"Natasha Lyonne"

Speaker 1 Wondering how you can invest in yourself and work towards a goal that will last? Rosetta Stone makes it easy to turn a few minutes a day into real language progress.

Speaker 1 Scotty and I are here in England still, right in London. And before we leave, we're talking about going to Paris while we're over here because it's like, when are we going to be over here again?

Speaker 1 And so we might take a day just to go over to Paris. And we talked about how great it would be to use Rosetta Stone to learn just a little bit of French before we go.
It's French, right?

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Speaker 2 Who knew?

Speaker 1 Go to walmart.com or download the app to get all your gifts this season.

Speaker 2 I already had a cold. Listen, my hands are freezing.

Speaker 2 I'm freezing and I'm wearing two shirts and I put slacks on today.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I don't know what's going on. I just, I feel like I'm out of sorts, but I am never,

Speaker 2 never too out of sorts to bring you guys

Speaker 2 an all-new Smartlist. Let's go.
Smart

Speaker 2 List.

Speaker 2 Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Speaker 2 Gotta take one second. Oh, what's he doing? God.

Speaker 2 He's going to be a potty.

Speaker 1 He's going potty, potty.

Speaker 2 He's taking a potty and he's taking a potty.

Speaker 3 Listener, we could have started on time, but Will has got a child's bladder. And

Speaker 2 what

Speaker 2 no, he actually just came back

Speaker 2 with two

Speaker 2 water.

Speaker 3 I guess he's a little dehydrated.

Speaker 2 I've grabbed one too.

Speaker 3 So, Will, you know, I got a little bit of grief, listener, for showing up 60 seconds late on our last session.

Speaker 2 You were three minutes late. Oh, sorry.

Speaker 3 Check that.

Speaker 3 Shit, what's the math on that?

Speaker 1 That's three minutes. That's 100 and

Speaker 1 180 seconds.

Speaker 3 180 seconds late. So I showed up early today, and and I said, you know what? The problem about showing up early is that you risk seeing who the mystery guest is.
That's right. And then what happened?

Speaker 3 You saw the guest. And our mystery guest,

Speaker 3 this guest, accidentally bumped their camera cover.

Speaker 2 And revealed.

Speaker 3 And then I saw who the guest was. And I'm thrilled.
I don't know. But no, I know, because you were late.
You see, that's the advantage of being late.

Speaker 1 I think I was right on time.

Speaker 2 Right on time.

Speaker 3 Will, you with us?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm with you. I'm just bummed that you saw who it it is and because it's not it's not real

Speaker 2 surprise thing it was just to cut down on our homework it's not a real big part of this show is i think i love it and people love it yeah i think but but the audience is not it's not a surprise to the audience the audience no because they know it's coming but i don't know who it is yeah uh no i'm and i'm happy that we don't have to see your acting uh pretending that you don't know who it is sean because you don't want to see sean's acting no no no no nobody does no no no uh you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 I'm glad that we don't have to watch you go like, oh, my God, who was it? Well,

Speaker 3 and that's why I said I know who the guest is. So I don't know.

Speaker 1 Okay, so I'm excited. So do we start? Or is there other topics to discuss?

Speaker 3 No, let's hear some of your pre-show pattern.

Speaker 3 You always think I'm a pre-show pattern. Listen, Regis, you come with a couple of stories.
You got anything?

Speaker 1 I can come up with this.

Speaker 3 What happened during our break? We just recorded one listener.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 I can talk about this. Oh, what happened during our break?

Speaker 1 I booked a little thing.

Speaker 2 A job?

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, no.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 1 Whatever.

Speaker 1 I booked a two-little night stay in this place on Long Island.

Speaker 2 For Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1 No, for much later than that.

Speaker 3 Well, are you going to do anything for Scotty for Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1 We give each other a high five. I mean, nothing.

Speaker 2 We don't do anything.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 1 We don't do anything on our anniversary either. Do you guys do stuff on your anniversary?

Speaker 2 When is your anniversary?

Speaker 1 We talked about this.

Speaker 3 Quick, when's your anniversary?

Speaker 2 Mine? Yeah.

Speaker 1 11-11.

Speaker 2 Is it really? Yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, my God. Does Jen and Amanda know that?

Speaker 3 We're doing next to nothing for Valentine's Day.

Speaker 3 Sometimes we do gifts for anniversary. I just feel like the whole gift thing and the whole, it's, it's, it's, it ends up becoming a bit of a burden, right? Because you're with the person all year.

Speaker 3 And, well, but you get,

Speaker 3 I get things that I want from her during the year and she can't exactly.

Speaker 3 To like save up. No, you're not getting shit until there's an occasion is, I think, weird.

Speaker 2 Right, and also you're not going to let corporate America dictate when you tell your wife and show her that you love her with their fucking

Speaker 3 Will Arnett, that's what I would be. It all would be about not letting the man win.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you're going to rise up and fight. Screw the man.
Yeah, screw the man. Good for you.

Speaker 2 And it has nothing to do with the fact that you're just too fucking lazy to do anything or think about anybody else other than yourself. Yes.
I mean,

Speaker 2 if Valentine's Day was about golf, you'd go out of your fucking way.

Speaker 2 Celebrate. Why does it have to be one day a year?

Speaker 2 I would love for you to just put on there now, just so Amanda sees it and you don't plan it, that on February 14th, just put golf all day, that you're going on a golf trip back to pedal or something.

Speaker 2 Overnight golf trip.

Speaker 1 She'll murder you.

Speaker 2 Just wait for her to.

Speaker 3 We actually do have a little bit of golf scheduled for during the day.

Speaker 2 When the girls are in school,

Speaker 3 and Amanda's busy doing something.

Speaker 3 yeah amanda yeah there it is nine nine thirty is that the thing that we're going to do uh no i'm going to and no i'm going to invite you to this thing uh 9 30 to 2 30.

Speaker 3 um but uh amanda's busy with uh her work she loves and the girls are in school and then it's listen it's going to be in the morning and at night huh how you doing oh no walk us through that yeah that's when the love happens

Speaker 2 and by the way does it start with that do you does it start with how you doing

Speaker 2 in the morning and then how you doing yeah why do your your eyes get so heavy

Speaker 2 keep it romantic

Speaker 2 eyes wide is not there's nothing romantic about eyes eyes open you guys that's that shock that's i used to do do you guys still do it eyes open jason yeah yeah you guys lots of eye contact

Speaker 2 face to

Speaker 2 eyes staring at each other no blinking no blinking

Speaker 2 wait i used to go out to a bar with my eyes wide open with a drink in my hand like just looking for anybody was that the amphetamines That was mostly the amphetamines, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, that kept the eyes real bright.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then and then my how you doing would be much later.

Speaker 2 Yeah, after. You normally, it's okay to say, how you doing after the deed, right? Yeah, that's right.
I'm Sean. Just to me, as you're doing.
After you can, as you're zipping, you can say, hey, buddy.

Speaker 2 Do you mind small bills?

Speaker 3 And how you doing, by the way?

Speaker 2 Do you mind small bills?

Speaker 3 Will, what, Will, what did you do during the break, guy, for the last half hour?

Speaker 2 I went upstairs. I was playing with the little kids.
We were just goofing around.

Speaker 3 What does that entail what do you get down on the floor you make funny faces yeah get down to the floor do a little bit and what do you do with the kids legos

Speaker 2 i mean we did do a little bit of lego really and then yeah we did a little bit of lego and uh and then just with you know denny and and uh what's his name quick the other one no well i was playing with nash too denny and nash were both there but i was with i was kind of grabbing um

Speaker 2 archie or abel either oh they're at school those are the other two kids yeah if he needs

Speaker 2 I spend more time

Speaker 2 with my kids and what's your brother's name?

Speaker 3 Real quick, Will. What's your brother's name?

Speaker 2 Garrison. Nope.

Speaker 2 My brother Chuck, my sweet brother Chuck, whom I adore. Both sisters, quick.
Tannis and Shanley. All right.
So my sisters and I grew up, and Chuck was much younger. He is much younger.

Speaker 2 He's almost 10 years my junior. So my sisters and I grew up.
We were... closer in age.
My older sisters, I had two older sisters, Tan and Shan. What's up?

Speaker 2 They're great with Eddie in Toronto, all of whom you guys know. Sure, yeah.

Speaker 2 And then Chuck came along, and he was a surprise, as my parents call him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he was a real pleasant surprise. Sure.
And we weren't allowed to call him Chuck or Charlie, so we had to call him Charles. Just oops.
True story.

Speaker 2 Who said that, though? My mom. My mom.
And so then he became Charlesy, which is even worse.

Speaker 2 Like, oh, that would be a good thing.

Speaker 3 And we still honored her decision about what the name was.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, we had to honor. Oh, you have to.
You've met my mom. You've got to honor my mom because if you're not going to be able to do that.
Now, Will, I didn't name him Chuck.

Speaker 2 She will fucking take you. Still to this day? So it's Charles.
She corrects, she'll correct

Speaker 2 your grammar or your spell, whatever. I love what you use.
Stranger.

Speaker 3 She'll wake you up in the middle of the night to tell you you're not sleeping wrong.

Speaker 2 Are you sleeping wrong?

Speaker 2 Well, actually, the doctors say that on your right side, because it's further away from your heart, like, hey, man, I was asleep for fuck's sake.

Speaker 2 Well, actually, technically, you weren't asleep.

Speaker 3 Does Chuck prefer Chuck versus Charles?

Speaker 2 I think that

Speaker 2 he doesn't really care, as it turns out. And so we still call him Chuck, but he has a lot of friends who call him Charles.

Speaker 2 How about Chaz? Ever Chas? Never any Chaz. You know who really doesn't care? You know who really doesn't care? The guest.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh.
You know what, Sean? I'm sorry, dude. Are you fucking late, dude? First of all, it's my guest, and I'll tell you if my guest cares.

Speaker 2 And I know that she does care because she's interested in her.

Speaker 3 Oh, it's a female. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm starting to care like I don't know. I know.
I I know. Stop.

Speaker 3 Eyebrows high. That you start with eyebrows high.

Speaker 2 It's a female. What?

Speaker 2 But you know what?

Speaker 2 Jason does have something in common with this person in that they were both actors from a young age.

Speaker 2 They've both been doing it for a long time. Is this true, Barrymore? And then they know, well, and

Speaker 2 she has

Speaker 2 had... Drew would be a great guest.
Fucking thing. I'm working on it.
I know. I wish that I hope this guest doesn't.
I hope my guest doesn't hear that. She'll love it.
She has been in so many things.

Speaker 2 She's, again one of those people. If you start telling all the things she's in, you're going to know who she is.
To me, she is one of the funniest people I know. Full stop.

Speaker 2 Full stop. Every time I spend a moment with this person,

Speaker 2 even a text from this person. Even if I get a little bit of a text from this person, I get a laugh.

Speaker 2 Even if I think about this person in the abstract, if I think about two, six people removed from this person, I'm laughing. Okay.
I had the good fortune of making

Speaker 2 what you'd call technically a film together many years ago, but we spent a lot of time overseas. We were in Wales together, and we had a lot of laughs.
And if it wasn't for each other,

Speaker 2 we probably both would have gone completely mad.

Speaker 2 And she's done so many amazing things, starting with

Speaker 2 acclaimed roles like Slums and Beverly Hills to Orange is the New Black, to Russians all.

Speaker 2 It is

Speaker 2 Natasha.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 3 Now you know.

Speaker 2 Now you do it.

Speaker 2 Danner, go. There she is.

Speaker 1 Oh, she's holding the mic.

Speaker 2 I've got a hand mic, too. She's got the microphone.

Speaker 4 He asked me to put it somewhere, but I said I'm not a professional on this.

Speaker 3 No one's ever done the hand mic.

Speaker 2 This is

Speaker 2 awesome.

Speaker 3 Now, hey, Will, did she spend any time in the Rolling?

Speaker 4 Drew Barrymore.

Speaker 3 You're no Drew Barrymore, but you know what you'll do.

Speaker 2 Drew Barrymore. I love Drew Barrymore.

Speaker 3 Will, did she spend any time in the Rolls-Royce in Wales?

Speaker 2 It was a Bentley. No, she never got in the Bentley either.

Speaker 4 We did the Bentley in London.

Speaker 2 In London, yeah. That's right.
She's got to get get back for you. See? Oh, we did do the Bentley in London.

Speaker 3 Did you ride him back to Tasha?

Speaker 2 He was your driver?

Speaker 4 Yeah, he was my chauffeur for the entire... I was your chauffeur.
It's true. You can't quite call that a movie, can you?

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 what was it? What was it called?

Speaker 4 Oh, you guys haven't seen it? It's called Show Dogs.

Speaker 2 Oh, you guys haven't seen Show Dogs in the news? No,

Speaker 2 this sounds hand-drawn.

Speaker 2 You know what, though? Very nice people involved.

Speaker 2 Very nice people. Very nice people.

Speaker 2 A lot of smelly dogs. A lot of dogs.

Speaker 3 It was live action.

Speaker 2 Live action. Oh, Oh, yeah.
Okay. Was it?

Speaker 1 Do people call you Tasha Nat

Speaker 2 Tashi Tushi? Sure. Sorry.
Okay. Tush.
Yeah, sure. Call me Tushy.

Speaker 2 Wait, Natasha Leon, honest to God, one of the people who makes, I said it in the thing.

Speaker 3 And I'll say it again.

Speaker 2 God damn it, I've had some of my biggest goddamn laughs have been in your presence and the stuff that you says, that you says you say to me. First of all, being with her over there,

Speaker 2 and having this catering truck, nice guys, super nice guys, but they would make these sandwiches that were like. Flat white, awesome.
Flat white.

Speaker 2 Flat for flat whites.

Speaker 2 Oh, so hot. Do you want a flat white? Would you like a flat white? I'm like, I don't give a shit.
I just want a coffee.

Speaker 2 What's a flat white? It's a coffee, right?

Speaker 2 And then, but what was the press sandwich called? What would they call it? They call it. Do you remember?

Speaker 4 I was just trying to think of that name. Toasty.

Speaker 2 A toast. A toasty.

Speaker 4 A flat white and a toasty.

Speaker 2 Oh, a toasty for tushy. A toasty for tushy.
Have you seen this movie? A Toasty. It's a play.
It's a Neil Simon play.

Speaker 3 Toasty for Tushie. Were you looking to put on weight for the part, Will?

Speaker 2 No, but I did. No, but I did.

Speaker 3 Flat white sounds like full fat milk and lots of it.

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 it's a grilled cheese sandwich.

Speaker 3 Well, that's the toasty part.

Speaker 2 That's the toasty.

Speaker 2 And we were like, at a certain point, and Natasha's like, stop making a big deal. This is a, why are you? What are you guys offering to me? Like, this is like some kind of found fucking delicacy.

Speaker 2 Nice people.

Speaker 3 It's a coffee with milk and a grilled cheese that's been run over by a hot car.

Speaker 4 You want to have like nine of them a day, though.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you do want to have nine of them a day. I would.
So anyway, so we were there. We had a lot of laughs.
God, we had a lot of laughs, huh?

Speaker 4 Yeah, but it was dark.

Speaker 2 It was dark.

Speaker 2 We had a lot of laughs.

Speaker 3 Here we are in 2023. It was dark.

Speaker 3 Have you guys worked together or hung out since then? No.

Speaker 2 Why? Why are you guys fighting? What happened? We text. We text.
We text every once in a while. We text.
And.

Speaker 3 Do you find Will a good texter, Natasha?

Speaker 2 Great question.

Speaker 4 I do.

Speaker 4 I think Will's a pretty solid citizen.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I'm a big fan of him.

Speaker 3 As far as guys go, because guys aren't great texters, right? I mean, do we get away with not being super responsive?

Speaker 4 He is not bad. You know, the funny person, but also a deep, a deep human being, it turns out.

Speaker 2 Oh, so he'll send you a long one.

Speaker 3 Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 4 Text? It's implied.

Speaker 4 It's implied. We have a language.
We have a language between us. And it's, you know what it is? It's between the texts.

Speaker 4 It's the subtext.

Speaker 3 Does she have good emoji work? Because that's important. Or good.

Speaker 2 I mean, honestly, I don't remember.

Speaker 4 I think what's fun, though, is I think you programmed yourself as... Lil Big Willie or something.
Let me look.

Speaker 4 So I can never find you. It occurs to me periodically to text you, and I look up your name and I can't find it.
So I go.

Speaker 3 You let him input his number into your phone.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I love that move.

Speaker 3 That's when you don't know the person's name. Hey, put your phone in my, put your number in my phone.

Speaker 2 Do you handle it? I'll text you. No, so good.
And then you know what?

Speaker 4 We'd already been shooting for a month.

Speaker 2 I was like, this guy's crazy.

Speaker 4 He's so funny. We both love flat whites and toasties.

Speaker 2 Put your number in here, honey, I said.

Speaker 2 Wait, Natasha. All right, I'm texting you right now so that it comes up.

Speaker 1 So, Natasha, you have like one of the coolest voices to ever walk the earth. I'm assuming you're from New York or a part of New York.

Speaker 4 Yeah, born here in the city, and I'm worried about the voice. So I'm concerned that it's such a hot topic.
Increasingly, I'm

Speaker 4 right. That is

Speaker 1 no, I think it's it's it's that it's it's identifiable, it's like one of the greatest things in the world.

Speaker 3 Do you do like uh voices for cartoons and animated films and stuff like that? You have done?

Speaker 4 I do a measure, but uh, Will's making much more.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he's killing it. Yeah, but we've got the new show now, Poker Face.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for when we're all like 70 and we're like, remember that?

Speaker 2 I I think we're there.

Speaker 2 I think we're there.

Speaker 4 We're vaguely trying to name projects from the past. We've maybe or maybe not done.

Speaker 2 Yes, there's a new program.

Speaker 4 PokerFace, please, you tell us.

Speaker 2 A new program.

Speaker 2 No, you tell us about the program that the folks at home can be watching on the television sets, Natasha. Go ahead.

Speaker 4 You got it. You got to tune in.

Speaker 2 You got to tune in.

Speaker 3 It's called PokerFace. It's streaming on the cock, right?

Speaker 2 Cock stream. That's what they call it, the cock.
Is it the cock? We gave it the name that. No, who was it if our guest gave it the name? Peacock.

Speaker 2 But said it's got to be, you got to call it the cock, obviously.

Speaker 4 So who they told me I'm in the flock now.

Speaker 3 You're in the face. You're in the cock flock.

Speaker 2 I'm in the cock flock. You're in the streaming.
You're streaming out of the cock flock.

Speaker 4 If you want to stream in the cock flock, you got to download the

Speaker 4 laptop

Speaker 4 show. And it's Ryan Johnson created it.

Speaker 2 Ryan, a lot of

Speaker 2 people.

Speaker 3 I passed a friend of the show.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 Very talented man.

Speaker 2 Yeah. What a nice person.

Speaker 4 It's called Poker Face. It just came out today, maybe in the middle of the night, I guess they drop shows.

Speaker 2 It doesn't to me that seems weird. Let's start dropping shows.
You know what I heard it is? Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 4 Your name is Will. Yes.

Speaker 2 I'm currently going by Will.

Speaker 2 So, Will.

Speaker 4 They apparently they do it because if there's

Speaker 2 a problem, a technical problem, they can fix it in the middle of the night.

Speaker 4 Isn't that something? Doesn't that tell you so much about your friends at Netflix and so on?

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 3 It seems a little unfinished.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 First of all, let me just say this. Fucking cross your T's and dot your fucking I's before you release a show, okay, streamers? Right.
Okay. This is just word to the streamers.

Speaker 4 But are you not at the age where you suddenly have that revelation that everybody is just another person and they're just doing their best?

Speaker 4 Like, I remember being a youth and I would think, surely adults have got this handled. And once you sort of turn something over, or Jason, you know, this

Speaker 4 from Ozark or I know from

Speaker 4 running Russian doll, you know, it's like you hand it over from the edit and you think, okay, that's it. My part is over.
Here are the deliverables. And they got it.
Godspeed.

Speaker 4 And then you find out about all these additional details while you're in the edit and you're like, how the hell?

Speaker 4 And that's when you realize that everybody is a human being and another bozo on the bus.

Speaker 3 yeah it's it's amazing that anything comes out uh semi-round another bozo on the bus is the next

Speaker 2 my next show

Speaker 2 right just the the planet is just a fucking huge bus full of bozos yes it is and you're being self-effacing there too i'm sure in that with none of us

Speaker 3 everybody's an idiot including us and it takes the best parts of all of us and none of the bad parts to make something uh kind of semi-round right and with all the people it takes all the people that are involved in a film or a show or anything like that it's amazing that not one of those people screws it up you know beyond recognition uh it's like it's a miracle when stuff comes out that's halfway decent whereas if you're a painter just takes one person one brush boom you get what you get but this stuff is really tons of people on the team right so many people there's so there's so many aspects and layers and you know and it is crazy that

Speaker 4 Like when you see old photos of Thelma Shoemaker, yeah, the Scorsese editor. Yeah.

Speaker 4 And they're kind of sitting there and the pictures are so iconic and she's over there and they're cutting the film and it's like, we did it. Yeah.
You know what I mean? That's what the movie is now.

Speaker 4 And making things

Speaker 4 in

Speaker 4 this era as a director or something is bananas because even things like

Speaker 4 I remember screeners of Russian all this season went out without subtitles and I was like, oh, these people must think I'm really a maniac. Like I'm just making a full European art film.

Speaker 4 Just things like that will happen.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Things can go bad at a lot of different stages.

Speaker 3 And then, and even if things go great and they're well executed, just the taste might be a little bit different than everything you guys have been doing in development and in production.

Speaker 3 In other words, if the marketing dresses it up in an outfit that is not reflective of what you're going to see when you actually watch the thing, now you've told people basically to pardon the metaphor, you know, you've gotten them all excited about a great Chinese food dinner, but you then end up serving them the greatest Italian food you've ever made, but they give it a false negative because it doesn't taste anything like that.

Speaker 2 I forgot you already asked for pardon for that.

Speaker 2 Because I was going to attack that metaphor, but luckily.

Speaker 3 It was a little clunky, but I think the message is sent.

Speaker 4 And thus,

Speaker 4 by the cloak of darkness in the middle of the night, like little elves, and they put it, they drop these things on.

Speaker 3 It's amazing that it all comes out decent yeah

Speaker 2 we'll be right back

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Speaker 3 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 2 You've had, you've been in, listen, let's be honest, you've been in show business since day one.

Speaker 3 Then,

Speaker 3 out the womb.

Speaker 2 Out the womb, you've been in show business, you've been doing this thing. You've been out there, you've been doing it, and you've and you've done it all.

Speaker 2 You've been a star, you've been a thing, and now you're a filmmaker. Excuse me, very much.

Speaker 3 Storyteller, well, storyteller.

Speaker 2 Storyteller. I don't know if you know about our aversion to the term storyteller because now everybody's a storyteller.
Everybody just wants to tell stories.

Speaker 4 I'm picturing Gideon from all that jazz coming out the womb with jazz hands, you know?

Speaker 2 No, it's not. It's disgusting.
It's a disgusting image. Honestly, Sean likes it.

Speaker 2 Showtime. You can go park, and

Speaker 2 you can get a fabulous Teamster driving you over from parking to base camp, and they're like, well, you know, as a storyteller, I'm like, you're telling a story, too.

Speaker 2 Everybody's telling a story here today, huh? Everybody's got a story. Everybody's Everybody's got a story.
But you started, you've done so many different things in so many different eras of your life.

Speaker 2 Forget eras of the world, eras of your life.

Speaker 2 You must look back and every is every part of your life, and Jason, you too, is marked by what you were working on, what you were doing professionally.

Speaker 2 When it's so ever-present, you know, guys like Sean and I grew up and we didn't grow up making movies and we didn't start doing acting and getting paid for it until we were in our 20s and 30s.

Speaker 2 You guys were doing it when you were kids. it must be this thing that is constantly like it's been ever present in your life.

Speaker 2 What is that experience like, Natasha? I know Jason's answer.

Speaker 4 I mean, I will say that there was a time I experienced it almost like.

Speaker 4 Are you familiar with this Fellini short film, Spirits of the Spirits? So it's part of a trilogy called Spirits of the Dead.

Speaker 2 They are not familiar with it.

Speaker 4 Which is, but you are. Which is.

Speaker 4 Anyway, they're adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe short stories. And one is Roger Vadim, and one is Louis Moll.
And then there's the Fellini one is called Toby Dammit with a Terrence stamp.

Speaker 4 And it's very, it's very dark. It's almost like satanic, and it's like

Speaker 4 a warped circus. And it's sort of that version of the showbiz experience that's very

Speaker 4 wrapped in darkness. And,

Speaker 4 you know, it's

Speaker 4 and it's drunk and it's high and it's kind of that. And so I definitely would say that I'd had that window.
And then now all of a sudden, you know,

Speaker 4 in my 40s it somehow really flipped over the past kind of decade

Speaker 4 where

Speaker 4 there's a sort of a beauty to all of that memory and attachment because now all of a sudden the players are becoming so recycled of you know friends of like 25 years or something

Speaker 4 you know, whether that's a Maya or you're Amy and a Russian all or like

Speaker 4 it's something that leads me to with Ryan that was so much of why I was so game for this show: I could tell, sort of spot him from a distance of, oh, you're going to be one of these players.

Speaker 4 Like, as soon as we worked together, Will, I was like, oh, of course, we're going to end up working together again. He's going to be so funny when he's old.

Speaker 4 Like, I don't even really think of it as show dogs, this movie we made that I guess involved talking dogs. I think of it as you and I walking around Wales being like, what's happening?

Speaker 4 What are we doing? Ordering more flat whites, like doubled over, laughing hysterically. And that whenever I see you, I think of us laughing.

Speaker 4 I don't really think of us in a essentially failed talking dog picture. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 It just,

Speaker 4 so somewhere along the way, it went from like a head trip about the thing to the, the beauty of the thing of like a life in the arts.

Speaker 2 Right. It all comes back on.

Speaker 2 Beautifully said. Yeah.
I love it. Jay, what's your experience like in that? I joked earlier on that I know your answer.
I don't know your answer. I mean, you're similarly, you've

Speaker 2 it's been such an ever-present thing in your life.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, and there's good and bad of that. I'm sure, Natasha, you'd agree.

Speaker 3 It's like there's there's, it's, there's something great about having started so young, but then there's also like, well, but uh, maybe we should have tried to do something else too. Or, um,

Speaker 3 you know, being

Speaker 3 Well, it's not my interview, but uh, I feel very, very lucky, as I'm sure you do, Natasha, that we're both still working in this business.

Speaker 3 Longevity is a real

Speaker 3 metal.

Speaker 3 Or rather, I should say I'm very, I'm proud of that, that I'm still making a living at it.

Speaker 4 And is that how you came to being like, oh, shit, now

Speaker 4 I got to start writing and directing? Because for me, I look back and I realize that. So I think at five years old, I'm on Peewee's Playhouse or whatever.
And I know he's not very trendy right now.

Speaker 4 But at the time, you know, when I was

Speaker 4 15 and I was in this Woody Allen movie, it was like such a big deal. And it felt like, ah, this is the cherry on top of a decade of acting, something my parents put me into.

Speaker 4 And then at 16, I was skipped by Tish to be a film and philosophy double major.

Speaker 4 I was like, oh, well, I'll read all these philosophy books and then I'll write and direct these sort of Bergman but funny movies because I'll be a filmmaker now.

Speaker 4 And then it sort of, you know, took 20 years to kind of get back there. And it ended up being, I guess, all the things.
Was that similar to your version of how you got here?

Speaker 3 Yeah, you sort of have career. Like, I wanted to be the next Robert De Niro, you know, when I was like 12, and it was like, well, yeah, but I'm getting kicked out of class for being a class clown.

Speaker 3 So maybe

Speaker 2 you got kicked out of class where they just pulled the bus over and let you off at Wilshire Tenta Monica

Speaker 2 because he was

Speaker 2 right there with you. Jason was going to school in a massage bus that

Speaker 2 toured Los Angeles. Not

Speaker 2 massaging each other.

Speaker 3 Not untrue.

Speaker 3 But yeah, you know, you're like, well,

Speaker 3 maybe

Speaker 3 I'll go for the goal later. Meanwhile, I need to kind of make a living.

Speaker 3 And aren't we both so, so fortunate that we've stayed afloat long enough to circle back to our original sort of dreams of doing things that are different than what we've kind of become known for.

Speaker 1 Right. But the thing is, but so interesting about both of you guys is,

Speaker 1 and I'm not even joking. I'm learning stuff now that you guys probably learned, you know, 20 years before me, having started so young.

Speaker 2 Well, so you guys did have...

Speaker 1 What's that?

Speaker 2 I don't believe that. Sorry, I don't believe that you're learning stuff now.

Speaker 2 I just

Speaker 2 got it in general. Sorry, just a general.
Single sentence.

Speaker 2 Yeah, sorry. I just had to cut you off there.
I remember

Speaker 2 it very well, and it doesn't seem like you're learning anything.

Speaker 2 But it's not surprising, Sean, and actually I think that

Speaker 2 you're right. I have the same thing.
I learned stuff way later, stuff that just that they know and because they've grown up and. It's in your bodies already.

Speaker 1 And I'm still not, no joke, I'm still like learning stuff.

Speaker 2 But they're both smart. I'm not surprised.
You're both smart. You're both super talented.
And so it's no wonder that you've kind of maintained that. And I think people say, well, you know, this guy,

Speaker 2 he was young and he was a performer and then he didn't really work out. And, you know, truth be told, they might have not been that smart or that talented.
I mean, let's be honest.

Speaker 2 You know?

Speaker 3 You can get away with quite a bit of non-smarts and non-talent when you're

Speaker 3 eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen years old. Just most kids are dumb.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And most kids are really dumb.
And I want that to be.

Speaker 4 I like that. I'm not we've transitioned to attacking children.

Speaker 2 The thing about kids is they're fucking stupid.

Speaker 4 And then they come out here and they try to do grown-up stuff with their kid shit. And I'm all done.

Speaker 2 They're all in their pants. You know,

Speaker 2 I used to have this acting teacher.

Speaker 4 Get a license, you dumbfuck.

Speaker 2 I used to have this acting teacher. I used to have this acting teacher in New York, this guy, George Loris.
He was a great guy. And he'd go, when you're working with a kid,

Speaker 2 what fucking experience is a kid going to draw on? They don't fucking know anything.

Speaker 1 But I'm fascinated by this because you'll see kids in movies and stuff who have this unbelievable

Speaker 1 range of ability to express emotion. You're like, How do you know that? Isn't that bizarre?

Speaker 2 They're psychos.

Speaker 2 Total psychos.

Speaker 3 Psychos, exactly.

Speaker 3 I remember when I auditioned for Little House in the Prairie, I'd cry for Michael Landon. And I remember just,

Speaker 2 we all did.

Speaker 3 You train your brain to think about the most horrific thing in the world to bring up the tears.

Speaker 2 How old are you? And then you 11.

Speaker 3 And it's just like, it's a muscle that is very unhealthy.

Speaker 3 You know, like still to this day, if I got to cry on camera, I will think of the most horrific thing I can, which currently is something terrible happening to my children, knock on wood.

Speaker 3 So I look at pictures on my iPhone iPhone right before they start rolling of my sweet children, and I imagine horrific things happen to them. I start getting weepy and I say, okay, let's go.

Speaker 2 It's like, what are we doing?

Speaker 2 We need new jobs. We need new jobs.
Horrible. This is the fucking.
I know. Natasha, you don't do anything like that, do you?

Speaker 2 I mean, you don't think about Jason's kids, horrible things happening to Jason's kids. We laugh.

Speaker 2 She needs to laugh. That is great.
What a similar process.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. It would be so horrible if something happened to these kids.
I brought this up before.

Speaker 2 I think, Jason, you used to, if people are breaking up, if people are, you know, corpsing, like going up and laughing on set, that you'll think about awful things happening to them.

Speaker 3 Close. I actually, this is a true story.

Speaker 2 Will Speck told me that. When you guys were doing Office Christmas Party, he said that, and everybody was cracking up during this one scene.
You go, how are you not cracking him?

Speaker 2 You said, I just imagine all of them dying.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's not, it's actually worse than that.

Speaker 3 If pinching my leg under camera, under frame doesn't work,

Speaker 3 I will actually just think they, these other actors that are being very, very funny, are ruining the movie, that they're being terrible actors and they're destroying this project.

Speaker 2 That's worse than something that

Speaker 2 I get into.

Speaker 2 There's nothing worse than ruining

Speaker 1 comedy.

Speaker 3 Disdain wipes the humor out of my world.

Speaker 2 So, Natasha, where was I? All right. So, now.
You had all these great things. You've done all these things.

Speaker 2 As you mentioned, you did, you know, which at a time, again, not very popular for a lot of reasons, but the Woody Allen picture, that was always like the kind of the hallmark of somebody who has accomplished a lot.

Speaker 2 When you get asked to be part of one of those ensembles, you go, This is somebody who's important. It was kind of like a stamp, right, to get cast in those.
At that moment, you are an important.

Speaker 2 So you had that.

Speaker 2 You were doing a lot of very cool stuff.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 then

Speaker 2 you've gone on to do lots of, you started working in television.

Speaker 2 In fact, you were one of the first streaming shows around was Orange is the New Black, and you became, you're a regular on that for seven years?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was a long time.

Speaker 2 How did you,

Speaker 2 as somebody who was such a stalwart in film, what was that transition like for you going to doing

Speaker 2 an effective TV series? Was that something that you were interested in, or

Speaker 2 did you need the job at the time and you were like, fuck it, this is a great opportunity? Or

Speaker 2 I don't know, did you like that process?

Speaker 4 It was so weird. I mean, I definitely, I even hear the way

Speaker 4 Ryan and I will talk about this you know poker face mystery show and we we share a love of uh philip marlowe you know and and altman's the long goodbye and you know i love it so much that in uh co-creating russian all there's like a cat oatmeal and it's a direct rip from from the long goodbye like there's so much about that philip marlowe thing but um you know when i think of Peter Falk and like the love of Peter Falk, it's not just Columbo.

Speaker 4 I really think about all those Cassavettes films that, you know, as a teenager, I was like, this is who I am.

Speaker 4 And then I'll be in them and then write them and direct them.

Speaker 2 And you were, you were an indie film person.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And it was just, you know, and Philip Marlowe, whatever, Jack Nicholson, Chinatown, and he also has references I don't have, like the Rockford files or Magnum P.I.
Like I sort of,

Speaker 4 he seems to sort of know all of the lineage and I'm pretty strictly filmer, if anything, even, you know, John Fanta or Raymond Chandler books, which he knows all of that too, but I'm just saying that I don't have that same

Speaker 4 fluency with television. So for sure, I always kind of raised myself on movies and thought that was the big goal.

Speaker 4 And then, yeah, I mean, basically, I was a, you know, a pretty serious junkie for, I don't know, I guess I lost like a decade in there, which is always why, you know, I'm pickled, so I look terrific, never looked better.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 yeah, also,

Speaker 2 wait a second,

Speaker 4 and and the vibrancy of a 30-something thanks to losing a decade of life. You know what I mean? So those are the upshots, Will.

Speaker 2 You're kind of like a running back, like a football player

Speaker 2 who goes on to the sidelines for 10 years and comes back, and he hasn't been getting hurt for 10 years, so he's still young and

Speaker 3 young and there was there was 10 years of fun and frolicking and

Speaker 3 no real career work because I had one of those decades. You did?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 I didn't really know that about you.

Speaker 3 And I didn't about yours either.

Speaker 2 what I was doing.

Speaker 4 That's what I meant by the Fellini short film.

Speaker 4 I guess it was too obscure. I guess I was speaking in coded language.

Speaker 2 Well, now I

Speaker 3 myself. I came out of it with,

Speaker 3 first of all, an appreciation of employment and another at-bat, another crack at relevance.

Speaker 2 And you were partying pretty hard. Let's just say it that way, right? You were, Jay? Yeah, I mean, I don't, I mean, sure.

Speaker 3 I mean, I was out having fun every night. It was more sort of hedonism and debauchery than,

Speaker 3 you you know something i felt like i needed to check myself in for but um either way i came out of it with like that appreciation but also kind of seasoned and weathered and a little bit broken um and i felt that that really helped some of my acting stuff some of the directing stuff and um my taste in things was i think more sophisticated having gone through something a little less privileged and protected than uh you know being wrapped up in the business well i would say for sure, because it's really all the things you need to know about the human condition: belly of the beast, heart of darkness.

Speaker 4 It's kind of seemingly like why Kerouac goes on the road. You know, I think that anyway, that the romanticism that surrounds it,

Speaker 4 you do sort of, you know, return with, of course, the only problem is if you make it out alive.

Speaker 4 And then they sort of, the thing that's less spoken is, you know, just how, just how dark those dark nights of the soul are, just how much that it ultimately,

Speaker 4 you know, doesn't work. Like you can't, you, you can't sort of stop the negative, self-talking, self-criticizing mind no matter what you do.

Speaker 4 So you're sort of really doomed to then also sort of take the years to correct it. It's a long way of saying that's how I ended up on, you know, what at the time was an internet show.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 Like as you guys know, so much about Netflix and kind of who knew. But certainly that was not the dream.
But it's all right.

Speaker 2 Who lose a different thing? But so did you.

Speaker 2 But Natasha thank you for laughing. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 Well, I was going to say, I just wanted to say, yeah, you know, you can, you run the risk, of course, in those of doing irreparable damage and not just sort of physically like that you can't come back from, but almost, almost spiritually and

Speaker 2 right. You can, if that darkness gets too dark, can you make that rebound and come back and live a life that where you're not too scarred by the self-inflicted wounds?

Speaker 2 And are you able to let it go?

Speaker 3 It's a razor's edge.

Speaker 2 Yeah, are you able to let it go? Are you able to move on? Some of that is like, can you give yourself a break? Can you forgive yourself? Can you forgive all those things?

Speaker 2 Can you make that step? And I, look, from what I know about you,

Speaker 2 you know, I think that one of the great things is you're a very open person, and I know that you help a lot of people, and you're very generous.

Speaker 2 You're very generous of spirit and of heart. And I bet you that's a big part of how you've been able to come back.

Speaker 2 I've seen it firsthand, and it's one of the things that I really admire about you.

Speaker 3 I appreciate that, but let's give Natasha some questions and some.

Speaker 2 Thank you, Henry.

Speaker 4 Wait, Sean, are you doing an Oscar Levant situation?

Speaker 3 He sure is. And what is the date in the theater, please?

Speaker 2 Good night, Oscar. It's April.
It opens April 24th at the Belasco Theater in Belasco, New York.

Speaker 4 I am, you know, I am obsessed with Oscar Levant. He's one of my favorite figures of all time.
And I feel like with that coincidence, we'd be remiss to not say, I mean, that's a guy who knows about

Speaker 2 this whole game. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was one of my favorite one-liners was he said, I take prescription pills for the side effects.

Speaker 2 Right, sure.

Speaker 3 Well, Natasha, it sounds like you're coming to opening night with us on the 24th.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I don't want to know what you're doing. We're going to be in New York.
Come on, come with us. It's going to be a good idea.

Speaker 1 Natasha, do you?

Speaker 2 Sean knows. Sean,

Speaker 2 we're here.

Speaker 3 He said, don't let him know if you're there.

Speaker 2 And I think he means before the curtain.

Speaker 3 So once the curtain goes up.

Speaker 2 Sean, that was so funny. That last line was so funny.

Speaker 2 God,

Speaker 2 that would be my worst night. I'm going to get Natasha to come with us.

Speaker 1 So, but Natasha, do you,

Speaker 1 by the way, we can cut this or whatever, but I'm always fascinated by addiction. It's been in my family.
It's been in my friends, whatever. It's been all around me my whole life.

Speaker 2 Do you ever feel a pull back there?

Speaker 1 And what do you do to stop that desire if you do feel that? Or are you so on the other side that you're like, not at all?

Speaker 4 You know, it's helpful to get older because you're lazier. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like it would take

Speaker 4 so much energy to be like scoring.

Speaker 3 You put the number in the beeper, and then you got to meet the guy on the side of the road.

Speaker 4 It's cold now. You're standing on the corner and they're not meeting you.

Speaker 2 Now you're hung out.

Speaker 4 Now it's in the morning.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? It's cash from the ATM.

Speaker 4 It's just, yeah, it's a lot of ATM shenanigans.

Speaker 2 A lot of energy.

Speaker 4 And I just, I don't know if I've got it like that anymore, but I would say that,

Speaker 4 you know, for sure, it is sort of like core to a DNA or whatever that I have on both sides of the coin, you know, whether that's like the darkness of it or the

Speaker 4 lightness of sort of

Speaker 4 emerging from that and seeing life through a greater, you know, perspective or a prism of sort of gratitude or something. But it's

Speaker 4 it's also like helpful in weird situations. Like,

Speaker 4 I don't know if you guys who have any experience with this find that, like, I'm not much moved by something like night shoots or something.

Speaker 4 You know, like, I'll see a lot of people that are walking around me like, oh my God, it's so crazy. It's like 3 a.m.
I'm like, who am I? You know, and I'm like, who am I?

Speaker 4 I've always been the caretaker.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 3 a.m. is my day.

Speaker 3 I'm the opposite. I'm like, if I'm driving home with the sun coming up, this is usually a bad sign.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And so I don't like night shoots.

Speaker 3 It reminds me of the bad thing.

Speaker 2 You don't like old days. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But what about addiction? Like, like,

Speaker 3 I'll always be an addict. I've just managed to channel that into something much less hurtful, much more productive,

Speaker 3 much more upstanding.

Speaker 2 Do you mean just pure workaholism?

Speaker 4 Because, yeah, I'm like now, and when people are like, oh my God, how do you do it? You're like a writer, a director, a showrunner, a dubter, you're acting. And you're like,

Speaker 4 well, it's all one job. And I'm an obsessive.
I mean, it's another way way of being like,

Speaker 4 and you got the company and you got like 19 shows and you want to direct three movies. And how are you going to do all that? And it's like,

Speaker 4 well, you know, how did I, you know, smoke all that dust? That was not my problem. PCP was not my problem.

Speaker 2 Sure, sure, sure. But if it were, you would have to smell it.
But if it was smoke and dust,

Speaker 2 how was your weekend? Mainly smoke and dust.

Speaker 2 I was so fucking dusted this weekend.

Speaker 2 I love it. I wish I had smoked dust.

Speaker 2 And I read, I read all the time.

Speaker 4 They say smoke and dust is not a relapse, Anyway, Oscar Levant said that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, Levant said eating ain't cheating. That was Levant.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 We will be right back.

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Speaker 5 The family that vacations together stays together. At least, that was the plan.
Except now, the dastardly desk clerk is saying he can't confirm your connecting rooms. Wait, what?

Speaker 6 That's right, ma'am. You have rooms 201 and 709.
No, we cannot be five floors away from our kids.

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Speaker 3 All right, back to the show.

Speaker 2 But you know what? I love, Natasha, is the ease.

Speaker 2 I don't know, there's something about the way that you deal with and talk about that time in your life because I don't want to spend too much time on it. But I know, look, I always think about it.

Speaker 2 From my experiences, I needed contrast. And it's been a lifelong thing for me of dealing with that contrast and going through those times.

Speaker 2 Again, I don't prescribe it for anybody,

Speaker 2 but sort of coming out the other end of it, it does give you,

Speaker 2 I don't know, perspective.

Speaker 2 And I've had so much perspective and I've been the beneficiary of so many people's, so much kindness and so many other people have been really helpful and great people in my life.

Speaker 2 And it's given me now, as I'm 52,

Speaker 2 such a different appreciation for life, an appreciation for my kids, an appreciation for the people I love. And it gives me such a great, better

Speaker 2 approach to life day to day. I I don't sweat the small stuff in ways that I used to.
I don't, all that kind of shit. I'm just, I don't know.
I wake up every day. I don't know about you.

Speaker 2 I wake up every day and I'm like, boy, I'm happy. It's a nice day out today.
Boy, I'm lucky. I'm having this cup of coffee.

Speaker 2 Boy, I got to suck back six cigarettes while I'm doing my little, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 The beautiful thing.

Speaker 4 Well, you can't, you definitely, I would say, you know, first of all, I mean, I'm transparent about it.

Speaker 4 Well, one aspect of it is I have no choice, right? Like, in other words, it's out there.

Speaker 4 I guess I was lucky that it wasn't in a cell phone era. Yeah.
So there's not too many crazy pictures, but you know, it was definitely

Speaker 2 news.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 3 I didn't hear it. But it's news to me on this, and I gobble up a bunch of pop culture.

Speaker 2 No, you don't fucking follow me.

Speaker 4 You should read some of like the post from the 90s. I feel like you just go through the backlog, microfiche, you'll find it.

Speaker 2 Microfiche.

Speaker 2 Amanda, his wife, who you might know, complained to me the other day at how little you pay attention to what's going on.

Speaker 3 Well, no, but I, well, it's because I'm busy watching the news.

Speaker 2 You're not watching the news.

Speaker 4 But I think more than that,

Speaker 4 there's an opportunity there, you know, in the transparency, which makes you sort of... Right.
Like, I always feel like I have this

Speaker 4 sort of duty in a way to my...

Speaker 4 inner child, for lack of a better term, which is really like she wants to, she very badly wants to tell the truth. Like she

Speaker 4 really is like hell-bent on integrity and good times and hanging out and is sort of like a misfit and lawless. And I have to kind of like wrangle her and make her do adult stuff.

Speaker 4 Like, and, but mostly she just doesn't understand.

Speaker 4 And I would say I have this very much in common with Charlie, this character from Poker Face, who like doesn't understand the point of lying since we all die.

Speaker 4 Like John Lennon says, just give me some truth, you know, and really doesn't understand why the setup or the conceit of life is about, you know, small talk and being fake and lying about how well you're doing.

Speaker 4 Like, there is nothing inherently embarrassing about life being a double-edged sword. And, you know, the buy-in of the game is we all die in the end, and that's a super head trip.

Speaker 4 And the whole time you're supposed to be sort of ambitious and involved in this rat race and watching out for your health. And, you know, you see bodies piling up of,

Speaker 4 you know, people, suicide rates or whatever. It's just, it's hard to kind of make sense of the riddle of the game.

Speaker 4 And addiction certainly helps you to understand that like every person, I mean, it's one of the darkest parts of showbiz is, you know, the solipsism that comes with people thinking they're the center of the universe.

Speaker 4 So like that revelation of getting clean is, that's the big one, right?

Speaker 4 And you start to see that everybody is a real person who's going through all their own little micro-dramas and darkness and all this stuff. So I don't know, just.

Speaker 4 Globally, to me, it feels like transparency is a sort of, you may as well, because what's, what's the difference? Like, there's

Speaker 4 such a better chance of helping.

Speaker 2 Well, I think the only problem is you run the risk of, because people, sensationalism and click feed and bait and all that kind of stuff, that they want to

Speaker 2 take boil what you say and your views on stuff and boil it down to, I remember once when I was very honest about the fact that I had relapsed, you know, I say relapse, but whatever that means to people, when I had gone out and had been drinking and there was like a, you know, all of a sudden like the Daily Mail, like, Will Arnett admits that he, that he hit the bottle.

Speaker 2 Well, I didn't fucking hit the bottle. You know, it's like, and that's, and then it was picked up a bunch of different stuff.

Speaker 2 And so then somebody else says, like, hey, you don't want to talk about it anymore?

Speaker 2 I go, not really, because every time I do, it fucking smacks me in the face because somebody writes some snarky fucking one-line click thing.

Speaker 3 So it's like, yeah, but that's, that's the media's agenda, you know, and you, that's their business. It's none of our business.

Speaker 3 But what I sense from from you, Will, and from you, Natasha, and I try to do is do exactly what you're talking about, Natasha, which is be mindful of that little kid that's still in all of us.

Speaker 3 And if you are, if you're honest with that little kid and you give that little kid

Speaker 3 the sort of the agency that that kid deserves in your life, you know, that presence in your life, and you don't try to, you know, work on some veneer or some artifice that keeps that little kid hidden

Speaker 3 and instead let that kid be a part of your your decisions and your behavior every single day, then you're not asking people to buy a bunch of shit that you can't sell real good.

Speaker 3 You're just being honest and

Speaker 2 being you and being the only you.

Speaker 3 There's only one Natasha.

Speaker 2 I think that's right. Natasha, I was thinking about this last night.
Do you have,

Speaker 2 I think that there's great power in being vulnerable.

Speaker 2 Amen. Or being open.

Speaker 3 It's the only way we can be funny. All four of us are funny.
Like that, you can't, there's nothing funny about somebody who's bulletproof. Like it's all about

Speaker 3 warts and all. And being aware of that.
Because

Speaker 1 what you touched on, itasha about talking about we're all gonna die i think about that all the time and not in a morbid way but it makes you become self-focused i bet you're first sean

Speaker 1 just saying it now it makes you become self-aware enough to do what exactly what will's about to say which was become vulnerable so if you're aware of your existence and your soon-to-be non-existence you know it be it makes you go like you said like who gives a shit about any of it let you it be open be honest be vulnerable tell people how you feel in the moment and if it scares you,

Speaker 1 it's a way to overcome that fear of expressing your emotion, I think.

Speaker 4 And I do definitely feel like that softening happening of like, I think it was so, I think I was,

Speaker 4 you know, I was so into kind of like tough guys as a kid growing up. That's probably why I had like this, you know, accident or whatever.
I'd watch Scarface or like Sylvester Stallone rocking.

Speaker 4 That's who I want to be. And like you were saying, De Niro.
And I mean, I loved, you know, Betty Davis and

Speaker 4 Jessica Lang and whatever, but really I was like, those are my guys.

Speaker 4 And I think also, in many ways, I was using that as a way to sort of be safe in the world and say, hey, I'm not like this other game. And

Speaker 4 now over the years, even in even in talking about things like addiction, which is, it's just something that never goes away. I mean, those are just like facts.
There's nothing to really hide there.

Speaker 4 It'd be a scam to say otherwise.

Speaker 4 I do now feel this sort of softening happening where, yeah, it's just you may as well tell the truth because what else are you going to do?

Speaker 4 And you may as well, like, you know, Will, when you say, I wake up and it's, it's a beautiful day and I'm grateful.

Speaker 4 It's like, you know, for sure, sometimes that takes me a second, but it's like the gift in a way is the, um, the experience or the familiarity with self to not take it too seriously anymore, kind of the whatever that sort of, I guess, more like a Buddhist idea of watching the thoughts or something.

Speaker 4 So I'm more like, all right, I think it's a piece of shit day, but we're going to get up and like have some coffee and I mean it's really for me the joy of comedy or like you know um like spending this kind of life with Fred and Maya and Amy is like just that sense of now we're laughing hysterically about a third thing and in that space it is an altered state and now I'm kind of I've had a full mood shift where suddenly I'm stoked and now I'm in the car driving and the sun is sort of you know music's playing and I'm like it's not that bad is it yeah because your new healthy drug Jason can I ask you a question Do you find that you're sort of like, before you start a season of Ozark?

Speaker 4 Like, for me with Russian dollars, a little bit like before I start the season, I'm like, and that's who I'm going to be. And I'm going to wake up and I'm going to be excited about this cup of coffee.

Speaker 4 I'm so grate. I get to have this show.
And it's my baby. And it's going to be great.
And then

Speaker 4 the rush of sort of like

Speaker 4 almost like the thinking at that level and working yourself at that level in the writer's room and like the pre-production and that you're really, you find yourself getting tight and it's not quite it's not as easy as it was like you really have to set aside time

Speaker 4 to not buy into the fact that this sort of alternate reality that's sort of anxiety based you know what I mean of just logistics in a way is yeah because sometimes I find I have to really like that's when the rubber meets the road for me of you know did you find that yeah there's a lot of logistics and nuts and bolts and blocking and tackling that goes into what

Speaker 3 up until you start work is just this pure, it just lives in your brain and it's going to be perfect.

Speaker 3 And there's the, I think it was Ben Stiller that made some analogy once that like starting a movie as a director is the painting is perfect.

Speaker 3 And then all the way through the production and development.

Speaker 3 pre uh principal photography and then post you're trying to there's like this fungus that starts to come in from the from from the uh from the uh whatchamacallit the uh the frame of the picture. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And it starts to take over the picture. And you got to just keep the fungus back from the...

Speaker 3 And if you can get maybe you're done with maybe there's 30% of the picture is infested with this fungus, you've done pretty good.

Speaker 3 And the fungus is probably a little bit more of a pejorative than what he meant, but it's you bring in all these collaborative thoughts and oftentimes are better thoughts, but it changes your picture.

Speaker 3 It changes the painting. And that doesn't deserve a false negative.
It actually changing the picture is actually a good thing because that is the result of, you know, sort of this teamwork and this,

Speaker 3 you know, it takes a village and let people contribute.

Speaker 4 I find that that's when I really like,

Speaker 4 I really, you know, when I'm sort of with my friends in Costa Rica and we're surfing, I'm like, yeah, fucking A, man, this is good.

Speaker 4 And I find that that's the most when I have to sort of reset and not sort of buy the lie of the mind that like, this is so real, the stakes are so high.

Speaker 4 And that's when, like, things are really that's when I can almost, you know, when it's sort of that time is that sort of significant is when I really feel sort of all the kind of work on self or revelations or whatever.

Speaker 4 Like, I remember walking on set on Russian Doll, and it's scary. You know, season two COVID is so this, like, the COVID shit is very intense when you're the boss, right?

Speaker 4 Like, it's scary anyway, but now you're responsible for so many people's health. And I remember at one point, like, walking onto the stage and they were like, hello, hello, Natasha.

Speaker 4 And I walked on and,

Speaker 4 you know, I got to do all the jobs, right? And I was like, holy shit.

Speaker 4 This is like exactly where I was supposed to be, you know, meaning despite all of that, all the other kind of like outside elements, it was so sure kind of in my bones.

Speaker 4 And like, that's what I mean by like me and the kid were kind of happy. And then we were sort of delighted by the kind of anxiety.
And I sort of like, i felt the the road widen a little bit of uh

Speaker 4 oh that's right this is like this fun crazy thing that like we get to do it's not you know this is that thing that i really really love doing i mean directing in general is a it's a very joyous sport i would say of it just feels so awake and alive in a way that Sometimes I think when I'm only acting, like it's different on something like this, because, you know, Ryan and I have like a real partnership, meaning in many ways, I think, or even I would say for us show dogs was like the two of us were in it together.

Speaker 4 Meaning on some level, it's like a body of work where it becomes the collaborator is what matters because you feel like you're, you're in something together, you know?

Speaker 4 But

Speaker 4 yeah, sometimes with, if you're just like, you know, acting and you have no say, you can almost feel very far from like the center of the action and kind of, all right, so you're just going to tell me, who's like a middle-aged person who's been doing this for for 35 years, like, oh, should I come stand over there or something?

Speaker 4 You're concerned I'm going to go pee and maybe I'll never come back.

Speaker 2 I'll forget that we're shooting, you know, like they're just so concerned all the time.

Speaker 3 Are you directing any of these poker faces?

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah, I did one.

Speaker 4 I did one that's not.

Speaker 4 The last one we finished because of the schedule and everything, but it's a Nick Nolte.

Speaker 2 I got to direct Nick Nolte. No way.

Speaker 4 Oh, yes. And now there's a real troublemaker.

Speaker 2 He was great.

Speaker 3 Was he responsive to your direction?

Speaker 4 Oh, yes. And like we had that thing that you're talking about of

Speaker 4 that like vulnerability that comes on the other side of darkness or whatever, which is we speak like we speak the same ingie, you know?

Speaker 2 That's cool.

Speaker 4 So we had a lot of fun together. And oh my God, I love him.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he's so interesting. What a great actor.

Speaker 2 I'm a huge fan of his. I've thought about him in a minute.
I haven't seen him in a minute. He brings a lot.
I'm so glad that you got him. That's going to be cool.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 4 He's so like, that face is really addictive that's what i mean by like at the you're standing at the monitor and like you know we use all these uh zoom guns on poker face like little like altman slow zooms or whatever yeah and you're just like standing at the monitor riveted just pushing in on nulti and all he's doing is thinking you're like oh that's a fucking actor like you know that's just the smallest like flicker and you're fascinated like how do i get inside of your face i love you using the zoom too instead of the dolly push it's it's such a different feel

Speaker 3 I just dork out on that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, that's a lot like Ryan.

Speaker 4 I guess it's Stevie Edlund shot the pilot who does all the Brick and Looper and Star Wars and all the knives out of Glass Onion with him. And yeah,

Speaker 4 a lot of that's like baked into the DNA of even

Speaker 4 like the Colombo pilot that Spielberg did with like that. It's got that long shot down to the road.

Speaker 2 Wow. Yeah.
I was just thinking about how do I, how do I get inside your face? And that's obviously what the sodium said to you, Jason, Jason last night yeah

Speaker 3 it did it got there no resistance from me

Speaker 3 Natasha would you would you be happy if you did nothing but direct the rest of your career as opposed to act or you want to do a little of each

Speaker 4 I mean I

Speaker 4 I think so I'm definitely like wanting to be in my Sydney Pollock era where you know like Kubrick calls you up and says hey come be in

Speaker 4 Yeah, come be in eyes wide shut, but mostly you're kind of also I like I feel like we we don't talk about those guys enough like the Sidney Pollocks who are just kind of

Speaker 2 direct it like you know like Tootsie and just give yourself a great role in it Exactly, but that that kind of I would like to be that guy That's like my dream sweet spot right It's so funny you say I just watched for a different reason I watched the first half of Husbands and Wives the other night and Paul Sidney Pollock's in that remember he in the first scene he comes in he says they're getting divorced they're gonna go for thing he's so great there was something I was and then I was thinking about him and Tootsie and stuff And this guy is like

Speaker 2 a fucking gem, wasn't he?

Speaker 1 He did so many episodes of Will and Grace. He played Will's Dad.

Speaker 2 He was Cindy Colleg? Yeah. It was fantastic.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Amazing to be. And so are you, Natasha.
You did an episode of Will and Grace.

Speaker 2 I sure did.

Speaker 3 Favreau puts himself in a lot of the movies he does, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah. John likes a lot of

Speaker 2 little acting.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I mean, I think that's sort of that's it. I guess, you know, Ron Howard's done very nicely for himself, but I guess he doesn't.
Does he really act at all in the middle?

Speaker 2 No, he puts Clinton.

Speaker 3 Puts Clinton instead.

Speaker 2 He won't do it.

Speaker 4 Deonito Vito, you know, really underrated. I mean, he's made some major moves.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

Speaker 3 Clooney directs himself. Affleck directs himself.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Jakey Bates, Jason Bateman directs himself. Yeah.
Lil Jakey Bates.

Speaker 2 Bradley. Think about Bradley.

Speaker 2 Bradley with him.

Speaker 2 Maestro, you know, obviously Star is Born Incredible, and now his new film, Maestro, is off the charts.

Speaker 2 Have you seen it? I can't wait to see it. It's stunning.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 It's amazing. Well, and also he's done such a, you know, great job that it feels like a real event when he's directing something.

Speaker 4 And also, he gets to work with so many great people when he's just acting, you know, because I think,

Speaker 4 and I sort of have this theory that we're all going to look back as, you know, we're dying.

Speaker 4 We're not going to really remember kind of like, in this one, I was the director, but this one, I was an executive producer.

Speaker 4 Like just all of that sort of sense of ego around it will fall away and it'll be more like sort of like flashes of the things we made with the people we were hanging out with, or something like that.

Speaker 3 Getting back to what you were talking about before, it's like I'd be happy if I spent the rest of my life just working with the folks that I've really enjoyed working with and my friends.

Speaker 3 And I mean, I think we've accrued a nice big troop. We should start just getting going on that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, but I do, I love that directing, it makes me so happy.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it really does.

Speaker 3 Oh, Natasha.

Speaker 3 We've taken 10 more minutes than an hour. That's going to cost you.

Speaker 2 We've gone longer with you than we usually go with people. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And you said $100 per minute over the 60.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 So that's

Speaker 2 $1,000.

Speaker 2 We'll split that up three ways.

Speaker 3 Well, it was a tough deal, but I'm glad you came.

Speaker 2 I'm so glad that you said yes to coming and doing the show, Natasha. I just, honestly, I just love talking to you.
And you're such a great person. Thank you.
And thank you.

Speaker 2 And I'm so happy for all your success. And I'm very happy about PokerFace.
Can't wait. Wait, is it out or it's

Speaker 4 it's out now? It's on Peacock. It's on Peacock.
It's really pretty great. I mean, Ryan is great.

Speaker 2 Ryan Johnson, PokerFace streaming on the cock.

Speaker 2 Wherever you can, wherever you get your cock,

Speaker 2 wherever you get your cock from, because I don't know, some people use Apple TV or they get another thing, but what I'm saying is wherever it is that you generally get your cock,

Speaker 2 this is a great stream coming.

Speaker 4 I'm really coming to that Oscar Levant. I'm telling you right now.

Speaker 2 I would love it. Come see Carl Parker.
The 5th of April. We're all going to the premiere.
It's going to be a big event.

Speaker 2 It's going to be incredible. So you're welcome to come.
Please do. We'd love to have you.

Speaker 1 Come anytime.

Speaker 2 All right, guys. Thank you.

Speaker 4 Come anytime.

Speaker 2 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 On the cock.

Speaker 2 On the cock. Okay.

Speaker 2 Thank you, Natasha Leon. We love you.
You're the greatest.

Speaker 1 Thank you, honey. Thank you, Natasha.

Speaker 2 Thank you, guys.

Speaker 4 Thanks so much. Bye.
Bye-bye.

Speaker 2 Bye. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2 I've never told a guest to slam it. Have you? Have you told me?

Speaker 3 So we did two of your guests today. They both slammed.
I have never.

Speaker 1 Well, explain what slam means.

Speaker 3 Well, when you just shut the laptop and end the interview at the end instead of doing the awkward sort of like okay so goodbye guys that was fun

Speaker 2 right after saying goodbye and then before they end they just yeah maybe bennett and rob are giving them the heads up to go ahead and do the slam thing because we don't need we don't need follow-up at the end with them you know yeah exactly we just had an interview right here's what i love about her by the way i love that she's like completely open, unapologetic, comfortable enough.

Speaker 2 She doesn't talk about anything.

Speaker 2 She's no nonsense, man.

Speaker 2 I've never talked to her. I've never hung out with her.

Speaker 2 No. I mean,

Speaker 3 I think I've met her a couple of times. I think I met her once with Amy when she was doing a Russian doll sing at a Netflix thing.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And but that's that's the most I've ever done.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she and Amy. So Amy

Speaker 2 produced

Speaker 2 that Russian doll with her. That Natasha was the show.
Huge success. And Amy produced it.
A huge success.

Speaker 2 They're very good friends.

Speaker 2 But we didn't really I knew I mean, I knew her a little bit just because she and Amy were friends, but she and I became friends going doing this that kids' movie overseas. And

Speaker 2 we had a lot of fun. And she's one of those great people to be kind of out of the country with because she's really funny.
And she's like, when weird shit happens, she just makes you laugh.

Speaker 1 She seems like the best person.

Speaker 3 If we ever take Smartless on the road to Europe, maybe we can make her a roadie.

Speaker 2 She'd love it. She'd love to be a roadie.
Like the highest paid roadie of all time.

Speaker 2 She, yeah.

Speaker 2 What do you think of my hair today?

Speaker 1 I think it's really great.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 It looks like you've been

Speaker 3 riding at a high speed on a motor.

Speaker 2 Bye.

Speaker 2 Bye.

Speaker 2 Bye.

Speaker 2 Well, you're the one who went up. I'm not supposed to go up.

Speaker 3 Well, I went down before and it felt like a fizzle.

Speaker 2 Okay. I said, Mike.

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