"Matthew Rhys"

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Sorry that you guys caught me off guard. I was just talking to Jason's wig maker,

and he had said that they don't make the hair

that Jason uses for the wig anymore

because it's a synthetic thing,

and it has to do with,

because they use a certain petroleum component to it,

blah, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, the point is,

if you see Jason on the street,

just please say,

hey, man, your natural hair looks great. It's an all-new SmartLess.
SmartLess. SmartLess.
SmartLess. Are you guys excited? I'm excited.
Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes. Are you talking about we're on the TV? Yeah, with the doc.
We're going to be on TV. I told my whole family.
Smartless on the road? Smartless on the road. On Max.
On Max. That new platform, yes? Yeah.
Yes. Should we do, should we watch watch it together let's watch it together that would be super fun oh god that's not a bad idea i'm i'm really excited i'm excited for people to see will it sounds weird to say well yeah i'm excited for people to see well we have so many great guests yeah say some of the guests we have will ferrell will starts it off though doesn't he will starts it off then we have uh conan yeah kevin hart uh well hang on hang on he? Will starts it off and then we have Conan.
Kevin Hart.

Letterman. Hang on, hang on.

Then we have Letterman. Then we have

AOC with special

appearance by, can we mention that

Bradley makes a special appearance?

Bradley Cooper comes in and changes the light for us.

And then we go to Chicago.

We have Andy Richter and Jeff Tweedy

from Wilco.

Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban.
And then Matdie Damon. Matt Damon, the Matt Damon.
Yeah, a turtle, quartal, whirtle, perennial, third place finisher, Matt Damon. And then one of the biggest guests of the entire tour is Tracy from Wisconsin.
Tracy from Wisconsin comes on. And then we have Tracy from Wisconsin.
Tracy, Sean's sister. My sister, yeah.
Oh, Sean's sister makes an incredible appearance. Yeah.
Oh, and doesn't your mother's right eye makes an appearance as well? Your mother's eye makes an appearance too. It's all true.
By the way, it's all true. And you can see it.
Get it? Yeah. On.
Don't get it. On Max.
Smartless. On the road.
Check it out. I'm glad you asked because I don't think they get it.
And then, by the way, we come back to L.A. and then we end here with Kimmel.
With Kimmel and Kevin Hart. I mean, we get to have, what a soft landing to come back and have our good buddy, Jimmy Kimmel, and then Jan makes an appearance.
And then what's the final meal of the whole thing? Oh, yeah, then we're over at Shani's house for some. Oh, we go to Shani's.
Was it Spaghetti and Measballs? Sloppy Joe's. We had Sloppy Joe's.
Sloppy Joe's. I made Sloppy Joe's from scratch for you guys.
Yeah. It's all on the dock.
It's all on the dock. Are we watching it at your house, Shani? Yeah, let's watch it.
I don't care. Let's watch it.
We'll watch it on Max. It's kind of so fun.
I think... I hope people like.
Who knows? But, um... We hope.
It looks real good, too. Sam Jones did a great job directing it.
It looks real handsome. It's black and white.
I hope people like it. It's, what, it's May 23rd, right? May 23rd on Max.
Okay. I have a crazy story that happened.
I told Will, I said I was going to save it to tell you today. You have some pre-show patter? Yeah.
You know, Sean, it is... Go ahead, Sean.
No, this is crazy. Sean, what have you prepared?

I've prepared this.

Sean, by the way, not to interrupt, but speaking of prepared,

there's somebody preparing something in the kitchen behind you.

Yeah, Scott is going to make me some tea right now.

Okay.

Tea?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Are you fasting?

He's on Broadway, man.

He's on Broadway.

I'm on the Broadway.

Oh, to keep your pipes nice and lubricated?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it is one o'clock there.

What was for lunch today?

I just had a...

I can't wait.

I had a...

What's it called? Like a Kaiser roll with

egg and cheese and a little bacon.

Apple juice.

I had, what do they call it? Like a foot-long

sub.

Kaiser roll.

Kaiser. Yeah.
Where do you have to go to get that? Like a bread shop. Downstairs.
Kaiser roll. Kaiser.
Yeah.

Where do you have to go to get that?

Like a bread shop.

Downstairs.

Downstairs.

No, Zabar's, Kaiser.

Zabar's is a Jewish deli.

We live right near it.

And then there's a cafe, and they don't do bagels with egg.

You'd think they would do bagels because they sell bagels in the store part,

but not the cafe part, which is really crazy.

You got to go full Kaiser. Yeah.
All right. All right, so this is the story.
This is crazy. This is going to blow your mind.
I think it blew my mind. So the show takes place in 1958 backstage at The Tonight Show.
Oscar Levant is the guest on The Tonight Show that night. The other guest, which we never see, we only reference a lot, is Jane Mansfield.
Sure, sure. Who was, you know, this big star back in the 50s.
Marilyn Monroe, Jane Mansfield, very similar. So Mariska Hargitay, you know Mariska Hargitay? I do.
Sure. Yeah, she's the star of the SVU thing.
Oh, thanks, Scotty. Hey, Scotty.
Thanks, Scotty. Thanks, Scotty.
She just made me tea. So she's the star of this show for like 20-some years, right? So she's like, I'm outside of your theater.
Come out. I'm like, oh my God.
I came out, gave her a hug, said hello. We took a photo.
Somebody in the show whispers in my ear, her mom is Jane Mansfield. I go, wait a minute.
What? Mariska Hargitay's mom? I go, your mom is Jane Mansfield? I go, do you know that we reference your mom in this show over and over again? Did your mom know Oscar Levant? She's like, I don't know. Unfortunately, she was very young when her mom died.
So then we go back and we say her byes. I go back in the theater and I forgot.
I text her. I go, by the way, your mom made her Broadway debut in this theater that we're working in right now.
Wow. No way.
Isn't that crazy? Crazy, crazy, yeah. So did you at least offer her tickets to the show? No, she's got to pay for those.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can give her access to the house.
I can get her. Her dad was Mickey Hargitay, who was like a bodybuilder guy from Hungary.
How do you know that? Because he just Googled it.

No, I didn't.

I knew that before.

Wait, why do you know vague Hungarian bodybuilders?

I should know that.

Do you want to see

my magazine collection or not?

No, I don't want to see

your search history either.

I do.

I actually do.

I read somebody

in my search history

the other day.

It was such a bonkers

all over the map.

I go, here, you want to know what I've been searching up the last 24 hours? And it was just the weirdest, stupidest stuff. I want to say just because I want to be, and I don't want to bring it down, but I got to be honest about where I'm at, if that's okay.
Yes, yes. Today, and then we can switch gears.
Is that okay? Yes, of course it is. It's very real.
Do you want me to say? Do you want me to describe it? My oldest friend in the world, Jeremy, passed away. Oh.
And I loved him so much. Oh, well, I'm so sorry.
Yeah, you just found out yesterday, yeah? Yeah. And, fuck.
Oh, God, I'm so sorry. And I just got to be honest about it because it's what's going on in my head.
And, and, um, I just wanted to, I just wanted to say that I just, I love the guy so much. And it's so, Jason and I were talking today, um, this morning and it's funny.
We, we always get surprised when people think you say it's such a surprise, such a shock. And we know that the deal is that everybody's going to die in some way.
We're here for five minutes. Yeah.
He passed suddenly, Will? You know, the last few weeks kind of came out of nowhere, certainly. And then he finally passed.
And I'm happy he did. He was, you know, obviously he was in a lot of pain.
And I'm just thinking about his family and, and, um, and all of them, and I've known them forever. And, and, you know, his daughter and his wife and, and his parents, who my parents knew and their grand and our great grandparents knew each other.
Our families are intertwined for generations. And, and, um, he was, Jeremy was up in Toronto or? He was in Toronto.
Yeah. And, uh, and he was one of the great guys.
He great guys. I always say he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Just a great guy. You could always rely on him.
And I miss him. And, you know, you never...
And I was just thinking this morning, and I was taking the kids to school, and I was just thinking like, oh, man, hug the people you love. Yeah, for sure.
Tell them as much as you can. And if you're thinking about somebody, call them, let them know.
Just let them know you're thinking about them. You love them, how important they are to you.
I love that. And I just wanted to say that because it's on my mind and I love you guys so much.
We love you. We love you too.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's, um, it is, you're right it is this sort of like you're we're always shocked that people die but everyone here is going to everyone listening will and it's like it's a terrible thought and we somehow have managed this little device inside our head and our heart to kind of put it in a little box and keep it away and deal with it at near the end of our life um we just kind of pretend it's not ever going to happen but oh it does and we just hope we use our time correctly yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure you know i i just did this i just did this article uh this interview and jay you were so kind i just read it you said such nice things about me and i appreciate it and i appreciate your generosity and um and i said i said you know if i can pull this thing off great if not i'm still alive yeah my quote you know about the play so you're feeling bullish about the play yeah you could suck but at least i'm not dead no but the point is to your point well it's like we're still here we're here we're here right we're here and we're here nothing matters other than our health and our people we love and the people we love and and i just yeah i wanted to say that just say jared we love you and uh and that's it you know i'm thinking about you buddy and and i also know that he was he was always so quick with a laugh and he loved to freaking laugh this guy made me laugh and so i don't know he would he'd be like great well get your guest you have a nice opportunity to give him a nice goodbye uh this weekend with all of those people you're talking about that's right that'll'll be a wonderful thing for for him to watch that's right you know i mean yeah the uh the that's one that's one of the good things about after we go right we get to what like it's a narcissist delight you get to just pull up a chair and watch everybody say nice things about you yeah yeah yeah i i that. At least that's my fantasy.

I know.

Well, it's one of your fantasies.

Right.

Just a big Jason session for a whole day.

What are you eating?

Right now?

No.

In that situation where it doesn't matter anymore. Just super salty, puff-inducing things.

Because, you know, you can be as puffy as you want upstairs.

Sure you can.

Yeah.

Turns out you can be as puffy as you want upstairs sure you can yeah yeah um turns out you can be as puffy as you want downstairs too well actually you lose water weight uh almost instantaneously down there because you're always sweating oh yeah it's hot as shit oh where you're going yeah you're gonna get a lot of sweating going on that's a good point it's a constant schvitz. To switch gears,

you know, if we

can, as much as we can,

to somebody who's not puffy.

Really? No.

This gentleman keeps it very tight.

In the best way. I really...

Lucky son of a bitch. Yeah, I know.
He really is.

He's got... This is a guy...

You want to talk about first ballot

Hall of Famer? This is the guy who's got it all. I mean, he's, when you got talent and good looks, forget about it.
When you got an easy way about you, oh boy, for freaking getting. This guy's done everything.
He's been on the big screen. He's been on the little screen.
He's been on the boards, you know, on stage, if you will. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This guy's from the other side of the pond. Uh-oh.
He's British. Yeah, well, he's actually Welsh.
His first language is Welsh, according to the internet. Huh.
He's a guy who's done so much, and he's one of those guys who, like, you just, every time you see him, you're like, oh, I love this guy. Everything he does.
This is the way I feel. You know, he was, for years he was on,

you knew him from Brothers and Sisters,

and then he was on The Americans Forever.

And the thing I love about him maybe the most

is that he is partnered with one of my all-time favorite people,

the delightful Kerry Russell.

Guys, it's the incredibly talented Matthew Rhys.

Oh, Matthew.

Yes, sir. Look at him.
Is he gorgeous or the incredibly talented Matthew Rhys. Oh, Matthew.

Look at him. Is he gorgeous or what? Look at the stache.

No water in that face at all.

No, not for years. We have a fifth guest

today. He just, he proved that

the mustache was real. He pulled on it

just to prove. No, no, I'm just checking, I'm checking

the glue. Listener, he's got a 30 pound

mustache on and it's looking strong.

Are you playing a motorcycle cop?

No, I'm doing the Tom Selleck

biopic.

You could.

Welcome to Smartless Matthew Reeds.

Matthew, you stud. Good to see you.

Very much. You know, that's

a real terrifying moment, the reveal.

I know.

At the beginning, I was like, is he talking about

Ian McKellen? Who are they expecting? What is this? This is going to go... It's Karen Edgerton, everyone.
The real Welshman who can sing. Sure.
Wow, it's so cool to meet you. I know.
Very, very cool. You too, and thank you very much for having me on, Jen.
This is a real pleasure. Matthew, I wish...
We don't know each other well enough. We've crossed paths a few times because

obviously Carrie and I

are old friends and so we've met through

Carrie and she's

such a delightful person as you

are well aware and then she's like

I just, I love the idea

I'm like, you're as good as

the people you hang out with and the fact that

you and Carrie are together, I'm like, Matthew's a good guy.

He's a great guy. No, I just, no.

I took that idea

and then I latched myself onto

Thank you. people you hang out with and the fact that you and Kerry together, I'm like, Matthew's a good guy.
He's a great guy. I can just...
No, I just, no. I took that idea and then I latched myself onto Kerry so that those around us would think the same thing.
By the way, that's smart. That's smart living.
How long did you guys do that show together? Was it five, six? It was six. Six.
It was six years. Yeah.
It was meant to be five and I think the poor showrunners had kind of ar it for five, and then FX went, you know what, let's do one more. And they went, what? We don't ask.
We had the opposite on Ozark. That's a good sign on a show.
We're talking, of course, about the Americans. Yeah.
And Margot Martindale's a friend. And dear, dear Margot Martindale.
Yeah. They were both reunited on Cocaine Bear recently.
Yes. So, Margot, and you were in Cocaine Bear as well.
I muscled my way in, just looking after the kids in Ireland and reading the script, and that first opening scene, I said, I was like, who's playing that guy? The guy who bangs his head and falls out the plane. She's like, who? I don't know.
And then I said, ask Elizabeth Banks. I said, ask Banks who's playing that part.
So she texts Banks. She said, oh, we haven't cast it yet.
And I said, tell her I'll do it. No, just ask her if I can do it.
And she very kindly said, yes, you can come in and fall out of an airplane. By the way, what an absolute treat.
So you're directing a movie, and then you got a guy who's got like one scene, basically, and then you're like, Matthew Rhys calls, and he's like, hey, can I just do this one scene? You're like, uh, are you kidding? Yeah, she smelled the desperation on me. I was like, can I please get out of the house? I can't do another zoo or aquarium.
Please. Sean, is it true the rumor, sorry, that's how you and Scott met, right? Didn't you put in the search for cocaine bear? No? Did I not hear that? No, I think technically it was Cocaine Cub, wasn't it? It was Cocaine Cub, yeah.
It was the prequel that they haven't got met. Oh, Scotty.
Oh, Scotty, if he only knew. So you do Cocaine Bear, and of course I want to get, I don't want to just gloss over the delightful Margo Martindale whom we all adore.
Oh, yeah, she's the greatest. No one can swear like Margot Martindale.
She's the best. I mean, she should have a kind of course at NYU like swearing for film and television because no one can swear like her.
And no one can get their ire up quicker and then get to swearing over something that seems trivial. We did that show together, The Millers, and she'd be like, can you believe they just did this rerun and I've got to fucking remember this fucking thing and they want to shoot this afternoon.
You're like, Jesus, what? She said of one very famous actor who's in our show, she went, can you fucking hear the way he breathes? I went, well, before then, no, I haven't actually, but I can hear it now. You brought it up.
I'll work with her. So, Jason, you love on a work.
Jason, you will so fall in love with Margot Martindale, you won't be able to contain yourself. Guys, am I right? Yeah, she's great.
She's absolute gold. Now, tell me, Welsh is a language? Is that what I heard you say, Will? Oh my God.
First of all. Wait, so it's not English? Get ready for the letters.
It's not English. It's much older than English.
It's one of the oldest in Europe. So let's start there.
So I just want to say, so Matthew, you are, it says that your first language was Welsh. Is that true? It is.
It is. I grew up speaking Welsh, so the whole family speak Welsh.
But isn't Welsh just English with with an accent i don't understand yes basically we we just we what we do is trying to adopt such a harsh accent no one really understands the english of speaking no no no no that's he's he's he's putting you on so i've been i've spent some time in in cardiff which is where you're from yeah matthew it is what were you doing there i was filming there a few years ago and i remember we had what were you driving uh i had i i was gonna say the driver i had when i was working on that show you know the guy um jerry locket yes jerry locket oh the fake the locket rocket yeah the famous jerry locket yes what do you mean driver what are you talking about you got a rolls royce that's what i was trying to bait you to didn't oh no no i had a loan you a yeah they loaned me a a bentley when i was in uh're disgusting. It's a long story.
Wait, did you drive yourself in this Bentley? Yeah, I did. I drove myself.
Right side drive? Sure did. And then I drove up to Ricky's, to Jervis' house in London because I was going to have his house to have just a visit.
Who are you? And I called him and I said, I'm outside. And he came out and he saw me in this Bentley.
I go, where can I park this thing around here? And he's like, Jesus fucking Christ. It wasn't mine.
It was literally, I don't drive a Bentley. That was why I made a point.
Anyway, so you're from Cardiff. We know Jerry Lockett.
We've got Jerry out there. We know that he's listening.
We love you, Jerry. So we know that you do.
Rocket Lockett. How are you? And I knew that you guys knew each other because he was always like do you know Matthew Rhys and I was like I do I do a little bit because I know Kerry and he says yeah Matthew's from here and he's so proud of you and all the Welsh are so proud of Matthew for what you've done I think because it's only three million it was three and a half million that million.
That's all of Canada, isn't it?

What?

First of all. What is the population of Canada now?

30, 30, 30.

Oh, okay.

You missed it by a zero.

10%.

Yeah.

So anyone who's Welsh and has done anything,

even if they haven't done anything,

we're just inherently proud.

Yeah.

For a country the size of Connecticut.

Two of them are named Bale,

and one of them is named Rhys.

Yes, that's it.

That's basically it. So Christian, Gareth, Baleale, and Matthew Reese.
Well, there's also Hopkins. You also got Hopkins in there.
Oh, yeah, you do. You do.
And then Burton, obviously. There are a bunch.
So wait, I don't know anything about you and I know you. I'm a fan of you, but I don't know anything about it.
Did you, so were you one of those people that grew up and did theater and stuff as a kid and you're like, oh my God, if I can go to America, wow. We're going to get to that, Sean.
That's exactly right. He's right in the middle of a story.
He's telling the story. What story? About a Rolls Royce and a Bentley? Speaking Welsh is his first language.
Say something Welsh. Landing the plane on that.
Okay, sorry. Go ahead, Matthew.
Sean, check your chat, please. So talk about, no, but growing up speaking Welsh, you guys spoke Welsh at home, yeah? We did.
We did. And in Wales, there's a great, you know, there's a great reverence for, you know, performing arts.
And there's a very, there's kind of an ancient tradition, it's pre-Christian, whereby everyone congregates, in the old days, everyone would congregate, and then would sing competitively or recite poetry or anything of that ilk, basically. And it's very modern these days, but twice a year, all the children of Wales will gather and it's a competition now, but you're very much encouraged to get on stage in some art form or another and compete for your school or your county or whatever.
Oh, wow. So, yeah, so from a very early age, you're kind of kicked onto a stage, whether you want to.
Really? Yeah, yeah. And now, a word from our sponsor.
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Hey guys, everybody should have a support system right who's your support system my support system as you well know talk about all the time is scotty and of course my two besties will and jason whenever i have a problem an issue i talk to them about it and if they're not available i will talk to a therapist and i've been going to therapy for a long time and it's always great. So think about your favorite leaders, mentors, and idols.
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While Hilton is always expected to have top-notch service, you'd be surprised at the unexpected places they're offering it now. They've partnered with AutoCamp, which offers insanely cool airstreams in iconic outdoor destinations.
Hilton also has an exclusive partnership with small luxury hotels of the world, providing Hilton Honors members access to luxury

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hotels in your favorite college towns to their portfolio. Explore all the new ways to stay

with those Hilton Honors points you've been saving at Hilton.com. Hilton, for the stay.
All right, back to the show. So you grow up, you're speaking well, obviously you speak English as well.
They speak both there. The signage and stuff in Wales is delightful.
It's, you know, one in English and one in Welsh. And it's tough to read.
It's a hotbed of contention, yeah. What's the distance between English and Welsh? I mean, I've absolutely no idea what it sounds like, what it looks like.
Yeah, talk a little bit in Welsh just so we can hear it. I'll just get, one of the oldest poems in Welsh is about 600 BC.
And it just says, Goi raith, ga traith, o fraith, o lli, glasfeyd i han cwyn a gwenin fi, trichan trwy, yn Catai, a gwerthu elwch, ta welwch fi. It's Lord of the Rings, the Elves.
It's how the Elves speak in Lord of the Rings. Yes, well Tolkien based Elfish on Welsh.
Oh, I just made that up. Is that true? Oh, yes it is, yeah.
Are you kidding me? I mean, I'm a 54-year-old man that is not living in a cave. Why have I never, ever heard Welsh? It's a golden cave, let's be honest.
Yes, a beautiful cave. I've heard tell.
Let's be clear. Yes, one cave to bind us all.
Why? I don't understand how that's gone by me. Well, I do.
Well, I think, listen, I don't want to get on the English bashing soapbox, but the English, you know, we'll do a quick history. The English did their best to kind of eradicate all the Celtic languages for the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the Cornish, you know, they weren't too Celtic friendly.
So there was a lot of stamping out of the language and the culture. Wow.
And was it influenced by folks more Northern? Like, was there a Viking influence to all of those Celtic languages? I mean, there's the great evolution. It's Germanic-based.
And then, you know, I think the Keltoi were a Spanish tribe initially. And they, you know, then the Gauls got involved and amalgamated.
And then they, you know, set up camp in Britain. And then the Romans came.
We're all such babies here in America. Well, you don't learn any...
Even if you did pay attention, even if you did in America go to school not on a massage bus, you learned history. How dare you? You learned history.
But at least in Canada we we had to take British history. So we knew,

we were always studying the fucking Battle of Culloden

and all that shit.

Is the empire still stamped

down your throat in Canada?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Of course.

I mean, I haven't lived there

in 30 years.

This is a guy who reads

World War II books

on the can,

going to bed.

It's not as bad as Justin Turow

who will watch

World War II documentaries through the face hole of a massage table on his iPhone. Okay? He takes it to a new level.
This lust for World War II. And he lines it just for comfort and stuff.
He lines it with his discarded sleeves just to protect his face. you're what? You're sort of 17 and you go to Radha.
Yeah, yeah. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which is the preeminent classical acting school in the world.
That's what I tell everyone. Yeah.
I've told my parents they allow me to go. It's like everybody who goes to RADA,

they'll tell you.

And it's the same way with everybody

who's ever gone to Oxford.

Make sure to let that be known.

Yes, we'll drop it in.

You know, they're all called...

You walk in and they've left the honor boards

are still up in the foyers.

So like, you know,

has Peter O'Toole and Anthony Hopkins.

It's incredible.

I did a summer course there years ago.

Did you?

1987.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shakespeare? Yeah, I did the whole thing for a few years there Come on At Rada How was that? It was amazing, man What did you do? You seem so dumb It was amazing Is there a lot of pressure when you go to a school like that to make it? I mean, obviously you did But I mean, is there Just sort of culturally, do you feel there're like, Oh my God.
Okay. So I'm in RADA now.
I got to, I got to, I got to, I got to maintain our batting average of, or is there a lot of people that go there and, and, and then go into other fields? Is that more common? It is. It is.
It's a, it's a very small intake. There's only 30 to each year, 15, 15 men, 15 women.
Every year. Yeah um yeah yeah so it's it's very small so you see you feel the pressure immediately and that's small did they do it on a bus yes like a massage bus yeah yeah it just it just kind of goes around around to pick a 30 on the massage bus comfortably that's what i heard and then you guys stop you guys stop for lunch at Jinkieies on Ventura, right? Some reading at the Bodhi Tree.
But it's very exclusive. But here you are, you're a kid from Cardiff.
Were you the only Welsh person in your year? Yes, I was. I was.
I had a friend who was a year older. And then Michael Sheen had just come through and kind of blazed a trail and was kind of, you know, setting the West End on fire.
So there was this, you know, there was the flag of Wales is the dragon. So there was a kind of a dragon firmly stamped as to, you know, the Welsh are resurging again.
But, you know, like I said, Anthony Hopkins was the chairman of the board at the time, so he beat In-N-Out, and he'd just done Shadowlands. So, you know, there was this great air that, you know, anything was possible, really.
I think one of the things that the Welsh and Wales suffer from enormously is small person syndrome. And at that time, there was just this little bubble of a few, you know, Welsh people doing incredibly well.
Catherine Zito was bursting to the ranks. So I was there at this renaissance when anything felt possible.
You know what my question is going to be? I can ask it now or later. Oh, hang on.
Did you ever forget a line on stage? What's your favorite theater story, Matthew? Yeah, because you got to have one or two. Yes, I have quite a few, in fact.
No, but possibly when I was, because I was doing theater for the first five years solidly. And then at 25, I thought I got the role that was going to change my life and my career.
It didn't. But I got to play Benjamin Braddock in a stage adaptation of The Graduate with Kathleen Turner as my Mrs.
Robinson. Wow.
And to me, it was the first real introduction to Hollywood because I'd never experienced anything like it in every sense. Like PAs.
And I was like, what's a PA? Who has a PA? It was just incredible. Anyway, fast forward.
Halfway through the run, it got a little, you know, there were a few bedroom antics in the production, and there's one moment where I jump in bed and we're simulating sex, and I have to kind of plunge my face between her legs as if I'm pleasuring her. Sure, sure.
She did have the obligatory kind of flesh-toned underwear on. But anyway, I had a streaming head cold.
Sure. And being the malicious vindictive type that I am, I wouldn't let the end of study go on.
So I went on and I had, my nose was just streaming. My cold, my nose was streaming.
And I couldn't, I didn't want to kind of sniff heavily during, you know, during dialogue. So I'm doing this.
Never a great idea. Yeah, and I go, oh, I know what I'll do.
I'll just clear my nose in that quiet moment when I'm between, I know. And I said, well, I didn't think.
So I jumped in and I'm between Miss Turner's legs and I just went and inhaled deeply and the covers kind of shot up. And she's looking down and we're like, what the fuck? What the fuck are you doing? And I was like, oh, oh, no, I'm not sniffing.
I'm not sniffing. I have a cold.
I have a cold. I'm not sniffing you.
You're not trying wine out. No, no.
My God. No way.
Yes, I always live with this deep regret of that moment. That and when someone, there was a paparazzi photo,

in the moment when she took off her robe.

And this paparazzi photographer stood up and photographed her

and a big flash went off, I know.

And I looked at her on stage in this moment

and I was like, oh, we should stop.

And she came in with the next line.

And I always remember thinking,

regardless that she was a consummate professional, I'm going to come in with the next line, I'm going to carry on. I bitterly regret in that moment not stopping the production because the next day in a tabloid newspaper, there was a huge photograph.
Yeah, I was ashamed. I was ashamed.
Oh my God. Well, you know.
But it was.

Yeah.

It's a tabloid, and the headline just said,

Welshman, you know, just fucking cowers under pressure.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yes.

Spineless Welshman does nothing.

We leave it to the English tabloids to say that.

Yeah, yeah.

I love that.

Oh, my God.

So, Matthew, so you did, as you said, you did.

Did you play another great Welshman?

You played Dylan Thomas, didn't you?

Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
I love that. Oh, my God.
So, Matthew, so you did, as you said, did you play another great Welshman? You played Dylan Thomas, didn't you? I did. At one point? I did.
Yes. Oh, my God, if you feel so long ago.
It was about 12 years ago now. Yeah.
He had this incredible moment. The poet Dylan Thomas had this incredible moment in his life where he was having an affair.
That part was played by Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller's playing my wife. And Cillian Murphy is the husband of Keira Knightley.
And this is all true, that he burst in on Dylan Thomas with a machine gun because it was during the Second War. He came in with a machine gun.
He opened fire And then missed everyone and took out a grenade,

pulled the pin,

and the grenade didn't go off.

And it was that story that we told in

The Edge of Love.

Yeah, it was kind of,

it was an unbelievable story

that he survived

and then tragically

drank himself to death.

Wow.

Talk about the worst assassin

you could ever imagine.

Yes. And I was like, I was talking to Killian about it.
I was like, but you're playing, you're a commando. You're a trained commando.
What? Do you want to play this part? So you are, you are not, you do not live in Wales, correct? I do not, no. I now live in leafy Brooklyn.
Leafy Brooklyn. Yeah, so you live in Brooklyn, but you come over, you do theater, as you say, for basically five years.
And then you move over to America to do what? What was the first thing that brought you over? The first thing I did, I was doing a play. I was actually doing a two-hander at the Royal Court with Paul Bettany called One More Wasted Year.
And everyone called it One More Wasted Evening because it wasn't good. My own family said as much.
It was terrible. Didn't they really? Yeah.
So they come backstage, and what were they saying to you backstage? My uncle was the first person of the entire group, and they came in and is an old sea captain, very salty, and he went, well, that was shit. Yeah.
And I couldn't argue.

I went, you're absolutely right.

And then, yeah.

Stephen Daldry, who was the artistic director at the time,

and Preston Knight, came in and went,

darlings, was it the play we need to see right now?

Probably not.

Should we go to the party?

That's hysterical.

Oh, God. Wow, that's so hardcore.

So you come over with Paul Bettany, you do that.

Sorry, yes.

Yeah, an American agent came to see the play,

and he said,

do you want to come over for pilot season?

And I had no idea what it was.

And I said yes, and then came to L.A.

And then the first audition he set me up with,

it was Julie Tainwell's first movie, Titus,

with Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange.

And I just thought, oh, my God,

Los Angeles is truly the promised land

where you just turn up and get these huge movies

and everything's great.

Yeah, you just turn up and get these huge movies and everything's great. And then I did that.
Yeah. And I shot that in Rome for six months.
And then I went back to LA and didn't get a job for a decade. I thought, here's another time my career is going to be made.
And it was just like, just paid a few bills. Isn't that amazing? I love that feeling of like, yeah, it's going to be like this forever.
Yeah, yeah. It's like the Klondike.
I arrived, it was like the Klondike, where they throw you these scripts and go, this is being made for MGM with this as a lead. And you're like, oh my, and you're allowing me to audition for this? This is madness.
All I have to do is get the part and I'm set for life. You never know anything.
You really don't. I mean, look at us three morons.
Each of us have had great success, as I knock on wood, and we're super grateful for in our careers. But then, you know, this thing comes along.
It's more successful than anything we've ever done, and it was just us three idiots chatting during COVID. Right.
The world basically was saying, we don't want you guys to do the thing that you think that you're going to just The things you're professional at. You can keep doing that a little bit if you want, but we just want you to be that you're, we want to hear your idiotic thoughts on stupid shit.
Yeah. Just like, you know, wonder at the moment where Sean learns that Wales was, you know why, you know where Wales got its name, Sean? Where? That's where they made the first harpoon.
That's not true. That's not true.
It's not true. That's not true.
Correct. But you bought it for a second.
Yes. And that's what they tune in to hear.
Because he'll fuck with me and he'll say something that's completely not true and then he'll say something that's completely true. I never know what to believe.
It's tough. I know, Ingo.
But wait a minute. They did shoot Moby Dick in Wales with Gregory Peck.

And my grandfather worked on it. Is that true?

Is that true?

Yeah, they built three large rubber whales.

And one of them, I know, this is a great joke,

it's like they came to Wales.

And one of them sailed off into the Irish Sea,

which I think is fantastic.

I have a whale that needs a rubber, but go ahead.

Heyo!

My grandfather caught Moby Dick, but there's a cure for it now hey oh wait wait what did your grandfather do on that his friend Edgar was a carpenter and he kind of they kind of helped out and I think in the framing of the whales I love that yeah that's cool wait I want to ask about Carrie and I want to know like did you meet each I'm an idiot. I don't know.
Did you meet before Americans or on the set? And how did that go? And when did you know the sparks flew? Just one question at a time. Because I get easily confused.
Because I love Carrie. I love Carrie.
So do I. We met quite a few years before the Americans in Rustic Canyon at a kickball party that Jennifer Grey hosted.

And I had no idea what kickball was.

Boy, all of that adds up, by the way.

Yes, yes.

How I just ambled through life, bumping into the furniture and ending up going,

how did I get here?

How did this happen?

And we were the last two to leave.

We were in the parking lot and I was trying to open a bottle of beer for her with a key and failing and I asked for her number then and then and that was and that was all I can remember she was moving she was moving to New York the two days after that on the Tuesday it was a Sunday and that's all I still remember and then the road to the Americans was a long crazy one and then on the first day fight training, I said to Kerry, I said, oh, we've met before, actually. She was like, no, no, we definitely haven't.
Oh, so it had been years. It had been years at this point.
And I said, yeah, yeah, we met before. We met at a kickball party in Rustic Canyon.
She went, oh, I know who you are. And you left me a message on my answering machine, a very drunken message.
And I went, oh, did I?

I'm so sorry. I have no memory of leaving a long, rambling, incoherent, drunken message,

which is probably what I should think of.

No way.

Did you really?

Wait, can I be a super moron?

Are you guys together?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Wait, did you?

So you got together.

You started working together. You thought I would just bring up that they're just good friends no because they worked together on the Americans for six years that's what I'm saying that's what I was asking but then but during that you guys fell in love got married had a kid we did yeah thank you yeah but I want to know what happened so she goes okay now I remember you and then what and then it was it was just a very it was a burn.
The first season, you know, I think we were both trying to be sworn off to that thing. We were going to go, I'm not going to do what everyone tells us never to do.
I'm not going to do that. And then, but the beginning of the second season, it was, yeah.
Okay, so now were the producer, did the producers take each of you aside individually and say, hey, this is, you're dealing with an asset here, okay? Everyone has jobs. If you guys go south, we have to shut the show down.
Were there conversations? No, no, they were very gracious about it because I've had friends. They were all so nervous.
I know, I've had friends who've had that conversation to the sit down from the producers going, look, we've all been down here before. You guys are in your mid-30s now.
You know, you're not 22. Right off the company period.
And they were very, yeah, they were very kind and gracious about it. Do you know the TV director, Tommy Shlami? Yeah.
Yeah, so Shlami was directing the beginning of the second season, and he has that kind of beautiful voice. But Kerry and I were doing a sex scene.
And Shlami just goes, these two have been naked together before. And then he was like, called out.
Oh, really? So at that point, no one knew, but he could tell. He could tell.
And then there's a longer story as to how we got found out, which was just... We've got time.
Well, Kerry got broken into. I was in the house at the time, and the robbers kind of grabbed my backpack, shoved it full of her stuff.
You're in the house alone during a home invasion. Yeah, yeah.
Wow. We'll start there.
Well, so here's the other thing. It's early day, and this is just a testament to my abject stupidity.
But with early days of our relationship, and she wakes me up, she says, there's someone in the house. And I go, no, there's not.
And then I just heard this voice. And I remember thinking, in any logical moment, you'd go, let's lock ourselves in the bathroom,

call 911.

And for some stupid reason,

because it were very early days,

I thought, what I do next,

she will judge me on for the rest of our lives.

What's that film?

Force Majeure.

Force Majeure.

Where the avalanche comes and he just runs.

He leaves his family behind.

Right, right.

I swear to God.

I was like,

if I suggest to go into the bathroom and call 911,

will she think me a coward?

Your relationship's over.

Yes.

I had all these weird things going through my head.

So what did I do?

She had a working fireplace in the bedroom.

So I picked up the poker.

Sure.

And with not a stitch on me,

I walked out to meet my fate. Oh, God.
Wow. And we'll be right back after these messages.
Okay, so now we're back. So now we're back.
So now you're, now... So after eight months of treatment, yes, I was fine.
No, I'm kidding. So did you face-to-face with this fella? No, because what I did was, I think,

what most people do is you turn the light on and they run straight away.

So I heard them kind of run,

and they ran out the front door.

Oh, thank God.

I know, I know.

Jesus.

So you do this, and now Carrie thinks that you're her hero.

I wouldn't go that far.

Or did she think you were stupid for chasing after the guy? Yeah, basically, basically. She was locked in the bathroom.
Yeah, calling 911. Waiting for you.
Yeah, then seven cops turn up and they clock her and they're like looking, they have no idea why, but they're looking at her and then all of a sudden the DA were like, they catch them and the DA said, oh, I tell you what, we would love to return your belongings on set with a photographer to Kerry,

if that's okay.

And she's like, she wasn't wild about the idea,

tried to put him on.

No, no, no, because the DA was retiring that year,

wanted kind of a, you know, hero ending.

So the NYPD come on set with a photographer,

and then they're holding up my bag,

and indeed, one of the young PAs went,

wait, that's not Kerry's bag,

that's Matthew's bag. And as I'm running, trying to go, shut the fuck up.
And that's how the crew kind of found out. No.
Wow. So arbitrary.
Yeah. That's crazy.
It was a lot to go through just for the big reveal. Wow.
That's kind of cool. So then this guy managed to grab a few things before he went running.
He did. He did.
He did. Wow.
And when I saw the picture of him when he was arrested, I said, oh, I said, look, there's a picture of the guy that caught him. I said, look, he's being cuffed by two little tiny cops.
She said, they're not tiny. And I saw the size of him.
He could have turned me into a kebab with that poker and done what he wanted. I wouldn't have had a...
Now, did you have any sort of war cry as you turned on the light? Was there any sort of get the heck out of you? You're going, hey, bear, hey, bear. Yeah.
You know? Was there any of that? No, no. As much as I was...
I'm a poker!

Yeah, yeah.

As much as I love that moment in Gladiator when all the Celts kind of attack their omens,

and I always think, you know,

if it came to it, that's how I'd react.

I couldn't move my legs.

Don't make me come down there!

Yeah, yes.

I'm classically trained, you know.

I've done fencing.

Totally naked!

Yes.

Let's get this going! Yeah. And we will be right back.
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And now back to the show. All right, so you and Kerry have a child.
That's a boy or a girl? He's a boy. He's a boy.
Kerry has two older ones, so there's three in the house who outnumber us. And what are the ages of all three? 15, 11, and 6.
15, 11, and 6. Then the 15 and 11 are boy, girl? Boy, girl.
So it goes boy, girl, boy. Boy, girl, boy.
And how are you liking being a dad? I love it. You love it? I do love it.
It's the madness that I love. It's when it's, and it's most catastrophic.

The small stuff irks you,

but when it's catastrophic,

it's brilliant.

When those mornings,

when the wheels so royally come off,

that's when I can sit back and go,

oh, this is,

this is just brilliant. Who's the more patient one

with all of the,

with the chaos?

Is it you or her?

Her.

Her.

Yeah.

Chaos I'm fine with,

but manners, like rudeness, I don't tolerate. And that's when I.
No, me neither. No, that's what I got.
How old are yours now, Jason? I got 16 and 11, two girls. Oh, wow.
Yeah. And I'm totally permissive and the guy that plays around and I don't have to really be the disciplinarian.
But if it's the rudeness, if it's stuff like that, and I just like the switch the switch gets thrown yeah same yeah i pick and choose my moments yeah the chaos is great yeah rudeness yeah i've got uh we've got uh 14 we've got 14 12 and then my partner she's a five-year-old and then we have an almost three-year-old oh all boys no way yeah you've almost got the hockey team almost got the And it's the fuck, and it is, sometimes. All boys.
All boys. No way.
Yeah. You've almost got the hockey team.
Almost got the team, and it's the fuck, and it is, sometimes it is absolute, just abject chaos. Like, just...
How do you like it? I love it. The chaos.
It's great. Yeah, I love it.
It's, I don't know. I just wouldn't have it any other way.
I embrace it. It's fun.
Same thing. They're all nice.
They're all nice kids, and everybody, you know, has good manners and stuff. That's one of the things.
But I love it. It's fun.
Same thing. They're all nice kids, and everybody, you know, has good manners and stuff.
That's one of the things. But I love it, man.
I love it when it just gets absolute, you know, sometimes when you get into the witching hour, sort of near bedtime, it gets fucking bonkers. Yeah.
How about the complications, Matthew, of travel and stuff? Since you guys are both very active in your careers and your kids are now deeply entrenched in school and having that sort of social and academic continuity? Like you can't really pick them up and take them places with you as much as you want, I'll bet, right? How do you guys manage that? Is it easy or tough? It is tough. I mean, we try and live by this ridiculous rule where one of us works, one of us doesn't.
And, you know, kids stay at school. But it's just...
That never works out, right? Because, like, what if somebody gets a great, great call and you just can't say no, but this is your turn and, you know. Yeah, this is what happened last year.
And grandma came in and, you know, the kids ate sugar for six solid months. They loved it.
I think that my sort of view on it always is that you have this idea of how you want it to go. So you say, like, one of us is going to work, one of us not.
Whatever that thing is, and you try to set those parameters, and you try to get as close to it as you can. And you have to be flexible and allow yourself to, you know, that there are going to be moments where it's just pure chaos.

Yes.

And the truth is kids are so incredibly resilient.

Like, they don't know any different.

You know, I grew up in a house where my mom was a stewardess for Pan Am or flight attendants.

She was gone two weeks of every month.

That was just normal to me, you know.

Just had my mom half the time.

And that was just normal.

Yeah.

I had my dad. Never mind.
Oh, no, no. Matthew's going to love this story.
Oh, Matthew. No, no.
Yeah, go. So it starts with a Chevy Pontiac, the engine turning on.
Yeah. And it ends with a peel out.
Yeah. Just a peel out.
And a real. And a sort of a distant kind of, fuck you.
Fuck you. Fuck all you.
Mama. John, this isn't true, is it? Yeah, it's true.
My dad left him. That's five.
And he left his mom to keep an eye on all of them. And I stress, and I.
His mother has one eye. And I stress, and I.
Matthew, it's brilliantly tragic. Tragic.
You have to laugh. It's fine.
It's the only thing we have to do. We have to laugh at our misfortunes because...
But wait, I'm going to ask you a weird question only because you're wearing a black T-shirt. Yeah.
And I've seen a lot of photos of you and stuff where you seem very kind of fat, like you're into fashion when you have to be. Like, I know nothing.
Like, I'm terrible. But like, you're probably like Will, you're probably like Will where you're like, I like to look good when I even go to the store.
I like to look good when I go out in public. Like, is that, it seems like a lot of effort.
Oh, no, no. If you truly knew me, it's, and Kerry said the other day, because I have, I have, I have these beaten up car hearts and I wear, usually just the same black t-shirt every day.
And I even carry it. I was like, you've got to change for the school run.
You've worn the same thing for, it's now months. And my Carhartts are really beaten up.
And there was this. What's Carhartts? Carhartts.
Sorry, it's the way I was saying it. It's a brand, clothing brand.
Carhartts. It's like all the carpenters, Carhartts, yeah.
All the carpenters wear them and they're real worker guys. And I wear them into the ground because they look so terrible.
I was standing in school pickup in line and this mother kind of looked at my trousers and she said, what is it you do? And I went, oh, I'm actually an actor. And she went, oh, oh.
It's almost like, why are you masquerading as someone who works for a living? Well, you have your uniform. Well, it's like Jason always gets the question when they see him.
They always say, what time's your tea time? Right, isn't that the question he gets most? Well, when I wear this little outfit, it's clear. You know what I do get a lot? You know what I lot is uh do your cut do you color your hair and now recently because of this uh this film where i'm playing a guy in 1985 they think it's a wig just a full-blown wig on that i'm wearing yeah i'm looking forward to that immensely no one thinks that my hair is the right is the real color because you're because in your, like you are, that's not true.

It's not believable that a 70-year-old

would not have any gray hair.

I have to admit that there have been,

I've had a few people in the last year

who have asked me, Jason,

if you color your hair.

Yeah, same.

I tell everyone that you color your hair.

That's what it is.

Yes.

You son of a bitch.

It was, yeah, it was during that moment.

Do you remember, I don't know if you remember this, in the Golden Globes, this is

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this is this is this is this is in the Golden Globes, this sounds perversely pretentious, but it still makes me laugh. That kind of green, the virtual green room, if you remember, it was you, me, Bob Odenkirk, Josh O'Connor, and then we were all waiting for Al Pacino to kind of pop up.
Do you remember?

Into the virtual green room.

And we're all waiting.

We're all waiting.

And then he pops up because we're all at home during the pandemic.

And he looks like a Bond villain because he has like a small dog in his lap.

And he's stroking it.

Yes.

And we all sort of say, we all go, hi, hello.

Hello.

Hi, hi, hi.

And then this silence.

And then we kind of do a second round.

We're like going, hello, hi. No, nothing.
And then I think you said, I don't think he can hear us. And then we cut into a second round.
We're like going, hello, hi.

No, nothing.

And then I think you said, I don't think he can hear us.

And then Pacino just goes, oh, I can hear you.

Oh, boy.

We all went, oh.

Just doesn't want to do the group high.

And then he said, I think he colors his hair.

Yeah.

Oh, this guy?

Oh, hair color? Oh, Charlie.

Oh. Hey, so, Matthew.
What's the, so Matthew. Yeah.
Quick question for Jason. Why is the emblem, why is the person holding an umbrella? What is that? Oh, this is some silly golf sweater.
Mary Poppins. Oh, yeah, what is that? It actually is a Mary Poppins.
This is a, I believe this is an ATT thing, Willie. From ATT? Yeah, this is one of the.
From that swag room we went into? Free sweater. We have Smartless golf stuff coming out soon.
I love it. Oh, let's take the opportunity to do a merch tie-in, Sean.
That's smart. Matthew, can you commit right now to wearing Smartless golf merch on the school run? My entire closet is mainly made up of clothes I've stolen from jobs.
I don't buy a thing.

Well, we're going to send you some Smartless golf swag.

I love it.

So it's like some plus fours, right, for the golf pants.

You know, you can wear that.

Yeah.

You know?

We were listening.

I do want to say your show gives us so much joy.

And we were listening.

Yes, it does.

We were listening to it recently.

And Will, I think you went to dinner with Sean at JAR you and sean you yeah i was not invited uh yeah well we we brought that up in the car we were like yeah i never am these guys have been all over the world together oh my god i've never asked oh i mean they've been to turkey they've been to where else guys yeah we have uh where else your passport's been stamped venice italy right we went you guys play golf every day okay go ahead yeah so so you did say that you were wearing uggs well this kind of slipper uggs for dinner is that right did i remember that right absolutely yeah and i said to kerry see yeah it's fine and she went they live in la right yeah she's right sean that was you wearing the comfy uh shoes yeah He's been doing it for years. Who looks at your shoes? Nobody looks at your shoes in a dark restaurant.
I would. And then I would choose to never come to dinner with you again.
Cobblers around the world. Cobblers.
Listen, so Matthew, so now recently in the last couple of years, you've partnered with our good friend, Mr. Downey Jr.
Yeah. Oh yeah yeah, Perry Mason.
That's a handsome-looking show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Talk to us a little bit about that.
First of all, how that came about and what an absolute terror he is as an executive producer. Oh, this Downey.
Oh, my God. He's so checked.
Yells and screams. Oh, what a screamer.
He strikes people. Yes, yes, with a glove.
Has a leather glove, a small gauntlet that he sometimes put a metal thimble in it just for the little... Yeah.
Oh, Christ, he's here, he's here. He speaks so highly of you.
How did that come... Yeah, he loves you.
Yeah, he does, he really does. Robert loves you.
And talk to us a little bit about, and Susan as well. Susan does not like, oh, she does.

Well, yes.

The great Susan, the brains of that duo.

The wind beneath the wings and the brain in the head.

Yeah.

How did that come into your world, the Perry Mason project?

I mean, I'm trying to think what year it was now, because it was

a while back. Probably three, four

years ago, maybe? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And

I always, and this is what

my brain works.

When my manager calls

and he goes, you know, Team Downey

want to talk to you about

a reboot of Perry Mason. My first question was like,

who's turned it down? Who's turned it down?

Why, does Robert want to do it?

Yes, and I think he did. I think that was

I don he did. I think that was the whole point that Robert was supposed to do it.
And it took him almost 10 years of development. And it went through many, very, many guises of a TV film, a series.
And I just think Robert never quite got there. So yeah, they reached out for a meeting, which I was terrified about.
And the brilliant Mr. Van Patten directed that? Oh my God, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it was just a dream. By the way, I love that their company is called Team Downey, which is always fun to me.
I think that's a great company name. I've always been jealous of that.
But I don't want Robert to know. I would have called it Touchdowny.

Yeah. Oh, that's good.
That's nice.

That'd be good too, right? That's fun.

It's just like I'm looking to rename mine

Master Bateman, but it

has not cleared.

So Robert,

so Team Downy

reaches out and you go and you meet with these guys

and you're like,

you're like,

did you know that it was going to be

Thank you. So Team Downey reaches out, and you go and you meet with these guys, and you're like, did you know that it was going to become this group? Like, what was your first thought of it? Were you, like, excited? Were you sort of skeptical? Were you? I mean, I was slightly skeptical because I have.
Like, did you develop it with them, or was it a script? Well, you're also carrying a bunch of pedigree out of the Americans. You won the Emmy.
The Americans and brothers and sisters that you did for five years with our old buddy, Robbie Bates, my old friend. You did not want it to suck.
No, no. But that was never in doubt because, you know, I think when you saw Team Downey, you know, the writers on it, Tim Van Patten, HBO, it was, it kind of, it was straight to, I wasn't concerned that it wouldn't be of a certain calibre.
If anything, usually it stems from my own insecurities, how I can turn it into a catastrophe more than anything else. But I was very excited.
I loved it. It was pitched as a one-off.
And they were like, look, we just want to do the origin story and that'll be it. And then, you know, halfway through, they were like, you know, it works pretty good.
It looks good. We should think about doing this, you know, we should think about doing more of this.
I did have that small reservation where I've done, where I've kind of, you know, Perry Mason's still revered. Well, it was in the UK.
It was huge. And here also, there is a certain generation of an age group up that kind of go, no, no, no, you can't touch Mason.
You have to leave that alone. And then a ton of people have no recollection of the show whatsoever.
And that's what Susan said. She said, look, there's an entire, there are swathes of generations ready for a new Perry Mason.
Yeah, we can do it. We can make him whatever we want.
And where did you guys shoot that? In L.A. They went back to the origin story in the books, which was 1930s L.A., which to me was, you know, with Chinatown and everything else, was so alluring.
And as a kid growing up watching old movies, I was like, oh, my God, I get to wear a fedora in L.A. And you do an American accent? Yeah, yeah.
You get to wear a fedora in L.A. like everybody else in Venice, right? In air or Los Feliz.

As an actor, is the American accent a tough thing to do?

And do you have like a phrase that clicks you right into the typical American sound?

That's sort of like a shortcut for you?

No, there's no real shortcut.

It's still a huge, it's like a, I say block.

Like hamburger. Well, I tell you what, killer.
I went up to one of the writers early on in Perry Mason. I said, is there any chance we can change murderer to killer? And he's like, you do realize you've signed on for Perry Mason.
Like, you're going to be saying murderer a lot. And I was like, yeah, I hadn't quite thought that one through.

That's a bit of an Achilles heel for me.

That's a tough word to say.

Yeah, like your batteries run out halfway through.

You just go murderer.

Murderer.

Murderer.

I was like, can you say killer?

What about suspect?

Suspect would be great.

Right, because the British accent

would put an A-H on it.

Murderer.

Yeah.

Murderer.

Murderer.

Murderer.

Yeah.

Murderer. By the way, if you're going to live in America, you've got to learn how to say murderer.
I mean, sorry. I know.
That's so true. It's the thing you're going to say the most.
Jesus Christ. Well, I mean, so now you've got the second season of Perry Mason coming out, which is fantastic, which you never thought you'd do.
No. And that was delayed a bit, yeah? Yes.
With COVID, perhaps? Hugely delayed because Susan to a detriment went, no, we're going to wait. We're not going to shrink the show and make a smaller show of the first one.
We'll wait until we can make the same big show with hundreds of supporting artists and do it right. Right, because there's a lot of background players in a lot of crowd scenes.
It's a massive production. Oh my, it's a beast.
There are those days I turn up on set and I go, I don't even know how this works. My brother-in-law was a tank commander in the British Army for most of his life.
And he said, if you think about the logistics, they have to do it. It's insane.
But he came on set one day and he went, how does this work? And he was just so shocked. He goes, what amazes me, he said, what amazes me is that so many components have to come together in one tiny moment and be quiet.
He said it was, it sort of staggered him. He was like amazed at the call sheets everything it is it's true when you watch when you go to a when you go to a big film television set and you watch all these people who are at the top of their game and they're seeing like you said come together in that moment where everybody's got to be silent and everything's got to be great and you see it pulled off sometimes it has the timing of something that has to happen in the shot whatever it is it is pretty amazing to watch how good these people are at what they do yeah and filming filming in new york which we obviously did the americans oh yeah it's it's staggering that they get away with what they do in the kind of like location department should be given flak jackets these days for the amount of the amount of abuse they just get from people who want to park, drive down the street, or, you know, enter a shop.
But how many times have you had that when you're shooting in New York on the street, and then it's, like, pretty good, and then, like, somewhere in the take, you just hear somebody leaning out a window going, I want to be in the fucking movies! Yeah, all the time. All right, let's go again.
If it says exterior night in the Americans, you know you're loop're looping it you know you're ADRing it because you know there's someone shouting along the line there was this one time in Harlem I was doing a scene and it was like eight guys because I had to shout the scene eight guys were shouting the exact same words along with me because they've heard it so many times yeah yeah Matthew we have taken up so much of your time. My God, I just realized we could talk to you forever.
Yeah, yeah. I've been a real treat.
You're a conversation. You're one of us.
You're one of us. God, you are one of us.
This has been a real treat. Sean, I can't wait to see the show.
We're all coming to see it. We're very excited about it.
Oh, that's so nice. Thank you.
How are previews going? Really well, really exhausting. But thank you for asking.
I walked down the street one day,

today, walked down the street

to go get my little sandwich,

my egg sandwich.

On a Kaiser roll.

On a Kaiser roll.

And this woman stopped me.

She was really sweet,

but this is how much energy was in her voice.

She grabbed my wrist.

She goes,

I saw your show last night.

I go, yeah?

Thank you for coming.

She goes,

it was really good.

And she just kept walking.

I love New York. New York undefeated.
And that's it. I was like, she was very nice.
Last time I did a play, I was walking from the theater and this woman just shouted, you're an asshole. And I just went, I hope you saw the show.
That's not personal. Matthew, well, when we come to New York, I hope that we can grab a meal.
You, me, and Carrie, and maybe one of these ding-dongs as well. That would be incredible.
Let's go get Sean and Scotty and JB, and we'll do it up. It'll be great to see you, man.
Thank you for having me. This has been such a treat.
Thank you, Matthew. And send all of our love to Carrie.
I will. We adore her as well.
And we adore you. You are, as Sean said, you're one of us.
It's been such a pleasure, buddy. And continued success.
Perry Mason comes out. What's the release? It's out now.
It's out now. Monday nights at nine.
Yeah. Monday nights at nine.
There we go. HBO Max, yeah.
HBO. Congratulations, Matthew.
Yeah, congratulations. All the success, buddy.
Thank you, guys. Thanks for being here, buddy.
Have a good day. See you soon.
Bye being here buddy have a good day see you soon bye bye slam it shut now there's a nice guy what's a nice guy like that how is he friends with you because that's the kind that's the ilk of people that I attract you know what I mean it's It's just like-minded people. Birds of a feather.

Cool dudes. Yeah, he's charming.

He knows how to carry on

a conversation.

Yeah, I know.

I'm always impressed

with guys like that

who are just so, like, relaxed.

Yeah.

Well, he's confident, you know?

He's comfortable.

You know, he's got his uniforms,

he's got his black t-shirt.

He's not like you guys.

He doesn't have an axe to grind.

You know what I mean?

He doesn't have something

to prove all the time.

He's not trying to prove anything

with his fun tops that he wears, Sean.

I'm a fun top.

Now listen.

I know you are.

Speaking of which, where's the cocaine bear?

What's he fixing now?

Huh?

He's fixing something.

Scotty, what are you making?

What kind of sandwich?

Oh, you had a Turk's.

You had a Turk's sandwich.

Oh, a Turk's sandwich.

What else is on it?

What percentage of the day when you yell out, Hey, Scotty, what are you doing, is the answer, I'm making a sandwich. Well, usually it's for me.
No, that's what I mean. Making Sammies.
That's what I mean. Well, so, what do we got on the turkey? How do you like your turkey sandwich done, Sean? I ordered one, I had one yesterday for lunch.
It was a turkey, avocado, lettuce, and extra, extra, extra mayo. Oh! And are we toasting the bread? No.
Really? How about a light toast with a little snap on it? It's like a real soft thing there. Extra, extra, do you literally say extra, extra, extra mayo? Yes, I always do because they never put enough on it.
You know what I like? I like it when you get one of those, like, sort of like an Italian, you know what I mean, with different cuts of meat, some cold cuts, lettuce, tomato, and get some oil and vinegar, get a little salt peps. Stuff it in there, stuff it in there.
By the way, it reminds me of wearing the hats all around. I remember Thoreau went through a long phase.
He was always wearing hats and little pork pie hats and fedoras and stuff. And I remember Poehler said to him one day, you look fedorable.
And it just really killed us. Hey, what kind of hat do I have on today? You got one of those SmartList merch hats.
That's right. Yeah, where do we get one of those? Sorry to interrupt, guys.
It looks like Keri Russell's entering the waiting room. She might just want to say hi.
Put her on. Put Keri on.
Then we're going to air it. There she is.
There she is. If you can hear us, hello.
We'll have to have her on they i will tell the boys they can't hear you right now because they're on the other system but you were you were fantastic thank you bye okay thanks for everything really appreciate it well done i love that we just had a we just had a quick visual uh visit from carrie russell and yeah we couldn't hear her but we got to see her and she was there. She was probably with the kids, right, Sean? Yeah, she was.
Yeah, she probably would. It's about time for pickup.
Yeah, it's probably for nap time for our kids, which she would then sing. What would she sing to them if she was going to put her kids to bed? She would probably sing, like, Rock of the Baby.
Bye, baby. Jason hates when we go up.
He just pinches that voice off. Bye.
Smart. Nice.
Smart. Nice.
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