Greg Kinnear

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I don't know what sort of suggestion you're making, Ted, but I did not think Little Miss Sunshine was a shit script.

Welcome back to Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

Today I get to meet and talk with Greg Kinnear, an incredibly talented actor who I've admired for a long time from afar.

I'm really looking forward to this.

He's been in so many of my favorite movies.

Think As Good As It Gets, Little Miss Sunshine, You've Got Male Stuck on You, Sabrina, Green Zone, and many more.

He's currently starring in the Apple TV Plus series, Smoke.

meet greg kinear

i think i was on your show late night with greg

were you i think they say so on the internet but i could not find proof of oh my god you know i did uh i did a a year and a half of it and we had so many people and i never kept any sort of record all of the tapes are gone i don't there's no sense there's no proof that i ever did this show or that i did or that you did yeah But my guess is

that we, yes, maybe you did come on and we did have a wonderful conversation.

Oh my God.

It was amazing.

Who came on after you?

Who took over that slot after you?

Well, I did that for

like a year and a half and went into Don Olmeyer to beg and plead to leave because I had gotten a movie and I just couldn't do both.

Blankman or?

as good as it gets.

Well, I had done I had done Sabrina as a talk show host and then I did another movie and they let me kind of come in and do multiple tapings in a day, which is why I don't remember anything because we would do like five half-hour interviews in a day.

And then when I got that movie, part of it was in New York and it was just too crazy.

So I, they let me out of it at that time.

But

I did have a lot of people on and I enjoyed it.

It was, it was fun.

Listen, if I could remember it, so it's a real good chance that neither one that it didn't happen.

This is so great.

I know.

I think,

have we?

I don't remember Carson either.

Exactly.

Wow, did you do Carson?

Once.

That is where

did...

Damn it.

At what point were you doing Johnny Carson?

That's a bad Johnny Carson.

Right about there.

Was it the end of Cheers?

Kind of during his wrap-up?

Beginning of Cheers.

Oh, beginning.

And he had, well, first four years, because it went on so long, four years is still beginning.

He had a guy that would interview you pre-interview, and I'm blanking on his name, but he was so scary.

He was renowned.

He would say, nope, that story doesn't have an end.

You need a beginning, middle, and an end.

And he would terrify you to the point where you came out.

You thought Johnny was going to eat you for lunch.

And he was the sweetest, most most nurturing,

I think, person I've ever done a talk show.

Well, sure, but he'd already put you through the meat grinder with the other guy.

And the bad cop would come in and beat the hell out of you.

Mary, my wife, Mary Steenbergen, actually dropped out, went, Oh, this is, yeah, I'm sorry.

Can't do this because the guy scared her so much.

Right.

Right.

I, uh, I took, the only time I saw him in person was my, my parents, my mom and dad, were in town, and I was working at some like low-budget film company.

And a buddy of mine worked at Warner Brothers and he was able to get us tickets.

And I went to one taping of the tonight show with my mom and my dad.

And

Harrison Ford was the guest that night.

And Harrison,

you know, well, he wasn't exactly playing to the crowd.

I mean, he was hello, you know, and

probably Smithstone.

Possible.

Possible.

Possible.

But it was, I remember thinking, my God, this is just such a small set.

It's such a strange thing.

And I remember thinking, this is, this whole show is not working.

This is going to be talked about for years to come as the tonight show episode that just, it didn't work.

It just didn't.

Johnny was kind of off and they're going to study it in film school.

And then I went home and watched it that night.

And I was like, damn, that was a great show.

It all, you know, all the stuff.

It was a different energy being in the room, I felt.

So you must have had that.

They didn't play to the audience that much.

They play very small to the camera.

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

Which was, of course, made it more powerful for the audience.

But let me go back a second.

First, I'm going to fluff you up a little bit,

which is also true.

You're one of my favorite kinds of actors because you are, to me, you're like a leading man character actor.

And you're one of those people who,

even if you're playing the second or third person who is like the interference to the love affair of the other two or something, you have such integrity for your characters that I just find you charming and totally 100% believable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And you've been in some of my favorite films.

I was listening to an interview.

You're actually like in the billions of.

dollars, the films you've been in.

Yeah, I've made.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

But

there's people who've done better, but

I've been in some stuff that's made some money.

Yeah.

Not me,

film-wise.

But anyway.

No, you've not really made your mark in show business dead.

Yeah, why did I go there?

Sorry.

I'm huge.

By the way, I'm going to fluff you up in a second on

me first.

Yeah, okay, go ahead.

But thank you.

That'll give me.

I only have about an hour for this, but go ahead.

I want to go back.

So you're traveling around as a kid because your dad was in the State Department.

Yeah.

So you were in Beirut.

Yes.

When it was gorgeous and beautiful and Paris-like.

And then you were also there when the war started.

That's right.

How old were you?

I was 12.

So, wow.

So that's a young man absorbing it all.

That's right.

19.

What was that?

I mean, stupid question, but that was

quite amazing.

And I still count, you know, my dad worked with the American embassy and it turned out to be a great blessing in my life.

Not so much for Beirut because we weren't there that long.

We were evacuated probably six, seven months after we were there to Greece.

Right, to Athens.

We had to go slum it in Athens for the next six years.

When was that roughly?

That was seven.

Well, we got there in like 76 through 80.

So after the

king and queen and revolutionary kind of of thing, yes.

Well, the shock, and are you talking about Iran?

No, you're in Greece.

Greece.

Oh, yeah.

You had

Papandreou was out.

You had

Carmen Lis, if you know your Greece.

Exactly,

America.

You might have said a bad word there.

I only know a few basically curse words,

so I had to drop some of those in, but I can get around in a cab without getting

all that too much.

Yeah.

Actually, we were there for six weeks because my father was an archaeologist and he wanted to drive around all the archaeological sites in the Peloponnese and Sparta and all that.

Yeah.

And we did and it was amazing.

Yeah, we

toured around a lot and just, you know, my mom would load us up and take us to places.

But it was

Mykonos.

I had been to Mykonos.

I'd taken a ferry to a bunch of different islands.

All my friends, if you had a, if we had a three-day weekend, we're going somewhere, Spetsis or wherever we could go to make trouble.

And

it was a great, great blessing.

But listen, Lebanon was

beautiful,

but it was, you know, you hear the Paris of the Middle East.

I didn't see Paris and Beirut, but I did see a gorgeous country with lovely people.

The Lebanese people are amazing.

And they had coexisted this kind of Muslim-Christian faction for

years.

And it just kind of broke down all in the course of

probably about two or three months.

And once the fighting started, it just, you know, escalated.

And

eventually, as I say, my dad got reassigned and

then got to grow up over in Athens.

What a blessing, though, I think, for a parent to be able to give their children the visceral realization that there are other people involved in this world and life than those who look just like us

and sound just like us.

Yeah, no, it was

truly, I mean, like, it was just a gift.

And I have a lot of really good friends who, some in LA, actually, and, and, and just that we all had this experience together and we still talk about it.

And nobody is anything short of

incredibly grateful as a kid to have had that.

I mean, there was some,

you know, there's times when you're, you know, you can lose perspective.

And of course, there were times where I probably wasn't as appreciating as much as I should have.

But mostly, I feel like I was like, wow, this is

pretty great.

Yeah.

Well done.

So in Athens, in high school, you did your first talk show.

Yeah.

How, how does one know?

I mean, that to me is almost like saying, I'm going to do stand-up.

It's bold.

It's a bold move.

And I'm going to sit down.

You are.

I know.

I'm bold, Ted.

I'm seeing it right now in front of me.

I'm bold.

No, no, you just lost me.

What?

Ted, hold on for a second.

I'm bold.

Do you?

Should I play to the camera?

You don't give me any direction.

Oh, God.

I'm going to have to start covering.

All right.

I don't really know him that well, to be honest.

We spent a wonderful half hour of television.

Come on.

How did you go?

Oh, you know what?

I'm going to do a talk.

I'm going to do a radio show.

You know, there was a guy,

God bless him.

He was graduating.

He was a year or two ahead of me, I guess, in high school, and his name was Tanner Parsons.

Hello, Tanner.

And just, I don't know why.

I mean, I wasn't exactly the class cut up or anything, but I was, you know, I was kind of,

I mean,

I wasn't like theater kid, but I did a little acting and I was kind of like joke around a little bit.

But for whatever reason, this guy came up to me one day

at lunch and said, hey, I'm graduating.

And I was like, yeah, well, congratulations on that.

And he said, he goes, I do this show, which I kind of knew about.

Actually, if I'm, I think I did know about the show because it was kind of a thing.

He had a weekly radio show at the Armed Forces Air Base in Athens, which has since been closed down.

And it played all over Athens.

And, you know, it was pretty good output on that station.

And he, they had this one little hour that they devoted to

one kid at the American Community School, ACS Athens, that would do this show called School Days.

And he was graduating.

He said, You want to do it?

And I said, Hell yeah.

So I went down there.

He gave me kind of a run through.

It was kind of like this.

You'd be happy.

She wanted me to wear these

because you would wear these.

They do sound sexier, admit it.

Damn it.

Hold on now.

Hold on now.

AFRTS Athens, Greg Kiddir with you on school days along with Ted Danson.

Ted, it's 75 degrees out, beautiful, high, thin clouds.

How are you feeling?

Oh, my God.

You're good.

Thanks.

Yeah.

And then we play, then we play some Bee Gees.

So it was the music and, but you had to fill some of it with, what, life experiences or jokes?

Yeah, exactly.

Jokes or what?

A little bit of, you know, talking shit about what was happening at

our little school and maybe read a few announcements and played some music and

tried to

be funny.

And

it was a low bar.

I mean, I, you know, it was exciting.

We were in show business.

I was just suddenly in show business.

Yeah.

And

there was a guy there, Kevin Andahl, great guy.

He was a naval officer who was one of the DJs there.

And he was like, Greg, this is how you have have to do it.

He kind of walked me through, and so, you know, I've eventually got pretty good at it, and I did it for a few years.

Okay, you leave Athens, and where do you go?

Arizona.

I went to University of Arizona.

In Tucson.

Yeah.

My dad taught there.

Did he really?

Yeah, professor.

Oh, God, please tell me this.

I'm not being punked.

Was I in one of your dad's classes?

Yep.

Oh, God.

Can you get him on the phone?

No.

He never wants to talk to me again, I promise you.

Okay.

That's amazing.

Wait, your dad was in Tucson at the U of A.

Probably, what year were you there, roughly?

We were gone.

Early 80s to mid-80s.

We were long gone.

Okay.

So what are you doing there?

Did you go?

I can't remember.

I went there for four years.

I started as a drama major.

I had a drama teacher who kind of said, you know, came in and said, you know, less than 1% of you will ever make a living acting.

Mine said that, too.

Yeah, did you seriously?

It's mean, yes, literally.

Kind of like mean-spirited, angry.

I actually called him out.

I wouldn't call him out.

I was, I remember thinking that's what it has to be,

but I

don't know.

I, I, now that I look back on it, it was like, are you crazy?

This is how you introduce this concept to these and we're going to study with you because you're, you know, right.

It was enough for me.

I mean, it really changed the course, but um, it's funny.

Yeah, yours similar.

Yeah, this cutthroat, this is this is horrible, you'll have lots of disappointments.

And I, I literally, no reason, because I had been in, I had

fallen in love with acting three months before that, before that, nothing.

And I remember saying,

No, you shouldn't say that.

There are people here who really, really love acting and really want to do this.

You should be encouraging us or something.

And you stayed with it.

I did.

Yeah.

Well, I did, Greg.

I mean, come on, man.

Yeah.

Cheers.

No, I'm I'm saying, I'm saying.

God, how many times are we going to hit that today?

No, I'm joking.

I'm saying like you stayed with it in I because the whole acting thing came way later for me because honestly, I really did feel like, you know, listen, I also didn't need a lot to push me off the bubble.

I did, I hadn't fallen in love with, I hadn't had an experience where I was like, oh my God, this is an incredible outlet.

I hadn't, you know, I had done some high school stuff.

I hadn't done anything in college.

In fact, I auditioned for one show, didn't get it, hang in there.

You know, so I just didn't have anything that was

grounded at that point.

So, even more vulnerable to somebody who wasn't encouraging and saying, Well, what, why do you know, why are you interested in this?

What can you do?

So, good that you stayed with it, Ted.

Well, thank you.

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Talk soup?

What happened between there and Tok Soup?

Right, so I did that and

then I came out to LA.

I don't know why.

I had a few friends out here.

I worked at this

a couple of different jobs, odd jobs, as we all do.

I sold light bulbs and I

worked at a low-budget film company and I, in the marketing department, nothing to do with film, nothing to do with what we get to do.

And, and I, um,

while I was there, I got an audition through a friend of a friend into

MTV in New York.

So I went to MTV.

Remember how cool MTV was?

Dude, J.J.

Johnson and Martha Quinn.

And, you know, it was like kind of the height of all of that.

And I got an opportunity to go there and sit on the stairs and audition and say, hey, everybody, I'm going to

be job.

So

with that audition, I didn't get the job, but I got a nice tape out of it that said MTV audition.

It looked very official.

A few, I think maybe six months later, there was a channel starting up.

here in town called Movie Time.

Before E was E, it was called Movie Time, low-budget film company.

You know, they would basically just show behind-the-scenes footage or anything we can get our hands on.

And they hired these four or five hosts.

I was one of them, did that for three years.

And then

that still wasn't talk soup.

Oh, I talk soup.

I was like almost 30 when I did that show.

So, so

that came in like, yeah, late 90s.

Yeah.

Or I'm sorry, early 90s.

Yeah.

I can see that.

And then so E, so movie time became E, all this consortium of companies, remember when there was cable television everywhere and it was still trying to find its way?

And sure, they had the cable ace awards, but they didn't really know what they were doing.

This kind of obscure channel was absorbed by Warner Brothers and all these companies and they turned it into E.

And when they did,

they changed the look and the name and all the hosts got fired.

Long, long continuing story of me getting fired, got fired, went off and produced some stuff, came back a year later on Talk Soup.

And that was,

you know, kind of early 90s and did that for three years.

And it was when you guys were wrapping up cheers is when I was doing the show.

I remember it was kind of

surprising.

It was like, wait, what is this?

Who is that?

That was a moment for you, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not acting yet.

No.

But it was a moment.

It's like playing a part of a host who looks at daytime talk shows.

But you were funny.

You were very funny.

So what I'm trying to get to is how the fuck did you turn around and get?

I mean, some of the moments.

It's in there.

It's got to be in there somewhere.

No, it is.

But you went, I know Blankman, but you went to Sidney Pollack.

Yeah.

That wasn't that long from Talk Soup, was it?

No, it wasn't.

I started Talk Soup and I did it for a year and a half.

Bob Costas was

leaving later, which was on at 1.30 in the morning, late at night.

And

that was a talk show,

which apparently you came on and I talked to you and we had a great conversation for him.

And while I was doing that show and doing Talk Soup, Sidney Pollack

called my agent.

There was a lovely woman named Lindsay Duran who worked with Sidney.

She had seen me on Talk Soup, and then he had caught, somehow caught my show at 1:30 in the morning.

And he was looking to cast Harrison Ford's brother.

And he was like, listen, I just, why don't you come in and talk to me?

You're from Logansport, Indiana.

I'm from Lafayette, Indiana, about literally 10 miles down the road from each other.

Just come in.

And I was like,

okay, I'll go in and I'll find some time for Sidney Pollack.

I mean, I can squeeze that in.

And I went in and I had a great conversation with it, great conversation with him and a great.

Did you read?

Not the first time.

He just talked to me and he asked me about acting.

And

it was just like this, not as good as this.

And

then he said,

well, look,

why don't you

come back in a few weeks?

I'll send you a few pages and we'll just read through it.

And I don't want you to act.

He said, I don't want you to act.

If you're going to act, don't come back.

And I was like, I'm not going to act.

And

then I went back

a few weeks later.

And

he

he read Sabrina.

It was just at his desk.

I mean, he just literally read off the page and I read it.

We did it a couple of times.

He said,

try it a little bit this, try a little bit that.

And then he was like, great.

Thanks for coming.

And that was the end of it.

I was asked back again.

And this time right away, right away.

Right away.

I was, no,

I was like, this, I was like, every time I left, I was thinking, great to meet Sidney Pollack.

That's as far as it's ever going to go.

Then great to have gotten to read with Sidney Pollack.

That's as far as it's ever going to go.

And then I get the call, they were going to put it on tape.

And,

you know, I think,

you know, David, the great David Rubin, I believe, shot it.

And we just kind of put it on tape.

And then

once again, with Sydney or no?

Yeah, with Sidney.

Yeah.

He was him doing it.

And then, and then, and then I didn't hear anything for for

months and months and months.

And I have a, I had a phone in the green room before I went out to do the late night talk show.

There was a phone in the green room, which never rang, ever, never got a call there.

And the entire time I was there, I'd be down there.

They're loading an audience.

I was always very nervous.

And on this particular day,

the phone rings.

I pick it up.

And my agent at the time,

Greg Lipstone, says, are you sitting down?

And I said, no, I'm standing up.

I'm walking out to interview John LaRoquette, who's just been introduced.

It sure wasn't me.

It might have been you.

Okay, go ahead.

Well, maybe, because I, you know, I definitely was a deer in headlights for that whole interview, but

I went out and after this news, and I believe it was John, and

tried to get through the interview and did my thing, but I was quite floored by what I just heard.

and i i even still i think when it's over i was like well this isn't really gonna happen and it all happened so that was my first thing

that's that's amazing all roads

and uh blankman was before that but no one saw that no one saw that this was i didn't play i i basically played uh because i was doing talk

i played like a talk show hook i was kind of doing a jerry springer and they gave me like two lines and i talked it wasn't i it was nothing and i played like a one time a buddy of mine put me in to be a news reporter on something.

So I had been in front of a camera, but I had done any.

Was Sidney Pollack to you what he was to all of us?

I mean, he was our hero.

I mean, he was just doing astounding

films.

He came, I think, out of the neighborhood playhouse as an actor.

That's right.

So if you're going to read with somebody,

you were reading with a really good actor, even if he was doing a woman.

I know.

I know.

And in one of my, you know, my favorite moments of all time was that scene with Dustin Hoffman and Tootsie where he's, you're not a tomato.

Yeah.

You know,

I can play a tomato.

You know, they have that great scene.

And so I was able to fanboy,

you know, with him and Nancy Marchand and Harrison Ford.

There were a lot of great people did that.

Nancy.

Wow.

Richard Crenna, the great Richard Crenna.

He was one of the first people to hire me.

He was was also a director.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, really sweet man.

Yeah, really sweet man.

Of course, the thing he directed got me literally blacklisted at NBC from Fred Silverman for a couple of years.

Why?

What did you...

I guess I wasn't good.

I guess, and he, the person I was playing against.

Did you think you were...

Seriously, you didn't think you were good in it?

No, I think I was fine, but it didn't go for whatever reason.

And he had chosen this young girl

as someone he just really wanted to promote, loved her.

And

when it first started, she

or Silverman?

No, Fred Silverman wanted this young entrepreneur to play my daughter.

I see.

And when we started thinking about it, but it got delayed enough, it was a good father-daughter image.

Then she grew and it became less and less of an interesting, acceptable kind of pairing.

It was bizarre as a father-daughter investigating team, private investigating team.

Anyway, yeah, because the time of that is there is kind of a yes.

They took, I think it was

John and Val, well, could tell this better, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris, but they were trying to get Little Miss Sunshine made for years.

And

they tried to get it funding and the funding fell out.

And they had talked to me a little bit throughout it,

but it just didn't seem like this was going to happen.

And finally, it was funded by the producer famously who

Mark Turtleta would just put up,

I think, $7 million to fund the movie.

And that's why it happened.

But John and Val were obsessed with the whole.

thing.

They were going out of their mind because Abigail, our little sweet Abigail, was getting older every single year.

And in a way, there's a version of that movie where she could have been two years younger than she was.

And there's a way, I mean, it all times out of serendipity.

Of course, of course.

Oh, my God.

But that issue of like timing in terms of casting and acting, it's a thing.

Yeah.

My thing turned out later.

He left and I got shoes.

So life is good.

But

you moved to one of my favorite films i started watching it again because i knew i was going to be talking to you little miss sunshine it was just

brilliant yeah it's a great it's what a cast yep everybody was just so perfect didn't know it i read it and i thought it was michael arnd's script that shows you what i know got the won the academy award i remember reading it and thinking this is i didn't think it was a bad script i want to be clear yeah i don't know what sort of suggestion you're making Ted, but I did not think Little Miss Sunshine was a shit script.

I do remember reading it and thinking, like,

this is, this is good.

This is good.

You know, I thought it was a good script, but I didn't know how good it was.

And none of that was clear to me until we kind of got in a rehearsal on it.

And all of a sudden, I saw Corell

being this guy.

And I saw,

you know, Paul, who I was an incredible genius actor, young actor, who I had actually worked with prior, but just he had a little part and I just suddenly, he was off the charts, Abigail,

you know, Alan.

Alan.

You know, and Tony, who I'd worked with before, you know, I knew she was going to be great, but it just, it was all the parts.

And then actually, we had like a week or a couple of weeks of rehearsal on that movie.

We normally, you don't really get that very often in anything.

So it was a real gift.

Did you, because it was a roadshow-ish, were you able to shoot in sequence?

Do you remember?

Yeah, it wasn't in,

it wasn't in sequence.

No, no, we started,

we did start, we did open at the house.

We did open.

So if you remember, they kind of start at the house and it gets into a conversation about,

you know, taking this road trip and who's going to watch Frank and can grandpa come and you know all of that dynamic that dynamic was like a play

and and that's probably 15 20 minutes we did start with that but then I think as we got into

the car and the sequences we went to it it did have to bounce around a little off

the scene where Steve you try to stop Steve from describing that he had tried to kill himself and why.

Is that part of that opening sequence you're talking about?

Yeah, yeah, that's in there.

That is just such an amazing scene.

Yeah.

Frank, Frank.

Don't tell him, Frank.

No, no, you don't.

Yeah.

Yep.

Wow.

You love being an actor, yeah?

I do, yeah.

I mean, I think

I, you know, I love

when you, when you find something good, and this is a good moment to talk about your new show

uh which you know i i saw um you know on netflix and um it's you are so great in that that show and in terms of the

you know there's so much nuance in it you know with the kind of

the the the history you have and kind of your own you know um

your

own sort of fears that are established early on and your own kind of vulnerability and then it's funny as hell it's written so well so well and um

yeah man man on the inside yeah

mike shore who did the good place and yeah

so many other things he started basically started i think with the office yeah and i've been told you don't introduce him to any other actors you keep him all pretty much literally if i that's what i was told and like if you wanted to just know a guy guy of both.

No, I'm just saying you don't have to.

Now, you know, you don't have to.

I don't think you're right for it.

No, of course not.

I understand.

And I wouldn't suggest otherwise.

I mean, I will suggest.

No, no, no, no.

Actually, let me tell him about it.

You cannot get him to yourself.

I would, if I was told you can only work with Mike Schur for the rest of whatever you got.

Yeah.

That actually is my plan.

I would love to work just with him.

I love that he's doing something purposeful.

He's doing something where I get to be 77 plus and still get to play

the tall guy.

Yeah.

You know, and it's a blessing.

Yeah.

And he's talking about good stuff.

Well, talking about good stuff, yes.

And then also,

yeah, and just the rhythms and the storytelling, you know, never at the expense, you know, always allowing for the joke, but never reaching.

It's just,

what a gift.

I mean, Mary and I just finished the second season.

Do you know if you've ever met my wife, Mary, Steenbridge?

I don't know if you have.

I think she did come on my talk show.

Oh, great.

And you remember her, I'm sure.

Right.

Great.

Just great.

Maybe I don't remember the guys.

Yeah, maybe that's it.

Because we wouldn't go out with you afterwards.

No,

I do think Mary might have come.

I don't know.

It's all

it is a blur.

When you've done.

You know it's a blur.

People are going to think this is crazy, but you do know, right?

Oh, my God, yes.

We're allowed this.

It is.

Not just age, but when you've done, you know, you've worked with how many guest stars are you

know over the years?

It's like, yes, it's

a billion things flying past the age.

And I am a little self-centered.

Self-absorbed is a better word.

You are again.

Okay, the director.

Interesting.

Okay.

Remind me.

Did you like my work?

Oh, good.

Yes, I do.

You did.

What is your name, sir?

Interesting.

And where are you, which, before we get to where you're from, what of my work did you like?

Interesting.

When did you get married in all of this?

I married

in Helen in

1999.

Yeah, it's 1999.

So we just came up on 26 years.

Well done.

Thank you very much.

We're approaching, no, 30.

We're doing 30 in October.

Yeah.

Well, we dated for five years before.

Five.

It's a long, as the kids point out, it's a long drag out to

get to it a little bit.

But yeah, so I guess we're in the 30 range.

Well done.

Yeah, thank you.

Very lucky.

British.

Yes, British, beautiful.

She still have her passport and can

everybody in the family has two passports

other than me.

Oh, you're screwed.

So I'm screwed.

So we get there and everybody just goes through that line and they'll see me in 45 minutes kind of coming through the loser the loser eye

yeah I'm buying a lot of Canadian stickers for my bags for our trip coming up

yeah it's like the 60s again yeah no no I'm Canadian no no I'm Canadian yeah Canadian

so and you have three kids three kids three three daughters that's pretty cool we have between us I I just have women around me three we have three daughters and one boy yeah wow Yeah.

But we are a blended family.

Yeah.

Okay.

We came in that way.

Yeah.

So when you look at your resume, you basically haven't stopped working, more or less.

You haven't stopped working.

So did kids come with you in the beginning?

Yeah.

They did.

Yeah, they did.

It was, it was really.

Yeah, I, you know, I have so many friends who

they have, they'll have kids and they're always, you know, like, how's this work exactly?

And I feel like I'm fairly well equipped to tell them that it does work and it works great.

Nothing better for the first

until they get to about nine or ten.

And then their friends are so much more important.

So much more important.

Am I being generous with nine or ten?

Do you think?

Did you expect me to go earlier?

Seven.

I thought seven.

Okay.

Okay.

I know.

I think I've added two or three years out of just like, they love me.

But yeah, it's probably, I think you're right.

It's probably like

it's probably like seven or eight, but it works great for that.

And then

you would pick up and get a house wherever you were shooting and the whole clan would go.

Yes.

Yeah.

Savannah, England,

various cities in Canada, New York, you know, yeah, just kind of buzz around.

And it's great.

Great for them.

Great experience.

Yeah, great experience.

And you knew that because you got.

Yeah.

I wish my greatest, my biggest regret, we did take him to

I did a movie with Paul Greengrass called Green Zone years ago with Matt Baiman and we shot that over in Europe and we were there for a while and we brought them over and and that was great but I love that film that was a great film thank you and there's an example of you weren't exactly the hero no I wasn't but you have so much fucking integrity when you work in that you don't there's never a you never sell out your character one iota which sometimes is a bad acting temptation right and you never what does that mean to show the audience that just if it's comedy there's a slight wink where i know i'm being funny right or i'm not really this i'm right you know right i'm a manly man i'm not this silly person i'm playing that would be horrible yeah no it's horrible

there must be but is there like a youtube of like winks like bad winks where you can there's got to be the 10 worst winks.

Judged by one of the worst, Mr.

Danson.

Well, no, I'm not, not by you, but I'm sure somebody in this world has made an assembly of these moments that

I would want to see.

This is a better way to say this, I think.

You're in trouble now.

No, no, I think it's better that

you see sometimes people walk in and you go, well, they're not the lead and they're not going to have, they're probably going to have a part that's, you can, they walk in with that on their their shoulders.

You walk in as the fucking lead.

Yeah.

Even though it turns out you're not.

Right.

You have that energy.

And that's what I admire.

That's what I'm talking about.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Yeah.

And it was a really good movie

for that time, especially where we were all feeling that.

Yes.

And then you went on was with Matt and Pete Farrelly.

Yes.

Was that before or after?

That was before.

During that run of

Simee's Twins movies where everybody was making them in town and it was like volcano, really.

We got caught up in the enthusiasm and made our own

our own conjoined twin movie.

Yeah.

It's a classic.

No, do you stay in touch?

Pete's a friend.

Oh, yeah.

Pete's great.

Yeah.

He's like, it was so funny because

he would come up to us and be like, you know,

why are you guys, you know,

you're doing the, it was just funny because he would come up to give you direction and he would be talking to Matt and I would be like this.

And then, and then I'm like, anything from me?

And he'd be like, yeah, yeah, just try to do it, and then Matt's say, what about, what about the thing?

So it literally, that was the,

I did massive back damage on that show.

How were you connected just wardrobe?

Oh, it was a very scientific process, as you would expect from the Fairley brothers.

You know,

we went over

to their office and they got like a piece of velcro and wrapped it around and put a shirt over us and said, Yeah, we'll do it like that.

And

I was like, Yeah, yeah, Pete.

That's my, I do, Pete.

You know, I do this.

Pete knows I did this, but my Pete Fairley impersonation is: I only say one thing:

Pete Fairley.

That's good.

Pete Fairley.

I don't know where it comes from.

Boston?

Yeah, I love Pete.

And Bobby.

They were lovely to work with and funny as hell.

Yeah.

I don't mean to interrupt your meal, but I saw you from across a cafe and you're the Geico Gecko, right?

In the flesh.

Oh, my goodness.

This is huge to finally meet you.

I love Geico's fast and friendly claim service.

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Enjoy the rest of your food.

No worries.

Uh, so are you just gonna watch me eat?

Oh, sorry.

Just a little starstruck.

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I think we need to talk a little bit about smoke.

Okay, because that's out there.

Yeah.

Still drawing a lot of big crowd numbers kind of thing.

So tell me about it.

I think it's number two.

I only got to like get into it a little ways.

Okay, that's all right.

It's nine episodes.

It's Dennis Lahane, who's a wonderful author, a great novelist, and a great showrunner as well.

I mean, I worked with him on Blackbird and Taryn.

And, you know, Showrunner.

So he wrote all the scripts and was there.

Yeah.

Didn't direct or did direct.

Didn't direct.

But it's there for all of your.

Yeah.

He's there.

He's there.

He's not the, you know, I, I don't, uh, you know, he's, he's the, he's the hand behind it all and, and, and was both with Blackbird and with Smoke.

And, and

his books for years.

And his books are great.

And I, so I'm just such a fan just on a, on a reading level.

Um, have you read Little Mercies, by the way?

Just came out?

No.

Fantastic.

It's so good.

I'll give you a little summer read tip.

So he just is

just great.

And

in this, I play Harvey Engelhardt, who's the chief of this

West Coast town.

There's been some, we have an arson investigator played by Taryn Edgerton.

And,

you know, there's been,

you know, there's been a little bit more arson activity in the town than kind of

at any other time.

It's unusual what's going on.

So much so that a police officer played by Jerny Smollett, who's wonderful, is brought in as well to kind of help out in this arson, ongoing arson investigation.

And that's kind of the setup for it.

It's great fun.

I really didn't get to work with Taryn in Blackbird.

I got to work with him a lot more in this show.

Great cast,

John Legozamo.

He's one of the

great group of people.

And I think the show's, yeah, it's doing really well for Apple and it was great fun to do.

That's great.

I'm going to watch it.

Yeah.

And you and Taryn had just worked?

We had done.

Well,

we did the other show probably a few years ago.

So,

but I didn't really, as I say, I didn't have any, you know, when you get to work with an actor, but you don't really get to work with them, like you and me.

Yeah.

In

that interview, uh, oh, no,

Kerb, yeah, right.

We have to talk about

curb.

We, we actually work together, but we didn't really work together.

I watched you work, I watched you sit in the chair watching me work.

Thank you, which I do well.

Yes, I throw focus.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, I was trained.

This guy is fully invested in

my

me.

how did you sorry yeah i don't want to let's we'll go to uh curb in a second but smoke looks really good and i watched about an hour and i'm sorry that i didn't get to watch no no

we'll hook you yeah but it's very cool thanks

um all right curb

oh god that guy um so how did that happen did he that happened uh you know it's there's been a couple of funny i know uh larry socially just a little not as well as you but I know him through

the best friends I know and probably vacation together regularly.

I know him from golf a little bit and through a couple of friends.

And there's just been a couple of funny times where,

you know, maybe we joked about me, you know, doing the show at this point or that point, and it just never happened.

And, you know,

either schedule-wise or else he didn't want me.

And then they were doing the finale.

And yeah, I don't know exactly how it came out, but,

you know.

Did you know way early in the season that you were going to be in the finale?

Yeah, pretty early.

And then I talked to Jeff Schaefer, who's so awesome

and

kind of got the lowdown on, you know, kind of doing

the lawyer who roasts

you had to work your ass off you were you were hired to be an actor i was hired to be an actor like i finally

this is like i this is a curse of mine in the sense that i gotta do uh you know i i can't imagine i've played golf with jim burrows who's who's told me and kind of enlightened me on what a unbelievable experience would happen on those thursday nights you know and like you know when you guys are doing a show and just the energy of that.

I did an episode of Friends.

My daughter was born

the day I was going on to the show.

I was so excited to go in and do the big rock star thing and have that experience.

And of course, foiled by.

you know, the kids and

birthing of children and whatnot.

So I missed that.

So this was kind of similar to that in the sense that I thought I was going to, you know, get the experience.

And,

you know,

I was going to actually get on curb and do the thing that everybody gets to do, which is, you know, you do the riff and not learn lines.

And you know, I want it.

Why shouldn't I get more water?

I want some more, you know, and you get a, you know,

and you get a just riff.

And of course, I had the opposite job where I actually had to say

meaningful stuff.

You were really good in that.

No, thanks.

So you learned well, which leads me also to theater.

Dear God, man, you got balls.

You really do.

Off you went.

Have you done a lot of theater?

No.

Any theater?

No.

How did they know you could do it?

We're talking about you playing Atticus Finch.

I don't know.

It came from Scott Rudin, and, you know, he reached out and,

you know.

I'm sorry I didn't see it.

I bet I was awesome.

Well, you and millions like you, because we got blown up by COVID.

So we did, I didn't, I did very,

I did literally, when I say

a handful of shows, I mean a handful.

Oh, no.

And we, we had, and then they closed it and it's never opened again.

I shut the program, the show, the greatest show, the greatest successful play of all time, destroyed by me.

No, it never, it never resurfaced.

And I hope, I don't know, I've heard they, uh, there's,

I don't know what the politics of it all are in terms of not re

positioning that kind of four quadrant, great, right, you know, beautiful show that Aaron wrote, um,

uh, him and Scott.

I, I don't know, but at any rate, it's a, it's a, did you have enough of it under your belt that you felt the same?

You know, I got the whole experience of, uh, it's funny, Larry was saying to me, because he had just done his play, which he hated, which he hated.

And he told, he told Ultra, he goes, Let me understand this.

You got to rehearse it.

They put your name in lights.

You got to go to the show.

You do it.

And then you're done.

You didn't have to stick around for six months.

He was like, that's the greatest gig of all time.

And maybe he's right.

I don't know how I would have felt about it if I had.

It's hard.

It's pretty hard.

You know, to keep the stamina and all the stuff.

I never got the experience of that.

I had the family there on opening night and got the whole, you know, fun of it.

But, um, but it was also a shame uh to to not get the full run of it um but uh but i i love the show and i i love what aaron did with the show one of uh mary's dear friends later in life was gregory pack

and to that day wow i always think about did you ever meet him i did i got to hug the man wow

did he know you i'm gonna hug you too when this did he know you were gonna hug him or was he like hey you're not gonna I didn't know it either, man?

You just come.

I come.

I'll be doing this.

You're not a hugger, are you?

Get in here, dude.

No, that's not true.

He loved it.

I'm a hugger.

We're going to hug it out.

Come on.

Thanks, man.

I'm sorry that didn't happen because I bet you would have.

You were great.

I'll bet.

I for that part.

It felt great.

And

I, as I say, I love the show and I love the, I mean, they had a wonderful cast.

We had great people to work with.

And obviously it's at the Schubert.

You've got, you know, 1,400 beautiful seats.

I mean, it's

if you're going to do a show.

Did you do a handful?

Did you do?

Yeah.

Like a hand, like

literally a handful of shows.

And some of them were like kind of test shows before we did the premiere.

And then we did, we had like a couple of shows.

What was happening right before, because I was taking over, Jeff had come back.

It was late in 22,

and I was going to do

that stretch, that 13 weeks leading into the new year.

And I just couldn't do it because I was doing some, I was doing,

I was doing, working with Lahane.

And

so.

Jeff came back to reprise his original performance and just came in and did 13 weeks, which brought him to i don't know january 3rd or something like that

and then the new crew including me is taking over at that point

so the rehearsal was kind of november december ish um and i was going in and hanging with jeff just back in the green room and watching him who and he was off the charts amazing at this and knew it so well at that time.

He'd be like, now you're going to hear a gun.

You dare the gun, you know.

And he'd just walk me through backstage all of the pre-game seven for the show, which was really interesting to see.

And then for the three nights or whatever we did this, every night

he, somebody would come in and hand him a piece of paper, and he'd be like, oh,

we just lost three more crew people.

And these COVID cases were popping in crazily.

And I remember at one point he says,

I feel like I'm on the last chopper out of Saigon.

And I was like, yeah.

And sure enough, once a week later, we started the show and

just lost, you know, we ended up finishing with 22 people, including yours truly, with COVID.

Oh, I got it.

I did two audience shows and then had COVID.

Wow, that's early COVID.

That's scary.

Yeah.

Who knows how that was the second bout, remember when New York had started a heat?

You know, there was the first one and, you know, that we all went through in

21.

Yes.

But we can do that.

And then if you remember, we made it through the year and then kind of seemed like 22, we were all going to be okay.

And then at the end of 22, it was like, no, we're not all going to be okay.

And it was right back again.

Yeah.

Would you practice voice at work or anything?

You got to do cheers before a show.

Would you just walk out and anything to it beforehand?

You were young and very rock and roll, and it was, no, it was none of, it was not disciplined theater-like moments.

And by

about the fifth or sixth year, you also knew that any mistake you made, the audience would love.

And there'd be huge laughter.

Almost to the point where it's hard not to make a mistake.

And we also, people would say, how do you keep something fresh after 10, 11 years?

And you did it by not really learning your lines.

Right.

And you know, the more you, that is a tricky spot, right?

Yes.

Where if you know something too well,

it makes the engineering of it just so much harder and

effortful

to try to deliver versus if you, if you,

I get the notion of just the less you know, the better.

Theater usually is you you rehearse and you go on these peaks and, oh, I got it.

And then you suck for a long, then I got it.

You suck.

And hopefully you peak on opening night.

Yeah.

And it's like, oh, and then you keep discovering as you go.

But

Jimmy Burroughs, who you play golf with, used to say, I'm training comedy commandos.

You only have to, I don't care what you do during the week.

Just show up for shoot night, you know, just that way.

Be there in that moment.

I mean, that's, that's the fun, amazing thing about acting.

It's for me, it's 50-50 at best that I will really be there in the moment, as opposed to going, oh, I'm cooking now, look at me, or something that's not genuinely being surprised by what you're going to do, right?

And do you miss, what about an audience?

Do you miss that thing?

Too scared to do that now, really?

Yeah, wow,

yeah, I think.

Got anything for us?

I'm going to look.

Yeah.

Dancing in caner.

No, too scared.

They're back.

They're back.

Can you look back and think of when you complimented me in this podcast?

I don't think so.

I think I can.

I believe.

Oh, did you?

Yeah.

A man

on the inside.

Okay, that kind of blows your whole thing.

I've forgotten that article.

I was told to read that, too.

And I hit it all.

You have long COVID.

Eternally long COVID.

Eternal COVID.

Hey, where the hell's Woody Harrelson, by the way?

Hey, fuck him.

I mean, fuck him.

Oh, he's such a big star.

I am such a big star.

I'm Woody Harrelson.

Look at me.

You're Larry David doing Woody Harrelson.

That was good.

That's Larry?

Yeah.

Oh.

Okay.

I think we all picked up on the nuance of that.

So I'm glad you saw it, but I was afraid people were going to miss it.

He's working.

He comes when he can.

It was me doing Larry doing Woody.

Yes.

Yeah.

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

It's great to do this.

I really enjoyed it.

I'm so glad I got to catch up with you.

Clearly, we didn't talk to each other

in the past.

No.

But thank you.

It was really nice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was the delightful Winsome Greg Kinnear.

Catch him in Smoke out now on Apple TV Plus.

The winsome Greg Kinnear.

I think he'll like that.

That's all for our show this week.

Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco.

If you've enjoyed this episode, send it to someone you love.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and a review on Apple Podcasts if you're so moved.

If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube.

Visit

slash team cocoon.

See you next time.

Everybody knows your name.

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes.

The show is produced by me, Nick Liao.

Our executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer.

Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

research by Alyssa Grahl, talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista.

Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steve Birchen, and John Osborne.

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