SmartLess

Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson Talk to Will Arnett About Imposter Syndrome

September 25, 2024 4m
Will joined Ted and Woody on their new podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)” to give them advice on hosting a podcast, delve into Will’s Cheers fandom, and dig into Will’s roots that led to him landing his starring role on "Arrested Development". Listen to the rest of Will’s episode and check out episodes with other guests like Kristen Bell, Conan O’Brien, Jeff Goldblum, Lisa Kudrow, and more by heading over to “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)” to subscribe.

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Full Transcript

Hey, listeners, Ted Danson here. If you enjoyed my recent episode on Smartless, as much as I did, you may enjoy my new podcast, where everybody knows your name, with me and my good friend and co-host, Woody Harrelson.
Woody and I were great friends and worked together, obviously, on Cheers for eight, nine years together, and then went our different ways. We'd see each other every once in a while.

We thought that this podcast

would be a great way

to get to know each other again and to share the friends we've met on our different paths. So we're having a great time.
You'll hear some great guests on the show like Kristen Bell, Conan O'Brien, Jeff Goldblum, Lisa Kudrow, and Will Arnett. That's right.
We were lucky enough to get Will for our very first episode. Check out the clip now.
Ted, I think about this, about what you've done all the time. Both you guys have gone from there, from Cheers.
You've had no fewer than five hit television shows since then that i can think of you at becker good place you had damages damages i forgot about damages uh the one with the uh board to death boarded i love that one with zach and yeah this is great podcast by the way No no but it's true and you made all those movies you know get all those curb episodes not curb episodes made tons of movies in between woody you made a million movies and limited series and comedies and dramas and i get the sense that both you guys don't feel like you've got it figured out so maybe you had a moment where you thought you were a big shot but i don't buy it but it's a little bit of the actor's illness you never think you're good enough you always feel a little bit like an imposter you always don't think you're going to get another job yeah i mean i don't think that goes away let me let's heap some praise under you oh yeah before you heap the praise can i ask you guys a question? Yeah. Do you want to go to the bathroom?

Do you ever have that thing when you're in a room with a bunch of Hollywood types

and you feel kind of like the…

It's my life.

Yeah, you don't feel like you belong.

Like you were just saying.

Totally.

I used to imagine that I had a…

You walk into these parties and I felt like there was a number on a piece of paper that stuck to my back,

my ranking in Hollywood.

Come on, really?

Yes.

And you'd sit there and you'd reach around and go,

fuck, 1,200?

Really?

I'm the 1,200?

No.

You never had that, did you?

Not really.

You're like, I belong in this room

and everybody loves me.

Not only do I belong, but these fucking people are the worst.

They're so untalented.

I can't believe how lucky all these motherfuckers are.

This person can barely read.

This person can barely speak.

That's so healthy.

I love that.

You're like, I own this room.

I fucking kill it.

No, you do have those things. I mean, I've gone through very, again, I think that it's one of the benefits of getting older that I just put less value on shit like that.
And there was a time coming off Arrested Development, if I'm being totally honest, where I thought that I was going to have, where I had a lot of opportunity and I felt like I squandered it. Um, which reminds me, I got to fire my manager today.
And I've had those moments where I was like, I could have had this, or I could have had that. And I didn't.
And I always remind myself that I'm on my path. The universe is always taking care of me.
So whatever that's going to be, and I don't know what is coming for me, but it's fucking great. And it is right around the corner.
And you know how I know that? Cause it always has been. So I just got to bank on that.
It's the only thing that's kind of the only faith I really have. If you want to hear the rest of our conversation, head over to where everybody knows your name to listen to the rest of Will's episode now, or you can head over to Where Everybody Knows Your Name to listen to the rest of Will's episode

now. Or you can head over to YouTube and watch it.
And be sure to subscribe and follow wherever

you get your podcasts.