"Claire Danes"

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Speaker 2 That was a good drink.

Speaker 1 Speaking of drinking things up, welcome to Smartless. Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 listener, you've missed 10 seconds of

Speaker 1 this.

Speaker 1 Another attempt at us doing a podcast where I mentioned how fresh Will looks and then Will

Speaker 1 seemed to imply he knew his way around the verbiage of a facial.

Speaker 1 And I had a facial scheduled for the other day because my wife was like, What was the dude's name? Oh, you.

Speaker 1 My wife's very diligent about getting me a facial, making sure I get a facial every like six months.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I got to say, I don't push back a lot. Yeah.
You know, because it feels good. Because it's comfy.
It's comfy. It feels good.
I feel weird with

Speaker 1 a tiny bit of pre-pubescent facial hair on

Speaker 1 my face. And I wonder if I'm just wasting my time in there.
I don't know what

Speaker 1 effectiveness.

Speaker 2 They do a lot of guys like that. I forget to shave a lot of times too.
But, you know,

Speaker 2 I just got one last week and it was really bad.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, that's what I was going to ask.

Speaker 1 How often am I the only guy here?

Speaker 2 No, I get them. I get them like once or twice a year.

Speaker 2 But the last one I had, I didn't, this is no offense to anybody. I just didn't understand a lot of what she said.
So

Speaker 2 she was, you know.

Speaker 1 Why did anybody take any offense to that? Well, I just should understand her.

Speaker 1 If you want to do an imitation of what she's impersonation at all, we'll decide if it's.

Speaker 2 I do not want to. I just am stating a fact.
I did not understand it. It's probably my point.

Speaker 1 I was trying to drag you into deep water. Let me just.

Speaker 1 Can you just reveal what continent she may have been from?

Speaker 2 Well, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 Something Eastern,

Speaker 2 Asia.

Speaker 1 But not Eastern European, because that'd be a

Speaker 1 different accent.

Speaker 2 Well, anyway.

Speaker 1 I feel like I've had a couple facials in my time as well. I think I've probably had eight total in my life, and I think they've generally been

Speaker 1 Eastern European,

Speaker 1 an Eastern European bent. That's right.
Wait, you're saying

Speaker 1 you're under oath now, sir. You need to understand

Speaker 1 only eight facials in your life.

Speaker 1 Maybe ten. Yeah.
God. I don't know.
Honestly, honestly. Really? You don't like them? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I do like them. And it's one of those things.
It's kind of like massages. I always forget.

Speaker 1 I fall asleep. I do it and then I go, oh, this is great.
How many times have you had your fingers and toes done?

Speaker 2 While the facials are done. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 Are we talking Manny Petty? Yeah, Beth. Okay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I would say...

Speaker 1 Less or more than your face. I got

Speaker 1 my first time I ever had

Speaker 1 a pedicure. Manicure manicure was

Speaker 1 when I was 30. No, but I was about 31, probably, 32.
Yeah, so

Speaker 1 it's been, what, 30 years? That's over 25 years.

Speaker 1 So it's like 25 years.

Speaker 1 And so I would say I probably have, I don't know, 25.

Speaker 1 So more

Speaker 1 on the fingers and the toes. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Generally not the fingers, generally just the toes because they get kind of gnarly. Right.
And you do. But a heel gets gnarly.
You like an open-toe shoe. I used to.

Speaker 1 Remember, i used to i used to wear a lot of flips well you don't wear socks ever and i never wear socks so my heels get kind of gross they'd get cracked do you wear underwear yes okay why are we focusing on jason never wears underwear no no he's there was a stretch there through arrested development where i went commando and he would and then he would go to the and then he'd go for a pee and then he and then he'd wrap his unit in toilet paper for the half an hour soak up all the driplets and then rushing to get back on camera and i don't want to 20 minutes later like in between setups he'd like pull out this disgusting toilet paper and put it in a 35-gallon

Speaker 1 trash can

Speaker 1 on set. True story.
That's it.

Speaker 1 So, wow. So, Manny Pettis, often facial, not so much.
Not often. I mean, I probably got one.
I got one in the spring,

Speaker 1 Manny Petty.

Speaker 1 I like going at like 9 a.m. I go to a spot.
I've gotten a few times. I like going at 9 a.m.
This is disgusting. Right when they open.
By the way, says you, you live like a pampered prince.

Speaker 1 If people knew how you live,

Speaker 1 I don't have a target time I like to hit my manny petties on, you know, at my, what was that, my spot? Is that what you said? I have a spot.

Speaker 1 I have a spot over here. And it's always fingers and toes at the same time.
You ever go in for just the one, one or the other? Because you rush for time. Just feet.
Feet. Just feet.

Speaker 1 It's primarily feet. And also, like, because they rub your feet.

Speaker 1 So if you like to soak, don't you? I would say in 25 years, probably 25 times. That's an average of once a year.
Seani, what about you?

Speaker 2 I've gotten a Maddie Petty. The last one I got, she scrubbed my calves so hard I broke out into hives after it was over.

Speaker 1 Huh. That's definitely Eastern European.
That's not a thing.

Speaker 2 No, that was on Larchmont.

Speaker 1 But it has nothing to do with her doing the calves. Yeah, it was terrible.

Speaker 1 Well, listen,

Speaker 1 thanks for the weird morning chat.

Speaker 2 Wait, wait, hold on one second. I forgot.
I have something I need to say and announce.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be doing a show. Sorry, we're out of time.

Speaker 1 Great having you on the show, Sean.

Speaker 1 Whatever you do. Good luck.
We never got to it.

Speaker 1 All right. So this is a one-act.

Speaker 1 Where is it, Williamstown?

Speaker 2 This is a show called The Unknown. It's a one-man play, which is now, I guess people are calling them solos.

Speaker 2 It's written by David Kale, directed by Lee Silverman. It's at Studio Sea View in New York City for 10 weeks only.
Tickets are on sale now at theunknownplay.com.

Speaker 1 Wait, when does it start?

Speaker 2 January 31st.

Speaker 1 January 31st.

Speaker 1 May I just say publicly here? I've said to you privately, I just think it's so freaking admirable and badass that you raised your hand and said yes

Speaker 1 to doing a one-man show is like

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 you know, seeing Krasinski do his thing, and our buddy Billy Cruddup has done it. Laura Lee.

Speaker 2 Yeah, by the way, that's the same writer-director of that show.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just, it's like, what a monumental thing to take.

Speaker 1 I'll go see it. I just, I'm sorry.
I'm just checking my schedule. I can't wait.
Unknown. Who knows what will happen?

Speaker 1 I'm so proud of you, Shawnee. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It's very concerning to sit back and not do anything and just enjoy, but you're challenging yourself and it's rad. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to come, but

Speaker 1 I do think that it will probably be good. Right.
Well, thank you for that. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And who are your co-stars?

Speaker 1 Yeah. So it's

Speaker 1 that's my friend who listens a lot.

Speaker 2 Theunknownplay.com.

Speaker 1 That's where you hear it.

Speaker 1 Theunknownplay.com. And it starts the end of January.
Get your tickets now.

Speaker 1 I will be there with bells on. Thank you.
Thank you. Yep.
Let's get to our guest. We're going to ask her what her hygiene routine is.

Speaker 1 I'll bet it's significant because you know what? This is called self-care. It's not hygiene.
It's self-care, by the way. Yeah, self-care.

Speaker 1 She's been impressing critics and audiences for over 30 years, you guys, achieving incredible success, yet finds herself even more relevant today than ever before.

Speaker 1 Okay. She's been awarded multiple Emmys, Golden Globes, SAGs, all that crap.
And she's been named one of time's most influential people in the world. That's something none of us can say.
Never will.

Speaker 1 She's Yale-educated. Also, you can't say that.

Speaker 1 She's a proud mother of three. You can't say that.

Speaker 1 And she's very kind to the women of Afghanistan. Can you guys say that?

Speaker 1 Guys, let's welcome Chris and Clara's girl, the one and only Claire Danes. Come on out.

Speaker 1 Hi, guys.

Speaker 1 Oh, my gosh. I'm such a big fan.

Speaker 1 I mean, she's everything.

Speaker 3 It's really nice to meet you.

Speaker 1 Well, again,

Speaker 1 you are.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you have all had more facials than I have, I think.

Speaker 1 Truly? Is that true? Come on. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Really? Occasionally, like I'm gifted a facial by, I don't know. Right.

Speaker 1 Like a start gift from an agent.

Speaker 3 Yes, something like that.

Speaker 1 And I'll go.

Speaker 1 Start gift.

Speaker 3 And I enjoy it, but I, yeah, I forget to. But I do, I do get my nails done weekly.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 3 Because it's like my office. I get a lot of work done.
I never do the fingers. I experimented with the gels for a little while, but that was quite stressful because I don't know.

Speaker 1 It's also a whole different look, right? I mean, I've got two daughters, and I'm starting to get educated on the gels versus let's have some discipline and let it grow out naturally.

Speaker 1 I feel like it is a cultural statement to have gels on.

Speaker 3 It is. And you can't, you have to go back to get them off.

Speaker 3 So that is the hard part.

Speaker 3 That made me feel kind of panicked and claustrophobic.

Speaker 1 Or you can be on the volleyball team, and then they just come off naturally. Right.

Speaker 3 Well, but I don't play enough volleyball.

Speaker 1 I like the way JB couches it in, oh, my daughters helped educate me. Like, fucking bullshit.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 baby

Speaker 1 my weekend gel sessions how many times does he go like oh well my kids really i'm like no you like it i like gels i used to drag my my my son cyrus our eldest son um

Speaker 3 with with me to the salon yeah and i got he at about five he he had had enough but until then and then i had to bribe him with like an ipad no no but i just really enjoyed that experience of going with him what about all fancy dancy?

Speaker 1 Does he get the feet and toes done?

Speaker 3 Very, very occasionally. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You keep your man tight, you know?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Or are you the kind of gal that likes their guy to have a little bit of a little bit of dirt under the nails?

Speaker 3 It depends what kind of dirt. Yeah.

Speaker 3 If it's like cute upstate dirt, sure. Right.

Speaker 1 That's very cute dirt. Because some women,

Speaker 1 some women,

Speaker 1 they're kind of turned off by a guy that actually keeps himself very clean.

Speaker 1 I'm one of those guys, I would turn a woman off.

Speaker 1 I understand thread count. I understand candles and cigarettes and things like that.
No, I'm for it.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 1 I'm not like a man's man. No, no, that's a quote.

Speaker 1 You won't find me on a horse unless. Hang on a second.
I'm emailing the smarthless merch people that

Speaker 1 we've got a new hoodie coming out.

Speaker 1 I'm not a I'm not a man to man.

Speaker 1 Claire, where are we finding you? What part of the world?

Speaker 1 What side of the United States are you on right now?

Speaker 3 I live in New York City.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 I'm jealous. So

Speaker 1 this looks like it could be a brownstone, too.

Speaker 3 It's a brownstone. We've been here not for very long.
We've been here about a year because we had this oopsie-daisy third baby.

Speaker 1 And she's going to love it. That's what happens.
You got to be careful. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I'm not.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That was, I was so so old when that happened.

Speaker 1 I was 44. How old is the baby?

Speaker 3 She's two now.

Speaker 1 Oh, cute.

Speaker 1 You got pregnant at 44?

Speaker 3 I sure did.

Speaker 1 Golly. Yeah.
You good for human. I didn't think it was possible.
I really didn't. It was rare.

Speaker 3 So, no,

Speaker 3 it was, I was terrified, but it all was okay.

Speaker 1 Can I use the term blessing? What a blessing. It was total blessing.
How did you find, how did you find having a

Speaker 1 surprise, as you said, a surprise blessing

Speaker 1 at that point?

Speaker 3 Well, you know, it was actually really interesting

Speaker 3 because

Speaker 3 I did not foresee this at all. And it was weird.
Suddenly I felt like a funny shame. Really?

Speaker 1 Like, like I was. You're going to know I'm not going to be able to do it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, like I was naughty.

Speaker 3 Like I had been caught. like

Speaker 3 fornicating past the point I was meant to.

Speaker 3 No, it was weird because I was, and I and it was it was like I found an edge that I didn't I hadn't been quite conscious of.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Like there's a certain like I was going outside of the parameters a little bit.

Speaker 3 And I and I and that was in that was wild.

Speaker 1 How what's the what's what's the age spread with the the kid right before it?

Speaker 3 Um

Speaker 3 So Cyrus is 12. He'll be 13 in December.
Rowan, our second boy is seven. And then Shay.
Yeah, so there's about five years between each. Wow.
But it's a trip. I mean, I have a teenager and I a toddler.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And this last one is a girl? A girl.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Wow. Yeah, I know.
I got really, really lucky. My, my, yeah, my OBGYN was like, you know, you're having another boy.
But no, turns out.

Speaker 1 You would have been pissed off. You definitely would have been pissed off.

Speaker 3 I would have been delighted.

Speaker 3 But I am more delighted that I, yeah, that she's pretty cool. And

Speaker 3 she loves a tutu.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Who doesn't? Who doesn't? Tutu and a dog.
I am noticing that this five-year gap is very good. My eldest just left the house for college.

Speaker 1 And the fact that I've still got a 13-year-old, so I've got another five years of like before I get really, really depressed

Speaker 1 is great instead of just usually that usual gap of, what, two, three years or something like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you get built-in. I say, I've got a five-year-old and an almost 17-year-old as of next week.
Right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 It's kind of a trip.

Speaker 1 It's great. It's amazing.
I have a five-year-old dog. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sean, with your diet, you're going to be moving into a 3-3 pretty soon.

Speaker 1 Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 Sorry.

Speaker 3 Do you take him to get pedicures too? Do you have to bribe him with the iPad as well?

Speaker 1 No, I don't.

Speaker 1 I don't go often enough, despite what I'm doing. No, I was asking Sean about his dog.
Oh, is Sean's dog? Yeah, exactly. How often do you get Ricky's toes done?

Speaker 2 Once a week.

Speaker 1 I'll bet you. Once a week.

Speaker 2 Yeah, once a week.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, and that's that's and that's a thing.
Though, those, that nail grinder for a dog, I like, I don't know how they sit still for that.

Speaker 2 Well, they, well, they, you tie, you, you tie their neck around the thing so they stay on the, on the table. What?

Speaker 1 You know, what are you doing? I'm a monster.

Speaker 2 And then Ricky gets up.

Speaker 1 No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 1 Oh, great. Here comes the letters from PETA.
Here we fucking go. Way to go, Sean.

Speaker 2 No, because he's a golden dude, so you have to brush him out every week and all this stuff. You can wash them.
He gets real dirty. Anyway, who cares?

Speaker 1 When's the last time you washed your own dog, Sean?

Speaker 2 When he was a puppy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Years ago.

Speaker 1 Absolutely years ago. When's the last time you walked your own dog?

Speaker 2 Almost every day.

Speaker 1 Liar. I swear to you, I love

Speaker 1 you. You actually do live in an area with sidewalks and streets and front yards.
I would walk dogs. I'd have a dog with you.
Sorry, Claire. They'll be right with you there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what about dogs there in the city? You have a dog there in the city? I had a dog.

Speaker 3 I had a schnoodle for about 16 years. His name was Ouija.

Speaker 1 Oh, great. passed.

Speaker 3 And then we adopted a cat when we were filming a season of Homeland in Morocco, Harold Hamza, and he was a bit of a nightmare. He pissed on everything.

Speaker 1 Those Moroccan cats.

Speaker 1 Is he still with us or no?

Speaker 3 You know what? After a really rough five years of

Speaker 3 dealing with this

Speaker 3 urine-soaked

Speaker 3 sofa furniture,

Speaker 3 I had to re-home him, which which was very stressful i've done that and and not obvious um but found this saint in indiana this woman who has a cat sanctuary

Speaker 3 and then three months into that arrangement which was actually ideal we got you know weekly photos and reports and things he died

Speaker 3 like there was some clot or I don't know I think he was fine

Speaker 1 the whole thing was wild

Speaker 1 from the rough streets of Casablanca to a pretty cushy situation

Speaker 1 in Indiana.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And then so when Ouija died, we had Harold Hamza and then we adopted another cat, Mary, as in like Christmas. Our son Rowan named her that.

Speaker 3 When he was like three in the middle of the summer, it was very confusing.

Speaker 3 And we said, why did you, why Mary? Everybody thinks it's Mary. It's not.
Yeah. He said, I just thought it was a good name for a cat.

Speaker 1 That's a great reason.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Anyway.

Speaker 2 Wait, Claire, how do you and Jay, how do you guys know each other?

Speaker 1 Did you work together? We don't really.

Speaker 3 I mean, we've had a conversation, maybe, but

Speaker 1 it is sort of surprising because we've both been banging around in this thing since we were kids.

Speaker 1 I know it's a little weird. You guys had a conversation.
Where was the location? Jason would be be right with you. Jason, I'm not asking you.
I'm asking Claude because I want to get the truth.

Speaker 3 I think we had a conversation on the phone, and I don't even really know why, but we did.

Speaker 1 Were you surprised at how short he was? Sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 3 No, do you know what? I know how long ago it was because it was around.

Speaker 3 I think it was like the same day that my parents delivered my schnoodle to me.

Speaker 1 They went and picked him up in Kentucky.

Speaker 3 They live in LA.

Speaker 3 I live in New York, but you know, and I was filming in LA and they delivered this tiny little animal to me in my hotel room in LA. And I just, I had just talked to you for, you know, curious reasons.

Speaker 3 It was a nice conversation.

Speaker 1 Where did you grow up?

Speaker 3 I grew up in New York. I grew up in

Speaker 3 Soho, yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, in the city.

Speaker 3 In the city.

Speaker 1 Ergo, the name of your company, yes.

Speaker 1 Is that the address of the place you grew up in, Crosby? Crosby. Well, actually, okay, yes.

Speaker 3 I grew up on Crosby Street. My parents were artists and they moved to Soho, you know, in the late 60s.
And

Speaker 3 when it be, you know, because there were all these factory buildings that were closing down, and

Speaker 3 you actually had to legally prove that you were an artist to live there because there was this concerted effort to, you know, transform.

Speaker 1 And they're trying to retroactively now charge all these finance bros that have gone in there and bought these artist lofts for,

Speaker 1 yeah um anyway like you you now have to prove that you're an artist to maintain this sweet deal on those places oh i didn't yeah they're trying to get it through i don't think it'll be wow that's fascinating

Speaker 3 um but then they went on to do different things and my dad was a he had been a photographer we still had a dark room in our loft my entire entire childhood a vestige of his the you know from his time as a photographer but he was a contractor and had a company called overall construction and now my production company name is overall production oh that's um yeah um and my mom uh ran a toddler school in our loft called crosby kids wow huh so that was weird um yeah yeah so and and then i like was then i started acting and

Speaker 3 got jobs which was very successful.

Speaker 1 Yeah, how'd that start?

Speaker 1 What was the impetus for that?

Speaker 3 I always knew I wanted to act, and I danced as a kid.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 occasionally,

Speaker 3 dance companies would come to my class looking for young talent, and I would get hired.

Speaker 3 And I started, you know, performing every so often in these black box theaters on the Lower East Side to 12 people

Speaker 1 and loved it.

Speaker 3 And then started taking acting classes at Lee Strasburg, which is like down the street from me now, which is very funny. And how old were you?

Speaker 1 Same. Same.
I was the same.

Speaker 3 Oh, really? I was 10.

Speaker 3 But it was like on a Saturday, and most kids were there because it was either that or like tennis class, but I was just so invested in the experience, you know, like such an earnest Nellie about it.

Speaker 3 And then there was a performing arts junior high school called PPAS, Professional Performing Arts School. It was its first year of its existence, and I and I went.

Speaker 3 And then I met kids there who were professional performing people

Speaker 3 and you know, discovered what a headshot was and what an agent was and how to, you know, get them.

Speaker 3 And actually, that dark room came in handy because the woman who was renting it out kind of swapped rent money for headshots. So she took my headshots.

Speaker 3 And then I had done some student films when I was a kid.

Speaker 3 And so I had like something to show an agent.

Speaker 3 And,

Speaker 3 you know, my first job was law and order, you know, like

Speaker 3 New York. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's cool. And how soon after that did you get what I'm a huge fan of? And I'm sorry you get asked all the time about it, my so-called life,

Speaker 2 which I used to watch all the time.

Speaker 3 Oh, that's so nice. Yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 1 I loved it.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I was 13 when I did the pilot.

Speaker 3 And then it did not get picked up.

Speaker 1 And I,

Speaker 3 yeah, I'd gone to public school my whole life, but then made a chunk of change and could afford to send myself to private school. So I went to this fancy school called Dalton.

Speaker 3 And then halfway through my freshman year,

Speaker 3 they actually did pick up the show, and I went to make the rest of it in LA and stayed there for four years. My parents followed me.

Speaker 3 My brother is seven years older, so he was already at college at this point. So we were kind of available to have this adventure.

Speaker 1 And so were you working in correspondence with Dalton or did you enroll in a different school?

Speaker 3 Yeah, for that first year.

Speaker 3 And then eventually I went to L'Alyse francais in la oh yeah in culversation barely there yes on motor yeah you betcha yeah yeah i tried to get in there they they wouldn't have me um but yeah i like maybe went five days a year and but i was mostly like tutored from that point on yeah on sets

Speaker 1 we'll be right back

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Speaker 2 And now back to the show.

Speaker 1 I remember my so called Life, it had

Speaker 1 it kind of had that,

Speaker 1 it was critically acclaimed, and so it was kind of like sputtered a little bit.

Speaker 1 It lived in this weird place where everybody loved it, but the network didn't know what to do. Yeah, I mean, am I right about that?

Speaker 3 Nobody really watched it while it was on. And we didn't even complete a full season.
We didn't make it to the 22

Speaker 3 mark.

Speaker 3 We got canceled at 19 episodes.

Speaker 3 But then

Speaker 3 it had a pretty, you know, the people who did watch were

Speaker 3 devoted and passionate, and they made a ruckus. And

Speaker 1 then it got bought by other,

Speaker 1 it aired like it was on like MTV. MTV had an audience.

Speaker 3 It was on MTV.

Speaker 3 And so it was, and then it found its audience kind of after the fact.

Speaker 1 Tom Preston picked it up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, am I right that your mom was your manager during during this period?

Speaker 1 Yeah, kind of like by default.

Speaker 3 I mean, she was, you know, I was a kid and she was with me all the time. And yeah.

Speaker 1 When did that I ask only because

Speaker 1 my parents were my manager as well. And it was, it was complicated.
Was it, was it, did you, did you, did you disengage from that before it became,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 it made sense for a period of time and then it made more sense to just be mom and

Speaker 3 Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it wasn't uncommon. Most kids had their parents, yeah, yeah.
But then once that they start, you know, you're paying them a percentage, and then that's kind of weird.

Speaker 1 And you know, it changes your relationship with your parents. Yeah, a lot.
I mean, by definition, you're the employer. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, grab me a coffee real quick. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But I was very, I mean, we were all just so stunned by this. You know, nobody anticipated this at all.
We were just like totally naive.

Speaker 3 And, you know, then they

Speaker 3 weirdly, we moved to LA

Speaker 3 the day after those Northridge, that Northridge earthquake.

Speaker 1 I think 96, 94.

Speaker 1 94, 94. Sorry.

Speaker 3 And it was a wild way to parachute into our new reality there because everybody was just ashen and traumatized.

Speaker 1 It must have been horrified. Like two days before you're set to leave, your bags are packed.
You see on the news, oh, the place we're going just got shaken. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And then it was a week of aftershock.

Speaker 1 So we landed it was like you know oh my god

Speaker 3 and uh it was like a it was a very apt metaphor for what we were feeling already you know

Speaker 3 um but but yeah so and but then my parents really loved it my mom went to grad school in her 50s they came back to their their art so she went to a school called otis and oh yeah my dad built like his and her studios in their backyard and they you know full circle you just jarred my memory because my father was my dad was also a photographer and he used to

Speaker 2 take photos of all of us as kids all the time and blow the pictures up and put them

Speaker 1 up on the wall

Speaker 1 and would he put those photos just above the sunshade in the car so he could just look at them when he's going down the highway

Speaker 1 wait did he process his own photos

Speaker 2 yeah so he he had a dark room in the basement. Sure.
And

Speaker 2 he would develop them there. And then, you know, he would put them on the wall of the house.
And it was really cool, but weird for them. So did your dad do your photos and your headshots and all that?

Speaker 3 No, no, he didn't.

Speaker 3 But no, I mean, he didn't really take many photos of people. He likes a landscape.

Speaker 1 Oh, I see, I see, I see.

Speaker 3 I mean, I'm sure he does take photos of us, of course, all the time, but that's not, yeah.

Speaker 3 People don't tend to populate his images.

Speaker 1 but so with with with with am i right was your mom a your mom was a sculptor is that no my mom does yeah she was a textile designer initially and that and now she does she has a lot of etchings she does do a lot of sculpture and she paints it's but both but both being artists were you just sort of kind of obviously it's in your blood but did you kind of think from a very very early age that arts is going to be your path because i think your brother's a lawyer is that right yeah yeah so like where how was it was was it kind of predetermined or no or no well it was a pretty creative environment that's for sure yeah i mean they had a lot of art materials everywhere it was fun we had also we had even before the baby school we had a trapeze and a trampoline and a swing

Speaker 1 dirty hippies

Speaker 3 yeah yeah it was like that wow uh And we had all of our furniture was like found off of the street. And my dad collected these old signs.
So it was funky. And

Speaker 3 they had fun tools. They had a light box and, you know,

Speaker 3 I was at

Speaker 3 a very unfair advantage with my school projects because

Speaker 1 your brother just said, screw it to all of that. I'm going into law.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 I mean, he's creative too. He was very athletic.
He was, I don't know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It was.

Speaker 3 But then I did that show. I did that show, Finding Your Roots.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Uh-oh.
What did you find out?

Speaker 3 Well, many things.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 my dad's mom, Claire, who I'm named after, she died when he was nine. So there was very, very little information about her.
I knew nothing about her.

Speaker 3 And people, of course, ask, you know, are there any people in the performing arts in your family? No, a lot of visual artists, a lot of academics, but not, you know. But it turns out she

Speaker 3 went to Northwestern. It must have been in like the 40s.

Speaker 1 Northwestern in Chicago? Yeah. Cool at home.

Speaker 3 And got her

Speaker 3 studied theater and wrote her master's on the role of dance and Shakespearean drama and had directed plays and acted in them. And I had no clue about that.

Speaker 1 So it was in your DNA a little bit. Yeah.
I was really moved by that. Did she like her diamond in Illinois?

Speaker 3 I have no idea. I don't know anything beyond that.

Speaker 1 But yeah.

Speaker 3 Anyway, I also had

Speaker 3 my ninth

Speaker 3 great-grandmother was hanged in Salem for being a witch. Wow.

Speaker 1 Talking about big reveal.

Speaker 1 Is that true? Yes.

Speaker 2 Wait, your great grandmother.

Speaker 1 You found this on the show. Yes.

Speaker 1 Well, how did they find that out? What do you do? What are we doing?

Speaker 3 Through like legal documents.

Speaker 1 Through other witches. Through other witches.
Yeah. Through a crystal ball, you idiot.

Speaker 1 Witch.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Being a witch,

Speaker 3 hanged, hanged. Hanged.
I know. I learned that word.
I didn't know it before then.

Speaker 1 So wait, so did she practice witchcraft and all that?

Speaker 3 No, no. Actually,

Speaker 3 she was the oldest woman to be hanged.

Speaker 3 She was 72. She was a widow, and I think she was just like...
low-hanging fruit. Like she was just an easy scapegoat.

Speaker 1 How about that one, crossing the road? Yeah, yeah, basically. I think maybe.

Speaker 3 I mean, who knows? But yeah, like we, there are reports because this, she was, went to court and everything, but people accused her of,

Speaker 3 what was it, of

Speaker 3 like cursing their cows and then putting like, and then the cows would rear on their hind legs and she would penetrate people's dreams.

Speaker 1 And like, yeah, she didn't do anything.

Speaker 1 What year is this? I wonder.

Speaker 3 A long time ago. I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Like, would it be 1500s, 1600s, 1700s? Maybe 1700. No, it's late.

Speaker 2 It's after 180, probably early.

Speaker 1 1500s in Salem. Yeah.
North Carolina.

Speaker 1 No. No.

Speaker 1 Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, Massachusetts.
There's a few different Salems. Okay.
All right. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of money.

Speaker 1 Between 1692 and May 1693.

Speaker 1 Oh, you got a Google machine? Yep. Is that right? I had access to Google.
That's what it says. Wow.
Okay. Well, I was way off.
I know. More than 200 people were accused, it claims.
That's it?

Speaker 1 The Salem, what's up? 30 people were found guilty.

Speaker 1 30 were found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging. Yeah.
Wow. And your ancestor was one of them.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 For

Speaker 1 cursing cows. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Dream penetration.

Speaker 1 She had it coming.

Speaker 3 My bad.

Speaker 1 Oh, guys, let's go around the corner. Everybody, your dream penetration.
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 That's different. Sorry.

Speaker 1 Different. I know.
Accent on the second word. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So marching through the canon of your career here,

Speaker 1 let's go to 96. Let's go to Romeo and Juliet.
Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 Working with Baz Luhrmann was like, what was that set like?

Speaker 1 I remember when that film came out, I was like, oh, my God, like the production design and like this big swing on this classic. And like,

Speaker 1 was it nerve-wracking or exciting to be on something that was taking such a big swing and it was such a big project?

Speaker 3 Yeah, all of the above. It was a total dream.
I loved it.

Speaker 3 It was intense. We filmed in Mexico City

Speaker 3 and I haven't been since. I loved it, but it's like it's an unruly, you know, vibrating, brilliant place.

Speaker 3 And.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it was the whole thing felt very charged and alive and scary and fun. And Baz was wonderful.

Speaker 3 And he was very clear about making this

Speaker 3 accessible and exciting for everybody the way Shakespeare, you know,

Speaker 3 also intended his work to be once upon a time.

Speaker 1 Had you done some Shakespeare prior to that? And have you done after?

Speaker 3 No, I haven't. And I hadn't.
There was like a month where I read everything in iambic pentameter, you know, like the cereal boxes.

Speaker 1 But, but yeah, it was,

Speaker 3 no, it was, it was amazing.

Speaker 1 So you so you did so then I hear you did you you're saying you did some research there for at least a month.

Speaker 3 I think I read a book on iambic pentameter.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 there's my question. How diligent are you?

Speaker 1 What kind of actor are you? Are you are you the one that like does a massive amount of research and you got to do a lot of things? I'm a little nerdy about it.

Speaker 3 I'm a little but not every not every role asks that of you. Correct.
I mean, I don't do it for the sake of it. I do it if I

Speaker 3 actually need to learn something.

Speaker 3 Like right now, I'm about to play a pediatric neurosurgeon. And so I'm like reading some books.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you should know. Neurosurgery.

Speaker 3 I sat in on a brain surgery. Oh,

Speaker 1 I want to know all about that. I wouldn't be able to do that.

Speaker 1 Did you pass out?

Speaker 3 No, but the...

Speaker 1 I asked that because I heard about somebody recently who sat in on one of the

Speaker 3 lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think think it happens a lot.

Speaker 3 And the surgeon's assistant did say, like, you may think you're about us, but if you have the thought, oh, I might faint, you're fainting. And we can't have that happen.
So please let me know.

Speaker 1 And the second you feel seated.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And I don't know. There was like a half an hour where

Speaker 3 I was doing some conscious breathing.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute. So you're standing there while the brain is open and they're working on the brain.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What was the moment that started to get you a little bit, I might be starting to pass out here? Was it lifting of the skin?

Speaker 3 The residents were prepping the head for the actual surgeon to come and do his work.

Speaker 1 But yeah, so they cut the scalp and they peel it back and they bore four holes into the skull.

Speaker 3 Yeah, and then there's like I think it's called the derma or something. There's a thin layer of

Speaker 3 skin that they have to suture. They suture the corners and then they hoik it up like a tent.
And then you have the brain ready.

Speaker 1 But wait, what about the part where they take like a bone saw and they cut the piece of the scalp? That's right. So they do the four holes and then they cut with a saw and then they lift.

Speaker 2 And the brain's exposed?

Speaker 1 Yes. Oh my God.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 It was, I actually, I really understood in a different way that we are vehicles. Yes.

Speaker 3 We are. cars.
Yeah. And we are not our bodies.
Like we experience ourselves and the the world through our bodies, but

Speaker 3 that was like a that was a profound thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 That, you know, to really know that on a different level. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So did the person that you watched, was it a success and all that?

Speaker 3 Yeah, she had a brain tumor and then she didn't. But it was a lot of tumor.
It took a long time to suction that out.

Speaker 3 But isn't it wild, like the kind of access we have?

Speaker 3 It was very embarrassing because they have something called a timeout where everybody in the room has to announce themselves and say why they're there.

Speaker 1 It's like, ugh. Really, just to make sure everybody's cognizant.

Speaker 2 I'm Claire. I'll be playing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll be playing you in a month.

Speaker 1 Wait a second. In the operating room, there's a let's go around and introduce ourselves.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Just so everybody's accountable.

Speaker 1 They don't already know each other, this team?

Speaker 3 They do. I think it's just a ritualistic thing just to kind of get everybody focused.

Speaker 2 And then they announce what the procedure is going to be. And so everybody knows they're in the right room.

Speaker 2 it's like fast you've heard all the rapid fire it's not a big deal it's just right you know you've heard all the stories about like they took off out the wrong kidney or they took out that something went wrong it's because that's why they announce everything so this is why we're here this is what we're doing this is who i am this is what we're yeah yeah i mean the people that do this that's surgeon i know

Speaker 3 and i have to say like our sets are so much more protected

Speaker 3 you know look i i was vetted i was you know i had a badge and everything but i wasn't anybody but it felt relatively porous. Like, you know, on a set, the feeling is so can be so serious.

Speaker 3 Like we are actually saving. It was much more serious than it was in the Old Testament.

Speaker 1 Claire, I went to an event recently, and it was a very sort of Hollywood event, and they had dogs and looking under the cars and stuff. And I'm like, motherfucker, nobody's coming for our stars.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 Right. Right.
It's so true.

Speaker 2 Everybody's over it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was very humbled by it, but, but, yeah. So

Speaker 3 in those kind of cases, I will do, yeah, like for Homeland, I I had to figure out how to be a spy and got to go to Langley and meet those guys and also had to figure out what it was to be bipolar.

Speaker 3 That was fascinating. When I played Temple, I had to learn about autism.

Speaker 3 So yes, in some cases, you have to do something.

Speaker 1 I've got a nice little sitcom for you.

Speaker 1 A nice little multi-cam. And, you know, it's just.
This is JB's dream, by the way. Sorry, Claire.
He's just walking through his dream.

Speaker 1 JB, what time do you roll into your parking spot on the sitcom?

Speaker 1 10 a.m., right?

Speaker 1 Don't you, I mean, you have played, taken on voluntarily a lot of very heavy parts, and you do them incredibly well.

Speaker 1 Does it ever get exhausting to be believably in a space of weightiness 12 hours a day for years on end?

Speaker 3 It's hard when you're first figuring it out.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 once you are sort of oriented within the character and you've kind of made sense of her, it gets a little easier. It was very cool on Homeland to play

Speaker 3 somebody for so very long.

Speaker 3 You know, like

Speaker 3 you had kind of played your backstory. You lived your backstory.
So

Speaker 3 and you know the actors that you're working with so very well. You know, like it was just...

Speaker 3 That was amazing to have that fluency and that and that juice, you know?

Speaker 3 Yeah, finding the momentum is always the toughest part.

Speaker 3 But I have to say, like, if the writing is good,

Speaker 3 it holds you, it carries you. Like, doing a kind of technically easy scene, but with bad writing is so much harder than doing an exacting scene that is really well constructed

Speaker 3 and with a team that can actually support you.

Speaker 1 You guys were together for how long on that show? Eight years?

Speaker 3 It felt like, I think it was like, we did eight seasons, but it was about a decade in total.

Speaker 1 And you and the great Damian Lewis, too, right? I love that. Yeah.
I don't know. I'm just a fan.
And what about the travel on that?

Speaker 3 Did that, was that what was a lot of fun?

Speaker 1 Was it nice

Speaker 1 to visit those corners of the world the way that I'm imagining you were traveled and

Speaker 1 looked after?

Speaker 3 It was. It was nice.

Speaker 3 But I was also, you know, I'd like just gotten married when we started the show. I had Cyrus in my second season.
Then I had Rowan, I guess, you know, a few seasons late.

Speaker 3 I guess I had Rowan in our penultimate season.

Speaker 3 So like making a family while globetrotting in that way was challenging.

Speaker 3 And Cyrus, you know,

Speaker 1 grew up all over the place.

Speaker 3 Like he was a toddler in Cape Town. He went to kindergarten in Berlin.
He went to school in Casablanca and can't eat couscous to this day because he had it every day, you know, a bunch.

Speaker 3 You know, like when he was a little guy in a playground here in the city, you know, you'd come up to people, his love their kids, and say, you know, my name is Cyrus. I speak English.

Speaker 3 You know, it was just not a given.

Speaker 1 I had a mom who was a flight attendant for Pan Am and so that we did a bunch of traveling. And as a consequence,

Speaker 1 I don't like to travel because I did it at an age where it was just inconvenient because I was so small and I missed my friends. What is his relationship with travel nowadays?

Speaker 1 Well, now,

Speaker 3 well, then Homeland ended and it was very like, careful what you wish for. Cause of course I was desperate to just be anchored at home.

Speaker 3 And then I never got to leave the home, like immediately wrapped. And then we were, you know, in the COVID era.
Oh, right.

Speaker 3 That was a trip.

Speaker 3 And now, and now we're working really hard to figure out how to remain employed and local.

Speaker 3 It used to be like

Speaker 3 script, director, actor, and now it's location, location, location.

Speaker 1 That's how you decide what you do?

Speaker 3 Kind of. I mean, I'm sort of making a joke,

Speaker 3 but basically for the next 10 years, we just have to

Speaker 3 find jobs.

Speaker 1 in the neighborhood. What about going back to some of your theater stuff, doing that? I mean, I know it doesn't pay the bills as well, but I imagine you guys are all right.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 3 I mean, I would

Speaker 3 definitely be open to that.

Speaker 3 But yeah, lately, it's been

Speaker 3 limited series in.

Speaker 1 A little two-hander with the Tony Award-winning Sean Hayes. I love this.
I love this casting. Jason, keep going.
Yes, it's a two-hander. You and Sean Hayes.

Speaker 1 Okay. How'd you do it? This is a new take on the odd couple.
Yeah. I love it.
We're going to switch roles

Speaker 1 every four weeks.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 And now back to the show.

Speaker 2 But you know what? Jason's right.

Speaker 2 You would be good at comp. I saw you in Portlandia because I was a huge fan of that show.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 I forgot I did that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You played that. That was so funny.

Speaker 1 I did. I played a terrible acting coach.
Yeah, I remember that.

Speaker 3 A wildly pretentious acting coach. That was enjoyable.

Speaker 2 It was really funny.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Fred Armison. He's

Speaker 1 This guy's royalty.

Speaker 1 And I hear he's just, he's just put out an album, I hear, of sound effects.

Speaker 3 Amazing. That's it.
Sounds about it.

Speaker 1 Sounds about it.

Speaker 1 Check and check. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's funny. I didn't know that.
I love

Speaker 1 Fred. We're leaving Baz Luhrmann and we're moving on to Francis Ford Coppola with The Rainmaker.
Wow. Let's talk about.
Did we?

Speaker 1 Well, can I just say something about Romeo and Juliet before we get off of it? So you do that, and it has such a huge impact. And by the way, lasting impact, that film,

Speaker 1 it must have been a bit of a life changer. I mean, you had already sort of made a lot of waves with my so-called life in that area.

Speaker 1 And then you do this, and Romeo and Juliet just must have changed everything.

Speaker 1 You're much more visible. You must have felt that.
Like your life.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I did feel it. And I have to say,

Speaker 3 I didn't quite know. what to do with all of that.

Speaker 3 I was a little thrown by it. Were you?

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. What was the big jarring thing? Was it the press? Was it people stopping you on the street?

Speaker 3 It was the attention. It was a different kind of attention.
Yeah. And

Speaker 3 I just,

Speaker 3 you know, didn't know how to

Speaker 3 focus, like what, how to, how to work with it or where to direct it. Or I was a tiny human still.

Speaker 1 Right. And then it's like, oh, look who's getting coffee at the coffee bean and tea leaf type stuff, right? Like, yeah.
I just thought, oh, God, like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I, I, I, I, I, I, it, it, it made me anxious. You're sharing yourself with a whole world.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. And I thought I was supposed to know how to be like a movie star and really didn't.

Speaker 3 And now I realize, oh, don't worry about it. It's not really a thing.

Speaker 1 What did you do about that?

Speaker 1 I think I read that you're a friend of therapy, like all of us.

Speaker 1 Was that helpful?

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah.
Yes.

Speaker 3 I've been in therapy since I was six. I'm a New Yorker.

Speaker 3 Right, right. And it's a great resource.
If you have a great therapist, it can be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 Have you been with the same therapist the whole time?

Speaker 3 It's dangerous if it's not. Since I was about 18, yeah.

Speaker 1 No way. Oh, wow.
That's great. I'm going right after this.

Speaker 3 I go in and out.

Speaker 1 Like, I take

Speaker 3 very substantial breaks. Yeah.
But I'm back in now, and I'm glad of it.

Speaker 1 Have you ever lied to this therapist?

Speaker 3 Maybe by omission.

Speaker 3 I don't think I've ever explicitly lied.

Speaker 1 Oh, I just forgot to mention that.

Speaker 3 But yeah, there's sometimes a.

Speaker 1 Claire, I asked Sean once. Sean, remember, I asked you if I ever came up in your therapy.
Yeah, everybody does. Everybody in your whole life does.
How do I do, Sean? Yeah, well, it's private.

Speaker 2 It's private.

Speaker 1 It's confidential. Private, dude.
Yeah. What are you doing? I'll call your therapist.
I'll just.

Speaker 1 You're in Toronto. Colorado.

Speaker 1 I owe him a call.

Speaker 2 Hi, Nikki, Jason.

Speaker 1 Did I guess right? Is it a man or a woman?

Speaker 2 Me? It's a woman.

Speaker 1 All right. Yeah, yeah.
Nikki, huh? Nikki Glazer. Nikki Glazer.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we got it all sorted out.

Speaker 3 She'd be an amazing child.

Speaker 1 She would, she would. She would be.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Let's do Francis Ford Culpa.
Then I want to get to Stephen Daudry. Okay.
You know, I do like these directors. I mean, you've been in some great, great movies.

Speaker 1 You've worked with so many great actors and directors. I mean, golly,

Speaker 1 what do you think is the, what is the most impactful thing you've absorbed, learned from any of these actors? You don't even need to say which one it is. What do you think?

Speaker 2 Yeah, what changed your life and how it applies either to you in life or professionally?

Speaker 3 Okay, okay, here's a story. So my first audition ever, I was 12.
It was again in some theater,

Speaker 3 not like low reside kind of situation.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I don't know what's happening. And there is a guy

Speaker 3 in the, like having his audition. I can only hear him, but he's like,

Speaker 3 it sounds like an exorcism is happening. It's like he's thrashing about, you know, and he comes in and he's like dripping with sweat and he's just like vibrating this manic energy.

Speaker 3 And it was Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Speaker 3 But I was like, holy shit, what's supposed to happen in there?

Speaker 1 What am I supposed to be getting at? What am I following? Like, what am I walking into?

Speaker 3 What do they expect of me?

Speaker 1 I like the meeting for the kid that same day. Yeah.

Speaker 3 But yeah, so I don't know. I mean, I

Speaker 1 didn't know

Speaker 3 how,

Speaker 1 I mean, I sort of knew how extraordinary these people were when I first started, but

Speaker 3 not

Speaker 3 like I do now.

Speaker 3 I don't know how, you know, wildly rare and absurd it is to get to collaborate with people of that genius.

Speaker 1 Have you noticed that, you know, like from let's say Meryl Streep to Leonardo DiCaprio, like, is there

Speaker 1 so many different ways to go about

Speaker 1 doing what it is that we do?

Speaker 1 Some, as we were talking about earlier, some are very, very specific and surgical about it and very prep-oriented, and others just sort of just kind of wing it and keep it all natural. And

Speaker 1 the performances are equally great.

Speaker 1 Has that been a bit of an eye-opener for you?

Speaker 3 Okay, so the thing I remember about Francis is that he, you know, he kind of asked a lot of you, but it was all in a playful spirit.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 3 he gave everybody the homework assignment of writing, you know, six pages of backstory for their care, you know, okay.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I remember there was a scene where I was meant to be very distressed and crying and the big and I sat on the chair and it was actually like a block of ice.

Speaker 3 That was, you know, that, and that he thought might help elicit some, you know, some feeling. He had a teamster scream at me.

Speaker 3 And, and I kind of was like, okay, I didn't need it.

Speaker 1 But, you know,

Speaker 3 I was 17, I guess.

Speaker 3 But actually I was very touched that he just cared that much, like that he was invested, that he felt present with me, that he was committed to creating something

Speaker 3 special with me. Like that was the thing that

Speaker 3 actually got to the feeling was that I don't know that I, and I remember on that set, like

Speaker 3 it was something kind of magical that happened and ineffable. Like it was suddenly you landed on that set and you were held by it.
Like you knew you were oriented.

Speaker 3 You felt grounded in whatever reality you wanted to be in, in the place. And that was his doing, but I don't know how he did it exactly.
And the same is true of Baz, a totally different approach.

Speaker 3 He did not have Teamsters yell at me. And actually, it was almost surgical, the way in which he directed.
I mean, he knew exactly, it was very prescriptive.

Speaker 1 Was it result-oriented?

Speaker 3 No. Like, he just was very, it's so, so

Speaker 3 detail-oriented. Okay.
You know, and he builds the world and it's really ornate and it's really hyper-considered and stylized but he wants a free

Speaker 3 feeling performance from his actors and that's why it's often exciting the work yeah because it's that contrast right um so it creates a sort of a yeah but yeah i mean i and i have to say there are what i there are a lot of directors too not these guys these guys are are brilliant but i think i'm always surprised by the number of directors that are actually really terrified of conflict and

Speaker 3 visceral feeling.

Speaker 3 They would rather you not, you know, and they don't even know that they're guiding you away. Like

Speaker 3 they want you to make choices that's going to take you further from

Speaker 3 actual expressive feeling, you know?

Speaker 1 Oh, interesting.

Speaker 3 And, you know, and you're like, but why are you doing this?

Speaker 3 Well, because you want to be at a remote from it. Like you want to, you know, so there are those directors too.

Speaker 1 It's too good. Too real.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sean used to pay a guy to yell at you, right? Wasn't he? Yeah. You put an ad in Craig's List or social media.
I still do. Yeah.
I still do. Just used to yourself on a block eye still.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 But I think even, you know, the privilege of working with people like Meryl and Leah, like, is, yeah, they're,

Speaker 3 they're insanely gifted and they're, you know, and capable, but they're also, you know,

Speaker 3 figuring it out. You know, like

Speaker 1 nobody gets to just like, you never get to a point where you're actually confident i mean so but you're never phoning it in like ever yeah i know that you're you're you're you're producing a lot of the stuff that you do um uh as well now and what about did you did you ever get behind the camera on a homeland no no any desire no

Speaker 3 not really i mean i kind of if i had the time i would like to shadow a director just so that i could learn more about the parts of the process that we don't have access to because I'm curious, but not with the intent of really doing it myself.

Speaker 3 I am enjoying producing.

Speaker 3 I like, you know, being part of the conversation, like those consequential conversations about what it's going to be in its entirety.

Speaker 1 Right. But yeah, I don't, directing seems really hard.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a good way to put it. Yeah, yeah, I think it does.

Speaker 2 So Claire, you know, aside from, I love what you said now, it used to be script, director, blah, blah, now it's location, location, location. I love that.
That's so, that's so interesting and true.

Speaker 2 And I get it. But how does that so that factors in with your days consist of momming and parenting and being home with the kids? Yeah.
And making sure everything's taken care of with your husband.

Speaker 1 When you're not working, right? It's one or the other.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Yeah.
You try to just bank the hours. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So did you get any time during the day when you're not working to do something for you?

Speaker 3 Yes, for sure.

Speaker 1 Besides any petty?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 I like the yoga.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I like a little hot yoga.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I have like lunch with my friends. Good, good, good, good.
Sure.

Speaker 1 Book club. Oh, really?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait, so you go to yoga and then you read a book. I mean, goddamn.
I wish I was like that. It sounds like, doesn't Giamatti, didn't Paul say that that's how his day is going to play? Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you live with Paul Giamatti?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Hot yoga. It just, it just sounds so nice.
No, you can't do it.

Speaker 1 Well, it's, first of all, yoga itself,

Speaker 1 you're sweating because you're stretching. It's just sort of like being trapped in a hot car in a fortress.

Speaker 1 But then to actually, well, we're going to go ahead and we're going to preheat the car. Yeah.
It just seems like, what the fuck you? Jason, it's your nightmare. It's sweaty and

Speaker 1 smell

Speaker 1 of the unwashed and me getting sweatier.

Speaker 1 Guess what? And then you've got to walk across the floor when you're done. Yeah, you do.
Take

Speaker 1 your shoes outside

Speaker 1 and you're splashing through the fucking puddles of beasts and me.

Speaker 3 It sounds like you really know it.

Speaker 1 Oh, dude. You've done this.
I knew it. And I was like, I'm good.

Speaker 1 That'll do it. It was just one class for you.
It was maybe one and a half, something like that. Yeah.
I just, if I'm going to sweat, I want to be active. I don't want to be holding a pose

Speaker 1 and feeling my pores open while I'm still.

Speaker 1 It really hurts hard.

Speaker 1 I want to get to

Speaker 1 one. This trailer for the beast and me

Speaker 1 rocked my world. I watched it three times in a row.
I cannot wait to see the show, which is out now.

Speaker 1 November 13th, it launched.

Speaker 1 I'm assuming it's doing very, very well.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 this looks like

Speaker 1 you got that pain in the ass, Matthew Reese, but besides that, it seems like

Speaker 1 such a pain. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 It's a shame of whales. Right? And just and talent-free.
I don't get it.

Speaker 3 I know. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 Never got it with Reese.

Speaker 3 He's a little wooden, but you know. I'm going to text him.

Speaker 3 He has a charisma that

Speaker 1 looks so, so good. I can't wait to see you two go at it.

Speaker 1 Is it as good as it seems? It's got to be.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I think it's good.

Speaker 1 I think it's fun.

Speaker 3 It's a, yeah, I had a blast making it.

Speaker 1 Where was that shot?

Speaker 1 That looks like it's in in a terrible new jersey new jersey who do you play in it like because it's about like a guy who's a murderer or something or right she's a writer yeah i'm a writer um yes a pretty successful writer and um

Speaker 1 uh

Speaker 3 i

Speaker 3 you know

Speaker 3 one the pulitzer was kind of cresting in my you know success and my uh wife and I and our small boy moved to a pretty affluent suburb on Long Island. And

Speaker 3 then tragedy strikes.

Speaker 3 I'm driving the car with our six-year-old son in the back, and we get hit by a drunk driver, and my world is ended.

Speaker 3 The marriage dissolves, falls apart, and I am kind of creatively paralyzed.

Speaker 3 I can't produce any work and am rattling around in this, you know, gorgeous but neglected home, needs a lot of work, and suddenly I can't afford to pay for it. And

Speaker 3 suddenly this man moves in next door who's a pretty controversial figure,

Speaker 3 like a real estate scion and

Speaker 3 very famous, very money, and

Speaker 3 a little problematic, maybe.

Speaker 3 And he has a wife who had committed suicide, and there's a lot of talk about his involvement with that.

Speaker 3 And he wants to create a jogging path in our little suburb. And I'm, you know, the cantankerous writer.
I'm the only one who objects. And it's dumb, but he can't let it go.
And

Speaker 3 he

Speaker 3 insists on taking me out to lunch to persuade me to, you know, agree to this thing.

Speaker 3 And we get to, and then suddenly we were sort of repelled by each other, or I certainly am of him, but

Speaker 3 weirdly like

Speaker 3 kind of excited by each other also.

Speaker 3 And I tell this story about my son and the guy who's responsible was just under the limit when he finally had, you know, the breathalyzer done and, you know, and was never held accountable and still lives in town.

Speaker 3 And he can see, I've kind of avoided feeling the difficult feelings and just fixated all of my grief on this man. And

Speaker 3 that man has committed suicide

Speaker 1 and i don't know what to think of that and i and i decide to write a book about him and um really as a way to figure out if he did in fact kill this guy on my behalf oh i love but also because he just wakes me up creatively it's dark this is dark and troubling i think the most troubling thing about it is it's produced by conan o'brien that to me yeah yeah that i mean that's got his grubby little fingers in you want to talk about a pain in the ass you want to talk about a talent free Talk about a jockey.

Speaker 1 Big red cup of money. This son of a bitch.

Speaker 3 But it's kind of like a cat and mouse story, and it's a little Hitchcockian, and

Speaker 3 it's fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it looks great. What a great scene partner you got there with all those

Speaker 1 Matthews.

Speaker 3 It's like the snake and the mongoose.

Speaker 1 Did you guys know each other beforehand? You and Matthew?

Speaker 3 No, no.

Speaker 1 But just a dream boat. Right? I mean,

Speaker 1 the loveliest human. He's charming, kind, and talented.

Speaker 3 So smart and so very good at what he does with the

Speaker 3 acting business.

Speaker 1 Easy as well. Easy.
No, I like it.

Speaker 1 Nice guy.

Speaker 1 He's a great guy. Yeah.
I love you. You're taking well.
Okay. Back on.
And

Speaker 1 you're back with Howard Gordon there, yeah?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that was fun.

Speaker 1 Very, very cool.

Speaker 2 Who's Howard Gordon?

Speaker 3 He was one of the creators of Homeland. Oh, damn.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And he did 24 and X-Files.

Speaker 1 Well, listen, we owe you three minutes and 40 seconds. We're over.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like

Speaker 1 I could violate the time even further.

Speaker 1 You're fantastic. Thank you for doing this.

Speaker 3 Oh, my pleasure. This is so fun.
Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 everybody watch The Beast in Me. It's on Netflix.
Yep.

Speaker 1 The great Claire Danes. Claire, we love you.
Thank you. We love you guys, too.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
Oh, my God. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
All right. Bye.

Speaker 1 I don't know how to do this. I've closed the thing, right?

Speaker 3 Yeah. Slam it.

Speaker 1 Claire Danes. Lovely, lovely

Speaker 2 woman.

Speaker 1 Been a part of our world for a very long time. That's 30 plus years.

Speaker 2 I know. My so-called life when it was on MTV

Speaker 2 was such a huge show for

Speaker 2 our age. I mean,

Speaker 2 it was like a game changer. It was like our Dawson's Creek.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Anybody?

Speaker 1 Seventh Heaven, Dawson's Creek.

Speaker 1 I got to say, I missed it.

Speaker 1 Oh, I loved it. Which is not too surprising.
It came out.

Speaker 1 Here he comes.

Speaker 2 Wasn't Jared Leto in that too?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was the two of them. Wasn't it? Yeah.
That's right. Yeah.
Isn't that crazy? What a couple. Yeah.
No, she's been, I just, you know, this is a hard business.

Speaker 1 It's even harder for women for some stupid, unfair reason.

Speaker 1 And the fact that she's stayed so relevant at such a high level, doing such great work

Speaker 1 since she was a kid in stuff that ain't easy,

Speaker 1 it's really, really admirable.

Speaker 1 She's had an incredible career thus far and seems not anywhere near big deal she's one of the she's one of the great she's just got a big life in general she's got three kids and she's doing so much and we didn't even get into her charity work that her she and her mom do for the women of afghanistan too which is pretty cool um

Speaker 1 but um

Speaker 1 what a delight what a delight you know i mean you know guys it's not that hard if you guys just just

Speaker 1 just concentrate a little bit more you could be charismatic you could be warm you could be you know people that that people want to talk to and are charmed by after you're done speaking to them.

Speaker 1 There's no way. No, I think you could do it.

Speaker 1 Of course, you could do it.

Speaker 1 Yes, you could. I want you to listen to this interview back and just focus on her and just focus on just her magnetism, okay? She's just, she's engaging and she listens.
How am I ever going to do it?

Speaker 1 How am I ever going to do it?

Speaker 1 She's a Sean.

Speaker 1 I'm shaking a stall for you, Sean. I'm listening in.
Bye. No?

Speaker 1 Sean.

Speaker 1 Sean, go the less. You know what I'm doing?

Speaker 2 I'm just, I'm hanging. I'm hanging

Speaker 1 by

Speaker 1 the buy.

Speaker 1 Bye.

Speaker 1 I'm coming up with a buy. Coming up with a buy.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Bye.

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