don't understand it.

Speaker 3 It's not that great, but

Speaker 3 I do. It's sort of a self-preservation thing.
I find if I, if I, I wish I could do what you do, Hugh,

Speaker 3 but I find if the more I do that, the more I sort of nail in a way I'm going to to do that line, the more and more I talk about it and rehearse it,

Speaker 3 then I'm less flexible on the day when I see what the other actor is doing and I actually have to change a little bit. Yes, yes.
It's harder for me if I'm really nailed down with the lines.

Speaker 4 You're right.

Speaker 4 I worked in the theater once with a very good director who used to say, don't nest. You're nesting your lines in rehearsal.

Speaker 4 And that was brilliant. You don't want to nest, but at the same time,

Speaker 4 I've worked with actors, as I say, where they're just struggling for for their lines the whole time. That's all that's going on in their life.

Speaker 2 We used to sort of 20 years ago when

Speaker 2 Jason and I were doing a television show called Arrested Development, and we used to constantly be getting rewrites at the last second. And so we'd have our sides with us on set.

Speaker 2 We'd be looking at them and we'd blah, blah, blah, and just trying to jam it in, jam it in. They'd be like, rolling, okay, rolling.
Here we go, guys. Everybody's up in front of them.

Speaker 2 We're just looking, looking, looking. And one of the sets was this

Speaker 2 living room of this house. And we'd jam our sides between the cushions.
So, years later,

Speaker 2 do you remember this, Jay? Years later, we went and we did a few more seasons of the show for Netflix, like whatever it was, eight, ten years later.

Speaker 2 And they had all the old sets, they preserved them somewhere out in, I don't know, in the desert where they keep sets of old television shows, and they brought the original stuff.

Speaker 2 And we sit, we go to rehearse the first day, we're sitting on the couch, and I reach, and I think, there's no chance.

Speaker 2 I reach between the cushions, and there are all these sides that had been jammed in there years earlier

Speaker 2 from the last second, jamming them in. Isn't that funny?

Speaker 3 Hey, well, Hugh, you know, you sound like you are, you, you, you really, you're a big film fan as far as the way things are shot and designed and whatnot.

Speaker 3 Have you, with all your set experience, have you ever flirted with directing? Is that an interest to you?

Speaker 4 It is of interest.

Speaker 4 There's lots of it which is of interest. The bit that would get me down is the way

Speaker 4 a year or two years on the same story. I've produced films in the past, and by the end of a year and a half, you just think, I don't care anymore.

Speaker 2 Just get it out.

Speaker 4 You know, when you're in a Foley session about which footsteps for the postman coming up the stairs.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, true.

Speaker 1 But Jason, you love that kind of intricacy stuff. Well, he loves it.

Speaker 2 I've been approaching.

Speaker 3 I do.

Speaker 3 Actually, yeah, we're coming up with the sound of what is its sound.

Speaker 3 What is the sound of a body hitting the ground?

Speaker 3 I did that on Ozark once, and it was from 40 stories, and now we've got this other one and this new one where it's just three stories, and it's going to be a different sound. And I'm going to

Speaker 2 find that. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 How did you get the 40-story one?

Speaker 2 It's just.

Speaker 4 Did you actually throw someone out?

Speaker 3 No, that was something that we thought about doing, actually, like throwing a big bag of something out.

Speaker 3 But yeah, no, anyway, it was just louder than the three-story one.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 I do anticipate that process

Speaker 3 becoming a bit tiresome. At some point, I'm going to gas and I'm going to be like, yeah, you know what? It's just the acting part

Speaker 3 for a while now.

Speaker 2 You think so?

Speaker 2 Perhaps.

Speaker 4 It's also very, very hard to see the story, I find, after a year or a year and a half.

Speaker 3 To lose your objectivity.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 To produce one of those films, we used to call the cleaning lady in in the editing room and just say, come and watch this film. And then suddenly you could see it.

Speaker 4 You see it through someone else's eyes. But

Speaker 2 I couldn't see what other people were doing.

Speaker 2 What about writing, Hugh? Have Have you done any writing or any film writing, any other kind of writing?

Speaker 4 Well, increasingly, I ginger up my dialogue.

Speaker 4 Not on every film, but on some of them, a lot.

Speaker 4 Maybe up to 80% is

Speaker 2 scribbled by me.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? Yeah.

Speaker 3 There's nothing wrong with that. And then how do you navigate that tricky process of

Speaker 4 ask?

Speaker 3 Yeah, and like you got to kind of pitch that to the director and or the writer or the other actors. And then what if they say, yeah, no, I like it the other way?

Speaker 3 And then you're like, yeah, but I'm the one talking and I don't want to sound like an idiot. So here's the better dialogue.

Speaker 2 I agree.

Speaker 1 It's a little window.

Speaker 4 I'm a master of that particular labyrinth, though. And I also...

Speaker 4 am fully aware that nine times out of ten when an actor says i've got some ideas it's going to be shit and yeah yeah you don't want to hear it and you dread it and then you know sometimes the director will have to say no let's do one of yours uh just which you know is going to end up on the cutting room floor just to keep them happy.

Speaker 2 I imagine, I don't know you, but I imagine that diplomacy is one of your strong suits.

Speaker 4 You're flat-out genius at that.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 that comes across greatly. It would help you with directing.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it would actually help you with directing because that's all it is, isn't it?

Speaker 2 I mean, it's a lot of it.

Speaker 1 Hugh,

Speaker 1 when you come to LA, what are the things you look forward to doing? Or as you say, when you just, quote, get out of the house, what are the things you look forward to?

Speaker 4 Well, I was was a golf addict for 12 years, so I used to get the guys together and go and golf. In the very old days, in the Judith Krantz, Till We Meet Again days, I used to go to Rancho Park.

Speaker 4 I bet you never played there.

Speaker 2 Of course we have. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah. They used to announce your name through a loudspeaker.

Speaker 2 They still do.

Speaker 4 They still do. And you team up with three guys you never met.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 More rounds played on that golf course than anywhere in the country.

Speaker 2 And tell you what, if you like a seven-hour round, Rancho is your place.

Speaker 4 so you've kicked have you kicked the habit uh having having kids is uh runs counter to it yeah that that killed everything and also i got the i got the shanks uh uh oh did you yeah i got the shanks or the tom hanks as we call them in rhyming slang worse than yeah anybody's ever had them what's shank what's that what are the shanks that's when the ball goes far right instead of straight or it's almost impossible to achieve if you try to do it but it's where the the head of the club meets the shaft of the club and so the ball goes humiliatingly the hustle.

Speaker 2 You know, there's a very quite famously Ian Baker Finch who won the Open and is now a broadcaster here in America, a golf broadcaster. And he's, by the way, a very good golf broadcaster.

Speaker 2 And he still plays. We actually saw him last year playing.
I mean, not professionally. He doesn't play professionally because he won the Open.
He was sort of at the top of the game.

Speaker 2 And he got the shanks. Yeah.
And he couldn't hit a fairway. And he couldn't.
And it's so.

Speaker 1 Shanks are nothing.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well done.

Speaker 4 I once lost a ball. I lost a ball chipping from off the green on live television.
I was in a big pro-am in Scotland

Speaker 4 and all I had was the tiniest chip up onto this green, one of those courses in Scotland, shanked it, went into one of those little streams and was taken out to see lost.

Speaker 4 That's probably when I gave up goals.

Speaker 2 Jason one time. at a pro-am at Pebble Beach

Speaker 2 two, three years ago, playing a couple of groups Atomy. I was in a bunker on the third hole, and

Speaker 2 he thinned one, hit it thin out of the bunker, and it went straight into the windshield of a car. Oh, that's magnificent.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I just dove in the bunker and just got out.

Speaker 2 He ducked, walked away, and went to the next hole.

Speaker 4 That's shameful.

Speaker 2 I know.

Speaker 4 Would you like to know my most shameful moment?

Speaker 4 Please.

Speaker 4 Took my dad and my brother to play golf in northern France, and there was one course we wanted to play on, it wasn't open, but they said, We because we got our big tournament today,

Speaker 4 but we will open it specially for you, Mr. Grant, Monsieur Grant.
In fact, come early,

Speaker 4 we'll cook you a special breakfast, and we'll take you to the first tea. So long as you get off before the tournament, everything's fine.

Speaker 4 So we turn up, they cook us a lovely breakfast, they drive us to the first tea. Round about the third hole, I'm already in a rage.
I had a terrible golf rage. I've

Speaker 4 had, I got the shanks with some chip and threw my

Speaker 4 wedge as far as I could over a kind of hill by the side of the third green into the bushes. Thought, right, I never want to see that fucky thing again.

Speaker 4 Then realized over that hill was not the bushes, but was in fact the first green.

Speaker 4 And I go over the top of the hill and there is my wedge embedded like a tomahawk in the middle of the green, right next to the hole.

Speaker 4 And the competition has now started with their best players coming up the green and the guy who'd cooked us breakfast sitting in a buggy right by the green.

Speaker 2 Hello there. Yeah.
Yeah. Au bonjour.

Speaker 2 Au bonjour.

Speaker 3 Some crazy man stole my wedge and threw it over this hill.

Speaker 2 I'm so glad I found it. Yeah.
That's funny.

Speaker 3 Did you ever get to, did you ever get to be a single digit?

Speaker 4 I did. I got to 6.7 at my zenith.
Nice. Yeah, but you're lower than that.
I can tell from your face.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no. No, no, not at all.

Speaker 3 I can't play to that at all.

Speaker 1 Hugh, are you with any of your family, your kids, your wife? Did they travel with you? Or are you so low?

Speaker 2 No, thank God.

Speaker 2 Actually,

Speaker 4 my wife is coming out tomorrow.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's fun.

Speaker 2 Will you guys go out to eat?

Speaker 1 Will you guys go out to like

Speaker 2 concerts?

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, not concerts, no.

Speaker 2 We'll go out for

Speaker 4 scandy drinking dinners.

Speaker 2 Okay, good.

Speaker 4 And I still have friends here, remarkably, especially my old Castle Rock friends.

Speaker 2 I'll bet.

Speaker 4 Good, good. Doing golf with them.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. Oh, good.

Speaker 2 Last thing I want to ask you, Hugh, and then we're going to let you go. And I know you're busy and you're exhausted and this is a drag, but where do you see the next five years?

Speaker 2 Because you're making all these changes and doing all these, if you had it your way,

Speaker 2 what are the next five years for

Speaker 4 the fantasy, which is the same fantasy I've had for 40 years, is that I finally knock it it on the head and write my novel or possibly a wonderful script,

Speaker 4 but I can't seem to get over that hurdle. I sit down and I'm terrified of failure.
But I have pages and pages and pages of ideas and notes. And that would be really nice because also I think,

Speaker 4 right, in the last few years, it's become less enjoyable to be recognizable in the street than

Speaker 4 well, it's just harder now.

Speaker 2 I find it harder.

Speaker 4 The camera because everybody's the camera thing is is tough particularly with children and yeah

Speaker 2 yeah so it would be nice to gently disappear I I would be I would be first in line to read your book and I think it would I imagine it would be quite good so and I would be second in line to listen to it yes

Speaker 2 you you you can do the audio book Sean and Jason will listen to it but but please do please do write that book I I think it would I imagine that you'd have a lot to to say so

Speaker 4 you've been very nice to me thank you Well,

Speaker 1 he's a huge fan.

Speaker 2 Massive fan, man. Massive fan for a long time.

Speaker 4 Well, I looked at your three names and thought I'm frightened of all three of you because they're all brilliant.

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 2 You're very sweet. Well, you're sweet.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And

Speaker 2 then I Googled this

Speaker 2 podcast. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Because I don't know much about podcasts.

Speaker 2 Sure, no, north. But it's gigantic.

Speaker 4 You're the richest people I've ever met.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 3 there's plenty more.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's plenty more.

Speaker 4 Do you do concerts? You You know, and you sort of

Speaker 2 do a live show. We did a tour.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went to

Speaker 2 Everett. Actually, we were going to come to London last

Speaker 2 this time last year, but we.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we may end up doing a European version of it one of these days. But yeah, we love going out there on the road.

Speaker 2 If we come to London,

Speaker 2 would you agree now, and we won't hold you to it, to jump on stage and say hello if we do a show in London? Yes, I'd do that, yes.

Speaker 4 We'll play golf at Sunningdale.

Speaker 2 Oh, that'd be crazy. Oh, Sunningdale, yes.
that would be great

Speaker 2 we jason and i had said we had talked about the london trip and uh the tour and we said we're gonna have two dates in london and then we'll bring our clubs and then we'll we'll also do a date in dublin so we'll play in ireland as well

Speaker 1 we had planned it all yeah one of the things i played in my my golf story which i've told a long long time ago here really really fast i played in dublin with my brother kevin and i this is a true true story i hit it i don't know if what's shanked or what's shanked again when you hit it in the brush goes goes bad yeah so i hit it I shanked, and it hit a, and I hit it really hard.

Speaker 1 It hit a tree, bounced off, and smack, hit me in the neck, my own ball. No, hit me in my own neck.
I swear to God.

Speaker 2 It was horrible. It was the universe that get the fuck out of here.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And we didn't have, yeah, exactly. And I did.
We didn't have a little

Speaker 1 cart. We just had to walk everywhere.
I was like, God, why is this unjust?

Speaker 2 We never played with a car.

Speaker 2 75-mile walk. I don't know.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's a nice walk.

Speaker 3 It's a nice walk in a garden and you get to play a game at the same time?

Speaker 2 Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 Hugh, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 Grant, continued success, man. I hope you get to do exactly what you want to do.
You deserve it. And we deserve to hear about it.
And thank you for your time and get some rest. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 It was nice to meet you all.

Speaker 2 Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you.

Speaker 1 And I can't wait for Heredick. Yeah, thanks.

Speaker 3 Thanks, Paul. It's nice to meet you.

Speaker 2 All right. Good luck with the film.
Thanks, Hugh. See you.
All right. Bye, pal.
See you guys. Bye.

Speaker 1 Wow, is he funny?

Speaker 3 I love how dry and candid and

Speaker 1 honest. Refreshing.

Speaker 3 Reminds me, what's that Brian Cox quote?

Speaker 3 I'm too old, too rich, and too famous to give a fuck.

Speaker 2 Isn't that what he said? Yeah.

Speaker 3 It was very, very refreshing.

Speaker 3 I've always been a fan of his. I'd never met him.

Speaker 3 Never really heard or seen an extended interview with him. So that was really nice.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, me neither.
Yeah, it's one of those, I don't feel like I know a lot about

Speaker 2 him.

Speaker 1 But I love his career trajectory, too.

Speaker 2 Like, yeah and he's totally made he's made like a hundred movies too yeah yeah he's made so many movies and he's made and he's made kids movies didn't he make i mean god i should have looked this up i mean terrible he made that um the film uh what would that was the hue paddington right yeah paddington was a great movie great well done great remember that that was a long time ago gosh i wonder like um oh here goes you know back

Speaker 2 by the way bridget jones All the Bridget Jones films. Fucking Notting Hill.
He made

Speaker 2 all those movies with Richard Curtis that Richard Curtis wrote, talking about the fact that Richard Curtis did not want him for four weddings, who had written it.

Speaker 2 And then they went on to work together and have like a wonderful working relationship. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I wanted to get into that, but he was being too self-deprecating and funny about his life to interrupt it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I've always been a fan of thrillers and stuff like that. And

Speaker 1 he's got, what is it called, Heredick?

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. Heretic?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I can't wait to get a ticket for that or or not get a ticket but vine thank you

Speaker 2 It's so honestly

Speaker 2 here's the thing

Speaker 2 just hang up on him Sean it's not clever It's not clever. He's just lazy

Speaker 2 Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbaco, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjarf.

Speaker 2 Smart Less

Speaker 5 Holiday burnout is real.

Speaker 6 From delayed flights to unexpected guests and all the cooking and wrapping in between.

Speaker 6 That's why Coop Sleep Goods curated a gift guide and everything is 25% off for a limited time.

Speaker 6 The guide is packed with award-winning pillows, best-selling supersoft sheets, and cooling pillows for the hot sleepers in your life.

Speaker 6 Shop effortlessly this year by skipping the guesswork and wrapping a thoughtful gift they'll actually use every night.

Speaker 6 And don't forget, you deserve better sleep too, so go ahead and add an extra pillow or sheet set for yourself.

Speaker 5 Everyone needs a good night's rest, so you can't go wrong with a gift from Coop.

Speaker 6 Visit coopsleepgoods.com slash comedy to get 25% off their gift guide picks that's c oop sleepgoods.com slash comedy

Speaker 1 you know those moments when you're trying to work through a complex problem and you can't stop until you found the answer that's where claude comes in the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough whether you're planning something big researching a topic you're curious about or just trying to work through a problem claude matches your level of curiosity try claude for free at claude.ai/slash smartless and see why the world's best problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner.