"Octavia Spencer"

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Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 1 just another cold open for the show here, huh? Maybe it'll be interesting this time. I don't know.
Maybe you guys can say something. Well, if you keep your mouth shut, it will be.
Go ahead, Will.

Speaker 1 It's not supposed to be interesting. It's just an amuse bouche.
Oh, I speak French. My name's Will.
Amuse Bouche. I'm from Canada, so I knew two languages, you stupid ass.

Speaker 1 Oh, well, can't wait for your next visit to Canada. Hope you like bricks in the face.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Smart

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 Would people be interested or repulsed at all if they looked at your search history, either one of you?

Speaker 1 Do you guys get creepy on the internet? Do you get sort of like, well, I can

Speaker 1 kind of anonymously check out this subculture. Do you guys do any of that? We should read our search history on an episode.
Huh.

Speaker 1 That would be nice. Actually,

Speaker 1 the other person should read it so that you can't self-edit. That's true.

Speaker 1 Mine is pretty benign.

Speaker 1 Mine is a lot of Wikipedia holes that I go on that are, you'd be astonished at how you'd be like, wow, is this guy bored?

Speaker 1 Mine is about world events and how I can help and reach out to hundreds of millions of people and offer

Speaker 1 my

Speaker 1 advice and my experience in life. Jason, I'm guessing by the way you look today, I'm guessing yours would be a soy sauce near me.

Speaker 1 Is that true?

Speaker 1 No, do I?

Speaker 1 Why do we always talk about my puffy face it's probably my fault every morning uh guys let's get to it sure do you guys get nervous when it's not your guest i'm a little nervous yeah are you serious i get nervous when it's my guest no i always get a little nervous like who's this gonna be yeah oh you're gonna be so excited this is i love i love her nervous is probably the wrong word no no no this person i'm guessing it's a her this lady is a phenomenal actress.

Speaker 1 I've been a great admirer of

Speaker 1 who? Meryl Streep? No. Sorry, I thought we were guessing.
Just about. Okay.
Or just as popular and successful. I've been a great admirer of hers for a long time.

Speaker 1 She got her start in the business with an acting role in A Time to Kill in 1996. No way.
You know I loved her in Hidden Figures because it was about NASA.

Speaker 1 Coincidentally, we both had roles in the international Smash Hit, win a date with Tad Hamilton.

Speaker 1 She is an Academy Award winner, has co-starred, guest starred, and most importantly, starred in a kajillion hit projects. But you absolutely know her and love her for making that shit pie in the help.

Speaker 1 My girlfriend, Octavia Spencer.

Speaker 1 Octavia.

Speaker 1 I just worked with Octavia, and didn't we have fun? Oh, yes. And what was the movie again? This was Thunder Force with our good friend Melissa McCarthy.
And it was super social. How fun was that?

Speaker 3 It was so fun.

Speaker 1 So fun. We have not worked together.

Speaker 3 So, so hello, nice to meet you. So nice to meet you.
I'm a fan. I'm a fan.

Speaker 1 Well, what do you mean? I'm a fan of yours, my God. We're so delighted to have you here.
Yeah, this is so great.

Speaker 1 You know, we share the same publicist Octavia, and I'm always asking her, we know who she is, what's Octavia up to? Would she ever want to hang out with me? And

Speaker 1 I ran into you at a charity event quite a while ago, and I was just like, I couldn't believe I was meeting you.

Speaker 1 I've been a fan. You couldn't believe you were at a charity event.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Did you pull in to ask for directions somewhere else?

Speaker 1 She looked like she had a GPS that was working.

Speaker 1 Well, it's so nice to have you here.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 1 It's good to to be here. I want to start right at the very, very beginning.

Speaker 1 You come from a huge family like me.

Speaker 1 Wait, how huge is huge?

Speaker 3 Seven.

Speaker 1 Good. Wow.
I'm so jealous. Seven kids.
That just sounds like I immediately think about all the family holiday gatherings and there's just people running around everywhere.

Speaker 1 Is that is that am I right?

Speaker 3 That is quite accurate. And even more people now that people have kids.

Speaker 1 Right. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I would love that. Yeah, you look, you look like it's a stressful experience.
Yeah, let's get into the dirt. Who do you wish was not there? Who would you like to no longer come to?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a great, let's go around the horn. You could go back.
Let's name family members we would not like to start on your mother's side.

Speaker 1 I want to talk about something that's so interesting to me, though. You started in casting.
Oh, wow. Really? And so I want to know lots of things about that.

Speaker 1 I want to know: does it make you a better an actor?

Speaker 1 And also, as you're doing it, as you were doing casting and and had a voice in choosing maybe if an actor got a part,

Speaker 1 what's it like knowing that their livelihood depends on choices that you guys discuss behind closed doors? I mean, it's a, it's a big decision to cast or not cast somebody

Speaker 1 in a role.

Speaker 3 Well, let me let me clarify.

Speaker 3 I had never really got to participate in saying who got a job. I was like a reader and I got to learn through the casting process.
But you know, it was one of those things you can't teach.

Speaker 3 Well, you can teach auditioning technique, but there's a difference in actually being in the room and watching what actors do.

Speaker 3 And,

Speaker 3 but it was different though, because I worked in the Southeast. And then when I moved out here, things that we did in the southeast kind of didn't go because, you know, we took props and auditions.

Speaker 1 That's a taboo.

Speaker 3 Oh my God, I actually gave a friend. I was like, you need to go in there.

Speaker 3 When I worked in the Southeast,

Speaker 3 all over you know Virginia Florida Alabama

Speaker 3 all across the and we people would come in with their if they were going to be a waitress in a in a in a scene they would have their little notepads or they would have a little phone and so I had a couple of friends who were like you worked in casting what should I do in this audition and I you know

Speaker 3 Tate Taylor

Speaker 3 I will I'll never get over he was like I think testing for a job and I said you got to stand stand out you got to stand out from everybody else you got to you should take a phone and this was before we had cell phones i had him pull out one of the phones that had the with a corded corded phone

Speaker 3 no it was a long antenna so we took it out and literally pulled out the antenna and started the you know did his did his test poor thing and then he got a phone call he got a phone call right in the middle of the audition he got a phone call as he was walking to his car.

Speaker 3 And I learned then never to never give anybody any

Speaker 3 pointers.

Speaker 1 You must have seen so many, being a reader. I've done that before as well.
I remember once I helped out a casting director years ago on, what was that, that movie that it was Richard Gere and

Speaker 1 Edward

Speaker 1 Primal Fear. Primal Fear.
I auditioned for that. Well, they had big, huge casting calls in New York and Chicago and everything.

Speaker 1 And so you obviously auditioned for that and I helped in the cattle call in New York. But you must have seen some horror story auditions before.
Do you have any?

Speaker 1 Because this, I'm going to take this, I'm going to take a page out of Sean's, one of his books in the back that he hasn't read

Speaker 1 and say, what was your like worst casting nightmare that you were witness to?

Speaker 3 Oh, man, the worst.

Speaker 1 Or just like embarrassing, like, like cringeworthy, where you just felt like, oh, gosh, I wish I was in here right now. Oh, gosh.
While you're thinking of one, I have one.

Speaker 1 I played the piano for auditions for musicals, and I played the piano for Annie, right? For all the kids coming into audition. And I play, I had to play tomorrow over and over again, right?

Speaker 1 And there's a song called, there's a song called I Know I'm Gonna Like It Here. Do you know that song? I know I'm gonna like it here.
And you hold the beat, right?

Speaker 1 And this girl comes in and she sits and she stands there and she goes, she actually counts the numbers under her breath while she's holding the notes.

Speaker 1 So she goes, I know I'm gonna like it here to see her high, six, seven, eight.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. She must have been like six years old.
Beless her.

Speaker 1 So funny. Bless her.
Belessing. Dude, I wish I would have seen you back then, Sean.

Speaker 1 Just let me know. What was the hair strategy when you were playing piano and auditions? Sure.
So my hair strategy was just to cut as close to a bowl as I possibly could. You had a bowl? A bowl cut?

Speaker 1 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 How much were you giving to the company Depp that made Depp gel? How much money of your money did they give? Oh, no.

Speaker 1 L'Oreal spritz l'oreal spritz all the way and what about moose what happened to moose where did moose goose didn't hold moose didn't hold it didn't did it not moose but wait so so so wait so so we've we've gone through the hair thing so so then so you're working in casting what's the moment is it one of those great miracle stories are you reading and the director is there and says hang on a second the reader is the best actor we've had in here today is that what happened please tell me is that what happened it made me want to act because on most of the jobs that we worked on, whenever we were doing the smaller roles, the director would say, you know,

Speaker 3 I want somebody with a personality or like Octavia. And so I would always get offered these parts that I would politely turn down.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 3 Because I was a professional and I couldn't mix it up.

Speaker 1 And that just makes them want you more. Well, exactly.

Speaker 1 Jason, what do you call that? Yes. Sexy indifference.
Sexy indifference. Sexy indifference.

Speaker 1 So I'll bet bet you having seen everyone come through the door,

Speaker 1 it made you feel a little bit more confident each time you were on the other side, right? Because

Speaker 1 the imagination goes to a place where like everybody is better than me

Speaker 1 in general in life. But then when you see people that come through and like, oh, well, I can compete with that, you know.

Speaker 1 I wish more actors could be on the other side and see that you're plenty talented.

Speaker 3 I have to tell you that I would recommend it. But now with everything being the way that it is, people are putting themselves on tape and won't ever get that experience.

Speaker 3 But it totally demystified what happened in the room for me. So

Speaker 3 I, but I would say to anybody that can help cast a student film just to see what different actors do. Because here's the interesting thing.
When it's written out in the...

Speaker 3 breakdown and the script and the

Speaker 3 yeah all of that people come in and a lot of people make the exact same choice because it's worded that such and such does this.

Speaker 1 We're looking for a 30- to 40-year-old who is this height and weight or whatever, and this look, and has to act this way. Southern and sad.

Speaker 1 I think they have to fulfill that instead of just bringing themselves.

Speaker 3 Bringing their unique qualities.

Speaker 1 Make a choice.

Speaker 3 Exactly. Make a choice.

Speaker 3 And I find myself sometimes thinking, you know, when I'm reading something now to make sure to make choices that

Speaker 3 it may be a wrong choice,

Speaker 3 but just to have something completely unique that no one else will do.

Speaker 1 And that, and that you own, that you're able to execute. Yeah.
Now, when is the last time you auditioned?

Speaker 3 Oh, man.

Speaker 3 It's been,

Speaker 3 I feel like every day is an audition, honestly, but it's been 10 years.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm going to start making choices like, you know, like imagine like a scene where you got to deliver some bad news, but I'm going to just like, like,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 we just got the report back. It looks like

Speaker 1 you're not going to make it.

Speaker 1 Honestly, bro, it's different.

Speaker 3 It's different.

Speaker 1 It's different. I used to sing, there's a song from Lay Miz, hold on, that's called Empty Chairs and Empty Tables, where my friends are dead and gone.

Speaker 1 And I used to sing it with a huge smile on my face.

Speaker 1 So wait, Octavia, you said. Casting made you want to start acting.
You had no interest before that, and you just got that as a job?

Speaker 3 or what was it like as a kid well i i'd always wanted to be a producer honestly and i love acting but you know i'm from a very practical household and my mom would have been supportive had i just said i want to be an actor but uh you know she really like wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer and I'm a Germaphobe, so I knew doctoring was not in my future.

Speaker 3 Because everything anybody came into the room with, I would probably, did I get it? Argue, oh my God, it's a catching. So

Speaker 3 no.

Speaker 1 Sean's got it. Sean just got it.

Speaker 1 Just you describing it.

Speaker 3 Just describe it. And I would get it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you are talking to a couple of world-class germaphobes here with me. Those guys, not me, not me.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, Octavia, what's tell me your,

Speaker 1 let's open up this germaphobia thing. What is, because I'm, because I've got an answer for me.
We'll go around the horn. What is, what grosses you out the most?

Speaker 1 What will you not do because there's too much germ potential?

Speaker 1 I'll start with mine so that you know what I'm kind of talking about. I will never walk barefoot on a hotel floor.
Wow. That's good.
Ever. Never.
Oh, gosh. I will never go to very famous theme parks.

Speaker 1 You won't even enter the grounds? I don't think I need to go. Got it.

Speaker 1 That's aggressive. Octavia?

Speaker 3 You know, I will never

Speaker 3 sit on a plane

Speaker 3 without wiping, and I've been doing this for years, wiping everything down.

Speaker 1 So definitely the headrest, right yeah oh the headrest anything that my hand has to touch has to be wiped down like you know the seat back button you got to really get that one top oh yeah that's a touch point touch point I will never I will never have gaspacho soup in October like after October no very very I won't do it yeah not a lot of people

Speaker 1 even no no and even if I'm even if I'm in the south of France I won't do it even if it's warm no what you got to do is you got to do because it's cold so all the bacteria can live what you got to do is you got to go do hot no that's just more no it's it's just more out of a sense of decency yeah now um

Speaker 1 so i wiped down the plane i i wiped down the planes the seats too as well that's that's kind of a newer thing to me i remember like january 2020 i flew to london right before the the lockdown and i went back and i looked at my my um search we were talking about search history before i looked at my amazon order history and i had ordered masks in january 2020 i was so nervous about everything coming around that I was seeing on the news and I had to fly to London and I wiped my area down and I wore a mask and everybody looked at me like I was crazy like look at this nut job.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I don't give a help.

Speaker 1 And we will be right back.

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Speaker 1 Well, I want to go back to now,

Speaker 1 you know, you did all of this work before the thing that really catapulted you, which was the help, which I, obviously, 75 years later, you were amazing, but uh just incredible let us let us be the first to congratulate you on that yes thank you guys we've been waiting you were incredible you were absolutely incredible

Speaker 1 i love that i love that movie absolutely um but you you did a book tour with the author catherine stockett is that her name yes yes and uh i read that she didn't feel comfortable reading passages from the book when it came to the african-american characters so she asked you to come along and tell me what that was like and is that how you got the role because again you were again reading, you know, somebody else's words or something.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, it's very interesting because

Speaker 3 I met Catherine through Tate. And

Speaker 1 Tate's the director, yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, through Tate Taylor, who wrote the screenplay and directed the film, who's a personal friend. Catherine,

Speaker 3 I think the help was starting to

Speaker 3 become like a little wildfire and catch on. And she was very smart in that she knew that it would have been kind of weird to do the

Speaker 3 dialect.

Speaker 3 And it was during pilot season, guys.

Speaker 3 And she paid for me. I'm like, normally you don't miss pilot season, but I thought, I love this character.
I love this book. And I just said, you know, I'm going to go do this.

Speaker 3 And we drove around on her book tour for like three weeks. Wow.
And it was, it was like we were the band driving into town.

Speaker 1 That's so cool. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It was so fun.

Speaker 1 How unusual that and how cool. And then especially considering what it turned into and turning into this great film and to incredible acclaim,

Speaker 1 what a great piece of that story for you to be able to really be a part of the process so early on.

Speaker 3 Oh, it was important. The other thing that people probably don't know

Speaker 3 is that the help was made into a radio play in the UK.

Speaker 3 And because of my association with Catherine, and because

Speaker 3 I had done the book on tape, they asked me if I would come and do the radio play, which I'd never done that. And I did.
It was very interesting. It was very interesting to do.

Speaker 1 It doesn't sound positive.

Speaker 1 No, no.

Speaker 1 Let's hear about that.

Speaker 3 It was fun, but when all you have is the audio and people don't get to see you, I was just so used to people seeing me that I thought, am I going to convey this?

Speaker 3 So it was like just over-exaggerating stuff. And oh man, I did a weird thing.

Speaker 1 Welcome to, by the way, welcome, welcome to our world. People are so happy that our podcast that they don't have to see us anymore.

Speaker 1 It turns out that they rave about it. Our audience has been exhilarated to not have to look at us.

Speaker 1 Well, Octavia, you work so much.

Speaker 1 What is it that you are not able to do because you're working all the time that you wish you had more time to do that is not acting?

Speaker 3 I literally, uh

Speaker 3 and the one thing that the pandemic made us do is take time but i didn't actually get to take the time that i would have liked to uh with my family in alabama okay uh i have nieces and nephews and i feel you know with your friends if you're on the road so much and and i know all of my friends first children it's in these past few years that they're they've had you know second kids that are growing up and have personalities i feel the same way about my nieces and nephews.

Speaker 3 So it's making me take time to really just spend more time.

Speaker 3 I love that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's interesting. You do do that.

Speaker 1 I can identify with that, that idea that like your friends have a kid and you go, that's so great. And you kind of get to know the kid.

Speaker 1 And by the time they have the second kid, you're like, yeah, I already gave attention to your first kid.

Speaker 1 What do you want? Now you want equal? You want me to get equal?

Speaker 1 I don't have that kind of time. What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 No, wait, but Octavia, now that you've lived in Los Angeles for many years, do you miss the more, I'm guessing what you're saying, like quieter, simple life that was Alabama?

Speaker 1 And do you ever see yourself going back there when you retire, which I hope you never do?

Speaker 3 Well, I have, since my family's there,

Speaker 3 I have a home there, but I'm also

Speaker 3 building a home in another. southern state just because I miss a lot of trees.
I miss my, I miss the surroundings. So since my friends are in this very rural area,

Speaker 3 it's kind of our retirement enclave. It's so weird.

Speaker 3 I'm building a house there just so that I am surrounded by,

Speaker 3 you know, what we all run away from is what we run back to eventually. And I miss that.

Speaker 1 What are you running away from?

Speaker 3 Well, I ran away from trees. I wanted more buildings and cars.
And now it's like, I want trees.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Sean, what are you running away from? Myself everywhere I go.

Speaker 1 is that why you removed all the mirrors in your house yeah

Speaker 1 yeah did you not know that well no took them all out octavia i want to talk i want to talk about going to the oscars so when you went to was the help the first time you went to the oscars yes yeah and you won which is great and what was it like when you first

Speaker 1 got there like there are people who have gone so many times and what was your perspective of the first time you went there and like you know, drank it all in and looked around?

Speaker 1 Was there anything funny about it that you noticed? Like, that's so weird that they do that. Or I didn't know they did that or anything like that.

Speaker 3 You know, what was really calming and wonderful is that I got to

Speaker 3 be

Speaker 3 invited to the Oscars along with, you know, one of my oldest friends, Melissa McCarthy. And

Speaker 3 Jessica Chassain had become a very close friend. And then Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, I knew them through the groundling.

Speaker 1 Jim Rash is the best. I love that.

Speaker 1 I love those guys.

Speaker 1 I love

Speaker 1 Sean. You don't like Nat Faxon.
No, I love John. No, no, we got it.
Go ahead. I love Jim and Nat.
I like both those guys a lot. I'm on the record.

Speaker 1 I'm on the record of saying I love both of them equally.

Speaker 3 Well, we got to go together. And it was just important because it kept it all real.
And it was funny. We'd all see each other and go, oh, my God, they let us in.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 it was, can you believe it? Oh, man.

Speaker 3 But it was, it was, it made it so relatable because it was all of our dreams and we got to be there to experience it with each other. Yeah.
And then I've, I've been lucky enough to be there

Speaker 3 when Alice and Jani

Speaker 3 won and

Speaker 3 got to see Emma nominated again, got to be there when Viola won again. Got to be there when Jessica was nominated again.
And so I felt got to be there when Melissa was nominated again.

Speaker 3 There's something really wonderful when you get to take that, have that experience with other people that you love and that love you. And it just, it takes some of that grandeur and the overwhelming

Speaker 1 excitement.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's wonderful, but it's humbling.

Speaker 1 Right. What did you think about the whole red carpet of it all, that sea of photographers?

Speaker 3 The thing that people don't know about me, this is a huge reveal.

Speaker 3 I have huge, and I still have anxiety. I have real anxiety about red carpets.
I love to dress up.

Speaker 3 I love to do interviews, but I don't like to do interviews and dress up and have flashing cameras and a big throng of people. So every time you see me on a red carpet, there's always like this.

Speaker 3 She's like, why is she always shining? It's because I like. literally have anxiety.
So when you imagine the longest red carpet in the world.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It just goes on forever.

Speaker 1 But I mean, it's, it's it's a really odd thing to, to, I remember the, uh, when uh, Arrested Development went to, I think it was the Golden Globes is the first thing that we went to, right, Will?

Speaker 1 And, and I remember

Speaker 1 Michael Sarah had never been to a red carpet thing, and he was like, uh, he had been saying to, you know, a couple of us, like, you know, well, what do we like? So what do we do? You know,

Speaker 1 do you just, you just keep walking? And, and, and I think I was like, no, no, no, you, you walk and you stop and they take some pictures of you.

Speaker 1 And then, and then you walk again stop and they take some pictures. He goes, okay.
And like, how do you figure out which camera to look at? You just keep kind of moving your eyes around a little bit.

Speaker 1 He's like, okay, good. So a couple days later, we go.
And

Speaker 1 he's waiting his turn to go walk onto the red carpet. And in front of him is.
Wait, don't blow it.

Speaker 1 Don't blow it. Don't blow it.

Speaker 1 Can I just finish? Because you're about to blow the.

Speaker 1 Oh, am I? Go ahead. Let's hear it, Will.
You.

Speaker 1 You almost mentioned the name. He's walking over that.

Speaker 1 That's part of the joke, but let's go ahead. They were going Mike.
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 They were going. No, you're doing it backwards.
Okay, you go ahead.

Speaker 1 Go ahead. No, no, you keep it.
So

Speaker 1 in front of him is Sarah Jessica Parker, and behind of him is

Speaker 1 Michael Douglas. And so they're walking along and they're going, Michael, Sarah, Michael, Sarah.

Speaker 1 And he had no idea which way to look.

Speaker 1 So, Will, in your telling, you would say... You're telling the joke backwards.
He's walking along and he says, just keep going as they call your name. And he keeps hearing them go, Michael, Sarah.

Speaker 1 And he's thinking, oh, my God, this is incredible. Michael, Sarah.
And then he looks on either side of him. And one side is Michael Douglas and the other side is Sarah Jessica Parker.

Speaker 1 That's how you tell a joke. Let's go to a commercial

Speaker 1 because that was fucking embarrassing. Let's go to a fucking commercial.

Speaker 1 We'll take a breath.

Speaker 1 You're right. You're right.
You're right. You're right.
Will, Will? You're right. Hey, it's great to be here on Jason's first day in Joe Biz.

Speaker 1 This is fun. This is why I don't write, you know?

Speaker 1 When you have something as big as the help and then you and then you start getting offers and your your career starts opening up and and getting bigger and bigger and people are noticing how talented you really are and you're invited into that kind of status well look at Will are you what's going on Jason he's just all pumped up because he was right

Speaker 1 he loves being right and and you're you're now in this league of of of you know for lack of a grosser word legitimized as an actor you were before but for some reason people see you differently in this business now And do you legitimate it?

Speaker 1 Is that the correct word is legitimated? Okay. Yeah, legitimated.
I'm just

Speaker 1 going to try to be right. I'm just going to keep on keeping wrong.
Go ahead. Do you have to now navigate it? Legitimate.
Yeah. So you have to now navigate

Speaker 1 making more difficult decisions as far as

Speaker 1 representatives, deal making. There's the business side of that.
Did you fire all your agents? No, that's not an end. But

Speaker 1 how do you navigate up that ladder?

Speaker 3 You know what? I've been very fortunate in that the majority of the people that are with me have been with me since the beginning of this whole journey from

Speaker 3 obscurity to, you know, people, some people knowing my name. And so I feel like I've had

Speaker 3 good guidance and

Speaker 3 I have not felt the need because they know me and they know the things that excite me, the things things that I am too safe with that I need to push beyond and challenge myself.

Speaker 3 Oh, God, I'm doing that right now, singing and dancing.

Speaker 1 Really? Um, you're doing a musical right now?

Speaker 3 I'm doing a musical, guys.

Speaker 1 Are you doing the movie with Will and Ryan? Yes. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 We should just go to Boston because

Speaker 1 they're all up there. We should literally interview everybody in that show.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, let's just go up there.

Speaker 3 You should come, guys. And it's with Sean Anders.
I mean, directing. And

Speaker 3 I just feel very lucky that

Speaker 3 the reason I am not a one-hit wonder and went out on a high note with the help is that I have wonderful partnerships and representation. Melissa, Cates, and everybody at Viewpoint.

Speaker 3 I mean, I've just, I feel like

Speaker 3 our publicists, and I don't, I feel like the guidance is there and they understand me. So I feel very lucky.

Speaker 1 That's great. Yeah, you must feel.
feel. And I feel like you get all the attention.
Sean doesn't get anything. Is that right? Because I would do that.

Speaker 1 If I was your publicist, I would give it all to you. All of my frescoes to Octavia.
And then I'd be like, and I'd be looking at my phone. I'd be like, oh, it's Sean.

Speaker 1 Hey, what? Hey, what's up?

Speaker 3 We're mistaken for each other, Sean. All the time.

Speaker 1 I have a dollar.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 what is the role that you've always wanted that you didn't get?

Speaker 1 Is there a part that you auditioned for or you heard that was maybe going to be offered, but you didn't get it?

Speaker 3 Oh, honey, this is the absolute. I have always been obsessed with Kevin Costner.

Speaker 3 He's one of those actors that I've seen everything he's done. And

Speaker 3 I had played so many nurses in

Speaker 3 Hollywood that there was a movie that he did called Dragonfly. And there was a nurse.
He was

Speaker 3 a doctor. And his wife was killed in a foreign country.
And he had to go, he was going back to get her remains and found out that he literally had a child that you know he didn't know about and uh

Speaker 3 it was so amazing and they brought me back so many times to play his nurse who had all these things with Kevin

Speaker 3 and it was after like the fifth time I'm thinking I have it I have it I honestly thought, you know, in those horror films when people are so afraid or they're so angst-ridden that they're in the shower and they're just so upset that they cry and slide down the back of the shower.

Speaker 3 When I found out I didn't get that part, I was like, I'm okay, I'm okay. I take a shower.
And as I'm in the shower, I just slide down the back wall.

Speaker 3 And what pulled me out of it, guys, what pulled me out of it is that my towel got stuck in the drain and literally the water was rising up and it snapped me out of it because it was about to overflow.

Speaker 1 You were full Karen Silkwood. You know,

Speaker 1 one time I auditioned, I had a callback with Kevin Costner. I ever tell you guys this? Years ago, and I was in New York for that movie did called The Postman.

Speaker 1 And so the night before, I'd gone for some sushi. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 So you're a little puffy. And no, well, that was the least of my problems back then.

Speaker 1 And so I get home about 3 a.m. I wake up and I am throwing and going.
Oh, no. And it's just everything.
And I'm in batch. I end up going to the hospital.
Now you are losing water weight.

Speaker 1 Sorry, keep going. Now I'm losing weight.

Speaker 1 Jason's looking at the glass being half full. He's like, lucky.
Oh, lucky.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I end up going to like NYU Medical Center, and

Speaker 1 they give me sort of a, you know, put me on a bag. A sodium drip, and now you're gaining water weight.
Keep going.

Speaker 1 So, so I just like barely keep it together, but I've got this huge callback at the Essex House Hotel on Central Park South in New York.

Speaker 1 And I go up there and I remember it's like the dead of summer, like the middle of summer, super hot. I'm sweating.
And I'm like, I can't be more than five feet from the bathroom at this point.

Speaker 1 And I got, so I come in to talk to Kevin Coster and I sit down really gingerly. Sure.

Speaker 1 Oh, you're sore.

Speaker 1 I'm sore. And there's more coming.
And I'm like, nice to meet you. I'm really excited.
And he's like, okay, let's see. We start to read.
And he goes, let's get this on its feet, huh?

Speaker 1 And I'm thinking, oh,

Speaker 1 oh, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Kevin, I've torn something don't care don't shit yourself in front of kevin coster don't shoot yourself in front of kevin coster

Speaker 1 did you get through it i barely i barely i got through it it was terrible because i was just i was a wreck and i'd been up all night i'd been in the hospital i was sweating nice to meet you and of course i did not get the part good luck with the project guys yeah anyway kevin if you're out there i love you buddy

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Speaker 1 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 1 Octavia,

Speaker 1 how did the Kevin fascination start?

Speaker 1 What hooked you?

Speaker 3 I think the first thing that I ever saw of his was Dances with Wolves. Sure.
And the fact that he wore all those hats and it was so

Speaker 3 John Dunbar.

Speaker 1 John Dunbar.

Speaker 3 John Dunbar.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That'll do it. Oh, man.

Speaker 3 I just love that movie. And then, you know,

Speaker 3 he's gorgeous. And to get to meet him, he's such a, he's a, he's a good guy.
So, but I, you know, it's, it's when you meet a person that moves you and you're like, oh my God, I got to see everything.

Speaker 1 Wait, wasn't he in Hidden Figures?

Speaker 3 He was in Hidden Figures. And he and I also...
You got to work with him. I got to work with him twice.
We did a movie together called Black or White.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Wait, that's Mike Binder's movie.

Speaker 3 Mike Binder, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 He's a friend of the court. Does Kevin know that you're a security risk?

Speaker 3 Well, I tried to keep that from him. But let me tell you, when I got the call to do Black or White, I was driving from Beverly Hills, and I'm the worst driver, guys, anyway.

Speaker 3 But I'm driving, and they're like, He and I had the same agent at the time, and he was calling to tell me about, you know, the role and offer me the role and black or white.

Speaker 3 And I'm thinking, oh, yeah, yeah, Kevin Costa is going to call me. And I'm driving, and all of a sudden, you know, my phone rings, and it's not a phone number.

Speaker 3 I recognize, I pick up, and it's like, Octavia's Kevin.

Speaker 1 I'm like, oh, God, oh, I got a cuss way because I'm about to lose signal. I pull over, like, ah, you know, it was, it was so crazy.

Speaker 3 But he's still, yeah, he's a good, it was just fun to get to work with him. And because.

Speaker 1 The man has some presence, doesn't he?

Speaker 3 He definitely does.

Speaker 1 And he's the definition of classically handsome, too, isn't he?

Speaker 3 He's classically handsome and classically generous too, guys. Right.

Speaker 3 Hell, very generous. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I love that. Now, is it true, Octavia, are you the, I'm going to get this right or wrong.
Are you the most nominated African-American actress of all time?

Speaker 3 No, I think that would be Viola Davis this year with, oh, God.

Speaker 1 Did she just surpass you? So it was until this year? Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 No, I think she and I were tied. We were tied.

Speaker 1 That's pretty awesome. And yeah, she's pretty great.
Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 1 She's amazing. That's crazy.
That's crazy. The most nominated.
That's incredible. Well, now you get another one for the singing and the dancing, too.

Speaker 3 Ooh, honey.

Speaker 3 I would just love, like, my scalp is the only thing that's sweating and losing weight. It's the thinnest thing on the body.
All this dancing. I'm like, come on, God.

Speaker 1 Look at me.

Speaker 3 Yeah, what's the dancing like is that so what's did you have to train for it before you guys start are you training right now like what's i'm training right now i i i'm just trying to keep it all flowing i it's just not my body i don't have rhythm and uh you know just you know moving from here to like right there and i'm pointing maybe a foot away or like a you know i i can do it you know but i i all of the the i i i just don't have that kind of movement and to do it and sing at the same time is

Speaker 3 challenging, but really, really fun.

Speaker 1 How are you dealing with that nasty prick, Ryan Reynolds? I mean, he just.

Speaker 1 He is a nasty piece of business. Yeah, he just must, just wreck the vibe on the set.

Speaker 1 He's not a friend. He's not a friend of the show.

Speaker 1 That negative, that negative Will Farrell. I mean,

Speaker 1 she's always so.

Speaker 1 Come on, turn it upside down. Let's turn it into a smile.
I would say this, and I reserve this for only a few people, but Will Farrell is a grade A a-hole. Yeah,

Speaker 1 we'll cut that out but i'm not gonna i'm not gonna tell him he said that because i don't want to start none and i don't want to be because he's also very violent a lot of people don't know

Speaker 1 make a clip of it and i want to mail it to his house yeah but you're going to get through it you'll get through it

Speaker 3 i i'm going to deny all aspects of this guys because you know

Speaker 1 octavia so what i want to ask you is so so you mentioned uh uh jim rash and and nat faxon and of course melissa and all these gramblings so forgive me were you a grambling was that did you start in sketch comedy?

Speaker 3 No,

Speaker 3 I took classes at the Groundlings.

Speaker 3 But I would go because Tate Taylor, he did go through the whole four years.

Speaker 3 And I would, I met Ben and Melissa and Nat, all of those guys.

Speaker 3 I would go and watch them, you know, every Sunday.

Speaker 3 And it was the best. And so we all became friends.

Speaker 1 Are you friends with Dax too?

Speaker 3 Dax. I got to meet Dax.
It's funny.

Speaker 1 It's a small world. I know.
It's so small. So, so small.

Speaker 1 So you seem to be living the dream of doing everything you've always wanted. You're constantly working, which is like, oh my God, this is happening.
I'm an actor. I've always wanted to be an actor.

Speaker 1 Not am I only an actor now, but I'm like one of the most famous actors on the planet. And what do you do to balance yourself out so it's not all work all the time?

Speaker 1 Or is that really what makes you happy?

Speaker 1 And by the way, Sean's looking for a roadmap because he doesn't do anything other than work. So he wants, he's looking, this is more like a suggestion for him.

Speaker 1 Please help me.

Speaker 3 I'm a bit of a workaholic and I'm trying to not be. I'm trying to pump those brakes because when you, when people say, it's been 10 years since I helped, and I'm like, it's been 10 years.

Speaker 3 I've been doing this for, you know, at that pace for that long. It's a little terrifying.

Speaker 3 But I think that's the,

Speaker 3 well, I don't think I know that's one of the

Speaker 3 life lessons that I learned during the pandemic to be able to or to make sure that i have a work-life balance yeah um because i really love working i just love it yeah yeah

Speaker 1 but life is also important but do you travel and stuff like do you go like i'm gonna finish this job and i'm gonna take time and i'm gonna go to

Speaker 3 Europe or whatever like is that is that your thing well you know what's funny is I always say I'm gonna take after this I'm gonna go take some time to travel.

Speaker 3 And then, and I always make this declaration, I'm done working after this, guys, after this job, I'm done working for the year. And then someone comes along with a great project and you're like,

Speaker 3 well, you know, and so the next thing you know, another nine months has passed.

Speaker 3 And so that's been the situation, quite honestly.

Speaker 3 But, you know, that's one of the reasons why I'm making sure to get back to my roots and see some trees and some grass growing and go to friends' houses and hang out.

Speaker 3 It's just important to do that.

Speaker 1 And does it matter to you whether it's comedy or drama?

Speaker 1 Do you like being funny or serious more?

Speaker 3 Let me tell you something. You guys are comedic geniuses and you make it look really, really easy.
easy. Comedy is much more difficult than drama to me.

Speaker 3 And so my hat is off to people who can move through both worlds. But I like learning the world of comedy and getting to watch people.

Speaker 3 Jason, I'm telling you, it was such an honor because I think you're one of those people who

Speaker 3 you can do everything. And to get to watch you effortlessly do comedy.
No, listen, honey,

Speaker 3 this is not anything that I've not said behind your back.

Speaker 1 Don't worry, we're going to cut this.

Speaker 3 You're going to cut all of this out, huh? Yeah,

Speaker 1 we're not going to let this go out.

Speaker 3 Just watching you in your element, I learned so much.

Speaker 3 You never overplayed you look past the crab arms

Speaker 3 those crab arms

Speaker 1 were delicious they were delicious

Speaker 1 beautifully cooked oh yeah you had crab arms arms in that film yeah no and my character was pissed off about it how could you have it how could you get a superhero power and it'd be crab arms

Speaker 3 it was the best it made me hungry though it made me hungry you and me both

Speaker 1 that's very sweet we all feel the same way about each other actually all four of us on today's show yeah? Yeah, you know. It's a lot of love.
Brilliant. It's a lot of love.
Octavia, and then.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes, yes. Sorry.
Yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 With all that's going on, thank you for taking an hour out of your busy schedule to be here with us today. Very nice.

Speaker 1 Please.

Speaker 3 It's an honor. And

Speaker 3 it was so hard for me to not reveal that I was on early. And I don't know if you guys heard me giggling in the background while you're in your opening.
It was like, oh, God, I'm going to spoil this.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Please, please, please tell Ryan and Will and Sean to stick it in their ass for us.

Speaker 1 I will. Thank you.
And if they laugh, keep it dead fan and say, they mean it. They mean it.

Speaker 3 I'm going to sell it, guys. I'm going to sell it.

Speaker 1 I love you much. Thank you, Octavia.
What a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so, so much.

Speaker 3 God bless you guys and take care. Bless you too.

Speaker 1 Thanks, Octavia. Bye.
Bye. Bye.

Speaker 1 She did the laptop show.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 She's only the second one that's done that. Second one.
Best way to do it. It's a nice having you and a pleasant goodbye.
Yeah. And then just shut it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like she's a little pearl in an oyster shell and she just closes it back up. It doesn't feel the need to like hang around after and go like, hey, guys, that was great.

Speaker 1 I was glad that I was able to introduce you to my talk show character.

Speaker 1 And then now we can say bye for real. Right.
No, no, no. Which is why I always liked about Letterman, because you do Letterman.
What the fuck am I looking at right now?

Speaker 1 Sorry, I took my shoe off for a second. It's my van's shoe.
It's one of his shoes. It's a van's shoe.

Speaker 1 And I was just making a point that, you know, when you go to Letterman, he didn't do a lot of, there wasn't a lot of small talk. Not a lot of commercial chit-chat.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The commercial chit-chapping. Yeah, when you go to commercial, yeah.
Dave would. Yeah, Carson would light up a cigarette.
He'd sit there, light up a cigarette, and watch Doc play in the band. Really?

Speaker 1 Right in his seat there. Yeah, yeah, during the commercial break.

Speaker 1 Right on the stage.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just fire up a butt. No.

Speaker 1 When I first moved to L.A. and I went to a taping of Jay Leno, I was shocked.
I was wondered what they do during commercial breaks, right?

Speaker 1 And I'm sitting in the audience and the host and the guests never talk, really. They just sit there next to each other.
You just come from a taping of Price is Wright, right?

Speaker 1 Because you did like every show.

Speaker 1 And you were like, I would just watch Rod Ridey. He's had so much fun with everybody.

Speaker 1 Come on down.

Speaker 1 So then I go to Leno and I go, God, Sean.

Speaker 1 Here's what I like about Octavia. Here's what I love about Octavia.
She seems like an actor's actor, right? So

Speaker 1 from the outside, I always think like certain actors or actresses, they just like become famous. And I don't know, I don't understand like where they came from.

Speaker 1 But Octavia really worked her ass off to become who she is. And we all kind of have the same circle of friends.
And it's like, oh, she just seems like very of actors. I agree.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there's also, you could tell that she's exactly who she is today, who she was back in the day, as opposed to some people get famous and they go, oh, I'm famous now.

Speaker 1 I can unzip this suit and zip on this one, and now I'm this guy, and everybody better fucking stand back.

Speaker 1 And we've talked about it. The three of us have.
We know people who fame has changed them and not necessarily for the better. Looking at two of them,

Speaker 1 like that fucking Ryan Reynolds and Will Farrell. Right.
I mean, Jesus Christ, they keep it. They're prevailing upwards.
God damn it.

Speaker 1 They jumped right through. You know what? I'm glad they're in a movie together now because maybe they'll cancel each other out.

Speaker 1 From your lips. I know.

Speaker 1 But you're right. You're right.
That Octavia does seem to have, and maybe it's also a product of the fact that she did work for so long in casting and was a reader.

Speaker 1 So she knows what it's like in having that sort of sense of, I mean, the three of us know what it's like.

Speaker 1 Jason, you grew up doing this, but still, you know what it's like when things aren't going great.

Speaker 1 I was struggling. I was struggling.

Speaker 1 struggling i i yeah i got a couple of real heartbreaking callbacks for uh golden graham spot that i really really wanted uh is that true there no no i actually booked that one no but you did you did you had some lean years though in all

Speaker 1 plenty of them plenty of them and sean you know what that's like it's it gives you perspective yeah absolutely i you know i as soon as i i i would get so nervous in casting though like going for auditions as soon as i i you know got in there i'd say hello and i would want to buy tail it out of there.

Speaker 1 By tail it out of there. No, no.
Fine. No, fucking fire.
You're on your own. You're on an island, and that's that's not the end of the show.
You're on fire.

Speaker 1 You're off the fucking, that's that was so embarrassing.

Speaker 1 Burn your mic and shut yourself up. By the way, Jason,

Speaker 1 Jason, I mean this is both a compliment. Here it comes.

Speaker 1 Will's going to be a good one.

Speaker 1 Initially, it's a compliment.

Speaker 1 But it's safe to say that these, for you, are not the lean years. Yeah, what are they? Both professionally and the way.

Speaker 1 Instead, they are.

Speaker 1 These are not your linears. No.
Because you're doing so well is what I mean.

Speaker 1 Because you're doing so well. And you know what I mean? It's like,

Speaker 1 is there not a buy going on? I know. Just waiting for the.
I thought you were teeing yourself up. No? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I mean, basically,

Speaker 1 well, I'm taking a big bite

Speaker 1 out of the

Speaker 1 bite.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no, no. We don't have it yet.
We don't have it yet.

Speaker 1 We don't have it. We didn't earn it.
We didn't have it. I thought mine was good.
Yeah. No.
No, yours was terrible.

Speaker 1 That was one of the worst. And we're keeping it in worse ones.
That was one of the worst. And we're keeping it in.

Speaker 1 We should cut that one. Nope.
No, we're not going to cut it. Are you out of your fucking mind? No, we're thank you.
We're keeping it.

Speaker 1 We're going to sit here and we're going to keep talking until somebody comes up with an idea and tries to gently braid it into the conversation.

Speaker 1 So again, so Octavia. Fantastic.
Fantastic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Incredible. She's there in Boston.
I'm throwing out options for you guys. Sean, stop writing ideas down.
Yeah, stop writing ideas down. Stop with your fucking shit.

Speaker 1 You're trying to go by with something that rhymes with high.

Speaker 1 Okay. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 She doesn't need help. No, we don't need help.
No, no, no. We don't have any fucking help.
God. Well, just let us sink.
So imagine what she's doing today. She's up there.

Speaker 1 She's enjoying her life. She's making a musical.
Yeah, go on. She's up there in Boston.
It's a nice, sunny day. Sure.
And she might just get along the Charles River.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, just going on one of those beautiful bike trails.

Speaker 1 We've drew that one before. Did we? Bike.

Speaker 1 Bike.

Speaker 1 Sean, you just went bike.

Speaker 1 That was terrible. Okay, you know what? Here's this.
I'll tell you what. This has been the worst attempt to end to the show.
Real sloppy ending. Really sloppy.
And you know what?

Speaker 1 It's left me with a taste in my mouth. My mouth is full of bile.

Speaker 1 acceptable bile definitely acceptable

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